Kuromajo-san Ga Tooru

There is a reason why spells must be chanted correctly even if they sound long ass or ridiculous. Because if you say the wrong word, even if it is the slip of a single vowel, you might end up summoning the wrong thing and be left to regret it. And so this is the case of our protagonist, an elementary school girl in Kuromajo-san Ga Tooru. In an attempt to read a love horoscope to her friends, she accidentally mispronounced the wrong lines and instead of summoning a cupid, she summoned a black witch and is subsequently made to become her apprentice. Well, it is not her fault to mispronounce it in the first place since she had a runny nose and this of course inhibits your pronunciation, right?

Ever since she has become an apprentice black witch, life is either a blessing or a curse because the spells can either be working in your favour or they don’t. I know. Life is never going to be the same again. As usual, long series are the bane of writing episode by episode summaries. So I got Wikipedia for some help to refresh my memories on the episodes or just whatever there is since this isn’t really a popular or mainstream anime so finding additional information about it is pretty tough.

Chiyoko Kurotori – Also known as Choco. When her classmates request her to summon some cupid of love, she had a runny nose that day and chanted the wrong lines. Instead, she summoned Gyubid the black witch and Choco suddenly finds herself as an apprentice black witch under her guidance. Each time she needs to use or practice her magic, she has to don that black gothic outfit. Even in public… Why does every spell begin with “Ruki-uge Ruki-uge…”?

Gyubid – The mischievous black witch Choco summoned and needs to train her to become a full black witch before she becomes an adult or else she will have to return to the Spirit World. She has lots of magic spells and conveniently the one mostly used is the memory erasing spell…

Here are her other equally weird classmates:
Megu Shion – Super narcissist and hysterical maniac but ironically one of Choco’s best friends.
Mai Ichiro – The class rep who is always trying to form committees for this and that.
Daigorou Iwata – The fat kid that everyone loves calling Kuishinbo (glutton) but he prefers to be called Yokozuna (sumo champion).
Ryoutarou Asakura – Rich obnoxious kid.
Ashura Toukaiji – Comes from a family who runs a temple.
Naoki Kojima – AKA Ero Ace Naughty and perverted kid of the class.
Kyou Oogata – Emotionless kid always carrying a rabbit hand puppet.
Riku Kaname – The super detective because his father is one too.
Rio Mukai – Sweets loving girl and thus the smartest kid in class. See people! Snacks and chocolates make you smart!
Yuri Haruno – Cute kid.
Shou Sanjou – Popular kid.
Takami Shishimura – Cooking prodigy.
Touko Miyase – Hard worker. Acts like a mother to her younger siblings.
Akira Hayami – Smart. Handsome. Doesn’t talk much. Loner. Mysterious type. Not popular with girls. Hmm… What’s wrong with this picture…
Kyouya Izumo – The real and serious class rep but with him always a yes-man, he is Mai’s gofer…
Matsuoka – The young homeroom teacher.

Here are some of the black witch ‘practical lessons’ Choco did:

Ep 1 – Choco investigates some paranormal activity at school. Turns out to be powerful ill feelings of resentment and jealousy of Iwata.

Ep 2 – Using her magic to ride a bicycle as she herself cannot ride one. The bike is floating…

Ep 3 – Choco is forced to become a judge in Asakura and Toukaiji’s argument about existence of ghost since they believe she is into occult. The winner gets to be Choco’s boyfriend. GASP! Anyway both cheated and Choco even lectures and exposes them for their failure and lack of faith. But the fight for Choco isn’t over yet…

Ep 4 – Ruru Ramon as the new transfer student, Ero Ace wants to sit next to her. He always comes to her protection whenever the other girls chide her for being a loner. Turns out she is trying to take a short cut to become a black witch by offering him as a sacrifice. She is caught in the act as well as Gyubid’s instructor, Lord Exnome. Because this is like a bribe, he is forced to abandon everything and feign ignorance. She won’t be hearing the last of Ruru yet…

Ep 5 – Choco saves her classmates from being turned into cats by a swindler who wants to make them his familiar. All you have to do is change the name of the cat by calling it a different name and it will become your familiar? WTF.

Ep 6 – Choco and Megu are out shopping when a magazine editor wants them to pose for her photo shoot. They are made to follow suspicious instructions to resurrect a ghost. Thankfully Choco recites the spell to let the editor (who is a ghost herself) to pass on. As for Megu, there is a good side for being dumb because she can’t read her kanji right.

Ep 7 – Choco and Gyubid save Rio from Baba Yaga, a witch who eats kids. They play a dice game (since Baba Yaga loves games) and win on technicality which isn’t against the rules.

Ep 8 – In a picnic, Shou surrounded by Megu, Mai and Yuri… Everyone ate some turmeric that causes them to fall in love with the first person they see. Choco must break the spell or it will become permanent. She is forced between Asakura and Toukaiji because part of the spell needs a boy and a girl to say it hand in hand. Asakura is the lucky guy and the spell breaks. Choco is furious that Gyubid set up to be Asakura all along because that rich kid had some doll house she wanted and thought she could get it if Choco and him were an item. I wonder how it will be like when Megu and Mai see Yuri with Shou together…

Ep 9 – Choco tries to help her friend, Suzuki Rinne to rid of her bad luck. They found out her bad luck stems from Oogata’s rabbit puppet which is some sort of amulet. They also rid of the demon that is possessing the puppet.

Ep 10 – Choco and friends are invited to star in some wizard programme on TV. Bad luck starts to happen when Choco recites her lines. Turns out the TV producer is actually Gyubid’s classmate, Angolmois and is secretly a black witch instructor and supervisor for the Asian region. She has taught many kids and wants Choco to be her student. Angolmois’ offer is tempting because it is not so strict as Gyubid (she doesn’t have to wake up for early morning drills). She doesn’t have to give her answer now and can think about it.

