Majo Rika Goes to Kindergarten (Ojamajo Doremi)

"Majo Rika Goes to Kindergarten (Ojamajo Doremi)"
Behold, the first bad torture episode of the Ojamajo Doremi franchise and one of the weakest episode of the season 1.
Series: Ojamajo Doremi Part of Season: 1 Episode Number: 15 Air Date: May 16, 1999 Previous episode: "Laugh and Forgive Me!?" Next episode: "Fishing for Love"

"Majo Rika Goes to Kindergarten" is the 15th episode of Ojamajo Doremi.

Plot

Pop visits the Maho-dou and is quickly smitten with Majorika. The girls, angered with Majorika for her attitude earlier decide to let Pop purchase her for the time being, but Majorika loses her crystal ball and has to rely on them to save her.

Why It Should Put Majo Rika Down

1. First off, it is a torture episode for Majo Rika because she is in the hand of Pop who think that she a "doll", when it clearly easy to see that she's not a doll, it is even obvious because of her trying to move.
2. Some of the characters here are beyond unlikable, which is a shame because this show had full of likable characters but not in this episode, those include:
   • Pop is also very unlikable in this episode since with most of the season 1 episodes, she is mean to Doremi, her own big sister, and when she see something made by Doremi, she even state that it can only be her that made a horror like that, which rightfully angered the latter and even Pop insult a bit Doremi, which did executed a chase scene in the store.
     • She also think that Majo Rika is a doll and even show her to her own classmates, who also think that she a plush, and even then, with Majo Rika that moved for trying to escape it was obvious that she's an alive person and not a plush, even if she was transformed into a frog because of Doremi in the first episode of the show (which was accidently though).
   • Majo Rika, while likable in most of the episode, is once again incredibly mean to Doremi and state that Pop is braver than Doremi and that she would prefer to work with Pop, which made Doremi very upset and once again call herself the unluckiest girl in the world, and this time it is more painful than funny.
   • Pop rivals are also very unlikable and tried to steal Majo Rika and even treatened Pop that if she would move further, then he would throw Majo Rika to the water, which also made a crying scene happening later in the episode.
3. The pacing is very off, because it is either fast or very slow, unlike most season 1 episodes were it is still fast while still keeping the pacing balanced.
4. There's a very annoying crying scene after that one of the boys rival of Pop did throw Majo Rika in the water, and if it's really a person that live, they still think that she a doll, which mean that they could crying over a doll, howewer they are only 5 years old so that is a bit justified.
5. It show a pretty bad moral that if you don't like to work with someone and that the youngest one of the family that is a sister/brother is braver than the person you work with, then you should work with the other youngest sister/brother rather than the big one that is less brave, which is a terrible moral, although hidden. This is surprising because Ojamajo Doremi is know for having a ton of good moral, howewer here it simply isn't the case.
6. The beginning of the episode is very misleading, since the intro show that Majo Rika is Pop prisonnier, which does not happen at any points in the episode and it feel like it was made just because they lost ideas.
7. Plot-Hole: When Majo Rika did moved a bit, how does Pop and her friends does not notice that she's actually a living frog, and even if they are intelligent they did never notice that, even worst she did talk (or maybe think what she said but didn't really talked with her voice).
   • Another plot hole is why does Doremi do not tell the truth that Majo Rika was actually a frog (or witch that was transformed into a frog because of her or someone else), if she would had tell the truth, then maybe most of this episode problems would not happen.
8. Horrible Ending: Despite being saved by Doremi, Majo Rika say that Doremi sister is braver than her and that she would had prefer to work with her rather than Doremi, and even tell that she the worst witch ever, which is not true because she did pass the exams, and because of being insulted, she once again repeat that she the unluckiest girl in the world (and the saddest one in the French dub), in which as stated before, here it isn't even funny compared to most of the other episodes because of how much pain she received by being insulted.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Doremi, Aiko and Hazuki are still likable because they try to save Majo Rika from Doremi sister, and Doremi did saved the tree that was destroyed, which make you wonder why does Majo Rika didn't give Doremi more credits.
   • Majo Rika is also a tolerable character until the end where she insulted Doremi with comparing her to her own little sister.
2. Good animation and voice acting as usual
3. The concept of the episode as a whole wasn't that bad but was unfortunately poorly executed.
4. It is one of the few episodes of the 4Kids dub where the title match the original name and it was the least censored one of the show, even though it still isn't good enough to be one of the dub good episodes.
5. The scene where Doremi simulated of being sick was funny and one of the best moment of the episode.

Trivia

• The girls unique craft styles are demonstrated in this episode: Hazuki makes fancy items, Aiko likes to make unique whimsical things, and Doremi tries to make relatively simple things but fails.
• Pop is paid 200 yen for an allowance.
• When Hazuki and Aiko help a "sick" Doremi leave the classroom, Masaru Yada and Shiori Nakayama can be seen looking at each other.

Comments

Loading comments...