Back to JigsawStitches's Profile JigsawStitches's Profile

This is not only the best anime of Winter 2018, which already imo was a really strong season, but it's one of my favorite anime series ever now. This series is not only an argument for the best things anime can do as a medium, but a full refutation of the idea that "cute girls doing cute things" is somehow a lesser form of the medium. This series is as inspiring, as heart-wrenching, as memorable, and as affecting as any of the most beloved anime series, and the team behind it deserve true kudos for indeed going on their own Impossible Journey and risking so ... much on an original series. Truly amazing and inspiring.

----------

Story: The journey the four main characters undergo is nothing short of epic. I truly pity those who did not get the chance to follow this series week by week and instead will watch it all at once, because it is breathtaking how far in thirteen episodes these girls go. I immediately thought of K-On when watching this series because the premise is similar except you can replace "playing at the Budokan" with "making it to Antarctica." Each one of the four has very, very different reasons for going and are quite unique in their own ways too, just like K-On. If you've seen that series, you will then expect that the Sora Yori girls' journey is more about their friendship and less about the end goal. And yet, what is truly brilliant is that the series seems to acknowledge that, and there is such incredible emotional payoff from the events of the story as a result. If there is any flaw in the story, it's only that 13 episodes feels like slightly too few to appreciate the series' resolution, but even then the creators brilliantly manage the time they have and balance individual character development, the final goal, spending time with the full cast, and celebrating the girls' friendship absolutely perfectly. 9/10

Art: The backgrounds and the scenery alone elevate this series' art to top-tier status. From the natural scenery, to the skylines of international cities, to the girls' hometown, to Shinjuku, to the grandeur of human scientific accomplishment, there is love and effort oozing out of every shot. It is nearly overwhelming how gorgeous the settings are, yet of course it complements the grand tone and scale of the adventure. You want to see the world after watching this series, just like these girls did. And yet it is the faces of the characters that I love the most - every one of them is full of joy, of hope, of anxiety, of weariness, of sadness, and ultimately pride in what they have accomplished. 10/10

Sound: While it doesn't stick out as much as the visuals, the sound and especially the soundtrack are absolutely incredible in their own right. The ED in particular brings tears to my eyes every time, because it balances the bittersweet and the joyous tone of the series so well. The sounds of the landscapes also stand out because at certain points they are also overwhelming as much as the visuals. 9/10

Character: Once again the comparison to K-On is unavoidable and yet somehow this series found a way to surpass that cast in how incredible these four main girls are. They all start with a ton of charm yet ample flaws, and yet at the end they themselves show through both word and action how much they have matured and grown. Mari is the same silly, ever-hopeful girl as she started but she becomes both fearless and compassionate for everyone, especially her best friends. Yuzu is still sweet and kind but has opened up and gained a confidence and even a sassy side as she truly trusts her new best friends. Hinata is still easy-going, energetic, and hard-working but no longer feels the need to hide her problems and emotions from everyone else. And Shirase, my favorite of the four and truly one of Kana Hanazawa's best roles yet, has grown the most. She is no longer stuck in a constant emotional limbo and bottled-up anger she starts with and feels familiar to many people including me, but she reaches her goal and looks forward to the hope of her and everyone else's future, not the past. She has moved beyond only caring about her own pain and fear to go out of her way to help and support her friends completely, the way they do for her. Even the side characters are all wonderful, and they are also changed by how infectious the four's tenacity and openness to the new and unfamiliar. 10/10

Enjoyment: The winter season always has a lot of shows about cute girls and daily-life-based stories compared to the rest of the year, but while many of those other series specialize in humor or emotion, Sora Yori somehow perfectly manages to handle both. Even more importantly, I don't think I've ever watched an anime as inspiring to convince the viewer to take the step of changing their lives as much as this. Gurren Lagann may be a strange comparison, but both of these series fundamentally seek to empower the audience in very different ways. For all of the grand speeches and epic action, I felt more inspired to seize the day and step outside my comfort zone thanks to this series. They do this by grounding very familar problems and characters and then showing *and* telling about how they overcome their fears and anxieties. It's absolutely wonderful. As cliche as it is, I laughed, I cried, and I loved every minute of this show. 10/10

