Ultra Maniac Highly recommended

Director
Shinichi Masaki
Production
ANIMAX, Ashi Production, Starchild Record
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
2003

Ultra Maniac DVD Volume 2

By David Rasmussen
4th Feb 07

Magic isn’t for everyone. There is a good reason why only certain people get enrolled into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (and why it takes SEVEN years to graduate)! Magic, in the wrong hands, can be a very very bad thing indeed. Didn’t last DVD review of Ultra Maniac prove to us the ills of poorly cast magic? If not then buckle up because we’re taking another session of “When Good Magic Goes Bad” with more Practical Magic lessons in Ultra Maniac DVD Volume 2. Don’t forget to check out my review of Ultra Maniac DVD Volume 1 if you want to know what came before this, by the way!

Episode 5
Uh-oh. Ultra Maniac may be close to losing a point on originality. When the first DVD was reviewed the concept of a witch in training slummin’ it in the mortal world as an exchange student had it’s appealing aspects, and didn’t at all sound too cliché or been there done that. Add to that the 21st Century touch to Nina Sakura’s magic with the pocket PC and you had yourself the beginnings of innovation in the genre.

Those beginning seem to risk suffering death by been there done that when a concept like searching for the “holy stones” so that Sakura can return home, graduate from witches’ school and become a “princess” comes into play. And if that wasn’t enough? As this episode begins Nina Sakura finds herself with a new “rival” in the form of an old childhood friend who now practices the dark arts… though not so well. She and Nina seem to have the same affinity for screwing up her magic and requiring a pocket PC to cast her own spells…how weird.

While the search for the “Holy Stones”, and the “rivalry” between Nina and her new rival (former childhood friend) Maya won’t be an overriding issue (and thus drag the series down a point) it is noted that this shouldn’t become an emphasis factor of the next DVD (to the point that it could drastically affect the flow and pace of the series) because it could lose Ultra Maniac one of it’s vital points.
Oh, and if you still had doubts that the kindly principal of Nina/Ayu’s school isn’t from the Magic Kingdom and watching out for Nina then this episode (as well as others on this DVD) should change your mind.

Oh, as for today’s Practical Magic?
9 out of 10 Japanese high schools have a strict no pentagram magic rule. Now put out those mystical candles and stop drawing pentagrams on the classroom floor already, dammit!

Episode 6
Cliches have infected Ultra Maniac. Fear for the future of this series.
Cliches over locating “Holy Stones” and rivalries infect this episode. Fear, people, fear.

Maya may be hyped about the human world (and her ability to practice her dark arts more freely), but she’s here to get ahold of “Holy Stones” (not to experiment in her own dark education). So when she hears Nina is traveling with Ayu’s tennis team for a combined baseball slash tennis camp, she simply has to tag along… what? What the hell is a combined baseball/tennis camp anyway1 Aren’t these two entirely unrelated sports?!? Anyway if you just so happen to be an alumni of CardCaptor Sakura (the original Japanese series and not the English bastardization known as CardCaptors) then you recognize the activites they do in this episode (at least those that aren’t related to tennis) as stuff done when Sakura, Tomoyo (not Madison) and the rest of the class went on that fieldtrip, right down to the “courage” thing… only without the cave where people vanish mysteriously. Otherwise it gives the episode a chance to “pit” Maya vs. Nina for a “Holy Stone”… which really doesn’t work out as well as you might think it should work out as somebody is holding faulty magic here… I’m guessing Maya. Oh, and the Japanese version of Nightmarchers show up as Nina ends up being partnered with Committee-kun (he who stalks her) and… well, it‘s all weird so you‘ll just have to watch it to see what happens.

Today’s Practical Magic?
Don’t make a Sloth Potion then accidentially spill it on yourself… not good.

Episode 7
As seen in the last episode, Maya’s magic is not the most practical or useful as she experiences the occasional Nina like screwup. Today, for instance, when she brews up a potion to shrink her friendly rodent problem only to accidentially make a growth potion that causes her friendly rodent problem to expand… along with a teacher’s cactus… her chameleon familyar… Nina’s cat familiyar… and that’s more than enough problem for one day once Maya’s chameleon gets hungry and goes on a rampage across the school campus in gigantic monster form.

OK. Today’s Practical Magic?
Always test your potions before you start to spread it like Donald Trump’s big fat mouth all over the place.

Episode 8
While spying on Nina again, her grandfather is in turn spied on by Nina’s little cousins with the odd names. These little female terrors actually like Nina, and miss her, yet the way they show their like does not work all that well as they head straight to the Mortal World and cause trouble. Oh, and they drive Nina and Ayu’s teacher to the point of a mental nervous breakdown while visiting.

Anyway they’ve come to the Mortal World to help Nina find the Holy Stones, only that doesn’t work out as well and through a series of mishaps they run afoul of Nina’s rival Maya which in turns has them all running away (along with Committee-kun, the geek who stalks Nina to the point of it being illegal) from a gigantic rampaging killer toy robot.

Today’s Practical Magic?
Siblings are bad enough, mystically inclined siblings can be the death of you… and others.
Breakdown time.

Ultra Maniac Breakdown the 2nd
Short explanation? Don’t worry, the series did not lose it’s 5 out of 5 status despite a slathering of cliché here and there in the first two episodes. Episode 6 somehow managed to be quirky enough to pull off the cliché of the episode, and the second half of the DVD fixed the cliché of the first by being just enough of the original to make you forgive the wobbly start of the DVD.

Ultra Maniac DVD Volume 2 gets another 5 out of 5 (aka another gold star of recommendation), and a warning not to overtly trip down the tall long staircase towards painful cliché-ness. Nuff said.

-- David Rasmussen 4th Feb 07

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