Little Witch Academia (TV)

"A believing heart is your magic!"—these were the words that Atsuko "Akko" Kagari's idol, the renowned witch Shiny Chariot, said to her during a magic performance years ago. Since then, Akko has lived by these words and aspired to be a witch just like Shiny Chariot, one that can make people smile. Hence, even her non-magical background does not stop her from enrolling in Luna Nova Magical Academy.

However, when an excited Akko finally sets off to her new school, the trip there is anything but smooth. After her perilous journey, she befriends the shy Lotte Yansson and the sarcastic Sucy Manbavaran. To her utmost delight, she also discovers Chariot's wand, the Shiny Rod, which she takes as her own. Unfortunately, her time at Luna Nova will prove to be more challenging than Akko could ever believe. She absolutely refuses to stay inferior to the rest of her peers, especially to her self-proclaimed rival, the beautiful and gifted Diana Cavendish, so she relies on her determination to compensate for her reckless behavior and ineptitude in magic.

In a time when wizardry is on the decline, Little Witch Academia follows the magical escapades of Akko and her friends as they learn the true meaning of being a witch.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kagari, Atsuko Main

Han, Megumi Japanese

Manbavaran, Sucy Main

Murase, Michiyo Japanese

Cavendish, Diana Main

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Jansson, Lotte Main

Orikasa, Fumiko Japanese

O'Neill, Amanda Supporting

Shida, Arisa Japanese

Callistis, Ursula Supporting

Hidaka, Noriko Japanese

von Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger, Constanze Amalie Supporting

Murakawa, Rie Japanese

du Nord, Chariot Supporting

Hidaka, Noriko Japanese

Hanbridge, Andrew Supporting

Kanemoto, Ryousuke Japanese

Meridies, Croix Supporting

Takeuchi, Junko Japanese

Takei, Katsuhiro Producer

Tsutsumi, Naoko Producer

Usa, Yoshiki Producer

Suzuki, Kimitaka Producer

Reviews

Jun 6, 2025

toastalchemist

Recommended

I didn't think I would like this show. I looked to be too cutesy and schmaltzy for my old jaded ass. But I tried it and I'm glad I did. It won me over. By the time I reached the end I didn't want it to end. I was having too much fun. Not all the characters are developed but they don't have to be, they filled the function they were to be used for. It does get a little schmaltzy sometimes, but not so much that it bothered me. Overall, I'm really glad I watched this and it has become a new favorite.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Sep 18, 2024

Synesthrosia

Mixed Feelings

Cheesy, wholesome, and generally enjoyable. There are some weak points such as a large amount of plot progression revolving around Akko making new short-sighted and poorly thought out decisions very frequently, and a couple jokes not really landing or relying on secondhand embarrassment, but if you make the choice to buy in to the premise and the characters, this series will definitely give you some emotions. The climactic moments and new achievements don't always feel thoroughly earned by Akko, but at the end of the day it's still aimed at kids and still has some very strong scenes of you don't mind feeling a little ... silly for enjoying it. The animation in these moments is stellar, and they really went all out on making the magic feel, well, magical. These moments are what keep you invested in Akko's character and fill you with the astonishment and passion that define her. This may be a difficult watch if you have a strong cringe response, but if you get invested then it's a better show than you'd expect.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 30, 2025

Supersonic_Pain

Not Recommended

Funny

Well-written

The madlads at Trigger have done it again.

Carrying on the spirit of the trailblazers at Gainax, they have taken their magic touch and put it towards the magical girl genre with a likable protagonist with a can-do defiant attitude squaring up against a prideful yet ultimately virtuous untouchable class president. The animation is beautiful and the sound fits the scenes like a glove. The fanservice surprisingly-

Oh, wait wait, sorry, this is my script for Kill la Kill.

Let's try this again.

---
What a piece of shit.
...
Prior to this, in addition to the good Trigger shows I had seen, I saw Darling in the Franxx and was pretty disappointed, even if it had a heart and something to say and things I liked about the show beyond Trigger's animation.

