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Shay Guy wrote:

Ooh, one other Jump+ series I forgot to mention: Magilumiere Co. Ltd. That one's gonna add an interesting dimension to the topic of "adult themes"

I agree. Magilumiere is "what if My Hero Academia, but with Magical Girls" and also a love letter/homage to the genre.

Also by "adult themes" it means no gorefest -much less porn-, which apparently is what some people understand by "mature".

Villain-chan wrote:

MarshalBanana wrote:

I find Magical Girl most enjoyable when it is either Echi(Cutie Honey, KIll La Kill), Dark(Princess Tutu) or bizzare(Galaxy Fraulein Yuna).

KIll La Kill isn't a Magical Girl series. Its a Super Powers series. Put another way, it has more in common with MHA than any Magical Girl show am familiar with.

I personally believe it's structured like a Kamen Rider series.

Villain-chan wrote:

MarshalBanana wrote:

I find Magical Girl most enjoyable when it is either Echi(Cutie Honey, Kill La Kill), Dark(Princess Tutu) or bizarre(Galaxy Fraulein Yuna).

KIll La Kill isn't a Magical Girl series. Its a Super Powers series. Put another way, it has more in common with MHA than any Magical Girl show am familiar with.

its main character is a girl who magically transforms spoiler[by using a magical alien life form.] What else do you want from it?

Toku and magical girl stuff have a lot of overlap. Kamen Rider and Super Sentai have influenced magical girl stuff so you could probably call Kill la Kill either one if you want. I wouldn't object.

MarshalBanana wrote:

Villain-chan wrote:

MarshalBanana wrote:

I find Magical Girl most enjoyable when it is either Echi(Cutie Honey, Kill La Kill), Dark(Princess Tutu) or bizarre(Galaxy Fraulein Yuna).

KIll La Kill isn't a Magical Girl series. Its a Super Powers series. Put another way, it has more in common with MHA than any Magical Girl show am familiar with.

its main character is a girl who magically transforms spoiler[by using a magical alien life form.] What else do you want from it?

Doesn't have magical girl tag on MAL. She wears a suit, thats more in line with Power rangers etc.

I've been loving Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete (the English title seems weird to me). I'm trying to go back and watch older series that came out before I got into anime so this thread and article have been useful. I got a lot of nice recommendations. I've seen Madoka and Magical Girl Site already and they were great. I like the concept of darker magical girls.

I'm going to quickly bring up Flip Flappers, just because no one else has yet. There are a number of attributes that combine to make it one of the greatest anime ever made in my humble personal opinion, but especially as it pertains to this article, it does a stunning job of unpacking the genre's ubiquitous homoerotic subtext in a mature, thoughtful manner. It's a magical girl anime that'll give at least some measure of vindication to those of you who find the "pseudo-romantic friendship" trope that normally comes with the magical girl territory a bit too unrealistic/unsustainable for your sensibilities.

Villain-chan wrote:

Doesn't have magical girl tag on MAL. She wears a suit, thats more in line with Power rangers etc.

It has a Magical Girl tag on both ANN and Wikipedia. She wears a Sailor Uniform, basically the same thing that Sailor Moon wears.

MiniMarps wrote:

I'm going to quickly bring up Flip Flappers, just because no one else has yet.

I was going to bring that up, as I'm a big fan. But didn't know what sub category it falls under, high fantasy isekai?

MarshalBanana wrote:

Villain-chan wrote:

Doesn't have magical girl tag on MAL. She wears a suit, thats more in line with Power rangers etc.

It has a Magical Girl tag on both ANN and Wikipedia. She wears a Sailor Uniform, basically the same thing that Sailor Moon wears.

Not every magical girl wears a sailor suit when transformed (E.g. The cast of Pulla Madoka) and while ANN and Wikipedia might have it listed as magical girl, I disagree with that. At that point u might as well call Geo Stellar from Megaman Star Force when he's Megaman a magical boy as its legit the same thing. spoiler[An Alien life form becoming the clothes/suit for another to wear which gives them powers]. Heck, u can even apply the same logic to Harp Note or the others as same deal for her/them but none are called a Magical Boy/Girl in their series or else where and that's the other reason i disagree with the cast of Kill La Kill being called Magical Girls/boys (Lets not forget Ryouko isn't the only one wearing a suit with powers, the whole cast almost is), iirc no where in KLK does any char, boy or girl, call themselves Magical Boy/girl which is typically said somewhere in the show, by someone, whether it be the person themself, the cast or the narrator, someone usually calls them such. And the other reason I agree with it being a super power show is becus none of that is magic in KLK, at all, which is CORE to any magical girl/boy show. That said, thats just why i don't see KLK as a magical girl/boy anime.

