Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction

Little Witch Academia – 06[The Fountain of Polaris]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Little Witch Academia

I should start having more faith in Trigger. Just at the point when Akko’s mentality was starting to become a problem, she gets an episode dedicated to fixing that. After gaining shiny rod Akko was under the impression she was something special but now after failing in magic again she is finally acknowledging her shortcomings. I was getting worried as she began looking for a quick fix by finding the fountain of Polaris but the fountain itself only showed her that Shiny Chariot was once in her position. Thus Akko is ready to truly begin working hard at magic and accept Ursula’s help which I think could be the beginning to a real mentor and student relationship between the two. One thing I find interesting is that Ursula took away Shiny Rod when she rescued Akko and Andrew only to return it once Akko acknowledged her weaknesses and decided to do better. Also it truly is set in stone that Ursula is Shiny Chariot. Her hair has changed to red and she clearly knows far too much about the nature of Shiny Rod, the cards and Polaris’s protector. I am curious was to what prompted her to disappear and hide as a teacher in Luna Nova but there’s another moment I am quite looking forward to. Since the first OVA I always wanted to see the reaction Akko and Diana would have to Ursula revealing herself as Shiny Chariot. I don’t really expect it to happen until the very end of the series but I would love it to be a great epic reveal before facing off against the main villain.(If this series has one) It’s cliche and predictable maybe but I always did have a weakness for that kind of heroic reveal.

With the introduction of the Duke’s son comes a new concern. Romance in Little Witch Academia. Actually let me rephrase that. Plausible romance in Little Witch Academia. I know you Yuri shippers are shipping hard and I certainly have seen that Akko kissing Diana comic strip more times than I can count but come on. We both know the truth. Most you guys will get is slight insinuation if you are really lucky. As far as straight romances go it seems like Diana and Andrew doesn’t look likely as both know each other from childhood and don’t hold each other in high regard. Akko seems to have caught his attention though the two aren’t staring into each others eyes with deep red blushes. Truthfully I am not truly fond of the idea of romance in this show, be it gay or straight. If it’s featured it would need to be a very minor addition as I don’t want a Kiznaver situation where the plot grinds to a halt so characters can get shipped together. I highly doubt Little Witch will go down that route, for one it’s not written by Mari Okada, but yeah as far as romance goes I say keep it minor or keep it out.

It was around episode 6 that Kill La Kill dropped it’s episodic format for a more ongoing narrative so we may be seeing the birth of an ongoing plotline. The Duke himself seems fed up with Luna Nova himself and is looking to close it down. It has been repeated by now that magic is seen as out of date and useless by the modern populous but why is that exactly. By all accounts the magic shown in the series could have several uses and even as the duke berates it he is driving through a magic portal. Technology is undeniably useful but it seems odd for so many people to dismiss magic outright. So far the biggest problem with using magic is that you need to be near the Sorcerer’s stone in order to use it. That in fact may be the main reason why people consider it useless. I mentioned before that Luna Nova has a rather diverse student body but perhaps the reason for that is that Luna Nova quite literally is the only place on the planet where one can learn magic? The Sorcerer’s stone may be only one of a kind and in that regard magic certainly would be considered rather useless as even if you can perform miracles within school grounds. Even if you can transform rats into horses, the magic would likely wear off the minute you go outside the stones field of effect. Coupled with this is the Teachers traditionalist views and aversion to technology which could very well hamper any use magic has. Only thing I would could see magic having a use for is as an energy source but as already shown the stones effect radius is small and I doubt it could power the world. It’s still up in the air just how Akko is going to prove that magic is still needed but it’s clear that this will be one of the major themes of the series. So what I wonder is, where might we be going with this? Somewhere fun, I hope.

