The History of Magical Girls | Nerdy Magical Girl Podcast

[@lucinalanius8829]

One of my favorite magical girl shows is Sugar Sugar Rune by Moyoco Anno! The way the MC learns to connect with others and treasure them is really touching, but it has so much to offer!

[@MiladyConfetti]

I remember seeing this anime and it's art style! I feel like the style of the MC really inspired Chise of the Ancient Magus Bride! I hope to watch it one day soon!

[@lucinalanius8829]

@@MiladyConfetti YEAHHHHH Moyoco Anno has such a lovely shojo style that just so 🥰

[@weilanquartz13]

My favourite magical girl series of all time is Precure. Although I haven't finished every season, I'm still enticed to. The wide range of media it has to give is fantastic. Even though not every season is excellent, there's still something unique and lovely about it. My favourite magical girl of all time is Sailor Moon. She has always been an inspiration for me in all different aspects, and her loving and caring nature towards others is just so heartwarming. Her drive to keep shining even in the darkest of times is also just incredible. She truly is the definition of what a true traditional magical girl is in itself

[@xqzqcv7950]

Precure is absurdly massive, actually unsure if its possible to get into everything in one lifetime lol Theres just so, sooo much! It all seems amazing from what have seen Def rec trying to watch as much as can no matter if finish it all, great stuff there

[@MiladyConfetti]

yup! thats why I have to do a separate video on it! It's A LOT!

[@xqzqcv7950]

@@MiladyConfetti Sweet, looking forward to it! Always fun to learn more about Precure 😆👍😄

[@sofitssofi]

Yes, "Cutie Honey" began only a week after "Sailor Moon" because ever since 1966's "Sally the witch", Toei animation has been airing an episode of a magical girl anime every.single.week (in the same time-slot no less, 7:30 am) stopping only for the holidays and disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis and Covid. Since 2004 the Pretty Cure franchise has been airing then and I am curious what's next for that magical 7:30. This is THE magical girl studio. That makes it even more baffling how Thomas Astruc refused their help for animating Miraculous Ladybug. The original 2D PV is by Toei in case you didn't know.

[@MiladyConfetti]

yup that's pretty obvious since all but a few mentioned are from Toei Animation. And there are some magical girl shows I did not mention due to time or future episodes being dedicated on them specifically. 🙂

[@nekopanana]

Didn't see it as one before but Kill la Kill is my favourite magical girl anime now. It makes so much sense, bless you 😭😭😭

[@MiladyConfetti]

haha some Dark Magical girl series are hidden gems for sure! But they are there!

[@TriniandVerde93]

I learned so much that I didn’t know about magical girls, and got some new recommendations. Thank you for the podcasts! 😁

[@MiladyConfetti]

You're so welcome!

[@rizeartisan1404]

This really is an incredible insight into this genre. I’ve been watching and subscribing to many quality anime / manga cultural genre channels for years. Can I say your channel is one of the best potential for development and insight. Would love to hear your insight of Ascendence to a bookworm sometime. Well done on this video - Look forward to more.

[@MiladyConfetti]

This really made my night, thank you! And I'll add this one to my list, I did not have it on my radar 🙂

[@nyxipuff]

this was such an interesting and insightful video, thank you!! i really look forward to more of this series

[@MiladyConfetti]

thank you! and Enjoy Princess Tutu it's a wonderful show!

[@KawaiiFlandre495]

Thank you for the video I do live learning about Mahou Shojo History I first got into Magical Girl stuff first with Glitter force then Glitter force Doki Doki and then finally with Madoka Magica because of how infamous it was.

[@MiladyConfetti]

GLITTER FORCEEEE! Oh my gosh YES! Where you prepared for the hurt of Madoka Magica? Or did it take you by surprise.

