Forum - View topicThe Ultimate Magical Girl.
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GoddessOtome
Posts: 18 |
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Here is a question that I would love to have answered and hear people's reasoning on:
Who for you is the Ultimate Magical Girl? I know this is a loaded question, and if you are a magical girl fan like myself who has one wanted to be a magical girl or two designed your own magical girls and created whole series around your creations it can be like Sophie's Choice. I do have my own choice but I will share what I feel are the five things that make a magical girl and my choice at the end. The first thing a magical girl must have is a cool costume. In this category I would say some of the best costumes given to magical girls include the girls of "Magical Knight Rayearth" and the Pretty Cure Series. Colorful, bright, and eyecatching, a good costume is something you will notice about a magical girl even before she displays her powers on screen or on the page. 
The second thing a magical girl must possess is a cute companion to aid and advise her. Once again, my hand goes to Mokona from "Magic Knight Rayearth" and "XXXholic". Cute and tiny, this little rabbit creature also packs strong power and is no pushover. Honorable mentions for me would be Diana from Sailor Moon and Kero from "Cardaptor Sakura". 
Third, a magical girl must have a compelling backstory. This is one category that can be tricky. I have to tip my hat to the 2016 entry "Magical Girls Raising Project" as excelling in this. As much as I did not like the level of death and violence in the anime, I have to say the characters each had an emotional story that I was very much invested in. spoiler[The one that broke my heart the most was that of Tama and her grandmother. I actually cried watching that]. "Sailor Moon" and "Pretty Cure", especially the Heartcatch installments, are no slouch in this department either. 
Fourth, a magical girl must have a compelling mission, or an objective in mind. I am scraping the barrel a little bit here, but I honestly feel like "My Hime" did this quite well. The purpose of the Hime battling each other was to save the lives of their loved ones, and what is a more compelling reason than that to do battle? Sakura of "Cardcaptor Sakura"'s mission of collecting the Clow Cards, then turning them into Sakura cards was also interesting in terms of a goal. 
And the final and most important element, kick ass powers. No one can top the girls of "Sailor Moon" in this aspect. While some magical girls have more subdued powers, the scouts of Sailor Moon have amazing elemental powers each based in the mythology of their planets. I will take Neptune's "Deep Submerge," Venus' "Love Me Chain," or Pluto's "Dead Scream" any day. 
So who do I feel meets all this criteria? 
The answer would be Cardcaptor Sakura. Why? Because she best fits all the requirements to be a magical girl. One, cool costumes? Tomoyo outfits her with a new one every time she captures a card! And they are high style and well made to boot! Two, a cute companion. I dare you to find a cuter companion then Kero in his plushie form. Three, a compelling backstory. I loved watching the backstory of Sakura and all the ins and outs of her connection with the Clow Cards, as well as the introduction of Eriol and his connection to Clow Reed. Four, a mission. Catch the Clow Cards? Doesn't get much more simple in terms of a mission statement than that. And five, kick ass powers. Sakura can use any card in her arsenal she so chooses, and can summon and command the spirit within them to her will. So for me, this is why Sakura is the best of all the magical girls. |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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Sakura's a good choice....but she lacks something that I find important to a magical girl series: a transformation sequence. This element is so defining that it can make all the difference in the world between what isn't classified as a magical girl series and what is.
So my favorite magical girl remains to be Kaitou Jeanne 
She's got the beautiful design, the adorable mascot, a complex personality, best of all Joan of Arc's divine powers. What I really like about her is that the series treats Jeanne/Maron as a vulnerable human girl first and a magical girl (to market to mg fans) second. Her adventures fighting evil spirits are actually more of a subplot. The series is really more about her life, her challenges, her insecurities, and her character development along the way and....it's just so good. And she's never annoying; her drama is actual drama and it's heart-breaking; all the more reason to be really happy for her at the end. I'm talking about the manga though. Anime kinda messed her up a lot. 
Oh challenge accepted! 
Fin. Fin is way cuter.  How can one not love a mini elven-angel? Also, she's voiced by the same seiyuu as Diana (Sailor Moon)
What's really cool is that her story is just as interesting and complex as Maron's. She isn't there to just stand around and "be cute"....or "be a nag" like a lot of mascots do.
(I hated Mokona, seriously....every time that thing was on screen going "PUU!" I wanted to KILL it. xD Just like Umi. Yes, Umi, whack it with a mallet!! Go on!!) Animal mascot cuteness.....well, my vote has to go to Yuuno from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Cause um..............I like ferrets.
Also he turns into an adorable shouta wizard boy. Yes. Win. ♥ Two other "best magical girls" for me are Princess Tutu and Saint Tail. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24131 |
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Cool thread! I love that image of Tama. I got kind of choked up over that scene with her grandmother, too.
I'm afraid I can't offer much of substance to this thread as I don't have a huge knowledge of Magical Girl shows. Magical Girl Raising Project is my favourite MG title so far, but I haven't seen a lot of the "classics" yet. |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1796 Location: South America |
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My favorite Mahou Shoujo character is Homura Akemi from Madoka. Now she is not very "traditional mahou shoujo" character although it's hard to define what that is (as it was observed before even stuff like Sakura Cardcaptor cannot be regarded as pure mahou shoujo).
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CrimsonDX
Posts: 171 |
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I am a huge fan of the these classic magical girls. CCS was the first anime I ever watched with subtitles, and Sailor Moon was one of the first anime I ever watched period, so I have been hooked ever since.
