I'm contemplating taking one (or more) of my fan-concepts and writing it into an original story...but I haven't actually watched any magical girl media outside of Pretty Cure in a long time. ^^; And speaking of which, I'm in the middle of re-watching the S1 English dub for the third time...it really is one of the best anime English dubs I've ever seen, especially considering the time period (the onigiri=donuts era...); the writing, casting, and voice acting are absolutely top-notch. It breaks my heart that they didn't continue to other seasons...but I digress...
The point is, it's hard for me to think outside of the Cure framework...and the only other references I have are magical girl anime I watched when I was younger, that I often didn't finish and didn't like that much. ^^; So I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on the genre...their favorite characters, their favorite gimmicks and cliches, all that.
To start, here are some of mine:
-Cute Girls
I'm just gonna come right out and say it. ^^ I think one of the pillars of magical girl is to have girl characters that are fun to watch and cute as all hell. Just adorable to behold~
It's one of the reasons why the W.I.T.C.H. animated series never really caught my eye...I thought the costumes were ugly and the girls' designs were painfully boring. Of course, later on, I started reading the comic series, and saw how aesthetic and vibrant it was actually meant to look...it could really use a reboot. With an art director who appreciates where it was coming from, instead of trying to make it look as generic as possible...
-Deep Friendships
I think smaller magical girl teams usually handle this really well...with big teams (like the usual 5) the MC is often just a tool to bring the diverse team together and then keep them together. She doesn't need a personality beyond 'nice', and so she doesn't get one. =/ And thanks to her influence, everyone else becomes instant besties.
But with duos, or teams that at least start small (i.e. there's at least ~10 episodes with just MC and her first partner) you get an MC that actually has flaws and personality traits of her own, in order to provide contrast and fun interactions with her ally. And sometimes the writers take this a step further and actually explore the mechanics of this new relationship.
To use Futari wa Pretty Cure as an example (since it's fresh in my mind)...Nagisa and Honoka's relationship actually starts off pretty awkwardly. ^^; They still mostly hang out with their old friend groups, they clearly aren't that comfortable around each other, and they're painfully aware of how different they are (partly because all their friends keep pointing out how weird it is that they've suddenly gotten acquainted).
And eventually they have a fight, after which they realize they still don't know each other that well and have room to grow as friends.
Because the truth is that they were practically strangers before randomly getting thrown together as a magical girl team, and the story acknowledges this. And without a blank character to mediate for them and/or force them to get along, they will have problems, that they'll have to work through at their own pace.
-Magic Creatures
I feel like magical girl is one of the major producers of cute, weird fantastical creatures...outside of monster-collector and card game anime, of course. ^^
Like, is it cliche for each member of Team Magical Girl to have a little plushie-selling fairy sidekick thing by their side? Perhaps...but they're just so much fun to create, and I for one almost never get the chance in other stories. ^^
I think YuYuYu's are some of my favorites in this regard...they're actually a lot less useful than the usual fairy sidekicks (to the point where I basically forgot they existed immediately after watching the show) but I enjoyed their mannerisms and abstract designs. Especially Karin's little armored fellow~ 10/10 Best Guy; seriously considering going back to the anime just to see him again. ^^
-Combat Skirts
To borrow a term from RWBY. ^^ I guess in anime as a whole, it's not THAT uncommon to see a character kicking a$$ in a frilly maid outfit, but in Western media it's basically nonexistent, outside of maybe a fanservice scene in an action movie with a female lead (which isn't exactly common either...).
I think this is just a result of 'surface-level feminist' design...i.e. 'yes, girls can fight, but only girls that aren't girly'. So the schemas of 'girls who could kill you with their bare hands' and 'girls who wear cute outfits' are not allowed to intersect. ^^; If you're a frilly magical girl who does fight things, you are limited to pointing a wand or shooting an energy beam; no direct physical contact.
Pretty Cure in particular destroys this limit. ^^ Just absolutely demolishes it, especially in the early seasons. The fights are amazing, and fairly realistic: for instance, they don't just have a 'magic punch' that sends enemies flying with minimal effort. They have to fight strategically, and actually try.
And also (this is a big one) the girls are not protected by the narrative. They're not "perfect" fighters who never get scratched; they're allowed to get thrown and slammed and kicked in the gut. This is one of the things I think got a little lost as Precure went on...cool fights don't mean as much when they're always sanitary and flawless. The struggle is part of the charm...we already know the heroes are going to survive and save the day; the least you could do is make it a little less obvious.