
Known as mahou shoujo ("magical girl") or just majokko ("witch-girl") in Japanese, Magical Girls are empowered by various means with fantastic powers that both assist and complicate their lives, but manage to persevere despite this.
No matter how hard this may be for the Western world to believe, Magical Girls have high crossover popularity in different demographics with some minor but appropriate design modifications and make up a sizable portion of both Shōjo and bishoujo fandom.
A Super-Trope to:
- Cute Witch—where magic is mundane to the character.
- Magic Idol Singer—who (initially) uses her powers for her own benefit.
- Magical Girl Genre Deconstruction—a sub-genre themed around deconstructive and subversive Magical Girl works.
- Magical Girl Warrior—mostly in a superheroine role fighting evil.
Magical Girl Warriors arguably have the widest demographic appeal, and in the West are often synonymous with the idea of a Magical Girl.
History of the Genre
It may come as a surprise to learn that the entire Magical Girl genre is descended, effectively, from the American live-action Magical Girlfriend sitcom Bewitched. While two series claim the role of "first magical girl anime"—Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Mahotsukai Sally (Sally the Witch, 1966-1968) and Fujio Akatsuka's Himitsu no Akko-chan (broadcast 1969, but its manga predates Mahotsukai Sally)—the creators of both credit Bewitched as a primary inspiration for their work. Yokoyama explicitly adapted its concept for a younger audience, while Akatsuka merely says he was "inspired" by it.
Sally the Witch's American counterpart, Archie's Sabrina the Teenage Witch (then known as the Sabrina portion of Sabrina and The Groovie Goolies during its early years), was an early American example of a Magical Girl show, and the first animated magical girl series to be produced and aired in the United States, and it ran as a Saturday-morning cartoon. This early Magical Girl show was very unusual that it included a laugh track—which is not present in Sally the Witch (which didn't came to America), but more common in American-produced cartoons.
Another important early Magical Girl show was Majokko Meg-chan in 1974. This was the first show to be marketed to boys as well as girls, and featured a number of developments—it was the first Magical Girl show to...
- have a Tomboyish heroine—all magical girls prior to this had been sweet feminine girls;
- feature a rival to the main character (Non, Meg's rival and the local Dark Magical Girl);
- include a really evil character. Prior to this, there was a perception that young girls couldn't handle such things;
- feature Fanservice (in the form of Panty Shots, slight nudity, and Megu being a borderline Fille Fatale), as well as Lovable Sex Maniac characters (Megu's stepbrother Rabi and Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain Chou);
- touch on more serious social issues, like domestic abuse, extramarital relationships, drug abuse, and have the heroine not only lose fights, but having to face serious consequences (deaths, injuries, humiliations, etc.).
Originally, all Magical Girl shows were produced by Toei Animation in Japan or Filmation in the US, so "Magical Girl" wasn't so much a genre as a Series Franchise. This lasted until Ashi Production's Magical Princess Minky Momo hit the airwaves in 1982 in Japan and DiC's Rainbow Brite in 1983, followed by Studio Pierrot's Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel in 1983 (the first Magic Idol Singer show). A one-shot OVA produced in 1987 featured a Bat Family Crossover between Studio Pierrot's four '80s Magical Girl shows (Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel, Persia, the Magic Fairy, Magical Emi, the Magic Star, and Magical Idol Pastel Yumi). This was the first instance of a magical girl team. (My Little Pony was not considered a magical girl series, but some series were indeed part of the genre.)
The Magical Girl Warrior subgenre didn't hit worldwide until She-Ra: Princess of Power in 1985 for Western animation and Sailor Moon in 1992 for anime, but 1973 Cutey Honey, despite not being aimed at girls but having a lot of influence on the genre, was the first magical girl warrior. This was essentially a combination of the earlier style shows with the Super Hero genre, particularly the Super Sentai formula. Sailor Moon was a huge hit, and, naturally, other shows were made in the same style. A small further subgenre of the Magical Girl Warrior is the Magical Girl Phantom Thief, seen in Phantom Thief Jeanne, Kaitou Saint Tail and Hatena Illusion.
