Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’d like to check back in on the trials of Doremi and the gang, as our crew continues their magical training and witch baby-raising under the dubious tutelage of Majo Rika. Of course, there’s plenty of room for detours along the way, along with self-imposed trials like messing with Hadzuki’s dance lessons. Ultimately, magic is really just a fantastical garnish for Doremi’s true substance: its thoughtful, wide-ranging exploration of the trials of youth, and the lessons we must internalize to mature happily and with confidence.
In Hadzuki’s case, that lesson was a familiar one, resonating with past trials like Onpu coming to understand her mother’s trauma, or Aiko accepting her father’s pursuit of new romance. Ojamajo Doremi’s empathy and insight stretches to its adults as well as its leads, emphasizing that we are all fallible works in progress, and in turn encouraging its heroes to walk forward with an understanding that there is no finish line to growing up. We’re all just doing the best we can, and in this production’s hands, the wonder of coming to love ourselves and our fellows feels as magical as any outright fantasy. Let’s see what shenanigans our team gets up to next!
Episode 12
We open with our witch baby Hana-chan falling out of reach, returning to the witch realm in response to our girls receiving a yellow card. I didn’t know they gave out yellow cards for parenting, but I suppose that falls in line with our prior witch parenting evaluations
Regardless, good faces as always as they slide to a halt in front of their witch referee
The witch world episodes are generally Ojamajo Doremi at its most fantastical, but they still tend to resolve in widely applicable real-world lessons. In this case, my first suspicion is that this threat of reprisal for bad parenting will ultimately remind the girls that they need to be their own harshest parental critics, tending carefully to Hana not because they fear yellow cards, but because they actually want to do what is best for Hana herself
This second OP is so confident and delightful. Kinda blows my mind that this show has already been so good for so long, and yet there are still beloved seasons ahead of me, including what most fans seem to agree are some of the show’s most impressive episodes. I’m certainly intrigued by the fame of Mamoru Hosoda’s episode; his work across the early ‘00s is so diverse and exceptional that it almost seems a shame he’s become an institution unto himself
Of course, relatively safe animator harbors like Hosoda’s regular film output are a rare and valuable thing in this industry. Hard to complain about a gifted director being able to make consistently engaging original films!
Our yellow card bestower Majo Heart actually has a place of honor in the OP, complete with some energetic Kanada-style posing
Reliably beautiful background art as we pan down to the Majo-do, with both the clouds and the curves of the building framed so as to echo the glowing circle of the moon, like ripples spreading across a pond. Smart boarding frequently involves accentuating symmetries across a composition such as to better draw the eye, and this shot does that perfectly, naturally leading the eye first to the moon and then outward as the camera itself pans alongside our focus
Ah, it is indeed time for the second magical health exam. Every trip to the witch world is a delight, a flourish of pure imagination seasoning the life lessons
Another distinctive composition as the girls discuss the coming test, creating a sense of depth and again leading the eye through Majo Rika’s descent into the foreground
And then we get a Doremi-style The Scream
“The Health Examination’s Yellow Cards!” You can actually receive one yellow card and still take part in a soccer match, which makes them pretty handy for creating a sense of actionable consequence, instead of a threat that can’t actually be fulfilled without halting the drama altogether
We swiftly jump to the Witch World and its lovely cotton candy aesthetic
Our old instructors each have their own witch babies on display. Right, I’d forgotten they just sort of distribute witch babies like it’s a lottery
“Jeez. Just looking at their mouths, you can tell they want milk.” Doremi swiftly demonstrates her increasing understanding of baby care. It’s a handy vehicle for expressing growth in maturity and confidence, all the more so because it’s directly relatable to any audience members dealing with their own younger siblings. Ojamajo Doremi firmly defines babies as opportunities to demonstrate how responsible you are, not rivals for your parents’ affection
Majo Heart arrives, complete with a second Majo Heart to yell from her throat
Apparently witch babies grow the most during the first three months, which in the context of this show presumably means she’ll at that point bloom into a fellow witch
Majo Heart comes prepared with a massive quiz show set for baby-related true or false questions. The woman clearly takes her job seriously
Love Doremi’s abject despair at learning this will take the form of an actual academic test. Her only weakness!
The first question is a softball, but Hana-chan floats over to the wrong answer in pursuit of a baby rattle. Betrayed!
The team is then tripped by a trick question and sabotaged by Hana yet again for the third. Whose side are you on, witch baby!?
The girls receive their first yellow card for their dismal performance
The next challenge is bathing and changing the babies within a time limit. The stoner witches of course immediately slack off and resort to using magic
“I know we ain’t supposed to move, but I hafta wipe this off.” A theme is growing clear over time here: the girls keep breaking the rules, but their rule-breaking is always in service of Hana’s comfort and safety. Winning this arbitrary test is less important to them than ensuring Hana is cared for, which is presumably the true intent of all these challenges
Their failure to obey the rules earns them a second yellow card, while even the stoner witches start mocking their performance
Their third test is some sort of baby relay race, which the stoners of course immediately circumvent by flying instead of walking. You guys are gonna lose your baby permits, stoners
“Hana-chan probably likes for us to walk slowly.” And once again, the girls demonstrate their superior parentage by prioritizing Hana’s safety and comfort over speed-running the exam for their own satisfaction
More rich colors and lovely floral designs as the girls begin their odyssey
And lots of delightful freakout faces as the first trail marker turns out to be a ghost
“Ghost, turn cute!” This production’s array of unique spells will never cease to amaze me
The second marker is a mimic chest! I never knew raising babies involved so many random encounters
Hadzuki addresses the real crisis of mimic chests: poor dental hygiene. Bless her unique brain
The third marker is on a tree, which of course immediately gains a face and starts roaring about crying babies. Frankly, the nature of these challenges is making me question whether Majo Heart herself should be allowed around children
Leaving the forest, they come across a baby duck separated from its mother. Once again, a chance to choose between the letter of the challenge and its spirit, whether you’re merely following directions to please your proctor or actually working to assist the young and dependent
“We’re almost at the goal. We shouldn’t worry about things that don’t concern us.” There’s that cutthroat attitude that keeps Onpu ahead in showbiz
Nonetheless, the girls elect to use Magical Stage and find the duck’s mother
Their deference to Hana’s comfort over their own validation culminates in a decision to abandon the “race,” altogether, as Hana is clearly too tired to keep going
And Done
What, they just got a bye, not an actual pass!? But they did so good! Certainly far better than those self-satisfied stoner witches, who I can’t believe weren’t relieved of their charges after that embarrassing performance. Well, either way, every visit to the Witch World offers a visual smorgasbord of wonders, and even in the strictly guided context of a health examination, this episode still found time for some fantastical rambling. I’m not really sure sending our young heroes through a Dark Souls dungeon was the best way to test their parental aptitude, but they nonetheless performed admirably, and will surely crush whatever nonsense Majo Heart cooks up next. Excellent work, Ojamamas!
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