little witch academia TV is about idols
the nature of idolizing people the
nature of being idolized and how to deal
with growing up and realizing the likely
flaws and limitations of those people
and things you had idolized this is a
fascinating subject matter because while
it falls in line with the general
coming-of-age tale that is rather common
for anime it takes a rather uncommon
angle on it one that is increasingly
relevant in an era where celebrity can
occur on a much smaller scale and those
celebrities can be highly accessible to
the everyday person now there's plenty
of things to take away from the series
and a wealth of other ideas that
explores but this was the thematic
thread that wrapped itself around my
interests the most tightly when watching
a little witch academia the primary
reason for that was a bit of background
information I possessed and which helps
to focus my attention in on this idea
specifically information about the
history and attitude of little witch
academia is creator yo Yoshi Nadi
yo is an industry legend in his own
right and ace animator whose style has
inspired countless others that have
followed him and who was tasked more
directly with training up some of those
animators on the production of the
original little witch academia OVA
through the anime Mita young animator
training project he's done everything
from mecha design hunger and logon to
artwork for the valkyrie profile games
but there's something strange there for
all his accomplishments yo seems to have
great doubts about himself and his work
somewhat infamously saying he can't draw
and his skill lies moreso in simply
disguising that shortcoming through
motion how someone with talents as
exceptional as yos could possibly have
so dour a self image does strain the
imagination until you realize who he's
looking up to that is
[Music]
indeed if there was any master one could
have that would imbue them with an
eternal sense of insufficiency it would
have to be coal a massive sakuga nerd yo
Yoshi not ease animation is often
described as having a thickness to it
explained by Hiroyuki mi XI as feeling
like he is trying to condense all of the
best animation he's seen in the past
into one work and for the man who
synthesizes the styles of each one of
the greats into a unified artistic
vision to be mentored by the animator
who is far and away the most inimitable
in the entire industry is a bit of a
cruel twist of fate one only needs to
take a single look at these frames of
animation to tell that they could only
have come from one man Cole Cole Yoshi
naughty that's right
euros mentor his point of self
comparison his blessing and perhaps his
curse is his own older brother
y'all had enjoyed drawing in his youth
but it was Cole who dragged him somewhat
unwillingly it seems into the field of
animation you see Cole had aspirations
of becoming an animator and needed an
assistant so he trained yo up to be able
to fill that role y'all helped out his
older brother with his work and handled
bits and pieces himself drawing up
animation for a professional production
while he was still in high school and
you can start to see where his view of
things got a bit warped by learning
alongside such an animation Colossus
they entered a technical school but
mostly goofed off by the standards he'd
been accustomed to euros judgment was
that even lecturers weren't good
animators so he and his brother mostly
learned from themselves and each other
during this time after his graduation we
see that warped view on even clearer
display at one end we have his lacking
self-confidence leading him to believe
that the bar to get into studio Gainax
would be far too high for someone of his
skill level as it is he only applied
there because Cole always someone
leading him along told him to do so
saying the studio would be a good fit
for him however when he did get accepted
this was his view of things it may sound
harsh but I was expecting almost all
people my age to be talented but most of
them didn't have any proper knowledge
about animators which was very
disappointing it isn't that Yoshi Nadi
can't judge his own level of quality he
is able to understand that he's a
standout in so far as he can stand above
many of his peers as an animator of Note
the issue is that having Colio she
Nadya's his older brother has set the
bar for what one should be achieving so
absurdly insanely high that no one could
possibly ever match that not him but
even more so not those who aren't at
least masterful animators though when
comparing himself to other highly
skilled creators that self-deprecation
does often come out once again
ironically enough I see myself in this
to a bizarre degree just last night when
talking about this script two's area I
read off the opening paragraph and said
now look that's fine it's good it's
entirely serviceable in fact its
outright strong for the general ante
Tube scene it is better than what most
would probably do but also I feel like
it's not good enough to justify its own
existence its generic I really want to
take more time and rewrite it punch it
up I remember what I'd said so vividly
because it was so strange to me at the
time a contradictory mix of relative ego
and fully sincere feelings of
insufficiency I said that I feel like
it's not enough to be one of the best at
making this style of content I have to
be distinctive in examining the meaning
expressed by a given piece of art my own
expression has to be itself artful to
carry meaning I do a disservice to a
work by merely explaining the emotions
that evoked if I can do nothing myself
to evoke emotions in my audience removed
from what they're made to feel just
threw me recounting what that work did
if I can't add enough of myself to it
this doesn't come from chasing after a
particular Idol in the bar they've set
in the same way that it probably mostly
does for you but the general mindset is
still one to which I can deeply relate
little witch academia the TV series
