Ojamajo Doremi

Ojamajo Doremi (おジャ魔女どれみ, lit. "Troublesome Witch Doremi"), also known as Magical DoReMi in some countries, was a magical girl anime television series created by Toei Animation. It focuses on a group of elementary school girls, led by Doremi Harukaze, who become witch apprentices. The series aired in Japan on TV Asahi between February 1999 and January 2003, spanning four seasons and 201 episodes, and was followed by an original video animation series released between June and December 2004. An English language version of the first season, produced by 4Kids Entertainment, aired in North America in 2005. The franchise has also spawned two companion films, various manga adaptations, and a sequel light novel series.

Plot

Ojamajo Doremi

Doremi Harukaze, a third grade elementary school girl living in the fictional Japanese town of Misora, comes across an esoteric shop known as the Maho-Do (MAHO堂), correctly guessing that its owner, Majo Rika, is a witch. Due to a curse placed on any witch whose identity is discovered by a human, Majo Rika is transformed into a magical frog. Wanting to return to her original form, Majo Rika makes Doremi her witch apprentice, giving her the ability to cast magic. In order to become a fully fledged witch capable of turning Majo Rika into normal, Doremi has to pass nine different witch tests, whilst also keeping her identity a secret from other humans. Doremi is soon joined by her two best friends, Hazuki Fujiwara and Aiko Senō, and later by her younger sister Pop, who all become witch apprentices, helping to run the Maho-Do whilst using magic to help out their friends and families, with the occasional mishap. They soon come across a rival witch apprentice, Onpu Segawa, who has been using forbidden magic to influence people's memories. Whilst initially cold towards the other girls, Onpu soon warms up to them and sacrifices herself to prevent their identities from being revealed. In order to save Onpu from an eternal sleep, the girls give up their magic powers to awaken her.^[1]

Ojamajo Doremi # (Sharp)

At the start of the fourth grade, Doremi and the others, who sneak into the Witch World to visit Majo Rika, witness the birth of a magical baby, who is given the name Hana. As witch law dictates that whoever witnesses a magical baby's birth must take care of it for a year, Doremi and the others and once again made witch apprentices tasked with raising Hana. While also taking care of the Maho-Do, which has now become a gardening store, the girls must ensure Hana's growth and help her pass several health examinations held by the Witch World's head nurse, Majo Heart. Meanwhile, a wizard named Oyajide attempts to kidnap Hana to help aid the Wizard World, later enlisting the help of four young wizards known as the FLAT 4. At the end of the series, after the witch apprentices help mend relations between the Witch and Wizard Worlds, they once again give up their powers in order to protect Hana from the past queen of the Witch World.^[2]

Mōtto! Ojamajo Doremi

As the Queen of the Witch World pleads to the other witch senates to make Doremi and the others witches again, half of the senates are opposed to the decision. Thus, the Queen offers a compromise in that the girls, who are made into apprentices again, must pass six patissiére exams in order to become full witches. With the Maho-Do remodeled into a bakery, Doremi and the others are joined by Momoko Asuka, a returnee from America who initially has little experience with Japanese outside of using a special intercom, to help them bake sweets needed for their exams. Midway through the series, Hana is afflicted by a curse from the past queen, causing her to have a dislike for vegetables which are necessary for her magical growth, prompting Doremi and the girls to help her get over her pickiness. After curing Hana's pickiness and passing the patissiére exams, the girls appeal to the past queen, Majo Tourbillon, who had despised humans ever since she lost her human husband and child, undoing a curse placed upon a forest, where her true form is found sleeping, protected by magical vines.^[3] The OVA series, Ojamajo Doremi Na-i-sho!, takes place during this time frame.

Ojamajo Doremi Dokka~n!

Hana, who has gotten bored of the Witch World and wants to be with Doremi and the others, uses all of her magic to instantly grow up and become a sixth grader. This results in the Maho-Do being transformed into a crafts shop and Hana's magical crystals shattering, requiring Doremi and the others to supply her with the energy needed to become a witch apprentice. Meanwhile, the Queen discovers Majo Tourbillon's power will eventually cause all worlds to be put to sleep. As such, the Queen tasks the girls, who are assisted by Majo Tourbillon's fairy, Baba, to recreate various handmade gifts that Majo Tourbillon's six grandchildren had made and received from her in order to remind her of the happy times and break the vines imprisoning her. The vines soon start spawning black flowers that cause people and magical beings alike to be affected with laziness, with the girls enlisting the help of Hana and a white elephant named Pao to put a stop to them.^[4]

