The enthusiastic but somewhat under-talented Akko, along with friends Lotte and Sucy, trains to be a witch at Luna Nova Witchcraft Academy.
Summary
The episode began with Shiny Chariot performing a magic show attended by many people, among whom were two young girls: Atsuko Kagari and Diana Cavendish. After bringing her audience into a beautiful life-like illusion of outer space through a conjured tidal wave, she brought forth glowing shapes which curiously emerged from each and everyone of them culminating to a monstrous construct appeared out of nowhere consuming said shapes before turning into a drake-like beast, Chariot chanted the First Word of Seven Words of Arcturus, summoning the Shiny Arc to defeat it. She then conjured a portal for her grand exit, but not before advising her audience, "A believing heart is your magic." Enamored by the show, Akko resolved to become a witch just like her idol.
Years later, Akko arrived in Glastonbury, England, to enroll at Luna Nova Magical Academy. Celebrating her success, she proceeded to ask around for the bus station that would take her to the academy. Being stuck in her search because none of the inhabitants of the town were aware of the bus station's whereabouts at first, she consulted with the brochure once again and managed to find it; the supposed bus station and Glastonbury Tor were one and the same. Resuming her trip, Akko unwittingly crashed into Sucy Manbavaran, who was unfazed by the small incident. In fact, she remained indifferent to Akko's exciting comments before eventually using a vial of puppet magic potion on the latter's Alcor plushie, which then proceeded to poke its owner in the eye. Nevertheless, Akko continued following Sucy, who gave Akko a handshake before tricking her with a rope disguised as live snakes, panicking the former and causing her to fall into a water bank by the bridge.
Mumbling over her poor interactions with Sucy while climbing the hill to the supposed station, Akko spotted three Luna Nova students: Avery, Barbara Parker, and Hannah England, gossiping about a transfer student from a mundane background, news they were less than thrilled at. Attempting to sneak past them, Akko wound up being spotted by the three students, and thus had no choice but to ask them about the supposed bus station. Laughing at her ignorance, the three girls explained that the supposed bus station was actually a Ley Line Terminal accessible to those who able to fly with magic brooms. They then made haste toward the Ley Line Portal within Glastonbury Tor, all while mentioning about being barred from entering Luna Nova and the rest of magic realm should they got late for the academy's opening ceremony. Akko attempted to catch up with them by climbing toward the portal but, she ended up falling back to the building's floor, much to ber dismay. Fortunately for her, she was able to hitch a ride with another student named Lotte despite the latter's initial reluctance, due to her haste for the opening ceremony and carrying too many items given by her family.
As they traversed through the portal, the Ley Lines suffered disturbances almost without warning, much to Lotte's confusion at such a turn of events. To her horror, the disturbance was revealed to be triggered by Akko's salty pickled plums. The panicked Lotte urged Akko to discard it as the disturbance worsened only for them, along with Sucy, who was also in Ley Lines nearby, lost control over their flight and fell off their brooms. Hilariously, in the ensuing chaos, Sucy bumped into Akko's Alcor plushie face-first a mere moment before being accidentally tackled by its owner. The incident alarmed the unassuming teacher of Luna Nova, Ursula Callistis, and her familiar Alcor, who quickly used a disco ball-like astrological device to check on Ley Lines and pinpoint the location where the disturbance took place, horrified to see it would bring whoever got caught in it into Arcturus Forest.
Recovering from the fall, Akko landed onto Sucy's back before retrieving her Chariot Card and finally noticed the peculiar girl below her. Horrified at first, the brunette was surprised to see the annoyed Manbavaran get on her feet as if that was nothing. It was when Akko found Lotte, who, too, survived her fall despite her broom breaking into two because of the crash. As Akko and Lotte wondered about where they were, Sucy stated that they had arrived at her destination, Arcturus Forest. Dismayed by the revelation, Lotte explained to Akko that anyone who entered the Forest would have a hard time getting out, even if that person was a witch. Just then, Akko came across her scattered belongings nearby and wasted no time in retrieving them all... only to find herself within the reach of a Mandrake, much to Lotte's horror and Sucy's amusement.
