Akko starts flying lessons using a broom that Professor Ursula gives her, but she struggles -- and the Academy's broom relay race is coming up.
Summary
The episode began with Akko attempting to use Shiny Rod again to no avail, where this time, she tried to magically tidy her room as Ursula brought her a new flying room. Entering Akko's dorm room, Ursula introduced herself to the young witch and informed her that the academy had appointed her to be her mentor before giving Akko her Magic Broom. Happily accepting her new broom, Akko asked Ursula her opinion about Shiny Chariot and expressed her desire to return the Shiny Rod to its original owner. Ursula, aware that the person Akko referred to was her true self, Chariot, not-so-subtly turned over the staff's ownership to Akko, only to see her too excited to listen and even exclaimed a familiar catchphrase, "Believing yourself is your magic!" With that, Ursula made her leave, all while cynically repeating said catchphrase.
Later at the courtyard, Akko was excited about what would be her first time flying with a broom for real, even proudly revealing scars she received from poor attempts to fly back during her youth to her roommates Lotte and Sucy; one on her right foot resulted from falling out of a tree, another on the lower left thigh from rolling all the way down a hill, and the last on the right elbow from falling off a roof. Sucy explained that broom flight was only made possible thanks to the magic emanated by the Sorcerer's Stone, though the Japanese witch-in-training was too excited to listen. However, during the broom flight lesson later, despite her properly following the instructions, Akko couldn't take off into the air for some reason, much to Nelson's confusion. Just then, Amanda performed amazing yet reckless flight stunts, which prompted the flight instructor to berate her for it. On the other hand, Diana displayed a more proper broom flight demonstration while breaking the record of finishing a single lap in 8.02 seconds. Envious of the latter's performance, Akko decided to make another attempt, only to be interrupted by Hannah and Barbara, who bullied her and even had the latter magically turn her broom into a badly made toy car, much to the Japanese witch-in-training's dismay.
While disheartened by her unexpected shortcoming, Akko noticed other students practicing baton passes for the upcoming annual broom relay. Bringing the brunette to Luna Nova Cup's trophy case, Lotte explained the history of said race, in which Akko learned that Chariot was among the winners, much to her delight, and that she wanted to join despite her inability to fly with a broom. Seeing no point in arguing with the overly excited brunette, Lotte decided to retrieve her restored broom at a magic item café in Blytonbury, with the former tagging along out of curiosity over said place.
Upon arriving at the magic item café — Last Wednesday Society — on foot (Sorcerer's Stone's area of effect didn't reach the town), however, the Japanese witch-in-training was disappointed upon seeing it was nothing more than an occult shop with a small drinking area. Everything in the shop seemed dull before her eyes until a chained red broom locked within a metal cage nearby caught her attention. Both girls then learned that the broom was none other than the legendary Shooting Star, known for being so fast it could allow its user to fly across the entire Atlantic Ocean in a short amount of time. The broom also had its own magic power, terminating the need for an external power source to recharge its energy reserves. Akko begged the proprietor to lend her the Shooting Star just for the race, upon realizing it would allow her to get around her current shortcoming in broom flight, but he refused because of the broom's violent behavior, and the café's manager would be mad at him if something happened to it. Just then, Lotte learned that Diana's astonishing prowess in broom flight had been in the news; many believed that she would win the race this year, much to Akko's further dismay. Little did they know that their conversation was eavesdropped on by the sly Amanda, who had her own plans with the Shooting Star.
Returning to Luna Nova empty-handed, Akko met Ursula, who gave her an elementary school-level textbook called "My First Flight Magic" to help her understand the basics of broom flight. Excitedly accepting the book, Akko followed every single instruction written in it to no avail, going so far as bribing, arguing with, and begging for her broom, specifically in that order as Lotte and Sucy watched nearby. Sucy remarked that Akko was a moron for such a humorous attempt, only for the Japanese witch-in-training revealed that she had signed their team to join the race. Lotte and Sucy were initially pessimistic about their chance to win until the latter changed her mind upon learning that the winner would also be rewarded with a prize from Lukić herself. With that, we were presented with quick montages of Lotte and Sucy's attempts to help Akko quickly learn how to fly with her magic broom:
Bungee jumping while being tied with a broom,
Getting launched with Luna Nova's cannon while being tied with a broom (again), and...
