Forum - View topicMemorandum: Magical Girl
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Recently I've noticed a few titles have been marked within the "magical girl" genre, which they are not. Let's begin with reviewing the definition in the submission page:
To further elaborate the definition:
Slightly OT: the trend of magical girl has gradually shifted from shoujo to moe-ke: traditionally, magical girl anime were produced for young girls, in which the heroine became taller, prettier, powerful, and attractive -- common wishes of all little girls. The four years of magical girls by Pierrot (Mami, Persia, Emi, and Yumi, plus Lala a decade later) were the best examples. Sailor Moon added more action elements but was still based off shoujo manga. However, Sakura Kinomoto changed everything: because of the combative nature of the show and her utter cuteness, more and more male are attracted to this genre, and series like Mao-chan and Nanoha were made to serve males. Nanoha even has her transformation sequence butt naked. |
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doc-watson42
Encyclopedia Editor
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What about the New Cutey Honey? <EG> (Which should actually be listed as a sequel, not a remake.) |
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PantsGoblin
 SubscriberEncyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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In that case, I have a few anime in question that I'm not quite sure whether or not they classify as "Magical Girl" anime. I'm posting them here since I'm not quite sure on a few of them...
Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan - I'm pretty sure this one doesn't count as a magical girl anime she's an angel and her powers are innate, no transformation sequence, and no mascot... but she has many spells and moves which I'm pretty sure are supposed to be resemble magical girl type attacks... possibly it's just a parody of them. I'm leaning more against this one... Magic User's Club - I haven't seen this anime in years so I can't quite remember... I'm pretty sure there was no transformation sequence for them, and neither was there any kind of mascot. The magic in the show seems more like, um, actually it reminds me of Harry Potter a lot. It doesn't really seem like magical girl stuff... and there's also two guys who use magic in the show too (and they're main characters). MagiKano - I'm pretty sure it isn't. They're basically all magic users with innate powers. There aren't any mascots unless you count the talking neko panties (don't ask) either. Mai Otome - It has transformation sequences and they are normal girls who transform via magical powers... I still can't help myself but to think that it isn't magical girl anime though... it just doesn't have that feel to me. Popotan - Actually, I'm pretty firm on my decision in this one in that it isn't a magical girl anime. Although, Mii does intentionally dress of as a magical girl, but it plays a minor part in the show, it's really more like fanservice actually... They do have magical powers but they're all innate. Also, I'm pretty sure they do count as it, but do anime that directly and intentionally parody magical girl anime such as Nurse Witch Komugi and Puni Puni Poemy count as magical girl anime themselves? They fit all the conditions except that they're kind of making fun of them... One more thing, is there going to be a topic like this for "Mecha"? Because it's one thing I'm really not familiar with and probably not the best person at deciding what counts as it... but there's so many anime with just cyborgs or androids in them that people have labeled as "Mecha" in the encyclopedia... I'm kind of doubting they count as it but I'm still not exactly sure what qualifies as "Mecha". I'm pretty sure it just counts as people piloting giant robots... but I'm not sure if it can go beyond that... Maybe one for "fantasy" too, as a lot of people love throwing that one out to anything that just has something that can't happen in real life. |
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cardcaptormanda
 Posts: 237 Location: United States |
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I've also noticed that people seem to add "magical girl" as a genre if there is any female character with any kind of power whatsoever. It was going on for so long and no one ever said anything. I was starting to think I was the one who was wrong about exactly what "magical girl" meant, but I'm glad to see I wasn't. Definitely a lot of misunderstanding regarding this genre.
People seem to be a little confused over genres in general… I see a lot of incorrect genres in the encyclopedia (Yakitate!! Japan is a drama series? Who knew?). I think it would be nice to have a thread like this with some clarification for all the genres, actually. A lot of people seem pretty confused, if the encyclopedia pages are anything to go by. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Thanks for the input, folks.
Heh, I totally forgot about her.  Guess I'm no a fan of Go Nagai.
Done.
I'd call this a borderline one. While her abilities are innate, she always has fabulous magic casting sequences while casting, with her famous quote. A parody of the genre, I'd say, so I'm going to keep it for now, unless people want a stricter standard for the genre.
According to its plot summary, the club were rather normal high schoolers until the Earth was invaded by aliens. That scenario alone should qualify.
Taken down.
Same as Dokuro-chan.
Yes. While the size of mecha can vary from merely two meters to two kilometers, 99% were piloted (within or remotely) and can't be the pilot themselves (would be a cyborg then). I'd like to say that "not every show with a robot is 'mecha'," but since I have never been a mecha fan I'd like to leave the topic to other staff.
The definition of "drama" and "dramatic" can be very broad: anything that moves people's emotion. However, the common usage of the word "drama" in entertainment industry often refers to those titles that could bring tears (tragedy or hard-earned happiness). Maybe an updated definition would be applied in the new Encyclopedia. Another often debated genre is "slice of life", discussed here. I'll check up those mentioned by Samurai CDZ later today. |
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cardcaptormanda
Posts: 237 Location: United States |
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I know the definition of drama is pretty broad, but if you can call Yakitate!! Japan drama, then you can call just about anything drama.
Anyway, back to magical girl... Gakuen Alice - This should probably not be magical girl. Every character has some kind of power, but the series has no real magical girl elements at all. Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi - I can't recall any female character having any powers at all (outside of temporary ones for parody purposes)... so I'm not sure why someone submitted magical girl for this. Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy - The only characters with magical powers are fairies, so like Bottle Fairy, this wouldn't qualify as magical girl. Tenchi Universe - It's been years since I've seen this, but I think the only genuine magical girl type-thing in this series is in a short AU scene. Definitely not enough to label the whole series as magical girl. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. |
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doc-watson42
Encyclopedia Editor
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Thanks. I would also like to remind you of the various hentai magical girl anime, which seem to be more common in last few years—Venus 5, Angel Blade, Battle Team Lakers EX, Jiburiru -The Devil Angel-, Marine A Go-Go, Septem Charm: Magical Kanan, Sex Warrior Pudding, Sexy Magical Girl, and Sexy Sailor Soldiers (submitted, but not yet approved). (Actually, I think that's most of them—at least that have been released in Region 1.) |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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I know its already been taken down, but I would like to comment on this. Mai HiME may just barely qualify as magical girl (though I don't really consider it to be one), but [b]Mai Otome most definitely is not. The Otome powers come from nanomachines, not magic, and the Otome are something like elite agents and there are hundreds of them. [quote=cardcaptormanda]Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi - I can't recall any female character having any powers at all (outside of temporary ones for parody purposes)... so I'm not sure why someone submitted magical girl for this. [/quote] I suppose that should be added to the criteria: one or two episodes in parody series like Excel Saga or Abenobashi do not count. |
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PantsGoblin
Subscriber Encyclopedia Editor Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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Well, then for other staff, the ones I have in question are these: FLCL Lime-iro Senkiten Ghost in the Shell Mahoromatic Steel Angel Kurumi None of these anime contain giant robots that people pilot (as much as I can remember from them. I haven't seen FLCL in the longest, but I'm also pretty sure that even if it does have any, it wasn't the main focus of the anime at all). Lime-iro Senkiten has robots that people control, so I guess it could count as mecha, but it just didn't seem like one to me. The last three are the ones that I'm pretty sure shouldn't count as mecha, since they only contain androids and/or cyborgs. The first two I'm not quite sure on. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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Well, the last two fall into the "robot girlfriend" category (if there is one) along with Chobits,
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