What is the next step for the magical girl genre...?

DokiDokiTsuna 2020-07-16 15:02:51 UTC #1

This is a bit of a weird question...basically, I mean, where can it go next?

It started out in sincerity: girls in cute outfits using their powers to help people. Then, of course, with PMMM and all its successors, it began to take an "oops! all darkness" turn where you'd lure people in with girls in cute outfits, only to hand them a story of existential horror and despair.

But we've already gotten to the point where that's overdone...so what's next? I mean, the 'sincere' version of the magical girl is still alive and well; where should authors go now if they want to subvert the genre and deliver something new and fresh?

The industry answer seems to be comedy...I never watched Machikado Mazoku, but I think it tried to do something like that. And there are some other magical-girl-themed comedies I've seen that are just straight-up insane Japanese humor at its finest~.

The problem with that is that most magical girl anime is already supposed to be funny, at least some of the time...as the target audience is preteen children, that's pretty much a given. So it's less of a subversion and more like doubling down on an aspect of the genre that already exists...

So here are some of my ideas (AKA what I would do if I had time for a new magical girl story rn)

-Just change the atmosphere
Like, what if 'dark magical girl' was actually 'DARK magical girl'? Not innocent moe babies being sacrificed for the greater good, but older, more mature young women who are just trying to survive a tough supernatural job.
Or even without aging up the MCs, imagine a teen magical girl story with the ambiance of a Batman comic (or, dare I say it, a Deadpool comic). Is this kind of stuff being done? Because I've never seen it, and I think it would be really cool.

-Or change the characters
This is the kind of thing I'm already doing with the magical girl concepts I have...it's amazing how you can breathe new life into an old trope simply by changing the type of person it's applied to.
Instead of the 'average girl with a happy home and a couple of school friends', what about an MC who isn't an average girl? Or one who doesn't have a happy home? Or any school friends?
Not in a dark, angsty, 'CW: abuse/suicide ideation' way, but just a 'this is just how my life is, and I kinda have to deal with it' way.

The typical 'dark magical girl' leans into the problems of a girl's life, making them extreme and/or allowing them to warp the character into something twisted.
But plenty of people live fairly ordinary lives despite having issues...maybe they've carved out ways to handle them, maybe they ignore them and focus on other things, maybe they just aren't affected by them the way other people would be.

Basically, there's middle ground between having a scrapbook-worthy life and living in a waking nightmare, and very few magical girls are found there. I'd say the vast majority are 'reformed' characters that start out as antagonists, and are rarely focused on as MC's. Maybe it's about time they got some spotlight.

KizKat 2020-07-16 15:29:43 UTC #2

Magical girl shares a lot in common with super heroes, and it's obvious how many different things can be/have been done with those. You could take it more of an action route, political, or connect it to a more real-life setting. Heck - Isekai is super popular right now. Maybe we just need a few truck-chans to help us out!

I would argue that magical girl has seen quite a variety over the years, with no sign of being "out of ideas" yet. You got your old-school Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura, The oddly compelling romp that is Princess Tutu, Americian spin offs like Winx Club and Totally Spies - and that is all WAY before Puella came along to shake everything up!

There is also Cute High Earth Defense Club Love! which has an interesting take with the cast being all male but still keeping the cuteness, which highlights a lot of awkward stuff while still being pretty funny.

The thing about a genre like this is you can get some interesting stories by playing up to some troupes, turning others on their heads, or adding another element from another genre.

Magical girls with mechs/cars/tanks
A show where magical girls exist but the main characters are their cute animal familiars secret life of pets style
A show about what happens when a magical girl retires and grows up. Do your powers just go away when you turn 21 and you're not a "girl" anymore? Or is it Peter Pan rules and as long as you believe in childlike wonder you stay powerful?

Just off the top of my head

DiegoPalacios 2020-07-16 15:29:50 UTC #3

I think the magical girl genre has a potential similar to the one of superheroes. They are people who are living a double life saving the world and trying to function in modern society as their normal identity, so all the posibilities of superhero genres applies to them too in some way.

An interesting take could be done by playing with how the magical girl balances her life as a hero and as a teen/young adult or whatever. For example: The popular girl may resent her role as a magical girl because it affects her social and academic life. The outcast may use the magical girl role she now has as an escape from the real world, neglecting her previous life. A reckless and showoff girl may reveal said identity, but it comes at the cost of her loved one's safety.

DiegoPalacios 2020-07-16 15:40:07 UTC #4

this just reminded me of this video XD

KizKat 2020-07-16 15:43:12 UTC #5

Thank you for bringing this into my life

Snickerdoodles 2020-07-16 16:02:06 UTC #6

I'm actually reading two "magical girl" comics, mostly because they're such well-done subversions of the genre. "Sleepless Domain" has young characters and a cute artstyle but the stakes are very real. It starts with the main character trying to get back into patrolling after an incident that killed most of her team. PTSD, survivor's guilt, a civilization under siege. It's all good.

https://www.sleeplessdomain.com/

Then there's "Shattered Starlight", which is about a now-grown-up magical girl trying to make it in the adult world while also dealing with the return of old enemies.

http://www.shatteredstarlight.com/

ninjashira 2020-07-16 16:14:24 UTC #7

That is sort of the initial entire premise of the comic I'm working on right now. It started out as a thought along the lines of, What would happen to a magical girl like CardCaptor Sakura after she's sealed all the cards, and the magic is suddenly just gone forever? How would someone whose formative teenage years were formed around the presence of magic, and who honestly went through some terrifying near-death experiences, cope if it all just stopped one day? And you can't exactly talk to a therapist about your magical childhood trauma, because the unwritten rule of magical girl series is that nobody can know about the existence of magic.

