One night in 2006, a call goes out to NHK and the Tokyo police, giving notice of a suicide jumper from the then-incomplete Tokyo Sky Tower. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be too unusual, except for one small detail: Akiko Yamaguchi, the suicide jumper, is a Magical Girl. She has fought a long, lonely war against Cults, a Circus of Fear, and the embodiments of fear itself for years and has reached her breaking point. She transforms on live television and takes the plunge. But before she becomes a wet crimson smear on the pavement, a black-clad angel swoops in to save her—Fate Testarossa, with Nanoha Takamachi flying in shortly after.
In response to the news that they aren't the only ones with magic in the world, Magical Girls and their support groups all around Earth come out of the woodwork and close ranks. In so doing, the magic which has kept The Masquerade in place since the fall of the Silver Millennium comes unravelled and The Magic Comes Back. The people of Earth must now come to terms with the extremely magical world they live in; the enemies of Earth must contend with public knowledge of their existence; and the defenders of Earth lock arms against the encroaching darkness.
Battle Fantasia Project (older links: [1]
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) is a Super Robot Wars-style Magical Girl Mega Crossover. Hosted at the SpaceBattles Creative Writing Forum, it is a multi-author collaborative effort. At present the project is still mostly in the planning stages due to one author handling the entire first arc on his own, but numerous snippets of plot have been written by various authors and the thread broke the 100-page mark in just over a week. Feel free to drop by with your two cents.
Chapter One of the First Arc, Unity, was released on October 6th, 2011 on FanFiction.Net. Link CURRENTLY, THE FIRST ARC IS UNDERGOING A PROCESS OF REVISION AND STREAMLINING. ONE HALF OF THE NEW VERSION CAN BE READ HERE.
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The project has also created two Spinoffs:
- Lyrical Chronicles
: Described by the Author as "The Super Robot Route" of Battle Fantasia. It appears to be working towards a Crisis Crossover with Lyrical Nanoha's Dimensional Sea as its enabler.
- Paved With The Best Intentions
: An Alternate Universe sharing the same setting as the main story, but with greater focus on Lyrical Nanoha and Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
- Girls of the Sorcerer
, a One-Shot concerning the MGA's first confirmed brush with the Puella system.
Has a wiki, for easy record keeping of ideas.
Unfortunately, as of 2013, the project seems to have collapsed due to politics and infighting among the various contributors.
As of January 2014, a group of Italian fanwriters have resurrected the project here (Italian only, for now).
Not to be confused with either Battle Fantasia or the Magical Girl Real Trailer Fake Game movie clips from which the name is borrowed.
Battle Fantasia Project provides examples of:
- Alternate Universe: Strike Witches and Infinite Stratos are here in spirit if not in canon, with their characters and concepts uprooted from their original settings and replaced here in convenient places.
- To elaborate: Strike Witches is more or less directly imported from the alternate 1940s setting it takes place in, with the Neuroi being among the numerous extradimensional invaders harassing Earth and the Striker Units being the military's attempts to subvert Police Are Useless via Magitek. Infinite Stratos, likewise, covers life at a magic academy where Nanoha is one of the top combat instructors, with the IS units being Earth-produced devices reverse-engineered from Belkan and Mid-Childan tech.
- Breaking Speech: One of the tools favoured by the Nightmare Factory.
- Broad Strokes: The general concepts of various series such as Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA or Puella Magi Madoka Magica are used, but not the full continuity baggage.
- Car Fu: Akiko resorts to this in a prequel Snip, using a cement truck and a tank of gasoline to kill a monster that is resistant to her magic. Observe.
- Clear My Name: Due in part by their Unorthodox appearences and powers, and Akiko's reaction to them in the new version of Akiko's revelation, the majority of the cast assume that Mato and the girls work for the Nightmare Factory.
- Combat Pragmatist: Akiko, who missed a power-up due to her familiar's death and has to fight season 3 enemies with season 2 magic. She compensates by use of unorthodox tactics like Car Fu and using her magic rather... creatively.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Deconstructed in the cruelest manner possible by the Nightmare Factory's Mind Rape of Nanoha, who twisted her canon motives around and accused her of simply beating Fate until she was more scared of Nanoha than of Precia.
- Despair Event Horizon: Crossing it was what led Akiko to jump.
- Dream Within a Dream: The method by which the Nightmare Factory trick Signum into revealing everything she knows about the Lyrical Nanoha crew.
- Driven to Suicide: Akiko right at the start, kicking off the whole thing. She gets better.
- Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Earth is drawing an unusually high amount of Dark Kingdom activity and an equally unusual number of magical girls.
- Enemy Without: The Nightmare Factory makes a point of manufacturing these things as part of their modus operandi, but only one has any real plot significance. Unfortunately, that enemy is Dark Nanoha. Both of them.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Akiko's parents assumed that their daughter's frequent fights were because she was becoming a delinquent. This became Played for Drama, since they locked her up in juvie, which only added to her growing misery.
- Played with: on one hand, the names of the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament, the Burial Agency and the Black Keys were translated in Latin, with codenames and other items also having Latin names, to mimic the Real Life Catholic Church using Latin as their official language; on the other hand, most characters rarely bother using the Latin names unless they're forced (also mimicking the fact Real Life priests doing the same).
- The one-shot "Habemus Papam" contains a piece in Latin. Justified as it's a cardinal announcing the newest Pope.
- Heroic BSoD: The Nightmare Factory's primary weapon.
- The Factory's success rate with this tactic tends to vary depending on how at peace their target is with themselves. The Senshi and Team Black Rock, having faced their fears many times before, can No-Sell them and turn the tables on their attackers with no problem. Nanoha on the other hand...
- Immune to Bullets: Double subverted. Small arms can work against mooks, but Monsters Of The Week need tank-killing or anti-structural munitions—a bad idea in Urban Warfare—while top-tier enemies and Eldritch Abominations require magic to hurt them at all.
- Late to the Tragedy: Honoka and Nagisa were busy with diplomacy business on behalf of the Dusk Zone in some of the local sub-dimensions when The Reveal happened. They came home to find the newspapers raving about Akiko and other magical girl sightings.
- Two of the Outer Senshi go to America to help a suspected Magical Girl... Well... Just look at what trope this is listed under.
- Magical Girl: OF COURSE!
- Magical Girl Genre Deconstruction: Akiko's experience as a magical girl has more in common with Sailor Nothing and Puella Magi Madoka Magica than with Sailor Moon or Pretty Cure due to the fact that it shows how mentally scarred and traumatized one would be after fighting alone for seven years, with no support network and no Power of Friendship to back her up.