Ep 11 – While turning the school into some illusionary hotspring just to let her friend Touko relax, they find out Oogata is actually a wizard previously under Angolmois’ guidance. Because his magic was too powerful, Angolmois used that puppet as a seal. Now that it is broken, he is free and is going to take over the Spirit World. I guess that is better than world domination.

Ep 12-13 – While on a bus trip to the beach, Choco and her friends are teleported to another fairytale world whereby Choco becomes the classic Cinderella. Chocoderella? Mai and Megu are her wicked step-sisters and no prizes to guess who Gyubid is. Choco needs to save everyone or they’ll be stuck here forever. Your classic Cinderella case whereby her step-sisters leave her locked behind and Gyubid the fairy godmother saves the day to send her to the ball in a pumpkin carriage, crow slippers (pun for garasu = glass and karasu = crow) with Asakura and Toukaiji as her escort. There is a long queue for the ladies to dance with the prince. Before that, they have to dance with his aide to check if they qualify to dance. Everyone fails and when it comes to dead last Choco, the prince immediately dances with her. The prince turns out to be Oogata and this is his way of getting back from what is stolen from him. Uh huh. Because he was forced to practice magic and then got sealed, he feels left out he could have been laughing and joining in with his friends instead of being a loner. Trying to get back lost time I presume? So everyone is his pet and will make new memories together. So why not just attend class with everyone else? Choco can be his Cinderella and the spell will be permanent at the stroke of midnight. Not if Choco can chant that spell in time. She is so glad that everyone is back on the bus like normal but realized she lost a slipper. Just like Cinderella…

Ep 14-15 – WTF. Megu leaves her cousin Momo with Choco so she can do her whatever selfish thing?! Forced to take her to a new mall, they bump into Touko and her siblings in which Momo is being rude. Then she turns out to be Touka Blossom, Gyubid’s junior by 2 years and is going to use Touko’s siblings as a demon sacrifice. Seems Touka is working for Oogata who is waiting for Halloween as the gates between Earth and Spirit World open only once on that day. For the time being, he is staying in the human world to increase his power via sacrifice. While Choco tries to convince him to give up, Touka suddenly takes the sibling’s hand puppet and tries to put it on Oogata’s hand. Touka’s goal is to seal his power and was never working for him. So it becomes a game of tag trying to catch the hand puppet. Oogata got distracted by Choco’s clumsy folly and this allowed Touka to put the seal on him. Back to the Oogata we know. Pretty harmless for now. Ever thought of using your other hand to take it off? As Touka wants to continue her black witch training under Gyubid, she’ll be staying at Choco’s place. Oh, normal humans can’t see her. Just great. As if having one black witch wasn’t bad enough already.

Ep 16 – Gyubid impersonates as Choco’s mom to attend class observation day. Matsuoka is acting strange. First nervous and then fooling around with jokes. Turns out he is being possessed by a demon. The way to solve this is to get an animal to howl and scare him before reciting some chant. Do rabbits howl? Apparently late coming Megu’s mom brought her little dog and it scared the hell out of this demon, Jou Akuma. Matsuoka accidentally ate him when he possessed the cake. He’ll be in trouble if the black witch instructors association finds out if he is fooling around in the human world. So they make a deal they won’t tell if he leaves now.

Ep 17-18 – For the sports festival, Mai suggests everyone to train together. As such, Choco sucks. But the new transfer girl, Sayaka Suzukaze excels in running and will be part of the relay team. Next is gymnastics but Iwata is sad he always ends up the bottom so Sayaka suggests to do a rock-scissors-paper match to determine who stays on top. Eventually she wins and Gyubid senses something amiss. It seems Sayaka is also a black witch apprentice. They tail her to the hospital and witness her summon her instructor. Seems she is concerned about her brother’s surgery and being told to perform some ritual to guarantee its success. Back home, Gyubid has Choco read some pact interfering magic which is something forbidden. Then she casts a spell on Choco so that the sports festival won’t be a tragedy. But Choco still sucks. Is the spell working? She is surprised to see Angolmois part of the audience. She heard her talking to Count Leonare. Sayaka is going to perform a ritual that sacrifices her soul. The surgery success was a trick. If Angolmois is successful, Leonare promises to give what she asks. Choco tries to warn her but Angolmois keeps her mouth shut. But nothing happens during the human pyramid (as part of the ritual). Angolmois senses no magic coming from Sayaka and somebody has interfered. Choco is glad that nothing tragic happened. Even without the magic spell, Sayaka’s brother’s operation was successful. But when she returns home, she sees sad Touka. A letter from Gyubid revealing she casted that illegal spell and is now facing the music. She has no regrets and hopes Touka to take care of her. Choco now realizes why she casts that incident free spell on her.

