Little Witch Academia

Time to learn some Magic! NOW GET TO CLASS!

Little Witch Academia is a Japanese anime franchise created by Yoh Yoshinari and produced by Studio Trigger (Kill la Kill). The original short film, directed by Yoshinari and written by Masahiko Otsuka, was released in theaters on March 2, 2013 as part of the Young Animator Training Project's Anime Mirai 2013 project, and was later streamed with English subtitles on YouTube from April 19, 2013. A second short film partially funded through Kickstarter, Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade, was released on October 9, 2015. An anime television series aired in Japan between January and June 2017, with its first 13 episodes available on Netflix worldwide beginning on June 30, 2017. The next 12 episodes were released worldwide on August 15, 2017. Two manga series have been published by Shueisha.

Tropes used in Little Witch Academia include:

• Action Girl Just about every witch is one to some degree. Shiny Chariot is the most famed contemporary one in the story.
• Adorkable: Pretty much every main character has something they'll go full-geek-out about. Akko has Shiny Chariot (she even has a Shiny Chariot trading cards collection), Lotte has the Nightfall book series which is a popular book series in their world, and Sucy has mushrooms and poison.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Akko is the first person admitted to the academy that doesn't come from a family of witches. Many of the other students and even faculty kind of look down on her because of this.
• Badass Adorable Some of the feats the witches accomplish is quite impressive. Student AND professionals alike.
• The Beautiful Elite Andrew, Diana, and their friends are considered this.
• Big Damn Heroes: Many such as when Akko threw herself in front of Diana's magic to protect the pupae of a magical butterfly.
• Big Good Shiny Chariot.
• Brainwashed and Crazy An episode of the anime centers around Akko, Sucy, and Lotte trying to get rid of a "cupid bee" whose sting causes the one stung to fall in love with the first person they see. It's a pretty potent sting.
• Brought Down to Normal The entire magical world in general is apparently getting weaker and weaker each year. Both in terms of cultural relevance AND magical energy itself.
• Calling Your Attacks The way they cast spells involves using magic words, so it technically counts.
• Cute Witch: Plenty of the students attending the academy are this.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Diana
• Ethnic Magician: There are rules/laws and even government policies concerning how witches handle themselves and magic: Committing fraud, murder, and reviving the dead are the 3 biggest no-nos for witches.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles Magic tends to appear very sparkly in this series. It works though, because it gives everything a glowing and energetic feeling to it.
• Extraordinarily Empowered Girl Shiny Chariot, obviously. Diana is renowned for being the most promising up-and-coming witch in years. Akko is also secretly this, but nobody knows, including herself.
• Fairy Companion Lotte has one. Her magic allows her to communicate with and summon fairies (or spirits, depending on translation), and the one most often seen is the one inhabiting Lotte's skull lantern which she is seen taking with her and interacting with most often.
• Fairytale Magic Dresses In one of the episodes, Akko, Lotte, and Sucy try to buy magical dresses, and end up with a special magical item that grants them each "Cinderella" dresses that last 2 hours.
• Fantastic Racism While it's not a specifically racial thing, the non-magic populous tends to see those who study and use magic as either irrelevant/outdated or something weird and bizarre. At the same time, there are many witches who feel that magic should ONLY be used in specific ways adhering to long-kept traditions, and any using it otherwise like Shiny Chariot had is seen as disgraceful or improper.
• Familiar: Lots of witches have them. Birds seem to be the most common type.
• Flying Broomstick: The word "Witch" is in the title, of course they'd have these show up. Pretty much any witch can use a broom easily, except for Akko. There's even a special magic broom that flies on its own without a rider, and seemingly has its own will.
• Fish People Literally. There's an entire class taught by a fish living in a bowl, and she speaks only with her "fish language" which those who take her class are required to know. Akko eventually learns to understand fish language and can talk to any/all fish.
• Graceful Loser: When she loses the Broom Relay race, she took it in stride because she finished in 2nd even though she couldn't even fly on a broom and had had lots of fun being in the race at all.
• Henchmen Race The witches have fairies and (seemingly) other species that resemble goblins and trolls working for them at the school.
• Hot Witch: They can't... or rather... (thankfully) they aren't all ugly, wart covered, stereotypical, sickly-looking ladies. Some of them are actually quite the lookers.
• Idiot Hero The main cast are students. Of course they're kind of clumsy and still learning the ropes of magic, especially Akko.
• Inept Mage: Akko. She's pretty bad at magic. Justified, since unlike the other students, she is NOT from a family line of witches. Also, plenty of the other witches at the academy have their faults, even the faculty. In fact, witches in general around the world are apparently getting weaker and weaker as time goes on. To get a sense, in one episode of the anime, the Sorcerer's stone is taken from the academy and pretty much nobody, not even the faculty are able to actually do much magic without it. The reason is connected with magical energy throughout the world being sealed and lessening each year, and culturally, it seems like lots of witches, especially much of the academy's faculty, don't seem to be trying to adapt/adjust how they teach the students to use magic in the modern era.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Diana. I mean it's pretty obvious she's not actually a bad person nor is she as stuck up as she seems, but she has her family duties to uphold. In fact, throughout the series, SHE is never the one to mock Akko or her friends, its pretty much just her 2 friends/followers that do it.
