Ultra Maniac - Reviews

Story: I love magical girl, comedy and romance. That is what Ultra Maniac was supposed to be. However, it didn't live to my expectations at all. I wasn't expecting much. At the very least, some humor with some fluff. I didn't even get that. At the very best, I got a chuckle. It was also very predictable. When I watch fluff, I expect at least some drama and something surprising. However, there was little that wasn't unpxpected.  The romance and the magical girl was lackluster. Not put very elogantly, but to sum this series up, it was pretty lame.

Animation: This is an older series so the animation is not expected to be too good. However, there are series that are older than Ultra Maniac but have better animation. For comparision, it looks like Tokyo Mew Mew. One of the more disappointing aspects of the series was the magic. It was very lacking.

Sound: Lackluster for the most part. The opening and ending were catchy but forgettable. The soundtrack blended for the most part but I don't remember much of it. The seiyuus were ok expect Nina which was annoying and grating.

Characters: There is some development but it feels rapid toward the end. For the most part, they stayed the same throughout the series. Any development that did happen wasn't surprising. That doesn't have to be a bad thing but it definitely didn't add anything.

Overall: I wouldn't recommend watching it even you want some fluff entertainment. There're much better entertaining things out there that have magic, comedy and romance.

I selected Ultra-Maniac because it came out in the same year (2003) as the first year of the Pretty Cure mega-series.  I thought what comparisons could be made between series following the 'magic girl' genre.  If Ultra-Maniac taught me anything, that there is a wide range of possibilities a genre could pursue.  Ultra-Maniac gave more inspiration for Sugar Sugar Rune (2005) than any of the Pretty Cure series, other than one, Mahoutsukai Precure (2016, 50 episodes, one of Toei's most sustained projects in the PC franchise).

The element which spurred Sugar Sugar Rune:  a competition between two witches with a position in the royalty of the Magic World for the winner.  For Ultra-Maniac, this would pit Nina Sakura (clean-cut girl whose natural clumsiness makes her charming) vs. (Maya Orihara, a pretty blonde whose crusty attitude towards others make her a likely practitioner of black magic).  While these girls enter the Mundane World to hone their skills, they are to search for the five 'holy stones' (a really klutzy name , IMHO) which will determine who will marry the Magic World's prince.  Maya's aggressive nature makes her the likely cheater in the quest.

The element from Mahoutsukai PC:  a budding friendship between a girl from the Magic World (Nina S.) and one from the Mundane (Ayu Tateishi).  Compound their friendship with individual bouts of 'boy trouble.'  Ayu adores Kaji Tetsuchi, but she falls apart in spasms of nervousness at his approach.  Nina finds she is falling for Kaji's friend Tsujiai, a boyfriend she can't afford.  For, as Nina returns to the Magic World, all memories of Nina by her Mundane friends will be lost (okay, a little sub-theme of the memory wipe from Tropical Rouge PC, but after that, we're PC'd out).

As storylines goes, 'boy trouble' = 'plot difficulties.’  It seemed that the story was thrown together as episodes went along, rather than effect a normal flow of story.  Typical of this is the resolution of the Nina vs. Maya contest.  A whole lot of 'splainin' going on, flush with flashback and backstory ... all the things you need to know piled on.

The animation was also a little off ... by a bunch.  Nina seemed too pallid for a bustling, healthy girl, and the shadow cast by her hair made more of a true flesh tone.  This paleface appearance was seen on many of the characters.  The appearance of the 'Dark Zone' was dismal enough with its assortment of blacks and grays, but the special effects here were uninspired.  The most positive thing in the animation played on the connection of using computers in training in their magic spells.  As Nina and Maya transformed into their witch's costume (more colorful than the traditional black fare), they pixilated into their magic duds.

As for the music, Ultra-Maniac packed ponderous thought-pieces running the lines of girls supporting each other as they go through their individual life-crises.  The better theme was the beginning Kagami no Naka (The Inside of the Mirror), symbolic of the two worlds Nina and Ayu represent.

As for resolutions, Ultra-Maniac matched Sugar Sugar Rune's 'that girl should have won, how did that girl win' massive double reversal, but in such a clumsy way which all the anime writers in the business could never improve with all that brilliant creativity.  A dud ending is a dud ending.  Even if romance comes out the winner.