Little Witch Academia Episode 2 Review: Papilliodya

At last, Akko officially starts her journey as a student! And I know there are a lot of anime about school-life out there, but Little Witch Academia has magic! Magic! It’s a totally different world than our own! It’s no surprise that Akko was super excited!

Japanese Original Episode Title: パピリオディア

Plot

In this episode, we finally get a more detailed run-down on how life is like at Luna Nova! It seems like your normal all-girls school, with friendly roommates, average classes complete with boring lessons, and the usual snooty rich kid with her posse. What makes it different, though, is that it’s a Magical Academy, and there’s an extraordinary after-school event! Also, throughout the day, Akko had been trying out her new wand, the Shiny Rod, but to no avail. She did manage to use it before; could it have been a fluke?

Episode Highlights

The Shiny Rod not working – I’m not surprised at Akko’s tenacity anymore, but I still am quite amazed that she kept trying to cast magic with the staff despite it never working. Either our magical relic is too picky or Akko really just needs to learn about different spells. Maybe there are other certain conditions for it to work too? I do hope she eventually manages to use it freely so she can show everyone that commoners can be witches too! Can Professor Ursula help her once she starts tutoring Akko?

Diana Cavendish – I personally like her quite a bit! Unlike most anime rivals who are all talk but can’t back it up, Diana doesn’t even need to speak. Instead, she just immediately shows what she can do! She also doesn’t put others down just to show how superior she is. Her posse, Hanna and Barbara, do that for her, though. I guess being the child of a famous family is a big perk. She was also quick to deny credit for something she didn’t do. Too bad the teachers still thought saving the tree and the papilliodya was her doing though.

Shiny Chariot Trading Cards – No wonder Akko really wanted to collect them! Aside from the pretty art that makes me want to have one, it revealed different wonders of the magic world and Shiny Chariot’s spells! To some it may have seemed like a world for kids; they’ll eventually get over it once they’re older. But to our protagonist, it further sparked her dream on becoming a witch! I also love how Sucy and Lotte played the cards with her, just to cheer her up! What good friends!

Papilliodya – I’m surprised the older witches didn’t know anything about these. For creatures who ‘bring hope to the hearts of all who behold them,’ shouldn’t their way of reproducing be more well-known? Though, given that they only emerge every 120 years, it’d be easy to forget. Their chrysalises also do look like parasites. Good thing Akko and her trading cards saved them! They were such a marvelous sight, and indeed gave hope to all who saw them!

Themes & Trivia

Magic School – The premise of the school kind of gives you a very Harry Potter-esque feel, don’t you think? We’ve got old professors teaching about the language of magic, brewing potions, numbers…They also have magical creatures! There are other bunch of anime set in magic schools out there, like Alice Academy, and Akazukin Chacha.

The Ten Sefirot – These were written and illustrated on the blackboard during the third teacher’s lesson (the one on Pythagoras and the foundations of sorcery). They are attributes/emanations of God in the Jewish Kabbalah. The diagram in the middle is called the ‘Tree of Life.’ (I also mentioned this as one of the themes in my review for Occultic;Nine Episode 8! What a coincidence!)

Comments

This was such a nice and heartwarming episode! The storytelling perfectly introduced us to the school and the life as a student there! And like with the first chapter, it’s amazing how they managed to tell us quite a bit about the teachers with only a few short minutes of screen time! Yes, I know it’s not good to judge a book by its cover, but first impressions also count!

I guess the only thing that bothers me is how they easily shrugged off the damage to Akko when she was hit with Diana’s magic. Sucy said it looked bad, so how come she was suddenly fine after seeing the Shiny Rod glow and making it work? Could it have had something to do with it? Oh well!

Papillio Fillio Nymphodya!

Now we know that Akko really can use the Shiny Rod! It kind of makes me wonder now if we’ll get to see it in action more by solving different problems in every episode! Also, when will Professor Ursula start mentoring Akko, and why does she seem intrigued with her? Let’s find out next week!

Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the episode in the comments below! I’m excited to hear them!

Check out our Anime Info Page for more anime, and our episodic anime reviews for Winter 2017.