| Whenever I think about watching a magical girl anime I wonder if it's going to be anywhere near as good as Madoka Magica. A lot of people have told me don't expect a lot of the Magical Girl anime to be anywhere near as in depth as Madoka Magica and I guess this has to do with the nature of Madoka Magica being a deconstruction of the genre. What do you guys think. |
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| I fucking loved Madoka Magica so I can see what you mean. However, I heard princess tutu is even better and that's considered a magical girl show. I also got into a discussion with some HB users about kill la kill and revolutionary girl utena, because both have been tagged as magical girl shows on different websites. Well, with kill la kill it's labeled magical girl on wikipedia, but quite a few sites have considered revolutionary girl utena a magical girl show. I think revoluationary girl utena and kill la kill are miles better than madoka magica, so if they are really magical girl shows then I would say the genre isn't ruined for you yet! HIGH FIVE! I don't know much about what is technically classified as magical girl (other than the obvious magical girl wand shit), so someone else can probably give better input if the shows I listed really are magical girl shows or not. |
 Banner credit to @turnip |
| Try Princess Tutu and Rev. Girl Utena if you wanna try some depth. Frankly, I haven't watched them but I respect both out of respect for the people that praise them. Do try them. Full Moon wo Sagashite (if you can stand it beign a girl show) and the original Sailor Moon seem like nice choices too. I'm actually watching the first one and it's alright, albeit pretty girly. Don't worry, Madoka has shocked you, as it has done with anybody, but it's a pretty tame show in comparison. If you want, give it some time before attempting to watch another magic girl show, since the fresh Madoka memories might spoil your fun. |
 It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye.But does the heart have the right perspective? |
| Yuki Yuna can be classified as a mahou shoujo show I believe. I enjoyed that anime quite a bit, overall lighter than Madoka but near the end it does get a bit depressing and dark. Like the user above me said, Kill la Kill is very good if you consider it to be magical girls. I don't really know any others, aside from Fate/Illya. There's a two cool short films called Little Witch Academia that I watched a few nights ago. Not bad, pretty entertaining. |
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| I dunno. CCS is my standard on the magical girl genre. Ask @zombie_pegasus I think he's pretty much knowledgeable in the magical girl sub-genre. |
| I think dismissing the entire genre because you've seen the astonishing amount of ONE anime from that genre is really stupid. And we all know the best Magical Girl anime is Kill la Kill. |
Touniouk said: I think dismissing the entire genre because you've seen the astonishing amount of ONE anime from that genre is really stupid. And we all know the best Magical Girl anime is Kill la Kill. Not really dismissing an entire genre a part of me just wonders how will the other Magical Girl anime compare to Madoka Magica. A part of me is kinda starting to think it was probably a bad idea to have Madoka Magica be my first Magical Girl anime. |
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Ratchetdude231 said: Madoka Magica is most people's first magical girl anime nowadays. Me included.Touniouk said: I think dismissing the entire genre because you've seen the astonishing amount of ONE anime from that genre is really stupid. And we all know the best Magical Girl anime is Kill la Kill. Not really dismissing an entire genre a part of me just wonders how will the other Magical Girl anime compare to Madoka Magica. A part of me is kinda starting to think it was probably a bad idea to have Madoka Magica be my first Magical Girl anime. Trust me, it won't reduce your enjoyment of other Magical girls anime at all. If anything, you might try more of them now, which makes it a good thing that you started from that. Unless you except all of them to be super dark. In which case you'll most likely be disappointed. |
AxBattler said: Well, Madoka is a bit different anyway. Different enough that enjoying Madoka doesn't mean that you would have enjoyed the Magical Girl genre in the first place (that'd be me), but also different enough that even though you enjoyed Madoka it doesn't mean that you won't be able to enjoy the Magical Girl genre for what they are. Might as well just try and see how it goes.. ^ This. It's not anything like your standard magical girl series, so I think the first part of this explanation is most certainly true. |
