A New Beginning

## Debuts

### Characters:

Akko, Sucy, Lotte, Diana, Hannah England, Barbara Parker, Avery, Ursula, Shiny Chariot, Pisces, Miranda Holbrooke, Anne Finnelan, Nelson, Samantha Badcock, Lukić, Amanda, Constanze,

### Tools:

Magic Wand, Magic Broom, Potions, Shiny Rod

### Locations:

Glastonbury, Arcturus Forest, Luna Nova Magical Academy

## Images

**A New Beginning** (新たなはじまり *Arata na Hajimari*?) is the 1st episode of the *Little Witch Academia* anime series.

On Netflix, the episode is known as **Starting Over**.

## Overview

*The enthusiastic but somewhat under-talented Akko, along with friends Lotte and Sucy, trains to be a witch at Luna Nova Witchcraft Academy.*

## Summary

Shiny Chariot is shown performing a magic show at night as a child Akko Kagari enters. Chariot then chanted the Seven Words of Arcturus before summoning the Shiny Arc. She then creates a portal as her grand exit. The magic show gives Akko a glimpse of dreaming of becoming Shiny Chariot.

Years later, Akko arrived in Glastonbury, England, to enroll at Luna Nova Magical Academy. However, she must find a bus station to take her there. She then stumbles upon Sucy Manbavaran, who is introduced silently. Akko spews a lot of exciting comments to her before Sucy uses a vial of puppet magic on her stuffed bird, letting it poke Akko's eye. Nevertheless, Akko continues following Sucy, who gives Akko a handshake before tricking her with a rope disguised as live snakes. panicking Akko and making her fall to a water bank.

As she mumbles over her poor interactions with Sucy while climbing the hill to the station, Akko spots Luna Nova students Avery, Barbara Parker, and Hannah England gossiping about a transfer student, whom they find out is Akko, due to her being from a non-magical background. As they notice Akko (who tried going unnoticed), she greets and asks the three if there is a bus stop; they all chuckle at the statement and insult her. They then head to the ley line portal above them to participate in the opening ceremony with their brooms. Akko then attempts to catch up with them by climbing for the portal but falls and is dismayed that she can only access it by flying. Fortunately, she managed to get help from another student named Lotte Jansson, who offered her a ride to the school despite Lotte's initial reluctance due to her haste for the opening ceremony.

As they transverse through the portal, the ley lines suddenly suffer sudden disturbances, leaving Lotte confused by this turn of events. To her horror, said disturbance was revealed to be triggered by Akko's salty pickled plums. In her panic, Lotte urges Akko to discard it as the disturbance worsens, and they, along with Sucy (who also transverse through the same portal), lose control of the flight and fall off their brooms. Hilariously, in the ensuing chaos, Sucy first bumped into Akko's Alcor plushie before being accidentally tackled by its owner. The incident alarmed the unassuming teacher of Luna Nova, Ursula Callistis, and her familiar Alcor, who quickly used a disco ball-like astrological device to check ley line locations and sees the disturbance on Arcturus Forest's ley lines, prompting her to investigate what had transpired.

Recovering from the fall, Akko accidentally pinned Sucy to the ground just as she recovered her Chariot Card, which horrified the Japanese until the annoyed Manbavaran got on her feet as if that was nothing. Just then, Akko finds Lotte, who, too, survived the fall despite her broom breaking into two because of the crash. As Akko and Lotte wondered where they were, Sucy stated they had arrived at her destination, Arcturus Forest, which horrified Lotte as she added that anyone who entered the forest, even witches, could not get out once they entered. Just then, Akko found her scattered belongings and wasted no time to retrieve them, only to stumble upon a nearby Mandrake, much to her and Lotte's horror.

Barely escaping the man-eating plant, Sucy puts Akko and Lotte into a tough situation where she locks them into a round cage made of enchanted ropes and has them summon a Cockatrice for her so she can collect one of its feathers. This further dismayed Akko as Sucy also intended to have her and Lotte as sacrifices for said endeavor and rolled the cage over to escape the cockatrice. Just as they escaped a burst of its petrifying breath, Sucy managed to pull one of the Cockatrice's poisonous feathers, angering it, so it decided to chase her instead. Simultaneously, the cage that Akko and Lotte rode crashed, injuring Lotte's knee in the process. With her injury and broken broom, Lotte becomes pessimistic that they will arrive at the ceremony in time, and Akko argues that they cannot give up yet. As she carries Lotte on her shoulder, Akko declares her determination to become a witch despite the odds, allowing Shiny Rod to materialize in front of her, much to her surprise.

