Little Witch Academia

リトルウィッチアカデミア(Little Witch Academia) is an anime series following a girl, named Kagari Atsuko, who wants to be a witch despite her magical ineptitude, focused around the Academy for little witches.
As is now usual for this wiki, LWA is one of my personal favorites. I started watching this after watching an analysis video that mentioned it, though I don’t remember which video it was. But, since I have…well…favorites.

I watched this anime before I watched the OVA and the Enchanted Parade, though it doesn’t matter, since this is in a separate continuity from those. This anime is also likely to become the primary continuity from now on…unless they do something like with Patlabor.
Surprisingly, my notes don’t say much here, but that’s probably because I think LWA is an unambiguous masterpiece with few, if any, flaws. I could be wrong here, but I seriously haven’t noticed anything…it all just fits together.
Weeeeell…there might be the one issue in that nobody is questioning the big star-shaped crater on the Moon. That said…this can be excused since it’s been there for like 10 years by the time we’re in the present…so it’s likely that nobody really questions why it appeared. The truth behind it…that it was created by Chariot is an effective twist. Especially since I initially thought it was a stylistic choice. I imagine most people react the same way.
Something which is subtle, but could hint at that twist is the fact that Akko looks at the Moon anytime she thinks about Chariot.
Oh yeah, in comparison to the other continuity…actually, I’ll leave that for that review.

For an episode-long introduction to LWA…it’s okay. It shows off all the characters (sans Amanda’s crew) and their personalities.
I don’t have any specific complaints besides the animation maybe being slightly worse than the anime, though this isn’t surprising considering the context.
So let me note some of the notable differences between this and the anime:

• Akko is less incompetent here than in the anime…as she can use magic and fly on a broom, only extremely poorly.
• Diana is more of a tsundere in the OVA and Enchanted Parade.

Oh…that’s all my notes had. Oh well.

This film is a…sequel? to the OVA. It introduces Amanda, Jasminka and Constanze. What’s interesting about their portrayal is that Akko and Amanda don’t really have a rivalry here, unlike in the TV anime.
It can best be described as a fun side-story to the main series. So watch it if you want more LWA. Though it isn’t strictly necessary since, y’know, discontinuity.

You can read the comparison on the Shūmatsu no Izetta article directly.

Little Witch Academia has a few similarities with Harry Potter. In fact, when I noticed, I couldn’t un-notice.
What do I mean? Well…
Little Witch Academia/Harry Potter follows an outsider to the magical world entering a school for magic. This outsider has unbridled and innocent wonder towards magic, whilst their attitude towards learning that magic is not as enthusiastic.
They look up to a teacher/professor within the school who takes them under their wing and guides them. Plus they’re a part of a magical prophecy, which this teacher/professor knows the details of.
They also have two friends who stick with them…and a rival with their own two friends, though they aren’t as important. That rival is also associated with the color green, while the outsider is associated with the color red.
It’s weird, isn’t it? I’m gonna stop there, but you can probably compare the two further.
Of course, let’s make something clear…Little Witch Academia is much better than Harry Potter, though the comparison isn’t fully fair, since it’s not like they’re trying to do the same thing. I might make a more in-depth comparison in the future…if I ever re-read Harry Potter.

• Official JP Website
• aniDB
• AniList
• Those links are for the 2017 anime, but you can access the rest via the power of clicking.