| Your mistake was watching a deconstruction before watching examples of what was being deconstructed. So your supposition about ruining the genre for yourself is more-or-less correct IMO. Mahou shoujo is a genre I haven't really explored yet myself (outside of a few outliers like the Touhou OVA, Strike Witches (which is a combination of genres) and a couple others (like Zero no Tsukaima which is only borderline on the outside looking in). Only after I've watched a fair number of the really representative titles like Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura, Princess Tutu, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha would I ever consider watching Madoka. Re. Utena a mahou shoujo? Sure it has a couple of supernatural elements but that doesn't make it magical girl show IMO. Simply being assigned a magic tag and shoujo tag together doesn't necessarily mean it's mahou shoujo. Magical girl are generally cute girls using magic to oppose some antagonist force. It should generally align to the pink and cutesy moe side of things and the further a show departs from that "ideal" the closer it becomes to being either a deconstruction (by introducing darker/tragic elements) or to never belonging in that classification to begin with. Of course that definition I've sort of adopted from others and how close it really is I'll have to find out even for myself once I've gotten of few of those titles I mentioned into the Completed column. |
8oomerJun 17, 2016 8:07 PM
| Avatar: Anzu Kadotani from Girls und Panzer. Sig by MissIntrovert.  |
| Man I love it when Madoka or Evangelion are praised as deconstructions of their respective genres by people that have no prior experience with said genres. Watching more magical girl anime ought to increase your appreciation for Madoka, provided that it really is the deconstruction you claim it to be. People have already suggested Princess Tutu so I'm gonna go ahead and +1 that, I'd also recommend Cardcaptor Sakura and maybe Lyrical Nanoha. After that you can call it quits with magical girls because it's a garbage genre with only a few noteworthy shows. I don't really know what you expected when trying to get into cartoons that fall under the umbrella of "Magical Girls". |
| Is Psycho-Pass ruin your "action" anime? If yes, Madoka Magica has ruin your "magical girl" anime. |
| This salad is salty favored |
| what makes you think madoka is a deconstruction? What magical girl aspects of the show did you like if any? If there are other magical girl shows I know that have those things I'll be happy to list them. Do you even care that it is considered a magical girl show. Maybe you just like shows that have a genre subverting feel. |
| Precure is my go to magical girl anime and has been for quite a long time. |
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Lyuze said: Man I love it when Madoka or Evangelion are praised as deconstructions of their respective genres by people that have no prior experience with said genres. Watching more magical girl anime ought to increase your appreciation for Madoka, provided that it really is the deconstruction you claim it to be. People have already suggested Princess Tutu so I'm gonna go ahead and +1 that, I'd also recommend Cardcaptor Sakura and maybe Lyrical Nanoha. After that you can call it quits with magical girls because it's a garbage genre with only a few noteworthy shows. I don't really know what you expected when trying to get into cartoons that fall under the umbrella of "Magical Girls". Not really praising them for being deconstructions excuse my anime noobness cause if you couldn't tell I am indeed a noob but isn't it common knowledge that Madoka Magica is a deconstruction of the magical girl genre? |
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| ... I'm just going to say PMMM isn't a deconstruction. Madoka Magica is a Magical Girl show but that doesn't stop you from enjoying other ones. For now, I don't recommend Princess Tutu since while it is great (as you can see from my favorites), it's pretty much... different from most shows you've watched so far. If you want to try it, fine. Nanoha and Yuuki Yuuna would be your best bet. Cardcaptor Sakura is great, too, although more lighthearted. If you want to get into Mahou Shoujo animu, try CCS first. If you want more Mahou Shoujo like Madoka, try the former anime. |
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perje said: what makes you think madoka is a deconstruction? What magical girl aspects of the show did you like if any? If there are other magical girl shows I know that have those things I'll be happy to list them. Do you even care that it is considered a magical girl show. Maybe you just like shows that have a genre subverting feel. Isn't it pretty common knowledge that Madoka is a deconstruction though? Honestly I didn't even know that Madoka was a deconstruction before watching it. No joke if you really want to know the reason behind why I watched Madoka Magica it's because it was made by the same person that made Psycho pass . I decided to watch it based on that and than right before I started watching it I realized it was a magical girl anime I didn't really know it was a deconstruction until after I finished it. |
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| The trope of "the main character dies at the end" is pretty common in magical girl anime. It would be a bit of a spoiler to suggest any with this trope, though. I personally think the "soul contained in an external object" was done better in Shugo Chara! than in Madoka. In Shugo Chara! souls are contained in "heart eggs" for normal people but will hatch into shugo chara when the owner discovers what they want in life. When unhatched they may become x eggs which can be destroyed or repurposed, both of which take away the owner's desire to achieve anything more than a 9-5 to slave away for society. Whether if that's a fate worse than becoming a witch is completely subjective. Selector Infected Wixoss did a better job with the wish idea because instead of being granted the wish right away you have win three card battles before your wish is granted. As powerful as Kyubey may be, the villain in Nurse Angel Ririka SOS literally have the power to destroy the world. Although many lives were lost in Madoka, Lady Jewelpet includes a massacre of thousands (it's still PG, though). Although it isn't generally considered to be a magical girl anime, Serial Experiments Lain is about a girl with magical powers and the ending is done much better than the one in Madoka. As dark and flashy as the witch battles may be, Cardcaptor Sakura has much better fight scenes. I don't think Madoka actually does anything "the best" for magical girl anime, it just everything "pretty well" and also takes the darkest parts of regular magical girl anime and puts them all together. Madoka was also my first magical girl anime but it is far from being the best one I've seen. |
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zombie_pegasus said: Selector Infected Wixoss did a better job with the wish idea because instead of being granted the wish right away you have win three card battles before your wish is granted. *Ahem* Selector Infected is magical LRIG*. |
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Ratchetdude231 said: Not really praising them for being deconstructions excuse my anime noobness cause if you couldn't tell I am indeed a noob but isn't it common knowledge that Madoka Magica is a deconstruction of the magical girl genre? It's something parrotted by Madoka fans that have no idea what being a "deconstruction" entails. They seem to assume that taking tropes and making them darker makes the show a deconstruction and then people like you, who also have no idea what a deconstruction is, continue to parrot the term as if it holds any weight. A deconstruction takes apart an idea through analysing smaller concepts that make up the broader vision; in some cases it points out flaws that can't otherwise be found when the aforementioned smaller concepts are bundled together into that broader idea. Madoka doesn't have anything to say about the construction of magical girl anime, it just tells its own darker story with its own conventions to suit its unrelated thematic purposes. |
Lyuze said: That's also not a deconstruction.Ratchetdude231 said: Not really praising them for being deconstructions excuse my anime noobness cause if you couldn't tell I am indeed a noob but isn't it common knowledge that Madoka Magica is a deconstruction of the magical girl genre? It's something parrotted by Madoka fans that have no idea what being a "deconstruction" entails. They seem to assume that taking tropes and making them darker makes the show a deconstruction and then people like you, who also have no idea what a deconstruction is, continue to parrot the term as if it holds any weight. A deconstruction takes apart an idea through analysing smaller concepts that make up the broader vision; in some cases it points out flaws that can't otherwise be found when the aforementioned smaller concepts are bundled together into that broader idea. Madoka doesn't have anything to say about the construction of magical girl anime, it just tells its own darker story with its own conventions to suit its unrelated thematic purposes. I can't believe I have to copypasta this again. I'm sorry, Zerg. |
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| there are many better mahou shoujo than madoka so not really |
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| Tutu, Utena and Cutey Honey are better than Madoka |
