Ultra Maniac

For anyone who's into shoujo manga, particularly from the late 90s to early 2000s, who among you has heard the name Wataru Yoshizumi? Or if not that, ever heard of a previously popular show called Marmalade Boy? Yoshizumi, real name Mariko Nakai, created that. Marmalade Boy was a pretty popular shoujo anime and manga around the late nineties and early 2000s, but that's not the only thing they made. In 2001, Yoshizumi published what would be her first fantasy/magical girl manga, Ultra Maniac, which was adapted into a TV anime two years later, which is the subject of today's review. It had been on my ... radar, but I never got around to watching it due to other obligations and the Geneon DVDs going out of print. But in 2017, Discotek Media rescued the series, re-releasing it on DVD, and now it's officially streaming on sites like RetroCrush for free. Magical girl anime don't normally get uncut releases here in the US, much less even faithful English dubs, so this was a rarity. But by magical girl standards...as much as I hate to say it, Ultra Maniac isn't one of the better ones.

On the outside, Ayu Tateishi seems like the coolest girl around. She's pretty, popular, smart, mature, and has a good head on her shoulders, but inside, she's actually rather awkward and really wants to ask out the coolest guy in school, Kaji. One day, she has a strange encounter with a mysterious but clumsy girl named Nina Sakura. It turns out, Nina is a witch from a magical kingdom sent to Earth on a mission to collect five holy stones, all of which are in the human world. But the problem is, Nina is utterly lousy at magic. Even so, the two of them wind up becoming friends and decide to help each other out. They have to deal with all sorts of mishaps, from one annoying kid constantly trying to find out Nina's secret, to Nina's callous rival Maya, who is not only better than her at magic in every way, but wants to get those holy stones at any cost. Ayu's life just became a little more magical.

For anyone who's read my review for Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure, rememeber how I said on there that the main characters of that show were the weakest part of the series, with the side characters coming off as far more interesting and less obnoxious? Well, Ultra Maniac has the opposite problem. Ayu, the main character, isn't like most lead characters you'd find in shoujo manga, and she's actually the best character in the series. She's mature, intelligent, and has plenty of flaws but is competent enough to carry the series and grows as a person. Granted, she's not the most three-dimensional—and neither is anyone else—but she's definitely the kind of lead character that you want to root for and won't want to strangle. The other main characters...are rather bland. Nina is your typical klutzy but sweet magical girl who can never seem to do anything right, the two male characters, Kaji and Tsujiai, are really just there to be love interests and are about as bland as white toast. But the main quartet are an absolute blessing compared to the minor characters, because every single minor character, even random characters who only appear for one episode, are not only utterly abysmal, but annoying as hell!! Seriously, I have honestly never seen a show that actually goes out of its way to make every single minor character be as utterly annoying and rage-inducing as possible! Tsujiai's cat Shinnosuke, Luna, the three little kids from the magic world, Maya's butler Sebastian, Nina's grandfather, that Kawanakajima kid, dear lord! Most of them are just there to be violently possessive (Sebastian) or creepily clingy (Luna and Shinnosuke), and Nina's grandfather in particular completely ruins every scene he's in. He's such a raging asshat it's not even funny, and not only is he verbally abusive to Nina even when she improves her magic, he often goes out of his way to mess with her friends in ways that are downright criminal...and the show expects us to forgive him for it JUST because he was worried about Nina. As a result, many of his more heroic actions later in the series feel completely unearned. Ugh, bite me.

But while everyone except the main characters is the worst thing about this series, it's unfortunately not the only problem holding the show back. Ultra Maniac as a show is mainly a slice-of-life magical girl series consisting of the girls encountering a problem and Nina trying to help with magic, with most of her solutions going wrong. This isn't necessarily a bad premise, as other shows I like have done similar premises, like Fancy Lala. But Ultra Maniac doesn't do anything new with it. A lot of the show consists of teenage angst revolving around trying to get with the guys, with only very few moments of brilliance here and there. There are times when the show tries to flesh out some of its ideas, like Nina being unfamiliar with how most human customs work due to being from another world, but they're never really expanded upon, and I feel like the show could really benefit from fleshing out the more fantastical parts of its premise and ditching the romance and teenaged angst. Plus, the animation and soundtrack are pretty typical of early 2000s fare, and are completely unmemorable in any way.

So with all this, does Ultra Maniac have anything to offer that's actually good? Well, yes. For one, it's a fairly safe, kid friendly show that you can totally show your little sister, daughter, niece, or whoever else without feeling skeeved out. Secondly, like I mentioned before, the main cast of characters, while nothing noteworthy, are a fun little group to follow with good, light-hearted chemistry between one another. Thirdly, it does have little moments where it actually subverts a lot of cliches that it follows (Example: Girl sees her crush and another girl together, assumes they're in love and angsts about it, only in here, the show actually has the real situation explained to her, and the characters ACTUALLY TALK TO EACH OTHER about their issues rather than angsting about it or believing a misinformed third party!). Unfortunately, for me, these aren't enough to save the series from being utterly cliche, generic, shallow, and ultimately uninspired. Though from what I've heard, the anime diverges a lot from the manga, so for all I know, maybe the manga did the premise better. Who knows? I ought to check it out. That being said, I do admit to being a hypocrite and buying the DVD set for Ultra Maniac anyway, mainly because I want to support Discotek and because magical girl anime don't get a lot of love in the US, so I thought I'd give some support to the genre.

All in all, it's just a cutesy slice-of-life magical girl anime, and nothing more. But if you want something better, I'd recommend stuff like Fancy Lala or Cardcaptor Sakura.