Ojamajo Doremi

[big bad birtha]

As everyone probably knows by my recent posts, I've been watching, and thoroughly enjoying a magical girl anime named Ojamajo Doremi. When I first decided to watch it, I really didn't have any expectations for it at all. I merely wanted to watch it because it had the same director and character designer of Heartcatch Precure, a show I watched and loved right before I watched Doremi. When I first started watching Ojamajo Doremi, I just thought of it as another girly kid's show. It was a little funny, but other than that, it kinda got on my nerves with Doremi's excessive useage of her catchphrases and hyperactivity. Despite that, I kept on watching it, and all the things that annoyed me started growing on me. As I progressed in the show, the characters were slowly growing. As they grew, the show kept improving. So by the time season 3 starts, I'm in love with the show.

Plot- A 3rd grade girl named Harukaze Doremi feels like the world's most unfortunate pretty girl, or bishoujo. Her sister looks down on her, her parents fight, and her crushes never work out. She currently has a crush on a boy from the soccer club, but doesn't have the courage to confess to him. She eventually runs into a shop named "Mahou-dou" which sells magical goods. She goes into the shop in hopes of obtaining an item that would help her gain the courage to confess. After speaking to the shopkeeper, who's named Majo Rika, she learns that the shopkeeper is a witch, which turns Majo Rika into a mushroom-frog thing. To the delight of Doremi, she's forced into becoming a witch apprentice in order to gain the magical power required to turn Majo Rika back into a witch. Doremi's friends, Senoo Aiko, and Fujiwara Hadzuki, find out about Doremi being a witch apprentice shortly later, and are forced into becoming apprentices as well. The three girls, or Ojamajos, start using their powers to help their troubled classmates. They also have to pass a series of witch exams in order to be full fledged witches, and turn Majo Rika back into her original form.

Even though the show is about a group of girls who become witches, the witch part is mostly just used to improve on the classmates' stories. It's used in order for the Ojamajos to eavesdrop somewhere it wouldn't be normal for them to, to look into the past so they can find the possible cause of a character's problem, or simply do things to help that would normally be impossible. The first season relies quite a bit on magic in order to help others, but as the show progresses, the girls start using magic less and less.

The strongest point of Ojamajo Doremi has to be the character development. It manages to do a good job of developing a large cast of characters, and it does an even better job of developing the Ojamajos. Almost all of Doremi's classmates have a story behind them. The show has the Ojamajos use their witch powers to help the kids with their problems, which leads to them growing a little bit. Some of the stories are pretty good. Giving specific examples is kinda difficult, since there's so many to choose from. For the development for the Ojamajos, most of it came from season 2, where they struggled in order to take care of a baby. Of course, the Ojamajos all have their own issues, and there's growth outside of taking care of the baby.

I'll talk a bit about who the Ojamajos are, since I keep using the word. The word Ojamajo is a pun of course. I think it means "bothersome witch" or something. At glance, all the Ojamajos are generic, but the show develops them to be more than basic character stereotypes.

Harukaze Doremi- As the name says, she's the main character of the show. She's a clumsy, not-so-intelligent girl who dreams of being a witch. She also dreams of marrying a steak restaurant owner. Her clumsiness has earned her the name "Dojimi" by one of her classmates. She's also incredibly meddlesome, which is actually a good thing in this show, since it's what gets everything going. Doremi's a pretty funny character. Her strange and goofy habits are what kept me interested during the slow first part of the show. She eventually becomes a much warmer, motherlike character. Her methods in helping people also become pretty clever.

Fujiwara Hadzuki- She's Doremi's best friend. Hadzuki is a rich, intelligent, but softspoken girl. When the show begins, she's troubled because she's always forced to keep up with her mother's strange whims. Most of her episodes have her dealing with her mother forcing strange activities/clothes on her, while she's unable to refuse because it'd make her mom sad. Some of her other episodes are about her childhood friend, Yada. One amusing thing about her is the cackle she makes when she's scared. Her disguise as a fortune teller later on is pretty hilarious too.

Senoo Aiko- She transfers about two or three episodes into the show. Aiko is a sporty girl from Osaka. Due to a divorce from her parents, she lives with her father. Most episodes about Aiko's invovle her getting close to her mother and trying to get her back together with her father. I really do look forward to seeing how her episodes end up, because in the latest episode I watched about her, she gave up on having them make up, because she realized that even if they're apart, they're still her parents.

