Big thanks to Steven for the heads up!

By the looks of it, Media Blasters has acquired Mahou Shoujo Tai! This series is also called Tweeny Witches1, which will most likely be the official title as released in the U.S.

To begin with, Studio 4°C has been my most favorite Japanese animation studio since I had stumbled onto Noiseman Sound Insect and was, at once, baffled and amazed at what can be done with animation in 16 minutes. This short impressed me enough to seek out more material from this studio, and discovered just what was written on Wikipedia on them:

They are known for marrying the spirit of independent festival animation with a more mainstream anime aesthetic.

The entry itself is far too short to gain any substantial information about the company, but all I know is that I have yet to find any animated film, series, or OAV made by Studio 4°C that I didn't like. And I found absolute gems, like Comedy, which I consider the best under 30 minute animated short that I've ever seen2.

Mahou Shoujo Tai was the only anime series that I saw from this company, and it put me on a very enjoyable. Here's what I wrote about it in April of 2006 on a local anime forum:

What would happen if Tim Burton decided to create a magical girl shoujo?

I'd imagine it would end up much like this little-known series. Take a childishly dark atmosphere, combine that with some very unusual directing techniques, throw in a dash of heavy CG effects, and make the plot move at an almost breakneck speed and you'll end up with Mahou Shoujo Tai Alice, a story about a girl who gets transported to a world of witches, warlocks, and sprites. Magic is in the air, flashbacks jump back and forth keeping you on your toes, and a very surprising twist at the end preceeds a rather touching ending. This series also makes several Through the Looking Glass references, at least directly.

The main downfall might be the rather confusing start that largely introduces the characters and world followed by the plot line that feels rushed, especially since each of the 40 episodes is only 9 minutes long! Another thing that may throw people is the animation style... it's rather difficult to describe, but I find it works really well for this action packed show. Another sore point might be the incredibly optimistic and idealistic protagonist, but I'm sure this series is aimed at a young audience. But it's storytelling doesn't treat its audience as children, though. Much detail about the world isn't spelled out; I had to do quite a bit of inferring to make sense of it, if I wanted to.

I wrote a full review of the series on AnimeNfo too, if you wish to read through it.

For a bit of a taste of the series, here are a couple of youtube videos.

First off, the original promo3:

Here's the ED, featuring "DuDiDuWa*lalala" by KOTOKO:

Why I'm so stoked about this? Well, I never had expected this series to ever be licensed here, for several reasons. Thank you Media Blasters for taking chances on such series. You have at least one sale to me for this one.

UPDATE: Anime News Network comments on it.

1. 1. This looked to be an alternate title from the start, since the official site for the series was http://www.tweeny-witches.com/
2. 2. Yes, that includes anything by Makoto Shinkai
3. 3. None of the scenes in this promo actually made it into the final series, but I still find it represents the feel of the series quite well