Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami: Long Goodbye

As this OVA didn't have any reviews, I felt compelled to add mine since I loved every second of it.

Creamy Mami's ultimate OVA, "Long Goodbye," is a fantastic finale to an endearing show. The production values of this OVA were undoubtedly top-tier, featuring vibrant colors, exquisitely retro animation with clever camera work, some unexpected but welcome action scenes, and brilliant voice acting from our titular heroine and her friends.

I can understand why some people may have been mildly impressed or even displeased at Mami's sudden comeback, which felt like an asspull to get the show going and please the fans, but I'm perfectly fine with ... that. Studio Pierrot delivered a beautifully crafted piece of traditional Japanese animation, befitting of the genre and the bygone era it depicts, that I will certainly remember for a long time.

One of the most noticeable aspects of this OVA are the mature themes: from Yuu's subtle request to her mom to purchase her some "girly" undies now that she's in junior high school, to the serene atmosphere exuded by some scenes, to the ins and outs of filmmaking giving us an unexpectedly educational peek into the tools and techniques that were in use back then, to Kidokoro and Megumi enjoying sake together at some izakaya located under the rail tracks, a typical sight in Tokyo even today, part of the megalopolis' culture and charm. A very pleasant scene starring an unlikely pair not often seen in the TV series, that fleshed out Megumi's character going beyond the usual "gets angry and slaps her beloved Shingo before storming out of the room" we've been shown throughout the series. Here she was painted as a maiden in love, feeling insecure about her fiancé's feelings. And my heart goes out to you, Kidokoro, you were a true gentleman. A moment of silence to our fallen brother.

...

Speaking of Megumi, she was given a golden opportunity to shine in this OVA, in comparison to her underwhelming supporting role in the TV series. In fact we could even say she was the actual heroine, both literally (as the movie lead) and figuratively. Graceful and ladylike, she is certainly the antithesis of our purple-haired heroine, but that's okay: they are meant to complement each other, and we can sympathize with Kidokoro eventually falling for her adult charm. Her song "Last Kiss de Good Luck" is among my favorites in the series and fits her like a glove. Perfect choice of background music for the bar scene.
Moreover, rival characters from 80s and 90s anime had the annoying tendency to be insufferable jerks whose unique purpose was to trouble the protagonist and grate on our nerves with their shenanigans—looking at you, Sayaka Honami (Yawara!) and Hikaru Hiyama (Kimagure Orange Road)—sometimes up to the (pen)ultimate episode. Megumi was none of that. While obviously jealous of Mami's popularity, she still knew her place and worked to the best of her abilities to grab her own share of the spotlight and compete with Mami fair and square, sparing everyone from any cheap attempts to undermine her rival. In fact she supported Mami much like a big sister on a number of occasions, and Yuu reciprocated those feelings in the bedroom scene. If only she had a more prominent role in the series.

All the endearing cast members also got their chance to shine, and it was largely thanks to them that I could sit through the entire 52 episodes of the main series without growing too bored, despite 40+ episodes of filler content. Even Midori, who was without doubt ranking as “most annoying character” for many of us, quite redeemed himself and even managed to snatch a girlf—a good ending. In contrast, rival series "Magical Princess Minky Momo" had me drop the show after a couple of episodes as I failed to relate to any of the characters, but perhaps my expectations were set a bit too high. I'll try giving it another chance sometime.

Some of my favorite scenes:

- Kidokoro and Megumi enjoying drinks together at the bar. Yes, characters getting drunk in a kids' anime.
- Mami sliding off the structure at the playground, hinted at by her shadow from the sunset light, which slowly morphs back into Yuu’s silhouette if you look closer. We learn later that Yuu only transforms into Mami while the sun is out, which made this scene a pretty clever foreshadowing.
- Yuu and Ai in the bedroom asking Megumi is she’s happy right now.
- Everyone in the bus singing “BIN-KAN Rouge”, and Megumi’s reaction when requested to sing one of Mami’s songs.
- Toshio watching how the special effects were added to the movie reel.
- The overhead camera scene with everyone having lunch together at the film studio.
- Yuu reuniting with Posi and Nega in her dream, with my favorite BGM from the show playing behind.
- The climactic battle scene. The joys of good ol' cel animation.
- The final scene with Toshio and Yuu looking at the stars. Cliché, yes, but you can't help but grin at their blissful innocence.

There’s still more I could go on about this OVA, but let’s keep this short. In conclusion, this OVA is highly recommended for Creamy Mami fans or even fans of retro animation in general. It's a visual and auditory treat from the mid-80s, that brings a satisfying conclusion to one of the most iconic magical girl shows of all time. Bar the lazy plot device that brought Mami back, I wish the main series had benefited from similar production values, screenplay, and character development. Only the first episode did come close.

- "Do I need to watch the entire TV series to enjoy this OVA?"

Preferably if you have a lot of time, or just want to sit back and enjoy the "retro" feel of the show as I did, but episodes with actual continuity and meaning to the plot can be counted on your fingers. You could just as well watch the previous OVA, "Eien no Once More", which first 45 minutes recap the main events of the series. Still, I would consider watching the entire series a prerequisite to be able to enjoy this OVA to the fullest.

This is my very first review on MAL, after fifteen years. Thanks for reading!

