Anime / Ojamajo Doremi

The Ojamajos (left to right): Onpu, Hazuki, Doremi, Aiko, Momoko and Pop.

"If you had magic, what would you do?"

Toei Animation's Cute Witch Cash-Cow Franchise from 1999 to 2003, spanning a four year-long television series, with an extra series airing in 2004.

Ojamajo Doremi^note Known internationally as Magical Doremi (Ojamajo being a portmanteau of "ojama", meaning a hindrance and "majo", meaning witch) tells the story of Doremi Harukaze, the self-proclaimed "unluckiest pretty girl in the whole world", who dreams of becoming a witch just like in the stories she reads. One day she stumbles across a mysterious shop run by an old woman who fits the profile of a witch to a tee. Doremi calls her out on it, and suddenly the woman transforms into an ugly little frog thing: turns out she really was a witch, and this is what happens when a human correctly identifies one.

The ex-witch, Majo Rika, takes her on as an apprentice witch so that Doremi can eventually gain enough magical power to change her back. The thing is, Doremi is horrible when it comes to learning the trade, which leads to Majo Rika branding her an ojamajo. Not soon afterwards, Doremi's two friends Hazuki Fujiwara and Aiko Senoo get in on the act, and in the latter half of the series, Onpu Segawa- another apprentice witch who uses magic for selfish reasons- turns up as an antagonist of sorts.

In the second series (Ojamajo Doremi # (Sharp)), Onpu has reformed and Doremi gains a magical "daughter" called Hana that she has to raise for one year. The third series (Mo~tto! Ojamajo Doremi) introduces American witch apprentice Momoko Asuka to help the group pass a test to become formal witches. This test involves turning their shop into a bakery for the season. The fourth and final television series (Ojamajo Doremi Dokka~n!) has Hana force-grow herself to the same age as Doremi so she can attend school with her "mommy". A fifth series followed (Ojamajo Doremi Na-i-sho) that was set during Mo~tto and focused on various secrets held by the main characters.

The franchise was a massively popular series in Japan; notably, it's the third longest Magical Girl series to date behind Pretty Cure and Sailor Moon, but unlike the two other touchstone series, the show takes place in a single continuity.

The series has been dubbed into several languages and released in multiple countries under the name Magical DoReMi. In America it was licensed by 4Kids, becoming the first version not to call the main character "Doremi" (instead they called her Dorie, turning Hazuki and Aiko into Reanne and Mirabelle respectively to retain the pun in the title). While the first twenty-six episodes were aired on television, the last twenty-five were only available online.

In 2011, Kodansha began publishing a series of Light Novel trilogies under the title Ojamajo Doremi 16. The novels were penned by Midori Kuriyama, the series' main episode writer, with illustrations provided by Yoshihiko Umakoshi, the original series' character designer. The story take place years after the ending of the original anime series, where Doremi is now a high school student. The stories are written in the same episodic format as the television series, dealing with problems in both Doremi's personal life and affairs in the Witch World. After the release of Ojamajo Doremi 16 ~Come On!~, the novel continued on as a second trilogy titled Ojamajo Doremi 17, and later a third titled Ojamajo Doremi 18. The LN series reached its conclusion with Ojamajo Doremi 19.

In 2019, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series, there's an original net animation called Ojamajo Doremi: Comedy Theater that features chibi versions of the character designs light novel series. An additional light novel called Ojamajo Doremi 20, written by Yumi Kageyama, has also been released, alongside a fall 2020 movie called Majo Minarai Wo Sagashite, which is set in an alternate canon where Ojamajo Doremi exists as a Show Within a Show.

Despite that, the film is not the end of the franchise. [1]A new animated project is slated for release in 2024 for the series' 25th anniversary, though the contents of it are currently unknown.

Not to be confused with Ojarumaru.

This series has a character sheet. And now it has a recap in the works.

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This series contains examples of:

A(Sweet Apple pie)-D(Surprising Donuts)

