Little Witch Academia: Mahoujikake no Parade

You can tell witch training is not going swimmingly for the young sorceresses Akko, Lotte, and Sucy—they face expulsion for screwing up one class too many, and their only way out is if they successfully organize their academy's annual parade through a nearby town. But when they stumble upon the momentous discovery that the objective of the parade is to humiliate witches and commemorate their past subjugation, Akko decides it is time for a change: It is time to show the world how fantastic modern witches truly are! However, with the other girls struggling to keep up with Akko's grandiose ambitions, and everything from mischievous boys to slumbering giants getting in their way, maybe pulling it off will require not only all the magical prowess the pupils of Luna Nova Magical Academy can muster, but also a miracle.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kagari, Atsuko Main

Han, Megumi Japanese

Manbavaran, Sucy Main

Murase, Michiyo Japanese

Cavendish, Diana Main

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Jansson, Lotte Main

Orikasa, Fumiko Japanese

O'Neill, Amanda Supporting

Shida, Arisa Japanese

Callistis, Ursula Supporting

Hidaka, Noriko Japanese

von Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger, Constanze Amalie Supporting

Murakawa, Rie Japanese

du Nord, Chariot Supporting

Hidaka, Noriko Japanese

Antonenko, Jasminka Supporting

Ueda, Reina Japanese

England, Hannah Supporting

Nakao, Eri Japanese

Ootsuka, Masahiko Producer, Script

Tsutsumi, Naoko Producer

Usa, Yoshiki Producer

Yoshinari, You Director, Storyboard, Animation Director, Key Animation, Character Design, Original Creator

Reviews

Jul 5, 2015

Link_of_Hyrule

Recommended

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

Like most sequels to beloved classics, expectations were quite high for Little Witch Academia 2. Considering that it was practically funded out-of-pocket by fans of the original short film via Kickstarter, anime fans really had every right to demand their money’s worth on this one. With the quality of the original and the hype that was created thereafter in mind, my inner cynicism led me to believe that LWA 2 was set up for failure. However, much to my delight, it can be said without hesitation that LWA 2 recaptures the magic of its predecessor and yet again contains more energy and charm ... in its little finger than the entirety of the modern anime comedy genre has in its whole body.

Synopsis: Akko and her friends are tasked with organizing the annual “witch parade” for their town. As you might have guessed, not everything goes according to their plan.

If ever there was a difficult characteristic to describe, it would be “charm”, and yet it is just that which makes LWA 2 such an entertaining and heartwarming film. It captures that innocent, child-like sense of imagination and wonder that never fails to pry your lips upwards into a smile, and does so with the utmost perfection. Despite being an adult male, this movie made me giggle like a little girl from beginning to end. It’s not just heartwarming; it’s hilarious. The comedy is spot on and it hits every note that it needs to hit. Something about this anime brings back that Disney-esque feeling of seeing your wildest dreams brought to life by the power of animation; like seeing Fantasia for the first time. In an industry that many feel lacks the soul that it once had, LWA 2 has soul in spades. It reminded me why I like anime to begin with.

Another masterful aspect of this film was the fact that its pacing was flawless. Every scene has a purpose, not a single one of them drags on for too long, and no scene is a boring one. The fast, energetic pace of LWA carries on into its sequel, and it fits the spirit of the show to a T. Despite being less than an hour long, this movie goes through a full, satisfying story arc, several character dynamics, and effectively expands upon its cast of colorful characters. There’s something beautiful about the simplicity of a well-executed children’s tale; the premise isn’t anything remarkably original, but it doesn’t have to be because the execution is all that matters. The characters don’t have remarkable amounts of depth, but they don’t need to; all that matters is that they have personality, they are entertaining, and they are likable. Disregarding a recap scene or two, which you could potentially argue were unnecessary, I wouldn’t change a thing about the story direction.

