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This yr makes the 50^th anniversary of the showtime magical girl anime in 1967. I wanted to brand the occasion by giving a history of the genre, examining it's changes over time and illuminating why it's stuck around for so long.

Origins of the Genre:

The origins of the idea of Magical Girls are multifaceted as yous might imagine, and in that location is plenty of archaic sources referenced by magical girl serial including fairy tales, both Japanese and international, as well as historical figures and cultural trends. However, when talking virtually specifics there are two sources that tend to get brought upwards by historians.

The outset of this is 1953'due south Princess Knight past the legend Osamu Tezuka, the godfather of anime and manga. Princess Knight is often cited every bit the prototype magical daughter series. The series focuses around Princess Sapphire who is built-in with both a male person and a female middle and for political reasons must pretend to exist a boy for most of the story. The series has a smashing bargain to say about masculine vs feminine power, simply the main graphic symbol does not wield magic, nor is there much in the way of nominal magic in the serial, just fairy tale logic (in that location is some magic in the setting simply none wielded by the protagonist for the majority).

The other is sure live-activeness tv sitcoms from America that were being imported into Nippon at the fourth dimension. 1964'due south Bewitched and sometimes 1967's I dream of Jeannie. Both of which involved female magic users, the former involving chivalrous witches, the magic of which was used for the purposes of hijinxs in suburban America. The two shows were very popular in Japan and their inspiration can be seen clearly in the earliest MG series.

The question every bit to what the first Magical Daughter series is a bit of a contentious subject, because it depends whether yous hateful Magical Girl Manga or Magical Girl Anime. The starting time magical daughter manga was Himitsu no Akko-Chan in 1962, which got its anime adaptation in 1969. Even so, the first magical girl Anime was Sally the Witch in 1967, who's manga came out in 1966.

60s Magical Girls: Roots of the Magical Daughter Tree

So, these two serial aren't exactly alike, and in the 60s these series weren't even recognized as belonging to the same genre.

Himitsu no Akko-Chan features Atsuko Kagami who, when her family heirloom mirror breaks, respectfully buries it instead of throwing it abroad. For her respect the Queen of the Mirror Kingdom gives her a magic mirror that lets her transform into anything she wants. Hijinx ensue.

Sally the Witch is nigh young Sally, princess of the Magical Kingdom, getting tired of her constant magic lessons, running away to Earth and confronting existent world problems with magic. Hijinxs ensue.

There might be some similarities in the usage of magic and humor, but these series don't seem to belong to the same genre relieve in retrospect. That said we tin see some of the tropes kickoff to ingather up that the MG genre would become known for: Magical Princesses, feminine iconography, and a deliberate merging of the magical and mundane worlds. It also started the trend of heavy optimism and brightness that is common to MG stories. One of the repeating lines of the Sally the Witch theme is "When she chants a magic spell, beloved and hope fill up the air" and despite existence a little rebel Sally is presented equally a noble little heroine.

Contrary to popular belief there was ane more Magical Girl in the 60s, 1967's Princess Comet, featuring one of the princesses of the Comet Nebula who traveled to Globe in search of her missing prince.

70s Magical Girls: The first reactive wave

The early 1970s Magical Girls resemble the 1960s Magical Girls in tone for the most function, like 1971 Sarutobi Ecchan, which is a comedy for the nearly part virtually a footling girl being a master ninja. Yet, the 70s hit the Magical Daughter Genre hard, and despite only ten Magical Girl series being released between 1970-1979, the Magical Girls of the mid to later 1970s possess their own feel. They were regularly darker in subject matter, had more eroticism (Majokko Megu-Chan'south opening is about Meg bragging how she tin use her breasts and feminine beauty to go any man), and were more serious in tone so their 60s sisters, oftentimes tackling societal issues.

 What is particularly notable most the 1970s Magical Girl is the first cocky-references within the genre. Magical Girl series specifically responded to each other, and a sense of internal community was formed.

