AWTY 159 - Muppet Babies Academia (Little Witch Academia)

You called in a stupid bird, and now it wants to eat you. Good luck.

Hello, and welcome to our me. There yet in exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, Patrick degan.

I'm an anime expert, dee hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough, your anime big warlock of the streets.

Look out, he's coming.

I had trouble with this one. I went to a thesaurus.com. I'm like, what are other words?

But I went to the witch's school of hard knocks.

What's the opposite of academia? The streets. The thug life.

Street smarts versus book smarts.

Just get, like, knuckle tattoos. It says magic, but it's like magk. Four knuckles. Yeah.

There is a terrible accident with your first spell, so now you only have four knuckles.

It's your newest dz character, warlock of the streets.

All right.

Do you already have that?

Well, don't provoke it. I got, like, 40 characters, and then every time I'm in a new campaign, I just make a new one instead of using the 40 I already made. So it's a problem. I'll get there eventually.

These ones are special. They're just for looking at, not for touching.

These are my display sons.

These were my writing exercise. These were me practicing. This is getting some ideas out. My newest one is a one shot with one other person, and we're both going to be cops trying to arrest each other, not knowing the other person's. Also a cop. Yeah.

That's so fun.

We're just going to be real dumb. I love it.

What if spy versus spy was worse?

What if they were both idiots?

Anyway, why the magic? Why the spookiness this week?

Tis the spookiest of seasons. There's, like, four seasons. It's pretty easy to be the spookiest of them.

Yeah, I mean, most seasons are spooky these days.

Well, that's just life. But this is intentionally. This is a fun spooky. goofs and gaps of spooks. And I was saving this one for a while, actually, and I was like, you know what? Let's wait until October because it's the one I enjoy. We're watching little witch academia. We've done a few studio trigger shows so far, so we'll just add this one to the pile. Widely considered one of the gooder ones.

My brain is only able to latch on to kill a kill for a studio trigger. What other shows of theirs have we seen? Refresh my brain.

Brand new animal.

Brand new animal.

Got you. Okay. I know they are popular. I know they're everywhere, but my brain has blocked out everything except kill the kill.

We haven't even watched that one yet.

Yeah, we haven't watched them. They got a very distinct style to it, like, you see and you're just like, yeah, that's trigger. They're doing, like, a star wars miniseries now with a bunch of different anime studios, and immediately everyone's like, oh, trigger. There it is. Just from seeing one character. But are either of you familiar with little bitch academia.

I've heard about it, but I've never watched it. And I will say that when my hero academia came out, I was like, are they related? I definitely thought it was like a same universe, different thing kind of show.

Yeah, same universe. Here the superhero schools, here's the magic schools, right?

Yeah, I heard about this when this came out. There was a lot of hype when it first released in 2017, so I was like, oh, yes, this is very popular. And I also had that academia blank blank academia. Are these things related? I was in the same boat. I heard it was very popular, but also got discouraged when I heard no one talk about it since.

It's kind of interesting because I have watched it. I've watched both seasons of it. I'm not sure if they're doing more, but yeah, everyone was kind of like, yeah, this is good. And it moved on. And you'll see fan art every now and then, but, like, that was pretty much it. But then again, with anime communities, you talk long enough, it just devolves into just absolute chaos and shit. I don't know, I think I'm pretty fine with it just moving along and still remaining in, like, the good space before it gets tainted by the Internet, so that might not be a bad thing, actually.

Yeah, in the anime community, if people are still talking about it, it was either really great or probably really bad. So for people to just not talk about it, it's like, okay, it came in.

And if you're a flash in the pan as long as your legacy isn't tainted.

Exactly. As long as you don't burn the pan. Okay, interesting. Well, I'm excited to share it with you all because it's one I enjoyed and didn't pick, ironically, to torture.

You hooray.

A rare novelty for me. I know. This is my gift from the pumpkin King, who are one true lord and savior.

Polar bear in the dungeon.

Thought he ought to know.

I don't remember enough of that movie to play along with.

And then all the kids start screaming.

Yeah, just start screaming.

Specialty. Oh, God. Yeah, we're back. It's more magic. It's more schooling. You know it. You debatably love it, but you know it. That's undeniable.

For better or worse for us, you know, a magic school.

I love being given new ways to experience now nonethical things. This is a dream.

Yay.

What if we did it right this time? What if it wasn't tainted?

What a blessing.

So, as tradition, we start off with episode one. Well, not true, unless it's one piece. Episode one, we start off and it's a big concert venue with a bunch of people in attendance looking at a show, and the show is a crazy witch flying around, doing a bunch of magic.

Wow.

Flying around.

Wizard rock.

Yeah.

Wait, I might actually know bad like, whizcore.

It's a real thing, bud.

Yeah, she's flying around the crowd on a broom, shooting out a bunch of magic, doing fireworks, transforming into, like, different animals and stuff. We see at one point, like, inky black ball appears and turns into a big monster and starts eating some of the magic. And she fights it off. Don't worry, it's all part of the play. It's all scripted. And she's flying around, and we see a little girl in the audience being inspired.