• Kick the Dog: A lot of Akko's peers and even a bunch of her professors are pretty harsh towards her. Then again, she does have a habit of breaking school rules quite a bit.
• Lady of Black Magic: Sucy somewhat. She's not evil... Unless you ask Akko, but she doesn't exactly care about the academy or attending it. The whole reason she went there to begin with was to find special ingredients for poisons and potions she wants to try and make.
• Lovable Rogue Shiny Chariot. Compared to the rest of the magical community, she was known for being very theatrical with her use of magic to perform shows for people. Akko had seen one of Chariot's performances as a little girl and had assumed that ALL witches were like Chariot. There's also Amanda O' Neil, who just sees her time at Luna Nova as a time for having as much fun as she can.
• Magical Incantation The spells function as this, obviously. There are a number of sacred phrases/spells that are key to unlocking a special power in the Shiny Rod.
• Mage Tower: The Sorcerer's Stone sits atop a giant tower on the campus.
• Magical Library: It's not much, but they have one. Their magic museum is by and large better though, because they keep all sorts of magical artifacts and other trinkets in it.
• Magical Society: It's not like witches and non-magic people live in totally separate social worlds like in Harry Potter, but culturally, magic is looked down upon as obsolete.
• Magic Staff: Both meanings of the word. The staff of the academy are all magical witches (obviously), and there are those who use staffs, but mostly wands to do magic. The Shiny Rod itself could count as this for Akko since it's around half her height and those far bigger than any other wand shown.
• Magic Wand: Witches seem to need wands to perform most magic. One of the most iconic wands is of course the "Shiny Rod", which was Chariot's.
• Magical Girl The show is about w-i-t-c-h-e-s!
• Magical Girl Queenliness Test The Fountain of Polaris, and the supposed "Spirit of the Blue Moon" each do this. Akko technically fails the first (for now), but passed the other. Chariot had eventually passed both on her own back in her day.
• MacGuffin: The Shiny Rod, the Sorceror's Stone, and magic itself.
• Necromancy Reviving the dead is one of the, if not THE biggest crimes a witch can commit. Guess what happens at least once.
• Not So Above It All: Professor Ursula ends up getting roped into a lot of Akko and her friends' schemes. This causes her to also get in trouble when they get busted, but she takes it in stride.
• Outdated Outfit: The robes the witches wear for their supposed "sacred witch dances". Think of the plainest, most unappealing, and just overall boring black cloak someone can wear. No wonder people think witches are obsolete, hell even other alumni witch think they look lame.
• Plea Bargain: Akko actually begs (on hands and knees) for her broom to help her fly, but it does nothing.
• Power Crystal The Sorcerer's Stone.
• Power Gives You Wings In the Enchanted Parade film, Akko, Lotte, and Sucy toward the end manage to temporarily activate One-Winged Angel forms that give them the power of flight, even without wings. Magic as a whole can be used to do this.
• The Quiet One Sucy is very stoic and doesn't say much, especially when she first appears and meets Akko, but she eventually starts opening up a bit more... Much to Akko's dismay since a lot of what Sucy says and does is to prank Akko.
• Reason You Suck Speech Akko ends up on the receiving end of these a lot. From some of her professors and peers for her not being from a family line of witches, from her peers for always going on about how she admires Shiny Chariot and ideally wants to be like her, and by plenty of other people just for studying magic in the first place. Don't worry though, she usually manages to shut the people who tell her that stuff up by completing some impressive feat with magic.
• Robe and Witch's Hat: They have standard uniforms for everyday class, but they also have special uniforms which include the robes and witch hats for special occasions. The teachers and adult witches generally wear this sort of clothes more often than not. There's even a teacher who is named "Professor Pisces" an actual FISH that wears her own little witch hat at all times.
• Rose-Haired Girl Shiny Chariot.
• Sharp-Dressed Man Andrew is ALWAYS seen in a proper suit.
• Shout-Out: There's a few sprinkled in. The Harry Potter series, the Twilight Series, Sailor Moon, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, and even the Fate/stay night Series.
• Stage Magician: Shiny Chariot had been using magic to put on shows and inspire audiences to demonstrate how wonderful magic was. We know she at least succeeded with doing that for Akko.
• The Chosen One Akko of course, but practically everyone and their grandma thinks that the most likely one to be this would be Diana.
• Try to Fit That on A Business Card: Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank Albrechtsberger. Go ahead. TRY!
• Unfit for Greatness: Lots of people take shots at Akko be it for not being from a family of witches or for being too much of a Wide-Eyed Idealist, OR for practicing magic at all since they feel that magic is obsolete.
• Vain Sorceress: Diana and a lot of the other witches at the academy come off as this when they look down upon or flat out bully Akko.
• Walking Spoiler Shiny Chariot is literally this.
• White Mage: Shiny Chariot. In her prime she literally wore a white outfit, which set her apart from how most other witches seem to enjoy wearing dark attire.
• White Magician Girl Again, Shiny Chariot. However, in the Enchanted Parade film, Akko, Sucy, and Lotte take on this form temporarily while they take down the Titan.
• Wicked Witch: Some fit the description of this based solely on their appearance, others it's by their actions, but not all witches are evil.
• Witch Doctor: Using magic for medical purposes is a genuine and legitimate profession in their world.
• Witch Classic: There are a few that fit the stereotypical image of a witch, and honestly that's part of the problem, because them trying to force their students to practice magic using old/outdated traditions without any regard to modern culture has led to a huge decline in how they stand in society.
• Wizarding School: A school for witches to train. It's the title of the series.