Magical Project S, known in Japan as Pretty Sammy (プリティサミー, Puriti Samī), is a 26-episode anime television series directed by Katsuhito Akiyama and produced by AIC and Pioneer LDC. It is the second series based on the character Pretty Sammy, Sasami's magical girl alter-ego, succeeding Magical Girl Pretty Sammy and preceding Sasami: Magical Girls Club.
Similar to Magical Girl Pretty Sammy, Magical Project S follows Sasami Kawai, an ordinary Japanese schoolgirl who is given a magical baton by Tsunami, a candidate for the next queen of Juraihelm, in order for Sasami to become her representative on Earth, and thereby granting her the ability to transform into Pretty Sammy. Meanwhile, Ramia, another candidate for queen, seeks to undermine Tsunami by transforming someone on Earth into the evil magical girl Pixy Misa to oppose Pretty Sammy. Soon, Pretty Sammy begins battling Pixy Misa and her Love-love Monsters, unaware that Pixy Misa's real identity is Misao Amano, her best friend.
Magical Project S is noted for its similarities to other magical girl anime that came out in the 1990s, most prominently Sailor Moon, with a familiar "monster of the week" format used for many of its episodes. For this reason, in addition to some humorous criticisms of other aspects of magical girl anime, some consider this anime to be a parody of the genre as a whole.
Broadcast History
Magical Project S aired in Japan on TV Tokyo between October 4, 1996 and March 28, 1997.
The series was released in the United States on VHS in 1999 and on DVD in 2002, only in a subtitled format. All instances of the word, "Sexy", were changed into "Lovely" in some episodes, presumably to keep within the guidelines of Pioneer USA's rating system (the series was rated for 3 and up).
Videogames
Similar to sister series, Magical Girl Pretty Sammy, Magical Project S also had two video game releases. These two games were released exclusively for the Sega Saturn consoles. They are in a visual novel format, with little gameplay save for some dialogue branching options. Both feature “lost episodes” that are meant to be canon to the show. Given both games assume you’ve watched the anime, and non go past the series finale “Magical victory”, they can be considered interquels.
These games were never released officially outside of Japan or translated into English. Given that they were released exclusively on the third most popular fifth-generation console, they are even more obscure in the West than the main anime.
- Mahou Shoujo Pretty Samy: Heart no Kimochi[1] (魔法少女プリティサミー ~ハートのきもち~ ) This game is set during the final episode of Magical Project S, "Magical Victory". This game is themed around Valentine's Day. The events of the game happen just after Romio's first defeat. It notably happens in the brief downtime both Sasami and Misao were temporarily powerless because they both had lost their magic batons during the final fight in space, but just before Tsunami, Rumiya, and Ryo-Ohki returned to Earth to restore their powers and for brand new magical girl adventures. During the events of the game Misao, and Sasami help Konoha to make chocolates for Hiroto. And they both reminisce about how much they miss Rumiya and Ryo-Ohki respectively.
- Mahou Shoujo Pretty Samy: Osorubeshi Shintaisokutei! Kakubakuhatsu 5 Byou Mae!![2] ( 魔法少女プリティサミー 恐るべし身体測定!核爆発5秒前) This game is set before the episode "The Magic Fades Away", during the time when Ramia was still trying to sabotage Tsunami, and hypnotizing Misao. Pretty Sammy tries to stop a nuclear catastrophe, and Pixy Misa helps along the way despite her and Sammy still being rivals at this point of the story.
Music
- Opening and Ending 3 (episode 26): Yume Mireba Yume Mo Yume Ja Nai [A Dream's Not a Dream if You Dream It] (performed by Chisa Yokoyama and Etsuko Kozakura)
- Ending 1 (episodes 1-13): Persona (performed by Kumi Akiyama)
- Ending 2 (episodes 14-25): Chôshi ni Notte Orimashita [I Got Carried Away] (performed by Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings)
- Insert Song 1 (episode 3): Mahô Shôjo Pixy Misa Shôka [Magical Girl Pixy Misa's Song] (performed by Rumi Kashara)
- Insert Song 2 (episode 5): Pretty Coquettish Bomber (performed by Chisa Yokoyama)
- Insert Song 3 (episode 23): Love-Me Eimy te Yobanaide [Don't Call Me Love-Me Eimy] (performed by Hisoka Moriya)
Manga Adaptations
- Magical Girl Pretty Sammy (Manga)/ 魔法少女プリティサミー : A 3 Volume Manga series drawn and written by Yasuhiro Makino [3]who also known as “Studio Unilabo” and “Noguchi Makoto”. Although the story is heavily based on the tv version of the anime, including having the exact same premise, and character designs, it does have some important differences from the tv version such as introducing new “Love Love monsters” and events that never happen in the main anime. Several events diverge considerably, such as the ending being completely different, making it firmly its own separate continuity. (Serialized in "Monthly Comic Dragon"『月刊コミックドラゴン』).
- Magical Girl Pretty Sammy (3) (Dragon magazine collection SP - Anime Comics)/魔法少女プリティサミー (3) (Dragon magazine collection SP―アニメコミック): Contrary to what it’s name implies , instead of a magazine, it’s actually a Hardbook that was released in 1997. While the author it’s unknown, the book doesn’t have any new material and it simply takes several screenshots of the anime and simply ads speech bubbles to the characters so the exact same story can be read.[4]