Franchise / Little Witch Academia

"Welcome to the world of magic!" ^Characters Clockwise from top left: Ursula Callistis/"Shiny" Chariot du Nord, Diana Cavendish, Sucy Manbavaran, Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger, Amanda O'Neil, Jasminka Antonenko, Lotte Jansson. Center: Atsuko "Akko" Kagari. Not pictured: Hannah England, Barbara Parker, Andrew Hanbridge, Croix "du Sud" Meridies

"Never forget, a believing heart is your magic."

— Shiny Chariot

Little Witch Academia is an anime franchise by Studio TRIGGER, which spun out of a 2013 animated short film created by Yoh Yoshinari of Studio Gainax fame.

It focuses on the adventures of Atsuko "Akko" Kagari, a young and plucky Japanese witch-in-training attending the prestigious Wizarding School Luna Nova Academy, where she dreams of following in the footsteps of her idol Shiny Chariot. However, there is only one problem. She is a muggle who is very incompetent at magic, which, combined with her rebellious, childish and impulsive nature and her idolization of Shiny Chariot, who is not well-liked in the magic community, tends to constantly put her at odds with both teachers and students alike, particularly the school's top student, Diana Cavendish, a highly proud and insanely skilled witch prodigy who tends to look down on Akko for the aforementioned reasons.

However, in spite of the insane odds placed against her, she isn't gonna let them stop her and, with the help of her best friends and roommates: Lotte Jansson, a shy but kindhearted bookworm who can communicate with spirits; Sucy Manbavaran, a highly mischievous Deadpan Snarker who loves mushrooms and potions; Amanda O'Neil, a rebellious and tomboyish delinquent; Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger, a silent student who tends to combine magic with technology; Jasminka Antonenko, a sweet girl who tends to be a Big Eater; her mentor Ursula Callistis, who, unbeknownst to Akko, is actually her very idol in disguise, and finally, the Shiny Rod, a mysterious and powerful wand that her idol used in her shows and chose Akko as its wielder, Akko will stop at nothing to become the witch she dreams of becoming.

Works in the series in release order:

Films — Animated

• Little Witch Academia (2013): A short film released by Studio Trigger in 2013, featuring Akko and her friends Lotte and Sucy on an assignment to explore a dungeon while the haughty top student, Diana, inadvertently causes trouble.
• Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade: A Kickstarter-funded sequel, wherein Akko and her friends — alongside three other troublemakers, Amanda, Constanze, and Jasminka — are appointed to oversee the school's annual witch parade, only for problems to ensue due to Akko's highly ambitious ideas and Control Freak tendencies.

Anime & Manga

• Terio Teri's five-chapter manga: Ran on Ultra Jump from 2013 to 2015.
• Little Witch Academia: The Midnight Crown: Written by Yuka Fujiwara and ran in Ribon through 2015.
• Keisuke Sato's manga: Ran on Monthly Shōnen Ace from December 26, 2016 to August 25, 2018.
• Little Witch Academia (2017): A full-length anime series that serves as a Continuity Reboot for the franchise, again following the hapless Akko and her friends' hijinks at Luna Nova. Despite her troubles in her classes, Akko finds that she can use Shiny Chariot's old wand with surprising aptitude, and may eventually have to use it to combat the global decline of magic. The series was announced in 2016 and ran from January to June 2017.

Literature

• Little Witch Academia: The Nonsensical Witch and the Country of the Fairies: A light novel by Momo Tachibana.

Video Games

• Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time: An action RPG for PlayStation 4 and PC announced in May 2017. The game was developed by A+ Games, published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, and was released in Japan on November 30, 2017, and May 15, 2018, in Western countries.

• Little Witch Academia: VR Broom Racing: A VR game by Univrs, released on October 13, 2020, on the Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2 and June 15, 2021, for the PlayStation VR, the Oculus Rift, and Steam VR.

If a direct link leads you here and it points to the 2013 and 2015 films, the 2017 series, or the video games, please correct it to the proper page.