- The Magic Comes Back: Not that it ever really left to begin with, it's just not hidden anymore.
- Manipulative Bastard: Kyubey. Moreso than in the original series, because the existence of the Galaxy Cauldron means that the heat death of the universe is impossible and the Incubators have other purposes in mind for all that energy they're gathering.
- The Masquerade: Deconstructed. Yes, fighting in secret helps to protect your identity and your family from your enemies, but it also hides you from potential allies.
- Mega Crossover: Far too many series to list them all exhaustively, but for a quick sample of some of the core series:
- Mercy Kill: One of the reasons Akiko is so messed up. When she was ten she had to beat her best friend to death with a barbell. She was transformed by the Circus into one of their monsters.
- Multinational Team
- Noodle Incident: Akiko's tenure as a Magical Girl will largely be this. Not because the authors can't come up with anything horrifying enough, but because they can, and they can't dial it back.
- No-Sell: High-level monsters and eldritch abominations can do this to all mundane weapons regardless of how much 'boom' they have due to the mazoku-like quality of having their true forms hidden away in the astral plane, where only magic can reach them and hurt them.
- Also it turns out that if your powers are based on a Breaking Speech, it ends badly when facing magical girls whose powers hinge on them coming to terms with themselves.
- O.C. Stand-in: The Black★Rock Shooter cast includes a few characters that weren't in the OVA, with associated real-selves.
- Original Generation: Since the vast majority of all magical girls reside in Japan, a host of original characters has sprung up to fill out the international community. Few of these characters are involved with the core plot, save for Akiko and the Nightmare Factory.
- Police Are Useless: Played with. Because of the way the project uses the Immune to Bullets trope, police and military are only effective in direct combat against low-ranking mooks. However, they can still support the Alliance with training, logistics, transportation, and various other forms of support that the magical girls can't manage on their own.
- Recursive Fanfiction: The Black★Rock Shooter team takes elements (including terminology) from a fanmade Tabletop Game based on the OVA. This was before the 2012 anime was released,
which had its own take on things.
- Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: Things start off very dark; suicide and weaponized mindfuck are not things that come up in the usual Magical Girl work. The work will eventually move to less grim pastures.
- In the meantime, several snippets set during the current arc help to balance this out a bit, especially the ones featuring the Kampfers and Pretty Sammy. Turns out that weaponized love and happiness is Super Effective against creatures made of nightmare fuel, and the Kampfers introduce a healthy dose of comedy, especially through Natsuru's "nightmare" of becoming a pregnant housewife
at some point in his future.
- In the meantime, several snippets set during the current arc help to balance this out a bit, especially the ones featuring the Kampfers and Pretty Sammy. Turns out that weaponized love and happiness is Super Effective against creatures made of nightmare fuel, and the Kampfers introduce a healthy dose of comedy, especially through Natsuru's "nightmare" of becoming a pregnant housewife
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Gamlain's take on Tuxedo Mask is fond of using this trick.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Justified by the Veil, as with it around the various Magical Girls have no idea there are other superheroes who could need their help. Averted after it falls.
- Talk to the Fist: Deconstructed. Using violence to get Hannibal to Shut Up rather than beating him through reason won't help clear the seeds of doubt he planted. Furthermore, if the Lecturer's main thrust was that you're a trigger-happy belligerent, why, you're not doing yourself any favours, dear Nanoha.
- Also played straight in the case of Strength and the rest of the Black★Rock Shooter girls, though, who've already dealt with most of their issues in advance and can completely No-Sell the Nightmare Factory's attempts to Breaking Speech them.
- Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Japan has an unusually high number of magical girls.
- Took a Level in Badass: The Senshi are pegged somewhere in between their anime incarnations and their "love and justice-powered eldritch abomination" manga versions, while Tuxedo Mask has been dubbed Batman!Mamoru for his awesome usage of the Stealth Hi/Bye. Sammy is also slated to get a power-up from Tsunami to make her powers more suited for fighting evil, while Ayeka and Ryoko have inherited powers vaguely similar to those that their Tenchi Muyo! counterparts possess.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Lindy told them not to charge into uncharted enemy territory. Didn't she Nanoha and Signum? Akiko faced these guys for four years and it results in her attempting to commit suicide? Did you really think you could wipe them out in one hit?
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The new version of Arc I will be split in two: One plot focusing on Akiko and a number of magical girls in Tokyo, and the second will focus on the Black Paradoxes helping out a newly discovered team in Nagasaki.
- The Unmasqued World: The premise.
- Weak, but Skilled: The Nightmare Factory is no match for high-powered girls like Nanoha and Signum in terms of pure firepower, but they make themselves a threat by using psychological warfare. Akiko herself, having missed quite a few powerups due to her familiar's early passing, has also had to fight in... unorthodox manners.
- World of Badass: It's been observed by some that this version of Earth is basically the TSAB's version of Cadia, having been under siege by demonic and extradimensional forces since at least the fall of the Silver Millennium 10,000+ years ago.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Strength uses this on one of the Nightmare Factory's minions, pretending to break down and have a Heroic BSoD in the face of a Breaking Speech, then turning around and suplexing the minion for a One-Hit Kill when it takes the bait.
- You Are Not Alone: The very core of the whole story.
The Italian remake of Battle Fantasia Project provides examples of
- The Ace: Sunset Shimmer, to the point her character sheet describes her talent as "completing and exceeding at her goals". Also, Trixie and Twilight are implied to be this, as the same character sheet points out that, before she was stuck on Earth, they were the only unicorns of her generation who could actually compete with her (with Twilight actually surpassing her in raw power).
- Adaptational Heroism: A number:
- Mio Kuroki is on the Sailor Senshi's side;
- Takashi Hino as a Knight Templar Parent, who is also terrified of his daughter;
- What remains of Aku is on the good guys' side;
- Sōichirō Hiwatari did everything he did to get Kai to make some friends and avoid he became an amoral monster like himself, with taking over the world as a side goal he abandoned when he found out exactly how the Neoborg were being trained;
- Oriko Mikuni. Justified as The Masquerade interfered with her prophetic powers, and once it fell she saw what she really had to do to save the world;
- Elsa Maria has a Puella Magi who keeps her in check and mostly sane. Averted with those of her familiars who become witches;
- Sunset Shimmer operates as a Superhero in Heatherfield. Justified because, in-universe, if she had enough time she would have cast herself as a villain in an adaptation while being a hero in the real world;
- Diaspro, big time.
- What she would have done in seasons 5 and 6 (had it come) would have been the result of brain damage from iron poisoning: turns out that being exposed to iron does quite a number to non-Earther fairies (who are protected by the planet) and Bloom (who is immune due having been exposed to it since she was a child) without medicines, and she was banished without medicines to Earth, the one world where iron alloys are used for everything. As the poisoning is caught early here, she doesn't get the brain damage.
- Her alliance with Valtor (that resulted in the banishment above) was simply the result of running out of ideas to avoid the immense political backlash of Sky, slated to succeed to the elective throne of the politically messed up Heraklyon, marrying who at the time was the only heir to the hereditary throne of Domino and knowing about Sky's father relationship with the Ancestral Witches, at which point she was willing to use Valtor's love potion to marry Sky and become queen, after which she wouldn't have been adverse to letting Sky have Bloom as a mistress.
- And I Must Scream: The death row of a Japanese prison, based upon this description
and shown through the fate of Alejandro Lovelace (a rougue member of the Lovelace family who was arrested in Japan). By the time of his year there, he's happy he'll die. And the narration implies it also happens to innocents.
- Always Identical Twins: Nope, Kai Hiwatari and Rina Takamiya are fraternal, and the only thing they have in common is that they're unusually tall for being Japanese (and even then, Rina is slightly taller).
- Author Appeal: The presence of two Italian series and elements of a third (Winx Club, the comic book version of W.I.T.C.H., and the satiric series Suore Ninja respectively), two manga massively popular in Italy (Cat's Eye and City Hunter) and one set in Italy (Gunslinger Girl) are owed to the authors being all Italians.
- Also, the location of Heatherfield being in the US is a nod to the Italian fans easily identifying the place as an American city (it's also noted it looks more like an American city as seen by Europeans as a nod to the American fans recognizing it more as a European one).
- The larger emphasis on technology and Magitek is owed to the authors lord Martiya and Sergio Turbo being fans of it.
- Author Non-Appeal: The main author KillKenny despises Yuuichiro Kumada, and, with the help of lord Martiya, had Takashi Hino frame him as a terrorist and extradited to Russia, where he was sent to a prison camp and died helping to stop a break-out, all of that for breaking Rei's heart.
- Badass Family: The Hales: their members include a Guardian of Kandrakar, two Puellae Magi (one of which, Homura, gets adopted during the first arc]]), a Papa Wolf who scared Discord, and Megan Williams.
- Berserk Button: Do not mock Mami about her loneliness. Of the first group of five who did it, four died in less than a minute (one blown up by a thermobaric ribbon, one hit by a Tiro Finale, and the last two shot on their Soul Gems), and the fifth lives in the terror of Mami showing up to finish the job again and remember to bring all she needs to burn her and freeze her to death at the same time.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Aside for most Magical Girls, we have a few who stand out:
- Harold Hale is a tranquil and nice guy. Then Onibey triggered his Papa Wolf side, and what he plans to do terrified Discord;
- The centaurs living in the Lands of Myth are peaceful and nice. One day, the White Dragon of the Anglo-Saxons tried to make them his minions, and has disappeared ever since;
- Equestrians are well known as nice and well-meaning people. During the Great Centaur War, they were the first to deploy chemical weapons.
- Boxing Lessons for Superman: Training in mundane things is shown to make even magical girls more effective:
- Sailor Venus has her fellow Sailor Senshi trained in martial arts, making them much more effective. She also plans to hire Ryo Saeba to teach Homura how to fire a rifle, as her technique with it isn't exactly good;
- In her backstory Mami Tomoe took a massive level in badass after realizing her power wasn't to conjure ribbons and muskets but to conjure ribbons made of anything she wants (of which the muskets were an involuntary manifestation) and starts studying mechanics and physics, upgrading to the weapons we see in the series, duplicates, bombs, tear gas, and, when she's serene enough, repeating firearms and the railway cannon Tiro Finale from Rebellion firing armor-piercing, thermobaric and even nuclear shells;
- Sunset Shimmer, stuck in the human world, at some point decided to acquire the same fighting abilities as Batman. We haven't seen her in action yet, but given that her special talent is having exceptional success at whatever she does...
- Broken Ace: Many of the most experienced magical girls:
- Akiko Yamaguchi can defeat powerful opponents without the necessary power-ups. The story, as in the original, starts with her attempted suicide from all the crap she had to go through;
- Sailor Venus is a formidable and experienced magical girl, a Super Cop and an Idol Singer. She's also a Stepford Smiler as in canon, and, differently from canon, did not get over all her issues yet;
- Mami Tomoe is the single most powerful Puella Magi ever (at least before Madoka) and has a power that, once she got the hang of it, proved itself a
Game-Breaker, making her the single most lethal Puella Magi around (she's known as Mami the Invincible, and Sakura and Homura could barely believe their eyes when they saw another Magical Girl holding her own in single combat against her). She's also a Stepford Smiler so depressed she cannot go all out unless she knows she cannot possibly survive the battle. She was also mentored by a pair of Puellae Magi she describes as formidable but also "one bad advice away from trying to destroy the world";
- Homura Akemi is as formidable as in canon. She still has her many issues (even if she's getting better);
- Kumiko Shizuki (nee Kaioh) is the Puella Magi who went toe-on-toe with Mami and lived. Her love life includes being Elsa Maria's lover and having to protect her from other Puellae Magi (why she was fighting with Mami in the first place);
- Rikka Seii was a formidable Puella Magi. She's now known as Elsa Maria;
- Megan Williams lived her well known adventures, and was instrumental in Discord's original defeat. But upon being unable to ever visit Equestria again her siblings were convinced it was all a fantasy, and her parents committed her to an asylum because she didn't 'accept' it was a fantasy. She may have escaped in short order and appear to have recovered, but her character sheet mentions she still holds a grudge after over thirty years.
- But Not Too Foreign: Mami Tomoe has Italian ancestors, explaining her looks and penchant for Gratuitous Italian.
- Butt-Monkey: OC Shinichi Haibara, living in the Edogawa Ward of Tokyo. Aside for the Case Closed-themed mocking he gets for his name and getting his gang stolen by Kai, his constant attempts at defeating Kai and getting back his gang have landed him in a lot of unnecessary trouble, including but not limited to being summarily thrown in the trash. He couldn't even manage to sell his soul to the devil, as Minako exorcised the demon-summoning book he had just bought when she passed him.
- Can't Hold Her Liquor: Mariam gets drunk with just a few liquor bonbons. It got her in a
Crack Pairing.
- Canon Immigrant: The Sailor Moon part is based on the anime, but imports the Codename: Sailor V characters and Sailor Venus' chain being a physical weapon from the manga, Mio Kuroki with her bodyguards and the names of Rei's parents from the live action, and Manegin from the original musicals.