Wow, I want to be a monster. Just like that.

That's the protagonist little aqua. And we see here, coincidentally, with this show and with my hero, academia, I've realized a way to be immediately endeared to a character is see them as a chubby little toddler. And you're like, it's a cute character. It's like, well, I guess I like.

Them now more when she's a little baby. She does look like uraka a lot, actually.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I remember seeing the little urca. I was like, oh, gosh, she's precious.

Yeah. Very round.

Yeah. But yeah. Aqua is inspired by a little girl. And we skip ahead a few years. Everything in between is not important. We're moving ahead. High school, that's all that matters in anime.

Got to leave room for a prequel. And we see little or witch academia.

Academia. muppet babies. I could. Oh, my God. Give me that. We see Aqua running around. It looks like a small European town. And she's like, oh, boy, I can't wait to go to school to learn magic and become a real witch. And she's like, all right, now to find the school. And she's running around, like, going to run. And people like, hey, do you know what a bus station is? Hey, where's the bus station? Where am I? And everyone just like, yeah, we don't have a bus station. Never have. Don't know what you're talking about.

The bus, it died 40 years.

And we see her get all discouraged. It's like, how am I going to find it? And then looking at the pamphlet, and then looking directly above the pamphlet, she notices the landmark on it, the ley Line Terminal, which is what she'll use to get to luna Nova, the school for witches. And we see her running there. As she's running along her way, she bumps into another witch. And she's like, oh, God, I'm so sorry. And as all their stuff spills out on the ground, she's like, oh, you're also a witch.

Cool.

So am I. We're going to the same school. Let's talk forever. Because that's all hotco does. So she's talking a lot, and the other witch doesn't. I don't think the other witch even talks at this point. No, I think it was a good ten minutes before we even hear her voice. So Aqua is just gushing about like, oh, man, I can't wait to go to school to become like, Shiny Chariot, the witch that inspired me as a youth. And I got all shiny chariots merch. I got her cards. Look at this stuff. And she just keeps talking. And we see. While they're picking up their stuff, the other witch goes over to a little stuffed animal of ako is like a little bird and just puts a drop of a potion on it. And the little bird, like, comes to light, and she's like, oh, wow, that's puppet magic. I tried that and it was pretty hard. So you must be a pretty good witch. And a little puppet bird that's now sent here just starts attacking ako. Thank you. So they keep walking for a bit. oca is still rambling on, and eventually the other witch stops, turns around, reaches out her hand. She's like, oh, nice to meet you. I'm akko. how's it going? What's your name? And when Aka is shaking her hand, she looks down and there's just snakes on her. And she freaks out and, like, falls into a nearby riverbed. But when she gets out of the river, she sees the snakes were just from ropes and it was an illusion.

What a trickster.

It sounds like somebody doesn't want to engage with this very peppy over talkative stranger. I get it.

I mean, relatable.

So at that point, the other witch walks away and gets away from ako. But Aqua ends up getting up to the ley Line terminal and sees a bunch of other witch students all in our uniforms. And they're talking like, oh, man, the school is really going downhill. They're letting commoners that aren't from witch houses now, they must be really desperate for cash. Yeah, I hear a Japanese student commoner is here, and she doesn't have magic at all. I bet she fucking sucks. And Aka is like 2ft away from them, like, hearing all this and say, oh, there she is, and I made her there.

You fucking suck.

Good. Now I can say to your face, but Aqua asks, like, hey, when's the bus getting here? And they're like, ah, you're the commoner. There's no busy. You have to fly on your broom. Because we are magic. Makes sense. And they talk about how it's a magical superhighway to the school, the portal, if you will. So they all hop on their brooms and fly off laughing at Aqua. And they're like, oh, yeah, by the way, if you miss opening ceremony, you're expelled by wild. High price.

Wouldn't they put that in the brochure?

I feel like that's something you have to tell the new people.

One, it's not actually a bus stop. Bring a broom. Two, don't make it to the if you're late to the opening ceremony, you can't come back.

God, so strict. So we see Aka just start climbing the tower, like, trying to reach the portal that she thinks that's up at the top of it, and she's not doing good. So she falls back down, and then we see a little bumbling there following up behind her. Another witch fumbling with all of her stuff. She got so much stuff to pack. Her mom gave her too much stuff. It's hard to walk. I gave it a half mark for the eda because this character's name is lote. I just say that now. lote is kind of like eda, but not quite there. But she's as close as we'll get, I think.

Yeah, she's the glasses character, but I don't think she's very much like eda.

Yeah. Usually it's glasses, blue hair, and rule follower.

Also, she looks like me.