• Aborted Arc: The writers forgot that the girls had yet to collect all the bad cards in the first season. Luckily, they tied this arc up in season two.
• A Day in the Limelight: Many characters get focus episodes to help them with their growth. This includes every single student in Doremi's class. Several of those characters even get it multiple times!
• Adaptational Nationality: The Latin American and European dubs keep the characters' Japanese ethnicity ambiguous, but the English dub blatantly changes the setting from Japan to North America by renaming the characters and locations with Western names. The South Korean dub also changes the characters to Korean to comply with national broadcasting regulations, as blatantly Japanese content could not be aired on certain channels due to political tension between the two countries.
• Adjective Noun Fred: The title, Ojamajo Doremi, directly translates into "Troublesome Witch Doremi."
• Adults Are Useless: Unlike a lot of children's anime, not only do the parents and teachers provide a major support network, but are often shown to be just as developed as the main kid characters. They can slip into this trope, should the comedy call for it.
• Aerith and Bob: Everyone else's names are common Japanese names except for Doremi, Pop, and Onpu.^note These names all have something to do with music; Doremi's name refers to the first three notes of the musical scale, Pop's name likely refers to pop music, and Onpu's name means "musical note". Likewise, the names of people who live in New York are common as well, with Momoko being the Aerith while living there.
• All Deaths Final: If someone were to die in this show, they're all but assured to remain dead. Sure, there is magic to bring people Back from the Dead, but doing so will cost the caster her life upon success. For that reason, that magic is forbidden and thus hasn't been used successfully onscreen. Ever.
• All for Nothing: in Series 1 and Sharp, the girls go through hardship after hardship to pass the tests and become full fledged Witches...and then have to give them up to save someone: Onpu in the former and Hana in the latter.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys:
  • Masaru Yada, on who Hazuki has a obvious crush. Though he's more Troubled, but Cute rather than actually "bad".
  • Akatsuki during Sharp, though he kept his anti-villainous tendencies concealed until The Reveal.
  • The man Onpu daydreamed about in Naisho episode 10 is depicted as being bad.
• All There in the Manual: Who is this Majorhythm? How come I haven't heard of Rhythm Makihatayama? You mean, she's just in the Visual Novel game? Oh.
• All Your Powers Combined: Magical Stage. All Ojamajos who are present (except Hana for all but the penultimate one) need to be resent just to use this spell. In Sharp, The High Queen gives the girls a set of Calls that would let them do this even when separate.
• Alphabet Song: The song "Sweet Song ABC" lists a dessert or snack item associated with each letter of the English alphabet.
• Alpha Bitch:
  • Reika Tamaki, also the resident Ojou. Momoko is actually able to relate and make friends with her due to being similar (too similar) to a friend in America, Mary. She also gives an excellent lampshading...
  Momoko: I really don't like people like Tamaki-san, but you see her type no matter which country's school you are in.
  • Lovable Alpha Bitch: Spoiled Brat as she is, Tamaki isn't completely evil either. Her focus episode in the first season has her going through an Heroic BSoD when she doubts that her Bumbling Dad truly loves her and bonding with Shiori.
  • She gains even more sympathetic development during Motto, where her self-centered and bratty behavior is revealed to be caused by her loneliness and insecurity. Momoko sees through this and becomes close friends with her, and also helps others to see Reika's true self.
  • Erika, Reika's cousin, antagonizes Pop and her friends. Like her sister, she becomes a Lovable Alpha Bitch later in Dokkan.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song
• Always in Class One: Played with. In the first half of the series, the main characters are in class 2. However, there's a student shuffle in the third season that splits up the girls — Doremi (later joined by Momoko and Hana) is in class 1 with her regular teacher Seki; Hazuki, Aiko, and Onpu stay in class 2 but get a new teacher in Nishizawa.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Pop antagonizes Doremi throughout the first half of the first season, often considering herself better than her older sibling. She grows out of this starting when she gets her magic.
• The Apprentice: Doremi and the other girls throughout the series are under the tutelage of various transformed Witches. They technically avert this whenever they either become full-fledged Witches or have to give up being Witches.
• Art Evolution: The girls change outfits and get taller in the second half of the series, but the overall designs get better in the second half of Sharp. This is justified as the show begins with the girls in 3rd grade and ends with them graduating 6th grade and the elementary school.
• Art Shift: The ending for Naisho depicts the girls in a simplified, roughly-drawn art style with a noticeable Line Boil, almost to the point of Stylistic Suck.
• Audience Shift: Ojamajo Doremi is a show targeted towards little girls, but Ojamajo Doremi 16 is targeted to people who grew up with the show. Also, since the 15th anniversary of Ojamajo Doremi, Bandai has been releasing Doremi-themed products for adult women, such as make-up and jewelry accessories.
• The B Grade: In one episode, Hazuki is devastated when she gets a "Try Harder" grade on her report card even though all of her other grades were outstanding.
• Balloon Belly: Lala in Ojamajo Doremi Sharp ep. 16; Hazuki and Aiko in Ojamajo Doremi Dokkan! ep. 12. The latter is because the twosome had to eat Doremi's and Hana's meals in addition to their own due to an emergency on Hana's part.
• "Bang!" Flag Gun: Hazuki's kidnappers in episode 19 of the first season threatened her with a trick gun, which they also believed was real until it was fired.
• Becoming the Mask: Akatsuki in Sharp started off by getting close to Doremi for the sole purpose of using her to get to Hana. Eventually, he developed genuine feelings towards her and ultimately made his Heel–Face Turn.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Happens a lot between Doremi and Kotake, as they're often at odds with each other. However, they occasionally do have an Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other moment.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Doremi, Hazuki, and Aiko durin first season, respectively. Doremi refers to herself as "the world's unluckiest girl", Hazuki is legitimately intelligent and consistently makes good grades throughout the show, and Aiko is the athletic one.
• Beneath the Mask: Applies to every character on the show. Elaborating would take a lot of space...
• Big Bad: Majo Tourbillion, the previous Witch Queen
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • In episode 14 of Dokkan, Doremi saves Hana from certain death at the tentacles of a plant monster.
  • Done a lot in Sharp when the girls are rescuing Hana.
• The Big Guy: Female example in Aiko, though she also doubled as The Lancer during the first season before Onpu made her Heel–Face Turn. She still lapses back into the role from time to time.
• Birthday Episode: Hazuki gets this on Valentine's Day in Naisho. Doremi also gets one in Motto.
• Bitch Alert: Subverted in Aiko's introductory episode. Initially making comments that make her come off as a flanderized version of her character later in the show, it's revealed that she's actually a nice kid.
• Bittersweet Ending: The first two seasons. Especially the first. (Right after they've become full-fledged witches, Onpu falls into a Convenient Coma as Laser-Guided Karma hits her for repeatedly using her powers for mind control (even when, that particular time, she had actually used them to save herself and the others), so Doremi and the other girls have to practically give up everything to save her). And in the penultimate episode; the girls must chose between becoming witches outlive anyone they care about, or stay human but leaving Hana and the Witch World until she become the great Queen.
• Blush Sticker: Hana-chan typically has these (particularly during Sharp and Motto). Other characters get them too from time to time.
• Book and Switch: In the first episode, Doremi is reading a book about witchcraft hidden inside a reading book in class. She humiliates herself by accidentally reading from the witch book when asked to read from a page.
• Book Ends: Twice. Once during the beginning and end of the first season, and again at the end of the series.
• Brutal Honesty: Aiko and Momoko both had this flaw when they transferred. To a degree, also Onpu.
• The Brute: Leon, who is physically the strongest of the FLAT 4 and was shown being able to single-handedly defeat an entire basketball team. This only applied before his Heel–Face Turn.
• Bungling Inventor: Majo Toron, during her only real appearance. This only applies to those inventions she had the girls test.
• Bumbling Dad: Practically all the fathers, to some degree. Special mention goes to Reika's father and Kenji (Aiko's dad).
• But Now I Must Go: At the end of the final series, the girls must choose between becoming full-fledged, long-lived Witches or remain as humans and stay in their own world. Only Hana leaves for the Witch World while the rest of the girls decide that they will stay in the human world.
• Call-Back: Dokkan contains numerous references to events and characters that haven't been mentioned since the first two seasons. Done to even greater extent in the light novel, which is pure Continuity Porn.
• Calling Your Attacks: Lampshaded: One of the reasons for the Royal Patraine upgrade was that Oyajide could counter their spells before they could finish.
• Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: In episode 2 of Dokka~n!, Hana-chan yells "Toilet!" in the middle of class. Turns out that she was using this as an excuse to play pranks on the students in her witch form.
• Camera Abuse: Only the first the first Eye Catch displays this, where Majo Rika is thrown face first into the camera due to Dodo's clumsiness.
• Camera Fiend: Kaori Shimakura seems this way until we learn that she does so because of self-esteem problems: Kaori views herself as ugly, thus she captures the world in her camera to hide her feelings of inadequacy.
• Can't Catch Up: Doremi's little sister Pop, who (being four/five years old at the start of the series) progresses at a much slower rate than the rest of the girls: It takes her four seasons to achieve what the other six manage in one, and even then doesn't get her crystal until the final Magical Stage. Mind you, this is not because she's not as good as Doremi; she's far more adept. It's just that you can only go to the Witch World at night—and she can't stay awake that long, no matter how hard she tries. Try to wake her up? Hilarity Ensues followed closely by Amusing Injuries.
  
