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alt title(s): Mahou Kanojo 
"There's no doubt about it. Heaven sent me you."
Why did they send her over anyone else?
How should I react?
These things happen to other people.
They don't happen at all, in fact — They Might Be Giants, "She's an Angel"
She's the heart of the funfair
She's got me whistling her private tune
And it all begins where it ends
And she's all mine, my magic friend
She says: Hello, you fool, I love you
Come on join the joyride..
— Roxette, "Joyride"
Called Mahou Kanojo in Japan, this is the genre of adolescent male Wish Fulfillment, and has become rather popular in recent years.
The hero is usually a geeky loser, terribly unlucky at love. He is either unable to get a date at all, or has had his sensitive poet's heart broken by a cruel bitch who was only toying with his affections, forcing him to withdraw from all feminine companionship. Exactly how strongly this is exaggerated depends on the writers.
However, because he IS a genuinely good and kind person, fate smiles upon him — the perfect girl for him enters his life. She is beautiful, kind, domestic, and utterly and eternally devoted to him. However, she's often not exactly human by most definitions — she is a spirit, or goddess, or a robot, or an alien, or a virtual being born of an advanced computer program, or under a spell/curse, or an immortal sorceress, or some combination of any or all of the above. Sometimes the term is just metaphorical, although this is usually used in a critical way implying she's too good to be true.
Of course the path of true love never runs smoothly (especially since she loves you and everybody) but the pairing of dork and demigoddess runs into especially large bumps — usually comedic ones. Despite this and his initial misgivings, though, true love blossoms for the once-hapless hero.
Entries in this genre often come packed with generous quantities of Fanservice, but this is by no means mandatory. Sometimes it overlaps with The Unwanted Harem, but requires more Willing Suspension Of Disbelief, since her popularity is obvious.
In dramatic examples, Magical Girlfriends are ironic blessings. No matter how much she insists, she will tend to give the guy an inferiority complex about himself and being unworthy. Conversely, Magical Girlfriends often feel they cause more problems than they solve, and the guy is just putting up with them due to niceness. Of course, her family almost always gets involved; and rest assured they will get in the way as much as possible.
Magical Girlfriend series show up in shonen, but seem to skyrocket in popularity within the seinen crowd. There are a couple of shojo series too, one being Yuu " Fushigi Yuugi" Watase's Gender Flipped Magical Boyfriend series Absolute Boyfriend, another being Naoko " Sailor Moon" Takeuchi's Orphaned Series Toki*Meka in which the robot girl is intended as the "best friend" of the female protagonists.
Just as the Magical Girls genre was inspired by Bewitched, it seems likely that both that show and I Dream Of Jeannie are somewhere in the DNA of the Magical Girlfriend.
Compare and contrast with Manic Pixie Dream Girl. See Well Excuse Me Princess for when the Magical Girlfriend wakes up to how much of a geeky loser her love interest is and begins calling him on it, and Action Girlfriend is she's more action-oriented than magical.
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Examples
Anime & Manga
- Parodied in episode 8 of Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai, in which Sasshi and Arumi enter a dating-sim world in which Sasshi has to gain the stereotypical moe girl's heart. She later reveals that she is an angel that has to go back to heaven, and also an android with an unnecessarily complicated name.
- Ah My Goddess
- AI Love You, the first manga from the creator of Love Hina and Mahou Sensei Negima, was a textbook example of this, with a lightning strike bringing a lonely geek's homebrew AI (which fit on a single floppy!) to life. The early chapters heavily played on the wish fulfillment, but later ones increasingly subvert it.
- Chobits
- Video Girl Ai
- Maburaho
- UFO Princess Valkyrie
- Mahoromatic
- Sekirei where the protagonist gets himself five Magical Girlfriends and one boyfriend... sort of. It's complicated, if you count the loli.
- Steel Angel Kurumi — although the boy in question isn't geeky; he's merely a bit too young for girls yet.
- Subverted in Midori No Hibi: the guy is a tough fighter-type whose reputation frightens away girls, and the girlfriend is an ordinary girl who's always wanted him; neither knows how or why they've been, um, linked together.
- Elfen Lied, heavily deconstructed. Lucy's magic only seems to be good for exterminating humans.
- Saikano doesn't just deconstruct this trope, it mutilates it several times over and defecates on the corpse.
- Mahou Sensei Negima kind of inverts it, as Negi sort of functions as a Magical Boyfriend. Or he would, if he were old enough to reciprocate the girls' feelings.
