Folks, it has been far too long since we hung out with Doremi and the gang. Our last adventure took us through one more harrowing Aiko-centric story, as Aiko was forced to sort out her feelings regarding her father potentially remarrying. As with the previous Aiko episode, there was no one clear moral here, and no obvious goal Aiko had to achieve in order to preserve her happiness. Growing up with divorced parents is just hard; there’s no “resolving” it, and all you can hope to do is honestly connect and communicate with the people who still love you. I really appreciate how this show gives characters time simply to pause and consider their own feelings; it feels like a natural acknowledgment that many of the trials of youth and life more generally cannot be resolved through succeeding in some defined goal. We must learn to live with injustice, learn to live with loss, learn to live with sorrow – accepting that our power to change the world is limited, and that we must find our joy in incomplete happiness, is one of the great projects of growing up.

Given all that heaviness, I’m kinda expecting this episode to be a bunch of nonsensical madness, with Doremi potentially turning back into a dog or a horse or something. But regardless of what’s coming, I’m always thrilled to return to this relentlessly big-hearted, visually engaging, and often painfully acute production. Let’s dive into another episode of Ojamajo Doremi!

Episode 48

We open with a boy typing on his computer in a room stuffed with Onpu merchandise, asking Onpu how she did on her test. So do we have a classmate who isn’t able to separate his love for Onpu the star from his relationship with Onpu the classmate?

Either way, happy to see another Onpu episode. As I’ve said before, I appreciate how her abrasive personality adds a bit of charming dramatic irritant to the overall group dynamic – groups of fictional characters kinda need someone to sigh at, and Doremi can only bear that role alone for so long

Seki-sensei doesn’t know how to use a computer. Personal computers were generally adapted pretty late in Japan, limited mostly to new media enthusiasts until well after becoming ubiquitous elsewhere. Flip phones were similarly embraced for far longer than elsewhere, and I’ve heard a lot of Japanese companies still maintain their files in physical form, and communicate through fax rather than email. This doesn’t really affect us as anime watchers all that much though, except to note that Seki being bad at computers isn’t likely intended as a unique trait of hers, and more a general reflection on adults at this point in time. Our assumptions of cultural normalcy will often impact our understanding of characterization when watching works from other cultures or time periods – good storytelling generally illustrates characters through context rather than direct emphasis, and when a culture changes, so too does the context implied by specific actions

Yeah, even the kids here aren’t really familiar with computers. Onpu suggests that Doremi and her friends help, given their experience with Oyajide

And now the kid from the cold open sees his opportunity. There’s a fine example – I figured the intended inference of that first segment was just “obsessed with Onpu,” but “comfortable with computers” was in itself a personality trait that would be meaningful to an early 2000s Japanese audience, but assumed by default for me

“Onpu’s E-Mail was a Love Letter!?”

Gouji Nakata is his name

Nakata explains what emails are for both the cast and the audience. Adorable

Nakata almost gets to work with Onpu, but then Tamaki Tamakis her way in

The class is briefly dazzled by Nakata’s talents, but then equally dazzled to learn Onpu has been to Hawaii. How swiftly a star can fall

Ooh, I really like this background color shift for Onpu’s approach. I don’t think this show has used that trick before, but it works well with the show’s textured backgrounds

Doremi’s bold, simplified designs and thick outlines fortunately help its aesthetic survive the horror of early digipaint anime

Onpu’s witch buddies suggest she check and respond to her fanclub email. What an innocent time, when handlers didn’t have to screen fan mail for death threats

“If you don’t care for your fans, you’ll never make it as an idol!” I kinda love Ruka’s genuine shock at Onpu not taking her career seriously

Hehe the fairy is responding to emails by dancing on the keyboard and pressing keys with her feet. This is the greatest moment in any anime ever

“I’ll just copy the same letter and send it out to everyone.” Hehe learns fast

Oh my god, Hehe sent out an invitation for a date with Onpu to literally everyone

Nakata’s formal date wear is the absolute worst. It’s like a sailor suit crossed with the guy from the Monopoly box. He looks like Richie Rich’s less cool second cousin