Saga of Tanya the Evil – 06[Beginning of Madness]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Saga of Tanya the Evil

This week’s episode is more focused on action so I have less to talk about. In terms of plot, we get the main gist that World War One is revving into gear. Dakia looks to be knocked out of the war, thanks to Tanya’s efforts and as predicted, her success has caused the top brass to use her battalion as their ace in the hole. Oddly enough, Tanya doesn’t seem all that concerned about it. Despite the fact that she is ordered into brutally killing people, Tanya seems to be enjoying herself. A lot of this episode was Tanya showing that she’s a badass who can chuck grenades into bomber planes and blow up observation stations attempting to gather data on her. In truth, while watching this episode I was starting to become concerned that we could have the same issue that Drifters had that nothing was really going to pose a tangible threat to Tanya. I have said it before, a one sided battle is boring to watch and makes it feel like the protagonist is never in a position of danger. If the remainder of the series is going to have episodes like this, then the enemy needs to get Tanya to work for her victory instead of getting curbstomped just to show off just how amazing Tanya is.

Thankfully, it looks like the show recognizes that disparity and Being X shows up to rain on Tanya’s parade. This is a break from their normal interactions as this appearance is much more provocative and malicious than previous encounters . By taking control over a dead body, Being X reminds her that even though she has won some small victories, she will soon be fighting the entire world. It is funny that Tanya’s very first response on his appearance is by shooting a round into the bod as she states that this was specifically the reason she carried her gun around everywhere. Being X could arrive at any time and when he does come, she wants a gun on hand to shoot him.  This seems to have give her no real self-satisfaction and his words definitely affect her mood. Before his arrival, Tanya was practically having fun managing the battle and becoming victorious, but her mood soured greatly after God showed up, to the degree that Viktoriya noticed her drop in mood.

The after credits comedy scene worked really well here with Tanya remarking about the dangers of secondhand smoke that nobody in this timeframe is aware of. After all, it cannot be good for her to go to briefings filled with cigar smoke. It could really stunt her growth but that could be a plus on the other hand. As she stated herself, that small body of hers makes for a harder to hit target. With the appearance of God, this likely means that things are going to get a lot harder for Tanya and perhaps this could mean the birth of an archenemy is on the horizon. God does make a good villain but lacks presence to act as something for Tanya to fight against. What would be really cool now is for a kind of Joan of Arc figure leading the war on the other side. Something tangible for Tanya to take down and fight. Sadly, next week’s episode is a recap episode which doesn’t come as too much of a surprise. Considering the quality of the show so far and that this is a first effort by animation studio they have be straining themselves. Last week’s episode did show more signs of cutting corners in terms of animation and I personally would prefer a recap episode over a rushed-out mess.

Little Witch Academia – 05[Luna Nova and the White Dragon]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Little Witch Academia

Well there goes my character focused episodes theory unless the purpose of this episode was to introduce Fafner the dragon. I think only trigger can manage to turn a situation with dragons stealing a magic stone into a tale about the academy trying to pay off a debt owed to to a dragon who works in the stock market. Dragons in particular are known for hoarding treasure with Fafner being a dwarf who turned into a dragon and guards his treasure hoard. So a modern interpretation of this being a dragon who acts as a loan shark while working digitally with the stock market is a stroke of genius. If you’re unfamiliar with the stock market, platforms like IG Review can offer insights into how the stock market works. I certainly wasn’t expecting that after a powerpuff girls reference at the beginning of the episode. The Dinotopia reference with dragonese being essentially footprint alphabet I didn’t catch until reading discussions. Also found out that dinosuar show I watched way back in 2002 was called Dinotopia and was based on books. I will be damned. Other than that this did give the troublemaker trio of Amanda, Constanze and Jasminka some time in the spotlight, especially Constanze who has likely won more fans with this.