  Subverted by Dokkan, when Pop finally reached the Level 1 test. Doremi even lampshaded this. However, Pop came to start thinking about why she wanted to be a witch and realizing that it was because she wanted to be like Doremi. Mota and Motamota seemed to know this and gave Pop some time for her to decide.
• Career Versus Man: This was the main plot of the Ojamajo Doremi 17 Light Novel. After hearing Marina and Kimura break up to pursue their future goals, Doremi becomes worried about what will happen when she and Kotake have to make the same choice. Ojamajo Doremi 19 reveals that they are still a couple.
• Catchphrase:
  • Doremi's "I'm the unluckiest pretty girl in the whole world!"
  • Momoko: Oh my God!
  • Hana: "Chii~su!" is how she says "hello". Doremi sometimes uses it, too.
• Character Development: A lot of it for main characters and classmates alike.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Doremi becoming a witch was planned by the Queen the entire time, who had been watching out for her since the girl was five years old!
• Childhood Friend Romance: Doremi never gets a stable boyfriend. She at least got married. To whom we may never know, but Ojamajo Doremi 16, 17, 18, and 19 imply it was Kotake.
  Fami: "The fact that I'm here is proof!"
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Majo Ruka's fairy Hehe is only seen in the original Ojamajo Doremi series and does not make an appearance in subsequent sequels, nor does Majo Ruka make a comment as to where she is. This is because Hehe's voice actress, Hiroko Konishi, decided to step away from voice acting in 2000.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Miho Maruyama gives off this vibe in Motto! episode 8.
• Compressed Hair: Seki-sensei has long hair. Where she puts it all when she's riding her motorcycle and wearing her helmet is anyone's guess.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Sharp Episode 46. FLAT4 vs. Royal Patraine Ojamajos. If it hadn't been for Doremi talking to them, the girls would've completely lost. To wit: The FLAT4 were No Selling all of their attacks and Akatsuki had trapped the girls in giant bubbles that Hazuki was unable to break out of. Doremi managed to break free, but she was all alone, had limited magic, and against four powerful opponents.
  • The Sharp finale had the girls facing Previous Witch Queen's predecessor. None of them retained their powers after trying to get the Macguffin, and she could easily have prevented them from getting it, but they (barely) succeeded either way.
  • ANYONE vs. Majo Tourbillon. It was established that she had the most powerful magic of any Witch in the last 1000 years, and she can definitely prove it.
  • Royal Patraine Ojamajos vs. Oyajide. The girls win. Every. Single. Time.
• Cute Witch: The girls primarily use their powers to help out and do other mundane things throughout the series. To list each of these would take too long. And when they actually come to fighting evil, they usually do so through unorthodox and impractical means and have to have their powers boosted in order to be successful. The latter case comes to a head in Sharp episode 46 when the FLAT4 prove too powerful AND skillful to take on in a fight, unlike Oyajide.
• Cheated Angle: Doremi and Aiko's hairstyles will mostly flip between shots.
• Daddy's Girl: Played with rather interestingly in the first season: the reason behind Reika Tamaki's Rich Bitch behavior is that her dad spoils her rotten... and dad's reason to do it is that he feels guilty for letting Reika get seriously injured due to his carelessness.
• Dancing Theme: "Ojamajo Ondo de Happipi!" Lots of dancing is seen during that ending as well. A magazine-only DVD even taught the dance using the cast of Ojamajo Kids.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Forbidden Magic. All have repercussions when used:
  • Healing Magic transfers the wounds to the caster and has unpredictable effects when the caster uses it on herself.
  • Revival Magic kills the caster upon success.
  • Mind Control Magic puts the caster in a coma; the length of which is proportional to how much is used.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Incredibly enough, Doremi and Aiko both have one. Both manage to get better in the end.
  • Doremi was forced by her mother to take piano lessons and it's shown that it was much to her displeasure. Then she had to play in front of a lot of people, but she made several mistakes because she was too nervous and that failure left her traumatized. She stopped playing the piano after that.
  • Aiko had to witness her parents arguing, and later divorcing, while she was in hospital because of an incident. At first, she thought it was her fault, but actually it was because her mother lost a kid due to over-working. She still suffers every now and then.
• Deal with the Devil: Invoked. The previous Queen offers to fulfill Momoko's desire to see Majo Monroe again in exchange for using her to bring Hana to the Cursed Forest and kill her there. Ultimately subverted in that the previous Queen really didn't give Momoko any say in the matter.
• Death Is Cheap: Very much averted. Though magic can bring back the dead, doing so will result in the reviver dying instead upon success.
• The Diaper Change: Happens a lot to Hana-chan:
  • In the first episode of Sharp, Hana's diaper leaks as soon as Doremi picks her up.
  • In episode 9 of Sharp, the girls change Hana's diaper in a service area's baby room.
  • In episode 12 of Sharp, it is revealed the Aiko is good at changing diapers.
  • In one scene in episode 13 of Sharp, Hana's diaper leaks.
  • In a scene in episode 17 of Sharp, the participants of the baby race take a break to have their diapers changed.
  • Doremi tries to change Hana in episode 18 of Sharp when she is crying, but fails because she is fussy. She tries to transform to change the diaper, but decides against it.
  • The plot of episode 27 of Sharp is spurred by Hana getting diaper rash after a diaper change. The girls have to find a special flower to use as ointment.
  • In episode 43 of Sharp, Hana needs her diaper changed in class, which confuses the students.
  • In episode 47 of Sharp, Oyajide tries to change Hana's diaper to cheer her up, but it does not work.
  • Episode 32 of Mo~tto! has a scene where Hana-chan's diaper is changed. Later in the episode, Momoko practices changing diapers with a doll that looks like Hana, but fails because the diaper keeps coming off.
  • In episode 47 of Mo~tto!, Hana cries because her diaper is leaking.
  • In episode 5 of Naisho, Pop changes Hana's diaper after failing to take her to the potty on time.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In the first episode, Doremi is taught that she needs to put the uniform on before the music runs out, something she learns quickly. Every transformation using a variant of the Taps has the background music start when they first tap the button and only last as long as it takes for them to put their uniform on.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: All the openings (and some of the endings) are sung by MAHO Dou, the collective name for the voice actresses of the main characters.
• The Dragon: Akatsuki to Oyajide during Sharp. Oyajide to Ojijide, though Oyajide was more along the lines of a Dragon-in-Chief.
• Dramatic Irony: All throughout Sharp.
  • First, we have Ojijide tasking Oyajide with kidnapping Hana. The audience knows what's going on, but the Ojamajos don't and are legitimately shocked and horrified when Oyajide reveals his intentions and succeeds.
  • Next, we have the introduction of Akatsuki and then his allegiance is revealed later. During episode 46, Doremi is heartbroken by the revelation.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The English dub stated that there were eight witch exams when there were actually nine total, and none of the episodes involving the exams were cut... so which one was technically not an exam?
  • The English dub also changed some of the characters' backgrounds, most noticeably Masaru Yada/Justin Bailey. In the dub, he was a transfer student from a boarding school... except that Doremi and Hazuki have known him since kindergarten and he even showed up in a flashback from when the girls were little. Good thing 4Kids never got past the first season, otherwise it would be strange trying to explain how Doremi had never heard of him even though they've literally been in the same class since kindergarten.
• Dub-Induced Plotline Change: The English dub had a drastically different format compared to the original and the other foreign dubs. While it was one of the better dubs by 4Kids Entertainment, there were still a liberal amount of changes made, which included erasing any text on signs (even ones in English), changing the spells into random rhymes, changing the characters' names and settings from Japanese, adding clouds to flashbacks, cutting out the characters hitting or slapping each other, and even creating their own transformation sequence using stock footage from previous episodes. They've even gone their way to create a sing-a-long for each episode. Some of the conflict resolutions were changed as well — for example, in episode 2, originally, Hazuki wanted to stop the "Freaky Friday" Flip because she felt selfish for going to the extent of tricking Doremi's family just to escape her daily life. In the dub, it was changed to a Be Yourself moral, where she decides she misses her own life. Episode 19, which involved Hazuki getting kidnapped, was infamously edited so that the kidnapping was just a misunderstanding, and episode 30, which had a lot of Buddhist imagery and involved the main characters hanging out at a graveyard, was cut.
• Dub Name Change:
  • The 4Kids dub changes up the three main characters' names to Dorrie, Reanne and Mirabelle to retain the show title. Also, Onpu became Ellie Craft, Pop became Caitlyn, Maho Rika became Patina, and so forth. Also, the term "Witch Apprentice" is renamed to "Witchling".
  • For the Witch items, Taps became Dreamspinners, Pollon became Wandalers and Wandawhirls, and Magic Spheres became Spell Drops.
  • The magical dimension known as the Witch World is renamed the "Lunaverse".
  • Witch Frogs, the Forced Transformation for exposed witches, are renamed "Greenlings".
  • Magical Stage, the combined magic of all the girls, became "Perfect Harmony".
• Dying Race: The Wizards during Sharp (only 30 remained by the time the series started!). It's one of the reasons Ojijide wanted to kidnap Hana and regain their lost land. Averted during the later seasons when The High Queen restores their remaining land to fertility and allowing the Wizards to repopulate.

