An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Category: Magical Girl May

Streaking Shinto Magical Girls? – Matoi the Sacred Slayer Spoiler Review

Matoi the Sacred Slayer is a magical girl show where, say it with me, a teen girl gains mystical powers that allow her to transform into a prettied-up super state, and with which she’s able to fight monsters that secretly threaten humanity. In short, it’s got the same pitch as just about every other action-skewed Magical Girl show. What’s Matoi’s unique claim to fame?

Well, the show seems to want you to notice that when she comes out of magical girl state, she does so nude. So at least we have that.

Read More…Read More…

Pick A Card, Any Card (As Long As It’s Major Arcana) – Day Break Illusion Spoiler Review

Well, this month I’ve reviewed shows in the vein of Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, two of the backbone shows for my first Magical Girl May… might as well take on one that’s trying to be Madoka, right?

Enter Day Break Illusion, a show that seems to be taking design notes and tonal pointers alike from Madoka Magica. But this one has Tarot cards? As pitches go, I’ve seen worse.

Read More…Read More…

Ctrl-Alt-Conjure – Modern Magic Made Simple Spoiler Review

What defines a magical girl show? In my mind, there’s not exactly one silver bullet element that is true of all Magical Girls and not of anything else, but there is a cluster of traits where a show should have at least a sizable chunk to be considered.

Modern Magic Made Simple is a work that will often appear on lists of Magical Girl anime. That’s how I found it, to begin with. And in the defense of that categorization, the main characters are all girls and they do wield magic. However, in my mind, Modern Magic Made Simple belongs not really to the Magical Girl theme or genre, but rather to the broader canon of Young Adult Urban Fantasy, specifically Masquerade Urban Fantasy.

Read More…Read More…

Mew Mew Moe Magical Girl Environmentalism – Tokyo Mew Mew New Spoiler Review

Have you ever wanted to watch Sailor Moon, except instead of the operatic drama you’re up for more general cuteness and maybe a side of 90’s style environmental hand-wringing? If so, Tokyo Mew Mew (New version) may be for you. It’s got all the sparkly transformation sequences, all the monsters of the week and a lot less of the theater, darkness, and intelligence.

That, however, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad show; it’s a different show with different appeal, so I’m hoping to try to look at it in its own context, even if some comparisons are going to be inevitable. Please note as well that this review is solely of Season 1, being written before the release of the second season, much less any viewing of it.

Read More…Read More…

The Cardcaptor Returns – Cardcaptor Sakura Movie Spoiler Review Double Feature

If you’ve been following the blog, particularly the Magical Girl reviews, the idea may have gotten across that I have a great deal of respect for Cardcaptor Sakura. The original show may not have been quite as spectacular as some others, but it came together amazingly well given everything. As such, it was a topic that I was more than willing to revisit. While there is a sequel season, Clear Card, for now I’ll be addressing Sakura’s two feature-length outings, called simply Cardcaptor Sakura: the Movie and Cardcaptur Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card.

Read More…Read More…

Sacrifice, Despair, Slice of Life, and Two Stories for the Price of One – Yuki Yuna is a Hero Season 2 (Washio Sumi & Hero Chapters) Spoiler Review

It’s been a while since the first time I talked about Yuki Yuna is a Hero. The basic takeaway was that it was very much a Magical Girl show that existed in the shadow of Madoka Magica in terms of its world and story structure, but that carved an admirable niche for itself, in large part with good use of lighter elements and slice of life to counterpoint the magical darkness of existence in the setting.

Apparently, Yuki Yuna did pretty well for herself, because that show ended up being the start of a fairly significant franchise, which returned to anime in the form of a second season split between two half-season long stories: the Washio Sumi Chapter, which tells the tragic tale of the first run that Mimori Togo (then known as Sumi Washio) and Sonoko Nogi had as heroes; and the Hero Chapter, which functions as a direct sequel to Season 1 of Yuki Yuna.

Read More…Read More…

Friendship Through Superior Firepower – Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Spoiler Review

When it comes to Magical Girl franchises, Nanoha is one of the big ones. Possibly not on the uppermost tier (it’s hard to say anything stands on the same level as Sailor Moon), but it’s both quite large, in terms of the amount of content that’s part of the franchise, and highly recognizable. Despite this, I didn’t address Nanoha in my first Magical Girl May block of reviews, and while I’m no longer focusing the month of May on historical retrospectives of the genre, I did feel somewhat remiss in that I didn’t say anything about Nanoha.

Well, if the best time to tackle this thing was the first time around, the second-best time is right now, so that’s what we’ll be doing, looking at the very first season of Lyrical Nanoha, the one that started it all for the sprawling Nanoha franchise.

Read More…Read More…

Cardcaptor Sakura in Fate/Stay Night’s Skin – Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya Season 1 Spoiler Review

So, this is a show about a grade school girl who discovers a magic staff and then learns that she has to harness the power of magic in order to gather a set of mystical cards that are currently incarnated as magical beings and causing trouble around her city. She has a crush on a high school boy known to her, her closest magical contact is kind of a self-important jerk sometimes, and she ends up competing for the cards with a rival her age who is initially overly serious but with whom she eventually becomes good friends.

Oddly enough, this girl is not Sakura Kinomoto. It’s Illyasviel von Einzbern, at least in the Magical Girl spinoff of the Fate franchise, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya.

Read More…Read More…

In the Panties of Madness – Koi Koi 7 Spoiler Review

So, stop me when this sounds crazy: The show opens with two girls on a bicycle being pursued by a pair of attack helicopters, only for the biker girl to take out the helicopters (which are also operated by teen girls) with a rocket launcher and a lightsaber…

For the sake of this joke, and because I want to believe that it would be true, I’m going to imagine you’ve stopped me there. Welcome to Koi Koi 7. Haruhi have mercy on your soul.

Read More…Read More…