If we're talking about series that could be Magical Girl or could be a completely different genre instead I'm gonna throw Symphogear into the ring. Is it magical girl? Is it mecha? Is it super powers? Is it idol? Maybe in some cases it just can be both all and neither of the above.

Villain-chan wrote:

MarshalBanana wrote:

Villain-chan wrote:

Doesn't have magical girl tag on MAL. She wears a suit, thats more in line with Power rangers etc.

It has a Magical Girl tag on both ANN and Wikipedia. She wears a Sailor Uniform, basically the same thing that Sailor Moon wears.

Not every magical girl wears a sailor suit when transformed (E.g. The cast of Pulla Madoka)

I never said or implied that every Magical Girl wears a sailor uniform. Just that it's the same as what a very famous Magical girl wears.

Magical Girl is such a vague genre to begin with, and for decades they have blended it with other genres. Granbelm is Mecha Magical Girl, Honey Kisaragi is more of an Android than magic, I see no reason why Kill la Kill is not Magical Girl + other genre/s.

That was a surprising amount of gushing against a series you don't know past the first minutes. Talk about surface level...

I've been making sure to check out everything with "mahou shoujo" in the title or tags for the past decade and change so this column has brought some memories.
The first one being... that there aren't that many shows trying to follow on Madoka's wake considering its popularity! I can count the ones that got an anime with the fingers in my hands and I'm not sure I even need both hands.
Madoka and Princess Tutu (the latter of which I only watched recently) really live up to their reputation and I wish the former wouldn't get so much populairty pushback and the latter more people watching.
Mahou Shoujo Site was so over the top edgy that it was funny, and it knew. Much of its darkness was played for comedy and it was a fairly entertaining watch. Although a good magical girl story it was not.
Still made a better impression than Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku despite (or maybe even due to) its adorable designs. I don't have much of an edgy bone so the routine of "present a character's story through flashbacks, then proceed to horribly murder her" made me feel disgust. I fell for Top Speed and Hardgore Alice much enough that I can still remember them, but I have to wonder what all of that was in service of other than an easy gut punch. I'll admit the way they offed the villain that instigated the death battle royale was funny though. I hear the next novels are leagues better, but that anime just left me wanting to never check more.
Gen'ei wo Kakeru Taiyou was very unfortunate. First it had the misfortune of beginning production before Madoka but releasing after, so most people dismissed it as a cheap Madoka clone. The art style was strong and unique and the use of tarot as a theme deeper and truer than most people know, but it quickly lost its edge, meandered nowhere around the middle and then the finale was more akin to that of a cancelled show than one that naturally reached the end of a story.
But if you want irredeemable "dark" magical girl series, look no further than Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka. It has parody, edginess and fanservice and it's bad at all three of them! I also have to wonder if the original creator ever watched a mahou shoujo series in full ever.

Granbelm was a joy to watch week to week but oh boy that final stretch. The messaging and tone there made me worry a lot about the writer and director.
And I'm surprised that Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru wasn't mentioned, since it was dark but hopeful, understood and respected magical girl themes, was pretty popular and it was just so good overall.

In the parody category Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE! was disappointing to me and I ended up dropping it halfways through. "Magical boys" seemed unique and novel but that didn't have much mileage, the magical girl flair just wasn't there much other than some very surface level parodies and the comedy didn't vibe with me. The not-very-stellar production values didn't help much either.
In that respect, I had way more fun with Mahou Shoujo Ore despite its gay panic gags. But there isn't that much to say or remember about it, just a silly fun time.

Lastly I would like to mention some shows that have been largely ignored that are straight out mahou shoujo stories without many caveats or darkness or parodies.
Houkago no Pleiades was a veritable swan song for Gainax. A car company commercial made after all their talent fled has no right to be such a tender, exciting, classic and funnily scientifically accurate (that Gunbuster DNA is showing) story that is so well produced. But exist it does.
Then there's Soushin Shoujo Matoi adding a slight bit of the "for adults" tag, mainly because the girls' clothes vanish when undoing transformations. This one takes more after the "battle types" in the wake of Sailor Moon and Precure with similar developments. It has a loose, charming, cartoon-like artstyle and an equally charming gremlin of a co-heroine.
And Twin Angel Break is a thing I watched. It was fairly entertaining but I feel like I missed some essential context by knowing nothing more of the franchise (or is it just a previous entry?). It is definitely aimed at adults with some of its gags and designs, but most everything else is played kinda like an all ages or even a kids' show, like Precure or PuriPara. It also had a bit of a cheap tokusatsu show flavour.

Also, watch Symphogear.

