In this reimagining, Sasumi Iwakura is a bubbly fifth-grader with magical powers. She's promised her overprotective father that she'll never use them, but she occasionally has to break that promise, for reasons ranging from a knife falling off a counter to a friend in trouble. She soon learns, however, that other classmates of hers also have powers. In fact, a representative from the world of witches has signed on at her school to round them all up into "Cooking Club"—a front for "Magical Girls Club." As the representative (Washu, another Tenchi holdover) explains, witches once lived on Earth, but they were persecuted for their powers, so they left to build their own world; their descendants sometimes manifest magical abilities. Currently, many of those children are suddenly waking up, but it isn't safe to perform magic on Earth. So non-magical "storyteller" types like Washu and the school janitor, Daimon, came from the witch world specifically to teach the girls how to not use their powers, since supernatural events tend to upset the intolerant locals.

Sasumi's meek new friend Misao would tend to agree—she considers her shadowy powers scary and creepy and hates how they drive people away. But other new associates, like the short-but-brash Mokoto, detached Tsukasa and Tsukasa's loudmouthed admirer Anri, enjoy being set apart by magical abilities and are in no hurry to abandon them. As it happens, events in the witch world back them up, and before long, Washu is reluctantly obeying her superiors' orders to teach the kids to use their powers instead.

Bubbles, glitter and flitter

As with so many group anime shows, each of the first five episodes of Sasami Magical Girls Club introduces a new character and a new minor dilemma. The best of these is Anri's introduction episode; her crush on Tsukasa makes her jealous of the other girls, and she learns about her magical powers when she draws caricatures of Sasmui et al. in her notebook and writes nasty things over them, and they wake up the next morning with giant, bouncy balloon versions of her words hovering indelibly above their heads.

But after that, very little happens. Much of the action involves angsting over crushes: Misao has feelings for a boy at school who only has eyes for Sasumi, while Sasumi is gently obsessed with a mysterious boy she meets in the witch world. Anri's obsessive pursuit of Tsukasa takes place largely via a bunch of yelling. In the end, the first season's minor drama all comes down to one attempted confession of love and a minor revelation among the girls: Hand-holding is pleasant and makes for warm, happy magic.

There's a whole lot of giddy shine in Sasami Magical Girls Club, and it's all conscious: The closing theme is called "Sparkle-Sparkle Days," and the season ender is split into two episodes, designated "Noisy" and "Glittery." The girls' magic tends to be treacly: Sasumi's manifests through spinning pink hearts and glitter, which make inanimate objects turn pink, gain googly eyes and fly through the air. And one of the big first-season developments is the exciting moment where everybody in Magical Girls Club gets an adorable little witch outfit in ultra-bright colors, complete with cutesy hat. (One has yellow floppy ears.) It's all harmless and fairly meaningless: There isn't much to the series but fluff and squeal. Granted, there's less shrieking and manic running around than in other series of this type, but with only a few hints at a broader plot—teased particularly in the final installment of this 13-episode set—there isn't a lot here for anyone but 10-year-old girls, unless they're really fond of visual cotton candy.