The Adventures of Tweeny Witches

The Adventures of Tweeny Witches
魔法少女隊アルス (Mahō Shōjotai Arusu)
Genre	Magical girl, Adventure
TV anime
Tweeny Witches
Directed by	Yoshiharu Ashino
Studio	Studio 4°C
Licensed by	AnimeWorks
Network	NHK Animax
Original run	9 April 2004 – 4 March 2005
Episodes	40
Original video animation
Tweeny Witches: The Adventure
Directed by	Yoshiharu Ashino
Studio	Studio 4°C
Released	22 November 2007
Episodes	12
Manga
Written by	Mai Jinmei
Published by	Shogakukan
Demographic	Shōjo
Magazine	Ciao
Anime and Manga Portal

The Adventures of Tweeny Witches, known in Japan as Magical Girl Squad Arusu (魔法少女隊アルス, Mahō Shōjotai Arusu^?), is an anime series produced by Studio 4°C.^[1] It was translated and dubbed into English by the anime television network, Animax, who broadcast it in its respective networks in Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and other regions, and has been licensed for distribution in the United States by Media Blasters.^[1] The animation series uses computer graphics and records the actors' performances first and then synchs the animation to them^{[citation needed]}, the reverse of the normal dubbing method in Japanese animation.

Story

The protagonist of the story is Arusu, who mysteriously enters the world of the witches. Herself an enthusiast of witchcraft she is delighted, however she is not satisfied with the way of the witches, insisting that magic only be used to make people happy. She is marked as a troublemaker when she releases all the sprites the witches have captured for use as the source of magic spells. Later in the series, the witches interact with the world of the wizards as both try to save their worlds from destruction.

Episodes

The episodes in Tweeny Witches are only about nine minutes each. So, if one were to calculate this series using regular episode lengths, there are actually approximately 26 episodes, which makes up a normal anime season length. Some releases of this show pair episodes together, so it actually is show as only 26 episodes (20 TV and 6 OVAs). NOTE: The 12 OVA episodes were originally planned to broadcast in the summer of 2005, but were delayed. Eventually, they were released in the fall of 2007 directly to DVD (in Japan).

Characters

The Magical Girl Team

Arusu (アルス, Arusu^?)

Voiced by: Sachiko Kojima (Japanese), Julie Maddalena (English)

Arusu (Alice) is a cheerful and supportive person. A bit of a tomboy, she means to do well and is not disheartened when others put her down, instead she encourages them. Arusu loves magic (as well as sweet chestnuts) and believes it should only be used to make people happy. Her father, Jidan, gave her the True Magic Book when she was young and was the one who taught her that magic should only be used for happiness and never destruction. At the beginning of the season, the book brought her to the magic world when she fell off the top of the school. Despite being human, she was able to learn magic fairly quickly and is better than some of the native witches in the magic world. She is the one who set all of the sprites free, and caused Eva and Sheila to be cursed. At the end, she decided to go back to the human world with the help of one of the Interdimensional Maidens where she found her mother and father talking in the kitchen. She has many noticeable habits: she has long fingernails, both to have more of a witch-like appearance, as well as to make it easier to open up sweet chestnuts, is able to find easier ways to word the magic spells she is taught, which in turns actually helps most of the witches she trains with. She cannot ride a broom the normal witch way, so she rides it like one would a skateboard since she was quite skilled with one back in the human world.

Eva (エバ, Eba^?)

Voiced by: Ryo Hirohashi (Japanese), Mela Lee (English)

Friend of both Alice and Sheila, she is a friendly witch with a small amount of power. A spell to stop her growth was cast on her and Sheila for their failure to keep the sprites from escaping from their holding facility. Though neither Sheila nor Arusu consider her a burden because she has weak magic, she will constantly go out of her way to make herself more useful, often getting into trouble. Her magic becomes stronger later in the series. When witches started losing their magic due to the destruction of the magic world, Eva eventually became afflicted by the same ailment. The Grand Master, leader of the wizard world, took advantage of her weak heart and her desperation to keep her magic. He needed a witch to summon the forbidden Black Magic and Eva betrayed her friends by helping him. She was later saved by Arusu and the black magic was dispelled. She has a noticeable habit of finding some of the most bizarre things and creature to be "cute".

Sheila (シーラ, Shīra^?)

Voiced by: Houko Kuwashima (Japanese), Cindy Robinson (English)

The most knowledgeable and adept witch of the trio, she initially disliked Arusu's attitude. A spell to stop her growth was cast on her and Eva for their failure to keep the sprites from escaping from their holding facility. For the first half of the series, she was concentrated on recapturing all the sprites in order to remove the spell (she was mostly concerned with removing the spell from Eva). Sheila is the daughter of a witch and wizard, so according to customs, she must live in the witch's world away from her father. Her mother abandoned her early in life to stay with her husband in Wizard World. This hardened her heart and she became a perfectionist, bent on becoming a powerful witch and depending on no one but herself. Arusu's pacifist beliefs annoyed her at first, but had a change of heart later in the season, becoming one of Arusu's strongest allies and supporters. She was later entrusted by the Grand Master of witches to find the traitor among them, who the wizards need to perform Black Magic. She suspected one of the three sages, unaware that the future traitor is closer to her than she thinks. Though she may seem gruff, Sheila has a good heart.