E(clair)-L(emon pie)

• Edutainment: Has shades of this, particularly Motto. Also, in a press release, 4Kids Entertainment pitched the show as such.
• Eldritch Location: The Witch World and, by definition, The Wizard World are bizarre by human standards. The skies are strange and twisting and land itself seems to float in the air.
• Embarrassing Damp Sheets:
  • Episode 8 of the original series ends with Dodo wetting Doremi's bed.
  • In episode 5 of Naisho, one of the signs alerting the Harukaze family parents that Pop isn't acting normal that day is that she wet the bed overnight.
• Escort Mission: During Sharp, the girls had to raise and protect Hana-chan since she was a defenseless baby. The girls were serious enough about it, and they became even more serious after episode 22 rolled by.
• Evil Genius: Fujio, who is shown to be the most intelligent of the FLAT4 and is the one taking notes of almost everything that's going on around him. This only applies before his Heel–Face Turn.
• Exact Words: Typically during the Level 1 exam. The proctors say that one has to use magic to help someone in the human world and receive a "thank you" in return all without getting caught. They never say how the thanks is received, or from whom you need to get the thanks from.
  • In Series 1, the girls helped a fox cub out and got a thank you from it in its own language. It was accepted.
  • In Dokkan for both Pop's and Hana's exams, the former used magic to conjure a wind to protect a class project from the rain; the class thanked the wind, which was an indirect thanks to Pop, so she passed. On the other hand, Hana didn't use magic and got thanks...and Mota and Motamota said she failed as a result, but are taking it up with with the Senate.
• Eye Catch: Varied wildly from season to season and even had separate parts to them.
  • Season 1: The first one had the fairies bouncing on the register until Dodo accidentally slammed Majo Rika followed by them producing cards of their respective owners. The second one showed the girls scanning various items with Pop scanning Majo Rika, with the other part being the girls playing Rock Paper Scissors with Oyajide where Pop wins.
  • Sharp: The first one showed the Ojamajos using their calls for various activities only for Pop to steal one of them; she is then seen talking with her boyfriends while Doremi, the owner of the stolen call, looks for it. The second one showed Doremi allowing the fairies into her patraine call followed by the fairies going into their teenage forms within the Patraine laptop.
  • Motto: The first one shows a pair of the girls with a card with their witch apprentice outfits and their works clothes, where they pop out in either one. This ends with two Doremi's popping out wearing the two outfits, since there was only 5 Witch Apprentices at this time. This is followed by them baking a pie. The next one is them making some chocolate covered fruit with the next having the fairies fly into the recipe book.
  • Dokkaan: This first eye catch has many variations, but it involves the girls giving Hana a makeover where they give her certain aspects of their own looks. This includes:
    • Aiko giving Hana a spring in her hair.
    • Momoko drawing on thick eyebrows on Hana.
    • Onpu curling her eyelashes.
    • Hazuki giving her the circular lens glasses she wears.
  • These all end with Doremi brushing her hair at the end. This is followed by Hana making jewelry for the girls, ending up covering Doremi with a bunch of them. The next one involves the girls making a sweater for Pao, followed by Hana and Pao dancing.
  • Nai-sho: There's only one set of eyecatches here where the girls whisper the word "Naisho" into another's ear followed by them saying the name of the show.
• Face–Heel Turn: Oyajide in Sharp. Ojijide warns him that the Wizard World is dying and that they need Hana's magic to save it. He then offers him a Friend-or-Idol Decision as a last resort, which overrides any morality he had and gets the turn under way.
• The Faceless:
  • The Queen of the Witches kept her face hidden beneath a veil at all times until episode 50 of Dokkan.
  • The Big Bad's face was featureless aside from Glowing Eyes of Doom. Until the Motto finale.
• Fake Band: The Maho Dou, who sing the opening theme songs. Later on, the main girls form an in-show band to record a song together.
• Fake Wizardry: On one episode the girls had a magic exam, during which they had to defeat other witches who obviously had many years of experience and vast numbers of spells in their arsenals. What did they do to impress them and win the competition? STAGE MAGIC TRICKS of course, and since the witches were so used to using real magic they didn't question if the magic was real. They assumed they were rare tricks even for them (like Hazuki rotating her head many times).
• Fantastic Aesop: Don't cure others / resurrect the dead with magic... Because it damages you instead. And would get you punished when caught (if you're still alive).
• Fantastic Racism:
  • During Pao's debut, a number of grey elephants wanted nothing to do with her since she was different. Does This Remind You of Anything?
  • Some Witches have expressed some disdain for humans.
• Flanderization:
  • Happens to Momoko regarding her Cloud Cuckoo Lander tendencies during Dokkan.
  • Happens to Doremi from time to time regarding to her ditzy and clueless tendencies in the 4Kids dub.
• Flying Broomstick: All Witches use these to help get around. Any Witch who was turned into a Witch Frog uses something else instead, like a dustpan or a bucket.
• Food Porn: Never watch Motto! on an empty stomach.
• Forgotten Birthday: One of the Doremi-focused episodes in Motto! had her being upset that everyone is acting distant towards her, only to realize it was to help set up her Surprise Party.
• Four-Girl Ensemble: For the first two series:
  • The naive one: Doremi
  • The tomboy one: Aiko
  • The pretty one: Pop (though mostly in the sense that she brags about her many boyfriends to Doremi), who is eventually replaced by Onpu in Sharp
  • The mom (though Aiko and Hazuki end up sharing this role): Hazuki
• "Freaky Friday" Flip:
  • Doremi uses magic to spend a day in Hazuki's body in episode 2 of the original series.
  • Episode 5 of Naisho has Pop ask Hana to swap bodies with her so that she can be toilet-trained.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: It's one thing to close all portals that connect the witch and the human worlds so that witches won't go through the same suffering the previous Witch Queen went through. It's another to let the one person that could cancel the curse die of fever and curse her so that she can't grow. Worse if that person is a barely ONE-YEAR OLD BABY! Right, Majo-Tourbillon?
• Frilly Upgrade: Avoids this for the most part by giving the cast an entirely new wardrobe in each season. In Motto, their uniforms were even reversible! Sharp plays this straight with the Royal Patraine.
• Fun with Foreign Languages
• Gadgeteer Genius: Majo Toron, during her only appearance, is confirmed to have invented the girls' current porons and is later shown to have made a number of working gadgets. It appears she zigzags between Gadgeteer Genius and Bungling Inventor...
• Gassy Gastronomy: In episode 40, we learn that Onpu Segawa refuses to eat sweet potatoes after an incident where she ate one and then farted in public that made the news. According to her, child idols cannot be seen farting or gaining a lot of weight, as it would taint the image she has of being perfect.
• Genki Girl: Doremi, Momoko and 11-year-old Hana-chan.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man:
  • Doremi's mother has such a moment when Doremi blames herself for getting Hana sick.
  • Everyone does this during the Grand Finale to help snap Doremi out of her Heroic BSoD by reminding her of how she helped them and made their lives better just from her boundless compassion alone.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Every time a witch is found out...
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Plenty between Doremi and Pop. Pop generally finds Doremi immature and irresponsible, and Doremi can't stand her Deadpan Snarker moments. However, Pop secretly admires Doremi and will watch out for her when things get tough.
• Gratuitous English: Alexander T. Oyajide. Leon's occasion of habitually throwing English in his speech got Lampshaded by Aiko:
  Aiko: "Me, me, me, me!" Would you quit it with your half-hearted English?!
  • Also just Momoko in general.
• Gray-and-Grey Morality: All of the characters are portrayed in a realistic manner and the villains all have credible excuses to be doing what they're doing. Two examples:
  • Doremi can be relatively selfish, greedy, and self-centered. On the other hand, she has shown a great many number of moments when she was compassionate and pure hearted and generally wanting to do the right thing no matter what.
  • The Big Bad. Her goal is to prevent contact between the worlds by any means necessary and is even willing to hurt children to ensure it. However, she wants to do this so as to prevent other witches from feeling the same unbearable pain she felt when she lost her husband to an accident and her son to old age and her grand children to their own paths.
• Hair Antennae: The FLAT 4 use this to cast magic. It functions as Idiot Hair most of time.
• He Didn't Make It: Or rather, she: poor Non-chan succumbs to her cancer at the end of Naisho episode 12.
• Healing Magic Is the Hardest: Using magic to heal is a forbidden technique that comes at the cost of the magic user's own health. The one instance where the user wasn't subjected to the fatal state like she should have was because the spell's power was shared with a much more experienced witch.
• The Heart: Momoko. Doremi as well in addition to her being The Leader and The Heroine since she's the one who keeps the group together... In some occasions.
• Heavy Sleeper: Pop literally Can'tCatchUp due to her being unable to wake up early for her exams.
• Heel–Face Turn: Onpu, Oyajide; even Tamaki becomes a bit less of a Jerkass.
• Heroic BSoD: A few throughout the series.
  • Momoko suffers one when she was called out by the other Ojamajos for letting Hana get sick during Motto.
  • Aiko becomes depressed when she feels she has failed to get her parents back together. She nearly uses forbidden magic in the process.
  • Doremi in the Grand Finale. She is so distraught over losing her closest friends to their chosen paths that she ignores everyone's pleas. Even her Trademark Favorite Food, steak, did nothing.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • All the girls but Pop willingly risk being put into a millenia-long slumber to get the Love Supreme flower needed to save Hana's life in the finale of Sharp. Doremi barely succeeds, but is also put under. Thankfully, Hana's first word ("MAMA!") was strong enough to wake them.
  • Earlier, during the first season, Onpu uses Mind Control to save everyone from being turned into Witch Frogs; this caused her to fall into a coma due to her charm deteriorating and allowing karma to strike.
  • The girls give up their powers to save Onpu from her punishment.
  • Momoko nearly does this in her Back Story when she tries to bring back Majo Monroe. Her crystal shattered from the strain of having to use such a powerful spell, causing her to fail and costing the poor girl her powers.
• Hidden Elf Village: The Witch World (and by extension The Wizard World) is concealed from the humans by means of being in a different dimension. Justified in this case since the Witches legitimately fear and have distrust of humans (the former being because of the Big Bad's curse and the latter being because some humans took advantage of Witches back when the curse wasn't around).
  • One episode had a straighter example in the form of El Dorado. This El Dorado was created when a group of Witches decided to live secluded on Earth and cast aside their magic. Subverted somewhat in that these Witches are welcoming to those who could actually find it ("somewhat" meaning that the only ones shown to have found it were either Witches or Witch Apprentices themselves; in short, elves finding a hidden elf village).
• The High Queen: The Queen of the Witch World.
• Hikikomori: The reason Kayoko hasn't been going to school. She gets over it in the Christmas Episode after two separate episodes of progress in Motto!.
• Honest Axe: Doremi pulls this on Miyamoto in Na-i-sho episode 8 after he accidentally breaks Sachiko's recorder.
• Huge Schoolgirl: Naomi Okuyama is an eight-year-old version of this trope.
• Humans Are Bastards: Some Witches have this view of humans. It had a greater majority during flashbacks, where it was mentioned that some humans took advantage of Witches to get what they wanted and showed ungratefulness. This view was one reason the Witch World cut its ties to the Human World. It continues to this day, with some Witches still claiming that humans are greedy enough to take advantage of magic if ever given the chance.
• Humans Are Special: Some Witches have this view of humans. For one reason or another, when a human makes something, there is something in it that magic can never reproduce, no matter how hard anyone tries. Finally, the Big Bad made it to where if a human (and only a human) were to identify a Witch, the curse would be triggered.
• I Never Got Any Letters: Aiko discovers that her mom has made several attempts to contact her in the past after her parents' divorce, but never received any of the letters she sent. Turns out that all of her letters were collected and hidden by her father, making Aiko very upset.
• Idiot Hair: Too many to count.
• Idol Singer: Onpu
• If It Tastes Bad, It Must Be Good for You: This applies to the case of Hana, who hates vegetables, but must eat them to restore her magical energy.
• I Need You Stronger: Akatsuki allowed the girls to transform into Royal Patraine to make the final fight fair. Unfortunately, the FLAT4 didn't really have to worry about losing anyway.
• Inflating Body Gag: Oyajide in Ojamajo Doremi Sharp ep. 41. After he gets caught kidnapping Hana, Doremi uses her magical powers to summon an air compressor and inflate him to the size of a balloon. Then, Aiko uses a giant tack that sends Oyajide flying all over the TV studio's hallways.
• Instant Awesome: Just Add Mecha!: One episode of Motto involved Doremi turning into a Humongous Mecha in one of Nobuko's and Miho's mangas.
• Insult Backfire: "Ojamajo" was originally used by Majo Rika to refer to the girl's clumsiness and incompetence. By season 2, the girls took it as meaning "apprentices" instead.
• Jumped at the Call: Doremi's reaction when Majo Rika and Lala tell her she must become a witch is...
  Doremi: To tell you the truth, I've always wanted to become a witch... "Please make me a witch? Please, please, pleaaaaase?!"
• King Incognito: Female example for the Queen of the Witches in that she had been watching over the girls the entire time as Yuki-sensei.
• The Lancer: Aiko was this in the first series before Onpu performed her Heel–Face Turn. By the beginning of Sharp, Onpu was all but The Lancer from then on, though Aiko occasionally lapses back into the role.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Hana becoming a witch apprentice is technically a surprise spoiler to newcomers who haven't seen the show, yet Dokka~n! makes this unavoidable due to its First-Episode Twist. Toei doesn't help this either in since they throw her image around Dokka~n! promotions and merchandise like free candy.
• Laugh Themselves Sick: Hazuki always laughs uncontrollably whenever the SOS Trio make a joke. Momoko gets this way about Toyoken too.
• Light Novels: Ojamajo Doremi 16 and Ojamajo Doremi 17.
• List Song: Sweet Song ABC (in alphabetical order, even!) and Oh! Yasai Samba
• The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Used by Oyajide during episode 22 of Sharp. Onpu lampshades it.
• Littlest Cancer Patient: Nozomi aka Non-chan. And uncommonly for the trope, she actually does die.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Hazuki, Tamaki to some degree
• Long-Lived: The witches are capable of dying even though their lifespans are longer than humans, notable examples being Majo Monroe and Majo Clara.
• Loophole Abuse: In the light novels, when the girls become witch apprentices once again, they ask the Witch Queen to set an artificial restriction on them, so that when one uses magic for her own purposes, they will lose their powers. Not long later, the girls start to abuse the rule they set up themselves — Oh god, I'm in trouble yet I can't use magic for my own purpose! But no worries, I'll just ask my friends to use magic to solve this problem for me.
• Love Confession: Doremi wants to give one to Igarashi-sempai, but at the end of the series someone confesses to her!
  Kotake: Well, yeah it's true you're a total klutz, but I...I...well to say it, everyone here loves you!
  • Kimitaka also confesses to Pop before he moves away.
• Love Triangle: Somehow happened with both Doremi and Hazuki. In the latter case, it's clearly one-sided from Fujio to Hazuki but played with in the former as both Kotake and Akatsuki's focus episode(s) with Doremi are in different seasons. In the end Doremi chooses Kotake.
• Luke, You Are My Father: Faami, from the final episode of Naisho, is Doremi's granddaughter.

