There’s not much to this one: just a short and funny OVA.
At first glance it looks like a standard kodomo (children’s) anime, with simple, brightly colored artwork, bouncy inane music, and relentlessly upbeat characters. On closer examination there’s clearly something wrong with it. In fact it’s a parody, and a particularly hilarious one if you have a sufficiently twisted sense of humor.
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TitleMajokko Tsukune-chan (Witch-girl Tsukune)
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GenresComedy, Magical Girl, Parody
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DemographicShounen
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Contents6 13-minute episodes
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Based onA manga by Hiroaki Magari
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DirectorHiroaki Sakurai
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Musicinstant cytron
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Animation StudioXebec
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Released2005
The OVA format seems ideal for something like this. I don’t think there’s enough material here to sustain a television series. Six short episodes are just enough to milk the premise without the joke getting old.
Parental Advisory
Though this looks like a children’s cartoon, I don’t advise showing it to preschoolers. They will at least be confused and quite likely will be upset. This cartoon contains a number of violent incidents, some of which involve Santa Claus.
Older children, say 10 and up, will probably find it quite funny.
Characters
Tsukune-chan is a little witch who goes around helping people in need. Unfortunately the results are often unsatisfactory and sometime grotesque.
This is different from Magical Witch Punie-chan (Dai Mahou Touge), a better-known magical girl parody. Punie is cute but evil. Tsukune-chan seems to genuinely want to be helpful. If things don’t work out well it is because her judgment is poor and her attention span short.
Tsukune-chan lives alone in a cute little cottage. She is not an anime orphan; she corresponds regularly with her Mama and Papa. It is not explained why she doesn’t live with them.
If she had the benefit of a mother’s guidance she probably would understand that she should not cook with rock salt.
Mr. Mayor doesn’t devote much time to running the city. He seems to spend most of his time hanging out at Tsukune-chan’s house and expecting her to solve all his problems.
He seems to be a lazy fellow, as well as a slow learner.
Tsukune-chan’s little sister Kokoro has not yet learned how to control her magic powers. She has a disconcerting habit of pointing out the differences between the anime and the manga. Her only real fault is that when she sneezes it causes a massive explosion that blows up anything in the vicinity.
The mayor has a niece named Kanako. She is a cute little girl who wants to learn magic.
Tsukune-chan is happy to help out.
Tsukune-chan’s Uncle Tony is a famous world traveler. He brings back souvenirs, many of which are illegal, dangerous or disgusting.
Charlotte Flowers is an older witch girl. (She seems to be in high school.) She is very competitive and is always challenging Tsukune-chan to magical duels. Fortunately such duels don’t seem to pose much danger to the participants. (Innocent bystanders are another matter.)
Dr. Choromatsu is a helpful scientist, responsible for many amazing inventions.
Evil Witch Nabule is, as one would expect, an evil witch.