Chapter 1 (Keisuke Satō)

## Chapter 1

**Chapter 1** is the beginning chapter of the 2017 *Little Witch Academia* manga series adaptation illustrated by Keisuke Satō.

## Overview

*Having been inspired by the illusory magic of the performing witch, Shiny Chariot, Atsuko "Akko" Kagari decides to enroll at Luna Nova Magical Academy, where Shiny Chariot studied. On her way to the school, she gets teased by the other students, who mock her non-magical bloodline. Unable to fly on a broom through a leyline leading to Luna Nova, Akko manages to get a lift from another new student, Lotte Jansson. However, because of some salty pickled plums Akko was carrying, she and Lotte, along with another witch named Sucy Manbavaran, end up falling out of the ley line into the forbidden Arcturus Forest.*

## Summary

The chapter begins with Shiny Chariot's magic performance one night, a show which inspired Akko to become a witch someday. Despite her once bullied for such seemingly impossible dream, Akko still holds on it dearly, which subsequently led to her learned about Luna Nova, the academy where Chariot attended to.

The next panels then show how some witches depicted as malicious beings in some pictures and old tales, while others as benevolent and helpful folks with Shiny Chariot being among the latter. There are also magical academies that trained young witches, with Luna Nova being among them — the same academy the excited Akko currently heading at. After asking around for information regarding the bus station which will take her there to no avail, she soon figured out that both it and Glastonbury Tor are one and the same before crashing into Sucy who too, heading for Luna Nova. The excited brunette spews a lot of exciting comments to her, which later prompts the Manbavaran to shut her up by turning her mouth into a zip and hastily while Akko is distracted. Hilariously, in both her shock and excitement over this foul magic demonstration, Akko ended up falling off the small bridge into a water bank below.

Recovering from the fall while climbing the hill to the station, Akko spots Luna Nova students, Avery, Barbara Parker, and Hannah England, who are gossiping about a transfer student, who 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; and 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. As much as their insults reminded her of similar ones from her past bullies, Akko brushed that aside to catch up with them by climbing for the portal. Just then, Lotte appears and about to enter the Ley Lines when she notices Akko's suitcase. Believing it to have belonged to a hasty student who unintentionally left it behind, the Finnish takes the suitcase with her only for its owner (Akko) landed onto her broom, startling them. Surprised at first, Lotte gives the Japanese a ride together for Luna Nova, much to Akko's relief.

As they transverse through the portal, the ley lines suddenly suffer sudden disturbances, leaving Lotte confused with this turn of events. To her horror, said disturbance revealed to be triggered by Akko's salty pickled plums. In a panic, Lotte urges Akko to toss it away, but the disturbance becomes increasingly worse and they, along with Sucy (who also transversed through the same portal) lose control of the flight and fell off their brooms, with Akko inadvertently bumped into Sucy as this happens.

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 gets on her feet as if that was nothing. As she recognizes her as the same witch who shut her up with magic moments ago, Akko finds Lotte who too, survived the fall despite her broom broke into two due to the crash. As Akko and Lotte wondered where they are, Sucy stated that they arrived at *her* destination, Arcturus Forest, which horrifies Lotte...

## Order of appearances

* Akko Kagari
* Shiny Chariot
* Diana Cavendish
* Sucy Manbavaran
* Hannah England
* Barbara Parker
* Avery
* Lotte Jansson
* Lotte's Grandmother (mentioned)
* Shiny Rod
* Magic Broom
* Puppet Magic Potion
* Flying Spell
* Alcor

## Manga & Anime Differences

* There's a page showing a child Akko practicing to ride a broom and scraping her knee by failing, just like in the pictures shown in the anime. However, the manga also shows some boys picking on Akko after her failed attempt, while in the anime, the bullies never made an appearance.
* Sucy uses a potion to transform Akko's mouth into a zip, instead of giving life to her toy and giving her a handshake of snakes when the former didn't work to shake her off.
* As mentioned by Lotte herself, Lotte's Grandmother replaces Jane as one of two people who gave her a lot of stuff to carry during her journey for Luna Nova.
* Akko and Lotte meet when Akko accidentally falls on the latter's broom when she was entering the Ley Line Terminal after she picked up Akko's suitcase.

## Trivia

* Alongside the next chapter, this chapter serves as the adaptation of "A New Beginning".

* Barbara explicitly mentions magic realm as she, Hannah, and Avery make haste for Luna Nova.
* Fan sub version of the scene
1/2
* Barbara's line as she, Hannah, and Avery make haste for Luna Nova where she voices the urgency to arrive in time for its opening ceremony in the manga is close to fan translation of the same dialogue in the episode the chapter adapted from unlike dubbed version that omitted magic realm part of the dialogue, something which true to the author's intention to ensure his manga adaptation of *Little Witch Academia* anime TV Series remain faithful to source material as much as possible.