Mahoraba

Mahoraba (まほらば) is a manga series by Akira Kojima, which was later adapted into an anime. It was serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Gangan WING manga magazine between January 2000 and July 2006, spanning a total of 12 tankōbon volumes.

The anime adaptation, entitled Mahoraba 〜Heartful days (まほらば〜Heartful days), was produced by J.C.Staff, premiered across TV Tokyo on January 10, 2005, and ended on June 26, 2005, spanning a total of 26 episodes.

Plot
Shiratori Ryushi wants to become a children picture book writer, and he moves to an apartment, Narutaki-Sou (Narutaki Villa), in order to go to an art school in Tokyo. Narutaki-Sou is an old Japanese style one-story house which doesn't fit in urban scenery. The complex is owned by his mother's cousin and the manager of the apartment is his second cousin, Aoba Kozue. They met each other when they were children, although Shiratori doesn't remember much of it. Kozue is in the second grade of a high school attached to Aoba Junior College.

There are seven residents of Narutaki-Sou. The first, Chanohata Tamami, lives in room #1 and she is Kozue's childhood friend and best friend. Shiratori Ryushi, the main character of the series, resides in room #2. In room #3 resides Momono Megumi, a person who goes her own way in life. Kurosaki Sayoko and her daughter Asami, who is in the first grade of middle school, live in room #5. Finally, in room #6, Haibara Yukio lives with his puppet Johnny.

Narutaki-Sou is filled with characteristic and eccentric people. However, the most eccentric person is Kozue herself. She has a secret of which even she does not know; when she is shocked at something, her personality changes. Not knowing this, Ryushi moves to Narutaki-Sou to realize his dream.

Characters

 * Japanese names are given in the western order, given name first.

Sumeragi (Imperial) Design School

 * * Note - these character's names are nicknames


 * Miyabi Shirogane (銀 雅 Shirogane Miyabi) - Shiratori's teacher. Students who are disobedient or forget their homework are treated to "the closet", which is a frightful ordeal that definitely gets her message across. She has similar antic to Tamami such as having her eyes half open and talking very cheerfully until certain moments. At one point both her and Tamami meet and get along quite well.


 * Tsubasa Yamabuki (山吹 翼 Yamabuki Tsubasa)/Ero boy/Erofreak * (Hikaru Tokita) - He is a classmate of Shiratori who is always trying to charm high school girls and young women (but has no interest in Middle school or younger girls). He happened to meet Shiratori when he was dressed as a girl due to a prank and fell in love with "her". Without a name to call this newfound love, he nicknamed her "Reiko", not realizing that she was really Shiratori.


 * Risona Aizawa (藍沢 理想奈 Aizawa Risona)/Homo-suki * (Riku Moriyama): She is a classmate of Shiratori who wears glasses. Her name is based on the famous bank in Japan"Resona Bank"(Mizuho and Asahi are also named based on a famous Japanese bank.) A devoted fan to manga (especially that of the yaoi and yuri sort), Risona aims to become a dojinshi author. She has a fear of white goats that may eat her manga manuscripts.


 * Mizuho Amane (亜麻根 瑞穂 Amane Mizuho)/Nail bat */Megaphone Girl * (Nozomi Masu): She is a classmate of Shiratori who uses her batting skills to punish Tsubasa for his womanizing. Her name is based on the famous bank in Japan"Mizuho Bank"(Risona and Asahi are also named based on a famous Japanese bank.) She would normally use a customized baseball bat with spikes, but "because of the adults' circumstances", her bat was taken away and replaced with a plastic megaphone.

Seika Tandai Fuzoku High School

 * Erika Vermilion (エリカ·バーミリオン) (Shizuka Itou) - She is the head of the occult research lab, of which Tamami, as well as Kozue is technically a member. She is never named and only referred to as "club president (ぶちょう)" until the final chapter of the manga. "Erika Vermillion" is a stage name for her fortune-telling business. She has a masochistic slant as well, and painfully enjoys Tamami's talent for insults and other unusual tortures.


 * Hiro Utsugi (空木尋) (Sayaka Kinoshita) - Orchestra club president and the conductor. The group which she leads contains only 3 members. She is the younger sister of Sakura. (Side note: Sakura is one of Sayoko's father's maids, and the lady whom Shiratori and Kozue help earlier in the series)

Asami's schoolmates

 * Satsuki "Sa-chan" Matsuba (松葉五月) (Akeno Watanabe) - She is Asami's classmate and speaks Osaka-ben. She tries to keep control of Mi-chan's haughty attitude, often with heavy texts such as dictionaries or telephone books.


 * Michiyo "Mi-chan" Asagi (浅葱三千代) (Riku Moriyama) - She is Asami's classmate and is rich and slightly snobby, often having a blase attitude and striking old-fashioned poses with her fan. Even if she won't freely admit it, she just wants to be friends with Asami.

Futaba Ginza shops
Because of a slight misunderstanding on the phrase literally "good person", figuratively "boyfriend" (いい人), practically every merchant in the Futaba Ginza shopping area thinks Kozue and Ryūshi are going out, with Kozue blissfully unaware of this.


