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Minky Momo, or Gigi, is the princess of the land of dreams Fenarinaasa. The king has sent her to the Earth with the mission of bringing hope and dreams to the people, because in the absence of these, Fenarinaasa has become distant to the Earth. In order to carry out her mission, Momo uses her magic to be accepted by a couple without children. Thanks to that magic, they believe now that Momo has been always their daughter. Momo has three pets from Fenarinaasa: Shindobook, a dog; Pipiru, a little bird, and Mocha, a monkey. She has also a magic gem that she uses to become an adult with special skills which make her the best in the selected activity: tennis or soccer player, pilot, painter, programmer of computers, spy, etc. She also has a magic car called Gourmet Poppo that she uses to go to such a far places as Europe, Africa or the North Pole.

In order to fulfill her mission, Momo has to help people of the Earth. Each time that she does a good deed, the Crown of Fenarinaasa will shine, and every four times that this happens, there will be a new gem in the crown. Once the crown has 12 gems, Fenarinaasa will be back to the Earth. In the first 44 episodes, the plot uses a repeating formula: Momo meets someone in troubles, she uses her magic to transform herself in an expert adult in certain area, and solves the problem. She succeds most of the time, so the crown shines and she gets 11 of the 12 gems needed.

However, it's exactly in this point where things get interesting. Momo never has the chance to get the last gem. As we see in the episode 45 Momo has serious troubles: her pets are kidnapped, and the gem of Momo is destroyed in the rescue. Without the ability to transform herself, Momo is totally vulnerable, as we see in the episode 46: in the most tragic scene I've ever seen in any anime, Momo is hit by a truck and dies. After dying she is offered to get back to Fenarinaasa, but she refuses. Momo wants to be a human girl, without magic and reach her own dreams, she can't live through other people´s dreams. After this, Momo reincarnates as a human baby and stops being a magical princess.

What happens next?
The death of the main character a dozen of episodes before the end of the series was a bold movement in the plot. How could the series continue wihout the main character? The following 2 episodes were just recapitulation episodes were the king of Fenarinaasa acted as a host showing several scenes of the previous episodes. At the end of the episode 48 the king says goodbye to everyone, but a little dragon who was disturbing him along the episode eats the words "The End" and hands him a little note. The king reads in the note that the people don´t want the series to end, and the dragon tells him that the adventures of Momo should continue with she as as human. The king agrees and announces that the show will continue.

In the episode 49 the king and the queen are walking over the gardens of the palace when suddenly the king finds an strange gem in a lake, just like the ones Momo used to collect in the past. The king takes the gem and asks the computer of the palace what's that gem. The computer doesn't yield an answer, but suggests to put the gem in the Crown of Fenarinaasa and wait to see what happens. The king does this and suddenly the crown absorbs the gem, which is transformed in the inside and converted into a videodisc. The Crown then starts to play the disc and the king and the queen are amazed at what they see: A new Minky Momo arrives at the Earth. They know that Momo is still a newborn baby in the Earth, so they don't know what's happening. This new Momo looks too much like the original, but there are several minor differences in her clothing and accesories. This new Momo seems to take the place of the original Momo, neither the pets nor the parents of Momo seem to be surprised by this. The new Momo has adventures on Earth just like the original, with the only difference that the new magical gem of Momo doesn't make shine the crown of Fenarinaasa after a good deed.

Along these new stories, Momo helps a boy to fight some demons, gives suppport to a female penguin who has lost her child, helps an old lady to meet again a lost lover, travels to an island to cure some sick animals, and even travels to the past and gets a chance to meet mama and papa when they were still single. As all this happens, Momo has to face an strange oponent: an evil shadow who has a first appearance in episode 54, interfering with Momo each time she tries to help someone. In that episode, the shadow makes Gourmet Poppo stop working, in episode 59 the shadow makes all the flowers in town to get dry. Little by little the shadow gets stronger and the magic of Momo weaker, at the level that other people has to solve the problems in place of Momo. For example, in the episode 60, when Momo travels to the past, Daisy, the mother of Momo on Earth has a serious problem, but the one who saves her is papa, not Momo.

Things get worse in episode 62. The shadow poisons the minds of all the animals in the pethouse, who try to harm Momo and her family. The shadow transform into sculptures of rock to every friend of Momo who tries to help. Finally, the shadows commands Momo to get out of town. She has to agree, and leaves the town saying goodbye to her pets. In the last episode of the TV series, the rulers of Fenarinaasa are very worriend for what they see at the monitor. The king is so bothered, that he bangs on the crown until the gem inside gets crushed and the images in the monitor stop playing. He switches to normal viewing and sees at the human baby momo sleeping peacefully. Suddendly, she cries in her dreams and one of her tears becomes a gem, which flies towards the lake at Fenarinaasa where the king usually picks up the gems to see these new adventures of Momo. They are shocked by this: all they have been watching are nothing but the dreams of the baby Momo.

