Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians
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Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
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Nipasu
 Posts: 121 |
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This show has my favorite art style this season (and possibly the whole year).
Hopefully it'll get a dub eventually! |
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 5148 |
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One thing I appreciate about this show is that it doesn't take the predictable route of Kurumi using her magic powers to save the day in the first episode and proving everyone wrong instantly but it's taking the time to show her learning alongside her classmates and she still hasn't successfully cast a spell yet.
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FishLion
 Posts: 199 |
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This one is touching and gorgeous, I'm excited to see how things play out!
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Daerian
 Posts: 230 |
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I'm very happy you are covering the series and will certainly read your thoughts on it!
However, I find your statement about transformation very interesting and wanted to ask: one of the first series in magical girl genre (both in manga and anime form) Sally the Witch (Mahoutsukai Sally) has heroine that doesn't transform. She performs her magic without transformation, in opposition to other series from that time like Himitsu no Akko-chan (which both were licensed for TV in my country from Italian dub and I watched them growing up in the 90ties, but that's beside the point  ). So when one of the oldest series in the genre and probably one of the two most influential ones until Sailor Moon doesn't include transformation... is transformation really necessary to call series "magical girl" one?
The much more well known today Cardcaptor Sakura also does not transform really, bu changes clothes into ones prepared by her friend. Personally I like to divide magical girl genre into two main subgenres, the "magical daily life" like Mahoutsukai Sally, Himitsu no Akko-chan, Sugar Sugar Rune, Cardcaptor Sakura, Someday's Dreamers, Little Witch Academia and many, many more, and second "battle" ones, like Sailor Moon, Nanoha, Precure or Madoka, but don't think transformation is necessary for first one (and probably wouldn't be necessary for second). Could I ask you about your thoughts on topic? |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2646 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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@Daerian
Of course! I knew this statement would raise some eyebrows. 
There are a lot of early series about girls and magic that don't involve a transformation - you're absolutely right, and many people do point to Sally as the definitive first "magical girl" show. I think from a strictly anime-based historical perspective, that's true, but if you trace the genre back farther, there's a pretty clear divide in Japanese literature between girls and women who transform and those who simply use magic. The girls who transform often have an element of self-sacrifice as well - one of the earliest transforming women in literature (rather than folklore) is Zenmyo is the thirteenth century text Tale of Gisho and Gangyo; she transforms to save the man she loves, ultimately sacrificing herself. That's something we see in later transforming girl stories - look at the ending of Nurse Angel Ririka for a particularly strong example. Anyway, trying to hold myself back here, I think that the broader historical perspective is that magic-using and magic-transforming girls are two separate, but similar genres, which evolved into the magical girls and the witchy girls. They've grown closer since the genres migrated into anime and manga, and I'm probably just being an annoyingly pedantic academic here. (Which, to be fair, I am.) But my long view is that they're separate by adjacent genres that occasionally combine (Witchy PreCure). |
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Daerian
Posts: 230 |
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Thank you for your answer and historical background towards the genre divide!
I'm very happy to read pedantic academic approach - it's the best approach 
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Cardcaptor Takato
Posts: 5148 |
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