Talk:Magical girl

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 12 January 2021 and 30 April 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Lmlambe3. Peer reviewers: Jpatlas24, Alanabrent.

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"Renewed popularity"

Did Madoka Magica have any real impact on the vitality of the genre? Mahou shoujo series didn't exactly start cropping up like mad after it aired. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.93.197.152 (talk) 03:59, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Magical boy

I added the following to the opening paragraph:

> Rarely, there have also been magical boy series, which are similar except with magic-using boys, such as Cute High Earth Defense Club Love!.

I think it's a reasonable statement, given magical boy redirects here and it is objectively true. I suppose they could be given their own article, but it's such a rare thing it seems pointless/non-notable. User:86.185.99.94 reverted my edits twice. User:Lukeno94 told me to not revert the revert again and "reach consensus" here with WP:BRD. I'm not sure if that user actually does read the talk pages, though - they're anonymous, have only a few edits, and all were made today. If they don't respond and nobody objects, I'll revert their revert again at some point. —ajf (talk) 22:30, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

• It seems reasonable, although you want to provide some evidence for it being rare (I'm no subject expert; I just have this page watchlisted due to a previous history of vandalism). Based on your description of the IP, they're probably dynamic, and it can be assumed that they're not new as they know how to revert - doesn't mean they'll read the talk pages though. (By the way, thanks for bringing it here rather than reverting once more). Lukeno94 (tell Luke off here) 22:42, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

• Hmm, proving its rarity would be difficult. I mean, it does seem to be true from what I can tell, with Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Love! being the anime of that kind (but not the only manga). As to how to source that fact though, I don't know. —ajf (talk) 22:45, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
• Ooh, actually, it's not the only anime. At least going by Wikipedia, Matchless Raijin-Oh is too. Hmm. —ajf (talk) 22:48, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

• If you can find a reliable source on this topic that mentions Magical Boy, that might be a start. It'll probably be in Japanese, of course. Lukeno94 (tell Luke off here) 01:28, 30 April 2015 (UTC)

Translating

A rough start on a translation from the Japanese article, the "Overview" section and the "History" sections up through the 1990s:

The essential of the magical girl genre is a heroine, the epitomous magical girl, who can employ powers not everyone has. The most powerful magical girls are, as a general rule, both taught and [Translator: Or perhaps "not taught but"?] naturally gifted. A magical girl has, in some cases, command of her innate powers as soon as they manifest, but in other cases develops this control only as she matures.

Note that the powers a magical girl uses are not always literal magic and sorcery. Works about characters like the ninjutsu-using Sarutobi Ecchan and the cyborg Miracle Girl Limit-chan are usually treated together with works in the Transforming Girl category, and there is also literature that classifies the again non-magical Mysterious Thief Saint Tail, the character Corrector Yui, who is acts in an online virtual reality, etc. all as magical girls.

A magical girls' age, while varying from 10 to 14, usually falls within the range of puberty; a magical girl's "transformation" symbolizes maturation from a girl to a woman. The earnest wish of children, "I want to be an adult", manifests in the magical girl genre as the heroine repeatedly changing to adult form. A motif in such works is the difficulty of such a double life, the worrisome difference between the transformed self and true self, particularly as the character forms romantic ties and circumstances become more complicated—the heroine and her love interest fall in love while she is in her alter form [Translator: Or perhaps "only with her alter form"? Not sure how to translate "ほう" in this context.]. Such plots are criticisms of a tendency to be misled by people's appearance.

With magical girls there is always a pure sincerity [Translator: Is there a better English word to use for "無垢" and/or "純真さ"?], a distinct genuineness in an otherwise ordinary girl. Almost all magical girls use a compact, a wand, a crystal, or some other such accessory to wield their powers, but those devices are virtually never the origin of their powers; a heroine's sincerity is key to tapping the power of love and life.

Since 1982's Magical Princess Minky Momo, magical girls have been paired with miraculous pet-like mascots. The magical girl driven by emotions and the mascot playing the role of reason chide and admonish each other. The two clash repeatedly, but the magical girl, thanks to the mascot's advice, learns the art of controlling her emotions, while the mascot comes to understand that behaviors motivated by emotion lead to the correct, albeit difficult path. It is important that most mascots are male. [Translator: Gah.] The magical girl and the mascot's interactions, like those of a married couple or close pair of friends, demonstrate that communication of intent and mutual understanding are the secrets to building a satisfactory relationship.

