Magical DoReMi

Ojamajo Doremi (おジャ魔女どれみ), known as Magical DoReMi (also stylised as Magical Doremi) in most dubs, is a magical girl anime metaseries consisting of four regular TV anime series, one 13-episode sidestory, two anime films, and a manga series. The various series were aired from 1999-2003, with companion movies to the second and third seasons. A thirteen episode sidestory TV series was aired in 2004. A manga adaptation, illustrated by Shizue Takanashi (with writter being listed as Izumi Todo), was published by Kodansha. The show is about elementary school children that transform into witch apprentices.

Title
"Ojamajo" (おジャ魔女) in Ojamajo Doremi is a portmanteau of "ojama" (お邪魔; hindrance or intrusion, with a noun "o") and "majo" (魔女; witch).

While Doremi's name remains unchanged in most dubs, in the 4Kids Entertainment version, Doremi, Hazuki and Aiko were renamed Dorie, Reanne and Mirabelle respectively. So the "DoReMi" in Magical DoReMi, at least within 4Kids version, refers to those three characters. (an intended pun)

Ojamajo Doremi
Eight-year-old Doremi Harukaze aspires to be a user of magic, as she believes it would solve all her problems and help her confess to a boy she liked. One afternoon, she comes upon a magic shop and correctly suspects that the shop owner is a witch. The shop owner becomes a witch frog, as this happens to witches when their true identities are discovered. In order to retain her original form, the shop owner, Majo Rika, takes Doremi as her apprentice to turn her into a witch. Doremi must take nine witch exams at night to become an official witch; however, she must never let her own identity as a witch be found out or the same fate that befell Majo Rika will happen to her.

On her way, Doremi is joined by her two best friends, Hazuki Fujiwara and Aiko Senō, as well as her younger sister, Pop. While taking tests to become better witches, at the same time, Doremi and her friends help out their classmates and friends with their own problems via magic, as well as battle Majo Rika's rival, Majo Ruka. All is going well until they meet Onpu Segawa, a child idol, who does not share the same morals in using magic as them. Eventually, Onpu allies with Doremi and the girls and even saves them from turning into witch frogs at the cost of her own consciousness. In order to rescue her, Doremi and the girls use forbidden magic to rescue her from her punishment, but because they did do so, all of them must resign as witch apprentices.

This first series of the franchise featured 51 episodes. This is the only part of Ojamajo Doremi licensed to 4Kids Entertainment. For the airing on the U.S. television, it was divided into two "seasons": one season consist of the first 26 episodes, the other consist of the rest of the series. Episode 30 was skipped.

Ojamajo Doremi #
The second series featured 49 episodes. Not long after Doremi and the girls finish the 3rd grade, they go into the Witch World to see Majo Rika. While taking a shortcut through the garden, the girls witness the birth of a baby, whom Doremi later names Hana. According to the witch law, they have to take care of the baby for a year since they witnessed Hana's birth. While Doremi and the girls learn to take care of Hana and help her take baby tests, at the same time, the wizards in the Wizard World are afraid of the tremendous magical power Hana has. Oyajide, a former ally of Doremi's, plans to capture Hana at all costs and even hires four boy wizard prodigies, the FLAT4, to help.

Mo~tto! Ojamajo Doremi
The third series featured 50 episodes. After losing their witch apprenticeship to ensure Hana's growth, Doremi and the girls are given another chance to get their apprenticeship back by appealing to the Witch Senate with sweets. As neither of the girls know how to bake well, the Queen introduces Momoko Asuka into their group to aid their quest. In Doremi's daily life, Momoko also becomes her classmate, but due to living in New York for most of her life, she is unable to speak Japanese well in her normal form and is unfamiliar with Japanese culture. While Doremi and the girls patiently teach her, they are also given temporary custody of Hana-chan, who was cursed with the former witch queen's magic to hate vegetables, which are crucial to her health.

Ojamajo Doremi Dokka~n!
The fourth and final series for the terrestrial television featured 51 episodes. Doremi and the girls are made into full witches by the senate, but the former witch queen's curse is about to put all worlds into an eternal sleep. The only way to stop the curse is to awaken her and recreate the gifts she both made and received from her grandchildren. At the same time, Hana, who has become bored of the Witch World, uses magic to age herself into an 11-year-old to be able to attend Doremi's school.

Ojamajo Doremi Na-i-sho
In early 2004, Toei Animation revealed plans to make an OVA for the series, titled Ojamajo Doremi Na-i-sho. During the summer of 2004, episodes were released every two weeks on SKY PerfecTV!'s Pay-per-view service, and lasted for 13 episodes. As a part of the series, it is a sidestory of Mo~tto! Ojamajo Doremi.

