Magical girls series#

It has spawned its own respectably large franchise, and, unsurprisingly, some magical girl anime appearing after MadokaВ are clearly influenced by it, most notably Day Break Illusion, which has MadokaвЂs grim tone without its depth or tight writing. By its third episode, it appears to be spiraling irrecoverably into nihilism. MadokaВ starts out looking cute, but with hints that things are not as they seem, and soon turns dark and violent. And mind you, Puella Magi Madoka MagicaВ has moreВ internal consistency and logic than your average magical girl show, which tells you something. As is hinted early on, Kyubey is not playing straight with the girls with whom he makes вЂњcontractsвЂќ: the witches the girls fight are actually dead magical girls created when the girls overuse their magic Kyubey has made both the magical girls and the witches for his own purposes, because adolescent human girls spontaneously generate new energy out of nothing, which KyubeyвЂ™s kind can harvest to reverse cosmic entropy. One of MadokaвЂ™s friends takes the plunge-only afterwards learning the cost of her decision. The familiar, a psychic cat-like creature with the ominous name of Incubator (Kyubey for short), insists that Madoka become a magical girl in order to fight the cannibalistic witches preying on humanity, whereas a mysterious magical girl named Homura insists forcefully that Madoka turn KyubeyвЂ™s offer down. Thus MadokaВ spends all of its twelve episodes dealing with what most magical girl shows deal with in one episode or less, the protagonistвЂ™s decision whether or not to become a magical girl. Although Madoka, I shouldВ stress, is not actually the first magical girl title to do this, it is at the moment the best-known and most influential. The standard premise of the typical magical girl show is a wish fulfillment fantasy not meant to be closely examined, but MadokaВ examines it closely anyway and proposes that this premise-in which some fantastic critter, whose claims and reliability cannot be verified, approaches an impressionable girl too young to make big decisions and offers to give her magical powers and lead her into life-threatening situations in exchange for granting her a wish-is kind of creepy. Even MadokaвЂs opening credits sequence is a montage of magical girl clichГ©s, none of which has anything to do with the show itself. The major difference is that, unlike Evangelion, MadokaВ isnвЂ™t overrated.ДЄ masterpiece of misdirection, MadokaВ was billed as a traditionally sugary magical girl show-though not one intended for children. The year 2011, which happened to be the twentieth anniversary of Sailor Moon, saw the release of the hugely popular and вЂњdeconstructiveвЂќ Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which is to mahou shoujoВ what Neon Genesis EvangelionВ is to mecha, changing all the rules and turning the genreвЂ™s tropes on their heads. Some magical girl titlesВ that followed it, most notably Phantom Thief Jeanne and Princess Tutu, adopt its darker tone and use some of its techniques. The genre has also had more than one вЂњdeconstruction,вЂќ beginning with Revolutionary Girl Utena, which was created specifically to skewer Sailor Moon, though it also appears also to have shoujoВ anime generally, and perhaps especially Rose of Versailles, in its sights. It is also impossible to give more than a cursory discussion of either Puella Magi Madoka MagicaВ or Yuki Yuna Is a HeroВ without spoilers, so be warned: spoilersВ lie ahead.ДЄlthough the magical girl genre has a reputation for being cutesy and saccharine, it has a long history of envelope-pushing and has often evinced more emotional range than it is usually given credit for. Though it is a competent story in its own right, it canвЂ™t be fully appreciated without a general knowledge of whatвЂ™s been happening in the magical girl genre of late, most especially 2011вЂ™s Puella Magi Madoka Magica, with which Yuki Yuna is in dialogue,В so bear with me.

Magical girls series#

I am a confessed heroine addict, and thus I sometimes watch mahou shoujo,В that peculiarly Japanese genre of fantasy translated as вЂњmagical girl.вЂќ I have just finished watching the recently completed twelve-part magical girl series Yuki Yuna Is a Hero, a mostly amusing but sometimes frustrating exercise in audience chain-yanking.

Starring Haruka Terui, Juri Nagatsuma, and Suzuko Mimori.

This was originally posted in slightly different form on a different siteВ in 2014.