Sleeping Sucy (眠れる夢のスーシィ, Nemureru Yume no Sūshi?) is the 8th episode of the Little Witch Academia anime series.
On Netflix, the episode is titled "Akko's Adventure in Sucyworld".[4]
Overview[]
After drinking an experimental brew, Sucy falls into a deep sleep and won't wake up. To save her, Lotte sends Akko into Sucy's mushroom-filled dream.
Summary[]
The episode began on a dark and stormy night as Sucy finally completed her ominous ultimate potion brewed out of rarest strains of mushrooms (arguably the same rare magical mushroom species she had Akko collect on her behalf in the events of Chamber of Time). After boasting how she would fully awaken her magic potential and, importantly, gain control over every mushroom worldwide with it, Sucy was about to drink the ultimate potion before considering testing it on the sleeping Akko. However, at the very last moments, she changed her mind and drank the potion herself, citing how things would be boring if it indeed improved the bubbly witch's magic as intended.
Hilariously, the next morning, Sucy forgot to remove the funnel she put on Akko's mouth, and the Japanese witch-in-training still had it while hastily changing into her Luna Nova-issued school uniform before eventually spitting it out. As she did, Lotte attempted to wake Sucy up to no avail. Since they were about to enter Finnelan's class and did not want to cause another trouble with the strict professor, Akko and Lotte had no choice but to leave their sleeping roommates, oblivious to the telltale signs of something fishy (the funnel in Akko's mouth and a red mushroom popped up beside Sucy's pillow.
By the time Akko and Lotte returned to their dorm room, they were horrified to see it had been overgrown with mushrooms, and worse, Sucy was still sleeping in the middle of it all. The panicked Akko yelled at Sucy to wake her up, only to be puzzled by the latter's lack of reaction upon the mention of mushrooms. Akko then tried to enlist help from the professors, only to be stopped by Lotte, who, in addition to deducing that Sucy had something to do with the mess judging from her strewn equipment, argued that they couldn't add more troubles to their list. As Akko became desperate to wake Sucy up, Lotte realized their roommate might be afflicted with Sleeping Witch Sickness, which could only be cured by having someone wake her up from within her inner spiritual realm. Consulting with her magical medicine book, she found the appropriate spell to deal with their problem, yet was unsure whether she could pull it off until more mushrooms grew out of control and bumped their head against the ceiling in the process. After getting rid of the offending mushrooms, Lotte examined Sucy's collection of potions for Akko to bring along to wake their roommate as soon as the latter found her and commenced the spell. Hilariously, the spell in question involved forming a club-like construct of pure magic energy around her wand before smacking it against the volunteer(Akko)'s head, causing her to fall unconscious beside Sucy's still-dormant form.
Awakening in a strange wonderland of mushrooms, which was unmistakably Sucy's inner spiritual realm, the awestruck Akko stumbled upon a group of small, humanoid mushrooms carrying a sword and a shield before getting ambushed by a small Sucy-like imp. As this happened, another small Sucy, this time an angelic one, stopped her devil counterpart and suggested killing Akko more peacefully instead. Upon getting to know representations of temptation and conscience of real Sucy respectively, Akko enlisted their help to locate the original Sucy, at which they realized the latter hadn't been around for quite some time and agreed to lend her a hand under the condition of the Japanese witch-in-training treating Sucy fairly and helping her carrying her stuff for a whole month — a bargain Akko reluctantly agreed on.
As Akko told both Angel!Sucy and Devil!Sucy about the latest development in the real world, as they were on their way to Mushroom Hills (a giant mushroom-like facility where the original Sucy resides), they encountered several other aspects of Sucy's personality, such as:
- Lazy Sucy: Representation of Sucy's lazy side, wearing a sleeping bag and crawling around like a worm.
- Impatient Sucy: Representation of Sucy's impatient side that assumed the form of a group of clones of Sucy with grayish bodies, in addition to moving and talking so fast that it's hard to tell what they looked like, let alone what they said.
