This train isn’t stopping!
(This review contains
spoilers!)
A new season of anime has begun, and
that means we’ve officially segued into the second half of Little Witch Academia. As much as I don’t want to see the end of
this delightful show, I am sincerely looking forward to seeing what Trigger has
planned for us next, and this episode was a perfect way to get started.
The faeries working in the school are
starting to feel shafted because they haven’t gotten as much power from the
Sorcerer Stone as they think they deserve. This leads to them putting up
barriers around the Stone in retaliation, depriving all of Luna Nova from not
only magical power, but also the housechores like cooking and cleaning. It’s
not long before all power is drained, leaving the students without heat or
water.
While this is happening, a new
professor has entered the scene. Professor Croix is her name, and she
specializes in being evil Modern Magic. She has various magical drones
and robots she can use remotely to cast spells, as well as a pretty obvious
agenda of her own. She was the one controlling the weird cube snake at the end
of last week’s episode.
Croix is a very interesting character
for a number of reasons. She’s most likely going to be our ultimate villain,
given that she seems to have an affinity to musing about her plans in dark
rooms by herself, but I have a theory that her magical inventions might be the
cause of the magic depletion the teachers keep mentioning. That one really
strict professor mentions multiple times in the episode that modern technology
is banned in Luna Nova, making me feel that something like this has never been
seen before, even by these old teachers. Another interesting tidbit is that if
you go back to the very beginning of the first episode, you can see that the
monster Chariot fights during her show is made of the same cubes Croix uses to
build her robots. Judging by the end of the episode it’s obvious that
Chariot/Ursula has a history with her, but what could it be?
Hilariously, while trying to reason
with the faeries Akko decides instead that what they want makes sense and joins
their cause. She ends up spearheading the revolution, but the teachers maintain
that they just don’t have enough power to meet the faeries’ demands. But even
Diana’s demands won’t make them budge.
Akko’s relationship with Diana looks
to be another major point for the second cour. The two of them are prominently
featured in the new opening contrasting with each other (with Chariot appearing
behind Akko and Croix behind Diana for a brief second, interestingly) and they
share a great scene where Akko finally tells Diana how she sees her as an
aristocrat with no regard for those of lower ability than her. Diana hasn’t
gotten much development yet, which is a shame, because I think she could be
made out to be a very interesting character. I liked seeing her flustered and
embarrassed when Akko called her out, losing her cool for what I think is the
first time in the series so far. I really hope we get a strong relationship
between the two, be it positive or negative, in the coming weeks.
The episode concludes with the faeries
taking their frustration out on the students of Luna Nova after someone (who definitely
wasn’t Croix) attacked one of their own at night and blamed Hannah and Barbara
for it. Croix swoops in and saves the day, leaving the teachers impressed
enough to allow her to keep using technology on Luna Nova grounds. Akko is
especially impressed by her, and is interested in learning more about the magic
tech. The episode ends with Ursula returning from a trip wishing to tell Akko
the truth, but upon seeing her with Croix she hesitates.
This episode was just as good as last
week’s, but for an entirely different reason. While the last episode was
fantastic because of the spectacle and the fact that it gave most of the
running storylines a nice conclusion, this week was fantastic because it
introduced what’s coming next in a fun and hilarious way via the faerie strike
while still utilizing what made the first cour so fantastic. If this episode is
any sign, the second half of Little Witch
will be even better than the impressive first.
FINAL SCORE
10/10
Legendary
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