Anime
Ojamajo Doremi is produced by Toei Animation and ABC. In Japan, the show aired on each of the ANN TV stations (Asahi Broadcasting Corporation (ABC, Japan), TV Asahi, Nagoya TV (Metele), and others) and Broadcasting System of San-in Inc.. The show replaced the time slot for Yume no Crayon Oukoku after its end and lasted from February 7, 1999 to January 30, 2000, with a new episode airing every week. The series soon followed with direct sequels, Ojamajo Doremi #, ''Mo~tto! Ojamajo Doremi, and Ojamajo Doremi Dokka~n!'' until January 26, 2003. Each series lasted from 49-51 episodes. Throughout the show's run, two 30-minute films were also released.

As well as it being in Japanese and aired in Japan, there are other Ojamajo Doremi dubs around the world, such as France, Spain, Germany, Italy, South Korea, China, Taiwan, and Portugal.

In North America, 4Kids Entertainment has licensed the show under the title Magical DoReMi, which aired on 4Kids TV for the 2005-2006 broadcasting season. Unlike the international dubs, Magical DoReMi was heavily localized and included a new soundtrack, many cut scenes, heavy editing, and many name changes. Most of the cut scenes in the 4Kids dub are not just for making the show more appropriate for younger audiences and to have a lower TV rating of TV-Y, but also because of time constraints as to make rooms for commercial breaks. 4Kids Entertainment released and dubbed the show only for North America. Starting with a sneak preview episode on August 13, 2005, 4Kids TV followed with new episodes airing every week since September 2005. The show was put on hiatus in mid-2006, but resumed progress with new episodes have been posted every Tuesday on their streaming video website from 2007-2008. Along with many of the cut footage, Episode 30 was completely removed and it was banned and skipped in the English speaking countries and it is never confirmed to have been dubbed and never aired.

On April 24, 2010, Magical DoReMi returned on US television on The CW4Kids. Starting on May 27, 2010, 4Kids Entertainment also started uploading the entire show onto their YouTube channel.

Manga
From 1999 to early 2003, the manga magazine Nakayoshi ran a manga-adaptation of Ojamajo Doremi. The story was based on the events of the original anime and was drawn by Shizue Takanashi. The chapters were compiled into tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. Four volumes were released in total — the first three were under the title Ojamajo Doremi, covering the events of the original series and Ojamajo Doremi #. The last volume was adapted from the ''Mo~tto! Ojamajo Doremi'' story arc and was titled eponymously to it.

Ojamajo Doremi #: The Movie
Ojamajo Doremi #: The Movie (映画おジャ魔女どれみ#) was the first theatrical release for the series and was directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi. Roughly twenty-seven minutes long, it was released on July 8, 2000 (along with Digimon Hurricane Touchdown!! / Supreme Evolution!! The Golden Digimentals) for the 2000 Summer Toei Anime Fair. The Digimon movie was split into two parts and Ojamajo Doremi #: The Movie was screened in between.

In the movie, Pop has just passed one of her witch exams, but gets into a heated argument with Doremi because Hana followed her into the Witch World. Initially unbeknownst to everyone, the flower Pop brought home from the Witch World is really the Witch Queen Heart, the Queen's favorite flower, which grants any wish it hears regardless of any possible dangers until it begins to bear seeds. One of the wishes it had granted involves turning Doremi into a mouse, unknowingly made by Pop over her anger towards Doremi. While Pop goes to search for her sister, the other girls track down the runaway flower before it starts to reproduce.

Though the movie bears little relevance to the series it's based on, it does mostly take place some time between episodes 16 and 37 and is referenced in both episodes 37 and 40 (the latter coinciding with the post-credits scene).

The Secret of the Frog Stone
Mo~tto! Ojamajo Doremi: The Secret of the Frog Stone (も～っと!おジャ魔女どれみ: カエル石のひみつ) was the series' second theatrical release and hit theaters on July 14, 2001, screened between Digimon Tamers: Battle of Adventurers and Kinnikuman: Second Generations. Similar to the first movie, it was again directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi.

During Doremi and her friends' summer vacation, they visit her grandparents in the fictional mountains of Fukuyama, where they hear of a mysterious legend of Mayuri and Zenjuro, two star-crossed lovers that died in the Edo period. During the next morning, when they investigate the forest, the girls get lost and face the Curse of the Full Moon, which makes them unable to use magic. Meanwhile, due to a traumatizing memory, Aiko develops a fear of Doremi's grandfather.

CDs
Throughout the run of the series, multiple singles, albums, and compilations were distributed. The original series' CDs were released under Bandai Music Entertainment, while music from Ojamajo Doremi # was distributed by King Records. However, from ''Mo~tto! Ojamajo Doremi'' onwards, the CDs were distributed by Marvelous Entertainment.

Ojamajo Kids
During the run of Ojamajo Doremi Dokka~n!, Toei hosted live events with dance performances by select actresses who portrayed the girls, titled "Ojamajo Kids. " These girls were selected via auditions.


 * Kasumi Suzuki - Doremi Harukaze
 * Tsugumi Shinohara - Hana Makihatayama
 * Miiya Tanaka - Hazuki Fujiwara
 * Chiharu Watanabe - Aiko Senō
 * Makoto Takeda - Onpu Segawa
 * Chisato Maeda - Momoko Asuka