Magical DoReMi Episode Introduction

Magical DoReMi, known as Ojamajo Doremi ( おジャ魔女どれみ Ojamajo Doremi?) in Japan, was originally broadcast on TV Asahi from February 7, 1999 to January 30, 2000, with a total of 51 episodes. The show was directed by Junichi Sato and Takuya Igarashi while the animation was produced by Toei Animation. It replaced the time slot of Yume no Crayon Oukoku when that show ended. After Ojamajo DoReMi ended, it was followed up by a direct sequel, Ojamajo DoReMi Sharp.

The opening theme song for Ojamajo DoReMi was "Ojamajo Carnival!!" ( おジャ魔女カニバール!! Ojamajo Kanibaru!!?) by MAHO Dou, which won the 1999 Kobe AM Award. The ending theme song was "Kitto Ashita wa" ( きっと明日は Kitto Ashita wa?), performed by Saeko Shū. When 4Kids Entertainment localized the show, the opening theme was replaced with a new song titled "Just Like Magic", while the ending credits plays an instrumental version. The opening title sequence in the English dub version is brand new consisting of clips taken from the original Japanese opening title sequence, the original Japanese ending credits sequence and even various American 4Kids dub episodes.

In 2003, 4Kids Entertainment began working on a licensing contract with Toei Animation with plans of increasing the female television demographic for their Saturday morning block.[1] The deal was not sealed until 2004.[2] Although initially planned for debut in November 2005,[3] the show appeared in the United States on 4Kids TV with a preview episode on August 13, 2005. Episodes began regularly airing on September 10, 2005;[4] they aired 26 episodes by March 11, 2006. After that, the show was in reruns until August 19, 2006. Magical DoReMi continued its run on November 13, 2007, exclusively on the network's web site and released its last episode on May 2, 2008. The first 26 episodes were grouped into one season, while the remaining episodes were grouped as "season 2" on 4Kids TV's website.[5]

Unlike the other international dubs of Ojamajo DoReMi, the English version by 4Kids Entertainment was heavily edited and localized for Western audiences and a lower TV-Y rating. 4Kids altered or removed certain scenes and images to give the show a more Western feel and to make it suitable for younger audiences as well as to be a lot less serious, younger and lighter in tone and even have a lower TV-Y rating. As such, and along with many of the scenes removed and altered as well as some episodes altered, Episode 30 was skipped, completely removed and banned. It was never released and dubbed in English. The skipping and banning of episode 30 of Ojamajo Doremi in North America and the prohibiting of the English dub of the episode lead to the Sunrise and Bandai anime Tiger and Bunny to be licensed in North America by Viz Media instead of Bandai Entertainment.