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[A Cliched Magical Girls Tale]
What happens when you combine fairy tales stories, pre-established Anime tropes and stereotypes, and the magical girls genre? The end result is Märchen Mädchen, a battle magical girls show that uses minor aspects of fairy tale origins to create a cliched storyline, shallow characters, and subpar animations.
STORY:
Story summary: Hazuki Kagimura is a shy and socially awkward high school girl, who doesn’t have any friends. Whenever, she gets upset, she finds a book and quickly immerses herself in it, a condition she calls, ‘Story Syndrome’. One day, she spots a cloaked figure (Shizuka) and follows her to an abandon library. From there, Hazuki is transported to another world, where she learns that she is a Maedchen, i.e. a book user, and is contracted to the Origin book “Cinderella”, which possesses strong magical powers. She transfers to Kuzunoha Girl's Magic Academy, where she starts learning the basics of magic and what it means to be a Maedchen. And, along the way, she will encounter many other Maedchen and be involved in the most important magical tournament, the Hexennacht competition.
The story is simple and will feel very familiar to those that have seen many other magical girls shows. Numerous common themes noticed in those shows can be found here, such as friendship, willingness to change, determination, and forgiveness. It’s also filled with many cliches and is highly predictable. Let’s list out some cliches:
- Main character is an outsider, who possesses the strongest magical power.
- Main character is unable to use her overpowered magic, until just the ‘right moment’.
- A tournament (i.e. Hexennacht competition) is held annually that will determine the fate of the main character’s school; in this case, the Japanese school.
- Cue lots of expositions in the form of characters explaining why this super-ultra-mega-important tournament must be won at all cost.
- Cue obligatory fanservice scenes (i.e. bathes/hot spring, Hazuki running nude, characters wearing gym clothes, etc).
- Obligatory training episodes.
- Fight/conflicts are resolved through the “Power of Friendship” and the fulfilling of other people’s wishes.
Other problems with this show includes weak and lazy writing (lots of exposition and some Deus Ex Machina moments), lack of tension and buildup, lack of world building, unexciting fight scenes, and uninteresting dialogues with the occasional interesting discussion focusing on past details regarding our main characters. And finally, an incomplete ending (i.e. Episode 10 was the last episode for the TV series) due to production issues at the studio. The remaining two episodes (episodes 11 and 12) will be determined at a later time.
For those who might watch this show, here are some noticeable fairy tales: The Mitten, Ivan the Fool, Shuten Doji, Cinderella, Aschenputtle, Puss in Boots, Pied Piper of Hamelin, Kaguya-hime no Monogatari, Issun-bōshi, Der Freischütz, Shuten-dōji, the Little Matchstick Girl, the Gigantic Turnip, Arthurian legends, and The Ramayana, Little One-Inch, the grateful crane, etc.
Overall, the story is a cliched and recycled plotline seen in many other magical girl shows.
ANIMATION:
Most times, the art and animations were mediocre and bearable, however there were moments where both these elements were lacking and, as such, resulted in poorer character designs and shoddy animations. Such examples could be found in many scenes that require lots of animation movements, background or foreground characters, and character facial expressions and animations.
The art is sub-par to mediocre. The background designs are fine. The character designs, while appearing very cute and ‘moe’, are generic, simple, and uninspiring. Every girl appears similar to each other as they have few distinguishable facial details, beyond different hair styles and colors, different eye colors and shapes, and different skin colors. This is further reinforced by the general lack of diverse facial expressions, being limited to smiling, making stoic or slightly angry faces, and looks of surprise. The character’s appearance and school uniforms are based on their country of origin and created as stereotypical as possible. Sometimes the characters will look off-model, having pointy edges around the face or body, feet appearing like shoes, disproportional bodies and objects, distorted or derpy faces, etc, though they mostly happen in the background, still it’s noticeable.
The animations are also sub-par to mediocre, though, it’s more due to laziness than outright terribleness. For example, the transformation scenes are not noteworthy, detailed, or exciting compared to the transformation sequences seen in Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica or Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru. In this show, the girls just raise their books, recite the name of their fairy tale, which causes a large burst of energy to surround them, and then they appear in their battle uniform. Another example are the action scenes, particularly in episodes 4, 6, and 8. They aren’t full-fledged fights, but rather you’ll see some punches, kicks, and magical spells thrown around, and then something will interrupt it, cutting the fight short. It’s annoying and honestly frustrating to watch.
