(no subject)

[skygiants]

littledust asked me for . . . okay, for a bunch of things, which I will get to in due course, but the first thing she asked me for was my top five Magical Girls!

Which is an awesome request, but sadly the problem is that I haven't actually seen that many magical girl shows yet, and all the ones I have seen are subversions or meta-examinations to some extent. So . . . uh, you can have my top one-and-a-half! Which are also my only one-and-a-half, but that makes them no less awesome.

1. Duck, Princess Tutu



This choice shocks everyone, yes? Oh, Princess Tutu, I may make space in my heart for other things but you are my forever girl show. An Ordinary Good-Hearted Clumsy Ballet Student who's secretly a magical princess with powers of emotional catharsis through hugs who's secretly a duck who got called into the story because the narrator thought it would be funny, she's an irrepressible force of comic optimism stuck in a tragedy, but she's going to try her best to change it! I LOVE HER SO MUCH.

1.5. Utena, Revolutionary Girl Utena



This is only 1.5 of a choice because Utena is really only a magical girl if you squint; Tutu plays with the genre and the meta-requirements of it, but Utena subverts it much more savagely. So even though she has the transformation sequence and the magical ring talisman and all the surface trappings of the genre, it's hard to actually characterize her this way due to the fact that the rules of Akio's universe don't really allow for magical girls at all. (Princes, passive princesses or wicked witches, that's what you get.) But I love her also, so she gets to be on the list anyway.

Anyway, this feels a bit of an empty list, so I'm going to fill it out with three magical girl shows that I would totally watch. If they existed. Although they don't yet.

3. Magical Sword Anri Sonohara

This unexpected spinoff of 2010's Durarara!! focuses on Anri Sonohara - a shy ordinary schoolgirl by day, who by night uses the power of the magical sword Saika to transform into a vigilante defender of justice and fight evil! There would be a school festival arc, and a summer vacation arc, and at the end Anri would get to take down Izaya in a one-on-one battle (which is obviously the best reason for the show to exist.) Anri's transformation sequence would involve a lot of red.

4. Plain Magazine Princess Betty

Of course if Japan remade Ugly Betty they would do it as a magical girl show; I really just don't see another option here. No one realizes that plain magazine assistant Betty is also the magical superheroine that Mode has been trying to get the scoop on, and Betty's not about to tell them. Most of the heartwarming story arcs show that Betty's good sense, ingenuity and heart end up saving the day more than her magical powers anyway. She uses her 'B' necklace to transform; her outfit involves a lot of polka dots. Marc, of course, is not just her rival but also a Dark Magical Girl that Betty eventually wins over with the power of friendship.

5. Magical Ringbearer Frodo Baggins

In this fascinating subversion of the magical girl genre, Frodo is able to use a magical ring to gain the power of invisibility! (Mysteriously, the transformation sequence involves Frodo gaining a lot of frills and sparkles before disappearing.) At first the power is all fun and games for Frodo and friends, but Unlucky Childhood Best Friend Sam starts becoming worried - is it possible that the power of the ring could be dangerous? And why can't Frodo seem to give it up?

Okay, so - as my ignorance has been all too clearly displayed, if I were to further my education into the magical girl genre, what should I be watching? (Pretear is already on my list just by virtue of having been made by some of the same people as did Princess Tutu.)

Comments

[themadpoker.livejournal.com]

Sailor Moon! =D I'm kind of surprised you haven't, it seems to have been the earliest intro to anime for alot of people. I loved it for years and years; it was the only thing that could make me wake up early in middle school.

Cardcaptor Sakura is pretty good as well. It's one of the few CLAMP productions that doesn't dissolve into angst and eyes being ripped out everywhere. -loves CLAMP really- The whole show's adorable, I think you'd really like it. This post (http://beckerbell.livejournal.com/252687.html) goes into why Sakura is aweosme. =D

[gramarye1971]

I suppose this may be as good a time as any to finish up the post I'm going to make on 'The Only 10 Episodes of Sailormoon's First Season That You Actually Need to See'. ^_^ Remind me to show you parts of the third season (which I actually have with subtitles!) next time we're in the same room together.