Knowing what to do, Akko took the staff and called out to the cockatrice to gain its attention to lure it onto the Mandrake's vines. Her plan works very well, as the monster leaves Sucy alone and chases her instead, only to be entangled by the man-eating plant's vines. With the cockatrice trapped, Sucy took Lotte and Akko on the ride to escape the forest, where at this moment, Sucy properly introduced herself to Akko. To Lotte's horror and Akko's dismay, however, the cockatrice broke free from the mandrake's vines with a big explosion before taking flight and flying toward the girls. As the cockatrice began to shoot them down with its fiery breath, Ursula arrived in time to see the event, wondering how they came into the forest before noticing Shiny Rod in Akko's hands. Suddenly, one of the cockatrice's fiery blasts destroyed Sucy's broom, resulting in her, Lotte, and Akko plummeting to the ground below. With no time to lose, Ursula cried out to Akko to recite the First Word of Arcturus, thus allowing her to turn the Rod into its Shiny Bow configuration to create a Ley Line portal with Shiny Arc below her, Sucy, and Lotte that led straight to Luna Nova. The portal closes as soon as they enter, preventing the cockatrice from chasing the girls further.

As Akko, Lotte, and Sucy transverse the portal, Akko sees glimpses of past and future events before her, moments before she and her companions crashed into the ceremony right in front of students who had arrived in time and teachers. Fortunately for her, despite their unpleasant arrival that interrupted the ceremony just as it started, Principal Holbrooke still allowed Akko to enroll in the school and had Finnelan bring Akko to her dorm, where her roommates were none other than Sucy and Lotte themselves. Once Finnelan left them alone, Akko greeted her roommate by introducing herself, this time more properly.

The episode ends with a shot of Ursula's room that night, where Ursula smiles as she gazes at the moon with the return of Shiny Rod...

## Order of appearances

* Akko Kagari
* Shiny Chariot
* Diana Cavendish
* Sucy Manbavaran
* Barbara Parker
* Hannah England
* Avery
* Lotte Jansson
* Alcor
* Ursula Callistis
* Amanda O'Neill
* Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank Albrechtsberger
* Jasminka Antonenko
* Pisces
* Samantha Badcock
* Anne Finnelan
* Miranda Holbrooke
* Nelson
* Lukić
* Shiny Rod
* Puppet Magic Potion
* Magic Broom
* Magic Projector
* Magic Wand
* Seven Words of Arcturus
	+ First Word: Noctu Orfei Aude Fraetor
* Flying Spell
* Rope Cage Spell
* Alcor
* Mandrake
* Cockatrice

## In other languages

 France
 Brazil

## Trivia

* Diana made her cameo debut in the episode as her teenage self in Luna Nova and her younger self during Shiny Chariot's show before her speaking debut in the next episode. The same goes for Amanda, Constanze, Jasminka, Samantha Badcock, Anne Finnelan, Miranda Holbrooke, Nelson, Lukić
* This episode fulfills a purpose remarkably similar to the first short film.
	+ It starts with Shiny Chariot performing a magic show and Akko as a child. Diana can be spotted in the audience watching Shiny Chariot's show. Akko finds the Shiny Rod and activates the first word with help from Ursula.
		- Likewise, the two-part season finale "What You Will" and "Samhain Magic" fulfill a purpose similar to the second movie.
		- However, there are several noticeable differences between the short film and its anime adaptation:
			* Whereas the first short film has Akko finding Shiny Rod among items in New Moon Tower's dungeon, the staff appears in front of her and Lotte at Arcturus Forest instead.
			* Chariot's performance in the anime was much longer than in the short film, in addition to hidden, sinister implications through the pixel beast in her show.
			* During the same show in the anime, Diana wears no hat, unlike Akko, who consistently has hers. Although the short film depicted the hat as purple and has a yellow star and blue band, the anime changed it to resemble Chariot's greatly.
			* After the performance in the short film, it goes straight to when everyone is already at the academy and knows each other.
			* Amanda, Constanze, Jasminka, Badcock, Finnelan, Holbrooke, Lukić, and Pisces are added despite not appearing in the first short film.
			* In the short film, Akko and Diana already knew each other, unlike in the anime, where they eventually met in the second episode.
			* The short film established Akko being able to fly with a broom, albeit poorly, in stark contrast to the anime in which she cannot fly at all.
			* Lastly, the stage in which Shiny Chariot performs her show in anime is confirmed to be a real-life location, specifically the larger venue of Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall.
* This episode takes place in May, along with "Pappiliodya" and "Don't Stop Me Now", as stated in the chronicles book.
* When     Akko is traversing the Leyline and having visions from both the future and the past, among first few visions is her approval letter from Luna Nova which is designed loosely based on one in Teri Terio manga.
* Though not 100% accurate, fansub version of the scene where Barbara voices the urgency to arrive in time for Luna Nova's opening ceremony further confirms that Luna Nova is indeed situated in a magic realm which closely linked to Earth with Ley Lines, an idea which previously discussed by Yoshinari and his fellow animators in the booklet that came with the first film's Blu-ray. Regrettably, such part of translation was lost during dubbing process by Netflix which simplified Barbara's line in the same scene into following, "If you're late to the opening ceremony, you'll be banned from ever attending Luna Nova."