Ep 19-21 – Spirit World Police are watching Choco since there is a chance she might meet up with Gyubid. With Touka and in disguises, they try to locate Gyubid and find her hiding at the house of Hayate Tsuchigama (her classmate who acts like an old man with equally bad puns) trying to practice her manga for an amateur competition. When the Spirit World Police find them, Jou accidentally comes into the scene and knocks them out. Seems there is a conflict between Private Magic School and Private Black Witch Academy. Oddly, the former is Gyubid and Touka’s alma mater. They have been eternal rivals but this time the Spirit World Police are siding with Private Black Witch Academy because they want to crush the school who cast that forbidden spell. Gyubid is going back to the Spirit World and Choco wants to come along since she realizes it is not the same without Gyubid. So she’s accepted her now? Exnome helps them in the Spirit World and brings them to see Private Magic School’s principal, Melusine. She doesn’t have the details but things Private Black Witch Academy’s chairman, Leonare may have something to do with it. They can’t stay long since the Spirit World Police are coming. They take a hidden route that will lead them to the city. Choco got separated and disguised as a frog to avoid detection. But she can’t change back! A pair of loli twins, Lollipop and Cocoa take back this delicacy to where Gyubid and co are hiding. They’re supposed to find Choco but can’t find her on an empty stomach, can’t they? Gyubid is about to eat the frog but she smells something familiar. She changes Choco back and she becomes the butt of jokes. The Spirit World Police barge in and apprehend them all. Leonare is with them and he knows where they are thanks to Exnome selling them out. Gyubid is put on trial while Choco imprisoned. Melusine in a snake transformation sneaks in to hand Choco a damning proof that Leonare is behind this. So they bust out and ditch all the dumb guards to show the court this proof. This is Leonare’s conspiracy that if he presents a human soul, he will be promoted. He also had Angolmois trick Gyubid into casting that spell. Exnome will become king for his help. Because Choco tells that buffalo dude that Gyubid knew this and never said a thing because she was protecting him (Gyubid is even crying), it made him feel guilty and he confess everything. Leonare is arrested and the court rules although she has been set up, it still doesn’t dismiss the fact she used the forbidden spell. Therefore she is sentence to become Choco’s black witch instructor till she graduates. That’s not so bad, right?

Ep 22 – Thanks to some weird card game the black witches are playing, they got turned into a dog. They need to touch the card to change back. But what are the chances the wind will blow it away into the mouth of a smart crow? Yeah… The chase is on…

Ep 23-24 – The girls think a ghost exists at the pool and this means Choco has to investigate (because she was made the president of the paranormal committee before. It’s ironic that Choco has been to the Spirit World but she’s afraid of ghosts? Even more ironic is that Gyubid is afraid too. They think it’s just a prank since Toukaiji is there exorcising while Ero Ace is dressing up as a ghost and has Iwata film him as part of their scarring collection movies. Well, Gyubid also wants in on this. But when monstrous tentacles grab the kids and the black witches didn’t think it is the prank of the other, they run for their lives! Later Touka borrows Iwata’s film and it upon closer look, Hayami is near the scene. He invites Choco to do some black magic with him since it’s not working out well. Because he thought everyone has been overreacting to the ghost prank. He gives to Choco Oogata’s hand puppet to give it to him back. Oh wait. This means… Gyubid is facing off with Oogata. During Megu’s panic, she threw something that accidentally flung off the hand puppet. Oogata is going to make sure Gyubid will never be a nuisance anymore. And with hair power, he almost drowns her. Choco tries to stop her but was told by Gyubid to unleash the cleansing spell she was made to learn previously. Although Oogata threatens that spell will have her lose something precious to her, she goes ahead and recite it. It works and the seal is back on Oogata’s hand. Next day, Choco is horrified to learn that the something precious she lost isn’t a person but things. She lost all her manga! To make things worse, Gyubid did some magic and Oogata’s family is now moving next door to them. Touka disguises herself as Momo to be his sister to keep an eye if ever the seal comes off again.

Ep 25 – I guess Choco has gained some sort of reputation that the library prefect even knows her as a ‘shady’ magical girl. She wants her to deal with some ghosts making a mischief with the library books. Turns out that one of her classmates was possessed by a Fairy Oak and the only way to exorcise it is while he is asleep. That’s during school hours and he likes napping in the library. Hope they don’t get too loud or mess up the books… Well, the latter one got out of hand…

Ep 26 – Choco learns how to rewind and fast forward time. However the wrong hand movements when a bug bugged her (pun intended) means she accidentally casts a loop spell. Groundhog Day. How many times must she jump this vault test? Touka’s advice to break this spell is to become somebody else. Well, imitating others certainly made her a fool. And she’s getting tired already. Then she deduces she just needs to pass the vault test (because her usual self isn’t athletic). After about 100 tries (OMG!) she finally does it. She might have made the grade to the next level as a black witch but Gyubid isn’t pleased that she used the spell wrongly and so it is going to be looping spell drills… Oh God. Not again! Here we go again! Pun intended…

Ep 27-28 – Torn between a cake competition and black witch training, Gyubid teaches Choco how to clone herself. However what happens if your clones start cloning? Yeah… But as Gyubid says, each time your clone clones, the clone will look different and the end product will end up looking entirely different. And goofy too. I don’t know how her friends couldn’t tell the real Choco apart. So while they go about their cake assignment, they see Oogata buying lots of rice bowls. Turns out he might be hiring Banshees, death fairies of the Spirit World to do his bidding since his powers are sealed and rice bowls are like diamonds there. So when they foil their trade, Touka rushes in with her findings that he is no Banshee but some legendary chef. He wanted the bowl to make meals himself when his wife is not around and in exchange Oogata got the best ingredients to make Mont Blanc cake. He wins the competition and Choco can’t get a taste of it since Gyubid hogged it all.

Ep 29 – Matsuoka is acting strange. He seems to be pressing some time and he smells. Choco stumbles upon him bringing animal bones to the lab and talking with Gyubid, seems from what has been observed, the steps he has taken is to summon Satan. When Kaname goes missing (the ingredient of a young boy is the last step for the summon), Choco fears the worse. What more, she sees Matsuoka with a cleaver! Turns out Kaname was just sleeping after reading some detective novel all night and Matsuoka was just trying to make some tonkatsu soup. Since timing is essential, the reason he was being edgy.

Ep 30 – Valentine’s Day. You know what this means. Asakura and Toukaiji are fighting over Choco. Which will she choose? That’s the question our budding reporter and scoop lover, Aika Outo is asking. Gyubid wants Choco to eat some herb to make her famous but it accidentally ends up in Iwata’s mouth. Now this chubby guy is famous. So to cure this falling in love spell, it is only right to make a falling out of love spell. What a better way than to hide this herb in the chocolate Choco will make. Iwata is not only popular with girls but boys too! Choco finally manages to get him eat it (since all that running made him hungry) and the spell is broken. Aika takes a photo shot that Iwata is the guy Choco chose and war is going to erupt between Asakura and Toukaiji. A third rival? Looks like Gyubid won’t be using her amnesia spell for a while.

