Mirmo!

Mirmo!
Genre	Comedy, Magic, Romance, Fiction
Manga
Written by	Hiromu Shinozuka
Published by	Shogakukan; VIZ Media
Demographic	Shōjo
Anime
Directed by	Kenichi Kasai
Studio	Studio Hibari

Mirmo! (わがまま☆フェアリーミルモでポン!, Wagamama Fearī Mirumo de Pon!, lit. Selfish Fairy Mirumo de Pon) is a manga series written by Hiromu Shinozuka and serialized in Ciao magazine from 2001 through 2006. It was also published in twelve collected volumes by Shogakukan. The manga series was awarded the 2003 Kodansha Manga Award and the 2004 Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga.^[1]^[2] The series has been licensed fro an English language release by in North America by Viz Media.

Mirmo! was adapted into an anime series by Studio Hibari. It premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo on April 6, 2002 and ran for 172 episodes until its conclusion on September 27, 2005. The anime series is also licensed by Viz Media for an English language release in North America, and by ShoPro Entertainment. A dubbed version of the series is being broadcast on Warner Bros. Television under the title Mirmo Zibang!

Plot

The main character, Katie Minami (Kaede Minami in the original Japanese versions), is a cheerful and energetic eighth grader who is shy around her male classmates, making it difficult for her to date. One day, on her way home from school, she walks into a mysterious shop and buys a blue cocoa mug. When she arrives at home, she peeks into the bottom of the mug and discovers an engraved note which says, "If you read this message aloud while pouring hot cocoa into the mug, a love fairy ("muglox") will appear and grant your every wish." The skeptical but curious Katie follows the directions and announces her wish to date Dylan Yuki (Setsu Yuuki in the Japanese versions), her crush. A love fairy named Mirmo (Mirumo) appears. At first she was afraid of him but later understood that he was a muglox. Katie soon finds out that Mirmo prefers eating chocolate and creating mischief over helping Katie.

It turns out Mirmo is prince of the muglox world. Horrified at the prospect of having to marry Rima (Rirumu), his princess bride-to-be, Mirmo escaped the muglox world. Hot on his heels, however, are Rima, Yatch (Yashichi) the bounty hunter, Murumo (Mirmo's brother), and many other muglox as well.

Characters

The main characters of Mirmo! are four human teenagers and their mugloxes, or love fairies. The muglox Mirmo has been assigned the task of granting Katie Minami's wishes, though he spends most of his time eating chocolate and running away from Rima, a female muglox assigned to Dylan Yuki, the boy Katie is infatuated with. Yatch, Mirmo's muglox archrival, is assigned to by Azumi Hidaka, a girl who also loves Dylan and is jealous of Katie. Mirmo's brother, Murumo, is assigned to Kyle Matsutake, a boy who falls in love with Katie. The muglox fairies use musical instruments as their magical tools.

Reception

Mirmo! achieved enormous popularity in Japan.^{[citation needed]} The manga received both the 2003 Kodansha Manga Award and the 2004 Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga.^[1]^[2]

The anime received TV Tokyo's award for top-rated new program in 2003.^{[citation needed]}

Media

Manga

Mirmo! was published by Shogakukan in Ciao magazine from 2001 to 2006 and collected in 12 tankobon volumes.

Anime

The series was adapted as a 172-episode anime series broadcast in Japan on TXN from April 2002 through September 2005.

Soundtracks

Thirteen CD soundtracks and character song compilations have been released for the Mirumo series. One was released by Toshiba-EMI, four by Try-M, and the rest by Konami.

Toshiba-EMI
- 『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! - Best de Pon!』
Try-M
- 『Kichaou Mirumo de Pon! Best 1』
- 『Kichaou Mirumo de Pon! Best 2』
- 『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! - Winter Story』
- 『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! - Fairy Concert of Everyone Music』
Konami
- 『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! Wonderful Mirumo de Best! - Tenkomori』
- 『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! Wonderful Mirumo de Best 2! - High』
- 『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! Wonderful Music de Pon! - Television Music Collection♪』
- 『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! Wonderful Music de Pon! - Television Music Collection 2♪』
- 『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! Character Song Series 1 - Mirmo & Mulu Fairy Tacos』
- 『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! Character Song Series 2 - Mirmo, Yatch & Katie, Azumi, Teacher, Sphere Boy Satol, P-Man』
- 『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! Character Song Series 3 - Mirmo, Icas, Tacos, Katie, Dylan, Azumi, Kyle』
- 『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! Character Song Series 4 - Mirmo, Rima, Katie, Hirai, Hoshino』
- 『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! 'Charming' Original Sound Track』

Drama CDs

Konami has released two drama CDs for Mirumo.

- 『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! 'Charming' Drama CD Series Vol.1 - Princess Katie』
- 『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! 'Charming' Drama CD Series Vol.2 - Mermaid Katie』

Video games

Seven Mirumo video games have been created and released by Konami on a variety of platforms.

『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! - The Legend of Golden Maracas』(Launched May 2002, Game Boy Advance Use)
『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! - The Mirumo goes Magic School』(Launched March 2003, PlayStation Use)
『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! - The Knight Soldiers』(Launched September 2003, Game Boy Advance Use)
『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! - The 8Man's Fairy』(Launched December 2003, Game Boy Advance Use)
『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! - The Dream of Cake』(Launched July 2004, Game Boy Advance Use)
『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! - The Kagi and Tobira』(Launched December 2004, Game Boy Advance Use)
『Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! - The Dokidoki Memoreal Panic』(Launched September 2005, Game Boy Advance Use)

References

^ ^a ^b "過去の受賞者一覧 : 講談社漫画賞 : 講談社「おもしろくて、ためになる」出版を" (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
^ ^a ^b "小学館漫画賞：歴代受賞者" (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Retrieved 2007-08-19.

External links

[KodanshaAward-1] "過去の受賞者一覧 : 講談社漫画賞 : 講談社「おもしろくて、ためになる」出版を" (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved 2007-08-21.

[ShogakukanAward-2] "小学館漫画賞：歴代受賞者" (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Retrieved 2007-08-19.

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