It's difficult to resist trying these films associated with long-running series, as many of them have great aesthetics, present interesting themes to tie the series together, or have exciting, well-animated sequences. I would never watch the TV series, for it looks like unwatchable 1/10 garbage. I skipped the recap film half of the other OVA, Eien no Once More, for my viewing of Long Goodbye, but I watched it afterwards and found the context wasn't especially necessary; the characters and story are unbelievably basic, and there's no need to torture yourself by prepping for this OVA finale by slogging through the dreadful TV series or ... even enduring the thrown-together recap film, though the latter should be more than sufficient, should you wish to be better prepared.

Probably this is only of interest for fans of Creamy Mami, animation enthusiasts, and for anime industry lore, as the screenplay was written by co-creator of the Creamy Mami series, Kazunori Ito, who worked alongside Mamoru Oshii for many of his most famous films and inserted the famed director into Long Goodbye to direct the film, with a variation on his name. The OVA focuses on filmmaking and one of the key characters is a scriptwriter, who could possibly be seen as a stand-in for Ito, and the few scenes featuring Oshii's doppelganger are quirky and possibly referential to his time working as a director at Pierrot studio, most notably for Urusei Yatsura.

The basic concept is fine, but the execution is less than stellar when it comes to writing and characters. The behind-the-scenes filmmaking is great for stringing together well-framed set pieces, wonderful and vibrantly colored animation, and one of the more riveting fantasy fight sequences of the 1980s, featuring excellent background animation and choreography. I don't have any complaints from an aesthetic standpoint. Despite many scenes being solid, the film is hollow in totality and doesn't have much going on. There's not even the heavy dose of nostalgia I would have expected for a closing film, and the themes circle back to the typical coming of age that must have defined the series, with a struggle between the identity of the middle school girl Yuu and her transformed state as the magical girl and pop idol Mami, their disconnect being represented by the film-within-a-film script's two worlds colliding in a battle to decide which world will be erased. It couldn't get anymore obvious, could it?

Yuu/Mami's crisis, where she can't control her transformations that correspond with the contrasting night and day, lack depth, and while I get that she's only 10 years old and probably a late teen with a much younger mind in her Mami form, she's such an uninteresting airhead of a protagonist. Shingo was infatuated with Mami while engaged to Megumi, but there is no sense of a love triangle at all, and it seems there wasn't meant to be. Megumi is the heroine of the film within a film, and Mami is the antagonist, in a nod to the coming of age anti-escapism themes. There is no conflict or interaction between them off screen, which renders the film as seemingly frivolous, no more than a symbol for the clash of fantasy against reality. The warmer scene where Yuu makes an attempt to bond with Megumi would have also been a lot more affecting if there was more tension between Mami and Megumi, as one would expect from the early portion of the script. Doesn't Megumi at least need to pussywhip Shingo and win her man? Not that Mami wants anything to do with Shingo, but he historically was interested in her.

Was this potential plot thread cast aside because of running time and Ito was more interested in focusing on his presumed self-insert character, Kidokoro, who is indistinguishable from being a Japanese Woody Allen, all the way down to trying to woo the ladies with his ghastly nebbish "charm"? The actual love triangle, oddly enough, involves Nippon Woody, Shingo, and Megumi. Though a woman would probably be certified insane if she had the choice and didn't pick Shingo, there's even a hint along the way that Megumi might actually be interested in Nippon Woody, but she's waiting for him to make a move, as so often happens in these films with the dorky character competing with Chad. It's hard to say, but her supposed interest might have even been an exaggeration of Nippon Woody's imagination, and the fantasy of his script subtly begins to overlap with reality. I'd say that fits in with the themes, but that's speculative, and the film doesn't do a great job of connecting the dots there, as far as I remember, should that be the case.

Due to the film tie-in in of this OVA and how much the character of Kidokoro and aspects of the production resemble the appearance and films of Allen, I think it's worth devoting a few sentences to the latter. The perpetually nervous Allen's favorite kind of film to make, at least earlier on, were nerdy romcoms where he played the lead role, with pretty women throwing themselves upon him. Though there was nothing fantastical about these films, they were quite fantasy-like in the way they depicted a creepy dweeb having his desires effortlessly fulfilled. If Allen's films are wish-fulfillment fantasy, the Long Goodbye takes a 180 and Ito pins the tale on the donkey and snaps him out of his pleasant dreams.

With that context out of the way, Mami's identity crisis is paralleled with Nippon Woody's subplot, which equally involves a feud between reality and fantasy, for Woody is in love with Megumi and knows he'll never succeed, but he writes his script as if to determine fate, encapsulated by the great line from Megumi about how films with a heroine usually have a hero to fall in love with, and the reason this film doesn't is obvious when you consider Woody's motives. The scene and the ideas brought forth are overlooked and fascinatingly prescient, given how they provide brilliant insight into not just developing trends within the mahou shojo genre but also tapping into the popularity of CGDCT, a prime grazing ground for the herbivore man and his cautious plan. Thankfully, Nippon Woody fails to consummate his romantic aspirations and is cucked hard! Thanks, I needed that. Fuck Woody Allen.

In spite of many compelling ideas and a wonderful aesthetic, the film simply feels lopsided with all the Nippon Woody buildup only being there for a heavy punchline in the end, knocking him flat out with a much needed return to reality. The lack of decent conflict other than the simple one with Yuu/Mami also leaves this one feeling like throwaway fanservice more than a film. Many good scenes don't add up to an impressive whole, unfortunately. It's sad because I can see this being a minor classic with a director's cut and a more fleshed out script that considered some of my complaints.