- Mushroom-loving Sucy: Representation of Sucy's love for mushrooms.
- Angry Sucy: Representation of Sucy's wrathful side, which resembled Mushroom-loving Sucy, albeit constantly angry and spending all of her time repeatedly punching a stone slab.
- Sucy Who Wanted To Get Plastic Surgery: Representation of Sucy's desire for plastic surgery. She resembled her usual self, dressed in Luna Nova practice uniform, albeit with the ability to assume a robotic form.
- Greedy Sucy: Representation of Sucy's greedy side, dressing like a stereotypical thief who obsessively collects mushrooms within her grasp into her oversized sack that could barely hold its contents.
- Easily-Influenced Sucy: Representation of Sucy's easily-influenced side dressing like a Jedi, complete with a cloak and a neon blue lightsaber.
- Monster Sucy/Quick-to-Imitate Sucy: Representation of either the monstrous side or the imitating side of Sucy, who looked like a Godzilla knock-off.
- Instant-copycat Sucy: Representation of Sucy's unknown side, only that she wrote あほ (idiot) in her face.
- Sucy's Entertainer Side: Representation of Sucy's idea of entertainment, which dressed like a stage magician whose hat produced snakes instead of rabbits.
- Alpaca Sucy: Representation of Sucy's desire to spit everything around her and love for alpacas.
Recovering from the jumpscare of Sucy's Entertainer Side and later, a thick spit of Alpaca Sucy on her face, Akko, Devil!Sucy, and Angel!Sucy encountered a small Sucy with a black dress and a small bouquet of two lilies (one yellow and the other light green) in her hands, who was abruptly arrested by two Sucy-like policewomen. To Akko's shock, the little Sucy was brought to the court of emotions and feelings that newly appeared in Sucy's heart, which would be judged accordingly, as stated by Devil!Sucy. Entering the court, Akko was disturbed by its seemingly harsh system, as each of the said feelings was given a death sentence rather indiscriminately. Upon seeing the little Sucy's turn, Akko stepped in for her defense, only to be given a death sentence along with the rest, as Akko found herself in a long line for execution, Devil!Sucy mocked her for interfering with the court, angering the Japanese witch-in-training, who comically bit her and coerced her to pick the lock on her wooden shackle with her trident. Finally freed, Akko was surprised to see two Executioner Sucys (Sucys who represented her desire to dispose of her unneeded feelings, each clad in a gray robe and a giant, rusty triangular helmet with a large eye socket) taking their time testing their guillotine by cutting some large radishes with it before starting the execution for real. To Akko's horror, the little Sucy was revealed to be the first to be executed, prompting her to save the said Sucy before proceeding to do the same to the rest of the convicted emotions despite Executioner Sucy's protests. At the same time, Akko was relieved that she might've performed a good deed, Devil!Sucy was less than impressed.
Meanwhile, the uneasy Lotte was still waiting for her roommates to awaken in the real world. To her horror, mushrooms had grown around her hands, and she cried out for both Sucy and Akko to wake up immediately.
