Creamy Mami is the story of 10-year old Morisato Yuu, and adventurous and somewhat tomboy-ish girl whose parents own Creamy Crepes, a mobile crepe stand in front of their house. In the opening episode she spots an ark-shaped spaceship that no one else can see. She rescues the inhabitants from a dragon and as a reward is given a magic wand and two companions, small cats named Nego and Puji. Nego and Puji seem like ordinary cats to everyone else, but they can speak normally to Yuu.

The magic wand gives her the ability to turn into a teenager, plus a few other magical powers. Yuu has a crush on an older boy named Toshio, and she hopes that by being older that Toshio will fall for her. It happens, but not in the way she expected.

During her first outing as a teenager, she gets discovered by a music producer and is shanghied into being an idol singer. She immediately gets a first hand taste of some of the less glamorous aspects of being an idol singer, and decides to give it all up. (She calls herself Creamy Mami, after her parent’s crepe shop, when asked her name). However, Toshio has fallen for Creamy Mami, and Yuu decides to keep the charade going.

The remainder of the series follows her adventures as both Yuu and Creamy Mami. Occasionally the aliens call on her for help, and from time to time you can see that Toshio really has feelings for Yuu as well, although he tends to hide them or disregard them. Although the series is a comedy, there are occasionally dark turns regarding some of the seamier aspects of the music industry, and competition between singers. One episode is actually a murder mystery, although the whole concept gets turned on its side by the end of the episode.

Other characters include Midori, Toshio’s long suffering best friend who has a major crush on Yuu, the producer (Shuun), Megumi, another idol singer who sees Cramy Mami as her rival (and rightly so – Mami-chan begins to outshine Megumi’s star power almost immediately), their manager (Kidokuro, about as hapless a man as you’ll ever meet, and a very nice guy), Yuu’s parents, and a very oily tabloid reporter named Snake Joe who wants to find out where Mami really came from. This is a problem for Yuu, because one of the conditions for her to keep the magic wand is that no one ever find out what she can do. If her secret is ever discovered, she’ll have to remain as Creamy Mami and Morisato Yuu will be no longer. The fact that Yuu has the ability to spot other magical creatures and is overly curious doesn’t help.

Every character evolves over the course of the series, even Snake Joe (what happens to him comes out of nowhere, and it works perfectly). 52 Episodes, one OAV (which includes a recap of the entire series) which takes place about 3 months after the end of the series, and one movie which is about a year after that, which brings the series to a definite conclusion. The last episode of the TV series includes a montage of images that shows where all of the characters wind up in the future, and I guarantee it will choke you up. And if you hunt down the Japanese version, there’s a great music video at the end of episode 28. The version of the OAV I’ve got features a hilarious short film featuring all of Studio Pierrot’s magical girls, and the movie has an opening short called Creamy Mami vs. Minky Momo, where the two girls do battle at the expense of Tokyo.

Animation: 8. Keep in mind that this series is over 15 years old and that rating goes even higher.

Story: 9. It gets a bit disjointed in spots, but each episode has strong points. The various relationships are explored very well; from Toshio and Yuu to Megumi and Shuun to Yuu’s parents, who have the same faults any married couple would have.

Music: 8. There’s not as much music in this show as you’d think considering that it’s set in the music industry. What’s there is typical J-pop. Good stuff.