Floral Magician Mary Bell

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Floral Magician Mary Bell

花の魔法使いマリーベル (Hana no Mahōtsukai Mary Bell)
Genre	Magical girl, Fantasy
TV anime
Directed by	Tetsuya Endo
Studio	Ashi Productions with Studio Giants
Network	TXN etc. TVB Jade MBC Mediaset Polonia 1, Smyk, Polsat 2 (in Taiwan) OTV, Hunan Satellite TV, etc. Spacetoon
Original run	February 3, 1992 – January 18, 1993
No. of episodes	50
Movie: The Key of Phoenix
フェニックスのかぎ (Phoenix no Kagi)
Directed by	Tetsuya Endo
Studio	Shochiku
Released	August 8, 1992
Runtime	43 minutes 23 seconds
Movie: Mary Bell's Traffic Safety (educational film)
マリーベルの交通安全 (Mary Bell no Koutsuu-anzen)
Directed by	Tetsuya Endo
Studio	Toei Animation
Released	February 15, 1993
Runtime	13 minutes 31 seconds
Movie: Mary Bell's Fire Prevention: What to Do When an Earthquake Occurs (educational film)
マリーベルの火の用心～グラッときたらどうする～ (Mary Bell no Hinoyōjin: Guratto Kitara Dō Suru)
Directed by	Tetsuya Endo
Studio	Toei Animation
Released	February 15, 1993
Runtime	11 minutes 24 seconds

Floral Magician Mary Bell (花の魔法使いマリーベル, Hana no Mahōtsukai Mary Bell^?), or Mary Bell for short, is a magical girl anime by Ashi Productions. The 50-episode series first aired in Japan from 1992. It was also broadcast in Hong Kong, South Korea, Italy, Taiwan, Mainland China, Poland, and in most Arab countries.

1 Overview
2 Story
3 Staff
4 Internationalization
5 Trivia
6 See also
7 Notes and references
8 External links

[edit] Overview

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Many other magical girls are primary-schoolers or middle-schoolers, while Mary Bell looks like a preschooler (although actually she is about 500,000 years old). She is a “native” magical girl just like Minky Momo and Sweet Mint, the magical girls by Ashi Productions from the same period, but is not a princess. The operatic approach is notable, with each main character has his or her own leitmotif, and they sometimes sing instead of speaking like musical. This anime was made into a movie and two educational films. The DVD version was released on March 20, 2004.

[edit] Story

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Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Mary Bell, a magical girl who looks like a girl around five years old, comes to the human world from a magical world called “Flower Magic World”, and helps and encourages people.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Staff

The TV series was planned and produced by TV Setouchi, Big West, and Ashi Productions. It was directed by Tetsuya Endo, with series composition by Takao Koyama and Hideki Mitsui (both from Brother Noppo). The animation directors include Masashi Hirota, “Kōichirō” (新羽高一浪), Yuriko Chiba, and Kouji Fukazawa. These four supervised about 80% of the 50 episodes.^[1] The true identity of “Kōichirō” is unknown and people even do not know how to read his family name, but it is widely believed in Japan that “Kōichirō” is a pseudonym of Takeshi Itou.^[2]

[edit] Internationalization

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Floral Magician Mary Bell has been released in some other countries and areas, as:

In Cantonese (Hong Kong), “Nifty Fantasy-Magic Little-Flower-Fairy” (俏皮幻法小花仙) on TVB Jade.
In Mandarin (China Mainland), “Nifty Little-Flower-Fairy” (俏皮小花仙).
In Korean, “Floral Angel Mery Bell” (꽃의 천사 메리벨) on MBC.
In Italian, Mary Bell on Mediaset.
In Polish, “Fairy from the Land of Flowers” (Wróżka z Krainy Kwiatów) on Polsat 2 and others.
In Arabic, “Adventurers of Nagham (Melody)” (مغامرات نغم).

[edit] Trivia

The protagonists of Mary Bell Picture Book are Jane and Michael, the same names that appear in Mary Poppins.
“Mary Bell” should be two words, although it is often spelled as one word (“Marybell”).