In my book any character than can pull out a Spaz shotgun and shoot down dragons is a character worth remembering. The diversity of nationality is pretty unheard of for an anime as well with Akko being Japanese, Lotte being Finnish, Sucy is from southeast Asia, Amanda being American(Considering her second name is O’Neill, she’s most likely part Irish too.), Constanze is German, Jasminka is Russian, Diana is British and even the announcer from the broom race looked Africain. I can’t think of many anime with a cast like this other than maybe Jojo and that anime that represented each country with an anime character(Helalia was it?)  Considering that Little WItch Academia appeals more to a western audience than a japanese one this could be fanservice on Triggers part and boy do I love them for it.

It’s a little early to call this a demerit to the show but if not remedied soon Akko’s attitude could become a problem. Akko’s main gimmick is that she is a girl with incredible passion and daring which will most likely cause a change in the magic world. Right now however when Diana was laying into her about her faults I found that I agreed with her 100%. Akko doesn’t think about how her actions affect others and despite talking up about how she is going to be the best that ever was, she never makes a real effort to try. Ursula is more than willing to give Akko the help she needs but she is getting shunned or ignored fast by Akko. The big factor in this episode is that Akko placed her friends in real danger just by butting into a problem which would have been resolved without her. As I said it’s a little early to call this a flaw as Akko’s development is clearly going to be a big part of the series but she is going to need to at least start changing a little. One thing that constantly had me wondering while watching this is that Akko and her friends went to take on dragons and for some reason Akko did not bring along Shiny Rod. She was lucky in this case as the dragon in question didn’t intend to hurt them but to go up against a dragon without the deus ex machina stick isn’t bravery, but pure foolishness.

Fafner does bring up a point which is likely to play an important role in this series, namely that magic has become outdated for the modern world. The luna nova teacher state that there is a decline in students and it doesn’t help that they have proven themselves fairly incompetent so far in the series. Magic does look to have great benefits like with Diana reforming the potion that broke during Akko’s and Amanda’s fight. However those benefits come with an immense downside as the witch’s can only use great magic within the grounds of the school. In that regard just what does one gain from studying to be a witch? Constanze has proven it well enough that technology can not only do what magic does but it can do the job better. So the big question is what caused of the decline of magic? For Shiny Chariot could once use great magic outside of school so what exactly changed? Could it have anything to do with that star shaped scar on the moon? For that scar doesn’t appear to be on the moon in the very first episode during Chariots show. Perhaps the fall of magic could be related to why Chariot gave up being an entertainer and lost the power to wield Shiny Rod.

Saga of Tanya the Evil – 05 [My First Battalion]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Saga of Tanya the Evil

The only one thing I dislike about this episode was that we didn’t get into Tanya’s thoughts very much. I really wish I could have heard what she was thinking while training the troops because it would have been undoubtedly hilarious. It is clear by her reaction that she didn’t expect any of them to continue and was just waiting for them to drop out. From what I hear, we actually got the abridged version of her training as in the LN and manga, as she shot even more artillery shells at them after the original thirty-six hour time limit just to mess with them and then went through the list of the world’s most hellish training regiments. Of course, her efforts backfired as the harsh treatment of the troops gave the impression that she would kill anyone who dared tries to quit. It’s a common theme for Tanya to see things in terms of loss and gain as her previous life as a salaryman made her highly logical but apathetic.

Tanya only sees things from her perspective without taking into account the time or the mindset of others. In truth, Tanya’s mistakes are normal due to her misunderstanding of other people. To truly defeat God, she needs to stop focusing on her own goal and expand her worldview and the utter glorious tragedy of it all, is that Tanya is the kind of person so caught up in her own ideals to ever truly consider it. Despite being a clever individual, Tanya is quite childish and short sighted. After all, the main reason she is in this mess is because she prattled on to God without thinking. Tanya, to me, is how a villain should be written, not some unfazeable egoist mastermind sitting atop a tower saying everything is according to plan. Instead, she’s just a capable individual with a flawed personality and ideology, essentially making her human.

