Floral Magician Mary Bell

***Floral Magician Mary Bell*** or known as Magical Heroes in some countries, is the fourth and last magical girl anime by Ashi Productions. The fifty-episode series first aired in Japan from 1992 until 1993. It has also been broadcast in Hong Kong, South Korea, Italy, Taiwan, China, France, Poland, Thailand, and in most Arab countries. The series was adapted as a theatrical film and two educational films. The DVD version was released on March 20, 2004.

## Overview

Many other magical girls are primary-schoolers or middle-schoolers, but Mary Bell looks like a preschooler (although she is actually about 500,000 years old). She is a "native" magical girl just like Minky Momo and Sweet Mint, other magical girls by Ashi Productions from the same period. However, she is not a princess. The operatic approach is notable, each main character has his or her own leitmotif, and they sometimes sing instead of speaking, like a musical.

## Story

Mary Bell, a magical girl who looks around five years old, comes to the Human World from a magical world called the "Flower Magic World." Using her Flower Magic she helps and encourages people.

The story starts with two children, Yuuri and Ken, who are reading a fairy tale about Mary Bell finding two children who are lost in the woods, and helps them find home. Yuuri and Ken love the story of Mary Bell so much that their parents have named their flower shop after the fairy.

But the flower shop isn't doing well, and everyone is worried. Yuuri and Ken wish that Mary Bell would appear and help them. Both are surprised when she sprouts from a flower. She tells them she has learned of their plight, and will help them. After creating a potion to grow her house, she uses her magic to help the flower shop and people in town.

Mary Bell started her adventures from making flowers healthy and emits friendship beams, helping Ken to drive a bicycle, telling a story about the tree of memories. She can make friends to fairies that don’t lead flowers or talk to flowers. In one of the episodes, she helped Ribbon to be friends with a poodle, and she helps Yuuri to take care of a duck named Peepchee, in the 500.000th year Quarrel, she made rivals with Tambourine for doing wrong things. In Episode 45, Mary Bell and Tambourine got stuck in Mystery Country in order to fight Christina, the Crystal Floral Witch. In another episode, Mary Bell reveals her Mother and Father. She and Ken battled a 2 horned unicorn, she helps Paula who is from Star land.

Mary Bell fights some bank robbers in the Flower House, meets and helps her grandfather to prepare Christmas. When Tambourine gets kidnapped, Mary Bell saves him, and saves Vivian, who is kidnapped also. In the third episode, Mary Bell makes children's drawings to life, but were frightened by Bart. She also reveals that in the final episode, she is the conqueror and the leader of her world. each of the girls and their companions lived peacefully and happily there, very different from Super Speedway world, where the people used to race there. Mary Bell also has Lightning Magic to control electricity, usually on Power plants (Industry). She has Fire magic, to control the temperature. She uses this magic if needed, to help the people when it is snow storming.

In the last episode, seeing the rise of the Holy Tree, hearing that a man will make a big busy city, terrorizes Sunny Bell and steals all plants because humans destroy the nature, and even eats Mary Bell into Flower Magic World, which kills her, but Yuuri and Ken got there too to resurrect her there. After she wakes up, she finds Holy Tree being burnt, saying that this is not good for the trees and flowers. Having new magic, she confronts the Holy Tree to return the flowers and trees. Finding that the man loves flowers, making the Holy Tree calm, and the man apologizes. But the Holy Tree apologizes for his big mistake, and Mary Bell’s family who helped her leave with the Holy Tree to Mary Bell’s world. After this ends, Sunny Bell is saved, and is once again a happy town once again. In the ending scene, you can see Mary Bell, Yuuri, Tambourine, and Ken, saying Mary Bell’s catchphrase all together.

## Main characters

Mary Bell is the central character of the show, she helps children or others when they are trying to do something. A little girl, Yuuri, her younger brother, Ken, and Ribbon, a puppy, are the ones who first met Mary Bell. Other three children, Vivian, Bongo, and Tap, frequently appear too.

