Little Witch Academia

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The promotional poster for the series' short film

Little Witch Academia is a franchise written by Yō Yoshinari and produced by Studio Trigger. It was started from the original short film of the same name which released in theaters on March 2, 2013 as part of the Young Animator Training Project's Anime Mirai 2013 project. Originally a standalone film, its popularity saw the release of its sequel The Enchanted Parade on October 9, 2015, which partially funded through Kickstarter. A short one-shot manga prequel of the film drawn by Teri Terio, was published in Shueisha's Ultra Jump magazine on August 19, 2013, which then followed by a serialized original story by the same author in Ultra Jump between August 19, 2015 and November 20, 2015 and later compiled in a single tankōbon volume released on January 19, 2016.

A television anime series of the franchise, which followed its own continuity along with improved lore, was announced on June 24, 2016. The series began airing in Japan from January 8, 2017 and streamed by Netflix. The series ran for 25 episodes with nine Blu-ray and DVD volumes being released. The TV series gained a manga adaptation illustrated by Keisuke Satō, which published in 2017 along with an interquel video game titled Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time, which developed by A+ Games and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game itself was scheduled for release on PlayStation 4 in November 30, 2017 in Japan, followed by a PS4 and Steam release in North America in May 15, 2018. A bonus game, Magic Knight Grand Charion, is available in Japan and the United States as a pre-order bonus.

In June 21, 2019, Univrs has announced a VR game called Little Witch Academia: VR Broom Racing for release in Spring 2020. However, due to Covid-19 pandemic, the game's release date eventually pushed back to later date (Oct 13, 2020 for Oculus Quest and June 15, 2021 for PlayStation® VR/Oculus Rift/SteamVR).

General

• Academy of Adventure: The all-female, Wizarding School Luna Nova Magical Academy, the franchise's main setting. TV series also introduces Appleton Academy, a school for boys.
• All Part of the Show:
  • In Enchanted Parade, Ursula ensures both Titan's unexpected awakening resulted from different factors and her and Akko and co.'s successful endeavor in putting it back to dormancy to be part of Happy Time Project — Luna Nova's very participation in the town's annual parade at the time — in order to prevent panic. Bonus points as not only it aligned to Akko's script.
  • TV Series has two instances of this trope:
    • Episode 9: Akko passes of the antics of Mr. Holbrooke, the corpse she reanimated by mistake moments earlier to be part of an elaborate street performance.
    • Episode 10: Andrew makes Akko's comical yet ultimately successful attempt in swatting Cupid Bee Sucy released earlier thus preventing everyone in his party from coming to a crashing standstill via. artificial lovesickness to be part of the evening's entertainment, even accompanying her on the piano with "Flight of the Bumblebee" for a good measure.
• An Aesop: The main message of the series is that hardwork, dedication, and constant practice are as important as passion to succeed. Yō Yoshinari explicitly stated that Akko's struggle throughout the series was to represent similar struggle faced by animators who thought that raw passion made up for a lack of technique.
• Appeal to Tradition: Deconstructed. Many from older, conservative magical families stubbornly prefer things done "the old way" — a mindset which proved detrimental again and again. Not only they found themselves unable to keep up with changing times, but also too proud to acknowledge less-than-orthodox approach younger generations come up in solving problems at hand (ex. inspiring people through magic show and mixing magic with technology) proved beneficial.
• Brits Love Tea: As with their mundane counterparts, noble families in British's magic community such as Cavendish family enjoy tea.
• Celtic Mythology
• Fantastic Racism: Although tamer and far subtle in comparison of Harry Potter case thus not warrant recurring conflict between pure-blood elitists and protectors who don't condone their ways, magical families appeared not to have best opinions regarding mundanes. It is deconstructed in TV Series where their disdain with the idea of allowing mundanes to learn magic (magic in Little Witch Academia supposedly can be taught to anyone with how good they are in it being relative to their aptitude), even if they're not necessarily against it, worsened how much they lost their way in changing times and with it, The Magic Goes Away scenario up until the release of Grand Triskellion.
• Iconic Item: Shiny Rod.
• Legacy Character:
  • Annabel Crème, the author of long-running Twilight Saga/Outlander-expy novel series Night Fall is revealed to be a pseudonym passed down throughout generations for over a century. To elaborate, the original Annabel was a witch who used her enchanted pen to elect a successor who continued her novel series at a later point of her life long ago. Her latest heir, Annabel Crème the 12th, happened to be a young girl who insecure with her talents due to had to deal with more toxic and biased fans' opinions at the internet that she wanted to entrust her responsibility to someone else. It takes a prep talk with her intended heir, her more loyal and understanding fan Lotte she changes her mind.
  • In the light novel, Sifla the Guardian of Doras Hill whose presence commands respect and even awe among everyone in magic community. Some parts of her myths where she made a pact with the king of the land she stationed at was romanticized to suit more proud, affluential older magical families who misunderstood her dynamics with kings of Cait-Sith and Coin-Sith, though.
• Magitek: Constanze and Croix shows that magic and technology are surprisingly compatible with one another through their works.
• Made of Iron: A recurring case in Ursula Callistis/Shiny Chariot.
  • First Short has her got knocked off from the sky along with her broom by the released Ancient Dragon, but managed to quickly recover to assist Akko.
  • Recurring instance in Anime TV Series. Most notably, she crash-landed with her broom while protecting Akko from Wagandea's toxic pollen and later, got devoured by Noir Rod's dragon form before being freed by Akko who blows it up. In both cases, she mostly received mild bruises, if not bone fractures. Guess Charles Atlas Superpower status she achieved in order to be able to perform Body Strengthening Magic at its fullest did paid off, huh?
• Norse Mythology
• The Proud Elite: Many affluential families in this series has this mindset as expected.
• Our Dragons Are Different
• Wizarding School: The all-girls Luna Nova Magical Academy.

