It bothers me that Madoka Magica is the mahou shoujo anime always being recommended
WARNING: This article contains minor Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica spoilers. Basically it exposes the main premise of the show so if you know a little bit more than the general synopsis, go ahead. Else watch the series, it is quite good.
To save you from embarrassment when talking about Madoka in public, I’ve recorded how to properly pronounce the title:
For me the only category Madoka wins out over other mahou shoujos is the animation. It’s typically SHAFTy with a unique character design and artsy backgrounds. But the story? Madoka’s been labeled as a deconstruction of the genre because it twists the usually cheerful setting into a battle royal. It had been done before, however.
Types of mahou shoujos
Personally, I classify them in 4 categories:
- Classic
- Gag
- Sub-plot
- Tragic
Everybody is familiar with the classics like Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha or more recent Shugo Chara! or Soushin Shoujo Matoi and the never-ending Precure. A girl receives the ability to transform her appearance and power up to fight dark forces attempting to wreak havoc in the world. The usual story pattern goes like — disbelief, excitement, twist, struggling, perseverance, happy end with romance in-between. My personal favorite from this category is probably Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne.
There’s so much content in the mahou shoujo genre that people started parodying it. Titles like Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan or Maji de Otaku na English! Ribbon-chan: Eigo de Tatakau Mahou Shoujo (and you thought Madoka had a long title) are part of the gag type.
It gets more exciting when we look into more atypical series. The first is what I call the sub-plot type in which a girl being a mahou shoujo is of secondary importance to the plot. Full Moon wo Sagashite is a prime example. Did somebody notice my Tanemura Arina bias? It’s fascinating to me how just a little bit of magic can enhance a series that would usually be quite unimpressive. If you haven’t heard of Full Moon yet and want an immersive “try hard to achieve your dreams in face of certain doom” type story, please watch it.
In the end, there’s the tragic type. Madoka did it and a number of series tried to replicate the same success formula since then. Most recently we got Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku which wasn’t impressive enough to keep me watching to the end. Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru seemed to go in the tragic direction, but I’ve never seen more than 1 or 2 episodes so correct me if I’m wrong.
But Madoka was not the first nor is it my personal favorite
Every day a number of threads would pop-up on Reddit asking for anime recommendations and somehow Madoka always makes the list. I get it, it’s recent and it’s popular so people know it. The reason for this article is to expand your repertoire with some other titles that can take the spot.
My go-to battle royal mahou shoujo is Mai-HiME. Mai taking off to space on Kagutsuchi is probably the most bad-ass scene in history of the genre. Mai-HiME is a 26 episode series from 2004. Back then 24–26 episodes was standard compared to 13 nowadays which led to stories developing the characters better and leaving a more lasting impression. The first half of the series is basically world building and an introduction to the entire cast so once shit hits the fan, your emotional attachment to the characters is much stronger than in that infamous 3rd episode from Madoka.
There’s a sequel to Mai-HiME called Mai-Otome. It’s an alternative setting with some of the recurring cast but considerably worse plot than the original.
Kannazuki no Miko is another series where friends turned mahou shoujo end up in agonizing circumstances. Maybe not deserving of a short-list but this is special to me because of quality yuri and the songs Re-Sublimity, Agony and Suppuration -core- by KOTOKO of I’ve Sound. If you don’t know of I’ve, you’ve missed the golden era of quality VN and anime music.
There might be others but they’ve escaped my mind. Do you know of any mahou shoujos that did the tragic route before it was cool?
