Onegai My Melody


Onegai My Melody is a Japanese anime series produced by Studio Comet, based on the Sanrio character My Melody. The anime is directed by Makoto Moriwaki and produced by Hideyuki Kachi and Kazuya Watanabe. The series was written by Takashi Yamada with character designs from Tomoko Miyakawa. It ran on TV Osaka and TV Tokyo from April 3, 2005 to March 26, 2006, spanning 52 episodes.

Story

''My Melody''

A year after the events of Kirara, Kuromi and Baku are imprisoned in a dungeon in Mary Land. They make their escape with the Melody Key and the Melody Bow, but in their haste forget the instruction manuals. They flee to the human world and shortly after arriving, Kuromi discovers the power of the Melody Key, which makes wishes come true using the power of darkness. If the person who wishes enjoys the nightmare, he or she will produce Black Notes, which Baku promptly eats to store them. What neither one of them realize is that when 100 Black Notes are gathered, the Spirit of Dark Power will be revived to destroy the human world and devour all the humans' dreams. Because Mari Land is formed from the dreams of humans, even the incompetent King is able to sense danger to his people. He gives the Melody Tact to My Melody and sends her to the human world, with a mission to collect 100 Pink Notes to create the Dream Power to combat the Spirit of Dark Power. Along the way, My Melody meets a human girl named Uta Yumeno, and her world is about to change forever.

''KuruKuru Shuffle''

Set a year after Onegai My Melody, the story revolves around Kuromi and Baku's second escape to the Human World as they this time, obtained a new Melody Key and the Melody Pick, an item associated with the Spirit of Dark Power. Because of this, the King of Mary Land appointed My Melody once again to capture both fugitives and prevent the Spirit of Dark Power from resurrecting for the second time. In the human world, Uta misses My Melody and wonders what is she doing right now back at Mari Land. But then a new student named Jun Hiiragi who arrived from England into Uta's school and she notices he's Keiichi's little brother. Baku and Kuromi also arrived at the Human world also and learned that if they collected black notes that coincides with the Solfège scale, their wishes will come true and decided to wreak havoc into the city once more. Back at Mari Land, Keiichi Hiiragi is being judged guilty on his crimes against Mary Land and to make up for it, he must help Uta and My Melody fight the darkness but in secret or he'll be severely punished. It's up to Uta and Melody to stop the Revival of the Spirit of Dark power once again, before it's too late.

''Sukkiri''

A year after the second defeat of the Spirit of Dark Power, My Melody and her friends went back to Mary Land until Baku "dropped a bomb" in the middle of the flower field, taking out black notes all over Mary Land and the human world. After a short while, Mary Land had their "High court" and took the King off the throne. When the time came to choose the next ruler of Mary Land, a black note came into the minister, turning him into a "Huff-Huff" which is left over residue of Dar-chan. My Melody refreshed him and was chosen to be a candidate for Princess. However, she has to pass a trial by turning all of the black notes into Twinkle Gems to put in her crown. As soon as Kuromi heard this, she was over raged because she wanted to become the Princess as well, but then a very Mysterious Woman gave her an intriguing offer. Kuromi now has to collect Anger Gems and put on her crown to become the Dark Princess and rule over Mary Land. The two decides to go the human world in their separate ways and collect every black note for them to become the next ruler of Mary Land. Not knowing to everyone...that the spirit again will make its rise as he intends to plunge both Earth and Mary Land into eternal darkness.

''Kirara''

Set before the events of the Uta Arc, Mary Land is celebrating a special event which involves watching the Shooting Star on which they can grant someone's wish. In the Human World, Kirara Hoshizuki, a normal elementary girl is watching the stars that night until she was visited by the King of Mary Land, and invites her to his world. As the king takes her to Mary Land, she meets My Melody for the first time and became friends as they both watched the shooting stars. But in an unexpected predicament, the Wishing Star crashed into Mary Land and broke into pieces. Even worse, the passageway that connects back to earth is damaged as well. During the disaster, My Melo and Kirara met Prince Sorara, the prince of the star who somewhat transformed into a giant chick after the Wishing Star is broken to a million pieces and both My Melo and Kirara needs to collect all the pieces of the Wishing Star, for both Sorara and Kirara to go back to their respective worlds.

''High school''

Set three years after the end of Sukkiri, Uta Yumeno, now a sophomore in High school, is living a good life in the human world with her family and friends. However, back in Mary Land, Kuromi steals a dark item called Dokurobou, which contains powerful dark magic that can plunge Mary Land into chaos and again escapes into the human world with the said item. As she reaches the human world, she meets with Uta and Kakeru Kogure once more and starts to cause trouble. Luckily, My Melody comes to the human world as well and now must prevent the dark magic inside the Dokurobou from unleashing into the human world.

Characters

Interestingly, the characters in Onegai My Melody were both characters from the original character series and characters created exclusively for the anime. The denizens of Mary Land were somewhat considered "Living Dolls", in reference to Maki's phobia of cute things. Some of the characters in the series were officially added to the Sanrio canon following the show's initial run. For instance, Kuromi, who appeared in the first season of Onegai My Melody, became an official character of the Sanrio parent franchise in 2005.
Several cameo characters from other Sanrio franchise appears in the anime as well. Hello Kitty appears in the eye-catches of the first and second series while Berry and Cherry appeared as narrators for the fourth series.

Music

The music for all four seasons of the anime was composed by Cher Watanabe, whose other notable works include the soundtrack of the anime Maken-ki! and Jewelpet Kira☆Deco!.

Theme songs

Onegai My Melody

;Opening Theme
;Ending Theme
;Opening Theme
;Ending Theme
;Opening Theme
;Ending Theme
;Opening Theme
;Ending Theme
Four official sequels were produced and each coincide with their respective story arcs. The first sequel, Onegai My Melody ~KuruKuru Shuffle!~ ran from April 2, 2006 to March 23, 2007. The second sequel, Onegai My Melody Sukkiri♪ ran from April 1, 2007 to March 24, 2008 as a segment on Anime Lobby.
Sukkiri was followed by a third and final sequel, Onegai♪My Melody Kirara★, which ran from April 6, 2008 to March 29, 2009. before being replaced by Jewelpet in its timeslot.
On February 5, 2012, Sanrio announced that a theatrical short named Onegai My Melody: Yū & Ai was in the works and would be released alongside the first Jewelpet film, as a double feature.
A light novel titled Onegai♪My Melody High School~, serves as a continuation of the franchise, and was released by PHP Interface under the Smash Bunko label on March 8, 2013.

Reception

Although it only aired in Japan and Italy, Onegai My Melody was positively received by fans and has garnered a cult following. On December 11, 2011, United States-based anime distributor Funimation set up a forum on its website gauging consumer interest in potential anime acquisitions. One title requested was the first Onegai My Melody series.