- Alchemy from the cartoon version of W.I.T.C.H. show up as Sunset Shimmer's cover identity.
- Canon Welding: As usual in crossovers, but particularly pronounced between Bakuten Shoot Beyblade, Kaitou Saint Tail, and Tsukihime: between the first two, in that Kai Hiwatari and Rina Takamiya are revealed as fraternal twins living separated due the divorce of their parents and an obnoxious judge, while for the latter two, Seira being a nun-in-training with a rather peculiar morality are explained by her being an Executor-in-training (and in fact her character sheet mentions Ciel as her trainer).
- Combat Pragmatist: Experienced Magical Girls tend to become this:
- Sailor Venus has been shown having tried to destroy the Death Busters by stuffing Eudial's car with gelignite
(hence why her car exploded: when Mimete caused that car crash, Venus set off the bomb to at least make sure she died) and trying to pour scalding hot sulphuric acid into her foes' throats. She also taught the mindset to the other Sailor Senshi, and got Naru to carry the Fire Buster II (that includes a flamethrower);
- Mami Tomoe's power is to create ribbons, saying nothing on what they are made of. As a result, she complemented her usual firearms made of ribbons with tear gas ribbons, high explosive ribbons and a nuke ribbon. She also has no qualms to use the Tiro Finale on enemies making a monologue and expecting her to stand there and listen. Homura and Kyouko take after her;
- Speaking of Homura, the first thing she does in the main story is to use the teleportation ability of her new ally to set Oriko's home on fire and then bomb everything to try and get rid of her before she can contract (having already contracted, Oriko had a vision and barely escaped);
- Not a Magical Girl, but Soun Tendo has no qualms using maiming moves or simple weapons like the staff, the fork, the pepper spray, and the gun (as a sporting or hunting implement, of course. If they have to use lethal force to defend themselves and happen to have the gun around, then too bad for the criminal). Then there are the advanced techniques. Soun was hired to teach Naru and Umino self-defense;
- Again not a Magical Girl, but Enhance's whole fighting style revolves around this, and his first appearance has him create a pseudo Walpurgisnacht to serve as a distraction for his assault on the lair of another Dead Apostle Ancestor.
- Sailor Venus has been shown having tried to destroy the Death Busters by stuffing Eudial's car with gelignite
- Commie Nazis: Done because one of the authors needed someone the guards at a Russian prison camp would be happy to shoot. The narration points out the sheer absurdity and that the guy is an idiot who can't tell the difference between a communist leader and the most infamous Neo Nazi of Russia, and that he's the most hated inmate at the prison camp, despised even by those who are hated by their fellow prisoners.
- Crazy-Prepared: A number of characters are this, but the Race (as in their canon) takes the cake:
Word of God is that they always plan to deal with things at least five times as worse as the worst situation they expect, and that they think it would be insane doing it in any other way. It actually saved them from a Zombie Apocalypse, as they had procedures and protocols to deal with it before they confirmed it was actually possible.
- Darker and Edgier: Minako's backstory, due the Canon Welding of Codename: Sailor V in it and the addition of Manegin to explain why some Codename: Sailor V characters have never appeared in the anime.
- Despair Event Horizon: Again, crossing it was what led Akiko to jump.
- The Dreaded: Many of them:
- Sailor Venus: her fame means that few dares committing violent crimes in Tokyo for fear of her intervention, what survivors of the Dark Kingdom are still around have a nervous breakdown at the mere mention of her name, and for some reason the Chinese Amazons are so scared of her that the People's Republic of China can keep them in line by showing them a picture of hers and threatening to sick her on them;
- Incubator-created magical girls live in terror of giving Mami Tomoe a reason to hunt them down, and with good reasons. Even Kyoko is terrified of pissing her off;
- on the opposite front of the above, Elsa Maria, due being immune to the attacks of most Puellae Magi (they need to have experienced extreme desperation to harm her) and having an extremely powerful Puella Magi defending her (and keeping her from actually harming people). Too bad that Mami can both harm her and is on par with her protector...;
- most Dead Apostle Ancestors greatly fear Enhance showing up. Also, most Nasuverse characters fear the Guardia di Finanza due a series of ridiculous accidents that ended with them arresting and briefly detaining Arcueid, Nrvnqsr Chaos and Roa and the three never setting the record straight (Arcueid because she doesn't care, Chaos because he prefers the rumour of getting legitimately defeated by them to the embarrassing truth, and Roa because he was legitimately defeated by them);
- the Burial Agency strikes fear even in the 27 Dead Apostle Ancestors. The four highest numbers are even scarier, as the numbers 1 and 2 can wield a captured Dead Apostle Ancestor as a weapon, the number 1 has killed two DAA and transformed a third in the aforementioned weapon, the numbers 3 and 4 are basically Panty and Stocking, and the number 2 can keep the numbers 3 and 4 in check;
- the Section 2 of the Social Welfare Agency. Members of the Five Republics who believe in the child assassins' existance are easily identified due the sheer terror for any little girl, and at their trial the Mafia bosses that were arrested by their first action demanded life in prison for fear of the thing (they never saw the girl) that killed their bodyguards.
- Driven to Madness: Kyubey is mentally unstable due his two great failures, namely granting the wish that led to the uplifting of the Chritchellites (a most annoying Horde of Alien Locusts so despicable to periodically make Kandrakar reconsider their non-interference policy just to kill them and both Madoka and Usagi failed to find an alternative to a kill-on-sight policy) and making Mami a Puella Magi (as she was in the run for being the Keeper of the Heart, she was not supposed to contract at all, even if that gave her the greatest karmic potential in Incubator history before Madoka). Being an Incubator, this is traduced in him having the beginnings of feelings and emotions.
- Driven to Suicide: Again, it starts with Akiko.
- Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Again, Earth is drawing an unusually high amount of Dark Kingdom activity and an equally unusual number of magical girls.
- Eldritch Abomination: Chaos has been mentioned as being around, and the Aristoteles are slated to show up (in particular, Type Venus has been stated he'll appear, and Type Mercury, as in the Nasuverse, is already on Earth). Also, Aku has made an appearance, and Megan Williams has contributed to Discord's original defeat.
- Humanoid Abomination: The Dead Apostle Ancestors. At least the ones who look human...
- Even Evil Has Standards: The implications of the existance of the Social Welfare Agency and their child assassins aren't skirted over, but they choose only girls who would otherwise die and are beyond the Despair Event Horizon and take offence to anyone alleging Section 2 exists to recover the costs of developing the protesis and hypnotic conditioning that make it possible.
