Synopsis:
It's time for Juraihelm's 408th queen to be selected. Out of three candidates, Tsunami is chosen. But before she can become queen, she must restore the Gemini Balance by choosing a kindred spirit from Earth that she feels is up to the task. Tsunami chooses Sasami Kawai, a fourth grader at Umi no Hoshi Elementary School. Thus Tsunami descends to Earth with the talking cabbit Ryo-ohki. Tsunami then entrusts Sasami with a magical baton so she can transform into the magical girl Pretty Sammy! But Ramia, Tsunami's rival, also picks out her kindred spirit in hopes of becoming queen before Tsunami does. Ramia's evil magical girl is Pixy Misa, and she is sending out Love-Love Monsters everywhere! Sasami has no choice but to accept the task of restoring the Gemini Balance... with Ryo-ohki's help, she might just succeed!

Review:
When Pioneer released the Pretty Sammy TV series, they renamed it Magical Project S. This is supposedly because the OVA sales didn't fare too well. Yet another addition to the Tenchi universe, Magical Project S is an amusing parody of the magical girl genre (think Sailormoon!). New characters are introduced, and Tenchi mainstays are given new roles.

The story develops gradually, and it all comes together into what I thought was a great conclusion. Just as I expected, the humor is quite average... I wasn't exactly having fits of laughter throughout the series. The art and animation are okay, but I thought the way the eyes were drawn looked a little strange. In some scenes, it seemed as if the characters had no pupils! When I first took a look at the back of the box I noticed it was rated 3 and up. After watching a few tapes, however, I was convinced that (by American standards) it should have been rated 13 and up. There is a bit of strong language, although limited mainly to "hell" and "crap". Knowing a little Japanese myself, I found that Pioneer had translated some lines so they would not have any swearing. There are also plenty of questionable scenes suchs as Sasami looking down inside Eimi's shirt, Sasami and her father bathing together, etc. Bathing together (to my knowledge) doesn't go on between 4th graders and their fathers in the US. Although the episodes are generally clean, there would almost always be something I felt little kids shouldn't be seeing yet.

All in all, Magical Project S is an excellent magical girl spoof. I'd have to say that of all the Tenchi Muyo spin-offs, I like this one best.

Miscellanies:
Tenchi appears in only one episode!

Screenshots courtesy of Seraphim Pride:

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Magical Project S (DVD 1)
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Magical Project S (DVD 1)
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