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「ワガンディア」 (Wagandia)
“Wagandea”
The lack of consistency in Akko’s development has been an issue throughout the recent batch of episodes. In some, she catches on quickly to why it is necessary to adapt and change how she thinks on impulse to help out or accomplish her goals. In others, like this one, she charges headfirst in every issue, and doesn’t learn her lesson until she gets herself and others in deep trouble. For this one, she decides to go against Ursula’s warnings about climbing the Wagandea tree that spews out hazardous spores, and outwardly defies and distrusts her because she doesn’t want to let her do the things she wants like Croix does. It felt like watching a child get upset that their mom for not letting them eat ice cream for dinner like their aunt does. The next-to-last word revealed, “Lyonne”, is meant as a lesson for Akko to appreciate what Ursula does for her (akin to how Lyonne came to Chariot), but I’m having doubts now since “Mayenab Dysheebudo” clearly meant nothing to her. “Ursula won’t let me go up the doom tree for a duration longer than today!? I’ll just rush up there anyways!”
And then there’s the case with Ursula. I still feel for her and the dilemmas she faces as she tries to protect Akko from the fate and despair she fell into, but now it seems like it’s doing more harm than good to keep all of her secrets away from Akko. Even though Lyonne awoke from Akko learning to appreciate Ursula for her concern to protect her, what made Akko so prone to deception was that Croix could make up her own story about Ursula’s secrets to fill in the blanks in a way that makes her look like she doesn’t even want her to see Chariot for more devious reasons. I understand that does mirror the insecurities that come with not wanting Akko to see that meeting Chariot would mean finding out why Chariot lost her yay and became the teacher she spent most of the series looking down on as a pushover. Still, at this point in the game, Croix was more than comfortable manipulating Akko into turning against Ursula based on the information she kept from her, and if Akko knew more about Ursula, she wouldn’t have tried so hard to climb up a tree that Croix wanted her to do to get back at Ursula for being chosen by Shiny Rod.
Speaking about that, one of the important aspects of the episode that makes up for Akko’s lapse in judgement was how much we learned about Croix. Whoever called the football riots as an important plot point won that bet because one of Croix’s pet projects turns out to be a mind-controlling app that channels in on the anger and passion that people feel about sports. We also see how Tiny Croix reacted when Tiny Chariot was chosen to be the Shiny Rod’s wielder. It was a mix of anger and compassion that also confuses me about Croix in the present day. She was gung-ho about having a ton of her mechanical minions attack Ursula, but was worried when Ursula was losing consciousness during a fall to the ground, and looked even more concerned when Ursula talked about saving Akko from the pollen. The mixed signals combined with her plan to break the Grand Triskelion with a mechanical Shiny Rod are going to be interesting to see unfold within the next episodes. Also, looking forward to the PS4 game that just got revealed.
Alternate Scene idea
Akko: I see. You’re just like them.
Ursula: Huh?
Akko: YOUR’RE JUST LIKE MY PARENTS!
Ursula: ……….
Akko: They were supposed to guide me, love me but they…. treated me like some doll………Whenever I failed to live up to that, they called me useless until they pawned me off to strangers.
Ursula: …..Akko…..
Akko: It didn’t end there. They also same the same thing my parents said and I was sent away to strangers to strangers. So, I ran away.
Ursula: …….
Akko: You were the only one who were nice to me. You were the only one who ever believe me when I couldn’t belive myself. Now I see ……YOU”RE USING ME……and when…..its’ done….you’re going to abandon me…..aren’t you….AREN”T YOU?
Show less
I’m sad that somehow, this didn’t manage to become a two-parter episode. Like the idea between Ursula and Akko getting into their first real major disagreement this series is an interesting idea to really test their trust between each other. But the gap between that scuffle and them rekindling their concerns for one another lasts…5 minutes. That was such a huge opportunity to bring out something more, to really challenge conflicting ideals they personally want to see to the end. But then it’s fixed not long after it’s introduced. So that was very much a “Well, that happened.”
Agreed on all points above, especially how Croix seems to be accepting of Chariot being chosen and still being evil because…she’s gone this far as is. I’m in that same boat, I’ve gone this far, I may as well see how this ends.
We’re now over three fourths of the way into the show, and I can already say that this doesn’t seem like it’s the best written it could be, as you said. There is an overarching plot, and there is a villain, but we’re not sure how it will benefit Akko in the best way. For now I just want to see closure with Croix’s baggage and Ursula telling Akko that she’s Shiny Chariot already! :/ That being said, if Ursula knew the tree was endless, as the last bit of dialogue told us, why didn’t she just tell her BEFORE she climbed it?? I dunno.
It did do a good job of making me want to hug Akko though. Please, Ursula. Tell her.
