Persia, the Magic Fairy is a 48 episode magical girlanime series by Studio Pierrot which aired on Nippon Television from July 1984 to May 1985. In addition to the TV series, two OVAs were released, and the main character, Persia, also appeared in two other Studio Pierrot special presentations. A manga adaptation by Takako Aonuma titled Persia ga Suki! was released at the same time as the anime series. This was the second of five magical girl anime to be created by Studio Pierrot, and featured the character designs of Akemi Takada. Yoshiyuki Kishi, who did the character designs for Pierrot's next magical girl series Magical Emi, the Magic Star, is also credited as the series's character designer and animation director.
Plot summary
11-year old Persia is an energetic, caring, loyal and happy young girl who has grown up alongside the animals on the Serengeti plains of Africa wearing only a leopard skin. Twins Riki and Gaku Muroi and their grandfather, Gōken, bring Persia to Japan with them in Minato-machi, where she lives with a couple who own a grocery store. During an incident during the return flight to Japan, Persia finds herself in the "Lovely Dream", the land where dreams are born and grow. It is a wintry place, and dreams cannot get out. The Fairy Queen appears before Persia in the form of a butterfly, and explains that the Lovely Dream is in danger, requesting Persia's help. She gives Persia a magical golden headband with a star which reacts to the word "Papurikko". With it, Persia can conjure a magic baton which bridges her world and Lovely Dream, as well as transform into an older self by saying "Perukko Raburin Kurukuru Rinkuru". She is sent with three kappa back into the regular world with the mission of collecting love energy to thaw the frozen Lovely Dream.
The manga, I Love Persia!, was serialized in Weekly Margaret magazine from 1984 through October 1985, and released as nine tankōbon published by Shueisha. It was republished in 2000 and 2001 in bunkoban format as six volumes.
Magical Fairy Persia was released in and dubbed into Italian as :it:Evelyn e la magia di un sogno d'amore|Evelyn e la magia di un sogno d'amore by Studio PV. Was first broadcast on Italia 1 from September 1985, and was first broadcast on Italia Teen Television from July 8, 2004. It was also released in French as Vanessa et la Magie des Rêves from February 13, 1988.