For other recs, though I have a feeling that many of them are sadly out of print:
- Magic Knight Rayearth is another CLAMP magical girl series that starts out stereotypical (three colour-coded girls with symbolic names get dropped into another world to fight a Big Bad who has the princess locked away in a tower), but it has a completely WHAM ending that's often touted as one of the best plot-twist endings in an anime series.
- Mahou Tsukai Tai/Magic Users Club has a manga and both an OAV and TV series, focusing on the two guys and three girls in their school's magic club. I own the manga and have only seen the OAV, but it is funny and cute (and has Takehito Koyasu in a particularly hilarious role).
- Jubei-chan: The Ninja Girl would qualify, I think -- 14-year-old girl finds out that she's the reincarnation of master swordsman Yagyu Jubei, and transforms by putting on a heart-shaped eyepatch.
- Seconding Card Captor Sakura, though it's one of those series that suffered badly from the original English-language marketing attempts in the early 2000s.
- I have to mention the zillion Pretty Cure series, though I've only seen part of the first one. They're all about the trinket marketing, of course, but the stories and characters are supposed to be good for all that.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

I knew exactly who your 1.5 were as soon as I saw the entry, even before the lj-cut.

Recommendations for magical girl shows:

Sailor Moon, just because it was fundamental. Not necessarily good objectively any more, but important.

The other magical girl show I'm fond of is Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, which was going to be a normal magical girl show except that someone noticed the character design looked like a Gundam. Upshot? The magical girl version of "peace through superior firepower." It's great.

[skygiants]

I have seen a few episodes of Sailor Moon over the years, but not many. And I kind of want to watch both of these series, because I know they're classics, but the problem is that they are both FIVE MILLION YEARS long and I am a little afraid to start. @_@

[futuresoon.livejournal.com]

Magical Sword Anri Sonohara

...brb dying forever



ETA: Oh, and thirding Cardcaptor Sakura; I haven't seen it all yet, but it is just one big bundle of adorable, and also gay. Seriously there is a hell-ass lot of gay in that show. Except for how the dub tried to get rid of it, and could only accomplish this by splicing episodes together, since taking out the gay involved taking out half of most of the episodes. It is just that gay.

[skygiants]

I vote yes! Do it! *laughing* And I will indeed remind you. :D (Clearly it would partner well with Nixon in China?)

I am intrigued by your recommendations! But also a liiiittle bit afraid of Clamp. (However, I think a heart-shaped eyepatch is probably the best magical transformation item ever?)

[skygiants]

I am never, ever predictable.

I vaguely remember hearing about Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha from the TVtropes page! (ohhhhh TVtropes . . .) Is that the one where the Magical Girl actually grows up and gets into her twenties?

[wickedtrue.livejournal.com]

When you next visit, we will watch some Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon! Though, really, you should read the manga. It has more... well, I think it is better than the anime in certain areas! Not so much in others. (Sailor Moon S was the first major work of the guy that created Utena! You can see many of his early thoughts on racecar lesbians! In sailor skirts.)

[skygiants]

THIS WOULD CLEARLY BE AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE SHOW. Also, I don't know how Walker and Erika would get into all the school festival episodes, but it's inevitable that they would anyway.

. . . this is beginning to sound suspiciously like what I have heard of the way they aired Sailor Moon in the states! :O Are there any In Conclusion Totally Cousins?

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

The later series, Nanoha StrikerS (it's actually the third series, as there is Nanoha A's, which is probably the favorite of fans, in the middle) does feature Nanoha as an adult (I think she's actually in her late teens, which for anime is grown up).

I can lend them to you some time; after all, I need to give you back Deep Secret eventually. (Though admittedly I haven't gotten through it, I'm starting to doubt whether I will.)

[skygiants]

. . . but how long is the manga? *wary* I want to, but I am afraid of what I might be getting myself into! (OH IKUHARA. How you fascinate and frighten me. I want him to be the creative force behind all the wannabe magical girl shows on my list.)

[skygiants]

Intriguing! I may take you up on this offer. And yes, you do have to get that back to me at some point. (Hey, that's fine; if it's not for you, it's not for you. I'll only judge you a little. :D)

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

*nod* Email me. Maybe after this weekend and the Holidays being done, eh?

