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REVIEW: Little Witch Academia episodes 14 - 25 Streaming


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Joshua Zarate



Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Posts: 2061
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 10:57 am Reply with quote
Great review, Rebecca. I pretty much feel the same about this show. While some others here believe that there was wasted potential here, I quite frankly don't share that sentiment. The show had its own goals in mind and achieved them. Yes, it could have been better, but at the end of the day, it is still enjoyable and worth a watch. Also, I will add that some people's enjoyment of LWA will depend on how they feel of Akko as the main character. I personally didn't have a problem with her, but it's just something I feel warrants a mention. Lastly, from what I've heard, some people like one half of the show and dislike the other half. I theorize that it may be because one half just wasn't what they expected/wanted it to be and feel like that alone should be enough to complain about it. I can somewhat see where they're coming from, but I also didn't find too much to fault the show with. It was a show about little witches and their activities and I'm glad to put it in my top 30 favorites/recommended anime.
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SkerllyFC07



Joined: 08 Jul 2017
Posts: 108
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 12:12 pm Reply with quote
It wasn´t worth the wait, or being locked by Netflix? More like it wasn´t worth the hype and agressive complains towards Netflix. Isn´t this part of the show also super criticized? At the end of the day, it seems that the western storytelling approach(mostly episodic plots) Trigger used for the series was more of a drawback. It had to be japanese storytelling to be good?
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5296
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 12:28 pm Reply with quote
While it is a very well produced show, I find Akko a pain at times, I feel she mostly screws up and fails, and then gets praised because through unfair means(that rode she has) she instantly solves the issue. though there are some episodes where she does pout effort in. It is a shame the dubs bad, it wasn't worth delaying it for the dub.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 12:48 pm Reply with quote
SkerllyFC07 wrote:
It wasn´t worth the wait, or being locked by Netflix? More like it wasn´t worth the hype and agressive complains towards Netflix. Isn´t this part of the show also super criticized? At the end of the day, it seems that the western storytelling approach(mostly episodic plots) Trigger used for the series was more of a drawback. It had to be japanese storytelling to be good?


What is "episodic" the best way to describe Western storytelling? Exosquad, X-Men, Spider-man the Animated series, Spectacular Spider-man, Avengers, EMH... even Ducktales had continuity as well as multi part arcs. Um, as well as things that aren't toons. Lost, Game of Thrones, good time for an etc.

Et cetera.

No, my problem with these Little Witches isn't that the series was episodic... even if I absolutely loathe episodic series... it was that the series sucked at world building and character development. "Hey, you know Harry Potter?" or "This is the anime answer to Harry Potter" was either the development or the synopsis at some point because that's as far as it went. And they didn't even get that right.

Every magic series has a "who can do it?" threshold that each series has to address at some point, the sooner the better. It's not like a superpower because once you know the words or trick, everyone can do it... technically. Every series hinges on that "technically". Some say you have to be born to it while others say you just have to spend years on it.

Does this series treat it as a learned superpower or am I missing something? I mean, it's very much "How do I shoot web?" but without context on why other can't... or can even. "You can fly a broom but only where the environment powers it."

Yeah, they're just making this up as they go, right?
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 12:59 pm Reply with quote
I liked the first half of the show, but I ended up dropping the second half, it honestly should have just stayed as an episodic show, the main story was pretty terrible imo.

The quest is incredibly unclear, not helped by the fact that Akko never even bother asking why she's collecting the word of power. Then the mean by which she unlock them is just vague non sense (ie whatever the writer need it to be for this week) sometime she's actively trying to learn it, sometime she doesn't even know the word but somehow can use it. There's no real reason as far as I'm aware why only Akko can unlock the word, they seem vaguely based on learning some simple stuff (be compassionate) but Akko typically only somewhat demonstrate she posses the skill before reverting back to not having a shred of it (so did she lose it then?). It just seem like the staff could have been given to Diana (or really just about anyone) and they would have already passed the test for all of them immediately. So it fall back to the old "Akko is the chosen one" for no reason.

The antagonist was also a huge weak point, she essentially has no motivation, good old evil for being evil. Its also incredibly obvious who it is and one character in the show knows full well that she's evil yet doesn't ever bother doing anything about it. So you end up with most situation being easily avoidable if she just had a 10 sec conversation with Akko, but nope, gotta drag on the story.
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Chrysostomus



Joined: 11 Mar 2015
Posts: 335
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 1:03 pm Reply with quote
Animegomaniac wrote:
No, my problem with these Little Witches isn't that the series was episodic... even if I absolutely loathe episodic series... it was that the series sucked at world building and character development. "Hey, you know Harry Potter?" or "This is the anime answer to Harry Potter" was either the development or the synopsis at some point because that's as far as it went. And they didn't even get that right.
This this this THIS.