And then we get lost myself. Yeah. She comes stumbling up and she says the same thing. Like, yeah, if you're late for the ceremony, you get instantly expelled. And Aqua is just giving her a big puppy eyes of like, I don't have a broom. It's like, you want to ride? Yeah. She hops on. And lote is having a little trouble because she's got a lot of stuff and two people in the broom, and it's hard to fly. So when they take off, they go into the portal. And it's just this crazy trippy, like, interdimensional portal. And Aqua is losing her fucking mind. And I get if you don't know magic, this is the first experience. This would be a lot.

Yeah.

When you're expecting a bus and rating yeah, that's a little different.

You're going through warp space. And as they're flying, Aka loses her shiny cherry cards. And she's like, oh, no, my stuff. And she goes to, like, grab them. As she does, the broom flies out from underneath them, and they both go tumbling down. As they're falling through the portal, they bump into the other witch from earlier who's just floating along, reading her book. So they knock all three of them down off trajectory, out of the tube. And then we cut to a different witch. She seems to be older, more already established. And he got a big old bird and starts screaming. She's like, oh, what's happening? What's going on? It's like, oh, somebody has entered the forbidden Forest. A lot of information just with those two words. She's like, oh, yes. I got to go get the trash. I got to go collect the urchins. So she runs off, and it would cut back to Aqua waking up. And she sees her cards all on the ground. She starts picking them all up and getting all of her stuff. And she landed on the other witch that she bumped into earlier. And Lopez is there. And she's like, oh, I broke my broom. Well, guess we're not getting back that way because worried about getting to school in time. And they're like, yeah, school. That's cool. We're in the forbidden Forest. We might die. So bigger issues right now.

Whatever.

Yeah, it's fine.

Like in Harry Potter, when she says she said, I'm going back to bed before you get us killed. Or worse, expelled.

That's what she said. Legally, we can't say the hp words.

The term morally can't say that.

Yeah. So they're walking around the forest, and they bump into a big old plant. And they're like, oh, that's kind of neat. And they're like, no, wacho, you idiot. That's a man eating plant. It's a man shake. Oh, boy. And they scuttled around for a while, kind of scoopy to ask chase. And eventually eventually, the other witch calls them both over after they get away from the plant. The other witch, I'll just say she doesn't introduce herself for a little bit, but her name's susie.

Susie.

And she's like, hey, you two, come over here. I got something to show you. Like, oh, cool. What's happening? And there's a little circle on the ground. And as they step into it, just a big, like, rope cage forms around them in like, a ball. And she's like, cool. Also, now that you two are trapped in there, save this spell for me. And aqua's? Like, I don't really know. She's like, say it with her chest. Say it with her diaphragm. I was like, yeah, sure. Got him. And screams it out. So he's like, cuckoo cool. groo. Great. Just keep repeating that spell. And she's like, sure, what does the spell do? And then a giant chicken appears behind them. It's like, oh, that wasn't a spell. You were just speaking in a different language. And you were insulting the giant chicken, calling them like a big, fat dumb ass by. And susie floats off and like, what the hell? We got trapped in here. Like, why did you do that? She's like, oh, this is a cockatrice. I need some of his feathers. So you're going to be bait to draw its attention while I pull some feathers from the back end.

By the way, I think one of them says, so we're bait. And she says, no, you're a sacrifice.

Yeah. susie has no core. Who she is and what they are to her.

I have no plan of saving you afterwards.

This is where you die. Yeah. She says it's like, oh, by the way, it's a cockatrice, so its breath will petrify you and turn to stone. Good luck. And flies off on her broom to grab feathers from the back end. So they start freaking out and running around in the rope ball, keeping its attention. And as they're running around, she was able to snag some feathers, but when she does, it draws the cockatrece's attention back to her. And eventually, ako and lote are able to run around a bit, build up momentum, break on the ground, and shatter the rope cage. But in the scuffle, lote got hurt. Hurt her legs. Very convenient. Now she has to be carried by akko. So Aqua picks her up and carries her back up a hill. And the whole time, Aqua is telling her like, no, I'm determined to be a witch. I got to be great. Like shiny chariot. She's my idol. And I'm going to prove how good of a witch I can be with her. It's kind of giving herself a pep talk, in a way. And when they finally climbing up the hill, when she's done monologuing to herself, there's a big wand. They call it a wand. It's a staff. It's big, and it's crazy looking. It's got all these bobbles on it, like these orbs and stuff. She's like, I know that wand anywhere. It's shiny chariot's wand. She grabs it. She goes, Wait here, lote. I got an idea.

Also weird, there's a skeleton attached to it. I wonder who that could be.

Miners keepers? And she says, like, yeah, lote, you wait here and hide. I'll go get the cockatrice's attention and save susie. And so she runs back and screams out the insult again to get the cockatrice's attention to the lower back. And when it starts chasing her, she runs back, all the way back to the man eating plants ha ha. Pit them against each other. So they're all wrapped up in the plants, attacking the big chicken. And that gives them enough time to catch up with susie, who offers because Aka saved her just now, she's willing to give her a ride back to the school. So all three of them huddle up on the broom and ride back. And then as they're flying back, the cockatie breaks free. Surprise, surprise. Not like a chicken. It can fly.

