Though of course it can’t compare with how the kids who grew up watching
this series felt, I was sorry to see Ojamajo Doremi end. It couldn’t
have lasted as long as fellow Toei animation One Piece of course,
and nor should it have, but I actually hold it in higher esteem than
predecessors like Sailor Moon and Digimon. Ojamajo Doremi
had so much heart it was deeply touching, and if ever there’s a revival,
possibly adapting the still-ongoing light novels, I will certainly be there for
it.
Unlike Mo~tto, I didn’t rush through Dokka~n, partly because
the translators were still working on it (and their work is much appreciated!),
but also because I was a little resistant to finishing the show and knowing
there was no more of this sweet, relaxing series for little girls.
Previous series have in large part relied on the introduction of new witch
apprentices to mark the start of new eras. Dokka~n does this too – sort of.
In the beginning of the series, little baby Hana, heir to the throne of the
witching world, decides she is fed up of being a baby and uses magic to make
herself an eleven-year-old. A stubborn baby, she thus must learn to fit in with
the structures of Japanese elementary school society alongside the other girls
while of course still having the mind of a toddler – and some formidable magic
powers. Doremi and the gang must care for her – and at the same time continue
to work to free the former queen’s predecessor from her enchanted sleep by
delving into her past.
The series is paced very slow, but that is no negative point. After all,
this series is at its best when it is focusing not on progressing the main plot
– though there are very lovely moments in it, not least the point where the
curse on magical frogs is lifted – but on peripheral stories. Aiko and her
parents’ broken relationship continues to have the series’ heaviest punches,
but begins finally to shift towards a happy ending now. New focus falls on
classmates like the one with social anxiety and the one who loves to write
books about the people she knows, which make for very sweet asides. Cuter still
are the little episodes of puppy love, and the not-quite-confession in the last
episode is one of the cutest I’ve ever seen. Perhaps I’d like more of Akatsuki
and the FLAT 4, who are barely seen this time, but they are perhaps distracting
from the more interesting real-world stories the girls face. Onpu has to face
failure for the first time. Hazuki knows that going to a specialist school is
the best for her, but has promised Doremi she’ll go to middle school with her
and is now in a difficult situation. Momoko is faced with the prospect of going
back to America , and even if things go Aiko’s way, that may mean returning to Osaka . There are a lot of goodbyes to be said – and if
they all decide to become witches after all, the girls must leave behind the
human world altogether.
Of course, all this builds up to that staple of Japanese series about
friendship between students – the tearjerker graduation episode. Doubled,
because there’s also the ‘graduation’ of witch apprentices to full-blown
witches to consider. As graduation episodes go, this is one of the best ones, a
superb mix of melancholy, dramatic gestures and humour. It makes for a very
powerful episode, and one that made me smile throughout.
Weaker parts of the season include the need to have another ‘shop’ gimmick,
and having run out of things like flowers and cakes, the girls decide to try
making tapestries, which is not the most dynamic or identifiable of activities.
Then there is Hana’s pet baby elephant Pao, which is occasionally cute but
mostly annoying, and solves the pecuniary problems of the Maho-Dou by...well, upon
vacuuming up dark energy released by the former queen’s predecessor through its
trunk, pooping out little golden pellets. That’s...that’s charming, that is.
But Ojamajo Doremi does one of the things that is a staple of why I
love anime: it starts with the big premise, the girl who stumbles upon a witch
and ends up having to become a witch apprentice, and then after being given
plenty of time to breathe and develop, becomes about having to separate from
your friends, learning parental responsibility, coping with your parents’
divorce and early romances. That’s not something you see in many cartoons, and
it’s to be treasured.
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