Back in Sucy's inner spiritual realm, Akko, the little Sucy, Angel!Sucy, and Devil!Sucy hitchhiked a ride with Sucy in a red dress, which happened to be on her way to a drive-in theatre because of their journey's lack of progress. The group then joined said Sucy, watching the movie despite Angel!Sucy's protests, with Devil!Sucy reassuring that they needed some meta references once in a while. To Akko's surprise, the film consisted of Sucy's memories, which were played based on Manbavaran's perspective and stylized into that of the old-school animations. At first, Akko found herself amused upon seeing how Diana in that memory movie was depicted with a long, triangular nose and comically long limbs, as per Sucy's view of the Cavendish being an arrogant person, until her own cartoon counterpart was revealed to have an even more comical design, complete with a bucktooth. This was soon followed by a humorous depiction of her difficulties in flying with a magic broom. Predictably, this angered Akko, who decried the memory movie and declared both her and her cartoon counterpart were nothing alike, unaware that the latter briefly followed her movements, which didn't help her situation. The movie soon played re-enactments of the pranks Sucy pulled on Akko daily. Appalled at first, Akko nonetheless found the prank scenes amusing before beholding the part Sucy with red dress judged as the best; the moment Sucy and Akko first met. Realizing its significance, which was highlighted by it briefly assuming a more realistic style, Akko couldn't help but be moved by the event. However, when they finally reached the broom flight scene, the film unusually showed the red team winning, contrary to how Akko remembered it, followed by the part where Sucy tested the potion from the prize provided by Lukić, and things went downhill from there. As Lotte screamed in horror at the sight of her fingertips turned into more mushroom-like mushrooms around her, they began to spread and grew to gigantic size, destroying Luna Nova and its surroundings. Even while the whole place somehow caught fire, the mushroom infestation persisted, with Lotte seemingly crushed to death by some of the growing giant mushrooms as the film burned away. As if that wasn't scary enough, a similar event seemingly occurred in the real world, ...or so it seemed.
However, this was all simply the beginning of the true nightmare; whereas Akko and the rest of the audience were left horror-struck, the little Sucy let out disturbing, maniacal laughter. The incredulous Akko berated little Sucy for finding the grotesque scene amusing, at which the latter responded by splitting into five before merging back into a deformed, quadrupedal humanoid kaiju with a mockery of Sucy's visage. The drive-in theater exploded at once, followed by the fully-formed Abomination!Sucy devouring the whole audience before starting its rampage, save for Akko, Angel!Sucy, Devil!Sucy, and a small humanoid mushroom who managed to escape the ensuing carnage with Sucy in a red dress's car at top speed. It was then Angel!Sucy and Devil!Sucy explained the true purpose of Sucy's court of emotions earlier: Everyone, Sucy included, cast aside their stray thoughts and impulses to maintain the balance in their psyche, which in turn, averted the chaos resulting from mental imbalance among themselves — a worst-case scenario Akko caused by saving the little Sucy. As Abomination!Sucy rushed after them, Devil!Sucy further stated that waking the original Sucy up from her slumber was the only way to restore order and undo the mess just a moment before she and Angel!Sucy got devoured by the beast, leaving Akko, who made haste for the Mushroom Hills on her own.
Crashing into Mushroom Hill, the desperate Akko became understandably frustrated upon seeing hundreds of rooms within the building with Abomination!Sucy hot on her tracks. After checking Room 493 and Room 494, each inhabited by Punk-Rock Sucy and Alpaca Sucy, respectively, Akko met an elderly Sucy from Room 495 who claimed to know the whereabouts of the original Sucy. Much to her dismay, this Sucy blabbered seemingly for hours (possibly longer than Akko ever did) rather than immediately telling the original's room, which didn't help by Abomination!Sucy burst into the building as she spoke. In fact, it took Akko yelling at her face and subsequently being devoured by the monstrosity that said Sucy revealed the original Sucy's whereabouts: Room 666. With no time to lose, Akko barged into said room and found the original Sucy sleeping on a stone bed surrounded by thorns. As Akko cut her way toward the original, Abomination!Sucy turned into a giant drake-like creature while continuing the chase, giving the Japanese witch-in-training a hard time until it got stuck among the surrounding thorns. Now, finally having the original Sucy in her grasp, Akko tearfully begged her to wake up before remembering the medicines she carried. However, with Dragon!Sucy still closing in, Akko resorted to mixing them all into her mouth and trying to administer the mixed medicine mouth-to-mouth method, knowing that she would steal Sucy's first kiss in the process. Hilariously, Dragon!Sucy stopped its advance in that instance and enjoyed the sight of Akko about to "kiss" the original Sucy. As if that wasn't hilarious enough, Akko's advance proved too slow, so the annoyed original Sucy eventually awakened on her own, causing Akko to fall face-first onto the stone bed. Nevertheless, the overjoyed Akko happily hugged Sucy with the dismayed Dragon!Sucy about to tear up as its head bursts like a balloon, followed by Lotte's cries for them to awaken out of nowhere.
