Sky War Stanship

## Images

**Sky War Stanship** (空中大戦争スタンシップ *Kūchū Daisensō Sutanshippu*?) is the 18th episode of the *Little Witch Academia* anime series.

On Netflix, the episode is known as **Stanship Take Off!**.

## Overview

*As the annual Wild Hunt approaches, Akko tries to help her taciturn classmate Constanze, with mixed results. Professor Croix hatches a plot.*

## Summary

The episode begins with everyone in the cafeteria enjoy watching the latest match of the annual ghost-hunting sport called Wild Hunt, with some of the students swooned upon the sight of a handsome participant on the conjured screen. As Lotte explained what the Wild Hunt event is, the conclusion of said match revealed that the final stage will take place on the outskirts of Blytonbury on the 12th night of the event. Remarking that the teachers and even Headmistress Holbrooke also enthusiastic about the oncoming event, Ursula glanced at Croix as she suspected the modern magic professor having other plans before poorly shrugged it aside when Akko noticed.

Just then, a Stanbot nearby catches Akko's attention as it carries a box full of parts. Noticing the small robot unintentionally dropped one of the parts, Akko tries to bring said part back to it but, in her clumsiness, she ended up tripped and crushed the Stanbot under her weight.

Feeling guilty over the mishap, Akko brings the parts along with wrecked Stanbot back to the green team's room and apologizes to its owner. To her surprise, only Jasminka and Amanda who present as the German mechanic had left to prepare for joining the Wild Hunt event — it's revealed that Croix has given Constanze special permission to enter beforehand. In her pleasant surprise, Akko accidentally opened a secret passage beneath Constanze's bed (triggered by a hidden button on the same bed), resulting in her and the wrecked Stanbot to fell into a cart beneath. Barely recovered from the fall, Akko soon finds herself traveling at high speed throughout the cart's course and before long, she landed at a sofa in an enormous underground workshop which has been prepared as a cushion for her landing. Surprised by Akko's intrusion at first, Constanze is outraged that the clumsy Japanese had damaged her precious Stanbot that she kicked her out via. a seat elevator, sending her back to her dorm room.

Still irritated by Constanze's intrusion on the next morning, Akko, alongside Lotte and Sucy, meets Amanda and Jasminka who worked on their roommate's errand in place of her broken Stanbot, in which the Japanese took over their duty to make up the guilt from the shenanigan on the other day. Unfortunately, her competence in the task leaves too many things to be desired for the German mechanic that Constanze locked her up inside a cage and wrote a message in her chalkboard that says, "I work alone. Undeterred, Akko magically turns into a mouse to escape (Constanze turned out to forget to confiscate her wand beforehand). Looking for a way out, Akko stumbled upon the workshop's hangar and sees a partially completed large technomagic ship. She also noticed a board with blueprints and designs posted on it, along with a photo of young Constanze herself, hinting that she had a not-so-happy childhood (be it due to being adopted or one of her parents re-married). Nevertheless, Akko also finds that she and Constanze are not so different when it comes to dedication and drive towards one's passion, and tried to reason with the German mechanic when she finds out. Unfortunately, this doesn't enough to convince Constanze to allow the Japanese to help her, and once again Akko is kicked out, this time by a horde of fully functional Stanbots on her behalf.

Continuing her task, it came to light to Constanze that working on the ship's engine by herself is not enough. As the still-annoyed Akko watched in the canteen (while ignoring her friends), Constanze has a hard time borrowing a orichalconium mixer from goblin chef, as the goblin is unable to trust her with the cooking equipment partly from disagreement with Luna Nova witches in the light of the strike some time ago. Soon after Constanze left, Akko successfully convinced the goblin chef to lend her the mixer on the German mechanic's behalf, revealing that her friend needs it for participating in the Wild Hunt, an event which goblin chef excited with as much as everybody else. She soon returned to Constanze's workshop with the orichalconium mixer soon after just as the latter realized she cannot afford to buy one for her own. Just then, a video mail popped in Constanze's computer which reveals a monk's lecture about magical plants called Planta Tartarica Barometz where they grow in a sacred ground that is forbidden to enter and that he won't reveal its location. However, Akko revealed her familiarity with such spots since the plant was featured in one of her Chariot cards and with that, she makes her leave for one, leaving the dumbfounded Constanze behind.

