Yuina Akagi is just a normal girl from Maebashi. That is, until she’s scouted by a talking frog named Keroppe. He transports her to a strange in-between space with four other girls and bestows them with magic. Yuina and her new friends don special costumes to dance and sing for their clients. Not just to grant their wishes, but to give them the strength they need to achieve their dreams for themselves. Each happy client earns them magical power (or mapo) for use in their everyday lives. With enough mapo, they will one day be recognized as true witches. Maebashi Witches checks many of the boxes you’d expect from a magical girl series. There are five main characters with a variety of backstories and hair colors. They wear coordinated outfits and work with a talking animal mascot. Even the idol theme, which isn’t as universal, has been done before. But the series is also notable for what it leaves out. There are no battles in Maebashi Witches . Yuina and her friends do not fight evil by moonlight; instead they work together to solve people’s problems non-violently. This is unusual, because magical girls and battles have been inseparable since the success of Sailor Moon in 1992. Artist Naoko Takeuchi combined the romance of girls’ comics with the excitement of tokusatsu (live-action with heavy special effects) superhero serials. These two flavors taste great together, and so history was made. Nearly every single magical girl series made since (not to mention many non-magical girl series) bears Sailor Moon ’s influence. RELATED: Writer and Podcaster Victoria L. Johnson on the Influence of Magical Girls Toei Animation produced the Sailor Moon anime with the help of some of the most talented directors and artists of the time. But eventually the well ran dry. The studio experimented with other series in a similar vein like Cutie Honey Flash and Fun Fun Pharmacy . It hit paydirt with 2004’s Precure , where magical girls fight with fists and feet rather than just magical projectiles. New installments of Precure aired every year for over 20 years. It is now the standard bearer just as Sailor Moon once was, and defines what we imagine when we hear the word “magical girl.” Yet they were not the beginning of the genre. The earliest magical girl series, like Himitsu no Akko-chan , were defined by magical misadventures rather than clashes between good and evil. They asked their young audience the question, “If you had magical powers, what would you do?” Would they transform into an adult? Play pranks on their friends? Become a successful idol singer? You can see hints of this even in the original Sailor Moon , where Usagi’s “disguise pen” lets her try out jobs like doctor, photographer and teacher. I’d argue the greatest iteration of this classic formula is Ojamajo Doremi , a Toei series that ran from 1999 to 2004. The show followed a hapless young girl named Doremi and her friends in their journey to become witches. Doremi does not solve problems by fighting. Instead, she uses magic to find creative solutions. Often magic itself doesn’t solve the problem, but instead provides the tools necessary for people to solve it themselves. There’s a lot about Maebashi Witches that reminds me of Ojamajo Doremi . There’s the fact that the characters are witches, of course. Then there’s the approach to magic, which is strictly rationed in both series. Part of the challenge for Yuina and Doremi is finding the best solution to the problem using the limited amount of resources they have. Children themselves often don’t have much money to work with, so it makes sense to set an example so that they might learn to help each other with whatever is at hand. RELATED: Ojamajo Doremi and the Magic of Children's Animation The cast of Maebashi Witches and Ojamajo Doremi aren’t venturing out to fight evil. Instead they help whoever comes to their door. This lends itself well to Maebashi Witches ’ aspirations to promote Maebashi itself; the more people we meet from that area, the better we understand it. While Maebashi Witches can’t recapture Doremi ’s massive interconnected cast in just 12 episodes, it does flesh out its central characters enough so that we see life in Maebashi from multiple angles. Representing life on screen for an audience of children comes with the responsibility of doing justice to their experiences. Ojamajo Doremi was particularly famous for depicting not just the rosy parts of life, but everything else: whether that be divorced parents, the death of a pet, or xenophobia. Sailor Moon too, despite its exaggerated stakes, sought to capture the turmoil of adolescence through fantastical metaphors. The teenage characters of Maebashi Witches are older than Doremi ’s cast of elementary schoolers. They are keenly interested in makeup and fashion, and frequently use social media. This poses a challenge to the creative staff. How do you respond to the needs of children in the modern day without dating yourself in just a year or two? Can you really acknowledge the messy realities of life as a teenage girl without breaking from the squeaky-clean image presented by commercial anime about idol singers? Well, as it happens, Maebashi Witches is at its most alive when it is educating its audience about contemporary issues. The series touches on topics that most anime avoids: fatphobia, toxic friendships, working children and even online sexual harassment. Rather than provide quick, magical solutions, it makes the case that navigating these problems requires leaning on each other. Yuina and her friends don’t do this perfectly; in fact, they make plenty of mistakes. But that’s part of the show’s lesson: that trying your best to listen and grow is more important than perfection. RELATED: WHEELS & ROSES Creator Pearl Low on the Impact of Anime The scriptwriter, Erika Yoshida, previously worked on the modern classic live-action drama series Tora ni Tsubasa . That show also sought to educate a general audience about feminism, heteronormativity and international war crimes. I can’t say for sure that Yoshida’s preferences are responsible for the daring of Maebashi Witches , but I wouldn’t be surprised. Look no further than one of Yuina’s fellow witches, Kyoka, who decides that she wants to change Maebashi by running for mayor. You, too, can change harmful systems through the power of democracy! Another part of Sailor Moon distinctly missing from Maebashi Witches is explicit romance. While you can certainly find chemistry between the witches themselves, there is no “Tuxedo Mask” character to engender mystique. It’s a surprising omission for a series starring teenagers. But I think it’s purposeful. Keeping focus on the five girls and their relationships allows for a deeper exploration of their personalities without distraction. Maebashi Witches then represents the bleeding edge of magical girl anime despite its classic inclinations. It repurposes the form to tell down-to-earth stories about adolescents with problems that don’t have easy solutions. It isn’t alone; Precure itself has pushed the boundaries that it helped define with ambitious franchise entries like 2018’s Hugtto! Precure . But Precure remains tied to the status quo it helped create. Every episode must contain a transformation sequence and a fight. That limits the kinds of stories you can tell. What I find endearing about Maebashi Witches is how willing it is to defy your expectations. Many episodes feature song and dance performances shot like music videos, but not all of them do. Sometimes Yuina’s friends don’t even succeed in giving their clients what they want. Nearly every episode ends with an after-credits cliffhanger that explodes the show’s status quo. Maebashi Witches can do this because it does not come with expectations. It is simply an opportunity for the staff to tell whatever stories they want about teenage girls building community with each other to survive modern life. RELATED: Which Magical Girl Era Do You Belong To? If Yuina blows up a villain with her magic powers some time before the end of the series; sure, why not? I love those kinds of shows, too. But I’m happy to see Maebashi Witches try something else. It’s fun to be surprised.
