I was a little surprised to see that this dates to 2005. It feels older, somehow. Or maybe it's making me feel old, because it's a kid's show. However it isn't really dumbed down the way so many kid's shows are, and I'm pretty impressed.

The main character is a boy named Souta, who is in grade school. He seems to live alone (and we don't ask questions like that) and his neighbor and childhood friend is a girl named Ringo, whose voice is Rie Kugimiya. She isn't tsundere, quite, but she tends to get irate. She also brings Souta food, and helps him with his laundry, and generally looks for any excuse to visit him and spend time with him.

Souta is unusual. He talks to flowers, and when he does they become healthy and more beautiful. This is apparently something he's always been able to do, and others know about it. In the first episode someone brings him a flower that's sick, and he revives it.

Souta seems to be an orphan, though that's not totally certain. His mother told him a fairy tale once. There was a magical world, in which a boy appeared who could master science as well. The king heard about him and sent him on many increasingly difficult quests, and he won them all. But he also became arrogant and lazy. The king turned out to be Kami-sama and he decided that science and magic shouldn't mix. So he divided the hero into two, one with magic and one with science, and sent them to opposite worlds, one of which has magic and the other has science.

Obviously we're in the science world. But there's a wicked witch (rather young and pretty) who has just broken free of a great seal which held her. And she seeks someone who has a "key", which evidently could reunite the worlds.

Souta is the one, apparently. And there's a bad guy named Hansel who seeks him, too. In the first episode, Hansel sends a couple of minions, "nightmarians", to capture him. And when things are looking grim, a girl shows up along with her companion, a blue-furred wolf. They defeat the nighmarians easily.

Her name is Akazukin, which turns out to be the Japanese name for "Little Red Riding Hood". She has the same voice as Takamachi Nanoha. She is one of the three fairy musketeers, who was sent by the king of Fandavale (the magic world) to Elde (our world) to protect him. In the second episode Ringo finds out about all this, and then they're attacked again. These guys are tougher and Akazukin and Val are having a tough time fighting them off. And suddenly it starts to snow.

The second musketeer is Shirayukihime, aka "Snow White". Her power is related to snow and ice. Akazukin, Val, and Shirayukihime are all going to move into Souta's house to stay with him, so they can protect him. And presumably the third and last musketeer, is going to show up. From some googling I find that her name is Ibara "Sleeping Beauty".

Both Akazukin and Shirayukihime activate their powers by using magical cell phones by putting in magical SIM cards. That's how Akazukin summons her short swords, for instance. And that's what we get instead of henshin decks.

It apparently was an OVA first, which was short and dark and mainly featured Akazukin. The TV series is supposedly a lot lighter, and it's 39 episodes long.

It's the TV series I just looked at, and it's really quite charming. At the core it's yet another magical-girlfriend show, but there's a nice feel to it. But I'm not sure there's really 39 episodes worth of story here. I may watch more of it, but it won't be too much of a surprise if I never finish it.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Mystery Meat at 11:12 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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