YMMV / Sally the Witch

• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While not unpopular in its home country, Sally is very popular in Italy (as either Sally la Maga or Un regno magico per Sally, depending on whether it's the first or second series), Poland (as Sally Czarownica) and the Spanish-speaking Latin-American countries (as either La Princesa Sally or Sally la Brujita, again, depending on whether it's the first or second series).
  • The '60s anime is also fondly remembered by Francophone Canadians, having aired on what is now Ici Radio-Canada Télé from roughly 1969 to 1980 under the title Mini-Fee (Mini Witch), which is also Sally's name in that version. It's also had several reruns on French-Canadian cable channels since.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Sally's 60th anniversary wasn't celebrated in 2016. However, a large influx of Magical Girl anime (including more witchy ones like Maho Girls Pretty Cure!) premiered that year. In essence, Sally's influence and launching of the Magical Girl genre was appreciated in a roundabout way.
• Heartwarming Moments: Many. Some examples:
  • One episode involves the kids in Sally's class having to make dolls for a project. One of Sally's classmates, Manzo, makes a horse stuffed animal. At the same time, he befriends a ill, bedbound young girl, who is very fond of toys, since they give her her something to do while she's stuck in her room, and asks to borrow it until he has to hand it in for a grade. Manzo, however, sees how happy it makes her and decides to let her keep it, despite knowing he'll get a zero on his assignment, and Sally decides to enchant it into a flying horse so the girl can fly around and see the world. The girl ends up succumbing to her illness, but her mother says that this (and overall, her friendship with Manzo) brought her much greater happiness than her mother thought she would ever know.
  • The ending of the episode "Sally In A Pinch", where Sally returns the money to her classmates (which they had thought she'd stolen) and her teacher tells her he could never believe any of his students, especially her, would steal. Earlier in that episode, there's also Sally's dad deciding he doesn't care if she can't become queen of the Land of Magic; he just wants her to live.
• Tear Jerker:
  • In episode 47, I Want to Be a Witch, when Yoshiko uses magic given to her by Sally's grandmother (long story) to conjure up a mansion and fancy car to invite her brothers over, and snaps at their misbehavior, the triplets begin to sob for their mother, who had died some point before the series, and she appears, and as Yoshiko tries to chase after her mother, she just keeps moving backwards, until Yoshiko breaks down as well. The next scene, Yoshiko and her brothers are back in their home, and appear in front of a shrine for their mother. From someone who has lost their mother, that scene made this trooper shed some tears.
  • The end of the episode, where Yoshiko gives her report, she talks about her mother, about how kind and understanding she was. Yoshi also talks about how her death made her brothers act out even more. Given the flashback we see of her family together, it's implied her mother's death was recent, and her family is still trying to cope.
    • Heck, a lot of episodes dealing with Yoshiko's home life in the original series. It's almost outright stated in the second episode (the one when Sally baby-sits her brothers since Yoshiko has to go to her father's office), the family is one late rent payment away from being evicted, not helping their case is the brother's often destructive playing. When Yoshiko does get the money, the landlord sill wants to evict them out of pettiness since it was a day later than promised. If it weren't for Cub's magic interference, they would have been evicted. Geez, that's depressing for a usually light-hearted show...
  • The next episode, Sally in a Pinch, after her father makes a bet with God, taking away Sally's magic, her classes lunch money goes missing, which due to unfortunate circumstances, leads the class to believe Sally stole the money. Even Yoshiko and Sumire, her best friends believe she stole it, leading to a sad scene where Sally is crying alone in a park.
    • This episode also has the scene where Sally, Sumire, and Yoshiko are hanging off a cliff, completely away from anyone who could help them, since Sally hasn't got her magic, and react like most elementary schoolers would: by crying for their parents. Shortly after, Sally's father apologizes to her in anguish, since it's indirectly his actions which nearly gets her and her friends killed.