Orange Submariner

## Images

**Orange Submariner** (オレンジサブマリナー *Orenji Sabumarinā*?) is the 7th episode of the *Little Witch Academia* anime series.

## Overview

*Akko gets serious about studying but can't master the basics, even with Professor Ursula's help. She flubs test after test, risking her enrollment.*

## Summary

The episode begins with Lukić's magic law class, where the eccentric, elderly professor terrifies her students with the consequence of committing fraud and reviving the dead, only to be interrupted by Akko, who asks whether such things would be brought in the oncoming test. After an awkward silence, the eccentric professor awkwardly nodded. Both Lotte and Sucy can't help but be surprised by their roommate's unexpected change, evident through her not joining Sucy and Constanze in watching *Merman Apkallu* and *Apkallu 2: Revenge of the Merman* so she can focus on her study.

Despite her newfound resolve to take her studies more seriously, Akko still finds herself at a disadvantage, which doesn't help with the oncoming exam given to her progress prior to her visit to the Fountain of Polaris. In fact, throughout the exams, she unintentionally humiliates Finnelan when trying to outperform Diana in the strict professor's class, causing the angered professor to coerce Ursula to make a quick change. Not only that, Akko still has some difficulty in the academy's subjects, including Bird Language (which earned her a C during its test and another ridicule from Hannah and Barbara), Basic White Magic, Bird Language, Flight Magic (since she still yet able to fly), Culinary Magic (comically poisoning Professor Badcock with poorly enchanted apple), and Fundamental Alchemy (unintentionally blown the object she attempted to transmogrify into smithereens). Around this time, she learned from Lotte that Luna Nova has various specialized subjects essential to acquire national qualifications that offer various jobs that can use magic, which Ursula confirmed in their private lesson prior to the Flight Magic exam. The prospect of failure in the current semester looms over the Japanese, which doesn't help her despair as Diana foretold that Akko would likely leave Luna Nova in the middle of the Magic Astrology exam, which inadvertently provoked another ridicule from other students, particularly from Hannah and Barbara who tripped her. This time, her anger and frustration get the best of her. She attacked both bullies, resulting in a fight between the three, much to Finnelan's anger that Akko brought to the Headmistress Holbrooke's office, where the Headmistress somberly told her situation where she had to acquire the best grade in the final exam to avoid expulsion.

Even so, to try to get the best grade in the final exam (Magic Philosophy) is easier said than done, as the subject's teacher, Pisces, turned out to be the seemingly unassuming fish inside the bowl on the teacher's desk, a fact that Akko overlooked most of the semester that the failure seemed to be imminent. For a time, she fell into despair at the thought of expulsion due to her shortcomings in that test. Unwilling to give up, she resorted to trying to bribe Professor Pisces with a bottle of "fancy water that celebrities drink" only for mineral water negatively affected her, so she seemingly died. Panicked, Akko starts to run around with her, culminating with Pisces slipping out of her hands and going down the drain of a nearby sink, much to her horror. Ursula, Lotte, and Sucy arrive at the scene as this happens, but there's still hope to recover their missing teacher, with Sucy pointing out that they try to track Pisces down in the sewers. With that, the three friends soon give chase and enter the school's sewer, leaving Ursula to cover them up in the meantime.

As Ursula poses as Pisces where she turns a nearby eraser into a fish lure into the missing professor's bowl and hides under the latter's desk (while poorly fooled Nelson, who noticed something off in "Pisces"), Akko, Lotte, and Sucy turn into a fish to find the real Pisces, but Akko only able to transform halfway that she looked more like a large, cartoonish-looking anthropomorphic fish that retains her hairstyle and outfit. The three friends' search goes to a dead end when Akko meets a lonely fish whose family is trapped in a poacher's fish cage. Lotte tried to tell Akko they had no time to help the lonely fish's family, but Akko, unable to leave them on their fate, sacrificed her remaining magic energy to free them all before berating the fish cage's owner and returning his cage. Though they managed to find Pisces along the way, they ended up caught by Finnelan and other professors just as they returned to the school before being brought to Headmistress' office.