specifically has such an intense
thematic focus on idols in my eyes at
least because of how strongly yo-yo she
natis own experiences with idolization
have informed his life and worldview
however what I also see in this series
is a process of self-discovery a
reconciliation of that history of his
through the exploration of this idea
through this anime as Sacco comes to
learn over the course of the show a lot
of the time idols aren't really all
they're cracked up to be the most
shining example of this is of course
well shining chariot who's idolization
on the part of Akko is one of the most
central things to the premise of the
franchise as a whole in the first ova
were given
basically no reason to suspect ill of
her but in the series proper we see that
idea broken down and subverted in
episode 22 when Akko learns professor
Ursula's secret we get a montage as she
recalls all of those moments that Ursula
stood up for her came to her aid and
diligently worked with her towards
improving her magic and now she is
forced to understand this new layer to
all of that devotion of Ursula's fueling
her deep investment in Akko to one
degree or another was a sense of guilt
irresponsibility an obligation to make
up for at least this one instance of
harm she had done along with a selfish
desire for atonement Ursula messed up
out of innocent ignorance and taking the
magic of her audiences but with her
handling of Akko things were much worse
[Music]
even
[Music]
she hid the truth from Akko drew things
out for far too long and that ignorant
Sonico sparked caused harm that wouldn't
have been necessary if she just
explained things it was an act of
weakness and indulgence using Akko as a
vehicle for ass washing her guilt while
cowardly avoiding facing the judgment of
someone she'd hurt by keeping them in
the dark she wanted the validation of
helping heal some of the damage she
caused without the responsibility of
acknowledging her role in inflicting
those wounds in the first place perhaps
Sacco would have been able to handle
these revelations better had she
listened to Andrews advice earlier in
the episode
what does eventually help her come to
terms with it though is Diana who is her
beloved gay wife and I will hear nothing
to the contrary
Diana too had idolized chariot and
hadn't formed behavior towards Akko that
was crueler than it should have been on
her part because of ACOs freely
expressed sincerity and her admiration
of chariot diana resented her unable to
express such sentiments herself this is
a problem that arises fairly often in
fandom a mocking of sincere appreciation
by people who may even be other fans
simply because the ability to be that
forthright when for any myriad of
reasons you cannot can lead to anger and
lashing out however in Diana's case
there was a silver lining to the
distancing from shining chariot that she
experienced because she wasn't quite as
caught up in that idol worship she could
bear the revelations much better
confronting ursula inquiring about the
situation and taking her to task instead
of simply running away like a co did not
quite ready to fully accept all this
neither of them handles their adoration
perfectly but through their respective
successes and failings we can start to
learn a healthier way to engage with our
idols interestingly enough Diana was
also an idol of ACOs not to the same
degree that chariot was of course but
witnessing this pier of hers seemingly
be the perfect witch being faced with
that immense magical talent when she had
certainly elevated Diana to a bit of an
unhealthy position in ACOs eyes their
attentions were not one-sided after all
and alongside Diana's resentment of her
Akko lashed out at Diana this to me
reads as this sort
behavior you see towards East elaborate
ease quite often where they both have
that status but also seem and feel
accessible she admires Diana she really
does but the means through which that
most often gets expressed early on is
childishness aggression a demeaning of
her Akko can't find a healthy way to
express her admiration of this person
who has something that seems like it's
within reach but that she cannot have
for herself in this case status and
magical ability in many real-world cases
status and youtubing ability or
streaming ability over the course of the
series Akko overcomes this by learning
about the various struggles diana must
contend with knowledge that humanizes
diana in her eyes and thus allows her to
admire her in a way that's much better
for the both of them this learning
process is complete when diana reveals
that she too had attended one of
chariots shows and so she too had to
work back up from the same magically
inhibited starting point akka was at as
chariot famously said a believing heart
is your magic but that belief must first
and foremost be in yourself if you try
to make an idol the source of your magic
things will fall apart once you learn
the almost necessarily much more messy
reality that is their true self through
her absolute determination and faith in
herself diana was able to overcome the
negative effects of chariots performance
but Akko had always lacked that last
little bit of faith she needed making I
want to be like chariot her constant
emphatic mantra did give her plenty of
determined motivation but it also held
her back from being able to truly self
actualize because while she was so
focused on wanting to be like chariot
Akko forgot to be like ah Co you can
aspire to be like someone learn from
them and how they got to where they are
in life but if those aspirations become
too much of your focus you'll lose sight
of the fact that you are not them that
there are fundamental unique aspects to
each of you that mean you can't be them
exactly there will necessarily be
differences in how you get to the same
mountaintop they did you can observe
them and learn the basics of how to
climb but if you don't have the grip
strength to scale the cliff like they
did then you should focus on training up