The LWA world is based on magic but NOTHING about it feels magical. NOTHING about its world, both the regular and magic world, was ever even remotely interesting.
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Joshua Zarate



Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Posts: 2061
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 1:16 pm Reply with quote
^^ Gee wiz, aren't you two people above me certainly have some personal problems with LWA I find difficult to understand. One with vile hate seemingly just for the sake of it coming from one person and the other whom I believe didn't pay some attention to certain parts of the show. Ah well, everything in existence isn't for everyone, I suppose.
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pachy_boy



Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 1323
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 3:27 pm Reply with quote
This series was nothing but charming the whole way through for me, so here's hoping for a blu-ray release!
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 4:51 pm Reply with quote
I think there is a lot of validity in complaints about the show not having great world-building or caring significantly about pacing and some plot details, but I don't think that it actually makes the show "not good". I think the show is great, it just had thematic, character, and artistic aspirations that it focused entirely on. And, as far as I'm concerned, it succeeded in every one of those aspects. As a sakuga fan, it was an exhilarating blast to watch every week, as a fan of slice of life and cute girls, it was also a pleasure every week, and as a fan of the central themes surrounding the narrative, the-nature-of-inspiration and all that, it was also worth every second of my time. Great show all the way through. I wouldn't mind seeing more, but am also happy with what we got.
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Sahmbahdeh



Joined: 05 May 2015
Posts: 712
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 5:06 pm Reply with quote
I actually preferred this second half more than the first half, precisely because of the greater focus on a long-form storytelling. The animation quality remained largely consistent, with some especially nice visual highlights. Also, I have to disagree about Croix not being a compelling villain. I think she worked well, and from a purely visual standpoint, I will say she had potentially my favorite character design of the year so far.
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 5:06 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Ursula/Chariot is probably the most difficult character in this second half. The too-obvious parallels between Ursula and Akko don't help


It is not a bug, it is a feature! Just like Pain & Naruto and Anakin & Luke, this parallel plays into the theme of the failed chosen one, where the next generation will carry on "the prophecy".
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Zeino



Joined: 19 May 2017
Posts: 1098
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 6:53 pm Reply with quote
To my mind, the best work to come out of Trigger to date as it was pure charm and whimsy all the way.

relyat08 wrote:
I think there is a lot of validity in complaints about the show not having great world-building or caring significantly about pacing and some plot details, but I don't think that it actually makes the show "not good". I think the show is great, it just had thematic, character, and artistic aspirations that it focused entirely on. And, as far as I'm concerned, it succeeded in every one of those aspects. As a sakuga fan, it was an exhilarating blast to watch every week, as a fan of slice of life and cute girls, it was also a pleasure every week, and as a fan of the central themes surrounding the narrative, the-nature-of-inspiration and all that, it was also worth every second of my time. Great show all the way through. I wouldn't mind seeing more, but am also happy with what we got.

Also all this.
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Snakebit1995



Joined: 25 Apr 2015
Posts: 842
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 6:59 pm Reply with quote
mangamuscle wrote:
Quote:
Ursula/Chariot is probably the most difficult character in this second half. The too-obvious parallels between Ursula and Akko don't help


It is not a bug, it is a feature! Just like Pain & Naruto and Anakin & Luke, this parallel plays into the theme of the failed chosen one, where the next generation will carry on "the prophecy".


Except Ursula never truly failed, honestly she's way better at what she does than Akko is. If the roles had been reversed and Ursula was our hero and Akko the failed mentor it would have actually worked better since Akko learns the words but forgets the point of the lesson taught by them the next episode, where as Ursula displays the traits even after she fails.

Also I never realized it until someone here mentioned it, but they were right, nothing about the LWA world honestly feels very magical, a lot of it is slightly Gothic and medieval rural Europe but for a world where magic is a known thing everything is very normal to our world, hell even the magic things feel like normal stores that just sell magic items, the books are just books with magic themes, nothing has that magical feel like Harry Potter or the dazzling fantasy of a Fairy Tail or Black Clover.
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CatSword



Joined: 01 Jul 2014
Posts: 1489
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 8:21 pm Reply with quote
You know it's a good review when "not enough Sucy" is one of the few negatives.

Oddly enough, I just finished the show earlier today. I don't understand why so many people were so disappointed with the second half; the show was consistently very good throughout.
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 8:40 pm Reply with quote
Snakebit1995 wrote:
Except Ursula never truly failed


She never discovered the seven words nor awakened the Triskelion. You could argue that she did managed to graduate and become an excellent witch, but it is clear that the failure to awaken the Triskelion was eating Ursula from the inside ever since.
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