I love the magical girl genre and I definitely think there's a lot of room for more stories that haven't been told yet. I kind of like the idea of the magical girl has now grown up into a magical woman, and she has a family and a child to worry about when new magical catastrophes pop up. In typical magical girl series, the main character is always very willing to sacrifice herself to save the world, but if that character has children and a husband, how does that change the self-sacrificing dynamic? How does it change the story when she gets teleported to another dimension in the middle of putting her kids to bed?

ryoko 2020-07-16 16:16:46 UTC #8

Clamp sort of answers this with Tsubasa Chronicles. You do find out what Sakura does with her powers towards the end of the manga. Not going to spoiler it and I'm pretty sure the anime never gets that far.

starry-sea 2020-07-16 16:21:44 UTC #9

pretty cure will continue save us all

miripao 2020-07-16 16:41:22 UTC #10

Although generally comedic, I do like this manga: https://mangadex.org/title/25977/can-you-become-a-magical-girl
It's about an old lady becoming a magical girl. (Sadly she became younger as a magical girl, but still a cute concept.)

AmysGames 2020-07-16 16:42:29 UTC #11

The magical girl genre seems to be really popular lately, lol. I guess this is a good a time as any to mention that I've also been working on a magical girl comic? (I've finished the first few pages, but idk when I'll start posting them. Hopefully soon?)

I definitely think there's a lot of exploration left to do with the genre. My personal take focuses a lot on characters being forced into roles they didn't necessarily want, with the girls chosen being people who don't really get along to begin with. It also focuses a lot more on the villains, playing pretty heavily with the concept of "arbitrary people turned evil by the powers of darkness." (Something I've seen a lot in "monster of the week"-styled magical girl shows, lol.)

But yeah, I definitely think there's a lot of mileage you can get just from having unique characters. Magical girls who hate being magical girls? Elderly magical girls? Magical people of other genders? The possibilities are endless.

nathanKmcwilliams 2020-07-16 17:25:36 UTC #12

So I don't know much about the genre...but I have a character that will eventually make an appearance that is essentially: What if Deadpool was a Magical Girl?

People may have even seen me post pictures of her ebry once in a while. But for hers, I kind of fused Powerpuff Girls into the Magical Girl concept also, so in my comic (when she appears...later...much later) she'll already be established as a famous superhero in canon.

She's got all the pretty sparkly stuff, but it just so happens that it's all glued on to weapons of mass violence like guns, knives, and bazookas xD her catchphrase is
"Razzle-Dazzle Motha-F !"

She's really not supposed to be a die-hard magical girl kind of character though. More of what most people who haven't actually watched a magical girl series think it's about xD

KoreanTacos 2020-07-16 18:03:23 UTC #13

It never got that far from what i remember...

IndigoShirtProd 2020-07-16 18:56:25 UTC #14

Funnily enough, the magical girl idea I came up with a few months ago has some of the things you brought up. An older character just trying to get through life while being a magical girl, a MC who doesn't have that many friends, just because that how it is, and unconventional home life.

I think there are interesting concepts surrounding magical girl stories out there, like how I saw a comic that focused on the aftermath of being a magical girl. I dont remember the name, but it followed the main characters after they defeated the big bad and their powers were stripped from them and I think that a super fascinating take on the trope.

There are plenty of ways to take the genre in different directions such as all the things mention previously.

jensrichard77 2020-07-16 19:03:41 UTC #15

Ohe yes. She is diffidently a moden new kid of dark magical girl. Can't wait to meet her.
Please spoil us with a preview.

(I would like to ad Bunneh the Rabbit here too, but she is more fantasy than magic girl, but it is build on that same new concept of letting the magical girl be more dark.)

NickRowler 2020-07-16 20:53:11 UTC #16

If you are asking because you feel the genre is stuck, I would recommend expanding it.

I don't think the way to go is making everything grim dark, I find that route annoying. Instead, maybe find different ways to do magical girls. Like most of them have frilly outfits, a wand thing, and an animal side-kick, so maybe switch them up.

-magical girls on motorcycles and they wear motorcross outfits.
-magical girl group but each member is based off a sport, and their outfit matches
-magical girl with mech or something similar to power rangers
-magical girls in medieval armor
etc.

thedude3445 2020-07-17 11:18:29 UTC #17

I feel like the magical girl genre as you see from your Creamy Mamis and Sailor Moons and Madoka Magicas hits a wall far too easily in terms of limitations, and already in the ten years since Madoka you've seen even that end of "magical girls but it's serious now" be played to its absolute limits with the material that came afterwards.

