MAGICAL DOREMI: FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

WAI KWAN WU - Managing Editor, 3rd Year, Molecular Cell Biology

"These are my thoughts after watching two seasons."

SPOILERS FOR MAGICAL DOREMI!

I love kids anime. In general, the bright colors and extreme energy of kids shows just happen to be way more appealing to me. However, to leave it at that would be underselling the fundamental appeals of shows made with heart and the sincere goal of teaching something valuable to the next generation. Sure, it’s easy to dismiss kids shows as merely toy commercials, but it is more often that you find kids shows are just works that anyone can see and from there, take something meaningful away.

The really good kind of kids shows also happen to be the most mature of all anime. Or more specifically, mature in the sense of emotional maturity, where you see characters and their interpersonal relationships being handled with a level of care that you would be hard pressed to find elsewhere. Those shows might even involve the misadventures of a clumsy girl-turned-witchapprentice and her best friends balancing their hectic daily lives with their newfound magical powers. Why yes, I am talking about the hit mahou shoujo anime Magical Doremi.

What really works about Doremi is its slow-burn approach. Which, admittedly, not many shows have the benefit of 200-or-so episodes of runtime across four seasons to flesh out the story they want to tell, but Doremi does, and it works well for it. The first season spends its time with episodic stories that focus on each of Doremi and gang’s classmates, and a lot of the fun comes from spotting and recognizing the random classmates hanging out in the background. Then the second season, Doremi Sharp, comes around with slightly harder-hitting stories that focus more on emotional drama, and thanks to the buildup that was provided by the first season, the result is that it ends up being quite effective.

I mentioned previously on the goal of kids shows being to teach, and that is something that is felt throughout Sharp. It is said that a fundamental part of the human condition is for adults to pass their wisdom onto the next generation, and for kids growing up, the presence of adults (or lack thereof) is very significant to their development. This is something that Sharp is acutely aware of. What Sharp gets right is its use of adults as the supporting cast for the kids, and it manages to tell something quite meaningful about how the actions of the adults leave behind a legacy of impact for their future generations. In particular, Doremi’s mother is a great encapsulation of what Sharp is all about. She isn’t a perfect person, and there is even a scene early on in the show where she professes to having considered ending her life before she gave birth to Doremi. The thing that stands out with her portrayal in Sharp is her relationships with her two daughters, Doremi and Pop. The way she attempted to rectify her parenting in the differences between how she raised Doremi and how she raised Pop, and how they came to affect the two of them differently, is striking in how intelligently it was written, with an awareness of how generational trauma can manifest and how the cycle can be broken. Doremi herself also plays an important role here, displaying tremendous vision in understanding how she was shaped by her upbringing and how to change for her younger sister’s sake.

The secret behind the success of this plotline, and really to Doremi as a whole, is that it never assumes stupidity from its viewers. The reason its stories are able to hit so hard is because it acknowledges the intelligence of even its youngest of viewers and doesn’t back away from emotionally difficult topics because of it. Perhaps we can see this reflected in how it treats its kid characters with respect, allowing characters like Doremi to have the room to reflect and grow. Yet, at the same time, it doesn’t demonize the adults either, even in acknowledging their flaws. Some may say that media has to choose between thematic intelligence and blind entertainment. To that, Doremi asks, “Why not both?”