Forum - View topicWhat Makes Magical Girls So Popular?
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Sir Daniel Fortesque
Posts: 236 |
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{Edit}: Ignorant and flamebait post removed. ~ Psycho 101
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2480 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Or male anything. I may be mistaken, but I don't believe there are any lines spoken by male characters in all of Yuki Yuna Is A Hero. |
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Yogshi
 Posts: 21 |
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Nice overview of the genre. Nothing too dependent on prior knowledge of any of the shows discussed to get your point across. Sorta wish you had dropped a reference to Princess Tutu, but that goes against the team-based standard.
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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an intriguing part of magical girls is that in the genre you can sometimes get away without needing "magic" per say (ala AKB0048/Macross Delta levels of Tech) and sometimes they don't have to be strictly girls (Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu) and then you have cases where a show is about a Card Game and still delves into the realm of Magical Girl genre (Wixoss, Fantasista Doll).
That said, it is saddening that the current staple of Magical Girl genre Precure just barely recently got a form of a release in the form of Glitter Force for the Smile season of Precure, the only prior release was a regional English release of the Futari wa season which still premiered years after the source series Japan debut. |
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Emichan
 Posts: 83 Location: SF Bay Area |
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I feel like the author hasn't watched too many magical girl shows? i mean, there are many post-Sailor-Moon Magical Girl shows with romance- Wedding Peach, Saint Tail, Nurse Angel Ririka, Ultra Maniac, Tonde Buurin, Tokyo Mew Mew, Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, Princess Tutu, Magic Knight Rayearth, Full Moon wo Sagashite, Pretear, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, Akazukin Chacha, Miracle Girls, Hime-chan's Ribbon, Card Captor Sakura, Nanatsuiro Drops, Shugo Chara, Sugar Sugar Rune, etc. etc...
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meiam
Posts: 3448 |
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I get wanting to keep the article pure and about girl power, but fan service played a huge role in this and ignoring it feel disingenuous. I'd love to get hard number on this, but I wouldn't be surprised if half of even the "pure" shojo magical girl watcher were male in large part for fan service.
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Actar
 Posts: 1074 Location: Singapore |
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First off, I think that Magical Girl as a genera is way too broad to be talked about in such a general sense. We have to recognize that there are different types of series out there and we can't deny that there are Magical Girl shows that are targeted towards girls and there are others that are targeted towards guys like Nanoha.
Speaking of male-oriented Magical Girl shows, I find it interesting that this article didn't deal with a male's perspective. In addition to all the aforementioned points in the article, if you ask me, a huge factor about why Magical Girls are so popular among males is that they embody both cuteness and coolness. It's like having your cake and eating it - hot-blooded fights and kick-ass action scenes with adorable moe girls. Of course, that's not to say that some shows can't appeal to both audiences. PreCure is infamous for appealing to both girls (4 - 12) and guys (16 - 35). 
Saito Tamaki wrote a book on the subject, "Beautiful Fighting Girl", taking a psychoanalytical approach. I highly suggest anyone who's interested give it a read.
Erm, isn't this also done for the male fans as well? Last edited by Actar on Fri May 27, 2016 12:08 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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and that might be indirectly the point... sort of. And toss on Magical Project S to that pile which had its Japan premiere during the tail end of Sailor Moons later seasons. |
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Jonny Mendes
 Posts: 997 Location: Europe |
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What!? Wasn't a male love interest that bring spoiler[Miki Sayaka to become a magical girl and the cause of her downfall ] in Madoka Magika!? |
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bassgs435
 Posts: 365 |
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I find the lack of mention of Cutie Honey annoying
She was already a magical girl fighting evil way before Sailor Moon did it (I know she's actually an android and her powers are purely technological, but she still fits the bill of girl who changes outfits to fight) |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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The yuri nostalgia glasses must have been fogged up over the Homura x Madoka shipping. |
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Hoppy800
 Posts: 3331 |
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It's nice to see cute girls kicking ass, it's a reason that many bad LNs and their adaptations are popular and even good ones like Date A Live (well not the second season of the anime, the LN kicks ass though). Although some don't have fighting (Sugar Sugar Rune for example).
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7jaws7
 Posts: 705 Location: New York State |
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This article is also a must-read: http://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a03904/
I like magical girls for the incredible diversity of potential stories and themes. As mentioned, Madoka and Yuki Yuna are practically opposites, but there is so much more in between them. |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5501 Location: Iscandar |
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Strictly focusing on North American fandom, is the magical girls genre that popular? Sailor Moon was a huge phenomenon, but I get the impression that there was not another magical girls hit that came close to SM's popularity level until Madoka Magica appeared; 15 years later.
I like and admire Madoka Magica, but my reasons for liking it have almost nothing to do with its magical girls elements.
Based on all the fan enthusiasm and commercial appeal, Attack on Titan is to me the biggest anime hit of the last few years. |
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invalidname
Contributor Posts: 2480 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Not making a value judgement; just noting an interesting fact. Flip-side of things like Lawrence Of Arabia that have no speaking female characters. |
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