[@KawaiiFlandre495]

@@MiladyConfetti I knew before my first watch it was dark but somethings in it you unexpected for me. Note( I watch the English dub for this anime)

[@Violentinthedaylight]

If you enjoyed GF, I highly recommend you check out the original version: Pretty Cure. It's an ongoing franchise with a new season streaming on Crunchyroll. Both GF seasons are dubs of Smile Pretty Cure and Doki Doki Pretty Cure. But the dubs made several cuts and edits, and removed several episodes (GF Doki Doki only had 30/49 in it's dub.)

[@belllavictoria]

this was so informative! my favorite and first anime was sailor moon but I also adore madoka!

[@MiladyConfetti]

thank you! I loved Madoka just wasnt expecting to get wrekt like that lol

[@katlikethatprodz]

This was such a great video! I knew most of the stuff but I loved the inclusion of japanese society and how it changed and influenced Manga/Anime! My favorite magical girl series will always be Sailor Moon! It just influenced and shaped me so much especiallywith it themes! It's the show/manga I grew up with! It's the series that got me into manga and drawing myself! The series that showed me my passion for art in general. It's actually crazy how much influence Sailor Moon had on me! Honorable mentions for Wedding Peach, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, Revolutionary Girl Utena, PreCure and Doremi! Love them all so much!

[@MiladyConfetti]

Yeah sailor moon has a big place in my heart and was my first anime ever! I actually just talked about a few of the other’s you just mentioned in my magical boys overview video! Haha this genre is so awesome 👏🏾

[@FullmoonPhantom-dn2sr]

Picking a favorite is difficult. There’s so many. As a little girl, I liked Tokyo Mew Mew! Now that I’m older I like Kaitou Jeanne, Fullmoon, and Tutu. Kobato is also a good time! Though, I’m onboard with just about any magical girl franchise dark or traditional.

[@MiladyConfetti]

I LOVED Tokyo Mew Mew! But same I really love magical girl anime but Dark Magical Girl series like Madoka or Yuki Yuna need to come with warnings LOL they threw me for a loop for sure lol

[@z-hop8180]

One awesome one that many might not be aware of is one called Power Puff Girls Z, which is an anime version of Power Puff Girls and seems to be cooler. 😊

[@XxGalaxyofRikaxX]

I watched "Ojamajo Doremi" and (some of) its subsequent seasons as a kid and I really enjoyed it! It was localized as "Magical Doremi" by 4kids for only its first season. From what I can gather, I think it's still pretty popular in Japan despite the main series ending in 2003. It definitely skews younger and is aimed at younger audiences with the main cast being in elementary school, but at times tackles some heavier issues like racism, puberty, etc.. I love the transformation sequences because they're super quick and snappy and also aren't fanservicy at all (thank god). I remember my mom's friend introducing "Saint Tail" to me and my sister as well- it's about a thief magical girl and the transformation sequence for it is also very quick and unique.

[@alyssaagnew4147]

Thanks! I'd been looking for something like this for a while, great work!

[@MiladyConfetti]

thank you!

[@amythepandemonium3673]

Princess Tutu is one of the few series I wish I could watch for the first time again. It is so good.

[@MiladyConfetti]

agreed!

[@Azelf89]

1:30 Another pioneering note about Sally is that the show is actually the very first piece of television* animation from Japan to be dubbed into French! Specifically, it dubbed in the Canadian province of Québec as "Minifée", and began broadcasting in October of 1969, less than a year after the series finished it's first broadcast in Japan, and covered every single episode of the show that was in color, skipping the first 17 episodes which were in Black-&-White. *: Specified "television" because any anime that was dubbed into French before 1969 were movies, a notable example being both 1960s Cyborg 009 films.

[@MiladyConfetti]

Yup!!

[@sm8741]

This is very complete and amazingly done!! We love magical girls TwT👏👏 If I have to be very honest, I’d really really like to publish one day a magical girl story I’ve been working on for a veeeeery long while now, and honestly, these kinds of stuff really inspire me to do so x3. Not only that, but also learning from other big series is very helpful as well c:!! Awesome work qwq!!

[@GBY005]

i was a huge cardcaptor sakura fan and a lotnof Clamp's works like xxxHolic and Tsubasa. I'm loving this series, thank you for educating me!

