Something about magical girls--- Am I alone?

Hopefully this isn't the wrong forum. But I just wanted out of my chest there is something about magical girls that charms me.

I have never dared to look at "straight" magical girl show. But despite the fact that I am your average dragon ball z fan. There is something that charms me. (I have only seen and liked Madoka Magica and Princess Tutu. Both in the Deconstruction side of the trope.)

Name it Winx Club and WITCH (western examples) or sailor moon (I simply love the intro music). There is something I love about them but I don't know why. Given that I am not a girl and (girls like to imagine themselves as them . But at the same time I don't dare to watch a straight magical girl show

Minus the Fanservice/ only transformations. The transformation sequences are beautiful imo and the whole concept is gorgeous. A mundane girl that gets power through a trasnformation trinket and becomes and idealised version of themselves is brilliant.

Even two original stories I wrote were magical girl stories (and I am not even a fan of any straight magical girl show).

Paradoxically I can admit I [love colored ponies in Real Life But magical girls not lol. For some reason I can't explain this love I have for them kinda like a forbiden love (wierd I know)

Thanks for listening. I hope I am not alone on this one

edited 24th Dec '11 1:39:38 AM by FallenLegend

Can't say I've much time for them, myself. They're cartoons, but minus the stuff I like in cartoons.

Well theres Nanoha which is more mecha and less magical girl, despite there being little mecha.

Also I dont see the appeal of Madoka at all. I dont know why its a phenomenon .

I don't have anything against them and I don't really see why you are worried. They are just a form of schlocky and ultimately meaningless media. If you like them, there's nothing wrong with that; if you don't, that's equally OK. I don't see what the big deal is. I personally don't watch them because they are shows for young girls and I much prefer media which challenges my world view and allows me to grow as a person.

Madoka's a phenomenon because it's a brilliantly pulled, brutal deconstruction of the genre. It's more appealing to people who're more experienced with it, and who, thus, have more of their assumptions broken by it.

(In a few hours I have to be back in the base, and here I am, talking about Madoka on the internet... I hate myself and love myself so much)

Why not actually try a traditional Magical Girl show like one of the 5 Precure continuities? Hands down last year's Heartcatch Precure is the best,a bit darker than most and a personal fav.

edited 24th Dec '11 11:19:34 AM by Raso

Straight Magical Girl shows are kind of a rarity anymore. There're a couple, though.

I haven't seen Madoka and if I ever do, I'm not doing so til after it's dubbed. I'm not that big a weaboo, thanks.

Wouldn't this be better suited to the manga and anime forums?

I thought Precure was supposed to be more action-oriented than most of them.

Yeah, probably.

I still dont see how a deconstruction makes something good.

I just saw a grimdark magical girl show.

Maybe its the same reason why Evangelion doesn't impress me. My favorite moments of Evangelion are when its actually more optimistic, like in SRW.

IMO it's because Madoka makes it serious business. It's not a happy go around cute action series that only cares about routinely fighting crimes or villains. It doesn't ignore the consequences.

Bright and optimistic does not mean that a series ignores consequences, honestly.

Anyway, I'm not completely sure what the OP actually meant.

edited 24th Dec '11 1:55:15 PM by ThatHuman

Thats a very shallow and incorrect stereotype of the magical girl genre.

Magical Girl isnt strictly Japanese, Italy makes them too. But I can see why we might move it.

Well Precure does put a bit more priority on fights since its done from the animation director Dragonball but not nearly as much as you would think, Various series have different levels of action (Futari Wa Pretty Cure being the worst followed by Heartcatch (this ''unique'' scene is striking on that as Cure Mercury Moonlight gets to kick ass...) and the lightest would be the current Suite Precure (which has about as much action as Sailor Moon... with the Mentor Mascot actually being Sailor Moon.)

But everything else is 100% present and accounted for as it takes a Genre Aware approach and is more than willing to indulge, lampshade, twist and make fun of Magical Girl tropes and elements of their fan base. (including a Hotblooded guy (who looks something out of Go Nagai works) who draws clean precure doujins...)

It is really the only current Magical Girl series in existence in Japan the genre got flooded after Sailor Moon and kinda burnt out outside of the originators of the genre Toei.

edited 24th Dec '11 2:12:02 PM by Raso

What do you typically think of, then?

edited 31st Dec '11 10:37:58 AM by abstractematics

Nothing wrong with liking them, really, though I don't care for them myself. I always thought it was a mite paternalistically sexist (and yes, I know that Sailor Moon was created by a woman) that Sailor Moon's most powerful form had her tricked out in a wedding dress...

@OP: If you want a magical girl show that isn't a straight example, try Hell Girl. The page says it's an anti magical girl show.

Mahou Shoujo is odd like that. The genre has a traditional, but paradoxical strong following in the "late twenties, male" demographic, I recall. Possibly the same phenomenon that is responsible for Bronies.

I blame lack of good role models and too many chemicals in the food, personally.

edited 31st Dec '11 12:39:38 AM by InverurieJones

When I was a hormonal thirteen year old, I tended to "accidentally" enter the room where my sister was watching Sailor Moon during transformation sequences.

But that was the extent of my interest in magical girl shows, I just don't find them appealing.

edited 31st Dec '11 1:03:01 AM by Carciofus

The only appeal I see in even Sailor Moon is the nostalgia and the simpleness. I disliked the show as a child, and I still pretty much do, but watching it does bring back memories. Mostly memories of Toonami, but memories nonetheless.

I wouldn't say you're alone, though. I've noticed a large community for it, so if that's your thing, I can't judge. I watch shows about rubber pirates, high school football teams, and a guy's hand becoming a girl. There's weird shit out there and I'd reckon magical girl shows are more or less pretty tame.

Though I am in the general crowd of "deconstructing something =/= immediately better than source material." It's horrible logic often used by elitists of genres, and whatever your genre is, you sound like an annoying fuck to me, so congratulations.

Oh, I did not like the show either. I did not watch it, actually — I only have a vague idea of what it is about.

It was just a matter of me being, well, a healthy thirteen-year old from the dark pre-widespread Internet ages, and of the transformation sequences containing a couple of moments of near-nudity

edited 31st Dec '11 1:06:31 AM by Carciofus

I was a Dragonball Z and Power Ranger fan, myself. I never got into Sailor Moon and its ilk.

I'm not sure I understand the question here, though...