Adding gimmicks (e.g. it's magical girls, but their theme/powers are different) won't help the genre continue to expand, and non-dark deconstructions are already aplenty (e.g. stories about adult ex-magical girls). So my only real suggestion about how to keep the genre fresh is to expand the notion of what even counts as a magical girl show.

Western animation has already shown this to be a success--Steven Universe and She-Ra are some of the most popular animated shows of the last decade, and both follow the magical girl template as a basis but use them to form completely different experiences than, say, Pretty Cure or whatever. Just like superhero stories aren't just capes and villains, magical girl shows aren't just mascots and frilly dresses. There is a lot more to offer if you branch out a little but with it.

In anime specifically, I think that the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series took the idea of "What can magical girl series become?" in an interesting direction. Each sequel show, the story strayed further and further from its cutesy elementary schooler fighting monsters roots and became an action-packed sci-fi show about interdimensional warriors. However, after a certain point it becomes debateable whether or not even that show qualifies as magical girl anymore. It's a blurry line.

DokiDokiTsuna 2020-07-17 16:29:47 UTC #18

To be honest, I think that's a little counter-productive, at least the way you described it. Keeping a genre fresh and expanding its definition are two different things. Sometimes they overlap, but they shouldn't always.

It's like if someone asked you to come up with some fresh new chair designs...and seeking to 'expand the definition' of chair, you hand them a cylinder-looking thing without a back.
That's cool; stools exist. It's got some minimalist design flair...then, you hand them a glass cube. And then you hand them a rock. Like, a literal boulder.

It's not that it's wrong to call these things chairs or use them as chairs, it's just that...well, if someone really wants a rock in their house, why hit up a company that makes chairs? Why not just go down to the quarry and get one for free? At some point, the difference between an actual rock and the rock that's supposed to be a chair becomes so arbitrary, it doesn't matter anymore.

Basically, this:

If you keep on pushing into the 'blur' in the name of innovation without ever returning to the center, you risk watering down the genre into obscurity. Kinda like what's happened to westerns over the 20th century...plenty of elements and themed characters from the genre are still around, but as far as I know there are very few overtly 'western' stories left in the popular culture. I dunno if it's just that people don't like cowboys anymore, but it seems that no one wants to return to the center.

By all this I mean, as fun as it is to take just a few elements from a genre, spin them into completely new stories, and say "this actually still counts as x because it contains one y and a little bit of z", it's just as important to a genre's survival to do "gimmicky" reinventions of the same old stuff. Departures from the norm don't mean nearly as much when no one knows what the norm is anymore.

Jenny-Toons 2020-07-17 17:58:37 UTC #19

Plenty of ways to go with the genre: Different settings, different types of evil, different time periods, and, different dynamics.

I'm kinda sick of most magical girl stories taking place in some modern day high school setting. Give me something more.

I want to see Magical Girls attempt to stop a zombie invasion.

I want to see Magical Girls hand picked from a the massives in a post-apocalyptic world, where maybe it's not cute fluffy animals picking them -- maybe it's through science that they gain their powers. PPG-Z (yes, that anime version of Power Puff Girls) played with that, so I'd like to see it more.

I want to see Magical Girls face off against eldritch horrors that aren't conveniently attractive. Sailor Moon wet into the depths of cosmic horror elements, but I'd like to see that go a bit farther. Yes, that would mean playing into more of the dark Magical Girl scene, but less with "humanity sucks" and more with "some things are neither good or evil, but they exist and are dangerous"

More romances between the hero and the villain. Doesn't even have to be tragic.

More of the family being involved. I dunno -- sometimes, I get sick of seeing the same obliviously, ignorant and incompetent parents/guardians and siblings who don't know that the MC is risking her life for the entire world, if not the universe. Give me stories where the family knows, and it's a constant choice between her saving the world and them losing her if she dies in the process.

Hell -- Magical Girl PTSD. There is literally no way a lot of these girls (or guys) fight all of this evil, have their lives put on the line, maybe die or see a love one die in the process, save the world, and not have some form of trauma. Like, we don't really see a lot of what happens to them after they get older or when everything is saved.

Do they get awarded for their bravery? Do they get some type of honor? Some type of money?

Or is the feeling of being the world's savior (which may go unnoticed) the only thing to get? I'd love to see more thoughts on how they process their experiences after doing all of this. Like, would they do it again? Would they have regrets? I've seen some people begin to do this in the webtoons stage, and it's getting me interested.

Medieval, Mythology, Horror, Occult Summoning, Sea Monsters -- there's so many ways to go about it.

It doesn't have to be the same "modern day, high school girl"

TAMAnnoying 2020-07-17 18:35:54 UTC #20

“Keep magic girls fresh!!”

looks at BL genre where black hair boy loves blond hair boy and protagonist is always sub

looks at how many people love the same damn thing over and over again

Eh....... sometimes if it’s not broken then don’t fix it. As a part time mechanic I can attest to this.