Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: What is a magical girl?
Magical girl(Japanese:魔法 少女,Hepburn:mahō shōjo) is a subgenre of Japanese fantasy anime and manga which features girls with magical powers or who use magic. Although the genre has origins in Japan, it has been used as a motif outside Japan in Western works such as Winx Club, among others.
After 2003, magical girl anime marketed to male audiences such as Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Magical Girl Raising Project, Kill la Kill and Puella Magi Madoka Magica became a prolific trend alongside the traditional female-oriented works. The magical girl genre earned renewed popularity in the 2010s with the advent of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, whose mature themes and darker approach earned acclaim from viewers and critics outside its target audience.[7]
To date, there have been three anime television series produced by Seven Arcs. The first series, "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha", aired in Japan between October and December 2004. The second series, "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's", aired between October and December 2005. The third series, "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS", aired between April and September 2007. The first two series were licensed in North America by Geneon and distributed by Funimation Entertainment. A theatrical retelling of the first series, "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st", was released in theaters on January 23, 2010, with an adaptation of the second series, "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 2nd A's", released on July 14, 2012. The third and fourth movies, "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection" and "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Detonation", released in 2017 and 2018, are based on an original story. "Reflection" was released on July 22, 2017 while "Detonation" will be released on October 19, 2018. An anime television adaptation of the "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid" manga series aired between April and June 2015, and was produced by A-1 Pictures. In 2016, a new original anime was released, "ViVid Strike!", once again animated by Seven Arcs, which focuses on new original characters, Fuka and Rinne.
Magical girls are unfortunate girls who are chosen through Magical Girl Sites. The managers of the sites give them weapons, known as . The usage of these sticks could shorten their lifespan. Initially, the magical girls are created to fight among each other and collect negative energies with their stick, in order to survive "Tempest". The more magical sticks they used, the more negative energies collected. These magical girls would have physical changes while using their stick, such as hair colour change, emblems appear on their eyes, lifespan emblem on their skin, and blood flowing out of their body part.
When a dangerous race of beasts known as the Disas attacked, spirits from another world formed an alliance with Earth and granted certain girls the power to become magical girls and fight against them. Three years after the war against the Disas, one of the magical girls, Asuka Otori, is trying to return to living a normal life. However, Disas Bears reappear from an unknown source, leading Asuka to come out of retirement and join a squadron of magical girls to fight this new threat.
Hearing the Witch returning, the Goose-Girl hides the crown left behind by the King's Son. But the Witch figures out what has happened, and casts another magic spell to prevent the Goose-Girl's escape. They hear the offstage voice of the Fiddler, and the Witch drags the Goose-Girl inside.
"Lalabel" (sometimes romanized as "Lalabelle") would be the last magical girl anime created by Toei Animation until the 1988 remake of "Himitsu no Akko-chan". Toei producers believed that girls in the target demographic for series like "Lalabel" demanded romantic adventures more than magical girl shows, and thus the series that followed in Lalabel's time slot was the non-magical-girl series "Hello! Sandybell", which featured many of the same staff. In the meantime, other studios, particularly Studio Pierrot, would assume the magical girl mantle that Toei had abandoned.
"Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Innocent" (2012-2014) is a spin-off manga series set in a universe parallel to the main franchise, where the main characters are ordinary girls who battle each other in a magical card game called "Brave Duel". A follow-up sequel manga, "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Innocents" (2014-2016), featuring younger Subaru and Teana began publication after the first spin-off ended.
Along with anime and manga, live-action magical girl series were produced as a female counterpart to tokusatsu series aimed at young boys, such as Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, and Ultraman; however, interest in the genre declined in the early 1990s due to competing toy sales with Sailor Moon and other magical girl anime.[8] Tokusatsu magical girl series were revived with the Girls × Heroine! series, beginning with Idol × Warrior Miracle Tunes! in 2017 and the sequel, Magic × Warrior Magi Majo Pures! in 2018.[8]
Sasami Kawai is a cute young Japanese girl who is asked by magical queen-to-be Tsunami of Juraihelm to become "Magical Girl Pretty Sammy", a champion of justice. She is constantly harassed by Pixy Misa, an evil, but friendly magical girl created by a rival candidate for queen of the magical world, Ramia. Sasami is unaware that Pixy Misa is actually her best friend, Misao Amano, who herself is unaware of the transformation forced on her via hypnosis by Ramia's brother, Rumiya.