* Akko mentions magic world which may alludes either magic realm in which Luna Nova situated at, magic community as whole, or both
* Barbara explicitly mentions magic realm as she, Hannah, and Avery make haste for Luna Nova.
* List of items Lotte carry in Episode 1 and their real-life counterparts
* Salmiakki and Karl Fazer chocolate reference in A New Beginning
* A can of Surströmming among Lotte's scattered belongings
1/5
* Keisuke Satō manga adaptation of the scene rectified this by providing more accurate English translation of Barbara's aforementioned line which close to fan translation all along. Here, she says "If we're late to the entrance ceremony, we'll be exiled from the magic realm!". On a related note, the manga also has Akko mentioned 'magic world' in the middle of her rants as she shows Sucy one of her Chariot card, which alludes either magic realm in which Luna Nova situated at, magic community as whole, or both. Regardless, such revision was intentional in the author's part to ensure his manga adaptation of *Little Witch Academia* anime TV Series remain faithful to source material as much as possible.
* Such discrepancies of course, is attributed to Studio Trigger's little to no control in English dub approach made by Netflix.
* If one looks closely on Lotte's scattered belongings in the scene when Sucy reads a book about Arcturus Forest, two of them are chocolate bar with Karl Fazer brand and a box of Salmiakki. The former is based on real-life chocolate brand that existed in Finland since 1922 while the latter a type of bitter confectionery of Germanic and Nordic origin which is said to be the worst-tasting candy in the world. That included a can of Surströmming (lightly salted fermented Baltic Sea herring traditional to Swedish cuisine which also served as main ingredient for a variant of Karelian pastry featured in "Pohjola's Trial" called Hapansilakka pie.
	+ Another of Lotte's noteworthy belonging was a kuksa, a handmade Finnish mug with distinct handle.
	+ The flower motif on the bag Lotte carries some of her belongings with on the other hand, appeared to be based on the one used by real-life Finnish company Marimekko Corporation, a Finnish textiles, clothing, and home furnishings company founded by Viljo and Armi Ratia in Helsinki in 1951.
* At the closer look on Akko's scattered belongings as she crashed into Sucy, one of them is a manga which, judging from its cover, alludes a Japanese manga series *Tokimeki Tonight*.

## Errors/Goofs

* Akko introduced herself to Lotte and Sucy for a second time upon learning that they were roommates, despite them already doing so on separate occasions. Given the circumstances of their first meeting, however, this may not necessarily count as an error, and she decided to do so, albeit in a more proper manner.

## References

1. ↑ LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA, POUDLARD BOOSTÉ À L’ÉNERGIE SPIRALE
2. ↑ Little Witch Academia's Netflix Release Date Announced - IGN
3. ↑ https://www.netflix.com/title/80156387
7. ↑ Little Witch Academia Chronicles, Chapter 2, page 20
9. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/sweden/comments/5n12xf/surstr%C3%B6mming\_i\_little\_witch\_academia/
10. ↑ https://twitter.com/hasrock36/status/1645448335145197569

## External links

### Essays

* ATELIER EMILY
	+ Leylines, and More on Magic in Little Witch Academia by ajthefourth January 25, 2017

## Navigation

v ~ t ~ e~ **TV Series** ~
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