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This Week in Anime
What Happens When Magical Girls Grow Up?

by Christopher Farris & Monique Thomas,

Nicky and Chris, inspired by the recent raunchy Gushing Over Magical Girls, look at other more mature iterations of the magical girl genre.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.
Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.


@Lossthief @BeeDubsProwl @NickyEnchilada @vestenet

Chris
Nicky, I don't know about you, but I'm still coming back from the winter break a little slow. How about we ease back into things with a nice, family-friendly, 100% discourse-free magical girl anime?
Nicky
Y'know, normally, I'd consider being a horny magical girl parody that's all about a young girl who inadvertently agrees to become a villainess who tortures magical girls for fun to be somewhat shocking. Still, with how many other takes on the magical girl genre we get every season, I'm not! While not nearly as much as the overload of isekai, we've been getting so many magical girl series that are either parodies, subversions, or otherwise weird and dark takes on the genre that it's not a surprise when fluffy magical series turns out to be the stuff of nightmares!
Revamping ostensibly "kids" shows for adults is a tale as old as time. It's how we got something like last season's PLUTO. But magical girls, in particular, have been attracting that grown-up treatment for quite a while now, and there have been plenty of different ways to do so.

You can see that range just between last season's Power of Hope: Precure Full Bloom, which ages up the cast of a classic for-kids Sunday morning series, and this season's new Gushing Over Magical Girls, which deals in some extremely adult, fanservicey situations, while still starring magical middle-schoolers.
Much of which we won't be showing because I'd rather not get in trouble for showing some animated middle schooler bits, thanks. However, while Power of Hope: Precure Full Bloom seems like a sincere homage to women who grew up with Precure as little girls (which could be a lot of people given how many iterations of Precure there have been throughout the ages now), Gushing Over Magical Girls is intended going for a certain niche of fanservice-loving otaku.
Speculating on the potential kinks of Gushing's target audience isn't something we need to get into, least of all because the show itself seems to have that nailed down.

The show's premise is technically predicated on its lead's sincere love for magical girls. However, in tried-and-true fashion, the story is about love being subverted in-plot as much as the magical girl genre has been subverted for decades.
Magical girls is one of the tried and true genres native to anime and manga and other adjacent "otaku" media. Similar to the tune of giant robots, super sentai squads, or hotblooded shōnen battles, it's nearly impossible to think of anime without the image of sparkly and glowy transformations. Even people who've never watched anime before have probably seen at least one iteration of Sailor Moon's dress-up sequence due to how often it's referenced, like in Dua Lipa's music video for "Levitating," which is full of retro anime style appropriate for her album titled "Future Nostalgia".

And being such a standby, specifically one that so many people grew up with, makes the genre so ripe for subversion and parody that targets those grown fans. Gushing Over Magical Girls isn't even close to the first to go the raunchy comedy route. Back in the 2000s, we had stuff like Shinichi "Nabeshin" Watanabe's Puni Puni Poemy. It's not officially streaming anywhere, which is probably for the best of this column since it's arguably every bit as work-unsafe as Magical Girl Gushers.
As a key genre, it's not exactly a new trend. My personal problematic sexy magical girl would be Go Nagai's Cutie Honey, which even had an OVA directed by Hideaki Anno and a bunch of other famous names from Trigger and Gainax. Re:Cutie Honey's opening features tons of images of the heroine being ravaged by bad guys attacks, even poking fun about the audience's voyeurism, but it's pretty tongue-in-cheek about the whole deal and shares a lot of similarities with superheroes than say, Sally the Witch.
Cutie Honey's a good one to bring up, as it shows how even much older, proto-magical girls were getting the for-adults treatment. A lot of Go Nagai's humor in the original could feel akin to the weirdness Gushing is already getting up to. However, at least Honey's characters are slightly older. As with so many things, though, it indicates how subversion can be part of a genre from the very beginning. Even one of the officially recognized originators of "Magical Girls" as we know them today, Magical Princess Minky Momo, packed in some twists that hit audiences at the time like a truck.
The original last episode of the 1985 TV series famously features the main character getting run over isekai-style after a toy sponsor pulled their funding. However, this would be undone afterward as the series would get extended. You can read the full details from our lovely Mike Toole!
It's emblematic of the intertwining relationship between some magical girl anime and their tie-in sponsorships. And bolder, in some ways. Even as Precure Full Bloom depicts the grown-up versions of Pretty Cures dealing with world turmoil and climate change, it's hard to imagine this Toei-and-Bandai-sanctioned take-off offing any of its iconic heroines.
However, it's not like some of those magical girl series don't love to kill off the entire cast so the main heroine can magically revive them. My friends deep into Sailor Moon have told me stories!

As a branch of shōjo manga, magical girl series certainly love drama. We talked about this during our discussion for the most recent reboot of Tokyo Mew Mew, but magical girl series bring hope because they didn't shy away from darker themes or emotions, while still being appropriate for a young audience.

