Himitsu no Akko-chan

Japanese Title: ひみつのアッコちゃん

English Title: Secrets of Akko / The Magic Mirror

Italian Title: Lo specchio magico

Spanish Title: Los Secretos de Julie

Polish Title: Czarodziejskie Zwierciadełko

Chinese Title: 甜蜜小天使(Anime series) / 魔鏡魔鏡變變變(Movie)

Plot
Atsuko "Akko" and her mother have been living together since their father became the captain of a luxurious cruiser. One day, Akko accidentally broke her favorite mirror. She made a grave for it. On the same night, the sky brightens and Akko receives a gift, a compact mirror, from the mirror spirit for her kind-heartedness. Whenever she sings the magic words, "Tekumaku Mayakon", the magical compact mirror will allow her to transform into anything she hopes to be. When Akko says, "Ramipasu Ramipasu Rururururu" ("Goodbye" in mirror language), she changes back.

Plot
Akko-chan is a bright and energetic 5th grader in elementary school whose father is a newscaster and mother is a picture-book writer. Akko always cherishes the palm-sized mirror that was given to her by her father and treats it with care. However, the mirror was accidentally broken by her absent-minded mother. On a night where a beautiful full-moon hangs in the sky, Akko-chan buries the mirror pieces in the garden and goes to sleep. She is awakened by a soft and kind voice which belongs to the Queen of the Mirror Kingdom. She sends her gratitiude to Akko-chan for cherishing the mirror with care and offers her a magical compact mirror. Whenever she sings the magical words, Akko-chan will be able to transform into anything she wants.

Plot
In the Kagami household, the old Western palm-sized mirror has been passed from from generations to generations. Akko-chan has been taught about the importance of the mirror and when she finally receives it from her mother, she cherishes it with all her might. One day, in the midst of a disturbance made by Taishou and his gang, Akko-chan accidentally broke the mirror. She made a grave and buried the broken pieces in the backyard. That night, Akko-chan was awakened by a flash of light and a kind voice which belongs to the Queen of the Mirror Kingdom. The Queen expresses her gratitude to Akko-chan for valuing the mirror so much and offers her a gift - a magical compact mirror. Whenever Akko-chan sings the magical words, she will transform into anything she wants.

Plot
Atsuko Kagami (Riko Yoshida), nicknamed Akko, is an elementary school student who is immensely curious about makeup and fashion. One day, a treasured mirror that Akko’s father bought for her gets broken, and she feels blue even though her dear mother (Keiko Horiuchi) tries to comfort her. That night, a man wearing a suit and sunglasses (Teruyuki Kagawa) appears and gives her a magical compact. This man turns out to be a spirit of mirrors. “Say ‘Tekumaku Mayakon’ twice, then what you want to become,” he says. “Say ‘Ramipasu Ramipasu Rururururu’ to dispel the charm.” The spirit of mirrors continues to tell an incredulous Akko, “Don’t ever tell anyone about this. If anyone finds out, the mirror will lose its magic.”

Akko returns to her room after the spirit of mirrors disappears and says, “Let me be a grown-up!” Light engulfs her and she turns into her 22-year-old self (Haruka Ayase)! She becomes carried away and transforms into the various occupations of her dreams one after another, like a figure skater and cabin attendant.

One day during winter vacation, Akko goes to the amusement park with her best friend Moko and her classmates. There she meets Naoto Hayase (Masaki Okada), who works for a major cosmetics company called Akatsuka. Akko rides the Ferris wheel alone with him and feels a little attracted to the sadness she senses in him.

The next day she skips cram school classes and transforms into her 22-year-old self again. While she is looking around at a department store cosmetics counter, she runs into Naoto again as he is doing market research.

Akatsuka Cosmetics Inc. was a company that clung to tradition and had no corporate philosophy, failing to keep up with the times. Naoto takes a liking to Akko, who claims to be a university student, because she has a surprisingly fresh way of thinking. He offers her a part-time position in the Planning and Development Office where he is given manager status. Akko is giddy with excitement as she begins working alongside unique employees such as Mari Aoyama (Kazue Fukiishi), and although she makes mistakes sometimes, she enjoys experiencing everything for the first time every day.

She learns from the security guard (Muga Tsukaji) about Naoto’s current situation, which is that he had once developed a hit product but had lost his standing because of a factional strife within the company, and could no longer work the way he wished. So she tries to encourage Naoto by transforming herself into someone he looked up to, Mr. Nakamura (Ren Ohsugi), the former CEO of the company.

Thanks in part to Akko’s support, Naoto submits a proposal for an innovative new product to Atami (Shosuke Tanihara), the senior executive director of the company. Naoto appeals to Atami that he wishes to turn the company around by developing the new product. Atami, however, is the very man who drove Mr. Nakamura away. “Getting rid of the inventory comes first,” he tells Naoto, and has no intention of hearing him out. Atami is actually negotiating a buyout with Gold Inc.’s Kitoh (Takeshi Kaga) in exchange for the position of CEO.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s wife (Shungiku Uchida) begins to vigorously promote Akatsuka’s cosmetics. Akatsuka’s products are covered by the media in a big way and they start selling explosively. The truth of the matter was that Akko had transformed into the Prime Minister’s wife to sell out the inventory, but her action ends up landing the company in a worse predicament. Finding herself in a fix, Akko goes to meet Tsuruko Ohba (Masako Motai), the top shareholder of Akatsuka, to ask for her cooperation in turning the company around. But Tsuruko refuses to deal with Akko and all the doors appear to be closed for Akatsuka.

One evening, Akko finds herself alone with Naoto in the office. As they gaze at the Tokyo Tower shining outside the window, Naoto tells Akko a story. “My mother, who had been working from morning till night to raise her children, was always tired, but when she wore makeup she became beautiful like magic. There must be lots of people like her in the world. I began working for Akatsuka because I wanted to create cosmetics for those people. You reminded me of that, Akko.”

Seeing Naoto speaking honestly about himself, Akko feels her heart race and realizes that she is in love with him. But Naoto doesn’t know who she really is. If she tells him, they won’t be able to see each other again. And if she doesn’t return to her real self again, will she be able to stay with Naoto forever?

Will she be able to save the company? And what will become of their relationship?