Thus, with the battalion formed, the group receives their first mission fending off an invasion by the kingdom of Diakon. I don’t know who this nation is supposed to represent but they seem to have not updated their war tactics from the 19th century. The lack of air support and rudimentary defense against mages makes Tanya sigh at their incompetence and the ensuing battle couldn’t really be called one but rather, it was a wholesale massacre and devastating defeat for the kingdom of Dakia. It seemed all too easy and I thought that God might throw a wrench into the works, but this battle does truly highlight just how ruthless Tanya really is. Her assistant Viktoriya has been acting somewhat of a moral counterpart, but even she doesn’t chastise Tanya for her level of ruthlessness.

Out of everyone in the world, she seems to is the one that knows Tanya the best as when battalion was given an explanation by their commanding officer about shelling them with artillery, Viktoriya had already begun digging a hole to avoid the bombardment. I certainly wasn’t expecting Tanya to pull out that little girl voice to announce the attack on the capital but that was certainly underhanded and remarkably clever. No doubt, this victory will push her reputation even higher which may have slipped her mind during this mission. After all, Tanya is thinking of war in terms of the modern world, so the massive numbers of Dakia troops doesn’t impress her. However, to the various militaries of this world, the news that she defeated an army with a single battalion, will no doubt have her superiors pushing her into much more dire straits.  Finally, we can see that Tanya is making use of her previous life’s knowledge as the speech she gave her battalion is almost a word for word quote from Full Metal Jacket.

Little Witch Academia – 04[Night Fall]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Little Witch Academia

No legendary items or Shiny rod antics this time as we have an episode focusing on Lotte and her particular fascination with a book series called Night Fall. A series spanning 365 volumes(Oh my god, this thing must be as worn out and tired as The Simpsons.) which seems to be a Twilight like story that somehow evolved into Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure levels of ridiculousness. Just hearing fans talk about it makes the story sound completely insane, so much so that I actually would be interested in reading it. After all there’s a chapter where the main heroine catches a nuke with her bare hands and after hearing that all I can say is where do I start reading? Out of the episodes so far I would call this the weakest but still a fairly enjoyable episode. For one I noticed that Diana’s two cronies are called Hanna and Barbera which is clearly a reference to the Hanna Barbera cartoons. Pretty amusing how one of them was a closet Night Fall fan getting the other girl to check out the event to “see how stupid it is”. Yet at the first Night Fall question her hand to shot up right away. I think it’s the little touches like that which makes this series so charming.

Lotte’s admiration for her idol did bring an interesting contrast to Ako’s admiration for Shiny Chariot. In Ako’s case she really wants to be Chariot and perform great feats of magic in front of an audience. Lotte on the other hand doesn’t want to write Night Fall like Annabel and instead wants to enjoy the books she writes while cheering her on. It reminds me of a time when I was trying to get a career in the Video Game industry as I love video games and couldn’t think of anywhere else I wanted to be. However after getting a taste of what making games is actually like from college I realised that I didn’t really want to make games, I just wanted to play them. If video games were my job then could I really enjoy them as a hobby? Lotte hit the same conclusion when given the opportunity to become the new writer of Night Fall. I find it funny that she spent so much time encouraging Annabel when later it’s revealed that her main reason for doing that was that if she wrote Night Fall then she would know what happened and thus couldn’t enjoy reading it anymore. I feel a bit for Annabels dilemma in that she was tired of being bashed by the internet. As they say, Haters will broadcast your failures, but whisper your success. Or to put it another way, people only have a reason to speak up when you stop doing your job right. Lotte brings up a good point that the most vocal on the internet don’t really represent the opinions of the majority and that’s pretty well evidenced here as Night Fall has fans from new to old who are still passionate about it at the unveiling of Volume 265.

