Magical Witches: Lost Content & Forgotten Lore

[iAM]

Introduction:

Lost media has always been fascinating to me, and I always find it enjoyable when searching about something I like and actually discover new information I’ve never seen before.

It is not a secret that I love Magical Witches and the concept behind it. Not only the virtual pets are obscure and hard to find, but also the information available about them is very limited.

Since we are talking about one of the rarest virtual pets to this day, we also didn’t get any information outside the gameplay. Normally Bandai products usually have their own independent story and interesting plot that helps the players connect with their lore and enjoy the experience. A great example is Tamagotchi and how it started back in 1996 as an unknown species crashing into earth and it our job to keep them alive. Digimon is another good example where it focuses on uniting humans and digital monster to save both the real and the digital world from evil.

For some reason Magical Witches wasn’t available that long so no one really knows exactly what the story was like and how the characters are meant to interact with the real world or what is the purpose of their existence.

Some people made an extraordinarily discoveries related to Magical Witches main story that has never been seen before, so I decided to make this thread and gather all the information and all available materials that have been found which I personally think are very interesting to look at and share my own theories and speculations too.

Stay tuned!

(Due to picture limit the thread will be in multiple posts)

 

[OldSchoolVPQ]

Have you seen Gotchi Garden's page on Magical Witches? There's some good information there.

https://gotchi-garden.blogspot.com/p/magical-witches-care-sheet.html?m=1

 

[iAM]

Have you seen Gotchi Garden's page on Magical Witches? There's some good information there.

https://gotchi-garden.blogspot.com/p/magical-witches-care-sheet.html?m=1

Yup! I’ve seen it that will be included in my research as well as some other things.

 

[tamagotchivideo]

this is so exciting!!! ive been interested in magical witches for a while but always wanted to know more about the world and characters of it since from the little peeks at official artwork it always looks really interesting! i wonder if theres any sort of connection to the world of vintage tamagotchi with the amount of tamagotchi like characters that appear on the pet...!

 

[iAM]

What are Magical Witches?

Magical Witches, a virtual pets made by Bandai/WiZ in 1998. They are known for being the four element communication books where the player must take care of a tiny witch and train it until it becomes a smart and strong witch.

The concept of magical witches is that the player is training the witch and communicating with it through the book, it is their job to make it strong enough to use magic when it evolves. There are four versions and each one represent a specific clan that specializes in one of these elements:
Aquary the water witches.
Baluluna the air witches.
Eneruge the fire witches.
Earthlin the earth witches.

During the early days of the witch’s life you must focus on creating potions and items to help your witch use them, or when connecting it with another Magical Witch. You can collect ingredients to create new items, get to use cure and curse spells with another witches.

Another main mechanic is connecting the witches together for a magical battles or pranking each other with curses or curing the witch from a curse spell. So many spells can be earned during the life of the witch that has various effects when used, the more your witch is experienced the stronger and smarter it gets with the magic it can cast.

For more gameplay details you can check a guide I made here.

This is what we know so far about the Magical Witches but after research I have seen so many other franchises members such as Digimon show some interest. In this thread I will provide everything we know and some other things that are new to me and I’m sure to so many of us along with some theories about this mysterious world.



Bandai Catalog:

In 1999 Bandai released B’s Launcher For 21st Catalog (You may find it by searching for (バンダイカタログ 1999) Page 84 features a brief introduction about Magical Witches clans and some information about the gameplay and what to expect from it. I was lucky enough to find one copy on Yahoo Japan and managed to get it. Thanks to @starbursthunter for helping me finding one.



The first half of the page there is a tiny introduction about the magical witches where it says: “Cute and mischievous witches that live in a small spellbook. Will it end up as a sage or a demon? How it end up depends on the care it gets. You can also communicate with your friend’s witch.”

Information regarding the witches and the clans and some of their personality traits within each spellbook:



The last section of the page shows some diagrams that showcase how you should take care of the witch and what to expect basically. The same pictures we see are taken from the instruction manual that came with the toy. You can find the scanned manual here.

 

[iAM]

Wizland – the official website:

In 1999 Bandai had a website called LaLaBit that featured three channels for Tamagotchi, Digimon and Magical Witches. Each channel will describe the story behind each franchise and will provide some information regarding the lore behind each toy as well as the gameplay.

The only way to still access any old website is by using the wayback machine tool that takes you to the website original structure and show you the content it had back in the day. Thanks to @RavelMonte for this amazing discoveries!

This appears to be the main page where you get to choose which channel you would like to visit out of the three:


Magical Witches had their own website which was called “Wizland”. It included the characters designs and some information of the characters. One of the pages translations suggests that the story was about four little witches that came from a magical world called “Witchelny” but sadly there are no further details that can be found on that page.

