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 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.
 * Metamorphosis Magic: In the beginning, Akko initially terrible with Metamorphosis Magic, only able to give herself animal traits. However, over time, the Metamorphosis Magic become one of her strongest abilities after hours of training.
 * Transformation Spell: With Transformation Spell, Akko can either magically turning herself or others into animal forms (which tends to be cartoonish in appearance compared to that of her peers) as well as disguising herself as someone else (though this feat requires at least one item the person in question carry to make it work).
 * Object Control Magic: Akko can move objects without touching them with her wand to a certain extent.
 * Restoration Magic: Through Ursula's titulege, Akko learned how to use Restoration Magic to fix broken things and even the use of Mending Magic Powder to increase the spell's effectiveness.
 * Object Repairing Spell: With Object Repairing Spell, Akko can magically fix small to medium-sized broken objects.
 * Large Object Repairing Spell: With Large Object Repairing Spell, Akko can magically fix larger broken objects.
 * Flame Magic: Akko possesses some degree of mastery over flame magic which allow her to manipulate fire.
 * Opening Spell: Akko can magically opens any door, window, or cage with this spell.
 * Flying Spell: Akko's weak magic render her unable to fly with broom, but over time, she finally recovers it and is finally able to do it in the end. She can also utilize same spell to briefly walk on the air by forming energy platforms beneath her feet as well.
 * Magic Energy Manipulation: Akko can manipulate magic energy to perform various feats such as projecting beams and/or blasts, illuminating her surroundings, simulating telekinetic force as a form of object control magic, and generating solid constructs out of the energy's tangible form.
 * Heat Blast Spell: Akko can project magic bolts strong enough to destroy weak creatures and crippling a human with one blast as a basic attack magic.
 * 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.
 * Also, in the same series, Akko's cheerful side can be compared to that of Mako Mankanshoku.
 * 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).
 * Both have similar personalities, are optimistic and never give up.
 * Both have a rival that they later become friends (Izuku with Todoroki and Akko with Diana).
 * She is also similar to Megumin from the Konosuba series in personality as they'll be sharing the same English voice actress.
 * She later became one of the official members of the Shōnen Ace franchise and the Anime Heroes franchise.