TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Deconstructing Magical Girls

Go To

Durazno Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#901: Jul 1st 2013 at 4:36:13 AM

Magic is in the process, not the outcome.

fruitstripegum Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Singularity
#902: Jul 3rd 2013 at 3:45:44 PM

Here's an idea: what if the Magical Girl herself became Brainwashed and Crazy?

And can somebody please answer my previous question?

Ninteen45 Since: Mar, 2013
#903: Jul 9th 2013 at 11:39:37 PM

How about this:

The Magical Girl group are in fact a bunch of Cultists for an Eldritch Abomination who is trying to Take Over the World and every Monster of the Week they fight are in fact local people who become cultists for competing Eldritch Abominations.

The series alludes to it before revealing it explicitly halfway through, and then starts focusing on minor characters like that generic guy who is trying to uncover The Masquerade as he decends into a form of insanity, classmates who become cultists of other Eldritch Abominations, police officers looking into the dissapearances happening and other fun stuff from a Cosmic Horror Story.

edited 9th Jul '13 11:43:55 PM by Ninteen45

kiukiuclk from 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693 Since: Feb, 2013 Relationship Status: My TiMER is ticking
#904: Jul 9th 2013 at 11:53:30 PM

[up] Told through the POV of a Muggle who is a fan/crush/etc of the on of the MG's.

lalalei2001 Since: Oct, 2009
#905: Jul 14th 2013 at 10:04:39 PM

Il Sole penetra le illusioni seems to be going this route. Deconstructing might become the next big thing' for magical girl shows now.

The Protomen enhanced my life.
fruitstripegum Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Singularity
#906: Jul 22nd 2013 at 12:49:16 PM

How about a magical girl story told from the point of view from a fan of said heroine, who has a blog (or even a whole website) dedicated to her?

lalalei2001 Since: Oct, 2009
#907: Jul 22nd 2013 at 1:51:06 PM

[up] That sounds cool ^^ Sort of like how Sailor Moon was a big fan of Sailor V.

The Protomen enhanced my life.
Demongodofchaos2 Face me now, bitch! from In a Cultivation World (Ancient one) Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
Face me now, bitch!
#908: Jul 22nd 2013 at 3:14:23 PM

Pretty Cure will always be around to play these straight, while at the same time poke fun at many of the tropes of the genre themselves.

As well as kick tons of ass without any real weapons like other magical girls tend to do unless it's a finisher.

Watch Symphogear
fruitstripegum Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Singularity
#909: Jul 31st 2013 at 12:24:31 PM

Something that's been bothering me for a while now - would Penny Crayon be considered Magical Girl? I know, her only "power" is Art Initiates Life, but Magical Idol Pastel Yumi and Fancy Lala had the same power, and they're considered magical girls.

edited 31st Jul '13 12:25:27 PM by fruitstripegum

lalalei2001 Since: Oct, 2009
joeyjojo Happy New Year! from South Sydney: go the bunnies! Since: Jan, 2001
Happy New Year!
#911: Oct 4th 2013 at 1:25:26 AM

I'm getting the impression 'deconstruction' just means throw in more adult plotlines and general Darker and Edgier action scenes.

edited 4th Oct '13 1:25:44 AM by joeyjojo

hashtagsarestupid
KylerThatch literary masochist Since: Jan, 2001
literary masochist
#912: Oct 4th 2013 at 1:29:54 AM

I'm sure it ought to be theoretically possible to deconstruct a trope such that it's Played for Laughs. It's just that many often operate on the unspoken assumption that reality is gritty and dark, at least compared the idealistic sugarbowl fantasies you can conjure in fiction.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...
GAP Formerly G.G. from Who Knows? Since: May, 2011 Relationship Status: In love with love
Formerly G.G.
#913: Oct 4th 2013 at 5:15:05 AM

[up] The real world is a lot more complex than that, it is actually a variety of things. I guess it is due to the fact that mot of don't really experience the things we see in fiction.

"Fan, a Mega Man character."
YamiiDenryuu Since: Jan, 2010
#914: Oct 4th 2013 at 7:40:57 AM

Deconstructive Parody is a thing that exists, so it's totally possible to have a lighthearted/played-for-laughs deconstruction.

Well it would be a thing if I could spell it right

edited 4th Oct '13 7:41:18 AM by YamiiDenryuu

Culminus I don't culminate! Since: Feb, 2013 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
I don't culminate!
#915: Oct 4th 2013 at 8:37:52 AM

I think a Deconstruction is when many audience watch a trope or a theme play out, and thought that the people around the characters would behave as the audience would themselves, and the characters all got that coming. That is fitting. Because sucky wangst or dark plot or sad events don't really make something more realistic.