The king rushes to the lake to pick up the new gem and puts it into the crown, so they can see what's next. The shadow is talking to Momo. It shows Momo the people she previously aided. All of them look miserable and hopeless, with no dreams at all. Momo is frustrated, she doesn't know what to do. Suddenly, her faithful pets appear and she gets in the mood to fight back. Kajira talks to Momo and explains about himself. She tells Momo that he was created with the tears of all the people that mourned Momo's death, therefore, he has a big inner energy. Momo gets ready for the final confrontation and uses her gem to transform into a warrior of dreams. Her pets want to get involved in the fight and she agrees. She uses her power to transform them. Pipiru is transformed into a beautiful winged warrior, Shindobook is transformed into a Viking, and Mocha is transformed into a kind of robot of videogame. Kajira splits himself into 3 huge dragons and everyboy rides them to battle.They battle the shadow and in a combined attack, they finally defeat the shadow. In that moment, everyhing gets back to normality. The parents of Momo turn back from rock statues and are humans again. Momo embraces them and cries of happiness. Outside the dream, the baby Momo is also crying, but this time her tears don't become gems. Near the cradle where she was sleeping, her parents and pets are eating peacefully. Momo smiles and falls asleep again. With this, the TV series ends.

Almost ten years after the original series finished, a second TV series of Minky Momo premiered in Japan. In this new TV series, the king of Fenarinaasa phones his cousin, the king of Marinerursa (the land of dreams in the bottom of the sea) to ask him a favor: to send someone new to continue the work that his daughter Momo used to do on Earth 10 years ago. The king accepts and calls for his daughter. After a short research, they learn that they can send one person to Earth every 1444 years, and by coincidence the time is now, so they rush to send Momo to Earth. Due to the rush, they decide that the name on Earth of the princess will be the same of the previous princess: Minky Momo. So is the begginning of the second TV series of Minky Momo with 62 episodes.

Along this new series, several changes are obvious to the audience: The magic of the new Momo is more powerful, and her transformations are more extensive. In fact, the resource of transforming is so used, that is normal to see two or more transformations on each episode. Also, her transformations are not limited to become an adult with an area of skills, she transforms into a pink dinosaur, a boy, a rebel girl, or a character inside a videogame.

Maybe one of the most interesant aspects of this new TV series is the fact that Momo of Marinerursa meets the human Momo (I'll call her Momo-chan from now on), who gets some relevance in this TV series. On episode 39, Momo is going to meet Momo-chan, who is now the same age than she, and in a strange twist of fate, the past seems to repeats itself: Momo-chan is hit by a bus exactly like in the previous TV series. Momo of Marinerursa, knowing the story of the original Momo, gets terrified and uses her magic to try to save her. But, did she do it on time? Momo-chan lies on the floor without moving. After a shocking pause, she justs gets up and shakes the dust of her clothes. In seems she had enough time to throw herself to the floor so that the bus couldn't reach her. As unpleasant and disturbing as this scene was, is repeated again on episode 59, where apparently (I have the DVDs in Japanese without subtitles, so I'm not sure what's going on) a filmaker is recreating the life of the original Minky Momo and the same scene is played again.

In the last episode (broadcasted in Japan on Xmas of 1992) Momo faces a dilemma: Marinerursa is in risk of get sink in the ocean, so in order to avoid it they should move outside Earth, so the rulers of Marinerursa ask Momo to get back so all of the can leave, otherwise she will lose her magic. Momo doesn't know what to do, she is happy on Earth and loves the family she is living with. All the magic entities that she met in the series came to say goodbye, adding more doubts to Momo. In a funny scene, Momo gets the chance to see how would be life on Earth for those who met her if she would leave, much into the style of the movie "What a wonderful life", by Frank Cappra [1]. Momo is about to leave, but suddenly gets an idea. She goes to visit Momo-chan to ask for advice. Momo is about to ring at the door, but suddenly she hears the happy laugh of Momo-chan. Momo can see her through the window: Momo-chan is happily playing cards with her parents on Xmas eve. Momo doesn't feel like interrupt them, so only whispers "Happy Xmas, Momo-chan" and leaves. However, Momo-chan feels that someone is outside, so goes to check out. Momo is walking distracted by her own thoughts, without noticing that a bus is about to hit her. When she get realized what's going on, it's too late to move. Fortunately, Momo-chan is there so save her. She takes her from the arm and pulls her out of danger. At this point in the TV series, the scene of a Momo hit by a car reaches unbearable leves of bad taste. It's like a bad joke for all those who were shocked with this scene 10 years ago. What were thinking the guys on charge of this anime is unknown to me, but they certainly didn't show respect for the audience.

Momo-chan talks with Momo and says that not having magic is nothing to be worried of. The important things are on your own heart and not in a magic gem. Momo thanks her for the advice and leaves. These words cheer Momo up and now she is certain: she wants to stay on Earth, even if that means she will lose her magic powers. Momo gets back with her pets to say goodbye, but they decide to stay with her. Momo uses her last magic spell to restore the memories of her in all the people that met her. The next two OVAs take place after this last episode, where Minky Momo is just a regular girl without magic powers.

As it can be noted with this brief summary, in this second TV series we have an average TV series without the charm, originality, and message that the original series of 1982 had. While it's true that it doesn't have the dramatic weight of the death of a character and it has a merry rythm, showing interesting things here and there, the series just lost the values of the original TV series and becomes just another average magical girls anime.

An interesting note aside, is that the role of Minky Momo in this TV series is played by Megumi Hayashibara, an extremely popular anime voice actor and singer with several protagonic roles in lead anime characters, being Minky Momo one of her earlier jobs.