The History of Magical Girls | Nerdy Magical Girl Podcast

the history of magical girls in anime is a fascinating colorful and diverse Journey that spans several decades from Sally The Witch to Sailor Moon to Yuki Yuna the magical girl anime genre tells some of the most incredible stories and has contributed much to history and media but what is a magical girl and what defines the magical girl genre and how has that definition changed over the decades welcome to the nerdy magical girl podcast I am your host Mady confetti and today we are discussing the history of magical girls magical girls and magical girl series are a popular genre and character archetype in Japanese Manga and Anime that features girls who transform into powerful superheroes to fight evil now that is a very narrow definition of a magical girl or magical girl series that definition has expanded over the decades as the magical girl genre and actually anime as a whole has become more popular now I want to give some context here manga is very old it's a very old art form dating back to the 12th and 13th century but when talking about the matal girl genre like many genres in anime it actually has its roots in the early 20th century and a lot of those roots can be traced back to princess Knight which came out in 1958 princess Knight was created by the legend himself the father of tzuko asamu however the magical girl genre specifically did not take off until the 1960s with the release of the anime series Sy the witch and the manga series The Secrets of akachan many of the tropes that we are familiar with when it comes to the magical girl genre such as the transformation sequence the magical girl secret identity balancing School battling against evil all began with the groundbreaking series Sally The Witch Sally the witch who is a princess of the Magic Kingdom leaves her realm to make friends her own age and assumes the role of human and tries to keep her powers a secret this series is also notable for its strong female protagonist who was independent and resourceful another Trope established by this series are the Friendship archetypes with like one friend typically being the Tomboy and the other friend being the more traditionally girly friend and the protagonist being like this interesting Fusion of the two s the witch as a concept was inspired by the American sitcom be witch and is regarded as the first magical girl of anime the secrets of aoan created by fuu AKA Uka centers around an elementary school girl named atsuka kagam or akachan for short who is gifted a magic mirror that allows her to transform into anything she chooses and honestly from then on the comedic adventure takes place reason why Sally the witch is considered the first magical girl of anime is because the Sally The Witch anime predates Aqua Chan's anime but in reverse the Sally The Witch manga actually comes after akachan so in summary Sally the witch is the first magical girl of anime and aquatan is the first magical girl of manga in the 1960s and' 7s this wave of women's rights in Japan also known as the women's Liberation movement was beginning there were many male artists in this time who created comics and manga for girls especially seeing the success of Princess Knight because these authors and artists were creating works with a younger female demographic in mind the work that they were doing was actually considered secondary to the comics that focus on a younger male audience even with the Cal point of view many male manga artists saw Girl Comics as a way to enter the manga industry and once established could use that success to catapult themselves into other genres and other demographics but there were many female artists in the industry trailblazing a path two most notable being hio mauno and makako Maki they were Pioneers in this male dominated field of manga and actually worked directly with tzuko asumo Publishing Company also they were some of the first pioneers to trailblaze shjo manga the magical girl genre continued to grow in popularity in the 1970s with series such as chappy the witch in 1972 and cutie honey through these series The Magical Girl transformation sequence was a staple of the genre in 1974 Meg the little witch was the first magical girl anime to be marketed to young boys and girls it was overwhelmingly successful in Japan and to that success was also later broadcasted in many years European countries story of Meg the little witch centers on a young witch named Meg who is sent to Earth as a part of her magical queenliness test where she spends time battling magical enemies forging relationships with humans and working hard towards being somebody worthy of claiming the Throne of the Witch World now in 1973 cutie honey came on the scene cutie honey was a magical girl series that focused heavily on fan service honey kodagi is a 16-year-old Catholic school girl who is is also an Android who transforms into the busty cutie honey to fight against the villains that threaten her world the staple of this character is the transformation sequence it involves the temporary loss of all of her clothing when changing from one form to another I just want to emphasize that the show is made by a man but this man does have a name and it is kioshi nagai or most notably known as go Nagi according to Goa guy cutie honey was actually the first female protagonist in a shownin manga series now I've mentioned the terms Shonen and shjo a few times now and I will go over such terms in a future episode but to put it briefly Shonen is a demographic term for Manga and Anime that is specifically aimed at early to late teen boys I want to emphasize that Shonen is not a genre and neither is shjo they have to do with the demographic that that particular piece is aimed at when doing my research with cutie honey it was actually revealed that cutie honey was popular not only with young boys but also with Girls Cutie honey has had a major impact throughout the magical