Majokko Megu-chan in 1974 is a expert example of both of these trends. Oft considered the anti-Sally the Witch, Majokko Megu-chan reads at times like a deconstruction of Sally the Witch. This is a comparison I wrote a while ago:

"Emerge the Witch is the princess and heir to the throne of Astoria, the World of Magic. Her begetter is the Male monarch, and 1 of the greatest they've e'er known. Her mother is the daughter of Satan who was trapped and treated cruelly until Emerge's begetter rescued her. Sally, not liking the constant work her parents put on her runs away to Earth. There she chop-chop adapts to the mundane setting, and goes on magical mis-adventures with her friends, sorting out problems and condrums connecting the Magical and Mundane Worlds. Her main nemesis eventually becomes Poron, a Dark Magical Girl who was raised to hate the ruling party of Astoria past her father who tried to accept the throne form Sally'southward male parent but was beaten. Poron is an emotional angry mess and is dangerous on that front just is laughably incompetent at actual magic because she has no formal training at all. The prove is about Sally coming to accept the responsibility of queen, and what information technology means to take power over others. The show was notorious for existence squeaky clean family fun television.

Majokko Megu-chan features 1000000, 1 of a number of Witches who are all competing to proceeds the throne of Witch World. To protect herself, she takes political asylum on Mid-Globe (Earth), where she learns magic from an erstwhile witch living there. She constantly fights off perverts, compensation hunters, and other magical threats, a lot of them sent by her rivals in some fashion or another. However, she has the most difficulty with the mundane itself, as without her powers she doesn't know how to practise annihilation, and dislikes the mundane world and information technology's difficult to work with nature. Her principal nemesis eventually becomes Non, a blue-skinned witch that is Meg's main contest for the throne. Non is a cold calculating machine who is highely skilled at magic not through natural talent simply through endless hour of hard practice. Despite her disdain for Meg, the two finish us working together oft to fend off other contenders for the throne. The show is about 1000000 coming to realize that her emotional attachments to the human world, and all it's problems are really important to her, and that through that she can reach into her virtues. The show was notorious for adding eroticism, night comedy, and dark storylines to the MG genre."

Equally I mentioned, Majokko Megu-Chan introduced much more serious topics. Her most recurring foe was Chou the debauchee, and the show dealt with diplomacy, substance corruption, and domestic abuse. It was still a one-act, though the jokes more nearly mundane nature so but the usage of magic for hjinxs.

Another example of the shift in tone and themes in Magical Girl serial is the long-lived Cutey Love Series in 1973, probably the first case of a Magical Girl Warrior series and the commencement Magical Girl series aimed at males… not at younger males either.

Cutey Beloved was made by the famous Become Nagai who made Devilman and Mazinger Z. It tells the story of a normal schoolgirl who finds out she's an android and can change in the starting time of the Magical Girls' infamous nude transformation sequences into Cutey Honey, warrior of justice and fights the international criminal offence organization Panther Claw.

The serial, especially originally, had lots of hyper-violence similar cutting people's heads off and lots of sex comedy similar how literally the first chapter has Dear's entire class wanting to strip her down, how her instructor is a dominatrix who punishes her students with whipping, or how one of the early on villain groups is a agglomeration of lesbian rapists (I'thousand not kidding….)

The anime was censored only notwithstanding contained much of the eroticism and violence. Cutey Honey was too notorious for starting an archetype that Meg would exist a part of i yr later. While they remained substantially perfect heroes in terms of capacities, pretty much e'er being larger than life figures, Cutey Honey was not the paragon of virtue that say Sally the Witch was, often teasing and mocking her opponents and tricking them in combat. Interestingly Honey resembles more the 60s style of Magical Girl in her civilian country, Honey Kisaragi, but becomes the most mischievous, teasing way in her transformed country.

Cutey Beloved caused a very odd reception. It got respectable ratings in general and it was well liked by its target demographic, but what was interesting was it got a higher than projected reception from immature females. This seemed the first indication to how versatile the MG genre was.

Why was it and so well-liked? I wasn't alive at the time, so can merely really conjecture and employ what little info I can detect. However, the appeal isn't so odd if you think about it. Cutey Dear is a skillful wish fulfillment fantasy. She'south a sugariness, kind girl who everyone adores, all the other girls think is super cute, is a good daughter and normal citizen just transforms at night into the sexy clever-speaking fast-thinking warrior of justice. Really…it sounds kind of fun. Plus, she gets to transform into other forms and basically play dress-upwardly. Plainly, the violence and the eroticism just weren't the deterrent people thought they would be.

This would probably explain why every Cutey Beloved series since the original has become more and more female-aimed, salvage for Re which doubled dorsum to the original.

A lesser talked most the 70s Magical Girls is that they began the practice of referencing each other and the tropes they had made. A customs began being formed of people who enjoyed these strange disparate shows that seemed linked by concepts of feminity and magic.