What?

It starts flying after them, and now it spits fire because, fuck it, why not? Let's do this.

I'm starting to think this isn't a regular chicken.

Maybe it's the snake tail. Something feels weird about this. And as they're flying with the cockatrice, the one which from earlier shows up, and she's like, oh, boy, you got in trouble. You done goofed it. You've done gotten to shenanigans. But she sees the wand that Aqua has. It's like, oh, damn it's, that wand. Here you go. Here's the thing. Repeat the spell, use this magic, and that wand will get us out of here. So she says the spell out, aqua repeats it, and she's able to conjure up magic into the wand. And the wand turns into a big bow. And as they're flying, she shoots the bow into the ground and opens up a portal like the one at the ley Line terminal as all of them fall through it. And then as they're falling through, they arrive back at luna Nova just in time for the ceremony, and everyone's in, like, an assembly hall for it, and they shoot out the center, like, on the school's logo, disrupting it as the underdog rapscallion shenanigan doers that they are are do. What kind of stroke? There for a second. I'm good. I'll show up in the middle. And it cuts to Aqua being walked down the hall by one of the teachers, being like, you're a troublemaker already. It's day one, but they're going to give you, like, a little exception this time and say you made it during the ceremony so you're not expelled, so you can still stay in school. And while you're staying here, you're going to be living in this room with two other roommates. Here they are. Surprise, surprise. It's lote and susie.

Yay.

This is our core group of girls buddies.

They were roommates.

Oh, my God, they were roommates.

And then we got the ending, which is actually the opening, so throw that curve at you. It's cute, though. It's pretty standard opening, but yeah, that's episode one.

So we pick up in episode two with the events of episode one. Wow, they're happening again. We get a little dream recap as Aqua wakes up in the new dorm room with all the roomies, and she's showing off the shiny chariot rod to the roommates and just being very excited, like, yeah, which school? I'm going to learn spells and all this fun stuff. The other two are like, hey, chill. It is school. You know school, right? It sucks. So susie is like, yeah, I'm the poison witch, if you couldn't tell from me. Trying to kill you for poison last episode.

And also the way I look at.

My design, very emo.

She's like, yeah, I was just going to scam the school out of their poison. Just take it and run after the first day, but I learned they got more poison here, so I guess I'll stick around getting education. You know how you plan on robbing a place? And then you get there and be like, hey, this place is kind of sick. I might just stick around for it. And we see all the professors are meeting as well. And we see one Professor ursula. She's bored, and you can tell she's the unique one. And she's like, hey, yeah, so that aquo kid. Got to be a troublemaker. Maybe I should give her some extra guidance. And oh, she's also clumsy. And she falls over and stuff. Cool. Got a fun relatable teacher.

Got it.

Check. So the roommates all go to their first classes. Their first one, they are studying ancient runes. And Aqua, you can just see eyes glazed over, has no understanding of anything that's happening. And we start to see the star witches here. Little Miss Green Yellow Hair.

We get her name later.

It's Diana. I'll make it easier for now. And she can read the runes. And the professor is like, oh, you're the first student to ever blah, blah, blah. So already she's on top of her game. We see them in a potions class, and Aqua is just like, choking on the green smoke. Definitely poisonous to humans, but whatever. Don't worry about it. We're all witches, right? And we see Diana, she can control the smoke, so excellent. Here too. Then we go to numerology wizard math. And Diana is like, correcting. The professor, who is delighted by it and not immediately annoyed, and being like, oh, fuck. I feel like Pet smarter.

There are some instances, like, with, like, characters that are smart and they want the audience to be endeared to them. And they do that kind of thing where they're like, shouldn't it be this? But it's always annoying. So I'm glad. Diana is supposed to be like bitch.

For us, the audience. But everyone in the class is like, oh, yes, you genius. Yes, please trample all over my lesson plan. You know better than me. I am a teacher. But yeah, so she is amazing. And ako is just bored out of her mind. So we go to lunch where ako is freaking out. She's like, I signed up to do magic and you're teaching me numbers and letters. This is like normal school. I want out of here. But then Diana comes up and is like, oh, yes. You have to learn things here. Like me, the genius Diana of magic, family legacy. I forget her last name.

Cavendish.

Cavendish. Oh, yes. Something nice and proper.

Yeah, I've written it down because I'm like, god, that's just an arrogant last name. I know you don't choose your last name. It feels arrogant.

But yeah. So Diana is like, yeah, if you want to do cheap party tricks like that Shiny Chariot, then you can leave because she's a disgrace here. She shouldn't be a role model for you. And Aqua is like, no, I learned all my science from Bill nye. Of course he's a genius. And yeah, they bicker about no one believing in a Shiny Chariot. And Aqua was like, well, I got her wand and I got to prove myself so I can return it. And they're like, oh, yeah, nice cheap replica. Did you get it at the toy store? And they go outside and they're like, all right, show us this, wanda's Real. Give us a demonstration. And Aqua tries to animate a stone statue and isn't working because her spell is, hey, you move statue. And it's shockingly. Not very effective.

