Lalabel

Lalabel
Cover of the 1st DVD box
魔法少女ララベル (Mahō Shōjo Raraberu)
Genre	Magical girl
Anime television series
Directed by	Hiroshi Shidara (chief director)
Written by	Masaki Tsuji, Hirohisa Soda, Noboru Shiroyama, Tomoko Konparu, Toyohiro Ando
Music by	Taku Izumi
Studio	Toei Animation
Original network	TV Asahi
Original run	15 February 1980 – 27 February 1981
Episodes	49
Anime television film
Magical Girl Lalabel: the Sea Calls for a Summer Vacation
Directed by	Hiroshi Shidara
Studio	Toei Animation
Released	12 July 1980
Runtime	15 minutes

Lalabel, also known as Lalabel, The Magical Girl (魔法少女ララベル, Mahō Shōjo Raraberu^?) or Magical Girl Lalabel, is a magical girl anime television series by Toei Animation. It aired from 15 February 1980 to 27 February 1981 on TV Asahi.

A 15 minutes long "movie" special called Magical Girl Lalabel: the Sea Calls for a Summer Vacation (魔法少女ララベル 海が呼ぶ夏休み, Mahō Shōjo Raraberu: Umi ga Yobu Natsuyatsumi^?) was also created, it aired in Japan in July 1980.

Although Eiko Fujiwara is often credited as the "creator" of the series, Lalabel was actually an original Toei Animation creation, and Fujiwara drew the spin-off manga published by Shogakukan. Masaki Tsuji was brought on board as the series' head writer, but due to various circumstances he scripted only the first episode, and the remaining episodes were given to a rotation of four other writers.

Lalabel (sometimes romanized as Lalabelle) would be the last magical girl anime created by Toei Animation until the 1988 remake of Himitsu no Akko-chan. Toei producers believed that girls in the target demographic for series like Lalabel demanded romantic adventures more than magical girl shows, and thus the series that followed in Lalabel's time slot was the non-magical-girl series Hello! Sandybell, which featured many of the same staff. In the meantime, other studios, particularly Studio Pierrot, would assume the magical girl mantle that Toei had abandoned.