Ep 31-32 – While playing magic shiritori (things you say materialize for real), a kangaroo materializes and it starts abusing Gyubid. I don’t know what is this Ruru word she said but it sure hell made the kangaroo disappear and end the game. In class, Choco notices Ero Ace not interested when the wind blows up Megu’s skirt. He is asking for some transfer girl to be included in the class’ photo shoot but Matsuoka believes there are no transfer students so everyone laughs at him. During the photo shoot, their class encounters lots of problems till it gets postponed. Somehow Yuri managed to get the cameraman to print out a photo from the computer (it’s one of those faulty shots). They notice a ghost girl standing next to Ero Ace! Does she look familiar? Of course. Remember Ruru? She’s back. She is going to have her revenge on them because she cannot pass in and out of the human world. She casts a spell on Ero Ace. Now what will happen if the black witch society finds out they revived Ruru and she sacrificed somebody? They’ll be banned from the Spirit World, right? Hayami then rushes into the scene to take pictures but gets owned by Ruru’s spell too. Just great. Another sacrifice. He throws Choco a book on how to exorcise a witch. It would be easy if they have all those mythical parts. The only way is to play magic shiritori. Eventually Ruru is exorcised but Choco couldn’t hear her last words. In the aftermath after checking the photos, they see Ruru laughing in the background as a ghost and think she has been enjoying her short duration attending school then. Maybe she wanted to be in the group photo with everyone. So when the actual group photo is taken, Choco has Gyubid to stick a picture of Ruru in it.

Ep 33 – Mai organizes a hanami for the girls. There is a withered sakura tree that everyone seems to dump their garbage. Gardening lover, Kokoro Kusonoki tries cleaning it up but more and more people continue to dump there. This makes the spirit of the sakura tree angry as it possesses Kokoro to tell the people not to dump here. Not even the mild warning pranks could stop them. Gyubid and Choco realize the threat as Choco chant a cleaning up spell to whisk away the garbage into space. Right after that, the withered tree goes into full bloom. See people? Your trash kills trees! But the side effect of that spell means all the garbage goes into the caster’s dustbin. Choco’s house is now one big dump. Stinky!

Ep 34 – Mizuki Morikawa (is she a relative of that fast food chain mascot of Wendy’s?!) was Gyubid’s classmate in the Spirit World. Her stationery shop burnt down there and she opened a new one on Earth. However she suspects somebody from Choco class to have accidentally bought a magical candy that makes the wisher’s wish come true (blame Gyubid for this mess to happen). How does she know? Because the class is acting weird with everyone interested in decorating and making things cute! Better find the culprit fast because once the wish is fulfilled, the wisher will blow up into a ball and explode! Yes! Explode for real! Choco tries to find out who it could be and it turns out to be Yuri. Because she gets to sit next to Shou and he loves it while the other girls are just darn jealous. Then she blows up into a ball bouncing here and there. Choco manages to give her eat a remedial candy that brings her back down to size and also has her no recollection of what happened.

Ep 35 – Jou relays the news that some demon pig escaped from the Spirit World and loves eating shadows (you’ll be unable to move if that happens). With Gyubid and Choco going around to catch the pig that has already claimed several victims, the only way to release those eaten shadows is to make it laugh. So happen that one of Choco’s classmates who is bad at telling rakugo stories and jokes was practising at the park. Only the pig, Gyubid and Jou start laughing at those awful jokes. Safe to say the day is saved. But that poor kid, his jokes still cannot be saved. Boring as hell…

Ep 36 – The guys skipped cleaning class and this earns the wrath of the girls. A big gender wars is going to erupt if Choco doesn’t do something about it. It is discovered all this quarrelling stems from a pair of twins. They inadvertently watched Choco practised her quarrelling spell at the park and got infected and spread to the classmates. The only way to solve this is to shake hands. Choco steals the twins’ beloved possessions in hopes they will shake hands to get it back but they won’t. In a struggle to get it back, the sister falls off the stairs. The brother grabs her hand. There’s your handshake. Back to good relationship. Sibling rivalry a good or bad thing? Choco doesn’t know since she is an only child.

Ep 37 – While manning Morikawa’s shop, Choco is curious to see a magic dial, she turns it to ‘small’ and suddenly she shrinks! So little Thumbelina’s adventures include being chased by a fly, almost eaten by Megu’s dog, nearly get thrown in the trash, almost being eaten in a chocolate, get thrown in a ball and almost being eaten by a badass stray cat. Why does everybody want to eat her? Does little Choco taste good? Luckily Gyubid finds her and makes her turn back the dial to normal since she was the one who switched it so it is only right she turns it back herself. It’s going to be a Herculean effort…

Ep 38 – Choco goes out with her friends to eat free chocolates and cakes for kids at a newly opened store. If you wonder why if there is somebody kind enough to do that, it’s because the person behind this is Baba Yaga! She’s back and is going to fatten-cum-sweeten the kids. Choco tries to get her friends out but Baba Yaga corners them. Remembering she likes games, Choco challenges her. In this one-shot coin game, Choco wins and her friends go free if she lands heads otherwise she will be eaten first. Baba Yaga uses her magic to make the coin in her favour and when it seems Choco will lose, the badge her grandma just gave activates and turns the coin in Choco’s favour. It seems that badge turns out to be an amulet that deflects Baba Yaga’s magic. But why does granny have it? Hmm…

Ep 39 – Choco accidentally falls asleep on some demon dream pillow and there is a risk she’ll have nightmares and never wake up. Gyubid and Touka dive into her dream. Makkura Osaki is the one responsible for putting Choco in this seemingly nice dream but to escape, she must answer his riddles. Choco easily gives up or doesn’t think hard enough. Then they turn on the tables on Makkura that he only knows how to give riddles but not know how to answer them. He takes up the challenge, confident he can answer any riddle. Guess he can’t figure it out either. Yeah. It’s something weird that you can’t think of but I guess it’s valid. They are released from the dream world as promised and Choco doesn’t need to think hard about the answer to the riddle of not doing her black witch drills… Double the practice!