[futuresoon.livejournal.com]

I don't remember how they handled it in the dub, but Sakura's brother is canonically in a relationship with his (male) best friend, so probably they just went with the In Conclusion Totally Best Friends route. (Admittedly, even the sub hasn't directly stated it yet that I've seen, but things like Sakura discovering them "studying" in her brother's room late at night are not exactly subtle.) And Syaoran the sort-of-love-interest has a crush on the best friend so blatant it is kind of ridiculous, I mean "blushing whenever he's around and rushing to get him chocolate when Sakura gives some to him too" levels of blatant. And Sakura's (female) best friend Tomoyo has deep unrequited love for her, and it's implied that Tomoyo's mom had a deep unrequited love for Sakura's mom, and...yeah, like I said, this is a series that has all the gay.

[skygiants]

. . . gosh. Indeed! *laughing* (Wait, aren't they all kindergarteners?)

[futuresoon.livejournal.com]

Sakura, Tomoyo, and Syaoran are in fourth grade, I think. Her brother and his best friend are in high school. It's all pretty squeaky-clean, though. (--well okay there is the bit where a minor female character in Sakura's class has a crush on their male teacher and the crush is sort of requited, but I try not to think about that too much.)

[sophistry]

Becca, I only spent like six weeks just now babbling in chat about how Cardcaptor Sakura's degayification was like Sailor Moon's except TO THE POWER OF A MILLION as I gleed and flailed my way through a rewatch!

*mortally offended*

[aamalie]

Haha, I am really loving Ahiru. I need to finish this series, soon!

I'm also going to basically echo everyone else and say Sailor Moon, because it's a classic and what got me into manga/anime in the first place, so thus has a special place in my heart forever. I've only ever read the manga in its entirety though. And, if you can find it, Sailor V to go with it! (It took about two weeks of searching the internet for me to find and download that in it's entirety, ugh.)

[skygiants]

Oh man, you really really do - how far are you now? The ending is SO EPIC, and it's only 26 episodes, that's hardly anything!

UNLIKE SAILOR MOON WHICH, AS PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED, IS FIVE MILLION EPISODES LONG. *weeps*

[skygiants]

I AM SORRY SOPHIE. *FAILURE*

If it helps, I am pretty sure the only reason they were erased was that they were overpowered by the discussion of Magical Girl Tamaki Suoh?

[skygiants]

Fourth grade is better! Fourth grade I can buy. *laughing* (. . . . ahaha yeah I DO ACTUALLY REMEMBER hearing about that. Which again is slightly better now I know they're not kindergarteners. ALTHOUGH ONLY SLIGHTLY.)

[themadpoker.livejournal.com]

You could always just read the manga for Cardcaptor Sakura if the number of episodes intimidate you! There's only twelve volumes, it won't take long. The anime gets up to 70 episodes because they make more cards (well they don't make them up technically, there were always 50 cards, it's just the manga doesn't go into Sakura capturing all of them).

Also the manga doesn't get the degayification they tried to do with the anime. xD Which didn't really work all that well because I watched it in middle school and even I could suss out that Tomoyo was probably in love with Sakura.

I can't help you with Sailor Moon because even I will acknowledge that was a really long series. But I loved it enough that I would not have minded it being even longer.

[gramarye1971]

The manga ran to 18 volumes, through they're a very fast read thanks to many pretty splash pages. However, I believe that the English translation is completely out of print and the Japanese edition's not much easier to find. I've got all of it, but (a) it's in Japanese and (b) it's at the Parental Abode. Maybe someone else has it in English and closer to hand? *hopeful*

[aamalie]

I think I am up to episode 18? I keep ending up going to the gym when I would usually watch my anime, which is why it`s taking so long, LOL.

And hahaha yeah, yet another reason why I have not watched most of said anime! (Of course, the fact I was never allowed to watch TV when it was actually on when it was still licensed to air may also have had something to do with it. But now it`s just too long so I stick with the manga.)

[skygiants]

Really, only 70? That's not so bad . . . I mean, still longer than most of the shows I've seen, which tend to fall in the 26/38 episode range, but nothing compared to Sailor Moon! *laughing* For some reason I had this idea that Cardcaptor Sakura was closer to 200 episodes, so all of a sudden it is seeming very doable!