Forum - View topicA General Query Concerning Sailor Moon (&/or Magical Girl Genre)
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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I've never considered MKR a magical girl series, more a shojo fantasy. CCS I have always thought of as magical girl.
Powers within oneself seem to be pretty important, even in not strictly magical girl series. In Fushigi Yuugi, Miaka is chosen as the priestess because she has the power within her. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7357 |
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Well first off, my thoughts on the Sailor Moon manga and that is I remember when Kodansha announced they had it and the incredible hype surrounding it. As someone who blind buys manga all the time though, I didn't on this one because I had no nostalgia for the anime (I didn't really get cable until after it was no longer on the air), so I rented it from the library and I just remember volume 1 being one of the most god-awful boring things I've ever read in my life. Then, maybe a year ago during the revival craze (i.e. Viz getting the original anime series), I rented the first three volumes again and this time forced myself to get through the first arc and I have to say, it's still an ungodly boring mess.
I do think I pinpointed my problem though. Pretty much any sentai-style series, or even one with a large team (like Digimon or something) needs to spend time establishing its main team and that's something that can't be avoided. But damn if Sailor Moon didn't do it fairly terribly by forgetting to inject any real personality into the mix instead of generic character traits. I decided to watch a few eps of the anime on Hulu for comparison and the anime directors clearly must've looked at the turd of a manga they were given and went "well, this is so popular that we can really milk this, let's remember to give them personalities and character" so even if I can't get into the anime personally, I can see why people enjoy it. It used its extra time well enough to establish characters better. Also, most manga don't try to shove in one character introduction per chapter for four chapters straight. It almost feels like the manga was a compressed version of the anime, even though it came first. That's usually a bad sign. I actually just think the magical girl genre works better as an anime. Part of it is certainly that magical time wasting transformation scene that only really works in animation, but also that they tend to be incredibly long and typically not as big on plot, or they can spread their plot out more. Although shorter series like Princess Tutu and Madoka Magica can do both better. It still spent its time building characters, it just tended to do it with the plot more than the 50+ eps one seemed to imo. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2607 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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I feel like there are two categories that get grouped together - girls who use magic and the transforming magical girls. I trace the transforming magical girls back to the 13th century scroll Tales of Gisho and Gangyo, where the character Zenmyo transforms in order to protect the monks. Since her transformation is central to her character and to the survival of the men, and the power comes from her own desire to "protect" and "save" (seen in many of the superheroine magical girls), this seems a reasonable starting point, although I'm sure that if I were to look to the Kojiki there would be more divine examples. (Actually, I think that because Zenmyo is not a goddess, that gives her more credibility as one of the earliest magical girls.) There are many more girls who simply use magic in folklore; the non-transforming puts them in line with witches, sorceresses, goddess, and other supernatural examples, while transforming magical girls are strictly human (or at least turn human, in the case of Pon-chan) at their base, which is in part why I make a distinction. @Alan45 Othello is an interesting case. I think it's more an example of the power of the magical girl genre than a magical girl story itself. Nana turns into Yaya in terms of body language and style, so you could argue a transformation, but I think it's more that she takes power from the idea of transforming. She was emotionally wounded and only by "magical power" can she access her inner strength - that is, by pretending she's someone else. You see an actual magical girl example of this is Masakazu Katsura's Shadow Lady, where Aimi is shy and retiring until she applies the magic eyeshadow. She may use real magic, but just like Nana, it's about looking in the mirror and changing how you see. |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9840 Location: Virginia |
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@st_owly
I only mentioned MKR because of the transformation aspect. Though, as I remember it is the armor that transforms as the girls mature. @Princess_Irene I'll have to agree with you on Othello. I do think the transformation is more than just personality. Yaya preforms physical stunts that seem beyond normal. Shadow Lady I haven't thought of that in years. I have both the Dark Horse comics and trade around here. I can see why you would consider that a magical girl of the phantom thief variety. I think the location "elsewhere" kept me from think of it as a magical girl. Apparently I've read more of that genre than I thought. The Shadow Lady and side kick. 
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st_owly
Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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I hadn't thought of Othello as a magical girl series, but I guess it kind of is. Again though, it seems to be about the power within you rather than an external power source.
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