Mami the Psychic is a manga series created by Fujiko F. Fujio in 1977 and serialized in Shōnen Big Comic. It was later adapted into an anime series in 1987 and an anime film in 1988. This series has a similar premise to one of Fujiko F. Fujio's earlier shorts titled :ja:赤毛のアン子|Akage no Anko, later retitled Anko Ōi ni Okoru, which is about Anko Aoyama, a teenage girl who discovers her psychic powers and the dark secret of her mother's lineage of true witches, and who also poses nude for her own father.
Plot
Mami Sakura used to be a normal junior high school student, but she happened to acquire supernatural powers. Using her powers and with the help of her childhood friend, Kazuo Takahata, she solves mysterious occurrences. When she senses someone needs help, she uses the "Teleportation Gun" and transports herself there. She then saves people in trouble with her psychic powers, such as telekinesis and telepathy.
The animated adaptation of the series aired in Japan from April 7, 1987 to October 26, 1989, with 119 episodes and a TV special being broadcast. Four pieces of theme music were used for it: two opening themes and two ending themes. The first opening theme is "Teleporation ~Unidentified Love~" by Hashimoto Ushio, which was used for episodes 1-107, and the TV special. The second opening theme is "S・O・S" by Hashimoto Ushio and SHINES, which was used for episodes 108-119. The first ending theme is "Mysterious Angel" by Hashimoto Ushio, which was used for episodes 28-107. The second ending theme is "I Like You Because I Love You" by Hashimoto Ushio, which was used for episodes 108-119. Episodes 1-27 did not have an ending theme because they were aired as part of a block of other Fujiko F. Fujio anime, which had its own ending theme for the entire block. One insert song was also featured in episode 30, entitled "Heartbreak" by Junichiro Oda, and was originally composed as an image song based on the popular 1987 Shōjo manga series, "Nanairo Magic" by Yū Asagiri. The series was not available on home video in any form until 2003, in which 12 of the 119 episodes were released on 6 VHS cassette tapes、. The "Dancing Dolls in the Starlit Sky" short film, which had originally premiered in Japanese theaters on March 12, 1988 as a pre-movie bonus before, was also released on a 2003 VHS cassette tape with the "Pro Golfer Saru" short film. These VHS tapes were marked only for use in rental video shops in Japan, and could not be sold in stores. The complete TV series was first released as individual rental-only DVDs in October 2007, and as retail DVDs for purchase beginning on December 20, 2007. The retail DVDs were released in two box sets, the first of which contained episodes 1-60, and the second containing episodes 61-119 and "My Angel, Mami-chan", the main story from the TV special that originally aired on December 27, 1988. However, due to manufacturing issues, the next episode previews that originally followed each episode were left off of the first box set. In order to make up for their error, the publisher of the DVDs included a mail-in form in which those who bought both box sets could send in proof of purchases for them and receive a "ESPer Mami Special DVD" that contained the next episode previews for all 119 episodes, along with the unaired pilot film for the series, creditless opening and ending theme songs, promotional videos used to promote the series prior to it first premiering, and the animated interstitials for the TV special that were edited out of the main DVDs. Due to the many problems with the two original DVD releases, the animated series was re-released as a single 21-disc "Anniversary DVD Box" on October 29, 2014. This new anniversary set was released with the same material as the two previous 10-disc box sets and the Special DVD, except that the previews for episodes 1-60 were included at the end of each episode, and the space that was used for the previews on the Special 21st disc was replaced with the "Dancing Dolls in the Starlit Sky" animated movie that had not previously been released on DVD. In May 2018, it was announced that the Yahoo! Japan had picked up the rights to stream a new digitally remastered1080p HD version of the ESPer Mami series on their "GYAO!" online video streaming service. As it is a remaster, this version does not have the faded colors and mis-coloring that had been present on the DVD versions. GYAO! began streaming the remastered series for free on May 22, 2018, with one new episode being added to the service each day, and each episode being available for viewing for 14 days after it first appeared on the website, after which it was removed.