Overall: I truly hope word of mouth makes this show recognized more because this show is criminally underwatched and underappreciated. I don't know how much more you can say than whether we get more or this series or not (to be honest I kind of hope not because it's wrapped up so well), this show is an instant classic. I can truly say that I would recommend this series to *anyone* and *everyone.* 10/10

Long story short: Another series with amazing animation, action, and visual design tainted by Gainax being Gainax. This series would be a solid 8 or even a 9, but the bare-bones plot, mostly forgettable characters, absurd plethora of fanservice and uncomfortable exploitation of the female lead leave a sour taste in your mouth. Otherwise this could have been the best thing Gainax ever did. In some ways it's much better than Gunbuster but in others even more frustrating.

--------------

Story: As I said, it's pretty bare plot. Nono wants to become a space pilot because her hero was one. She meets Lal'C, a "Topless" who has a ... psychic connection to a Buster Machine, and immediately forms a bond with her for reasons that are somewhat lost on me. The rest of the series is mainly a bunch of teenagers who are mankind's only hope fighting Space Monsters in giant robots, combined with a lot of subplots and scenes that feel like nonsequiturs because they go nowhere. There's a pretty interesting plot twist in Episode 4 that they could have based the entire story around, but they don't really do anything with it, and the resolution of Nono's character arc is both a huge Deus Ex Machina and a pretty forced reference to the original series.

However, there is one intensely uncomfortable scene in Episode 5 which, after all of the shenanigans that came before, nearly breaks the camel's back in regards to the plot, and yet it's completely dropped after a few minutes. It bears mentioning because it's completely unnecessary, much like Coach's treatment of Onee-sama in Gunbuster Episode 5, but somehow even worse in terms of how it's handled. 6/10


Art: My god, my god, this is peak Gainax animation. Gunbuster was a great looking series for its time that also had major budget issues near the end - not to mention that the last two episodes of that series were completely unplanned at the beginning. By contrast Gainax pulled out all the stops for Diebuster. I've seen some people complain about the piloting outfits and how the FLCL-esque art design is less appealing to them than Gainax's other series, but I really like it because despite how goofy it looks it adds some visual character that Gunbuster lacked. And even compared to End of Evangelion the animation is unparalleled to the rest of Gainax's work. If there is a single saving grace to this series, it is the animation quality and the action sequences. 9/10


Sound: The best part of the sound design in Diebuster is definitely the soundtrack, as well as the OP and ED. Both the OP and ED are really enjoyable and add an upbeat tone to the series that it really needs to keep from being bogged down in melodrama. I've seen some critique of those compared to Gunbuster but I enjoy the funky 2000s J-Pop tone more than the 80s cheese of Gunbuster, as fun as it is. The orchestral score is also very good, if somewhat unmemorable compared to other Gainax scores. The references they make in the score to that of Gunbuster are also a lot more subtle and feel a lot less pandering than many of the more direct references they make in other ways. 8/10


Character: Everything else aside, this is probably the weakest aspect of the series. Nono is... somehow even more one-dimensional than Noriko. She's constantly upbeat and peppy, and so absent-minded and dumb most of the time that you seriously question whether she has the mental capacity of a child, which is entirely possible considering what we find out about her at the end of the first episode. What makes that uncomfortable is how *constantly* sexualized and ogled Nono is because she's admittedly really physically attractive, despite her simple-mindedness. Through the first few episodes she's treated as both the buttmonkey for slapstick gags and also a walking sex object who is constantly ogled by both the camera and her male teammates. I'll come back to this in the "Enjoyment" section, but the fanservice and her sexualization in general constantly pull you out from the enjoyment of the series. Not to mention her sudden character development in Episode 4 is jarring and her total change in personality doesn't seem to make any logical sense. With Noriko you can follow her character development, and Simon in TTGL is, for all his annoyance as a character early on, developed quite well. Nono by contrast does not have a "middle" to her development - only a "beginning" and "end."

