Well, I’m in it now. Makin’ a review on this site, best make it good enough to read.
Ojamajo Doremi, or Useless Witch Doremi, or Magical DoReMi (who thought that was a fitting name while dubbing?) is a magical girl anime produced by Toei of ‘that big anime studio’ fame in 1999 planned only for one season.
Ojamajo Doremi tells the story of Harukaze Doremi and her greatest wish to be a witch, heh, as if magic were real… Oh wait shit, she outed a suspicious woman named Makihatayama Rika selling “magic goods” as a witch, turning her into a Witch Frog and becoming a witch apprentice as a result. The shy rich girl Fujiwara Hazuki and the athletic Naniwa-ku transfer student Senoo Aiko also join the team after finding these things out as well.
What unfolds is an episodic series focusing on solving people’s problems that they accidentally happened to create or come across along with furthering their own abilities through exams and even helping out (for free) at the Maho-dou so Majo Rika doesn’t have to be an alcoholic anymore. It’s not exactly a modern ‘monster-of-the-week’-type magical girl anime and it actually leans more into older magical girl anime story-telling surprisingly, which I think helps it stand out a fair bit more.
The main characters get developed really well through these almost repetitive arcs due to strong writing and strong performances, and even the entirety of class 3-2 gets developed which very much gives me Great Teacher Onizuka vibes (Which is another anime I’d recommend, but it’s completely tonally different.)
There are also some overarching subplots introduced however they, along with the main ‘plot’, really do not take center stage as, at its core, Ojamajo Doremi is about all kinds of kids growing up and figuring out how to deal with their problems as well as adults.
Somehow this show got super popular, which makes a lot of sense given just how much effort and care was put into this show to make audiences continue watching and as things tend to happen….Sequels. But I'll get there when I get there.
Personally, over the course of these 51 episodes I happened to fall in love with this anime, from seeing a joke piece of art months ago, to finding out the artist and name of the anime and now to finally finishing it I can safely say that this is a good anime that deserves its popularity, you seen those painted backgrounds yet? It’s also kinda hard to spoil this anime as there’s a lot of detail within each episode that stays for later use but still somehow feels self-contained? And the only big changes don’t actually impact much aside from gradual differences but it still stays pretty much the same throughout.
I am afraid of how long it’ll take for Doremi to take over my life once I get to that new film.