[@MiladyConfetti]

I've been wanting to get some cardcaptor merch for a while, I do enjoy it a lot! And of course!

[@Qwen.mp4]

OH MY UNIVERSE i love this woman i will more videos

[@veronika4870]

yay! You mentioned W.i.t.c.h.! They are my childhood and I found Sailor Moon through them and am now discovering it.

[@KendraCarson]

Love this!!! Informative for someone new to the genre!

[@KendraCarson]

Me being the newbie!

[@Terriblenogoodverybadartist]

I watched some magical girls animes when i was little but what really got me into it was a tapas webtoon called Magical Boy

[@MiladyConfetti]

i wanna read more webtoons i just cant afford paying to read with lots of them 😭

[@MarkS00NMcknown]

So I am not a specific Magical Girl fan, I am a specific Yuri fan, so I don't know much about history of Magical Girl before 2004 and even then I only watch Magical Girl that has prevalence yuri fan. I don't know if you are going to tackle these topics but I think there are two big things that is missing: Precure and (something I call) "Seinen-fication of Magical" Before 2004, as far as I understand people can have numerous morning show magical girl series that they may watch. There was Sailor moon, Minky Momo, Creamy Mami, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Ojamajo Doremi, etc. This gives to diverse idea on what magical girl can be. It can be close to Power Ranger like Sailor Moon, a more traditional witch like Ojamajo Doremi, or even single magical girl with her magical love interest like Cardcaptor Sakura. After Futari Wa Precure aired in 2004 however, it quickly dominate Magical Girl genre to the point that right now Japanese Gen Z and Gen Alpha probably only know Precure as their Morning TV Show magical girl. This impact on what "Magical Girl" series can be moving forward. First, it has strong Kamen Rider influence. Madoka Magica? Kamen Rider Ryuki. Kill la Kill? Kamen Rider Black. Symphogear? Kamen Rider Hibiki. Yuuki Yuuna? Ryuki again (though one can argue that it is because Madoka is a big influence on Late Night magical girl, that the Ryuki influence comes through Madoka to Yuuki Yuuna). Because of this strong Precure influence, a history of magical girl in the new millenium has to touch Precure specifically to explain two important phenomenon of Magical Girl in 2010s-2020s. First, the lack of non-Precure Magical Girl in Morning TV show (simple explanation: Precure is so popular, no other magical girl can compete and they tried to avoid airing at the same time as Precure). Second, why magical girl goes from their attack being magic based (like in Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura) and more practical (Madoka Magica has bow, gun, sword, etc.; Hibiki has her determination to fist; Yuuki Yuuna obviously has her own determination to fist; and so on) with simple explanation is that because Precure bring Kamen Rider influence (a JDrama), the fight become practical and because Precure is so popular, future Magical Girl follow suit. Precure also a very important part on the the second missing point: Seinen-fication of Magical Girl. Now it isn't a secret that Magical Girl has two very different demographic, little girl and adult male. But before Precure and Nanoha, the adult demographic is accidental instead of an actual target. As magical girl shows evolve through 2000s and 2010s, you can feel a distinct transformation toward 3 distinct characteristics: 1. Their characters become increasingly more lesbian (not even bi) 2. Male characters increasingly become less relevant (and sometime disappear) 3. It increasingly become more influenced by Precure instead of older series Apparently this comment is too long, so I am going to continue in reply.

