Pastel Yumi, the Magic Idol[1] (魔法のアイドルパステルユーミ, Mahō no Aidoru Pasuteru Yūmi) is a magical girlanime series by Studio Pierrot. It was simultaneously released as a manga by Kiyoko Arai. The fourth magical girl series created by Studio Pierrot, Pastel Yumi also appears in a feature-length OVA as well as the Majokko Club Yoningumi A-kūkan kara no Alien X OVA. Anime Sols attempted to crowd-fund the release of the show on North American DVD, but was not successful.[2]
The series became available on the streaming service RetroCrush on May 1, 2020. However the series was taken down on September 1, 2020 as it was discovered that the subtitles for episodes 16-25 on the site came from the fansubber Johnny English Subs without his approval.[3] It eventually returned to RetroCrush on March 26, 2021.[4]
Story
Yumi Hanazono loves flowers. She does not perform well in school, but loves to draw, and wants to be a manga artist. Her family runs a flower shop so she has grown up with a floral appreciation. Yumi is a very good artist, but does not always use the best judgement when she chooses her subjects. On the day of the Flower Festival, she entertains the other children by
drawing portraits of the Lady Fukurokouji on the walls of her mansion. An angry Fukurokouji makes her clean the entire wall, but as she is doing so, she sees Fukurokouji about to destroy a dandelion. After saving it, she replants it in a tulip field. To her surprise, it starts speaking to her. The voices belong to Kakimaru and Keshimaru, two flower elves who have come to the Human World to grant Yumi special powers as a reward for her kindness.
The two elves give Yumi a magical wand and locket made from tulip blossoms. If Yumi draws something in mid-air with her wand, and recites the phrase, "Pastel Poppuru Poppin-pa!", whatever she drew will become real. The magic will only last for a short time, however.
Yumi uses her new powers to get to the Flower Festival celebrations by drawing a horse (which the elves turn into a pegasus). She uses them again when she accidentally ruins her father's contest entry, a life-size doll. She creates a duplicate dress and models it herself.
Yumi's new power does have limits, though. She must be very inventive when solving problems, and whatever solution she thinks of must work within a time limit.
Majokko Club Yoningumi A-kūkan kara no Alien X ("The 4 Magic Girls' Club: Alien X from Dimension A")
Yumi, Persia, Mami, and Emi join forces to protect the Earth by fighting aliens on the surface of the Moon using their transformation abilities and magical powers. The OVA does nothing to advance the storylines in any of the individual stories, but is rather a side story for the four magical girl series released by Studio Pierrot. An official mook titled Majokko Club was published by Bandai under the B-Club Special imprint on 1987-10-15. The mook features many pages of stills from the OVA as well as character, staff, and production information. The next OVA in the series was Harbor Light Story, the inspiration for the Fancy Lala series ten years later.