- Eviler than Thou: The Dead Apostle Ancestors toward the Nightmare Factory and Phobos, once The Masquerade falls.
- For Want Of A Nail: One in-universe caused by the Veil: Mami was not supposed to be contracted as she was in the run to become the Keeper of the Heart, and more likely to become it due being a better leader than Will and Will being more psychologically resilient, but Kyubey couldn't see it and did it. Because of this, Mami's parents died (without the contract they would have been saved by the magic of the Heart of Kandrakar), Mami was in Mitakihara to influence the local Puellae Magi, Kyubey's already damaged sanity suffered another hit, and Will Vandom did not become a Puella Magi but went to Heatherfield and became a Guardian.
- Friends with Benefits: According to Artemis, Rei and Minako's frienship was really intimate at some point.
- Hate Sink: The Chritchellites from Samurai Jack. They were this in their original series, and in-universe they're so despicable that Kandrakar periodically considers altering their own non-interference policy just to exterminate them, Jack (who has dealt with them once) and even Madoka and Usagi have a kill-on-sight policy toward them, and they're insulted in their own character sheet.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: The authors seem to be taking this approach to apparently useless powers:
- Mami Tomoe's only power is to conjure and manipulate ribbons, and just that. Ribbons of all sizes and any materials. If you've seen the anime, you know part of what she does with those ribbons;
- Sailor Venus' strangest power (straight from the Codename: Sailor V manga) is to conjure a stinking cloud from Venus' atmosphere. As Venus' clouds are made of sulphuric acid and the local temperature is extremely hot, this where the scalding hot acid she once tried to pour into Galaxia's throat comes from.
- Hero Insurance: Sailor Venus doesn't have one, but is very careful to not harm bystanders (and those of Minato will get out of the way as soon as possible), and after the fights she repairs the collateral damage before leaving.
- Heroic BSoD: Again, the Nightmare Factory's primary weapon. We haven't seen how good it is on the various magical girls teams yet, but the Dead Apostle Ancestors can No-Sell it, as they're that much more scary than anything the Nightmare Factory can conjure on them (and in fact Ortenrosse was offended when they tried with him).
- Humanoid Abomination: The Dead Apostle Ancestors have showed up, with Enhance being a somewhat prominent characters.
- Kaiju:
- The Nightmare Factory has sicked them on Akiko's dreams and the actual Japan (where they had to face the Megas), and Aku fought off the dream monsters in that size.
- Type Mercury and Type Venus are slated to show up.
- Kryptonite Is Everywhere: For fairies, Earth is this: prolonged exposure to iron causes them brain damage, and on Earth iron alloys are used for everything. The only exceptions are Earthborn fairies (who have been made immune by the planet's spirit) and Bloom (who has been exposed to it since before becoming vulnerable).
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Many:
- Silvio Berlusconi and Joseph Ratzinger have made appearances, the former as the unnamed prime minister of Italy and the latter as the leader of the Inquisition (something he actually was at the time the start of the story is set) with the nickname of Cardinal Palpatine.
- Also, the name of the Inquisition is used in place of its current name of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The narration points out the Inquisition changed names, but also says it's a mouthful.
- The one-shot "Habemus Papam" features the unnamed appearances of cardinal Jorge Medina
and Carlo Giovanardi
.
- Masakazu Katsura was enrolled by Minako to draw a manga about Star Reverie. He mentioned that Minako owed him a favour due that time she barged in his home and nearly tortured him when she mistook him making the Mega Playboy The Pornomancer as an oblique reference to her ability to bring people in love with her own presence and believed he could see the future as the justification for her asking him and not Naoko Takeuchi or Go Nagai.
- Megan Williams mentions having created My Little Pony (based on her own memories, of course) under a false identity and a good disguise
.
- Mad Scientist: A few:
- Tabane Shinonono is mentioned as having invented this verse' version of the Infinite Stratos system and being the main creator of the SF-1 'Al'yans' (a Space Fighter put together in record time from already existing technologies to work as stopgap while the technologies for something better were reverse-engineered from the TSAB ships). The sheet of the SF-1 even calls her a Mad Scientist;
- Equestrian Unicorn colts and fillies undergo a phase where they're this (and are in fact forbidden from reading Girl Genius for fear they get ideas). Some, like the mare named Awesome Heart, don't get over it.
- Magical Girl: OF COURSE!
- Mama Bear: Elizabeth Hale (formerly Megan Williams). Her reaction to finding out what her daughters have been up to? Purchasing a shotgun with a detachable magazine for faster reloading.
- The Masquerade: Deconstructed even more than in the original by the W.I.T.C.H. element: the mere knowledge of the Dead Apostle Ancestors would have been an effective deterrent against Phobos (and in fact the whole fourth saga is averted when Phobos remembers them and begs to be returned to his cell), the whole Ari affair is solved by getting him in contact with a psychiatrist (what the Oracle would have done without the Veil stopping him), one of the potential allies the Guardians of Kandrakar were hidden from is friggin' Enhance, and the combination of the Veil with Homura's temporal tampering in a previous timeline got Cornelia separated from her sister.
- The Magic Comes Back: Again, it never really left to begin with, it's just not hidden anymore.
- Played straight with the Race and their subjects, as they once used the Incubators to wish away the potential to use magic.
- The Magic Versus Technology War: Present in the backstory of the Race, as a nation of cultists tried to summon an Eldritch Abomination and the technology-using predecessors of the unified Empire fought to stop them. They later decided to make sure it wouldn't happen again by wishing away their potential to use magic.
- Meaningful Name: Aside for the canon ones, we have a few new ones:
- Mami Tomoe uses meaningful (and sometimes punny) names for her attacks. For example: the Nastro Nobel (Italian for "Nobel Ribbon") is named after the inventor of dynamite and explodes, the Pianto del Rivoltoso ("Tears of the Rioter") is a blanket name for tear gas-based attacks (the first time she uses it it's mentioned she has at least two variants, and choose the more toxic one for the occasion), and Nella Fermi is named after the daughter of Enrico Fermi
, one of the fathers of the atomic bomb and is a literal magical nuke;
- Alchemy's last name is Przwalski
, rather fitting considering that she's actually Sunset Shimmer. Comes to think, she probably choose both first and last name on purpose.