Lal'C is an OK character in the sense that she probably should have had a lot more focus and even been the MC since Nono really turns out to be more of a plot device than anything. We don't know too much about her and her development is basically becoming more confident in herself and more independent, and also growing closer to Nono for some reason that's not really developed enough. Her relationship with Nicola is also barely touched on and doesn't quite fit with the rest of her character development, especially when you consider *that scene* in Episode 5 where she not only reveals how obsessed she apparently has been with Nicola, but also how warped her relationship with Nono is. It doesn't fit in at all and it's really uncomfortable.

The rest of the characters get at most a single episode of development - Tycho gets a very, very NGE-esque Episode 3 to cover her backstory and dislike of Nono, which is resolved at the end. She never gets any significant character moments after that. Nicola doesn't even get that - he gets like two scenes early in the series, and then that horrifying scene in Episode 5 which makes him utterly unredeemable and is not earned because we barely know the guy, not that it would fix that part at all. Gunbuster spent even less time on its side characters but that wasn't too big of a deal because they essentially did not matter. Here they really want you to care about the whole cast and they don't develop the two leads enough to make up for the poor characterization of the side characters. 5/10


Enjoyment: Let's get this out of the way - once again, the action is incredible and gorgeous. That's kind of a given for a Gainax mecha series but imo the action here is even better than the best parts of Gurren Lagann. All of the high ratings on this series are essentially all due to this.

However, the fanservice and sexual content in general is handled about as clumsily as any Gainax series, including their ecchi series. I want to briefly discuss this because a lot of people will say "YOU JUST HATE FANSERVICE" and that's not true in the sense that 9 times out of 10, it does not bother me much. But it's worth comparing the way Diebuster handles sexual content compared to three other somewhat related works: Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise; Gunbuster; and Kill la Kill.

In Gunbuster, as alluded to before, the fanservice is there, but it's almost comedic and relegated to scenes like those in the shared bath, aside from the famous moment at the end which is not really necessary but not really that bad. For the most part, you can laugh at it. Kill la Kill was created by many Gainax veterans who worked on Diebuster too, but the sexual content is directly part of the story and themes, and again, is so ludicrous that it passes beyond fanservice into comedy and almost satire.

In Diebuster, the first few episodes are filled with almost *constant* ogling of Nono from both the camera and the male characters. It's even more awkward because Nono is so oblivious that again, it almost feels like she has the maturity of a kid. It's so ridiculously unnecessary that it feels like they weren't confidant that younger otaku who didn't grow up with Gunbuster would enjoy this series without copious reminders that tits and asses exist. Even Lal'C is not exempt because right at the *climax of the series* there is a brief scene which is completely unnecessary yet apparently warrants full nudity.

If you want T&A in your mecha show - make it about that! Why does it need to be sprinkled in everywhere, yet they try to ignore that it's there? And again, there's that scene in Episode 5 which is just the worst example of Gainax inserting intensely uncomfortable scenes which are not necessary at all and are completely glossed over after a few minutes. There's a similar scene all the way in their first major work, Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise, which in some ways is worse because you're supposed to feel bad FOR THE GUY because "oh gee wiz I sure feel bad for doing that," and yet at least Gainax doesn't try to ignore that it happened. In Diebuster it involves a character we barely know and aside from the intensely uncomfortable reaction Lal'C has, it basically affects nothing else in the story aside creating a rift between Nono and Lal'C.

I spend so much time on this because it's so common of a problem in classic Gainax works and yet if it's not ignored by their fans, it's dismissed as a problem at all. Without those aspects this series would be one long joyride, but with it you are constantly pulled out from fully enjoying what's going on. 7/10


Overall: I fluctuate between a 6 and a 7 on this one because it's got some incredible aspects that are marred by: really sloppy execution of the story and character elements around the action; somewhat forced callbacks to Gunbuster that don't really come from anywhere; and the weird, exploitative fanservice treatment of Nono in particular and to a lesser extent Lal'C. I'm rather glad that the last few years of the Gainax glory days were led by Imaishi and the team that would create Studio Trigger because it seems they had a much, much better handle on how to manage these aspects than Anno and previous Gainax creative leads had. 7/10

Summary: It has been a very, very long time since I watched something which from start to finish emotionally affected me this deeply, and I don't know if any other anime will match it for that alone. While the ending is predictable from only a few episodes in, and one could argue that the series pushes "melodrama" into every episode, the series earns every single emotion and every single twist that happens. However, despite how emotionally affecting it is, somehow the greatest feeling you come out with is "hope" - and that's another aspect that elevates it above "melodrama."

