Little Witch Academia

Then that has more to do with my own memory and attention span.

Yeah, I figured out that the thing Akko lacks is patience the second Ursula mentioned it. And then they hammered it the rest of the episode.

But yeah, probably the weakest episode yet.

Yeah, that was definitely one of the weaker episodes. It felt like they were trying to cram too many concepts together and it ended up being muddled. And like somebody said earlier, it really doesn't help the episode's lesson that she needs to learn to be patient when she's explicitly working under a time limit. When everybody is going to die if you don't keep moving, it isn't the time to lecture about patience. Especially since ultimately that didn't really help her finish anything anyway. She got the yeti medicine by encouraging the guy, and the mixing didn't take long enough to require patience anyway.

And yeah, Lotte's parents really should've been more in focus.

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I dunno about it being a weak episode. Like yeah the lesson Akko had to learn doesn't match with the circumstances but it was still a really good comedy episode.

edited 24th Apr '17 3:47:10 PM by Chariot

Split it in two episodes. One is a relaxing slice of life to get to know Lotte's family, Finland in general, and thus, know more about Lotte, and being patient. And the other to focus on getting the ingredients and thus finding the fourth word.

edited 24th Apr '17 4:10:20 PM by kyun

Patience under pressure is the most important kind. Ever hear the phrase 'more haste, less speed'? They even rubbed it in with Akko's impatience delaying them while they tried to obtain the first two ingredients, resulting in Lotte and Sucy getting incapacitated before they could help with the next stage.

What's precedent ever done for us?

If I'm not mistaken, the word used for Akko's lacking trait was 忍耐, which means the ability to tolerate difficult circumstances; not what we usually consider to be "patience", but is exactly the definition of the virtue of "patience". So it's not just about enduring a long wait, but also about persevering in spite of obstacles, both of which were displayed in this episode.

That said, this episode had a lot of bizarre cuts and almost lost me a few times with how all over the place it was.

Give the God Eater game thread some love!

For an episode about patience, they sure weren't patient with the plot.

Some Finnish references. Personally I like salmiak (which is salty liquorice), but most people outside the Nordic countries can't stand it. Neighbour has a very familiar design.

edited 24th Apr '17 9:46:58 PM by AnotherDuck

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We're talking about the guys who made Kill la Kill here. Since when have they ever been patient?

Give the God Eater game thread some love!

And a magic moss disease is thematically bizarre for it. Moss grows on stuff that stays patiently still, and not on stuff that keeps restlessly moving. There's a whole proverb about it.

The endurance part works better, but didn't get as much emphasis placed on it.

This is why you must steadfastly watch the episode instead of getting distracted and impatient. Mayenab Dysheebudo, my friend.

edited 24th Apr '17 9:49:43 PM by rikalous

Yeah, it feels like they had a few separate concepts here and sort of mashed them together in a way that didn't quite fit together well. The idea that "patience" was better translated as endurance or perseverance does help a bit, but the episode's pacing was still really weird and it seemed like it shifted focus too often.

There were a lot of good individual scenes, but the way they were strung together didn't quite work for me.

edited 25th Apr '17 7:20:35 AM by JapaneseTeeth

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It's technically not a translation error if you consider the definition of "patience" that's one of the seven virtues, as I mentioned/linked previously.

Give the God Eater game thread some love!

Maybe not a translation error, per se, but the actual concept being discussed is definitely something more complex than what most people would think of as "patience."

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@rikalous: if I'm not mistaken, the book with the illustration of the magic ingredient needed for the potion even had the phrase "A rolling stone gathers no moss", so it sort of denies the whole point of the Word...

But to me nothing really worked in this episode, not even Croix' appearance, since I think it was already established that 1. she is evil 2. anger works best to summon big quantities of energy, without all the fancy monster-summoning and ramen-eating.

Speaking of eating ramen, anyone found bizarre that, while Akko is Japanese she hates bathing which is a typical custom of that country, while other supposedly Western characters acted in a very Japanese way? Lotte's family bowing and saying "Itadakimasu", and Croix eating the typical instant noodles? (unless that scene was just a brief Actor Allusion to Naruto)

"Effective Altruism" is just another bunch of horsesh*t.

It's a Japanese work, certain language and standards just show up anyway cause that is how it is done. Its heavily related to Anime Accent Absence.

edited 26th Apr '17 1:27:19 PM by Memers

I'm not sure how the Finnish culture is different from the Swedish in that regard, but here we say the equivalence of "Itadakimasu" after the meal, rather than before. Which, by the way, is, "Tack för maten," simply meaning, "Thank you for the food."

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Wait, now that Croix determined that anger generates the most energy out of all emotions, will she do something to anger Akko? Uh oh...

It's a thing in anime that children don't like sitting in baths, so I guess this was to show that Akko is childish?

It's something that requires her to sit still. Can you imagine Akko sitting still for any extended period of time? Although when it comes to a sauna, it's more often about not being able to handle the heat.

At least it's not as weird as not being able to handle non-flavoured milk. Then again, with Japanese food being so sweet in the first place, even for adults, it's no wonder some of them are depicted as being unable to handle anything not doused with copious amounts of sugar.

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Ramen is a pretty standard nerd food, so I wouldn't read too much into that bit.

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Well, except in that they showed Croix doing something nerdy and slightly pathetic, rather than just letting her be a cool, composed, intimidating villain 24/7. That means something.

What's precedent ever done for us?

Or she's so dedicated to her studies that she doesn't have time to bother cooking real food.

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She has familiar that can cook for her and the school fae are no longer strike, so I guess she is only eating it because that's what she likes.

That might something to do with the fact that Ramen is delicious.

I just think it means she's a researcher who eats whatever's convenient.

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I heard it was an homage to her voice actor, who was in Naruto.