Little Witch Academia: The Nonsensical Witch and the Country of the Fairies (Book Review)

Written by Daniel – Little Witch Academia is an anime series created by Yoh Yoshinari and first broadcast in 2017. The series follows Atsuko “Akko” Kagari an aspiring witch who is attending the prestigious magic school Luna Nova Academy. Here she meets with friends Lotte and Sucy, and the three of them frequently find themselves getting into numerous magical hi-jinks which often land the trio in trouble with their teachers. The series has had several adjoining manga, and the video game Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time (2018). In 2017, the series also had a tie in children’s book Little Witch Academia: The Nonsensical Witch and the Country of Fairies. The book was later translated to English in 2019. But is it any good? Should fans of the TV series spend a little money and read the book? Well, wait no longer. Let’s find out!

Quick thoughts on Halloween 2020 in Costumes

Written by Daniel – Some of you will know all too well that I’m fascinated by costumes, and every Halloween I give my thoughts on the most popular Halloween costumes (via Google Freightgeist). So here are some quick thoughts on this year’s most in demand costumes, they are as follows:

3. Harley Quinn: I’ve been curious over the results this year, in past years I have noticed that the popularity of costumes tend to run in line with popular cinema. With the success of ‘Birds of Prey’ at the start of this year (as well as the ongoing success of Animated Series ‘Harley Quinn’), this might offer an explanation to Harley Quinn’s return to being such a demanded costume (following last year’s dip at 15th most popular). I also find it interesting that Harley Quin’s ‘Suicide Squad’ outfit is the first (and main) search result. I suppose from one stance the costume is iconic, evocative of Debbie Harry’s 1970’s punk shoot. The simplicity of the costume makes it easy to mass produce. But from another stand point, it is Harley’s most overtly sexual costume (from a film which positions her in an abusive relationship), it’s just a shame, we don’t see more Birds of Prey or Animated series costumes.

2. Dinosaur: Of course, with Covid-19, a lot of media, namely cinema, has seen projects pushed back, or simply gone out of the radar from public imagination. But, streaming services haven’t left our side. As of August 2020, Netflix become the home of the Jurassic Park films, as well as introducing their own original animated series ‘Jurassic Park Camp Cretaceous’. The T-Rex costume vines/tick-tocks have seen dinosaur costumes remain relatively popular in the past. But, I think the revived visibility of Jurassic Park definitely has definitely been an influence on consumers costume purchases here.

1. Witch: Finally, in at number one is the Witch, last year we saw witches in at number 2, and I wasn’t really able to figure out why. Witches have long been popular within consumers imaginations for some years, with shows such as AHS (series 3), ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’, ‘Little Witch Academia’, ‘The Worst Witch’. It is a character which appeals to all age groups, inspiring artists and creatives throughout the year. The powerful magic of the witch is tempting. During these chaotic times, I think the figure of the witch is actually quite a hopeful figure of transformation. Given the history of witches, I think their costumes and the resurgence of the characters are highly political. Witches have become detached from their dark history, and become symbols of female power, which challenge the powers of misogynist leaders. Importantly Witches don’t work alone, witches are part of a coven and use their powers together to conjure change. 2020 needs Witches!

“It’s Just a Costume! It’s Just a Costume!!”

Written by Daniel – In 2017, I wrote two dissertations for my undergraduate, one on cosplays of Harley Quinn and the other on interventionism and internationalism in Scooby-Doo! So this post is really just an ego trip, as I treat myself to combing my two interests in costume and Scooby-Doo! I’m curious about how costumes, fancy-dress, and cosplay posses narratives, and in taking on these narratives through our clothing we change ourselves into someone else, our identity transforms, and we encourage others to see us differently. It’s the narratives that these costumes posses which are used by their wearers to adapt how they’d conventionally like to be perceived. Such dress changes not only their appearance but how we ought to interact with them, and how they interact with everyone else. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004) is a great jumping board for this discussion, because the costumes in this film have no wearers. In this film, it’s not just a costume, but the costumes are actually monsters!

Since 1969 Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Inc. gang have been traveling the world unmasking monsters for who they really are: bitter business men and women trying to scare away competition, investors, locals, or members of the public. Now in its 50th year, the show continues to depict the Mystery Inc. Gang unmask those behaving as monsters. However, in Scooby-Doo 2 written by James Gunn who has gone on to write and direct The Guardians of the Galaxy films, this film sees in its opening minuets an exhibition of costumes from some of Scooby-Doo’s most iconic mysteries. But the exhibition launch is cut short as the costumes are stolen from the gang, only to be brought back to life by an evil masked figure, who wants to see Mystery Inc. come to an end. In this film the monsters are no longer frail bitter humans to be unmasked but they embody the supernatural and the otherworldly, the codes and signs sewn in to fabric are brought into the real material world.  