Harukaze Pop- Pop is Doremi's younger sister. Unlike Doremi, she's headstrong, and is very popular with her classmates. Pop always rubs this fact in Doremi's face. She's almost like a leader of her preschool class. As for her relationship with Doremi, it's pretty bad when the show starts. Though, this makes the Pop moments in the later seasons some of the sweetest of the bunch. Sadly, she doesn't appear much on episodes that aren't about her.

Segawa Ompu- Ompu doesn't appear until late season 1, and when she does appear, she's more like a rival character than anything. She starts out as someone who will do almost anything to get her way, even casting forbidden magic. When season 2 starts, she becomes more considerate, since her lack of consideration almost killed her. Anyway, she's a child idol. She's not around the rest of the Ojamajos very often because of work. Most of Ompu's episodes are either about her work as an idol, or having her see her father who's never home. I'd say season 1 got a little better when Ompu joined the cast.

Asuka Momoko- Last, but not least is Momoko. Unfortunately, she doesn't join until season 3. Momoko is a transfer student from New York, so when she first appears, she can only speak English. For the most part, she only gets a few episodes about her getting used to the different culture. Like Doremi, Momoko doesn't really have any troubles, so she meddles in other peoples' problems. As far as her personality goes, Momoko is amazing. I remember a comment on a picture in Danbooru. It said something like "When Ojamajo Doremi started, everyone had their favorite Ojamajo. When season 3 started, Momoko came and changed that favorite for everyone." I'd say this is a very accurate comment. When she obsesses over something, she goes batshit insane (current avatar is an example). I've actually rewatched a bunch of episodes because of all the awesome Momoko moments. Her VA did a good job of making all of her English lines sound good as well. They were a little slow, but she didn't have an Engrish accent at all, which I commend the voice actress for.

If the fact that I bothered to make a topic about this show doesn't say it, I'll say it straight out. I absolutely love Ojamajo Doremi. It's the best magical girl show I've watched. I don't believe anyone here will be willing to watch it due to how kiddish and girly it is. There's also the fact that it requires alot of time invested for the best experience, since each season is 50 episodes. However, I believe this show atleast deserves some attention, and I'd atleast like to talk about it. Other than Heartcatch Precure, which I watched right before this, I haven't enjoyed an anime this much in a long time. I look forward to when season 3 is finished. When I get the initiative, I'll talk about the 3 seasons and the OVA as well.

[big bad birtha]

Reviving a dead topic to bring up something only I care about! It seems that some of the cast from the anime are doing a light novel sequel that takes place in high school. I'm not sure what to think about it as far as making sense goes, since I don't know how the show actually ends. Well I have faith that it'll turn out well. Too bad it likely won't be translated, since Doremi's pretty obscure.

I'm pretty curious about what they will do with it. In the last episode of the OVA, they hint at how the series will end, which points out to them losing their witch powers. In that case, would they just make the light novel a regular high school slice of life, or would they make the girls miraculously regain their powers AGAIN? The first one sounds boring, but the second one seems like a forced restart.

The timing of this announcement was also kinda weird. Not too long ago, we got a bunch of people celebrating Doremi's 21st birthday. One picture being in pixiv's top 5 pictures during the end of July.

Huh...I did say I would talk about the 3 seasons that are subbed and the OVA series didn't I? Well, maybe later. It took alot of initiative to even make this topic!

[Doppleganger]

Isn't setting it in high school usually a bad thing? I mean, I don't want to taint the purity of this topic, but most ecchi stuff is set in high school, most magical girl in middle school. And a light novel on top of it? I wonder what demographic that would cater to?

[big bad birtha]

Actually, if the light novel keeps the same tone that the anime does, I'm sure it will cover some more mature subjects because they're older. I believe the light novel might be made to appeal to the audience of Doremi when it aired, and if they were the same age as the girls in the show, they would be adults now (Like I said in my last post, Doremi herself would be 21 this July.) However, I don't think it's fully a bad thing, since they even had some mature subjects in the original show. Hell, they hinted at one boy's mother being a prostitute (though she ended up being a late night restaurant worker.) Even if the subjects get more mature, if it keeps the same tone as the anime, they will likely handle it as a matter of fact (I apologize, but I can't think of the right word for it) instead of making it sound like something smutty.

Because they're older, I'm curious about what they'll do with some of the characters. What's Doremi's relationship with Kotake? He clearly liked her throughout the show, but he always picked on her and gave her an insulting nickname. What was sweet was how even though all of the products she made in she shop she worked at were shitty, he always bought the things she made. I don't know how they conclude their relationship in the anime.

I'm afraid of what they'll do to Ompu. She has been an idol since a young age, and she has some pretty dark thoughts.