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Believe in yourself, that is your trope:

• The Ace: Diana Cavendish comes from an old noble family of witches who descends from one of the Nine Old Witches (basically the supreme authorities on magic), is extremely intelligent and talented, has always the right answer for everything, knows more than her teachers do, always looks elegant and composed...and after all of this we discover that having her magic drained out of her as a child, so she had to relearn everything, and having her evil aunt plot to sell her family's artifacts to muggles didn't even affect her that much, making her even more of an Ace.
• Adults Are Useless:
  • Averted in the films. While Professor Ursula is the only one present to deal with the dragon problem, she promptly reacts in a meaningful way by re-barring the dungeon door. When students attack it, she tries to stop, showing she knows about the dragon's ability to eat magic. When the students' aggressive magics make the dragon so powerful that it destroys the door, she orders the evacuation of the building and uses herself as bait to allow the students to reach safety. She does it again in The Enchanted Parade by fooling the parade crowd that the battle against the giant is all an elaborate stage show to prevent a mass panic.
  • Played straight in the TV series. All the adults besides Ursula and Croix are ridiculously incompetent—they exist only to teach classes and prescribe punishments, sometimes needing the kids to sort out their messes. They signed a major funding contract for the school without reading it because it's written in ancient dragon language, but, naturally, Diana can read it and discovers the dragon who wrote it was taking advantage of their inability to read it, giving them much less than he owed them. However, Ursula occasionally gets to do something, such as when she saves Akko and Andrew from a rampaging bear.
• Aerith and Bob: The series has fairly normal names for the witches' country of origin, like Akko Kagari (Japanese), Diana Cavendish (English), and Lotte Jansson (Scandinavian).^note The variant "Lotta" is more common in Finland. This is juxtaposed with a name like "Sucy Manbanvaran".^note Likely a garbling of some Philippine terms, as she is Southeast Asian: susi is Tagalog for key and mambabarang is a Cebuano term for a sorcerer/sorceress.
• All Part of the Show:
  • In The Enchanted Parade, a combination of factors releases a magical rock giant during the town festival. Professor Ursula plays it off like this a show that the Wizarding School is putting on, and has them cheer encouragement as Akko, Lotte and Sucy defeat it. Funnily enough, Akko did want to put on a show like this earlier, but it fell through.
  • In "Undead Travelogue", Akko passes off the antics of a reanimated corpse as being part of an elaborate street performance.
  • In "Bee Affection", Andrew turns Akko's attempts to swat the Lovelove Bee into being part of the evening's entertainment, by accompanying her on the piano with "Flight of the Bumblebee".
• All There in the Manual: Little Witch Academia: Chronicle contains additional information and lore regarding the main characters and world that isn't presented otherwise (alongside various interviews and concept art). Sadly though, the book never saw a release outside of Japan. invoked
• Appeal to Tradition: A common argument. The older witches prefer things done "the old way" and are thus unable to keep up with the changing times, much to the frustration of Akko and company.
• Arc Number: The series may well be determined to cover every non-Christian three in Europe. We've got the students in witch covens of three, triquetras, Hecatian trios including Hecatian depictions of the moon, and even a Grand Triskelion.