[@MarkS00NMcknown]

You've mentioned two magical girl show that aimed towards boy/male. Cutie Honey, which is Shounen, and Nanoha, which is Seinen (Late Night TV Show). But I think what most people in recent time don't realize, Cutie Honey and Nanoha weren't the norm on how Magical Girl look or how its story told. Early Magical, girl as you said, were generally adaptation of shoujo manga and tried to attract that demopgrahic, which means it wasn't as violent (except for the exception like Sailormoon and Cardcaptor Sakura) because they were airing in Morning TV Show, the stories are very much episodic (with some plot heavy episodes toward the end of the arc), and there is/are important male character(s) who usually is a love interest (or implive love interest). Meanwhile modern Magical Girl Show are either Precure (which still hold to this attributes) or Late Nigh TV Show (which very much aren't). And as Precure isn't that popular with western audience, the way people think about magical girl become closer and closer to series like Nanoha instead of series like Princess Tutu. While it is easy to point out the loli aspect of Nanoha (which is actually a spin-off of porn VN, if anyone want explanation for Nanoha creepy aspect specifically), I think the more relevant aspect is the Mecha influence. You see, while Precure is famous for its Kamen Rider influence, Nanoha main draw for men is the Gundam influence. Nanoha being white and blue is the result of her being inspired by main Gundam mecha are mostly white and blue (even the most recent Gundam, Witch from Mercury, has white-blue color scheme). And this mecha influence, just like the Kamen Rider influence, isn't a one off thing. After Nanoha aired, two other "magical girl" shows aired in 2004, Kannazuki no Miko and My-HiME. Both are similarly influence by mecha genre (with Kannazuki no Miko has its own giant mecha while My-HiME is more zoid than Gundam). This later follow by popular shows liked Strike Witches (a mecha musume series), Symphogear (Which the first to blend Precure's Kamen Rider influence and Nanoha's Gundam influence), and also Yuuki Yuuna (there is a reason those Mankai form are, generally, gigantic mech). These Kamen Rider and Mecha influnce has one very big side effect and that is they are very, very gay. Aside from boy, the target audience for Kamen Rider and Gundam are fujoshi who ship the handsome main character with either their loyal sidekick or their heated rival. Gundam creator once said that he is very grateful to Gundam's female audience because they are important reason why Gundam as franchise can continue to exist, which is why all Gundam always have handsome male characters with varying degree of gayness. And this also transform Magical Girl show because the same principal applies. Yuri fan like when their magical girl show consist of lesbian (or implied lesbian) instead of when it consist of mainly hetero pairs. And this is where the yuri fan aspect of mine comes in, because while magical girl always has queer aspect of it (like Haruka and Michiru), it used to have two caveats: One, the main characters usually aren't openly gay, only the side character; Two, there always has a male love interest (or implied male love interest) to give a plausible deniability. However, a very big differences in yuri fan and yaoi fan is that for some reason yaoi fans is more tolerating of male character has obligatory female love interest (while still shipping two male characters) while yuri fans typically abandon ship the moment one of the female has crush on male (look at Hibike Euphonium anime). For example, there are a lot of bitching and moaning about queerbaiting with KumikoReina compared to ErwinLevi from Attack on Titan. This combined with iyashikei or Slice of Life explosion after K-ON! meteoric success lead into a gradual transformation of Magical Girl become more openly queer and the male character become less relevant. But being queer isn't the trajectory of Magical Girl show because instead of queer in LGBT+ sense, it specifically become more yuri, which means only the Lesbian aspect is important. Even when the magical girl shows has very little Kamen Rider or Mecha influence in it. Take a "magical girl" shows: Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight. It is a surreal series inspired by show like Shoujo Kakumei Utena, but while Utena are a very queer series with a lot of sexuality and gender indentity topics along with numerous important male character, Revue Starlight is only interested on the lesbian aspect of it while focusing on things like ambition, self-identification, self-affirmation, and so on. Revue Starlight most important male is a Giraffe, like the actual animal instead of a human wearing Giraffe costume, who has no interest in anyone and no girl has show any romantic interest toward to. And this is why I call it the "Seinen-fication of Magical Girl" because there is a pretty clear changes in Late Night TV Show toward a specifically adult male demographic away from the young girl demographic that currently is monopolize by Precure. This gradual transformation can be seen even with Yuuki Yuuna once you make the comparison from Nanoha to Symphogear to Yuuki Yuuna. In Nanoha, Nanoha has implied Male Love Interest (Yuuno) that persist until Nanoha Strikers. In Symphogear, Hibiki has important male mentor (Genjuro) and says she has no boyfriend (yet), however until the end her "no boyfriend" is never become an issue and she become closer instead to her roommate, Miku. In Yuuki Yuuna, Yuuna has no male love interest or important male character. Instead, her most important person until the end is her "best friend", Togo. To be clear, this doesn't mean a non-Precure Magical Girl show targeted toward female no longer exist. Afterall, we are going to have adaptation of "Katsute Mahou Shoujo to Aku wa Tekitai shiteita", but the trend of Late Night Magical Girl anime in modern time have been a gradual but definitive moves toward adult male oriented show. And another thing that need to be cleared, yuri fan isn't the only reason why this is happened. Instead, the majority male demographic comes from Iyashikei series where the girls in that genre are presented as ideal waifu without male main character. So think of harem, but you eliminate to male main character. What happens here instead is that turns out waifu otaku don't care if their girl is interested in other person, but yuri fan does. So to please both camps (adult male who want waifu [regardless of whether she has male love interest or not] and yuri fan [male or female] who want their girls end up with each other instead of a male) magical girl begin to drift more and more to yuri genre. Finally, this Seinen-fication doesn't mean that Magical Girl no longer something that can be enjoyed by women, but simply that the main demographic they are targeted are adult male (Seinen). Think of Gundam earlier. The main demographic of original Gundam was young boy, but the show could (and did) enjoyed by female demographic. And even when future series in franchise is created with female viewers in mind (that's why all the boys look like Boy Band members), the show is still enjoyed by many boys. And I think I ramble long enough so I should stop here with summation: This is a great video on pre-2000s to early 2000s history of magical girl. But I think it lack two key issues relevant to post-2004 magical girl's history, that is Precure and Seinen-fication of Magical Girl. Precure is important because it monopolize Morning TV Magical Show to the point that kids these days know no other Morning TV Magical Show other than Precure. Seinen-fication of Magical Girl is important because it explains what separates 2000s Magical Girl from 2010s Magical Girl and ultimately 2020s Magical Girl. Once again, I am not a specific Magical Girl fans. But because a LOT of modern magical girl shows are yuri, it makes me invested on how Magical Girl show evolve into a very yuri-friendly genre. So I hope people can take my long rambling as a more view on trends, instead of a definitive history on new millenium magical girl because I am surely miss a lot, especially non-yuri Magical Girl show like Pleiades. Sorry for the long rant and thank you for the video.