Otherwise this entire episode is likely what happens when ordinary people listen to anime fans. We know absolutely nothing about Night Fall and yet what little bits we hear of it just sounds outright insane or nonsensical. Really goes to show how fans can have their own internal logic which can only be understood by other fans. After all if I talked to anyone who did not watch anime about tsunderes, yanderes and likewise then chances are they wouldn’t have any idea what I was talking about. Regardless neither Ako nor Sucy attempt to badmouth Lottes hobby despite finding it impenetrable and just respect her passion for the series. Lotte did good here as well by not attempting to force the series on Sucy or Ako like your more stereotypical fan would. Ursula can’t seem to catch a break and it’s a little sad that Lotte recognised her idol immediately when Ako has no idea when Chariot is standing right in front of her. Considering this episode it’s possible we will be getting character centered episodes from now on so Sucy is likely next up followed by the girls from Enchanted Parade like Amanda. Or we shall be returning to Ako and her antics with Shiny Rod. Finally the only thing they eat at Witch Academia is potatoes? Guess there’s no house elves in this dimension.

Saga of Tanya the Evil – 04 [Campus Life]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Saga of Tanya the Evil

What happened in this episode was essentially a joke with the majority of the time dedicated to   the setup and final few scenes being the punchline. It doesn’t necessarily mean that this was a bad episode as this show is still burning strong. However, in terms of plot progression, this was a rather slow paced episode but all things considered, it is nice to take a break from the battlefield and have Tanya playing mind games to enhance her position. That makes the beautifully cathartic moment all the more satisfying when these mind games ends up working against her. She manages to make use of her knowledge of World War I to predict how the war would develop and due to her efforts to impress her superior, she accidently suggests the formation of a mage battalion whom could turn the tide of the war. Essentially, she unknowingly recommended herself to be at the forefront of the entire world war and handle the most dangerous missions. The brilliant thing about this is that God may have set things up a little by having Zeller see her resume but, in the end, it was Tanya herself, that ultimately dug her own grave. I actually think that if Tanya appealed to take the safer positions offered to her, then Zeller would allow her to refuse as he does seem hesitant to send her out. Unfortunately, Tanya’s mind works against her and ultimately assumes that she has no choice in the matter.

It’s great that the war college isn’t used as an excuse to pad out the story or introduce a classroom full of wacky new characters. Instead it resemble more like an actual college, which I certainly appreciate.  There aren’t any silly sports festivals here and instead, we have Tanya convincing a man to abandon his position in the military in order to be there for his newly born daughter. That was quite a good scene as it really did seem like Tanya was being genuinely heartfelt, only to have that psycho smile flare up as it was just a ploy to convince the man to give up his post so she would steal it for herself. Giving someone a good heart to contrast evil actions can lead to nice moral dichotomy but in the case of our salaryman here, I think she’s at her best at being a bastard. Yet, despite the audience knowing her real thoughts, she may be giving the impression of being a good person to those around her. The only one cautious of her true nature is the Vice Director of Strategy and Operation although he doesn’t know her full backstory. Otherwise, he would know that all he needs to do to keep her from taking over is to give her a safe cushy job in the rear.

Now that I think of it, I haven’t commented on the opening and ending credits of this show yet. The opening is something I appreciate for being different, but I find the song to be too robotic with its vocals. The visuals are far too obscured and the majority of the opening just throws too many scenes, which makes it too cluttered. I do like the part with Tanya shooting the Nutcracker as a way of showing her conflict with god. Actually, that Nutcracker is a rather amusing choice for the representative of God. After all, God is the one that threw him into this grim reality and generally comes in to give him a kick in the nuts now and again. One has to wonder if it’s an intentional joke. While the opening doesn’t catch me, I found myself loving the ending. The song has a certain militaristic theme which I have a certain fondness for and the chorus just sounds great to me. In terms of visuals, I can’t decide if it was resourceful or lazy to make it a slideshow of the art featured in the light novels. The amount of effort required to make this ending is minimal, and if any other light novel adaption tried to do this then it would make for a weak ending for each episode.

