This show understands that magic academy stories work because you want to be the kid discovering impossible things, not because of the plot. Akko's stubborn refusal to grow cynical about her hero while everyone else moves on hits differently when you realize the show is actually on her side, it's betting everything on earnestness in a genre that had stopped believing in it. The animation moves like someone spent all their budget on making mundane moments (a girl running late, magic lessons, friendships forming) feel like the most important scenes ever made.

Atsuko Kagari is a hopeless dreamer with stars in her eyes and almost no magical talent to speak of. She enrolls at Luna Nova Magical Academy with one goal: to become as dazzling as Shiny Chariot, the famous witch she has always admired. Everyone else has moved on. Among older witches, Chariot is seen as childish, something to be embarrassed about mentioning. Atsuko doesn't care what anyone thinks. Academy life falls far short of her hopes, with dull lectures, strict teachers and classmates who sneer at her idol. Her poor spellwork leaves her looking like a troublemaker. When a chance to prove herself finally comes, she seizes it, and soon she must stop a rampaging dragon before it wrecks the whole school. The result is a comic fantasy about a determined young witch who clings to her dream.