Ojamajo Doremi Na-i-sho
おジャ魔女どれみ ナ・イ・ショ
- Comedy
- Mahou Shoujo
- Episodes
- 13
- Duration
- 25 min per ep
- Aired
- Jun 26, 2004 to Dec 11, 2004
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
Set during the summer break between the "motto" and "Dokkaan" seasons, Ojamajo Doremi Na-i-sho takes a more mature approach to the beloved magical girl franchise. This 13-episode OAV delves into the personal lives and romantic developments of the five young witches as they navigate their evolving friendships and feelings.
In this enchanting installment, fans will reunite with familiar characters while exploring new dynamics, including the return of Hana, who is reimagined as a baby. The mahou shop transforms into a charming bakery, adding a delightful culinary twist to the witches' adventures. With its blend of humor and heartfelt moments, Na-i-sho offers a refreshing perspective on the characters' growth and experiences during a pivotal summer.
Otaku Consensus
Na-i-sho is treated by franchise fans as a richer addendum rather than a disposable bonus: Toei’s steady slice-of-life direction under Junichi Satou and Takashi Yamada’s episodic construction turn the interquel format into a character-first set of childhood confidences, with episode 12 notable for carrying Ryuutarou Nakamura’s separate supervisor credit. What works is the optimistic, low-stakes handling of friendship, family, and first feelings; the most common criticism is that its comedy-first, no-grand-villain mode can feel lighter than Sailor Moon or stronger PreCure entries for viewers expecting magical-girl spectacle.
Why You Should Watch
Watch Na-i-sho if you want a magical-girl series that treats childhood feelings as the event, not downtime between fights. Its appeal is closest to the gentler side of Cardcaptor Sakura and the school-life texture of early PreCure, but with Toei’s Ojamajo comic timing and a 13-episode OAV compactness that avoids marathon fatigue. The hook for returning viewers is how specific the writing gets about friendships, family moods, embarrassment, and first crushes without turning the cast into miniature adults. If Sailor Moon’s planetary stakes or modern transformation-battle spectacle are your baseline, this is deliberately smaller; the reward is watching a primarily female child cast carry comedy, magic, and coming-of-age beats with unusual emotional precision.
Key Characters
- DDoremi Harukaze(VA: Chiemi Chiba)
Doremi remains the franchise’s emotional tuning fork, able to carry broad reaction comedy while still making childhood insecurity feel direct and recognizable.
- HHazuki Fujiwara(VA: Tomoko Akiya)
Hazuki gives the ensemble its quieter school-and-family-life texture, making small choices feel as consequential as any magical device.
- MMomoko Asuka(VA: Nami Miyahara)
Momoko broadens the group dynamic with an outsider’s energy, and Nami Miyahara’s performance keeps her cheerfulness lively rather than one-note.
- PPop Harukaze(VA: Sawa Ishige)
Pop adds a sibling viewpoint that keeps the child-cast perspective honest, especially when the older girls’ friendships and feelings get complicated.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
Toei Animation produced Na-i-sho as a 13-episode OAV rather than a standard TV cour, releasing it from June 26 to December 11, 2004. That format gives the late-franchise material a compact, side-story rhythm without the pacing demands of a weekly broadcast season.
- 2
Yoshihiko Umakoshi is credited as both character designer and chief animation director, a combination that helps preserve the franchise’s rounded expressions, squashy reaction comedy, and readable child body language.
- 3
Takashi Yamada’s series composition matches the show’s database profile: AniList tags it as Episodic at 73%, with Coming of Age, School, Primarily Child Cast, Primarily Female Cast, and Witch all at 79%. The result is a magical-girl OAV built around vignettes of growing up rather than escalation toward a single villain.
- 4
Keiichi Oku’s music credit is central to the tonal balance: the series needs brisk comic cues for slapstick, but also softer scoring for the reflective material that fans often single out as the franchise’s real strength.
- 5
Its reception is unusually strong for a niche OAV entry: MAL lists it at 7.84 from 5,827 votes, while AniList gives it 79/100 with 153 favourites. The popularity rank is much lower than the score rank, suggesting a smaller audience but a comparatively satisfied one.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- The original creator credit, Izumi Toudou, is Toei Animation’s in-house collective creator name rather than a conventional single-author credit, fitting the franchise’s studio-driven magical-girl identity.
- Fun fact 2
- Junichi Satou supervised the OAV, while Ryuutarou Nakamura is specifically credited as supervisor for episode 12, making that episode a staff-credit outlier within the 13-episode run.
- Fun fact 3
- The production uses two art design credits, Shinzou Yuki and Yukie Yuki, alongside Kunio Tsujita’s color design, a reminder that the series’ soft childhood atmosphere is built through background and palette choices as much as character acting.
- Fun fact 4
- Reviewer discussion around Ojamajo Doremi often praises its messages of personal growth, positivity, and friendship as accessible to both children and adults, while one common comparative critique is that it lacks the grander heroic force of Sailor Moon or many PreCure entries.
- Fun fact 5
- AniList’s tag spread captures the show’s unusual genre blend: Witch, Cute Girls Doing Cute Things, Primarily Child Cast, Primarily Female Cast, Female Protagonist, School, and Coming of Age all sit at 79%, while Henshin appears at only 55%, reflecting a magical-girl work less dominated by transformation spectacle.
Studios
- Toei Animation