-----------------------------------------------------

Story: The only major weakness the series ... has is that from nearly the very beginning they make the ending way too obvious. Some might also dislike the rapid twists in the plot and tone that happen, giving you some tonal whiplash. It works as a plot because it really accurately captures one of the main themes of the series - you never truly know what the future holds, so you have to live for today. The story also really deeply captures the kinds of emotions many of us feel at that age regarding love, family, friends, and trying to figure out what you want to do with your life. Some people complain that halfway through the series the story becomes too much about interpersonal issues, but to be honest, if you didn't see them coming during the first half, I don't know what to tell you. 8/10

Art: At first I wasn't too keen on the design of the characters' faces, but it really grew on me. Even aside from that, this series is GORGEOUS. They really went above and beyond the typical "A-1 mediocrity" that they're often stereotyped for, and it really does help to elevate the story. In particular the musical sequences are nothing short of breathtaking, and they manage at many points to even actually animate much of the actual instrument playing, which is something incredibly rare in animation outside of film. The color palette subtly shifts throughout the series as well to reflect the seasons, and since that parallels the story progression it works even better. The actual animation outside of the musical scenes isn't quite up to that level, but it still doesn't detract from the overall quality. 9/10

Sound: What's great about the music? Just. Everything. The first OP is now one of my absolute favorites of any anime, and the second ED is one of my favorites as well now too. The other two are also great, although not quite up to the GOAT level that those are. However the soundtrack within the series is really where the music shines - every piece of classical music is lovingly and fantastically captured in the recording, only enhanced by the visuals along with the audio. Although for people who are not experienced with music they have characters point out the quality of the instrument playing, you almost don't even need to have any musical knowledge to feel how well or poorly each character is playing. They strike a great balance between not being too over the top and making the musical criticism accessible to a wide audience. Not to mention the actual pieces chosen are absolutely fantastic and often fit the themes of the story incredibly well. It's really hard to believe that another anime will come along which uses sound and music this masterfully ever again. 10/10

Characters: All of the characters are great - they have complexity yet feel familiar to the kinds of people you know at that age, so they feel very real and nuanced. Kousei in particular is extremely underrated as a protagonist, and manages to resolve a lot of extremely complicated emotional issues he has in almost a Buddhist sort of way that is almost admirable. He has so much emotional baggage and yet he realistically works through it and is able to resolve the complex and often horribly depressing relationships he has had, particularly with his mother, in a way that feels familiar to those who have struggled with the emotional weight of an overbearing parent. One could criticize Kaori as merely a plot device, but by the end you see that this is really selling her short and she is one of the strongest characters I've seen in a slice-of-life type of anime. She has a singular goal which she does not reveal to anyone, and finds her happiness in affecting the people around her - I won't say more than that. And while that could be pretty one-dimensional, it's clear over and over that she, like everyone else, falters and loses hope sometimes, so it makes her feel so much more human. On the other hand Tsubaki is the perfect character archetype I usually dislike (she's basically a Childhood Friend version of Minorin from Toradora), but even then she grows on you and her character interactions with Kousei by the end are majorly enjoyable moments in the series. Even side characters like Takeshi and Nagi in particular are extremely memorable and have their own character arcs that could really form their own series as well. The only criticism one could really argue is that a couple characters just don't have time to fully develop, but that's pretty much inevitable with a series that's only two cours. Otherwise this series sets the gold standard for romance/slice of life characterization. 10/10

