[Little Witch Academia TV] – 3
This was my definitely my favourite of the episode of the show so far but unfortunately my impressions of the series as a whole remain negative.
Let's start with the positive. This week's episode was pretty entertaining– which is to say, it was light-hearted and wacky with lots of good faces and silly scenes. Akko got abused by Sucy, Sucy trolled everyone and Diana won the day. Yet, as the episode drew to a close my reaction was ”is that all?" At the moment the show just feel like a pleasant way to kill 20 minutes, rather than anything noteworthy. I'm honestly not sure if I'd be bothering to watch this at all if it didn't have the
Little Witch Academia name.
My problem with the series is that it feels incredibly ‘slight' which might have flown for a one-off OVA, doesn't work a complete TV series. Our core trio of girls have extremely simple characteristics and, what's worse, is that they don't play off each other in any interesting ways. Our characters are not only simple, but the things which drive them feel ill defined:
- Akko wants to be like Shiny Chariot, but she never really explains why being like Shiny Chariot is a good thing. What is it about her that should be emulated? For what purpose?
- Sucy...wants to make poisons. Why? What's so important about them that means she can feel fine sacrificing her schoolmates if it means she can get her hands on a rare one?
- Lotte is a straight man, but even a straight man has wants, desires, motivations. Lotte has...glasses.
Let's take a look at this week's episode as an example. Akko really wants to take place in the baton race because of Shiny Chariot having won it before. Sucy wants to take place in the race because the reward is a poison. Lotte isn't a character. The end result is that Sucy ends up spending a lot of energy training Akko. Sucy then works very hard to cheat during the race so that they can have a chance of winning. Then, due to the interactions of a 3rd party, she gets gifted a magical tool to help her nearly win. However, Akko never actually learns to fly. The end.
The problem with the way the above plays out is that it's very boring. It tells us nothing about the characters or their relationships with each other. No one is developed. A weird side plot involving a super boom serves almost no purpose except to awkwardly introduce another wafer-thin character in a very unsatisfying manner. There's not set ups or pay offs for the characters. The very most you could argue is that the scene were Akko wrestles for control of the boom proves that a very persistent girl – but the problem is that the show has already told us that twice this episode. The 1st time was when Akko highlighted all her scars and the 2nd time was when we she endured the harsh trainingfrom Sucy.
Let's consider this alternative, terrible fan-fiction version that I just whipped up to see if it's better:
Akko really wants to compete in the Baton race, but neither Sucy nor Lotte care about it. Lotte later receives a letter from her parents who are concerned that she's been placed under intense scrutiny as a result of the events regarding the entrance ceremony. Lotte's parents were never particularly supportive of her desire to attend Luna Academy, as they feel she lacked sufficient magical talent. Akko persuades Lotte that a good way to demonstrate her magical prowess would be to take place in and win the Baton race. Together, Akko and Lotte strike a bargain of some kind with Sucy to get her on-board for the race. Lotte and Sucy both try wildly contrasting techniques to get Akko flying – Sucy's methods are more extreme, while Lotte's are more cerebral. Akko gets very concerned that none of the techniques are working, but the day eventually approaches where they must compete. Cue some weird, but explainable, combination of Lotte and Sucy's training finally giving Akko the ability to fly. Diana wins anyway because she's the bes', but Akko has learnt a valuable lesson from her two roomates and getting 2nd place is enough to please Lotte and her parents. The end.
Now we can all agree that the above is just some random crap that I knocked out – but hopefully you can see where I am getting at. The problem with the script of the episode is that everyone's motivations just happen to be lined up so that they all do the same thing, which is dull. Ideally all three girls would have their own set of characteristics, their own backgrounds, and all three of them would came at the same idea from different perspectives. They'd bounce off each other, discuss the matter, and then somehow a consensus would emerge. But that would require a lot more work on the script, something that I haven't see any sign of so far.
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Also, what's with these two shots of the Awards Case? Why is Diana's winning photo missing from the top right hand cabinet? What happened to two two trophies with globes on them that should be in the right hand side? Can't the background art team keep track of this stuff? Moreover, what's with all these different trophies when we all know that, according to the photos, there's only one trophy for wining and it's the one with the witch riding the broomstick. Did the background art team to decide to throw in more trophies to make it look better? This is a
travesty.
