News

Little Witch Academia Anime's Video Previews 2nd Half, New Theme Songs

The official website for the Little Witch Academia television anime series began streaming a new promotional video for the anime's second half on Saturday. The video reveals and previews the second half's new opening and ending theme songs.

The second half will begin in April.

YURiKA and Yuiko Ōhara are returning once again for the new opening and ending themes, respectively. YURiKA will perform the new opening theme song "MIND CONDUCTOR," while Ōhara will perform the new ending theme song "Tōmei na Tsubasa" (Invisible Wings).

The site also revealed a new visual for the second half.

The television anime premiered on January 8 on Tokyo MX, BS11, and Kansai TV. Netflix is streaming the series.

The show's story revolves around Akko, who as a child watched the witch Shiny Chariot perform a show, and from then on dreamed of becoming a witch. She enters the Luna Nova Academy, a school for witches that Shiny Chariot attended. In this new town she meets new friends and starts a new school life. At the school she has lessons on riding brooms and the wonder of magic, but Akko and her friends Lotte and Sucy keep getting wrapped up in tumultuous events.

The returning cast includes:

• Megumi Han as Atsuko "Akko" Kagari
• Fumiko Orikasa as Lotte Yanson
• Michiyo Murase as Sucy Manbavaran
• Yōko Hikasa as Diana Cavendish
• Arisa Shida as Amanda O'Neill
• Rie Murakawa as Constanze von Braunschbank Albrechtsberger
• Reina Ueda as Jasminka Antonenko
• Noriko Hidaka as Shiny Chariot

Yoh Yoshinari is returning as director and original character designer at Studio Trigger. Michiru Shimada, who penned the script for the sequel film, is handling series composition. Shūhei Handa, a key animator in both the original short and sequel film, is handling main character design. Masanobu Nomura (Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Kiznaiver) is the art director, and Michiru Ōshima is returning from both previous Little Witch Academia anime to compose the music.

The project began with a 2013 anime short that spawned the Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade sequel in 2015. Yoshinari created and directed the first short as part of the Anime Mirai 2013 initiative. Fans supported the second short via a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign that raised US$150,000 in six hours, and eventually US$625,518 (four times its original goal) in one month. The Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade sequel had its world premiere at Anime Expo in July 2015.