• Arc Words: "A believing heart is your magic." Shiny Chariot's creed, which fuels Akko's ceaseless drive and determination to fulfill her dreams of becoming a witch. It also serves the crucial narrative purpose of setting up Diana to re-inspire her after she hits a bad spell of Heroic BSoD, and additionally, the fact that the phrase originated from Croix, Chariot's Evil Former Friend and the Big Bad, establishes the importance and sincerity of their past bond, suggesting that Croix is not completely beyond redemption.
• Artifact of Hope: The Claiomh Solais (better known as the "Shiny Rod") is a Magic Wand designed to break a series of magic seals called the Grand Triskellion and unleash an unfathomable reservoir of magical power in a world where The Magic Goes Away. Only the Chosen May Wield the Shiny Wand and it has routinely swapped hands throughout the years, each learning a few of the Seven Words of Arcturus meant to break the seal but never managing to learn all of them. By the end of the series, the show's protagonist Akko is the one who figures out how to wield the Shiny Rod for its intended purpose.
• Bespectacled Cutie: Both Lotte and Professor Ursula wear glasses.
• Bilingual Bonus: Most visible text in the franchise is in English due to it being set in the UK, so the native Japanese viewers would have to know the language to be able to read it.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: Jasminka (Big), Amanda (thin), & Constanze (short) are the secondary trio in The Enchanted Parade.
• Black Bead Eyes: A few of the student extras have them.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Diana (blonde), Barbara (brunette), and Hannah (redhead) are the most obvious. The two main Trios, meanwhile, have Sucy/Jasminka (light purplish hair), Akko/Constanze (brunette), and Lotte/Amanda (redhead).
• Boarding School: Luna Nova is a magical all-girls boarding school.
• Brick Joke:
  • Why, in "Starting Over", is there a fishbowl—complete with what appears to be a fish wearing a witch's hat—up on stage with all the professors? Well, as it's revealed in "Orange Submariner", she's one of the professors and speaks only inscrutable fish-ese.
  • In Chamber of Time, when searching for magic keys, Akko stumbles upon Sucy and asks her if she found any of them. Sucy answers that she'll keep an eye open when hunting for mushrooms. A bit later, when a troll blocks Akko's way, Sucy gives her a spell to put them to sleep... Along with a magic key.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Each of Akko's classmates are individually recognizable, even from a distance.
• Casting Gag:
  • Japanese version:
    • Professor Ursula is voiced by Noriko Hidaka, who also voiced a certain female from Gunbuster who often struggled with her own skills and worked hard to achieve them.
    • Professor Finnelan is voiced by Rurika Yamamoto, who voiced Melissa in Tweeny Witches.
    • Broom Flight teacher Nelson is voiced by Minami Takayama, who also played the little witch Kiki in Kiki's Delivery Service.
    • Woodward, one of the Nine Old Witches who appears in episode 11, is voiced by veteran voice actress and singer Mitsuko Horie. She also voiced the 1988 incarnation of Atsuko "Akko" Kagami, whom Akko Kagari is named after.
    • Daryl Cavendish is voiced by Shinobu Adachi, who voiced Menow in Tweeny Witches.
    • Diana's narcissism in episode 10 is a reminder that her voice actress, Yōko Hikasa, also has been narcissistic before.
    • Arisa Shida, Amanda's Japanese voice actress, already voiced a girl whose last name is O'Neill.
  • English version:
    • Marin Miller, Amanda's English voice actor, already voiced the three witches named Magna, Qoo, and Popo in Tweeny Witches, another anime where an ordinary Japanese girl ventures into the witches' world with the two native witches.
• Censor Shadow: During the "flying lesson" sequence, a character's underwear should be visible, but the particular character's legs don't appear to attach to anything under her skirt.

• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • Extremely subtle, to the point where it's more of a Rewatch Bonus. At the end of the first film and the series, Akko asks Diana how she knows about Shiny Chariot's attack, the Shiny Arc. Now go back to the very beginning and look closely at the first crowd shot. A young Diana is seen in the audience for Shiny Chariot's show.
  • Professor Ursula. She's first shown to be listening in when Akko and Diana are arguing about Shiny Chariot. In the end, she's revealed to be Shiny Chariot herself.
• Chromosome Casting: The original short film had no human male characters unless you count the extras in the prologue. This is justified since after that scene the whole thing is set at an all-girls Wizarding School. This is averted in The Enchanted Parade, but even there only one male character is important enough to get a name. This is averted in the TV series as well, where there are multiple male characters seen, named, and mentioned.
• Color Motif: Green is often used to symbolize magic as a whole throughout the franchise, representing its connection to nature in the setting.
• Creator Provincialism: The main heroine, Akko, is the only thing linking this series with Japan, as the whole plot takes place in England. Curiously though, the titular Luna Nova Academy seems to follow the Japanese school year, with the first term picking up in April.
• Creator's Culture Carryover: The series is set in the United Kingdom and, for the most part, the writers did do their research. However, "Pohjola's Ordeal" shows Lotte's Finnish family have very typical Japanese traits, such as bowing and saying "Itadakimasu" before the meal. Also, in what may or may not be a parody of this kind of thing, the same episode shows that the lone Japanese character, Akko, strongly dislikes the typical Japanese tradition of having long, hot baths. In Chamber of Time, Luna Nova inexplicably follows the Japanese school calendar, which is why summer vacation happens in the middle of the school year rather than after it.
• Cute Witch: This is justified since the series is centered around a school for witches.
• Dub Name Change: The stone that powers the school's magic was originally called "魔導石", or "Magic Stone", when translated literally. However, in the English dub and even the English subs, it is called the "Sorcerer's Stone".
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The first film has some adult characters involved in the plot, and the teachers seem reasonably competent. The TV series, however, goes deep into Adults Are Useless territory. Other than Ursula and Croix, who are sort of honorary children thanks to flashbacks, the teachers seem less talented than their students—especially Diana, who, in "Pact of the Dragon", resolves conflict through knowledge of an ancient language the professors couldn't understand.
  • The first film features a modern-day laptop on Lotte's desk and Akko and Diana both use them in the library in Chapter 3 of the Teri Terio manga, which contrasts with later works such as The Enchanted Parade and the TV Series, which portrays modern technology as being restricted on campus (prior to Croix's arrival in the latter) with Constanze and Croix being the only two witches out of the main cast to actively use modern technology, with the others such as Chariot and Lotte using magical alternatives to provide much of the same functions.
  • Diana was far more of an Alpha Bitch and a Jerkass to Akko in the short films and the Teri Terio manga than in the TV Series and onwards, which toned down those traits significantly. Diana was also more aggressive, emotive and reactive in the short films compared to the TV Series and onwards, which made her more aloof and coolheaded.
  • While Akko has always been an Inept Mage from the offset, she can do magic somewhat competently from the beginning in the short films and Teri Terio's manga, even if much of it wasn't great. This comes in contrast with later works such as the TV series and Keisuke Satō's manga, which has her as being unable to do any magic at all from the start (bar the Shiny Rod's magic) and having to slowly develop her abilities over time.
  • In the films, the Shiny Rod's abilities weren't activated by separate words, as "Makmur Mikmur Mektoral" was the incantation spell used for both the Shiny Rod's Shiny Arc and the Shiny Ballista forms. Beginning with the TV series, the incantations for the Shiny Rod became unique to each form as the Seven Words of Arcturus were established, with "Noctu Orfei Aude Fraetor" becoming the incantation for Shiny Arc, while "Makmur Mikmur Mektoral" became the incantation used for the Shiny Ballista in Chamber of Time.
• Emerald Power: Spell-energy is usually green, and so is the Sorcerer's Stone that powers all of their magic.
• Eyes Always Shut: Jasminka is almost always this combined with Perpetual Smiler.
