Forum - View topicRise of the Dark Magical Girls
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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Pretty Cure, effectively every season. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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I feel like all we ever hear about Madoka these days is "it was so dark and edgy and unique" versus "it's exactly 100% identical to this older thing that I was into before it was cool." Both of which are sorta missing the point.
Madoka is not really a deconstruction, at least not of magical girls (of vaguer things like modern society, maybe). It's a revival of the genre. Yes, many of its tropes have been done before, but that's intentional; and it was apparently the first time they were all packaged together into such an artistically compelling, yet accessible to non-film-geeks, self-contained story. (It's very difficult to combine mainstream appeal and artsy high-conceptness like that--all magical girl shows that came before it, as far as I can tell, were only one or the other.) And calling it "dark" is kind of weird, because while it does go to some dark places, the overall message is hopeful--and not just in the ending, the message of perseverance and humanity's inherent goodness despite their potential for evil is always there, even in the most tragic scenes. That's important, because without that it really would be the showcase of sadism that most one-liner descriptions make it sound like. Most of its imitators (other than Yuki Yuna) didn't really get that part and just went for a "Magical Girls: Brutal Tear-Jerker Edition" concept. Dark and edgy stuff is indeed popular these days, but you can't just magically make something popular by cramming in lots of horror and tragedy. There has to be some point to it, some grounding in reality to make people care about the disastrous things happening to the characters, or the audience will rightly believe the writers are torturing them for no reason. Raising Project attempts to do this, but it doesn't work because it's way too obvious--right before each character dies you're suddenly hit with a flashback to an unoriginal sob story, or a half-baked journey-to-evil story--and it kills off so many characters so quickly and arbitrarily that it discourages caring about any of them. Re:Zero was a success not because of its extreme tragi-horror, but because it has a protagonist who feels more like a real-life anime fanboy than a generic harem lead, and the other characters are generally complex and given enough time to develop organically (the time-loop certainly helps there). The only real measure of quality in a story is "good writing" but, since that's the vaguest thing imaginable, there are always attempts to imitate the more obvious characteristics of some new popular thing. Some people will get into it because of the association with the popular-izer--not that there's anything wrong with that!--but lightning doesn't strike the same place twice. If only there was a way to tell where it will strike next... |
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2902 |
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one of the very first magical girsl shows had the main girl eventually run out of magic so she could not try to save the world anymore, after a self-talk on being able to try and save the world even without magic, she is killed by a toy truck, so as mentioned, the dark aspect has always been there, one way or another.
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Aquamine-Amarine
Posts: 276 |
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While the dark take on the magical girl genre is enjoyable, I still prefer things that are light and happy, like Cardcaptor Sakura, Tokyo Mew Mew, Shugo Chara!, and the various Precure (the manga versions of course, with the exception of Precure). What's wrong with having something positive and happy? Why do you need to make everything dark all the time?
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3561 Location: Finland |
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Magical Princess Minky Momo? |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18431 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Another title which could probably be pointed to as being a stepping stone towards the burst of dark magical girl series initiated by Madoka Magika is 2004's Uta-Kata, which mostly looks like a normal magical girl series but gets involved in deeper psychological issues and a less-than-nice potential outcome for the heroine.
Also, let's be clear here that Paul is not arguing that Madoka Magica founded the trend of dark magical girl series. It most definitely did popularize it, though. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Madoka meets Battle Royale. It was only a matter of time.
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Heishi
 Posts: 1346 |
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While I welcome this new genre with open arms,
I really wish they made a magical girl that is actually yuri. You know, have a yuri romance that is central to the plot. But yes, nice to see a darker trend here. |
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Edl01
Posts: 117 |
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Since Madoka is my favorite anime and all I really wish that I could give it full credit for it's brazen originality that created a whole genre, unfortunately as a fan of the whole genre overall I know that's not the case and that it did take ideas from other places.
I honestly don't think Magical Girl Raising Project resembles Madoka Magica for example, it draws much heavier from survival game stories like Battle Royale and it's main cast feel must closer to classic Magical Girl archetypes. Even the tone is completely different, MGRP being bombastic and shocking, while Madoka was far more contemplating and melancholy. If you like more traditional entries in the genre though they are still very easy to find, they just get overlooked since it's a pretty niche genre and they are mostly considered kid's shows. Precure is a never ending source of joyful mahou shoujo fun that will seemingly last forever, both Nanoha and Sailor Moon both have very recent series and Symphogear is getting two more seasons. The genre is far from dead! |
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Blanchimont
Posts: 3561 Location: Finland |
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"Rogue One"-like intermission of Lyrical Nanoha?... |
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Kimiko_0
 Posts: 1796 Location: Leiden, NL, EU |
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For me the recent trend of depressing magical girl anime is just the next step up from the old moe wave. From normal women and girls to being endearingly clumsy or childish to making them too stupid or incompetent to survive in real life. Next are magical girls who get stomped into the ground emotionally if not physically as well. "oh but look how bravely they persist even though they're hurt and crying". Nonsense, it's just about guys getting off on making formerly powerful girls suffer helplessly.
PMMMadoka could be excused as a deconstruction or whatever, but it's infecting too many other anime. Best example is Black Rock Shooter. BRS the OVA preceded Madoka and was although slightly dark, overall optimistic and had a happy ending. BRS the TV came after Madoka and was just depressing all over with a sad ending as well. |
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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Really? Recent Mahou shoujo anime have been pretty heavy on the yuri subtext. Mahou Shoujo Ikuseki Keikaku even has canon lesbians. It's the het department that's on the decline. There hasn't been anything along the lines of Full Moon wo Sagashite or Akazukin Cha Cha in this decade. |
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Heishi
Posts: 1346 |
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Maybe I wasn't being specific, I mean canon yuri. None of that subtext BS! |
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Paiprince
Posts: 593 |
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I bolded my example, unless you're trying to look for something like Kannazuki no Miko with the MC's being in a yuri relationship then there's Yuri Kuma Arashi. |
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Heishi
Posts: 1346 |
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Combined two posts and removed over-quoting. --willag
@Blanchimont I'm talking balls to the wall, pure unadulterated romance yuri with plenty of action. Yes, it also involves elementary school aged girls and yes it gets heavy with the yuri element later on. A yuri antagonist would help bring that point home. I don't want a series where the romance has no bearing to the plot, because the yuri couple has to be the main characters that the story mainly focuses on. I would also personally like a seme uke relationship. The magical girl is brave, strong, and not afraid to express her feelings while her target of affections is a little bit younger, yes even shorter girl who is shyer, innocent, gentler type, à la Himeko Kursugawa. @Paiprince While I love it to death and I make no apologies for that(why the hell would you?), I don't consider Kannazuki no Miko "magical girl" in that sense, especially if you're referring to the traditional method of magical girl. Last edited by Heishi on Fri Dec 16, 2016 7:48 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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