Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel


Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel is a magical girl anime television series produced by Studio Pierrot which aired from 1983 to 1984 on Nippon Television. It went on to have four OVA adaptions and featured in other Studio Pierrot special presentations. A three-volume manga was released during the original TV run, with the story written by Kazunori Itō and art by Yuuko Kitagawa. This was the first magical girl anime to be produced by Pierrot, and the first original work from the studio. In 2005, the web poll for TV Asahi's top-100 anime of all time saw Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel poll 82nd. The series is currently streaming in North America via Tubi, RetroCrush, Amazon Prime, Midnight Pulp, and AsianCrush, as of Spring 2020. Thus far, a limited DVD release of all 52 episodes has been successfully crowd-funded at Anime Sols.

Plot

Yū Morisawa is an ordinary 10-year-old girl, until she sees a spaceship floating in the sky. Carried into the ship, she helps a friendly alien called Pino Pino find the Feather Star. In thanks for her assistance he grants her a magical wand, which allows her to transform into a beautiful 16-year-old girl, for one year. She is also given two cats from Feather Star, Posi and Nega, who are to watch over her while she has magical powers. While wandering around the city as a teenager, she accidentally ends up on TV and is asked to sing, which the magic enables her to do remarkably well. Using the alias of Creamy Mami, she becomes an overnight success, and is soon sought to begin a professional career as an idol under Parthenon Productions. Along the way, she also meets past residents of Feather Star and supernatural beings. In addition, she must fight against Snake Joe, a shady character of the rival LP Productions, who is always trying to steal her away and Megumi-chan, another one of Parthenon Productions' top stars.

Characters

;Yū Morisawa / Creamy Mami
;Nega
;Posi
;Toshio Ōtomo
;Megumi Ayase
;Shingo Tachibana
;Hayato Kidokoro
;Midori Kisaragi
;Natsume Morisawa
;Tetsuo Morisawa
;James SK Wān
;Pino Pino
;Mamoru Hidaka

Episode list

Music

Original songs

By Creamy Mami/Takako Ohta
  1. Fall In Love Delicately
  2. Staying in My Pajamas
  3. Love Nonchalantly
  4. BIN KAN Rouge
  5. Whisper Je Tame
  6. Beautiful Shock
  7. Yuu is Creamy Mami
  8. The Medicine That Works Best for You
  9. Heart's Season
  10. Girls Talk
  11. I CAN`T SAY "BYE-BYE"
  12. Magical Hourglass
  13. Ma Wa Le Mi Gi
By Megumi Ayase/Saeko Shimazu
  1. Memory of the Beach
  2. Last Kiss of Good Luck!

    Tribute album

A tribute album was released on February 9, 2011 and features covers by modern voice actors and rerecorded versions by or with Takako Ohta and Saeko Shimazu.
  1. MA・WA・LE・MI・GI by Takako Ohta and Tomoe Shinohara
  2. Beautiful Shock by Rin Suzuki
  3. Delicate ni Sukishite by Marina Inoue
  4. The Medicine That Works Best for You by Chie Nakamura
  5. Girls Talk by Mariya Ise
  6. Heart's Season by Eri Kitamura
  7. Memory of the Beach by Tomoe Shinohara
  8. Last Kiss of Good Luck! by Saeko Shimazu
  9. I Can't Say "Bye-Bye" by Takako Ohta
  10. MA・WA・LE・MI・GI by Takako Ohta and Saeko Shimazu
  11. Missing Kiss by Takako Ohta
  12. Bin Kan Rouge by Yukari Fukui
  13. Miracle Angel by Yuka Iguchi
  14. Love Nonchalantly by Yu Kobayashi
  15. Staying in My Pajamas by Aya Endo
  16. Whispering Je t'aime by Hiroko Kasahara

    Impact and influence

Along with Wandering Sun and Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Creamy Mami is known as a pioneer of the new marketing strategy, now known as media mix. They used an anime to promote a new, least-known idol singer. The real idol singer, Takako Ōta, acted as an idol singer also in the story. The opening theme Delicate ni Suki Shite was her first song in the real world too. Even though Ohta was a new singer and not a trained voice actress, she voiced Yū/Creamy Mami. The result was a great success. The anime Creamy Mami has become famous and Ohta gained a high popularity that still exists today.
In 1999, Fuji TV's show Kaishingeki TV Utaemon had a poll to decide the most popular old TV theme song for a 25-year-old audience, and Delicate ni Suki Shite was ranked first. This anime has been repeatedly broadcast over the Internet too.
The same media mix approach was seen in Idol Densetsu Eriko and Idol Tenshi Youkoso Yōko. The anime version of Full Moon o Sagashite shared the same format too. Another example is Lemon Angel. Using an anime to promote a singer was not a new concept, as there was Pink Lady Monogatari, a popular anime at the time.
Creamy Mami set the format that would be used for future Studio Pierrot magical girl titles, and was especially influential in Fancy Lala. Creamy Mami also stars in Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume, along with Magical Emi and Persia, as well as Majokko Club Yoningumi A-Kukan Kara no Alien X, with Magical Emi, Persia and Pastel Yumi. The popularity of the series not only saw two feature-length sequels, but Creamy Mami also featured in five music video-based productions, starting with the 1985 OVA Lovely Serenade. The second of the feature-length sequels, Magical Angel Creamy Mami Long Goodbye, began with the short animation Mahō no Tenshi Creamy Mami VS Mahō no Princess Minky Momo Gekijou no Daikessen, and where Creamy Mami battled against Ashi Productions' Minky Momo.
Creamy Mami's companions Posi and Nega were also parodied in Gainax's 1991 OAV Otaku no Video, in which Misty May has two lion cub companions named Posi-King and Nega-King. The character design for both is based on King the lion cub, a companion of the title character in Gainax's 1990 TV series Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.
Producer Yuji Nunokawa noted that there was a substantial increase in male fans after Creamy Mamis broadcast due to the shows' use of transformations and enjoyed watching girls using magic to solve their problems in ways men traditionally could not.
A spin-off manga series titled, Magical Angel Creamy Mami and the Spoiled Princess, was launched on Coamix's Comic Tatan website on December 21, 2018. The series is written and illustrated by Emi Mitsuki. The series focuses on the character, Megumi Ayase. The series was released in North America in March 2021 by Seven Seas Entertainment.

Internationalization

Magical Angel Creamy Mami was dubbed into Italian by Studio PV, who released it as L'incantevole Creamy in February 1985. It was also broadcast in France by La Cinq as Creamy, merveilleuse Creamy on April 29, 1988, and more recently released in French DVD editions by Declic Image. It was also distributed in Spain as "El Broche Encantado" in 1992.
In these countries the musical theme was the same: in Italy it was sung by Cristina D'Avena, in France by Valérie Barouille and in Spain by Sol Pilas.
The text and music were by Alessandra Valeri Manera and Giordano Bruno Martelli.
The musical base was partially re-orchestrated in France and Spain, and the text was translated and adapted by Charles Level for the French version.
It was dubbed into Cantonese by a Hong Kong TV Station - TVB, who released it as "我係小忌廉" on January 7, 1985, showing it from Monday to Friday at 6pm, each time shown half an hour.
Harmony Gold USA was planning an English dubbed version under the name Pretty Creamy the Perfect Pop Star, but it never saw the light of day. Had it ever been released in English, most of the characters' names would have to be changed to target an English-speaking audience.