However, the artwork of the novels is quite frankly, outstanding. It has a level of detail and beauty that will likely make people lament the downgrade that Tanya got in character design in the anime. If there is a negative to this ending, it is that ignorance is bliss so that by pointing out how good Tanya looks in the novel, people might be resenting her animated character design. I don’t quite dislike her design as when it comes to animation and character art as I prefer my characters feeling alive over being highly decorative cardboard stills. Her design may be a downgrade but it does allow for the animation to give her a wider berth of emotional  response. It’s sort of like how the anime version of Pokemon Sun and Moon handled their character redesign, which made a lot of people angry. Ultimately, it was done for better animation and in all honestly, it is a reasonable tradeoff. That said, Tanya’s female subordinate still looks bad, and if she’s going to be in this show a lot more then they need to do something with that off putting design.

 

Little Witch Academia – 03[Don’t Stop Me Now]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Little Witch Academia

What’s a witch without a broomstick? Today’s episode deals with Akko’s troubles with flying and considering how terrible she is at nearly all facets of magic I am really beginning to wonder just how she got into this school in the first place. For the most part it’s not her fault as other witches at the school have clearly been trained in magic from a young age. Meanwhile Akko is just being introduced to it. I appreciate that this episode didn’t feature the shiny rod solving Akko’s problems and was instead about her troubles getting to grips with flying and trying to win a broom relay race. They almost did win the race through the magic of cheating so in this regard I am rather glad Akko didn’t get an unjust victory. Instead we have a excellent episode about a legendary broom and Akko’s hilarious training to fly a broom. I laughed pretty hard when she tried to intimidate her broom by snapping a twig in front of it.

It wouldn’t feel right for Akko to win after Sucy was sabotaging the other racers. Not even accounting that Akko wasn’t so much as flying a broom but instead trying to wrestle the legendary Shooting Star broom into submission. With that broom I now count three legendary artifacts at the school. The shooting star broom, the shiny rod and the philosopher’s stone which powers the Academy’s magic. This is merely an inkling at the moment but I think these items will play a part in the finale of Little Witch Academia. I certainly believe that we haven’t seen the last of the Shooting Star broom. Animation continues to be perfectly executed with flair and fun. So far the story has a episodic structure with events being brought up and resolved in the same episode. There doesn’t seem to be an overarcing plot so far and personally I am fine with that. As long as the series continues to be a barrel of fun there’s no real need to force in an overarcing plot. Otherwise it could make the same mistake as Death Parade and forget just what makes it’s concept work so well.

We have an introduction to many of the characters from the second OVA. Also are a number of cameo’s in this episode with a urn referencing Nonons hat from Kill la Kill, Inferno cop on the television of the room Akko flew past and even a very strange cameo of a man referred to as Chumlee from an American reality tv show called Pawn Stars. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to point out that Ursula is probably Shiny Chariot as the series has given several hints to that effect. It’s clear that something happened which pushed her to adopt her current persona and she seems jaded when Akko repeats her catchphrase back to her. She obviously lost her power, perhaps because the rod requires the childlike wonder that Akko has. Over time Ursula and Diana look to have gotten disillusioned by the technical workings of magic but both seem to yearn for the view of magic they had in their younger days. If this is true then it really is a matter of time before Akko can no longer use the shiny rod which may be the main conflict of this series. Though the opening does show some sort of antagonist who could act as a triggering factor for Akko to mature and potentially lose Shiny Rods power. Purely from a personal standpoint I think the best person to play antagonist for this series would be Shiny Chariot herself. Who better to crush Akko’s faith in magic and dreams? So on to episode four and I hope it isn’t effected by an old trigger curse, that being that episode four is where there is a huge animation quality drop.

