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 4

By David Rasmussen
1st Mar 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. OK, nuff said on the ills of badly cast magic (and a few themes that fit the whole Valentine’s Day theme) because it’s one more time into the breech dear friends with the review of DVD Volume 4.
Don’t forget to check out my review of Ultra Maniac DVD Volume 1 to 3 if you want to know what came before this, by the way!

Episode 13
Things from last DVD rolled into a most confusing situation as this one begins.
A festival requiring the use of kimonos was coming and Ayu doesn’t have anything good to wear, so Nina (bad idea) decides to use her power to make Ayu a kimono… nothing good can come of it.
Otherwise there’s a bit of a panic over the search for Ayu after she catches the guy she loves helping Maya and jumps to the wrong conclusion, then a Holy Stone “appears” and Nina has to save Maya from a boat as it’s sinking (and her kimono is… well… guess) only for the episode to end badly.

How badly? The guy Nina is so becoming attached to sees Nina using match and before you can say “Ohmygod must I review Ghost Rider the Video Game?!?“ the “Cat” is out of the bag and someone else now is close to knowing the truth about Nina and her magical abilities… or not so well defined magical abilities… as if there wasn’t a billion and one hints before this point.

Now her’s chance to put her faith in her guy to the test as today is swap meet day and somehow a magical vest that makes people tell the truth “Liar Liar” style (Jim Carrey not included) makes a teacher in love put his foot and leg into his mouth (under threat of crushing pain) while talking to the object of his affections. Oh, and Maya is working the meet today as a fortune teller and, well, today’s prediction is nothing good though business is good… sorta. Oh, and no matter what happens today she isn’t the cause of any of it, she’s too busy making money.

Today’s Practical Magic lesson… uh… oh, never leave your gimpy looking cursed practical joke vests out for people to accidentally grab and sell onto the unsuspecting public.

Episode 14
Hey, check it out! It’s the love child of David Duchovny and Simon Cowell… if such a thing was inhumanly possible. Maya’s friend who seems to embody the gloom and doom of existence has come, bringing her dark evil cloud of depression along with her. She seems to live to depress all, sorta like the people of the FCC who can’t live in a world without censorship, they both want to darken your lives and make the world a more morbid place. Well surprise surprise, while following a now totally creeped out Maya to the mall (who was more in the mindset to flee her dark religious conservative cloud of gloom friend) she falls in love with the guy Ayu has her heart set on… which leads to a whole sequence of tethering between “Oh goddess I’m so HAPPY” ultra hyper cheerfulness to “Oh damn I’m cursed and he’s going to die a totally mediocre death by death or falling or poison or whatever so I better help him now or he’s dead” morbidity… and she wants Maya to help her win him, under threat of a fate worst than death.

Doesn’t help that, well, the minute Maya figures out that Nina is helping Ayu with her attempts at said boy she decides she MUST help her friend win him because… well… she hates Nina. Nina, clueless as she is, just doesn’t understand… quick, go rent a clue.

Today’s Practical Magic lesson… Valentine’s Day type emotions (though to be honest while the episode might have originally shown around Valentine’s Day or White Day it’s not an actual Valentine’s Day themed episode) and creepy magical rivalries don’t mix. Nuff said.

Episode 15
The next stone, the Orange Stone, has been found while the girls are visiting the ocean. Doesn’t help that Maya seems to be stringing along the guy Nina has a thing for (maybe to the point of actually developing her own feelings for him… maybe…), and it also doesn’t help that Nina’s heart may not be in this chase to catch the Orange Stone. Nuff said.

Episode 16
In the aftermath of the Orange Stone incident Nina finds that her pocket pc is no longer responding, which is not good as Ayu’s guy has been injured during a baseball game and this female on his team is totally marking her territory by keeping Ayu from him (chasing her away from him and only stopping one step shy of urinating on him and calling him her property) and she needs Nina’s magic more than ever (for once).
Looks like Nina has to dig down deep and use her own magic instead of the PC, can she do it?
Only time, and this episode, will tell.

Ultra Maniac Breakdown the 4th
Once again concerns about the end seem to keep cropping up, but considering I am still all this plus and positive about Big O despite the fact it had the worst ending I ever saw? I’m guessing I’m still going to be rather positive about this series even if the ending turns south as the series wraps.
So while I am abit wary about the hints towards a not so fine ending of the series I am going to think that this will still mean I‘m going to be positive about this series despite it. Now that Nina seems to be forming a hook up with one of the two main male guys in this series things are getting abit more interesting, and with the things that here we have more good than ill to speak of this time out.

No cliffhanger ending, yes, but we do have three more stones to look forward to being found as the series comes closer to the end… then we’ll see what happens after that.
Despite the fact there is dark clouds looming, signaling a possible sign of a harsh ending (none of them coming from that morbid girl though) once all the Holy Stones are gathered, I’m giving this outing (Ultra Maniac DVD Volume 4) once again the standard rhythm and roll of 5 depressingly goth goth girls out of 5 (aka another gold star of recommendation).

-- David Rasmussen 1st Mar 07

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