Miracle Girls

Miracle Girls (Japanese: ミラクル★ガールズ, Hepburn: Mirakuru Gāruzu) is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Nami Akimoto. It was adapted into an anime series by Japan Taps in 1993. Tokyopop licensed the manga for English release in North America.

Miracle Girls
ミラクル★ガールズ
(Mirakuru★Gāruzu)
GenreMagical girl
Manga
Written byNami Akimoto
Published byKodansha
English publisher
MagazineNakayoshi
DemographicShōjo
Original run6 July 1991 – 6 August 1994
Volumes9
Anime television series
Directed byTakashi Anno (eps. 1-17)
Hiroko Tokita (eps. 30-51)
Music byMichiru Ōshima
StudioJapan Taps
Original networkNippon Television
Original run 8 January 1993 – 24 December 1993
Episodes51

Plot

Tomomi and Mikage Matsunaga are identical twins with special powers. Together, they are able to teleport and communicate telepathically. The athletically challenged Mikage begs Tomomi to switch identities with her for her school's sports day track meet, where she and Tomomi are teamed with Mikage's arch-enemy Yuya Noda, in the relay race. Tomomi, however, finds herself drawn to Yuya. Tomomi's success in the relay causes the captain of the track team, Hideaki Kurashige, to try to recruit Mikage. So, once again the sisters switch identities. However, the science teacher, Shinichiro Kageura, finds out about their psychic powers, and begins to stalk Tomomi. Sensing that Mikage (who was really Tomomi) has been behaving strangely, Yuya visits them at home.

Characters

Original Japanese names/Names in Tokyopop's translation

Tomomi Matsunaga (松永 ともみ, Matsunaga Tomomi)/Toni Morgan
Voiced by: Nariko Fujieda
Older twin sister of Mikage, Tomomi is tomboyish, and the more athletic of the two, who once originally attended an all-girls school, but transfers to Mikage's school after she falls in love with Yuya and even eventually begins to get better and is able to communicate telepathically with Mikage, and Yuya to an extent, but is still able to use more powerful abilities when she is in direct contact with her sister.
Mikage Matsunaga (松永 みかげ, Matsunaga Mikage)/Mika Morgan
Voiced by: Noriko Hidaka
Younger twin sister of Tomomi, Mikage is feminine, and the more intellectual of the two, though she was introduced to readers right after blowing up her chemistry work and is currently in love with Hideaki Kurashige and even eventually begins to get better and is able to communicate telepathically with Tomomi, she is able to use more powerful abilities when she is in direct contact with her sister.
Yūya Noda (野田 侑也, Noda Yūya)/Jackson Neil
Voiced by: Kappei Yamaguchi
Member of the track team, Yuya develops a romantic relationship with Toni.
Hideaki Kurashige (倉茂 秀明, Kurashige Hideaki)/Chris Kubrick
Voiced by: Kaneto Shiozawa
Member of the chemistry club and the track team, Hideaki is Mikage's romantic interest. He gets kidnapped and taken to Marie's kingdom in an attempt to force him to marry her.
Shinichiro Kageura[1] (影浦進一郎, Kageura Shin'ichirō)
Voiced by: Ken Yamaguchi
A science teacher, Mr. Kageura (also known as Mr. K) is convinced that paranormal abilities exist in the world, and is focused on proving his theories. He has suspicions of Mikage and Tomomi possessing ESP, and will do anything to expose them.
Kōhei Yamagishi (山岸 耕平, Yamagishi Kōhei)
Voiced by: Nobuo Tobita
Rumiko Daijōji (大乗寺 ルミ子, Daijōji Rumiko)
Voiced by: Rei Sakuma
Marie Milgraine Diamas (マリエ, Marī)
Voiced by: Wakana Yamazaki
The princess of Diamas who is romantically obsessed with Hideaki and winds up being kidnapped together under her kingdom's orders. She grew up unaware that she has a fraternal twin sister named Emma whom her father took right after their birth due to fears that she would be killed so that Maria could be the sole heir to the throne. She has a snobbish and charismatic personality, who often rivaled and bullied Mikage.
Emma Winston (エマ・ウィンストン, Ema Uinsuton)
Voiced by: Okimoto Fumiyo and Yumi Tōma
The long lost sister of Maria who has long been hidden by their father. In episode 50, the Matsunaga twins locate and find her to have been under strict protection. Once reunited with Maria, they are revealed to also have the ESP ability. In contrast to her sister, she has a shy and timid personality after a long period of being isolated from the outside world.
Mr. X (ミスターX, Misutā X)
Voiced by: Norio Wakamoto
A famous paranormal researcher, Mr. X seeks to control paranormal abilities through science.
Masaki Takamura (高村 マサキ, Takamura Masaki)/Mason Templar
Voiced by: Ryo Horikawa
A member of an organisation of ESP'ers, Mason seeks to bring Mikage and Tomomi to their organization.
Risa Sarashina (更科 理沙, Sarashina Risa)
Voiced by: Miki Narahashi

Media

Manga

The Miracle Girls manga was licensed for English release by Tokyopop, who released the series from 2000-10-17 until 2003-05-13.[2] It was licensed by Editions Star Comics for Italian released, where it was serialised in Amici. The manga has been released in Spanish by Norma Editorial as Gemelas Milagrosas from December 2004 to June 2006.[3]

Anime
Main article: List of Miracle Girls episodes

It was adapted into an anime series by Japan Taps in 1993. The anime was dubbed into Italian by DENEB Film where it was broadcast on Canale 5 from March 1996 and on Italia 1. In the Philippines, where it was known as Magic Girls, the show was dubbed in Tagalog and broadcast by ABS-CBN. It is also available in Spanish and Korean.

The series uses three pieces of theme music. The opening themes of the whole series are performed by GARDEN, with "KISU no Tochuu de Namida ga" as the opening for episodes 1-29, and "Koi no Mirai" as the opening for episodes 30–51. Dio performs the ending theme for all 51 episodes, "Futari ja Nakya Dame na no". The Italian dub used its own opening theme ("È un po' magia per Terry e Maggie" by Cristina D'Avena).

Video game

A video game adaptation of Miracle Girls was developed by Now Production and released for the Super Famicom by Takara on October 22, 1993. The player can choose to play as either Mikage or Tomomi and use candies as weapons to stun enemies and use them as platforms which the gameplay is similar to Capcom's Little Nemo for the NES, and when the player clears a level, the player challenges the area boss to a mini-game.

Reception

Adam Arnold of Animefringe praised the series, particularly for the detailed an expressive eyes, and the story "light-hearted and fun to read".[4]

References
  1. Character Profile Page. Miracle Girls Volume 9. Tokyopop.
  2. "Miracle Girls". TOKYOPOP. Archived from the original on 2007-02-28. Retrieved 2006-08-10.
  3. "Gemelas Milagrosas" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on March 21, 2007. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  4. Arnold, Adam (January 2002). "Miracle Girls Vol.3". Animefringe. Retrieved 2006-08-10.
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