Finding herself awakened back in her room seemingly during the moment she still had Sucy's funnel in her mouth (the funnel was nowhere to be found this time, however), Akko, with memories of her adventures in Sucy's inner spiritual realm still fresh in her mind, rushed to wake Sucy up. The moment where she failed to steal Sucy's first kiss soon repeated itself; the annoyed Sucy woke up almost without warning, resulting in Akko falling face-first onto the former's bed before happily hugging the Manbavaran. Sucy, oblivious to what Akko had gone through, remarked that the latter was more annoying than usual as the three friends prepared for Finnelan's class. Akko was about to conclude that she had the strangest dream she ever had until Sucy unexpectedly reminded her to help carry her stuff for a month, much to her confusion, and she questioned whether her latest adventure was real all along before putting the implications aside.
The episode ended with a familiar red mushroom popping out beside Sucy's pillow...
Order of appearances[]
| Characters | Tools | Spells | Creatures |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Errors and Goofs[]
- When one looks closely at the facet of Sucy's personality that desires plastic surgery morphs, one can see that her normal left eye is missing, yet her post-transformed face does have two eye sockets.
- When Akko found the sleeping original Sucy in her room at the climax, she was seen carrying a sword along with a shield that she previously found carried by small humanoid mushrooms upon entering Sucy's dream. Oddly enough, Akko was never seen grabbing those, only being seen with them after she was inside the room.
Trivia[]
- The episode's original title, Sleeping Sucy, clearly alludes to the tale of Sleeping Beauty. When Akko tries to wake up the original Sucy, she tries to give her the medicine via mouth-to-mouth, not unlike how the prince in the tale broke the titular character's curse, even commenting that she is stealing her first kiss. Interestingly, at this point, the gigantic Sucy monster, who chased Akko, morphed into a kaiju that greatly resembles Maleficent's dragon form from the Disney movie adaptation. The episode also alludes to other popular works, be it through other parts of it or aspects of Sucy's personality Akko encountered[5][6]:
- Dexter's Lab: The beginning sequence where Sucy creates the potion is an homage to the introduction of Dexter's Laboratory.
- Gravity Falls: The scene in which Lotte reads how to cure Sucy's illness is similar to that in Gravity Falls in which Dipper Pines reads how to enter someone's mind out of Journal 3.
- Inception: Akko goes inside Sucy's dream to wake her up.
- Wizard of Oz: Sucy's dream is set in a location quite similar to the Golden Road of the Wizard of Oz.
- Your Name: One of several Sucies encountered writes あほ (idiot) in her face, referencing a famous scene from the movie.
- Star Wars: One of several Sucies encountered dressed like Obi-Wan Kenobi and even had a lightsaber, a Jedi's weapon of choice.
- Transformers: One of several Sucies encountered transforms her face, causing it to resemble the Transformers from the Michael Bay movies.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: The Sucy who wants to cuddle baby animals has the same animation as April May in the Turnabout Sisters case.
- Shin Godzilla: One of the Sucies encountered by Akko in her dream behaves and looks like Godzilla's incarnation of Shin Godzilla, with some of her hair protruding on her back like the titular kaiju's dorsal fins, and has one of her legs raised like the latter's tail. Even this Sucy breathes a fiery atomic beam whilst releasing energy beams from both "dorsal fins" and the tip of her "tail" leg (the beams and breath attack look like white lasers and streams of fire, arguably to avoid copyright issues).
- Silent Hill: Two Sucy Executioners dressed like Pyramid Heads, iconic monsters from the Silent Hill franchise.
- Universal Pictures: The "A Sucy Picture" logo shown at the beginning of the movie is a reference to Universal Pictures' 1922 logo.
