Magical Angel Creamy Mami

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Magical Angel Creamy Mami
Promotional image
魔法の天使クリィミーマミ (Mahō no Tenshi Kurīmī Mami)
Genre	Magical girl
TV anime
Director	Osamu Kobayashi
Studio	Studio Pierrot
Network	Nippon Television
Original run	1 July 1983 – 29 June 1984
Episodes	52
Manga
Author	Ito Kazunori
Illustrator	Yuuko Kitagawa
Publisher	Kodansha
Original run	1983
Volumes	3
OVA: Forever Once More
Director	Kobayashi Osamu, Mochizuki Tomomichi
Studio	Studio Pierrot
Episodes	1
Released	1984-10-28
OVA: Long Goodbye
Director	Mochizuki Tomomichi
Studio	Studio Pierrot
Episodes	1
Released	1985-06-15
OVA: Lovely Serenade
Studio	Studio Pierrot
Episodes	1
Released	1985
OVA: Curtain Call
Director	Itō Kazunori, Mochizuki Tomomichi
Studio	Studio Pierrot
Episodes	1
Released	1986
OVA: Perfect Memory
Studio	Studio Pierrot
Episodes	1
Released	1987

Magical Angel Creamy Mami (魔法の天使クリィミーマミ, Mahō no Tenshi Kurīmī Mami^?) is a magical girl anime series by Studio Pierrot from 1983. It went on to have five OVA adaptions and featured in other Studio Pierrot special presentations. A three volume manga was released during the original TV run, with the story written by Ito Kazunori and art by Yuuko Kitagawa. This was the first of five magical girl anime to be produced by Studio Pierrot,^[1] and the first of these to feature the designs of Akemi Takada. In 2005, the web-poll for TV Asahi's top-100 anime of all time saw Magical Angel Creamy Mami poll 82nd.^[2]

1 Story
2 Characters
3 Impact and influence
4 Internationalization
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Story

Yū Morisawa is an ordinary 10-year-old girl, until she sees a spaceship floating in the sky. Carried into the ship, she helps Pino Pino find the Feather Star. In thanks for her assistance he grants her a magical wand, which allows her to transform into a 16-year old girl, for one year. She is also given two cats from Feather Star, Posi and Nega, who are to watch over her while she has magical powers. While wandering around the city as a teenager, she accidentally ends up on TV and asked to sing, which the magic enables her to do remarkably well. Using the alias of Creamy Mami, she becomes an overnight success, and is soon sought to begin a professional career as an idol. Along the way, she also meets past residents of Feather Star and supernatural beings.

[edit] Characters

Yū Morisawa (森沢優, Morisawa Yū^?) / Creamy Mami (クリィミーマミ, Kurīmī Mami^?): Seiyū: Takako Ōta; A normal 10-year old girl, Yū harbours a secret crush for her childhood friend Toshio Ōtomo. Given the ability to transform into a 16-year old girl, she is made to fill in for the absent Megumi Ayase to sing on TV. Giving her name as Creamy Mami, she becomes an overnight hit.

Nega (ネガ, Nega^?): Seiyū: Kaneta Kimotsuki; One of the two cats from the Feather Star asked to watch over Yū Morisawa while she has magical powers. His name is short for negative.

Posi (ポジ, Poji^?): Seiyū: Yuko Mita; One of the two cats from the Feather Star asked to watch over Yū Morisawa while she has magical powers. Her name is short for positive.

Megumi Ayase (綾瀬めぐみ, Ayase Megumi^?): Seiyū: Saeko Shimazu; A popular idol and the star act of Parthenon Productions, she feels threatened by the newcomer, Creamy Mami, and declares herself to be Mami's rival.

Kidokoro Hayato (木所マネージャー, Kidokoro Manējā^?): Seiyū: Sukekiyo Kameyama; Megumi Ayase's bumbling manager, he is moved to managing Creamy Mami when she joins Parthenon Productions.

Midori Kisaragi (如月みどり, Kisaragi Midori^?): Seiyū: Masahiro Anzai; Toshio Ōtomo's best friend, Midori is in love with Yū Morisawa and seeks to tell her this. Because of his bashfulness, he needs Toshio's help to do this.

