Whoa, what can I say. It's the first Mahou Shoujo Anime by Studio Pierrot. I was surprised at myself for buying this instead of Minky Momo. I think I chose Mami because I was so impressed with Fancy Lala. Also, while reading about the two shows, trying to decide, I got the feeling that girls tend to like Mami more and boys tend to go for Momo more. That basically swayed me completely towards Mami.
Studio Pierrot again impresses the heck out of me. For one thing, they took damn good care of the original masters. Of course, I don't have any idea about the Minky Momo boxset video quality, so I can't compare, but I'm more than happy with the quality of this set.
Both Mami and Lala are very realistic. Obviously, there's the magic, and the transformation, but beyond that, they don't do anything wildly crazy. Even those fantasy episodes that are thrown in once in a while don't derail the show from the realistic feel. There are real relationships and real feelings. I love these shows for that. And the production values are extremely high.
Now, I have a problem. It's making me think about other shows like Persia, Magical Emi, and Pastel Yumi. Is that evil or what? Persia, I can live without. The other two..., I'll think about it. ;-)