80s Magical Girls: The Classical Mahou Shoujo Classic

Of all the decades, there is none with such a drastic deviation in conception in Magical Daughter then the 70s and 80s. That said, I feel it can be exaggerated to be fifty-fifty larger than it was. Magical Girls in the tardily 70s had begun to reel in the more farthermost elements of their innovation and their adultness.

Esper Mami in 1977 was nearly a psychic girl solving mysteries without causing people to think she was a witch and contains nudity and adult themes but it notably…. "calmer" and then the likes of Megu-Chan and Cutey Honey, being much more than contemplative and depression-central.

The 1980s divers what the popular formulation of what a Magical Girl is for the side by side 30 years, for better or worse.

The before office of the decade was defined past 1 studio, that existence Studio Pierrot. They produced four of the 12 Magical Daughter anime to come out during the decade in Nippon which was already a very loftier corporeality to make (it's an even higher corporeality when you realize a few of the 12 that weren't theirs were not actually aired on television like theirs), merely their style proved so pop that their properties substantially dominated the decade, and their properties were almost the merely ones during the mid part of the decade. If you are wondering their series were:

Magical Angel Creamy Mami

Magical Fairy Persia

Magical Star Magical Emi

Magical Idol Pastel Yumi

What is the cause of their success? Pierrot had basically 2 strategies:

1: Toy Deals: Near companies earlier this fabricated blitheness cheaply and presently because they needed to essentially fund it upfront. While companies had done toy deals before, Pierrot realized the untapped potential and done lots of toy deals which could be used to fund better blitheness and longer series across multiple networks. This is partly the explanation why it'south really difficult to watch and find copies of any MG series from the 60s and 70s, merely MUCH easier to watch 80s series which were essentially e'er running.

2: A Clean Make Image: Turns out certain parenting deals weren't fond of their daughters watching the more risqué elements of the 70s MG serial, which might be partly why they become calmer in the later part of the 70s. Studio Pierrot ran ads depicting themselves equally the moral, clean visitor whose Magical Girls were upright citizens and skillful office models.

The combination of these 2 drastically focused Pierrot's creativity to make a series that could be maintained a while also never causing whatsoever controversy. The 80s Magical Girl series were even cleaner and brighter than the 60s series (I hateful one episode of the original Sally the Witch has Sally attend a party in Hell where her grandfather Satan and her male parent are bickering and she has to solve information technology over or Hell volition intermission autonomously). They were similar to Silvery Age Superman stories under the Comics Lawmaking, for the near part lots of i-shots with magic deus ex machina powers and wholesome life lessons. I really do have to commend the writers at Pierrot for giving their girls plenty personality to exist clearly distinguishable under the restrictions they were working nether.

The genre was really cemented in the 80s. This was the first decade of the Magical Daughter crossover with multiple magical girls fighting with each other, if only because their shared owner under big companies, probably coming to an noon in the 1988 movie "Majokko Club Yoningumi A-kūkan kara no Alien X" which had Pierrot crossover their 4 Magical Girl protagonists to fight an extradimensional conflicting on the moon. It's as dizzy as it sounds. Pierrot, ingeniously also put out commericals and mag ads of the girls interacting, creating a small inner universe. Their marketing squad wasn't paid enough. This was also the generation where Magical Girls started showing upward internationally with series such equally "She-Ra: Princess of Power", "Rainbow Brite" and "Jem and the Holograms". These serial actually seemed to share much with the Pierrot girls, although from what I can tell seemed to take a slightly larger historic period range in mind.  One of the thematic elements that became really cemented in this generation was the connection of Magical Girls with transforming, with most of the girls turning into older versions of themselves when using their magic.

The public perception of what a Magical Girl is was basically an 80s Magical Girl upward until the early 2010s. Ultra-beautiful and innocent, with barely whatever sign of "real" disharmonize and moral lessons in every episode

In the same way that the above was a mixed bag, Studio Pierrot's contribution on the genre was a mixed bag to most MG fans. Not until the early 1990s would Studio Pierrot'southward control of the genre lighten up, equally their animes' influence continued into the early 1990s. It restricted the genre into a tight niche, simply at the aforementioned fourth dimension kept a relative monopoly on that niche with their content.

At the end of the 1980s were several series made to ape the Pierrot'south way equally Pierrot'southward competitors cut their losses and imitated the Studio. It would seem that nothing could stop information technology.