Yeah, we've already seen a few spells in this show that do have magic words and just screaming as something's not going to work. So it's like aku is not just inexperienced with magic. She's just bad.

Also not observant at all. Yeah, but she tries and she can't do it. But then Diana is able to animate it and is like, oh, yeah, because it's a fucking skill you have to practice. You can't just show up here and be like, yes, I'm a god at piano. I saw one YouTube video.

This isn't an anime. There's a camera.

Yeah, you can't just be good at everything immediately without conflict, like most shows. But yeah, so she really shows that Aqua ain't shit and establishes her superiority. So rival dynamic. Yes. Wonderful.

Good. Yes.

So later on, we see the roommates all playing with aqua's magic cards. And they talk about shiny chariot. She disappeared ten years ago. Where could she be? She couldn't be in the vicinity, right?

No, definitely not teaching at this school, and we haven't already met her.

What?

No.

What? No.

The camera doesn't cut to this one character every time we mention that Shiny disappeared. Right?

That doesn't mean no.

So, yeah, we see them playing with the cards, and ako. Is like, yeah, these are kind of, like, my only basis for actual magic. So I have these cards memorized, and that is actually kind of impressive to lote and susie. So they're like, all right, you know something? Even though you can't pronounce the actual on these cards, but that's a start.

Felt very relatable. I know a lot about this thing. I can't pronounce it. My mouth is dull.

I know the lore. I don't know how to actually invoke it. So we see that the professors in ursula, they're investigating a dying tree in a greenhouse, and this is the memorial tree, but there's something affecting it. It's dying, and they got to figure out the cause to bring it back to life. Naturally, the professors can't figure it out, so we need an actual magic genius. Diana comes in so Diana comes in and is like, oh, yeah, let me fix this real quick. Don't worry. And casts a spell, and light starts appearing from the roots. You fixed it, right? Cool. So with all of this magic power of giving it the dying tree, all the nutrients it needs oh, no. All the roots and vines, they're coming out and, like, fucking shit up around the school. Oh, no. One appears right. Where the roommates are playing magic cards, so they have to go investigate.

There's trouble afoot.

So they go to the greenhouse, and they see Diana trying to wrangle this tree, and they see as the roots come up from underground oh, no. These parasite pod type things are attached to the roots. So by giving the tree nutrients oh, no. Diana just made these parasites stronger. Oh, man. So Diana is like, all right, I realized my mistake. Got to kill all these things and just start shooting them with magic. So Aqua recognizes these things from her cards. Convenient. So she's like, wait, no, stop. You can't kill these things. And Diana is like, no, you're a dumb idiot baby child. I don't need to listen to what you say. So as she goes to shoot another pod, ako. jumps in front of it and takes the blast. Oh, no. eldritch blast. Straight to the face.

Oh, God.

One d ten force damage.

That was so quick. Off the top of your head.

I play or lock down campaign. Moving on.

Anyways, so of course, diane is like, oh, man, I didn't mean to shoot you. Please don't tell on me. The witch who was publicly seen bullying the commoner student shoots her. Oh, no. This is a bad look. It looks real bad.

On a very special episode of my little My Hero Academy. Little. Witch. I could.

So we see. aqua is like, I know this from my cards. These aren't parasites. These are it's babies.

Babies.

So this is the millennium tree. So once every century, it gives off the magical pupae, and anyone who sees them gets hope. So Diana was essentially stomping on a bunch of caterpillars in their cocoons.

Endangered caterpillars.

Great job, Diana.

Good work, Diana.

So as they actually cast the spell on the card, diana helps ako actually pronounce it correctly. All of the pods open up and a bunch of naked butterfly out. It's like, all right. Hey, remember, it's still anime. Don't.

Still anime.

There's no distinguishing characteristics.

Yeah, but still, they could have just been beautiful butterflies. And they're like, no, look at our barbie doll. No feature bodies.

They're like fairies.

They were lovely.

Yeah, you're the pervert here. Too good.

Oh, my God.

Sorry.

I have my guard up for anime. Being unnecessarily horny. I've gotten that idea.

I don't know.

So we see all the beautiful butterflies fly away, and the whole school gets to watch, and it bestows hope on all of them. Their motivation has increased.

So.

The head professor comes down to the greenhouse and sees Diana there, and it's like, oh, yes, you fixed this. You wonderful, beautiful child, have my job.

You are much better than me.

And Diana is like, well, it wasn't actually me. It was someone else who I will not name in this moment. So you still think she's an idiot? All right, bye. And the head professor is, like, so humble. Yeah, it was definitely Diana. And, yeah, then we go see the roomies. They're all flying with the butterflies, getting up close and personal. That's where we end episode two.

Yeah, buddy.

And we get the closing credits real quick and just love these snapshots of them going on adventures. Love them. Just packing up like a normal car with supplies, stuff.

Road truck.

Yeah, the real cute.