girl genre but let's put a pin on that because we're going to return to cutie honey later on in 1980 toway animation released label the magical girl this is actually the first instance of the term magical girl being used even though the concept of the magical girl has existed for over 20 years at this point this era in magical girl history put an emphasis on the magical girl protagonist having an altruistic nature and also her ability to transform was extended to really Center on the needs of those around her thus being able to take on various roles and various forms to solve people's problems thank you cutie honey see I told you that was going to come up again but it's going to come up again again so still put a pen in that we also saw this Trope come up in the magical princess Miki mono in 1982 whose protagonist Momo is sent to Earth to find and restore people's hopes and dreams in order to save her home from falling out of the Earth's orbit and also similar to minky Momo creamy mommy the magical Angel Y marawa is a 10-year-old girl who can use her magic to transform into the 16-year-old magical Idol named creamy mommy who must fight against the Rival in evil Production Studios who always are constantly trying to kidnap her now the really really cool thing that makes you morisawa stand out is that she has two cat Companions and if you know your magical girls you know that will come up again now in the 1980s and 1990s the first and second wave of the feminist movement most commonly known again as the women's Liberation movement in Japan their work was beginning to pay off with two major laws that changed Japanese Society one of those laws being the equal employee Opportunity Act of 1985 and the parental Leave Act in 1992 major focuses of the women's Liberation movement was reproductive freedom and proving that the patriarchal society was trying to increase the birth rates by controlling women out of this era of activism major changes occurred in Japanese societies and ways of giving women rights to education decrease discrimination in the workplace voting rights Reproductive Rights and the power to express and show their sexuality in society art even Manga and Anime often reflects the society and time it is born into it's important to have that situational context to humanize Art society and its people to show how that Society influences the media that comes out and that leads me to the 1990s in the 1990s we saw some of the most iconic and legendary magical girl series of all time including Sailor Moon card cap Sakura and Wedding Peach these series brought the genre to a new level of popularity and they honestly helped establish it as a global phenomenon Sala Moon became one of the first anime series to introduce the genre of magical girls to Western audiences the concept of a young girl using magical powers to turn into a Superhero fighting against evil became an international hint and actually inspired so many things in media that we know and love today during my research for this podcast I learned so much about the production of the Salam moon anime and manga I think the part that stuck out to me the most is how Sal moon was actually introduced to the west and that will be an episode all by itself you know just Sailor Moon in general will just have dedicated episodes because there is just so much depth and lore of Coming of Age Death reincarnation and just weaving in the concepts of astrology and birth charts for each character in the anime and also tying in gender gender expression and sexuality like if you only watch episode one and two of Sailor Moon you might genuinely think that this series is only about like kind of lowkey Brady school girl who like cries a lot doesn't do her homework and happens to also transform into a magical girl who fights evil sometimes while still crying you see this leap with sailor Moon Wedding Peach and card captor Sakura that really parallel the things that were fought for within the women's Liberation movement all of these series have strong complex and in a sense flawed main characters that come of age and have to deal with the challenge of many societal Norms compared to their predecessors in the genre a lot of that wasn't there before the themes of lost Coming of Age motherhood exploring different Hobbies sexuality gender gender expression just really made an impact on young audiences showing you that you can really do anything you set your mind to although as a kid I wanted to grow up and be Sailor Pluto so you know I don't know if that was completely realistic but I am a Scorpio so it's like kind of the same we're kind of like the same person yeah I think that works now I told y'all cutie honey was going to come up again in 1997 cutie honey flash came onto the scene now the production of cutie honey flash had a lot of overlap with the animation staff of Sailor Moon Tor stars because both Productions actually overlapped one another at toy animation which is why the animation style looks very similar literally when saor Moon Sailor Stars like finished airing I think it was like a week or two after that cutie honey flash literally began I actually think it was within the same week I'll double check that but anyway cutie honey flash was a reimagining of the original story using more traditional magical girl elements but you know keeping in mind honey is still a 16-year-old in this version at least but unlike the previous version she's actually fully human but to put the plot briefly because we kind of went over this in the 1973 version honey kodagi her scientist father gets kidnapped by an evil organization and she has to turn into the busty cutie honey to save the day I also have an episode coming out pretty soon that is dedicated completely to the Cutie honey series and the reason why I did this is because I feel like cutie honey needs to be analyzed but also handled with care because there are many cultural differences that are very apparent in