Deconstructing Magical Girls

Well, usually magical girls are humans, so I'd assume they'd usually be on humanity's side. :P Magical girls versus muggles, I'm not so sure about.

In your case I have to wonder why mgs popped up on one half of the earth and not the other. Did the "upper" half of earth come into contact with something extraterrestrial that gave them their powers?

It's more like the people on the upper world are a different species which travelled in search of magic and knowledge through space aboard their world to finally land on earth. So everyone on the upperworld can become a magical girl (or boy) to a certain extent. Some can at most light a candle, other can nuke a whale without sweating, it depends on the skills and training of each. It's kind of like lyrical nanoha in the third season.

I didn't sort all the details ^^', but yeah, magical girl invaders from outer space... sound silly, doesn't it?

Oh, so it's more like magical girl-styled aliens. That sounds cool.

I hesitated adding some time-travelling. The Magical Girl invaders from outer space are originaly from a future earth where super-soldier with science-infused magic are created in order to fight in the World War XX. But fed up with this crap a group of super-soldier create a spaceship and sail off to a better land. And as they travel more and more trough space, the truth of their origin is lost because of quick decease of the older ones and great imagination of the younger ones. And as their magical power grow (throught training, genetic and ,of course, love), they can't seem to find a suitable place for them to settle. After many debate, they decide to go back to the rumored source of everything, the now turned legend Earth. And so they use a spell of teleportation, but their spell misfire and ,if they manage to go the right place, they are not at the right time. So now, follow the tales of the Magical Girl Invaders from Outer Space and other Time!

Or something like that ^^'

Sailor Mars proves to be smarter than the entire Madoka Magica cast.

Would He-Man's Snake Armor in the second season of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002) (in the episode Rise of the Snake Men) count as a male version of a Frilly Upgrade (only without the frills, of course)?

edited 26th Aug '14 1:27:22 PM by fruitstripegum

Here's an idea - how about a magical Drag Queen? Like, maybe, the hero is a guy who happens to be crossdressing when he is given his powers (the Mentor Mascot mistook him for a girl), or something along those lines.

So sort of like shezow? Or just someone was who was doing it for kicks?

Well, yeah, kinda.

Although, I think it would be funny if he was kinda Gonkish in both forms.

Few years ago, I had an idea of magical girls being pitted against each other in televised strike-to-kill arena combat, a la Unreal Tournament. No idea how it would work but could be fun, in a sadistic sort of way.

Also, I have drafts for a story where the genre is mixed a bit with sci-fi: the source of a magical girl's power is a symbiote made of nanites, surgically implanted under the sternum. The costume is also made of nanites and is stored in a pocket universe existing inside the symbiote until required, teleporting onto the user when summoned. The problem with this approach is that, in order for the teleportation to work, it must be provided with the millimeter-accurate physical dimensions of the magical girl's body. In order to obtain the exact calibration data to prevent this from happening, magical girls must undergo weekly "body tuning": standing inside a high-precision 3D laser scanner for an hour, butt-naked. Understandably, this is pretty embarrassing and humiliating (which is intentional) but the alternative is risking being TeleFragged by her own costume, ranging from skinning off a few nanometers of skin to disintegrating her nipples and flaying her alive. This also means that transformation also telefrags whatever civvie clothing the magical girl happens to be wearing at the time, resulting in the girl having to decide whether to sacrifice those clothes and jump right into the action, hide somewhere and strip in a hurry, or wear a not-exactly-comfortable, skintight, full-body undersuit.

There's also the tiny factor that the costume itself is alive and sentient, albeit not in the way this is usually utilized in the genre. It can't communicate but it does have emotions and views its user in pretty much the same way a young child views his/her mother (ironic, considering most magical girls' age) - which is pretty horrifying once it is revealed that the costume powers itself by feeding on the user's flesh and converting that matter into energy. It's not anywhere near 100% efficient so noticeable weight loss and calorie intake is expected, especially since it is programmed to prioritize fatty tissue and completely ignore vital organs - but keeping the costume on for extended periods is hazardous as it will eventually result in progressively severe internal bleeding from capillaries ruptured by fuel-harvesting nanites. In extreme cases, the costume can literally eat the user inside out, with its repair capabilities keeping the brain fully operational and conscious for as long as possible in accordance with its programming. It would be mentioned at one point that an early prototype's malfunction resulted in a runaway Grey Goo scenario that consumed the entire test subject...

The costume has a "diagnostic mode" where it can be separated from the owner for maintenance - but it becomes rigid and refuses to work until sent back into storage. The symbiote controlling the costume, on the other hand, is irremovable once implanted, causes the magical girl several weeks/months of high fever and constant pain until it finishes integrating and somehow renders the magical girl vulnerable to EMP: one blast causes debilitating pain and instant paralysis, multiple ones in rapid succession can actually kill. Then there's also the fact the protagonist is so highly attuned to her symbiote (she's basically the magical girl equivalent of a Cyber-Newtype) that it slowly becomes harder and harder for her to de-transform... add in the facts of said protagonist being emotionally unbalanced, very prone to going on a "destroy everything" rampage if pushed, has enough power that at one point she literally cleaves the Earth in half^note though the halves immediately clamp back together from gravity, unleashing a tectonic shockwave that causes apocalyptic destruction across the entire planet and eventually developing permanent immunity to the only thing that can stop her and you have the recipe for disaster.

Is this a good enough deconstruction?

edited 29th Aug '14 6:35:13 PM by amitakartok

Didn't read all of it, but it sounds damned dark.

Almost too dark.

Sounds a little like Mai Hime or Uta Kata o.o

It sounds like a Kill la Kill spinoff....

Magical Girl Reality TV.

The Mascot is also a staff member and camera-critter for a company that specializes in Reality TV programmes, and every so often he finds a girl to turn into the Magical Girl of the season. She's supposed to go around doing good deeds, like help people and catch thieves. Also her identity is known publically because REALITY TV, but the company that runs all this has good lawyers and will protect her legally (and covers all costs, expenses, and damages) as long as she upholds the Terms of Service.

Turns out the Mascot is doing this as a smokescreen for a REAL Magical Girl who fights in the shadows against their real enemy, a corrupt organization that seeks to conquer Earth without resorting to war. And then one season his latest recruit to the reality TV program is attacked by the bad guys. And then the REAL magical girl shows up and blows them away with lethal force from offscreen on LIVE TV.

WELP.

edited 29th Aug '14 10:54:12 PM by AceOfScarabs

Well, it is supposed to be Evangelion: Magical Girl Edition and not just in Broad Strokes like PMMM is.

It certainly doesn't help things that the protagonist is the reason why everything is going to shit: she's fated to destroy and recreate the world in her chosen image. She has the power to destroy the bad guys once and for all - but she can also destroy humanity instead or just kill both sides for ruining her life and using her (which she comes very close to at the end).

If there is a moral to the story, it's that you shouldn't turn your teenage daughter into a goddess via Bio-Augmentation without her consent after having painfully experimented on her as a baby. Doesn't matter whether you're her mother or not, she's not going to love you for it.

Haven't watched either of those so any similarities are unintentional.

Actually, I was more inspired by Crysis than KlK when I made this up.

edited 30th Aug '14 6:58:17 AM by amitakartok

Just read 'Magical Girls' by Jesse Brown.

... OK, which of you lot did that?

What's it like?

Bit too obviously tropery for a mainstream audience (actual trope names are scattered here and there, nerd obsessions like My Little Pony and so on do crop up, and then there's the whole premise), and it could have used some more editing, but it was surprisingly solidly-written for what it was, and exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations. I found myself comparing it favourably to Spacebattles-style mega-fanfics - it had the same sort of problems, but less so. The structure was tighter, the writing was better and more tonally consistent, and all the nerdy references weren't quite so constant and obnoxious.

If the above criticisms don't put you off, give it a go.

edited 15th Sep '14 10:22:29 AM by Iaculus

So a spaceball style parody but for Magic girls then?

Not quite that goofy. Less grim than Sailor Nothing, and more willing to poke fun at itself, but still far from a Mel Brooks-style parody.

edited 16th Sep '14 3:55:30 AM by Iaculus

Seriously speaking though, the concept of a Mascot Assistant Fairy who is desperate enough to 'recruit' other girls to be "decoys" to smokescreen for the real Magical Warrior Princess fighting to save her kingdom is a little sketchy yet depressing. This ties in to my previously mentioned Reality TV Magical Girls.

What would said fairy tempt new recruits with, though? Watered-down versions of the real magical girl's powers? Though granted, even a weaksauce power would be a step up for a normal person.

As mentioned in my earlier post up this page, the Mascot has figured out a way to get these lower-powered Magical Girls out there, by offering the chance to be a Magical Girl on Reality TV. Pay, a good reputation, and other things that come with the territory of being on TV (in addition to some powers that may potentially be kept if the girl behaves well enough for them to feel comfortable letting her keep her new abilities at the end of each season).

It could go from being a cutesy fad with some actual interest by people who know it's not just special effects and fancy gadgets and cute clothes to being suddenly a lot more serious when the real Magical Girl is suddenly forced to take her secret war to the public as a result of a battle gone horribly wrong (Because she didn't anticpate there being so many things vunerable to fire/electrical damage in a modern city, property damage is inevitable).

I'm not sure how many of these kid-idol Magical Girls will feel about suddenly having a real Dark Kingdom to oppose.

edited 12th Oct '14 7:37:05 AM by AceOfScarabs