That’s probably the unfortunate thing about LWA; that there is this overarching plot that’s been established, but Akko’s MO has always been just to meet Chariot and thank her for all the inspiration she’s given her to get as far as she has. All this stuff with the Grand Triskelion and the Words are way beyond Akko, and even she has trouble figuring out why she has to seek it out. Ursula seems to want Akko to gather them to follow Chariot’s path and do what she hasn’t been able to do, while Croix has her reasons for wanting to take hold of them. The only one who is left in the dark is Akko. She should be able to understand Ursula’s motives if she were more transparent about her wishes to complete what she couldn’t, and use the Triskelion’s powers to revive magic, but Ursula’s been holding out, only creating opportunities to thrust Akko in more dangerous situations.
Akko’s quest to save the magic world by rediscovering the Grand Triskelion provides a clear and important direction for Little Witch Academia.
But there are inherent issues with centring the progression of the series on discovering the magic words, particularly where the connotation of such words correlate directly with character development. Because Akko has limited episodes to discover all the remaining words, in instances when the story calls for advancement, tense situations are artificially induced to forcibly flesh out Akko in preparation for new words. Sometimes it works just fine, other times it doesn’t.
While I really enjoyed Akko’s interactions with Amanda and Constanze in recent episodes, there were quite a few that left a lot to be desired – namely Croix, Diana and now Ursula. That said, I was fairly satisfied with the conflict resolution between Akko and Ursula this episode, although I have my qualms about how problems transpired in the first place.
That said, Little Witch Academia’s villains are what probably needs the most work. Daryl is just another example of poorly written villain fodder, and don’t even get me started on Croix. Though there are a few more episode remaining for my impression to turn around on the latter, so I will reserve judgement until the end.
Which leads onto my conspiracy theory. What if Croix’s dependence on magic technology and ensuing bitterness towards Chariot, was a result of losing her magic to the Wangadea pollen a long time ago? It would explain the animosity Croix has going beyond bitterness over the Shiny Rod matter, and the series could then go on to contrast how Ursula and Croix handle their loss of magic differently.
Hopefully Little Witch Academia can pick up some more momentum before going into the end. I wonder if Ursula ended up losing her magic as a result of her contact with the pollen, or if Lyonne healed her completely. Croix’s mechanical, chaos rod definitely looks like a huge catalyst for disaster. Like you Choya, I’m also interested in seeing what the potential implications could be.
P.S. Chelsea fans when they lost to us in the FA Cup Finals :^)
P.S.S. No man has ever reached Wagandea’s summit, but that doesn’t say much about woman.
P.S.S. Damn it Choya, feels bad when I don’t own a PS4 :/
The story aspects have been hard for me to appreciate. I loved when the show was just Akko and her classmate’s magical SOL kinda stuff. Preparing for festivals, going on trips, miscellaneous stuff. The chase for the Words, however, would have been better implemented if they made it more of a focus. That way, it wouldn’t feel like they were racing to get to the Words, and forcing Akko into the most dire situations just for her to subconsciously find a Word.
The “villains” also fall into that territory. Daryl was a thorn in Diana’s side, but still had some shade of her that admired Diana enough to consider her worthy of taking on the family name. Some of the more bastardy characters in the show go through a similar pattern where they go from being incredibly evil to actually kinda caring. Croix seems to follow this too where she is set up to be the mastermind of so much that’s going on in the series, and seems to resent Chariot being given the Shiny Rod, but is also shown in this episode to be concerned for her safety multiple times despite the robot laser show in this episode and the Akko experimentation episode. It would make sense if her magitech adoption is from her magic weakening due to trying the pollen test (it would explain why her flight method is standing on her flying Rumba). I have a general feeling they want to give Croix some redeeming value though with her concern for Chariot, and they don’t want any of the series’ “villains” to be completely awful. The show presents itself in a cheery and optimistic tone, so I don’t think they’d try to have Croix be sinister enough to be irredeemable or unlikable.
Unfortunately, I don’t own a PS4 too, and having P5 on the PS3 did delay my plans to buy a PS4 right away. But by the time I do get one, the LWA game might be alot cheaper, so I do have that to look forward to.
What happened to that sketch in the end-credits of Akko and Chariot going on a road trip in a car?? I wanna see an episode of that!! Why didn’t they write that?? In fact, a TON of those sketches are stuff i would love to see in this show besides this adventure arc that just seems to be forced upon a protagonist that doesn’t really understand it herself. In that sense, Ursula should be the MC!! And because Lotte and Sucy are not associated with the Grand Triskelion, they’re barely IN this show! Look. You can still have Croix in the show. But if the writers are better at writing slice-of-life stories with Akko gradually getting better at magic other than transformations (which she has gotten very good at), and MAYBE finally mastering broom-flying, it’d be a lot better.
