Let’s get right the heck back on board with Ojamajo Doremi! Last episode wasn’t necessarily a highlight, but it did establish a reasonable platform for the show’s drama going forward, integrating the whole “bad item” deal into Doremi’s more emotionally-founded conflicts in a very natural way. That was definitely one of the main things I was looking for in this arc – some way to marry the potentially interesting but emotionally removed Pureleine conflicts to the inherently compelling character drama Doremi already possessed. Doremi seems to be at its weakest when it leans on fantastical genre fundamentals like this Pureleine stuff, but the Majo Ruka arc also demonstrated that even in larger conflicts which don’t themselves possess that much emotional resonance, individual character struggles like Ai’s harmonica drama can still shine. With the overall Pureleine conceit and even the team’s regrettable new mascot pretty much settled into the show’s usual tone, it feels like the episodes from here on out could go basically anywhere. Let’s see where Doremi and the Ojamajos take us today!

Episode 29

Our cold open begins with paper lanterns lit up in the night. Looks like it’s time for a summer festival episode

Doremi isn’t really a show that demands a particularly tight chronology, but I appreciate that we’ve been following the course of its heroines over what is clearly the first half of one particular school year, from Ai’s arrival in the spring through their summer vacation. Concepts like “beach episode” or “festival episode” can often feel like time wasters designed to shore up a too-thin narrative, but if you actually make good dramatic use of them, instilling your show with a tangible sense of time passing can give it a nice sense of lived reality regardless of how fanciful its other variables are

It looks like this episode’s focus character will be… the school nurse? Interesting

That’s also something I really like about Doremi – not only are adults not either simple antagonists or absent entirely, but they actually have their own narratives, their own emotional ups and downs. It’s a very special show that emphasizes the messy pain of Ai’s father going through a divorce as much as it highlights Ai’s own reaction to that situation

Pop here in the OP reminding me of Doremi’s single greatest decision. Even the “annoying little sister” of the everyman lead gets to be a hero in Ojamajo Doremi. This show is so generous to its cast

And now we’ve got Oyajiide ranting about seeing girls in yukatas, immediately reminding me of Ojamajo Doremi’s single worst decision. I really, really wonder about the decision to introduce this character – he is so profoundly bad compared to everything else in this story, and seems so antithetical to its generally kind and respectful outlook towards everyone. I don’t know how the minds behind the rest of this wonderful show could tolerate a person like Oyajiide

Even Majo Rika is exasperated. You see that Oyajiide, you’re so bad you actually make Majo Rika look good

Oh my god, the whole cast is exhausted with his shit. Alright, that I appreciate

Nice divergent reactions to Doremi announcing she has a plan for selling goods at the festival. Majo Rika’s a snarky jerk, but she’s also not very smart, and so she’s actually excited about this theoretical plan. Pop knows better, and is skeptical

Having just recently gotten started on Princess Tutu, it’s kind of interesting to contrast the differences between Doremi and Ahiru as Junichi Sato magical girl heroines. They both inhabit a familiar “plucky, clumsy, irrepressible” heroine archetype, but they’re still each very different in their own ways. Doremi in general feels a little more realistically abrasive and rough-edged than Ahiru

Everyone in the shop laughs uproariously at Doremi’s terrible clay sculpting. Ah, friendship

“The Tap That Disappeared at the Festival!” Well that sure is a self-explanatory episode title

Damn, jumping straight from that opening scene to the festival itself. Though I guess if this episode’s central conflict is “holy shit I lost my wand fuck shit balls,” the show doesn’t necessarily need to seed that conflict through any extra opening scenes

Ai handling the showmanship at their magical goods dart game booth. Doremi gets some solid value out of these “natural-born merchant” stereotypes about wherever Ai’s from – it feels like a very natural extension of her other personality traits

A dart game also sounds like a great way to sell their wares, and frankly sounds like a much better business model than “come to our shop and buy misshapen clay objects constructed by child labor”

OH MY GOD THEY’RE FORCING THE BABY FAIRIES TO TURN THE WHEEL THIS IS EVEN WORSE

This segment is actually kind of unusual for Doremi – they simply let this joke ride, allowing the collaboration of the fairies to create a natural comic escalation. Doremi normally doesn’t rest on one extended, multi-part gag like this, but this is a good one

The show’s also once again making excellent use of its ensemble nature, tossing in natural cameos for Doremi’s various classmates

Terrific angry faces from Doremi. God I missed this show’s faces

“What spell did you put on that one?” “A spell that makes everyone like you.” I believe my girls just casually revealed their goods actually are magical charms which really do improve your daily life. What the hell are these girls selling

There’s Yuki-sensei with her date

The three leads leave the stand to Pop so they can go spy on the nurse, handily demonstrating the fact that they’re all pretty much superfluous now that Pop is a witch

Aha, great expressiveness from Pop, as her little hair-ears bug out when she gets nervous. Treating hair like an expressive extension of a character’s body also pops up in Tutu, and is a good trick both here and there

Doremi’s actual teacher is spying along with the girls, which kinda illustrates the limitations of Doremi’s perspective. This show can sympathize with adults and portray them as constrained by their own troubles, but it can’t really show an adult acting in a realistic way that a child couldn’t understand

The actual losing of the tap is an uncharacteristically action-packed moment full of very dynamic layouts, successfully evoking a real sense of excitement and confusion as Doremi’s tap bounces away between two stalls

Oh my god, Doremi is so sad. This show’s faces

What the heck, Yuki and her “boyfriend” are actually planning a sting for the pickpocket. Are they just starring in an entirely different show right now

Incidentally, this episode’s loose mishmash of various little subplots does seem to set it as another episode like last week, less of a focused moral lesson than a settling into the new normal. And given how this episode has played out, that actually feels fine – we’re clearly still getting used to having Oyajiide and Pop as main characters, and this episode has been a fine venue for everyone to get a little more comfortable with the show’s new dynamic

AHAHA A DOG PRESSED HER TAP AND IS NOW WEARING HER MAGICAL GIRL OUTFIT. Oh my god this episode is too good. What a wonderful callback to Loyal Dog Doremi

THEY ACTUALLY TURNED DOREMI INTO DOREMI THE LOYAL DOG, AND AI EVEN CALLS HER OUT. Why is this episode pandering to me so hard. This is amazing

And now the pickpocket steals the bike of the woman who owns the dog, thus taking the dog along with her. This episode has essentially just been a series of emotionally sterile intertwining events, but it’s been a very gracefully plotted collection of events – the various threads play off each other naturally in a way that lets them all build to a coherent crescendo

And now Hadzuki turns Doremi into a horse, who is then ridden by the police officer. How is this episode so amazing

I love that even her horse form has those two hair orbs, and is just as expressive as all her other forms

This is one of those episodes, like the “Hadzuki is kidnapped” episode, where any form of reality is tossed entirely out the window in favor of hilarious madness. And this is indeed a hilarious episode

Doremi yells “pony!” when she makes a jump as a pony. This is very important

And Done

Oh man, that episode was a treasure. Clearly not one of the emotionally devastating or morally profound ones, but instead a full, glorious celebration of Doremi’s comedy chops and general absurdity. Watching Doremi scramble around trying to recover her tap was the equal of any Utena Nanami episode, offering constant expressiveness, continuous comic escalation, and some of the greatest sight gags of the show so far. On top of that, we further solidified the relationships between Doremi and several of her classmates, continuing to smartly bank on Ojamajo Doremi’s ensemble leanings. Doremi is great at many things, but I’m pretty sure this episode’s pure comedy strength earns it a spot in the show’s greatest hits collection.

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