9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ultra-cool show!, June 5, 2005
This review is from: Ultramaniac - Magical Girl (Vol. 1) + Series Box (DVD)
Yeah, that was a bad play on the title I admit.
Ultramaniac's story is that a young girl named Nina Sakura is sent to the regular world from the "Magic Kingdom" she comes from because of her horrible grades. Nina meets Ayu Tateishi who befriends her quickly, and the journey to help Nina succeed begins.
The animation is wonderfully done, while the voices are also just as good. The story seems pretty simple at first, but becomes more complex as it goes on. The music is great, and so are the characters. Ultramaniac is a romantic love comedy that really is pretty cool.
I suggest that you buy the box set if you decide to purchase this awesome show that really is hard to resist.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A shojo/Magical Girl version of MABURAHO, May 29, 2006
First of all, I have no idea why the show is called what it is, since maniac generally means someone insane. This show isn't about that; a title like,"Ultrawitch" would seem to me to be much more appropriate.
Anyway, about the story: Ayu Tateishi is an 8th grade girl whose parents are currently away overseas and who on the surface seems cool and collected, is a star tennis player and is admired by most of the other girls at her school, and has a secret crush on Tetsushi Kaji, a boy who plays baseball at the school. Ayu's normal life changes forever when she meets Nina Sakura, a girl from a magic kingdom who is a witch-in-training (albeit a rather inept-but-well-meaning one) who has been sent to our world to continue her studing. At the beginning of episode 1 Ayu and Nina have already met and have been going to school together for sometime now. (We are told the story of how they first met in episode 4, the last episode on this disk. Nina is monitered by her grandfather in the magic kingdom who watches her progress, and like all magical girls she can transform from her "ordinary" earth clothes to her magical outfit, and has an animal sidekick: a talking cat named Ryo who can change at will into a little boy. Nina is staying with a host family: a human mother who is as clumsy at cooking and housekeeping as Nina is at preforming magic, and her husband who is also from the magic kingdom. Besides the fact that Nina's spells usually backfire, she and Ayu also have another problem: Jun Kawanakajma, the nerdy class chairman, has also seen Nina use magic and now follows them secretly with a camera, waiting for the right moment to catch Nina using magic so he can prove to the world she's a witch.
In the first episode Nina gives a magic chocolate to Kaji (most of her spells come in the form of magic chocolates that she summons,) that is to cause him to fall in love with Ayu, but then he gives it to his best friend Hiroki Tsujiai (the "T" in his last name is silent,) and Tsujiai ends up falling in love with Ayu instead! So Nina gives Ayu a magic ring that is to keep Tsujiai away. As it happens, it gives him an electrical shock when he touches her. The good news is this short-circuts the love spell, causing him to forget that past events after eating the chocolate. The bad news is it shocks ALL boys who touch Ayu, and what's worse is she can't take the ring off! So until it wears off by itself, she's going to have to keep away from Kaji...
In episode 2 Yuta, a boy from the magic kingdom, shows up. He likes to cause pranks, such as causing balloons that he passes by to suddnely pop, but he seems to take a liking to Ayu and asks her out on a date. Will she be able to tame his mean-spirited ways...?
My favorite episodes would have to be the last two. In episode 3 the boy's tennis club gets into an arguement with the girl's tennis club over who should have the extra tennis court. Soon a match is set up to be between Tsujiai and Ayu. However, Ayu didn't agree to this, and she's not convinced she'll be able to beat him. So Nina decides to help out and summons another magic chocolate. Ayu, fearing the worst, tries to protest, but then Nina forces the chocolate into Ayu's mouth...and Ayu changes into a boy for a day! Needless to say, she's not too happy. Ayu is also worried that the girls won't want to have a boy playing for them, but then they accept! However, Ayu's not used to playing with such long arms and legs, and ironically as a result of playing as a boy she loses horribly to Tsujiai. However, Tsujiai lets the girls keep their extra court. Then Kaji and Tsujiai invite the male Ayu (not knowing who she really is,) to a karioke bar. Nina also turns herself into a boy and tags along. Also comes Akiho, a girl who likes Kaji as well, but who also takes a liking to boy-type Ayu. (Poor Ayu must really miss her old normal life right now.)
Finally we get to see Nina's origen story. She and Ayu are admiring the full moon when they think back to how they first met, one month ago. Ayu was walking home alone at night (this is Japan, remember) when Nina came flying out of the sky on a magic scooter. Seeing the girl hovering in the air like that was quite a shock to Ayu, who like most people never believed in magic before. Ayu freaked out and ran away, telling herself it was all in her imagination, but then she ran into some bad boys who wanted to cause her problems. Nina came to her rescue with a magic stone that bounced all over the place, hitting the boys but not Ayu (one of the rare times that one of Nina's spells worked perfectly). Nina then took off with Ayu, who was still pretty freaked out over the magic, but she took Nina to her home and let her stay the night before she moved in with her host family.
I really enjoyed this show. I like it's characters, the story, it's humor (particularly Ayu's shocked reactions at Nina's antics, especially when she turns Ayu into a boy and when they first meet). I also think to dub voices are well done, especially the two leads, Jennifer Sekiguchi as Ayu and Carrie Savage as Nina. And the opening and closing songs and animations are fun as well. I especially love the image during the closing song of Ayu and Nina laying together asleep in a way that is just a wee bit suggestive. (There is, however, no romance between the two in the actual show itself.) Anyway, if you like magical girl shows, give this one a try.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect Anime for Young Girls, February 5, 2008
If you are an anime fan and want to introduce your young kids to the genre while avoiding 13UP material look to UltraManiac. It is a magical junior high adventure/drama that I started watching with my daughter when she was 6 years old. The series is rated 7UP. There is occasional intensity but it is not the kind where characters are physically hitting each other, just when they are feeling emotions, etc. Those scenes are very comic-book like where their faces go from stylish anime to simple lines - think the drop of water off the side of the forehead when a character gets embarrassed. Anyway, I'm rambling. The colors are great. The mood is happy. The villans are solid. And overall it is the best anime I have found for my little girls.
The anime has good humor and I enjoy watching it myself. I am a fan of the language and like listening to it in Japanese with English subtitles. My daughter prefers listening to it in English, which is a superb audio production by the way. If you like sweet, fun, without over-the-top potty humor then check out Ultramaniac.
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