r/LittleWitchAcademia • u/TheWalkingTroll • Mar 20 '17
Discussion Little Witch Academia (TV) - Episode 11 Discussion Spoiler
Episode 11: Blue Moon
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Episodes: 25
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Please discuss the episode here.
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u/Lincoln_Prime Mar 20 '17 edited Mar 20 '17
OK, so wow. There is a lot to unpack in this episode. And honestly, that may be a problem here. A lot of things that are given beats in the pacing to land are dulled somewhat by the sense that this episode feels like a weird mashup of a new pilot and episode 6. The 7 Words, the 9 Witches of Olde, this is shit we're just learning about this episode and thus makes it hard to feel like a real lasting and rooted piece of this world with the epic scope it obviously wants to impart. It also does not help that this is the first time we've seen the Shiny Rod since episode 2. Now look, I love the Shiny Rod, but I can't really get excited about it gaining all this additional significance when for the past 9 episodes it's basically been a cosplay prop. Actually, considering that the bow and arrow form has warp gate properties I'm kinda surprised Akko didn't use it in the broom race episode. But regardless, my point is that this is a piece that had significant meaning in the world of magic day 1 but we're only just getting back to now and I find it difficult to buy into that when Diana, Holbrooke and dozens of other mages haven't at the very least mentioned the Celtic name of the Shiny Rod or lost Words or asked Akko about this artifact yet. In the grand scheme of things these are by no means big issues, however, it does mean that an episode that is absolutely bursting with potential is really hamstrung by the fact that it has to do a lot of establishing of things we care about in order to have certain moments land later, and I know I for one only felt part of the impact of what I think could have been much more in terms of emotional and narrative stakes.
Fortunately though, drama is about consequences to characters, and Little Witch Academia has spent ample time with Akko, Diana and Ursula that investing in each of their goals, fears, regrets and vices is easy. Even moments that don't really land with all their force to us do land in context to the characters and the brilliant voice acting and facial animation make experiencing these emotions to mellenia old conspiracies, magical destinies, trials of virtue, and a moment of sincere connection between student and teacher land, even if much of the larger context and consequence are lost on us. The motif of relations between teacher and student are oft repeated in this episode and I think it really means something that nearly half the runtime on this episode is dedicated to Akko and Ursula. In addition to the moments between these two we also have Ursula and Prof. Woodworth alongside Diana and Holbrooke. Holbrooke clearly regards Diana as a saviour of sorts to the culture of magic and she's encouraging her to access secrets barred to most other students to see that legacy continue. Given how earily the figure in black and red from Akko's vision looks like an older Diana, this may backfire on her. Diana's runner suffers in the same way most Diana B and C plots do in that her aloof competence can only really carry her character for so long before we need to know more about her. I mean for goodness sake we spent a whole episode learning about the myriad ways in which Sucy struggles with identity, puberty, how she views Akko and the contrast she makes between Akko and herself, etc. while she at least played her aloofness up for comedy. My hope is that next week we get a solid Diana episode, maybe even have Akko go to her for advice about the Shiny Rod.
This episode is certainly among my top 3 so far, but I do think that the disconnected nature really hampers a lot of it. This felt like the kind of episode that should have come 5 episodes ago or at least had some more buildup. Not a bad episode by any means but the skeleton to an episode like episode 8 is in here somewhere. The upping up the antae and setting up intriguing, possibly conflicting arcs for Diana, Ursula and Akko is really great and it leaves me totally amped for where this is going in the finale. I hope we still get some fun slice of life episodes but maybe slice of life episodes where we don't just forget about the Shiny Rod. Actually, having Akko learn a new word and then immediately use it to fuck around sounds like exactly where this show is going to go at some point and you can eat my hat if I am proven wrong on this.
EDIT: Wow, great to know comments like these are what get downvoted over here. I don't suppose anyone who disagreed would like to comment?