Another saved page shows the terms and conditions for website:


The website also featured a fortune telling game for the visitors to try which was a way to advertise their product at the time but due to the website old age the game can’t be accessed since it was a Flash file.

The problem with Wizland is that it lost most of the information and content that used to be there so it’s really hard to look back at them.



Where do Magical Witches come from?

Based on what we know, Magical Witches come from the world Witchelny or also known as World of Medieval Magic. it’s described as this ancient dimension populated with witches.

The witches that reside Witchelny are from one of the four clans that formed to protect it from malicious outside attacks. Witchelny residents decided to build a school atop Mount Brocken so that they send their young tribe members to learn magic.

Mount Brocken is located in the center of Witchelny. The area surrounding Mount Brocken was divided into four regions, each region is inhabited by one of the four clans. The story pages also included some additional information about the witches but that was lost too because the files were flash files and are no longer accessible.

One of these pages hints at the relationships between the witches, I think it could be a flash version of this chart which was taken from the instruction manual of the toy.



The characters page I believe had more information regarding each character such as name, age, likes, dislikes etc.. but that is also lost and it's really up to our imagination on how they used to be.


However some of the character profiles was saved and more information was actually found. The only thing that could be found was the text on these pages which gives a little bit of details about the four main characters. The four main characters are believed to be the ones featured on the toys main boxes and also can found in magazines or the instruction manual.

 

[iAM]

Witches Profiles:

FIRE

The fire witches are very mischievous with their magic, they love casting curses and prank other witches. They are good at most curses as well.
Unfortunately there wasn’t anything archived for the fire or the Eneruge witch in the website so the information we know so far is from the catalogue only.


EARTH

Earth witches from Earthlin, they are very interesting because they like peace and would rather not be part of any magical battles or conflicts. Earthlin witches are considered to be introverts and like to be alone. They master the earth magic and are very good with defense magic spells.



The character we see seems to enjoy making accessories and has a pet turtle named Clinton. Clinton can be used as a tool of protecting from magic and that is a nice little detail that is actually implemented in the toy as a Defense magic spell.
When I played with the Earthlin witch they will always have their first magic spell unlocked by default and it is always the turtle defense spell. I think from icon we can safely assume that this is Clinton the turtle:


WATER

Water witches are generally kind and calm. They specialize in healing and curing curses. It is believed that the Aquary clan has won most magical battles in the history of Land of Witches.


The witch we see from Aquary is described as being gentle and cruel at the same time. She hates conventions and rules. It seems that she does what she wants and is willing to take risks and likes adventures. This slightly contradicts her clan typical behavior and demeanor.

Her favorite thing to do is pinching a human baby cheeks. She has cat named Miu-Miu and I believe it’s the same cat from the catalogue.

In her profile, we know she has a friend that comes from the Baluluna tribe and her name is Karēra. They know each other since kinder garden and they both are rivals in the hope of becoming the future queen of Witchelny.

WIND

It is said that the wind witches have a good reputation in Witchelny, and seem to be very powerful and can pretty much cast any spell and be good at it.

Even though they are good at all sorts of magic they suffer from lack of individually, which is to expected since they are not good in one particular type of sorcery unlike other clans who specialize and focus in one magic type.


The young witch from the Baluluna tribe is the daughter of the director of the Magic School. She enjoys boxing because apparently that helps her keep her beauty.

She is also very talented just like her fellow clan members and is basically good at casting any kind of magic.
An interesting piece of information we see in her profile is that she has a friend named Suimī (スイミー) and she sort of thinks little of her since they were young. In the Aquary profile above it is also mentioned that she has a friend from the Baluluna tribe and her name is Karēra.

We might be looking at Suimī from the Aquary clan, and Karēra might be the one that comes from the Baluluna tribe. So it appears that they actually do have names but we managed to recover only two of them because they are written in their profiles.

Queen Of Witchelny:


If we look at their relationship I think they started as friends since they were young, but after they grew up it seems that they became rivals.

My theory is that Karēra (Baluluna) is currently in a higher position than other witches. Her mother is the principle of the magic school and their clan abilities to master any kind of magic makes them the powerful clan of them all, which lead me to believe that they might be the rulers of Witchelny. Plus we know that Karēra looks down to her supposed childhood friend Suimī (Aquary). Suimī comes from the Aquary clan and her personality unlike other Aquary caln members seems more bold and wouldn’t follow the rules. Her main plan is to become the future queen of Witchelny.

My speculation is that they both wanted to become the next leader or queen of Witchelny that’s were actual rivalry started. This was probably one of the plots they were planning for Magical Witches.