Choosing a favorite is a tough one, but Sakura would probably take my vote as well. She may lack a transformation sequence, but she makes up for it with that dizzying array of costumes. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15573 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I don't have a lot of experiences with the classics (child friendly) magical girl stuff, although I do remember Sakura fondly. I thought it was something I would not be interested in again until... I can't remember if I watched Nanoha or Madoka first. I think it was Nanoha. Nanoha is strong and adorable. What even is a magical girl though, it can be pretty wide? Ryuko Matoi from Kill la Kill totally qualifies.
I have a lot of favourites, and the topic of picking out an ultimate one makes me want to choose something obscure. Like Day Break Illusion which does not get a lot of talk about it. For some reason, I think the transformation sequence of Vividred Operation is a favourite. I think Madoka has the cooler costumes with the variety we see, and I liked things like Madoka trying to design her costume ahead of time. And I also can’t forget Symphogear, which I quite like but wonder of the purity in their magical girl name with all the combat, music, mechanical aspect, and no mascot. For purity, I think I fall back onto Nanoha, especially if looking at a single magical girl, maybe only held back that her costume is just an alteration of her school uniform. And Yuuno for mascot. 
I am a dude though, so don’t know what to say about designing my own. Although I did write a magical girl story, I got a few chapters done with it and got like a good 25 or so characters written up. it was a story I moved on from because I kind of wrote too many characters with too many story elements, making too clustered. Actually, my current and long running story project went on from that as a magic fantasy starring young girls, the heroine somewhat magical girl like, although even saying that there is no mascot and a cool costume has not been anything I considered, I think that reflects that I think the technique of the character is more important. The character uses magic cards which I harken back to CCS, but as far as looks, magic medallion to look like the dark king. My stories can sound weird. |
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louis6578
 Posts: 1875 |
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Poemy from the critically acclaimed drama, Puni Puni Poemy. Her struggle to define herself through her own deeds and attain youthful happiness made me swell up.
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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There's been quite some debate over this....honestly I don't know what to call her. She doesn't come to mind when I think magical girl though. |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5925 Location: Virginia, United States |
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While I love Magic Knight Rayearth, I am going to have to to with the magical girls of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
Loved Magical Girl Raising Project, but most (not all) of the transformation sequences were just called in. |
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Heishi
 Posts: 1346 |
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I suppose if there is magical girl that I like, its Sakura Kinomoto I suppose.
But I have to be honest with you. I really have NO such favorite. Why? Because none of them have the kind of attribute I've always wanted to see in a magical girl. Being a canon(so subtext bullshit) and open lesbian. No, I'm not talking high school or even middle school aged. That is why I went out of my way to develop my own magical girl series. One that is like, Magical Raising Project, Illya, Nanoha, Madoka, an adult male targeted series. One that does what other shows failed to accomplish. Create a story about two grade school girls who fall deeply in love with each other. Make the romance central and important to the plot, similar to CCS. One that does not make the main character more like an unimportant supporting character in favor of other characters, but does not abandon them either. One which the main character whose a Sakura/Nanoha/Iylla esque character who has one thing that differentiates herself from other girls like her. Her deep sexual desires for the girl of her dreams. The younger, more fragile, more sensitive, more gentle, more shy, red, twin tailed haired girl whom the older girl promises to protect with her life and is the primary reason for why she chose to become a Magical Girl. The desires that gets explored later on in the series. Desires that is not just used for graphic yuri scenes similar to Illya, but is an internal conflict for the girl. It raises an important question: Does she really love her or does she use the object of her affection as nothing more than a sexual object? She also has no furry creature companion, but another older woman who is actually as short as she is. Does her own combat and can even change to a smaller ver. of her. I could go on, but if anyone wants me to really get into to detail on the kind of show I'm making, please feel free to respond. Last edited by Heishi on Thu Jan 26, 2017 5:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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I agree that Cardcaptor Sakura is the best. The mascot often makes or breaks it for me and Kero is fantastic. Also, they have awesome supporting characters including her romantic interest/rival and her best friend who helps her with her costumes. I think the idea of the best friend who not only knows her secret but also makes costumes for her was one of the best innovations in the series. A lot of smart writing went into that property.
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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Lol dude, no offense but that's a little creepy......grade school is kinda young for that type of thinking, isn't it? Children are pretty innocent and naive; at least wait til they hit puberty.......
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Heishi
Posts: 1346 |
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Well, if that's the case. Then shouldn't things like Kodomo no Jikan, Fate Prisma Illya, and to a certain extent Nanoha be condemned for their use of lolis in a sexual manner? (Excluding Nanoha, of course) |
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louis6578
Posts: 1875 |
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^
While I personally have no problem with those shows, if someone told me that the loli romance/comedy aspect bothered them, I wouldn't question it. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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I haven't seen IIlya but KNJ is a unique case because it shows that Rin has major psychological issues as a result of her tragic upbringing as with the other two girls.This works because it provides a logical explanation to their abnormal behavior; it's not just fanservice for the hell of it. And even despite all that, lots of people do condemn it. It's a highly controversial series. So another series about two grade-schoolers wanting to have sex with each other (with or without a good backstory like KNJ) would cause a lot of controversy as well. Nanoha is a little creepy with its naked transformation scenes and panty shots...but from what I've seen of the first season, Nanoha's mind seems quite innocent and appropriate in how a child would think: she doesn't show intimate desires for other kids. [Edit]: removed unnecessary nested quotes. Please read the quoting guidelines. Errinundra. |
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