Media

Anime

Ojamajo Doremi is produced by Toei Animation and ABC. In Japan, the show aired on each of the ANN TV stations (Asahi Broadcasting Corporation (ABC, Japan), TV Asahi, Nagoya TV (Metele), and others) and Broadcasting System of San-in Inc.. The show replaced the time slot for Yume no Crayon Oukoku after its end and lasted from February 7, 1999 to January 30, 2000, with a new episode airing every week.^[5] The series soon followed with direct sequels, Ojamajo Doremi # (おジャ魔女どれみ しゃーぷっ, Ojamajo Doremi Shāpu), Mōtto! Ojamajo Doremi (も〜っと! おジャ魔女どれみ), and Ojamajo Doremi Dokkān! (おジャ魔女どれみドッカ〜ン!) until January 26, 2003. Each series lasted from 49 to 51 episodes. It was then followed by a thirteen-episode original video animation series, Ojamajo Doremi Na-i-sho (おジャ魔女どれみナ・イ・ショ), released between June 26 and December 11, 2004.

4Kids Entertainment licensed the first season in North America under the title Magical DoReMi, which aired on 4Kids TV for the 2005-2006 broadcasting season.^[6] Unlike the international dubs and like many broadcast anime in the USA, Magical DoReMi was heavily edited and localized for US audiences and a lower TV-Y rating. Like many of the series licensed by 4Kids, the series received changes to character names, music, sound effects, and cultural references, as well as heavy edits pertaining to violence, death, and alcohol, to make the series more suitable for a young American audience, along with editing Japanese text to English and the usual 4Kids edit of erasing Japanese text or replacing them with unreadable symbols performed as well.^[7][8] One change in the English dub is that the frog Majorika (Patina in the US dub) is interpreted as a greenling. Episode 30 was banned in America and never released in English due to it being too dark and inappropriate for US audiences because of its extreme religious references. The ending credits in the English dub closing sequence have all traces of the Japanese production teams removed and only the American production crew and teams of 4Kids credited.

Manga

From 2000 to early 2003, the manga magazine Nakayoshi ran a manga-adaptation of Ojamajo Doremi. The story was based on the events of the original anime and was drawn by Shizue Takanashi. The chapters were compiled into tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. Four volumes were released in total — the first three were under the title Ojamajo Doremi, covering the events of the original series and Ojamajo Doremi #. The last volume was adapted from the Mo~tto! Ojamajo Doremi story arc and was titled eponymously to it.

Films

Ojamajo Doremi #: The Movie

Ojamajo Doremi #: The Movie (映画おジャ魔女どれみ#, Eiga Ojamajo Doremi Shāpu)^[9] was the first theatrical release for the series and was directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi. Roughly twenty-seven minutes long, it was released on July 8, 2000 (along with Digimon Hurricane Touchdown!! / Supreme Evolution!! The Golden Digimentals) for the 2000 Summer Toei Anime Fair.^[10] The Digimon movie was split into two parts and Ojamajo Doremi #: The Movie was screened in between.

In the movie, Pop has just passed one of her witch exams, but gets into a heated argument with Doremi because Hana followed her into the Witch World. Initially unbeknownst to everyone, the flower Pop brought home from the Witch World is really the Witch Queen Heart, the Queen's favorite flower, which grants any wish it hears regardless of any possible dangers until it begins to bear seeds. One of the wishes it had granted involves turning Doremi into a mouse, unknowingly made by Pop over her anger towards Doremi. While Pop goes to search for her sister, the other girls track down the runaway flower before it starts to reproduce.

Though the movie bears little relevance to the series on which it is based, it does mostly take place some time between episodes 16 and 37 and is referenced in both episodes 37 and 40 (the latter coinciding with the post-credits scene).

The Secret of the Frog Stone

Mōtto! Ojamajo Doremi: The Secret of the Frog Stone (も～っと!おジャ魔女どれみ: カエル石のひみつ, Mōtto! Ojamajo Doremi: Kaeru Seki no Himitsu)^[11] was the series' second theatrical release and hit theaters on July 14, 2001, screened between Digimon Tamers: Battle of Adventurers and Kinnikuman: Second Generations. Similar to the first movie, it was again directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi.

During Doremi and her friends' summer vacation, they visit her grandparents in the fictional mountains of Fukuyama, where they hear of a mysterious legend of Mayuri and Zenjuro, two star-crossed lovers that died in the Edo period. During the next morning, when they investigate the forest, the girls get lost and face the Curse of the Full Moon, which makes them unable to use magic. Meanwhile, due to a traumatizing memory, Aiko develops a fear of Doremi's grandfather.

Music

Throughout the run of the series, multiple singles, albums, and compilations were distributed. The original series' CD's were released under Bandai Music Entertainment, while music from Ojamajo Doremi # was distributed by King Records. From Mo~tto! Ojamajo Doremi onwards, the CDs were distributed by Marvelous Entertainment.