Barely escaping the man-eating plant, Sucy put Akko and Lotte into a tough situation where she trapped them in a circular cage made of enchanted ropes and then had them summon a Cockatrice for her so she could collect one of its feathers. This further dismayed Akko as Sucy also intended them to be sacrifices for such an endeavor and rolled the cage over to escape the arriving beast. Just as they evaded a burst of its petrifying breath, Sucy managed to pull one of the Cockatrice's poisonous feathers, angering it to the point of chasing her instead. Simultaneously, Akko and Lotte's cage violently crashed, injuring the latter's knee in the process. With her injury and broken broom, Lotte became despairing over their inability to reach Luna Nova's ceremony in time. Arguing that they've gone so far that giving up wasn't an option, Akko carried Lotte with her on her shoulder, all while declaring her determination to become a witch like Shiny Chariot against all odds. To her astonishment, Shiny Rod materialized before her very eyes.
Knowing what to do, Akko took the staff and called out the cockatrice to get its attention in a bid to lure it toward the mandrake from earlier. Her plan worked very well; not only did the beast immediately leave Sucy alone, but it also failed to realize her ploy until it was too late. Simultaneously, Sucy lent Lotte and later, Akko, a ride with her broom to escape from both cockatrice and Arcturus Forest. Akko and Sucy's introduction toward each other was interrupted by a blast from behind them — the cockatrice had scorched the mandrake and now continued the chase, this time while repeatedly blasting them with its fiery breath. Simultaneously, Ursula flew into the scene, wondering how such a mess started before recognizing Shiny Rod in Akko's hand. Suddenly, a blast of cockatrice's fiery breath managed to scorch Sucy's broom, sending its owner, Lotte, and Akko plummeting to the trees below. With no time to lose, Ursula taught Akko the First Word of the Seven Words of Arcturus, allowing the brunette to use Shiny Arc to open a Ley Line portal straight toward Luna Nova. The portal closed as soon as the three young girls entered, ceasing the cockatrice's chase.
As Akko, Lotte, and Sucy traversed the portal, the brunette beheld glimpses of past and future events in front of her, moments before she and her companions crashed into the ceremony right in front of students who had arrived in time and teachers. Despite their eventful arrival interrupting the academy's opening ceremony as soon as it started, Headmistress Holbrooke still allowed Akko to enroll in the academy under some considerations and had Finnelan escort her to her dorm room, her roommates being none other than Sucy and Lotte themselves. Once Finnelan left them alone, Akko greeted her newfound roommates and reintroduced herself properly to them.
The episode concluded with a shot of Ursula's room that night. Ursula smiled as her eyes were set on the moon, as Shiny Rod had returned to the world at last...
This episode fulfills a purpose remarkably similar to the first short film.
It starts with Shiny Chariot performing a magic show and Akko as a child. Diana can be spotted in the audience watching Shiny Chariot's show. Akko finds the Shiny Rod and activates the first word with help from Ursula.
However, there are several noticeable differences between the short film and its anime adaptation:
Whereas the first short film has Akko finding Shiny Rod among items in New Moon Tower's dungeon, the staff appears in front of her and Lotte at Arcturus Forest instead.
During the same show in the anime, Diana wears no hat, unlike Akko, who consistently has hers. Although the short film depicted the hat as purple and has a yellow star and blue band, the anime changed it to resemble Chariot's greatly.
After the performance in the short film, it goes straight to when everyone is already at the academy and knows each other.
Amanda, Constanze, Jasminka, Badcock, Finnelan, Holbrooke, Lukić, and Pisces are added despite not appearing in the first short film.
In the short film, Akko and Diana already knew each other, unlike in the anime, where they eventually met in the second episode.
The short film establishes Akko being able to fly with a broom, albeit poorly, in stark contrast to the anime in which she cannot fly at all.
Lastly, the stage in which Shiny Chariot performs her show in anime is confirmed to be a real-life location, specifically the larger venue of Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall.
When Akko is traversing the Leyline and having visions from both the future and the past. Among the first few visions is her approval letter from Luna Nova, which is designed loosely based on one in Teri Terio manga.
