Mahou Tsukai Chappy

Mahou Tsukai Chappy ("Chappy the Witch") is an early Magical Girl anime about a Cute Witch named Chappy who becomes bored with life in the Land of Magic and moves to Earth for a change of pace. She finds out that life on earth isn't as rosy as the stories her grandmother told her, but settles in with her parents, her younger brother Jun, and their panda companion Don-Chan. She attends school, makes two close friends in Tomboy Michiko and Girly-Girl Shizuko, and uses her magic to help people, but hanging over her head is the fear of being burned at the stake if she's exposed as a witch, so she has to keep that fact as discreet as she can.

A Toei Animation work first aired on NET (today's TV Asahi) in 1972, with its story developed by Astro Boy and Urusei Yatsura writer Masaki Tsuji, the series is more or less an Expy of Mahou Tsukai Sally with a few twists, such as as Chappy's entire family moving to Earth with her, a cute animal sidekick (Don-chan), and episodes themed around timely concerns of the early '70s, such as ecology and overpopulation. The final episode is also surprisingly dark for a show targeted at young girls (see below). Not particularly popular in Japan at the time, it would later find quite a few fans in Italy and South America. The first 26 episodes were also dubbed in French, but never broadcast, due to the failures of other magical girl shows in France.

A spinoff manga was drawn by Hideo Azuma (of Little Pollon fame), who would go on to create his own magical girl series, Nanako SOS, a decade later. Chappy's voice actress, Eiko Masuyama, would voice a second magical girl, Cutie Honey, a year later.

Tropes used in Mahou Tsukai Chappy include:

• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Italian dub uses a totally different theme from the original Japanese, while the Latino Spanish dub simply translated the Japanese themes.
• Bittersweet Ending: Chappy's powers are revealed to her friends in the last episode, and Chappy, feeling responsible, tries to Driven to Suicide drown herself, but is stopped in time. The king of the Magic Kingdom allows Chappy's family to remain on earth, but their friends' memories are erased, and Chappy's family has to move to another town.
• Burn the Witch: Chappy and her brother's biggest fear is that this will happen if they're found out.
• Cool Car: Don-chan has one. A Running Gag involves Chappy's brother always failing to hitch a ride.
• Cute Witch
• Dub Name Change: The Italian dub didn't change Jun's and Don-chan's names as much as it did Westernize them slightly (to Juno and Duncan, respectively).
• Fish Out of Water
• Flying Broomstick: Chappy has one.
• Girlish Pigtails: Chappy and her two Muggle Best Friends, Michiko and Shizuko.
• Magic Wand: A baton actually. Chappy's tool of choice, which she pinched from her grandfather.
• Magical Incantation: "Abura Mahariku Maharita Kabura"
• Magical Land: Where Chappy hails from.
• Muggle Foster Parents: Notably averted; Chappy is a rare Cute Witch who has her parents come with her to the human world.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Don-chan.
• Shout-Out: Devilman (the green 1972 anime version, anyway) appears on TV in one episode. Devilman and Chappy were both Toei shows and shared a head writer (Masaki Tsuji), a TV channel (NET), and several animation staff.
• Talking Animal: Don-chan is a talking panda. Pandas were hot in Japan in the early '70s as the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo acquired its first pandas that year; indeed, 1972 was the same year Isao Takahata's Panda! Go, Panda! was made.
• Tomboy: Michiko, Chappy's first friend on Earth, and this series' Expy of Yotchan from Sally. She forms a Tomboy and Girly-Girl pair with another of Chappy's friends, Shizuko (this series' Expy of Sumire from Sally).