- Played with by the Black Lagoon fandom and omake. Rock is a Japanese ex-salaryman while Revy is a sporty, free-spirited woman who comes into his life. But since it's a pulpy seinen show, "Magical Girlfriend" is defined as a Heroic Sociopath in cutoff shorts who goes around looting and shooting at people — including Rock, who was kidnapped during their introduction.
- Urusei Yatsura famously parodied the Magical Girlfriend genre back in the eighties by having the Unlucky Everydude be a slovenly pervert who likely deserves all the trouble he goes through and the alien princess a Tsundere who loves him despite his lechery, but isn't adverse to zapping him with her electrical powers when he strays. Add to this that he already had a girlfriend he liked better.
- In Kimagure Orange Road, Madoka Ayukawa could be considered Kyōsuke Kasuga's magical girlfriend, even though Kyōsuke is the one with Psychic Powers and Madoka is a Badass Normal.
- Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan, heavily subverted. Done mostly as a Crosses The Line Twice parody of the genre.
- Inukami has Keita and his magical girlfriend, Youko. Keita actively tries to assemble a harem several times throughout the series, but it fails every time. However, the Magnetic Girlfriend effect takes over, and the other Inukami grow to like him by the series' end.
- Rosario To Vampire. Moka is the First Girl in an Unwanted Harem at a Monster School. However, she's in love with Tsukune since he was the first person she sucked blood from...and continues to do so, much to his chagrin.
- While it's a totally straight example at first, it shifts away from the norm for this trope about halfway through Part I of the manga, as Tsukune starts his progression from average dork to bishonen badass.
- Feena in Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na. She's also accompanied by more traditional haremettes like Mia, Natsuki and Mai, but who played the game for them?
- From a certain point of view, Trickster Mentor Haruko from FLCL. As the series director states in supplemental materials[citation needed]: "People who are bullied don't need to put any effort into being bullied... effortless communication. The maid-boom is like that too, right?... It's a dream for people like me. People who have to put effort into having a conversation with someone."
- Haruhi Suzumiya is, in effect, a Magical She Is Not My Girlfriend, and a subversion of the whole thing, as she epitomizes exactly what protagonist Kyon claims he doesn't want out of life. It's quite likely he's lying to himself, though.
Kyon: Looks good on you.
- Moonphase is a double subversion of this. Hapless photographer meets cute girl. She tries to kiss him, they bond magically, and then she's pissed that he still has free will, as she was looking for a servant/slave, but a few episodes later it has turned into one of these, admittedly with a very different family dynamic. (Hers keeps trying to kidnap her back or kill her.) She even gets a romantic rival.
- Happy World is a manga series that uses this trope; the protagonist is the guy who receives all the bad luck in the world, and Heaven sends an Angel to protect this person and whoever he passes on the curse to. The protagonist eventually falls in love with the Angel sent to protect him.
- The Type-Moon universe arguably has some elements of this, though it is famous for more than just that. The main heroine of every story by TypeMoon are one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, being in that particular story (Arcueid, Saber, Ryougi Shiki, The Angel (Type-Venus). However, the heroes are freaking Badass themselves (even Mikiya, kinda), they just have the limitation of being "a mere human."
- Lala of To LOVE Ru fits the criteria perfectly.
- Himari of Omamori Himari, the cat-girl samurai protector of Yuuto.
- Misaki from Welcome To The NHK is a subversion, if not a deconstruction, of the trope. The manga shows what happens when someone tries to devote themselves to a specific person because he is the only person she knows who is more pathetic than she sees herself.
- As mentioned above, gender-flipped in Yuu Watase's Absolute Boyfriend.
- Hayate could quality for this, though all of the girls interested in him are human, and the reason for him being single is because of a lesson taught to him by his first girlfriend
Fairy Tales
- There is a popular Korean tale about a man who finds a Fairy. He accidentally rips one of her fairy garments, making it impossible for her to go back home. She lives with him, and they marry, though things don't end well. This has become a subject for a couple of Korean comics.
- There is a similar Irish tale about a man who married a mermaid. He stole the red cap she needed to swim back home. After having many children with him, she finds the cap and leaves him, never to return.
- This Troper has heard it as the girl being a selkie, and the man who finds her steals her seal skin when she takes it off.
- There are many similar Shapeshifting Lover tales from all around the world.
Films
- Splash, in which an incredibly submissive mermaid is absolutely crazy about Tom Hanks. Her being a mermaid is the least implausible part of this equation.
