Night of Wishes

Night of Wishes is a Japanese Anime film based on the 1978-2000 Manga series created by Waku Yaniko and published by Shueisha for the Yaniko Waku World (in turn based on The Night of Wishes by Michael Ende).

Plot
The evil sorcerer Beelzebub Preposteror has contracted with His Excellency, The Minister of Pitch Darkness, to preform a certain number of evil deeds every year but he did not meet the requirements this year because the High Council of the Animals had sent Maurizia as a spy, which forces Beelzebub to be more cautious. He is threatened with a "seizure" by Maledictus T. Maggot, an official of the devil, if he doesn't fulfill quota of evil deeds until midnight.

On New Year's Eve, he joined forces with his aunt Tyrannia Vampirella, who has the same problem due to the raven Jakob spying on her. Together they to brew the eponymous Notion Potion that will grant them all wishes, in order to fulfill their part of the contract before midnight. If they succeeded to brew the potion they won't even have to keep it a secret from the animals, because due to the nature of the potion every wish they make will have the opposite effect.

While Beelzebub and Tyannria try to complete a five-metre long recipe to brew the potion, while constantly getting in each other's way, Maurizia and Jakob must find a way to stop their evil plan while facing problems of their own, namely Maurizia's obesity and Jakob's choronic diseases. As Maurizia and Jakob, in their serach for help, arrive in the city near the cathedral, Jakob remembers the weakness to the potion: if the potion has not been fully drunk up before the first ring of the bell at midnight, the potion won't reverse the meaning of the wishes, as expected from Beezlebub and Tyrannia, but instead grants them as wishes.

So the need such a bell tone. After the first enthusiasm, Jakob soon realizes the impossibility of the idea since the tone can only come from the real New Year's chime exactly at midnight. Maurizia is netherless thrilled by this unexpected glimmer of hope and ignores all of Jakob's objections and worries. Since the cathedral Tower was locked, Maurizia climbs up the icy tower from outside in darkness and storms. Jakob reluctantly follows her because he was worried about her well-beings. With the last of their strength, they reach the belfry where they pass out. When they woke up, they are surprised to be facing Pope Sylvester I who, in every year, has appeared from the hereafter to ring the bells. Although the bells will only ring at midnight, Pope was able to give Maurizia and Jakob a frozen sound of the midnight chime prematurely since space and time plays no role for him as a saint.

Thanks to Pope, who enables them to fly back to the Villa Nightmare at the speed of sound, they just manage to do this. Beelzebub and Tyrannia begin their intended work and wish the world all the best with every sip from the wishing punch, assuming the reversal effect of the potion will cause the world harm. The punch is also strongly alcoholic, so by the time midnight came along, they're both heavily inebriated, and decide to take their drunken ire out of their pets. After wishing them health, which caused the opposite, Maurizia and Jakob heal up completely, and their lifetime wishes are fulfilled. Beezlebub and Tyrannia were stunned, but are too drunk to understand what happened. While Jakob and Maurizia flee from the house, Beezlebub and Tyrannia, still drunk, now tries to cure each other by means of the wishing punch, but this fails completely. When a few seconds before midnight. they finally realize what is going on but it was already too late. Seeing the punch has been all used up, they pass out drunk.

While His Hellish Excellency has Maledictus T. Maggot impounds Beezlebub and Tyrannia's souls after midnight, Maurizia and Jakob are outside and enthusiastically plan their future while they watch the sky as the world turns into a bright future.

Cast
Junko Hori: Maurizia di Mauro

Kaneta Kimotsuki: Jakob Krakel

Kappai Yamagushi: Beezlebub Preposteror

Masako Nozawa: Tyrannia Vampirella

Kazuki Yao: Maledictus T. Maggot

Shun Yashiro: Pope Sylvester I