Little Witch 101: Majokko Megu-chan

A Groundbreaking Magical Girl 

Meg the witch is one of my favorite vintage magical girls for a bunch of reasons.  She’s cute, she’s sassy, plus she’s got this adorable parasol that the travels with instead of a broom.  But Meg has some other tricks up her puffy sleeves that makes her show stand out.  You might think Cutie Honey was the only fan service centric magical girl at the time, but you’d be wrong.  Meg can’t catch a break from endless panty shots either.

This is Majokko Megu-chan.

A Little Witch in a Mini Skirt Changes the Magical Girl Game

Meg’s original concept as an anime was one that an older, mixed gender audience would be interested in. Until Megu-chan, magical girls were usually age 12 and under.  Along with Meg’s teen age came a way to draw in a teen demographic: fan service.  In the actual character notes on her design sheet, there is a note that says “Note the length and thickness of her legs…Her underwear may be exposed [from this angle]” and oh was that noted.  Within the first episode there are at least 10 instances of panty shots or of Meg being in just her underwear in a scene. The opening even has a panty shot where Meg flips on her broom. Other notable scenes from the first episode include Meg’s first appearance in the series itself where her magic parasol is turned inside out by a gust of wind, causing Meg to fall from the sky (where her skirt flys up, of course) where she lands upside down in a plane and the pilot gets an eyeful of underwear.  There’s also the scene where Meg’s adoptive siblings accidentally rip off Meg’s sheer negligee (mind you, Meg is 14 and wearing a sheer negligee) leaving Meg in just her bra and panties where younger brother Rabi tries to get a photo of her half naked.

What is interesting about these scenes is that they are played for comedy, so it adds to Meg’s cute and clumsy personality rather than being just for the fan service.  While there are a lot of shots where it doesn’t make sense, most of the scenes are devices for Meg’s personality to be established.  With Megu-chan being so successful, it showed that putting fan service in a shojo anime did not hinder popularity.  In fact, it probably added to what made the series unique for their older audience without taking away so much that young girls couldn’t watch the show as well. You can see evidence of this legacy in shows like Sailor Moon which often have bathing scenes and panning shots of long legs.

Though fan service was a major part of the series, the writers and director at Toei made other decisions to broaden their audience that would also be repeated.  It was immediately decided that there would be two main characters who would be rivals.  They would act as friends sometimes, but often fought as each girl wanted to be the next Witch Queen.  The rival, Non, is the exact opposite of Meg.  She is pale and cool with long blue hair and more intense makeup. She gives of almost goth-y vibes with her long cloak and dark purple jacket and pants.  Compared to Meg’s pink and girly magic, Non’s magic is dangerous since she often makes weapons out of thin air to harm Meg.  The two are essentially frenemies, competing in sports, magic, and love.  The idea of rivalry was not present in shojo until Megu-chan and now many magical girls have rivals and frenemies turned best friends in their magical girl squads. (Though I should note that even Non did not escape the fan service.  In her and Meg’s final magical duel, the fight breaks into a physical catfight with hair pulling and rolling on the ground all as the queen’s pervy assistant gawks at the two.)

Older main characters, rivalries, love triangles, and fan service were all introduced by Majokko Megu-chan.  Though these are trends that annoy many magical girl enthusists now, these elements were what made Megu-chan so popular to an older audience.  Without them, magical girl shows might have taken longer to branch out to an older shojo demographic and we wouldn’t have rivalries like Akko and Diana or the iconic (and nearly nude) transformation scenes in Sailor Moon.

Little Witch Meg

Meg fits the standard little witch trope of traveling to the mortal world in order to train.  Like Sally the Witch before her, she is eligible to become the next Queen of the Witches and in order to become queen, she must master her powers and learn about the human world.  Meg is adopted into the home of a retired witch, Mami, who married a human, and gains a little brother and sister as well.  The little brother, Rabi, often plays tricks on Meg while the little sister, Apo, either joins in or defends Meg.  Though this made up family unit, she learns familial love, which is something not present in the witch world because apparently witches don’t have families.

Thoughout the series, the theme of love and compassion continues.  Though the queen’s assistant, Chosan, often tries to sabotage Meg’s efforts to learn how to be a good queen, Meg’s good heart leads her down the right path. In terms of her relationships with others, all of the emotions are new to her.  Meg is clumsy and doesn’t know how to deal with boys her age, though she knows that she’s pretty, as the opening song states:

“These two bosoms in my chest are the evidences of me being able to do anything.  I don’t even need to put on makeup. You will be so into me.”

Other than being a sweetheart down inside, Meg actually has a very sassy and fiery personality.  She is short tempered and often physically fights others when angry enough.  In the first episode alone, Meg physically beats both Rabi and Apo for playing tricks on her as well as chases them around several times while trying to grab them and beat them again.  The previously mentioned duel turned cat fight is actually prompted by Meg’s short temper.  She is weaker than Non in magic, but not when it comes to a physical fight!

Still, even though Meg starts out as a kind of spoiled, quick to anger, girl, her observations of humans and her time in the human world teach her how to be a better person. Mami explains in the beginning of the series that Meg would learn in time why her mentor decided to give up her life as a witch to live among the humans, and Meg eventually does.  It’s the lessons she learns while pretending to be a mortal girl that are more important to become the Witch Queen than learning to use her magic powers.  As in many other magical girl anime, Meg learns that the powers of love and compassion are the strongest powers you can have.

Sadly, I could not find any legal ways to stream Majokko Megu-chan online.  There are a few DVDs of the series up for sale on ebay for about $300 a piece, so if you want to support the series you might need to cough up a bit of money.  I think Megu-chan is a great watch for lovers of vintage magical girls and I would love if more people knew about this cute little witch!