For once Oyajide is actually useful, because he’s in the goddamn fan club

The girls accuse Oyajide of writing the letter himself, and frankly I can’t disagree with them

Why is his bowtie so big. Why did his parents let him go out like this

“Email makes it easier to say difficult things.” This is a surprisingly forward-thinking point for a show that assumes its audience isn’t necessarily familiar with computers. But it’s true – the internet provides this perception of closeness and intimacy that can make it easier to connect with people, but also easier to assume you’ve connected with people when you actually haven’t. People will often assume online personalities are their friends because they “spend so much time together,” even though it’s ultimately a one-sided relationship founded on a performance those personalities are offering to everyone. And that sense of a close relationship can easily morph into a feeling of obligation or entitlement – you assume a kind of ownership of that personality based on how much time you’ve spent with them. It’s a natural consequence of the internet stripping the filters from between public personas and private individuals, and even now we still haven’t really figured out a way to healthily resolve it

And now Nakata reaches the park, and sees the reality that his “special bond” is echoed by dozens of other suitors. This may be intended more as a commentary on youth idol culture than internet culture, but the situation is the same – celebrities need to exude an air of familiarity and affection, but if you take that to mean you’re personally entitled to their attention, the results can be horrible

Meanwhile, Onpu drinks her tea

Onpu’s philosophy on this situation is apparently “that’s Hehe’s fault, so I don’t give a fuck”

One of Onpu’s other suitors is that dude who was trying to get a sentai doll for his little sister. Excellent random callback

And now the fans are all arguing, all claiming the email was for them, emphasizing how creating a strong connection with some performer can make you ultimately feel like you have a uniquely special bond with them, and that they are performing for you specifically. It’s important to maintain a certain distance there, but when you’re young and some artist seems to be the only one who can articulate your feelings, it’s not unusual to cling to that “relationship”

“You should apologize to them.” “Apologize how? Tell them the emails were sent by a fairy named Hehe? Does that sound good?” See, I knew Onpu would be a great addition to this team dynamic

IDOL MANAGER DOREMI YES

And the group turns into a mob and starts chasing Doremi and Hadzuki. “This is why I wanted to erase their memories.” Onpu is really good

Ruka decides to cut their losses, stopping time and evacuating Onpu. This is turning into a really tense situation!

I appreciate that this show has used time stopping rarely enough that it still carries some genuine dramatic weight. It’d be one thing if it was a trick they turned to all the time, but Doremi manages to make it truly feel like a last resort, a consequential choice they can only use at the worst of times

Onpu realizes this too is part of her responsibility, and chooses to personally apologize to the crowd. It seems like this is intended as a lesson for Onpu even more than it is for Nakata

Most of the fans are okay with this, but Nakata is still sad, having believed he truly did have a personal connection with Onpu. Frankly, the only part of this scenario I disbelieve is “most of the fans are okay with this.” Though I suppose that too is a symptom of cultural difference – here in 2019, fan entitlement is one of the greatest forces of toxicity in the world

Learning that Onpu never read his emails destroys Nakata’s impression of her, and he tosses his CD in the ocean. Welp, turns out it was a Bad Item

Ooh, great catch by Doremi. She actually wonders whether this was all really caused by the Bad Item, when really, this situation would have likely played out similarly regardless

“You’ve never even spoken to her before, and now you’re disliking her. That’s unfair to Onpu-chan.”

They tell him to find the courage to truly talk to her, assuring him they’re much closer to being friends than he thinks

This slow, triumphant pan in after Nakata’s successful “Good morning, Onpu” is adorable

And Done

Dang, what an interesting episode! This was a heavily theme-focused episode, and more complex in its ultimate perspective than many of the show’s more emotionally-driven narratives. It essentially observed the awkward tension of performer-fan relationships from both sides, emphasizing both the responsibility of creating works that connect with people, as well as the false sense of intimacy and ownership that fandom can foster. It was sympathetic to both Nakata and Onpu while also acknowledging their failures, and almost felt like a weirdly prescient commentary on the difficulty of genuine connection in the digital age. Not bad for a kids’ show with talking witch frogs!

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