Same as usual.... Wing it.
KylerThatch literary masochist Since: Jan, 2001
literary masochist
#916: Oct 4th 2013 at 8:57:53 AM

Deconstruction is when a trope is taken to its logical consequences. Positive, negative, doesn't matter.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#917: Oct 4th 2013 at 2:29:53 PM

Negative tends to lend itself towards more drama and fight scenes.

GAP Formerly G.G. from Who Knows? Since: May, 2011 Relationship Status: In love with love
Formerly G.G.
#918: Oct 4th 2013 at 3:23:32 PM

Ironically, Evangelion and Mobile Suit Gundam have some of the best fight scenes in anime. Seriously, if Magical Girls were given the Watchmen treatment we would seeing a lot more death and more Reality Ensues than we ever see in Madoka. Alternatively if we decide to go the Satire/Parody route, it would lighthearted to make a joke out of the tropes being used but at same time pointing out the flaws in them. Satire is the cruelest form of comedy and it should be used with caution as someone's feelings could get seriously hurt and that is not cool.

"Fan, a Mega Man character."
Colonial1.1 Purveyor of Obscurity from The Marvelous River City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Purveyor of Obscurity
#919: Oct 11th 2013 at 8:34:35 AM

BAH! If someone is hacked off or otherwise offended by a well-done and merciless satire of magical girls, then they've missed the point of it. And need thicker skin.

I suppose deconstruction of this particular genre can also work if such characters are taken outside their normal contexts. Magical girls tend to be empowered to confront specific threats, not a wide variety.

"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke."
AceOfScarabs I am now a shiny stone~ from Singapore Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
I am now a shiny stone~
#920: Oct 11th 2013 at 8:55:52 AM

One other serious matter never touched upon is the dark side of being an Idol-singer-class Magical Girl.

There are the bad gigs, in shady places where the audience is creepily fixated on you, the sinister agents whom you could mistake for Dark Kingdom nobility given their worse excesses and bad behaviour 'excused' by their money, the broken senpais who can't take the pressures of being an idol, the stalker-fans, and the horrible things some people in the biz demand from you as "services" or "payment".

Imagine the Dark Idol Magical Girl, who has become a pitch-black Anti-Heroine. She's had enough of being used in more ways than one, her innocence long shattered by the people she'd sworn to protect who demanded more from her than was right. Her ruthlessness and broken nature would be terrifying, her shreds of humanity barely held together by actually decent people she is somehow fortunate to meet and befriend. Her strongest morality chains are her understudies and her actual fanclub.

edited 11th Oct '13 8:58:35 AM by AceOfScarabs

The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
KylerThatch literary masochist Since: Jan, 2001
literary masochist
#921: Oct 11th 2013 at 9:03:06 AM

I am reminded of Erika of Megatokyo.

edited 11th Oct '13 9:03:24 AM by KylerThatch

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...
AceOfScarabs I am now a shiny stone~ from Singapore Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
I am now a shiny stone~
#922: Oct 11th 2013 at 9:19:27 AM

I might have been influenced by ol' Fred.

The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
Zenoseiya Since: Jan, 2001
#923: Oct 11th 2013 at 10:35:57 AM

Here's an idea... take a page out of the Magical Burst RPG. It's much better at deconstructing magical girl shows than Madoka Magica is. Everything from the military engaging monsters, to magic having dangerous side effects, to killing people to protect the masquerade, it's all there.

Culminus I don't culminate! Since: Feb, 2013 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
I don't culminate!
#924: Oct 11th 2013 at 4:34:38 PM

Having side effects does -not- count as deconstruction. Reality Ensues being a side effect counts, not Power at a Price.

Same as usual.... Wing it.
GAP Formerly G.G. from Who Knows? Since: May, 2011 Relationship Status: In love with love
Formerly G.G.
#925: Oct 13th 2013 at 3:21:24 PM

@ Colonial 1. 1

I guess they do need thicker skin even if the satire is cruel and coldhearted because of its brutal honesty. I think that we shouldn't do a satire as much as we make it a satire on the surface but make it its own work.

@Ace Of Scarabs

I never read Mega Tokyo so I wouldn't know but that sounds like a good idea. The Idol doesn't have any real friends only customers.

@Culminus

Like if a magical girl has super strength but doesn't have the durability that comes with it. She could destroy her own body and not realize until it is too late.

"Fan, a Mega Man character."

Total posts: 1,023
Top