It's not relevant, but the memorial tree in the garden was named after the great witch Jennifer.

Jennifer.

I love that they take that. Not like Morgan Le fey not like the bombay. Not a famous witch we know. It's like, Jennifer. Jennifer Smith, the greatest witch.

Yeah. Paul watched this episode with me, and he couldn't help but kind of laugh. He was like, Jennifer.

What a modern name for an ancient witch?

Yeah, it was made in Japan. Jennifer is a unique name to work.

Okay. Yeah.

All right, so we're skipping ahead to episode six. We open, and they're in class practicing metamorphosis spells. Diana does great. Of course, now it's aqua's turn, and it doesn't work quite right. She gets animal ears instead of transforming the rat.

Oops.

And then the teacher is like, man, this is so basic, and you can't even do it. You have until the end of the day to get this spell down. But prom is tonight. Just kidding. There is a party tonight that aqua is now not allowed to go to. It's a party to welcome Count luna Nova and his handsome son, Andrew.

Ooh, so handsome.

Yeah. But aqua has to stay in her dorm and perfect the spell. So the headmistress is telling, like, a bunch of students to be on their best behavior for the arrival of the guests. And they're here. The Count starts coming down the stairs, and he's just like a normal looking older man.

It was like Colin firth a little bit.

And then the girls are being respectful for all of 5 seconds until they speak.

Andrew.

And then they all just start losing their little minds.

Like a while.

A single boy walks into an all girls school, and they're like, oh, my.

God, he's rich and hot. foaming at the mouth.

I like how Andrew has a friend, too. No one acknowledges his existence at all. frothing at the mouth. Like, Diana even has to tell her friends, like, calm down. Don't be thirsty in public. Relax.

It's just a guy. So lote and susie are at the party. They're talking about how good the food is, and lote wishes that aqua could have been there. And Ursula comes up, and she's like, Why isn't she here? And they tell her, and she's like, she's practicing magic alone in your room. That's not good.

She can't be trusted.

So we see her doing this. ako is studying. The book says to visualize what you want the subject to be. So she's like, I'm going to turn this rat into a rabbit. And then, surprise, she gives herself rabbit ears. Then we're treated to a weird culty performance at the party, and the head waitress is like, do you love it or do you love it?

Isn't it great?

And the other guy, andrew's friend, he's talking to Andrew, saying that he's interested in Diana. He's like, oh, my God, Diana. She's from this family, blah, blah, blah. And Andrew was like, Is she really that important? And he's like, You've never heard of her? And an account tells the headmistress that Andrew is bored.

My son is bored.

Please entertain my terrible son.

You have an ipad?

I can give him an ipad with rollercoaster tycoon on it.

Please. Hold on. Wait a minute. Maybe that's entertaining. I'll be on board with that.

Yeah, I have an ipad preloaded on here.

I like that. Even with a magic school, they still have to bend to the whim of the school sponsors, because nothing's more powerful than money.

Truly.

We haven't seen the school student council yet. We don't know how powerful they are.

They run the government.

The headmistress calls Diana over and tells her to give Andrew a tour of the grounds. And surprise, he does actually know her. He's like, Long time no see, Diana. Wow. Back to aqua. She's still trying. We see now that she has a bunny nose also, and a little tail. And she gets frustrated. And she's like, I thought when the shiny rod was like, drawn to me, it would mean something big, but maybe I'm not destined for magic. And she gets an idea. She goes over to her trading cards, and she pulls one out. It's called the Fountain of polaris. And the fountain grants powerful magic to a witch with hidden potential. And it just so happens that this fountain is on the luna Nova campus.

How convenient.

How convenient. But it's on the north part of campus, which is off limits. But she's going to try anyway. And then we see the tour group, and we find out that Diana and Andrew were childhood friends, but not really friends. They kind of just knew each other when they would go to their summer home.

Summer home?

And they kind of argue. Andrew being like, yeah, she was like obsessed with occult stuff. Everyone was afraid of her. And she's like, how would you even know? You weren't paying any attention. You were just obsessing over girls. And then they just go back and forth. Andrew talks about how he thinks magic is old fashioned. No wonder the school is losing money. And then he sees ako sneaking around out of the corner of his eye. And Diana and the blonde boy have switched directions because Diana is like, oh, we can't go over here. ako is kind of hiding behind a wall, but he can see her ears. So he goes up and just grabs them. And she's like, what the fuck? And then he does it again. And she's like, what the fuck?

He's curious about her ears. And when he grabs them, he's like, oh, they're real. She's like, yeah, it's magic. And then when she says magic, you can see he gets disinterested. I'm like, you're at a fucking witch school. Yeah, of course it's magic.

So she explains that this is like a temporary setback, thanks to a spell gone awry. And he asks for her name. She gets all flustered. And then he introduces himself, and she's like, you're handsome, Andrew. He seems to think it's funny. He smiles. He's like, I guess so. And he says that she's the most unique witch he's met. He's like, you're not like other girls.

I like that you suck at magic. You're unique.