The Witches

Atelia

Voiced by: Atsuko Tanaka

One of the three sages of Witch World. When she was younger, during a raid of Wizard World to retrieve the True Magic Book, she met Jidan who was being held prisoner in Wizard World. Against the rules of Witch World, she married Jidan who had a son named Lennon. She left them later to hand-over the True Magic book to Witch World. But the book was stolen by Jidan while she cried in her sleep. She tried looking for her husband and son after she realized that she didn't really want to pursue her ambition and that she truly wanted to stay with them. Unfortunately, she never found them until Arusu arrived years later to the magic world. She realized through Arusu that there are more important things than preserving tradition and the pride of witches. She has a noticeable habit of biting her nails when under duress.

Grand Master

The leader of the witches. Not the same person as the Grand Master of Wizards. She later entrusted Sheila with the task of finding a traitor among the witches.

Qoo

Voiced by: Kikumi Umeda (Japanese), Marianne Miller (English)

A young witch who is very untalented with magic. Witches who cannot perform magic by the time they are sixteen are sent to the human world, a fate all witches fear. Arusu helped her gain confidence in herself. When Arusu turned herself to stone to save the witch's town from a rampaging sprite, Kuu used her own hair to perform the counterspell that would turn Arusu back to normal. Later in the series, she appeared again when her grandmother became one of the witches who lost their magic.

Barunn, Biris, and Nerabu

The three witches that make up the special capture squad. They are sent to recapture the fairies after Alice frees them. When they find out that the magic realm was about to be destroyed, they rebel against Atelia and the sages in order to rule the Witch World before the realm collapses. Later on, they team up with Grande to get the True Book of Spells and the 100 species of fairies. They were initially regarded as the traitors who used dark magic before finding out that it was Eva using dark magic.

The Wizards

Sigma

A young wizard and the son of a prophet. He helped Arusu and her friends enter the Wizard World in order to help Grande obtain the True Magic book from them. At the end, he failed and was thrown in prison. Sigma's father was killed by the Grand Master when he tried to advise him not to use Black Magic because of he prophesized that a savior, Arusu, will come and save the world. Later in the series, it was revealed that Sigma was actually working covertly against Grande in order to help his father's prophecy come true.

Will

One of the last magic-using wizards. He and his comrades where driven out of the kingdom where science is becoming more important than magic. In the past, he helped Jidan and Renon hide from Alteria. Later, he helped Jidan's daughter, Arusu, save her friends and sprites.

Grand Master of the Wizards

Leader of the wizards. Not the same person as the Grand Master of Witches. Seeing the eventual destruction of his world, he wanted to use the forbidden Black Magic to save it, which he believed would create a new world for them to live in. He needed the True Magic book, all the different types of sprites, and a witch. The witch needed to be vulnerable, one who always felt like they are missing something inside. He found Eva. He helped her gain more power and when she lost that power, he knew she would do anything to regain it.

The Humans

Jidan

Arusu and Lennon's father. He was an archaeologist investigating the mystery of the Raven statue when he fell into the magic world. He was arrested in Wizard World due to the Grand Master's paranoia about humans. He was later rescued by Ateria. The two married and had a son despite the rules of Witch World and lived happily for a while until Ateria became more ambitious. Taking the True Magic book (intending to keep it from being used for harm) and his son, he sneaked aboard the vessel that travels across the interdimensional sea to the human world. Unfortunately, he was separated from Lennon during the travel and made it to the human world alone. There he met Yoko, married and had a daughter, Arusu. He gave his daughter the True Magic book for safe keeping, knowing that the people of magic world cannot reach it or find it in the human world. He somehow traveled back to the Magic World and was imprisoned again for six years before escaping. Jidan sacrificed himself to save Ateria. However, at the last episode of the season, Arusu found him talking to her mother in their apartment in the human world. How he escaped death and made it back to Yoko is currently unknown.

Lennon

Arusu's half-brother, son of Ateria and Jidan. Separated from Jidan, roamed the Interdimensional Sea as the pirate Lennon. He would ambush the vessel taking failed witches to the human world and take all of their food and supplies. He found Arusu in one of those vessels and called himself her mirror. They found their way back to Witch World where he was mistaken for a girl until Ateria corrected the mistake. As a child, he developed a hatred for his mother for abandoning him and his father. Upon finding her, he wanted to kill her, but later had a change of heart when she offered herself in his place after he was taken hostage by wizards, as well as when Will revealed how desperately she searched for Jidan and himself when they first left, as well as revealed it was Jidan who took him away as a way to protect Ateria.

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References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Tweeny Witches". Newtype USA. 7 (2) p. 23. February 2008. ISSN 1541-4817.

External links

• (Japanese) Official website
• Mahou Shoujo Tai Arusu (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia