Magical girl
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| Base Info | |
| Moe Point | Magical girl |
|---|---|
| Symbolic Characters | Usagi Tsukino, Sakura Kinomoto, Nanoha Takamachi |
| Related Moe Points | witch, magic wand, magician, cape, broom, henshin |
A magical girl (
If male, he is a "magical boy"
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Image changes
- 3 Expansion of the concept
- 4 Magical girl character categorization
- 4.1 Traditional magical girls
- 4.2 The first type of magical girl (henshin type)
- 4.3 The second type of magical girl (prop type)
- 4.4 The third type of magical girl (natural type)
- 4.5 The fourth type of magical girl (composite type)
- 4.6 The fifth type of magical girl (name type)
- 4.7 The sixth type of magical girl (plausible type)
- 5 Magical boy
Introduction
"Magical girl", literally means "a human female between the ages of 7 and 18 who can use magic". However, it is generally defined in works as a girl who can use special abilities in a world based on real life where the popularity of (magic/superpowers) is extremely low.
History
The concept of magical girls can be considered to be derived from the concept of "witch". In the early days, magical girls were also called majokko (Japanese:
The origin of magical girl-themed works is said to beSally the Witch (1966, adapted from the American TV series "Bewitched"), and another is said to be Go Nagai's Cutey Honey (1973). The first "magical girl" to appear in the title of a work was the anime Magical Girl Lalabel released by Toei Animation in 1980.
The Sailor Moon series in the 1990s established the plot formula of the standard magical girl, making "magical girl" officially an independent moe point.
Cardcaptor Sakura from 1999 to 2000 can be said to be the most successful traditional magical girl in recent years.
China has also followed the trend of magical girls and launched Balala the Fairies (TV series, animation), Flower Angel (games, animation), Dancing Baby (TV series, comics), Yeloli (manga, animation) and other magical girl-themed works.
If we talk about European and American magical girl shows, Winx Club can be considered one.
Image changes
The earliest work is about a little girl turning into a cool woman with a magic wand, and she is often followed by a mascot.
Later, after Sailor Moon, which was influenced by Super Sentai, introduced color-coded group characters and each person's different fighting styles, the theme of magical girls became more and more popular.
After absorbing the experience of making tokusatsu, Toei began to input more action scenes into the magical girl theme, so that the battles of magical girls were no longer simply about throwing various props and light balls, but from the dual-purpose card to the ultimate slow-motion scene. They slowly transformed into hard-line combatants who fought hard with fists or used cannons to make friends. There were even more militarized magical girls who directly used hot weapons such as shotguns and grenade launchers. There are also cases where female magicians, witches and magical girls are confused together, or the magical girl is used as an addendum.
"In the past, magical girls were a profession with a relatively low lunch rate. This situation was not broken until the appearance of Puella Magi Madoka Magica." This statement is actually wrong. As early as in the original Sailor Moon manga, there was a scene where the world restarted after many people died. This illusion is mostly caused by the fact that Cardcaptor Sakura, a work that is very different both within CLAMP and in terms of subject matter, was exposed to most people early on.
There are also works in which men transform into magical girls. For example: Gotta be the Twin-Tail!.
Expansion of the concept
The expansion of the concept of "magical girl" mainly lies in the generalization of the word "magic", which is no longer limited to the traditional concept of magic used in Western magic themes.
In different works, the self-setting of "magic" is different and very confusing, and magic is even set as a special high-tech product (for example: The "magic" defined in Trails in the Sky is actually the various special effects released by high-tech products made using the fictional force that exists on the continent of Zemuria - the guide force, which can be used for attack, defense, treatment, etc. Even in daily life, it can be used as a source of power for lamps, stoves, and vehicles, just like energy in reality.)
The confusion and generalization of the concept of "magic" has resulted in the term "magical girl" being completely different from the early concept of "magical girl". (See "Image changes" above)
Moreover, in works with non-magical themes, the "learning" of magic often omits the systematic accumulation of magical knowledge and the theoretical learning process from shallow to deep in magical themes. "Quickly formed" or "directly acquired" magical girls are rampant. An ordinary girl can transform into a magical girl and be able to use magic.
Features
With the generalization of the definition of magical girls, the following characteristics are not complete in most cases, and there are even magical girls that are very different from the mainstream.
Most people who transform into magical girls are between 10 and 14 years old, which is when girls develop secondary sexual characteristics. Therefore, the transformation is not only a manifestation of the magic power of releasing its seal like Superman changing clothes in a phone booth, but also a symbol of a girl's growth.
- Abilities
Using special abilities generally requires transformation and/or incantation. The general visual effect is very fancy and dazzling, but has no practicality.
- Props
Magical weapons are mostly medium staffs, short staffs, or other types of weapons, used to release magic.
- Transform into props. In many works, transformation items will turn into magic weapons during transformation.
- Fairy companion
Most of them are smaller mammals, but generally they are mostly supernatural creatures. Most can speak and serve as commentators. These creatures often take on the role of tutoring new magical girls and even help in battles.
- Enemies
- Usually they are on the opposite side of magical girls, evil creatures based on race or evil magic users (kaijin) based on organizations. However, it is not ruled out that the main theme of some works is a civil war among magical girls or a setting without enemies.
- The enemies of magical girls are usually not ordinary humans. In some settings, magical girls cannot use their power or launch attacks on ordinary people, even ordinary people who have been brainwashed. But for ordinary people who have been turned into kaijin or monsters, there are no restrictions in this regard.
- Beliefs
Generally speaking, it is the concept of positive energy such as love, peace, and protection.
- For works that tend to be for children, the magical girls' beliefs generally do not fundamentally waver from beginning to end, and the ideological opposition between the good and the evil does not change from beginning to end.
- But magical girls are not necessarily good people. Spec Ops Asuka has magical girls who are purely evil (not deceived or manipulated, but do it on their own initiative).
Tasks
It varies depending on the work, but generally there are the following categories:
- Combat
The most common type. There is a hostile party. Magical girls have their own beliefs and goals. Since Naoko Takeuchi created "Sailor Moon", more and more magical girls have appeared in the form of teams.
Specific task categories They will vary greatly depending on the work.
- The "Enjoy Life" category
It is mostly about magical girls who were originally elementary school students and transformed into adult women, enjoying a life that is enviable by ordinary people. Some magical girls will have related tasks, but usually the plot tasks will last ten or eight episodes.
Classification of magical girl-themed works
All works involving magical girls can be roughly divided into the following categories:
- Classical magical girl
It is the most classic and standard type of magical girl. The content is mostly positive, light-hearted and joyful. Magical girls are also ordinary elementary school or middle school students who use magic to protect peace. It is a common type of early magical girl themes. It was popular in the 1990s and 2000s, but is somewhat declining now.
Representative works include:
- Sailor Moon
- Wedding Peach
- Pretty Cure
- Cardcaptor Sakura
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, which revolutionarily integrates magic and technology, and can be regarded as a representative transitional work that promotes the evolution of magical girl themes from normal categories to special categories.
- Subversive magical girls
This type of work appeared and began to develop in the 2000s. It is generally believed that its popularity has a certain relationship with the audience's aesthetic fatigue of normal magical girls. They often have very bizarre and wicked settings and plots, as well as a lot of tributes. The protagonist begins to deviate from the category of ordinary students. The "magic" used also varies from maces, joint techniques to physical attacks.
Representative works include:
- Moetan
- Is This A Zombie?
- Mahou Shoujo Ore
- Depressing magical girl
Most of these stories have very dark backgrounds and plots, with blood, horror, and cannibalism commonplace. It is completely opposite to the original sunny and positive magical girl storyline, and therefore attracted many viewers. Since then, the convenience rate of the magical girl industry has greatly increased, and it has even become a high-risk profession.
It should be noted that although Madoka Magica directly led to the emergence of a large number of magical girl works of this type, Madoka Magica itself is not a typical "depressing magical girl" work. It is still mainly about love, The story of hope and salvation is generally not dark for the sake of being dark, and the ending is bright and healing. The protagonists are basically normal ordinary people, and there are no particularly violent and bloody scenes, which is different from the subsequent depressing magical girl works.
Representative works include:
- Madoka Magica
- Magical Girl Raising Project
- Magical Girl Site
- Magical Girl Spec Ops Asuka
- Deconstructed magical girls
The main perspective of this kind of magical girl works is usually not the magical girl herself, but can be a passerby or even a villain. It is the product of the audience and the industry's further aesthetic fatigue of magical girls. The magical girls in this type of magical girl-themed stories do not necessarily follow the traditional impression, and may contain more elements of spoofing or even flattery. The qualities of traditional magical girls can be glimpsed in so-called passers-by or villains.
Representative works include:
- Machikado Mazoku
- Gushing over Magical Girls
It is worth noting that this is only a superficial classification and not very rigorous. The changes and development of magical girl-themed works are gradual, so there are many works with vague features. For example, some early magical girl works also had dark story backgrounds and plots. The "dark" and "depressing" types also merged with each other in the later period. Deconstructed magical girl works can even appear to belong to the previous categories.
Variants
Most magical girl-themed works fall into the combat category. As the magical girl theme becomes more and more popular and becomes the leader in the "battle girl theme", some "battle girl theme" works that also emphasize elements such as transformation and superpowers are still regarded as magical girl themes by many people even if they do not explicitly mention magic or magic power.
Representative works include:
- Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel
- Tantei Opera Milky Holmes
- Senki Zesshou Symphogear
- Vividred Operation
- Daybreak Illusion
- Yuki Yuna is a Hero and its spinoffs
- FLIP FLAPPERS
- Hina Logic ~from Luck & Logic~
There are also some people who refuse to categorize them into the magical girl genre and insist on relying on the official definition.
Magical girl character categorization
(Note: Since there are so many magical girl-themed works, and there is often more than one magical girl in each such work or series, only one typical character is generally listed for each type of each work/series.)
Traditional magical girls
This category refers to girls who have a foundation in magic and understand and use magic through theoretical study and continuous practice. The earliest magical girls only refer to this kind of people.
Such magical girls are now often classified as witches.
The first type of magical girl (henshin type)
This type refers to an ordinary girl who for some reason transforms (or suddenly awakens) into a magical girl. The most typical feature is to create an exclusive magical girl costume by chanting spells and props, and some even change their appearance.
- Usagi Tsukino, etc. (Sailor Moon)
- Momoko Hanasaki, etc. (Wedding Peach)
- Sakura Kinomoto (Carcdcaptor Sakura)
- Nanoha Takamachi, etc. (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series) [but there is a special point that needs to be explained: the magical girls in Lyrical Nanoha is strictly speaking only either magical or girl, The official name is Magister, and there are not only women among them, and there is no gender gap in power. In definition, it is closer to the first category. However, due to the transformation, all are classified here, but the transformations in Lyrical Nanoha are strictly speaking the magic device and protective clothing.]
- Madoka Kaname, etc. (Madoka Magica series)
- Illyasviel von Einzbern, Miyu Edelfeld (Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya)
- Hinako Shirai, etc. (Blue Reflection)
- Ichigo Momomiya, etc. (Tokyo Mew Mew)
- Luchia Nanami, etc. (Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch)
- The Pretty Cures (Pretty Cure series)
- Lux (League of Legends) (Star Guardian Universe)
The second type of magical girl (prop type)
This type of magical girl does not have real magic or transformation, and can only use some magic props.
- Aya Asagiri, etc. (Magical Girl Site)
The third type of magical girl (natural type)
There is no inducement, no props are used, and no transformation is required. From a blood perspective, she is a natural-born magical girl.
Such magical girls are very rare, and the following are only possible ones:
- Flandre Scarlet (Touhou Project) (the setting document of Flandre in The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil is "a vampire and a magical girl")
The fourth type of magical girl (composite type)
This category refers to magical girls who have undergone transformation (or sudden awakening) or through theoretical study and continuous practice of magic. They may also have magic props or natural magical girl blood.
- Maggie Lin, Michelle Lin, etc. (Balala the Fairies)
- Rin Tohsaka, Luvia Serena Edelfeldt (Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya) (Season 1)
- Mirai Asahina, Riko Izayoi (Maho Girls Pretty Cure!)
The fifth type of magical girl (name type)
This type of magical girl can use magic, but it is difficult to fall into the above categories. The only thing that can be determined is that she actually has the title of magical girl.
- Marisa Kirisame (Old Touhou Project) (Touhou Project) [her character song in The Story of Eastern Wonderland is described as "Marisa's theme song, she is the strongest magical girl."]
- Nanaka (Princess Connection Re:Dive)
The sixth type of magical girl (plausible type)
The abilities of this kind of magical girl are not essentially magic in the popular sense, but they have very obvious magical girl elements.
- Athena Asamiya (The King of Fighters Series)
- Hatsune (Princess Connect Re:Dive)
Magical boy
- Main article: Magical boy
The settings are no different from the above-mentioned magical girls in all aspects - except that they are boys.