Short Films Continuity

• Prequel: Terio Teri's manga series.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Ancient Dragon and Titan.

Anime Continuity

Keisuke Satō Manga

• Alternate Continuity: Can be interpreted in this way due to retelling events that already covered up in TV Series somewhat differently.
• Spin-Off: Features original stories set in the same continuity of TV Series.

TV Series

• Alternate Continuity: TV series (and Anime Continuity in general) begins with a continuity of its own instead of picking up from where The Enchanted Parade left along with updated lore. Notable changes include magic energy now bright green to reinforce its association with World Tree Yggdrasil, Akko finds Shiny Rod at Arcturus Forest instead of dungeon beneath New Moon Tower.
• Appeal to Tradition: Those from older magical families prefer things done via. old ways and therefore dismissive to younger generations' innovations regardless whether they proved to be as practical as, if not better simply due to not entirely align with traditions. Deconstructed because said families' outdated mindset saw them losing their way in changing times and causing more problems than they can solve.
• Big Fancy House: Andrew and Diana's residences are this type as expected from their aristocratic background.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Akko aspired to become a witch just like her role model Shiny Chariot and even wished to return the Shiny Rod to her and thank her for inspiring her to attain such dream. Sadly, upon meeting her idol who turned out to be her teacher Ursula Callistis all along, their meeting comes with the revelation where during her fateful show at Japan, the same show Akko and Diana attended 10 years back, Chariot had (unknowingly) siphoned her audience's magic potential for her show via. Dream Fuel Spirit thus the reason of her poor magic all this time. While Akko doesn't take it well as expected, it was slightly deconstructed as it was part of Croix Meridies' plan all along to stamp out oppositions who stood between her and Grand Triskellion with no exceptions. Unfortunately for Croix, that doesn't last long thanks to the prep talk with Diana coupled with her implied to overheard Ursula cried out how much she blamed herself for indirectly causing Croix's fall to darkness as much as Woodward in addition of handicapping Akko's magical abilities while fighting Noir Rod at Arcturus forest leading Akko to not only saved her role model in such losing fight, but also forgave her and fulfilled her aforementioned goals.
    • Akko felt the same way towards Croix who revealed to instigate every incident she involved into ever since the latter's arrival as part of her Noir Fuel Spirit plan. Though she may less forgiving towards the latter, that doesn't stop her from letting the former Modern Magic teacher to help her and her friends stopping the Noir Rod, though.
  • To the dismay of Ursula/Chariot and Croix, Woodward, their mentor and one of Nine Olde Witches, turned out to be a jaded and aloof Well-Intentioned Extremist who not only indirectly responsible for the latter's fall into the darkness by neglecting her when she needed her most, but also cared mostly to their common goal in reviving Yggdrasil to the point of prioritizing everything to the former and let her fend for herself after losing her worth in wielding Shiny Rod. As disappointed as she was over what her protégés had become, Woodward failed to see her own part in it all and worse, abandoned the two at the mercy of the then out-of-control Noir Rod costing not only their ties but also endangered their lives even if it means to give the way for Akko and co. to appear on their side and subsequently, allowing Akko to unlock the Final Word of Arcturus.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Yggdrasil is sustained by sentient beings' belief in magic, and mankind forgetting magic in favor of technology following Industrial Revolution was what caused the tree to wane in the first place.
• Decon Recon Switch: The show breaks apart both the classic Magical Girl tropes and in lesser extent, those of Hero's Journey, all the while re-innovate them through a modern lens.
  • Chariot's quest for the Grand Triskellion was severely impeded by the dispassion and hatred put into it. Her close friend, Croix, sabotaged her in spiteful jealousy and became a cruel rival while her mentor, Woodward, had long become too jaded and distant to hold any responsibility for her and (in lesser extent) Croix's health and needs. For all the power she possesses, even Chariot could not handle it and failed, not knowing why until it's too late.
  • By contrast, while Akko may had started out with nothing and the journey to claim the world-altering magic is difficult, she still pushes on because she has close friends who she helped in her journey, her rival is more friendly than malicious and her teacher considers a lot more about her student's happiness. Ultimately, the Grand Triskellion chooses her over the thousands of magic users because they wanted a good person, not a powerful one.