1990s: The Magical Girl Renaissance

1991, a immature female mangaka sits downwardly to write a manga about beautiful girls in space, reworking from the original version of the script by fusing it with Sentai Elements. It is published weekly in Nayakoshi Mag and becomes an almost hit, changing not merely the Magical Girl genre, only anime and fifty-fifty popular culture and art as a whole.

The mangaka'southward name is Naoko Takeuchi, and the manga is called "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon".

Sailor Moon is a series about the soldiers of the ancient Moon Kingdom, wielding the powers of the planets, dying and existence reincarnated on Earth to boxing the forces of Anarchy.

Without a incertitude in my mind, the biggest contribution Sailor Moon had to the Magical Girl genre was the development of Usagi as a character.

Before Usagi Magical Girl protagonists were, in western terms, either Superman or Bugs Bunny. A perfect paragon of virtue, or a good-hearted cool-tempered trickster. Usagi….wasn't either of those. She was a clumsy, bookdumb, gluttonous, lazy, uncool, uncultured everygirl.

I have seen online some attempts by non-SM fans to attempt and describe the central appear of SM that were merely sad. The entreatment of SM is something you lot can see from the showtime episode or chapter if you take it on face up that it is something worth analyzing. It's non something you take to exist a teenager to understand. Information technology'due south non something you accept to be Japanese to understand. Information technology's not something yous have to be a daughter to empathize. It'south the same appeal that fabricated Spider-Man, Luke Skywalker, Neo, Emmet, and every other common person hero archetype appealing.

Sailor Moon said "I know what yous think of yourself, I know how bad you feel about yourself…just y'all are a beautiful, potent, intelligent person and can be a hero"

The very beginning of Sailor Moon is Usagi's mom mentioned that Sailor V, the heroine has caught criminals and that her daughter is zero similar her. A clever joke in-universe but also a metafictional annotation nearly what Magical Girls before Usagi were compared to this new Heroine.

If I tin can be existent, one of my favorite things virtually Sailor Moon is it's faith in the reader, the teen girl who picks it up. Naoko presents a very complex narrative with deep allusions and themes of philosophy, politics, religion, scientific discipline, and mysticism. It'due south so heartening when you lot see a young fan of SM so proud of what they understand in the earth of Sailor Moon and so eager to acquire more than almost what they read. It treated the young female audience that had been pandered to with overtly unproblematic narratives like real homo beings capable of circuitous thoughts and emotions and they eagerly leapt at it.

Crewman Moon's influence and popularity are hard to overstate. It was probably the commencement Magical Daughter anime to get massive international popularity and was the showtime Magical Girl Goddess, a title of the most popular Magical Girl series with some combination of the following characteristics:

i: The main girl attains at least a semi-divine or catholic state past the terminate

2: The series is pop on a global scale

iii: The series has fans specific to information technology alone, and from it introduces outsides to the MG genre.

4: Causes massive influence on the genre afterwards information technology

Most MG fans, even if they dislike ane of the Goddesses, which does happen at times, at least respect them for bringing so many into the MG fandom.

After Sailor Moon the game had changed drastically, with Magical Girl series no longer trying to appeal to the parents of immature girls, but to the young girls themselves, ofttimes involving many girls in ane series following SM's archetypes, especially the everygirl principal girl, which became as allegorical of the genre as the 80s Magical Girl plot construction. Also due to merely how insanely popular and profitable SM proved, at that place was a MASSIVE surge in series count in the 90s, going from a dozen or so in the 70s and 80s each to 31. In that location was more Magical Girl series released in the 90s then every year before the 90s put together. Inspired by SM'southward massive divergence from 80s Magical Girl structure, the 90s Magical Girls were exceedingly disparate and varied, cartoon inspiration from every source under the Sun. It was a true renaissance, the Magical Girl genre rose in prominence in the Anime fandom to being a respected genre, no longer just toy marketing for little girls, but instead an often poetic and artful narrative form.

Ane of the most successful of the new breakout groups was Studio CLAMP, a team of all-women who had gone from making doujinshi of Saint Seiya and Captain Tsubasa to creating their own manga, and are famed in the anime/manga customs for their cute artwork and plot complexity.

In 1993 they created the Magical Girl Series Magic Knight Rayearth, inspired by Fantasy RPGs. It was heavily well-acclaimed, and contains many of Clamp's tragic elements while still ultimately being an optimistic serial. Despite its amazing reception among Magical Daughter fans, information technology didn't get that much main attention, although the reception and hardcore following would cause Clamp to attempt again in the few years.

