Esper Mami: Hoshizora no Dancing Doll

Anime as an entertainment medium can delve into a lot of different topics but I often find that anime can often work its best magic when it can tell a very basic story but instead of being breathtaking or memorable, it abandons those to focus on pure simplistic charm. This is definitely the case with the film Esper Mami: Hoshizora no Dancing Doll.

Mami is a teenage girl that suddenly develops super powers and she has this ability to detect when people are in trouble and can automatically teleport to the area where she can help. She also has the powers of telekinesis and telepathy ... in order to aid her and the people that she lend assistance to. In this little adventure, she lends her assistance to a dedicated group of puppeteers that take great pride in performing puppet shows in order to bring joy into children's lives.

Mami actually comes across as an incredibly endearing character albeit a little naive and impulsive but her heart is always in the right place because not only does she truly care about helping people, but she likes performing tasks that increase her skill set because even though she is completely enamored with how much these puppet shows actually make the kids happy she actually gets into making puppets herself. For a film that is about 40 minutes long there isn't really a lot of story to tell, but it does cover a few mini stories that eventually get tied together at the very end.

One of the first stories that get addressed is a little girl that gets upset that her doll is missing because the doll was thrown out at the request of the child's father because ever since her mom died she has been completely fixated on the doll and nothing else which brings out concerns from her father. Mami and the puppeteers put on a random puppet show outside the girl's window to help her through this tragedy and reinforce the importance of her dad in her life. Another story focuses on a duo of gruff business men wanting to destroy the little shed that the puppeteers operate out of and they almost succeed with the use of a bulldozer and they almost succeed but Mami comes in to save the day with her superpowers and teach those degenerates a lesson. However, this entire ordeal has demotivated a lot of the puppeteers and they end up leaving the troupe. Even the two main members (Tomoko and Hideki) of the group are debating if they should continue, and the lead male (Hideki) of the group decides that it may be time to retire being a puppeteer and move back home permanently. Mami decides to intervene because she truly believes that his skill as a puppeteer should not be abandoned because of all the joy his puppet world puts into the world. While Hideki is resting in a park she uses her power to animate and voice the puppets to make him realize the error of his ways and it leads to a very heartfelt and very beautifully animated moment where the puppets are moving and flying on their own talking about how they won't be able to tell their stories anymore. Tomoko comes in at the very end to tell Hideki to not give up on his dreams, and that they should continue to make people happy.

The animation is really nothing to write home about and it's pretty standard fare for stuff that was released in the late 1980's but it has that animation style that you would see out of the 1980's astroboy anime. The music is nostalgic and a little better than average with a really cute opening song and proper music throughout some of the anime's more emotional scenes. I personally think it's a great anime for kids to watch and it teaches some very valuable lessons on how to overcome tragedy and to always follow your dreams. There are a few small scenes of Hideki smoking and drinking alcohol that may not be kid appropriate but I think the overall aura of the entire experience in this entire film is something kids could really enjoy. There are also a few cute comedic moments from Mami's dog Konpoko and some well placed comedy from Mami fighting off those gruff business men.

Esper Mami: Hoshizora no Dancing Doll is an anime that isn't going to blow you away and it's nothing you really haven't seen before if your well versed in magical girl anime from the 1980's. However, it's charming story is enough to keep the viewer entertainied with some really good lessons to take out of it. Always follow your dreams and always take advantage of an opportunity to help somebody because it could improve a person's life in ways you never thought imaginable.