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Old-Fashioned Magic: A Brief History of Studio Pierrot's Magical Girls




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Saeryen



Joined: 26 Aug 2020
Posts: 1162
PostPosted: Wed May 20, 2026 11:13 am Reply with quote
This was a fun read! I am loving Lulutto Lilly and so happy it has official subs on YouTube, and I want to check out all these other ones too! I’m glad to hear Creamy Mami is licensed on Amazon Prime; I’ll probably be watching it soon.
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3842
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Wed May 20, 2026 11:31 am Reply with quote
Seeing as the episode count decreases almost linearly from the oldest to newest, I was hoping for Lulutto Lilly to be at least two cours to buck the trend. But of course that hope was in vain.. Sad
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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed May 20, 2026 12:15 pm Reply with quote
Blanchimont wrote:
Seeing as the episode count decreases almost linearly from the oldest to newest, I was hoping for Lulutto Lilly to be at least two cours to buck the trend. But of course that hope was in vain.. Sad


It technically does have 20-something episodes planned. It'll just go on break next season and come back after that.
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TsukasaElkKite



Joined: 22 Nov 2005
Posts: 4189
PostPosted: Wed May 20, 2026 1:19 pm Reply with quote
This was a fantastic read.
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Wyvern



Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Posts: 1792
PostPosted: Wed May 20, 2026 5:54 pm Reply with quote
This article really highlights how much the magical girl genre has changed. Nowadays the genre is largely about girls fighting evil and most discussion of the subject uses that as the default. Even "post-modern" magical girl shows like Madoka start from this trope. So it's easy to forget that Sailor Moon changed the game and before she came along there were whole generations of kids for whom magical girl shows meant girls using magic to solve small-scale personal problems, sing songs, or just to fool around. The idea of making them superheroes came along decades into the genre's life. I enjoy that style of show a lot but it's nice to see Pierrot bringing back the older style, as well.

Anyway, I didn't know Pierrot had so many of these shows in its back catalog, so this article was a great and enlightening read!
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Juno016



Joined: 09 Jan 2012
Posts: 2575
PostPosted: Wed May 20, 2026 6:10 pm Reply with quote
I've seen all of the AshiPro and Studio Pierrot magical girl series, and Lulutto Lilly has been a lot of fun~ It reminds me more of PreCure, though, than the classic Pierrot series, which probably has to do with modern writing trends than anything else. Thank you for the article~
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Chiyosuke



Joined: 06 Oct 2003
Posts: 512
PostPosted: Thu May 21, 2026 1:10 am Reply with quote
Okay, this has been bugging me for the longest but shouldn't the title be Magical Sisters Lulu and (to) Lily?
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2808
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Thu May 21, 2026 6:11 am Reply with quote
Chiyosuke wrote:
Okay, this has been bugging me for the longest but shouldn't the title be Magical Sisters Lulu and (to) Lily?


It's been bugging me, too, but this is apparently the way Pierrot has decided it ought to be localized.

Thanks for all of your kind words, everyone! This was a blast to write.
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CamiChan19



Joined: 17 Apr 2024
Posts: 75
PostPosted: Thu May 21, 2026 6:31 pm Reply with quote
Thank you for the lovely, well researched article! Smile

A friend and I ended up watching Creamy Mami for the first time over the past year.
While we had to get past the egregious spoiler[panty shots] and some unfunny, older humor, we really enjoyed Yuu as a character, and the pastel iconic vibes of the whole show. I'm glad you mentioned that Magical Emi was your favorite. I may give it a try next. Yumi's first episode skeeved me enough to drop it, I don't have an interest in Persia, and I'll go back to Fancy Lala at some point. It does feel notably different from its predecessors, but still interesting. The archetecture of the family's house in Lala looks SO cool!
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Silver Kirin



Joined: 09 Aug 2018
Posts: 1755
PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2026 11:03 am Reply with quote
Wyvern wrote:
This article really highlights how much the magical girl genre has changed. Nowadays the genre is largely about girls fighting evil and most discussion of the subject uses that as the default. Even "post-modern" magical girl shows like Madoka start from this trope. So it's easy to forget that Sailor Moon changed the game and before she came along there were whole generations of kids for whom magical girl shows meant girls using magic to solve small-scale personal problems, sing songs, or just to fool around. The idea of making them superheroes came along decades into the genre's life. I enjoy that style of show a lot but it's nice to see Pierrot bringing back the older style, as well.

I think the issue is that most of the discussion online comes from English-speaking anime fans that grew up with Sailor Moon, that's why most people assume the genre is about a group of girls fighting some evil enemy, shows like Himitsu no Akko-chan, Minky Momo and Pierrot's magical girls series were more popular in places like Europe and Latin America, though Sailor Moon and some of its derivatives did become hugely popular, in a way I always think some people in the U.S. treat the Magical Girl genre in a similar way to the Mecha genre, where shows like Voltron, Robotech, Evangelion and Gurren Lagann kind of shaped the perception of the genre as a whole.
But now that I think about it, Cardcaptor Sakura, which is perhaps the second most popular Magical Girl series of all time globally goes for a more "magical girl solving everyday problems", though in the case of Sakura, her problems aren't exactly small-scale, the Clow Cards could cause serious threats, but there wasn't exactly an evil force that had to be defeated.
As for the Magical Idol style from Pierrot's shows, it's something that I always associate with the '80s and the early otaku culture, it's interesting seeing how it influenced other media, like SNK's Psycho Soldier game starring Athena Asamiya.
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Saeryen



Joined: 26 Aug 2020
Posts: 1162
PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2026 11:13 am Reply with quote
Princess_Irene wrote:
Chiyosuke wrote:
Okay, this has been bugging me for the longest but shouldn't the title be Magical Sisters Lulu and (to) Lily?


It's been bugging me, too, but this is apparently the way Pierrot has decided it ought to be localized.

Thanks for all of your kind words, everyone! This was a blast to write.

My guess is that “Lulutto Lilly” is going to be their name as an idol duo.
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