This? This genuinely has nothing beyond the animation, I'm being very generous when I'm giving it a light 2 out of 10 because it took everything in me not to give it a 1.

I will say, it looks great and the sound does actually fit the scenes like a glove. I thought the OST was pretty good, the first OP was great (the second one lesser so), from a presentation standpoint, this was good. No notes.

The problem comes when you look at literally any part of the writing.

Before we get into the characters because believe you me, I've got something to say about the characters, let's talk about the worldbuilding.

I feel like with fantasy, you should either commit to "magic in the modern day" like, say, Fate/stay night or "an immersive fantasy world" like Frieren because both have their own pros and cons but they at least, you know, picked a lane. LWA doesn't do either of these. It has magic ways of doing things but then you see in the same episode Lotte using some spiritual orb to replicate the internet and then another witch just... using a smartphone. They storm a dragon's lair only for it to turn out he's using money to go into crypto/the online stock market.

It was too "immersive" fantasy to commit to the urban fantasy Fate style fantasy where you can do cool things with a modern world and magic and too urban to have an "immersive" world like Frieren where for all that show's flaws, you could at least live in a believable world and vibe with it.

It also doesn't work for when the new professor shows up in the second half and shows this ~amazing technology~. Why are tablets so cool when witches clearly have smartphones already?

There are also a lot of half-baked dynamics that I never felt any real feelings for.

There's an academy where Diana's acquaintance goes and they HATE witches but it's never really explained why. This goes into a magic v. science theme that they try to do stuff with but needless to say, it seems like magic is nothing but a good thing. We never see any classical "bad wizards" like Harry Potter or even Witch Watch this season, we're just supposed to take it on faith that they don't like witches and they hate witches SO much that they are willing to torture and murder them.

Speaking of Diana's acquaintance, they set up some inter-country conflict and that doesn't really go anywhere other than to have a ready-made excuse for the main antagonist to harvest anger from (over a fucking SOCCER GAME of all things like I get people get mad over their sports teams but having some sort of riot gang war?).

I think magic v. science is a really dumb plot because I feel like both can just... live at once?

Magic is shown to still be really useful in today's society and it has powers that science cannot simply replicate. They can fly, they can rebuild statues without the help of machinery, they can use alchemy, they can make grapes tastier, etc, etc. Not to mention science can be used to bolster magic. There's one girl who uses robots to do a lot of her work and the main antagonist only manages to get as far as she does because her gadgets initially DO help out the witches (and would probably still do so but waaaah, science bad).

However, the worst part of the show are the characters.

The MC, Akko, is genuinely the worst MC I have ever seen in anime. I would genuinely rather have Makoto Itou. I'd rather have Kazuya from Rent-a-Girlfriend. I'd rather have any generic harem MC, in fact. I'd rather have the 3 MCs from the shows I have given a 1 to. Any MC from any show I've reviewed/completed so far is better than Akko.

She's supposed to be this "plucky heroine who through the power of believing in the believing in the believing of myself in yourself in the myself in beleivnevingin tin the inefinretgrh that beleivneigreing in ehrewihgeriohf, she can doed anything :pleading_face:" (or, in English, the belief in yourself can be your own magic) and I guess that comes through but the problem is she's absolutely insufferable.

She brute forces through anything and everything (including the LITERAL TRIAL ALL ABOUT PATIENCE) but unlike, say, your average battle shounen MC, does not have the skills to back that up. She cannot fly and without the help of her magic MacGuffin, she can hardly use other forms of magic.

Imagine if Ichigo Kurosaki went "yeah, you wanna kidnap Rukia? Well fuck you, I'm gonna invade the Soul Society and take her back!" and then smashes his face into the door until Zangetsu punches Byakuya in the dick and takes Rukia back for him.

