Atsuko Kagari

Atsuko "Akko" Kagari is the main protagonist who made her first appearance in the short film Little Witch Academia and later, its sequel Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade and reboot anime TV series titled Little Witch Academia. She is a young witch in training who is joining a school for witches called Luna Nova Academy. Due to her normal human background, she struggled to study magic and tried her best to become the best witch like Shiny Chariot in spite of the said witch being denounced as a fraud due to her ways of using magic for her shows bringing unwanted views on witches in general by normal humans.

She is voiced by Megumi Han in the Japanese version, and Erica Mendez in the English version.

Appearance
Akko usually appears smiling, or with exaggerated facial expressions. She has large brown eyes and an average tone of skin.

Akko's hair is long, straight, and chestnut brown in color. It reaches about just below her shoulder blades in length, and her bangs are cut about her eyes. Akko has a section of hair tied onto a half ponytail on the back of her head.

Personality
Akko is described as a very cute, optimistic and energetic girl. She's always up for a challenge, even if it seems too hard for her. Akko is very immersed in her own ideas and fantasies, and often doesn't take other people's opinions into account. She's headstrong and stubborn and has a short fuse.

Akko is very social and people are drawn to her happy disposition.

Akko has an idealized view of witches inspired by her childhood idol Shiny Chariot, which clashes with her fellow students' "views". Being her fan, she has a poster of Shiny Chariot in her room, and the concept of Shiny Chariot is often used in her fantasies. It's worth mentioning that she's also very immersed in her own fantasies and sometimes doesn't take other people's into account. This trait was toned down for the TV series, but it is still evident. But it doesn't mean that she is arrogant: In the OVA, Akko realized that she went too far when her friendship with Sucy and Lotte was jeopardized, and thus was saddened with what she just did.

Despite her impulsiveness, ultimately Akko is a selfless witch who will risk her own self and her reputation to do what is right such as during the 7th episode when she used her last bit of magic in her wand to break open the fishing cage to save a fish's family rather than using it later when they find Pisces (although she coincidentally found Pisces in the cage), the 5th episode when she convinced her friends to go with her and take back the Sorcerer's Stone from the dragons, and during the 8th episode when she volunteered to be the "sacrifice" to go into Sucy's mind and wake her up.

Though she has a little discipline for study and finds most classes to be boring, Akko is in fact very clever. This is first seen in Episode 1 when she lures the Cockatrice so that it is entangled in the vines of a mandrake plant. In episode 4 she gets Lotte into the city by catching a ride in Luna Nova's food delivery truck. And in episode 9, she is able to quickly bring Mr. Holbrooke to Luna Nova Academy by grabbing onto the Bell Tower's bell and using an Object Repairing Spell to reunite it with its clapper, knowing the clapper is on campus as Miranda Holbrooke's staff.

Powers and Abilities
Compared to the rest of her fellow witches, Akko was not competent with magic, let alone using flying brooms (in the anime, it's also the result of Croix Meridies' Noir Fuel Spirit Plan by tricking Chariot to use Dream Fuel Spirit on her), but her potential with magic and determination to master them is unmistakable: She can use the Shiny Rod that once belonged to Shiny Chariot with impressive prowess, both to turn it into a bow and arrow form and the huge ballista form. Whether this magic potential was already present in her or not is unknown, but in the manga prequel, she uses a mandragora potion to gain access to magic. Hilariously, lack of experience with her newfound powers resulted in her accidentally triggering a powerful explosion that nearly killed her along with Sucy and Lotte.
 * Magic: Akko's mundane background, and the result of Chariot's Dream Fuel Spirit orchestrated by Croix for her own plan to break the Seal of Grand Triskellion, made all of her powers weak, and incompetent in witchcraft. But over time, her magic gradually recovers.
 * Animal Transformation Spell: Akko at first is terrible in the Animal Transformation Spell, but finally improved it so that the spell become one of her signature abilities. Animal forms that she had are:
 * Elephant with big ears: Allows her to fly for a short while or weight down someone/something.
 * Mouse: Seeks around small places and dodges attacks.
 * Penguin: Slides on snow and ice.
 * Fish: Breathes and swims underwater.
 * Turtle: Blocks off attacks.
 * Extermination Spell: Akko can project energy bolts as a basic offensive attack.
 * Object Control Magic: Akko can move objects without touching them with her wand to a certain extent.
 * Opening Spell: Akko can magically opens any door, window, cage or asegurated object.
 * Object Repairing Spell & Super Object Repairing Spell: With Ursula's tutelage, Akko was able to learn to repair objects with magic and later to repair larger objects.
 * Flame Magic: Akko can magically manipulate flames.
 * Broom Flying Spell: Akko's weak magic render her unable to fly, but over time, she finally recovers it and is finally able to do it in the end.
 * Illumination Spell: Akko can generate light from tip of her wand to illuminate area like flashlight.
 * Energy Propulsion Spell: Akko can project stream of magic energy from the tip of her wand to either knock items away with magic stream's concussive force or propel herself like a rocket.
 * Archery: Akko possesses impressive skill in archery as seen when she fires Shiny Arc with impressive accuracy.

Reception
WatchMojo.com listed Atsuko Kagari as #5 on their "Top 10 Zero to Hero Anime Characters" list.

Trivia

 * Erica Mendez also voices Ryūko Matoi from Kill la Kill, another Trigger production. Similarly, Diana's voice actress, Laura Post, also voices Ragyō Kiryūin in the same series.
 * Akko also shares both her Japanese and English voice actresses with Gon Freecss from Hunter x Hunter.
 * The way Akko obtains the Shiny Rod is different between the anime and the first OVA. In the OVA, she found it within Luna Nova during a treasure hunt while in the anime she found it in the Arcturus Forest while trying to become a student at Luna Nova Magical Academy.
 * Akko makes a cameo in the post-credits scene of a thirteenth and final episode of Space Patrol Luluco, another anime series produced by Studio Trigger.
 * Akko has similarities to Izuku Midoriya of My Hero Academia:
 * Both Izuku and Akko were inspired by their childhood idols (Izuku idolizes All Might while Akko idolizes Shiny Chariot) to become the very best.
 * Both Izuku and Akko were born as an ordinary human (Izuku lacks a Quirk and Akko has a background of an ordinary human).