Ep 40 – Choco feels that her fortune telling classmate, Seira Kisaragi is suspicious because it’s based on some haiku of an old famous poet and her answers are somewhat common sense. Seira predicts a bad omen for Choco and the latter tells Gyubid about this. In turn, she is taught fortune telling and being handed a bowl. All she must do is not open it. This talking bowl amazes everyone with its predictions despite being half assed. But when it comes to love compatibility, it made Mai, Yuri and Megu fight over Shou (because they’re all compatible with him!). Even Toukaiji and Asakura end up fighting over her over this prediction. The bowl predicts Choco x Toukaiji but Asakura could be the one if he gives all his dolls. Choco feels suspicious and opens the bowl. She gets the fright of her life to see a hand reaching out to grab her. Turns out to be Gyubid. Turns out it was all a prank. Turns out it was all a setup just to get those dolls she wanted. You mad? But Choco is left to wonder if Seira’s fortune telling is real because her prediction came true.

Ep 41-42 – Since Gyubid has mumps, Choco goes to the Spirit World to get curing herbs. But before she can do that she must get curing herb seeds. With Jou, Lollipop and Cocoa, they venture to the field floating with those seeds. Might seem easy but they’re hard to catch. Especially with Choco who is bad in moving about and it’s like as thought the seeds are making a fool out of her. When she manages to catch one, a large booming voice frightens her and makes her fall off the cliff. She finds herself in the dark woods. Lips start ranting that she knows the way to the curing herbs but Eyes keep watching her. Remembering her granny’s advice that the eye tells more than the mouth, Choco decides to follow Eyes and this pisses off Lips. She turns into a monster trying to eat her. Choco is saved by some long tentacle from the long sky carrying Jou. This tentacle is supposed to bring those who want to get the herbs. Jou explains Lips entice people who want to collect curing herbs with nice words and then eats them. Eyes watch over Lips so that she doesn’t eat them. At the field of curing herbs, Melusine guides Choco to plant the seed before taking a herb (otherwise it will run out if people start plucking without planting). Melusine knows Choco is here since she was tip off by her friend, Tika. They once went picking curing herbs together. Gyubid is back to normal but too energetic and gives Choco more drills.

Ep 43-45 – Toukaiji and Asakura are fighting again. Well, at least it isn’t about Choco. The latter doesn’t believe in the supernatural and thus that red string thingy. However Mishua Kaionji from the neighbouring school believes so. As her family runs a Buddhist shrine, she believes Toukaiji will be her future husband as their fate is connected by an invisible red string. The fight for Choco just got a little complicated… Choco finds a black witch news issued by the school. It must an old edition since it has Melusine’s picture when she was young. Her friend Tika looks a lot like Choco… Completing the trio is Gyubad who suspiciously looks like Gyubid. They were witch students learning how to put curses on boys and the teacher told them they are forbidden to fall in love and if that happens, they must cut some red string. The trio descend to the human world for that task and end up in some rural farm. They target a farmer, Izou. They use some time altering candy to wreak havoc on his crops but even so he remains positive and happy. Tika summons some plants that would fill him with fear but changes her mind in the last minute. Because he will die with this many flowers, they use a time stopping candy as a red string appears between Tika and Izou. Gyubad could tell that Tika has always been looking kindly at him and as time is running out for them to return to the Underworld (or else they will be stuck here forever), Melusine wants to cut the red string. However Gyubad wants Tika to decide it herself. Tika decides to stay. Melusine is sad but this is what she has decided. After Tika sees off her friends, she goes back to destroy the flowers and continued living with Izou. Choco remembers… Isn’t Izou her grandpa? Could it be? I bet it is. As she is curious to see who her red string is attached to, she casts the spell and it attaches to… Toukaiji, Asakura and Mishua?! WTF?! I don’t even know how Megu got tangled in it. Such a messy and tangled red string she has…

Ep 46 – Choco dreads the swimming tournament as she can’t swim. So Gyubid gladly takes her place for the first race and guess what? She is swimming like a flying fish! Why is it that nobody suspects something wrong but in awe instead?! Because of that, her teammates put her as the anchor in the swimming relay. This time Gyubid hands the baton back to Choco and now she must do the swimming. Don’t worry, she gives her a magic band. So when the race starts, he team build up a big lead and when it is her turn, that lead dwindles as she is crawling! She looks like she’s drowning or something. In the end, she wins by a whisker. Choco later finds that band was just an ordinary rubber band. Duped. But at least she can say she won on her own merit, right?

Ep 47 – Morikawa gives Choco a package for Gyubid. It is a jar of supposedly lemon pops but all her friends eat it without permission. WTF. Of course this means they turn into animals based on the pops they have swallowed. Matsuoka must have thought he entered a zoo instead of a classroom! Of course Choco has to take responsibility to turn them back but it is going to be hard to catch them all and put them in a magic circle. Yeah. Gotta catch ‘em all. Eventually she does and the memory erasing spell comes in handy as usual. Then Choco realizes she may have forgotten somebody: Ero Ace! He’s still in the chicken shed…

Ep 48 – When Touko’s siblings are seemingly lost, Gyubid and Choco employ some scent magic to locate them via smell. I don’t know. The scents look like some sort of aura in various colours and shapes. They trace a third scent which belongs to Oogata. Learning Touka lost sight of him, they fear his seal may have broken and is going to sacrifice them like he once tried. Turns out they were just having a nice meal together and Oogata bought it for them because they wanted some too. Since the scent magic can’t be turned off for 24 hours, looks like they’ll be smelling a lot of unpleasant things…

Ep 49 – The class is doing a Snow White play. Many of the girls want to be the titular character but Himeka Kiritsuki lands the role as she is the ‘fairytale princess’. Choco gets the mirror on the wall and her acting is so bad that Gyubid purposely come to watch and laugh. But she didn’t expect it was this bad so she decides to cast a spell. However her mirror reflects them and now all the girls want to be Snow White and argue on stage! The only way is to end the play. This means Choco will have to play the witch. She even gets scolded by all of them. When Shou the prince arrives, all of them decide to let him choose. He chooses them all! Happily ever after with all of them? OMG! Harem ending?! Didn’t anybody find this odd?! But even after the play ends, the girls continue to fight over Shou as the most suitable princess.

