Lalabel, The Magical Girl

Lalabel, The Magical Girl
Cover of the 1st DVD box
魔法少女ララベル (Mahō Shōjo Raraberu)
Genre	Magical girl
TV anime
Directed by	Masahiro Sasaki
Studio	Toei Animation
Network	TV Asahi
Original run	15 February 1980 – 27 February 1981
Episodes	49
TV film anime
Magical Girl Lalabel: the Sea Calls for a Summer Vacation
Directed by	Hiroshi Shidara
Studio	Toei Animation
Released	12 July 1980
Runtime	15 minutes
Anime and Manga Portal

Lalabel, The Magical Girl (魔法少女ララベル, Mahō Shōjo Raraberu^?), also known as Magical Girl Lalabel, is a magical girl anime by Toei Animation.

A 15 minutes long "movie" special called Magical Girl Lalabel: the Sea Calls for a Summer Vacation (魔法少女ララベル 海が呼ぶ夏休み, Mahō Shōjo Raraberu: Umi ga Yobu Natsuyatsumi^?) was also created, it aired in Japan in July 1980.

Story

Lalabel is a magical girl who has a magic wand and a magic case full of magic items. She owns a kitten as a pet. She lives happily in the magic world, until the day she sees the thief Biscus stealing all the magic tools. Startled by her sudden appearance, Biscus swings his magic wand around with dismay. They fall into the human world under the influence of the wand's magic power.

While unconscious, Lalabel is found by an elderly couple, the Tachibanas. They take her home, and upon finding out that she is an orphan, decide to let her stay with them. Lalabel decides to stay until she can capture Biscus. She attends school with Teko, the granddaughter of the Tachibanas, and Toko. She slowly develops a sense of humour and pathos, and finds herself falling in love. Whenever she sees Biscus performing his bad deeds, she has to stop him. Finally Lalabel writes proverbs related to the events of the day in her diary.

Living in the human world, Lalabel discovers fascinating aspects of human beings and finds herself happy there. In the last episode, after the last battle between Lalabel and Biscus, both magic cases get empty of magic items and vanish in the air, now both of them are completely human, the villains become good ones and promise not to storm Lalabel or any of her friends anymore. Lalabel, Teko and Toko move on up to play.

Characters

• Lalabel

The main character. She is a magical girl from the magic world. One night, while she is sleeping, her magical items wake her up, and she sees Biscus stealing 2 magical briefcases. After being pulled to Earth by Biscus, she is adopted by the Tachibanas, and decides to stay until she can capture Biscus and return home. Being from the magical world, she is very naive about Earth customs. Interestingly, her wand was made into a real life toy, the first case of magical girl merchandise.

• Biscus

A very fat thief and the main villain. He stole 2 magical briefcases, but after being surprised by Lalabel, he transports the two of them to Earth, losing one of the briefcases in the process. While on Earth, he shacks up with a noodle stand owner, who is as greedy and nasty as himself. He tries to swindle people with his (stolen) magic powers while trying to steal Lalabel's briefcase. He has a grey cat as nasty and horrid as himself.

• The Tachibanas

The kind old couple who let Lalabel stay with them. Mrs Tachibana is the typical kindly grandmother figure. Mr Tachibana is cynical and does not like magic. After Lalabel saves him from drowning, he starts to warm up to her and her magic. He is the one who comes up with the proverbs Lalabel writes.

• Teko

Granddaughter to the Tachibanas. She wears glasses.

• Toko

Friend to Lalabel and Teko. Sometimes she's mistaken as a boy 'cause of her masculine outfits.

• Hokiba

Biscus' sidekick.

Voices

International titles

• Lalabel(Italian DUB)
• Lalabel, La Niña Mágica (Spanish dub)
• Le Monde Enchanté de Lalabel (French dub)
• Λάλαμπελ (Greek dub)

Theme songs

The opening theme Hello Lalabel and the ending theme Mahou Shōjo Lalabel were sung by Mitsuko Horie.

References

External links

• Lalabel Official website from Toei Animation (Japanese)