Miracle Girls

Miracle Girls (ミラクル★ガールズ, Mirakuru★Gāruzu) is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Nami Akimoto. It was adapted into an anime series by Japan Taps in 1993. Tokyopop licensed the manga for English release in North America.

Plot

Tomomi and Mikage Matsunaga are identical twins with special powers. Together, they are able to teleport and communicate telepathically. The athletically challenged Mikage begs Tomomi to switch identities with her for her school's sports day track meet, where she and Tomomi are teamed with Mikage's arch-enemy Yuya Noda, in the relay race. Tomomi, however, finds herself drawn to Yuya. Tomomi's success in the relay causes the captain of the track team, Hideaki Kurashige, to try to recruit Mikage. So, once again the sisters switch identities. However, the science teacher, Shinichiro Kageura, finds out about their psychic powers, and begins to stalk Tomomi. Sensing that Mikage (who was really Tomomi) has been behaving strangely, Yuya visits them at home.

Characters

Original Japanese names/Names in Tokyopop's translation

Tomomi Matsunaga (松永 ともみ, Matsunaga Tomomi)/Toni Morgan

Voiced by: Nariko Fujieda

Older twin sister of Mikage, Tomomi is tomboyish, and the more athletic of the two, who once originally attended an all-girls school, but transfers to Mikage's school after she falls in love with Yuya and even eventually begins to get better and is able to communicate telepathically with Mikage, and Yuya to an extent, but is still able to use more powerful abilities when she is in direct contact with her sister.

Mikage Matsunaga (松永 みかげ, Matsunaga Mikage)/Mika Morgan

Voiced by: Noriko Hidaka

Younger twin sister of Tomomi, Mikage is feminine, and the more intellectual of the two, though she was introduced to readers right after blowing up her chemistry work and is currently in love with Hideaki Kurashige and even eventually begins to get better and is able to communicate telepathically with Tomomi, she is able to use more powerful abilities when she is in direct contact with her sister.

Yūya Noda (野田 侑也, Noda Yūya)/Jackson Neil

Voiced by: Kappei Yamaguchi

Member of the track team, Yuya develops a romantic relationship with Toni.

Hideaki Kurashige (倉茂 秀明, Kurashige Hideaki)/Chris Kubrick

Voiced by: Kaneto Shiozawa

Member of the chemistry club and the track team, Hideaki is Mikage's romantic interest.

Shinichiro Kageura^[1] (影浦進一郎, Kageura Shin'ichirō)

Voiced by: Ken Yamaguchi

A science teacher, Mr. Kageura (also known as Mr. K) is convinced that paranormal abilities exist in the world, and is focused on proving his theories. He has suspicions of Mikage and Tomomi possessing ESP, and will do anything to expose them.

Kōhei Yamagishi (山岸 耕平, Yamagishi Kōhei)

Voiced by: Nobuo Tobita

Rumiko Daijōji (大乗寺 ルミ子, Daijōji Rumiko)

Voiced by: Rei Sakuma

Emma Winston (エマ・ウィンストン, Ema Uinsuton)

Voiced by: Okimoto Fumiyo and Touma Yumi

The lost princess of Diamas, Emma is constantly on the run from would-be killers. In episode 50 she appears with her father in his room.

Marie Milgraine Diamas (マリエ, Marī)

Voiced by: Wakana Yamazaki

Princess of Diamas, and fraternal twin sister of Emma, Marie is trying to have her sister killed so she can have sole control of the Kingdom.

She a selfish princess that tries to get Hideaki to marry her until He see her bodyguard point guns at the twins.

Mr. X (ミスターX, Misutā X)

Voiced by: Norio Wakamoto

A famous paranormal researcher, Mr. X seeks to control paranormal abilities through science.

Masaki Takamura (高村 マサキ, Takamura Masaki)/Mason Templar

Voiced by: Ryo Horikawa

A member of an organisation of ESP'ers, Mason seeks to bring Mikage and Tomomi to their organization.

Risa Sarashina (更科 理沙, Sarashina Risa)

Voiced by: Miki Narahashi

Media

Manga

The Miracle Girls manga was licensed for English release by Tokyopop, who released the series from 2000-10-17 until 2003-05-13.^[2] It was licensed by Editions Star Comics for Italian released, where it was serialised in Amici. The manga has been released in Spanish by Norma Editorial as Gemelas Milagrosas from December 2004 to June 2006.^[3]

Anime

It was adapted into an anime series by Nippon Animation in 1993. The anime was dubbed into Italian by DENEB Film where it was broadcast on Canale 5 from March 1996 and on Italia 1. In the Philippines, where it was known as Magic Girls, the show was dubbed in Tagalog and broadcast by ABS-CBN. It is also available in Spanish.

The series uses three pieces of theme music. The opening themes of the whole series are performed by GARDEN, with "KISU no Tochuu de Namida ga" as the opening for episodes 1-29, and "Koi no Mirai" as the opening for episodes 30-51. Dio performs the ending theme for all 51 episodes, "Futari ja Nakya Dame na no". The Italian dub used its own opening theme ("È un po' magia per Terry e Maggie" by Cristina D'Avena).

Video game

A video game adaptation of Miracle Girls was developed by Now Production and released for the Super Famicom by Takara on October 22, 1993. The player can choose to play as either Mikage or Tomomi and use candies as weapons to stun enemies and use them as platforms which the gameplay is similar to Capcom's Little Nemo for the NES, and when the player clears a level, the player challenges the area boss to a mini-game.

Reception

Adam Arnold of Animefringe praised the series, particularly for the detailed an expressive eyes, and the story "light-hearted and fun to read".^[4]

References

External links

• Miracle Girls at TOKYOPOP. (Archive)
• "Miracle Girls" Nazo no tenkousei at the Internet Movie Database
• Miracle Girls (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Miracle Girls (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia