Little Witch Academia: Episodes 3-4

By: Mithrandiel[yasr_multiset setid=11] Little Witch Academia continues its captivation of viewers hearts with episodes 3 and 4 as Akko, Lotte and Sucy navigate their way through a series of misadventures as they do their best to become proper witches.

Episode 3 Summary

There's nothing more iconic than a witch flying around on her broomstick, and that's precisely what Akko is thrilled to learn first!Unfortunately, being magically challenged comes with its own unique set of difficulties, including having a heck of a time mastering the simplest of flying spells.  Of course, once Akko hears about the school-wide relay race that her hero Chariot once conquered, she refuses to let a minor detail such as not being able to fly keep her from going for the gold.Lotte and Sucy do their best to help Akko graduate beyond her training wheels, and their methods vary wildly from the re-assuring and comfortable to the extreme and downright dangerous. They do come across a brief glimmer of hope when they encounter a magical broom that has a will of its own and therefore doesn't need the rider to possess any sort of magical ability.Only downside: the broom is completely wild and is chained down in a magic shop when the girls come across it. Despite Akko's pleas, the shop owner is in no mood to let her borrow it for the sake of a silly school competition. Sucy, now very interested in the competition due to the prize including a secret gift from an esteemed potions professor, resorts to old fashioned cheating to help put set the hapless trio up for success.And what about Akko? Unable to tame her broom and conquer flight, a potion transforms her broom into an adept pogo stick as she attempts to hop her way to victory.I'll leave the finale for you to see, but sufficed to say the relay has a thrilling end as Akko continues to make profound impressions (good, bad or otherwise) on the students and staff at Luna Nova.

Episode 4 Summary

The spotlight shifts from Akko to Lotte in episode 4 as we get to see a nerdier side of the quiet witch-in-training. Lotte is heartbroken when she is sentenced to weekend remedial courses due to her involvement in stealing a tart, which, of course, was Akko's idea. Akko and Sucy try to figure out why she's such a mess when she tells them that there's an exclusive launch event happening for Night Fall - her favorite book series!Night Fall tells the story of a science teacher named Belle who gets magically transported into the past and meets a mysterious man named Edgar, who also happens to be a vampire (see where this is going folks?) The series covers a ridiculous range of genres as the pair gets involved in all manners of misadventures including space travel, dancing competitions and more. For those who didn't catch it on the first pass-through, there are definitely some strong connections between Night Fall and the eternally reviled Twilight series, including Sucy's snide comment about the author being constantly trolled online.With the highly anticipated 365th volume just a few days away, it's already an event to die for. Making matters worse for Lotte is the fat that Annabel Crème, the highly reclusive author, would be making her first-ever appearance at this same event.Breaking from the Harry Potter mold, there's definitely no real sense of loyalty when it comes to obeying the professor's detention sentence. Being expelled doesn't seem to be a worse fate than dying for any of these girls, something that the studious Hermione would certainly disagree with.So the trio makes their way to the launch event in order to help Lotte meet her hero. She quickly recognizes a number of obscure characters in cosplay, firmly cementing her status as a real Night Fall nerd.The rest of the episode is a real treat, and also gives some insight into Lotte's motivations for becoming a witch, but I will leave the rest for you to enjoy.The last two weeks have been entertaining, but I have some concerns regarding the pacing. It's definitely great to see the characters shine in their respective story arcs and enjoy some quality development, but we're already a third of the way into the season and the only recurring major arc is trying to figure out where the heck Chariot went. With shows like My Hero Academia when you know that they are planning to frame the universe in such a way that it can run for a long time, there's a bit more of a grace period in terms of plot structure and getting major arcs off the ground. In a standard 12 episode season, however, it can be a bit more concerning.There have definitely been some great easter eggs dropped on viewers who know what to look for (for example, Chariot's relay race picture looks like it has a young Ursula on the same team, and the opening segment of episode 1 seems to feature a young Diana in the crowd of Chariot's magic show) and I hope that we see the revelation of those hints come to fruition soon.Little Witch Academia continues to be a crowd-pleaser, and it's still got a solid place in my weekly line up; I just hope we get to see a bit more of this great universe that Trigger has helped to create.