[@MiladyConfetti]

all i'm going to say is the reason Precure was not mentioned is because I am doing a separate video on it. What youre talking about with the early 2000s was something already aware of and done intentionally. Gotta give me a chance to cook and do my thing. :) I do a lot of research and source my material and prefer not to have my videos be an hour long that is a lot on me (which I addressed in the video) and also don't want to speak from places of assumption hence the heavy research part. Just because you don't see something does not equal lack of knowledge, trust me I know my stuff and have a method to what I do.

[@MarkS00NMcknown]

@@MiladyConfetti I see. Thank you for the reply. Can't wait for the next video.

[@MiladyConfetti]

yup i have the script for Cutie Honey but I'm editing it down because it is very long and again I'm an army of one. Precure since its over 20 years of content is gonna be the same but for now I'm working with just an outline, I have a lot in the pipeline and run 2 channels 😅

[@gota7738]

@@MarkS00NMcknown Sincerely I think you should write up an essay on this, even if it's just on a blog. And especially if you can find some sources or texts to cite! I've been a Magical Girl fan for a while and you make some very compelling connections and points that I've not really encountered before, especially on the relationship to the Mecha and Yuri genre.

[@jatmeows]

This video is sooo well made and can't wait for the Sailor Moon content 🌙

[@MiladyConfetti]

Thanks! I'm definitely pacing myself haha it's A LOT there

[@LegitBlackChick]

Great content, as always! I learned so much!

