For anyone whos into shoujo manga particularly from the late 90s to early 2000s who among you has heard the name Wataru Yoshizumi? Or if not that ever heard of a previously popular show called Marmalade Boy? Yoshizumi real name Mariko Nakai created that. Marmalade Boy was a pretty popular shoujo anime and manga around the late nineties and early 2000s but thats not the only thing she made. In 2001 Yoshizumi published what would be her first fantasy/magical girl manga Ultra Maniac which was adapted into a TV anime two years later which is the subject of todays review. It had been on my radar but I never got around to watching it due to other obligations and the Geneon DVDs going out of print. But in 2017 Discotek Media rescued the series rereleasing it on DVD and now its officially streaming on sites like RetroCrush for free. Magical girl anime dont normally get uncut releases here in the US much less even faithful English dubs so this was a rarity. But by magical girl standards...as much as I hate to say it Ultra Maniac isnt one of the better ones. On the outside Ayu Tateishi seems like the coolest girl around. Shes pretty popular smart mature and has a good head on her shoulders but inside shes actually rather awkward and really wants to ask out the coolest guy in school Kaji. One day she has a strange encounter with a mysterious but clumsy girl named Nina Sakura. It turns out Nina is a witch from a magical kingdom sent to Earth on a mission to collect five holy stones all of which are in the human world. But the problem is Nina is utterly lousy at magic. Even so the two of them wind up becoming friends and decide to help each other out. They have to deal with all sorts of mishaps from one annoying kid constantly trying to find out Ninas secret to Ninas callous rival Maya who is not only better than her at magic in every way but wants to get those holy stones at any cost. Ayus life just became a little more magical. For anyone whos read my review for Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure rememeber how I said on there that the main characters of that show were the weakest part of the series with the side characters coming off as far more interesting and less obnoxious? Well Ultra Maniac has the opposite problem. Ayu the main character isnt like most lead characters youd find in shoujo manga and shes actually the best character in the series. Shes mature intelligent and has plenty of flaws but is competent enough to carry the series and grows as a person. Granted shes not the most threedimensionaland neither is anyone elsebut shes definitely the kind of lead character that you want to root for and wont want to strangle. The other main characters...are rather bland. Nina is your typical klutzy but sweet magical girl who can never seem to do anything right the two male characters Kaji and Tsujiai are really just there to be love interests and are about as bland as white toast. But the main quartet are an absolute blessing compared to the minor characters because every single minor character even random characters who only appear for one episode are not only utterly abysmal but annoying as hell Seriously I have honestly never seen a show that actually goes out of its way to make every single minor character be as utterly annoying and rageinducing as possible Tsujiais cat Shinnosuke Luna the three little kids from the magic world Mayas butler Sebastian Ninas grandfather that Kawanakajima kid dear lord Most of them are just there to be violently possessive Sebastian or creepily clingy Luna and Shinnosuke and Ninas grandfather in particular completely ruins every scene hes in. Hes such a raging asshat its not even funny and not only is he verbally abusive to Nina even when she improves her magic he often goes out of his way to mess with her friends in ways that are downright criminal...and the show expects us to forgive him for it JUST because he was worried about Nina. As a result many of his more heroic actions later in the series feel completely unearned. Ugh bite me. But while everyone except the main characters is the worst thing about this series its unfortunately not the only problem holding the show back. Ultra Maniac as a show is mainly a sliceoflife magical girl series consisting of the girls encountering a problem and Nina trying to help with magic with most of her solutions going wrong. This isnt necessarily a bad premise as other shows I like have done similar premises like Fancy Lala. But Ultra Maniac doesnt do anything new with it. A lot of the show consists of teenage angst revolving around trying to get with the guys with only very few moments of brilliance here and there. There are times when the show tries to flesh out some of its ideas like Nina being unfamiliar with how most human customs work due to being from another world but theyre never really expanded upon and I feel like the show could really benefit from fleshing out the more fantastical parts of its premise and ditching the romance and teenaged angst. It also refuses to explain certain things like just why Maya hates Nina so much and why she would even want to get the holy stones in the first place until the very very end past the point of caring about her. Plus the animation and soundtrack are pretty typical of early 2000s fare and are completely unmemorable in any way. So with all this does Ultra Maniac have anything to offer thats actually good? Well yes. For one its a fairly safe kid friendly show that you can totally show your little sister daughter niece or whoever else without feeling skeeved out. Secondly like I mentioned before the main cast of characters while nothing noteworthy are a fun little group to follow with good lighthearted chemistry between one another. Thirdly it does have little moments where it actually subverts a lot of cliches that it follows Example: Girl sees her crush and another girl together assumes theyre in love and angsts about it only in here the show actually has the real situation explained to her and the characters ACTUALLY TALK TO EACH OTHER about their issues rather than angsting about it or believing a misinformed third party. Unfortunately for me these arent enough to save the series from being utterly cliche generic shallow and ultimately uninspired. Though from what Ive heard the anime diverges a lot from the manga so for all I know maybe the manga did the premise better. Who knows? I ought to check it out. That being said I do admit to being a hypocrite and buying the DVD set for Ultra Maniac anyway mainly because I want to support Discotek and because magical girl anime dont get a lot of love in the US so I thought Id give some support to the genre. All in all its just a cutesy sliceoflife magical girl anime and nothing more. But if you want something better Id recommend stuff like Fancy Lala or Cardcaptor Sakura.