Dead men tell no tales
(This review contains
spoilers!)
Little
Witch Academia has been basically an entirely episodic series up to this
point, with the added overarching plots of magic’s place in a modern society
and Akko’s struggles with fitting in. Similarly, while this episode has a few
moments pertaining to those storylines, it’s still something that won’t be
brought up again anytime soon. Despite this, it’s an excellent episode that
gives us a compelling mystery and an immensely satisfying conclusion.
While on their way to the town, Sucy
leads Akko and Lotte on a shortcut through a graveyard. Through some confusion
they disturb a grave, and while trying to fix it they accidentally raise its
inhabitant back from the dead. A goofy skeleton pirate arrives, and he’s out
for vengeance on someone, but he can’t remember who it was or what happened to
cause said vengeance.
This leads to a madcap chase through
town as Akko and Lotte try to keep the pirate out of all kinds of trouble,
including searching through a dumpster and causing a commotion in the town
square. Hilariously, at one point Akko is able to convince a crowd of people
that the skeleton is part of a street performance they’re putting on, leading
Sucy to collect a hefty amount of cash from the onlookers.
Eventually the pirate remembers he’s
after a man who abandoned his daughter, a young witch girl named Miranda. He
also remembers that the man was the local bellringer, and upon seeing the bell
he comes to the ultimate recollection: he himself was the man he was vengeful
for, abandoning his daughter when she was young. Akko also realizes that Miranda
must be the headmistress, as early on in the episode she shows Akko that her “amulet”
(which is basically an item witches use to stay tied to the magical world) is a
staff of some kind. The staff turns out to be a lost part of the bell, and Akko
enchants the bell to fly them all back to Luna Nova before the skeleton
vanishes forever.
While the episode is good leading up
to this, the ending is what propels it to be one of the best so far. The scene
where the skeleton reunites with his daughter might just be the best directed,
animated and acted in the series thus far. Everything from the lighting to the
music to the subtle movements and expressions of the characters is done
perfectly. Instead of a very high-energy and bombastic piece of backing music
as is the norm for this series, this scene is accompanied by a very melancholic
piano as the two of them use what little time they have to talk after so many
years. It’s so amazingly well done that I’d argue it’s worth seeing the rest of
the episode just to witness this final scene.
Little
Witch has quickly become the highlight of my Monday mornings, as it hasn’t
delivered even a subpar episode to date. Looking back in the other reviews they
haven’t once gone lower than an 8/10 from me, and considering we’re nearing the
halfway mark that’s honestly very impressive. This episode was great fun to
start, but the tonal shift towards the end was so perfectly and subtly done
that I hope we see more stuff like it from the series in the future.
FINAL SCORE
9/10
Amazing
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