(I didn't want to attach a string of replies to an already too long post)

Shay Guy wrote:

In the rest of the "magical girls but daaaaark" space, I've honestly been enjoying Magical Girl Tsubame: I Will (Not) Save The World! over on Manga Plus, but it's hard to see it ever getting an anime. So much of the appeal is Mapollo 3's wild-ass art, which I'm sure the eight other fans of PPPPPP out there will remember was also its strongest suit -- and I don't think it'd work nearly as well in motion.

I'm not one of those 8 fans but I'm having a great time with this manga. It could work as an anime but it would badly need the budget, a great character designer and a very motivated staff to keep the inconsistency consistent.

Shay Guy wrote:

Remember, Madoka already had a good amount of buzz before it aired, just from the staff. People already knew the Song of Saya dude was writing Shaft's first original anime since before the Shinbo era, just as they knew it had character designs by the Hidamari Sketch lady and the director of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei and Arakawa Under the Bridge would be directing. Nobody expected it to be typical Pretty Cure material. (Not that the then-current HeartCatch season was considered "typical Pretty Cure material" either, as I recall.)

All that talk about when "Urobutcher" would show his hand, looking for every bit of darkness at every turn so of course internet exploded after episode 3.
But it somehow feels that in the impetus to keep everything "legal", some people will just pretend that shows that aren't streaming and everything around them doesn't even exist, which includes this pre-streaming era of Madoka with its hype, specualtion and surprises.

a_Bear_in_Bearcave wrote:

"Gushing..." after it gets going later, feels to me less like subversion but more like Mahou Shoujo-themed story about horny teenage shenanigans. Some characters later behave more like fans and ecchi cosplayers rather than actual magical girls and villains. If the MC had her way (which is rarely), her each meeting with Tres Magia would end with her getting ye olde Team Rocket blast off exit.

I'll take the chance to also praise this currently airing show. I was going to compare it to a battle shounen due to the many strinkingly cool moments it has (one of which was shown this week when Magia Sulfur showed her trump card), but really it's still more of a mahou shoujo show as mechanics and power levels quickly go ignored and even scorned in favour of pure emotion.
And to have all those emotions going on (horniness being one of them) you need your characters to have a fair degree of depth, as absurdist and intentionally stereotypical as they are.

MiniMarps wrote:

I'm going to quickly bring up Flip Flappers, just because no one else has yet. There are a number of attributes that combine to make it one of the greatest anime ever made in my humble personal opinion, but especially as it pertains to this article, it does a stunning job of unpacking the genre's ubiquitous homoerotic subtext in a mature, thoughtful manner. It's a magical girl anime that'll give at least some measure of vindication to those of you who find the "pseudo-romantic friendship" trope that normally comes with the magical girl territory a bit too unrealistic/unsustainable for your sensibilities.

I feel ashamed I forgot about this one, considering it's the only one I own the BDs to. It isn't the first thing to pop up when thinking of the genre, but it IS structured like one (the chance magical meeting between two girls, the whimsy, the collection of McGuffins, the evil organization...), has the aesthetics of one and does hyperfocus on the exploration of one of the usual themes.
The way Pure Illusion worked makes me remember Wonder Egg Priority but I don't know if I want to get there.

Yuvelir wrote:

.
And Twin Angel Break is a thing I watched. It was fairly entertaining but I feel like I missed some essential context by knowing nothing more of the franchise (or is it just a previous entry?). It is definitely aimed at adults with some of its gags and designs, but most everything else is played kinda like an all ages or even a kids' show, like Precure or PuriPara. It also had a bit of a cheap tokusatsu show flavour.

So, u watched the last entry in the entire series so yes is the answer but also no at the same time. TAB is the sequel, but focuses on 2 new heroines from what i recall. That said, the OG cast from the prev series does have roles in the sequel and shows up so u lose out on some context right there. The OG series is a 12 ep TV series called Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel: Kyunkyun☆Tokimeki Paradise!! or in English its just called Twin Angel: Twinkle Paradise. This same series had 2 dif OVA, each OVA having 2 eps. The 2nd OVA set iirc was paired with the TV series but iirc the 1st OVA set was the precursor to even the TV series. By that I mean it came b4 the TV series so iirc, isn't canon to the TV series but still worth a watch imo. Both shows have parodies, and this is mroe so true for the prequel u didn't watch which even goes as far as to have its own knock off of Tuxedo Mask xD oh and bonus trivia time. Don't let this fool u becus the series is good despite this but, the Twin Angel series from what i understand are based off of a Pachinko slot machine. I dunno how much if any they share story wise with the machines but this is why u saw some slot like stuff in the TA Break show u watched.

"What if Power Rangers but dark" is just Super Sentai. I guess kid shows in Japan are more dark by comparison though

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