The wave of shows inspired by Sailor Moon (anime) or She-Ra: Princess of Power (Western cartoons) eventually subsided, but new sub-genres spawned soon in its wake. As of present, most magical girl shows can be loosely organized into three broad categories.
- Neo-classical, codified by Cardcaptor Sakura. Essentially, old school magical girl coming of age stories updated with the sensibilities of the modern age and the roles of girls and women in it. Mainly aimed towards young girls but often with a significant Peripheral Demographic of adult males. Contemporary examples include Ojamajo Doremi, Shugo Chara! and the Pretty Cure franchise (though that also fits in the second set).
- Action Hero, created by Pretty Cure, but codified by Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Magical Girl Warrior territory, with emphasis on "Warrior" and often enough Hot Blood to put a Shounen fighting series to shame. Largely aimed at the teenage and adult male demographic, and as such placing heavy emphasis on Fanservice: from a lot of fighting scenes with Calling Your Attacks, to Magitek Technology Porn. The Improbably Female Cast is frequently used as an excuse for Les Yay. Examples include: My-HiME, Vividred Operation, Symphogear, and Kill la Kill.
- Deconstructive, codified by Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Debunking the very concept of a world where young girls are forced to confront evil as a Crapsaccharine World with plenty of dark secrets and delving deep into the psychology of its cast, often with religious or philosophical references. Tends to skew towards teens and adult males like the Action Hero variation, but there are a few works that aim towards young and teenage girls as well. Often borders on Surreal Horror territory; Madoka itself was considered the equivalent of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Berserk for the genre. Other notable examples include My-HiME (again), Princess Tutu, Day Break Illusion, and Yuki Yuna is a Hero.
Of course, there are other examples that feature similar themes but diverge even further from the old-style shows. Many fans felt that shows such as Magic Knight Rayearth were still Magical Girl shows, despite all the dissimilarities from the previous generation (others disagree, and feel that Rayearth is Shoujo RPG World Fantasy instead).
IMPORTANT NOTE: A girl who can use magic is not necessarily a Magical Girl in the sense of the trope or genre. A Magical Girlfriend, for example, usually does not fit into the same structure that defines a Magical Girl series.
For an index of magical girl works, see the Magical Girl Genre Index. Also see the Index of Magical Girl Tropes and our own guide on how to Write a Magical Girl Series.
Not to be confused with John Popadiuk's Magic Girl pinball machine.
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Examples of Magical Girl works:
- Balala the Fairies was the very first major magical girl series in China, focusing on oridinary girls who are granted powers that turn them into a group of warriors known as the Fairies of Balala so they can fight evil.
- Catch! Teenieping is a Korean example. It focuses on the princess of the Emotions Kingdom, Princess Romi, who accidentally releases "mind fairies" known as Teeniepings and sends them to Earth, prompting her to go to Earth and attempt to catch every Teenieping as they wreak havoc in one town in particular known as Harmony Town. She has the ability to transform into different forms depending on which Royal Teenieping she transforms with, which she then uses to catch the runaway Teeniepings.
- Flower Fairy is basically China's answer to Cardcaptor Sakura, featuring a young girl named Xia An'an capturing and using the powers of fairies with her companion, Prince Kukuru of the fairy continent Labelle, to fight evil.
- Kung Fu Wa, A 8-year old girl named Tee Yang meets a Kung-Fu Master turned into a sock by a time vortex, she agrees to help him find and seal evil spirits called Kwei, she borrows his mystical powers by putting him on her foot and turns into a super heroine called Kung-Fu Girl.
- Nana Moon, a Chinese series, has Keke being given a special badge that lets her transform into specific occupations (such as a makeup artist, for example) to help people.
- Rainbow Ruby is a girl who uses a magical suitcase to transform herself into different job outfits.
- Sweets Fairy, China's second Magical Girl series after Balala the Fairies.
- Tea Tea Cherry, also another South Korean example and a fairly modern take of the genre. It is about three (later five) teenage girls (all named after fruits) saving creatures in another dimension by solving puzzles and looking for clues that were left behind.
- Fantasy Patrol; probably Russia's first example.
- W.I.T.C.H. is an Italian animesque comic about a team of American girls with magical powers. In Icelandic, the comic was renamed to Magical Girls, since W.I.T.C.H. obviously doesn't work in all languages. Also has an animated adaptation.