 * Asahi "Asabi" Chigusa (千草旭) - She works for the bakery, which is famous for its taiyaki. Her name is based on the famous bank in Japan"Asahi Bank"(Risona and Mizuho are also named based on a famous Japanese bank.)


 * Hwang Yo "Yo-chan" Lee (黄有麗 (ホァンヨウリー))- She works for the bakery, but is notorious for going through several, vastly unrelated jobs in quick succession—most likely because she is known for frequent slip-ups. Before she was a department jewelry store clerk, fortune teller, lifeguard, and various other jobs. She calls herself Hanako Suzuki.


 * Grocer / Yaonaga - He runs various prize-games such as for futon warmers and refrigerators. He often tells bad jokes and puns, mostly for his own amusement.


 * Bookstore clerk - Bookstore business hours: AM10:00-PM8:00.

Minazuki residence

 * Ushimitsu Minazuki (水無月 丑三 Minazuki Ushimitsu, Shinpachi Tsuji) - Sayoko's father and a wealthy sculptor. He has a tendency to be a tad controlling.


 * Yu Minazuki (水無月 夕 Minazuki Yū, Kotono Mitsuishi) - Sayoko's mother. She cannot stand sunlight and is as a result much healthier at night. She walks around with a cane, which she sometimes applies to her husband's foot when he is rude.


 * Mahiru Minazuki (水無月 まひる Minazuki Mahiru) - Younger sister of Sayoko and, respectively, Asami's aunt, though they are closer to sisters in terms of their relationship. She has been living in Italy since childhood, so she is somewhat awkward at speaking Japanese. She speaks little, and tends to employ a kind of formal monotone to her voice when she does.


 * Tachibana (タチバナ) - She is the senior maid of the Minazuki household. She is an extremely skilled maid and is a capable martial artist and especially skilled with darts. Despite her tough appearance, she has a soft spot for things like teddy bears, and owns one who she has named Kuma. She is very conscientious of her height, thinking herself to be too tall.


 * Sakura Utsugi (空木桜)- (Yuka Inokuchi) - She is a maid of the Minazuki household. While her heart is in the right place, she is extremely careless and clumsy, a flaw which often lands her in trouble.


 * Chauffeur - The personal chauffeur of the Minazuki household.

Other

 * Tobita Haruka - an artist who happened across Sayoko's carvings. After multiple attempts of tracking her, she is now producing and selling sculptures with Sayoko. Considers her a genius.

Sidestories
Children's storybook sidestory

Ryushi Shiratori's children's story that is seen many times throughout the anime involves the story of a prince. The prince, who is a representation of Ryushi himself, discovers a castle with a princess living in it. The princess has a fondness for umeboshi and for various reasons concerning umeboshi, she multiplies into other princesses. These new princesses are the representations of Kozue, Saki, Chiyuri, Nanako and Natsume and the princesses appear in the same episode as each of the new personalities are introduced.

Comic panel sidestory

Often during the anime a vertical comic-style sketch related to the main story is shown. The art style and music are consistently used in this way as various situations are shown for comedic purposes. Each panel is displayed for several seconds until the next panel scrolls into view. Usually there are four panels (4コマ) per situation, reflecting the same yonkoma device that is used in the manga.

Episodes

 * 1) Welcome to Narutaki-sou (ようこそ鳴滝荘へ)
 * 2) The Landlady's secret (大家さんのひみつ)
 * 3) The Precious Place (たいせつな場所)
 * 4) Warm and Fuzzy (ぬくぬく)
 * 5) Nega-Posi (ネガポジ)
 * 6) Tama check (珠チェック)
 * 7) Hide and Seek (かくれんぼ)
 * 8) Shopping (おかいモノ)
 * 9) Correct-o (これくと)
 * 10) Sketch (スケッチ)
 * 11) Affection (想い...)
 * 12) Summer! Swimsuits! The Beach! (夏だ!水着だ!海水浴だ!)
 * 13) Narutaki-sou's treasure (鳴滝荘のタカラモノ)
 * 14) The end of summer (夏の終わりに)
 * 15) ...Maybe (...かも)
 * 16) Guests after Guests (千客万来)
 * 17) Color of the Sky (そらのいろ)
 * 18) Meow Meow Meow (にゃーにゃーにゃー)
 * 19) Everyone's day (みんなの一日)
 * 20) School festival (学園祭にて)
 * 21) Mother and Daughter (親·子)
 * 22) Important... (大事...)
 * 23) Among the Red Leaves (紅葉の中で)
 * 24) Bells (すず)
 * 25) Night of Revelation (告げる夜)
 * 26) Heartful Days

Theme songs
Opening


 * Daiji Da·I·Ji (大事▽Da·I·Ji) by Saiki Mia and Shiraishi Ryoko

Ending


 * Boku no SPEED de (僕のスピードで) by Chihiro Yonekura

Together with King Records (Starchild label).

Mahotarot(まほタロ)
A set of 22 tarot cards with Mahoraba's characters exist. The drawings are done by the author, and in addition to original cards, others such as mass-production versions (simplified background), fake tarot cards (different pictures for card number), and special editions (holographic) exist. These are supplements for related merchandises, and cannot be collected in its entirety solely by buying the books; thus, it is hard to complete the collection.