Take your average anime club in America. It probably has a lot of mainstream fans — people who watch DBZ, Inuyasha, Cowboy Bebop…
Well you’ll mostly get a lot of shounen fans. Said shounen fans probably won’t take magical girl series very seriously. Or they’ll approach it with a mocking tone, because things are so pink and girly and weak. America is all about aggression and the mighty superpower and big explosions and direct attacks. People love Superman and Batman and Spiderman, but we don’t see enough Wonder Woman and Catwoman.
Maybe it’s still early. While women got the right to vote in 1920, and women helped a ton during World War II while the men were at war, only recently did the ‘Girl Power’ movement really spring up, culminating with women holding governmental office and now women on the presidential and vice-presidential tickets.
Anyway, that’s a tangent. Kinomoto Sakura, Hinamori Amu, and Tsukino Usagi are not Wonder-Woman-material, but I think they have a lot of merits on their own. And the magical-girl genre .. well.. really is originally for kids. Girls like their fantasies and want to live their dreams. Older fans shouldn’t just forget their childhoods and abandon these series as big jokes now.
Funnily enough, mahou shoujo does have a significant male fanbase, too. Some do care about the story and the magic and the experience. But then there’s the rising prevalence of fanservice and ecchi in all these series, too. Some are more subtle than others. Nanoha has its pantsu flashes while Moetan goes all out with the loli henshin. Shugo Chara! and Cardcaptor Sakura keep it innocent on the surface, but there are hidden themes if you look for them.
So what I want to do is create a powerpoint lecture for my anime club. Minimum of ten minutes, although I think I’ll find some way to make it an hour long before I know it. >_> But I want to give mahou shoujo an honest chance .. all before people cry out “the transformations are porn!” or “it’s so cheesy and girly!”.
I have some draft slides already, but I wonder if the community here has some interesting points to contribute. What drives your appreciation of mahou shoujo, and what things have you always wanted to explain to your friends but were never able to?
Wikipedia has helped me with the following older series for a historical perspective:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally,_the_Witch
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majokko_Megu-chan
And then I can talk about how the girls get their powers … Recurring themes like love and friendship and self-sacrifice … Common elements like the henshin or the big final magic attack (with optional Engrish) … And then analyze how the genre has become rather sexual as of late, for better or for worse.
~Crisu
CJ
Crisu
Rakuen
Dave
ladytemeraire
Nice idea; I harbor a liking for the genre myself amidst all the more “mature” shows and I think more people need to give at least the good mahou shoujo a shot.
I think the interesting thing about mahou shoujo is that frequently, at least nowadays in the shows I watch, you can enjoy it even if you don’t actually like the “genre” per se, since these anime combine a bunch of other genres as well as the “transformation and flashy pink attacks” that it’s known for.
For example, in Shugo Chara, I skip about 2 minutes of transforming and Master Spa – er, Negative Heart-ing every episode and still get off fine, because a lot of the fun in Shugo Chara comes from its humor and character dynamics. It may be aimed at kids but that doesn’t mean we can’t get the jokes and admire the relationship between characters; and like you said, there are more mature dynamics that kids don’t get, that make it especially worthwhile for the older set.
In Cardcaptor Sakura, these would be things like the undertones between Touya and Yukito (or pick any two characters from that show, really), or in Shugo Chara, Ikuto and / or Nadeshiko (to avoid spoiling) add a lot for me, as well.
I think it’s that the mahou shoujo genre doesn’t just do beamspam and transformation, it also does comedy, romance, slice-of-life, and combines most of it in a manner that all types of people can enjoy it. At least when they’re not in filler mode.
Pardon if I rant a bit; it’s a dear genre to me and I’ve written an editorial on it before, I think. Trying to recall from memory.
I think these are the reasons that I’ve heard put forward (at TV Tropes, among other places) for the Nanoha franchise’s hybrid nature. Sadly I can’t really comment on ‘real’ mahou shoujo anime, so I’ll have to content myself with wishing you luck.
The thing about MSLN is that it incorporates not only the magical girl element, but the element of Sci-Fi and romance (you know where this is going) and slice-of-life (if even for a very brief period) and still holds true to the essence of Mahou Shojo. I tell that to anyone who disrespects MSLN, you try and find me a more varied series!
As to what drives appreciation of Mahou Shojo. I confess, it’s fanservice on a end for me. But I appreciate relationships and the struggles of the characters. Somehow it makes you feel somewhat…involved in their world.
Hmm… It’s not exactly my taste, but you should remember that the perversions which you mentioned go much farther than simply the magical girl series. It’s common to find it in most productions for children. Watch an episode of Pee Wee Herman’s Playhouse and remember that Paul Ruben is a stoner and Rob Zombie was the producer. It all makes a lot more sense.