Stuff in the intermediate years got very mixed reception, and there was for a while nix that got universal acclaim. With the huge diversification of styles, people were able to find Magical Daughter series, for the first time, that really spoke to their particular want. Amidst the ones that did go some level of real acclaim for themselves were 1994 Wedding ceremony Peach, a serial unfairly characterized every bit being a Sailor Moon clone and whose popularity was enough to be considered a rival to Sailor Moon briefly, as well equally 1995 Saint Tail, Magical Girl Robin Hood which similar to Magic Knight Rayearth never got massive fame simply was critically acclaimed equally beingness one of the cutest things ever fabricated and as well for incorporating western elements well.

Then came 1996, which changed everything in the genre again.

1996 Clamp tried once again with a serial based around a young girl who because of her heritage goes effectually capturing malevolent spirits in cards. Information technology was called Cardcaptor Sakura.

The birth of the 2nd of the Magical Girl Goddesses was definitely the concluding harbinger to point to people that it was a golden age of Magical Girls. Cardcaptor Sakura was a Neo-Classical Series, and arguably started the second one-half of the Magical Girls' renaissance'south Neo-Classical era. Cardcaptor Sakura is a Magical Daughter series made in the original 60s style, just with elements drawn from the 70s, 80s, and 90s to create a beautiful hybridization.

Cardcaptor Sakura more than anything is such a beautifully optimistic, hopeful series much like the main character. Information technology is probably the superlative of the MG Genre'due south hope and optimism, anybody in CCS is a good person deep down, and hope can always prevail confronting despair. Of the Magical Daughter Goddesses, CCS is easily the i least disliked, the one with the least amount of haters and criticism, and the that makes even jaded onetime anime reviewers and critics awwwwwww at the cuteness.

It was also from a marketing standpoint, accented genius. It took the collector aspects of shows similar Yu-gi-oh and Pokemon and added the cuteness of the Magical Girl genre.

With two Magical Girl Goddesses, there was as you might imagine some partition in the MG customs almost who was best between SM and CCS, emphasized by their Modernism and Neo-Classicism respectively. Sailor Moon was the series looking to the futurity of the genre, while CCS represented everything good nigh the MG past. They were very different in experience also. Reading Crewman Moon feels similar being in a bully big warm ocean, feeling the waves coming from distant parts, and swimming through, feeling the connection of everything around you, all life and the universe. Reading Cardcaptor Sakura inversely is similar gliding along on a gentle air current, admiring the beauty of the landscape and the people down below, and feeling your spirit lifted from the concrete toil. Their fandom rivalry could be quite intense, although for the most function people were content to simply alive and let live.

Likewise in 1996 was another series that people like to talk about Revolutionary Girl Utena. RGU was a deconstruction of Magical Girls as well every bit narratives aimed at women, and femininity equally a concept in general, founded in the feminist boom in Japan in the 90s.

I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of RGU like a lot of people are. I merely find most of its criticisms are things that other MG series already idea of and considered. Similar at that place is a joke nearly the transformation scene (please note: mocking the transformation scene is the nearly overdone joke most Magical Girls that yous can do, Sailor Moon mocked in the same year in the anime with a monster getting bored and doing her makeup during it. Information technology's not original anymore.) where Utena walks up this giant set of stairs and she gets to the top and she has similar a single shoulder pad and that'southward her transformation and it's a joke considering she barely transformed.

Or the big themes of the series like in the movie the big moral is that someone who is a good prince for the princess herself, who devotes himself to her, isn't devoting to the kingdom, and what's skilful for the people as a whole isn't what'southward good for the princess. THAT WAS ALSO DONE IN Sailor MOON! Princess Placidity wanted the Prince to be her prince rather than World's prince and that led to the destruction of World and Moon. Majokko 1000000 fabricated a bespeak almost this back in the 70s, when she realizes she can't pick any of the boys on Earth because she doesn't know how well they would serve equally rex of Witch World. Besides, it has lesbians. Wow…..again Cutey Love and Meg-Chan had those in the mid-70s. Depends how y'all interpret certain people freaking Sally the Witch might have had that.

Not liking RGU is probably my most controversial opinion about pop civilisation, right higher up liking the DCEU.

1996 was also the yr of Shamanic Princess, arguably the precursor to Madoka, which I highly recommend cause it's super cool.