this anime series The Cutie honey franchise before 1997 and after has had a major undeniable impact on the mag girl genre so once again thank you cutie honey now keeping it in 1997 revolutionary girl UTA came onto the scene and it was for lack of a better word revolutionary the story follows UTA Tino who after an encounter with a prince vowed to become a prince one day herself when attending an exclusive boarding school she competes in a sword dueling tournament whose prize is the hand of a student named anony Hima who is in possession of this mysterious power USA is determined to win the tournament and to become an's fiance in order to protect her from those who seek to use her power for evil purposes revolutionary girl UTA depicts many lesbian and queer relationships and plays on the concept of gender throughout the entire series and and features a dark skinned main character the series creator stated that he wished for this series to have a sense of diversity and has also stated that the normalized depiction of same-sex couples serves to reinforce the core message of the anime which is the freedom to be yourself I've always wondered because this series obviously came out after the women's Liberation movement and seeing those laws go into effect and seeing people being able to fully or more so Express themselves did it also have Inspirations from the prin princess Knight because again doing research for this podcast princess Knight also played around with gender expression and gender roles and I always just wonder if I found any Inspirations from Princess Knight it's possible I'd like to think so the father of manga strikes once again now moving into the New Millennium the 2000s the magical girl genre continue to evolve and take more risks with series such as Moka magika preer and Tokyo Mumu also like a lot more explored darker and more mature themes and with this Evolution introduced the dark magical girl genre I would say that these series broadened the appeal of the magical girl genre and also introduced like the magic girl genre to a whole new wave of fans in the 2000s we also saw experimentation with the matual girl series being created for older audiences one of the anime series that falls more so into this category is magical girl lyrical NOOA and this show in particular was aimed at an older male demographic which is particularly interesting because the show focuses on a 9-year-old school girl NOOA takamachi who gains magical powers and the ability to transform from an interdimensional Mage that is trapped in the form of a fret basically NOOA and this Mage sleret had a chance encounter and now she has the ability to transform is tasked and agrees to go on a quest to find these dangerous artifacts facts known as Jewel seeds which are now scattered around the world thanks to that chance encounter that plot Point sounds very familiar overall today the magical girl genre is going strong with new series being released every year people do argue that there has been a sharp decline in the magical girl genre but I disagree while to my knowledge there hasn't been like a re magical girl anime that has been released to the level of like a sailor moon or card cap Sakura that has like that Global viral Sensational phenomenon like nothing like that but the genre has evolved with time infusing the concept of the magical girl with other genres such as comedy and romance and things like that a big example of this is actually kill aill which is more action-packed and psychological but it falls in line with the dark magical girl tropes then there's Yuki Yuna is a hero which is another dark anime that is definitely inspired from Moka magika and it hurts just the same and then there is Princess Tutu which is a cool blend of the fairy tale Swan Lake and the Nutcracker and then you add magal girls and classic ballet like that's a cool combination also I really really love Princess Tutu listen the magical girl genre has become a global phenomenon and it continues to inspire fans of all ages heck even me I have a whole podcast dedicated to them I truly do not see this genre going anywhere anytime soon and I'm excited to see how it continues to grow and evolve so what have we learned from this history what does it take at its core to be considered a magical girl or a magical girl series well they are as follows transformation sequence of some kind possesses magical abilities which they usually but not always only use via their alter ego typically the protagonist is a young girl the magical girl genre can be targeted at any demographic and usually they have to solve some form of problem or their entire existence is centered on a Destiny or mission of some kind I would love to hear from you all what your favorite magical girl or magical girl series is mine are personally as mentioned before Sailor Pluto I also obviously love Sailor Moon jino abuki from prettier Noel Sila from Black Clover and of course Princess Tutu if you like this content consider giving me a five star rating if you're listening to the podcast and if you're watching here on YouTube give the video a like thumbs up and remember to subscribe patrons and coffee mates get early access to the podcast and also bonus content so if you'd like to join us over there we welcome you I want to thank you so much for your time and you all have a magical day

Channel: Milady Confetti

Views: 2,867

Keywords: magical girl, anime history, anime analysis, video essay, japanese animation, anime education, learn anime, sailor moon, shoujo anime, sally the witch, madoka magica, retro anime, puella magi madoka magica, crunchy roll, himitsu no akko-chan, anime history vs real history, video essays for the girlies, sailor moon transformation, anime analysis channel, cardcaptor sakura, pretty cure, magical girls, toei animation, 1970s anime, magical girls anime

Id: Xj1OlaHDmjs

Length: 17min 53sec (1073 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 19 2024