Dai Mahou Touge

Pure. Unadulterated. Evil.

Lyrical Tokarev, kill them all!

Tanaka Punie is a Princess of Magical Land, and heir to her mother's throne.

However, in order to become Queen, she must spend a year in a normal Japanese High School. Besides the normal troubles you might expect, she must deal with assassins who want to make sure her family will no longer control Magical Land, as well as competition from her two little sisters. Hilarity Ensues, but not how you might expect. Man oh man, is it not like how you'd expect.

As the series progresses, more characters are introduced and more and more tropes are shattered.

There's Tetsuko, the Straight Man who can only watch in horror as Punie and all the "villains" she attracts rip apart every ounce of innocence in the world. There's Anego, the local gang leader and Punie's rival, who really doesn't stand a chance. And then there's Paya-tan, the mascot, but known to some as Colonel Paya Livingston.

The Anime, released as an OVA in 2006, is based on a Manga by the Hideki Ohwada and consists of four double-length episodes.

It has been directed by Tsutomu Mizushima, who is also involved with Bludgeoning Angel Dokurochan, a better-known series with which it shares quite a few similarities in the comedy department. The show has been released in the west by Media Blasters as Magical Witch Punie-chan, but they sadly omitted the omakes from the original. It will be re-released dubbed in June 2011.

As a very dark satire of the Magical Girl genre, Dai Mahou Touge constantly pushes the envelope, and then arguably sets the envelope on fire. And then it bakes the ashes into a pie, which will be delicious.

