Chacha is an orphaned girl who lives with Seravy— the World's Greatest Magician— at the top of Mochi Mochi mountain. Seravy tried to teach Chacha magic, but her spells always go awry. When Chacha goes to the magic school, she meets Shiine (pronounce it She-neh), another apprentice magican, and Riiya the wolfboy. When the three are together, Chacha can transform into "Magical Princess" in order to fight the minions of the Great Devil King.The original manga was a Cute Witch series, but the anime series turned Chacha into a Magical Girl Warrior.
This series provides examples of the following tropes:
All-Powerful Bystander: Seravy. In fact, the Devil King considers him the only real threat and he is likely the only reason why the rest of the magical world hadn't actually been conquered yet at the start of the series.
Beach Episode: Where Riiya met Marine. Daimaou's spy even tells the viewers that it's a beach episode.
Belligerent Sexual Tension: Seravy and Dorothy. He wishes she would return to how she originally was when they were young (when she was still a demure lady-type with natural golden curled locks, instead of the feisty amazon with magically dyed red-pink straight hair that she is now) and she hates the fact that he's always going to be magically better than her, no matter what she does (ironically, it's eventually revealed that it's actually is his love for her which inspires him to be all-powerful, the sheer purity of which enables him to constantly surpass any and all limitations). Also Rascal-sensei and Mayachon-sensei, who were childhood rivals, but are secretly attracted to each other, though they Can Not Spit It Out.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: After Marine walks away angry at Chacha again, she notices people are staring so she switches to her "nice girl" mode because it's a Shojo anime.
Though perhaps only through Seravy—when Dorothy takes the gang out for shopping, other people whisper that she's far too young to be a mother, to her aggravation.
Deflector Shield: At one point Chacha brings up her shield to protect against a volley of missiles. It wasn't needed because the magic circle she was standing in had a shield of its own.
Dirty Coward: Marin in the anime when things get rough she conjurers a huge shell and hides in it.
Energy Ball: Seravy tosses some of these in the fight against Daimaou.
Heel Face Turn: Ultimately, all of the bad guys — even those who do get killed and don't make repeat appearances — with the obvious exception of the Big Bad. They even appear as guests at the wedding in the series finale!
Invocation: "I call upon love, courage, and hope. Magical Princess, Holy Up!"
Jerk with a Heart of Gold - Seravy. Seriously, the guy's just disinterested and indifferent most of the time, but at least he'll secretly show up in the sidelines of the action when things get too rough.
Luke, I Am Your Father: Access is actually Shiine's father. And the Devil King is actually Access's father. Making Shiine the grandson of the Big Bad. Nobody else picks up on this however, as even Access reveals to Dorothy that to the Devil King, Access is nothing but his soldier, with their familial connection being merely just an afterthought.
Shout Out: Riiya did the Kamen Rider pose when he transformed for the first time.
Stalker with a Crush: In its purest form, Seravy constantly, and rather disturbingly, with his unhealthy fixation on blonde Dorothy, to the point where he makes multiple efforts to magically sabotage her hair and deliberately provokes fights with her over something that happened some fifteen years before the series began. The fact that, as a grown man, he's deeply attached to and constantly carries a doll of young Dorothy. Which he diligently voices via ventriloquism.
Less horrifically concentrated, everybody in the cast who's in love with somebody does this at some point, but more often than not the female, rather than the male, members of the cast.
Start of Darkness: A 2-part time travel episode showed how Chacha and friends contributed to Dorothy's current personality and appearance.
Stylistic Suck: It's not that Seravy CAN'T do a good disguise, it's just that he never really bothers with it. Everybody seems to fall for his disguises however, with the exception of Riiya, who nobody believes anyway (then again, considering how powerful Seravy is, it may be a case of "The Emperor's New Clothes"-syndrome.)
Worse, it's never shortened at any point; the entire sequence always played out in full, and it only got longer as her arsenal expanded. And in spite of the show's comedic nature, it's hardly ever parodied; the anime just played its Magical Girl tropes way too straight...
Triang Relations: Marin likes Riiya (but hates his wolfform, which she doesn't realize is him) and Orin likes Shiine, but Shiine and Riiya both like Chacha, who seems oblivious (she is attached to Riiya's wolfform though). Kyle likes Yakko, but Yakko — and Shironeko and Doris — likes Seravy, who is too busy having Belligerent Sexual Tension with Dorothy. Access courted Dorothy for a time until he left the kingdom, and Poppy had a crush on her.
Verbal Tic: Dr. Mikeneko and Cream the pastry chef always end their sentences with "nya" and "dasu", respectively.
Villain Ball: The Devil King for depending on Sorges for relying on him to send assassins, the only decent one, a chalkboard eraser that could have been used for intel, he forces him to fight Chacha.
Visual Pun: Chacha's constant magical mishaps generally manifest as these — causing a door to "jellyfish" instead of "open up", turning dandelion fluff into an old man instead of Riiya. And no, they don't make sense in English — see Lost in Translation above.
Wholesome Crossdresser: Doris, who's in love with Seravy and trying to get him to fall in love with him, by making himself into the mirror-image of his sister Dorothy's original appearance (which is what Seravy is smitten with).
Wide-Eyed Idealist: Parodied by Principal Urara. The woman has no eyelids!
Wizarding School: One of the ending themes is even called Welcome to Magical School!
Yandere: Yakko is the harmless variety. Marin's suitor George, when he got mind-controlled; and his sister, Shelly (on behalf of her brother whom she felt sorry for), until he reprimanded her and made her stop.
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