Floral Magician Mary Bell Episode 2 Description: "Floral Magician Mary Bell is a charming anime mainly for younger girls. The hidden theme is rather deep and serious, but the overall atmosphere is cute, light, and comical. This heartwarming show was directed by Endō Tetsuya, who also worked as the assistant director on My Neighbor Totoro. High-quality drawings were achieved by animation directors including Chiba Yuriko, one of the most outstanding sakuga kantoku in Japan. The 50-episode series first aired in Japan in 1992--93. It was also broadcast in Hong Kong, South Korea, Italy, Taiwan, Mainland China, Thailand, Poland and in the Arabic-speaking area. The series is currently unlicensed in the United States. The original title is Hana no Mahōtsukai Mary Bell. This is the 4th (the last) of the 4 magical-girl anime by Ashi Productions, following Minky Momo (1st), Sweet Mint, and Minky Momo (2nd). It is cute, but innocently cute, not coquettish (aka moe). The catch is, the story goes quite slowly and you have to wait long until the best part (Eps 30-50, especially 45) begins. One of the main themes is "making friends rather than fighting," which is easier to say than to do. The relationship between Mary Bell and Vivian--her first main "enemy"--is changing little by little in a subtle way, and it takes about 30 episodes before they somehow become friends. Unlike many other magical girl anime, Mary Bell doesn't really try to hide her true identity, and eventually many people ...