Narrowly escaping the irritated monk while arguing about money with him before turning into a penguin to make her escape from the mountains where Planta Tartarica Barometz grows, Akko brings an intact plant back to Constanze. The Japanese tell her friend that while it's not wrong to work on things all by oneself, it will be even better if one worked together with others since they can achieve even impossible feats. Noting that Akko has valid points and the Japanese turned out more helpful when it comes to bringing materials (as she did back during Horologium incident back then), Constanze writes a list for the rest of the parts and gives the list to her friend. Delighted that they have an agreement, Akko happily hugs the German mechanic, much to her annoyance.

We then presented to a montage of Akko looking for listed components as Constanze working on the technomagic ship. As the latter does, the former visits various places for the parts including a metalsmith's workshop and Last Wednesday Society. With such a lot of work, they do take some time to rest between assignments (Constanze sleeps on the ship while Akko on the workshop's sofa). As the ship is close to completion, Akko proposed a new idea which she drew in a paper for its final addition. To her annoyance, the Stanbots sees it not realistic and chided her for being so childish. However, when Constanze sees it, her spirit suddenly goes up to eleven before rushed to reworked on the ship's blueprint to integrate said idea into it.

Simultaneously, Croix revealed the information about ghost sightings and Wild Hunt (including the location of Wild Hunt's final stage) to occult fans in the mundane community through the internet as part of her dubious scene. She then prepares to eat her ramen as the information goes viral.

When the night of the final stage of that year's Wild Hunt has finally arrived, the plains near Blytonbury where the event takes place has been crowded by occult fans of the mundane community more than audience from magical one, with the proprietor of Last Wednesday Society selling some merchandise to either group. The presence of mundane humans surprised Amanda, Jasminka, Lotte, Sucy, and Ursula, as the event was never aired nor advertised to mundane folks since they cannot see the event without magical aid. Hearing Lotte's remark about the Wild Hunt event and ghost sightings on the area went viral somehow, Ursula's suspicion of Croix's involvement rises. Just then, the final stage of annual Wild Hunt commences with Wild Hunters emerging from a dark portal on the sky along with ghosts revealing themselves. Lacking any form of magical training nor assistance, mundane audiences cannot see the Hunters banishing ghosts within their sight, though they do sense the change of atmosphere in the area.

Simultaneously, Akko and Constanze departed from the latter's workshop with the fully functional technomagic ship, Stanship. They emerged from an underground tunnel which reaches the bottom of River Thames, before using the ship's jets to take off straight for the Wild Hunt event. Joining the Hunters, Constanze uses the ship's energy guns, cannons, and even enchanted nets to take down scores of ghosts that attracted by the ship's presence as much as the rest of the participants. Awed by their performance, the gang below is surprised by the presence or goblin chef from Luna Nova's kitchen earlier who too, enjoying the spectacle.

However, the final stage of the Wild Hunt event goes chaotic upon Croix's arrival; exposing her Pixels to the ghosts, the modern magic professor gives them physical forms as crow-like creatures that harass mundane spectators. Their appearance confirmed Ursula's suspicion as she and the students join the Hunters to contain the situation. But then, some ghost-possessed pixels combine into larger winged beasts where one of them chases Amanda at one point before being destroyed by the Stanship. Soon, swarms of surviving pixels combine into a bird-like kaiju to cause even greater destruction and challenge for its oppositions. Fortunately, Akko and Constanze have one step ahead for this kind of situation: Activating Stanship's Metamor-Formation, they turn the technomagic ship into a 15 m tall giant robot Akko introduces as **Magic Knight Grand Charion**, earning their friends (except awestruck Jasminka and annoyed Amanda)'s dull surprise.

Mere seconds following the activation of its Metamor-Formation, Grand Charion soon battered by the pixel kaiju's assaults, ending with the beast grabbing the mech by the head and slammed it to the ground. To Akko's dismay, the whole transformation sequence has *exhausted most of its energy reserves*, and that they now under the kaiju's mercy. Fortunately, Ursula, upon realizing their situation, rallies Wild Hunters to recharge Grand Charion before the situation goes from back to worse. With that, the Hunters turn their weapons into energy state and throw them upon Grand Charion, recharging its magic energy reserves up to 120% and allows it to form its shield, enabling it to counter the pixel kaiju's final blow. Using the mech's finisher, **Grand Charion Big Wheel: Magical Miracle Shining Tornado Punch**, Akko and Constanze turn the mech's shield into a rotating drill which then thrust upon the pixel kaiju, pulverizing it in a massive explosion. As the audience cheered upon their victory, Grand Charion falls apart from damages it sustained from the fight.

