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—Akko about Constanze in Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time |
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—Constanze's only spoken line as revealed in "Tree of Leaves" |
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—Constanze's description from Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time Electronic Manual.[3] |
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—Description of Constanze from official site of Little Witch Academia: VR Broom Racing[4] |
Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger (コンスタンツェ・アマーリエ・フォン・ブラウンシュバンク=アルブレヒツベルガー Konsutantse Amārie fon Buraunshubanku-Aruburehitsuberugā ) is a young witch from Germany. First introduced in the film The Enchanted Parade, she is one of three troublemaking girls alongside Amanda and Jasminka where in her case, guilty in smuggling in prohibited hi-tech machines to be upgraded with magic and sell to other students.
Appearance
Constanze has a short stature. She is a little taller than 5'0". She has long, navy blue hair that reaches down to her waist and is tied into a low ponytail with a big red ribbon. She has teal green eyes and her skin is slightly tanned. She is usually characterized by a grumpy or serious expression. Constanze wears the standard Luna Nova uniform, and her sash-belt and hatband are both customized to be colored green. She's not usually seen with the hooded dress, as she instead usually wears a vest and a skirt of the same color.
Personality
Constanze rarely speaks, but she appears to be friendly and communicates through her own actions and writing. She also controls her high-tech Stanbots with magic and uses them to express herself.
She is very serious and rarely smiles; it is possible that she has been like this ever since she was very young as she has trouble smiling for the first time. She does not like it when others interfere with her projects, preferring always to work alone, which leads her to perform rather dangerous acts on the person who's disturbing her.
Abilities and Equipment
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—One of notable feats of Fundamental Alchemy as demonstrated by Constanze from Witchpedia[5] |
Like any other witch, she has her own wand that she brings wherever she goes and is stored in the sash around her waist. She casts spells with it, but most frequently uses it to operate or empower different kinds of magic-mechanical tools. She also skilled in fundamental alchemy, having demonstrated the ability to transmute a metal slab into a robot.
She is also a remarkable flyer with her customized Magic Broom, which mechanical modifications allow it to be used even in areas with little to no magic.
Aside from being able to cast spells efficiently and easily control her broom, Constanze proved herself to be a highly skilled engineer, able to manufacture high-tech electronic devices by herself from a small robot helpers out of console game parts which she controls via. magic and devised as extension of herself through which she expresses herself called Stanbots to a flying magic-mechanical ship that can turn into a roughly 15 m tall robot called Stanship. Her Stanbots can also be configured into a magic firearm with magic energy stored in her wand as ammo thus technically has "unlimited ammo" when a magic source is around. Stanbot's other configuration includes a RPG and an electric oven.
Magic-Mechanical Devices Developed
Voice actors
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Misc.
Trivia
- As revealed in "Sky War Stanship", Constanze has built a personal underground workshop to store her weapons and supplies which can be accessed through a secret door under the bed in her dorm. Akko first discovered it when she goes to apologize to Constanze for breaking her Stanbot.
- In Keisuke Satō manga of the series, it's further elaborated that she built the workshop in question with some help from Luna Nova's resident Wisdom Fairies.
- As shown in her early concept art during the development of The Enchanted Parade, Constanze's early design doesn't change much throughout the development. The only differences are different accessory on her hat and she wields a weapon which may be an early version of her Stanbot's firearm configuration.[6]
- Also, Constanze's working name at that time was Connie.[6]
- Constanze is loosely based on Monica, a scrapped character intended to appear in the first short who like her, excels in crafting magic-mechanical equipment and possesses eccentric personality, though whereas the former being quiet and communicate through actions or Stanbot which speak on her behalf, Monica is rather upbeat and described to have a mad scientist-esque personality.
- As revealed in 4chan AMA which took place in 2017, Yoshinari developed both Monica and Constanze's character concepts out of his idea revolving a witch with gadgets as proposed by Tatsuru Tatemoto, though only the latter that eventually used in the end.[7]
- Constanze rarely speaks, with her only dialogue being said on the last episode of the Little Witch Academia anime. She is, however, often heard making noises indicating exclamation and emotion. If she needs to be understood with language, she uses her Stanbot to speak on her behalf.
