A Reconstruction of the Magical Girl Genre

Referring to this post here.

So anyone having some ideas on doing a reconstruction of the magical girl genre?

I'm not exactly sure what kind of reconstruction you mean, unless you mean one that is more realistic than the usual magical girl series but is more idealistic than a gritty deconstruction. The idea of the magical girl (or group of girls) needing to learn how to use their powers is interesting. I'd be curious to possibly contribute, though. I'm more of a fan of the magical girl team shows like Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure than the ones about a single magical girl fighting/using magic alone, but I like the genre in general.

Some ideas to play with would be having a magical girl who doesn't have the typical anime girl body type (so a fat magical girl), that's something I've done in my Sailor Moon fanfics, another might be making the secret identity thing easier on the girls (or single girl) by having someone else who isn't magical be in on the secret, like a helpful secret keeper or have her identity not be secret at all and be like a local famous superheroine.

edited 27th Mar '11 6:37:36 AM by Rainbow

Yup, that's what I'm looking for. I'm planning to show a message that being a Magical Girl isn't such a bad thing after all after the horrors Madoka pulled at us. More realistic than most of the Magical Girl series out there but more idealistic than the usual darker deconstruction. I was thinking if using high school girls as the main heroines is a fresh idea, since most of the girls in any Magical Girl series (with a few exceptions such as Cure Moonlight in Heartcatch Precure) are either in elementary school (Cardcaptor Sakura and Nanoha, I'm looking at you) or in middle school (Sailor Moon, most of the girls in the Precure series, Madoka) and it's also a good way of showing the realities they are stuck with as teenagers in a stage of facing the harsh reality of the workings of the adult world.

And yes, the main heroine lives in a messed up family; her father is a reporter having to find new stories to put on the local news, her mother works as a manager in a company trying to be promoted, her older brother is a lawyer fresh out of university and is feeling the pressure of the high expectations of his parents and his boss, and finally the main heroine is The Unfavorite in the family since her parents look up to her brother and is lacking the attention of her parents. To counter with the bitter truth she finds comfort in reading manga of her favourite mangaka as a means of escaping reality. Until she is met upon the chance of being a Magical Girl, that is.

edited 27th Mar '11 6:54:37 AM by MrHollowRabbit

That idea sounds interesting to me, especially the thing about her being a fan of magical girl manga. I'd personally hope she gets some teammates, but it's okay if she doesn't. What kind of powers would she have? Her magical girl name? Enemies? Or are those things you're looking to have help on? If there were any teammates, it could be interesting to have one who hated fantasy stories because she thought they were too unrealistic and unscientific, and she might try to scientifically analyze her powers. That could be part of the reconstruction, showing that magical girl powers can be scientifically analyzed but without falling into the They Would Cut You Up trope. Or scientists could be interested but they wouldn't be evil scientists so they would make sure their methods are humane since they might be targeted by the enemies too and wouldn't want to mess that up (because if you incapacitate someone who's trying to rescue you, you'd end up in more trouble!).

One thing that is common in magical girl shows is an enemy who is directly trying to cause unhappiness in people. One way to make that more realistic and less of a silly villain idea would be to make their powers be more like causing clinical depression and suicidal thoughts in their victims, unless that would be too dark. The magical girls could heal the victims somewhat, in that they wouldn't be having those feelings and thoughts poured into them, but the victims wouldn't necessarily recover completely because they might still remember having felt that way and it would still affect them. So it could be more realistic than just being healed into happiness but not completely depressing.

edited 27th Mar '11 7:18:12 AM by Rainbow

Try having injuries actually linger, and show her learning to avoid/block things that would injure her, instead of taking Divine Busters head-on.

Have it shown that collateral damage is incurred, and so she attempts to finish fights quickly and efficiently.

edited 29th Dec '11 5:39:36 PM by BetsyandtheFiveAvengers

Teamwork. No seriously, anyone who's been part of any sort of fighting force will tell you that good teamwork makes things infinitely easier. For bonus points this is also a moral in a number of magical girl shows and it works in real life.

Already wrote you some advice on the other thread.

About the military, you could make it that these enemies are only able to be harmed by supernatural weapons/attacks and blatantly state and show it, like having someone try to shoot the enemies and have the bullets just go through harmlessly, bounce off, or even make the villains say "Tee hee, that tickles!" That way, the military wouldn't be able to just do the magical girls' job for them. Something similar could happen with bombs, although those would be more likely to also injure/kill bystanders so that would be more dangerous (although someone could suggest it and it could be discussed or even attempted).

edited 27th Mar '11 10:53:03 AM by Rainbow

I have to ask, why are there two different threads on this topic?

edited 27th Mar '11 7:44:44 PM by nrjxll

Thank you so much for the ideas! I was not able to reply you all since I'm in school the entire day and I didn't get the chance to reply them, though I did have some time reading them using the school PC. Based on the Magical Series I've seen so far, I was thinking of using Tarot Motifs as a major idea. (CCS did go into that, but they only picked one or two from the Major Arcana Deck; this one is going all out, even using the Minor Arcana as a major part of the story.)

One more thing: I need a title for this story. And if you want to add the name of the main heroine like all magical girl series do, her name's Reiko. Apparently I want to substitute the word 'Magical Girl' into something else, but let me do that myself.

edited 28th Mar '11 7:04:38 AM by MrHollowRabbit

Reiko, eh? Anyway, I too am working on something like this, only it has lots of dark elements yet still maintains a very idealistic outlook (heroine has the power to rot and decay things, death is irreversible, collateral damage is always an issue, yet her family and friends are very supportive).

Did you read my advice in the other thread?

Yes I did. All I need to do now to list down the things that are deconstructed and then reconstruct it to make the results less dark, while still keeping it realistic as I go along.

I'm busy these past few days, I probably need more time to get it done.

Don't woprry I am sure you will do great job . If you need help don't hesitate to ask me!

I actually wrote a 12 chapter story on this premise (actually want to go back and give it a second pass after i find someone to read it and give comments on elements that need to be better elaborated or changed)

Some highlights Opens with a boy who is training in magic A is Magic A Martial arts and gets Drafted in the Magical girls (and T Ged) as a Substitue for a injered magical girl. Eventually helps traning the M Gs in how to fight has a magical pet/mentor obsessed with making her act like a proper girl, even if it means straight up mind rape and possession. oh and before she joined the team one of the Oni/villains killed a previous magical girl on the team in one of the most horrific means possible (soul destruction followed by a slow public disintegration over weeks) the M Gs's actually get a government check since their basically deputized there's a entire entertainment underground that use magical artifacts in a yu-gi-oh like tournament as a B-Plot. The teams wort enemy isn't the unorganized Oni but rather their magical pet/mentor who is VERY strict and controlling.

Yes. I've been intending on writing several stories that each reconstructs something, and one of them is a reconstruction of the Magical Girl Genre.

Really? About how many stories at least did you plan on and for what?

I'm actually doing one myself, but it's on a large scale.