Enjoyment: Every single episode is incredibly engaging, and the series keeps finding new ways to tug at your heartstrings in each episode to brilliant effect. If you are adverse to emotion in anime, this is not for you, but if you are prepared to be on the verge of tears every episode, this series is incredibly rewarding. And somehow, despite how deeply depressing the story can be, at the end you come away with a feeling of incredible hope - there are no endings in life, just new beginnings, and there are always people there with you the whole way. It's hopelessly cheesy but it earns every bit of pathos. 10/10

Overall: This really is the gold standard of school romance/drama series in nearly every way. I really struggle with whether this or Toradora is a "better" series - Toradora is probably the most satisfying in terms of emotional payoff, but in every technical aspect and in terms of consistent emotional *engagement*, I think you have to go with Your Lie in April. 10/10

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. Although they are contained after a second warning below.

I am a huge fan of Studio Trigger as anyone who knows me can attest, although a recent fan to be sure. After watching Kill la Kill I heard about the LWA OVAs and immediately loved them both.

However after following the Little Witch Academia TV series every week for six months, it's extremely difficult for me to satisfactorily summarize exactly how I feel about it. It's a very different kind of series than the first OVA, and is mostly closer both in animation and in structure to The Enchanted Parade. On the ... one hand, in concept and at multiple points I feel Trigger deserves extremely high praise. But on the other hand, after completing the series, a lot of of problems which I ignored while watching becaming prominent in my mind, and sometimes when I think about the series these issues dampen my enthusiasm for the series as a whole.

I will briefly summarize what I think of each of the typical MAL review criteria before going more in depth into what I feel are the greatest strengths and the greatest weaknesses - with some **SPOILERS**, because it is impossible to discuss particularly the latter without them, albeit I will try to avoid major spoilers as much as possible.

Story: The basic story on its own is extremely enjoyable. Akko's struggle to become a great witch is heartwarming and refreshing in the sense that it is wholesome without becoming cloying and you *really* want to see Akko succeed. However, as I will discuss later, the pacing issues as well as some story developments that begin around the middle of the series and reach their head in the last 5 episodes or so greatly undermine what could have been a story as incredible as anything Trigger has ever done.

Art: In terms of art style, the series is gorgeous. The backgrounds are detailed and soft in ways that are reminiscent of early Miyazaki, and the design of the locations are wonderful to behold. While the animation is clearly not as fluid most of the time as in the first OVA or even the second, at certain points, especially at the end, it rivals anything that Trigger has done. My only complaint is that some side characters' designs, particularly the characters new to the TV series, are somewhat bland and could be a lot more visually unique.

Sound: In technical terms this is probably the series' weakest point. The OPs and EDs are all great, but those are undoubtedly the high points musically. Try to do a drinking game out of how many times you hear the series' main musical motif - you'll be blacked out by the end of the series.

Character: This is the aspect of the show which I think is the hardest to score. Akko is a wonderful protagonist. I never found her annoying like she feels at times in the Enchanted Parade OVA, and in fact she and Megumi Han's performance are often what raises the quality of the episodes, as there is so much life and energy put into her character. Ursula is also very endearing as a character, even if, as I'll explain later, at the end you realize that her character is deeply flawed both in characterization and in execution.

Lotte and Sucy as always are a joy to behold - this is why in my opinion the first half of the series is in many ways stronger than the second. They are strong presences in their own right and provide a lot of depth to the first half of the series which then drops off almost ENTIRELY for the second half. Speaking of, I know Amanda, Constanze, and even Jasminka are fan-favorite characters, but they pretty much replace Sucy and Lotte in the second half of the series. Even then Amanda and Constanze get individual episodes and then don't have that much impact on the story of the second half, which is focused almost entirely on Akko.

And then there are the three characters which I have the most to say about critically - Andrew, Diana, and Croix. I'll save this for the end, but suffice it to say that I think Trigger and especially Yoshinari were extremely misguided in the way they used these characters, and considering how important they are at various points in the series, it's a major strike against the series as a whole.

Enjoyment: This is also hard to score because while watching it, aside from a couple of episodes, I was immensely entertained. However it could be argued that if anything there is way, *way* too much focus on immediate entertainment within each episode at the expense of the cohesion of the series as a whole.

