Rolling Review – Little Witch Academia (21)

Episode Synopsis:

The sixth word is here; “Lyonne”. Lyonne seems to hold special meaning for Chariot and Croix. When Croix deceives Akko into climbing the forever tree Wagandea close to the time of magic stealing pollen, Akko’s faith in Ursula-sensei is pushed to an upper limit.

Episode Review:

Wait….
Wait a minute….

There were TWO episodes all about Diana and I missed BOTH OF THEM?!?!

Life is simply unfair…

We are back to word hunting, and it’s about time too because we are nearing the end of the show. Episode 21 does a nice job of cementing Ursula-sensei’s relationship with Akko, giving Croix some character development goodness, and bringing us towards Croix’s final plan for Grand Triskellion domination.

This episode is also riddled with problems, and that’s saying a lot coming from me. This show makes me really happy each week and I generally forgive a lot.

To start the episode off, Akko learns of the sixth word, “Lyonne”. It’s nice to see Ursula-sensei get slightly miffed with Akko as she asks for the word’s meaning and later when she’s hellbent on climbing the sacred tree Wagandea. Akko’s “brattery” seems to have hit a whole new level. She blindly accepts Croix’s advice (even though it’s led her to trouble before) and takes off for the tree to fulfill her selfish wish of meeting Shiny Chariot. Little does she know, the tree is ready to produce a pollen that will strip a witch of all magic abilities.

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At this point in the show…I really feel like Akko needs to grow up. I certainly understand that she is the Chariot to Diana’s “Croix”, so she’s supposed to be a tad immature, but her desire to meet Shiny Chariot is a selfishness that borderlines on infuriating. There’s a moment in the school library where Diana’s little toadies thank Akko for returning Diana to the school. It was great and I finally felt like Akko was maturing not just as a wtich, but as a person.

Bask in it Akko…this will never happen again…

Later on in the episode, when she resists Ursula’s help as she climbs the tree to her “almost” doom I couldn’t help but pull at my hair a little. Do you not notice that Croix has led you into danger before? Have you not realized that you are on a mission for something more important than your whiny little wants and desires?

While I’ve compained a bunch about Akko this episode, this really isn’t Akko’s episode; It’s Chariot and Croix’s. We get a flashback of when they stated their heart’s desires to Professor Woodward and the moment Chariot was chosen over Croix to receive the staff. We get to understand the rage Croix feels but later in the episode when Chariot (present day) is in danger, Croix cannot bear to actually harm her. This is incredibly touching but also bizarrely off tone. Croix saving her best friend makes her look like she hasn’t completely gone off the deep end. On the flip side, she’s willing to send a younger girl into a mysterious pollen fog that will completely strip her of magic.

Before I come to the end of the review I want to touch on this:

Just because Brendan made a comment about the soccer game side discussion when it came up in his episode. This ends up getting used as a segway into the fact that Croix has created an app that everyone is using that “removes tension”, or more than likely is stripping out people’s anger to fuel to her doomsday device.

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I want to talk about the word of the episode itself as my final note. Many of the words thus far in the show have been your run-of-the-mill protagonist words, “patience, determination, etc”. “Lyonne” is something beautiful because it is “acceptance”. This means acceptance of yourself and the destiny that has been placed upon you. It is through this word that Akko and Ursula-sensei accept each other, and through this word that Croix and Chariot could progress no further. The meaning of this word adds weight to Croix and Chariot’s fued and hopefully gets Akko motivated to look beyond her own desires.

Episode Summary:

As per usual, the art and sound are quite good in this epsiode. The crowd scenes continue to be kinda ugly but if something has to give, I’m fine with it being a two second crowd scene.

Akko really needs to stop being so full of herself and with the addition of Lyonne, here’s to hoping some of the good qualites she displayed before actually stick. Because we seriously need an awesome protagonist to contend with…this….