That's fun. Fun and quirky. But he reveals that he has no interest in magic. And he's like, it's just going to disappear one day. But she gets pretty heated. She disagrees. She's like, it's still useful. Magic is the best thing in the world. And he's like, okay, how is it useful? Show me. And she sees a squirrel. So she's going to cast the metamorphosis spell on the squirrel, but she does it to him by accident and gives him some donkey ears and a tail.

Oops, what an ass.

Ha ha. Then we see Diana and his blonde friend are searching for Andrew. And Andrew was like, I don't want them to see me like this. And aqua was like and I can't be seen outside of my dorm. So they're going to go try to find the fountain. Then we see Ursula go to the dorm to see ako but she finds the card. So she's like, ah, shit.

Crap, nerd's been here.

So they're at the north campus, they find a sign on a door. And aqua very much just does this sign. Can't stop me because I can't read it's in Latin. And Andrew reads it, but she's not listening. She just ran back and then runs and breaks down the door. And the sign pretty much says to leave the fountain and the big thing that guards it alone. Too bad. This is where we get the big old polar bear thing. It's very cute but very angry.

It was very clearly an actor did the lions for the bear even though it was just like growling and snarling. But I am curious if they dubbed it like if it is a different actor or if they just kept it for every language.

I watched it in English, but I wasn't really paying attention to the sound.

It wasn't like stocks audio of like a bear or something. It was definitely like a do doing it.

So they run. It chases them. They're like running up a ladder. The ladder breaks. Andrew does a fancy jump and aqua is like, wow. Then they're like on the top portion of the building which is like, falling apart. And the poly bears still chasing them. Then they're holding onto a ledge. aqua is holding onto his belt. And she's like, I'm so sorry. And he's like, that really doesn't matter.

Right now, but I can see your underwear and I'm apologizing because I don't want you to think I don't care.

We're about to there are more important things than you seeing my butt right now.

Maybe I want you to.

Pick the good underwear.

So then the ledge breaks. Oh, no, they're falling. Whatever will they do? Then someone casts the spell. They stop falling. The two of them and the bear encased in like, separate green orbs. And then ho. We see the one that cast a spell was Ursula. And her hair, which was previously blue, is red for a moment. You know who else has red hair? Shiny chariot. I'm shocked. I can't believe it.

It's just a regular teacher. I don't know.

Your shock hair. I don't know. Shocking. She truly shocked that at this point episode six, they still just don't say yeah. ursula's, shiny chariot.

What?

No, with her eyes. The concept they do on her eyes and the cutaways and the no, it's fine. But I'm just like, come on.

We figured this out. Episode one. You don't need to belabor it anymore.

Yeah, why is the bad news for you too, then?

Great. So Andrew and ako are on the ground and they see an archway in front of them and they go through and they find the Fountain of polaris. So aqua asks the great stars for power, and she sees a reflection of a young shiny chariot in the water. And we see a flashback of Chariot. She's walking along the road, and she helps an old lady cross the street with magic. And there's just more memories of her doing magic and stuff, showing her become a great witch, including tall dog.

Tall dog.

Very tall, very important, very regal, very dog, very dog. So she then returns to the fountain with the shiny rod, and she does like a magical girl transformation into a phoenix. And then ako and Andrew are back outside, and Ursula is there, and she says the fountain grants powers to those who are ready for it. But it seems like ako isn't quite there yet. And aqua gets upset because she was hoping the fountain would show her that she has hidden potential, but she knows that that's not something someone can really acknowledge for her. And Ursula says that deep down, ako knew that already. And she cries and she says, I just want to be like Chariot and I will one day. I'll get strong. And Ursula tells her to come back to the fountain when she's learned a little bit more. And then she tells Andrew she'll remove the spell from him, but to keep it a secret. And he's like, yeah, I like this girl. You know why? She's not like other girls.

She's quirky.

So, yes, we see the Count and Andrew leaving in their cars, and the Count says all this trip did was prove that magic has no place in the world anymore. uhoh, and that's episode six.

Whatever could happen next.

The guy who bulldozed the school and put up a science center, a strip.

Mall, applebee's as far as the eye can tgi.

Friday.

You need less spells and more flair.

More cocktails, more mozzarella sticks.

Hold on, we got the magic of mozzarella sticks.

That's true. It's the grease at the bottom.

I'm a cheese man, sir.

But I'm also lactose intolerant. It's a dilemma. So are we there yet?

Yes, this definitely scratched that wizard academia thing.

That can be itched by previously useful.

Series, so that is definitely good. Yeah, I've been telling dee and Brendan I found this new little indie game called Fire emblem Three Houses, and that's been what I've been playing lately. So this sort of like, magic school. Yes, it's very much in my active brain at the moment. And, yeah, the owl house inspirations are definitely very apparent. So, yeah, this scratches all the itches I've been looking for lately. So, yes, this was delightful.

I enjoyed it very much. I watched the first two episodes pretty early this morning, like, at eight, and I was like, should I just watch episodes three to four and five? And I didn't.

