, also called Jewel Pets, is a 2009 Japanese fantasy anime series produced by Studio Comet, based on the Jewelpet franchise jointly created by Sanrio and Sega Sammy Holdings. The series was written by Atsushi Maekawa (Digimon Adventure 02, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Fresh Pretty Cure!) with direction from Nanako Sasaki, screenplay by Takashi Yamada (Yumeiro Pâtissière), and produced by Kazuya Watanabe (Onegai My Melody) with character designs from Tomoko Miyakawa. It aired on TV Osaka and TV Tokyo from 5 April 2009 to 26 March 2010, replacing Onegai My Melody Kirara★ in its initial timeslot.
Jewelpet marks as Studio Comet's second animation work based on a Sanrio franchise. The series is noted to have a unique storyline, characters and elements revolving around Magic, Witches and Alchemy. The anime expanded into six more series, one movie, three official shojo manga adaptations, one official Light Novel and various Stage Plays, also moving from its previous broadcaster TV Osaka to TV Tokyo. Each series were completely separate season to season, featuring different characters and storylines.
Crunchyroll SAS (formerly Viz Media Europe) currently licensed both the first series and Twinkle in Europe. Unlike other Sanrio series, it was never released in the United States.
Overview
The anime series began first with the first series in 2009, which mainly focuses on Rinko Kougyoku as the main heroine. As soon as its official ending in 2010, several sequels came out. All 7 anime series were different to each other, focusing on specific human characters as well as the main Jewelpet mascot, Ruby. The stories on all story arcs are completely different but sometimes makes certain references from each season.
Setting
The entire anime franchise are majorly both set in two worlds: Jewel Land and Earth, on which both worlds co-exist together in secrecy. Jewel Land is described itself a world where all magicians and Jewelpets live, with the Pets attending the Magic Academy to study magic and Alchemy in hopes to graduate into a full-fledged magician. Each location in Jewel Land however differs between each series, creating different canonical universes.
Earth is also the series's main setting on which the humans live. However, only a few human beings other than the main protagonists know about Jewel Land's existence throughout each season when discovering the Jewelpets. Sometimes Earth is not mentioned in the later series, though officially shown in some episodes.
Plot Jewelpet In the magical world of Jewel Land, three magicians turned the Jewelpets into Jewel Charms so they could rest calmly in the Dream Forest while cleaning the town, with the exception of Ruby, a white rabbit who likes to goof off. But during the pelican's delivery of the charms in the forest, a strong wind blew him off, causing the Jewel Charms to scatter all across Takaragaseki City on Earth. Ruby, now being punished, is sent to Earth to retrieve her friends. On Earth, a student named Rinko Kougyoku along with her friend Minami saw a group of shooting stars, not knowing that the pets were scattered in the city they live in. After that, Rinko was on her balcony observing the night sky and saw one pink shooting star and fell into her water glass and became a Red Jewel Charm. The next day, she and her friend goes to the jewelry store to examine the jewel, but then got into a jewelry store robbery. They were saved by a boy named Keigo Tatewaki and saw the red jewel Rinko has. He then explained to them that he was working for a special organization which is linked to the great magicians of Jewel Land and told them about the Jewelpets and also told them that all of them were scattered all over town. Rinko accepted the offer on gather all the Jewelpets back to Jewel Land and awakened Ruby using the Jewel Pocketbook. Now teaming up with Minami and Aoi, it is now their task to gather all the Jewelpets together and take them back to Jewel Land before an evil Jewelpet named Diana finds them first. Jewelpet Twinkle☆ In Jewel Land, Jewelpets, a group of animals who have the natural ability to use magic lived in harmony with the Magicians attending the Magic Academy to learn how to use magic with their Jewel Eyes. However Ruby, a white Japanese Hare whose magic sometimes fails, is appointed to go to the Human World to search for a partner whose feelings of her heart matches hers. But when she uses the card that the magicians give her, she is sent to the Human World by accident. There, a girl named Akari Sakura meets her on the beach on her way to school. At first, Akari can't understand her due to her Jewel Land Language, but Ruby eats a special candy so she can speak and understand human language. As the day passes, Ruby knows about her problems in school and later apologized, saying that she didn't know Akari's personal problems as she tries to cheer her up. As Akari accepts Ruby, a Jewel Charm appears on her hand and she realizes that she was chosen by Ruby to be her partner. After that, she decides to become a student in Jewel Land along with Ruby as they are aiming to collect 12 Jewel Stones get into the Jewel Star Grand Prix. The prize is that three of any wish they want will be granted.
Jewelpet Sunshine Jewel Land is a magical place where creatures known as Jewelpets, live. Part of Jewel Land is the Sunshine Academy, a school where both Humans and Jewelpets attend to study in high school. Ruby, a white Japanese hare Jewelpet studied in the infamous Class 3 Plum Section of the academy along with her friends, especially her classmate and roommate Kanon Mizushirou. Thought they were known as the "Class of Lost Causes", they all dream on graduating on the academy and pursuing through their dreams, despite the class' dysfunctional behavior and seriously hilarious antics. Ruby and her classmates must do everything they could to graduate, endure a lot of tests and hilarious situations thrown to them and for Ruby, endure her annoying roommate Kanon, sticking together through thick and thin and trying to win the heart of her one and only crush, Mikage Shiraishi.