Ep 50-51 – In order to have their class sell garlic raku wares for the autumn festival, Choco learns control magic to cast a spell on her classmates so they will do just that. To her surprise, everyone is eating plates they are selling! Is this garlic raku ware?! Furthermore, she is surprised to see Lollipop and Cocoa here because there is going to be a duel between a black witch and black wizard. Seisui Cross is the black wizard and Angolmois’ younger brother. Who is going to face him? Gyubid! And here comes Cross for the showdown. Because he is a vampire, Gyubid tosses all those garlic plates at him. So that’s why she made Choco do all that? However Cross has bitten Izumo and now that he is his underling, he orders him to smash all the plates. Cross is then going to play his flute. Anybody who hears it will be drawn to him. Cross will suck her blood and obtain her powers. I suppose doing reverse psychology that he is a good vampire won’t work. Gyubid can’t control herself as she marches towards him. Choco needs to think fast. Noticing that he takes on the personality of the blood of those he sucked, she calls Mai to order Cross to stop playing the flute, surrender and undo the spells. It sounds silly that Cross has Izumo’s personality as a yes-man and does so. And thanks to that, Gyubid wins the match.

Ep 52 – As Choco meets up with her classmates to go buy sweets, there is this little girl pestering them to play daruma-san with them. She starts crying when nobody does so kind hearted Touko has everyone play with her. However she isn’t your usual little girl because if they get caught, they are turned into a daruma and stuck to her hand. Seems she is trying to sell live daruma back in the Spirit World. Eventually Choco uses her fast moving spell to beat her game and free her friends although the little girl escapes before Gyubid could catch her. Now Choco’s hands are ‘stuck’ because they are being pulled by Asakura and Toukaiji in a tug of war over her.

Ep 53-56 – Choco meets classmate Shinku Kojima picking up acorns before joining Touka who teaches her to blow some magic bubbles that grant wishes. She accidentally whisks herself to grandma’s house and it caught Kojima too. Suddenly a Zashiki Arashi witch pulls Kojima into the tatami. Grandma dives in to save him and tells Choco to retrieve a letter in her drawer before it is too late. Inside it is a demon pitying song. She shows it to Gyubid and Touka as they further explain Zashiki Arashi offer souls to demons and need to save them before it’s too late. At the shrine, they use the letter which consists of magic elimination and some mistletoe to break the spell. But since there are people on a witch hunt closing in, Choco is made to hide inside the shrine. She sees a box that contains a letter to her grandma and a photo album with a picture of Tika, Melusine and Gyubad. She realizes grandma is Tika. An inquisition officer from the Spirit World, Robe Lu Puti arrests Choco on grounds that she is Tika’s descendant. In the trial, when Choco admits using that magic she learnt from grandma, Robe proceeds to show the court this is proof of Tika’s doing of bringing that magic to the human love and spreading the love. News that Tika has been kidnapped by the Queen of Tears as she plans to sacrifice 2 humans during Sabbath. Melusine disguised as a snake, casts a spell on the court for Choco to escape (that easy?). She rendezvous with Cocoa and Lollipop and wants them to take her to the Land of Tears. But at a checkpoint, Choco runs into the words to avoid being discovered. That is where she meets a bear who brings her back to his cottage where Gyubid and Touka are waiting. Choco explains what is going on but the bear knows who Robe is. He is his instructor. The bear was originally a human. As Robe’s apprentice, he had no talent so Robe threw him out and cursed him to live as a bear in the woods. Gyubid believes Tika’s magic can save him. The bear gives them a mirror of truth before they continue their journey. Moving on, they are attacked by Robe’s thunder dragon but a girl, Himawari Hiyoshi saves them with her thunder dragon and brings them to her cabin. She was also Robe’s apprentice and although she was talented, she was disqualified. Once a human, her only friends were books. Robe opened her eyes and she learnt under him. Because she doesn’t care about people and doesn’t want to get involved, this means she cannot curse people and Robe threw her away and sealed her in this place. Robe’s men are coming. However Himawari’s plan is to hand them over in exchange she will be returned to the human world. She seriously can’t believe that dude, can’t she? They convince her to trust in them since they can get Tika to help. She takes a gamble and lets them go. Before that, she gives Choco an item that might be handy if she is in a pinch. Arriving at the Land of Tears, a demon snowman guides them there to the top of the castle where the Sabbath is held. They see grandma and Kojima hanging on the tree and demand their release. However Robe is here and is seeking to take custody of them. He shows proof of his social position that allows him to do this. But when Choco points out about the bear and Himawari’s case, he denies it (if it is true, it is a serious violation). He cries defamation and has Choco arrested. Choco uses the mirror of truth to reveal Robe’s doing. Still claiming those are lies? The Queen of Tears who is no other than Gyubad and Gyubid’s grandma knows the item is not fake. Choco’s grandma is release and it seems this is a strategy by the trio of Tika, Gyubad and Melusine to lure Robe and confess his crimes here. They knew Tika was targeted and planned her arrest but didn’t mean for Choco’s friend to get involved. Robe still won’t admit defeat and tries to burn down everybody! Yeah. Burn down all the evidence. Choco uses Himawari’s item to call for help and a water dragon rains to douse the fire. Now out of tricks, Robe is arrested for good. Back in the real world, Choco receives a notice that she has been promoted to a certified third rank black witch. Loveliest Christmas gift?

