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 is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

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

OVA , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

s, as well as the '' Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume'' and '' Majokko Club Yoningumi A-Kukan Kara no Alien X'' OVAs.

Plot

Mai Kazuki is from a family of magicians. 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 stuffed toy is a toy doll with an outer fabric sewn from a textile and stuffed with flexible material. They are known by many names, such as plush toys, plushies, stuffed animals, and stuffies; in Britain and Australia, they may also be cal ...

, 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 A bracelet is an article of jewellery that is worn around the wrist. Bracelets may serve different uses, such as being worn as an ornament. When worn as ornaments, bracelets may have a wikt:supportive, supportive function to hold other items of ...

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 A spade is a tool primarily for digging consisting of a long handle and blade, typically with the blade narrower and flatter than the common shovel. Early spades were made of riven wood or of animal bones (often shoulder blades). After the a ...

club Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises ...

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

and

heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide t ...

) which produces a

magic wand A wand is a thin, light-weight rod that is held with one hand, and is traditionally made of wood, but may also be made of other materials, such as metal or plastic. Long versions of wands are often styled in forms of staves or sceptres, which c ...

. 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 is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator. He is the Japanese voice-over for Sammo Hung, and is the Japanese voice of Wakko. In the 1980s, He proved to be a popular choice for many Japanese animation studios for the roles of male heart-thr ...

as Sho Yuki *

Maya Okamoto is a Japanese actress, voice actor, and singer from Tokyo, Japan. Biography Filmography Television animation *''Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam'' (1985), Emma Sheen * ''Touch'' (1985), Natsuko *''Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ'' (1986), Leina Ashta *''The B ...

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 is a Japanese voice actor affiliated with Aoni Production. He is most known for the roles of Buta Gorilla (Kiteretsu Daihyakka), Daima Jin (High School! Kimengumi), Oolong (Dragon Ball), Dr. Escargon ( Kirby: Right Back at Ya!), Ashibe's Fathe ...

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 is a Japanese actress and voice actress from Setagaya, Tokyo. She is known for playing gentle, sexy ''bishōjo'' (such as Akemi Roppongi in ''Maison Ikkoku'') as well as many roles of young boys. Her hobbies include tennis and skiing. She is emp ...

as Misaki Kazuki

Koganei family

Shigeru Chiba , known by the stage name , is a Japanese actor, voice actor, talent and sound director from Kikuchi, Kumamoto. He is affiliated with the talent management firm 81 Produce. He is most known for the roles of Yoshihiro Kira from '' JoJo's Bizarre ...

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 is a Japanese actress, voice actress and narrator who works for Aoni Production. She was previously affiliated with theater groups/production companies 劇舎燐, 俳協, Production Baobab and NABEYA. She is most known for the roles of Kaori M ...

as Musashi Koganei Kazuki Junichi 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