• Family Honor: The reason for Diana's holier-than-thou attitude is that she comes from a prestigious clan of magicians, and feels obliged to uphold its greatness.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • The Enchanted Parade shows that witches and non-witches don't get along. The activities in the witch parade are recreations of things that happened during now-defunct witch hunts. Akko and the others get into a fight with witch-hating brats.
  • In the series, Mr. Blackwell is against witches and magic more out of principle, whereas Earl Hambridge is against magic simply because he sees it as an obsolete practice and impractical to invest in for the future of his country. The latter's opinion changes after he witnesses them save the world in the finale.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Slightly downplayed, but aside from the franchise's main focus on human witches, there are dragons of different kinds, a yeti, a cockatrice, a minotaur, a number of energy spirits (like the ones Lotte summons for assistance in magical tasks, or the fire spirits that supply Luna Nova with heating), random formless ghosts (targets of The Wild Hunt), not to mention the unnamed diversity of what look like elves, dwarves, fairies and other mythical creatures that form the corps of school staff and maintenance. There's also a number of magical flora (not counting a powerful witch who became a Plant Person), including a sheep tree, mandrakes, at least some of Sucy's mushrooms, and most notably Yggdrasil, the source of the series' magic at large. There are even Magitek robots, courtesy of Constanze and Professor Croix, the series' resident Gadgeteer Geniuses.
• Fictional Province:
  • Blytonbury is a fictional town located in England heavily inspired by and is implied to be close to the real-life Glastonbury.
  • Diana's home is located in Wedinburgh, which by the name alone, could be a possible expy of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Although it's unknown if this is the case or not.
• First-Episode Twist: That Professor Ursula is a retired Shiny Chariot is always revealed early on. This casts Akko's attendance at Luna Nova in a new light.
• Flying Broomstick: Knowing how to use one of these is supposed to be an extremely basic skill that all witches learn while growing up, but since Akko's not from a wizarding family, she can't fly at all. The truth behind her inability to fly one is way more tragic in the TV series.
• For Happiness: This is the motivation for both Akko Kagari and her idol, Shiny Chariot. Chariot's desire became a Tragic Dream, discarding her performance career to become the meek Professor Ursula.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The main characters:
  • Sanguine: Atsuko "Akko" Kagari. The optimistic, temperamental Genki Girl.
  • Phlegmatic: Lotte Jansson. The levelheaded, albeit shy, Nice Girl.
  • Melancholic: Sucy Manbavaran. The aloof, apathetic Deadpan Snarker.
  • Choleric: Diana Cavendish. The blunt, confident Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • Eclectic: Ursula Callistis/Chariot du Nord. The calm, yet charismatic, Badass Teacher.
• From Zero to Hero: Akko dreams of becoming a magnificent witch who spreads happiness, but she lacks the magical prowess. She frequently goofs and looks even more incapable next to her highly skilled rival Diana. However, she goes through lots of training and manages to spread happiness with sheer positivity, even learning to master the legendary Shiny Rod which comes in handy when saving the world.
• Ghostwriter: One episode sees Lotte trying to meet the author of her favorite book series. She learns that the books have been written by multiple ghostwriters using the same name. She ends up taking over after the current ghostwriter retires.
• Good Old Ways: The culture of the witches is shown to be steeped deep in tradition. Luna Nova Academy, in particular, is filled with various traditions, customs and ways that seem archaic by modern standards. Because of this, many of the students and staff have a bias against Akko, a regular person from a muggle family that idolizes Shiny Chariot, a witch hated by many other witches for her grandiose use of magic for entertainment.
• Hand of Glory: There's one of these on a desk in the main characters' dorm room. Suffice it to say that it most likely belongs to Sucy.
• The Hecate Sisters:
  • The main trio maps to this, even though they are all the same age (around 15 or so). Akko is the maiden (new to magic, impulsive and youthfully exuberant). Lotte is the mother (caring, nurturing, sweet disposition), and Sucy is the crone (Pale skin, jagged teeth, and more mature than the other two).
  • Averted with The Diana/Hannah/Barbara trio, because Diana so outshines the other two, who are identical.
  • Luna Nova is littered with statues of the three sisters and uses a classic waxing, full, and waning moon symbol as a logo.