Overall: I fluctuate between a 7 when I'm ungenerous and 8 when I am generous toward this series, and at this point I will summarize what I think is the series' greatest missteps, but...

**BEWARE: SPOILERS BELOW**

It is abundantly clear that Yoh Yoshinari should, like George Lucas in many ways, stick to grander ideas and character designs rather than directing the finer points of storytelling and character development. If there is one thing that threatens to sabotage the series as a whole, it is this.

Trigger clearly was going for a Western-style animated series which balances SOL elements and struggles with an overarching story. Fantastic - this should be greatly commended, considering how this concept apparently is foreign to many anime fans yet holds a lot of potential. In fact I think the SOL episodes and the story-based episodes on their own are almost equal in quality, rather than either feeling like filler. However, the way this kind of series is usually structured in Western animation is by interweaving SOL and side character-based episodes with plot-related ones. Instead, Trigger mostly decided to put all of the SOL episodes in the first half, and then all of the main story in the second. This creates an extremely lopsided series that almost feels like two separate seasons or even two different shows rather than one. And considering the issues with the plot structure and character development which I will discuss, the problems with this approach are exacerbated if anything.

The problems with the plot structure and character development are the most clear with the way the three characters of Andrew, Diana, and Croix are handled.

Croix is not even introduced until halfway through the series, and from *literally* the very first episode we are shown that she is evil, as well as the somewhat heavy-handed theme of "technology vs. tradition." However, by the end of the series we are only somewhat more clear on why she became this way, and it seems to boil down to "I wanted to become the witch that saved magic but didn't get chosen." It seems strange that Croix essentially became evil for this reason, yet her motivations seem to be misguided at best. If her development didn't get left until the very end of the series, maybe she could have been fleshed out more.

Ursula/Chariot herself also suffers from a similar issue - despite her being a major part of the series, until episode *22* we have no idea about why she quit her performances as Shiny Chariot, and the way the show handles this character revelation is MASSIVELY bungled. The rug is pulled out from under the audience which has seen Ursula and Akko's relationship as entirely wholesome not only for the previous twenty-one episodes, but both OVAs as well, yet we get not even a FULL EPISODE to examine this enormous character development. An even bigger problem with this is that Chariot's error essentially boiled down to "I trusted Croix too much" - at one point they hint that maybe Ursula didn't care about the consequences of her magic, but it's a plot point that's immediately dropped. And by the way, try to rewatch any training scenes with Akko and Ursula and not cringe constantly at how painful it is. In hindsight so much of what Ursula does to try to help Akko feels almost condescending and mocking, and again, because this plot point is dragged out so long, it taints most of the series.


In any case, if there are two characters who are arguably more bungled than Croix and Chariot, it's Diana and Andrew.

Andrew is the one major side character introduced solely for the TV series, yet by the end I am entirely unclear what in the hell Yoshinari and Trigger were trying to do with him. An apologist might argue that he's meant to embody the non-magical world which has rejected magic, but there's two problems with that. One, the issue of Croix exploiting the emotions of the non-magical public as well as the climax of the show already handle this topic without needing Andrew. Secondly, it is abundantly clear that that is *not* all Trigger were planning on doing with him, until, again, episode 20 or so, where they shift hard AWAY from involving him in the main plot in any serious manner. We don't even get a final scene to cap off his development or have him discuss his and Akko's mutual character-building. Because due to the changes in the story, there's no time.

Also, I'm going to touch the third rail of the Little Witch Academia fandom, because it is an issue which leaks into the canon of the series and embodies some of the biggest weakeness of the TV series...

SHIPPING.

Andrew is quite clearly introduced, if not as a love interest for Akko, then as someone to whom she is able to elaborate who she is as a character. He acts as a perfect foil for her, and their relationship in my view has as lot of compelling inversions to the typical action-adventure hetero relationship. They have actual chemistry, and in the first half of the series, it seems like Andrew shows a lot of promise as a character and his relationship with Akko, whether romantic or not, had a lot of potential, which is clearly recognized by Trigger early on.