M(ont blanc)-P(udding)

• Mage Species: While it's possible to gain powers while being born a human, some witches and wizards are instead born, and come from plants.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Magic can do almost anything without consequence as long as you're powerful enough, except for a small number of forbidden acts which are defined very early on: revival from the dead, healing, and Mind Control.
• Magical Incantation: Each girl has their own specific magic spell for common magic as well as a variant for casting Magical Stage. The 4Kids dub ended up creating unnecessary work for themselves by ditching the standard "Incantation+What I Want+Appear" formula by having the girls create rhymes on the spot.
• Magic Wand:
  • An odd variant: all the Porons used in the series are actually musical instruments from the Witch World, but not used via Magic Music.
  • Some Witches use the more generic variety.
• Mama Bear: All the girls in Sharp, especially Doremi in the last few episodes.
• Maternally Challenged:
  • Are little girls really ready to take care of a newborn?
  • In Motto! Ojamajo Doremi episode 32, Momoko works her hardest to become a "Mama" for Hana-chan (she wanted Hana to treat her the same as she did the more experienced Ojamajos), but not only does she repeatedly have trouble, she accidentally puts Hana's life in danger by letting her eat too much pudding and giving her a stomachache. Aiko, on behalf of all the Ojamajos, threatens to never let Momoko near Hana again, sending Momoko into a Heroic BSoD. It took a pep talk from Onpu to get Momoko's motivation back.
• May I Borrow a Cup of Sugar?: Aiko was under the impression that her mother had remarried after seeing her with a baby. This gives her the push to convince her father to do the same when he gets set up on a date with his boss' daughter. Later, when Aiko spies on her mother again, she sees a neighbor of her mother visiting her to borrow MSG (sugar in the dub version) and finds out that the baby was actually the neighbor's.
• Meaningful Name: Hana in Japanese means flower (justified because it was Doremi who named her), and Tourbillon in French means spiral.
  • Doremi, Hazuki, Aiko and Onpu's Italian names are respectively Doremì, Melody, Sinfony and Lullaby. More obvious than that...
• Men Are Generic, Women Are Special: The original Japanese version calls witches 魔女 (majo, literally "magical women") and wizards 魔法使い (mahō tsukai, literally "magic user").
• Merchandise-Driven: Lots of things in the show only appear for the purpose of new merchandise. This sadly means the fairies often get the brunt of character development or spotlight episodes, even though they ironically get Mid-season upgrades as well. Speaking of witch!
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Twice. The first time was during the first season with an upgrade to their porons. The second, which occurred during Sharp, gave the Royal Patraine, which was only used when Oyajide kidnapped Hana-chan and when Majo Tourbillon threatened Hana-chan's life at the end of Sharp.
• Mind Screw: Onpu has a Mind Screw Character Development episode in Na-i-sho when she recounts what it really means to be herself in spite of her Idol Singer career, where she has to take on roles and display a public image that is not exactly who she really is.
• Mordor: The Wizard World is a bleak, dark, and, as described by Ojijide, an infertile wasteland. It is so inhospitable that the Wizards themselves have become a Dying Race (only 30 of the remain!) and hatch a plot to start a war with the Witches so they could regain their lost land and survive. It wasn't always like that; it only turned into this barren wasteland after the previous King of the Wizard World lost a good deal of land to a previous Queen of the Witch World in a game of cards. The Wizard World is restored to its former glory by the current Witch Queen after the current Wizard King expresses remorse for his and his people's actions. Today, it is very much an aversion of this trope.
• More than Mind Control: Some of the cursed brambles worked this way: The curses they cast to make their victims cross the Despair Event Horizon invoked things that were genuine issues or insecurities for said victims (Majo Ume and Majo Rika feeling depressed regarding being Witch Frogs and the possibility of never returning to normal and Tamaki via her insecurity about being a normal school girl upon graduating elementary).
• Mukokuseki: Usually played straight, but there are a few exceptions. In the episode where Momoko receives a video letter from her Token Black Friend Beth in New York, Beth's new friend Sachiko is drawn with narrower eyes to highlight the racial differences between the two girls.
• Mundane Utility:
  • Per the norm with Cute Witch animes, the girls use their magic to secretly help people with their problems.
  • In Motto!, the girls use their awesome magical powers to... bake.
  • The girls subvert this in Sharp when they decide to take care of Hana without magic.
• Named After Somebody Famous: George, Majo Tourbillon's husband, made a cake named after her called "Tourbillon My Love".
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Majo Tourbillon.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Played with. The High Queen usually gives the girls new powers in order to help them with the current task at hand, such as aiding them in using Royal Patraine when they're not together, extracting Bad Cards, etc.
• New Transfer Student: Aiko, Onpu, and Momoko all came from separate schools before they arrived. Hana-chan technically counts since she's from the Witch World Kindergarten.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Doremi especially, but the main things that come to mind are the first two season finales when they have to save Onpu and then save Hana, respectively.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Reika Tamaki gives the infamous "Oh ho ho ho ho!" laugh a lot, naturally. Erika uses it, too.
• Non-Serial Movie: Completely averted in the Sharp movie (which takes place right before episode 40), but the Motto movie is very vague (though it ties in with the series during Dokkan).
• Odango: It's such an iconic part of Doremi's design that the 20th anniversary logo has an almost copyright infringing Mickey like shape
• Odd Name Out: In the Italian version, the main characters are named after music (i.e. Hazuki is named Melody, Onpu is named Lullaby and so on). The only exception is Momoko, who is called Mindy. She's no more the odd one with Hana's joining of the group, who is simply called Hanna.
• Official Couple: Sometime after Ojamajo Doremi Dokka~n!, Hazuki and Yada get together, as they're mentioned to have been dating for quite a while in the Light Novel. Also, Doremi and Kotake get together after having a significant amount of Unresolved Sexual Tension between them.
• "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase: Ojamajo Doremi has a different one for each season:
  • Season 1: "Happiness and luckiness, reach everyone!"
  • Season 2 (Sharp): "Thump, thump, tremble, tremble, spin, spin, revolve!" (Or if you're watching the fansub, "Happiness and excitement for everyone!")
  • Season 3 (Mo~tto!): "Cheerfulness to cookies! We'll teach you the recipe of magic!"
  • Season 4 (Dokka~n!): "Pure, pure dream become big!"
  • OVA (Na-i-sho): "You may take notes, but pass them around secretly!"
• Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: Nagato's parents are stunned when they learn their daughter overheard them fighting about her. It can come off as them arguing over a mentally disabled child, since Nagato mentioned she was a slow worker.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Losing a child happens several times in the series, and since witches live very long, it's generally expected that they'd outlive their kids if they marry a human man and bear his children.
• Overcomplicated Menu Order: In the first series, Doremi gets one of these at her first apprentice witch exam, which is to conjure up whatever is requested by the examiners. She doesn't pass.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • Majo Rika does little to disguise the fact that she's a Witch and outright dresses accordingly. This gets her caught and cursed when Doremi uncovers her.
  • Oyajide uses magic once to disguise himself as a woman, and his masculine mannerisms continue to show through along with his mustache after Hana's magic undoes part of it. It's also played for Creepy Crossdessor.
• Pet the Dog: Reika is a selfish and shrill Ojou, but an episode in the first season showed her feeling genuinely insecure about her dad's love and taking the local ill girl Shiori under her wing.
• Picky Eater: Hana during Motto! Though later in the season, Hana isn't as responsible for this as she is earlier in the season: the former Witch Queen's predecessor casts a curse on Hana that makes her hate vegetables, resetting a problem that the Ojamajos had previously solved using carrot cake.
• Playing Pictionary: This happens to Doremi a lot in the first season. People usually can't tell what her crafts are supposed to resemble because she's such a Terrible Artist. In episode 17, Majo Rika and Lala both guessed wrong as to what Doremi's charm resembled, while in episode 12, Misaki kept insisting Doremi's "panda" charm was a "soccer ball" charm.
• Pokémon Speak: All of the fairies who accompany the main characters (Dodo, Rere, Mimi, Roro, Nini, Toto, and Fafa) say nothing but their own names for most of the series. It doesn't inconvenience them in the slightest.
• Power Crystal: Used to fuel the girls' magic in the first season.
• Potty Dance:
  • Pop makes it quite clear she has to go after eating ice cream in episode 7.
  • Happens in episode 5 of Naisho when Pop needs to go in her classroom, and does this while standing on a table. This causes all of her classmates to show concern for her.
• Potty Emergency:
  • In episode 7, Poppu has one after buying ice cream she got with the extra money she was supposed to use for mame daifuku for her grandmother.
  • This happens to Pop while in Hana's body in episode 5 of Naisho while she is in school. Pop, who is in Hana's body, races to Doremi's classroom to alert her to this problem. She takes her out to try to get her to the restroom, but she winds up fainting and wetting herself, much to the disappointment of Pop, who is in Hana-chan's body.
• Potty Failure:
  • Pop ends up wetting herself right before she could make it inside the restroom in episode 7.
  • This sets up the plot of episode 5 of Naisho: Pop is upset that Hana cannot use her potty chair properly and always has this when she tries to make it. Pop thinks that swapping bodies with her will solve this problem. She's wrong, as Hana still wets herself when she is in the body of someone much older than her. However, it's much easier for Pop to get to the bathroom while she is in Hana's baby body.
• Prince and Pauper: In the second episode, Doremi uses magic to swap bodies with Hazuki.
• Prized Possession Giveaway: In the episode "A Wish For A Precious Shirt", Misaki sells his favorite shirt to the Maho-Dou. Upon finding out that it's a hand-me-down, the girls try to return it to him.
• Product-Promotion Parade: "I Won't Lose To Hana-Chan!" opens with a scene where the girls use the products featured in the MAHO Dou Hobby Series product line.
• Production Throwback: The dandelion motif was a Call-Back Book Ends to Yume no Crayon Oukoku, the show that held Doremi's previous time slot that Junichi Sato, Hiromi Seki, and Midori Kuriyama also worked on. Yume no Crayon Oukoku had ended with a piece of fluff flying in the sky, and the dandelion was a reference to that.
• The Psycho Rangers: The Flat 4 in Sharp: four apprentice wizards that oppose the girls.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: Episode 6 of Na-i-sho uses Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy".