your legs so you can walk around and
hike up the back side if you lose
yourself and your attempts to become the
person you idolize you won't be able to
recognize that their hands are different
from yours and that you'll
to find a different route or you know
any other aspect of yourself I'm just
sticking with my strained hand metaphor
here all of this is not to say that
little witch academia rejects the value
of idols outright though far from it the
series emphatically asserts the
inspirational value they can have what
it does is tackle the toxic elements of
that idolization the beliefs and the
perfection of your idols that can arise
when far more often they are valid and
valuable just flawed like anyone or
anything else when yo Yoshi Noddy was
talking about the franchise's inception
he said that initially the theme was
about a young animator who joins the
industry looking up to a lowbrow
late-night magical girl anime so he's
mocked by people around him but we also
wanted to show that kind of admiration
is important there's this story about
Hayao Miyazaki entering the anime
industry because he was moved by Panda
and the magic serpent then he watched
the movie again afterwards and was
disappointed by how bad it was yet even
if it's actually not enjoyable at all it
can be and replaceable for that person
what's important is the feelings you got
from watching it and the fact that you
had admiration for it that's the theme
we were looking for
well the story definitely changed up
somewhat you can clearly see where the
core ideas made it through into the TV
series insisting upon the legitimate
meaning those passions and inspirations
hold even when they're quite flawed was
one of the central ideas yo had as he
went about creating little witch
academia and of course even this central
examples surrounding Akko Diana and
shining chariot aside the concept of
idols pops up at points throughout the
series episode 4 nightfall serves as a
series highlight for many people and
itself centers around this celebrity
worship in this case lots building up of
the author of nightfall and the
subsequent subversion of those
established expectations this person who
was in her eyes a literary genius who
has produced work that she so dearly
loves is revealed to be in a state of
serious self-doubt due to the criticism
her writing is receiving online no
matter how much you love a creators work
and how obvious its quality may seem
like it must be to you they may not
share those feelings this episode
further reinforces the value of sincere
passion for what you love by making that
passion of lots into the positive force
that allows Annabelle
overcome her doubts and keep writing the
series as an even smaller scale example
there is the idealization of Diana by
her two groupies Barbara and Hannah
because if Diane has expressed disdain
for Akko they to mock her but because
they lack Diana's refined restraint that
mockery is even more pointed and
aggressive than her own even when they
don't have a personal reason for holding
ill-will towards a co like diana does
overall they've got this weird twisted
sort of subservience to her when really
they could just be friends on far
healthier terms if they didn't put her
on such a pedestal we should be careful
not to over fixate on Yas relationship
with his brother or extrapolate out some
deep trauma resulting from it but from
the interview industry we do have there
is something there he ended up doing a
lot of illustration work at the time
when he most wanted to be animating
entirely because Cole asked him to an
awareness of this context brings an even
stronger degree of resonance to the
show's exploration of these ideas
because in it we can see an exploration
of himself on yo Yoshi naughties part
and I think a resolution to them he both
explores and acknowledges the issues
that can arise when idolization takes
place but ultimately finds it to be
valuable and meaningful in so doing
finds his own experiences to be valuable
and meaningful as long as you go about
it the right way on this project it was
finally him dragging his brother along
to help him out and as little witch
academia animator Yuto Tendo said I feel
the relationship between Akko and
chariot is just like the one between us
animators and mr. yoshinari through this
project yo got to become the teacher
the leader in the idol and I like to
believe that seeing the other side of
that allowed for the enlightening
perspective on the subject that the TV
version possesses now before you click
off this video head on over to an even
larger research endeavor as areas come
in a friend's video 35 minutes of an
overview of one of the most historic and
dramatic events in anime history it's
good go watch it oh also just to update
you on video plans of mine I have a
large-scale research project ongoing
currently it was initially planned to
come out this month
but I'm actually getting some
translations commissioned for it
interview translations and as such with
those still ongoing I had to delay that
project until they are finished so that
will be coming out next month those
translations are $275 with the
translations so patreon support to sort
of empower these research initiatives
would be much appreciated I want to
thank a sure who edited the first five
or so minutes of this helped me out to
handle that while I was moving I also
want to thank wave-motion canon whose
own commissioned interviews of yo Yoshi
naughty four of them and in total that I
have linked down there were very
valuable resources offered a lot of the
sort of biographical baseline for the
video and of course I want to thank
seikar methods 97 Jonathan Conley
Scotland Mauro
Tyler monk Sakamoto me Oh Tino 37
Josh grant laureth liquid bacon the
third Stellaluna
Alain auld felt Darion day so tell David
McCown Kieran Rice his short dog Matt
Bikel der smoke weed Sephiroth 420 J man
4747 KTM Lindblad a very famous person
Marcus Rivera and Jedi 168 and everyone
else supporting me on patreon already