Akazukin ChaCha

Akazukin Chacha is an anime series that was based on the 1991 shojo manga series created by Min Ayahana. It would air on TV Tokyo for 74 episodes from January 7, 1994 to June 30, 1995. Afterwards, 3 OVAs were released from December 6, 1995 to March 6, 1996. The show would also air in places such as Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, & the Philippines. The last one in particular is where the anime got especially popular in, & has been rebroadcast there since 1997.

Plot
In the beginning of the first episode, ChaCha is given a princess medallion, as well as a magical bracelet & ring to be given to 2 of her friends. On the way, Riiya & Shiine are introduced, & are given the magical bracelet & ring respectively. Those 3 items can combine their powers together with the phrase "Love, Courage, Hope - Magical Princess, Holy Up!" to make ChaCha transform into the magical princess so that she can defeat Diamao's enemies. This goes on throughout the first 2 seasons, with her having to find out about what happened to her parents, & eventually defeat Diamao once & for all.

Why It's a Truly Magical Series of Events

 * 1) The Japanese TV theme song is great, featuring both a version by Japanese band SMAP & another, even better version by Shoko Sawada.
 * 2) * The Indonesian version ain't no slouch either, giving it a more disco-like feel & vibe compared to the original.
 * 3) * The MBC/Cartoon Network Korean dub's theme song is also rather cute sounding.
 * 4) * The three ending themes are also really good to listen to.
 * 5) ** An instrumental version of the first ending theme was even used for one of the Tagalog dubs!
 * 6) * Heck, the entire Japanese soundtrack is really enjoyable to listen to! Here, take a listen.
 * 7) Likeable characters such as:
 * 8) * ChaCha, a ditzy, but cute red-hooded witch who knows that when trouble is around, you can call her on the double!
 * 9) * Riiya, who is a strong, but dumb yet funny, & caring werewolf who is ChaCha's companion(while also being in love with her) & also considerably ChaCha's damsel in distress. He has moments of bravery though, & he has been seen taking up against enemies, letting you know that he has the confidence to get ChaCha out of a situation whenever he can.
 * 10) * Shiine, who is the smartest of the three. Knowing what things are traps most of the time, he has also been a brave & loyal person who has a crush on ChaCha.
 * 11) * Yakko: Not to be confused with the Botswana-loving guy, she is ChaCha's main rival who desperately wants to get Seravy's attention as she has a crush on him. This will often mean trying to get ChaCha away from him as much as possible, & it'll usually fail in hilarious ways, with one episode even having ChaCha just slap her so hard that she fell over! No, seriously!
 * 12) * Orin is a shy ninja who's in love with Shiine. Despite her shyness, she has true ninja skills including swiftly & quickly moving from place to place, cloning herself in a matter of microseconds, etc.
 * 13) * Seravy is ChaCha's teacher who taught her magic so that she could go to Urara Magic School. He is also the world's greatest magician & has been keeping that record for more than 20 years! While quite a jerk towards Dorothy, & some others, he has a good heart deep inside that knows how much he truly cares for Dorothy.
 * 14) * Speaking of which, Dorothy is Shiine's teacher. She was once going to be the world's greatest magician, but Seravy, always being better than her, got the record later on. Despite her jealousy, she still loves & cares Seravy dearly. Plus, she is not letting anyone else try to get his love no matter how much the others truly do love him.
 * 15) * And many, many more. Yeah, this has more characters than you'd expect.
 * 16) It is very faithful to the original manga while having new additions as well that fit along with the tone of the manga since the manga had seemingly unlimited possibilities.
 * 17) Animation that ranges from decent to great, especially for the decade this came out in.
 * 18) * Heck, the entire series is more on-model than its main rival, Sailor Moon! That truly shows just how dedicated they were into making a great show!
 * 19) * This is one of the few shows where stiff & jerky limited movements for added comedy fits very well with the tone of the actual show itself!
