(shortly known as ''Chappy'') is a Japanese anime television series that debuted in

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...

(formerly known as NET, or Nihon Educational Television) in 1972. It is the fifth

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

anime in history (the sixth if one counts

Osamu Tezuka Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu'', – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist and animator. Considered to be among the greatest and most influential cartoonists of all time, his prolific output, pioneering techniques an ...

's '' Marvelous Melmo''), and the fifth produced by the

Toei Animation is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including '' Sally the Witch'', '' GeGeGe no Kitarō'', '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...

studio. While the show was fairly popular, it was not as popular as Toei's earlier magical-girl series, and is relatively obscure compared to its predecessors. In addition to its success in Japan, ''Chappy'' has been dubbed into

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

, French and Spanish and broadcast on TV in Italy and various Latin American nations such as

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. The French dub, made in the early 1990s by AB Productions, was never aired, possibly due to lukewarm reception for earlier ''majokko'' series of the same vintage (such as '' Mahou no Mako-chan'' and '' Majokko Megu-chan'') on French television. A

manga 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 history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

adaptation of the story was drawn by Hideo Azuma, who later created his own magical girl series, '' Nanako SOS'', in 1983. Chappy, along with other Toei's magical girls such as Akko-chan, Sally,

Cutie Honey is a Japanese Shōnen manga, shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. First appearing in ''Weekly Shōnen Champion''s 41st issue of 1973, the series ran until April 1974. It follows an android girl named Honey Kisara ...

, Megu-chan, Lunlun, and Lalabel, is a playable character in the 1999 Sony

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

game '' Majokko Daisakusen: Little Witching Mischiefs''. The series was released in a box set in Japan on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

by ICF Co., Ltd. in December 2005.

Plot

Chappy's story is much like Sally's of ''

Sally the Witch , originally titled , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. It was serialized in Shueisha's monthly ''Ribon'' magazine from July 1966 to October 1967. Its 1966 anime adaptation was one of the most popular ...

''. Chappy, becoming sick of the old customs of her people, left the Land of Magic for the human world. Soon her family sees how much she has in the other realm that they decide to join her in new home. Chappy is known for being the first witch to use a

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, bone or stone. Long versions of wands are often styled in forms of staves or sceptres, whi ...

(actually a magical baton, given to her by her grandfather). Her special chant is ''"Abura Mahariku Maharita Kabura"''. Chappy's closest human friends are the

tomboy A tomboy is a girl or young woman who generally expresses masculine traits. Such traits may include wearing androgynous or unfeminine clothing and engaging in activities and behaviors traditionally associated with boys or men. Origins The w ...

Michiko and the girly-girl Shizuko, much like her predecessor Sally's friends Yotchan and Sumire. In a nod to the

ecological Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

concerns of the early 1970s, the series featured one noteworthy episode late in the show's run, written by Shukei Nagasaka, which dealt with issues such as pollution and use of natural resources. The show is also notable for featuring several

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

references, including a reference to the 1959 film ''

Sleeping Beauty "Sleeping Beauty" (, or ''The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood''; , or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess curse, cursed by an evil fairy to suspended animation in fi ...

'' in one episode, and for the panda mascot character, Don-chan, introduced to cash in on a panda mini-craze in 1972 in Japan (which also informed

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese ani ...

's '' Panda! Go Panda!'').

Cast

* Eiko Masuyama as Chappy Hans Charles Grimm and Aesop Et Cetera * Sachiko Chijimatsu as Jun Hans Charles Grimm and Aesop Et Cetera * Kouji Yada as Mr. Hans Charles Grimm and Aesop Et Cetera * Noriko Watanabe as Mrs. Hans Charles Grimm and Aesop Et Cetera, Shizuko * Kousei Tomita as Don, Grandpa * Nobuyo Tsuda as Obaba * Ogushi Yoko as Michiko *

Masako Nozawa is a Japanese actress. Beginning work as a child actress at the age of three, by the time she became an adult, voice acting had inadvertently become her main occupation. Throughout her career, Nozawa has been affiliated with Production Baobab ...

as Ipei * Sumiko Shirakawa as Nihei

Characters

* Chappy: A little witch who becomes bored of the Magic World, and escapes to Earth. She uses magic with her grandfather's baton. * Jun: Chappy's little brother, he is able to transform into different animals. He always wants to ride Don-chan's magical car. * Don-chan: A talking

red panda The red panda (''Ailurus fulgens''), also known as the lesser panda, is a small mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It has dense reddish-brown fur with a black belly and legs, white-lined ears, a mostly white muzz ...

who rides around in a magical car. * Mr. and Mrs. Hans Charles Grimm and Aesop Et Cetera: Chappy and Jun's parents, they decide to live in the human world. * Grandpa: Chappy and Jun's grandfather, he is constantly yelling at his son and cares deeply for Chappy. * Obaba: The oldest witch, she is a type of guardian to Chappy's family, but has no blood relation to them. * Michiko: Chappy's first friend on Earth and a hot-headed tomboy, she keeps her two little brothers in line. Her father owns a dry cleaning business. * Ipei and Nihei: Michiko's two little brothers, they are both trouble makers and are close with Jun. * Shizuko: The local girly-girl, she is one of Chappy's classmates and close friends.

Episode list

Music

Theme is written by Keiko Osonoe and music composed by Hiroshi Tsutsui.Mahou Tsukai Chappy Soundtrack
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Anime staff

* Planning: Takashi Iijima, Shinichi Miyazaki (NET) * Production supervisor: Masaharu Eto * Episode direction: Yugo Serikawa, Mineo Kachita, Hiroshi Ikeda, Katsutoshi Sasaki, Masayuki Akihi, Osamu Kasai, Yoshihiro Kaneko, Tsunekiyo Otani, Takashi Kuoka, Hiromi Yamamoto,

Tomoharu Katsumata is a Japanese film director best known for his work on various anime works. A leading director at the Toei Animation studio during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Katsumata worked as a director on several of Toei's anime television adaptations of m ...

, Kiyoshi Tanaka, Bondo Eiju, Minoru Okazaki, Nobuo Onuki, Hideo Furusawa, Kazuya Miyazaki * Script:

Masaki Tsuji is a Japanese anime screenwriter, mystery writer, manga author, travel critic, essayist, professor as well as mystery fiction novels writer. Tsuji was most active in the business from the 1960s through the 1980s, and worked as a script writer on ...

, Saburo Taki, Shunichi Yukimuro, Noboru Shiroyama, Jiro Yoshino, Kuniaki Oshikawa, Koji Natsume, Shukei Nagasaka * Animation direction: Shinya Takahashi, Takao Hanata, Bondo Eiju, Shingo Araki, Katsuya Oda, Teruo Hosoda, Takashi Abe, Teruo Kogure, Takao Kozai, Eiji Uemura, Minoru Tajima, Hideo Furusawa, Fumio Eto * Art director: Makoto Yamazaki, Saburo Yokoi, Eiji Ito, Mataharu Urata, Shigeyoshi Endo * Music: Hiroshi Tsutsui

References

External links

*
''Chappy''
at

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maho Tsukai Chappy 1972 anime television series debuts 1970s preschool education television series Animated duos Animated human characters Animated preschool education television series Animated television series about children Anime and manga about witchcraft Child characters in animated television series Child characters in television Female characters in animated television series Fictional Japanese people Hideo Azuma Magical girl anime and manga Male characters in animated television series Television duos Toei Animation television TV Asahi original programming