The closest I’ve come to watching a series like this would be Magical Nyan Nyan Taruto and Kirarin Revolution. Not counting Sailor Moon simply because everyone has watched it – yeah, I’m talking to you with the spiked hair and orange bathrobe. There really is no difference between series like these and Yu-Gi-Oh!. Just switch out a few aesthetics and you have the same show magical girl-ified. >.< I had another good example, but I forgot it while trying to figure out how to type “girl-ified”. lol
Ok, my cellphone is being rocked right now so I’ll leave on that note before I spend a week in the doghouse. v.v’
Unfortunately, my mind is really foggy, but I’m going to try. ^_^
With a lot of enthusiams for series such as Utena, Princess Tutu, Rozen Maidians, and recently Shugo-chara, but grabs me about shojo is the way that is can be completely uttering magical, yet connect with real things in real life. The connection seems to be lost in for me in shonen, somehow in the massive amounts of gunfighting and such I don’t feel like the can be me anymore, but when Ami is fighting with her desire not to change in Shugo-chara, I can really feel her.
And I guess also, the out-of-this-world elements are just so much fun even when being coupled with series themes. Rarely, can I walk away from a shoujo series depressed, rarely do people die, etc. That’s no a bad thing, in my eyes, and probably makes shoujo for me, easier to watch.
I still kinda /rage at the Mahou Shojo haters just for the sole purpose of them shouting every 30 seconds “gg you like your porn there” and I can’t say its not there but there is alot more to the whole genre than the transformation sequences.
I’ll take the Nanoha series for example since it’s been a long while since I’ve watched Card Captor or Shugo Chara. The series features some comedy, occasional slice of life, and the general interaction between characters and references are all included in Nanoha and I liked about the series. And is it wrong in saying that I actually thought that the Nanoha fight sequences were awesome and that is actually the reason that I watched all three seasons??
Another thing that people may think that is out of line is the fact that it is “too unreal”, which is just a stupid claim since there are much more rediculous shounen and shojo. A little magic didn’t do any harm. It’s an anime that highlights magic of course it has to have some kinda flashy entrance to it. x_x
Actually, probably the best way of convincing the haters is to actually show them an episode.
This sounds to potentially be interesting, but I’m unable to discern where you want to go with this lecture. Will it be about a rise in female-lead series, or about a return to the childlike wonder found in the magical girl genre, or a documentary on the magical girl genre? Do you want to include as many series as you can to support claims of common themes, or as few as needed to supplement the overall content of the lecture?
Is this presentation something you plan on investing a good amount of time into putting together and polishing, something you want to be done right the first time, or is it a hit-and-run attack lecture? Will your listeners be everyone in the anime club, or only those interested in the magical girl genre? How many people are in this club, and how many of them already watch magical girl shows? Will the lecture interest them, and will they know this ahead of time? How many club members have tried out the genre and didn’t care for it? Will this lecture be worth their time on any level? How many members have never tried watching a magical girl series, and why? What do you hope they’ll gain from this lecture? What do you hope they’ll take away from it?
To reiterate: what do you expect to accomplish with this lecture? Is it to be informative like a documentary, or is it to convince people to give a new genre a chance?
If there are any bites, will you be able to answer recommendations on a series for anyone? Will you be able to determine whether someone will be better suited to “Princess Tutu” or “Shugo Chara”? Would you present a bias for shows that either have many episodes (over 60) or fewer episodes (less than 30) in recommendations to someone trying out a magical girl series for the first time? Is this something you plan to be available to answer questions on and assist people with, or is it a one-shot lecture, no more questions after the time limit buzzer sounds?
Considering this is something you are going to plan out (you did find it worth a blog post, and are looking to gather information on why readers watch the genre and where they have trouble conveying it to friends), do you feel the lecture will be something worth posting online, either in PowerPoint form or written out as an essay? Would you consider posting it online before presenting it, giving readers a chance to look over it for any place it can be improved?
While it doesn’t answer your questions, this topic put my thoughts toward the magical girl series I’ve watched over the years. (And may I never spend five hours on one post again!)
How strict are you being about your definition? I tend to include such things as Petite Princess Yucie or Magic Users Club or even Angelic Layer in “Mahou Shoujo” but I know a lot of people don’t. (Also UFO Princess Valkyrie 2, the only part of that series worth watching, and I would argue in favor of Jubei-chan, too.)
For that matter, Lina Inverse is a magical girl.
You might have an easier time making a sale if you talk about the fringe examples rather than going straight for the heart of the genre. You are not going to sell Sailor Moon to shounen fans as their first experience with the Mahou Shoujo genre. But maybe you can get them to take a look at “The Slayers” or the “Magic Users Club” OVA.
Does Yomiko Readman count as a magical girl? She has a quasi-magical ability to transform paper into things, and she’s my favorite of the genre if she counts as a magical girl at all.
I remember when I was designing a magical girl character for a comic fantasy novel. I’m still trying to figure out how to draw her, because she comes from a militaristic matriarchal country where men are oppressed and forced to do housework. Your lecture on the genre of magical girls would be helpful for me.
Yeah, yeah. Late response. I’m going to throw this in here in hopes that you haven’t actually given the lecture yet.
I did a blog entry last month talking about the deconstructable aspects of mahou shoujo shows. See if this stirs your thoughts and generates a few more powerpoint slides.