Mary Bell (マリーベル, *Marī Beru*) Voiced by: Chieko Honda
A "floral magician" from the Flower Magic World (花魔法界, *hanamahō-kai*) who looks like a little girl, but actually is about 500,000 years old. She uses both (ordinary) magic and flower magic. She is a fairies' friend, but is *not* a fairy herself. Her catchphrase is "Just leave it to Mary Bell!" (マリーベルにおまかせよ!, *Marī Beru ni omakase yo!*)
Tambourine (タンバリン, *Tanbarin*) Voiced by: Chika Sakamoto
Mary Bell's "magical companion." He is from the seelie court, and also about 500,000 years old.
Yuuri (ユーリ, *Yūri*) Voiced by: Satomi Koorogi
Mary Bell's friend. Her exact age is unknown, but apparently between six and ten.
Ken (ケン, *Ken*) Voiced by: Ai Orikasa
Yuuri's little brother. About five years old.
Rose (ローズ, *Rōzu*) Voiced by: Naoko Kyoda (adult); Chisa Yokoyama and Kumiko Nishihara (childhood)
A nice, old lady, who believes in fairies. She lives alone (with her dog, Ribbon) next door to the Mary Bell flower shop. She is the actual owner of the in-anime *Mary Bell Picture Book*. When Mary Bell first appeared, Yuuri and Ken were not ready to believe that she was the real Mary Bell, whereas Rose, when she met Mary Bell, immediately told her, "I always wanted to meet you, Mary Bell. I am a big fan of yours." Children usually call her "Grandma Rose".
Ribbon (リボン, *Ribon*) Voiced by: Kotono Mitsuishi
Rose's dog, often mistaken for a female due to the bow in his hair.
Remi (レミ, *Remi*) Voiced by: Sakiko Tamagawa
The mother of Yuuri and Ken.
Takuro (タクロー, *Takurō*) Voiced by: Kenichi Ono
The father of Yuuri and Ken, and the owner of the Mary Bell flower shop.
Bart (バート, *Bāto*) Voiced by: Tomomichi Nishimura (adult); Kappei Yamaguchi (childhood)
Another neighbor, living in the house next to Grandma Rose's. A crusty and stubborn old man, who doesn't like flowers, until the last three episodes (episodes 48, 49, and 50).
Jito (ジート, *Jīto*) Voiced by: Yasunori Matsumoto (first voice); Kōji Tsujitani (second voice)
Bart's nephew, living in Bart's house. He looks about twenty years old. When he was a little child, he got lost and helped by fairies. His friends didn't believe him and called him a liar. Since then, he keeps trying to capture a fairy to prove that he told the truth. He is a "fairy hunter" and so Mary Bell's and fairies' enemy (at least at first).
Vivian (ビビアン, *Bibian*) Voiced by: Akiko Yajima
Bart's granddaughter, living in his house. She is about the same age as Yuuri. She is realistic, and does not believe in fairies at all (at least at first). She is mean to Mary Bell (at least at first).
Bongo (ボンゴ, *Bongo*) Voiced by: Chie Satō
A friend of Vivian's. who has a crush on Yuuri.
Tap (タップ, *Tappu*) Voiced by: Kotono Mitsuishi
A friend of Vivian's.
Bra (ブラ, *Bura*) Voiced by: Kōzō Shioya
One of the local policemen.
Nopo (ノッポ, *Noppo*) Voiced by: Chō
Bra's partner.
Maggie Edelweiss (マギー・エーデルワイス, *Magī ēderuwaisu*) Voiced by: Sayuri Ikemoto
A news reporter implied to be originally from North America who works at the local television station.
Professor Sherbour (シェルボー教授, *Sherubō kyōju*) Voiced by: Takuzo Kamiyama
A local professor.
Papa Belle von Decasse (パパベル・フォン・デカッセ, *Papaberu fon dekasse*) Voiced by: Shō Hayami
Mary Bell's father. In the human world, he is known as a genius magician. He is always calm and has a gentlemanly personality. His magical spells are "Paparin, Berlin, Lan Lan Run".
Mamabel von Decasse (ママベル・フォン・デカッセ, *Mama beru fon dekasse*) Voiced by: Sumi Shimamoto
Mary Bell's mother. In the human world, she is named as a genius chef called "Fairy Sweet Maker", and Rose and Remi are also her fans. While she and her husband are traveling all over the world, they are inspiring dreams.
Magical spells are "Mamarin, Berlin, Lunrunlun".

## Development

*Floral Magician Mary Bell* is influenced by *Mary Poppins* or *Mary Poppins (film)*, or both.[*citation needed*] The protagonists of *Mary Bell Picture Book* are Jane and Michael, the same names that appear in *Mary Poppins*.

## Anime

The TV series was planned and produced by TV Setouchi, Big West, and Ashi Productions. It was directed by Tetsuya Endo, with series composition by Takao Koyama and Hideki Mitsui (both from Brother Noppo). The animation directors include Masashi Hirota, Kōichirō (新羽高一浪), Yuriko Chiba, and Kouji Fukazawa. These four supervised about 80% of the 50 episodes. The true identity of "Kōichirō" is unknown and people do not even know how to read his family name, but it is widely believed in Japan that "Kōichirō" is a pseudonym of Takeshi Ito, who later worked as an assistant animation director on *Cowboy Bebop: The Movie* and *Tactical Roar*.

### Episodes

Fifty episodes were broadcast from 3 February 1992 to 18 January 1993.