Super Doll★Licca-chan is a televised Anime series directed by Gisaburō Sugii from studio Geneon and featured on TV Tokyo. The 52-episode TV series aired in Japan from 6 October 1998 through 28 September 1999, and has been translated into multiple languages including English, Chinese, Spanish, Italian and Tagalog. The Anime also inspired a serialized Manga of the same name produced by publisher Kodansha in its monthly Manga magazine Nakayoshi.
The series was inspired by the long-selling and popular Takara doll lineup Licca-chan (considered by some to be the Japanese equivalent of Barbienote ). The Anime was designed to serve as a means to adapt their line of dolls and create a line of action figures. However, the new figures were only a mild success, and did not remain in production for long.
The story of the anime follows an ordinary elementary school girl named Licca Kayama.note It details the strange circumstances surrounding her origins, and also delves into the origins of her protector, Doll Licca. Licca herself descends from a long line of defenders of the Fantasy Kingdom, from which all our fairy tales originate; she and her family must use three super powered dolls (Doll Licca, Doll Isamu and Doll Izumi), along with the help of her friends, to thwart the machinations of Professor Scarecrow and his minions.
This series provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Doll Licca and Doll Izumi.
- Adaptation Name Change:
- In some dubs, Doll Licca is never referred by name and is just known as the Doll Protector or Dama Protectora in Latin America to avoid confusion between her and Licca Kayama.
- In the Latin American dub, the Fantasy Kingdom was renamed as the Doll Kingdom (El Reino de las Muñecas).
- All Love Is Unrequited: Sumire likes Dai, who likes Licca, who likes Rui, who likes Doll Licca.
- Anti-Villain:
- Scarecrow, Wire and Pull are only doing what they are doing because they were told that only by bringing Licca to the Fantasy Kingdom they would be able to save it from its destruction.
- Isamu, while controlled by Yae. He's not evil, but genuinely believes he's doing the right thing.
- Barrage of Bats: Misty, the demoness doll from the Demon Kingdom, can conjure bats to attack the Doll Knights.
- Big Bad: Professor Scarecrow aims to seize the throne of Doll Kingdom from the titular Princess Licca for himself. Until it’s revealed that he’s actually a minion of Devaul, who is possessing Queen Yae and is the one who actually wants to conquer Doll Kingdom while having deceived Scarecrow into doing his bidding.
- Creepy Child: Catherine. Subverted, she's not evil. In fact, she's the original owner of Doll Izumi and sends her out more than once to protect Licca.
- Disappeared Dad: Licca's grandfather died in an Heroic Sacrifice to save his and Nanae's daughter Orie aka Licca's mom. Or so we think.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Shown in the Doll Knights' choice of weapon; Doll Licca uses a Killer Yoyo and Doll Izumi has a magic baton she uses as a boomerang, both ranged weapons, while Doll Isamu uses a BFS. It's subverted since Doll Isamu is more prone to shoot Sword Beams from his sword than to actually directly slice at enemies.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Licca is left in the darkness about why Scarecrow and Co. are trying to kidnap her repeatedly. Until the second half of the series kicks in.
- Magical Girl AU: The anime is one to the more mundane Licca-chan toy line.
- Magical Incantation: "Tururu tururu kureiro kureiro", to summon Doll Licca. "Fururu Furora Gurine Guraine" to summon Izumi. "Pereso Perese Burune Buraine", to summon Isamu.
- Mascot Fighter: Appeared in DreamMix TV World Fighters. There, she could slap around the likes of Simon Belmont and Optimus Prime.
- Merchandise-Driven: The show was produced to adapt the Licca-chan dolls as an anime and to promote a series of action figures based on the show.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Licca starts as an ordinary grade schooler before finding out she's secretly a princess and villains are after her.
- Parents in Distress: Licca's father Pierre is captured by the Doll Kingdom people in the last third of the series.
- Plucky Children: Licca and her friends are these.
- Really Royalty Reveal: Licca learns that she's the princess of the Doll Kingdom.
- Terrible Trio: Dr. Scarecrow's henchmen, Pull and Wire, are both a Brother–Sister Team and a two-person version of the trope.
- Two Girls and a Guy: The Doll Knights are a trio comprised of two girls and a guy.