Ratchetdude231 said: Whenever I think about watching a magical girl anime I wonder if it's going to be anywhere near as good as Madoka Magica. Madoka's not an actual mahou shoujo anime, it's a deconstruction. There aren't many of those in existance. There's Tutu, Utena... Yuri Kuma (kind of). Normal mahou shoujo are the likes of Precure, Sailor Moon and the like. There's also Nanoha, but that's really a Gundam show disguised as a mahou shoujo show. zombie_pegasus said: Selector Infected Wixoss did a better job with the wish idea because instead of being granted the wish right away you have win three card battles before your wish is granted. And then your wish isn't really granted anyway. |
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| There is so many dark magical girl tbh, But what I love in Madoka isn't just about the dark of it, but rather its characters, existential crisis, defines what is 'virtue' and 'evil', how it ends, and most importantly: "Differentiating what you want with what you need." Anyways I already got spoiled on some dark magical girls like Tutu so I guess I won't get the same level of enjoyment as Madoka. zombie_pegasus said: The trope of "the main character dies at the end" is pretty common in magical girl anime. It would be a bit of a spoiler to suggest any with this trope, though. I personally think the "soul contained in an external object" was done better in Shugo Chara! than in Madoka. In Shugo Chara! souls are contained in "heart eggs" for normal people but will hatch into shugo chara when the owner discovers what they want in life. When unhatched they may become x eggs which can be destroyed or repurposed, both of which take away the owner's desire to achieve anything more than a 9-5 to slave away for society. Whether if that's a fate worse than becoming a witch is completely subjective. Selector Infected Wixoss did a better job with the wish idea because instead of being granted the wish right away you have win three card battles before your wish is granted. As powerful as Kyubey may be, the villain in Nurse Angel Ririka SOS literally have the power to destroy the world. Although many lives were lost in Madoka, Lady Jewelpet includes a massacre of thousands (it's still PG, though). Although it isn't generally considered to be a magical girl anime, Serial Experiments Lain is about a girl with magical powers and the ending is done much better than the one in Madoka. As dark and flashy as the witch battles may be, Cardcaptor Sakura has much better fight scenes. I don't think Madoka actually does anything "the best" for magical girl anime, it just everything "pretty well" and also takes the darkest parts of regular magical girl anime and puts them all together. Madoka was also my first magical girl anime but it is far from being the best one I've seen. My eyes!! I've been spoiled once more :( |
YouJun 18, 2016 1:53 PM
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DmonHiro said: zombie_pegasus said: Selector Infected Wixoss did a better job with the wish idea because instead of being granted the wish right away you have win three card battles before your wish is granted. And then your wish isn't really granted anyway. |
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| Madoka is a mahou shoujo deconstruction, so you haven't ruined anything from the magical girl genre, cause Madoka is not what we normally call magical girl / mahou shoujo anime. It's like NGE - (which is a shounen deconstruction along with many other things) it won't ruin you say for example Naruto, or Busou Renkin. |
You said: I tried not to spoil too much about the actual stories. The thing I said about Lady Jewelpet was the only one that was even about something that happened near the end and it also isn't the main part of the story.zombie_pegasus said: The trope of "the main character dies at the end" is pretty common in magical girl anime. It would be a bit of a spoiler to suggest any with this trope, though. I personally think the "soul contained in an external object" was done better in Shugo Chara! than in Madoka. In Shugo Chara! souls are contained in "heart eggs" for normal people but will hatch into shugo chara when the owner discovers what they want in life. When unhatched they may become x eggs which can be destroyed or repurposed, both of which take away the owner's desire to achieve anything more than a 9-5 to slave away for society. Whether if that's a fate worse than becoming a witch is completely subjective. Selector Infected Wixoss did a better job with the wish idea because instead of being granted the wish right away you have win three card battles before your wish is granted. As powerful as Kyubey may be, the villain in Nurse Angel Ririka SOS literally have the power to destroy the world. Although many lives were lost in Madoka, Lady Jewelpet includes a massacre of thousands (it's still PG, though). Although it isn't generally considered to be a magical girl anime, Serial Experiments Lain is about a girl with magical powers and the ending is done much better than the one in Madoka. As dark and flashy as the witch battles may be, Cardcaptor Sakura has much better fight scenes. I don't think Madoka actually does anything "the best" for magical girl anime, it just everything "pretty well" and also takes the darkest parts of regular magical girl anime and puts them all together. Madoka was also my first magical girl anime but it is far from being the best one I've seen. My eyes!! I've been spoiled once more :( |
