Ultra Maniac



Japanese Title: ウルトラマニアック

Italian Title: Streghe per amore

Plot
Ayu Tateishi is a well-adjusted middle-schooler in her second year, until the fateful day when she finds a dejected looking Nina Sakura outside of the school. Nina explains that she lost something very dear to her earlier that day. Ayu offers to help Nina look for her lost item, but Nina seems reluctant to say what the item is that she lost, and runs off. On her way home Ayu finds what seems to be a mini-computer underneath the bench she knew Nina to be at earlier that day. After returning the item to Nina, Nina struggles to decide whether to let Ayu in on the 'big secret' she keeps.

In order to see if Ayu is trustworthy, she starts to follow Ayu around and eventually decides she can trust Ayu. Nina reveals that she is actually from the Magic Kingdom and is a magic girl. Ayu, however, doesn't believe Nina and thinks she is a bit crazy at first. Ayu herself had always shunned the ideas of magic and fairy tales, even admitting she had never read Harry Potter, so having someone tell her they are a witch truly isn't something she can easily accept. After several mishaps with her magic, Nina proves she is a magic girl, and a failure who came to Earth as her last chance to prove that she can get things right. These first mishaps and the fact that Nina has shared her secret with Ayu, Nina attaches herself to Ayu as a friend and does everything she can to help Ayu with getting the attention of the boy she loves. As their adventures continue many friends from the magical kingdom come and visit Nina to the chagrin of Ayu.

The anime adaptation has a very different plot starting after Ayu and Nina have first met. Instead of coming as a witch failure who is trying to prove herself to be more than she is said to be, Nina has come to Earth to find the five "Holy Stones". She tells Ayu that whoever collects all five will qualify to marry the prince of the Magic Kingdom. Nina's childhood friend Maya is also on Earth from the start, competing with Nina to find the stones. Though Nina does collect them all first, she learns that the prince and Maya are truly in love with one another, so Nina gives up the stones and her dream, allowing Maya and the prince to be with one another, and Nina stays on Earth with her friends.

OVA: Heart Throbbing, Mysterious Diary
Airdate: 6 August, 2002

Tateishi Ayu is a popular and attractive student in middle school, where she is the star of the women's tennis team. She has a crush on Tesushi Kaji, a handsome and popular player on the baseball team. Ayu notices a new transfer student named Sakura Nina crying and worries that she is being bullied. As it turns out, Nina has lost something. After Nina described the lost item as something pink and rectangular and Ayu has offered to help find it, Nina seems to get nervous and hastily excuses herself, saying she doesn't need any help. Ayu later finds something that looks like the item under a bench in the schoolyard; Ayu thinks it could be an electronic dictionary or game, but notices strange characters on the keyboard. Nina is very grateful that Ayu found her item, and we later see Nina thinking that Ayu may be just the person she was looking for. The next day at school, Ayu notices Nina is following her around and staring at her, but doesn't think much more about it. She's more interested in the new school drama! An argument breaks out between the men's and women's tennis teams--the boys don't feel the girls should have more than one court; a challenge is made to win one court away from the other, with Nina suggesting Ayu go up against Tsujiai Hiroki, the star of the men's tennis team and Kaji's best friend.

Before the match, Nina takes Ayu aside and says she wants to thank Ayu properly for helping her find her lost item. She explains that she is not human, but a girl from the Magical Kingdom and the lost item is actually a computer that contains a magical encyclopedia that helps Nina perform her spells. Nina transferred to the school because she wasn't good enough at magic and couldn't graduate from magical middle school. She wants to thank Ayu for finding her computer, so she asks Ayu what she magic she can perform to thank her, and Ayu decides to ask Nina to increase her athletic ability in order to help her with the upcoming tennis match. Nina has a magical treasure box that she puts a piece of chocolate inside and then connects the box to the computer. However, Nina accidently creates flowers with the magic and has trouble performing the spell; she eventually gets it done and gives the piece of chocolate to Ayu to eat.

But Nina's spell turns Ayu into a boy! Ayu is very distressed and annoyed at the spell, but she and Nina know they have to think of something fast before the match. They say that Ayu had to go home sick and that her male cousin Ayuo is stepping in for her. The boys are reluctant, but Tsujiai convinces them it's okay and he'll still play Ayuo. Ayu discovers that she is not used to her new male body and is overcompensating in the game. Though she loses to Tsujiai because of this, he convinces the boy's team that it wouldn't be fair to take a court away from the girls and urges the girls to train more than just on the court—they'll have to work as hard as the boys in the future.

Though Nina can't seem to find a spell to make Ayu normal again, the spell wears off after a couple of hours. Ayu sighs and tells us that this is typical of her life as Nina's friend.