- According to the official panel of Little Witch Academia at AnimeExpo 2017, the reason why Constanze rarely speak was due to her being stuck with a terrible illness as a child; in order to heal her illness, her soul was removed from her body and placed into one of her Stanbots, which caused her to stop aging and left her in her tiny form, along with rendering her mute. The soul cannot be placed back into the body lest she gets sick again. The panel also stated that the particular Stanbot was the same one Akko unintentionally destroyed in "Sky War Stanship".[8][9][10]
- The aforementioned backstory, however, was purely a joke given that Constanze crafted her first Stanbot sometime prior or after events of "Orange Submariner" (and has built three fully-functional ones by the events of Chamber of Time) in anime and prior to the titular parade in the second short film. Another plausible explanation of why it should be ruled out is the accidental destruction of Stanbot that allegedly housed her soul by Akko supposedly severe enough to kill Constanze.
- Had such scrapped backstory idea eventually implemented on the other hand, it would certainly establish Constanze as a lich. Lich is a magic user who cheated death by imbuing their soul into a specialized object called phylactery, allowing them to live forever and even function normally even after their physical form reduced into a skeleton.
- According to the official panel of Little Witch Academia at AnimeExpo 2017, the reason why Constanze rarely speak was due to her being stuck with a terrible illness as a child; in order to heal her illness, her soul was removed from her body and placed into one of her Stanbots, which caused her to stop aging and left her in her tiny form, along with rendering her mute. The soul cannot be placed back into the body lest she gets sick again. The panel also stated that the particular Stanbot was the same one Akko unintentionally destroyed in "Sky War Stanship".[8][9][10]
- Her Japanese voice actress, Rie Murakawa, also voices Wangari.
- Her English voice actress, Jennifer Alyx, also voices Hannah.
- Constanze is in many ways like Croix Meridies. They both are very good with electronics and making those electronics do things for them. Ironically however, they rarely interact with one another.
- As explained by Tatsuru Tatemoto, this was attributed to their different approach in it; the former leans to machinery while the latter digital.[11]
- According to Hiroshi Kobayashi, despite being silent most of the time, Constanze's expressions such as anger, joy, sadness, and pleasure were rich and easy to draw.[12][13]
- Constanze's favorite films are Apkallu series which she watched via. a projector she had in her person.[14][15][16][17]
- According to Shuhei Handa in an interview during the talkshow that took place after the screenings for episode 22-25 in TOHO Cinemas in Shinjuku on June 23, 2017, he found Constanze's characterization to be the most difficult to write, though he also felt Akko should be held with such distinction.[18] He also similarly didn't draw her much unlike either Akko or Amanda[19].
- In the same interview, Yoshinari didn't contribute much about the character's writing.
Etymology
- The name "Constanze" may come from Constanze Mozart, the wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is also a variation of the name Constance, that derives from Latin and means "constant".
- "Albrechtsberger" may originate from Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, an Austrian composer who taught Mozart's son, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, and later Ludwig van Beethoven.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Little Witch Academia Chronicles, page 94
- ↑ https://twitter.com/JenAlyx/status/880882581239148544
- ↑ https://lwa.channel.or.jp/images/07.png
- ↑ https://lwa-vr.com/en/#constanze
- ↑ https://little-witch-academia.fandom.com/wiki/File:Witchpedia_Entry_on_Fundamental_Alchemy_LWA.jpg
- ↑ 6.0 6.1
- ↑
- ↑ Interesting Little Witch Academia character backstory tidbits from TRIGGER Panel at AX2017 from Reddit.com
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ Little Witch Academia Chronicles, Chapter 2, page 54
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ Orange Submariner
- ↑ Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time Sub Event (Apkallu 2 ½)
- ↑ Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time Sub Event (The Return of Apkallu)
- ↑
- ↑ https://type43.hatenablog.jp/entry/2017/06/26/181324