Ever After High (Way Too Wonderland): A Royal Flush

Written by Daniel – We have finally arrived at The Queen of Hearts Birthday Tea Party. Or at least Courtney Jester has! Our heroes; Raven, Apple, Liz, Madeline, Briar, and Kitty have gotten lost due to the White Rabbits shoddy sense of direction. The longer it takes them, the more time Courtney has to track down the Cheshire Cat and the storybook of legends, because if she gets hold of that, she’ll write Liz out, and write herself into Wonderland royalty.

It’s the final episode of series 3 of Ever After High, and as I reflect on the series, I can’t help but think that it would have hugely benefited from being released as a film (in much the same way that series two was simply an extended episode). Unlike series one which was composed of distinctly different stories (with a running motif of the Story Book of Legends), this four part series has been a continuous story, each episode following on directly form the last – it could have been marketed as ’24’ for fairy tale princesses. Had I watched this episode as part of a Ever After High marathon, I think it would have been fun and satisfying. Having watched the episode a fortnight after the last one, it just wasn’t very satisfying and seemed to pack too much into such a short space of time, which may have been redeemed had it been spread out over two episodes.  I think it is the result of this fast pace which actually made me feel for our villain Courtney Jester. 

Ever After High – Welcome to Ever After (part 1)

Written By Dan – Ever After High ep. 2 ‘Welcome to Ever After’ on Netflix is presented as a series of shorts, which act as a prequel to the events of ep. 1 ‘Legacy Day’. Which then concludes with the final moments of legacy day and the following two days and the raised tension between the royals and the rebels.

In this review, to get the most out of what’s actually going on, I thought I’d review each segment/story line individually. So without further ado, let’s begin at the beginning:

Creeped Out – The Side Show (part 2)

Written by Dan – Thoughts on the final episode of series 1 Creeped Out Ep. 13 ‘The Side Show (part 2)’. This episode opens with Ace and the ring leader having just set out into the local town in an attempt to find Ace’s family. However with no success.

This episode might be the most insane episode of Creeped Out there’s been, but oh, wasn’t it just brilliant! If you want this post to make sense, firstly go and watch the episode, and/or have a read of my post on part one. This episode opens with Ace finding the family he’s been dreaming about, however, there’s a problem. The family have no idea who Ace is, they’ve never seen him before in their lives. So Ace is forced to apologise, and then the ring leader takes him home to the side show. Naturally Ace is let down, and above all confused – but Indigo won’t let Ace stop there, she’s sure something is up, and together they’re going to get to the bottom of it all. 

The Story Makers & Public Services

Written by Tom
A reading of the Cbeebies series The Story Makers in relation to Monday’s post on Fun Song Factory, discussing its representation of reading and social services.

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Last post, I talked about the theme of capitalism in the direct-to-video pre-school series Fun Song Factory. While I was writing about how the Fun Song Factory works by putting base materials into a funnel and having songs come out the other end, I found myself immediately reminded of another pre-school show in which base materials were put into a funnel and transformed into a piece of media. And look, if I ever get the chance to talk about The Story Makers, I’m taking it. I love this show with all of my heart.

The Story Makers is a Cbeebies pre-school show produced during the early 2000s (when my sisters were born, in case anyone was wondering why I was watching it). The series is set in a library. Every night, the library shuts and three figures come out to play – two puppets called Jelly and Jackson and Milton Wordsworth (played by Danny John-Jules, best known as Cat from Red Dwarf). Together, they take things left by library residents, feed them into the library computer and produce new storybooks out of them. Each book would be one of a series – either a Blue Cow book, a Kevin the Spaceman book, a Sniff and Wag book, etc. – and they’d always be read out once produced (by which I mean the actors would start reading the book, at which point the show would fade to a narrated short film which represented the book’s contents).

The series is frankly magical. The dark library setting, the fact that Milton Wordsworth is a literal wizard, and the poetic tone to the whole thing just carries with it a sense of mystery and majesty. It made writing and reading seem genuinely wondrous; I have to imagine that a lot of currently budding artists and writers watched this as children.

But because we’re here and I’ve got a blog to write, let’s have a look at some of the show’s political subtexts! And because this is pretending to be some form of series, let’s define those subtexts in relation to Fun Song Factory. Because honestly, if I ever get the chance to write something comparing the political subtexts of Fun Song Factory and The Story Makers and I decide not to do it, I have officially grown up and thus lost all sense of myself.