Though not 100% accurate, the fansub version of the scene where Barbara voices the urgency to arrive in time for Luna Nova's opening ceremony further confirms that Luna Nova is indeed situated in a magic realm closely linked to Earth with Ley Lines, an idea which previously discussed by Yoshinari and his fellow animators in the booklet that came with the first film's Blu-ray.[8] Regrettably, such part of the translation was lost during the dubbing process by Netflix which simplified Barbara's line in the same scene into the following, "If you're late to the opening ceremony, you'll be banned from ever attending Luna Nova."
As revealed in an interview, this inconsistency was attributed to Netflix translators not receiving any notes on the proper translation. The same went for how Shiny Chariot's catchphrase in Netflix's English sub ended up more convoluted than intended ("It's your belief in yourself that makes up your magic").[9]
Ironically, Netflix's English sub of Barbara's aforementioned dialogue is much more accurate. While the translation error on the English dub of Shiny Chariot's catchphrase still persisted, it was nevertheless much tamer in comparison (Believe in yourself. That's your magic.).
Barbara explicitly mentions the magic realm as she, Hannah, and Avery make haste for Luna Nova in the Netflix English sub
Akko mentions a magic world that may allude to either the magic realm in which Luna Nova is situated, the magic community as a whole, or both
Barbara explicitly mentions the magic realm as she, Hannah, and Avery make haste for Luna Nova.
List of items Lotte carries in Episode 1 and their real-life counterparts
Salmiakki and Karl Fazer chocolate reference in A New Beginning
A can of Surströmming among Lotte's scattered belongings
Comparison between real life Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall and its Little Witch Academia version.
1/7
Keisuke Satō's manga adaptation of the scene rectified this by providing a more accurate English translation of Barbara's aforementioned line which was close to fan translation all along. Here, she says "If we're late to the entrance ceremony, we'll be exiled from the magic realm!". On a related note, the manga also has Akko mention 'magic world' in the middle of her rants as she shows Sucy one of her Chariot cards, which alludes to either magic realm in which Luna Nova is situated, the magic community as a whole, or both. Regardless, such revision was intentional on the author's part to ensure his manga adaptation of the Little Witch Academia anime TV Series remains faithful to the source material as much as possible.[10]
Such discrepancies, of course, are attributed to Studio Trigger's little to no control over the English dub approach made by Netflix.[11]
If one looks closely at Lotte's scattered belongings in the scene when Sucy reads a book about Arcturus Forest, two of them are a chocolate bar with Karl Fazer brand and a box of Salmiakki. The former is based on a real-life chocolate brand that existed in Finland since 1922 while the latter is a type of bitter confectionery of Germanic and Nordic origin which is said to be the worst-tasting candy in the world. That included a can of Hapansilakka aka. Surströmming (lightly salted fermented Baltic Sea herring traditional to Swedish cuisine which also served as the main ingredient for a variant of Karelian pastry featured in "Pohjola's Trial" called Hapansilakka pie)[12][13][14].
Another of Lotte's noteworthy belongings was a kuksa, a handmade Finnish mug with a distinct handle.
The flower motif on the bag Lotte carries some of her belongings with on the other hand, appeared to be based on the one used by real-life Finnish company Marimekko Corporation, a Finnish textiles, clothing, and home furnishings company founded by Viljo and Armi Ratia in Helsinki in 1951.
During Akko's trip to Luna Nova, she carries a rolling suitcase, a backpack, and a Boston bag. Among contents of the backpack as revealed while crashing into Sucy by mistake are headphones, an alcohol lamp, a pencil case, a pass case, an enrollment guide, a Chariot card, and Ribon shōjo manga magazine[15][16].
A closer look at the magazine in question reveals its features series alludes Tokimeki Tonight.[17]
Errors/Goofs
Akko introduced herself to Lotte and Sucy for a second time upon learning that they were roommates, despite them already doing so on separate occasions. Given the circumstances of their first meeting, however, this may not necessarily count as an error, and she decided to do so, albeit in a more proper manner.