One of the most important aspects of an anime in this style is the animation. When you write a quirky, upbeat script, it is absolutely imperative that your animation is equally quirky and upbeat, otherwise the show is doomed to fail. Needless to say, Studio Trigger totally nailed it, just as they did in the original. Comedic timing is something so nuanced that it comes down to fractions of seconds, and while many lighthearted anime (even the good ones) can sometimes find themselves a bit off on their timing or not executing jokes as well as they could have, LWA 2 has no such issue. It is no exaggeration to say this movie makes the most of each and every scene. The visuals are like eye candy, everything is polished and crisp, the character designs continue to be brilliant, and every movement is about as fluent as you’ll ever see. Simply put, it’s animation done right.

To sum it all up, LWA 2 is a brilliantly executed anime movie that appeals to everyone. All ages, all genders, and all cultures won’t be able to resist cracking a smile at a movie that is simply so much fun. It’s a fast-paced, heartwarming adventure that will bring out your inner child, and I highly recommend that everyone take the time to watch it. If you ever need a pick-me-up, I can’t think of another anime that will cheer you up more than this one.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jul 4, 2015

Tozzy

Mixed Feelings

Trigger has invited us back into the world of Little Witch Academia with a bang in The Enchanted Parade. The second, eagerly-awaited title in the series doubles the screen time and with it brings more action and characters to make its world feel as vibrant as before. Is it as good a film as the first? Maybe not. There’s a certain charm lost that was there the first time around but this is still a loveable, magical tale.

While I was worried in the opening portion of the film that we were substituting too much magic for drama, a satisfying and action-packed conclusion saw the series ... back at its strongest. There are areas where the original animation excelled better but there’s plenty here that also adds a lot in areas of world building and action. This latest addition to the LWA series remains a family-friendly, energetic experience that’s going to leave you beaming as the credits roll by.

Story

Akko, Sucy and Lotte plus a trio of new characters find themselves thrust into control of the upcoming town festival. While Akko naturally wants to showcase the best of what witches have to offer, her ideas bring with it a few problems and create tension with her fellow students. That’s not all that’s at play, however. Before they know it the group are forced to band together and use everything at their disposal to overcome their biggest hurdle yet.

Having roughly 40 minutes to put together a cohesive, interesting narrative is a big challenge but Trigger managed to overcome this previously in half the time so they’ve had their practice. They also get the bonus this time of being able to cut down on a lot of exposition. They use this time well to expand the scope of the story. Because of that though there’s a little less intensity and magic. It works both ways.

The overall tone of the story is the biggest change up when compared to the previous offering, with a bit of character conflict thrown into the mix this time around. There was a real sense of adventure and exploration in the first film. Watching the characters make their way around the school grounds was exciting, the lessons were amusing and story in general was a lot more fluid. With some extra time up their sleeves Trigger opt to at least give us a lot of new characters and new settings. There’s some small thematic jumps, so it’s great to see the studio didn’t simply opt to do the exact same thing twice. Some elements of the story have certainly been copied over, but an expanded cast and setting help make it feel fresh.

Adding new locations to the world our story takes place in has its ups and downs. I felt that bringing the witches out of their school environment and into town took some of the ‘mystique’ and the ‘magic’ away from them. At the same time it’s nice to see the wider community around them and what the witches place in that universe is. When you look at it, there’s only so much Trigger could do by limiting everything to the school. While it’s wonderful to imagine all of their adventures happening in their own little bubble, it adds a new dynamic between the magical and human societies. Some may like that, others may not.

Some themes have channelled over from the first film, but the biggest change this time is the focus on friendship. In the original show it was more on having confidence in your own ability. This time Akko faces a lot more conflict and troubles with those around her, friends included. People may be a little bit put off by this slightly more serious approach but it thankfully has its purpose. Trigger use their extra minutes to create character complications that stretch over a long run of the film. The strength of friendship is an easy theme to stuff up and instead come across as cheesy. They mostly avoided that here. Everything revolving around this theme is nothing original but that hasn’t stopped it being executed fairly. Characters are shown to have retained important lessons, reflected on what they’ve been through and apply all that knowledge to find a solution – much like the first film. It’s a formula that works, even though it brings nothing new to the table. It’s easy to watch and it manages to be entertaining while doing so.

