Majokko Shimai no Yoyo to Nene - Review

A sister duo of cursers named Yoyo and Nene help people by either removing or putting curses on people. Suddenly, a large tree entangled with building -- and other thing outside of this world -- spouts up in their world. Stricken with curiosity the sisters go out to investigate the reason such a tree has grown in the forest and encounter two children. One of the sister, Yoyo, goes in to ask the kids about this tree and gets transported into a new world; this world is nothing like the familiar forest, it is fill with tall building just like the tree that randomly appeared. Yoyo is now stuck here and needs to figure out what is going on.

Story

I'm not normally one to jump into any fantasy setting that enthusiastically, so I came into Majokko Shimai no Yoyo to Nene without much of an expectation. And based on the first few minutes, it seemed like it would mostly be focused in this magic filled world that was admittedly very beautiful, also commonplace in a fantasy setting. However, the thing that got me more interested was the fact that the setting was mostly in a modern Japan, but there was still this alternative world that was essentially a lush magical forest. This high contrast of locations was an intriguing clash but also integrated into the story nicely.

The plot revolved around a curse that was affecting these two worlds that were slowly bringing parts of each world to it's counterpart. Even with that main conflict being planted clearly, there was good amount of exploring of this new world for Yoyo. Since she is mostly used to the forest, this new industrialized world was entirely different. Not only were big building a direct opposite of big trees, none of the people used magic so it was also like magic meets science.

If you get down to the detail of what the story is, there isn't much originality to pull from it. We have a sister pair who cures curses and now there is a bigger curse that is affecting more than one world. Even with that said, it was enjoyable enough to get things moving in the movie. Plus the conflicting settings was the most interesting bits for me because it lead to some fascinating art direction and character development.

Art

This was hands down the most impressive part of Majokko Shimai no Yoyo to Nene. With places full of trees and other nature it is really easy to make an extremely colorful surrounding, but having most of the movie being in a modern city, there are a lot more grays simply because of all the buildings. Even with that fact it is striking that they pulled off making a city feel more vibrant with the limiting color palette.

It also helped that magic was pretty colorful, but the overall feel was there is enough color around but not to the point of it being gaudy. This movie reminded me of Little Witch Academia if only for the similar subject matter, but it still is a really beautiful mix of color, animation, and setting.

Characters

The story itself starts out about the two sisters Yoyo and Nene who are "cursers" who have a 100% success rate. When things actually get to the main point, in modern Japan, the focus shift more toward Yoyo while Nene is much more of a support character.

The fact that Yoyo is stuck in an unfamiliar world, it served as a compelling way for her to grow as a character. Since Yoyo has had magic for all her life, she uses it freely and easily; however, being somewhere where those things aren't as common, it could have been a culture shock for her. The way of relating to this world for Yoyo was thinking that the technology and science was simply magic. So you could say that she is very ignorant of anything outside of her work and that shows quite explicitly as her adventure in modern Japan continues.

The biggest development for her would be a spoiler, and I'm not going to reveal it, but interestingly enough there were two scenes that foreshadowed it and Yoyo had to experience the one thing she was ignorance about first hand and ended up mading a one-eighty pretty quickly -- but the scene itself is pretty cliché for movie set for this age range. Either way, to me Yoyo didn't feel like much of a character but more of a catalyst for moving the story forward. She had her small quirks that allowed her to not just feel like a flat cardboard cutout character, but I didn't connect to her at all.

Overall

Even with a cliché plot and a mediocre main character, Majokko Shimai no Yoyo to Nene felt like a movie aim at a younger audience but still managed to entertain people outside of that demographic. The thing that carried it the most is both the art and the pacing where it never felt like it was lingering on scenes for too long. Overall I would say that it is good enough to watch once, but I doubt that I will be revisiting it in the near future.

Orginally posted to the now shutdown sekijitsu.com: Archived Page