Ep 57 – Choco is bad at sports and of course wished she could change the weather. She accidentally summons Madam Tenten and she demonstrates she can turn the weather from sunny to rainy vice versa. But I suppose it was bad timing so Choco still has to run the race. As gratitude for summoning her, Tenten will help her get first place. So she wreaks havoc on the weather by freezing the contestants, making the road slippery, making the wind blow hard and a beautiful rainbow so everyone could stop and admire it. I’m surprised the race isn’t called off. Gyubid finds out about this and confronts her. Seems Tenten is her neighbour and they always fight. Gyubid threatens to reveals her embarrassing childhood secrets if she doesn’t return. Something about the weather phenomena caused by her snores, snots, farts and wetting the bed. I guess that was good enough to make her go back and as punishment for Choco, it’s more training and morning drills.

Ep 58 – There is a bread thief and because some claim to culprit to be supernatural. Choco is of course put in charge of investigating. With Gyubid, they investigate the school that night only to find Asakura and Toukaiji trying to help out. It doesn’t take long before it turns into an argument over Choco. Next day, metal plates are found to be devoured. The culprit is Lips. Eyes is feeding her stuffs that are bread puns. Before she is about to eat Megu, Choco casts a time reversal spell to last night and they catch them in the act. Seems Lips just wanted to eat those fried bean bread that are also famous in the Spirit World. Eyes was just feeding her those other ‘bread’ stuffs to keep her away from eating humans. They leave after Lips had her fill. But Choco has a bigger problem. She has to relive that Asakura and Toukaiji quarrel again…

Ep 59-60 – As usual, Mai, Megu and Yuri are fighting over Shou. They want to sit next to him for the next field trip. And as always, Choco is forced to get involved and made the president of the committee of sitting next to Shou. WTF. As suggested by Gyubid, why not go ask Shou himself? So Choco casts a spell that tells the truth. Hmm… Is it not working? Because he says he loves everyone. Choco thinks she didn’t cast it properly and retries again and again. Each time the results are the same. Gyubid comes by to tell her she has overdone her magic. Now everyone is casted with the spell and they can only wait for it to wear off. However Choco starts running her mouth and blaming Gyubid for everything. Even to a point of revealing she never wanted to be a black witch in the first place and it is not like she really wanted to summon her. Gyubid understands and disappears. Choco thought she said too much but believes she will come back. She never did. Next day, Yuri asks Choco if she knows a spell for reconciliation because ever since they were frank with each other thanks to that spell, things have been awkward. Choco receives a letter from grandma describing the past. After she married Izou and gave birth to Choco’s dad, he showed no signs of magic that is why she never thought Choco would have any. The day Choco summoned Gyubid with a runny nose was not on accident. It was a setup by Melusine. As Choco inherited magic from grandma, she is bound to be noticed by selfish people like Angolmois or Robe. Thus Melusine sent Gyubid, a black witch with a warm heart whom she trusts most to her. A black witch with a warm heart will never betray. Choco feels bad and needs to apologize to Gyubid. Touka tells Choco that she heard Gyubid is going back to the Spirit World. They catch her and Choco says all the sorry in the world for running her mouth. She wants Gyubid to continue being her instructor. Oh, real tears. Of course Gyubid will. What she is doing now is delivering home cheap cakes to Gyubad. As for where she was all the while, she was hanging out at Morikawa’s place. Because Choco was also under that spell that time and it would annoying to hang around her till it runs out. She did left a note in the form of a yonkoma but of course Choco didn’t understand. As for the reconciliation spell, Choco tells Yuri that she doesn’t need one. If she wants to reconcile, all she needs is to be honest with her feelings. And soon enough, Yuri and the girls apologize and make up. Case closed. Happy ending. But not so for Choco because her tough drills continue. Going into Spartan mode? Somebody give her a break!

Black Witch With A Heart Of Gold
I feel like a little kindergarten kid once more. Uh huh. This show feels like it is made for little school children and it is no surprise since this anime was adapted from a children’s novel series of the same name. Because you see that most of their adventures are ‘cartoon-like’, the kind that is suitable for children. If you want to think logically about most or even everything that has happened in this series, there are lots of faults to find but you’ll it acceptable as at a children level because you know, this show was made for kids to entertain kids. Thus this is the kind of show that you let all your children see when all your relatives are visiting and there is no other way to keep them quiet except to let them stare and watch at the idiot box. And what better ‘children cartoon’ could it be? Here is your answer. That is, unless your kids are busy with their iPhones and other gadgets.

Even more evident is the art and drawing style. Don’t you see how cute everything is? Even the ghouls or demons from the Spirit World look more cute than scary. Okay, maybe at that tender age, some of them may look scary but overall for a big guy like me who is averse to horror stories, they aren’t. Besides, this show may double as a series for the Halloween seeing that some character designs feel like it is Halloween all year round. Heck, I think Halloween in real life has become like the biggest cosplay and nationwide event in the west, don’t you think?

So for Choco, it feels like she is doing a pretty fine job despite in many cases you can see her just being reluctant. She’s probably just a normal girl who isn’t good in athletics, her studies and just wants some time off herself. If it is bad enough that she gets involved in spats or conflicts of her classmates, then she had to become a black witch and the endless early morning wake ups and practice drills became a nightmare. But you can see her pulling through fine, right? Although I am tempted to say that she has Tika’s genes, but personally I think it is her own perseverance that makes her pull through despite her unenthusiastic expression. At least she gets the job done and solves whatever necessary then. Although sometimes she gets a little more than she bargained for.

