I had the pleasure of watching and reviewing all of Ojamajo Doremi last year, and throughout the 200+ episode run of the original series I felt that the most special thing about Doremi was how it put it's main characters through a massive variety of situations that were either complicated, tragic, or difficult for your average young viewer to understand. Divorce, severe social anxiety, cancer, death, racism, loss of purpose, these are all topics that are very touchy even for many adults, however Doremi made it a point to go out of its way and paint all of these subjects in a light that kids would understand and be able to contextualize better, all while being a mostly goofy show about silly witch antics and off-the-wall humor. The reason why I feel these more challenging topics were placed here and there was to comfort and offer appropriate role models to children who may have been growing up in a situation that they don't understand. For example, very few kids have to deal with a friend their age suffering from cancer, or know a classmate who can't come to school because of their sever anxiety as a result of bullying, but to those who do they will probably feel lost or confused about what is going on, and it is important for shows like this to give children like that an outlet and help them understand a bigger picture while also crafting a world full of lovable and whimsical characters.

And that is exactly what Majo Minarai is about.

This film focuses on three adult girls of varying ages and personalities who all grew up watching Ojamajo Doremi and are still huge fans of the series. After meeting by chance and bonding over the show via staying up all night drinking, a friendship forms and they decide to meet up again and travel to some of the more famous Doremi spots across Japan. These three girls are all dealing with pretty severe problems in their lives, some of which are directly mirrored from issues tackled in the original series such as Reika struggling with divorced parents at an early age like Aiko, or Mire being a foreigner as well as someone trying to carve out a future for herself despite being in an overbearing industry (à la Momoko and Onpu). Essentially, these girls represent the exact kinds of people who can place their situation into a better context as adults since they had watched Doremi and her friends face those same conflicts from a young age. The film's progression is accompanied by both conflict and difficult future-altering decisions that each of the characters has to face, with some scenes even being a direct parallel to scenes in the original show (such as Mire and Reika's fight early on resolving like Doremi and Hazuki's fight) which is great for fans to look back on while also tying in to the purpose of the film that I explained above. It's conclusion also mirrors the finale of the series, essentially stating that the magic that Doremi and everyone else had wasn't from a wand, but from their character and how they treated those closest to them, which made for a tender closing scene of drunken self-determination. In short: this film is a love letter through and through.

Away from the core message of the film, the overall package is enjoyable. Animation is smooth and the character designs are fantastic (thank you Umakoshi I love you), music is redone tracks from the original series, and of course the crazy facial animations are still there. If you know me and how much I adore Junichi Sato's directing styles, you'll know that the thing I appreciate most about him is how he commits all-out to the emotions of the current scene, and that is certainly present here with goofy scenes being as off-the-wall as possible, and sad scenes being pretty damn heartbreaking. I absolutely loved the voice acting which sounded very natural and I found myself enjoying all three of the characters for their own unique reasons, though Reika was probably my favorite overall. For a few negatives, I feel the film becomes a bit uneven towards the end with Sora's arc focusing on just some guy who she crushes on instead of her connection to one of her students who has a learning disability, the latter of which I found much more interesting especially since the other two characters had romantic-focused arcs to some effect. Character chemistry is also rushed towards the start since they needed to have the girls become friends immediately to fit the plot in the 90 minute runtime, but this was a minimal issue for me. Also, barely any Momoko. She said only one word. I'm sad.

Overall, if you are a fan of the series this is a must watch, and if you're still reading this and are interested in the film I would recommend watching at least season 1 of the original before diving into this film. Thanks for reading!