Black Magician Girl - Television Tropes & Idioms

She wields the forces of nature through her ~~cleavage~~ familiars.

The Staff Chick isn't the only Role Playing Game woman around. More often, she's accompanied by a Black Mage to offset her healing powers. They may be the same age, but that's usually about all these girls share. Where the Staff Chick is quiet, helpful, a Distressed Damsel and Friend To All Living Things, the Black Magician Girl is much more forceful in personality: a Genki Girl, Ice Queen, Tsundere, or whatnot. They're probably a Tomboy And Girly Girl, too.

Whether tomboyishly cute or stately and beautiful, the Black Magician Girl is an Action Girl who relies almost exclusively on offensive spells. She probably has a weapon just in case — usually a Simple Staff, perhaps a servicible dagger, or perhaps something more... unusual. Whatever it is, it likely doubles as a Magic Wand.

Whether having both women in the party is a flimsy attempt at casting equality or an appeal to two different fanboy preferences is unclear, but as the Grand List says, they're both probably in love with The Hero.

Note that this is a personality type. "Girl who uses attack magic" (or "African-American female magic user", if you're one of those people who doesn't read the description) is not the trope. The character has to have attack magic and a particular personality to qualify here.

Named both for the Final Fantasy "Black Mage" Class, and for the Dark Magician Girl from Yu-Gi-Oh! (known in Japan, funnily enough, as the Black Magician Girl). Not to be confused with the Dark Magical Girl. The more realistic version is Small Girl Big Gun.

Also see BlackMagicianGirl-tan. Sometimes overlaps with Hot Witch.

Examples:

Anime and Manga

Although Kagura from Inuyasha has shown herself to be very fit physically (being a demon, it comes naturally for her), she always fights using wind-using spells and magic.
A highly similar subversion to the Lunar: The Silver Star example below occurs in the .hack//tasogare no udewa densetsu anime and manga. Hotaru would be the battle mage of the group, except she's afraid to hurt the monsters. Meanwhile, the team's Staff Chick, Mireille, is scheming, outgoing and loud.
- Also highly subversive if you watch the OAV after the series: Hotaru is actually played by a boy. Of course the main male character doesn't know this, thus Hilarity Ensues. This is not the case in the manga or light novels, where Hotaru is again shown in real life, and may be one of the reasons that the Animated Adaptation is not considered canon.
Slayers's Lina Inverse.
Fatina, from the anime The Tower Of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk. She uses a large staff that resembles a cannon for nuking things with her fire magic.
Mahou Sensei Negima's Yue Ayase is the classic BMG; however, her rival is not a real Staff Chick or White Mage. Nodoka however in the last arc has dressed like a classic Final Fantasy White Mage, to complete it.
Urd from Oh My Goddess.
Kuesu from Omamori Himari.
While her naive personality is more in line with a Staff Chick, Mahoujin Guru Guru's Kukuri possesses demon summoning magic more in line with a Black Magician Girl.
What about Dark Magician Girl from Yugioh, her Japanese name IS Black Magician Girl!

Literature

Daja Kisubo from Tamora Pierce's Circleof Magic series is arguably this. And she does some wicked stuff with that staff of hers.
- Not to mention Trisana Chandler.

Video Games

Lulu (pictured above) from Final Fantasy X, of the "stately and beautiful" Ice Queen variety. Also somewhat gothy.
- And gifted with incredible power, don't forget that.
  - In early previews for FFX she was described as "the strongest female" in the series despite being a Squishy Wizard. I wonder what they meant by that.
Kyra from Phantasy Star IV, a warm and friendly sort who appoints herself Cool Big Sis to the hero.
Aika from Skies Of Arcadia defines this personality-wise, despite arguably not being the best spellcaster.
Jenna and Sheba from Golden Sun.
Arche of Tales Of Phantasia.
- As well as Rita of Tales Of Vesperia, although the two fit the trope in very different ways.
The Star Ocean series uses this. The second game gives us Celine. The fourth game gives us Lymle and Myuria. Sophia from the third game blurs the line between this and the Staff Chick.
Angela of Seiken Densetsu 3, right down to the weapon and personality.
Final Fantasy IV has Rydia, who starts out a child but undergoes a Plot Relevant Age Up. To an extent, Rydia seems generally boisterous, but this is tempered by her past as the sole survivor of her Doomed Hometown. She also isn't in love with any of the other heroes, but does serve as the unrequited love interest of Edge and comes to see Cecil as a father figure.
Touhou 's Marisa Kirisame fits this trope to a T, even if main character Reimu isn't precisely a Staff Chick. Loud, brash, and a pretty capable thief who uses her lifespan as an excuse for never returning anything she steals. Yet she's still one of the heroes of the setting, relatively speaking.
Qara in Neverwinter Nights 2. Is also The Scrappy on account of being The Rival of Deadpan Snarker and fan favourite Sand, and coming off as an arrogant brat.
Subverted in Lunar: The Silver Star. Mia Ausa, the Black Magician Girl, is the quiet, friendly, introverted one; whereas Jessica de Alkirk, ostensibly the Staff Chick, is the loud, brash one.
- Played straighter in the sequel Eternal Blue where Lemia (Mia's descendant) fits the trope by being the attack magic user and a Genki Girl while Ronfar, the healer is...um, a brash gambling guy.
Yet another subversion is Paula from Earthbound. She has the personality and looks of a Staff Chick, but uses offensive spells such as PK Fire and PK Freeze. Kumatora from Mother 3 is more in line with the trope, though.
The sprite kid Popoi from Secret Of Mana is an impulsive and energetic male version of this trope.
Gwen, an NPC in Guild Wars, is first encountered as a happy-go-lucky little girl who befriends the player in an idyllic countryside. Fast-forward eight years of game time, and she's a powerful Mesmer described as being driven primarily by hatred and anger.
- Also, Eve, the game's signature Necromancer.
Rita Mordio in Tales Of Vesperia, Tsundere in personality and the brains of the playable characters.
Female mages in Fire Emblem tend to either be Badass Bookworms or start as Staff Chicks before becoming Magic Warriors through promotion, but there are still a few true Black Magician Girls (generally thunder or fire mages), including Tiltyu from the 4th game, Nino from the 7th, and Lute from the 8th.
- Empress Sanaki from the tenth (appears in the ninth game as well, but only in cut scenes). True to the above statement, her specialty is fire magic, but she's also skilled in thunder, wind, and light... and the only fully-promoted magic-user who can't use staves. And yes, she has the personality for it, much to Sigrun's consternation.
  - She even completes the trope by being the staff chick's little sister.
Mitsuru Kirijou in Persona 3, who is one of the best magical attackers in the game.
Cierra in Riviera The Promised Land.
Chelsea from Bunny Must Die.
Millenia from Grandia II. The twist being, she's the Superpowered Evil Side of the Staff Chick, Elena.
Femme Fatale Evil Cleric Defector From Decadence Viconia from Baldurs Gate 2.
Dragon Age has Morrigan. Think of her as a basically a more badass Lulu who can shapeshift.