Magical Girl Rion-Chan (partially lost media from magical girl franchise; mid 2000s)

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Mahou Shoujo Magical Rionchan artwork by Azusa Rei.

Status: Partially Lost

"Magical Girl Rion-chan”, ("Mahou Shoujo Rion-chan,") is a magical girl franchise created in the mid 2000s as a collaboration between Japan and China as a branch of Sanrio called “Sanriowave”. The plot revolved around a group of girls who gain magical powers and magical girl forms from a hello kitty plush.^[1] The names of the three main characters are listed as Rion, Kanna Fujimiya, and Minamo Suzuhara, whose magical girl forms were themed after the Sanrio characters Hello Kitty, Badtz Maru, and Cinnamoroll.^[2]

Information regarding the series is scarce, with no known air date for the anime or release date/end date for the manga. Not much is known about how much of the series was ever produced. Some of the few known facts about the series are that it won an award at the "Golden Dragon Award Original Animation & Comic Competition" in 2009. The only known company who worked on the Magical Girl Rion-Chan series of the series is Sanrio Weilang Co., Ltd. (三丽鸥威浪股份有限公司) which appears to just be another title for Sanriowave instead of an actual creator. Magical Girl Rion-Chan is also known to have been awarded the "Golden Dragon Award Original Animation & Comic Competition" in 2009. ^[3]

Most of the media of the series can be found for both the anime and manga. The three main characters did have figurines produced which can be viewed on myfigurecollection.net.^[4] For a long time, no footage of the series could be found. On September 23rd, 2021, a YouTuber Crystal Dark Pinkie posted two clips titled “Magical Girl Rion-chan Transformation Scene” and “Magical Girl Rion-chan opening scene” showcasing footage from the animated series. The two clips originated from the video-sharing site NicoNico. The Niconico clips were posted on May 1st, 2009, and May 15, 2009, respectfully. According to a tweet by Azusarei, an artist who worked on the series, the clips found were only animation samples, and that no full series was ever produced.^[5] If a full series was made, no information or media from it were ever released. On October 18th, 2021, Twitter user niconicochorus replied to a thread discussing the series with a picture of a Chinese version of the manga, though only the cover was shown, no inside contents being revealed, but later the Twitter used has protected their posts.^[6] On October 30th, 2021, Crystal Dark Pinkie has found some of the images of Chinese version of the manga from Chinese social network Sina Weibo on her Twitter account.^[7] Besides the listed above, little to no media has been found relating to the series. On January 24th of 2022, Twitter User Nfnfchrist has found and scanned the 2008 manga on February 2nd of 2022. On February 10th of 2022, Crystal Dark Pinkie uploaded Chinese Manga Scans at Google Drive.

Availability

As of now, one of the Japanese versions of the Manga and all chapters including Promotional Images from Chinese version of Manga has been found and can be viewed on Google Drive links, also they are viewable in Archive.org.^[8]^[9] Episodes of the anime were not known to have a home media or online release. A few people have been found to have copies of the Chinese version of the manga, but the most that have been released of this are pictures of the cover. A transformation scene from the anime is available online. In Crystal Dark Pinkie's video comment one person believing that they have CD of Rion-chan Anime. The Chinese version of the manga can be obtained at second-handheld book website called Kongfz.com however a shopping agent is required, the Japanese version of the manga can be found at Suruga-ya.