- Mami Tomoe uses meaningful (and sometimes punny) names for her attacks. For example: the Nastro Nobel (Italian for "Nobel Ribbon") is named after the inventor of dynamite and explodes, the Pianto del Rivoltoso ("Tears of the Rioter") is a blanket name for tear gas-based attacks (the first time she uses it it's mentioned she has at least two variants, and choose the more toxic one for the occasion), and Nella Fermi is named after the daughter of Enrico Fermi
- The Medic: The Centaur's Hat. By 2015 they eradicated AIDS via a combination of effective and cheap and vaccines (the latter created alongside a human medical team).
- Mega Crossover: Again, many of them. So far we have:
- Bakuten Shoot Beyblade
- Black Lagoon
- Black★Rock Shooter
- Cardcaptor Sakura
- Cat's Eye
- City Hunter
- Dirty Harry
- Gunslinger Girl
- Infinite Stratos
- Jormungand
- Kaitou Saint Tail
- Lupin III
- Lyrical Nanoha
- Magic Knight Rayearth
- Megas XLR
- My Little Pony (TV specials, movies, first series and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'')
- The Nasuverse, with Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA and Tsukihime taking the lion share;
- Pretty Cure
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica (with elements taken from the fanfiction [14]
)
- Ranma ½
- Ronin Warriors
- Sailor Moon
- Samurai Jack
- Space Cowboy
- Tokyo Mew Mew
- W.I.T.C.H. (comic book version)
- Winx Club (with elements taken from one of the authors' own fanfictions, namely Bloom's Servants
)
- Worldwar
- ×××HOLiC
- Multinational Team: Not only the Alliance itself, but the girls who dealt with the Invaders are one who predate it, with them being composed by six Magical Girls hailing from America, Peru, Italy, Ethiopia, Chile (Easter Island) and North Korea.
- Also, the Executors, who hail from pretty much every nation with a Catholic presence (the Burial Agency in particular a Spaniard, a Frenchwoman, an Englishman, two Italians, a Czechoslovakian who took Italian citizenship because she didn't want to choose between Czech and Slovakian citizenship, and two elements of unknown origin.
- My Greatest Failure: Kyubey has two: granting the wish that uplifted the Chritchellites (a most annoying Horde of Alien Locusts that exterminated the race that made the wish before sacking half the universe) and making Mami a Puella Magi (the possible and extremely likely destiny that gave her greatest karmic potential in Incubator history until Madoka in recent timelines was to become the Keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar, someone that should have never been contracted).
- Mythology Gag:
- Sailor Moon ones:
- Minako is both a cop and an idol, and her songs as an idol are Sailor Venus' image songs from the original anime (Route Venus, Setsunakute Ii, Anata no Yume wo Mita wa and Ai no Megami no) and Minako's knowns songs from the live action (Romance, Koko ni Iru, C'Est la Vie, Katagoshi ni Kinsei, Kiss!2 Bang!2, Happy Time, Happy Life and Sayonara ~ Sweet Days). The first four are also noted to have originally been written and sung for the in-universe Sailor V and Sailor Moon anime series.
- Naoko Takeuchi is mentioned as the artist of the in-universe manga series about the Sailor Senshi.
- The Sailor Senshi are confirmed as sensible to collateral damage, as they know they don't have Hero Insurance.
- Seira Mimori is in-universe the butt of jokes about her having a split personality or a twin, referring to the Italian dub of the anime transforming Seira in two twins in a sloppy attempt at keeping the nun uninvolved with Saint Tail's heists.
- Will Vandom doesn't fire lightnings in the comic book, only in the cartoon. Here at some point she figures how to fire electron beams... That just happen to look like lightnings.
- Sailor Moon ones:
- "No More Holding Back" Speech: In the side story "Mami the Invincible", the Mami Tomoe of the first timeline delivered one to Homura and Madoka before going and nearly defeating Walpurgisnacht, and would have won had one of her familiars been a second too late. Possibly one of the darkest takes ever, given that what gave Mami the strength to do the speech and her battle was the knowledge that, whatever happened, she would have to die.
- Noodle Incident:
- Akiko's story, for the same reasons as in the original.
- Sailor Venus mentioned she once found his mother doing it with a tentacle monster on the wedding bed and his father doing with another on hers.
- No-Sell: Again, high-level monsters and eldritch abominations can do this to all mundane weapons regardless of how much 'boom' they have due to the mazoku-like quality of having their true forms hidden away in the astral plane, where only magic can reach them and hurt them.
- The Dead Apostle Ancestors are immune to the Nightmare Factory's ability to cause Heroic BSODs, as even the weakest and nicer of them is a lot scarier than any illusion they can conjure. In fact, Ortenrosse took it as an insult when they tried on him.
- Nun Too Holy: The Catholic Church is even worse about this than in the Nasuverse: the reserve member of the Burial Agency is openly psychopathic, the number 4 and 3 are lampshaded to basically be Panty and Stocking (to be fair, the other members of the Burial Agency consider them loose cannons), and The Pope elected in place of Benedict XVI is Constantin Vitalian from Suore Ninja (who openly admits to not believe into divine's providence).
- Off Screen Villain Dark Matter: Explicitly averted with the Nightmare Factory, as they put together their current force with a number of legitimate businesses, for which they're smart enough to pay the taxes for them.
- Older Sibling Instinct: Older siblings tend to be rather protective, here:
- Cornelia Hale is rather protective of her little sister Lilian and, according to production notes, will become just as much toward Homura after events that get her adopted;
- Enhance has been revealed to have a little sister, and you will not endanger her.
- Original Generation: Again, the ranks of the magical girls are filled with some non-Japanese original characters.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: The Three Lights got compared to Queen, and lost. To be fair, it wasn't their idea (simply Minako wanted to put things into perspective when a fan declared them the best singers ever), and they recognized it.
- Papa Wolf: Harold Hale. It's not known what exactly he wants to do to Onibey for transforming Lilian in a Puella Magi, but whatever it is it terrified Discord, and it doesn't involve turning it to stone.
- Police Are Useless: Played even more than in the original. On one hand, not only the police weapons are inefficient against most magical enemies, but production notes specify that most Japanese police forces managed to alienate the magical girls due their Real Life excessive conformism and despisal of young people who don't fully conform (and most magical girls qualify due naturally having hair of improbable or supposedly impossible colours). On the other hand, police forces in general can provide training and other support (and in fact Minako roped one of Tokyo's cops into giving the other Sailor Senshi some judo lessons), Tokyo Metropolitan Police and the police of Mitakihara are less prejudiced due their commanders and provide help, two of Tokyo's most prominent police officers are Minako Aino and someone implied being Samurai Jack, and the Italian Guardia di Finanza (a military police force specialized in financial crimes) managed to damage the Nightmare Factory's operations by discovering they hadn't paid some taxes and collecting a large part of their liquid and solid assets (plus indirectly leaking the locations of their bases to any magical girl with a government connection).