Q(uince jam)-Z(enbu)

• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: What the main girls are.
  • Doremi is a Cute Clumsy Girl who was Born Unlucky.
  • Hazuki is a Shrinking Violet who happens to be the Smart Girl.
  • Aiko is an athletic Tomboy with a level of Brutal Honesty (at first) and Genre Savviness.
  • Onpu is the ex-Dark Magical Girl and an Idol Singer.
  • Momoko is a Cloud Cuckoo Lander bake chef in training.
  • Hana is a Genki Girl with Special Snowflake Syndrome who happens to be heir-apparent to the throne of Majo Kai.
  • Pop is a Wise Beyond Their Years Deadpan Snarker Tagalong Kid.
• Rhyming Wizardry: In the 4Kids dub, the witch apprentices chant a rhyme describing what they want to happen.
• Running Gag: Doremi's never getting to eat steak, Seki-san throwing her chalk, Doremi's parents always fighting (he's a Bumbling Dad, she's a Tsundere), Hazuki's "Majo Rika Majo Rika"-ing when she's scared... to name a few.
• The Runaway: Kids run away from home a bit due to being upset at their parents. You almost couldn't blame the girls from being worried about Hana in Dokkan, even when Majorika and Lala tell them that they were being overbearing.
• Sacrificial Revival Spell: One of the Forbidden Spells is bringing someone back from the dead, for the exact reason of it being a trade of lives.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Hazuki Fujiwara's glasses did this at some point in the second episode of Ojamajo Doremi DOKKAAN!.
• Scooby Stack: In episode 11 of the first series, Doremi, Hazuki, and Aiko spy on Kimura and Marina in this fashion. They fall on top of each other at the end and run away.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Ms. Seki suspects correctly the girls have a real reason for working at a magic shop. This becomes subverted since she trusts their judgement and doesn't investigate any further, thereby keeping the actual secret a secret. Ironic considering that Yuki, the school's nurse, was the Witch Queen in disguise.
• Sentai: The Battle Rangers, complete with Five-Man Band and Color-Coded Characters.
• Separated at Birth: In book 3 of Ojamajo Doremi 16, Hana is revealed to have a twin sister who she must compete against to win the throne to the Witch World.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The girls lose their powers (which they had worked so hard to fully attain...) as a consequence for using forbidden magic to save Onpu. And then at the beginning of Sharp, the girls get their powers back, but only as apprentices with their crystals held by The High Queen; they regain them successfully, but their crystals were shattered by the Big Bad, leaving them without their powers again. Subverted somewhat in Motto, where The High Queen proposes to make the girls full-fledged Witches only to have half of the senate oppose it due to their crystals having been destroyed; they agree to make them apprentices again and agree to let them be Witches so long as the pass a series of tests; the Ojamajos pass them, but the issue of reconstructing their crystals remained. And in Dokkan, the girls are faced with a dilemma: Either become full-fledged Witches and stay in the Witch World forever or return to being normal girls; they choose the latter...only to eventually become apprentices again in Ojamajo Doremi 16/17/18.
• Shout-Out: Pao is a young elephant ostracized by her herd for her large ears, which she can use to fly. Hmm...
  • Either it's a major coincidence, or someone at 4Kids seriously renamed Masaru to Justin Bailey.
• Shown Their Work:
  • In season 1 episode 31, Shino refers to the round tents in Mongolia (which is identified on a map) by their correct name, gers.
  • In episode 40 of Dokka~n, the back of a postcard from Italy is briefly seen. It is filled with hand-written text, perfectly readable and in correct Italian. Whoever they consulted for this scene must have given a hand on Ashita no Nadja (the next series by the same staff), since a couple of letters in perfect Italian are seen there too.
• Shrinking Violet: Hazuki, given her shy tendencies. Marina is this as well.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: A somewhat polarized case, in that bonds, kindness, dreams etc. are often portrayed idealistic, while larger problems with humanity lie on the cynical end. Notable examples:
  • Idealism - Bonds: Surely leaving Hana at the end of Dokkan poses little problems for children growing up, right?
  • Idealism - Kindness: Episode 19 of S1 had Hazuki get kidnapped. Instead of giving the moral of not talking to strangers, the kids are told that if they help the kidnappers get their dream jobs the right way, they'll begin to repent and come to their senses. Also in the light novels, when Hazuki receives continued bullying from school and social media, the girls dig into the culprit's true thoughts and fix the culprit's mindset with kindness. Don't expect this to work in real life.
  • Idealism - Dreams: Dokkan episode 24 has the group dressing up as super heroes and going around causing mischief in a misguided attempt at "heroics", even disrupting a shooting for "Battle Rangers" and causing a severe deviance from the script.
  • Cynicism - Humanity: Dokkan episode 40 displays a somewhat pessimistic view on humanity with the indication that one cannot be understood by society merely because she never ages, even if she hides her witch identity - which makes up a good reason for the apprentices' choice in the Dokkan ending.
• Slipknot Ponytail: Doremi's odangos are surprisingly durable for their size... except when her crystal shatters in the end of Sharp.
• The Smart Guy: Female example in Hazuki, who is easily the smartest girl in the group and has solved a lot of intellectual puzzles throughout the series where Doremi and Aiko could not.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad:This show basically uses this trope to develop the brand new witch apprentices of each season.
• Stock Footage: All transformations, spells, and a few other scenes for good measure. Can't be a magical girl show without recycled animation.
• Tagalong Kid: Pop, from the first season to the very end.
• Taken for Granite: Oyajide does this to the girls in Sharp episode 22 so as to get away after his duplicity has been uncovered. He tries again the next episode, but by then The High Queen has granted the girls the Royal Patraine, allowing them to No-Sell his magic while curbstomping him.
• Theme Naming:
  • Almost all the witches have "Majo" (witch) attached to the beginning of their names. In the beginning of the series, you'll notice that are a few witches (Dela, Mota, and Motamota) who don't follow this naming convention, and it seems to have been restricted to Majo Rika and Majo Ruka only, as both of them were named after Majolica and Majorca respectively, illustrating their connections. Perhaps one of the writers thought the "majo" was supposed to be a title for a witch and subsequently added it on every single witch that was introduced from then on.
  • With the exception of Hehe and Baba, the fairies are all named after a piece of the Japanese music scale.
  • In the Italian dub, Hazuki, Aiko, and Onpu are named Melody, Symphony, and Lullaby respectively to match Doremi.
• Think Happy Thoughts: The way to destroy the six brambles of sadness and wake up Majo Tourbillon.
• Third-Person Person: Hana usually refers to herself in the third-person. She gets mocked for this by Tamaki.
• Three Plus Two: The teams used to start off in threes with Doremi, Hazuki, and Aiko in the first season, with Pop as the Tagalong Kid (even though she still kind of is...) and when Onpu was not officially part of the group. Lampshaded by Onpu occasionally in talk segments of CDs and in Ojamajo Doremi #, where she feels left out because they have been friends longer with each other than with her.
• Titled After the Song: Lots of episode titles in the English dub by 4Kids contained ShoutOuts to Western songs, as well as books and films. For starters, "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" is a song by Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand, "Sketches of Pain" is a song by Tears for Fears, "Train a Comin'" is a song by Jimi Hendrix, and that's not even getting into the ones with a Pun-Based Title.
• Toilet Humor:
  • In the first series, a Kaiju fanboy has a lot of "Gazamadon" merchandise and even a few original pieces, including a bank that releases coins by pooping it out. The girls are more than a little grossed out when they see that particular item.
