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Toei Posts Looking for Magical Doremi Film's 1st 6 Minutes

Toei began streaming the first six minutes of Looking for Magical DoReMi (Majo Minarai o Sagashite), the brand-new anime film commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Ojamajo Doremi magical girl anime franchise, on Friday.

The film opened on November 13 after a COVID-19 delay. It premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival on Tuesday. Toei and Toei Animation announced in March that they were postponing the May 15 opening of the movie due to production issues, and later rescheduled the anime for fall. The film earned 74,061,680 yen (about US$709,100) in its first three days to rank at #4 at the box office in Japan in its opening weekend.

The story follows 27-year-old Tokyo office worker Mire Yoshizuki who just returned to Japan, 22-year-old fourth-year college student Sora Nagase who aspires to be a teacher, and 20-year-old boyish, part-time Hiroshima okonomiyaki shop worker and freelancer Reika Kawatani. What draws together these three women from completely different walks of life are Magic Spheres. A "New Magical Story" begins when they are mysteriously brought together by chance and embark on a journey.

The cast includes:

• Aoi Morikawa as Sora Nagase
• Rena Matsui as Mire Yoshizuki
• Kanako Momota as Reika Kawatani
• Kenta Hamano as Seiya Kubo, Reika's no-good boyfriend
• Shōhei Miura as Ryūichi Oomiya, a college student who travels with the three heroines and likes Ojamajo Doremi
• Akira Ishida as Hayato Yabe, Mire's junior at work

Junichi Satō (Sailor Moon, Aria, Princess Tutu), the director of the original Ojamajo Doremi anime, directed the new film alongside Yū Kamatani (Precure franchise episode director) at Toei Animation. Midori Kuriyama (episode scriptwriter for Lovely Complex, Heartcatch Precure!) and Yoshihiko Umakoshi (Boys Over Flowers, Mushi-Shi) also returned from Ojamajo Doremi as scriptwriter and character designer, respectively, and Umakoshi is credited as chief animation director. Shōko Nakamura (Doukyusei -Classmates-) is credited as animation director for the film, and Hiromi Seki served as producer.

The first Ojamajo Doremi anime series premiered in Japan in 1999, and 4Kids began broadcasting a heavily edited version of the series in the United States in 2005 under the title Magical DoReMi.

Source: Press release