Mahoraba

Plot

Shiratori Ryushi wants to become a children's picture book writer, and he moves to an apartment, Narutaki-Sou (Narutaki Villa), in order to go to an art school in Tokyo. Narutaki-Sou is an old Japanese style one-story house which doesn't fit in urban scenery. The complex is owned by his mother's cousin and the manager of the apartment is his second cousin, Aoba Kozue. They met each other when they were children, although Shiratori doesn't remember much of it. Kozue is in the second grade of a high school attached to Aoba Junior College.

There are seven residents of Narutaki-Sou. The first, Chanohata Tamami, lives in room #1 and she is Kozue's childhood friend and best friend. Shiratori Ryushi, the main character of the series, resides in room #2. In room #3 resides Momono Megumi, a person who goes her own way in life. Kurosaki Sayoko and her daughter Asami, who is in the first grade of middle school, live in room #5. Finally, in room #6, Haibara Yukio lives with his puppet Johnny.

Narutaki-Sou is filled with characteristic and eccentric people. However, the most eccentric person is Kozue herself. She has a secret of which even she does not know; when she is shocked at something, her personality changes. Not knowing this, Ryushi moves to Narutaki-Sou to realize his dream.

Sumeragi (Imperial) Design School

* Note - these character's names are nicknames

Miyabi Shirogane (銀 雅 Shirogane Miyabi):Shiratori's teacher. Students who are disobedient or forget their homework are subjected to "the mysterious closet", which, apparently, is a frightful ordeal. She has a habit of having her eyes half open and talking very cheerfully until certain moments. At one point she and Tamami meet and get along quite well, much to the others' terror. She typically wears kiminos and "normal" clothes on festivals.

Tsubasa Yamabuki (山吹 翼 Yamabuki Tsubasa)/Ero boy/Erofreak * (Hikaru Tokita):He is Shiratori's classmate who is always trying to charm high school girls and young women. He happened to meet Shiratori when he was dressed as a girl due to a prank and fell in love with "her". Without a name to call this newfound love, he nicknamed her "Reiko", not realizing that she was really Shiratori.

At the end of the manga, he is seen to have become ecchi manga author, giving up his original dream of writing fairy tail books.

Risona Aizawa (藍沢 理想奈 Aizawa Risona)/Homo-suki * (Riku Moriyama)

She is Shiratori's classmate who wears glasses. Her name is based on the famous bank in Japan "Resona Bank" (Mizuho and Asahi also have names based on a famous Japanese banks). A devoted fan of manga (especially yaoi and yuri manga), Risona aims to become a dojinshi author. She has a fear of white goats eating her manga manuscripts.

Mizuho Amane (亜麻根 瑞穂 Amane Mizuho)/Nail bat */Megaphone Girl * (Nozomi Masu)

She is Shiratori's classmate who uses her batting skills to punish Tsubasa for his womanizing. She normally uses a spiked baseball bat, but "because of the adults' circumstances", her bat was taken away and replaced with a plastic megaphone. In the epilogue of the manga, she is shown to have become an editor, despite studying to be an author (this is possibly because of her lack of drawing talent).

Seika Tandai Fuzoku High School

Erika Vermilion (エリカ·バーミリオン, Erika Bāmirion) (Shizuka Itou)

She is the head of the occult research lab, of which Tamami, as well as Kozue are technically members. She is never named and only referred to as "club president (ぶちょう, Buchō)" until the final chapter of the manga. "Erika Vermillion" is a stage name for her fortune-telling business. She has a masochistic slant as well, and enjoys Tamami's talent for insults and other unusual tortures. When at a shrine, she is strangely purified into a person exactly opposite (bright and kind, to a point of using a lot of money to wish for happiness of everyone).

Hiro Utsugi (空木 尋, Utsugi Hiro) (Sayaka Kinoshita)

Orchestra club president and conductor. The group which she leads contains only 3 members. She is the younger sister of Sakura. (Side note: Sakura is one of Sayoko's father's maids, and the lady whom Shiratori and Kozue help in the series).

Asami's schoolmates

Satsuki "Sa-chan" Matsuba (松葉 五月, Matsuba Satsuki) (Akeno Watanabe)

She is Asami's classmate and speaks Osaka-ben. She tries to keep control of Mi-chan's haughty attitude, often using heavy texts such as dictionaries or telephone books as punishment.

Michiyo "Mi-chan" Asagi (浅葱 三千代, Asagi Michiyo) (Riku Moriyama)

She is Asami's classmate and is rich and slightly snobby, often having a blase attitude and striking old-fashioned poses with her fan. Even if she won't freely admit it, she just wants to be friends with Asami.At the end of the manga, she started a relationship with Tsubasa Yamabuki.

Futaba Ginza shops

Because of a slight misunderstanding of the phrase literally "good person", figuratively "boyfriend" (いい人, ii hito), practically every merchant in the Futaba Ginza shopping area thinks Kozue and Ryūshi are going out, with Kozue blissfully unaware of this.