Saga of Tanya the Evil – 03[Deus Vult]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Saga of Tanya the Evil

This series really has started to shine since episode two and I admit that Tanya is carrying the show all by herself. The first episode shows what this series would be like without her character background and while that was serviceable, it’s on a much better footing now. Tanya’s quest to land a safe job out of the frontlines and God screwing her over at every point makes for a far more entertaining story than your standard magical girl anime. The cushy job testing a new magical device turns out to be even more dangerous than the front lines due to a crazed inventor. Thanks to divine intervention, Tanya ends up with a magical device far more powerful than anything else but as a tradeoff, she is forced to praise God every time she uses it. In the source material, the praising of God was involuntary and often came out of Tanya’s mouth no matter what she did. While the animated series depicts Tanya begrudgingly praying on her own accord, which certainly makes it all the more cathartic. After all, this device is likely to push her on to more and more battlefields where her life is in danger. In order to survive she will need to make use of the device and pray, which in turn forces her into even more battles. God has literally forced her on a path where the only way she can survive is praising him, which amounts to cheating when it comes to developing Tanya’s faith.

As I said before, God in the anime is treated differently from the source material. Originally, there were dozens of gods and Tanya’s Type 95 device was something that landed in her hands by coincidence. Originally it was intended to help inspire faith in the gods. I find the anime version to be more poignant and interesting as I’m not certain if God is working in his mysterious ways or if he is genuinely unreasonable. After all, God is being a bit of an jackass if you take the time to read the Bible. Honestly, I only managed to make it ten pages into the bible before it started putting me to sleep but within those ten pages, he seemed rather trollish. It is a question of whether this game he has with Tanya is a matter of God punishing an arrogant man or if he is using her to promote faith in others. Tanya’s actions do seem to encourage piety within the army and Tanya herself seems more or less oblivious to this fact because she’s too focused on proving being X wrong. The idea of Tanya doing god’s work while under the impression that she is rebelling against god is the kind of irony I find most amusing.

I was worried that the dreaded school setting was coming into the story, which is an aspect I detest when it comes to anime shows. But from the way things are looking, God is sure to have plans that will ensure that Tanya doesn’t get too comfortable. It also helps that this is a war college rather than a typical high school but still I get worried when any show tries to cram in a school in a story that doesn’t need one. However, if there is one thing that Tanya needs right now, it is strong side characters. So far, Tanya only has her girl subordinate acting as a foil but she could really uses a character to bounce off and interact with. She doing an admirably good job in carrying the show but a great lead needs others to work off. All the signs point towards the series is heading towards World War One with Tanya being at the very center of it all. I appreciate the level of quality that has gone into these past few episodes but numerous war scenes have a tendency to drain budgets and animation quality. Considering this is Studio Nut first work, the last thing I want to see is the quality of the show taking a nosedive.

Little Witch Academia – 02[Pappiliodya]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Little Witch Academia

I may regret choosing to cover this series as what makes it great is a quality that cannot really be held up to professional scrutiny. Much like Triggers other works, it’s not what’s being presented that matter but rather how it’s presented. You can make the argument that Trigger doesn’t necessarily innovative but rather take old tried methods of storytelling and polish it with great animation. Though one has to wonder if that might be actually enough as to capture the feeling of the old and perfect it is no easy task. It’s difficult to call their works original but there’s no denying that they are fun. I like to see them as the Nintendo of the anime industry in that they stick close to old sensibilities and in doing so keep the simple enjoyment and wonder that seems so rare nowadays. Little Witch Academia so far still has the magic and with hope they can keep it for it’s full 25 episode run. The opening of this series was mixed for me as it is a much more mellow tune when compared to Triggers other works. However it’s growing on me and I happen to like the starting buildup and imagery. For a series like this it is rather suitable that the opening is more easygoing.

