Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Was Little Witch Academia Worth the Wait?
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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First off, I say the below as someone who HAS NOT seen this series (since I don't have Netflix)...
The problem with this, is that there are still some instances where the show NEVER comes out (in the west) at all. Obviously that wasn't a danger with LWA, but it IS an issue with saying "oh just have patience and wait for the 'official' release". (Even "announced" titles have been cancelled or not fully released for various reasons) That said, I appreciate the article and may check on Netflix due to the discussion here. I loved the OVAs (backed the kickstarter) and one thing I really appreciated was the subtle metaphor to the animation industry inherent in the work. I appreciate that that was maintained and am interested to see where they went with it. That in mind, I'm a little disappointed to not see any mention of Hannah & Barbara.  (but glad that Diana is well done)
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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The last ten episodes or so averaged over 11,000 downloads each on one of the main sites for LWA. |
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Treeborn
 Posts: 729 |
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A huge percentage of the cast were almost entirely pointless existences. Lotte and Sucy, the "main characters" best friends were barely there and did nothing, other than tell us "I like Twilight books" and "I like poisonous plants." Amanda and her two friends, while more likable than Lotte and Sucy, also served little purpose other than very mild comic relief. The same goes for Diana's friends.
Unfortunately, the decision to focus the first half of the season on those characters made that entire first half dull and a tiny bit annoying to watch. As mentioned earlier, supposed lessons were forgotten in an instant, and there was obvious absence of plot development. The second half is undoubtedly an improvement, but scenes with Croix kinda dragged it down, since most of what she did was eat cup noodles and smile at her evil scheme. When she wasn't doing that, however, she was fine, forcing Chariots identity and secrets out (I honestly that twist was pretty darn cool). Although I recognize the importance of Ursula, I quickly got tired of her close up frames and "Is it time? I think it's time. But is it time?" Andrew was fine. He was there to serve as our eyes into a perspective opposed to magic, and he served that well enough. Now, for Akko, the "main character". Out of everyone in LWA, Akko was by far the most irritating to watch, and completely undeserving of the rewards that just fell into her lap. Irresponsible. Lazy. Impatient. Selfish. Envious. Rude. Gluttonous. Underhanded. Disloyal. Just so many things about her character are terrible. She always advocated the spread of magics joyous qualities, but never worked to make that happen (aside from barely learning the basics of metamorphosis), instead focusing all her attention on meeting Chariot, simply for the sake of meeting Chariot. She wanted to become the greatest witch the world had ever seen, but hardly made an effort to improve herself, instead mocking those who were improving themselves as boring and missing the point of magic. And she even tried to cheat in order to get a trophy other students practiced to win! I get that she's supposed to be this message "You don't have to be the richest, smartest, or best looking person in order to be someone special," but instead it seemed like the writers were telling the audience it's fine to slack off, everything works out in the end. My gosh she bothered me... I honestly feel Akko would have benefited from being a side character. Less screen time would have made her the comic relief, and character foil to the real main character. Thankfully, the shows saving grace, and the REAL main character of the series, is Diana. Diana was just fantastically handled. Her character actually learned lessons and developed. She had the same dreams as Akko, showing the world the joys of magic, but approached it much more admirably despite having a more troubling childhood than Akko did. She studied hard and worked her butt off to become as skilled as she was, while also helping those around her improve as she tries to keep her and her mother's ideals alive. She gave up friends and popularity as a child so that she could grow up to help people, and wasn't blessed with the miracles Akko was. Even when Diana initially finds out about the Shiny Rod and its preference of Akko, she's just like "that's fine" I'll just keep working hard to help the world in my own way. We see her change, we see her struggles, we see her kindness and selflessness, we see her true nature, and its all just fantastic! Why couldn't this series be about her?? Thankfully, the series doesn't end with Akko surpassing Diana because she's the "chosen one," and instead Akko is only able to stand alongside Diana for a moment before returning to her normal self. But, yeah, the first half of the season I thought was bad, and the second half was better with a small number of high points. |
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Cam0
 Posts: 4888 |
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One thing I've wondered about LWA is that If I wanted to watch it should I watch the movies/specials/OVA thingies first or can I jump straight to the TV series? How are those connected?
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1392 |
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^The TV series acts more or less as a total reboot, so seeing the 2 OVAs isn't at all necessary to understanding it. That said, both are really enjoyable and wonderfully animated in their own right, so I'd say it's worth putting aside an hour to watch both, especially since they're also available on Netflix.
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Cam0
Posts: 4888 |
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Thanks. I'll probably only check out the TV series when I watch it then. Someday. In the near future.
