Little Witch Academia is a cute short animation produced by Trigger Productions. It’s only 26 minutes long, but the artwork and classic hand drawn (non-cg) animation is great as well as the story line. The show pulls references from classics like Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter, The Sorcerers Stone, and other fantasy stories that offer true magical nerds little nuggets to find. The story is created and directed by Yoh Yoshinari and written by Masahiko Otsuka.
The characters are built up from the very moment the short takes off, and you develop a sense of attachment for them.
Akka is the main character that the story focuses around. A girl not born or raised by wizards, much like Hermoine (Harry Potter), but has the aspirations and dreams to become a great witch like her hero Chariot.
Diana is a sassy, blonde who excels in magic and studies, and doesn’t very much enjoy our main character’s lack of learning and seriousness, so we see her tease Akka about her love of Chariot and how “Chariot just practices parlor tricks”.
Akka’s two school mates and friends are Suushy and Lotte. Suushy is a fan of potions and Lotte enjoys learning the history of magic, and is the more kind friend, while Suushy is very open and blunt about her thoughts.
With adorable artwork, and a quick ‘lunch time anime’, this is one I do recommend watching if you’re into the magical girl genre. It’s suitable for all ages, and sort of reminded me of Kiki’s Delivery Service with the flying and learning to be a witch. You can catch the show online at crunchyroll.
This short may never make it to a full fledged anime, but one can only hope so with the artwork and story line being as good as it is. However, if they left it as just a short, it would be just as good.