- Mundane weapons are rather useful against the so-called Invaders (an alien species that invades North Korea during the first arc): while the Invaders multiply when exposed to fires and the energy of explosions, they're vulnerable to kinetic impacts and air pressure blasts, and a multinational force massacre them by judicious use of their standard weapons.
- The Prankster: Minako. Her presents in particular tend to include some kind of joke (like giving Sailor Pluto a TARDIS toy), even if they tend to backfire whenever Usagi's involved (for example, Usagi actually appreciated and put to use the giant hamster wheel).
- Quirky Town: A few:
- Minato Ward (Tokyo) is where the Sailor Senshi live. People have stopped being surprised by some of the things that happen there.
- Furinkan district of Nerima Ward (Tokyo) is where the cast of Ranma ½ lives. 'Nuff said.
- Edogawa Ward (again in Tokyo) is where many of the Bakuten Shoot Beyblade characters live, and where all the weird shit that happens to them take place.
- Piazza Sant'Uffizio (a square in Rome) is the site of Giancarlo Tornatore's home (with all the related weird shit), the main office of the Inquisition (Burial Agency included) and the main office of the Social Welfare Agency (with the creepy girls who live there and can jump from road level to Gianni's window).
- Rebel Prince: Three rare female examples in the form of the granddaughters of Zenigata and Lupin III: Zenigata's granddaughter is a Phantom Thief trained by Lupin's ghost, while Lupin's granddaughters are a member of Interpol trained by Zenigata (who is chasing Zenigata's granddaughter since they were teens) and Minako Aino.
- Recursive Fanfiction: The fanfictions Bloom's Servants
and Causality Crash
(the latter not written by one of the Project members but still used with permission) provide some elements. Also, the Canon Welding of Bakuten Shoot Beyblade and Kaitou Saint Tail comes from one of lord Martiya's early fanfictions.
- Robbing the Dead: Some magical girls aren't averse to this to procure useful things, as long as the personal effects and (for the Puellae Magi) the clothes were left in place. More specifically, we have seen Will Vandom, Star Reverie, Mami and Homura engaging in this and Sailor Venus and Mami advocating the action and declaring they'll do it to their friends and expect them to do the same (and in fact the side story chapter with these actions actually ends with Mami and Homura robbing Sayaka's body).
- Seen It All:
- The characters of Bakuten Shoot Beyblade have this attitude due the presence of the Bit Beasts and all the weird shit that happen to them (finding out that Ming Ming was an actual Magical Girl was only barely surprising). Particularly pronounced with Gianni Tornatore (whose family home is in the same square as the Social Welfare Agency and the Inquisition, so he experiences even more weird things than other beybladers), the Majestics (who often visit Gianni's home), and Ming Ming (who is actually a Puella Magi, and you know what she sees on a daily basis).Julia: "Let's see if I got it. You're telling us your sister became a magical girl after making a contract with an alien and lives in a computer half the time?"
Gianni: "Yes."
Julia *pointing at the canon characters who looks like a vampire, Frankenstein's Monster, a mummy and a werewolf*: "Ok, we've experienced weirder things." - The Hales: Cornelia is a Guardian of Kandrakar and has attended a convention of her fans, Elizabeth is Megan Williams in disguise, and Harold is a bank director who has seen too many strange things from customers, robbers and coworkers to get surprised when the other two spring their secrets on them.
- The characters of Bakuten Shoot Beyblade have this attitude due the presence of the Bit Beasts and all the weird shit that happen to them (finding out that Ming Ming was an actual Magical Girl was only barely surprising). Particularly pronounced with Gianni Tornatore (whose family home is in the same square as the Social Welfare Agency and the Inquisition, so he experiences even more weird things than other beybladers), the Majestics (who often visit Gianni's home), and Ming Ming (who is actually a Puella Magi, and you know what she sees on a daily basis).
- Ship Tease: Between Rei and Minako. According to what Artemis says in a "What If" chapter, their friendship was extremely intimate at some point, and they continue even during the story, when Rei is in a relationship with a different character and
Word of God has stated Minako will get in another.
- Shout-Out: There are a few.
- A number of the more Genre Savvy Magical Girls have modeled their hand-to-hand abilities after the Batman of the earliest stories to some degree, with the one going the farthest being Tuxedo Kamen (who has the same abilities and pairs them with an attitude modeled on Adam West's Batman (1966) to survive against the absurdly strong enemies he faces) and Sunset Shimmer (who decided to emulate Batman's combat abilities and has the special talent at succeeding and exceeding her goals);
- The one-shot "Habemus Papam" is a long one to the Italian satiric comic Suore Ninja (lit. Ninja Nuns), down to the female members of the Burial Agency actually having the embarrassing nickname of ninja nuns and getting them to dress like the protagonists;
- Mami's late sempais are named as Aina Hinata and Mikuru Miroko, had respectively fire and ice powers, and are described as a bit of bad advice away from trying to destroy the world;
- A magical girl in Kyoto is named Meduka Kaname, and considers the Puella Magi system as really strange. She accused another magical girl of being drunk or drugged up when she described what Mami did to her and her late companions when they seriously pissed off her, only for Mami to show up and accidentally drive her to drinking;
- Minako's prank presents to Rei include a 1999 model Suzuki Hayabusa complete with helmet decorated with mice;
- on a dare from Irma, Sunset Shimmer once ate meat only to find out it was horse meat
;
- an Equestrian town named Promise and inhabited by a group of racist Earth Ponies
has been sacked by a tribe of centaurs (as specified in a treaty) and had its authority figures arrested (as specified by Equestrian law) for sending an Ursa Major over the border chasing a unicorn illusionist who got them in much-deserved trouble with the Royal Provost Battalion;
- the Williams siblings parents are named Ken and Mae, and Danny's son is named Sam.
- Shown Their Work: Authors Sergio Turbo and lord Martiya regularly do extensive research for their addition to the story. Best shown by Sergio's original aircrafts (all based on actual designs) and lord Martiya's take on the Social Welfare Agency's equipment (with the Improperly Placed Firearms of the original series replaced by actual Italian military equipment that includes standard-issue flamethrowers. The note on them sarcastically remarks on the Italian Army's fame as 'nice people' on international missions) and long essay on possible science fiction weapons to use.