- Wonder Woman and the Star Riders may have been a truncated property but what was made features Wonder woman in a skirt and tights leading a group of gals with magical powers wearing sparkly outfits while protecting and using magic gems.
- Goddess is a miniseries by Garth Ennis, of all people, that more or less reads as a Western take on the genre, albeit a far less kid-friendly one.
- Zodiac Starforce is an American take on a Magical Girl team. Artist Paulina Gauncheau is a huge fan of the genre (and especially Sailor Moon), and it shows.
- Magical Beatdown is a hyper violent street harassment revenge fantasy about an average video-game loving schoolgirl who transforms into a foul-mouthed and rage-fuelled Magical girl when provoked.
- Strange Academy features Emily Bright, a young girl who has had magical abilities of unknown origins ever since she was a baby, and has enrolled in Doctor Strange's eponymous Wizarding School as a member of its first class.
- Goodbye, Battle Princess Peony is about the titular Peony, a Battle Princess who fights to protect her world from dark villainesses known as the Divine Ladies, but accidentally gets transported to their world one day.
- Teen Witch is rather like the typical Coming of Age Story where a Magical Girl uses her powers in every day life.
- Sucker Punch is very Animesque (to the degree that a lot of people mistook it for a live action Sailor Moon at first). There's a Five-Man Band of girls who can do literally anything in the fantasy sequences, and they seem to fit the Magical Girl Warrior archetypes.
- Avalon: Web of Magic three girls, Emily, Adriane, and Kara, find stones/crystals - that come from a fantastical alternate dimension in need of help - that grant them magical abilities.
- Daughters of the Moon a series of novels about five girls who are granted powers by the moon goddess, Selene, in order to fight off an ancient evil called the Atrox, who aims to end all hope and spread darkness across the world.
- Hex Hall
- Magical Girl Raising Project is a dark Deconstruction of the trope, where Anyone Can Die is firmly in effect.
- The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess
- Nowhere Stars is a dark take on this, featuring strange monsters called Harbingers and a terminally ill girl who becomes a Keeper in order to go on living.
- Oto × Maho has a twist of featuring a boy in the magical girl role, much to his chagrin, though while comedic and lighthearted, the series plays many of the typical genre tropes straight.
- Princess Holy Aura
- Twitches twin girls, Cam and Alex, who were separated at birth find each other, and learn that their odd behaviours are in fact the sign of mystical powers that reach their full potential when they're together. They fight off an evil force known as 'The Darkness'.
- The Witches of Bailiwick
- Magical Girl Pretty Dynamo from Jake and the Dynamo.
- Ximena/Selena of Walking On Dreams.
- Cutie Honey: THE LIVE is a tokusatsu Live-Action Adaptation of the Cutie Honey series. Since it's aimed towards men, expect a lot of Male Gaze and Fanservice.
- The Girls x Heroine! Series, created by Takashi Miike, is a tokusatsu series centered on middle school Magical Girl Warriors. Shows in teh series are:
- Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon is yet another tokusatsu show, this time of the massively popular Sailor Moon Franchise.
- In The School Nurse Files, Eun-young's friend Kang-sun draws a flipbook animation where Eun-young is a magical girl.
- "Magical Girl" by Cate Rox comes across as a Magical Girl Warrior song.
"I'm a magical girl
In this ordinary world
Where darkness has consumed all life
And you need magic to survive
Everyday is a fight
I'm a magical girl."
- Lavinia, the Cute Witch heroine of South African childrens' show Die Liewe Heksie, is a Magical Girl: her youth and cuteness contrast to the Wicked Witch qualities of the opposing GeelHeks.
- Magical Goddess Girls From Outer Space is meant to be both a Parody and Straight example of this. It features Magical Girls who fight monsters and also have no idea what they're doing and will continue to have no idea what they are doing for a while because that's what happens when you spontaneously gain powers.
- For the Spirit of Creation
- Hachimitsu No Kissu
- Mahou Shoujo Chaos Princesses
- Areatha from Embers in the Dusk. A twenty-thousand-years old superpowered genetic experiment who literally claimed that archetype to become stronger. The omakes where she behaves accordingly are... quite the reading.
