Mahoutsukai Sally (Movie)

A Mother's Love Is Eternal: Mahou Tsukai Sally is about a little witch girl named Sally. She lives away from her supernatural parents with her human friends in the real world, but they don't know she's a witch. And a magic-using cat.
One season Spring is late to arrive, and soon everyone ends up in the land of spring fairies to discover why.

It is the finale of the second series of Sally The Witch 2, 1989 - 1991, which was a sequel to the ground-breaking series of 1966-1968. It was also released as a separate, stand-alone movie. No knowledge of either series is required to enjoy ... it!

Story: Simple, quick paced, suitable for even young children. It's sweet.

Art: Dated by modern standards, the backgrounds are lovely while the characters are cartoon-y.

Sound: Excellent! The voice acting is top-rate, the songs and music are fantastic!

Characters: Simple, easy to figure out. Nothing bad about them, but little depth in such a short show.

Overall it was a quick, fun adventure. Very cute and very good for young and old alike!

So I decided to watch the original series from the '60s, which is relevant for being not only the first Majokko/Magical girl anime, but also the first shoujo anime. It was alright, save for the uncomfortable "Cowboy vs Indians" game played by the Hanamura triplets; I probably would have watched more had the whole series been subbed, but unfortunately episodes 8-41, and 49-109 are missing subtitles (this is annoyingly common with children's and older anime). As it's unlikely this series will ever be completely subbed, I decided to cut my losses and dropped it after episode 7.

I wanted to add it to my list on ... Letterboxd, and that's how I found this short film. Naturally, I immediately watched it. Released during the airing of Mahoutsukai Sally 2, the '80s reboot, this film tells a self-contained story about Sally and friends saving spring by visiting the fairy world. It has some cute moments, but nothing really grabbed me. The most noteworthy thing about this is the fact Sumire is voiced by Hisakawa Aya, whom you'll recognise for voicing Sailor Mercury, Keroberos, and Cure Moonlight (I only just found out she also voiced Hassan in Garzey's Wing. I didn't know that before because I've only watched it dubbed... Garzey's Wing is probably the only anime I prefer dubbed).

Maybe I'll watch the '80s series someday, and if the subtitle gods grant us their blessings maybe I'll give the original another go, but for now this is where my short walk with Sally ends.

...

Also, that OP lowkey slaps.

Mahoutsukai Sally is a franchise that goes way back. It started as a manga in '66. And then got turned into a Toei anime from the end of '66 to the end of '68. From there, Toei decided to revive it in the late 80s. This film was made in 1990, about midway through that run. I'll be honest, I'd  never heard of the franchise before browsing random films. So, let's take a look at its only film and see what it's about. 

Story:

We open with a young girl dreaming about her lost birth mother. I'm sure that will have nothing to do with the events ... of the film. It's an unseasonably cold spring. A young girl, Sumire, calls Sally to discuss a strange picture book she's going to bring over. Probably just cutesy PharMercy pictures and completely unrelated to anything else. Don't worry about it. Sally contacts her parents, who tell her that the cause is trouble in the fairy realm. Sugar, stop playing your piccolo. You'll kill us all. Sally's parents explain that they'd investigate, but they're very busy trying to bring the spice back into their marriage before they split up to find younger partners. Actually, they can't enter because the fairy realm doesn't allow adults. She returns home to find everyone  who'd gone over is missing and there's a picture book about faeries on the table. Naturally, she gets sucked in and finds herself on a quest to save the fairy realm from a witch. 

The biggest issue with the film is just that everything's kept far too easy. It's like they decided that, because it's for children, there can't be any kind of credible threat. So, there are some relatively minor problems where the remedy is really simple. And it's just not compelling. I'm not asking for something grandiose or super complex from a half hour film for children but at least have something. 

I can't complain about it too much since it is, clearly, for young audiences and there's nothing majorly wrong with it, though. 

Characters:

The characters don't come across as super complex, but they do seem passable given the target audience. You even get the impression that they have a little more to them than just the basic archetypes, but you don't really get to see many hints of that due to the length constraints. I appreciate that the witch has sympathetic motivations, but what they ultimately do with it is pretty mundane. 

Art:

The art style is very much that old fashioned, kind of low effort fare with wide-eyed innocent character designs. Which is fair enough. It probably looks exactly like the anime. Unfortunately, it's not a style that has aged well. 

Sound:

The acting is okay. You won't find Sumire listed as one of Hisakawa Aya's greatest roles. I'd be surprised if Sally was considered one of Yamamoto Yuriko's, but I've heard her in only a few very minor roles aside from this, so I can't say for certain. The music is, likewise, all right. 

Ho-yay:

There might be some in the series, since most magical girl anime possess some level of les-yay, but if there is it doesn't come across in the film. 

Final Thoughts:

Mahoutsukai Sally, the film is, ultimately, pretty average. It doesn't have much in terms of attention grabbing, interesting content but, for a short children's film, it works. It's inoffensive and will likely keep their attention. So, I'll give it a 5/10. Maybe at some point in future I'll watch the series proper and give a more complete picture of how that holds up. Tomorrow, I'll keep the week going with a look at the Futari wa Precure: Splash Star Movie.