She's also just annoying and super bitchy. I mentioned that trial of patience and one of the items required for a potion is a medicine capsule made by a yeti. She just barges into the dude's house, demands he makes her one, he does out of the kindness of his heart, and she's like "erm... the corner's kinda bent... DO IT AGAIN" and they do this like FOUR times before the yeti crashes out and runs away crying. It's not until she figures out that people online have been mean to him (oh yeah, "people being mean online to me" is the catalyst for like THREE separate people's arcs) and she gives him a little pep talk that he makes one that she's satisfied with (because it's actually too big but she just accepts it anyway, making the whole "erm, the corner is bent" thing a total non-starter).

Really, it's like Harry Potter if Harry Potter just never got any better at magic or Quidditch or anything and he was carrying a giant effigy to Dumbledore the whole time proclaiming he's the second coming of Christ and he's gonna be just like him despite sucking ass and also Draco Malfoy wasn't a little shit and was more like Hermione than anything.

Similar to Harry Potter, she gets into trouble all the time and usually drags a few of her friends into it and only gets comedic punishments. Hell, sometimes her rude behavior is REWARDED. She spits out a pie someone made in front of them (okay, well, it was actually the neighbors of the person who made that pie but is that much better) and scrapes it off into the trash and it turns out that that was actually the correct thing to do.

In any competent series, she'd be the antagonist.

The rival in this series (which I'll get to in a second) is just... very competent at what she does and she's not terribly arrogant given her canonical skill level and yet she's treated like this despicable rival who they have to beat.

And the "protagonist" cheats repeatedly because she has 0 magical talent of her own and has a literal member of the faculty in her pocket rigging things for her so not only can she stay, she almost wins a couple of the various pointless trophies at the academy.

If it wasn't for karmic justice giving it rightfully to the rival, the protagonist would have so many things she didn't earn just because she's the MC.

There's an episode where she accidentally breaks the tech girl's robot (because she's ~clumsy~) and she insists herself, nay, FORCES herself upon the tech girl quite literally saying "I'm gonna help [tech girl] whether she likes it or not". Her friends don't like the idea. The tech girl's friends don't like the idea. The tech girl repeatedly rejects her and only lets her help when it's to get as far away as she can from the tech girl just to work as the tech girl's gofer. Prior to that, the MC, because she's ~clumsy~, repeatedly breaks, rips, tears, destroys, etc. tech girl's stuff because she's ~clumsy~.

Even the rival, despite being consistently more talented and tactful, bends the knee and gives MC a prized treasure of hers and goes "you know, I was ALWAYS jealous of YOU, Akko, because (editor's note: despite being more talented at every single point of my life and working harder and not being a total TWAT) you're the chosen one".

I greatly despise throwing around the word "Mary Sue" but that's what Akko is. None of her weaknesses matter because she's just so gosh darn plucky and we've gotta root for her.

Anyway, I've mentioned the rival a couple times now, let's talk about her.

I kinda said most of what I wanted to say but, yeah, Diana is in no way a good "rival". I like her as a character, outside of being pulled into the Akko Vortex, she was right the whole time and is incredibly competent and isn't really all that snobby for a rival.

But that's the problem. She's not a detestable rival. She's not even a diametrically opposed rival.

Going back to Bleach, Ichigo is given a rival in Uryu Ishida. Where Ichigo fights face to face with his sword, Uryu's an archer. Where Ichigo is brash and headstrong, Uryu is more refined and introspective. Ichigo ultimately has a good relationship with his father despite butting heads while Uryu's relationship with his father is more troubled. Ichigo represents the Shinigami, a race that, when confronted with Hollows, uses his sword to cleanse them, sending them to the Soul Society. Meanwhile, Uryu represents the Quincies, a race that straight up annihilates Hollows, destroying the soul entirely. Ichigo is dressed in black. Uryu is dressed in white. Even the way they use spirit energy to fight is mirrored.