Furthermore, the animation was so poor that the studio had to delay episode 9 until March 22, 2018. Delays are usually a huge sign that the show has a low budget and mismanagement. And, even with the two weeks break, the animation quality is still subpar. Maybe, even worse than before.
SOUND:
The voicing acting was pretty good as every voice actresses was able to provide a wide range of emotions for each character. Although, hearing Hazuki and many other characters yelling and screaming in the early episodes was annoying, this was only a minor complain.
The opening song, sung by fhána, is your standard J-Pop that features numerous scenes found in the anime, such as Hazuki in gym clothes, some magical girls performing their Büchulle spell, two scenes of Hazuki running naked, etc, along with several “zoom-in-on-one-character-accompanied-with-a-screen-tone” scenes. By episode 6, the opening intro changes and feature many characters that Hazuki and her friends will fight in the Hexennacht competition, along with Hazuki’s transformation scene and magical girl form. The ending song, sung by Reina Ueda, has slow-moving music accompanied with soft spoken lyrics that feature countless still shots of characters in various poses.
The background music features mostly fantasy-sounding tones, through the use of orchestras and pianos, to reinforce its fantasy-like setting. Sometimes the background music could be haunting to emphasize dreadful events, or when an action scene appears the music becomes heavy and rock-sounding. In other words, the background music is suppose to match the tone of the scene. And finally, expect many action sound effects, such as swords clashing or clanging, explosions, cannons firing, objects falling or cracking apart, etc.
CHARACTERS:
There are two words that could easily describe every character in this show: stereotypes and tropes. There are other words, such as two-dimensional, undeveloped, or unremarkable, however these terms do not apply to our main characters, mainly Hazuki Kagimura, Yumilia Qazan, and Shizuka Tsuchimikado.
Tropes and stereotypes are a common occurrence in the world of Anime, and this show has several of them. For example, the Russian characters will usually have short silvery hair with a military uniform and likes to drink vodka; the Indian characters will usually have tan skin with braided hair, and wear some Indian headpiece jewelry and robe; the Chinese characters will usually have a flower piece in their hair, while wearing silk dresses; the British, German, and American characters will usually have blonde hair and act very competitive. These are some of the tropes and stereotypes that I noticed, however there could be more.
Every character’s personality, weapon, and battle uniform are all based on their fairy tale origins. For example, Charles Giovanni’s fairy tale is Puss in Boots, her personality is trickster-like with hints of confidences and fierceness, her battle uniform consist of french clothing, and her weapon is a Tizona Cup Hilt Rapier Sword; Molly’s fairy tale is the Pied Piper of Hamelin, her personality is mysterious and avenging, her battle uniform is a green hunter suit, and her weapons are rats and a flintlock blunderbuss; Tatiana’s fairy tale is Ivan the Fool, her personality is naivety, kindness, and daring, her battle uniform consist of farmer’s clothing, and her weapon is her magical spell, i.e. the Joys of Physical Labor, that negates the opponent’s magical transformations. These are only a few characters that I listed, however every other character follows the same concept.
Besides the three main characters, most characters will lack a proper backstory and be unmemorable, and most will not have any growth or character development. However, all members of any particular team will have a goal and an ambition in the form of granting a single wish. For example, the main wish of the coalition team was to find a ‘home’, and the main wish of the Russian team was to restore Tatiana’s magical origin. Each wish may be simple, but each carries a lot of meaning for all the members of that team.
Our main character, Hazuki Kagimura, follows the classic “main character has the best magical power (i.e. origin and spell), but is unable to use it” trope, making her useless and annoying in the first 6 episodes. However, because of this trope, she later gains insight about herself and changes for the better. Yumilia Qazan follows the classic “villain turn friend upon realizing how wrong she was” trope. And finally, Shizuka Tsuchimikado follows the classic “serious and hardworking person who doesn’t need help, until serious shit happens to her” trope. Overall, the characters are okay, despite being created from overused tropes and stereotypes.
ENJOYMENT:
Watching Märchen Mädchen reminds me of several other magical girl shows, such as Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru, Soushin Shoujo Matoi, etc, and, when compared to those shows, it pales in comparison. The story rehashes the same cliched plotline seen in many other magical girl shows. Similarly, the characters were created and ’inspired’ from pre-established tropes and stereotypes that have rooted itself in the anime industry. Even the art and animations are sometimes lacking. Overall, I found this show to be subpar and a chore to watch. I don’t recommend watching this show, unless you’re a huge fan of the magical girls genre.
