Ultra Maniac (amazon
Ultra Maniac focuses on the friendship between two girls in junior high - Ayu is concerned with maintaining her cool image and Nina who is a new transfer student. Ayu sees Nina looking upset and learns that she’s lost something. Ayu decides to help Nina out, and finds a slightly mysterious gadget that she returns to Nina. Nina promptly decides that since Ayu is so perfect and trustworthy, she’ll tell her a secret - Nina is a witch! It turns out that her powers are not very reliable, as she was flunking out of magic junior high before she came to Japan to study.
Ayu decides that Nina must be dangerously insane, but Nina keeps insisting that she wants to do a favor for Ayu with her magic. As a joke, Ayu requests that Nina create a spell that will help her beat a boy in an upcoming tennis match. Nina creates a spell, and Ayu transforms into a boy.
The friendship between Ayu and Nina develops gradually - Nina’s magic always turns out badly, but Ayu concludes that it is better to stick close to Nina in an attempt to control her spell casting impulses. Wataru Yoshizumi’s other translated series is Marmalade Boy. Ultra Maniac was lighthearted and funny, and dvds of the anime series are also available.
