Saturday, April 20, 2013

LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA (2013)


The direct-to-video animation market in Japan used to be a hotbed for up-and-coming animators to be able to spread their wings and show off the full extent of their talents by either creating their own independent short films or adapting comic and novel series'. From the eighties to the mid-nineties, video stores were flooded with many different genres and styles of Original Video Animations (OVAs). Some of my favorites from this era include The Guyver (1989), Riding Bean (1989), and M.D. Geist (1986).

Unfortunately, with the turn that the Japanese economy's taken since then, animation studios have become much more averse to taking any risks. These days, the only DTV animated features being released in Japan are either TV show tie-ins or pornography. Thankfully, an annual project conceived two years ago, called "Anime Mirai", in which the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs funds on-the-job training for new animators, has been resulting in more independent OVAs being released lately. The short film that I'm writing about now, Little Witch Academia, is 2013's entry from Trigger, the animation studio that brought us the amazing Inferno Cop.


After attending a magic show by the dazzling Shiny Chariot, a brash, starry-eyed young girl named Akko enrolls in an academy for witches, but soon discovers it's not as easy as she hoped. She falls asleep in class, her spells backfire on her, and she's bullied by a girl named Diana, who both looks and acts like she might as well be Draco Malfoy's younger sister. When Akko tells her friends that she wants to be like Shiny Chariot, they say that she has a reputation for giving off the wrong impression of what witches do, and is probably a fraud. When it comes time for an exam that requires the students to navigate a labyrinth and seek out treasure, Akko jumps at the chance to both prove her worth and vindicate her idol.


Little Witch Academia sports a nice, safe story that doesn't break any new ground whatsoever, but it's competently written. The plot's solid, and it gives the audience enough of a reason to cheer on its hero. However, an original story was not the intended goal here, since it was created solely as a way for a young artist to put his talents on display, which it greatly excels at. The character designs are original, the colors are vibrant, and the animation is very fluid, which makes it really stand out from what's considered the norm for anime these days.

This was what the OVA movement was all about: letting artists showcase their talents by allowing them to take risks and not feel the need to conform to the industry standard in order to sell home video copies and merchandise. Little Witch Academia oozes that sense of artistic freedom, and in doing so, feels like a breath of fresh air. At only twenty-five minutes, it's able to maintain a good pace and doesn't drag on at all. I recommend it to those who like independent animation and want to show their support for it.


Little Witch Academia is Trigger's submission for the 2013 "Anime Mirai", and was animated and directed by Yoh Yoshinari (FLCL, Gunbuster 2: Diebuster).

4 comments:

  1. More OVAs sounds like it'd be great. The problem is that the whole business infrastructure is built around TV shows, so even if projects like these are successful, I'm not so sure it'll result in more OVAs.

    However, what this success might do is encourage new animators with new ideas onto the scene, and that's really what anime needs. Anime is super incestuous as we all know by now (insert imouto joke here), so regardless of whether we get more independent OVAs, it's supporting new genes for the gene pool, and that should be something everyone has a vested interest in.

    Speaking of independent animation, there's some interesting stuff going on in the doujin anime circles as well. Manpuku Jinja continues to produce very visually impressive Touhou shorts without the benefit of outside funding. Regrettably, they've only produced one story length short.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think all genre entertainment has that problem right now. That's why it's really nice to see a break from the norm in any art medium these days.

      Delete
  2. Nice post. I didn't know that the amount of OVAs had dwindled in recent years. I love Inferno Cop so I'll have to check this out sometime, though obviously this sounds very different!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It definitely leans more toward "Really, REALLY well-made children's movie" than absurdist comedy.

      Delete