- Princess: The Hopeful is a Decon-Recon Switch of Magical Girls that's compatible with the New World of Darkness. Princesses are charged with improving the world, but doing so is going to take a lot of hard work, struggle, sacrifice, and more varied strategies than The Power of Love.
- Pathfinder has the gender-neutral Magical Child archetype for the Vigilante class. The Magical Child can cast spells(like the Summoner) and comes with a familiar, that changes forms as the Child grows in levels, and eventually gets the ability to switch between them. And yes, it has a Transformation Sequence. Once that starts at thirty seconds, and can get shorter with new talents.
- Bee from Bee and Puppycat unintentionally finds herself working as one as a part time job. Her response was... less than pleased. The series as a whole can be thought of as an Affectionate Parody of the genre.
- Kawaii Battle Stars
- Magical Fun Time Now
- The entire Arcana Magi Universe feature Magical Girls.
- So far in Arcana Magi, Alysia Morales is a magical girl under unfortunate circumstances.
- Meanwhile in Arcana Magi Zero, Alysia Perez and Megumi Miyazaki are magical girls complete with Transformation Sequence, magical outfits , and random attack names.
- Played with in various Improfanfic series:
- Magical Girl Hunters — So many girls are empowered as magical girls that they're starting to run out of sensible themes and names, and many magical girl groups are starting to target lesser evils like corporate greed. The protagonists are the eponymous hunters, hired assassins who eliminate magical girls who have become pests. Some featured deconstructions include Sailor H, the Sailor Shoggoths, and the 64 (later 128) Crayola Knights.
- Lambda
- Magic Heart And The Magical Warriors
- The Magical And Mysterious World Of Lady Star.
- Raya
- Saga of Soul - A magical girl tries to apply the scientific method to her newfound powers, while defending her world from demons, the Elysium, the Circle of Wisdom, and more.
- Deconstructed hard in Sailor Nothing.
- Mahou Profile: A History of Magical Girls is a YouTube series dedicated to the history of magical girl anime.
Examples of the Magical Girl trope referred to in other works:
- Apparently,
the mascot for Microsoft Internet Explorer was a Moe Anthropomorphism personification of a magical girl, Transformation Sequence and all. She fights robots well enough
, but she didn't succeed in attracting any audience to the "browser everyone loves to hate" - Internet Explorer ended up being replaced by Microsoft Edge.
- Osame-tai
, an advertising campaign parodying Pretty Cure on behalf of the Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan, to encourage people to pay their vehicle taxes.
- The "Metro Manners
" Public Service Announcements star Anna Akana as Super Kind, who uses the power of music... and New Powers as the Plot Demands to punish monstrous "Metro Menaces" who act inconsiderate on the subway.
- Spoofed in the Puyo Puyo drama CD story "Chain Sentai Puyorangers", where Raffina refuses to wear a Super Sentai outfit as Amitie expected and instead dons a red frilly magical girl outfit while naming herself "Miracle Raffina".
- Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld combines Magical Girl with Changeling Fantasy and High Fantasy.
- The Enchantress created by DC Comics in 1966, comes very close to being a proto-Magical Girl Warrior. Young woman June Moone goes with her slightly older boyfried to an alledgedly haunted castle for a party. Turns out that there are actual spooks. June stumbles into a secret chamber, where a mysterious being tells her she is The Chosen One and gives her a transformation word. June says it and gets magical powers, an appearance makeover (blonde to dark red), a miniskirted costume, and a kickin' witch hat. The Enchantress then battles a Monster of the Week and evacuates the civilians before the castle collapses. June reappears with a weak excuse and her boyfriend expresses an interest in her alter ego. There were two more stories where Enchantress fought random menaces, but the writers didn't have a good story arc beyond that, so she went into obscurity for years, including a phase as a Dark Magical Girl.
- The Gen¹³ miniseries Magical Drama Queen Roxy, which reinvents Freefall as a Magical girl, is a parody of the genre. Turned out to be All Just a Dream.