Pulling both Akko and her broom at high speed to help her take off.
Despite their best effort, it all failed, and Sucy concluded that they needed to improvise.
The day of the annual broom relay had finally arrived. As the Headmistress completed her speech, Wangari and her fellow Luna Nova News Network members began interviewing the participants, starting from the green team. Amanda managed to keep Luna Nova News Network in the dark about her mysterious cargo long enough for them to move on for Diana's team (much to Akko's chagrin). Nelson then gave the participants instructions on the race, where they must ensure their broom was fully charged. Each participant must properly pass the baton to the next and ensure it is not lost or damaged to avoid disqualification. She then directed everyone to prepare at their respective positions, and they (except Akko) did so while flying. Sucy confidently reassured her teammates that she had come up with a plan to ensure their victory.
True to this, the first flyers except Lotte were unable to take off as soon as the race began — to Hannah's horror, their brooms had partially turned into small trees in courtesy of Sucy's nutrients, effectively anchoring them at the starting point. Although Constanze's own magic broom was unaffected, thanks to the young German mechanic, she modified it with a gas-powered engine, thus allowing her to pass her baton to Jasminka. Even so, the Manbavaran still had other tricks in her sleeve: She had carefully placed a trail of donuts among the trees sometime prior to the race as a means to distract Jasminka upon her turn to pass her baton to her next teammate, Amanda, leaving Sucy without more competitors for the time being.
As the third flyers awaited their turn, Amanda sneaked out of her position to unveil her secret cargo, Shooting Star, newly stolen from Last Wednesday Society. Telling the broom that they shared a similar rebellious spirit, the Irish-American wrestled with the sentient broom in order to tame it, only for it comically overpowered her and knocked her of before flying away. As this happened, Sucy passed her baton to Akko along with a bottle of frog leg juice from the magic item café, allowing the Japanese witch-in-training to magically endow her broom with a large frog leg to hop across the race track, much to others's surprise. Even Diana and Wangari couldn't help but be incredulous upon the brunette's improvisation, and the latter wondered whether such a method was still a fair game. Eventually, the first flyers managed to pull their brooms free to catch up with the rest at this point.
While happily hopping through the race track, the out-of-control Shooting Star unceremoniously knocked Akko to the ground from behind before changing course back toward her direction. Acting fast, Akko grabbed its dangling chains to hop on the broom as soon as she returned to her feet upon recognizing it. The sentient broom then knocked her off once again, only for the brunette to respond by attempting to subdue it into her will, leading to a literal trip to different corners of the world. They flew through someone's house, knocking a Yeti in the Himalayan mountains, diving into the ocean while circling past a submarine, and briefly flew on the side of an airplane, attracting its passengers' attention before eventually getting back to the race track. Having enough, the Shooting Star flew past a flock of birds, successfully sending Akko plummeting to the ground below. Fortunately, Diana saved Akko from the fall and urged the latter to have a rescue squad tend to the injuries she sustained from the struggle afterward, citing that with it, her debt to Akko had been paid off.
Although giving up wasn't an option for Akko. Seeing that the Shooting Star was still within her reach, she launched herself toward it with Luna Nova's cannon and wrestled with it once again. This time, she made sure to chain herself with it and made it clear to the Shooting Star that she wouldn't let it go, no matter what. Her success in subjugating Shooting Star and catching up with Diana along the way soon reached Lotte and Sucy's ears, much to the former's joy, leading to her cheering for her roommate. Amanda showed up to try to seize Shooting Star, only for Nelson to disqualify her; as it turned out, Jasminka handed her a donut instead of their baton by mistake previously. At the heat of the race, Shooting Star's restraints gave out along with Akko's hold over it, leading to Akko falling and ending up in the second place, but not without seeing a glimpse of the broom's true, bird-like appearance as it flew away.