[@MiladyConfetti]

Thank you so much! glad you enjoyed it!

[@ozzypuff8957]

Just subscribed, I expected this to have like thousands and thousands of views. Your content is so complete and well explained :) do talk a lot about old anime please!!!!

[@MiladyConfetti]

thanks! you're really kind 🙂

[@SariaSchala]

Thanks so much for this! I actually feel like I'm discovering myself with these informational videos too, since the magical girl genre and Western properties it inspired shaped so much of myself and continue to do so.

[@MiladyConfetti]

Same! I had a blast diving into Japanese feminist literature! Since my research for this video I've continued reading and learning more!

[@VaporeAnne]

Love me some CardCaptor Sakura. Madoka characters are perfectly tragic.

[@katlafae9487]

Omg I'm following you the only magical girl fan like me who does not sleep on magical girl lyrical nanoha. Because the series is a balanced between dark and light themes and has mature take compared to most magical girls there many issues the characters have in their lives beyond the magic not everything ends all good but life goes on and people grow.❤

[@MiladyConfetti]

yup! A lot of the anime I mentioned will have their own dedicated episode, this one is one of them. But because it has a lot going on gotta research and deliver it with care. 💜

[@peaceblossomvalentin667]

sailor moon, cardcaptor sakura and tokyo mew mew are my favorites.

[@MiladyConfetti]

Classics! All amazing anime too!

[@MadokaMagia]

Loved this video ! Super well researched and great vibes 💖

[@MiladyConfetti]

Thank you! I worked really hard on it 😭

[@edonumoiv8978]

New subscriber here; thanks for sharing this, it was recommended to me, and I can’t wait for your Sailor Moon and Cutie Honey report. Keep up the great work! 🥰😇😍😇🥰

[@MiladyConfetti]

of course! Still working on Cutie Honey and Precure! Def dont wanna disappoint with those!

[@edonumoiv8978]

@@MiladyConfetti Nice; I believe that you'll do a great job, also happy late 20th to Pretty Cure, and I am curious to know if Tonde Burin AKA Super Pig was considered a magical girl anime, it's an anime. from 30 years ago of a girl turning as a pig for a superhero. 🥰😍🤩😍🥰

[@ScienceProject99]

Awesome video, I learned a lot, especially about older series and their creators which I overlook as someone who likes newer ones, as well as how history can tie in. My favorite magical girls are Mew Lettuce, Sailor Saturn and Cure Mint. 💚💜 Pretear is great too.

[@MiladyConfetti]

Outer Senshi for the win! Pretear was great not only for the magical girl aspects but the MUSIC. I don't know who told them to go that hard in the studio but they did that!

[@mabby7949]

I'm relatively new to magical girl anime. Madoka was my first and now my favourite anime ever. I'm watching utena at the moment and I didn't know exactly how much feminists movement and magical girl genre were intertwined!! I'm looking for something new to watch (less sad tho 😅) and I have to sub!!

[@MiladyConfetti]

Oh wow! that's an interesting place to start off! And yes media often reflects the society and time it originates from, that's not an phenomenon exclusive to anime 😀 it was really cool to learn about how much things overlap though in this case!

[@Gingersenshi]

Me being Scorpio and also having Pluto as my favorite sailor senshi 💚💜 Hence why I will always have beef with Neil deGrasse Tyson. This was really well put together !!

[@MiladyConfetti]

FOREVER beef okayyy!

[@Gingersenshi]

@@MiladyConfetti yes!!!

[@weilanquartz13]

I'm really surprised that you haven't mentioned Pretty Cure

[@MiladyConfetti]

because I will be doing something on Pretty Cure in a different episode and also addressed in one of the notes why some things were left out due not wanting the video to be an hour long. Perhaps you missed it. 🙂

[@weilanquartz13]

@Confetti Omg, I'm sorry I didn't notice and I understand I'm excited for episodes to come 😁

[@robbie_glow]

Saw the title, instant like, instant follow!

[@MiladyConfetti]

welcome!