To bring up another favorite, a pretty good example of a magical girl series that is a subversion directed at an all-ages audience would be the ballet-inspired Princess Tutu.

On its face, Princess Tutu is a series about a duck who turns into a girl to save people's hearts, but much of the premise is a meta on fairytales and storybooks, often being tragedies. It digs deep into the characters' psychologies, has an evident love for art like opera and classical music, and isn't joking about any of it despite being quite dark at times.

That level of mature sensibility to the storytelling while still being ostensibly kid-friendly informs other standard-bearers of the genre from that era, like Cardcaptor Sakura. This isn't genre-exclusive; it can be done in other media, like superhero comics. But magical girls as an institution means those who aren't as familiar with the genre might be surprised by the depth and swerves even from the "played straight" entries.

It's to the point that when more general anime fans talk about "subversive" magical girls, they probably aren't talking about the bittersweet ending of Princess Tutu or the dramatic sacrifices of the Sailor Guardians, but are instead referring to the more recent legacy of one of 2011's most famous, formative hits.
Did you guys think we would do a whole magical girl column without mentioning SHAFT's Puella Magi Madoka Magica? Madoka, or "dokes," as I lovingly refer to it, was such a streaming-era sensation that many would cite any following attempts at magical girls "but darker" or parodies as imitators or "diet dokes." It's almost a subgenre of itself and one aimed at older audiences, as it's a version of magical girls that is much more violent, dark, and action-heavy to appeal to modern anime fans.
It's funny for a few reasons, not just because, as we've established, Madoka was hardly the first magical girl show to go the darker route, but because the original series ended on a rather uplifting, hopeful note.

Still, like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, so too did Madoka's success inspire its base imitators. And it seems like every other year or so, we're graced with another pass at a Madoka-like and a new cast of cute magical girls who "shockingly" have horrible things happen to them.
I think Madoka gets the benefit of being pretty self-serious about the whole thing and, notably, didn't reveal its cards about being anything other than a straightforward take until about episode three, where everyone lost their head over the death of a major character.
Not to get too ahead of ourselves.
I love Madoka for being a well-crafted, tightly based, and dense take on why we love magical girls, and it got me on board for writer Gen Urobuchi's crazy ride. So much so that I never actually left the ride and still await the upcoming last movie, Walpurgisnacht Rising, so I can finally be free. < br>
Same. Madoka is a series that works independently, with its unique take on the magical girl structure. Yes, it has those shocking, subversive moments courtesy of The Butcher. But like all of that man's better works, there's purpose behind it. That sets Madoka Magica apart from its shallower imitators, of which there have been many.
The thing about Madoka is that it truly caught people unaware. It got so big that it can't be replicated in a post-Madoka world. That's part of why similar takes don't work for me; they're too self-aware about it in a way that feels more than a little cynical. A recent example would be something like Magical Girl Site, which takes the drama up to 11 to the point where it's just miserable to watch and not cathartic or compelling.
Magical Girl Site is the apex of this phenomenon. It's arguably as extreme as Gushing, only for misery porn instead of the more traditional variety. It feels like pure, envelope-pushing gimmickry, not unlike the way icons of childhood innocence like Winnie the Pooh or Mickey Mouse get co-opted for horror adaptations the instant they fall into the public domain.

It's a small wonder I saw hardly anyone talking about it during or after its airing, which is often the case with trend-based series like this. At least Day Break Illusion had a distinctive art style.
The imitators prove my point that making something both subversive while still feeling interesting and original is a pretty difficult trick to pull off. The best takes often need to be familiar with the genre to not feel like a cheap knock-off. I'd say the same about sentai heroes, who are kind of magical girls' brother. Both genres are highly structured and have a particular set of tropes, but it's not enough to joke about it if you're doing it all from the outside; there has to be a level of sincerity to make the audience feel "in on it."

So something like Magical Girl Site or Gushing Over Magical Girls didn't work for me, but something like the super weird Magical Destroyers which is all about otaku culture and feels like a '00s love letter. It did everything crudely and bizarrely because it was having a blast with it.

It's the difference between simply dressing up in the livery of something perceived as cute and innocent for shock value and earnestly playing with its genre conventions. That leads to more successful Madoka-likes, such as my beloved Granbelm. That one takes some of those base elements, adds stuff like mecha, and runs in different, but still solidly defined thematic directions.
Granbelm is a great example because it's not only about magical girls but also a mecha and magical battle series ala Fate/Stay Night. It somehow takes all those things and makes them feel original again by having some stellar character writing and presentation. Not to mention its kick-ass theme song!

It's one of the only "diet" shows I'd say tastes just as good as Madoka. It's got a unique flavor.
This has been your perennial reminder from This Week In Anime to watch Granbelm!

