is a

magical girl is a subgenre of Japanese fantasy media (including anime, manga, light novels, and live-action media) centered around young girls who possess magical abilities, which they typically use through an ideal alter ego into which they can transfo ...

anime series by

Studio Pierrot is a Japanese animation studio established in May 1979 by former employees of both Tatsunoko Production and Mushi Production. Its headquarters are located in Mitaka, Tokyo. Pierrot is renowned for several worldwide popular anime series, such as ...

. It was simultaneously released as a

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

Kiyoko Arai , known by the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist. She made her manga debut in the January 1984 issue of '' Ciao'' with her story ''Chotto dake Biyaku''. Since then, Arai has contributed many stories to ''Ciao'', its sister magazine '' ChuChu ...

. The third magical girl series created by Studio Pierrot, ''Magical Emi'' also appears in two feature-length OVAs, as well as the ''

Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume is a magical girl anime television series produced by Pierrot which aired from 1983 to 1984 on Nippon Television. It went on to have four OVA adaptions and featured in other Studio Pierrot special presentations. A three-volume manga was ...

'' and ''

Majokko Club Yoningumi A-Kukan Kara no Alien X is a magical girl anime television series produced by Pierrot which aired from 1983 to 1984 on Nippon Television. It went on to have four OVA adaptions and featured in other Studio Pierrot special presentations. A three-volume manga was ...

'' OVAs.

Plot

Mai Kazuki is from a family of

magician Magician or The Magician may refer to: Performers * A practitioner of magic (supernatural) * A practitioner of magic (illusion) * Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context Entertainment Books * ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...

s. Her grandparents are leaders of a troupe, Magic Carat, and their daughter — Mai's mother — debuted under them. Naturally, Mai wants to become a magician herself, just like her hero, the fabulous legend Emily Howell. Unfortunately, because she is still a young girl, she is very clumsy and unsure. One day, while helping her grandfather move things, Mai sees a strange light enter an odd, heart-shaped mirror and turn into a mirror fairy named Topo. He takes over the body of her favorite stuffed toy, a

flying squirrel Flying squirrels (scientifically known as Pteromyini or Petauristini) are a tribe of 50 species of squirrels in the family Sciuridae. Despite their name, they are not in fact capable of full flight in the same way as birds or bats, but they ar ...

doll, and explains that he must give magic to the one who can see him. He gives her a bracelet with the symbols of the 4

card suits In playing cards, a suit is one of the categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several Pip (counting), pips (symbols) showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or additionally b ...

( spade, club, diamond and heart) which produces a magic wand. By waving the wand, Mai becomes Magical Emi, a teenage magician. She stars in her grandparents' shows, and uses magic to help solve problems. But at the end of the day, she wants to become a magician all by herself.

Characters

Nakamori family

Jouji Yanami Joji (じょうじ, 丈二, or 譲二, 城二, 譲治 multiple variants) is a Japanese masculine given name. It is also the Japanese pronunciation of the Western name "George" (ジョージ). It commonly refers to: * Jōji, an era in Japanese histo ...

as Yosuke Nakamori *

Mine Atsuko Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

as Haruko Nakamori

Troupe Magic Carat

* Yū Mizushima as Sho Yuki * Maya Okamoto as Yukiko Hirota *

Sukekiyo Kameyama was a Japanese voice actor. He played many supporting roles in Japanese television dramas. Kameyama was employed by the talent management firm Kiraboshi. Death Kameyama died aged 58. The cause of death is pneumonia. Anime TV *''Anpanman'' (An ...

as Akira Matsuo * Kameyama Sukekiyo as Susumi Siozawa * Naoki Tatsuta as Topo

Kazuki family

Aoki Nana may refer to: People *Aoki (surname), a list of people with the surname Places *Aoki, Nagano, a village in the Nagano Prefecture Company * Aoki Corporation, a defunct construction company * Aoki (store), a men's clothing store based in Japan Fi ...

as Yoko Kazuki * Rokuro Naya as Junichi Kazuki *

Yoko Obata Yoko may refer to: People * Yoko (name), a Japanese feminine given name; variants include Yōko and Yohko * Yoko Gushiken (具志堅用高, born 1955), Japanese professional boxer * Yoko Taro (横尾太郎, born 1970), Japanese video game di ...

as Mai Kazuki/Magical Emi * Yūko Mita as Misaki Kazuki

Koganei family

* Shigeru Chiba as Madoka Kokubunji *

Daisuke Gouri is a common masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Daisuke can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *大輔, "big, assist" *大介, "big, mediate" *大祐, "big, bless" *大助, "big, help" *大典, "big, law/rule ...

as Shigeru Koganei * Kazue Ikura as Musashi Koganei

Kazuki Junichi Kazuki (written: , , , , , , , , or in hiragana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese wrestler *, Japanese anime director *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese footballer *, J ...

as Naya, Rokuro

Shinya Ohtaki Shinya (Shin'ya) is a Japanese given name, usually for males. It is pronounced as "Shin-ya", not "Shi-nya". Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese curler and curling coach *, Japanese politician *Shinya Aoki (born 1983), professional mi ...

as Akira

Music

*Opening song ** "Fushigi-Iro Happiness"(). It also frequently appears in the play as a song sung by Emi and Hideaki Tokunaga. *Ending song ** "Anata Dake Dreaming"() *Other **"Nangoku Ningyo Hime (Tropical Mermaid)" (). It appears as Emi's new song from episode 32.

Anime

The 38-episode anime series, directed by Takashi Anno and produced by

, aired from June 7, 1985 to February 28, 1986. The opening theme song is "Fushigi-Iro Happiness" and the ending theme song is "Anata Dake Dreaming", both by Yōko Obata.

References

External links

Magical Emi, the Magic Star

* {{Pierrot films 1985 anime television series debuts 1985 manga 1986 anime OVAs 1980s toys Magical girl anime and manga Nippon TV original programming Pierrot (company) Shōjo manga Shogakukan manga