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MAGICAL GIRL SALLY Friends | Magic
An
oldish "magical girl" series, distinguished by the outrageous magical events
which occur. Sally is a young witch who comes from a magical kingdom and
is sent to live on Earth. She makes herself a house, which looks a bit
like a Disney magic house and makes the neighbours rub their eyes in disbelief.
In one episode, Sally's even younger companion magics all the cute young
animals, lion cubs etc out of their zoo cages and leads them into town,
to general dismay and consternation. Even at school, Sally magics things
about in a fairly blatant way. Sally has a bouffant hairdo of the sort
more usually seen on middle-aged ladies. It's not the greatest series but
it's funny, and whiles away a pleasant 25 minutes.
The Polish-dubbed version preserves all the original Japanese dialogue
and songs as well.
The MAGIC MIRROR (=Himitsu no Akko-Chan??) (=Lo Specchio
Magio) Akko & friend
An
old "magical girl" series, seen in Italian with a Polish overdub. I think
this is Himitsu no Akko-Chan (Akko-Chan's Secret), listed in Vince
Ho's Shoujo
Anime List, as the little girl has a powder compact mirror, and a ship
appears in two of the episodes. Each episode is a self-contained story,
often involving the same child characters, and usually Akko(?) teleports
or transforms into a bird, using her mirror. In one episode a baby is shut
inside a scrapped refrigerator, in another an artist is tormented by a
malicious parrot, in a third a manga artist (rather good!) draws parodies
of the children who are then 'drawn' into a lurid fantasy adventure. There's
also a fairy that sometimes appears to help her.
I watched 3 episodes all the way through, aided by sharp ears and very
rudimentary Italian, and confess that the series has a certain innocent
charm.
ROCK'N'ROLL KIDS(= Ai Shite Night)
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Musician | Snackbar Written by Kawo Tada. Features a boy and his cat, and an older brother who's a rock'n roll musician. This is a shoujo-style series, and though the storyline is quite slight, the artwork is colourful and very pretty. There are two sets of characters; the small boy and his cat, which occasionally talks, and the teenagers, who include the youths in the band and a girl (Jaco) who works in her father's snack bar and also minds the little boy. There's plenty of love interest, and the relationship between Jaco and her father is well portrayed. Cute. For more info see Vince Ho's Shoujo Anime List |
LADY OSCAR (=Rose of Versailles) Oscar and officers
The
well-known shoujo anime series, about the life of a girl in 18th-century
Europe, born to a noble family and brought up as a boy. She joins the army
as an officer and obtains a position at the court of Marie Antoinette in
pre-revolutionary France. The queen's extravagance and unsuitable favourites, ands schemers such as the evil Jeanne, make this a difficult posting.
The broadcast version is dubbed into German, with new opening &
closing songs. All the same, it looks much better on screen (with stereo
sound) than it did on a fan tape. The gender role theme is an interesting
one, and the art is often beautiful. There's romance, action and high adventure.
Great stuff, not to be missed. Some shoujo fans rate this as a must-see.
The second half of the series (which I've been watching) has a different
director, is much more dramatic than the first half, and the artwork is
superb.
Rose of Versailles Info.
A rather silly shoujo anime, suspiciously similar to Sailor Moon, in which the heroine has to combat a set of baddies by magical means. When trouble looms, she transforms from schoolgirl to a figure in a wedding dress, and then in combat wears a short dress. OK, I know this is a lousy synopsis, but if you're bothered you can find a better one elsewhere. Meanwhile look at the pictures. The schoolgirls do look rather cute.
Wedding dress & Combat dress |