[@ichi_san]

this was very cool

[@MiladyConfetti]

thank you 😀!

[@KanojoRinko]

Thanks for the video! Really love the deep dive into the genre. Also I get you, I love Nanoha but man... in hindsight I can't REALLY recommend the anime to people because of how... fanservicey it is. I still love Nanoha for the sheer fact that magical girls can shoot lasers. The meshing of the magical girl genre with mecha really drew the older male audience over. It really did shift magical girls towards more action-y with Futari Wa Pretty Cure. (Funnily enough, Akiyuki Shinbo directed the first season of Nanoha, as he would later direct the more popular Puella Magi Madoka Magica 5 years later) Nanoha has some Rule of Cool going on and while the worldbuilding is weirdly not good for a series made by one man... but more importantly, the Heel Face Turn done for Fate was well done and eventually the franchise depicted Nanoha and Fate starting a family together by adopting a daughter of their own when they are older. I really wish there was another series that could feed this very specific niche where two main female characters get together and start a family together. Anime gods pls give me this AAAAA I sure do hope I find the interest to watch magical girl anime again. Time to give the other magical girl anime mentioned here a shot. I still need to watch Utena for sure.

[@MiladyConfetti]

yeaaaah i have a strong dislike of fan service so that alone will make me turn off any show, but knowing its literally geared towards older men intentionally.....no thank you :)

[@KanojoRinko]

​@Confetti​I hope my comment did not come off as defending the fanservicey aspects of Nanoha. I apologise for making you feel uncomfortable. Would you prefer for me to delete my comment? Edit: In hindsight, perhaps my comment does seem like it was trying to justify the fanservicey nature or culture that Nanoha was produced in. The good cannot outweigh the bad and I can respect your wish to not engage anymore. I personally thought that nuanced discussions were welcome in the comment section because the video had research going into it, but I find it disingenuous that you deem all fans of Nanoha are in the franchise precisely because of the fanservice elements. I liked Nanoha for the mecha elements because a staff loading like a gun was pretty cool but I don't like the fanservice and never did. I just thought I would share a reason why some people liked the show. Again, I apologise for intruding onto your space. Please have a good day.

[@MiladyConfetti]

no need to delete. I was just expressing my pov. Fan Service like in Nanoha or Seven deadly sins is definitely geared towards a certain demographic is I just find it weird and uncomfortable. Then there is fan service like Nanami from JJK that's seemingly more healthy but gets ragged on by the anime community because its not sexual, perverted nor sexualized a character we know to be underage in any way, it's just attractive seeing someone have it all together lol, but that's not accepted...which is also weird. I am in the middle of researching this topic right now on why/where this stems from and it is really dark. so its not really something I care for. It's not a crime to like fan service in the usual forms it appears I guess, but it is side-eye worthy.

[@YuriAngyo]

Smth interesting I've noticed is the intersection of magical girl that is nominally "for men", and magical girl that actually fully commits to the lesbianism. Certainly there's shoujo mg that commits to lesbianism (Utena much?), but often they seem to have to brute force a man in to maintain plausible deniability. Like with otona precure taking a pair that iirc actually canonically have kissed, and making them het as adults (huh!?). I think there's something to be said about gender demographics specifically trying to appeal to hets of the gender, so sometimes you'll get seemingly surprising mixes of target sexuality and gender. Like Nanoha is interesting because not only is it a case of a spinoff overshadowing it's source (it's a spinoff based on 1 promo art of the little sister of the MC of an eroge lol) but also lesbians overshadowing het. Nobody cares abt triangle hearts, but ask a lesbian weeb about NanoFate and they've probably read a library of fanfic/fan manga (at least adult lesbian weebs, other things got more popular after). It's interesting bc it was able to really hammer in the lesbianism bc men will ignore any characterization if it's in the way of their enjoyment, while sapphics and shippers will follow anywhere for a good pair. You also see it in stuff like Re: Cutie Honey, Symphogear, Kill la Kill, etc. I know there's straight magical girl shows aimed at men, but you really don't see it much. My guess being that they immediately lose half the audience (and tbh the more dedicated half) since yuri is such a huge draw of non-shoujo mg shows. An interesting development I've seen a bit is what I've kinda been calling anti-dark magical girl. Basically you take a dark mg premise, and insert a character who refuses to accept that suffering is the only way. Symphogear kinda does this (it's fun but not got the most intentional grip on themes lol) but i think the most visceral example imo is Demon Girl Next Door. You might also say Madoka, but it doesn't seem to have a good, actionable grasp on stopping the problem (yet). Demon Girl Next Door nails it for me because it is an inarguably extremely dark setting once you get the whole context. Yet the power of friendship still rules supreme. Not in the laser beam way, but the 10 minds are greater than 1 way. Sometimes the problem can't be solved by a mg w/ power equivalent to a nuclear bomb, sometimes her chronically ill girlfriend who excels at deescalation and knowing a guy is the one with the power to actually change the world.