 * 20) Incredible detail on the character designs, backgrounds, & even some of the littlest details on random objects that make it look more professional than it really needed to be.
 * 21) * For example, transitions from day to sunset to night are seamless. The rest of the background does not get affected by it outside of some additional shading, & the result is truly amazing.
 * 22) Great voice acting throughout the series in both the Japanese original, & the English dub! This includes, but isn't limited to:
 * 23) * ChaCha's Japanese & English voices fit well with her dizty, but loving & caring personality.
 * 24) * Riiya's English voice is actually better than the flat delivery that his Japanese VA, Shingo Katori gives most of the time(though he's had his moments, just not enough of them). Sure, it sounds like a DJ instead of a werewolf-like person, but it's certainly more expressive while not being overbearing.
 * 25) * Shiine's Japanese & English voices are surprisingly identical to each other, & both do a good job in fitting his young boy appearance, & smart kid personality.
 * 26) * Yakko's Japanese voice is a really well done fit on her rivalry, & jealousness personality. The English voice isn't too far behind on that either, sounding 70% close to it.
 * 27) * Orin's Japanese voice, unlike the English voice, is readily easy to understand for most people. That said, the English voice isn't too bad per say, just very high pitched, & a bit too muffled to fully understand for most people.
 * 28) * Seravy's English voice acting gives off a more Canadian-accent than the Japanese voice that is more-so Australian sounding(don't ask how I know), but is still good to listen to.
 * 29) * Dorothy is given a royal queen-esque accent in both the Japanese & English dub, which perfectly suits her personality & attitude of her jealously towards her crush Seravy as mentioned above.
 * 30) * Really, we can go on with this, but we would be here all day if were to do that, dare I'd say.
 * 31) Speaking of which, the English dub by Filipino studio Creative Products, unlike a certain other 90s magical girl anime dub, is a well made one that is very faithful to the original Japanese anime.
 * 32) * The amazing Japanese soundtrack is kept intact with no changes at all(no seriously, not even a new theme song, or ending song).
 * 33) * Very few changes were made. The biggest ones are Orin being renamed to "Suzu", & Riiya being renamed to "Liya" as well as the episode titles. Considering other dubs at the time had the tendency to change far more names than that, it is quite the achievement!
 * 34) * It didn't bother trying to redo any of the untranslatable puns, which makes it more feel like surreal humor similar to that of Uncle Grandpa, Eek! the Cat, The first 4 seasons of Ed, Edd n Eddy, or most comparatively, Inspector Gadget. And it works.
 * 35) The original storyline for the first 2 seasons is a very engaging, & incredibly daring adventure that still gives off the charm of the original manga while also having some good serious moments to spice things up. And the execution is top-notch!
 * 36) * Not only that, but we get to see more than what was expected, such as more about ChaCha herself, how Diamao became king, & even Shiine's parents make appearances!
 * 37) * In comparison, the 3rd season is a very faithful adaptation of the 3rd volume of the manga nearly frame-by-frame while still being enjoyable in its own right unlike the Suske en Wiske cartoon that aired on VTM from the late 1980s & early 1990s.
 * 38) * The OVA takes time to introduce Poppy, who was absent in the TV series, & he is a great additional character into the mix, being a more down-to-Earth kind of guy in comparison to the more crazy trio.
 * 39) Funny, & cute eyecatches as well. You can't forget those when you're talking about anime, can ya'!
 * 40) Many interesting & good episodes, including but not limited to:
 * 41) * "The Troublesome Witch Makes Her Appearance" ("The Red Hood Magician" in the English dub), which is a great first episode.
 * 42) * "The Rival is the Black Riding Hood!" ("Magical Magic with ChaCha" in the English dub)
 * 43) * "The Ultimate Three Little Piglet Attack" ("Attack of the Three Little Pigs" in the English dub) NOTE: Most of the episode isn't about the 3 little pigs.
 * 44) * "Babies Can't Use Magic" ("A Dose of Baby Magic" in the English dub)
 * 45) * "Snow Explosion! The Teacher is a Snow Woman!" ("Winter in Magic Land" in the English dub)
