Content Violations Review: Manga.Gushing Over Magical Girls

For what it's worth, the anime adapts chapters #1-21, #23-24, as well as #26 & #42 out of sequence ; all of the respective fetish/sexual scenes detailed above are also present, often with a bit more detail.

Edited by Jhiday on Apr 15th 2024 at 3:17:38 PM

I think I'm going for cut; I'd say the type and frequency of fanservice presented combined with the characters' ages push this into pedo-pandering territory

won't be any skin off my nose if it's kept, but yeaaah i don't think i can justify this either. also voting cut.

Cut. The additional detail in the anime isn't reassuring, either.

Edit: If we do decide to keep, some character folders have 3-4 images for the same person, so it'll warrant a trip to IP. Some are also borderline nsfw.

Edited by Mrph1 on Apr 15th 2024 at 2:55:23 PM

I think the reason the author made most characters nominally 14 is not for particularly catering to lolicons, but because other classic Magical Girl shows like Pretty Cure, Sailor Moon and Puella Magi Madoka Magica also star middle-schoolers.

I'm voting keep and clean.

I'm going to maintain my stance on keep, on account that this show doesn't technically break any rules, on top of prioritizing plot over fanservice.

Edited by Rmpdc on Apr 15th 2024 at 10:10:47 PM

I'm verging on saying "cut": the thing that keeps me from making it firmer is that I had a niggling sense from watching the first episode that it was intended to be a Deconstructive Parody. But if so, it's an indecisive one: I've seen it done a lot better without sexualizing underage girls (Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka comes to mind).

Edited by StarSword on Apr 15th 2024 at 10:27:24 AM

Since the Character page images were brought up in the mod chat, I want to note something very firmly and on the record.

If a work depicts underage sex and/or fetishizes underage characters, it cannot claim "parody" as a defense.

There must be some artistic or cultural value that actively justifies keeping the article, even sanitized. It doesn't help the work's case if tropers are uploading fetish art.

Edited by Fighteer on Apr 15th 2024 at 1:35:46 PM

Does getting nominated for a Next Manga Award count as a cultural value, at least in the case of Japan? It was nominated alongside 49 other manga during the 6th Next Manga Awards.

Also, on further checking of the Wikipedia page, the anime was broadcast in Japanese TV in censored and uncensored versions, and is promoted as a Seinen work.

Edited by Rmpdc on Apr 15th 2024 at 10:39:05 PM

I've seen enough anime and manga to understand the difference between seinen and fetish art. If the manga is accurately represented by the images that I see on the Character pages for this work, and the characters in question are supposedly fourteen years old, then you'll need a lot more than an award nomination to get it a reprieve.

Edited by Fighteer on Apr 15th 2024 at 10:45:19 AM

My vote, it case it hasn't been obvious, is cut.

All right, given Fighteer's input in post #58, I'm going to make it a firm cut. If anything, having Seinen as the target demographic makes the content worse: it means that the target market is adults.

Edited by StarSword on Apr 15th 2024 at 11:05:04 AM

Please make sure that the one who votes have seen the whole anime or read the whole available manga chapters to form up their own judgment, rather than just hearing the hearsays or 'read the trope page or descriptions'.

For example, Arawn999 has read all the available chapters to make his own judgment. So his vote for 'cut' can be considered legit, IMO. And me? I'm watching it right now, but haven't wholly finished the anime, so I do not consider myself legitimate to say 'keep' or 'cut'.

Anyone else? I'm suggesting to make sure that whatever the outcome is, it comes from people who actually knows the materials. Thus, we will be able to achieve a fair result.

Don't worry. I know your intention, so I'm not counting your posts as actual votes.

Edited by ChrisX on Apr 15th 2024 at 11:16:39 PM

To be clear, my comments above are not votes. I am reemphasizing our policy so that people can make proper judgments.

I'll note that there's an ATT about this thread.

Around here, we don't require every voter to view the work in question before making a verdict. If necessary, a couple of us do that and convey their opinion of what's going on to the rest of us. However, anyone here can cast a vote.

The reason I am inclined to lenience is that, while the characters are nominally young the sexual acts depicted do not seem to play up or otherwise make use of their supposed youth as part of their sex appeal. The 14 year old age of the characters (aside from the one who's younger and pointedly avoids all sexual acts) seems incidental as part of the Standard Magical Girl Fair rather than being an invite to the people who specifically look for little girls having sex.

Basically what animuacid says I guess.

Edited by paradisedj32 on Apr 15th 2024 at 5:44:42 AM

I mean, you know... the counterpoint to that is that they could have just not put sex into a story where their characters are 14 years old. It's creepy in and of itself that they even went ahead with it, despite making the protagonists children for the sake of the genre.

Cut.

Edited by WarJay77 on Apr 15th 2024 at 5:07:02 AM

Basically this. They didn't have to make the characters fourteen. Or they could have dropped the sex.

I continue to find the willingness among fan communities to overlook/normalize these elements troubling.

(Also, color me skeptical that the seinen genre needs underage/preteen protagonists, like it's some kind of law.)

Edited by Fighteer on Apr 15th 2024 at 6:12:34 AM

Nero Alice is typically exempt from the worst of the sexualized shenanigans... but she does more or less brainwash Tres Magia into having a threesome, watch Loco Musica's nude performance (despite Leopard initially attempting to distract her), engages in playing house with Magia Magenta and playing doctor with Utena while using her powers to appear older, and engages in spanking Azul on at least one occasion.

Edited by Arawn999 on Apr 15th 2024 at 2:56:28 AM

i have my finger on the "launch the cobalt nuke" button

~BUGLORD 6000 made a review on this site in which they give an argument for having 14 yos like that:

To sum up they believe the work is about early teens getting confused about their blossoming sexualities and they make an analogy of the Venalita demon thingy to child abusers or pimps. But as I haven't read the manga I don't know if that's what it was going for.

I'm leaning cut on this one.

I have read the manga, and yes, that is indeed what they are going for.

That review is creepy AF. Even if true, and there is a market for such works, we don't need to describe them on TV Tropes.

Edited by Fighteer on Apr 15th 2024 at 6:21:03 AM