I hope you folks are ready. Today we’re embarking on a journey both new and familiar, as we begin the second season of the ambitious, heartwarming, and stunningly executed Ojamajo Doremi.

As I’ve already rambled my way through fifty episodes of this acclaimed children’s show, I’m sure you know my general feelings on it by now. Ojamajo Doremi demonstrates that great children’s entertainment need not be dramatically or emotionally simplistic – in fact, it reveals that children’s anime that doesn’t talk down to its audience can actually broach a wider array of topics and emotions than many shows aimed at more general audiences. There is no artifice or bravado in terms of Doremi’s presentation – the show is honest, perceptive, and brimming with sympathy for its young cast. Over the course of the first season, Doremi has explored topics as sensitive and wide-ranging as love, divorce, bullying, family, creative passion, professional ambition, and even death, elevating its nuanced dramas through its strong visual sensibilities and plenty of fantastical flourishes.

Not only are Doremi’s various adventures all funny and heartwarming in their own right, but the show’s strength is also cumulative. Within our main crew, Doremi has grown from being a perpetual screwup to a genuine leader, and though she’s still unreliable in many ways, her growing confidence, strength, and compassion are clear as day. Having admitted her own fundamental loneliness, Onpu has learned to look outside of herself, and found both friends and a greater sense of purpose through helping others. Aiko has taken great strides in coming to terms with her parents’ separation, and Pop has become a formidable witch in her own right. And outside that crew, we’ve come to know and love dozens of Doremi’s classmates and teachers, making each new episode a testament to the power of ensemble storytelling.

All that, and I’m told Ojamajo Doremi actually improves as it continues, with the contributions of anime titans like Mamoru Hosoda still to come. Ojamajo Doremi has been both an aesthetically rewarding experience and a genuine source of comfort to me, and I hope all of you are enjoying this winding journey as well. Let’s see what awaits us in the first episode of Ojamajo Doremi Sharp!

Episode 1

New cold open frame, new cold open jingle! I’ll miss that slide whistle melody, but this jaunty, almost Super Mario-esque piano riff is nice too

The girls are dazzled by the appearance of a literal flower child – a rose that blooms to reveal a baby inside. Will they harvest this child to restore their magical powers? ONLY TIME WILL TELL!

“The Ojamajos are here, at the center of our hearts.” This is true

I appreciate that even in an entirely new opening song, Doremi is still singing about how she flunked another test

New characters here as well, including a nurse and a nefarious-looking witch

It’s nice to see Onpu finally getting equal billing in the opening credits. Her last few focus episodes were stunning, and she’s absolutely earned a spot on the team

And we open the season exactly as we must, with Doremi grimly assessing her report card

How I missed this show’s incredibly exaggerated, borderline cubist expression work. What a good cartoon

It’s apparently the last day of school

There’s no separation with Onpu anymore – she’s now directly included in all the group drama, even in terms of them being scolded by the teacher. After all those episodes watching her sort through her own feelings and slowly grow closer to the group, this feels like an inherent payoff

“Doremi Becomes a Mama!?” Fair enough. The episode title cards are also embracing this blooming white flower imagery

“Didn’t we promise we’d send them off tonight with smiles?” Onpu’s personality and professional experience now applying itself to comforting her friends – she’s used to acting strong and happy for others, and is lending that strength to Hadzuki

The Maho Dou is now empty, with the usual carefully oriented shots conveying the depth and detail of this store now instead emphasizing its emptiness

“We didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye!” This is a seriously brutal season premiere, but I supposed that’s Doremi for you

“Hasn’t it been 100 years since a baby has been born from the Witch Queen’s Rose? I wonder who will take care of her?” Thank you, witch lords of incidental exposition

Having to take care of a baby is a pretty common theme in children’s media, particularly media aimed at girls. There’s the aspirational appeal of embracing adult responsibilities and getting to do mature things, as well as the natural satisfaction of taking care of an adorable dependent, and finally the resulting understanding of your own strength and responsibility. Taking care of babies emphasizes personal responsibility while also serving as an exaggerated stand-in for how we must all take care in how we treat each other

“That baby will have a huge amount of magical power, so taking care of her will be tough.” I eagerly await the debut of Deathbaby

Happy to see Ojamajo Doremi teaching kids the facts of life, like how babies are born from witch’s roses, and are naturally imbued with terrifying stockpiles of magical energy

So the Witch Queen herself chose our Ojamajos to be the baby’s guardians

They’re really spoiling us by having the season premiere encompass a sprawling tour through the Witch World. The backgrounds of this place are always a delight

“There’s a hole to cut through! Lucky!” “There wasn’t a hole there before.” Onpu is very naturally slotting in as the group’s voice of wisdom, which makes sense. As the first season consistently demonstrated, even though temperament-wise she fits the role, Hadzuki is actually just as crazy as the rest of them

The baby arrives, while the eyecatches demonstrate this season’s new tie-in accessory – an Ojamajo-branded plastic phone

Excellent cut for Doremi scrambling to catch this baby. The closeness of the camera and her shout emphasize the panic of the moment

The baby sees its mother is Doremi and immediately starts crying. I hear you, baby

Apparently, unlike baby humans, baby witches are born from flowers. This introduces some questions as to what witches actually are that I seriously doubt Doremi has any interest in pursuing, so sure, let’s just go with that

“She peed on me.” A mom for thirty seconds and already getting owned. Oh Doremi

I like that the baby’s hair tie is one of their upgraded magical orbs

Oh my god, the baby’s little jester hat is so adorable

They have to take care of the baby for one year, and for the purposes of that have their apprenticeships reinstated. New taps, new costumes, new everything!

I like how Doremi actually claps along with her transformation song. This show’s musical motifs have always been a little vague and distant, so this is nice

These transformations are clearly designed around being fun to both watch and perform yourself, as opposed to the often voyeuristic aims of transformations for older audiences

We at last meet Onpu’s equally demure fairy

If they raise the baby for a year, they get their crystals back. This seems win-win for the witch queen, who seems a lot more forward-thinking than her rules-obsessed advisers. She sees great potential in these girls, and so is happy to offer them another chance to succeed as witches

Their new porons and tabs are extremely different from last season’s, meaning mom absolutely has to buy these new ones. The intersection of art and commerce is always an awkward place

This episode is somewhat weighed down by the simultaneous introduction of most of this new season’s transformation and spellcasting bank footage, but seeing that animation for the first time is a fine reward in its own right

Also, them crossing their porons like goddamn musketeers in order to cast magical stage is terrific

The Maho Dou is transformed into the Flower Garden Maho Dou, which does seem like a more sustainable business plan than “the girls make clay blobs and tell people they’re magic charms”

And the girls ask that Pop be reinstated too

And Done

Aw jeez, it is so nice to be back. This episode had a lot of work to do in terms of reestablishing the show’s neutral mode and introducing this season’s new conflicts, but it was still nice to see the changing group dynamic now that Onpu is truly a core member of the team. There was also plenty of the dynamic direction, creative expression work, and beautiful backgrounds that make the work such a visual delight, including one of the most rewarding excursions into the Witch World we’ve seen so far. Where the show goes from here, I can’t really say – the girls aren’t technically in training at the moment, there are no more exams to pass, and neither the opening song nor the episode itself made any mentions of Bad Items. But frankly, that feels like a liberating thing – Doremi has never had trouble finding interesting stories to tell, and I’m excited to see where Doremi’s parental drama leads. It’s wonderful to return to Ojamajo Doremi!

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