In light of the troubles that Akko caused to Pisces, coupled with her actions that inadvertently led to the sighting of a merman all over the news, Finnelan demanded Akko's expulsion expelled for disgracing the academy and for poor talents. This prompted Ursula to stand up for Akko by pointing out the young witch's progress (somehow mastering fish language in an instant and partial success of Metamorphosis Magic) despite the gap between her and her peers, but Finnelan remained adamant in her decision, going so far declaring that Akko never had a value as a witch from the start. Finally confirming her senior's true color as a highly predictable person with bigotry against magically untalented students and narrowed perspective to the boot, Ursula calls Finnelan out for her injustice and expresses her approval of Akko's selflessness with a passionate conviction, leaving the latter speechless. Although, Finnelan eventually stands down for real once Badcock informs the Headmistress that Environmental Agency contacted Luna Nova to express their gratitude over the academy's part in saving an endangered species of fish from poaching, and for that, Akko deserved a public commendation. It is then that Lotte realizes that they talked about a family of fishes Akko saved earlier. While Akko is now spared from expulsion thanks to her selfless act, Holbrooke pointed out that she still deserves a less severe punishment for attempting to cheat in her now-passed exam.

Later that night, Finnelan disciples Akko and her roommates with Ursula tag along in their detention. Akko is grateful to Ursula for standing up for her case and behaving like a teacher. Ursula corrected the younger witch that she *was* her teacher before Finnelan told the two to get back to work. The episode ends with Akko and Ursula giggling together before continuing their work.

## Order of appearances

* Lukić
* Lotte Jansson
* Atsuko Kagari
* Sucy Manbavaran
* Diana Cavendish
* Barbara Parker
* Anne Finnelan
* Ursula Callistis
* Avery
* Hannah England
* Amanda O'Neill
* Nelson
* Jasminka Antonenko
* Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger
* Samantha Badcock
* Miranda Holbrooke
* Pisces
* Magic Wand
* Magic Broom
* Object Repairing Spell
* Spirit Calling Spell
* Flavoring Spell
* Object Transformation Spell
* Transformation Spell
* Opening Spell
* Spirits
* Fish

## Trivia

* Chariot's leitmotif plays during Ursula's spirited defense of Akko.
* Lukíc's description of the punishment for those who perform necromancy and Diana's prediction of Akko leaving Luna Nova later brought up in "Blytonbury's Undead Travelogue" and "Yesterday".
	+ Despite being responsible for reviving Mr. Holbrooke, Akko, Lotte, and Sucy only assigned to fix broken brooms since they did so in a freak accident, something Headmistress Holbrooke correctly guessed.
	+ Akko leaving Luna Nova is not because of expulsion like Anne Finnelan, Hannah England, and Barbara Parker hoped, but rather sitting alone in depression over the revelation of her idol's (accidental) role in her shortcomings with magic.
* The episode title might be a reference to The Beatles 1966 song "Yellow Submarine".
* Apkallu series, film series Sucy mentioned in the episode, not only alludes the 1954 classic horror film *The Creature from the Black Lagoon* and its sequels, but also mythical group of seven figures of the same name from Mesopotamian mythology which at times described as humanoid fishes.
* During the ending outro, Akko, Lotte, and Sucy in their fish form appear as one of the visual cards of the closing credits.
* This episode and the exams take place in July, as stated in the chronicles book.

## References

1. ↑ Little Witch Academia's Netflix Release Date Announced - IGN
2. ↑ Little Witch Academia Chronicles, Chapter 2, page 32
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Little Witch Academia Chronicles, Chapter 2, page 33
6. ↑ https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/265265778230689793/354307531914608650/IMG\_20170904\_124940318.jpg

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