Art by the amazing: @pawprint_studiozz

 

[iAM]

This page basically talks briefly about Magical Witches and their four main tribes and how you can collect/create items. The last bit of the page was the information of the toy properties. it also included a mini trial version of the toy but of course it wasn’t possible to access because it was flash game.



Letters

Wizland was accepting emails from the costumers/fans regarding the product.

Some few interesting information regarding the gameplay and the overall story such as the witches are actually born during Halloween, they don’t die from age and at some point they were planning to release a list of all the witches names. If that ever happened I hope it can be recovered.

One of the emails suggests that the website offered a virtual trial version of the toy just like Tamagotchi where they offered a mini gameplay for people to test the product before purchasing.


The second page that was found generally have some questions about the fortune telling game and other random questions that don’t actually add anything to what we already know so far.

 

[iAM]

Tamagotchi & Magical Witches

Bandai is known for including many different characters from other franchises especially the vintage virtual pets.

Here is the growth chart of Magical Witches:

(Thanks to @MagicLad_Ty for allowing me to use the growth chart)

We see some of Tamagotchi original characters being implemented in Magical Witches and I don’t think they are necessarily important or tied to the lore, they are simply there because they belong to the same company and have their appearances altered to fit the theme of each toy.


Not sure if this is actually Hashizotchi magical form, but I can definitely see the similarities between the two:


That’s really it when it comes to Tamagotchi. I would like to hear your theories and thoughts.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

I don’t think they are necessarily important or tied to the lore, they are simply there because they belong to the same company and have their appearances altered to fit the theme of each toy.

That's the most likely explanation, although, that said, Nanimon from Digimon is Oyajitchi from Tamagotchi, after traversing dimensions.

 

[iAM]

Speaking of Digimon...

Last year exactly on the 27th of April 2022 Digimon twitter account posted the following picture:



We see Wizardmon is staring at the magic school in Witchelny.


This photo was taken from Digimon.net. The website will bring the profiles of some Digimons.

We are being greeted by Agumon and he says: “I know we talk about the Digital World like a single place, but it's actually split into all sorts of layers (or dimensions, if you will). There are Digital Worlds in other dimensions, different from the Digital World that's home to File Island. This time we're here to talk about one such world: the magical land of Witchelny!”

The description also mentions the original tribes of Witchelny and some already existing information:

“This is Digital World developed an ability known as magic, and is occupied by four clans: Earthlin of the earth, Aquary of the waters, Eneruge of the flames, and Baluluna of the winds.”

- The land is being ruled by the elders of each clan, as well as the three sage Digimon leading the council that governs said clans.

- Mount Brocken lies in the center, around which the land is split into four blocks for each cardinal direction. Each block is occupied by a clan.

- The clans worked together to establish a magic school atop Mount Brocken.

- Some Digimon who mastered advanced programming languages at the magic school travel to the other Digital World in pursuit of further growth.

At the end Agumon says: “There are still plenty of other areas around the Digital Worlds, and plenty of Digimon inhabiting them... This is an important reminder of just how little we know about what is out there!”

At this point I believe that Witchelny has officially became part of Digimon with some changes to fit the franchise. A lot of people were happy to see Witchelny mysterious world was being folded into Digimon.

We learn that some of the Digimon mentioned are actually from Witchelny and it’s the Digimon world from another dimension.

Before we take a look into Witchelny residents let's see how Magical Witches endued up as this alternate dimension of Digimon.

Original Designer:



Watanabe Kenji was involved in the character designs for both Digimon and Magical Witches, and that resulted in making Witchelny and Magical Witches characters part of the Digimon world. I believe changes were made until they decided to make Witchelny as an alternate Digital world and the magic used by its inhabitants is called an advanced programming language.

The good thing is they didn't completely get rid of Magical Witches but it would be amazing to see it evolve and treated as it's own!

Watanabe Kenji on instagram posted a picture of his drawing for favorited Magical Witches:



The caption says:



The translation tool isn't specific but he basically describes the original concept of Magical Witches.

He mentions it was released after Tamagotchi and Digimon, and some of characters we see in Digimon are originally from Witchelny. He even mentions one Digimon "Withermon" which I'm 100% sure he meant "Wizardmon".

 

[iAM]

Digimon Profiles

The following Digimon profiles are from the official website. These Digimons are originally from Witchelny, there are some interesting details with each one of them. Let's take a look!


