Magical girl fans, how would YOU make a magical girl show?

logopolis said:
Aliens who have been watching magic girl shows come down and find some girls to give powers to, in order to use for acts of altruism. Some of them decide to perform altruistic acts like "disintegrating concentration camp walls". And so you get a sort of political thriller piece, except all the power players are genuinely kind and altruistic girls who refuse to hurt one another, and the normal authorities can't really touch. I think that would be pretty cool.

HeruruMeruru said:
1: A magical girl "mons" series, kind of like Cardcaptor Sakura except the monsters are summoned directly to fight alongside the magical girl instead of just lending her their powers. Maybe they could even fuse with the monsters a la Digimon Tamers. Or maybe her costume could change depending on which monster she summoned.

2: Magical women. An adult magical girl that has to juggle adult responsibilities and obligations with saving the world would be neat.

HeruruMeruru said:


2: Magical women. An adult magical girl that has to juggle adult responsibilities and obligations with saving the world would be neat.

Hoppy said:
I would make a magical idol show with the girls fighting cute aliens trying to eat Earth's sweets supply and an insert song at the end, basically 1 part Mao-chan (except with the aliens getting harmed, none of this capture crap), 1 part Pripara, and 2 parts Precure.

Maneki-Mew said:
Three or four magical girls, who got their power with 13, 14 and lived through the typical life of the not-so-dark magical girl series, struggled trough school life, fighting the monster of the week and had to live a double life, until they become 16-18+ and start to ask more questions and recognize that they were exploited from someone to be part of some bigger plan (not too Madoka-like tho) and they become more self-aware on what they are doing and why. And there it becomes gradually darker.
Also they decide that they want to lead a normal life, since it becomes impossible to lead a private life and focus on study and work, and want to get rid off their powers and don't take part in someone's else plans. Therefore they have to look for girls, who are at their original age, which seems to be unethical to them, or they have to fight and play along to get rid off their powers.
And they recognize that fighting monster of the week actually had been a lot scarier and left a greater impact than they originally thought, because they reflect all that stuff more and the monsters become gradually scarier too.
Everything was fun and cute powers and dresses at first and they fought against comical monsters and suddenly they become a lot scarier. Then it's "shit, how to quit and nope out!?"

Aidyr said:
I like darker more mature magical girl shows, but only if it's done right. Madoka is loved for a reason, and it's not JUST because its dark and edgy. I think Yuki Yuna is a Hero does a good job at mimicking Madoka's appeal, while retaining its own identity. The reason shows like Magical Girl Site are so awful isn't because they're aimed at an older audience. It's because they aren't smart. They don't go into it with the right mindset. They're exploitative and rely too much on shock value. Magical Girl Site is literally just adolescent torture porn. I just wish more modern magical girl shows would know how to handle the darker themes they wanna use, rather than just thinking "shit we gotta do something violent and shocking to show people how badass and not for little girls this show is."

Anywho... If I were to make a magical girl show... I'd wanna strike a good balance between what I like about Madoka/Yuki Yunna and what I like about Pre Cure. I don't know specifics with characters/settings/etc. But I'd want there to be actual stakes and tangible threats. I'd want injury and sadness to be there, but I wouldn't want it to be overwhelming or soul crushing. I wouldn't kill off more than one significant character, if even that. And I'd give the girls a happy ending. No monster of the week type stuff, I'd rather make a short, story and character heavy 12-24 episode series. I'd wanna include likable characters and kickass action. And of course, I'd wanna have a cool villain. Something/someone who poses and actual threat and isn't afraid to resort to actual violence. Someone threatening and badass. Bonus points if they have a minion who ends up being reformed by friendship and joins the side of the good guys.

petran79 said:
Petite Princess Yucie has some Gainax animated moments scenes that rival Precure, even reminding a little of Gurren Laggan, unfortunately being a kids magical girl series it did not get the animation budget it deserved.

petran79 said:
I would like more comedy and parody like in the 90s Pretty Sammy TV spin-off (not the OVA). It was a pure gem and made me laugh almost every episode.