When the action kicks into another gear as the film nears its conclusion, the ride feels worthwhile. One particular moment is immensely satisfying, and you’ll know it when you see it. It’s a perfect blend of Trigger’s animation capabilities and ability to put on some memorable set pieces.

Characters + Art

Akko returns as our loveable, often inept, lead character. While Akko remains a primary source of comic relief for the show she’s a lot more proactive this time around. It’s refreshing to see that the original LWA tale has had an effect on her in that way. The original series gave her a huge shot of belief in her own capabilities as a witch and now this is a look at how she applies her new knowledge. I think some may be a bit turned off by this new, confident side of her. It’s certainly quite the leap from what we’ve seen previously. Her outgoing personality and habit of acting before thinking gets her into trouble once again. Nothing new changes there at least – and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

Both Sucy and Lotte feel a little underutilised but, honestly, that’s not a big deal. That too serves a purpose of its own. When they are on screen not a second is wasted and their role to play in the story still feels meaningful. It can serve as reminder that even not being around can make the times you are more important. As for our new trio they’re not that memorable, more there just to help drive the story along than contribute anything of value. They get their odd scene of comic relief or chance to show-off but that’s about it. I think it’s also disappointing that Diana, someone who played a big role in the complication of the first film, gets cast to the back this time around. Strange that Trigger didn’t opt to make more use of a character with a more defined personality and presence than almost anyone else in the show. It’s a show that very much rides on one character, Akko, which means a lot of your enjoyment will come out of how much you can take to her character and how’s she’s changed from the first outing.

I’m personally a big fan of Trigger’s character designs. The exaggerated expressions and reactions are always worth a laugh. The studio keep things simple when it comes to effects and shading in the animation, putting most of the work into some nice backgrounds. As always in Trigger’s works there’s the odd lazy bit of animation scattered about. Some background characters look crudely drawn and it’s often very easy to pick out where the costs have been saved. Some frames look very hurriedly put together, but thankfully most pieces of action looks a treat. As a whole, however, the first LWA struck me as more visually impressive.

Summary

Even when given additional time thanks to the efforts of their backers, Trigger was going to find it hard to live up to a wonderful debut in this franchise. But they’ve come close. It’s a show dying for more exploration of its characters and an expansion of its magical elements. I like the friendship building side of things, don’t get me wrong, but there’s that sense of adventure and mystery lacking that was present in the original Little Witch Academia.

Score: 6/10 (Fair)

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 14, 2015

Flawfinder

Not Recommended

Back when I was the type of fanboy who blindly bought into new things like a homeless man who found a book on Mormonism in the trash, I contributed to quite a few Kickstarter projects upon its discovery, waited months/years to receive my prize whilst feeling good about myself that I was supporting a dying industry, reaped the rewards, and said happy expression quickly turned to sullen joylessness when I realized that the final product - with no exception - wasn’t very good. In fact, they were worse than not good. They were utter shit that I could have watched for free anyways, so I ... might as well have spent the money on a video game that everyone knows is shit but I wouldn’t personally know for sure until I played it myself. Like say, Ride to Hell: Retribution.

It just goes to show: try before you buy. Now to be fair, I did try the first Little Witch Academia back when people could actually say the word “Studio Trigger” without a mild snarl in their voice. I remember liking it at the time, but I honestly can’t remember why. In fact, I can’t remember anything about the first Little Witch Academia at all aside from the characters’ designs, the animation being nice, and this one cartoonish expression a dragon had right before he spontaneously combusted. What I did remember was that the cast consisted solely of little girls, so I went into the sequel with a bit of fear whilst reminding myself that Euphonium’s cast was mostly girls and it was...well I didn’t love the show or anything, but it was tolerable. Certainly a better well-animated cute girl thing than this banal pile of horseshit. Sixty bucks well-spent, huh?