- Rubber hose animations: The movie scene is a reference to old-school rubber hose animations, such as those created by Disney in its early days. This allusion was deliberately added by Yō Yoshinari because of his love for classic animations.[7]
- AKIRA: The movie scene where Lotte gets squashed by masses of growing mushrooms is eerily reminiscent of Kaori's death when she was squashed by the uncontrollably growing biomass of Tetsuo in the climactic scene of AKIRA.
- Annie & Dreaming Machine: The Sucy who picks Akko up, along with Angel!Sucy and Devil!Sucy to the theatre of memories dressed like the titular character from the 1982 musical film of the same name. While subtle, she may also allude to Ririco from the canceled film Dreaming Machine, as their outfits share the same color scheme, and that this Sucy's car is seemingly a 21st-century version of the latter's own.
- Attack on Titan & Spirited Away: The little Sucy's monster form alludes to that of the enormous, titular giant/zombie from the former series, while her interactions with Akko up until her transformation mirrors No-Face's to Chihiro in the latter film (from offering Akko/Chihiro lily/gold, being spared from execution/allowed into the bathhouse during the rain, and their behavior during their rampage).
- Sucy's love of watching movies, which was previously highlighted in "Orange Submariner" where she asked Akko to join her and Constanze in watching the Apkallu series, is reflected by how her memories are played at a drive-in theater in her inner spiritual realm, as well as the embodiment of Sucy, who picks Akko up, along with Angel!Sucy and Devil!Sucy, who frequently enjoyed the memories in question. The Chronicle book's article pertaining to the episode would confirm this to be the case.[5]
- The car's registration plates read LWA 008 = Little Witch Academia episode 8, while the model of the car itself is a 1968 Triumph Spitfire Mk3.
- Some argued that the registration plates were intended to be a riff on Agent 007 from the James Bond series.
- The room number 666 is an allusion to the Mark of the Beast, also known as the symbol of Satan.
- The statement by the Policewomen Sucy to the Nice Sucy ("You do not have the right to remain silent. You also do not have the right to consult an attorney.") when she arrests her is an inversion of the rights law enforcement in the United States must inform suspects in their custody of before they are interrogated, the most famous of which is the right to remain silent. Together, these rights and the warning that anything the suspects say can be used against them in a court of law compose the Miranda warnings.
- This episode features the fewest characters in the series, with only Akko, Lotte, and Sucy appearing.
- The Netflix title "Akko's Adventure in Sucyworld" is likely a reference to the famous book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
- This episode takes place at the beginning of September after the summer vacation ends, as stated in the Chronicles book.[8][9]
- This is Yō Yoshinari's favorite episode.[10]
- According to Hiroyuki Imaishi, he enlisted Akira Amemiya and Yō Yoshinari's assistance in working on both the first half of the episode and its cartoon movie scenes, respectively, as well as cleanup in finalizing it, because he wasn't confident that he could finish it in time on his own despite having plenty of time before the deadline.[2]
External Links[]
Reviews[]
- The Con Artists
- Rolling Review – Little Witch Academia (08) by CONARTISTBRENDAN March 1, 2017
Gallery[]
| Sleeping Sucy has an associated gallery here. |
References[]
- ↑ Little Witch Academia's Netflix Release Date Announced - IGN
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 2.28 2.29 2.30 2.31 2.32 2.33 2.34 2.35 2.36 2.37 2.38 2.39 2.40 2.41 2.42 2.43 2.44 2.45 2.46 2.47 2.48 2.49 2.50 2.51 2.52 2.53 Little Witch Academia Chronicles, Chapter 2, page 35
- ↑
- ↑ https://www.netflix.com/title/80156387
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Little Witch Academia Chronicles, Chapter 2, page 34
- ↑
- ↑ https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention/2022/anime-expo/studio-trigger-live-drawing-and-q-a-panel/.187173
- ↑ Little Witch Academia Chronicles, Chapter 4, page 116
- ↑
- ↑
External links[]
- Impressions
- Random Curiosity - Little Witch Academia – 08 by Passerby February 27, 2017 at 5:46 am