Ultramaniac Vol. 2: Magical Friends 2003 Geneon Entertainment Official Japanese Website Buy It Now

Apparently there are two big trends that JBeing a magic girl is never easy; at least that’s what we’ve all seen in anime. I couldn’t say personally for some obvious reasons, but like it or not, anime that deals with girls of all ages weaving spells and unintentionally creating some mayhem along the way will undoubtedly never dwindle in popularity. When it comes to chaos and dysfunctional magic, Nina Sakura has it down, and as we see in the second volume of Ultramaniac, “Magical Friends,” her skills aren’t improving in the least.

Nina is still trying to keep the fact that she is really a witch hidden from the population at large, save for Ayu, and there are a number of things that are going to put her secret into jeopardy. Jun Kawanakajima is the main one, and he’s always trying to find just the right chance to snap a picture or two in hopes of exposing the truth, but things never go quite the way he hopes. Nina continues her search for the Holy Stones, but there are others that want them as well, and this provides the opportune chance for the series to bring in a few new cast members, both regular and what seems to be recurring.

Enter Maya Orihara, another witch from the Magic Kingdom who is looking for those elusive stones, but unlike Nina she seems to be a little better with her magic, for the most part at least. Maya is also practices the dark arts, and has no qualms with associating herself with crows, reptiles, and anything else that might be considered dark and evil by some. Okay, so her pet chameleon Ruru is the farthest thing from evil as you could possibly get, but it all seems to be about keeping up appearances. With the Holy Stones at stake, it comes as no surprise that she soon becomes a transfer student.

Nina is also visited by her three cousins, Bamboo, Pine, and Plum, and their magic is even worse than her is, but they are a great deal younger. The usual brand of misadventure happens with them around, though it’s only for one episode, but this is a common theme throughout the course of four episodes. Nina has information on a Holy Stone that she runs off to find, Maya discovers it as well, but they ultimately discover their quest is for naught. You also have a great amount of comedy as well, especially when Maya makes a shrinking potion which has the opposite effect and soon her little Ruru as well as Nina’s cat Rio have grown to tremendous size. The series also tends to play constantly on the misfortunes of Nina’s teacher, Mr. Mikami. It seems that for whatever reason, his locker is the perfect portal from the Magic Kingdom into ours, and he’s bombarded by various visitors, though he is the only one who ever sees them.

This volume may very well have some great episodes, but the extra features really leave a great deal to be desired. The only extra feature is a clean version of the ending animation from the series. With any luck there will be some magic used for the rest of the volumes for better extra features.

Ultramaniac certainly isn’t from the brand of super cute magic girls that many have grown accustomed to seeing. Instead it’s more of a parody of what is commonly seen, and that has actually become more and more common as animators and creators have seen fit to take the genre into new and hilarious directions. Ultramaniac is a magical comedy that is sure to bring plenty of magical mayhem to your life.

Episode 5 – Enigma

Nina has gotten word that somewhere in the school there is a secret room that holds one of the Holy Stones and now she’s off on a hunt with Ayu to find. However, there is someone else lurking in the shadows trying to find the stone as well and there also seems to be some possible supernatural activities going on.

Episode 6 – Fight Over

Ayu and Nina are off to sports camp but in the midst of it all, grandpa thinks there might be another Holy Stone hidden in the forest, and Maya has deduced that same thing. That night as the boys and girls are paired off for a spooky walk in the forest, Nina decides to look for the stone but she has not only Maya to contend with but Kawanakajima who is again trying to expose her as a witch.

Episode 7 – Gigantic Pets

Maya has a mouse problem and creates a potion to shrink them down. She soon discovers at school that it has the reverse effect and now Ruru and even Rio have managed to start growing to tremendous size. While she works on a formula to reverse it, Nina and Ayu must keep the rest of the school from noticing the strange, giant pets.

Episode 8 – Hello Little Girls

Nina’s three cousins make a trip to Earth and although she tells them that they need to return back to the Magic Kingdom, with the Holy Stones still hidden, they decide to lend her their assistance. It’s too bad they are even worse at magic than she is.
 

-mike-