Tropes used in Dai Mahou Touge include:
  • Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Paya
  • Action Girl: Most of the time, Punie ends up relying on her extraordinary wrestling abilities rather than her magic, due to the presence of Green Rocks.
  • The Antichrist: Punie.
  • Anti-Hero: Elise von Barbaroque.
  • Affably Evil: Our protagonist, ladies and gentlemen!
  • Arc Words: "Submission is the Princess' way!" It's not what it sounds like. Rather, "submission" in this case refers to submission wrestling techniques.
  • Badass Normal: Anego falls neatly into this category. She regularly shakes off broken limbs, including a broken neck, which she's even shown snapping back into place.
  • Bare Your Midriff: Punie, in the "Paya-tan" flashback.
  • Book Dumb: Despite being of highschool age, Punie's educational level is at kindergarten level.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick- Most prominently in the Omake, when Tetsuko inquires about the apparently fascist Magical Land, as well as the peasant uprisings.Punie just smiles and continues like nothing ever happened.
  • By the Power of Greyskull: "Lyrical Tokarev, kill them all!"
    • Her mother's is "Lyrical Tokarev, No Boy No Cry."
      • And her sisters have, oddly enough, "Lyrical Tokarev, Destruction of Evil".
  • The Chew Toy: Anego. Seriously, she can never catch a break, even when Punie is trying to help her.
  • Colonel Badass: Paya
  • Colossus Climb: Episode 4.
  • Crap Saccharine World
  • Crazy Prepared: Punie finds out she's going to have a pair of younger twin sisters. What does she do? Start training to learn to fight two opponents at once.
  • Credits Running Sequence
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Paya. Not that it helps him. As of three times when he got serious, he was up against Punie (though he shattered her ribs, cracked her skull, and a few other rather substantial injuries), a god, and an entire army on horseback led by Anego during one of her Crowning Moment Of Badass.
  • Cute and Psycho: This is what happens when this trope is applied to an entire anime.
  • Cute Witch: The show is a vicious parody of this subgenre.
  • Dancing Theme: Punie performs a cute little dance in the OP, while historical monuments are ablaze in the background.
  • Dark Magical Girl: Elise; but since this is a parody, she's actually a lot nicer and more heroic than our horrible heroine.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Anego becomes pretty chummy with Punie after the first episode, although it seems more like a grudging admiration of Punie's viciousness than a real friendship.
    • Elise joins Punie's class after being defeated, and helps Anego carry Tetsuko out of the school after an accident. She's probably not too friendly with Punie, though.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Punie does this before the series begins, one of her foes is an elder god who she had beaten up and down horrible things to previously, and he runs away in fear when he realizes it's Punie that's he's fighting again.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": the delinquents call their female boss "Anego" ("Big sister"—the female equivalent of "Aniki"), which is perfectly normal. But then, everyone starts calling her this way for some reason. Does she even have a name?
    • The name tag on her gym uniform even has the hiragana for Anego.
  • Everything's Better Worse With Princesses
  • Evil Overlord: Queen Esmerelda
  • Evil Sounds Deep: Punie's voice deepens when she drops the cutesy princess act.
  • Everybody's Dead Dave: The sport's festival's conclusion. Anego and Punie's sisters has successfully destroyed Punie's army, and are pursuing her. At this point, Punie tearfully admits that the era of traditional combat is past...and now begins the age of gunpowder. Cue her horse leaping over lines of reserve troops with flintlock rifles, who proceed to kill more or less the entire student body. Anego is the only survivor, and even she keels over after a final word. Shortly thereafter, Punie's sisters are shown captured...and Punie spanks them for 'not being nice.' Fortunately for everyone else, it seems Anego's Highlander-esque immortality is a common trait for the rest of the students, and they're right as rain next episode.
  • Gag Series
  • Gainaxing: Tetsuko.
  • God Save Us From the Queen: As bad as Punie is, her mother is worse.
  • Grotesque Cute: Watch the first episode and then try to peel a potato or cut up a carrot or eat any sort of fruit or vegetable. I dare you.
  • Harmless Villain: Up until the last episode, pretty much everyone except for Paya-tan, who put up a rather good fight. This has less to do with them being weak as with Punie winning the Superpower Lottery.
  • Henpecked Husband: The King, whose role is often reduced to either crying about his daughters (and brutally shut up by Esmerelda quickly after) or being used as Esmerelda's chair.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Punie's younger twin sisters attack with a giant pair of scissors.
  • Informed Ability - Punie's submission techniques mostly work because most of her opponents obviously didn't learn the (relatively simple) defenses against them. Letting her walk up to you is not a good idea, for example.
  • Karma Houdini: Punie and her parents.
  • Kryptonite Factor: Punie's submission techniques are mainly one-on-one tactics. Subverted in that it doesn't really stop Punie from kicking ass.
    • Also, the reason Punie keeps resorting to her submission techniques is because everyone and their dog seems to have access to the evil doll that can seal off her magical powers. Again, subverted in that if anything, this only makes the ensuing beatdown worse.
  • Let's Meet the Meat: Or, rather, the anthropomorphic talking vegetables. "Jagaimoo-donooooooo!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWQwgJVvd5s
  • Like Mother Like Daughter: Punie is certainly following her mother's path of brutality and evil.
  • Lyrical Dissonance: The Opening Theme song, which is upbeat and cheery up until the first chorus, and then it just gets worse from there.
  • Magical Girl Queenliness Test: Coming to Earth is part of Punie's training to become Queen, which also appears to include killing lots of people.
  • Mascot Mentor: Paya is a parody of the "cutesy plushie-looking Magical Girl sidekick" trope.
  • Meaningful Name: Tetsuko means "train girl," and she happens to be a member (in fact, the only member) of the Train Club at school.
  • Meganekko: Tetsuko.
  • Mood Whiplash: Done with nihilistic relish, both ways.
  • Mouthy Kid: Punie's little sisters are extremely rude.
  • Muggle Best Friend: Tetsuko is Punie's, although why she sticks around is anyone's guess.
  • Names to Know in Anime: If this was made nowadays, this would have been an All-Star Cast right here.
  • Noblewoman's Laugh: Elise attempts this shortly.
  • Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Averted. Horribly, horribly, hilariously averted.
  • Older Alter Ego: Pyun and Potaro find a spell that turns themselves into hot twenty-somethings in the final episode.
  • Omake
  • Only Sane Woman: Anego is the only one who treats Punie with the proper amount of paranoia she warrants.
  • Original Video Animation
  • Panty Shot: Girls engage in wrestling matches in skirts. It's bound to happen.
  • Parody Sue: Punie would be a Mary Sue except she lacks... what do you call it... oh yeah, morality. Possibly also a Jerk Sue.
  • Properly Paranoid: Anego.
  • Reaction Shot
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Punie has a red eye motif on her Transformation Trinket, her Magic Wand, and her headband, and her mother has one on her crown. Hmmm...
    • The queen herself has extremely creepy red eyes with no irises or pupils.
  • Refuge in Audacity: Considering the amount of damage Punie tends to inflict on people and her surroundings, it's probably this that has stopped the police from coming and allowed said police to continue living.
  • Secret Test of Character: Subverted in the last episode in that Punie is expected to use deviousness to win against her now overpowered sisters. Punie passes with flying colors.
  • Shout-Out: Lots. The Necronomicon Ex Mortis apparently has a recipe for cupcakes. An older reference from the first episode is from Oishinbo as 'Kaibara' and 'Shirou' are eating the magical train curry. There's also a helicopter scene straight out of Apocalypse Now, complete with Walkürenritt.
    • There's a whole shoutout to Platoon, Apocalypse Now, and Full Metal Jacket when Paya is asked if he's returning to the Army - specifically, that of an ambush in Platoon, Paya-as-Willard rising out of the mud, and Paya killing the VC sniper.
    • the things that nulls punie's magic power? Gundam merchandise.
    • When Punie's mother is listing other witches she beat out for the throne, she mentions "Akko, Sally, Megu, and Momo."
  • Sinister Scythe: Elise wields one.
  • Spank the Cutie: Punie's sisters suffer from this twice.
  • Status Quo Is God: One of only a few possible explanations for why Tetsuko and Anego would stay around Punie for so long.
  • Stealth Hi Bye: Punie does this a couple of times, when she's about to do something horrible to Anego.
  • Stepford Smiler: Punie's mother, Esmerelda, is the Queen of this trope, almost literally.
  • Summon Magic: Pyun and Potaru can summon a demonic god with the help of a magic ring.
  • Super-Powered Evil Side: Paya never shows off his abilities unless he's speaking in his Paya Livingston voice.
    • Make that Captain Paya Livingston.
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Anego.
  • Tareme Eyes/Tsurime Eyes: Punie has the former when she's in cutesy mode and the latter when she shows her true colors.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Paya, for Punie, though it may be magically binding.
  • Tsundere: Anego. This becomes more pronounced later in the series.
  • Verbal Tic: Paya adds "-paya" to all his sentences whenever he's in cutesy mode.
  • Villain Protagonist: If you couldn't guess from her incantation, Punie is not quite as good as she first appears. Her mother is probably even worse, if only because of her experience.
  • Wheel of Pain
  • Widget Series
  • With My Hands Tied: Handcuffs are no match for Punie-chan!
  • Wonder Twin Powers: Punie's little sisters use the two halves of the Ring of Immoral in this fashion.
  • Wrestler in All of Us
  • X Meets Y: Sailor Moon meets Eversion
  • You Killed My Father: Subverted in that it was Esmerelda who overthrew Elisa's family and it's Elisa that wants revenge, not Punie.
  • Younger Than They Look: Parodied by Punie's little sisters in the last episode.
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