I also think that Croix and Chariot got affected by the pollen when they received the 6th word, which later caused the end of their search as well as their final? fall out.
Its curious that the pollen effect was decribed as losing magic and losing the ability to fly (with a broom, I guess?). This kinda implies that both are separate from one another.
So I would say Croix lost the ability to fly, while Chariot is (slowly?) losing her magic.
Because back in Ep 15, Croix seemed surprised that Chariot could still use magic so much. So now that we know about the pollen, it seems logical that Chariot got affected by them as well.
I am ok with character change being sporadic. Akko has learned some patience and was willing to wait till Croix changed her mind that there was not a reason to wait. Expecting Akko to be both patient and serene about it is going a bit far in expectations. And personal change often has back slides. Akko is studying and working hard now and does show improvement. To me, this makes the story real as total changes of heart fast are rare.
Interesting that they again showed Croix to not be totally evil, I’m sure to Croix Akko is just a rotten witch and removing her powers best for all. I’m fairly sure Croix would have saved Akko from a fall if needed, she wanted her neutralized not dead.
Loved it as normal.
If you ask me the Staff clearly choose corectly both times, Croix is a monster! She was willing to destroy Akko´s future or even kill her just to get what she wants.
Actually I’d dare to say the lack of patience in Akko actually is CONSISTENT, considering she got Mayenab Dysheebudo almost by fluke. Not to mention that to truly learn things you must use them more than once, and feelings can get in the way of that.
Your point makes sense since she’s always been impulsive, and that channels itself in many ways throughout the series, whether it’s from impatience or being headstrong about her goals. I feel like I took “Mayenab Dysheebudo” too seriously as a lesson of patience when it only came from an act of desperation. She even got scolded by the end of that episode by Ursula for lacking patience.
Still, the only thing I’ll say is that it doesn’t seem right that the Word didn’t resonate as well with her, or at least help temper her. It wasn’t supposed to be a silver bullet for her impatience, but finding the Words should signal a sense of maturity in the Shiny Rod’s master, and it doesn’t feel right that even after learning the benefits of being patient, she would go as far as she did in this episode.
I guess the Shiny Rod isn’t expecting the user to be 100% perfect, but instead expects the user to rise to the occasion when it’s necessary. It’s great that she took something good from all this by the end of the episode, but it felt like such a setback for Akko when the search for the Words is supposed to show how much Akko has grown only for her behavior to fluctuate so much.
People were quick to condemn Akko for not being patient in this situation but I really don’t think it was that inconsistent with her own development. As far as she was aware, the circumstances were such that a chance existed she would have to wait months or years in order to pursue the Word if it wasn’t done immediately. The one at fault here is actually Croix who took advantage of Akko’s desperation and misled her into thinking it was okay / to distrust Ursula’s guidance.
That isn’t to say Akko isn’t at fault here, but at the same time I wouldn’t say her lack of patience was inconsistent with her development. The stakes were higher based on her perception was all.
You have a good point. I was hard on Akko for not being patient and rushing to the tree, but Croix was playing towards Akko’s vulnerability and enthusiasm for reaching all the Words right away to get her to become skeptical of her teachings, and charge forward.
https://randomc.net/image/Little%20Witch%20Academia/Little%20Witch%20Academia%20-%2021%20-%20Large%2019.jpg
You know, I’m really starting to think that Croix might be out for revenge seeing how she reacted when Ursula got entrusted with Shiny Rod. Though at the same time, within Croix herself, there is still a tiny sliver of good seeing that she’s worried about Ursula falling down or that could possibly be a farce.
I don’t think Corix is out for revenge against Chariot, I think she’s out for revenge against those who caused Chariot to fail.
All of these chars just suddenly got very annoying.
I’m not really surprised that Akko hasn’t learned from the lessons Ursula has taught her or any of the lessons she came upon when helping Sucy and Lotte. I believe Akko is a simple character, simple in her personality and not simple minded though; I think Sucy would beg the differ. What I am trying to say Is if the team that develop the story for LWA decided Akko would grow NOW, the Team that develops characters would have to make some adjustments possibly putting LWA on hold, which mean no Shinny Chariot and no Sucy Manbavaran.
Being someone a student is trying to aspire to and also hiding the fact because it’s a secret. It would be best Ursula keeps her real name a secret forever. You shouldn’t aspire to be someone, because if you do you will encounter the same challenges, make the same mistakes, and ultimately struggle with the same limitation and never evolve. Instead, aspire to do something great because someone gave you a dream. (Just so you know this contradicts my first paragraph about Akko…)
Croix–I hate her.
I just can’t help but LMFAO when they try and tell this weird political story while avoiding nouns. I get that, yeah, they want to keep things vague… but if you’re going to dive into national politics, ya’ gots to use your nouns!