Asahi "Asabi" Chigusa (千草 旭, Chigusa Asahi)

She works for the bakery, which is famous for its taiyaki.

Hwang Yo "Yo-chan" Lee (黄有麗 (ホァンヨウリー), Hoan Yō Rī)

She works for the bakery, but is notorious for going through several, vastly unrelated jobs in quick succession — most likely because she is known for frequent slip-ups. She was previously a department jewelry store clerk, fortune teller, lifeguard, and various other jobs. She calls herself Hanako Suzuki.

Grocer / Yaonaga

He runs various prize-games with items such as futon warmers and refrigerators as prizes. He often tells bad jokes and puns, mostly for his own amusement.

Bookstore clerk

Bookstore business hours: 10:00 AM-8:00 PM.

Minazuki residence

Ushimitsu Minazuki (水無月 丑三 Minazuki Ushimitsu, Shinpachi Tsuji)

Sayoko's father and an established and wealthy sculptor. He has a tendency to be controlling.

Yu Minazuki (水無月 夕 Minazuki Yū, Kotono Mitsuishi)

Sayoko's mother. She cannot stand sunlight and is therefore much more active at night. She walks with a cane, which she applies to her husband's feet when he is rude.

Mahiru Minazuki (水無月 まひる Minazuki Mahiru)

Sayoko's younger sister and Asami's aunt, though they are closer to sisters in terms of their relationship. She has been living in Italy since childhood, so she is somewhat awkward at speaking Japanese. She speaks little, and tends to employ a kind of formal monotone when she does.

Tachibana (タチバナ)

The senior maid of the Minazuki household. She is an extremely skilled maid and is a capable martial artist and especially skilled with projectile weapons such as darts. Despite her tough appearance, she has a soft spot for things like teddy bears. She is very conscious of her height, thinking herself to be too tall (at the shrine, her wish is to shrink). She is extremely protective of Mahiru.

Sakura Utsugi (空木 桜, Utsugi Sakura) (Yuka Inokuchi)

A maid of the Minazuki household. While her heart is in the right place, she is extremely careless and clumsy, a flaw which often lands her in trouble. In the epilogue, her little sister works as a maid in the house with her.

Chauffeur

The personal chauffeur of the Minazuki household.

Other

Tobita Haruka

An artist who happens across Sayoko's carvings. After multiple attempts to track her down, she is now producing and selling sculptures with Sayoko whom she considers to be a genius.

Sidestories

Children's storybook sidestory

Ryushi Shiratori's children's story that is seen many times throughout the anime involves the story of a prince. The prince, who is a representation of Ryushi himself, discovers a castle with a princess living in it. The princess has a fondness for umeboshi and for various reasons concerning umeboshi, she multiplies into other princesses. These new princesses are the representations of Kozue, Saki, Chiyuri, Nanako and Natsume and the princesses appear in the same episode as each of the new personalities are introduced.

Comic panel sidestory

Often during the anime a vertical comic-style sketch related to the main story is shown. The art style and music are consistently used in this way as various situations are shown for comedic purposes. Each panel is displayed for several seconds until the next panel scrolls into view. Usually there are four panels (4コマ, yon-koma) per situation, reflecting the same yonkoma device that is used in the manga.

Episodes

1. Welcome to Narutaki-sou (ようこそ鳴滝荘へ)
2. The Landlady's Secret (大家さんのひみつ)
3. The Precious Place (たいせつな場所)
4. Warm and Fuzzy (ぬくぬく)
5. Nega-Posi (ネガポジ)
6. Tama Check (珠チェック)
7. Hide and Seek (かくれんぼ)
8. Shopping (おかいモノ)
9. Correct-o (これくと)
10. Sketch (スケッチ)
11. Affection (想い...)
12. Summer! Swimsuits! The Beach! (夏だ!水着だ!海水浴だ!)
13. Narutaki-sou's Treasure (鳴滝荘のタカラモノ)
14. The End of Summer (夏の終わりに)
15. ...Maybe (...かも)
16. Guests After Guests (千客万来)
17. Color of the Sky (そらのいろ)
18. Meow Meow Meow (にゃーにゃーにゃー)
19. Everyone's Day (みんなの一日)
20. School Festival (学園祭にて)
21. Mother and Daughter (親·子)
22. Important... (大事...)
23. Among the Red Leaves (紅葉の中で)
24. Bells (すず)
25. Night of Revelation (告げる夜)
26. Heartful Days

Theme songs

Opening

Daiji Da·I·Ji (大事▽Da·I·Ji) by Saiki Mia and Shiraishi Ryoko

Ending

Boku no SPEED de (僕のスピードで) by Chihiro Yonekura

Together with King Records (Starchild label).

Mahotarot(まほタロ)

A set of 22 tarot cards with Mahoraba's characters exist. The drawings are done by the author, and in addition to original cards, others such as mass-production versions (simplified background), fake tarot cards (different pictures for card number), and special editions (holographic) exist. These are supplements for related merchandises, and cannot be collected in its entirety solely by buying the books; thus, it is hard to complete the collection.