While they eventually find common ground, there is a clear reason why these two are rivals. They are diametrically opposed. At the beginning, Uryu hates everything Ichigo inherently stands for and is actively putting the fate of all the realms in disorder by annihilating Hollows by the dozens. Ichigo has to stop him but because Uryu is a prideful man with a hatred towards Shinigami, he's not just gonna go "golly gee, Ichigo, maybe you're right, maybe I shouldn't be doing this", it's only when a common enemy arises that they team up. Through building bonds with Ichigo and his friends, Uryu goes from a rival to an ally. I haven't seen Thousand-Year Blood War so I can't speak to how that relationship develops from there but there is a clear throughline from rival to ally and a good timeline for why they get from point A to point B, especially since Ichigo is competent at what he does.

I mentioned Satsuki Kiryuin offhand up top and that's also a good example of rivalry. Satsuki sees the academy as HERS to rule so when Ryuko comes and challenges the status quo (because she wants revenge against Satsuki for a prior act, giving us a built-in reason for why Ryuko doesn't like Satsuki), she wants to squash her like a bug. Ryuko is also competent at fighting, much more so when she gets her uniform, so she actually poses a threat to Satsuki. We want to see Ryuko beat Satsuki, we know why Satsuki wants to beat Ryuko, we know why Ryuko wants to beat Satsuki, both reasons make sense (since Satsuki is a more villainous character compared to Diana or even Uryu so while we don't WANT her to beat Ryuko, we at least can understand the logic behind why she wants Ryuko gone), good rivalry.

Now, take Diana and Akko. For what it's worth, they at least do the coloration right, Diana is blonde and blue-eyed while Akko is a red-eyed brunette. But... the rival is right in this instance. In Bleach, Uryu was actively putting all the realms in danger by destroying Hollows, Ichigo HAD to stop him because what he was doing was dangerous to the well-being of everyone. In Kill la Kill, Satsuki was forcing her way upon everyone in the academy and promoting the use of Life Fibers, something which would eventually lead to a potential world-ending catastrophe. Ichigo and Ryuko were in the right to kick their asses. In LWA, Akko is incompetent, cannot do magic, causes trouble for everyone, has a tendency to insist herself upon things that do not need her, if it wasn't for her guidance counselor and the magic rod that chose her, it would be an objective right to throw her ass out back into the sticks. On the other hand, Diana rarely does anything wrong and is looked down upon by Akko (looked up upon? Like, Akko sees her as this target above her that needs to be taken down a few pegs) just for being incredibly competent at what she does.

It fails to establish Diana as a good "rival" and fails to establish Akko as a worthy opponent to said rival.

Quite frankly, no other character is worth talking about. They're all pretty one-note side characters only dusted off when they're needed.

Sucy is a mushroom-obsessed gloomy girl.

Lotte is a Twilight-obsessed wallflower. And to be honest, I'm really exaggerating how much she likes Twilight outside that one episode but she has genuinely no other remarkable traits.

Amanda is a thrillseeking tomboy.

Just like DarliFra, there's a character whose whole purpose is "SHE'S FAT". Who found this funny enough to be put in a Trigger show twice in like one year? At least DarliFra fatass had some sort of character development and, through the dual-piloting system of the mechs, had a reason to be there.

There's a non-verbal girl who makes robots.

Diana has two lackeys who, to be fair, are dicks to Akko and friends, but again that's not DIANA. See: Draco Malfoy or Nanami Kiryu from Revolutionary Girl Utena. Yes, their lackeys are miserable little pests who snipe at the MC and pals but the ringleader is also a spoiled brat. This does not represent Diana.

The only professors worth anything are Ursula and Croix. The fish one is kinda funny but she only appears for the one episodic bit (oh yeah, a good portion of this is more episodic shenanigans which only works if you like the cast who is getting into these shenanigans). I can't really talk about Ursula or Croix without getting into spoilers so... um... just trust that I didn't like them either.

This was a detestable show with bad characters, poor worldbuilding, half-baked dynamics, and animation beyond what it deserved. If this anime was given to a studio with a lesser caliber than Trigger, it likely would've gotten the 1 it deserved.

As it is a Trigger anime, I'll be kind and favorable and give it a light 2.

Skip this one.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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