I often see Little witch compared to Harry Potter which does seem like a flimsy comparison. Sort of like that joke where you say it’s like Skyrim with witches. Harry Potter is the obvious popular example for comparison but the two actually hold not much in common. Really both have a wizard school and if you ignore actual personality and gender you could compare Diana to Malfoy. This is more a feel good magical adventure when Harry Potter was more written like a mystery with the three often trying to figure out some incident going on at Hogwarts. If we want to play the comparison game then Little Witch Academia holds much more in common with a book series called The Worst Witch. Admittedly I primarily know it from the TV series that aired in 1998 but it certainly is surprising the parallels the two have. Also before you go saying the Worst Witch is a knockoff of Harry Potter it’s important to note that the first book was published in 1973 so if anything Rowling took inspiration from them. This may be a moot point but I wanted to point out that just because Rowling popularised the idea of a wizarding school does not mean she invented the idea. I seem to remember before Little Witch that people referred to Familiar of Zero as anime Harry Potter too.

Based on these past two episodes it does seem like there will be a certain formula which I hope doesn’t become stale. My biggest fear for this series is that it’s predictability could water down it’s charm. The big issue would be the deus ex machina stick, Chariots wand, which can do pretty much whatever the plot requires it to. It does seem to have conditions for its activation which look to involve being charged with magic but I say that later episodes shouldn’t rely on it’ too much. Though it might not be a detriment as Gurren Lagann essentially solved all its battles with fighting spirit and yet didn’t become stale. Diana so far has been made a lot more reasonable as in the OVA she was a lot more confrontational but here she was a lot more reasonable. Still prideful and standoffish but not obnoxious. Her lackeys took to be filling in that role. I particularly like how she noticed Akko’s hair that Susy cursed with a potion and while showing off with the bringing the statue to life she uses it to dispel the magic on her hair. As well as trying to admit that she wasn’t the one who saved the tree. Akko and Diana’s relationship in this show could have a lot more to it here and really could become quite interesting. After all I believe Diana is still a closet Chariot fan and I wouldn’t be surprised if she has the last card Akko was missing from her collection.

Saga of Tanya the Evil – 02[Prologue]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Saga of Tanya the Evil

As I initially thought, this series becomes a whole lot better when you can see the disparity between the main protagonists thoughts and how those around her view them. The first episode jumped ahead in the story to where Tanya had established herself somewhat and I believe the intent was to mislead the audience with her character. This episode takes it back to the beginning and truthfully would have made for a much more engaging start to the series. We see now that Tanya was a Japanese salaryman who managed to annoy god enough for him to throw out some cruel and unusual punishment. The animation studio seem to have taken liberties with the meeting god scene as both the manga and light novel frame it in more comedic light. There god is represented by his standard look of an old man with a bread in a white gown.

God in that seems more exasperated and annoyed with the salaryman’s outright dismissal of him. Admittedly there is some value in that version but I find the version in the anime to be far more compelling and interesting. There time stops and the god that questions the salaryman feels more mysterious and authoritarian. It even doesn’t outright admit itself to being god and in some ways makes it seem like he was purposefully pushing the protagonist to give him a reason to punish him or prove his own theory on why people no longer need faith. It’s one hell of a way to start a series which makes it all the more questionable as to why they didn’t just go with this instead of the actual first episode.

Not that the last episode was bad at all. But I think this series really benefits from the dry tone of Tanya’s inner voice when contrasted with her psychotic tendencies. It goes to show that the truly evil do not think of themselves as evil. In Tanya’s case she’s just doing what she can to get a cosy desk job in order to spite god. A smile just comes to my face seeing her lying in the hospital bed putting up a front with everyone who’s impressed with her while in her mind she’s saying “Oh crap, I impressed them too much.” For Studio Nut’s first work this is a remarkably well animated show so far which could put them on the map.

Though reason for this may be due to the staff being made up of former Gainax/Madhouse employees, though that does need confirmation. At least that’s what I heard. The female character designs take some getting used too though I have grown accustomed to Tanya and her delightful crazy smiles.  Her subordinate on the other hand I don’t think I will ever get used to. The soundtrack isn’t quite to my tastes either but it is suitable for the show. If it can manage to keep things interesting this could well be another great show in what looking to be a strong season.