Before we get going, yes, this is that series with the infamous episode forty-six, which shaped the darker elements of the magical girl series that came after it. As of this writing, Crunchyroll hasn’t licensed anything beyond the first fifteen episodes, and although they still contain some moments that we definitely wouldn’t see today in a show aimed at little girls, they’re also hardly groundbreaking – and to be perfectly honest, that’s just fine.
Fairy Princess Minky Momo‘s original 1982 run predates the Pierrot Magical Girls, which began with Creamy Mami by a year. It’s not hard to see how it influenced Mami and her descendants, Pastel Yumi and Magic Emi, and in turn was influenced by earlier shows, specifically Cutie Honey. Momo’s main power is becoming a skilled adult version of herself; she can become anything by asking to be, for example, “a policewoman with an adult touch.” Once transformed, she has all the skills of her chosen career in their highest form, and she uses these abilities to help out the people she meets on Earth in the hopes of garnering magic energy that she sends back home to her parents in the detached magic land of Fenarinasa. Throughout these episodes, she becomes a policewoman, a soccer coach, a phantom thief, a nurse, and a variety of other professions, generally using the trend of one per episode. However, in the soccer one, she also briefly becomes a stage magician. Momo’s magic can also turn anyone into the adult version of her with no bells and whistles for a total of three minutes, which we see in the admittedly weird story about hunting dogs.
One of the story’s most baffling yet entertaining aspects is how Momo gaslights everyone on Earth the minute she arrives. When her Earth parents question whether they’ve always had a daughter, she smiles and tells them that, of course, they have; when anyone is confused by her presence, she convinces them that, of course, she’s always been there. Everyone vaguely questions her existence, which Momo brushes away with an adorable little grin, which almost certainly reads differently for adult viewers than it did for the original child audience. But Momo’s entire world is bizarre in the way that only children’s media can be: her dad is a vet who gets called to cure polar bear colds in the Artic (for example), and her family’s business is a weird combination of pet store, animal shelter, and vet clinic; at one point someone surrenders a dog to them. Momo doesn’t appear to attend school, and the country’s location is undefined. It’s not Japan, and probably not England, but it feels as fantastical as Momo’s home kingdom in the sky. That’s not a bad thing, but it does make it clear that “logic” and “making sense” aren’t substantial storytelling priorities; we don’t get an actual explanation for Momo’s mission until episode four, when we meet her parents and get a brief tour of her homeland.
In many ways, this series is very much of its time. Three episodes feature direct call-outs to series that predate it. There’s an Aim for the Ace! episode, two involving a thief named Lupinne, and a Speed Racer episode complete with a very familiar helmet. Interestingly enough, none of them are parodies; the humor comes from Momo’s three companions (a dog, a monkey, and a bird, which should sound familiar when paired with her name). The tennis storyline gets pretty dark in places, at one point featuring the male lead of the episode wandering around the red-light district, complete with billboards of naked women. The closest we come to parody is in episode ten, when Momo gets a little meta and starts talking about her “transformation this week” and singing her theme song. There’s only one recurring plotline, the Lupinne one, and even that only has two episodes that aren’t back-to-back. Mostly, the series has the feel of an old-school Saturday morning cartoon, which is essentially what it is. It’s silly, not always well drawn or animated, and designed to keep you entertained for half an hour.
Despite this, or maybe because of it, Fairy Princess Minky Momo is a lot of fun. It doesn’t matter that in episode eight, a background sign changes from saying “Women’s Wear” to “Women’s Dress” between frames, and it doesn’t matter that Momo’s dad in the sky is annoying and a little creepy. The joy of this series is watching Momo skate through life, convincing people that she’s always been there, and transforming into a random professional to save the day. She’s a perky, happy character, an archetype of the mischievous but goodhearted little girl who was a staple of international children’s media for many years. While that may become an issue down the line (episode forty-six, for example), right now, it just makes this a great series to watch while scarfing down a bowl of sugary cereal in true 1980s fashion. Historically, this is an important entry into the magical girl lexicon, but if you enjoy classic anime and early magical girl stories, you can comfortably leave the history out of it. Just sit back, marvel at Momo’s ridiculously long transformation phrase, and enjoy some perky music and silly antics. Hopefully, we’ll get more episodes, because this is a treat.