“Wizardmon is a high-level Wizard Digimon from Witchelny. Before travelling to the world of Digimon it mastered both fire and earth magic in Witchelny. Wizardmon hopes to become a great wizard that’s why it decided to travel in order to train and further the magical skills and knowledge. Although it has a mischievous personality, it is fairly shy and always covers half of it’s face. Wizardmon special move is called Thunder Cloud by which it summons dark storm clouds to unleash a powerful lightning strikes.”

Wizardmon X: Wizardmon X is another form of Wizardmon. The X-antibody affects the Digicore of the Digimon and make it even more stronger. In this case Wizardmon X is heavily influenced by the Eneruge clan which means the “fire” side of it’s sorcery is heightened and is more powerful.

Comment: There are some clear references to Magical Witches when it comes to Wizardmon. First let’s talk about Wizardmon personality. The profile says, it is mischievous and shy which we know is a Eneruge and Earthlin personality traits respectively. In Wizardmon profile it is stated that it has mastered Fire and Earth sorcery prior leaving Witchelny, and that leads us to the “MASTER” of both the Eneruge and Earthlin clans. Based on both sprites I can confidently say that the MASTER of the Eneruge (fire) clan looks similar to Wizardmon.


This means Wizardmon was originally born as a fire witch (Eneruge) before mastering the Earth magic, and what we see above is an early concept or potentially it’s witch form before travelling to the Digital World and ended up how it currently looks.





“A master of fire magic. FlameWizardmon is a Wizard Digimon that has Armor Digivolution with the Digi-Egg of Courage. It’s an ambitious Digimon who shows its true face with confidence. Unlike the shy Wizardmon, which never shows its face. FlameWizardmon carries two matchstick-like sticks which increase the strength of its flame magic. Its signature move is Magic Ignition and its special move Fire Cloud that summons a firestorm.”

Comment: FlameWizardmon is a master from the Eneruge clan or fire magic and apparently the only magic it’s good at is fire sorcery. In the profile FlameWizardmon is the opposite of Wizardmon when it comes to their personalities, FlameWizardmon seems to be more outgoing and naughty where Wizardmon is inconspicuous and discreet.


“A companion of Wizardmon from Witchelny. Sorcermon is a master of light and ice magic. It has the ability to heal wounds with the holy power of prayer. Its special move is Crystal Cloud, by which it summons storm clouds from a wand topped with crystallized ice in order to cause a massive blizzard.”

Comment: At first I thought Sorcermon is another “form” of Wizarmon but turns out to be a completely independent Digimon. Sorcermon looks exactly like Wizarmon but with the colors changed. We also notice that the stick it’s holding represent a snowflake and the hat on it head doesn’t have the skull that Wizarmon has. It is difficult to assume from what tribe it originally came from but since there is ice involved I’m assuming it could be Aquary (water), or it could have learned through travelling between the dimensions which apparently almost everyone from Witchelny have done in order to gain more skills and power.


“A Digimon mastered both wind and water magic in Witchelny. Witchmon, pursued its rival Wizarmon from who also comes from Witchelny to the Digital World and trains so hard in order to get prepared and ready on a rival who aims to become a great sage. It has a bit of a cruel streak, more than a bit of pride, and loathes both convention and established routines.”

Comment: Witchmon is definitely an interesting one! Starting off with the magic type, on the profile it says that it mastered both air and water which is the opposite of Wizardmon. A very clear references to both Baluluna (air) and Aquary (water) tribes is mentioned in the special moves, one of them called Baluluna Gale that unleash a sharp wind imbued with magic power, and Aquary Pressure to shoot a very high pressure water capable of penetrating steel.

Witchmon personality is defiantly rebellious and turbulent based on the description which slightly matches Suimī’s (Aquary witch) personality to some extent. They both disobedient and stern when it comes to the rules, and will do what they want ultimately. According to the Digimon profile Witchmon is going after it’s rival Wizarmon in the Digital World.

Another interesting tiny detail is that Witchmon has a pet cat just like Suimī had Miu Miu. To me this might be an indicator that Witchmon original tribe was Aquary.

The sprites from Digimon Pendulum Z and Magical Witches look exactly the same. We see the MASTER of Air and Water matches Witchmon sprite from Digimon Pendulum Z:

 

[iAM]

“A Magic Warrior Digimon from Witchelny. A master of various magics of which fire magic is its forte. In addition, Mistymon is also adept at the sword, possessing masterful swordsmanship. Well-versed both in chivalry and sorcery, it can even imbue its sword with magic to attack. Its special move Blast Fire is one such form of magic by which it covers its sword in flames to slash with enhanced might. Then there’s Core Dart, by which it shrewdly manipulates crystals for attack and defense.”