• Improbably Female Cast:
  • Apparently, one hundred percent of magic users were female. There were male muggle characters, and even male magical creatures always around... but no wizards appeared for years outside of a self-contained Japan-only short manga with a dubious place in the canon. Wizards were at last depicted in the very last episode of the series as cameos and until then, only witches were shown. The male muggles do, however, have much more prominence than female muggles in all the adaptations, and the Wild Hunters may actually be a group of all-male humans that use some type of magic distinguished from witchcraft.
  • Said manga, Little Witch Academia: Tsukiyo no Ōkan, has Akko meet a childhood friend who attended the same Shiny Chariot school she did and became a Wizard, a rather competent one at that much to her chagrin, and even gets some good old shojo Ship Tease with him. However, the status of the manga as canon or being its own timeline remains dubious as its never referenced in other works.
• Leitmotif: "Chariot's Theme" gets various arrangements.
• Ley Line: The Leylines are a series of networks around the world that allow magical energy to flow and connect various geographical locations, making them both a magic power source and a form of fast transportation for witches. Additionally, they're later explained to have formed from the roots and branches of Yggdrasil, and become unstable when anti-magic objects like salt are brought into them. Later on, Professor Croix introduces what are functionally wi-fi routers that absorb magic from ley lines.

• Living Gasbag: The monstrous whale-like leviathan conjured and then slain by Shiny Chariot as part of her show gives this impression, considering that it's very large and fat and yet somehow manages to fly with no apparent means to do so.
• Magic Is Feminine: While there are male magical creatures and muggles in the setting, the only human magic users seen throughout the franchise are female witches. Wizards only play prominent roles in stories of dubious canonicity.
• Magic Skirt: Most noticeable when Akko plummets from the sky on a disobedient broomstick; her skirt just wiggles slightly. She is a witch, so actual magic may be involved.
• Magic Wand: The series has more modernized wands, with a folding/extension ability, a forked tip to discharge the magical energy, and a magical battery indicator. Most wands in the series look identical, meaning they're clearly school-issued, but other wand models are seen, for instance, in Lotte's parents' magic tool shop. The Cavendishes also traditionally use another type of wand, one that appears to be made of wood, with a length of ivory snaking around it. Then there's the Shiny Rod, which is in a class on its own and seems more to be a hybrid of this and Magic Staff.

