Manga Review: Magical Angel Creamy Mami and the Spoiled Princess 1 by Emi Mitsuki
A few years ago, when small talent agency Parthenon Productions was just starting out, Megumi Ayase was their breakout star. Company manager Shingo Tachibana led her to believe that they’d work together to make Parthenon a success. And they did. But the “Milky Way Princess” is old news now, and in the idol singer business, that’s bad news. Shingo’s on the lookout for new talent, and then he finds Creamy Mami, a mysterious girl who has a magical way about her. Megumi’s not going to give up her star status without a fight though.
Magical Angel Creamy Mami was an anime that came out in 1983. In it, ten year old girl Yu Morisawa helps out an alien named Pino Pino. In gratitude, Pino Pino gives Yu a magical compact that allows her to change into a teenage version of herself. While wandering about in her teen form, Yu is scouted by Shingo, and her magical powers turn out to be perfect for being a television idol singer. She makes up the name “Creamy Mami” and has adventures both show biz and supernatural.
The show was a huge hit both in Japan and Europe, and launched the subgenre of “magical girl idol singers.” It’s also something of a time capsule of idol singer business culture in the early 1980s, when the talent generally debuted at age 16, had a year of glory, and then were retired to go on with their normal lives or possibly another show business career. Megumi’s unusual for the time period in lasting several years.
This tie-in manga retells the events of the story from Megumi’s point of view. In the anime, Megumi was an antagonist mean girl, jealous, ill-tempered and hostile to Creamy Mami. And she still is, but from a more sympathetic perspective. Megumi’s trained hard to elevate her natural talent and good looks into star quality, taking singing and dance lessons, and exercising to stay in shape. Mami, on the other hand, was just handed magical powers which do all the work for her (at least at first.)
And Shingo isn’t helping. As a businessman, he has no compunctions about doing what he thinks is best for the company. And if that means putting Megumi on the back burner while exploiting Creamy Mami’s fresh new popularity, he’s okay with that. He’s very blunt about this, which infuriates Megumi, who remembers how closely they worked together at the beginning. (Shingo is actually in love with Megumi, but thinks this should be obvious to her, so never bothers saying so.)
The art is good, but it’s working with the excellent character designs from the original anime, so has a boost there. And the storyline is charming.
One weakness this manga has is that since Megumi is out of the loop on what’s really going on with Creamy Mami, large parts of the story won’t make sense to someone who hasn’t seen the anime. (Or at least read spoilers.)
Content note: Megumi slaps Shingo. A lot. It’s understandable in context, he is an ass, but parents of younger readers may want to discuss why that sort of behavior is no longer acceptable. (And explain why Shingo should explain himself in a better way.)
This is listed as an all-ages book, and should be suitable for fourth-graders on up, but is most recommended if you’ve seen the anime.
