Deep freeze
(This review contains
spoilers!)
While I’m enjoying the overarching
plot of Little Witch, I can’t deny
that I think these characters work best in one-off settings where they have to
solve a magical problem or meet a wacky character. This episode was able to
juggle the best of both worlds, creating a delightful one-off that also managed
to further the plot a bit.
Akko, Lotte and Sucy are visiting
Lotte’s family in (if I remember correctly) Scandinavia, while at the same time
searching for the fourth word. Of course, while they’re there things start to
go horribly wrong. It turns out some of the pies made by the next door
neighbour are cursed in a hilarious bit of coincidence, trapping everyone but Akko
in moss. So now Akko needs to find the five ingredients required to brew an
antidote to save everyone.
Akko really carries this episode on
her shoulders like never before, and does a fantastic job of it. She goes
through a lot of character development in this episode alone, almost making it
feel like a mini-arc for her. All the ingredients are achieved through
patience, and watching her go from not being able to stay in a sauna for three
minutes to being able to convince a yeti to ignore internet trolls so he can
make the last and most crucial part of the antidote. This episode really
personifies what makes Akko such a great character: despite her many faults,
her determination and optimism really makes her someone you want to cheer for,
even if she gets annoying at times.
This episode was also one of the
funniest in a long time, with lots of great visual and spoken jokes. I loved
that the yeti is wearing jeans for no particular reason. It’s such a silly
little touch that doesn’t need to be there, but that’s what makes it great.
There’s also a fantastic joke towards the end of the episode while Akko is
making her way back to Lotte’s house, but I dare not spoil it. I’ll just say
that it comes completely out of left field and it made me laugh out loud when I
saw it.
The plot is progressed a little this
week, mostly by Akko unlocking the fourth word through her patience. We also
got another peek at what Croix is up to, but it really felt unnecessary to me.
She seems to be experimenting with emotions to see which will make her magic
the strongest, eventually settling on anger. I’m almost certain Croix has some
sort of grudge against Chariot because of something she did in the past,
especially considering her cubes are what built the monster at Chariot’s
concert in the first episode. Perhaps the two were friends or even partners at
one point before something went horribly wrong?
While this scene does add a bit more
mystery to Croix and Chariot’s relationship, I kind of wish we’d gotten more
time with Lotte’s family instead. They get barely any screentime at all, and I
would’ve liked to hear about their family history or how magic vanishing has
affected their business. I’d much rather have seen that than a random scene
with Croix that comes out of nowhere and doesn’t affect the episode’s story.
Still, this episode was a complete joy
to watch, and reminded me once again why I adore this series. This one-off
story was a complete delight, with humour, heart and even a little bit of
suspense towards the end. While it has a few faults, I can’t deny that it ranks
up there with the other fantastic episodes this series has given us.
Seriously, this show’s gotten more
10/10s from me than anything I’ve ever reviewed. It’s just that good.
FINAL SCORE
10/10
Legendary
No comments:
Post a Comment