Who is the only character in episode six who is there when Akko has one of her best character scenes, where she opens her heart about her hopes and fears in trying to be like Shiny Chariot? ANDREW. Who is there in episode 10 when again, we see Akko provide the supposed main theme of the series, that magic itself is worthwhile because it revitalizes the world and provides joy? ANDREW. And even in the second half of the series, we see repeatedly that Andrew and Akko have an extremely engaging chemistry and character interplay, and Akko as a character is at her strongest when she's able to tell Andrew exactly why she wants to keep looking for the Words.

... So where in the hell does he go at the end? I'll tell you the answer, based on interviews with Yoshinari. For some baffling reason, which if I were uncharitable I would attribute to spite, Trigger decided about halfway through the series (I would venture after episode 10) that they didn't want Andrew involved in the main plot anymore. Instead, they decided they wanted *Diana*, both as a major plot element, and as a pseudo love interest for the yuri fans to cheer for.

I will say this. I do not like Diana. At all. She at no point becomes interesting to me as a character, or endearing. She has the chemistry of a rock with Akko, and I can probably count on one hand the number of times she shows any kind of emotion, positive or negative. It's actually interesting because the basis of her relationship with Akko, at least at first, is similar to Andrew's. But whereas Andrew from the beginning shows at least some kind of interest, if not amusement, towards Akko, and is able to engage with Akko, Diana does no such thing. Her character interactions with Akko for 90% of the series boil down to the typical "tsun" relationship. Boy, that's sure original. There are a couple of amusing moments where Akko almost gets an emotional rise out of Diana, but it never actually happens. Akko just at some point decides she admires Diana enough that she wants to get involved in her side plot.

By the way, speaking of Andrew, when he is introduced and it's mentioned that Andrew and Diana have known each other since childhood, and considering Andrew and his father are somewhat tied into Diana's "side plot," I think there is a grand total of ONE conversation between Diana and Andrew as well in the whole series. His contribution to her story is the equivalent of a backstory dump.

But in any case, Diana as a character starts as the stereotype of a school snob and teacher's pet, and at the very least through the first half of the series, is basically a Mary Sue. I know that term is frowned upon, but she is the definition of it. The absolute worst of this is episode five, where she literally comes OUT OF NOWHERE, reveals that unlike any of her own teachers she has taught herself Draconic language and contract law, apparently, and resolves the main conflict of the episode immediately. This is basically how she is involved in the first 13 or so episodes as well - she just shows up to either be condescending to Akko (only to be shown up by Akko in some regard) or just show off how much smarter than everyone else she is.

And yet, she more or less disappears from the main action of the plot until THE LAST FIVE EPISODES, where suddenly we are given a *two-part story* about Diana, and now she is arguably the second most important character. This would be fine to some degree if it were used to make Diana interesting or compelling as a character, but no, it's just to show how special and hard-working Diana is, which is indirectly a huge slap in the face to Akko as well, since despite working for probably close to a year on her magic, she at best can transform herself into a few animals. It feels as if Yoshinari just decided that because he liked Diana for whatever reason, she needed to be inserted into the main plot, but without having a good story or character reason.

And then in the final two episodes we are essentially given a heaping spoonful of yuribait, despite Akko and Diana STILL having less than zero chemistry. Diana almost even upstages Akko *at the finale*, and it takes away from Akko's big moment to shine. It left a really bad taste in my mouth, particularly after hearing the crowing from certain elements of the fandom that their yuri ship was now "canon" - not that it technically is, as much as Yoshinari and apparently Megumi Han according to other interviews clearly want it to be.


So bottom line, regardless of opinions on various shipping pairs or what have you, these issues of character development and pacing could have been resolved if they were planned out before the series aired. Instead it feels like Yoshinari and Trigger were changing things as they went along, and it threatens to completely derail the series. And it's a crying shame because this series could have been Trigger's absolute best - yes, perhaps even better than Kill la Kill. Instead we have an extremely enjoyable but deeply flawed series which at points feels more like Kiznaiver than the Little Witch Academia OVAs or any other work Trigger has done.