Subaru is a school girl who one day discovers a strange secret greenhouse within her school; here she finds a boy, named Minato, who is quite surprised to see her. That is only her first surprising encounter of the day; later she comes across a group of magical girls, including her friend Aoi, who had just been discussing finding their final member so they could accomplish their quest. The girls are just as surprised to see her as their room was supposedly magically sealed; could Subaru be the girl they were looking for? We learn that their quest is to find the fragments of the engine of an alien space; to do this they will have to ride their magical 'brooms' further and further into space. It won't be easy as each time they find one a male witch, about their age, turns up and tries to take them claiming they are his. As the series progresses we learn more about the group and their mysterious rival until they finally go after the last fragment.
Given that this series is co-produced by car maker Subaru one might expect it to be one long advert for their cars but thankfully it is more subtle than that; indeed if one hadn't heard of the company you probably wouldn't guess this wasn't a typical anime series. There are of course clues; most obviously a protagonist called Subaru; the car-like sound the girls' 'brooms' make and the fact that the alien ship is from Pleiades; the stars featured on the company logo.
This started off as series of four five minute shorts but was later remade into a full twelve part series. The series obviously goes into much more detail and shows more action but is effectively the same story. The characters are cute and likable; even the antagonist isn't particularly threatening. The animation is pretty good and the story is well told. Overall a fun but not an exceptional series; it passes the time nicely but isn't a must see.
These comments are based on watching both the original 2011 series of shorts and the full 2015 series; both in Japanese with English subtitles.
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