Little Witch 101: Mahoutsukai Sally

The Very First Shojo Anime Magical Girl 

She’s a princess from another world who lives and learns among the humans all while trying to hide her magical powers.  Magic hijinks, shenanigans, and the power of friendship ensue.  No, she’s not Sailor Moon.  She’s Mahotuskai Sally.

In a series about little witch magical girls you can’t not talk about Mahousukai Sally. Though it can be argued she wasn’t exactly the first magical girl ever, she was the first magical girl in anime and completely changed the game in terms of anime marketed explicitly to girls.  Therefore, Sally is essentially the grandmother of mahou shojo in anime and should be loved for the adorable 1960s shojo sweetness it provides.

Sally and Samantha

Sally’s story actually begins with the American 1960s sitcom Bewitched.  Western imported culture was all the rage in 60s Japan, with movies like Cherchez l’Idol introducing the idea of sweet yet sassy, feminine, and European women as a standard for cuteness and elegance. Samantha, the leading character in Bewitched, was a perfect fit for this image.  In 1964, the sitcom aired in Japan under the title Oku-sama wa Majo, or The Wife’s a Witch.

The series has the same plot as the American version, but for those who aren’t familiar with 1960s American television, I’ll summarize it for you.  The show follows Samantha, a young woman who just got married and only just told her husband she is a witch.  Not only that, she is part of the upper class of witches, something her mother, Enora, is constantly reminding husband Darren and the audience watching. Though Samantha comes from an easy life, she makes Darren promise they will live a normal mortal one.  Unfortunately, a normal mortal life is rough at times so Samantha often uses her powers anyway leading to hilarious sitcom hijinks.

When Bewitched was shipped to Japan, it was marketed mostly towards young women, seeing as Samantha was the main character.  She was pretty, plucky, and headstrong, but followed her heart and chose her love of her mortal husband and his mortal world over the easy magical life her mother tried to force on her.  For these reasons, Samantha became something of an idol for young girls to look up to.

In 1966, Mahoutsukai Sally premiered as a reimagined Bewitched of sorts.  Instead of a new wife, Sally is a schoolgirl.  Instead of dealing with a mortal husband, Sally must deal with her mortal friends.  Other than those two differences, Sally hits many of the same story beats Samantha does.

Sally the Little Witch

Besides having an adorable theme song which has a fantastic cover by idol group Angerme, Sally’s character and story set the standards for magical girl anime for years until Sailor Moon added the sentai hero element. Sally is a princess from a world of witches who wishes to go on an adventure to the land of mortals.  On her trip there, she decides to make her stay on Earth more permanent because the mortal world is much more fun than her magical kingdom.  Sally poses as a regular girl with a regular surname, Yumeno, and makes some nice normal friends.  She does her best to hide her magic powers from others even though she’s always using them to solve problems which inevitably causes sitcom-like shenanigans.

The plot may seem boring or overdone, but these plot points were so successful among young girls that the formula was repeated!  Prior to Sailor Moon, most magical girls were little witches or had little witch elements to them.  Magical girls were otherworldly and used their powers even though they needed to hide them from others, but instead of fighting things like monsters and aliens, they fought the evils of self-doubt, schoolyard bullies, and the occasional annoying sibling.

From episode 1, Sally shows her sunny, sassy, take no crap from anyone attitude.  When scolded by her mother for playing dress-up instead of studying magic, Sally decides to travel to the mid-world, or Earth, to have her fun.  There, she immediately tries to befriend two girls, the elegant and ladylike Sumire and the gangly and tomboyish Yoshiko.  Unfortunately, she’s a little too enthusiastic about being friends and makes the mistake of using magic to follow them around, which ends up creeping out the two girls.  Eventually, Sally convinces them that she’s normal girl with a normal house and family by using a spell out of her spell book to make an entire house and to transform her assistant, Kabu, into a human little brother.  Sumire and Yoshiko think the house is nice and fancy, if not a little emptier than expected, and invite Sally to go shopping with them.

The girls and Kabu accidentally stay later at the department store they shop at than they should and encounter two robbers who were attempting to steal anything they could after closing.  Here is where Sally’s sass and smarts really shine.  As the robbers threaten her new friends, Sally sneaks around doing magic with a point of a finger and a wink of an eye.  Tom and Jerry like action ensues with objects moving on their own, alarms going off, dragons being summoned from boxes, and the robbers getting flattened by an endlessly moving escalator.  The robbers are finally scared off and the day is saved!

The second series, made in 1989, follows more magical girl tropes, including tropes reserved for warrior and sentai magical girls.  Though it doesn’t have the same kind of simple charm as the original, this series has much of the same characters as well as a few new ones.  Sally is actually sent this time in order to train her magical powers to be queen one day.  She even has a rival in Karen, an outsider witch who wishes to reclaim the throne for her outcast father.  Since shows like Majokko Megu-chan, Magical Princess Minky Momo, and Magical Angel Creamy Mami introduced new and exciting ideas to the magical girl genre, it makes sense that 1989 Sally would feel different than the original.  It has more of a traditional magical girl feel to it, but doesn’t completely lose its little witch elements.

If you want to watch the 1966 or 1989 series, I haven’t been able to find an official subtitled or dubbed English version.  The series made its way to Italy, French-speaking Canada, Poland, Mexico, and South America, so if you speak any of those languages and can get your hands on those dubs, you’re good to go!  Other than that, I’m afraid the only way I’ve found to watch this series is on the usual illegal anime streaming sites.  Sally-chan is really worth a watch though if you like retro anime and little witches because you get to see how mahou shojo really started!