Monday, 27 February 2017

Little Witch Academia Episode 8 Review

Attack of the Killer Mushrooms
(This review contains spoilers!)

          Since we had an episode focusing on Lotte a few weeks back, I figured it was only a matter of time before Sucy got the same treatment. The thing about Sucy is that, unlike Lotte, she’s a bit of a one-note character. Don’t get me wrong, she’s fantastic, but her sadism and affinity for mushrooms can only get you so far. How would they do an episode centered on her?

          Despite the episode being about Sucy, Akko is the main star, as she enters Sucy’s mind in an attempt to wake her up after she’s been afflicted with a sleeping curse. The episode basically only stars the main trio, which I find nice. While I love the entire cast, it’s nice to have a smaller episode just focusing on the three of them once in a while.

          The inside of Sucy’s mind is very creatively done, with many different versions of the character spread about to represent different aspects of her personality, ranging from Movie Star Sucy to Impatient Sucy to even Llama Sucy. The showrunners have a lot of fun making more and more new Sucys, each more ridiculous than the last. Huge kudos to her voice actress as well, as this episode really allows her to show her range with all the different Sucys she needs to portray.

          The episode is a very small story, being more or less Akko interacting with a bunch of different Sucys while on her way to find the core Sucy and wake her up. While it’s nothing mindblowing or groundbreaking, it’s a weird little episode that befits Sucy’s character. The first place Akko visits is a courtroom where all the “illegal” Sucys are put to death, such as a Sucy that loves cute animals or a Sucy that’s interested in reading Lotte’s favourite books. Akko sets them all free, but this only causes trouble further down the line, creating a monstrous Sucy that represents a supressed wish to destroy Luna Nova with the power of mushrooms.

          After that it’s a madcap chase to the real Sucy’s room, where Akko wakes her up…only to find it was all a dream. Uh, maybe. Towards the end Sucy makes a passing reference to a promise Akko made in the dream to carry her books for a month, implying that it might’ve been real. I’m sure it doesn’t matter, as this was definitely a one-off episode meant to give Sucy the starring role she hasn’t exactly seen in this series yet.

          There’s really not much else to say about this one. It’s a fun episode about Akko and Sucy’s relationship with some very creative ideas about what the inside of someone’s mind would look and act like. I do wish the writers had come up with something a little more interesting than the “it was all a dream” conclusion with a joke implying it might not have been, because that honestly felt like a bit of a cheap ending to an otherwise good episode. In any case, I’m glad that Sucy, my favourite of the main trio, is getting the attention she deserves, even if it won’t be brought up again.

FINAL SCORE
8/10

Great

No comments:

Post a Comment