  • In the stinger for a Dokkan episode, the girls are wondering where numerous beads came from. Then they see Pao-chan pooping them out and they end up grossed out.
• Toilet Training Plot: Naisho episode 5 has Pop, after trying to get Hana-chan to use her potty, tries to switch bodies with her so that she can use it in her body. After suffering numerous Potty Failures while stuck with Hana's mind, Pop learns that toilet training takes a lot of time and patience, and isn't something that can happen in an instant by using magic.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Doremi loves her steak. Pity she never gets any. Meanwhile, Aiko likes takoyaki (chocolate doodles in the 4kids dub), Hazuki likes chiffon cake, Onpu likes crepés, Momoko likes strawberry tarts, and Hana gets a Sweet Tooth for pudding to match Pop.
• Tragic One-Shot Character: Nozomi in Na-i-sho.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: Deconstructed. It legitimately takes a lot of time to transform and use Magical Stage to get to Royal Patraine. Oyajide took advantage of this during Sharp when eluding the girls. Akatsuki wanted to be chivalrous and make the final fight fair during Sharp episode 46.
• Transformation Name Announcement: "Pree-ty Wit-chi (character name)-chi!" (In the dub, "Fa la de la dong ding, now I am a witchling!").
• Transformation Sequence: With a twist: In season one, the girls must complete their transformation before the music coming from their Tap ends. This is changed in subsequent seasons.
• Transformation Trinket: Apprentice Tap (first season), Rhythm Tap (Sharp), Parara Tap (Motto!), Cologne Tap (Dokkan!), Puarin Compact (Dokkan!)
• Translator Microbes: Momoko's magic gives her a greater grasp of Japanese than normal; later, she uses the headset on her baker's outfit to translate her speech perfectly. Eventually, she learns enough that she doesn't need it any more.
• Unexpectedly Dark Episode: Way more common than you think. Some episodes reveal things like Doremi's mother contemplating suicide before she found out she was pregnant with Doremi, Aiko learning that her parent's divorce was caused by a miscarriage, Aiko being traumatized by her grandfather hitting her mother when her grandmother died, etc.Dokkaan 40 and Naisho 4 are perhaps the most glaring departures from the show's comedic slice-of-life formula in terms of style, as both are very insular, character-based episodes that one would usually expect from adult psychological anime. Not because either episode contains any explicit content, but their themes about self-doubt and struggling maturity are more meant to be read between the lines.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Hey! Aren't those girls flying around on broomsticks? Seems pretty boring to me! This is taken apart in episode 50 of Series 1 when everyone notices and follows them to the Mahou-Dou and nearly turns them into Witch Frogs.
  • This is lampshaded in Comedy Theatre, where Doremi and Hazuki talk about the new troubles and boons that come with being a witch apprentice in the modern age.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Applied to Masaru Yada regarding his delinquent tendencies, though still is a nice person.
• Visit by Divorced Dad: In this case, it's actually Aiko's mom that's making the visits, as Aiko is under her father's custody since she made the choice to stay with him when she was originally going to live with her mother.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting:
  • The girls use their magic to transform into cute little animals a lot.
  • Their fairies can transform into their respective owners when they need to go somewhere without arousing suspicion... but they retain their Pokémon Speak vocabulary.
• Weirdness Censor: Most people who would catch a glimpse of their magic typically write it off as a dream, a hallucination, or some other trick. The girls exploit this to help deter people when they help from behind the scenes.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 22 of Sharp. Up until then, it was just the girls trying to raise Hana. After this episode, they have to protect her from being captured and generally forces them to be on higher alert.
  • Episode 25: A nice young boy appears at the Mahou-Dou and takes an interest in Doremi. He's Oyajide's accomplice and is just using Doremi to get closer to Hana.
  • Episode 47: A previous Queen reveals her presence and a desire to keep the Curse of Majo Gaeru alive by killing Hana. She is doing this to make sure other Witches don't suffer as she did.
  • Episode 28 of Motto: An incredibly out of left field episode which seems like a normal episode about Hana, until Majo Tourbillion shows up with the curse forest in tow and curses Hana to hate vegtables.
  • Episode 1 of Dokkan: Hana becomes bored with Majo Kai and ages herself to Doremi's age, destroying her pendant in the process.
  • Episode 30 of Dokkan: The vines around the Previous Queen's Predecessor expand and begin casting curses. One of them appears in the human world at the end of the episode.
  • Episode 43 of Dokkan: Vines have been revealed to be all over Misora and, quite likely, the world. And they were also capable of sprouting anywhere.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The epilogue shows Momoko back in New York with her old friends, Onpu giving autographs at a panel, Aiko living happily with her parents, Hana and her friends from kindergarten playing with Pao-chan, Hazuki out shopping with her mother and choosing an outfit of her own while declining the one her mother picked out for her, and Doremi confessing to a shadowed-out boy who is later revealed to be Kotake in Ojamajo Doremi 16. Done while playing the the first season opening no less!
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The town that the show is based on, Misora City/Misora Town (Depending on the Writer), is a fictional location in the Kantou region of Japan. Many people suspect that it's based off of the real-life Misora Town in Otsu, but that's all the way in the Kansai region.
• White-and-Grey Morality: Virtually everyone in this series is at least good in some way. The Ojamajos are unambiguously good albeit with some flaws, the Big Bad is ultimately a Well-Intentioned Extremist (as are the Wizards), and the Muggles are typically nice and have redeeming qualities. The only characters who have shown any actual malice were either mentioned solely in a flashback or have grown out of their Jerkass tendencies.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?:
  • In Dokkan 40, Doremi befriends the witch Mirai Sakura living in the human world, who is forced to constantly move around and part from the people she loves due to her long lifespan. Made even worse by leaving it ambiguous whether she does it to not be found out as a witch, or because she can't bear the pain of having to see them grow old and die before her or both.
  • A major part of the former Witch Queen's backstory is her outliving her own son and seeing him pass away from old age right in front of her.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Hazuki is deathly afraid of ghosts to the point that in a drama CD, she practically goes insane at Yamauchi's ghost story. Yada shares this with Hazuki, and Momoko later picks up this fear as well. All three have a chant that they use to ward off the fear. It seldom works.
  Hazuki and/or Momoko: "Majo Rika! Majo Rika! Majo Rika! Majo Rika!"
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Pop Harukaze. So much so that most students in her class look up to her as a leader.
• Wizarding School: The girls have to learn how to use magic and pass a series of tests to be granted additional powers.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The previous Witch Queen, who is villain for the second half of the series, is a tamer version of this trope (as she only tries to prevent interaction between humans and witches).
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Used right before the Grand Finale to help snap Doremi out of her Heroic BSoD.
• World of Technicolor Hair: Despite the realism this series has, the Ojamajos, along with several other characters, have hair colors that are definitively outrageous in terms of hair color. The Witches and Wizards have this too, but it's justified given their magical nature.

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