Let’s get right back to Ojamajo Doremi! It’s been a while on my side since I had a chance to write about Doremi, and I’m very excited to be back. Not only is Doremi just a generally charming show, but last episode saw us reaching the end of the Majo Ruka arc, meaning we’ll likely be returning to episodic conflicts starring Doremi’s classmates. Ruka’s arcs had its highs and lows, but the stories focused on Doremi’s classmates tend to demonstrate the show at its best – thoughtful, often very poignant, and generally just solidly written. Even at its most mundane Doremi is a pretty satisfying show, and when it comes to highlights like Hadzuki’s rabbit episode or Ai’s harmonica story, Doremi can match basically any show out there for emotional power. Let’s see what we’ve got this time!
Episode 26
The girls are visiting the friggin’ queen of the witch realm! I guess screw small-scale class drama issues, we’re jumping straight from Ruka to the politics of the witch realm. Perhaps they’re being honored for their sweet battle performance?
The Queen has a pretty striking design. They still seem committed to hiding her face, giving her a personal veil even when she’s not dictating decrees from the seat of her carriage. It seems like an intentional choice to make her seem more like a force than an actual character, something impersonal and unreachable. That seems in line with how she’s been treated in the show so far, and also makes sense dramatically – Doremi’s worries would feel a lot less consequential if the queen of all witches was actively on her side, ready to bail her out whenever things got tough
A beaming sun returns us to the Maho Dou. It’s apparently the height of summer, and we need to know about it – start with a shot of the sun, roaring cicadas, and Doremi’s own “it’s so hot!”
Man, I really missed Doremi’s whiny voice
At last, Majo Rika finally gets her own mini-Rika
Doremi complains about not having an air conditioner, and Dela immediately appears. Apparently Dela can actually hear the consumer good requests of all her customers, an incredibly dangerous skill
Dela appears out of Majo Rika’s drink, which seems a little rude
Having passed their level six exams, the girls now get a certificate of apprenticeship, which apparently comes in the form of a special magic sphere. Once they collect eight such certificates, they’re officially recognized as witches
And apparently they have to take good care of these certificate spheres, since they’ll need them for future exams. These things just seem like a recipe for a bad time
What happens if Doremi and the others actually become witches, anyway? Do they disappear from human society and live in the witch world like the other witches? Are they officially obligated to start up their own magic shops? What do they tell their families? I guess that’s not really a place where we’re supposed to poke at this premise – this is a show for children, and thus becoming a full-fledged anything exists at a nebulous “when I grow up” distance that doesn’t really have to be engaged with
Then again, young adult novels often do the same thing. It’s tough to fully integrate some hidden society into the existing world in a way that gracefully extends beyond a specific narrative’s demands, and prioritizing that as a storyteller isn’t really a good idea in the first place. Writers need to accept that a lot of the time, the answer is going to be “because it makes for a better story”
“We are the Pureleine!”
Oh wow this is a really good Doremi
Ai is helping Hadzuki and Kanae learn how to use the pull-up bar. So this might be a Kanae episode, then?
Doremi cycles through a variety of great expressions as she recounts why she missed swimming practice. This show’s expressions remind me of that full-page Calvin and Hobbes strip that’s just Calvin making a bunch of absurd expressions in the mirror. I wonder if they were created the same way – that some of the Doremi animators just spent a bunch of time making ridiculous faces in the mirror and assigned Doremi some of the best ones
Kanae sprains her ankle, and so the girls volunteer to help take her home
Oh god Doremi that steak expression is terrifying
The mercenary Doremi abandons her old friends once she learns Kanae’s family runs a steakhouse. That scoundrel
As soon as we reach the steakhouse, we hear a random meow and then zoom in on an ominous maneki neko statue. I feel like as the show has gone on, and particularly during the Ruka arc, the expectations of normalcy in this show have slipped just slightly over into the fantastical
Apparently Kanae’s father burned himself. A FAMILY CURSE
The heat is apparently making Doremi’s face melt. They are going all out with expressions this week
“Our business is also going down the drain.” That seems like a weird thing to say to your daughter’s friends
Though I guess he needs to say it to somebody if we’re setting up an episodic conflict focused on some curse afflicting this family
And apparently the business might close? This episode is all over the place
“I have many rich boyfriends. Once I call them, they’ll buy all our magical goods.” Pop is so good
Apparently the cat actually has cursed this restaurant. This is a pretty fantastical story they’re going with, which doesn’t really leave much room for thematic meaning – an issue that also haunted the Ruka narrative
It’s nice seeing Doremi make solid deductions and take charge in this ghost investigation. She’s certainly grown over this series
Low-angle diagonal shots give this cat statue a sense of menace
Wow, this really just is a detective episode. Investigating the cat, interviewing the family members, pinning down the curse
It seems the cat does bring misfortune, but when it leaves, that fortune is paid back
I like that Kanae’s dad is just totally on board with their magical cat investigations. I mean, I guess the dude’s dealing with a lot of stress right now
Pop sold everything in the store, because her powers are limitless
Dela immediately notices the cat. Perhaps this is our introduction to the existence of cursed items, which may facilitate continuous drama down the line
And the pattern holds true – as soon as the cat leaves, the steakhouse’s bad fortunes are repaid with countless customers
“Doremi-chan, your brain is a steak.” An odd dig, but I’ll roll with it
The queen’s carriage appears!
This is a pretty enchanting moment. The glowing cherry blossom petals match nicely with this ethereal flute music, making this feel like a scene from Fantasia
Ooh, the palace is gorgeous. A focus on pastels with a clear pink theme, but enough diversity of colors to keep it from looking too gaudy. The somewhat smoothed shapes also make this seem like it’s a castle crossed with some kind of sugary dessert
The beckoning cat was an “unbelievable item”
Ai keeps one eye closed and sneaks a peak up while still bowing, Doremi raises her head and stares full-on. Cute bit of character acting there
“About 1000 years ago, people could go freely between the Witch World and Human World.” Whoaaaa worldbuilding ho!
Some dickass took the Bad Cards from the witch world to the human world
I believe Ojamajo Doremi just implied an evil witch caused World War I
This is the danger of expanding your worldbuilding – the more you flesh everything out, the more reasonable it becomes for the audience to ask questions about the foundation of your world. There’s an obvious temptation to want to explain the backstory of your story, but it can be a bit of a trap – you will never be able to square everything in your universe with the universe as it exists, and the more details you do extrapolate on, the more you “teach” your audience to ask for answers about your world. In contrast, keeping things vague dramatically “teaches” your audience that such things aren’t really relevant to the story being told
Oh wait, it was an evil wizard. So there are male wizards to counterpoint the female witches, then?
I’m kinda charmed by the fact that these evil relics are just called Bad Items
“You girls are now the Pureleine. Pureleine can extract Bad Cards from Bad Items.” We are now entering an entirely different show
I wonder if this episode was the beginning of a new season. That would make sense of why they’re choosing now to introduce this whole new, somewhat magical girl-styled conceit, especially considering we just finished the first real “arc” in the form of Majo Ruka
“This is the Pureleine computer.” Okay, I guess they decided they really need to sell more knickknacks this season
And Done
Well, huh. I guess we’re… going in a Card Captor Sakura direction now? That’s a fine thing to do, but I wonder how such a clearly plot-focused conceit will interact with Doremi’s generally more lesson-oriented storytelling. It’s obviously perfectly possible to illustrate life lessons through tracking down Bad Cards, but given neither this episode nor the Ruka arc really tried to merge the two, I have my doubts about how this will play out. But Doremi’s still surprising me all the time, so I guess I’ll have to wait and see.
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