Mirmo!


Mirmo de Pon! is a manga series written by Hiromu Shinozuka and serialized in Ciao magazine from July 2001 through December 2005. It was also published in twelve collected volumes by Shogakukan. The manga series was awarded in the 2003 Kodansha Manga Award and in the 2004 Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga. The series was licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media. Four months later, the show aired in Japan for the first time. Chuang Yi released the manga in English in Singapore.
An anime series named Wagamama Fairy: Mirumo de Pon! by Studio Hibari was adapted from the manga. It premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo on April 6, 2002, and ran for 172 episodes until September 27, 2005. The anime series is also licensed by Viz Media for an English language release in North America, and by ShoPro Entertainment, as Mirmo!.

Plot

; Season 1
The fairy protagonist is a love fairy named Mirmo. Katie Minami is the human protagonist and a cheerful and energetic eighth-grader who is shy around her male classmates, which makes 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 will appear and grant your every wish." The skeptical but curious Kaede follows the directions and announces her wish to date Dylan Yuki, her crush. Mirmo arrives. At first she is afraid of him but later understands that he is a muglox. Kaede soon finds out that Mirmo prefers eating chocolate and creating mischief over helping Katie.
Mirumo is a prince of the muglox world. Horrified at the prospect of having to marry Rima, his princess bride-to-be, Mirmo escaped the muglox world. Hot on his heels, however, are Rima, Yatch the bounty hunter, Mulu, and many other muglox as well. The villains of the first season are the Warumo gang, a gang of criminals who plan to overthrow the Marumo kingdom. Though they are villains, they actually aren't evil; they just pull childish pranks and faint after hearing an evil plan. At the end of the season, Akumi gives Warumo Gang a time sphere, which they play around with and accidentally smash, causing the muglox world to freeze. Mirmo, Mulu, Rima, Yatch and their partners save the muglox world by having the fairies dance in front of a magical door and having the partners find the magic time bird which flew into the door to escape being captured by them.
; Season 2
In this season a new transfer student named Saori comes to Katie's school. The villain Darkman, created by the darkness in human hearts, tries to resurrect himself. He influences the minds of Akumi and the Warumo gang. Session magic is introduced for two-person magic, with each person combo producing different magic. Darkman controls Saori and uses her flute to control peoples' emotions. He is then defeated by Golden Mirmo, the outcome of three person session magic. With the help of Nezumi/Rato, he is resurrected until the muglox's four-person session magic gives Saori the power to defeat Darkman. The two worlds are separated until reunited by the muglox and their partners' friendship. Saori goes to Germany to study music with Akumi as her new partner.
; Season 3
In this season a robot octopus, Tako, convinces the gang to look for the legendary seven crystals which are drawn out by different emotions. After all are collected, the gang faces seven trials. Mirmo must pass these tests for the crystals to unite and form a pendant. Tako steals it to save his girlfriend and his land. In the end, they succeed and Tako becomes king of crystal land.
; Season 4
Two new characters, Koichi and Haruka, are introduced. Koichi has a crush on Katie, and Haruka is Setsu's childhood friend who wants to be a cartoonist. Her partner Panta is a ghost muglox. Thanks to Azumi, Katie and Koichi kiss. Also, Koichi confessed to Katie after Katie had a whole day of helping him confess to his crush that she didn't know was her. Setsu starts to fall in love with Katie, and Koichi realizes that he is not right for Kaede and gives up on her. After Haruka tells Dylan she loves him, he chooses her over Katie. Haruka realizes Dylan's true love is Katie and gives up on him. Dylan tells Katie he loves her and they become a couple; Katie's wish is fulfilled. Mirmo has to leave in one hour or something terrible will happen, which the Warumo gang make so. Mirmo loses all memories of Katie and turns into a rabbit. Katie brings his memories back and he turns back to normal.

Characters

The main characters of Mirmo! are mugloxes, or love fairies, and four human teenagers. The muglox Mirmo has been assigned the task of granting Kaede Minami's wishes, though he spends most of his time eating chocolate and running away from Rima, a female muglox assigned to Setsu Yuki, the boy Kaede is infatuated with. Yasichi, Mirmo's muglox archrival, is assigned to Azumi Hidaka, a girl who also loves Setsu and is jealous of Kaede. Mirmo's brother, Murumo, is assigned to Kaoru Matsutake, a boy who falls in love with Kaede. The muglox fairies use musical instruments as their magical tools. Later on in the show two new characters, Koichi Sumita and Haruka Morishita, enter the race of love for Setsu and Kaede's hearts. They get their very own muglox partners as well – Popii and Panta.

Media

Manga

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

Anime

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

Season 1

Thirteen CD soundtracks and character song compilations have been released for the Mirmo series. One was released by Toshiba-EMI, four by Tri-M, and the rest by Konami. In addition, Konami released two drama CDs for Mirumo.

Video games

Seven Mirumo video games have been created and released by Konami on a variety of platforms.
The manga received the 2003 Kodansha Manga Award and the 2004 Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga. The anime also received TV Tokyo's award for top-rated new program in 2003.