Magical Girl Anime

Jennifer BermanJAPN 313 Final Project

Spring 2012

What are magical girl anime?

• Magical girl ( 魔法少女 mahou shoujo) series are a subgenre of fantasy anime and manga

• Centered around young girls with magical powers

• Some magical girls use their powers to fight evil, others for everyday tasks or to achieve some goal

• Most magical girl series are shoujo but some shounen ones also exist

Origins• First magical girl

anime was Mahoutsukai Sally (“Sally the Witch”) in 1966

• Created by Yokoyama Mitsuteru (Tetsujin 28-go/Gigantor)

• Inspired by the American show “Bewitched”

Origins• Himitsu no Akko-

chan (1969) was another successful early magical girl series

• Title character uses a magic compact mirror to transform into anyone/anything she wants

The 70s• After success of Mahoutsukai Sally and

Himitsu no Akko-chan Toei Animation released lots of magical girl shows in the 1970s

• Known as majokko ( 魔女っ子 ) series

• Most influential one was Majokko Meg-chan (1974)

The 90s• Sailor Moon (1992-1997)

popularized the idea of magical girls as superheroines who fight evil (sentou bishoujo/戦闘美少女 ) as a team.

• Team format was inspired by sentai shows

• Success started a wave of other fighting magical girl shows throughout the 90s and early 2000s• Magic Knight Rayearth (1994)• Cardcaptor Sakura (1998)• Wedding Peach (1995)• Etc.

Other things I’ll talk about

• Shounen and seinen magical girl shows like Nanoha – how they compare to shoujo ones

• More recent series (like the Pretty Cure franchise)

• Coming-of-age metaphors in magical girl shows

• Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica (how it’s a deconstruction of the typical magical girl anime)