[@MiladyConfetti]

this is in interesting perspective especially when you take the magical boy genre into consideration also, which I'm in the middle of doing research on! Cutie Honey though was extremely controversial when it came out though because of the nudity and gore; all while being aimed at young boys (shonen). Parents thought it was basically pornography and fought hard to have it removed from the air thus causing a spike in children (honestly everyone) wanting to watch it more because parents said no or wanting to see what the fuss was all about. So in a lot of cases I can see what you are saying, in some it's a bit more complicated. But I see a lot of your perspective! Thank you for sharing 🙂!

[@YuriAngyo]

@@MiladyConfetti I was specifically referring to re: cutie honey, which is a spinoff/reboot/something OVA series where honey and ritsuko are mildly aged up and very gay. And i was specifically referring to lesbians and sapphicness in mg, since that's my area of expertise. I don't care about men so i very much can't speak on magical boys lol. Basically i often see people deride seinen/shonen or dark mg shows as a whole, when the truth is that often that's where you gotta go for good mg lesbian pairs that don't get bruteforced into het. The curse of children's television and the collapsing of sexuality into an aspect of gender i suppose lol.

[@Anonlyso]

Randomly passing by, while bits of Cardcaptors was my childhood, I REALLY got into the genre since Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, yes as one the guys who watched all in the KZbin (1/4) clip era for anime. I'm surprised that while the chronology has been getting increasingly better for Magical Girl history, we never quite sectioned the eras (less by decades, more by theme) of the early Majokko: more literal Magical Girl (child), the Idol era of the 80s when Pierrot took the crown from Toei, and Sailor Moon being majorly inspired by Toei's live action Tokusatsu counterparts of incorporating their Super Hero/Henshin Hero genre into the more Slice of Life, lower stakes shows. It's partially why I'm iffy on "hard" definitions beyond the guidelines that Pierrot set, much including no mention of the Magical Mascot character/advisor being one of the tell-tale tropes for other parodies of the genre, including Pretty Sammy > Lyrical Nanoha and yes even when Gen Urobuchi made his "dark and edgy" version specifically critiquing both the HERO OF JUSTICE angle on top of demonizing the toy-getic aspects. My personal fave still stems from the Lyrical Nanoha > Madoka > Yuki Yuna lineage into Symphogear where is way WAY leaning heavily into the Sci-Fi-Hero niche as it's both as over-the-top as a Super Robot Mecha show in weaponry but powered by IDOL POP ROCK music by the Macross studio themselves.

[@MiladyConfetti]

I dont think the magical mascot is included in a defining trait because it not necessary for some Magical Girl stories. Like if Himeno suddenly got a talking cat or something i think it would have detracted from the plot. Some have them, some dont, and i think that's okay!

[@maloo897]

Go! Princess Precure is my favorite anime of all time Best Precure season by Far 💛🩷🩵❤️

[@MiladyConfetti]

yessss!

[@rensarza9090]

You spelled Heartcatch wrong. Go! Princess tanked in Japan.