The Magical Girl Renaissance tin can be roughly divide up into 2 parts, the Golden Age starting with Sailor Moon, and the Argent Age starting with Cardcaptor Sakura.

The Silvery Age of Magical Girls was less about the sheer innovation and creativity of the Golden Age and more nigh refinement, nigh taking the pieces of earlier Magical Girl generations and putting them together in different means. Information technology goes from 1997 on into the 2000s.

1998 had the return of Studio Pierrot with their fifth and final MG series, Magical Phase Fancy Lala, which I am distressing to have never seen with the early Pierrot girls in their crossovers and commercials together.

1999 also had Ojaremi Doremi, which was 60s fashion Cute Witches, but in a rainbow-colored squad that had go popular in the 1990s. It is currently the well-nigh popular cute witch series to take been made but has gotten recent contest that I will go as well later.

2000s: The Plateau and Fall of the Magical Girl Genre

There is a really simplistic notion that the first half of the 2000s were a skillful time for the MG Serial, an historic period onto itself, while the after half was the infamous dark historic period of the MG Genre. The truth is not that elementary.

The Silver Age of the Magical Girl Age Renaissance continued to about 2002. There was a very brief and foreign era I like to call the "Fire Age" of Magical Girls extending for the first few years subsequently 2002, competing with The Dark Age that started to take concur at 2002, and would continue to haunt the genre to the end of the decade.

The first few years of the 2000s were business organisation equally usual for the Magical Girl genre. Some of the more than iconic series of the Silverish Age appeared in this timeframe including in the year 2000 both Tokyo Mew Mew, basically Sailor Moon ten Captain Planet, and Pretear which is a Reverse Harem of Elemental Knights giving principal girl elemental powers, both of which were both relatively pop and well-received.

2002 was the turning year and the end of the Silverish Age. And it surely went out with a bang. That was the year Full Moon wo Sagashite came out. Full Moon is a series about a lilliputian girl with throat cancer and but is given magical powers that allows her to alive her dream of being an idol singer. It's quite the emotional rollercoasters of a series and probably a sign of the genre'south maturing….for better or worse.

Likewise in 2002 was Princess Tutu which is an absolutely GORGEOUS series about Fairy Tale and Legend and is merely astonishing. Again amazing reception, and adequately popular as well like to Full Moon.

There was as well Mermaid Tune Pichi Pichi Pitch, a story of 7 Mermaid Princesses transforming into Magical Girls that is more than immature, but I think is underrated and was generally not given attention due to having competition as violent as the above ii series.

Then there was 2003, and things were clearly different. Merely 3 MG serial came out that yr, compared to the 7 in 2002. These included:

Kamichara Karin: Story about a little girl finding out she's a goddess. Big unknown, hard to discover whatsoever discussion about this series cause it'due south not very well known.

Lingerie Senshi Papillion Rose: A Sex One-act parodying Crewman Moon, rather brusk

Mahou Shoujo Ai: A Hentai

Welcome to the Dark Age of Magical Girls. The about frequently speculations about its cause was that  people were watching shows more than and more often on the net and not on tv set, that the age that had grown upward with MG had grown upward and weren't buying MG toys, and that they had grown so successful that the companies grew too confident and were trying to appeal to every demographic with pandering nonsense.

The Dark Age of Magical Girls has information technology'southward own sections with slightly different traits but what is consistent is dark material not in the vein of the 70s and early 90s but clearly just for shock value, a sheep drop in the number of MG series that weren't hentai or ecchi, pandering to every demographic, and dumb stupor value stunts.

Funnily enough in that location was another age that was competing with the Night Age for a fourth dimension. From 2004 to 2006 during the Dark Age, there was another age going on meantime, what I call the "Fire Age". I call it this because it was like a fire in the dark, and because of the material of the shows comprising it.

Let me say three shows that appeared in 2004:

Futari Wa Pretty Cure: A show made with the aid of the animation designer of DBZ Kai and Saint Seiya Omega, Futari Wa Pretty Cure was originally essentially a 90s Magical Daughter series starring Magical Girl Duo Cure White and Cure Black with increased yuri, and with a for more than physical kinetic style of combat and with an emphasis on passion. It would go along to spawn a new season EVERY SINGLE Twelvemonth because Toei is relentless, condign essentially the Magical Girl Ability Rangers with new MG, villains, and plots every year.