Jewelpet Kira☆Deco! In the Legends of Jewel Land, the Jewelpets were born from the love and caring of their queen, Jewelina. However, a strange meteor crashes into the Mirror Ball, destroying it into a million pieces and its fragments called "Deco Stones" were all scattered in Jewel Land. In the present time, Ruby, a Rabbit Jewelpet and owner of the Kira Kira Shop, has a thing on sparkly decorations and loves to collect anything that sparkles and shines. Thought her friends Garnet and Sapphie sometimes thinks that she's strange in some points. However, when she and the others learn about the legend of the Mirror Ball and the Deco Stones, they all decided to go and search for them, until they all meet 5 strange individuals called the KiraDeco 5. The group also has the same goal on wanting to collect the Deco Stones and they befriended the Jewelpets, especially to one of their members: Pink Oomiya. Now, the group need to gather all the Deco Stones and stop the Eternal Darkness from taking over the human world.
Jewelpet Happiness One day at the magical world of Jewel Land, Lady Jewelina entrusted Ruby the Magical Jewel Box with a mission to make friends and collect Magic Jewels. At the same time she needs to attend the Jewel Academy to do so and open a shop called the Jewelpet Café. However, with her friends, things didn't go well as expected as the cafe is considered abandoned and needs a lot of work for them to prosper and to reach that goal Ruby is expecting. But when she met three middle school student named Chiari Tsukikage, Nene Konoe and Ruruka Hanayama, she decides to make friends with then and accepted their help on managing the Jewelpet Cafe. Now, she and her friends now must work together for the cafe to prosper, stick together through good and bad luck as well as protecting the Jewel Box from being stolen.
The Fuss at the Jewel Festival Jewel Land is a mysterious and magical place where all Jewelpets, animals gifted with Jewel Eyes, live. One day, Ruby is busy preparing for this year's Jewel Festival which will be held in her town. But in the midst of the preparations, a new person moves to town and decides to live with Ruby. Calling herself Lolip, Ruby is unsure if she is a Jewelpet due to her lack of magic skills but she decides to be friends with her during her stay. As the festivities in the upcoming festival are going smoothly, Lolip is having problems helping everyone in the festival due to her lack of any magic skills. However, is this enough for her to know who she really is and to find her own place?
Development and production Jewelpet
The anime's production was first green-lighted in 2008 and was announced during the 2009 Tokyo Toy Forum on 14 January 2009 to coincide with the franchise's release. Sanrio first contacted Studio Comet if they can make another anime based on their characters, as Onegai My Melody Kirara★ was approaching its conclusion. The studio agreed to do an animated adaptation of the Jewelpet toy line.
Early pitching of the anime didn't involve the Human World at that time and only involves both the Jewel Charms and Jewel Land. Another insetting about the early story pitch is that the main characters are all witches all searching for the Jewelpets and trying to stop the Dark Magic, which is a similar concept to Studio Comet's previous Sanrio anime, Onegai My Melody. During the pitch, the main Jewelpet, Ruby is meant to be polite and tidy character wise. Though Sanrio and Sega decided to alter her personality into a scatterbrained but naughty character, which is reflected by the Jewel she is based on. These changes were also made in the other characters in the franchise, though their birthdate is not changed.
The series underwent several development phases to explore and work on the series with the collaboration from Sega and Sanrio with several new voice actors were hired to voice the main characters including the former Morning Musume member Kamei Eri and AKINA. Promotions of the series were also made and it is meant for the young demographic similar to Onegai My Melody.
Several trailers were aired during the ending episodes of Onegai My Melody Kirara★, before it officially aired on 5 April 2009 and ended its broadcast on 28 March 2010.
The series was moderately received during its broadcast in the Kanto Area, being overshadowed by both Dragon Ball Kai and One Piece in terms of ratings. However, with the Jewelpet merchandise already being popular, Sanrio decided to expand the Jewelpet franchise overseas to get the target sale of 5 Billion Yen. The company however earned 6 billion yen in sales due to the anime's popularity, which boosted the franchise greatly that time.
Jewelpet Twinkle
Development of Jewelpet Twinkle began in late 2009 during the first series's airing. Seeing the moderate success of the first series, Sanrio decided to ask Studio Comet to make a second series with a fresh new storyline. During the development, the company decided to change the schedule of the anime from Sunday to Saturday, but retained the airtime and also switched stations from TV Osaka to TV Tokyo.
Newer concepts were also brought into the series such as the use of Jewel Charms as magical items, a different take on casting magic spells on both humans and Jewelpets and introductions to newer character designs that will fit with the storyline. Also, rather than a sequel to the first series, the second is more of a reboot but also referencing concepts from the older series. Twinkle heavily use the concept of the Magic Academy, where Jewelpets study to become full pledge magicians, while incorporating things related to real life schools and academies and is heavily magic-oriented but very serious story-wise.