 * 46) * "My Cake Is the Best" ("Science Versus Magic" in the English dub)
 * 47) * "Go! Nyandaber Z" ("Magical Doll Festival" in the English dub)
 * 48) * "Decide the Sushi Champion" ("Sushi and Fun" in the English dub)
 * 49) * "Orin-chan's First Love" ("The Magic of Love" in the English dub)
 * 50) * "Work Hard, House-sitter!" ("Foxy's Mysterious Magic" in the English dub)
 * 51) * "Baby Franken-chan" ("The Magic of True Love" in the English dub)
 * 52) Many funny moments, & running gags such as:
 * 53) * ChaCha messing up her magic, leading to what is either hilarious puns(Japanese), a great example of surreal humor done right(English).
 * 54) * Riiya's werewolf form being mistaken for a dog. It even leads to some heartwarming moments here, & there.
 * 55) * The characters falling down to the ground very quickly. Just one frame, then a big "oomf" sound effect to make it funny.
 * 56) Beautiful endings in both the 2nd & 3rd seasons, as well as the OVAs.
 * 57) The show as a whole feels like a great mix between Sailor Moon, & Mighty Max.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The OVAs weren't dubbed into English at all, which is very unfortunate because those are great as well.
 * 2) * On top of that, the English dub is not known to have aired in the United States, which is also unfortunate since surreal shows have been well received throughout the years, & having even this appear on US television wouldn't hurt in that case.
 * 3) Outside of the opening, & endings songs, the songs in the actual show itself are either dull in the Japanese version, or downright terrible in the English version, proving that the voice actors didn't really know how to sing in the first place(aside from Riiya's Japanese VA of course, hehe).
 * 4) Marin is a very unlikeable character as all she really does is cling on Riiya, be mean to ChaCha(Barabaraman claims that she is a nice girl, but that  doesn't excuse her bratty behavior), be so dumb that she doesn't realize that Riiya can turn into a werewolf, therefore thinking his wolf form is ChaCha's "pet", & kicking Riiya in that form often. Her southern accent in the English dub doesn't help matters.
 * 5) * A few others like Que-chan(Kyuula in the English dub), Pickle(Kyle in the English dub), & Piikapon are also unlikeable characters depending on your view.
 * 6) While not a really terrible episode, the portrayal of Doris in the episode, "Dreadful! Dorothy-chan's Sistes?" can be seen as homophonic/transphobic these days.
 * 7) Some of the characters from the manga did not appear in the anime, such as Marin's younger sister Nami, ChaCha's younger sister, Chuchu(though one would argue that her use of a gun would've likely set off moral guardians), Orin's younger brother, Rinnosuke, Yakko's grandfather, Yajirobe, as well as her younger brother, Yanta, among others, instead making their several canon foreigners, many of which were one-off villains.

Trivia

 * Only 8 episodes, & scattered clips of the English dub have surfaced online whereas the Tagalog dubs have been almost completely found.
 * A couple of video games were made, one for the SNES, one for the Gameboy, one for the Sharp X-68000, & one for the PC-FX.
 * There also seems to have been some other game that, while not a bootleg, seems to have been made to cash-in on the manga a year before the anime came out called Magic Girl. The game was released for the Sega Genesis by Gamtec in 1993, & was re-released in 2015 by Super Fighter Team.
 * Due to licensing issues, the opening theme had to be resung for home media releases. This seemingly wasn't a problem for Cartoon Network Asia though as they aired the SMAP version without issues.
 * The reason for the original storyline in the first 2 seasons was so it can duel with Sailor Moon. It's also why ChaCha can turn into Magical Princess.
 * The series will be featured in the Eternal Shojo Cafe in Japan

Reception

 * While the show has been well received in its home country, it is far more popular in the Philippines, being considered the SpongeBob SquarePants of that particular country.
 * However though, in most countries it is nothing more than a cult classic at best. Such places include Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States(through fan translations of the manga, & fansubs of the anime), & Latin America. In other countries, it is almost completely unheard of.

Videos
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