Princess Comet (Kometto-san) is a Magical Girl Manga and Anime that ran in Japan in the 1960s.
The Shōjo Manga was drawn and written by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, and published by Shueisha in Margaret magazine with a run from June 1967 to November 1967.
The initial Live Action adaptation had a run between July 3, 1967 and December 30, 1968, totaling 79 episodes. The second season had a run between June 12, 1978 and September 24, 1979, totaling 68 episodes. An anime series ran from April 2001 to January 2002. While the different series had the same general premise of a girl coming from space and living with an Earth family, and using a baton wand to do magic, each has its own plot and setting. The anime series is notable for changing the main character from an adult to a child and drastically changing her character design as a result.
The anime Princess Comet aka ''Cosmic Baton Girl Comet-san" is a Magical Girl anime about Comet, the 12-year-old princess of Harmonica Star, who is sent to Earth in order to find the prince of Tambourine Star. However, Comet has no interest in the prince, and instead quickly becomes fond of life on Earth and the people who live there. Her life is made more complicated by Princess Meteo, a rival princess who is also (theoretically) searching for the prince and wants to claim him for her own.
This series provides examples of:
- Age Lift: Comet is 12 in the anime series while she was in an adult age in the manga and live action series
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Averted for Tsuyoshi and Nene.
- Cheerful Child: Everyone under age 15. Subverted with Meteo, who is too jerkish, and Shun, who is too mature.
- Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Meteor and Shun.
- Cute Witch: Comet is this type of Magical Girl.
- Dark Magical Girl: Meteo, though she's not actually evil.
- Defrosting Ice Queen/ Took a Level in Kindness: Meteor grows less obnoxious and more caring to others as the series progresses.
- Fairy Companion: Rababou (a dog-like creature) and Mook (a bird-like creature). And Rabapyon (Aunt Spica's fairy companion, who is rabbit-like creature).
- Fish out of Water: Comet gets hit with this hard when she first arrives on Earth. By the end of her first day, she's reduced to tears because she can't figure out how to get food, since she has no Earth money.
- Half-Identical Twins: Nene and Tsuyoshi.
- Harmless Villain: Meteo, with the dash of type 1 anti-villain, thanks to her pride. In fact, she's more effective in doing good than doing evil things.
- Human Aliens: Many of the aliens in the series look just like humans, albeit with unusual coloured hair.
- Idol Singer/ Teen Idol: Shun Imagawa, a Rare Male Example. Also a rare example where the idol looks more like Paul McCartney than Justin Bieber.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all of Meteo's flaws, she isn't totally heartless. Sometimes she even willingly helps Comet with problems she can't handle on her own. It helps that in such cases, Comet doesn't hesitate to ask nicely. In some cases, she even helps Comet before Comet asks for help, especially if the problem irks her pride.
- Love Hurts: When the Prince is found and she had to return to her world, Meteor decides to wipe out Shun's memories about her. Comet calls her on this, which is pretty surprising because Comet is such a sweet girl who rarely loses her temper and also because Meteo had grown into likeable character at this point. Meteo's response
is one of the most poignant scenes in this series. Played for Laughs in the last scenes of the series, where Meteo comically regrets her decision to mindwipe Shun. - Magic Wand: They don't call her "baton girl" for nothing.
- Muggle Foster Parents: Comet is taken in by a kindly Muggle family during her stay on Earth. On the other hand, Meteo barges into an old couple's house and casts a spell on them to make them think they've always known her.
- Nice Girl: Comet, in spades. She wouldn't look out of place as Sakura's friend.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Anti-Villain: Meteo should really listen to Mook more...
- Princesses Prefer Pink: Well, heroic princesses do.
- Princess Protagonist: The main character is Comet, the 12-year-old princess of Harmonica Star, who is sent to Earth in order to find the prince of Tambourine Star. Comet quickly becomes fond of life on Earth and the people who live there, but her life is made more complicated by Princess Meteo, a rival princess who is also searching for the prince and wants to claim him for her own.
- Punch-Clock Villain/ Only Sane Man/ Hypercompetent Sidekick: Mook, true to her name, is not terribly thrilled to be Meteo's partner and spends a lot of time trying to dissuade Meteo from carrying out her nastier ideas. Since most of her "nastier" ideas tends to put her on the huge risk of making fool of herself... Yeah.
- For the first half of the series. Rababou tends to act as Only Sane Man, nagging Comet to do her job to find the Prince while all Comet wants is to explore the world.
- Rebellious Princess: Comet is a very mild-mannered example. When we first meet her, she's at a betrothal party complaining about her uncomfortable ball gown and wishing she could just ditch the party to go star-gazing, and when she's sent to Earth to find the prince, she's far more interested in exploring this strange new world than she is in chasing after some guy she's never met.
- An interesting case with Meteo. Despite being more dutifully following orders to find the Prince throughout the series, it is in the end actually Meteo who leads in rejecting the Prince's political marriage when he passes the decision to the princesses. Her mother approves however.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Meteo.
- The Rival: Meteo, but Comet does not consider her as such.
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: Comet
- Basically this was an Adaptation Dye-Job for this anime, the original manga has her blonde while in live-action adaptions have her black (although the colorized anime sequence of the 1960s live-action version made her redhead)
- Royal Brat: Meteo is as obnoxious as Comet is sweet. And then Character Development sets in.
- Runaway Fiancé: Comet considers running away from the party where the prince will be betrothed either to her or Meteo, only to find that the prince beat her to it by running away himself.
- Sleepyhead: Shun Imagawa. Justified; Being a Teen Idol is very demanding job, and he took it very seriously; Even his own manager thinks that he is too sweet to his fans.
- Stealth Sequel: While there are many differences in details, it's strongly implied that the story is actually a sequel to both of the previous drama series. The "Comet-san" main actors from both reappear as the mother and aunt of Comet, both of whom have their history with Earth matching the themes of their respective series. The first Comet whose series was about learning lessons and growing up is now the wise Queen, while the second Comet with more of a romance story is now happily married to someone on Earth.
- Theme Naming: The other worlds all have musical names: Tambourine, Harmonica, Castanet, etc.
- Transformation Trinket: Comet's pendant. It also serves as a hammerspace for Rababou to hide in.
- Verbal Tic: Rababou says "-bou" after all his sentences.
- "Well Done, Daughter" Girl: A mild case with Meteo. In reality, her mother actually wanted her to develop her own strong personality and ability to decide for herself, so she could be a strong queen.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: A mild case with Comet. A stronger example with Shun Imagawa.