• Don't Go in The Woods: The Arcturus Forest, a sacred forest where witches who trapped within would have difficulties in getting out at best. The forest later revealed to much more significant than it seemed to be, for it being the hiding place of Grand Triskellion.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The certain detail revolving in-universe novel series Night Fall (Yaoi subtext in Edgar and Arthur in form of the two sharing a shoehorn which made their love triangle dynamic with Belle rather mild at very least) as Lotte and Annabel discussed in its titular episode was left out in English dub.
  • The dub also written out the mention of Luna Nova being in magic realm by Barbara in Episode 1.
• Figure It Out Yourself: This is the key to figure out how to unlock the Seven Words of Arcturus. As Ursula explains, simply knowing the words is not enough as one must understand what it truly means and represents via. experience thus explaining why she gives Akko necessary directions so she can discover them naturally.
• Hero's Journey: This is what bearers of Claiomh Solais/Shiny Rod must go through in order to unlock all Seven Words of Arcturus, though their success seemed to relate with support and guidance from others (see Decon Recon Switch above for more info).
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: Croix pulls this off to Chariot over the fact that Shiny Rod chose the latter instead of her and went so far accused her for not taking the quest for Grand Triskellion as much as her out of their lack of progress in it and anguish over the seemingly doomed fate of the magic in their world in the past, hence the reason she decided take matters with her own hands via. Noir Fuel Spirit Plan started by tricking Chariot to use Dream Fuel Spirit on her own audiences.
• Police Are Useless: Lotte somehow managed to fool two police officers who attracted by Mr. Holbrooke's antics and conspicuously undead appearance.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Bernadette, Diana's Missing Mom, had this as shown in Diana's flashback, hinting that tuberculosis was among causes of her passing.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: After a healthy dejection and prep talk with Diana through which she learned their mutual experience of being inspired by Chariot's magic, Akko's commitment for the dream their role model instilled to her eventually rekindled which allowed her to forgave Chariot for accidentally crippled her magic.
• The Magic Comes Back: Thanks to Nine New Witches' efforts, Yggdrasil has finally revived and with it, magic across the world.
• The Magic Goes Away: One of major plot points in the series. With humanity no longer believe in magic in favor of advancement of science of technology, the decay which reduced Yggdrasil into Ley Lines worsened that the number of magic users decreased more and more in addition of energy crisis. Restoring it with Grand Triskellion in conjunction with rekindling everyone's believing hearts is the key to restore it.
  • Akko's journey in restoring magic also highlighted another cause of decay of magic which so subtle it easily overlooked; some of older magical families were elitists and isolationists who didn't keen with the idea of allowing mundanes learning magic despite of it potentially renew everyone's interest with their craft in modern era. Had they rolled with it, the decline certainly won't be so severe.
• What You Are In The Dark?: Following the failure of reviving Yggdrassil a second time, characters show their true colors.
  • Woodward ultimately abandons Chariot and Croix, showing how little she regards their safety. Whether or not she knew Akko and her group would come to aid them, it doesn't truly change the fact regarding her callous behavior.
  • Despite all the terrible things Croix put her through, Chariot chooses to save her from her out-of-control Noir Rod, proving she values friendship over magic.
• World Tree: Yggdrasil, the natural source of everyone's magic.

Chamber of Time

• Great Big Book of Everything: Strange Notebook.
• Groundhog Day Loop: Akko and co. are trapped in a time loop due to her disturbed the seal of Horologium Chamber, and the game revolves their attempts to break the loop.
• Hates Being Alone: Molly has some issues in this. She had to spend her early years in Luna Nova by herself for her (initially) poor magic and later, out of fear that others learned how she improved her magic. To add insult to injury, she tampered Horologium Chamber's Time Magic to went back in time only to subjected herself into Fate Worse Than Death. At least she got better in the end.
• Super-Powered Evil Side: Molly's Ghost Witch Persona.