The dawn comes when Croix returned to the New Moon Tower with her remaining pixel before unexpectedly confronted by Ursula. The bespectacled professor correctly deduced the former has bigger plans at hand since she didn't simply cause random chaos, which related to her Fuel Spirit experiments. Undaunted, Croix reassured her rival that she will find out in no time and she won't be able to do anything about it, leaving Ursula shocked.

Later that morning, as a gratitude for her help, Constanze gives Akko a mechanical broom of her own. At first glance, it looks like a simple magic broom until Akko gives it a try, revealing small twin-propeller vanes and a sail that allows the Japanese to fly, much to her excitement. Sucy and Amanda are less than impressed, as the ecstatic Akko flies slowly and only a few inches on the air (not that the brunette cared anyway, though). The episode ends with Constanze smiling upon her friend's gratitude, albeit not without some difficulties in doing so.

## Order of appearances

* Atsuko Kagari
* Lotte Jansson
* Sucy Manbavaran
* Ursula Callistis
* Anne Finnelan
* Miranda Holbrooke
* Samantha Badcock
* Croix Meridies
* Avery
* Amanda O'Neill
* Jasminka Antonenko
* Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger
* Cafe Proprietor
* Wild Hunters
* Magic Wand
* Magic Broom
* Stanbot
* Stanship
* Magic Weapons
* Pixels
* Transformation Spell
* Ghosts
* Flying Wolf
* Goblin

## In other languages

 France
 Brazil

## Errors/Goofs

* During ghost-possessed pixels' attack on Wild Hunt audience, some of them combined into an avian monster with raven skull-like mask in front of Amanda. As soon as it chases her however, its skeletal mask unexpectedly goes missing for the rest of the shot.

## Trivia

* This episode reveals that Constanze's robot helper is called "Stanbot".
* Akko's pose before the ship's "metamor-formation" is a recurring pose in several Gainax and Trigger animations such as *Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann* and *Space Patrol Luluco*. It's commonly known as Gainax Pose or Gunbuster Pose (due to the pose originating in Gunbuster). Additionally, Grand Charion resembles the Ganmen from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, while the drill in particular is a reference to the Giga Drill Breaker attack. This may be considered a homage to the 10th anniversary of the series, given that the studio responsible for *Little Witch Academia* was formed by former Gainax members (including ones who worked on *Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann*).
	+ In addition to *Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann*, many of the poses **Grand Charion** makes during Akko's post-transformation speech are references to several older robots from the Brave series such as The Brave Express Might Gaine (though mirrored) and The King of Braves GaoGaiGar Final (as seen here), as well as Mahou Sentai Magiranger (as seen here) from the Super Sentai series.
	+ Its color scheme, although most likely based on Shiny Chariot, might also be a reference to the titular Gundams from the Gundam series, especially RX-78-2 Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam and other models based on it. The title "Magical Warrior" (魔導戦士, *Madō Senshi*?) is a direct reference to "Mobile Suit" (機動戦士, *Kidō Senshi*?).
	+ On top of that, the initial plans for the robot's ship mode have a design that has the front hull of the BBY-01 Yamato from Space Battleship Yamato, complete with the port for the Wave Motion Gun.
* Theme-wise, the episode's title is based on Gerry Anderson's 1964 TV Series *Stingray* which aired in Japan under the title of *Stingray - The Great Undersea War!*
* At the beginning of the episode, the scoreboard in the top left shows C9 and TSM. This is a reference to the eSports organizations Cloud 9 and Team SoloMid, who have participated in several high profile eSports tournaments around the world.
* This episode takes place in December, along with "Pohjola's Trial" and "Amanda O'Neill and the Holy Grail", as stated in the chronicles book.
* Constanze's participation note for the Ghost Hunts listed the year 2017. This could mean that the *Little Witch Academia* TV series takes place in the year 2017, unlike the previous short films, which is published on 2013 and 2015 respectively.
* The online auction and shopping website Constanze accessed to find a whisk whose component proves useful as much as Orichalconium whisk utilized by goblin chef to no avail, cbay, was a reference to eBay inc., the real-life American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website

## References

1. ↑ https://www.netflix.com/title/80156387
2. ↑ Little Witch Academia Chronicles, Chapter 2, page 54

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