Natsume Morisawa (森沢なつめ, Morisawa Natsume^?): Seiyū: Mika Doi; Wife of Tetsuo, mother of Yū, Natsume works in Creamy with her husband. She used to be the leader of a motorcycle gang. Her and her husband own Creamy Crepe making crepes.

Tetsuo Morisawa (森沢哲夫, Morisawa Tetsuo^?): Seiyū: Akira Murakami; Husband of Natsume, father of Yū, Tetsuo works in Creamy with his wife. He used to be a member of Natsume's motorcycle gang.

Toshio Ōtomo (大伴俊夫, Ōtomo Toshio^?): Seiyū: Yū Mizushima; Friend of Yū Morisawa and Midori Kisaragi, he falls in love with Creamy Mami after her first TV appearance.

Pino Pino (ピノピノ, Pino Pino^?): Seiyū: Seiko Nakano; An alien being, Pino Pino grants Yū Morisawa magical powers for one year in thanks for helping him find the Feather Star.

Shingo Tachibana (立花慎悟, Tachibana Shingo^?): Seiyū: Kazuhiko Inoue; President of Parthenon Productions, he quickly recognises Creamy Mami as future sensation, and tries to make her into a star.

[edit] Impact and influence

Creamy Mami (1983) is known as a pioneer of the new marketing strategy, now known as “media mix”.^[3] They used an anime to promote a new, least-known idol singer. The real idol singer, Takako Ohta, acted as an idol singer (Creamy Mami) also in the story. The opening theme Delicate ni Suki Shite was her first song in the real world too. Even though Ohta was a new singer and not a trained seiyū, she voiced Yū/Creamy Mami. The result was a great success. The anime Creamy Mami has become famous and Ohta gained a high popularity that still exists today. In 1999, Fuji TV's show Kaishingeki TV Utaemon had a poll to decide the most popular old TV theme song for 25-year-old audience, and Delicate ni Suki Shite was ranked first.^[4] This anime has been repeatedly broadcast over the Internet too. As of writing (2006-08-08), people in Japan can legally watch the show on-demand for free on GyaO.

The same “media mix” approach was seen in Idol Densetsu Eriko (1989) and Idol Tenshi Youkoso Yōko (1990). The anime version of Full Moon o Sagashite (2002) basically shares the same format too. Another example is Lemon Angel (1987). Using an anime to promote a singer, per se, was not really new, as there was Pink Lady Monogatari (1978), but Pink Lady was already extremely popular at that time, so it was not that they gained popularity through the anime.

Creamy Mami set the format that would be used for future Studio Pierrot magical girl titles, and was especially influential in Fancy Lala.^[5] Creamy Mami also stars in Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume, along with Magical Emi and Persia, as well as Majokko Club Yoningumi A-Kukan Kara no Alien X, with Magical Emi, Persia and Pastel Yumi. The popularity of the series not only saw two feature-length sequels, but Creamy Mami also featured in five music video-based productions, starting with the 1985 OVA Lovely Serenade. The second of the feature-length sequels, Magical Angel Creamy Mami Long Goodbye, began with the short animation Mahō no Tenshi Creamy Mami VS Mahō no Princess Minky Momo Gekijou no Daikessen, and where Creamy Mami battles against Ashi Productions' Minky Momo.^[1]

Creamy Mami's companions Posi and Nega were also parodied in Gainax's 1991 OAV Otaku no Video, in which Misty May (the magical girl character created by the series' protagonist) has two lion-cub companions named Posi-King and Nega-King. (The character design for both is based on King the lion cub, a companion of the title character in Gainax's 1990 TV series Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.)

[edit] Internationalization

Magical Angel Creamy Mami was dubbed into Italian by Studio PV, who released it as L'incantevole Creamy from 1985-02-03.^[6] It was also broadcasted in France by AB1 as Creamy, merveilleuse Creamy from 1988-04-29.^[7], and more recently released in french dvd edition (Japanese language and French subtitles) by Declic Image. It was also distribueted in Spain distributed as "El Broche Encatado" for 1992.