• Magicians Are Wizards: Shiny Chariot is hated by most magic practitioners for spreading "the wrong idea about magic", namely grandiose "stage magic" augmented by many special effects to please the crowds.
• Magitek: Magic-powered technology is rare because it's frowned upon by traditionalist witches, but there are some people who utilize it. Constanze Braunschbank Albrechtsburger is a witch student who mixes magic with technology like a Spark. She made a Robot Buddy out of a Playstation-like console, flies a broom with a propeller-driven engine, made a magic firing shotgun, and magic-powered microwave ovens, among other tricks. Later on, Professor Croix is introduced as a witch who uses advanced technology in conjunction with magic such as a smartphone as a wand and wifi routers that picks up magic from Ley Lines.
• Master Poisoner: Technically, Sucy's specialty is potions in general, but the way she's able to instantly kill a huge minotaur in the first film with one of her concoctions has her border on this. In The Enchanted Parade, she keeps reminding Akko that the difference between a medicine and a poison is proportion, something Akko needs to pay more attention to.
• Meaningful Background Event: You probably won't notice it unless you're looking for it, but take a close look at the crowd shot at the beginning of the first film and the series. Notice the blond girl in a witch's hat.
• A Minor Kidroduction: The first short film and TV series starts with a young Akko watching Shiny Chariot's stage show. Diana can also be spotted in the very first crowd shot swaying back and forth.
• Morph Weapon: Shiny Chariot's Shiny Rod can be a Magic Staff, a Flying Broomstick, and an Energy Bow. In the first film, Akko finds it in the dungeons and is able to use its Energy Bow form to defeat the dragon. The normal wands used by the students and staff also double as broomsticks.
• Multinational Team: The series takes place at a British Wizarding School with a lot of international students. The main trio consists of Atsuko "Akko" Kagari (from Japan), Lotte Yanson (from Finland), and Sucy Manbavaran (from the Philippines). Other prominent characters include Diana Cavendish (from England), Amanda O'Neill (from the USA), Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger (from Germany), and Jasminka Antonenko (from Russia), plus teachers Ursula/Chariot (from France) and Croix (From Italy).
• Multiple Demographic Appeal: The manga spinoffs have run in shonen, seinen, and shojo magazines, proving the series' appeal transcends age and gender. Also, while it's technically not a kodomomuke series, it is still pretty kid-friendly and is marketed towards children on Netflix US.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The main trio of Akko, Lotte and Sucy all form this dynamic. Lotte is mild-mannered, kind to others and quiet to the point of being an occasional doormat, Sucy is an aloof and sarcastic Jerk with a Heart of Gold who isn’t afraid to speak her mind and has a tendency to subject Akko to her experiments, and Akko is a good-hearted and caring person to her friends, but has a tendency to cause trouble and is prone to being impulsive, arrogant, childish and selfish.
• Nobody Can Die: The series has its fair share of perilous situations—including a stone-breathing cockatrice in "Starting Over" and a magical illness that turns people into moss—but other than the dragon in the first film and a love-inducing bee in the TV series, no living creatures ever die in it. This is partially brushed off by a comment that witches are notoriously difficult to kill, but not all of the characters are witches. It does acknowledge that humans can die when the heroes visit a cemetery and accidentally reanimate a corpse, but no one dies during the course of the story.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: The series is set at a Wizarding School in the south of England, with characters from all over the world including Japan, Britain, Finland, America and the Philippines. The English dub has everyone, including the British Diana, sounding American regardless.
• One-Gender School: The series is set in Luna Nova, a school for witches and only witches. In the TV series, there is also Appleton Academy, a school for male muggles patterned after Eton. Both of them are private boarding schools.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: The Chilean Spanish dub has many instances when the Chilean accents are very notable, especially with Akko, Diana and the Professor.
• Phenotype Stereotype: Zigzagged. This applies to some characters:
  • Irish-American Amanda has green eyes and red hair and British Diana is a blue-eyed blonde. However, the show does a good job of averting the usual traits kids from different nationalities may have, somewhat helped by the fact that the series takes place in a European witch school. For example, the Russian/Ukrainian Jasminka doesn't have the nose that regular Russian and other Slavic characters would have, the German/Austrian Constanze is a short, adorable brunette, and ashen-skinned, purple-haired Sucy doesn't look very Filipino.
  • As for the male muggles, Andrew fits the trope of British men being Tall, Dark, and Handsome, while a lot of the other male characters are blond, which has been a rarer stereotype for British men these days, and "Chumlee" has a universally portly look^note Although that's because he was the Captain Ersatz of a real person.
  • Zigzagged to a further extent with the minor (background) students of Luna Nova. Most of them averts this trope by not being depicted with any features that will immediately identify them as any particular nationality, but some plays it straight by having features that leaves no doubt to their origins ^example Rajani and Rashmi being Hindu, Wangari being African, etc.), while some are odd cases where they're depicted with one race's features but are revealed by supplementary materials to be another race entirely ^example Avery and Gaelle (the student Akko briefly talks to in episode 7 of the anime) are stated by supplementary materials to be Russian-Canadian and German respectively, yet could easily pass off as East Asians with the way they are depicted.