- Subverted in Weird Science (film and series), in which two teenage geeks create their very own Magical Girlfriend, Lisa, a virtual-reality-based supermodel-type who solves all their problems for them, often with unintended results or methods, then helpfully goes away. (Despite their initial intentions for creating her, neither geek seems to have any real romantic relationship with Lisa — beyond the requisite ogling — so her "Girlfriend" status is questionable; they actually treat her more like their Cool Big Sis.)
- However, in the movie at least, one of the teenagers wakes up wearing Lisa's underwear, so it's strongly implied they've had sex. The Cool Big Sis attitude is there on the whole run of the TV series, though.
- Giselle, the fairytale princess from Enchanted. Actually ends up breaking up an existing affair in the process, a rare semi-twist. In addition, the breakup and associated hookup happen late because at first Giselle is eternally devoted to someone else, which is another rare semi-twist. These extra Love Interests hook up with each other in the end.
- Subverted in My Super Ex Girlfriend.
Literature
- Willow from Terry Brooks' Landover series is not only protagonist Ben's ideal woman (and a Green-Skinned Forest Babe, she's also essentially destined to "belong" to him. Cue "I'm not worthy" monologues and skeptic waiting for the catch.
- The catch being that their daughter turns out to be decidedly creepy and easily swayed toward evil at least for a while.
- In Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, Richard, after being dumped by the excessively demanding Rich Bitch Jessica, meets Door, who fits this trope in every way except that they never actually go out, and that she doesn't make him feel like The Load. There is a similar and simultaneous situation between Richard and Action Girl Hunter, who does make him feel like The Load, or at least, demasculinized, but doesn't appear to care. Door and Hunter somehow form a No Hugging No Kissing, Betty And Veronica situation. It's also hinted that Hunter may be a lesbian, rendering the whole thing moot.
- Arguably, the male leads in the Twilight series are Magical Boyfriends.
- Arguably? Edward is the guy all the girls want, and Bella can't go two pages without feeling unworthy.
- In parody Light Novels Haiyore! Nyarko-san
 , pair ordinary high school boy Mahiro Yasaka with Nyarko, none other than Nyarlathotep in disguise. Fortunely, this is parody with Romantic Comedy theme (or "Love(craft) comedy" as it labeled) so he doesn't gone insane.
Live Action TV
- Bewitched
- I Dream of Jeannie
- The exact same plot as the Batman Beyond example was used in the fifth season Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "I Was Made To Love You", with Warren Mears' robotic "girlfriend" April.
- Interestingly this happens in Sabrina the Teenage Witch too, except that it's gender flipped. Sabrina cooks up a temporary date out of man dough to take her to the dance when Harvey goes with Libby. He loves Sabrina, but he also loves everything and everyone. Libby ends up dumping Harvey for him as Harvey won't dance. Interestingly, in this situation the one who ISN'T the "Magical (Girl/Boy)friend" in this case is the one with the magical powers. The man dough guy qualifies by not being human, and by being totally into Sabrina.
- Strange Western example: Star Trek The Next Generation had Picard meet, and have to give up, a woman initially being transported as "cargo" possessed of the power to become anyone's Magical Girlfriend.
- Previously done in Red Dwarf, with a GELF (Genetically Engineered Life Form) that telepathically takes the form of the perfect mate of whoever sees it. Kryten had a female android of an advanced model, Rimmer had a female hologram that was just as nerdy and unsuccessful, Lister had a female scouser who had more in common with his female self than his canon girlfriend, Kochanski and the Cat had... himself. In the end, she reveals herself to be a giant green blob of snot. Kryten takes her out to dinner, dancing and a movie, then loses her to her husband, another green blob of snot. And the whole thing is played as a homage to Casablanca.
- Which is itself a parody of the Star Trek The Original Series pilot episode, "The Man Trap". The antagonist in it similarly uses telepathy to make it appear the perfect mate to anyone who sees it... and then kills them by draining all the salt out of them. It too turns out in the end to be a hideous green monster, albeit a humanoid one.
- On December 23, 2008, there was a New Year special called Nada Fofa (translation: "Not That Cute") on the Brazilian channel Rede Globo. In that case, it's a Gender Flip and the "girlfriend" is actually a large pink plush chicken which annoys the heck out of the main character.
Music
- Alan O'Day's Undercover Angel is a story where he sings about how he was crying in his bed because he didn't have a woman when an amazing woman suddenly appeared. They do all sorts of amazing things together, but she has to leave him. However, if he goes around picking up women, eventually he will see her again in the eyes of one of his future lovers.
