The Guide To Magical Girls, An objective analysis...

What are magical girls exactly?
I have heard from these forums and various posts that yuki's mom is in fact a "magical girl" what does that entail exactly?

what comic strips must be viewed in order to understand the nature of a so called "magical girl"?

Seriously...I want to know. Read this whole comic between january and Febuary, but I dont remember much in this area. I think a hit being placed on largo was also a factor, but the girl that was supposed to do it does not want to or is simply waiting for the right moment. I do not know for sure.

Can anyone here please enlighten me, and the rest of the board in the process?

Magical girls are a genre of anime, the same way Mecha or Samurai tales are. Made popular by series such as Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura, and Saint Tail, they are a popular genre.

They are based around a girl (sometimes a boy, but those are more related to Sentai (or fighting team) shows), usually young, who, upon finding out that she has magical powers, go out and rid the world of evil. They have a strong moral core, and usually fight for things such as true love and justice against evil, along with "just trying to be a normal girl". They are usually set in a modern time, where the girl has to balance being a champion of justice and her normal self.

They are many times accompanied by helpers, normally a cute little animal/ mascot, and sometimes maybe part of a team of magical girls (see Sailor Moon). Normal powers include an enemy "banishment" attack, the ability to leap up to high balconies, and the power to each a prestigious amount of food.

There is talk that Meimi, Yuki's mother, is based partially off of the series Saint Tail. It is about a young girl that works as something of a modern Robin Hood, using her powers to help the needy. It is assumed that Yuki has, perhaps unknowingly, gained some of her mother’s powers. It may be how she was able to 'deftly' catch Miho...


This post has been edited by Artemi on Dec 7 2005, 06:50 PM

Ack, you beated me!
Anyway, Artemi,
If you bought the comic book of "Chapter Zero", and look more or less at page 60 (In the Italian version, more exactly where Yuki make comments on Piro's sketchbook, and her brother Yuuji makes his first ever appareance), look below to Dom's comment (The stick-figure, you know).
I think you'll find something peculiar.
O.T.: I can't wait to see if Yuki did really gained some powers...

This post has been edited by Data Dias on Dec 7 2005, 05:54 PM

Intresting article here that explains this matter.

Yes, getting a feel for the Saint Tail magna is pretty important to get a feel for Meimi and Magical Girls in general. For starters; however, you should probably check out the Wikipedia entry on Magical Girls.

Another good place to check for reference is the Saint Tail page at Tokyopop, paying special note to the main character, also named Meimi.

First off note that Meimi Sonoda has also has a history of theft, which Erika is apparently aware of, and is quite strange considering she's the wife of an inspector. This solidifies the parallel to Saint Tail, and then in the very next comic Junpei explains to Largo that Meimi is a Magical Girl and that she follows some Code Of Love. We later learn from Junpei in [715] that the last time Meimi has tried to 'help' she caused devastation, which doesn't bode well for our protagonists.

As for exactly what being a Magical Girl entails, we can only make assumptions based on the generalized stereotype of what most Magical Girls are like, as revealed in the Wikipedia article. We know very little specifics on them in MT, except that they possess the ability to jump extremely high and are, in Meimi's case at least, even faster than high level ninjas.


PS: And just so Ray can't come in here and laugh at me for typing this myself instead of just linking the MT wiki, here's the link: Magical Girls in MT.

With Wave Master, your answers are made fresh when you order.

Also, pay attention to the exact words used by Junpei when addressing Meimi, particularly in [715.5]. Junpei begins to call her by some other name only to get cut off when Meimi rips off his mask. He only gets as far as "Myster--", and does so again in [717.4]

Now, according to Absolute Anime, the Japanese title for the anime Saint Tail is "Kaitou Saint Tail". Translated to English, that title becomes Mysterious Thief Saint Tail.

And the debate continues.

~Mares Guyver

Also be aware that there are a Wide Variety of Magical Girls .... and people like to argue over where the line is drawn.

Sailor Moon is often used as an example.
Other anime examples include Mahou Shouju Lyrical Nanoha (into its second season), a series called Uta Kata, another is Mahou Shouju Tai Alice (or Tweeny Witches).
Young girl, magical powers granted, For Truth, Justice, and Sometimes Love, sometimes there's a sidekick critter (Nanoha tweaks that by having her sidekick be a male magical user who has to shapeshift into a ferret to disguise his Earthly appearance), and some Adversaries that might be good if she can just talk to them (in between the battles).

These are all available as fansubs ... Google is Your Friend, buy them once they're licensed for your region if you like them.


This post has been edited by Vexx on Dec 8 2005, 12:09 AM

Well that clears up alot. Thanks!

Looks like everyone here knows quite a bit about these "magical girls" though how they will be implimented in MT is still anyones guess.