Magical Daughter Lyrical Nanoha: Young Daughter Nanoha goes out looking for MG powers and gets it before joined up with the Time-Space Assignment Bureau (TSAB) to patrol the dimensions as Magical Girl Officer "White Devil" Nanoha Takamachi. Notably for incorporating elements of Mecah and Shonen and for existence incredibly hot-blooded.

Mai-Hime: Young Daughter finds herself transferred to a prestigious academy only to get sucked up in the mysteries of the academy, leap to a partially mechanics, partially spiritual entity leading herself to high-scale battles with loftier-applied science.

Basically, Magical Girls with a penchant for physicality and hot-bloodedness, willing to appeal to

boys, fending off the dark age of Magical Girls for a few years.

On the other manus, 2004 was as well the year Crossprayers came out, the Magical Daughter serial that spawned the meme "But is it worse than Crossprayers?" to depict it's convoluted daze value nonsense.

2006 was probably the terminal year of the Burn Age of Magical Daughter Series with the surprisingly sweet serial Shugo Chara coming out. Shugo Chara is about Amu Hinamori, using her guardian characters, aspects of her personality to protect people. Back in the day, I remember well everyone though Shugo Chara would exist the side by side big affair and bring u.s. out of the Nighttime Age, simply it's hype died down actually quickly equally Shugo Chara devolved into endless romantic subplots, which was unfortunate. A lot of MG fans are conscientious to bespeak out when a series seems to be doing the same things Shugo Chara was doing before information technology's decline to on-going series.

Later 2006, came the worst of the Dark Historic period. Absolutely terrible ecchi and hentai of MG came out as well as absolutely terrible MG spin-offs of other not MG related serial. MG serial were grimdark a lot of the time, and the series capitalized on what was essentially torture porn of watching footling girls be made sad by the darkness of life. Years would take only almost 5-six MG series come out each year which made the bad stuff more prominent. 2008 was probably the apex and worst year for MG serial, a yr in which nothing good came out save the annual Pretty Cure Season (I have IMMENSE respect for Pretty Cure even outside it's length just for being the one constant proficient in the Dark Historic period). 2007 at to the lowest degree had Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angels which wasn't speculator and was a bit fanservice-y, but was cute enough.

By 2009 people had started getting aware of this tendency and started actively lampooning it which was fun only too started lampooning the whole MG genre as a joke….

The idealistic dream of years by was gone, and the genre had become cynical. Magical Girl serial due their best when the creators behind them are optimistic, and do their worst when their creators are cynical

2010s: The Rainbow after the Storm

2010 was an interesting twelvemonth for Magical Girl series. While information technology had the horror of Magical Girl Isuka, probably my most disliked piece of fiction…always, Pretty Cure released Heartcatch Pretty Cure, my favorite Pretty Cure, and ofttimes the nearly popular one on poles.

Possibly we were all biased from what we had come out of, but the MG fans loved Heartcatch. Heartcatch had a notable theme of people being freed from despair and cynicism, and featured one of the most epic MG rivalries of all time: Cure Moonlight vs Dark Cure, the symbols of promise and despair.

2010 was also the year a agglomeration of studio heads at Gainax got drunk and came up with the idea of a western-inspired serial filled with filthy humour that would be, of all things, a magical daughter serial! And then Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt was built-in. A serial that essentially played with everything wrong with the Nighttime Age. While the average MG of the Dark Age was an overtly innocent and naïve picayune girl to make the dissimilarity all the more shocking, Panty and Stocking were crude swearing sinful and annihilation just naïve. Instead of a series of constant plot twists, P&S is a series of episodic comedies, and the violence is diddled so hyper that it can no longer exist taken even remotely serious (such as how the Angels hit a monster and it a clay figure of it representing it just blows up). One common fic of that fourth dimension I can recall was having the Angels beat upwards any sadistic villain that the writer didn't like of the last few years, all while cussing them out and generally not caring about the "shocking" things.

However, both of those, while being heavily influential, were non every bit influential as what came out in 2011.

In 2010 ads came out for a new Magical Daughter series from the infamous Gen Urobuchi, or "The Uro-BUTCHER" equally his nickname for his rather shocking tendency. Despite this "Puella Magi Madoka Magicka" seemed similar it would be a relatively normal Magical Girl Series. And certain the first two episodes in 2011 seemed a little weird, only there was nothing that shocking.

And then the infamous episode three came out and Mami got her caput eaten by a witch.