Mythology
- Medea from Greek mythology, who betrayed her kingdom and killed her brother out of devotion to Jason and then became his bodyguard and hitman. After hooking up with her, Jason apparently stood back and let her handle all the monsters, giant living statues, and enemy kings with her magic. And then he dumped her for a normal, beautiful princess and was surprised when she wouldn't stand for that... What An Idiot!
Tabletop Games
- After being revised to revel in its anime roots, Teenagers From Outer Space added Magical Girlfriend as a special power available to characters. The game designers also pointed out the genre was probably inspired by I Dream Of Jeannie.
Theater
- The musicals I Married an Angel and One Touch of Venus. Neither show is well-known today, no thanks to the movie versions, which are two rather bad cases of Adaptation Decay.
Web Comics
- Done straight in El Goonish Shive, where the human-alien-squirrel hybrid Grace is the devoted lover of the classic geek Tedd, who is also very much into shapeshifting of all kinds. Grace is also The Woobie.
- Haruna Kurahashi from Experimental Comic Kotone.
- Lampshaded in Not Quite Daily Comic here.
- Subverted in Sluggy Freelance, in which Oasis (an ultracompetent gymnastic killer who may or may not be an android) is the very much unwanted Magical Girlfriend of Torg, who is pretty much a loser in most respects but does have a real (and reciprocated) love interest. This is made more interesting because Oasis has certain aspects of The Woobie as well.
- The whole question of whether or not Oasis is an android has pretty much been removed by recent evidence suggesting that she's actually a spectral entity. Still, it's something the main characters haven't entirely figured out just yet.
- A similar (both are written by Shapeshifter / Gender Bender fans and have a lot of thematic crossover) comic The Wotch stars (generally) demure witch Anne whose close male friend Robin gets the camera for most storylines. Another friend would be involved with a genie, if he could. And just as Robin is moving on from Anne, he gets involved with another female who also is a witch.
Web Original
- In Kumiko the Demon Girl, Ken, perpetually luckless with women, gets Kumiko, a somewhat naive and overly chipper demon, as his girlfriend. On the plus side, the sex is great and he's protected against various mystical threats around him. On the minus side, she's consuming a bit more of his soul every time they have sex and the mystical threats largely exist due to Kumiko existing. Oh, and the mystical chain connecting them prevents him from getting too far away from him, and he bears a brand on his neck of a cartoonish copy of her flashing a Victory Sign, and her naïveté constantly gets him hurt, and when his luck does change, she drives the other girls away... but then again, the sex is really, really good.
Western Animation
- Kim Possible approaches conspicuously close to this trope in Season 4, especially in Ron's mind, judging by the season premiere. Luckily Kim's personality is so far out of the norm for this role fans don't worry too much.
- Judging by the series finale, Shego might be a Tsundere example toward Dr. Drakken.
- The aptly named Batman Beyond episode "Terry's Friend Dates a Robot" plays with this idea. Terry's geeky friend Howard purchases an (illegal) human-like synthoid robot which looks like a beautiful woman, who he names Synthia and has programmed to be "totally into me". Problem is, she is scarily possessive and has superhuman strength. She nearly kills a couple of people who bully Howard and Batman has to step in. When Howard decides they should see other people, she literally explodes.
- Code Lyoko: As far as The Smart Guy Jérémie is concerned, Aelita definitely fits this trope; it was obvious to his friends he was in love with her even though he knew her only as a virtual reality artificial intelligence living in a computer. She is eventually revealed to be a human trapped in virtual form in Cyberspace, but their relationship persists (if complicated, as Jérémie predicted would happen if she started living on Earth).
- Parodied in Futurama, when Fry buys a robotic Lucy Liu to date, and his friends try to stop him with a film showing how without the struggle to impress the opposite or same sex, society would collapse.
- Jenny shows up to rescue Sheldon from bullies in My Life as a Teenage Robot. She has most of the traits; to the point where, when Jenni is tired of dating egotistical boys, and complains she needs someone sweet, Sheldon walks past and she barely notices him beyond a perfunctory hello.
- Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders. The normally carefree Shaggy and Scooby fall for a hippie nature photographer named Crystal and her Golden Retriever Amber.. Even a whole music video in the movie is Shaggy fantasizing about their future relationship. As it turns out, Crystal and her dog are alien agents sent to investigate the S.A.L.F dishes. Their idea of an Earth appearance came from TV signals picked up from an experiment in the 70's.
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