All we really know is that they are faster than high level ninjas, and go by the code of love (as opposed to the safer code of Honor like ninjas do)

The only one we know of in MT also likes to steal things and caused "massive devastation" the last time she tried to help.

One thing though...Is the contract on largo to kill him or just get him out of japan?

Owing to my recent remembrances of Tenchi, see my comment on the Discussion Thread for [795], I guess I'll add another magical girl series to the growing list of examples.

Magical Girl Pretty Samy was initially a joke that emanated from an episode of Tenchi Universe when a malfunction in one of Washu's inventions had them travelling through various alternate universes in which random fantasies of the characters' were "lived". Sasami's ended up making her a magical-girl type character and aparently fans loved that, spawning the show.

Mind you - I haven't actually seen it, most of that was gleaned from my readings about it and some other stuff. This is a good fansite about Magical Girl Pretty Samy that I found earlier while reading the stuff up there.


I remember the story arc (the alternate realities things), but I don't specifically remember Sasami's so I can't confirm or verify that T_T sorry


Edit: Gregoreiv posted while I was typing this so I'll append my responses here.

Can't comment on the speed thing, but the differing "Codes" they follow.

Honor is generally very strict and rigid. In most cases it seems to be a very stringent, black and white concept. Everything is either Right, or Wrong - Honorable or Dishonorable. While determining which path/choice is which, fundamentally its still a 1:1 thing. Honor-bound fights/killings are generally quick and decisive, and relatively clean, in a localized mess sort of way. (ie: The person being killed will be turned inside-out and splayed across the walls of a room, but the building... and city will still be standing)

Love on the other hand is unpredictable. It causes irrationality and lapses in judgement. People will do crazy, psychotic, stupid, and even unlawful things for love. There's alot more of a gray area pertaining to following your heart. Fights fought out of love/emotion are always drawn-out, brutal, combining massive ammounts of physical strain with mental/emotional attacks and damage [that's just personal damage I mean]. Beyond that, the immediate viscinity, and quite a bit more will generally be completely decimated.

Examples in MegaTokyo of this difference

Junpei's silent, but effective dismissal and neutralization of the rabid fanboys

vs.

Ping flipping over the drunk turtle breathing on her and making her hair smell... and pwn'ing the crap outta the city while beating his ass.

We don't know enough about Meimi Sonoda yet to discuss her fight scenes just yet - but given Junpei's comment to her in [715] we can assume she has the ability to level a good portion of Tokyo.

I guess whichever is more convenient for the person who accepted the contract. From Meimi's comments and Junpei's concern she sounds as though she's more than capable, as well as authorized to "off" Largo and Piro. But at the same time, she says 2 strips later that she can just as easily deport them and be done with her job of "neutralizing" them.



It's amazing that I choose to do this rather than actually.. sleep. More Red Bull for me tomorrow.. today.. meh

This post has been edited by Shadow69 on Dec 8 2005, 12:39 AM

And vote for Fate in the Anime Grand Prix!

>_>

<_<

Magical girls are a staple of anime; one of the rather well-known genres. So, most people who watch anime with any regularity will at least be familiar with the term (and many of the associated stereotypes), regards of whether or not they actually watch the shows.

Not necessarily. Meimi, being a thief, is fast. As has been said above, though, Magical Girls tend to vary widely in abilities, so not all of them may have super-human speed. The "code of love" is fairly accurate, in my experience. Though I'm sure there are exceptions, the powers of Magical Girls are typically related to their "heart", meaning that the stronger their feelings, the more powerful they are. You can see why this would lead to Junpei's unease -- powerful emotions coupled with increased power can easily lead to widespread destruction.

It depends on who takes it, really. The wording of the contract is "neutralize", and Meimi herself states that this does not mean Largo has to die.

Now that's something I'd really love to see.

Yuki suddenly developing a utter need of food and Masamichi commenting how much food Meimi used to eat when they were dating(maybe she still does?).

"I spent all my dating money feeding her" -.-'''

hehe

Yuki: *gets up from pile of books and brushes self off*

Soo.. who's up for Tacos? Can we go to Taco Bell? I have a sudden craving for a Grande Combo

That would be pretty funny though

I remember the last thread we had like this. I guess this is going to happen now every time the subject comes up. Ah well. Just shows that MT is snapping up fans even among those who are new to the greater world of anime.

For ease in gettings answers though, the best sequence is wikipedia first, then google, then a forum. The forum is less work I suppose, but it makes you wait to get a proper answer.

Ray, there's also cross-genre people as well as those who are just bad with terminology. Me - I'm both. I'm generally either a mecha, flat out action, or magical girlfriend (Heart Kurumi ) person. I'm familiar with the most common magical girl archetypes (ie: Sailor Senshi, Cardcaptor Sakura), but only until MT was I actually introduced to the magical girl term as a specific genre, never crossed my mind till now.