Also, since 1990's Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, "The Battle" has been a main component (or otherwise featured element) of the magical girl genre.

There are limits to the power of sorcery: it may only be useful for one year, or a secret must be known to use it, or some other such restriction may apply.

The magical girl may discard her powers wishing to return to being an ordinary girl. Being "ordinary" and "average" is by no means bad; however, "being oneself" is shown to be most wonderful.

\\

Among Japanese magical-girl works, Sally the Witch (1966), an anime by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, animator at Toei Animation, is regarded as first in the genre. In it, Sally, daughter of the great magical king and visitor to the human world, is surrounded by humanity, and human drama that focuses on aid rendered by use of magic is brought to the forefront.

Toei Animation followed up Sally the Witch with Akko-chan's Got a Secret (manga in 1962, anime in 1969), the work of Fujio Akatsuka, in which a human girl Atsuko "Akko-chan" Kagami (鏡アツ子, from the name 加賀美あつ子 but with the family-name part 加賀美, "Kagami", replaced by 鏡, also "Kagami", a word meaning "mirror") is awarded a magic compact by the mirror spirit. Here, in contrast with Sally's being a "visitor from another world", Akko exemplified the "girl granted magical-girl powers"; subsequently, "magical girl with innate powers" and "magical girl with gained powers" were established as two majors archetypes of magical-girl anime. But, at the same time, that there would not be overlap with the then prevalent "morphing hero" pattern except in the transformations from human to superhuman, in Toei's witch anime the formula "magical girl = girl with magic powers" became instead a flourish of works about "everyday magic" done by girls in the pattern of magical girls that would inspire numerous derivatives (notably the beautiful battle girl subgenre) far into the future.

Then, not long after Sally the Witch, influenced by the American Film Mary Poppins, Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Princess Comet (1967) was produced as a live action television drama.

At that time, when shows aimed at young audiences were being developed both as animations and as live-action children-targeted dramas, NET in 1969 broadcast side-by-side on Saturdays both Akko-chan's Got a Secret and the teledrama Bewitched (which would become the origin of magical-girl anime as a "Witch Series") and then, in same slot, for two years broadcast only witchcraft dramas—shows like the foreign I Dream of Jeannie (season two), Shochiku's Hot Witch (1970), etc. This setup was replaced by Kamen Rider, but its influence was still reflected in Kamen Rider's author Shotaro Ishinomori's Beloved! Beloved!! Witch-Sensei (1971), which was for anime a 20-year forerunner to the first beautiful-girl warrior, Andro-Kamen.

Back in the anime genre, post-Akko series from Toei accumulated; at that time, influence from shōjo manga appeared as the coquettish, introduced-as-a-tomboy protagonist of the 1974 Little Meg the Witch Girl swept away Sally's honors-student-like magical-girl image, and since then, among magical girls, naughty protagonists have come to dominate. Also, characters like Meg's cool rival heroine, Non, the humorous agent Chou-san, and the Queen of Darkness, Saturn, hugely influenced later magical-girl works' minor characters.

\\

As the 1980s opened, Toei's line of works was interrupted, and, at the same time, Production Reed's Magical Princess Minky Momo (1982) and the Pierrot Magical Girl Series beginning with Studio Pierrot's Creamy Mami, the Magical Angel (1983) induced a second magical-girl boom. The human-world deeds of Momo, princess of Fenarinarsa, a land of dreams and magic, on one hand, and on the other the events surrounding Yū Morisawa, a girl who transforms into an idol by magic wand, were depicted with every comical touch. These two works won popularity, not only within their target demographic of young girl viewers, but also among males in their late teens and twenties; thus, the magical-girl genre exploded in fame. The idol boom social phenomenon came about under such circumstances' influence.