The story of this sequel brings back the girls from the first installment, whose names I’m not going to even bother remembering because they have zero personality and thus I have zero interest in treating them as people. After pissing off their potions master and getting ten points taken from Gryffindor, they are forced to prepare for a local parade and learn about the nature of hard work and how goofing off tends to lead to trouble during important events. Oh wait, that would be the plot of a half-way decent kids’ show (unless you’re Gravity Falls, in which case it would be an awesome plot in an awesome kids’ show). The OVA is actually about the girls wasting time with lots of talking and ideas for the parade that never goes anywhere, and then when some kids show up all mopey, they cheer ‘em with magic and defeating another monster in a rehash of the dragon climax from the first installment, and then deliver a final lesson scraped off of a Disney Channel checklist that was thrown into the janitor’s office. As far as plots go, it’s right up there with that one episode of Da Capo SS when Aisha tries to teach little kids how magic can solve anything by having Junichi’s harem dress in mahou shoujo outfits that look like they belong in a strip club.

Yes, I’m sorry to say that Little Witch Academia 2 is the shit kind of sequel. Most anime sequels never do as well as the first to begin with, but this is the kind that’s basically the same as the original except with twice the length and twenty times the bullshit. There’s very little added to the formula and the stuff that is added is just used to pad out the runtime rather than contribute in any major way. Also, I’m not quite sure, but I think the girls act more spazzy than before. It’s not as bad as Durarara’s gimmicky additions, but at least Durarara waited an entire cour before giving up on itself and going “fuck it. Let’s do the same thing Nintendo does with its franchises”.

The animation is still of good quality, so at least the visual-loving fans have something to slobber over after having eye surgery to repair the damage caused by Santa Company. And if you, like me, are tired of seeing Trigger turning into Shaft with their cheap animation-saving tricks whilst someone makes bad catchphrases in the recording room and repeating their stories with more self-referentiality than Platinum Games, you’ll be pleased to know that at least they kept at least one of their usual annoying quirks out of the thing. Now if only they’d fix the other fifty, maybe they’d actually produce some good stuff. But we live in a world where everything that can go wrong will go wrong, so I wouldn’t hold out hope for that unless it turns out that they’re making a remake to Thundercats or something.

So is there anything new in this thing? Um, there’s a parade? People like parades, right? Unless they have singing dinosaurs voiced by John Goodman, I mean. There’s...um...see, this is the reason why I don’t like reviewing, let alone watching cute girl stuff. They lack substance, they’re not funny, and they’re so bloody hard to write about. At least when something ends up as a trainwreck, I can work with that. And speaking of cute girl stuff, hell will freeze over before I watch any more Girls Und Panzer or that movie about the three goddesses that A-1 Pictures is releasing. Hell will have Satan turned into a pussy bitch when A-1 releases something good.

See? Now I’m insulting studios who have nothing to do with the anime I’m talking about just to lengthen this review out the same way Little Witch Academia 2 has the girls chat about the practicalities of magic like I give a fucking damn just to fill up an hour worth of screen time. Well you’re not pulling me into your evil any further.

The story is ripped out of every kids’ book cliche ever whilst borrowing too heavily from the first. The characters are either completely unrelatable or act like bad parodies of characters from much better kid shows. And the humor sucks balls, realized it didn’t like the taste, and vomited for three minutes when it decided to show up, because there were large sections of the anime that felt like I was watching the pointless filler from A Troll in Central Park again. It’s a poor product from a disappointing studio created through terrible means that wasn’t at all worth the wait, and I’m happy to just forget it existed and continue refreshing my western cartoon feed waiting for a new episode of Gravity Falls to finally get released.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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