Puella Magi Madoka for the majority seems like a rather dark Magical Girl Series, but what actually stuck out to about people was it's sheer production quality, even regardless of it's amazing writing quality.

There had been never been an MG series with this much imagery in the artwork, save mayhap Clench. The Witches' labyrinths in particular were incredible visual treats. Only if that was the thing that brought us in, information technology was the themes that kept us in that location

There'due south a point in Madoka where Homura says:

"With kindness comes naivete. Courage becomes foolhardiness. And dedication has no advantage. If yous tin can't take whatsoever of that, you are not fit to be a magical daughter."

Homura'southward sentiments reverberate what nosotros had all begin to experience afterwards the Dark Historic period, what it had unsaid. It was this cynicism that led to the MG genre's downfall in some way. And then at the end of the series when Madoka finally gives a rebuttal to this statement by saying:

"If someone says it'southward incorrect to hope, I volition tell them that they're wrong every time."

It is a gentle reminder to the states of what it means to be a Magical Girl, the bulletin that in that location is always someone fighting with y'all, was and so resonant that for the kickoff time in 15 years a new Magical Girl Goddess was born.

The influence was huge, the sheer reignition of hope was incredible, as new life poured into the MG community, the Madoka fans joined in legion to exist MG fans just as SM and CCS did, and the fact that a new MG Goddess series could be made invigored our promise that the MG genre could reach a new renaissance.

On the negative side of Madoka'due south influence, a lot of MG serial tried to substantially copy it'due south success just as they did SM and CCS, but still they were trying to be artistic, to sue creative visuals and clever psychology and themes and writing which was then much more interesting then the Night Age "shocking" grimdarkness a few years prior. Since Madoka every twelvemonth at that place is a "Madoka-calorie-free" series that tries to be a combination of night initially and bright hopeful at the end, like 2012 Magical Girl Raising Project, 2013 Daybreak Illusion, and 2014 Yuki Yuna is a Hero. All of these are controversial as to their quality, but their controversy itself has made us all experience live and brought back fun to this.

2013 was an especially good year for Magical Girls. Beyond Daybreak Illusion, in that location was Kill la Kill a stylized MG series that while slightly controversial is generally considered absolutely awesome, a rekindling of what fabricated the Fire Historic period Smashing. Internationally Bee and Puppycat was released, an MG serial that actually proved the foreigners could make as good MG as united states of america, it admittingly starts slow but gets better and ameliorate every bit it goes.

Since 2015 the MG scene has seen a resurgence of the very bright and lively type of series. Nosotros've had serial like 2016's Flip-Flappers with it'due south clearly Miyazaki-esque imagery and love of life, and nosotros have had 2017'southward Little Witch Academia, the new big Beautiful Witch series that rivals Ojaremi Doremi for the title of all-time Cute Witch series. Internationally since 2015 we've seen Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir from France and Star versus the Forces of Evil from the United States, both highly optimistic and lively series with the astounding animation that the foreign companies have the resources to make, the latter is very good. Haven't seen the former yet but heard expert things almost it. Also the other ii Goddess are dorsum AHHHH! Sailor Moon Crystal and Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc. New SM and CCS Textile, it'southward astonishing! Now all we need is Madoka to become that next movie to burnish upward after the catastrophe of Rebellion.

The current MG scene is a lively and colorful mixture of the past ages, but is clearly a bright and optimistic scene.

Decision: Why you should watch Magical Girl Serial:

If you aren't a Magical Girl fan this next part volition be hard to understand but if you are one y'all will probably intuitively get what I hateful when I say: Magical Girls have an unmatched talent for matched the sheer vibrancy of life, the colorfulness, the energy, the passion of it. Magical Girl stories are like narrative verse, where the premises of personal and impersonal are not and so fixed, where magic and mundane become i.

When you run into the Magical Girl struggle to bring her magical and mundane selves together, it is the eternal disharmonize to bring the torso and the spirit together, to unite the base concrete reality with the ideal of our hearts, it is the blending and capture of the essences of magic and femininity; the ever-changing mysterious globe of the emotion and the boundlessness unhindered by the raw physical globe. To scout a Magical Girl Series, to love a Magical Girl Series is to connect with one's ain heart, to become one and experience no longer the struggle of body and spirit.

It is to run across the wonders of magic equally mundane, and all the mundane forces of the world as magical.

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Source: http://realdeathbattleimp.blogspot.com/2017/11/

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