How to negotiate your dragon
(This review contains
spoilers!)
We’re not even halfway through and I
already adore everything about Little
Witch Academia. Every episode is just as delightful as the last, adding
more and more detail to this already well-realized world. This week saw the
introduction of dragons to the mix, creating some concern over the future of
Luna Nova.
This episode also served as a way to
get Amanda, Constance and Jazminka more involved with the main trio. While they
already had a minor role in Episode 3, this week saw them as main players on
Akko’s quest to retrieve the Sorcerer’s Stone. In fact, basically the entire
main cast came out to help this week, making this feel like the first major
episode in the overarching storyline.
A gang of dragons ran off with the
Sorcerer’s Stone, draining Luna Nova of its magic. Of course, Akko being Akko,
she enlists the help of her friends to go after it and return the Stone, becoming
the school hero in the process.
What I like about this episode is that
midway through it goes in a direction you aren’t expecting. The first half of
the episode feels like your standard action-based story, and you expect it to
end with someone defeating the dragons by force and returning home with the
Sorcerer’s Stone. This is not the case. Instead, the dragons who stole the
Stone are robotic, and the real culprit is an elderly dragon living in a nearby
ruin. The dragon claims to be in debt to Luna Nova, and refuses to give the
Stone back until he’s paid in full.
This is great on multiple levels. For
one, it wouldn’t make any sense to just have Akko and friends waltz up and
defeat a dragon out of nowhere. At first I figured she would use the Shiny Rod
and the problem would be solved far too easily, so I’m thankful to be wrong
about that. And secondly, this episode really plays into what’s going to come
next for the story. The Luna Nova faculty arrive, trying to barter off some
artifacts to the dragon because they can’t pay him what they owe. Up until now,
the teachers (aside from Ursula) have served mostly as a roadblock for Akko,
primarily last week where they served no purpose other than to be a minor
setback for Lotte’s story. Here, we see them actually threatened and scared for
the first time, giving them more character and showing to us that they aren’t
super powerful witches.
I do have one gripe with the episode,
and that’s that the problem is solved through a literal Diana Ex Machina.
Towards the end, Diana shows up to the dragon’s lair and reveals that she found
a document written in ancient dragon. Of course Diana can read the document,
and it says that the school doesn’t owe the dragon any money…somehow. The gist
of it is that the dragon played the teachers for fools because no one before
now could read the ancient dragon language, and has been stealing money from
them all this time. It kind of feels cheap to have Diana waltz in and solve the
problem in mere seconds. I get that the showrunners are trying to make her out
as this perfect witch who is at a literal master level of magic, but this just
felt like a rushed conclusion to a good story. While I do think it would’ve
been poor storytelling to have Akko be the one to defeat the dragon considering
all we’ve seen from her so far, I at least wanted her to contribute something.
All in all, this is a good episode
with a bit of a disappointing ending. I’m glad the showrunners decided to take
a different approach to the second half of the episode, having the villain be
defeated through bartering than by magic. Plus, seeing how useless the school
and witches are without the Sorcerer’s Stone and hearing how the dragon claims
the time of magic is nearing its end makes this episode feel very significant
in the long run. I’m sure it won’t be long before some other villain interferes
with Luna Nova, and it’ll be up to Akko to stop them. I do wish the episode had
been solved by some way other than a deus-ex machina and that the main
characters had more to do than just react to what was going on in the end, though.
While Akko is still just barely competent at magic, she needs to be involved in
the storylines so we can see her grow as a character. Having Diana swoop in as
the end-all solution to a problem leaves no room for the growth of the other
characters. I don’t know, hopefully this is just a one-time thing to stop this
dragon and it won’t happen again, but otherwise it’s a blemish on an otherwise
very good episode.
FINAL SCORE
8/10
Great
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