- Comic book Superheroine Mary Marvel, who first appeared in 1942, possessed several similar characteristics to the Magical Girl Warrior sub-type: skimpy costume, magical Transformation Sequence into a super-powered form, a Destiny, and (if you stretch it to include Tawky Tawny) a Talking Animal friend.
- W.I.T.C.H. is an Italian comic following the formula of an Action Hero magical girl series. The main 5 girls all have magical powers, transformation sequences, and fight to defend the earth from evil forces. The animated TV show is based on the comic books.
- Queen Bee
- In A Hero, Dalek Sec implies that Kyubey and the Incubators have been manipulating humanity behind the scenes, and are responsible for the rise of the Magical girl genre, in order to make it seem like a good idea to become a magical girl. If you know Puella Magi Madoka Magica, you'll know why this is very much the opposite of true. It turns you into a soulless Lich, and worse, you will eventually turn into a monster. All while your emotions are harvested by aliens to prevent the heat death of the universe.
- The Cardinal King series is a Sailor Moon fanfic series in which the roles of Mamoru and Usagi are inverted - Mamoru is the Henshin Hero Cardinal King, the Shitennou are his fellow magical warriors and Usagi is the Mysterious Protector Jewel Tiara.
- Rosalina Folium, or Mirabilis as she calls herself, in the Forest of Despair believes that she is a magical girl. She has a wand, outfit, spell names, flowers and everything needed except for actually magic.
- Friendship Is Magic, a DeviantArt comic based on the eponymous My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic takes on this genre in full force (almost to the point of parody), including a High School in an urban Japanese setting, Calling Your Attacks, magical forehead crystals, and even a litte Chibi Fausticorn sidekick.
- Rin of Blue Exorcist becomes a magical boy in Inheritance of Cards and Demons, due to finding the chest containing the Clow Cards (as well as a few new ones Sakura created) and becoming the new Cardcaptor.
- In Keepers of the Elements, the canonically non-magical Total Drama girls Gwen, Bridgette, Izzy, Heather and Lindsay each gain Elemental Powers of a different type, with the embittered Courtney later becoming an Evil Counterpart.
- In Kyon: Big Damn Hero, Nonokonote believes she will become a Magical girl after her school trip. It actually happens even earlier, with Kyon's Badass Longcoat and Morph Weapon substituting for a dress and Magic Wand, and Achakura for Mentor Mascot.
- Lux-Umbra Magna Auguratricis deals with the the Loud Sisters turning into magical girls by the force of a Bond Creature known as Gemini in order to combat the Shadows. Heck, the summary of the story even calls them Magical Girls!
- Several fanfic attempts (or at least attempted) a Magical girl crossover style in the form of Super Robot Wars.
- In Magical Whip Girl Pretty Lotten-Chan
Lotten (or more accurately Lotten-Chan) is a whip-wielding magical girl who has to defend Crashtown from the forces of evil.
- Meg as well as her daughter Rosie in The Spellbook.
- Shattered Skies: The Morning Lights is a Massive Crisis Crossover that brings together the casts of the five premiere series of magical girl-dom: Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, the first ten Pretty Cure continuities, Lyrical Nanoha, and Madoka Magica, uniting magical girls from across the spectrum to fight a war for the sake of all existence.
- In Slayers Trilogy, Amelia gains the ability to transform into a magical girl.
- Tentomu chu!! desu~ has the members of the AKB48 Group as magical girls, specifically the members of the titular unit "Tentoumu chu".
- Even the horror genre has nods to this trope. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master can be seen as a darker take on the Magical girl story, since Alice's dream powers at first only serve to make everyone around her bigger targets for Freddy Krueger and they are Personality Powers received from their deaths. Nonetheless, it has the typical tropes: shy and insecure teenage girl receives magical powers one day (from Kristen, the previous Final Girl) and, over the course of the movie, overcomes her insecurities and matures into her role as the titular Dream Master, freeing the children's souls from Freddy while getting the hot guy and reconciling with her abusive father.