It's another confirmation that, like the successes of the aforementioned Princess Tutu, a series needs good fundamentals to work within that genre space. Granbelm has its fair share of tragic turns and shocking moments, but it never feels like it's pushing its "magical girls for adults" setup as a pure gimmick. That should apply regardless of whether a series is subverting expectations for drama or comedy value.
Again, the same applies to parody or less serious takes, too. What's a dark, funny, and super-erotic series that's goofy and sincere? Why, it's my old friend, Fairy Ranmaru. It's magical boys instead of magical girls, but it's keen to explore drama, society, and sexuality while playing with the genre's tropes. What a beautiful and bizarre show. I covered part of it with Jean-Karlo a ways back, but it still holds a special place in my heart.
Nick and I previously covered the offshoot magical boys phenomenon, noting how "What if boys in magical, frilly outfits?!" has served as its brand of shallow, reductive parody. Though through all that, you still find things like the genre-bending creativity of Fairy Ranmaru or the more earnest engagement with the genre of Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! Also, considering the titanic Pretty Cure added a boy to its lineup this past year, that means the idea of "magical boys" might not be considered as "subversive" as it once was.
I double the Cute High rec. I originally checked it out after hearing the director of Gintama and Daily Lives of High School Boys was working on it. It is similarly super funny and a decent attempt to do a long-form Monster-of-the-Week show.
Notably, both Cute High and Fairy Ranmaru engage in elements of fanservice involving their cast as part of catering to their assumed adult otaku demographic. Hell, Fairy Ranmaru even goes in on the BDSM thing in places.
It's not exactly the same audience as Gushing, given the gender flip. It's still pretty cool if you want to explore that element. It also gets my "No Cowardice" stamp of approval for being an extremely homoerotic series that goes and lets boys kiss on screen since I know some people are starving for that.
I also think that helps highlight my main issue with Gushing Over Magical Girls at the outset of this season. Its central gag is conceived cleverly in that same space, as in, "Hey, you ever notice how so many magical girl villainesses dress like BDSM queens? What's up with that?" But otherwise, it doesn't seem to have many ambitions, comedic or otherwise, with its setup apart from delivering some uncensored, uncouth material.

I know, I know, it's only the first episode and all. But in a crowded genre space like this, you've gotta set yourself apart, and even Fairy Ranmaru showed within its first episode that it wasn't just spank-bank material.
It had cool musical numbers, for one thing. It's way more high effort than anyone ever asked it to be!

Though to be frank, I think that's a high bar. I've seen similarly budgeted sentai parodies that do better, like Love After World Domination, at being genre parodies. Strangely, it made me realize how much more tasteful Desumi's Reaper Princess aesthetic is, by extension. If you wanted a series featuring relationships crossing evil organizations and hero company borderlines.
Similarly, we've got the upcoming Go Go Loser Ranger anime. I've seen this one being elevator-pitched as "What if Power Rangers but dark." But take it from someone who's read the manga, there is more to it than being The Boys to Super Sentai's Justice League.

That comparison also highlights what made something like Precure Full Bloom work. At a glance, its "What if magical girls grew up?" concept seems like some new, wildly novel idea. But it's in line with other anniversary follow-up projects Toei has produced starring the now-older casts of various Sentai entries.

Though yes, this does mean I'm accusing the series of cowardice in not showing us what the older Nagisa and Honoka look like in their untransformed civilian forms.
There are a lot of examples of how different series play with genre conventions without having to go over the edge or alienating the people who might typically enjoy some of those tropes to begin with!
As it is so often with these things, I don't want to yuck other peoples' yum when it comes to dedicated fetish material like Gushing Over Magical Girls. It's just that, as we've shown, so much more can be done in that space while still entertaining those surface-level "subversion."

Maybe the series will get there eventually. But I don't know that I'll stick around to find out unless I wind up assigned to review it.
I'd say the whole edge factor is losing a bit of its novelty. Being just an imitation or a parody just doesn't cut it. We get so many now that it's effortless to skip out on one or two and not miss anything at all, because there will be a similar take waiting that's trying to do the same thing. Though admittedly, I'm not the person I would go to when it comes to fanservice. If you were intrigued by Gushing for the comedy or wanted to find a decent dark magical girl series but didn't want to deal with all that baggage, there are options. One day, I'd even like to tackle more straightforward takes that adults can enjoy, as not everyone has the patience to sit through an entire season of PreCure.

I think many of our greatest examples resonate because, deep down, we're still brimming with love for all things magical and want to experience the feelings we once had watching magical girls growing up as adults. I think it takes more than just a frilly outfit to do that. A great magical girl show has to be able to attack us right in the feelings. Don't hold back. Make those sparkly moves count!

Better to be attacked in the feelings than in...other regions, I suppose.
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