• Post-Modern Magik: A recurring element in the series involves magical people and creatures using modern conveniences. There's a dragon who uses the internet to trade on the stock market, the yeti who's depressed because he's being cyber-bullied, Constanze's constant construction of Magitek, Lotte's crystal ball that can connect to the internet, and of course Professor Croix's own heavy usage of sleek-looking magitek that wouldn't be out of place in an Apple store. All this is in contrast with the otherwise extremely Hogwarts-like setting.
• Power Glows: Chariot's Shiny Rod.
• Reconstruction: Of the Cute Witch genre.
• Serious Business: Many witches (particularly those who are older and/or conservative) treat magic this way. Seeing magic as a powerful and serious force that demands respect and/or fear. Witches who see magic as being anything otherwise tend to be ostracized and/or treated poorly by others.
• Shout-Out: The short films and anime have their own pages.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: On top of the several references to stars and witchcraft, the series features a surprising number of references to the world of animation. Diana's Girl Posse, Hannah and Barbara, are named after Hanna-Barbera, background characters, Avery, Mary and Blair, are referencing Tex Avery and Mary Blair, and apparently Akko (in addition to her full name being a reference to Atsuko Kagami in Himitsu no Akko-chan) was a common name among several Japanese animators.
• Spiritual Successor: Of Tweeny Witches, since the premise of both series is basically the same: a young Genki Girl human loving magic so much she wants to become a witch herself, to the point she ends up living with actual witches who at first distrust her because she goes against tradition.
• Stern Teacher: Aside from Ursula, Pisces and Croix, most of the professors are shown to be this type. While not entirely unreasonable and can be fair, they are incredibly strict perfectionists who have a low tolerance for antics. Finnelan being the most strict of them all.
• Tamer and Chaster: Compared to other Gainax/Trigger works, the series contains little to no Fanservice, Shiny Chariot's Hot Witch outfit being the sole exception and even then it's hardly framed as fanservice.
• Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity: Among the main trio, the outgoing Akko is a tomboy in personality, and the bookish introvert Lotte can be considered a tomboy in looks. The former is an All-Loving Hero, while the latter is a gentle soul. Their friend, Sucy, on the other hand, is pretty feminine in looks...and really, really loves her poisons. It's to the point of Heroic Comedic Sociopath antics, in the anime.
• Translation Convention:
  • All the on-screen text is in English, heavily implying all the characters, Akko included, speak it. Given the clearly international student body, English fluency could be an entrance requirement (or Translator Microbes are in full effect). This is enforced by the fact none of the characters, including Akko, use honorifics with the obvious exception of sensei (Professor).
  • The chalkboard map seen in Akko's Magic History class (about 2:50 in) shows the location of Luna Nova Academy to be roughly in or near Bath, Somerset; Akko uses a Union Flag as an improvised parachute in The Enchanted Parade; a tie-in comic name-drops Glastonbury as Luna Nova's mailing address.
  • It is heavily implied that Akko had to learn English to enter the academy, as she also writes in that language, even for herself. While this could sound like a very trivial thing to do, for a Japanese person, or any East Asian person for that matter, learning English is quite a challenge by itself, making Akko's Determinator personality more evident, especially for the Japanese audience.^note Curiously enough, Akko mentions in "Papiliodia" that she still struggles with the pronunciation of some spells. However, a lot of the spells aren't in English. To take this even further, Akko is only a teenager. If you're familiar with Japanese school systems, their English classes don't really teach their students how to speak English more so than reading and writing it. The fact that Akko not only has fluency in reading and writing English, but can also converse with native speakers like Diana and Amanda in a colloquial sense goes to show just how determined she was to go to the same school Chariot was at.
  • There's also the fact the German Constanze does not speak, implying she doesn't know "English" in-universe. and Jasminka speaks in a simpleton tone of voice, probably implying she's not very fluent on English either.
• Trick Arrow: Shiny Chariot's signature spell "Shiny Arc" is an arrow that, when fired into a monster's maw, makes the creature bloat and spectacularly explode in a shower of fireworks. It works on otherwise magic-proof dragons.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: While Sucy and Akko are friends, Akko's Hot-Blooded-ness annoys Sucy, who likewise uses Akko as an ill-fated guinea pig for her potions.
• Wave-Motion Tuning Fork: Luna Nova's wands have this appearance◊, with spells coming out from between the prongs.
• The Weird Sisters: Witches at Luna Nova seem to always be teamed up in groups of three roommates who do almost everything together: Akko, Lotte, Sucy; Diana, Hannah, Barbara; Amanda, Constanze, Jasminka; Wanagari and her unnamed fellow reporters. Even various background characters tend to appear in recurring trios.
• Wicked Witch: Lukic and Sucy have this aesthetic while the rest tend towards Cute Witch or in the case of Shiny Chariot, Hot Witch.
• Witch Classic: Luna Nova's student uniform includes pointy hats and black (or purple) dresses. Among the subjects taught are broom riding and potion brewing. Akko is a part of a trio of friends (who are also witches) and her rival, Diana, is also in a group of three as her Girl Posse. In fact, this seems to be invoked by Luna Nova given that roommates are in teams of three.
• Wizarding School: Luna Nova, an all-girls witch school.
• Your Magic's No Good Here: The characters note that their magic only really works in Luna Nova due to the Sorcerer's Stone collectively powering all magical items. Although it is possible to use magic outside of school grounds, regular magic wands lack the capacity to be used for prolonged periods of time. Akko puts two and two together and decides to use the Shiny Rod as a battery in The Enchanted Parade.

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