On the surface, Waccha PriMagi! doesn't look all that different from its franchise friends. There's a bunch of young teen girls getting involved in a vaguely shady (to adult viewers) company that turns them into idols with mysterious magic/technology, they collect fabulous outfits, and everyone has exactly one song that they perform over and over again. If that doesn't sound like a good time to you, you may not be the target audience, which in the case of this entry of the franchise feels very rooted in the small child market. (Other iterations have relied so heavily on low camera angles and backside-enhancing dance moves that the target audience felt a bit more questionable.) But while it does lean heavily to the pink'n'pretty side, Waccha PriMagi! also has a lot of elements that just make it a solid magical idol show, and even if Kiratto Pri☆Chan left you unmoved, this newest entry into the Pretty series may have more to offer.

The story follows a primary duo of thirteen-year-old girls, Matsuri and Myamu. Matsuri is a first-year middle school student and ardent fan of PriMagi idols (called Stars), though she's never quite worked up the courage to give it a try herself. That turns out to be a good thing, because in this iteration of the story, PriMagi Stars all have magical partners – kids from the magical world who are looking to both power up and pass their class by successfully helping humans become top Stars. The excitement that humans feel when they watch their favorite Stars perform turns into a magical energy called “waccha” that is needed to cast spells, or at least to do so with any precision and success. Myamu is one of those magic kids looking for a partner, but her know-it-all tendencies and abrasive personality have made her very much persona non grata at school, and there's definitely some question about her being able to pull this off – not because she doesn't have the power, but because her attitude and tactics are so awful. In fact, she basically confronts Matsuri and forces her into a partnership – and she definitely doesn't do it by the book, trying to scheme her way into success and not even managing to keep her human form hidden as she's supposed to do. (All of the other aspirants take on animal forms; Myamu's is supposed to be a cat.) Really, Myamu's lucky that Matsuri is the person she picks, because if she'd tried to pull some of what she does with Hina or Miruki, it probably wouldn't have ended well.

Matsuri, however, does agree to the partnership, and the two of them embark on their adventure. In this, Waccha PriMagi! is very much in line with its forebears: Matsuri gets a first, relatively plain outfit, magically knows a song and accompanying choreography, and is a hit right off the bat. Mid-song she gets a power-up from the audience's enthusiasm, and both song and dance remain basically the same throughout the entirety of this first set of episodes. The same is true for each of the other aspiring Stars, and each girl does have her own distinct style in both clothing and dance, ranging from Matsuri's fairly basic idol look to Lemon's Goth Loli flair, with Hina being the most mature in terms of both outfit and dance moves. (I suspect it's meant to be “sporty” rather than “mature,” but it doesn't quite work.) The basic format is that each episode provides an excuse for one or more of the Stars to perform and get a new outfit for their magical look books while the plot progresses around them.

Fortunately, that plot is pretty good. This is in large part due to the fact that each of the girls and their magical companions are distinct characters in their own right, with surprising amounts of interiority to their personalities. Even better, the show respects that interiority, and doesn't try to force them into performing when they wouldn't naturally or twist their personalities to fit whatever lesson the writers are trying to lay out; if there's any “lesson” to this show, it would be to be kind and respectful to others. Myamu and Miruki are the two characters who bear the brunt of demonstrating this, but that's well within their own personalities; both girls are selfish and quick to make hurtful decisions. This is best shown in episode four, when Myamu abruptly decides to drop Matsuri in favor of someone else she thinks will better help her succeed in her quest to gather waccha. She's so blinded by her greed and drive that she never even thinks about Matsuri and her feelings, let alone the fact that she really bulled Matsuri into working with her in the first place. Miruki, on the other hand, is entirely aware of her own selfishness and shortcomings, carefully curating her cutesy image to keep her true self under wraps. She's quick to anger internally, and watching her struggle to keep herself hidden is an interesting component of the episodes she's present in. She's also the most calculating of the girls, at times choosing not to perform because she only does so in venues where she can be assured of being the biggest winner – and if popular Stars like Hina or Matsuri are on the program, she simply won't do it. With the other girls, what you see is what you get; only Miruki seems to be fully aware of the fact that she's selling an image rather than enjoying herself.

Since there's an unsettlingly commercial aspect to the whole PriMagi Stars element of the show, that really makes Miruki interesting. After all, the magical companions aren't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They're trying to pass a class and become more powerful magic users. They have a very real stake in the outcome of each performance in a way that the girls themselves don't. With Carron, Lemon's partner, even getting her to the point of performance is a challenge, and although it's obvious that he cares about her, there's also a tangible sense of frustration that Lemon's anxiety keeps holding her back. Carron seems to perpetually be torn between worries about Lemon herself and the outcome of his class, because if he can't bring her to the stage, he can't collect the needed waccha – but clearly abandoning Lemon and finding another partner would have a deleterious effect on her self-esteem, too. This seems to nicely encapsulate the position the magical children are in: the entire PriMagi Stars setup is so that they can harvest the waccha of the humans, but in using them this way, they're put in the position of having to care for their workhorses. Myamu learning what Carron has would therefore seem to be an important piece of the plot going forward, and we can already see that she's starting to figure that out. We likewise see it in Chimumu, Hina's magical partner, in episodes eleven and twelve, when Hina sprains her ankle badly before performing but still insists on going on. On the one hand, Chimumu badly wants her to go onstage; on the other, her acrobatic dance style and heavy reliance on second-position pliés could seriously damage an already injured joint.

It's that sort of thing that really makes this show so far. Yes, the costumes are flashy and the music catchy enough, but the little character details are by far the most successful piece of the overall puzzle. Lemon's anxiety leads her to dissociate when nervous or upset, and while this is shown with the standard anime visual of her soul escaping her mouth, it's clear what's actually happening, and the storyline respects that enough to not force her into performing until she decides she's ready. We can see how each of Myamu's thoughtless actions hurt Matsuri, but also, in scenes with Myamu's grandfather (who raised her), how Myamu might have become that thoughtless in the first place. Likewise, Hina's reaction when her PriMagi idol Jennifer announces that she's not competing anymore – the sense of betrayal – comes across smoothly even as we understand that the competition between the two is largely in Hina's own mind, while Matsuri's reaction to the much more real competition between herself and Hina in episodes eleven and twelve feels spot-on, especially given how people have been treating her as a rising star of PriMagi.

There are issues, of course – while the CGI is better than in earlier series, it's still not great, and the whole concept feels very shady and suspicious (although at least they get Matsuri's mother and grandfather's approval this time), and the two boy characters just seem to exist to hint at a romantic subplot that isn't developing. But there's a sense that the show is just as interested in telling a story about a group of girls shooting to be Stars as it is in promoting the associated games and merchandise, and ultimately, that's what makes this worth watching for fans of magical (idol) girls.