But I was tempted, though.

I was tempted and I mean, based on starting up episode six and being like, I feel like I haven't missed anything. I didn't need to watch them. But I do really like it. I like studio triggers style, and this especially felt very cinematic, just like the way the shots were set up. Kind of like the composition. I liked it a lot. I was watching it and I was just like, I'm having a great time.

Yay.

Yeah.

Like the visuals are beautiful. It's studio trigger, so that's expected. But you also do have those direct visual styles of the Chris Columbus Harry Potter movies. So you have those influences and it gives you that feeling of like, yes, it's still Kid Adventure Time. We're having fun with magic.

Yeah.

I like shenanigans.

The the warning on Netflix said it was Y seven for fear that was.

The only thing someone in the show gets scurred. And that's scary to us.

Yeah, this definitely is. Like it does feel like a children's show that is just good and that's fun because I feel like with stuff like Gravity Falls or Steven Universe and sometimes in the owl house, there are themes where it's like, oh, yeah, adults could watch this and get some adult themes out of it. But this really does just feel like babies. This is for ten year olds.

Yeah. There's no secret underlying super political. We're trying to overthrow the witch government and it goes into like a full scale war scenario in like season two or anything. So they're not going to sweep the legs out from under you with that. If I did have a complaint with season one, it is very episodic. Like, you said you didn't watch episodes three to five and you feel like you didn't miss anything. It's all very much like aqua's got a problem. She learns the powers within it all the time and she progresses a little with the shiny chariot wands like every episode, which isn't bad, but there's no big overarching story. More than just her progression within season one. Season two has that more so. And I really enjoyed season two, but I would say season one is worth the watch. But it's like we said with other shows where it's like, what's the word? Like a palate, cleanser sort of show. Like you don't want to binge these. You don't want to eat 30 after dinner minutes because you're going to get sick. You want to have them here and there. You don't want to binge it all in one day. At least with season one, I would say that. But yeah, I really enjoy the show and I'm happy you guys liked it because yeah, I think the style is great. That's a given. I think the direction a lot of the episodes are really good. I'm not thrilled about aqua as a character. She's probably my least favorite. But all the other ones I really enjoy, especially Diana. We kind of joked with the recap of like, I'm the top rich girl, but she never really does that. It's all the people around her who are saying Diana is the best. diane is better than everyone. Diana herself never really does that. And her character development throughout the whole series is really well written.

She could tell that she's a good person.

Definitely going back to Owlhouse. Has an amity vibe.

Yeah. I think you mentioned last week about an unlikable main character. But I like aqua. She's just a young girl very excited to go do something. And I think her personality really complements lots. And susie's really well. And diana's. So I don't know. I don't find her that annoying just because I know that's just who she is.

Yeah. I think it was like we talked about with her trying to animate the statue where instead of trying to cast a spell, she was just pointing, going, move, statue, move, move.

Do it. You won't move.

Doing bitch. I dare you. And I think it's just stuff like that. She does get better. You do see aqua grow as a character throughout the whole series. So she's just she's not stagnant. But it was stuff like that where it's like, you're not just bad at magic. You're kind of just dumb in general.

Yeah. And that's why I love her. She's my new child. I don't think I've ever adopted her. I adopt a lot of sons. I think she might be my first daughter. I love her.

Officially official adoption on the podcast.

I'm signing the papers right now.

And I also say I watched the episode two stubs. And I watched episodes one and six stubbed. I actually prefer the dubbed. They have a lot of interesting voices, especially for, like, Ursula and susie.

Yeah.

I think Add a lot more character than they were in the subs.

Yeah. I like susie's voice in English a lot.

Yeah. Good show. I'm glad we all had a good time.

Yay.

Yeah. Are we going to have a good time next week?

Yeah.

Yeah, we'll see. We're going to keep this spooky train rolling. This is a recommendation from Jessica gelbart. We are going to watch corpse Princess.

Got corpse right in the title.

Yeah. Got to stay spooky. Got to stay thematic. So will it scar us emotionally? 50% chance. Yeah. I hope these do.

It's going to scar us somehow.

If you would like to scar us, you can send your imaging anime. Yeah. If you have good anime that you genuinely think will enjoy, you can send.

Those recommendations to us.

Yeah. If you have an anime you don't personally care about and won't blame disliking, you can send those recommendations to our email are wetheryet@gmail.com. Or you can reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram at rweeb there yetet on both. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at mrpatrick. dugan.

You can find me on Instagram at Honeyperiod on Twitter at honey d eight and Honey dart or on twitch at honey underscore d. And honey is spelled.

H-U-N-N-I-E. You can find me on Twitter at abts. Brendan. If you enjoyed me going into weird DND related tangents this episode, that's pretty much all I got. So you followed that.

Thank you to camille Ruley for our artwork. And thank you to Louis zong for theme song stories. You can find all of louie's music at louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

Alicazam, ursula is not trying to cherry I don't know what you're talking I don't know what.