A few of them should even have boyfriends. There's a bunch more things I'm curious about, but I'll leave it at two. Despite being magical girl, Doremi has always been really down to Earth.

[big bad birtha]

Bumping a thread that hasn't been posted in for nearly a year. Despite not posting or saying anything, I have been regularly watching Doremi whenever a new episode is subbed. So far, somewhere near half of the last season of Doremi has been subbed, and I think it deserves some things said about it.

Ojamajo Doremi Dokkaan
A new season, a new theme, and as the trend with all of the seasons of Doremi has gone, this season is better than the previous ones. Ojamajo Doremi Dokkaan has had some downright amazing episodes. Actually, they have been near the quality of the OVAs, which I can easily say is the best thing from a kid's show I've seen. As each season goes by, the show goes more in a slice-of-life direction, while having the girls use magic less and less. This is a good thing, since it leaves a good lesson, teaching that it's better to do things yourself rather than magically make them. Actually, you only see their transformation scenes for like, once every few episodes (Hana being the exception). Some of the problems and how they're settled have been really great. One episode is about a girl who loves wrestling, but decides to quit, since none of the boys will spar with her anymore, since they're getting older and it's embarrassing. Another is about a boy who is inspired about a book about boy who builds an airplane, making him want to build one with the rest of the boys in the class. Dokkaan has been incredible so far. While it doesn't exactly look the best, the writing is much better than Doremi's current timeslot inheritors. I'm sure this show will keep it up as well.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by big bad birtha

One episode is about a girl who loves wrestling, but decides to quit, since none of the boys will spar with her anymore, since they're getting older and it's embarrassing.

This sounds like a really interesting and emotionally engaging story. It also seems 100% plausible to occur in real life, and thus the audience doesn't feel like their time is being wasted on improbable hypotheticals, and yet at the same time is rare enough, is so statistically unlikely to have ever occurred quite like this in someone's life, that the audience doesn't feel like the show is exploring mundane waters.

Mind you, we've seen similar things before. I've more commonly encountered it in stories where the girls is part of a kendo dojo or club, but there was also the martial artist (School Rumble) and the adventure club member (Ano Hana), although that latter example is appreciably complicated by the death of another club member. It's interesting to watch stories where kids have to deal with the emotional changes that occur when they transform into adults.

I think it's particularly commendable in this case, though, that they explored it. Ojamajo Doremi is, afaik, a show targeted towards adolescents. In particular adolescent girls, no? So this episode actually deals with a real world issue that 1% of them may experience for themselves in the near future or may have even already started to experience. So if this episode can help those 1% to realize that they are not alone and can even offer some helpful suggestions as to how those girls can still hang out with the boys, doing the fun activities they so love to do, without having to change who they are on the inside or be ashamed of their bodily changes or feel like society is castigating them for pursuing an unladylike hobby, then that's a good thing in my book.

[big bad birtha]

I finally finished the last few episodes of Ojamajo Doremi, despite lagging on them for two months. The waterworks were way too damn thick for me, but I managed to shove through!

Anyway, this last season of Ojamajo Doremi was nice. The writers actually put some thought into the show, and was actually a big step up from any other kid's show I've watched. Kiruminzoo is the only one that's even close. It doesn't sugarcoat things much, and goes over some pretty serious subjects, like the one I mentioned in my latest post in this thread. They even touched on lifespan, and had a great story about a witch who lived with humans. All of the characters are very well developed, and it doesn't make you feel like there's more that needs to be said. Also what they did with magic was very nice, but I won't spoil it on the 1% chance that someone else picks it up.

My biggest issue is that the final episodes are difficult to watch, but that's more a personal problem than a problem with the writing. I don't care for waterworks, but I do somewhat understand them in the last few episodes of this. Also this is from Toei before Precure started raking in the cash, so the animation isn't exactly great, but that never bothered me (except in this case where they clearly bounced a picture up and down to try to simulate walking, but they bounced the character too high).

Overall, the last season of Ojamajo Doremi, Ojamajo Doremi Dokkaan, gets a 9 from me. This was a fun show, and after watching this, it saddens me when I look at what this show's successors have become. Like I've mentioned, this is probably the best kid's show I have watched, and the OVAs are one of the only five things to score a 10 with me on MAL. The only problem is, it's a slow start, with the show starting at okay, and slowly creeping up as the show progresses.

I didn't mention this, but I tried reading some of the Light Novel that someone translated, and it wasn't pleasant. The writing was very VERY amateurish. It seemed like a bad fanfiction more than anything. I only went through three chapters, so it might have gotten better later on, but I didn't like what I read. Well even if the writing is bad, the art is not! All hail Umakoshi!