- Space Fighter:
- Humanity has the improbable SF-1 'Al'yans'. Due the hurry it was put together from already existing technologies (the fuselage from the MiG-105
, the rockets created by Northrop Grumman based on the X-33
, electronics derived from a number of European designs, and as armament the BK-27
(they couldn't find a way to put the GAU-8
on an internal mount as they wanted, and the BK-27 was the next best thing) and the Raduga Kh-15
) by a team led by Tabane Shinonono (who also made it pilotable by normal people). It's a stopgap measure, phased out as soon as something better could be put together thanks to the TSAB technology made available;
- The Race has the Type 4 defensive shuttle. It is described as superior to the SF-1 (the rockets are more powerful and efficient nuclear rockets as opposed to the SF-1's chemical rockets, and the main gun is a caseless equivalent of the GAU-8, and all in all it's faster, more maneuverable and better armed), but is only encountered after the SF-1's was replaced.
- Humanity has the improbable SF-1 'Al'yans'. Due the hurry it was put together from already existing technologies (the fuselage from the MiG-105
- Squishy Wizard: Most of the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors, relatively speaking: being former magi who transformed themselves in vampires, their bodies are invariably slim and they lack knowledge of combat without magecraft, allowing magically weaker but physically more prepared opponents to easily overcome them once they come close enough... Assuming they can back their punches with enough strength to overcome their powerful magically-backed resistance to damage and Healing Factor.
- Expressely subverted with Enhance and Ortenrosse. The first, having been in the military special forces before becoming a vampire, is rather muscular and knows how to fight hand-to-hand, giving him a vantage over the other Ancestors that he's only too happy to use, as he'd lose badly if he were to fight them only magically. The second may be a mage, but, coming from ancient Greece of the Heroic Age, has the appropriate Heroic Build and is a competent wrestler, and if Enhance were to attack him he'd hand him his ass with ease (something they both know).
- Statuesque Stunner: The now 18-years old Rina Takamiya and Mariam are 179 and 178 cm tall respectively. Justified for Rina, who in her series was a Huge Schoolgirl.
- Super Cop: The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department includes Minako Aino and a mysterious man only known as Jack among their members.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Again justified by the Veil (and lampshaded with Minako accidentally stumbling on the Invaders' first attack and then soon forgetting about it) and averted after it falls.
- Justified with the Invaders' attack on North Korea after the Veil's deactivation: the North Korean regime used a magical artifact to create a bounded field that prevent any non-Korean from entering, and until two of the anchor points (Kim Jong-il and the Tomb of King Tongmyong
) are neutralized during their final attack (Kim gets killed by his own secret police and the tomb shelled by the USS Iowa) the only ones who can pass are Magical Girls and Executors from South Korea and two members of the Burial Agency who have managed to ignore the bounded field's effects because they believed that, as agents of God, they should be able to do just that.
- Justified with the Invaders' attack on North Korea after the Veil's deactivation: the North Korean regime used a magical artifact to create a bounded field that prevent any non-Korean from entering, and until two of the anchor points (Kim Jong-il and the Tomb of King Tongmyong
- Super Power Lottery: Some Magical Girls are vastly more powerful than others. Among the winners we can count Sailor Moon, Madoka, Mami Tomoe (noted to have vast reserves of magical energy and an extremely flexible power), Magdalene (whose powers include a battery of Hale Rockets and a train), and the Guardians of Kandrakar in general and Will Vandom and Nerissa in particular (their primary powers are quite devastating and they have numerous secondary powers, all taken from the comic book. Also, Will's and Nerissa primary power is the manipulation of the interactive forces
. There's a reason Kandrakar was terrified of Nerissa: they knew exactly what she could do).
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Burial Agency reserve member Sancraid Phahn has a habit of making these about some things the Burial Agency do without mandate.
- There Are No Therapists: Mostly played straight for a number of reasons, but they're having fun with this.
- Defied by the Oracle: without The Masquerade he would have put Ari of Arkhanta in contact with one to solve the trouble with his autistic son, and as soon as it falls he instructs the Guardians to do just that. Incidentally, this implies that Earth is the only place where there's one that the Oracle is willing to trust with Ari's son (as there are others);
- The planet of Magix had exactly one: Darcy (who, thankfully for her patients, was professional enough to not take advantage of this, going so far to use a combo of disguises and geasa to prevent herself from knowing her patients' identity and her patients from finding out who their therapist was). One of her patients was Musa;
- Subverted by the Magical Girls Alliance, who have at least two among their members: Irisviel von Einzbern-Emiya and an Heel Face Turned Darcy.
- Took a Level in Badass: Done literally with the Sailor Senshi: after Galaxia, Minako forced her fellow Sailor Senshi to take an extremely hard training, resulting in them taking several levels. Played straight with Minako (as Galaxia's incident makes her finally stop holding back when her friends are around to see), Mamoru (whose actions in the anime are explained as realizing how outmatched he was getting but still finding a way to be useful. He can also take down Sailor Star Fighter if she's not expecting it) and Michiru (who is noted as rather good with the knife even before Minako's training. Nobody knows why nor dares to ask her).
- Mami Tomoe: in Homura's zeroth timeline, she nearly took down Walpurgisnacht. As for other magical girls... Homura and Kyouko were stunned when they found out there was a magical girl who could not only survive Mami going all out but actually hold her own.
- Joseph Ratzinger is a former Executor, and, in an in-universe Shout-Out to Star Wars, can still shoot lightnings from the hands.
- Sancraid Phahn has been mentioned as having killed a Dead Apostle Ancestor. Not defeated, killed.
- The Unmasqued World: Once again, the premise.
- Vodka Drunkenski: According to
Word of God, Kai Hiwatari got this kind of attitude to alcohol after his first stay in Russia. It got him in a Crack Pairing.
- Who Would Want to Watch Us?: A number of Magical Girls has entertained the idea, with the Sailor Senshi having actually done it (Minako sang her own image songs), including a manga drawn by Naoko Takeuchi, Will Vandom (as in canon) keeping notes with the explicit purpose of doing this (as she actually did in a possible future) and the G1 of My Little Pony being based on Megan's own memories (under a false identity and a good disguise), with Friendship Is Magic being adapted by tales coming directly from the protagonists.
- Also, Sunset Shimmer, sort of: in the future of the timelines where Akiko did not make her revelation, she would have sent Hasbro the sheet of a character based on herself and the earliest draft of what would become Equestria Girls to try and contact the ponies remained in Equestria (for some reason casting herself as a villain with what in the first draft she would admit was a bad plan fueled by teen-aged hormones). The adventure never happened in-universe, however.
- You Are What You Hate: According to
Word of God Minako still hates cops, yet she's a cop. Justified as she became a cop to, in her own words, "keep an eye to the beasts in the force" (and she includes even Zenigata in the number due what he did in his youth).