Sasaki, a 39-year-old corporate employee, has resigned himself to live a modest life without dreams and dangers. To his great surprise, his fate takes a brutal turn after he decides to adopt a Java sparrow that he names Pii-chan. The talking bird not only happens to be a reincarnation of a famous magician from another world, but it decides to grant some of its powers to Sasaki—along with the ability to traverse between worlds. Sasaki begins a lucrative business of selling technological items from his world to the less advanced civilization of the other. However, Sasaki's life becomes more chaotic when he stops an attempt on a woman's life with his new powers. Unfortunately, the woman Sasaki saved also happens to be a government agent named Hoshizaki, who is tasked with tracking down gifted individuals like him. Forced to join Hoshizaki's secret agency, Sasaki partakes in dangerous missions to find other gifted criminals. He does not even have the luxury of hiding in the other world, where a war is about to break out. If he wants to protect peace in both worlds, Sasaki will have to become the hero that no one expects him to be.

In this world, there live a group of people who call themselves Majo or Magical Girls. They hide their powers so as to assimilate into the environment. They have been living together in harmony with the humans for many years to come, and their predecessors continue to do so. Sasami was enthroned with magical powers since her birth. However, at the age of three, she was told by her parents never to use her innate powers and from then on, had kept it a secret from everyone. On the day of a new school term, a new transfer teacher by the name of Wajuu arrives and from then on, Sasami's life begins to change tremendously. (Source: ANN)

A special summary episode of the first season of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, focusing on seven of the girls: Komori Kiri, Matoi Tsunetsuki, Kobushi Abiru, Kimura Kaere, Kitsu Chiri, Sekiuchi Maria Tarou and Hitou Nami. Note: This entry also includes the 24 minute version which aired on BS11.

Maquia is a member of a special race called the Iorph—mystical beings who can live for hundreds of years and remain separate from the lives and daily troubles of mankind. However, Maquia has always felt lonely despite being surrounded by her people, as she was orphaned from a young age. She daydreams about the outside world, but dares not travel from her home due to the warnings of the clan's chief. One day however, the outside world finds her, as the power-hungry kingdom of Mezarte invades her homeland. They already have what is left of the giant dragons, the Renato, under their control, and now their king wishes to add the immortality of the Iorph to his bloodline. The humans and their Renato ravage the Iorph homeland and kill most of its inhabitants. Caught in the midst of the attack, Maquia is carried off by one of the Renato that has gone berserk. It soon dies, and she is left deserted in a forest far from home, now truly alone save for the cries of a single baby off in the distance. Maquia finds the baby in a destroyed village and decides to raise him as her own, naming him Ariel. Although she knows nothing of the human world, how to raise a child that ages much faster than her, or how to live with the smoldering loneliness inside, she is determined to make it all work somehow.