Comment: Mistymon is a unique and different one from the previous Digimons! Chivalry mixed with sorcery is definitely something new to Witchelny, so there is a high possibility that Mistymon managed to learn swordsmanship outside Witchelny and mixed it along with the knowledge of magic. On the profile it is said Mistymon is a master of various magics of which fire is the main element, so most probably Mistymon main attribute is Eneruge and then was able to learn other magic types during it’s travelling between the dimensions. Although not mentioned, there is a hint to Earthlin magic where Mistymon uses to manipulate the crystals for defense which we know now is a earth tribe magic spell.


“A Warrior Digimon glorified as the legendary hero of Witchelny. Ancient Witchelny was on the path to ruin, since its magic was still in its infancy and residents of Witchelny lacked techniques and power to protect their land from invasion by outside forces. It is said that MedievalGallantmon suddenly appeared and repelled invaders, and that it transcends time to exist to the present day, although the truth is uncertain. It fights with arms created with magic, and wields Dynas, the ultimate magic lance concealing the power of the wyvern. MedievalGallantmon is nicknamed the Whirlwind General due to its governance over the Vortex Warriors, Digimon who fight with weapons made of wind magic, one of the four magic types (fire, earth, water and wind). Practically no one have seen it in the Digital World, but this Digimon is known as the Warrior of Fantasy due to its armor covered with gorgeous decoration, and is a solemn figure affixed with a coat of arms.”

Comment: MedievalGallantmon is a very vague and mysterious! It just showed without any warning and helped protecting Witchelny from outside invasion. Technically MedievalGallantmon is not from Witchelny as it stated on the profile, Something interesting is that MedievalGallantmon is apparently a master of air magic when it first appeared in Witchelny so I’m assuming that it managed to learn magic from where it originally came from.

Vortex Warriors:

Vortex Warriors is a group of Digimons that is based in Witchelny. MedievalGallantmon is the leader of the group and was given the name “Whirlwind General”. The only thing we know about Vortex Warriors is that they use weapons that were made by air sorcery. The other members of the group are still unknown.


“Hexeblaumon is a legendary Magic Knight Digimon that only those who master ice magic are said to be able to Digivolve into. Rumor has it that Hexeblaumon helped protect other Digimons while the Digital World was in the midst of an ice age, then traveled to the extradimensional world of Witchelny. Skilled at techniques that involve manipulating cold and can create a variety of things from ice. These range from weapons like swords and hammers to restraints meant to hinder an enemy’s movement and even barriers to protect itself. Its special moves include Summon Frost, where it sends a blast of cold across a wide area to freeze anyone nearby into an ice statue, and Hecto Edge Blizzard, where it rains down countless swords of ice on foes with all the fury of a winter storm. Finally, it has Absolute Blast, an ultimate attack where it unleashes a wave of absolute zero from the jaws of the dragon on its left shoulder to shatter everything.”

Comment: Hexeblaumon is a master of ice magic Digimon that originally came from the Digital World and ended up in Witchelny. If we take a look at the name Hexeblaumon it can be translated as The Blue Witch in German:
Hexe = witch
Blau = blue

Another interesting finding by @DigitamerX on Twitter. The Absolute Blast special move card (BT5-097) that features the Aquary clan symbol that can be seen in the dragon’s mouth on it’s shoulder. The symbol is revealed during the Absolute Blast special attack.


It is surprising that Hexeblaumon is not a native of Witchelny but yet is connected to the Aquary clan. Water sorcery could be the origins of ice sorcery that Hexeblaumon mastered along with other elements outside of Witchelny.


“Wisemon is a Digimon that is completely shrouded in mystery. It can appear at any point in time and space via the Book. Using this Book as a spiritual vessel, it frequently alters its form to appear in locations in spacetime connected to the Book, and some believe that its actual form exist in a different dimension. Some researchers speculate that Wisemon is a Wizard and might come from the same world/place that Piedmon comes from. The Spacetime Stones in its hands has the ability to playback a record of a space, preserving every event or object of the Digital World within space and time. Its special move Pandora Dialogue is a high-speed replay of enemy attacks stored in spacetime, and Eternal Nirvana seals the enemy in the Spacetime Stones for all eternity.”

Comment: Wisemon is designed to be a mysterious character. At some point it was connected to Piedmon which is considered to be one of Digimon mysteries. Both Digimons seem to be very discreet and their motives are completely unknown in the Digital World. What we know to be true about Wisemon is that it didn’t originally came from Witchelny but can definitely uses its powerful Book to show up anywhere. Nothing indicates that it uses any sort of sorcery but the only thing it has apparently is the Book.

 

[OldSchoolVPQ]

Fun fact: Kenji Watanabe drew all the original Tamagotchi art too!