Pretty Sammy may be the Key to the Magical Girl Genre.

I watched the OVA incarnation of Pretty Sammy over a year ago I think, not long after Bennett The Sage had done his Anime Abandon episode on it.  I observed on twitter how this is the first example of an Imouto character in a Harem getting an AU where they're a Magical Girl becoming it's own full sub franchise (and how the Dark Magical Girl Rival really only appears in that sub set of the genre).  This happened to have been the first incarnation of Tenchi I'd watched at all, that's how much I'm into Magical Girls, but since then I've watched the Mihoshi Special, Tenchi Universe and the first 6 episode OVA series.

The OVA Pretty Sammy was a fun affectionate parody of the genre.  Ben couldn't recognize it as a parody mainly because he doesn't get the genre in the first place and so probably can't count any affectionate one as a parody.  It doesn't help that this genre has engaged in self parody from it's inception, there is no joke on the formula that Sailor Moon didn't already make in some form, particularly in episodes Ikuhara was involved in.

Now I have completed the 1996-97 TV Anime of Pretty Sammy, also known as Magical Project S.  It's a separate continuity from the OVAs.  Pretty Sammy is almost a microcosm of the Tenchi Franchise as a whole.  Both start with a series of OVAs that lay out the formulae, then there is a 26 episode TV Anime that fleshed out and perfected it, then there is more post 2000 stuff few care about because the Waifu Warriors moved on to other Harems.

The Pretty Sammy TV Anime starts out seemingly like just as much of a pure Genre Parody as the OVAs were, more so perhaps, here is a clip I put on Youtube from episode 3 to show just how hilariously awesome it can be. 

But in the latter part once we've gotten to know the characters it seamlessly becomes much more of a straight forward Magical Girl show, but still with that Otaku sense of humor Tenchi helped popularize.  It doesn't follow exactly what I've defined before as the ideal 26 episode structure, but it does something similar.  It gets really good, I've rated it a 10 out of 10.

It is influenced by the Magical Girl Anime that came before, with the MOTWs often feeling like they're particularly in the spirit of the Daimons from Sailor Moon S.  And there are shout outs to other Anime/Manga and Toku media as well.

But I also feel it's an overlooked influence on what's come since, one particular scene has me convinced someone involved in making Nanoha season 1 must have seen it.  The fact that it went off the air just before Utena, Pokemon and Buffy started is fascinating (paralleling my observation that Tenchi Universe finished right before Eva started), it also aired concurrent with much of the last season of Sailor Moon.

Pretty Sammy may not quite be the first Magical Girl show officially marketed as Senien rather then Shoujo, but unlike it's peers it captures the spirit of a proper Magical Girl show in a way that anticipates Nanoha and Madoka, but it also never gets as dark as they do or even as dark as Galaxy Fraulein Yuna Returns.  It is a Fun time even when it does get intense.

I think even future writers of Shoujo Magical Girl Anime might have been influenced by this show, it anticipates Pretty Cure not just in the use of the English word "Pretty" but also in the Mascot Characters coming from a sort of parallel Fairy Queendom.

As far as what was on TV goes this is probably now definitively my favorite Magical Girl show of the 90s as I honestly feel it is no where near as flawed as every season of Sailor Moon can be at times.  There might be individual episodes of Sailor Moon that no episode of Pretty Sammy can compete with, but that doesn't make the complete package better.  It is indeed a perfect example of why two cour shows are the best, and it seems to be the only Magical Girl show to be two core which may be what's holding the genre back.

And it's also probably easily my favorite Tenchi project.  If you are one of many Western Tenchi fans for whom Kiyone and Washu were your favorites then this gives you plenty to enjoy.

Sadly it's not easy to find now.  It's never been Dubbed into English and is not currently on any of the legal Anime streaming sites or YouTube.  There was an official Subtitled release once but that was a long time ago.  And even many of the popular unofficial streaming sites don't have this one, even ones said to have pretty much everything.  Whoever currently has the rights to it I highly recommend you get on it.

And if you even need to ask, obviously the Yuri is strong with this one if I gave it a 10.

I'm going to try Sasami Magical Girls Club next, It'll probably not get it's own blog post, if I feel like saying anything about it it'll probably be via an Update to this post.