Gyubid may be a little odd at times but she is the best instructor for Choco although some of her ways can be unconventional. It may seem that she is heartless or something giving Choco all the morning drills and practice but I think the only way for her to become a greater black witch is via perseverance and more practice. Also you have to remember that Choco isn’t exactly a physically fit person and dreads such activities but as you can see even if her body isn’t willing, her heart is strong enough to make her pull through. Gyubid too sometimes can be cheeky as we see her pull off little pranks on Choco for her own little kicks. Overall, she is a good black witch and a great teacher to Choco. And Choco now realize that when she thought she almost lost her. So less complaining and put in more effort now?

Although there are so many characters in this series, many of them especially Choco’s classmates do not make more than one appearance. I mean, they still do in the background whenever the class scenes are shown. However in terms of whether they are ‘staring’ or being featured in an episode prominently, it is usually just once or the most twice. Then you’ll never hear of them again. Besides, how many weird classmates does Choco have? Heck, maybe everyone is weird because when we are first introduced to them, Choco will narrate their strange characteristics. They are fun nevertheless despite sometimes you feel that their short appearance is just for the convenience of the plot for that episode.

I thought some characters like Oogata would become a recurring villain of the series but that fizzled out after his plans were busted. He tried to return again but that was foiled too. By the time the series reaches halfway mark, Oogata is no longer a threat although at times at the back of my head I would be wondering if he would make another comeback. I guess not. I suppose that is why there is this little sister role for Touko to play and make cameo appearances in certain episodes. I also don’t know what happened to Angolmois after that conspiracy collaboration with Leonare since I have this thought she would be a main antagonist. Then much later towards the end of the series we have this Robe guy popping out of nowhere to be the antagonist. But you know, since this series is so kiddie-like, I figure when the baddies get their judgment, all’s well ends well. Don’t think so much.

Other ‘recurring’ or ‘regular’ characters, mainly Choco’s friends like Mai and Megu also feel fine and fun. They do help play a little part in some of the episodes that they are featured in (just for the sake of today’s Choco’s adventure) albeit just minor roles that don’t impact the series overall. Because you know, there is always this convenient memory erasing spell from Gyubid that works like a charm every time you want something to reset back to normal. But like I said, this show is made for children so whatever we grownups find dumbfounding, just leave it aside and the most have a good laugh. Hey, we don’t want to ruin their childhood with adult logic, right? We too once had our childhood.

The so called love triangle between Choco, Asakura and Toukaiji sometimes feel like a running joke. Choco isn’t interested in either of them but they end up quarrelling over her and it never ends. And Gyubid just loves seeing this while Choco have this annoyed frustration look that screams “Why me?!” for getting involved in all this in the first place. Probably a guy like me is in a dilemma to find it interesting or not because it is like seeing little kids fight over their young puppy love. Am I considered a pedo if I start liking to see such love triangles at such a tender young age? I know love is not limited to age and the other likes but to like seeing such love triangles? Something feels wrong. Same case with that lady killer Shou. It is always the same trio of Megu, Mai and Yuri fighting over him. I don’t know if this shouting competition of “No, I’m supposed to be the one!” will get them anywhere.

And this Shou must be the best observer ever because he doesn’t choose anyone or anything and likes everyone and everything. Best answer ever. I guess that is why conflicts never end. I also wonder what happened to Gyubid’s first love with Exnome. I suppose after his betrayal, she didn’t care much about him anymore. Because if she still does, I’m just thinking how Choco might use this to get back at her like how she always does with Asakura and Toukaiji. Which reminds me, what happened to that Mishua girl who claims that she is connected to Toukaiji by the red string? If it ever happens, maybe the love triangle with Choco will end. Rich boy Asakura will get Choco and probably 2 birds with 1 stone because Gyubid loves his doll house collection. Can’t let it happen, right? So was it just to tease and troll us?

Speaking of spells, the amount of spells that we hear Choco chant (averagely at least one per episode), by now she could have been a full-fledged black witch. Unless she always skips her lessons and being lazy. Also, the spells chanted feel like as though they are pulled out from the air or something. I know the magic effect will pop out of thin air but the way they easily say those spells like as though make it anyone can say it. It’s so easy. I can even create my own. Unless you need to be in a goth loli outfit to make it work, that is. Ruki-uge, Ruki-uge, auiehfweiauhiuhrdshusa. The effect is temporarily dumbness on a person. Haha!

The first opening theme is Doki Doki Shichau No Oh Yeah by Ayumu Shinga. I think it is quite a catchy piece of tune for this show. However I can’t say the same for the second opening theme, Festi-Party by Antenna Girl. From the first time I hear it, it sounds very odd. It has this festive party mood (which is why the song is called so) and despite me feeling weird at times, there is this annoying catchiness to the tune after you hear it too many times. Even funnier is how Choco and Gyubid are doing some very strange dance throughout the opening. I don’t think it would be as popular as Gangnam Style since watching them dance like that feels embarrassing. Yes, embarrassing. How I wished they didn’t change the opening tune.

Overall, somehow watching this series also brings me back to my younger days when I was watching American cartoons way before ‘upgrading’ to Japanese anime. But it lacks all those nonsensical violence you see in the former and the ecchi fanservice that has come to be ubiquitous in the latter. Without these and in this aspect, this little series itself is fun and enjoyable if you want to watch something short and light. Even if you don’t watch cartoons in your childhood days, at least it would make you feel like one again. There is no harm in that, right? Sometimes we need to relive them once in a while. At least it teaches me a lesson the next time I am sick and down with a flu, if I am ever to pray to God for a fast recovery, better say it nicely, clearly and properly even if my throat is croaking like a toad. Or else who knows what I would be summoning and getting. I wouldn’t mind if it’s a bishoujo maid however…