is a magical girl/boy anime created by Triangle Staff and Junichi Sato. It was first released as a six-part OVA in 1996 and then a 13-episode TV series in 1999, which was broadcast by WOWOW, and then by the anime television network Animax across its respective networks worldwide, including Southeast Asia, South Asia and other regions. Produced by Bandai Visual, the series is directed by Sato, with Chiaki J. Konaka handling series composition for the TV show, Ikuko Itoh designing the characters and Michiru Ōshima composing the music. There were also two manga series made, a shōjo manga version by Tami Ōta and shōnen manga version by Satomi Akai.
The anime was originally licensed in North America by Media Blasters. The license is currently held by Right Stuf Inc. Funimation is streaming the series on their website in partnership with Nozomi.
Premise
OVA series
An enormous cylindrical alien spaceship, which people call , descends upon Earth one day. Multinational military forces attack it, but the Bell's defenses easily vaporize all human weaponry. The story takes place one year afterwards. The Bell, which seems to have no living crew, has begun sending out robotic probes to explore and analyze human civilization and all of the aspects of it. For most of the series, the Bell hovers quietly above the ocean, several miles from Tokyo. It had soon become apparent that the Bell's defenses only destroy whatever attacks it first. As such, most people have now adapted to the Bell's presence on Earth and are once again going about with their everyday lives, just making sure to stay out of the way of the Bell's probes when they pass by. A lot of people, however, due to a message sent by the Bell, believe the Bell may eventually attack and conquer Earth, and are working to figure out a way to stop it.
Kitanohashi High School has a small group of students called "The Magic Users Club". Most people think the five club members only learn how to do regular parlor tricks, but only its members know that they learn how to do real magic. The president of the club, Takeo Takakura, started it when he found a box containing a grimoire in a cave by the ocean. Using the knowledge from the book, he was able to teach the other club members to perform magic. Takeo himself believes that the Bell will eventually attack Earth, and decides to combat the alien “menace” using this magic, despite inadvertently revealing the secret of the Magic Users Club's performing of real magic to a pair of journalists, who also want to stop the Bell, when they witness the club's first foray against it. These two become the only people on the outside to know about the club's secret.
A young girl named Sae Sawanoguchi goes to Kitanohashi High School and belongs to the Magic Users Club, where she learns how to use magic that will soon become trade. The town that she lives in has never exactly been attacked, being in place in the city for a year to date. She has yet to discover the true strength of her magical ability, and because of her unintentional clumsiness, none of her friends realize it either. What would be really helpful to Sae would be that if something were to happen that would let her fine tune her talent, and the club's mission to stop the Bell may be her chance to do that.
TV series
The Bell has been defeated, its "crew" having retreated into space, but is now a massive cherry tree above the city. The Magic Club must meet once again to solve the problem of the spaceship-turned giant tree, which is blocking off sunlight for the city. A mysterious figure descends from the tree and watches over the members of the club as they continue to deal with magic in their daily lives.
Characters
Magic Club
A second-year student at Kitanohashi High School and a new member of the Magic Club, Sae is eager to learn magic, but often has setbacks due to her clumsy nature. She looks up to Takakura as a great mentor. Although she actually has feelings for him beyond that, she is too shy to express them. Of the five members, Sae has the greatest amount of power to utilize, but lacks the training and concentration to fully tap into this potential.
Sae displays a clear ineptitude to flying on a broomstick in the OVA series, but her skills progress and by the TV series, she can fly on different pole-sized items without any problems, even without using her wand.
According to character designer Ikuko Itoh, her own mother was an influence for the character of Sae, who has a similar klutzy nature.