, also known as "Magical Girl Tickle" or "Magical Girl Chickle", is a 1970s magical girl manga and anime by Go Nagai. Unlike Nagai's earlier (and more popular) "Cutie Honey", "Majokko Tickle" is closer to the more traditional mold of magical girl anime such as "Mahoutsukai Sally", and unlike Nagai's other, more popular works, was created for an audience of pre-teen girls.
Bogstad says that besides the books being a story about a girl-turned-rusalka, it is about "humaniz[ing] the experience of magic". Each characters' experience with magic is subjective as they never get to see the complete picture, and can only speculate as to what they think the "presence of magic" is causing. Bogstad calls the story "a kind of science of magics" because of the way in which the characters explore of this phenomenon.
A popular social game known as the Magical Girl Raising Project has the ability to grant players a 1-in-10,000 chance of becoming a real-life magical girl. Each of the magical girls possess unique abilities and earn Magical Candies by protecting people and performing good deeds. However, at some point, the administration has decided that sixteen magical girls in a certain city is too many, announcing they will cut the number in half by having the magical girl with the fewest Magical Candies each week lose their powers. As the rules of the game become more twisted, the girls eventually find themselves dragged into a life-or-death battle against each other.
According to Sara Cleto and Erin Bah, the subversion of the magical girl genre "draw[s] attention to the question of narrative power"—particularly in the use of alternative timelines—as the characters fight for their survival. Production I.G's Katsuyuki Motohiro watched "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" after hearing opinions that it exceeded "Neon Genesis Evangelion". Upon viewing the series, he was "amazed that there was a person who could write such a work" and began analyzing Urobuchi's other works; he was motivated to ask Urobuchi to write the crime thriller "Psycho-Pass". In issue 103 of "Neo", journalist Matt Kamen wrote, "With its ... daring approach to a dated genre, "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" essentially does for magical girls what "Neon Genesis Evangelion" did for giant robots". Writing for "Kotaku", critic Richard Eisenbeis hailed the series as "one of the best anime" and wrote, "It deconstructs the magical girl genre and builds an emotional narrative filled with memorable characters". Joshua Greenberg of "The Daily Bruin" described it as "a creepy, deconstructionist take on the [magical girl] genre."
Mahōtsukai Chappy (1972) and Majokko Megu-chan (1974–1975) popularized the term "majokko" (little witch or witch girl) as a name for the genre. Megu-chan has been noted for its portrayal of multiple magical girls and the friendship between girls. Due to the women's lib movement in Japan, magical girls began displaying a "certain coquettishness" in the 1970s.[4]
Some series are notable for portraying "magical boys" as protagonists instead of the traditional supporting roles. Cute High Earth Defense Club Love! is a 2015 television magical boy anime series created by Kurari Umatani and produced by Diomedéa, which parodies tropes and cliches common to magical girl anime.[9] Magical Girl Ore features magical girls who transform into manly-looking forms. In Is This a Zombie?, a zombie is resurrected by a necromancer after being killed by a serial killer, inadvertently gains "magical girl" powers, and is forced to become a "magical boy" (and thereby crossdress) in the process.[10] In Shugo Chara!, released in 2006, half of the series' main characters are males that possess the same powers as their female counterparts.
Magical Girl Site has characters present in the story that are referred to as "site admins". They appeared in monochrome-coloured and has a mask-like face. Initially they give the girls their magical sticks in order for them to kill each other in order to bring on the "tempest" that will end humanity. When the girls find out their plans though, they rebel against them causing the site admins to turn on the magical girls. The actions of the site admins are instructed by an omnipotent being they referred to as The King. While there are approximately eighteen site admins, only three have details known about them. It is hinted that the site admins might be the fallen magical girls that used up their lifespans.
"Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha GOD Sound Stage M" is a drama CD released on 2012. It features characters from the video game "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny" meeting the versions of Nanoha and Fate from "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st".
The Bored Witch - She is an overweight 700-year-old witch who is always bored, despite having great magical powers. She serves as a day sitter for the triplets, but when they start acting disorderly, she uses her magic to send the girls into stories. No matter what, she never uses magic to directly hinder the girls in their adventures, although tends to join forces with every story's antagonist. Despite her role of antagonist, she is not an evil character, and always keeps her word to return the girls to their world.
Manga and anime historians regard the Princess Knight manga, released in 1953, as the prototype for the magical girl genre.[1]:77 Himitsu no Akko-chan, serialized nine years later (1962) in Ribon, is generally accepted to be the earliest magical girl manga.[2]:8 Sally the Witch, adapted from the manga of the same name, is regarded by historians as the first magical girl anime.[1]:78[3] Sally the Witch was inspired by the Japanese dub of the television series Bewitched.[4]
Magical Girl Apocalypse, known in Japan as , is a Japanese action-horror magical girl "shōnen" manga series written and illustrated by Kentarō Satō. It began publication in July 2012 in the manga magazine "Weekly Shōnen Champion", published by Akita Shoten, and has been compiled into sixteen "tankōbon" volumes . The series is published in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. A spin-off series called "Magical Girl Site" was later made that shares the same themes.
The following is a list of episodes for the "Magical Girls Lyrical Nanoha" anime franchise, which spawned from the "Triangle Heart" eroge series. The series follows a girl named Nanoha Takamachi who one day becomes a magical girl, facing off against various other magical foes throughout the series.
Along with its dancers, the Crazy Horse has also been a popular venue for many other artists, including magicians, jugglers, and mimes. Bernardin explained that he loved magic because it corresponded with his vision: "[Magic] is a dream. There is no show that is more dreamlike than a magic show. And what we do with the girls is magic, too, because they aren't as beautiful as you see them onstage. It's the magic of lights and costumes. These are my dreams and fascinations that I put onstage."
In "Puella Magi Madoka Magica", there are certain creatures that can grant a chosen girl any wish they may desire. In exchange for that wish, however, that girl must become a magical girl who must fight against witches, creatures born from despair that are responsible for accidents, disease, and suicide. In the city of Mitakihara, a girl named Madoka Kaname is approached by a creature named Kyubey with the offer of becoming a magical girl. Meanwhile, another magical girl named Homura Akemi seeks to do everything in her power to stop Madoka from becoming one. Madoka soon learns that the life of a magical girl is not the dreamlike fantasy she imagined and is instead filled with tragedy and despair.
With her 2016 single "Blk Girl Soldier" and its accompanying video, singer, songwriter, and poet Jamila Woods centers Black Girl Magic. Woods draws on the popular understanding of Black Girl Magic as a quality of power and perseverance in Black women and girls that people "don't understand," but she further enriches the concept by centering the historic contributions of Black female revolutionaries such as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Ella Baker, Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, and Assata Shakur. With footage of a contemporary #SayHerName protest, Woods draws a line from abolitionism through the civil rights movement and Black feminism to modern day political activism, linking these movements as expressions of Black Girl Magic. With lyrics such as "she scares the gov'ment," and the inclusion of a quote from Black Liberation Army member Shakur to bookend the song, Woods posits that Black Girl Magic is not only about a celebration of Black women, but also their radical and uncompromising fight against oppression. Speaking about the song's video, Woods states "The goal of the ‘Blk Girl Soldier’ video is to lift up the black women throughout history and today who inspire me and who are doing brilliant artistic and activist work. Knowing my history and what my people have survived before me has made me stronger.” In 2018, "NPR" ranked "Blk Girl Soldier" as the #144 greatest song by a female or nonbinary artist in the 21st century, writing that the song is "tinged with sadness about injustices committed ‘last century, last week,’ but infused with the beautiful power of those who fought and keep fighting."