Petite Princess Yucie has some Gainax animated moments scenes that rival Precure, even reminding a little of Gurren Laggan, unfortunately being a kids magical girl series it did not get the animation budget it deserved. But it did get some of the Trigger staff and was also supervised by Hideaki Anno, so one can expect a sort of consistency in character interaction and script.
Very underrated series overall, probably because it was based on Princess Maker but it has heart that many non-Toei magical girl series lack.

Chiibi said:

I'll tell you something I WOULDN'T DO:

show panties of nine-year-old magical girls when they do....anything.

*glares at Nanoha* Seriously....what the f*ck; why do we need to see that? That's plain horrible taste and it drags the show down. Pretty Sammy is also guilty of being creepy like that. Like, can you not?

Chiibi said:
@Fario-P Yucie is great; I also related to her because I look very young. xD
I think you would love Kaitou Saint Tail and Nurse Angel Ririka SOS. Good, wholesome, entertaining magical girl shows. Older but don't let that stop you.

petran79 said:
Another popular dinosaur series, especially in Europe, was Jura Tripper, about a group of kids stranded back in time.

To me Panty and Stocking ruined transformation scenes :D
Now I want every character to do pole-dancing and strip tease before transforming! Best adult maho shojo ever

Akito_Kinomoto said:
I've been mulling over this question for a while and wanted to approach it from multiple angles. But my first tentative idea ended up winning in my head in part due to the way magical girl anime have largely aped Madoka Magica after its success, without even understanding why that show was successful. Even then, studios would do well to remember the market for a traditional magical girl show still exists beyond the mega IPs such as Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon, and PreCure

What the magical girl genre needs now is its own original IP that acts as a return to form from where Madoka Magica deviated from. If you're familiar with Evangelion and the influence that show had on other mecha anime years after its success, it's a similar story in terms of the trajectory of the genre. But eventually, mecha anime gave rise to Gurren Lagann, taking back what so much of Evangelion had subverted. Right now, the magical girl genre needs a Gurren Lagann to Madoka Magica's Evangelion

The show itself would be somewhere between the tone of the Symphogear series and the Nanoha series (although Nanoha predates Madoka Magica by several years and both of them have their own identity, separate from the post-Madoka Magica era or Cardcaptor Sakura. That's neither here nor there). It needs to wear on its sleeve it isn't going to be a PreCure picnic while retaining a sense of urgency to keep the story's momentum

That said. The story itself is still going to be dark. Or rather, it's going to be heavy. Something Madoka Magica understands that most of its successors don't is the difference between mature storytelling and adult storytelling. Magical Girl Site has death and blood reigning rampant, while Grand Theft Auto is rife with cursing, violence, and drugs; neither of them are mature. Heartcatch PreCure, The Lion King, and Toy Story are all kid-friendly while also respecting its older viewers; their themes of self-acceptance, responsibility, and place of belonging lie just beneath the surface that actually enrich the experience for older viewers beyond the spectacle and colorful visuals

This magical girl show I make needs to be fun for a wide range of audiences in terms of age, while packing a certain sense of depth that anyone old enough should be able to comfortably grasp.

There's a core precept that should be a strong anchor point for creating this anime in terms of both story and thematics— The Dark Magical Girl is forever an antagonist to the main character

Seiya said:
I would make a magical girl Anime similar those of the Studio Gallop/NAS era, like "Akazukin Chacha" and "Nurse Angel Ririka SOS," as that was probably the pinnacle of magical girl Anime.

Also, it would of course, be for all ages, so nothing would be shiny, except for the characters' hair.

Fario-P said:

But anyway that sounds really interesting! I think Yuki Yuna tries to do something like this by having some more light-hearted moments while also having a harsh truth (from my memory, it's literally been years since I first saw it), but yeah something like this may be needed at the moment! Idk I'd like to see that that's for sure

I think the type of magical girl show that you're wanting to make is a coming-of-age story.
They usually focus on personal growth—which is pretty much what "themes of self-acceptance, responsibility, and place of belonging" is. And there have been examples of more kid-friendly shows that handle these kinds of topics like Steven Universe and Avatar: The Last Airbender (of course, execution may vary... as I like the latter example way more than the former lol), so it's not like a kid-friendly coming-of-age story is impossible.
In that case, I agree that a coming-of-age magical girl show would be great. I mean, Uta Kata did this and I personally liked it, so... more like that please!
(Speaking of which, I see that it's on your Completed list. If you don't mind me asking, what were your thoughts on it?)

From your further elaboration on this, do you mean you want more anti-hero magical girls? Hmmm... I guess it would be interesting to see that there are magical girls that doesn't really oppose, but also doesn't necessarily have the same exact perspective as the main character...

Overall, I kinda really like your ideas! Maybe I'm underselling your ideas, but I still agree that a middle ground between the traditions of the genre and the recent rise of more edgy/dark magical girls definitely needs to be made at this point.

cy6nt said:
not a magical girl fan but can someone name an anime that has magical girl kill each other? i've seen highlight on some of the part in yt but its long ago and i don't think im going to find that again.

Graumann said:
I had a Weather Trio-inspired (Kyogre, Groudon, and Rayqueza from Pokemon) premise for a Magical Girl Show. Essentially there would be three Magical Girls that serve as conduits for the powers of a primeval entity (Earth, Water, and Air). The abilities would match the respective attributes. The girls would be walking natural disasters: i.e. the earth one can cause earthquakes, the water can cause tsunamis/heavy rain, and the air can generate tornadoes or typhoons.

The history would be periodical conflict (say every 10,000 years) between the three primeval entities. In the current times, the earth entity has dominion. In the past, both humans and other animals were used as conduits for the entities. However, the current entities, who picked human conduits, realize something was amiss... For the firs time, the chosen conduits (having sufficiently developed brains) maintained a degree of consciousness. This difference allows them to break the periodic cycle, but also unleash a potentially worse outcome (as the entities kept the world in a fragile ecological balance). I'm rambling a little bit, but I'd like to see a story like that. Though I'm not sure it would be particularly well received in Japan; which has experienced numerous natural disasters in recent times.

Another idea would be magical girls as conduits of religious power. However, I would probably expand the setting from just Japan (who are heavily Shinto-dominated) to the whole world.

KamisamaHatatan said:
Like Kore wa Zombie desu ka? Thats a perfect Mahou-Shoujo show.

Fario-P said:

How specifically so? I'd be interested to see what parts of that show you'd like to see more of in more magical girl titles in the future.

Kuro_Neko04 said:

He's joking because in Kore wa Zombie desu ka? the MC (which is a guy) literally everytime the MC fights he is in Mahou Shoujo clothes for plot reasons

Fario-P said:

By mana system, you mean like you want there to be defined restrictions/limits on their powers? Or were you just thinking of Magic Points (MP) lol

mhkr said:
I haven't completely read other replies and idk if this is done before or not but some ideas come to my mind and sorry all of ideas can be made with only boys or being mixed genders.

mkhr said:
First is making a battle royale anime with "groups" of magical girls fighting each other. Each group has 4-5 (just a random number) girls that they they have different magic powers (Actually we have different "types" of magical girls). For example one of them only have healing/supporting magics, one only have fight skills and one only have creating/changing things and other types that you can think about. Also we should have mana system.
Idk about the start or ending of it but this is a thing comes to my mind. The show starts with "training" arc and how the magical system works and each magical girl gets more powerful with training and then the "tournament" arc starts and we have our battle royale anime and probably the main characters' group will win the tournament and that's how it ends.
Pretty like a "battle shounen" anime but only with girls.

mkhr said:
Another idea is just an adventure of magical girls in a fantasy world and the exploration of their world. It can be both lighthearted and being dark but myself prefer lighthearted series.
Another idea is magical girls working for an organization they think it's doing the justice. We have two big organizations and both of them because of being a magical girl show only featuring magical girls. And at first they fight with the second organization and eliminating them but after only remaining just the boss of second organization, the main characters confront with the boss and they find out that the organization their working for it is actually evil and wants to destroy the whole world and after this they managing to save the world.

CosmicRobo said:
I've had this idea for a light-hearted magical girl anime movie for a little bit. A world where magical girls and magical boys are commonplace and both fight to be the better magical gender. Though, the boys and girls are forced to work together when an demonic threat plans to eliminate all magic and hope in the world. Parodies both light-hearted and "dark" magical girl anime. It sounds cliche but it's all I got atm.