Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume (Charming Magical Girl Trio) is a 1986 crossover special between three canonical 1980s mahou shoujo series from Studio Pierrot: Magical Star Magical Emi, Magical Fairy Persia, and Magical Angel Creamy Mami. This OVA has no reason to exist, and Orphan had no reason to sub it, but here it is anyway. Orphan has rarely dipped its keyboards into the mahou shoujo genre. I have never watched any of Adesugata's parent series. So what gives?
As far as I can recall with my imperfect memory, Adesugata was one of the first laserdiscs that Orphan's media maven worked with after acquiring a Domesday Duplicator in early 2020. VobSubs were available from ARR's 2011 release. It was easy enough to OCR the subs, shift them to the new raw, and style. And then the project stalled out for five years. No one wanted to translation check, and I didn't want to put more work into the project. Finally, after running through Orphan's entire translation backlog, including all the Young Animator Training Project raws, Perevodildo turned in a new script out of the blue. (I think he was inoculating himself against ever working on mahou shoujo again.) I was out of excuses and did my share. I still don't understand exactly what I watched.
The story begins with the three principals relaxing at a hot spring, enjoying some well-earned rest, relaxation, and hot pot.
As they eat, they randomly transform into teenagers. They have to run to the baths and incant a tongue twister to transform back. They then take turns presenting brief excerpts from their respective series.
The pretext is that they'll each call their boyfriend and introduce him to the other two girls. All three boyfriends were played by the same seiyuu, the three magical girls sound alike, the same jokes get repeated, the video isn't related to the dialogue at all, and when the dialog runs out, the last couple of minutes of each flashback video are play over genki background music. It's hard to follow if you're not a fan.
The voice cast is drawn from the three parent series.
- Tominaga Miina (Hayami Persia) played Ritsu in Fruits Basket (2002), Rollpanna in the Anpanman franchise, and Misaki in Tsuritama. She also played Ito Aki in I, Muuma in Bavi Stock, Kamiya in Tokimeki Tonight, Hikaru in Chameleon, Karen in Yuukan Club, Cresson in Star Dust, Eri in Karuizawa Syndrome, and Kaguya-hime in Tenjou Hen: Utsu no Miko, all Orphan releases.
- Oota Takako (Morisawa Yuu/Creamy Mami) played Rikimaru in Kosuke-sama Rikimaru-sama: Konpeitou no Ryuu, an Orphan release.
- Obata Youko (Kazuki Mai/Magical Emi) only appeared in the Magical Emi franchise.
- Mizushima Yuu (Riki, Persia's boyfriend; Shou, Emi's boyfriend; Toshio, Mami's boyfriend) played the title roles in Ai no Senshi Rainbowman, God Mars, and Guyver: Out of Control. He also played the title role in Bander Book, Makabe Shun in Tokimeki Tonight, Shukumaru in Fire Tripper, and Dai-chan in Katte ni Shirokuma, all Orphan releases.
The director, Annou Takashi, directed all of the Magical Emi franchise, as well as Maison Ikkoku and the magnificent Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.
Just for reference, the tongue twisters are:
- "Blue scroll, red scroll, yellow scroll!" (Aomakigami, akamakigami, kiimakigami)
- "Bamboo bush got burned." (Takeyabu yaketa, actually a Japanese palindrome)
- "The other guest eats persimmons." (Tonari no kyaku ha yoku kakikuu kyaku da)
- "Toukyou patent office." (Toukyou tokkyo kyokakyoku)
- "Frogs hopping, three hops, gather hopping, six hops." (kaeru pyokopyoko mi pyokopyoko awasete pyokopyoko mu pyokopyoko)
The base script is from ARR, from an R1 VHS release. Someone lost in the mists of time OCRed the subs and shifted them to the new raw. Perevodildo translation-checked and fine-timed. I edited and typeset. Muzussawa, in her first Orphan project, Nemesis, and Uchuu QCed. The encoder wishes to remain anonymous. It's early DdD, and there are artifacts from the decoding process.
Not much else to say about this show. If mahou shoujo is your jam, you might find this an interesting pendant to the classic 1980s series. If not, it will have no appeal. (You can guess where I fall.) In either case, you can get Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
