The end of the beginning
(This review contains
spoilers!)
We’ve reached the halfway point in our witching adventure
with Akko and friends, which is honestly dismaying. As I’ve said many times in
the past, this show is one of the most delightful anime I’ve ever had the
pleasure of watching. The characters are wonderful, the animation is godlike,
and while the storyline has been mostly episodic, the fantastic worldbuilding
really makes this universe come to life in ways very few other anime have
accomplished.
This week truly felt like the
culmination of everything Little Witch has
thrown at us so far, creating a fantastic episode that rivals even the broom
racing mayhem of Episode 3 (speaking of which, it’s hard to believe that we saw
that episode ten weeks ago. It feels like just yesterday everyone was freaking
out trying to find where Episode 1 would be streaming). It puts a fitting cap
on the overarching plot of Akko struggling with her magical abilities for the
time being, and Trigger pulls out all their animation tricks to really put on a
magic show.
The Samhain Festival has arrived, and
Akko, Lotte and Sucy are still lined up to be sacrifices to a giant ghost. Of
course, Akko won’t stand for this, and decides to instead try to charm the
ghost and make her laugh. Most of the episode is focused on the preparation for
this, but when the grand finale finally arrives it is a complete spectacle to
behold.
One thing this episode brings up that
I haven’t really noticed before is that we really haven’t seen much of the main
trio working together in the series thus far. Yes, there’ve been plenty of
episodes with them all involved, but since the series is centered more on Akko
than anything we really haven’t seen them really working together to accomplish
something until now. Sucy especially has been kicked to the sidelines more
often than I would’ve liked, so it makes me glad to see them all working
together this week.
The Samhain Festival is truly an
animated sight to behold, with all the students performing different feats of
magic to impress the judges. It really is saying something when you’re just as
impressed watching a cartoon on the screen and you’re just as impressed at what
you’re looking at as the characters are, but Little Witch somehow managed to pull it off. The colours really
popped off the screen in this episode, and the animation was delightfully fluid
and spectacular. There really is no one else in the anime industry that can
animate something like Studio Trigger can.
The best was saved for last, as Akko
and crew were set up in front of the ghost to be eaten. Instead, the three of
them put on the ultimate magic show, as Akko changes into different animal
forms to try and make the ghost laugh. Just like a real magic show, watching it
is a complete blast, and it feels like a fantastic cap off to Akko’s arc we’ve
seen in this half-season. While she’s not as adept at magic as Diana yet, she’s
got a delightful charm in her own abilities that make her great. It’s clear
that they’re setting her up to be Chariot’s successor by the end of the series,
but how she gets to that point while at the same time awakening the lost words
is unclear.
The episode ends with a shot of a
snakelike creature made of small cubes rising into the hand of an unseen
figure. I’m sure we’ll find out who this is eventually, but it’s a fun way to
foreshadow what’s coming next subtly. It would’ve been easy for Trigger to redo
what they did with Kill la Kill and
have the main villain for the rest of the series storm in and take control of
the festival, but instead putting the focus entirely on Akko made for a much
better episode.
I love that this episode decided to
spend its time finishing what had already been started instead of setting up
what we’ll be seeing over the next twelve episodes. Thanks to this, we got to
see an excellent episode that gave us everything fantastic about the show in an
excellent 22 minute package. Little Witch
has consistently impressed every single week, and it’s showing no signs of
stopping as we jump headfirst into the second cour.
FINAL SCORE
10/10
Legendary
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