Despite being this year's victor, Diana's satisfaction came from Akko's genuine passion instead. She acknowledged it to Ursula after seeing the photo of herself and her roommates that had been placed in the academy's trophy case. Agreeing with Cavendish's statement, as the latter made her leave, Ursula rightfully noted that Akko still has much to learn as she looked upon her own photo in the trophy case.
On the back page of the newspaper in the Magic Item Cafe, which Lotte is holding and reads aloud, mentions the sighting of Pappiliodya from the previous episode.
The episode features the cameo of Inferno Cop, another Studio Trigger production, as an in-universe entertainment program watched by a family whose house Akko and Shooting Star fly through as they travel across different corners of the planet.[7][2]
This episode takes place at the end of May, as stated in the Chronicles book.[8][9]
There's
Deleted Scene from Episode 03 of Little Witch Academia
a deleted scene of the episode which meant to depict its original ending; in that scene, Hannah and Barbara bring Diana their additional prize, an ornate jar with white skull-like ornaments which, upon opened, revealed to contain poisonous snakes for poison experiments much to Hannah's horror (explaining why Sucy tag along in the annual broom relay in the first place). The scene then shifts to Akko's dorm room, where, despite losing the race, the excited Akko states that the race is nevertheless a worthwhile one (not to mention she got another scar as proof of it) and believes that she'll be able to fly with her own power and subsequently be able to join another broom relay with it someday. Part of it, however, was reinstated into the ending theme sequences, though unlike in the original, the snake only attacked Hannah and Barbara just as Diana made her leave.[10][11][12]
The passenger aircraft Akko is seen flying next to is an Airbus A380, which is the largest passenger airliner in the world.
The scene in question, including the part where the passengers noticed her, alludes to the sighting of a gremlin in Twilight Zone: The Movie.[2]
Though likely a coincidence, the witch who rides the Shooting Star, as seen in the flashback scene, is curiously drawn in a style evoking that of Gosho Aoyama, famed for the Detective Conan/Case Closed series.
The scene where Barbara utilized a stopwatch with a tied-up small fairy operating it instead of a clockwork mechanism to estimate the amount of time Diana spent to finish the lap seemed to be a nod to the library scene in The Enchanted Parade, which featured a fairy operating the library's clock.
While easy to overlook, one of the past victors of Luna Nova Cup, in addition to Chariot, was Croix.[4] She would make a proper appearance in "New Age Magic".
Comparison between traditional medicine base (right) to similar object in Last Wednesday Society (left)
Among items featured in Last Wednesday Society were a five-pointed star-like object with an eye on its center, similar to a traditional medicine base for Greenman Disease. However, due to the entirety of it being dim gold and lacking a green antenna, it's unclear whether both objects are related.
Errors/Goofs
At the scene when Akko revealed to Lotte and Sucy that she had signed their group to the upcoming 1333rd Luna Nova Cup, the sign-up paper for their participation in such event stated it being 1133th, and closer inspection showed the date of 27 September 2016, all of which contradicted Chronicles book's aforementioned statement of the events of the episode being around the end of May. To further drive the point of this error, Constanze's Wild Hunt permit, later shown in "Sky War Stanship" clarified that the series took place in 2017-2018.
In the flavor text pertaining to Diana in one of the loading screens in Little Witch Academia: VR Broom Racing, it's indeed confirmed that the broom race in this episode is 1333rd[13][14].
Coloring error on Aira and Rashmi's hands
During the scene when Wangari showcases the contestants of the broom race, an eagle-eyed watcher would notice one of Aira and Rashmi's hands being colored differently.