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Namu12
Posts: 44 |
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I dont have Netflix.
Little Witch Academia TV series was strongly boring (only the first movie was awesome). |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4080 |
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Here's a very simple formula:
Gurren Lagann > Kill la Kill > Little Witch Academia, and it's probably not a coincidence that quality ranking mirrors the order they were made. Gurren Lagann showed an immediate love for its giant robot theme and had a steady hand in how its story played. Most complaints seem to come from either the Hot Springs episode or Kamina so... nothing wrong here. It's great. Kill la Kill had many hiccups in the early episodes in regard to its revenge storyline... and we all know why, right?... but the creators never seemed to get the hang of their cast especially in regards of the "Argh! We're social Darwinists! Quake with fear under our boot!" to spoiler["We're the good guys... and we're still social Darwinists. Please don't think too hard about it."] theoretical character development. Some good antagonists helped iron a few things out... up to its Anime Original ending anyway. Still overall good. But there is one very simple flaw with the third series that the first two didn't have: Trigger has no interest in this story, the characters or the world. In short, Little Witch Academia has no conviction. None. Anime original works live and die on the strength of how much its own production believes in it and all the great animation in the world... much better than Kill la Kill? Absolutely! Really, it's not that hard when some scenes were just still images that were moved... can not save a lukewarm shonen story that follows basic trends rather than bucking them. Oh and the main character kind of sucks. How did I forget that the first time... Was it worth the wait? Was it supposed to be something worth waiting for or was the hype just because it was Trigger? And after looking into the messy details, the director of this series only has one director credit, one original creator credit and one original design credit. The rest of it seems to be just Key Animation. And suddenly, everything makes sense. |
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jymmy
 Posts: 1244 |
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Gewürtztraminer
 Posts: 1028 Location: Texas - Its like whole other country. |
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Heh, I enjoy your opinions, even if I don't quite often understand them, and I rarely agree with them. This is a case in point. I bought into the Gurren Lagann hype, but was never a torrent user. Still this series was offered early sub only, but I did not buy the initial sub sets. When it came on Cartoon Network, I did DVR all the episodes and eventually burned them to disc, but only caught bits and pieces in the process. I then bought the full set when it was offered. I have started the series 4 times, and get about 3 to 4 episodes in when I realize that this is totally the exact opposite of what I am looking for in my anime. It does not click with me in any shape or form. I also bought into the hype of Kill La Kill, and ended up watching it all, I thought it was ok. It was like watching grade school kids playing. Kid 1: "Here is my Super Attack!" Kid 2: "Not bad, but how about my Super Duper Attack!" Kid 1: "What? Well then how about my Super Super Duper Attack!" Kid 2: "Ugh, what power...., but here is my...." etc... after 8 episodes I got the point, cant believe I still watched it all. Still, it was not terrible. I guess I am just not a fan of pure spectacle/hype. So to LWA, 5 episodes in on Netflix, watching about 1 a week , and this is way more to my tastes than GL or KLK. I think I am totally over having to see and keep up with current shows. So yes, I think it was worth the wait. I don't often agree with the current sentiment, and I do not suffer any illusions that anyone cares what I think, so I may be totally over the as soon as it airs in Japan fad. |
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2633 |
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I am not sure if it was worth the wait because frankly I didn't wait for it. When it came out in Japan there were so many other series I was more interested in that the fact that it wasn't available legally in the US didn't bother me.
However it happened to come out on Netflix at a time when I was interested in no series on CR and I didn't feel like paying extra for anime strike. So for me it came LWA came out at the perfect time and saved my anime season in a way (I mean I was feeling a bit sad I had absolutely nothing new to watch anime wise this summer). And well I was a bit bummed out that I had to wait for the second half. I won't say LWA knocked my socks off but it is enjoyable (I have 4 episodes left). I guess my favorite episodes so far were the ones when we discover Lotte's book obsession, went into Sucy's mind and the 2 parter about Diana's family (Diana has always been my favorite through the many versions of LWA). I also like the addition of Andrew. On the other hand keeping Chariot a secret and not telling Akko not to trust Croix makes little sense to me but maybe I'll get the answer in the final episodes. I am also rewatching Gurren Lagann so it's become a very Trigger summer. On another note I am definitely glad there was no fan service as someone mentioned. That would have been completely unnecessary. |
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TheAncientOne
 Posts: 1871 Location: USA (mid-south) |
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How could an original anime not have an "Anime Original" ending? While a Kill la Kill manga exists, it literally began its run on the premiere date of the series. |
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