Remembering The Akazukin Cha Cha Anime Series

One of the Anime serise I tend to have fond memories is Akazukin Cha Cha which was a series filled with so much cute characters. The whole story focuses on Cha Cha who wears a red hood (hence the title "Akazukin Cha Cha") which ends up as a magical comedy. Some stuff got changed over the dub like Cha Cha's spells fumble because of the pronunciation (English and Japanese are very different languages), which were lost in translation, some name changes but not too much to think about.

I always thought the series was really just full of cute characters. Cha Cha's pretty cute, Shiene is also pretty cute (he freaking looks like... your Anime version of Rockman/Megaman), Riiya becomes a cute white wolf puppy which is frequently mistaken for a dog) and my favorite cute character is Orin the ninja. The show isn't without its other comic relief characters like Marin (who lusts after Riiya and gets into trouble with Cha Cha because of it) and Yakko who has a crush on Seravy in spite of the age difference. The funniest part and my favorite part is Seravy's crush on Dorothy which becomes an on/off relationship... in the Manga they would later marry.

What I was shocked to learn was that the Manga was basically a funny Manga. The Anime series introduced some serious elements, the Princess Medallion (which felt like a Magical Knight Rayearth concept) was only in the Anime and so was the Big Bad, Daimaou. During the course of the series, Cha Cha overcomes her clumsy tendencies while getting stuck in a romantic love triangle between Riiya and Shiine. As for Shiine, he does look like some kind of pervert but the show's lower rating for a younger audience disallows that idea to go further. For at least 55 episodes, the whole show got focused on Cha Cha defeating enemies and learning new stuff.

So I wonder did the producers want to immediately cancel the show after episode 50 or 56? Did they intend Daimaou to be the final antagonist or was Soprano meant to be the final antagonist? Granted, I think they intended to end the show with Daimaou but popularity may have demanded more episodes. So they extended the Magical Princess Medallion for a couple more episodes leading to what might have been the intended final episode. Soprano nearly succeeds taking over Daimaou's place but she was defeated as well. Then it was time to say goodbye to Magical Princess Medallion but it wasn't the end of Cha Cha.

The last 17 episodes weren't really all that amusing either. So it becomes a sitcom like the Manga and so did the Akazukin Cha Cha OVA. It was still entertaining but I thought it should have ended in episode 56. I mean, the story could've been best saved with Cha Cha, Riiya and Shiine having typical goodbyes instead of continuing with 17 nearly pure nonsense episodes. Then we're treated to the finale of Seravy and Dorothy having a bad wedding. In the Manga, the two eventually got married and had twins. So I wonder why didn't the Anime have that conclusion?!