I agree with Yuki.. I suddenly want a Grande Combo + large Pepsi as well T_T

Thank you for the Saint Tail lead. Things make a bit more sense now.

So if we discover that Inspector Sonoda's given name is Asuka.....

This post has been edited by Alharan on Dec 8 2005, 01:44 AM

There is an element of genetics to magical girls. Case in point, Saint Tail. Dad's a magician, mom's a thief. Sailor Moon, daughter of a moon queen. Mew Mew Power, genetic enhancement. Magical girls already have genetic differences from normal humans, and inherit their power from a combination of both parents. For instance, her perception likely comes from her father's side, not her mother. Being from the disaster council (or whatever it's called), she has powers of perception, planning, and general sense of finding order in chaos (of perhaps through creating chaos). She gets destruction from both sides, which is why the store is now in shambles, aside from Miho. Her magical girl powers on the other hand are usually less subtle, like waving a wand around and saying Spinning Wand Nuclear Blast Cuteness Attack. Another thing, magical girl genes are usually largely dormant until activated by a "magical" gene modifier. If they are allowed to progress naturally without such devices, they cause sometimes activate these powers on their own, but regardless the need for transformation is essential.

Without transformation, the magical girl occasionally has a few unique powers. Mew Mew Power, for instance, they can transform when hugging or kissing someone into an animal. Sailor Moon, Jupiter can generate electricity, Saturn can heal, Tuxedo Mask can intuit people's feeling and get visions by touching them.

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144 on Dec 8 2005, 02:11 AM

Just to expand on this point, most magical girls have some sort of unusual powers, even before they get an item or transformation that amplifies their powers to weapons-grade cuteness. The powers usually take the form of intuition or resistance to magic, but in some cases full-blown magical-girl powers can appear before the first transformation.

In other words, if Yuki really is a proto-magical-girl, in a moment of stress she may have activated some small portion of her power without consciously realizing it, allowing her to make a diving save from a standing start with a reaction time that Spiderman would be proud of!

There is also Moldiver. Girl with Tech based devise that gives her powers for 666 seconds. There is no actual Magic, but it has everything else. Transformation scene, Mass destruction, barely conscealed nudity, no cute pet though.

To bad there was no second season.

It's Masamichi. But yeah, the Saint Tail connection was first noticed a long time ago and is mentioned a few times in the "notes" pages on the Reader's Guide. No doubt in WikiTokyo as well. It's one of those things that's fairly common knowledge among the old fogies in SD but always comes as news to a lot of people because we don't have all that much occasion to bring it up.

This one.

Actually the given name of the character in Keito Saint Tail was Deiki. Asuka was his family name.

cu
59cobalt

This post has been edited by 59cobalt on Dec 8 2005, 01:32 PM

"The forces of light sometimes choose the least likely candidate to be their defender. Enter the Magical Girl (or Magical Guy)---once a person with normal worries like snagging a boyfriend (or girlfriend, as the case may be), preparing for exams, or just eating the right food. With the appearance of a strange little creature, however, everything has changed. Now wielding a strange artifact that grants weird and wonderful powers, the Magical Girl is charged with protecting friends, family, and often the rest of humanity. Oddly enough, nobody seems to recognise her (or him) under the costume."

--Guardians of Order BESM d20--

Some examples of a Magical Girl anime would be Sailor Moon and Shamanic Princess.

In reference to Moldiver, I guess you could classify that under "mechgirl" (if there is such a category), as it doesn't really fit the magical girl mold.

Ayashi no Ceres. She floats even without transformation (for some strange reason, later in the series she says she needs to transform to float). On that note, this expands the genetics link. She has angel blood.

Fushigi Yugi. Though she technically only qualifies as "girl for another world/time" until near the end of series one, where the old lady gives her suzaku's powers.

I'm surprised someone else has seen Shamanic Princess. Though technically, I think it is dissociated from the magical girl genre, as she does not really need a magical item to transform (though as I recall she uses her power offensive by use of an artifact). Also, she has control over her power. Rule number 1 of maho shoujo: all powers are given and there is no training required, any upgrades of powers are a result of deep affection, tears, or hugging people.

And yes, I do spend most of my waking hours either watching shoujo or thinking about it.

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144 on Dec 9 2005, 02:34 AM

Neither Aya/Ceres nor Miaka qualify as magical girls.

And Miaka doesn't get Suzaku's powers, she has the power to summon Suzaku.

cu
59cobalt

May as well mention this too.

I didn't know of the magical girl as a genre. This has been informative to me.
On the code of love vs. code of honor, I assume the implication is that Junepi has code of honor and Ping has code of love. Does that really make sense with Ping being a robot? Is Ping a robot girl or magical girl?