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| Only if it ruins the magical girl genre because it happens to be one of the best shows in the genre, I guess. I can kinda relate to seeing a great example of a thing and finding a lot of similar things are extremely underwhelming in comparison. So yes, you've found one of the better magical girl anime. But fear not--as others have mentioned, there are a plethora of quality titles still to be mined. I also find it odd when people call Madoka Magica a deconstruction of magical girl anime because, let's be honest, it really isn't. It's a dark, cosmic horror version of a magical girl anime, but it doesn't really do any deconstruction. Since no deconstruction took place, you will still be pleasantly surprised by new tropes and new characters that lie hidden within the genre. |
 This glorious signature image was created by @Mayumi! I am the Arbiter of Absolute Truth, and here is my wisdom: "Anime was always influenced by the West. This is not news. Shoujo is the superior genre primarily aimed at young people. Harem/isekai are lazy genres that refuse any meaningful innovation. There is no 'Golden Age.' There will always be top-shelf anime. You should be watching Carole & Tuesday." |
| Sounds like it. It's okay to use an anime as the pinnacle of a genre, but genres don't constrain anime. Be open to Magical Girl anime that don't work like Madoka, that have different things to offer. |
| WEAPONS - My blog, for reviews of music, anime, books, and other things |
| You guys need to watch Uta~Kata if you want a magical girl anime that might be able to compete with Madoka. I've seen some people online stating that they like it even more than Madoka Magica. I'm still in the middle of watching Princess Tutu, so I can't exactly confirm if I like it better than Madoka Magica... all I can really say is that I'm liking how it's going so far. Edit 10/7/2019 - It's now one of my new favorite anime |
Fario-POct 7, 2019 3:21 PM
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| If you expect every show in the same genre to be just like your favourite, sure. It's like having watched Dragon Ball Z and expecting every other battle shounen to be just like it, and if it isn't, you view it as a failure. Different shows do different things, even when they share the same genre or setting. If you cling to the idea a genre should be only like the one thing you once watched and liked, yeah, you've ruined it for yourself. |
Ratchetdude231 said: Not really dismissing an entire genre a part of me just wonders how will the other Magical Girl anime compare to Madoka Magica. A part of me is kinda starting to think it was probably a bad idea to have Madoka Magica be my first Magical Girl anime. Madoka isn't really that special, it's pretty typical, just a bit darker and grittier. Doesn't matter if you started with Madoka or not. Other mahou-shoujo series aren't Madoka, and Madoka is Madoka. Btw, Princess Tutu is a masterpiece and best animu evar. And my opinion on Madoka - it's boring and poorly written. |
epicyarnboy said: I never understood what's so hatable about mecha. I'm personally sorta indifferent to it.Granbelm that is airing rn is really good, its rating is bad due to mecha haters, but its actually really well animated (no CGI) and the plot twists are on the level of Madoka |
| Avatar character is Gabriel from Gabriel DropOut. |
epicyarnboy said: GlennMagusHarvey said: I never understood what's so hatable about mecha. I'm personally sorta indifferent to it. most the people hating are just on a hatewagon What hatewagon? There's a hatewagon for Granbelm? Personally, I only dropped it cuz it was a Madoka clone (one part of episode 2 feels straight out of a certain moment in a Madoka episode and it made me straight-up laugh at how blatant it was) that imo had boring things going on. I didn't drop it cuz it was a mecha show—I've barely seen any mecha shows, so I have no real opinion on them at the moment. I'm sure there's people who didn't like it for the same reasons I did. And I'm sure there are people who actually do watch mecha shows and found the mecha battles to be unclear/underwhelming as I did (I mean, I couldn't tell what exactly was going on in certain shots). Maybe one day I'll revisit it and give it a shot, but right now I feel confident that I might get disappointed like I did with Magical Girl Raising Project back when it was still airing all those years ago |
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| Utena and Princess Tutu stand up to Madoka in every respect. (All three are 100% brilliant.) |
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