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Ojamajo Doremi
Written on 20/08/26

This took me a while to figure out how to write because I the amount I feel for this show and the amount I have to say about it feels unbalanced. I didn't expect to love this show as much as I did but I'm glad I gave it a shot since it is now one of my favourite anime.
I'm probably gonna be all over the place with this so here's a TLDR: This is a fun and heartfelt show that can be incredibly grounded and real,in an earnest way,when it comes to the episodic stories it tells with it's cast, despite it being a kids show with magic shenanigans. Only caution I'd give is that the overarching plot of each season varies in quality and can be pretty boring if you aren't interested in it.

First off I wanna comment on the artstyle. Doremi very cartoony looking show, at least compared to anime that aren't deliberately trying to look that way. The character designs, done by Umakoshi Yoshiko, and how characters are animated leads to the show being able to be extremely expressive without looking off putting. It also adds to the comedy of the show which is already pretty decent. I have a ton of screenshots from the show that I use as reaction or just saved cuz I thought they were funny.

The music for the show is also pretty good. The bgm tracks are memorable and the opening and ending songs are all catchy to varying degrees. Favourite bgm would be　きっとちゃんと女の or dokidoki no mahou. Favourite opening is tied between the one for the OVA and season 2 and my favourite Ending song is easily the one for the latter episodes of season 4, 私のつばさ. That one in particular makes me emotional lol.
Being a magical girl show there's also transformations to judge and Doremi's are all pretty nice. They're all short and sweet and don't waste time, compared to longer transformations from a series like precure. My favourite ones would have to be the ones for season 2. They are really catchy and easy to boogie to I suppose.
Might as well aslo mention that I like the vibe of season 2 overall from it's eyecatches, prologue music and the spell casting jingles. It's all very dream like and no other season has that same vibe. Gives me similar feelings to Kirby 64.

Anyways, onto the what the show is about, Ojamajo Doremi is a magical girl anime on paper, but is more so a slice of life involving magic shenanigans. The show starts with the main 3 of Doremi, Aiko and Hadzuki, who go about their daily lives as 3rd graders, whilst working in the Maho dou as witch apprentices and aiming to become witches. They do all this primarily to turn Majo Rika, their mentor figure back to normal, after Doremi got her turned into a witch frog, and cuz being a witch to them is seems cool and fun.

Outside of the witch world related stuff, which I found to be the least interesting part of the show a lot of the time, the series focuses on the girls and people around them which we get to know better over time. A lot of characters are delegated one off episodes, but it makes the cast of Doremi feel really well fleshed out by the time you reach the last season. Though a lot of side characters are effectively background characters outside of their focus episodes, when you see them around they feel less like props used to fill a background and more like, just that character existing. My favourite of these characters is Nagato. The way the the show handles her 3 episode arc throughout the 3rd season is perfect and is a really good depiction of how bad anxiety can affect a kid.
Overall the way Doremi handles it's characters feels very earnest, heartfelt and easy to relate to or sympathise with.

When it comes to the main cast, my favourite character is the titular Doremi. A truly goofy lass with a heart of gold I tell ya. I like that fella because she's understanding and always considerate of others but not to the extent where she's completely selfless. She's a greedy and sucker for steak, sometimes lazy and constantly clumsy but the compassionate side of that kid is admirable. She's a role model but she feels real as she has her flaws and moments where she's in the wrong and causes trouble for others. I also relate to Doremi's relationship with her younger sister, Pop, as someone with a younger sister. Episode 40 of # is one of my favourites because of those two and I find it hard not to tear up whenever I revisit it. That episode also made me pick up the piano again so I am forever grateful for that. Shoutout to Pop to. She's sidelined after season 2 and deserved better even if her remaining few episodes were pretty goof

Doremi aside, the rest of the gang is pretty good too. I really liked the ongoing plotline of Aiko trying to get her divorced parents back together. That was a SLOW burn but it had the most satisfying conclusion by the end. Although, I feel Aiko herself could've gotten more focus episodes that weren't related to the stuff going on between her parents. Hadzuki is funny and subject to many usable reaction images. I like her a fair bit and while she doesn't get no focus, a lot of her episodes tend to be shared with a other character so they aren't really her episodes. However she does get one of the best episodes near the end of the show which I will talk about later. Onpu is cool I suppose. She's was once a rival to the main 3 in the first season but turns a new leaf after sticking around them for long enough. I like her arc in the 1st season, she was fun to have around as a foil to the main gang. Season 2 and onwards are pretty alright for her, I like the episodes where she questions her motivations and stuff. I do find it incredibly weird how she does gravure photo shoots at given how old she is but I'm blaming that on her mum who I already don't like all that much.

Next up is Momoko the ring haired American. I really like her and she had great episodes in the 3rd season. I liked her interactions with Reika and her friendship with her overseas buddy Beth, her friend back home. Her learning japanese also felt natural as she gets better at it over the course of the series. In season 4 though Momoko just exists and doesn't get all that much. She's also characterised as kinda overly kooky which isn't bad in it of itself but she feels lobotomized compared to how she was in season 3. I just choose to read this as her being more comfortable in her new surroundings after a year. The baseball episode of the Ova was goated tho, even if it's not her episode, it's hers in spirit.

Finally there's Hana-chan the flower born baby introduced in season 2. This fella is a literal baby so even though I found her annoying on occasion and some of her episodes rather boring, I was able to handwave it most of the time. In season 4 though, she is aged up to match the rest of the gang and she's pretty fun. She's a nice agent of chaos and episodes focusing on her are always fun. I respect the decision to have her sacrifice herself near the end that was cool.

Lastly I just wanna glaze episode 49 of season 4 for being all around amazing. It's presentation in unmatched by any other episode, besides episode 40 which was also directed by Mamoru Hosoda, and it made me feel for Hadzuki's dilemma even though it was relatively low stakes in the grand scheme of things. It also has the benefit of being a winter episode and a gloomy one at that so the vibes are appeal to me greatly, pretty similarly to the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. Lastly, I love the scene near the end between Hadzuki and Doremi in the snow where they talk things out and then the song they were practicing throughout the episode begins to play. That darn scene would make me tear up more often if it weren't for how many times I've rewatched it. And the song itself is lovely and I hope to figure out how to play the piano part of the piece one day considering the only trancscriptions I can find are for the violin.

Anyway man, this has been a headache to type cuz I keep thinking I'm not doing this kids show justice with whatever I type. nevertheless this show is goated and Doremi is a real one. I might redo this one day whenever I'm able to clarify my thoughts on this show concisely.