Little Witch Academia Episode 3 Review: Don't Stop Me Now

Akko’s determination certainly knows no bounds! Sure, it may rub off the wrong way to some, but in life, you just can’t go wrong with having a passionate heart! We’ve seen this bear fruit for her in more ways than one in the previous episodes of Little Witch Academia, so how did it fare today?

Japanese Title: Don’t Stop Me Now

Plot

This was such a blast, wouldn’t you say? One of the things we know about witches is that they fly using brooms. And so, our witch-in-training, Akko, was super stoked to learn how! Flying proved difficult, however. It apparently can’t be done with only a magic word and apt focus. But has anything ever stopped our protagonist? She even had the gall to join the school’s yearly broom relay, despite still not knowing how to ride one!

Plus, we got introduced to a few new characters – familiar faces to those who’ve watched the second short movie, The Enchanted Parade! As with the other cast, their personalities were shown pretty clearly even without words! Professor Ursula also finally introduced herself to Akko as her mentor, and she’s doing her job slowly but properly! Yes, there was certainly not a single scene in this episode that bored me; everything was just truly fun and spectacular!

Episode Highlights

Akko trying to fly: In my opinion, it’s quite great that half of the episode was dedicated to letting Akko learn how to fly. Not only did we see again how determined she is, but also how humble she can be. The usual enthusiastic characters would take it as an insult if they were handed an elementary book on flying – it’s basically telling them they really know nothing! But Akko was only filled with eagerness to fly and easily admitted to herself that she really needs help! That’s why she wanted to do everything she could just to learn how, even if it meant learning from a kid’s book, or almost falling to her death multiple times. It was really marvelous to see Sucy and Lotte helping her and being so patient with her! I guess the power of friendship isn’t enough to make one fly, but it certainly helps!

The broom relay: It reminded me of the Quidditch sport in Harry Potter, but only because both sports involve riding a broom. A relay may seem quite a simple sport to some, but passing a baton and riding a broom at the same time seems quite tough! No wonder it was a big event in the school, and such a riot too! They even got an enthusiastic announcer and everything! The last leg was also particularly thrilling, since Akko had a huge chance of winning against Diana, if only she hadn’t been thrown off by –

Shooting Star: – the wild broom! Or is it really a bird? It kind of resembled something of a bird when it was set free at the end, didn’t it? Maybe that’s why it was so stubborn and rowdy when it was being held back! But, it’s quite an amazing bird-broom, as it managed to take Akko over the world in just a few minutes! I guess the rumors about it flying to the ends of the Earth was right! I’m curious if we’ll see it again someday. Maybe it will become Akko’s very own broom!

Professor Ursula – There’s something intriguing about her: her red eyes are just like Chariot’s, she has a fascination with the Shiny Rod and Akko, and she also kept looking at Chariot’s picture in the Hall of Fame. Is she somehow linked to the infamous witch? And why did she sound gloomy when she repeated ‘A believing heart is my magic?”

Themes & Trivia

Sports Episode: I guess you rarely see a school-life anime without something like a sports festival, huh? It’s one of the best ways to develop camaraderie and sportsmanship after all! Like when Diana saved Akko from almost being mush on the ground after falling off Shooting Star! I know a decent human being wouldn’t just let that happen, but that just goes to show that Diana is indeed a decent human being! She can also be a good sport, apparently. She would’ve lost to Akko if not for that fall, and normal rivals would’ve gotten terribly angry despite that. But she was actually quite happy and even ‘praised’ Akko, somewhat, saying ‘It seems she has passion, if nothing else.’

Witches and Creepy Things: The witch, Shiny Chariot, cast her spells like they were a fairy’s magic: sparkly, fantastic, kinda like stuff from little girls’ dream. But usually, we associate witches with spider webs and lizard tails, skeletons and human hair, right? Maybe that’s why Akko was a bit shocked when she saw that the Magic Item Café was filled with these creepy things; it was far from what she envisioned a witch’s shop would be like! Though actually, it seems these weird ingredients used by witches were just code names for actual plants used in potions, so that others wouldn’t know what they used.

Comments

Little Witch Academia just keeps on getting better and better! I do hope the next episodes will be just as exciting and fun as this one! The animation kept up with the energy of the story too; it actually contributed a lot on the wackiness that transpired. Even if some frames looked dorky or messy, it’s just because of the animation style, and it works! It actually improves some of the movements, especially the fast ones! Studio Trigger just keeps on one-upping itself with every episode! I can’t stop re-watching some scenes just to see the fun and how it was animated!

Tia Freyre!

I would say that this is my most favorite episode of the show so far, if only I wasn’t expecting for it to get even better from here on out! I wonder what new adventures await Akko, Sucy, and Lotte next week? And will Akko be one step closer to being the witch that she wants to be? Oh, this is just super thrilling!

Did you enjoy the riot just as much as I did? What do you think is in store for us next week? Share your comments below, and see you again in next week’s review! Do also check our info on the anime airing this season, as well as our reviews on some of them!