Opening themes

• "Ojamajo Carnival!!" (おジャ魔女カーニバル!!, Ojamajo Kanibaru!!) by MAHO-Do (Chiemi Chiba, Tomoko Akiya, and Yuki Matsuoka) (first season)
• "Ojamajo wa Koko ni Iru" (おジャ魔女はココにいる, The Ojamajos are Here) by MAHO-Do (Chiba, Akiya, Matsuoka, and Rumi Shishido) (#)
• "Ojamajo de BAN²" (おジャ魔女でBAN²) by MAHO-Do (Chiba, Akiya, Matsuoka, Shishido, and Nami Miyahara) (Mōtto!)
• "DANCE! Ojamajo" (DANCE! おジャ魔女) by MAHO-Do (Chiba, Akiya, Matsuoka, Shishido, Miyahara, and Ikue Ohtani) (Dokka~n!)
• "Na-I-Sho-Yo! Ojamajo" (ナ・イ・ショ・Yo! おジャ魔女, It's. A. Se. Cret! Ojamajo) by MAHO-Do (Chiba, Akiya, Matsuoka, Shishido, and Miyahara)(Na・i・sho)

Ending themes

• "Kitto Ashita wa" (きっと明日は, Surely Tomorrow Will) by Saeko Shuu (first season)
• "Koe wo Kikasete" (声をきかせて, Let Me Hear Your Voice) by MAHO-Do (Chiba, Akiya, Matsuoka, and Shishido) (#)
• "Pop na Yuki" (ぽっぷな勇気, Pop's Courage) by Minami Komori (# Movie)
• "Takaramono" (たからもの, Precious Treasure) by Yui Komuro (Mōtto!, Naisho episode 12)
• "Natsu no Mahō" (夏のまほう, The Magic of Summer) by MAHO-Do (Chiba, Akiya, Matsuoka, Shishido, and Miyahara) (Mōtto! movie)
• "Watashi no Tsubasa" (わたしのつばさ, My Wings) by Masami Nakatsukasa (Dokkan! episodes 1-13, 31-51)
• "Ojamajo Ondo de Happippi" (おジャ魔女音頭でハッピッピ!!, A Happippy Ojamajo March) by MAHO-Do (Chiba, Akiya, Matsuoka, Shishido, Miyahara, and Ohtani) (Dokka~n! 14-30)
• "Suteki Mugendai" (ステキ∞, Infinite Wonder) by MAHO-Do (Chiba, Akiya, Matsuoka, Shishido, and Miyahara) (Na・i・sho episodes 1-11, 13)

Light novel

On September 5, 2011, Kodansha Limited announced the coming of the light novel Ojamajo Doremi 16, featuring the original work of Izumi Todo, story written by Midori Kuriyama, and illustrations by Yoshihiko Umakoshi. It was published in three volumes by Kodansha between December 2, 2011 and November 30, 2012.^[12] The story takes place several years after the events of the anime series, with the main characters now in high school.^[13] It was followed by a second series, Ojamajo Doremi 17, released in three volumes between July 2, 2013 and February 28, 2014, and a third, Ojamajo Doremi 18, released in two volumes between September 2, 2014 and June 2, 2015. The final volume, Ojamajo Doremi 19, will be released on December 9, 2015. Drama CDs were included with the first Ojamajo Doremi 16 novel, the third Ojamajo Doremi 17 novel, and Ojamajo Doremi 19.^[14] Toei producer Hiromi Seki has expressed interested in producing an anime adaptation of the series, but stated it would depend on sales.^[15]

Ojamajo Kids

During the run of Ojamajo Doremi Dokka~n!, Toei hosted live events with dance performances by select actresses who portrayed the girls, titled "Ojamajo Kids". These girls were selected via auditions.^[16]

• Kasumi Suzuki - Doremi Harukaze^[17]
• Tsugumi Shinohara - Hana Makihatayama^[18]
• Miiya Tanaka - Hazuki Fujiwara^[19]
• Chiharu Watanabe - Aiko Senō^[20]
• Makoto Takeda - Onpu Segawa^[21]
• Chisato Maeda - Momoko Asuka^[22]

References

External links

• Official Ojamajo Doremi website at Toei Animation (Japanese)
• Official Ojamajo Doremi Sharp website at Toei Animation (Japanese)
• Official Motto! Ojamajo Doremi website at Toei Animation (Japanese)
• Official Ojamajo Doremi Dokkan website at Toei Animation (Japanese)
• Official Ojamajo Doremi Na-i-sho website at Toei Animation (Japanese)
• Information in English about Ojamajo Doremi, Sharp, Motto!, Dokkan and Naisho at Toei Animation
• Ojamajo Doremi (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia