It has been far too long since we watched some good old-fashioned Ojamajo Doremi. The show is one of my biggest comfort food projects, and I’m always happy to return for another episode. With thirty episodes down, Ojamajo Doremi has established a broad and vibrant cast, extending from our endearing and multifaceted leads to a variety of engaging classmates, family members, and other acquaintances. The cast is strong enough that the show could easily coast on its fundamentals at this point – if you described an episode as “tall tale girl, teacher, and Pop have a ridiculous adventure,” I’d already know this was going to be a great one. But of course, Ojamajo Doremi is always climbing towards something new, be it some moral point or the elaboration of an entire new magical system.

Our last episode split the difference between those two priorities, as we got half an episode of classmate drama and half an episode of more magical exams. Our girls have passed the level 5 exams now, meaning if past episodes are anything to go by, this one will likely focus on celebrating whatever impressive new magic they’ve finally unlocked. I’m sure they’ll screw it up, and I can’t wait to see how. Let’s settle in for another episode of Ojamajo Doremi!

Episode 32

Oh damn, is it at last time for snooty rich girl Tamaki to get her own focus episode? That’s exciting – Tamaki shows up more than basically any other classmate, but it’s pretty much always to act as the one-note antagonist for whatever conflict they’re going through. We don’t actually know much of anything about her personal life or feelings beyond her self-assigned rivalry with basically everyone

“Defeat Tamaki!” I love that the show has built up this cast enough that “defeat Tamaki!” instantly makes sense as an episode conflict. Of course you have to defeat Tamaki, she’s Tamaki

Some nice spinning animation in the cold open here, an indulgence afforded by the fact that these cold opens often just have colored patterns in the background as opposed to actual background art. A very clever exploitation of the standard show format

Apparently this feud between Tamaki and the girls is over a new boy, who doesn’t seem happy to be involved

“For the second semester, it’s time to choose a new class representative.” Well, that explains everything

Tamaki immediately raises her hand to volunteer, followed a reluctant hand raise by the new boy, Miyamoto Masaharu. Looks like this might turn into a proxy war, where Masaharu’s genuine feelings are used to poke at Tamaki by the other girls

“Defeat Tamaki! The Class Representative Election!” This sounds awesome. I always love the episodes that make use of Doremi’s ensemble strength, and “convince all our classmates that Tamaku sucks” sounds like a terrific use of that strength

Ai talks about all the small ways Masaharu helped her out when she got to school – giving her a seating chart, helping her find the classroom, etcetera. This gives us a reasonable impression of Masaharu as a naturally considerate guy, but it also acts as a very natural lesson for Doremi’s general audience, telling them that small acts of kindness that don’t necessarily seem consequential from our side can actually make a big impact on the people we help. The fact that these acts of kindness are so small is basically the point

Masaharu stops by for some magic goods to boost his chances. Nothing like some magical election fraud

Masaharu’s always been second in everything, and so wants to become class representative to challenge and change himself. A very reasonable motivation

Tamaki’s handing out posters and actually faking laughs at the gag trio’s jokes. We’re doomed

So here’s our conflict: Tamaki is really good at promoting herself, but doesn’t actually give a crap about the class, whereas Masaharu could never speak up for himself, but spends his free time doing things like making sure all the classroom furniture is safe and secure. The age-old dilemma of those who are great at doing being eclipsed by those who are great at branding

I like that the girls no longer even really pay attention to Majo Rika when she’s throwing her tantrums

Apparently the Queen election is also coming up, and Majo Ruka is passing out fliers of her own. I have to imagine they don’t mention the time she cursed a town, nearly killed a bunch of humans, and was ultimately defeated by three plucky children

“I think you can get some election advice from Doremi, Majo Rika.” Lala with the ice burns

The girls are doing their best to manage Masaharu’s campaign, but Masaharu himself has pretty quirky sensibilities that don’t necessarily relate to the common man. Masaharu, you’re gonna have to kiss some ugly babies if you want to win this thing

Oh my god, Tamaki actually did the “you’re a hundred years too early to challenge me” line. Tamaki is so powerful

Tamaki promises her class the world: fewer cleaning days, homework to copy from, and constant massages. She clearly won’t have the legislative support to follow through on these promises, but the people are still taken in by her honeyed words

“Those rules aren’t fair for someone like me who sucks at rock-paper-scissors.” “And I already finish my homework every day.” Doremi offering a weirdly incisive portrait of how politics divide us and politicians cater to our most selfish instincts. I figured this episode would humanize Tamaki, but instead it’s using her as a stand-in for all the evils of the world. I’m sorry, Tamaki

“My campaign team is only fit for those who are gorgeous.” Framing contributing to Tamaki’s team as an inherent reflection of personal beauty and rightness. This episode really has it all

In response to Tamaki’s “everyone gets ice cream”-style rules, Masaharu proposes a series of restrained rules focused on cleaning up the classroom and establishing good relationships with the community. C’mon Masaharu, you need more pizazz than that

Masaharu brings them all rice balls at Maho Dou. He’s such an earnestly good kid. C’MON GIRLS, WIN THIS CAMPAIGN FOR HIM!

This episode has some pretty great expression work, in a very specific style. We keep getting these crudely deformed Doremi faces to represent her belligerent hatred of Tamaki, and they’re all very endearing

Three kids that we all know confirm they’ll be voting for Masaharu. I appreciate that we know this class well enough to immediately agree that kids like these particular ones would go for a candidate like Masaharu

Oh my god Tamaki is wearing a Tamaki shirt her powers have grown even stronger

As usual, the girls’ use of magic ends up becoming its own reward, offering plenty of fun spectacles while actually pulling them further and further from Masaharu’s own desires

And now Tamaki has a video all about how great she is. I suppose this is technically a “Tamaki episode,” but it’s not really telling us anything we didn’t already know

The girls attempt to counter with a Masaharu video, which is of course the worst idea. You can’t beat Tamaki by accepting her rules

I really like how the class has actually started to fall into one camp or the other throughout this episode, and that the choices they’ve made seem to directly reflect our existing understanding of their personalities. Of course the news-obsessed girl would side with drama-happy Tamaki, and of course the soft-spoken girl who tends to the flowers would side with Masaharu. This episode acts as a natural validation of all the time we’ve spent getting to know these kids

Masaharu doesn’t want to split the class, and says he’ll drop from the race to keep his classmates from dividing themselves. Goddamnit Masaharu, this is the problem exactly – the best of us are plagued by anxiety, while the worst are suffused with righteousness

I guess you gotta teach kids early on that democracy is doomed to fail because those who seek to actually improve society will always compromise, whereas those who seek power for its own sake will always take advantage of others’ willingness to compromise

Doremi just straight-up admits she only cared about this campaign because Fuck Tamaki

Tamaki says she still wants to have a contest, but before we could even begin to assign any sort of charitable motive to that, she just straight-up admits it’s because her pride won’t allow for a win without a fight. Ojamajo Doremi going with the bold “everyone has their own reasons (except Tamaki, Tamaki sucks)” theme this week

Ahaha, Masaharu absolutely crushes. Tamaki only gets two votes

And Done

Well, that was a very charming episode. It didn’t really have a single thematic thrust beyond the somewhat incidental “don’t assume your big intrusive actions are what your friends actually want from you,” something it’s often used the girls’ magic to express. Instead, the focus was more on introducing Masaharu and celebrating our existing fondness for Doremi’s class, by prioritizing a conflict that let all of them express themselves in a novel way. Doremi has built up an extremely sturdy and rewarding universe, and I’m always happy to see it revel in the charms of its extended cast. Good luck whipping your classmates into shape, Masaharu!

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