- The German fantasy book series (also adapted as an audio drama) Bibi Blocksberg is about a 13-year-old witch living in a small German town and going to school with other regular kids. The series started in 1980, long before anime shows or manga became popular in Germany.note
- The German book series Lilly The Witch is about a girl named Lilly who finds a magical book which turns her into a witch, as well as a Mentor Mascot in the form of a little green dragon named Hector, and who has many adventures all over the world. The books have been made into an animated series on CBBC, as well as an animated movie.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, oddly enough, can be seen as a Magical Girl Warrior show. The first season in particular looks quite a bit like a classic Magical Girl series viewed through a funhouse mirror. This is probably not a coincidence, since Joss Whedon is known to be a fan of Sailor Moon.
- H₂O: Just Add Water an Australian TV show about teenage girls that turn into mermaids. Some episodes are just Slice of Life about the girls trying to hide their magic from their peers, while others will touch on parts of mermaid mythology.
- The Secret World of Alex Mack
- South Korean girl group AOA has a sub-group called AOA Cream, who released a song titled "I'm Jelly BABY." In its music video
, the girls transform into Magical Girl Warriors to get revenge on a cheating boyfriend.
- Vocaloid features a parody of this trope... with poor Len not as a magical boy, but as a magical kitty.
- The "Magical Child" archetype for the Vigilante class in Pathfinder can be of any age or gender, but draws heavily from the Magical girl trope. They get spellcasting ability, a Transformation Sequence to activate their Secret Identity, and an animal familiar.
- Balala the Fairies, which is basically a live action Pretty Cure.
- In the 1980s and early 1990s, Shotaro Ishinomori had a hand in making the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series. While earlier series were kiddie Sci Fi robot shows and friendly monsters, the later entries in the franchise were all live action magical girls, such as Mahou Shoujo Chuuka na Paipai, Fushigi Shojo Nile na Thutmose, Bishoujo Kamen Poitrine, and Yuugen Jikkou Sisters Shushutorian.
- Cutey Honey The Live is Exactly What It Says on the Tin - a live action version of Cutey Honey.
- Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, a live action version of Sailor Moon.
- The toku series Seishoujo Senshi Saint Valkyrie, which appears to have been inspired by Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki.
- Even Super Sentai has an example. Gekisou Sentai Carranger, the parody series, had the kid sister of the series' main villainess transforming into White Racer, a racing-themed magical girl, to occasionally help out the heroes. Also, she had a cat/car-based mecha. Carranger was an odd year.
- Kamen Rider Ex-Aid's Poppy Pipopapo (Asuna Karino) transforms into her disguised civilian form or her true Bugster form when she says, "Costume Change" that bares some Magical Girl elements and and has a true bubbly and energetic personality like one of the protagonists from those magical girl series such as Usagi "Serena" Tsukino (Sailor Moon) from Sailor Moon, & Miyuki Hoshizora (Emily) (Cure Happy) (Glitter Lucky) from Smile Pretty Cure! (Glitter Force). Also, as Asuna, she has a mature and no-nonsense persona, although her normal personality will momentarily surface if she is addressed by her real name. But as Kamen Rider Poppy, she uses with the Gashacon Bugvisor II (Buggle Driver II) & the Tokimeki Crisis Gashat, given from Amagasaki Ren (Lovelica Bugster) & her transformation sequence has some Magical Girl elements, like Sailor Moon, & Smile Pretty Cure! (Glitter Force).
- Once in Kamen Rider Wizard, in order to hide his identity from his Grandmother, Kamen Rider Beast refers himself as Magical Girl Beast.
- The Girl x Warrior franchise in Japan is a magical girl tokusatsu franchise meant to rival the Pretty Cure franchise. The first installment, Idol x Warriors Miracle Tunes, which is about idols given the power to transform and fight evil, premiered in 2017 in Japan, and has recently gotten a European adaptation.
- Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls was an attempt by Lauren Faust to launch a toy line in this genre.
- In The Impossible Man Yuki Shimizu is a Magical girl, sent by her mother who leads a mysterious village of Magical Girls and Magical Women, to work as Michael Garcia's bodyguard at his store.
- In Monster Girl Encyclopedia, magical girl appear to be a class of heroine, with Fallen Maidens book features a magical girl named Mimiru Miltie. As hinted by name of the book, she got corrupted and become a witch of Subbath cult.
- The Mother's Basement's PSA Is YOUR Daughter a Magical Girl?!
serves as a "what to look for" guide to parents of magical girls.