The 1980s up through the beginning of the 1990s was a period of remakes of earlier successful works. In those years, through the anime winter and also the revival boom, a new production of Akko-chan's Got a Secret (second run, 1988) was by one metric, merchandising, more popular than its original incarnation—according to Bandai, girl's toys sales were strong after it came out. Moreover, the continuation of Sally the Witch (second run, 1989) debuted, and, in the same vein, as part of the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series, came Shotaro Ishinomori's Magical Girl Chinese Paipai! (1989), followed by other works in the same genre, which were added to that series until the beginning of the 1990s.

\\

The success of Naoko Takeuchi's work Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon (anime, 1992–1997) prompted anime adaptations like Akazukin Chacha (1994), Magic Knight Rayearth (anime, 1994), The Legend of the Angel of Love: Wedding Peach (anime, 1995), Nurse Angel Ririka SOS (anime, 1995), etc.; the collection of beautiful-battle-girl (or battle-heroine) magical-girl works constituted a new top magical-girl subgenre. Aspects of the subgenre like "battle squadrons" (multiplicities of main heroines) were influential on other works.

In 1995, Magical Girl Pretty Sammy, a spin-off of the original video animation (OVA) series No Need for Tenchi!, was produced. The work was clearly made under the assumption of a non-young-girl target demographic and was a forerunner for similar magical-girl anime targeting older audiences. Cardcaptor Sakura, which is unconventional versus CLAMP's more traditional works in, e.g., setting and visuals, was put out from the later half of the 1990s up through the opening of the 2000s. Its development, "collect the scattered magic cards", magic-using boy's competitions, and the like had not been an element in magical-girl works up to that point. Works followed that balanced a traditional magical girl, who resolved neighborhood incidents with card magic, against the battle-heroine element.

References

(Content in this section is translated from the existing Japanese Wikipedia article at jp:魔法少女; see its history for attribution.)

98.16.147.76 (talk) 04:35, 19 November 2015 (UTC), 98.16.156.130 (talk) 02:06, 20 November 2015 (UTC), 98.23.132.217 (talk) 02:52, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Hey if nobody minds I'm going to start cleaning up the rough translation and references for this article. kaixokkiten 05:10, 4 March 2016 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kaixokkiten (talk • contribs)

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Pretty Cure?

Should anything about Pretty Cure be said? It's a big mahou shoujo series, but I'm not sure if it's important enough to mention. 69.58.54.19 (talk) 17:32, 28 May 2019 (UTC)

If you can find any secondary sources stating how it has contributed to the magical girl genre (i.e. Creamy Mami made the genre popular with men), then it's worth adding. lullabying (talk) 05:43, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

ANN recently did a long article on the series.--十八 09:29, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for linking this; I already mentioned Pretty Cure when I went back to rework the article. lullabying (talk) 12:44, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

I believe you should also write something about Madoka Magica. About the impact it did.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.128.217.21 (talk) 13:17, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

I already mentioned it in the article regarding late-night magical girl series that were marketed to an older demographic. If you have any reliable source talking about other contributions it made, feel free to link it. lullabying (talk) 17:57, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

I know it's already mentioned. I meant that you should write about the impact it did to the magical girl genre or at least mention that it has become a social phenomenon in Japan. There are a bunch of Japanese sources that talk about its cultural impact but I'm not sure if they can be considered as "reliable source"... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.128.217.21 (talk) 21:02, 7 December 2020 (UTC) Found this https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2016-12-16/rise-of-the-dark-magical-girls/.110004 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.128.217.21 (talk) 21:04, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

I included that as a source already, but you have to be a bit more specific and stay on topic on how Madoka changed the magical girl genre, not about how it's a "social phenomenon." lullabying (talk) 21:41, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

Well, I already linked the ANN source that talks a bit about its impact. Madoka didn't really change the genre, but just made it much darker. You could mention that it popularized the dark magical girl shows. There is this source http://web.archive.org/web/20130429200740/http://mantan-web.jp/2011/04/27/20110427dog00m200015000c.html and this too https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-list/2020-03-01/.156960 https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-list/2018-07-22/.134507 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.128.217.21 (talk) 22:10, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

That seems fair. I included it. Thanks. lullabying (talk) 01:09, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.128.217.21 (talk) 03:23, 8 December 2020 (UTC)