Magical Girls

What does Sup Forums think about the genre? I'm just getting into it and it seems kind of polarized in between super dark like pic related or super bright like Cure. Are there any shows that middle in between edgy and cute?

If I were to be honest, I am more of a fan of the aesthetic of the magical girl, rather than the guts of it. I haven't watched too many, aside from some happy memories of Sailor Moon, Madoka, and Genei later, but I always had a soft spot for its look and feel. I don't know why, maybe I just like the fluff and the air of heroic innocence it has.

>super bright
>Precure
A character kills her own sister and watches her own father get disintegrated, not to mention loses her fairy and has to use literal fairy shit to transform in one of the series. There's always a dark edge to mahou shoujo regardless of the series.

I wish there were magical cakes

Yeah, the good ones.

I love the sexy outfits and transformation sequences.

>Are there any shows that middle in between edgy and cute?
Yes, I'm sure if you lurked more you'd find them.

Edgy grimdark buzzword magical girl shows are like cocaine for me, I can't get enough

...

It's kinda dying for the past decade.

I wonder if anybody's watched this series right here. I remember watching and enjoying it years back, but I rarely if ever see it mentioned. Maybe it doesn't count as magical girl? I definitely got the magical girl vibe from it, though.

Depends on what you want.

I always recommend Nanoha though.

I liked it, even if it was rough and Fortune girl coming back was silly.
And Moon girl turning in to a werewolf
And the bad guy's grand plan being getting in to Taiyo's skirt.

If you can enjoy fanservice and silliness watch Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, it switches from comedy to dark moments all the fucking time

Get in line!

I'm going to be a magical girl.

My absolute #1 favorite magical girl show of all time. I'm a huge magical girl fan so that should mean something.

Some of my all time favorites.
Pretear
Sailor Moon S
Wedding Peach
Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne
Full Moon o Sagashite
Pretty Cure, specifically my favorites are Yes Precure 5, Go Princess Precure, Dokidoki Precure, and Heartcatch though I skipped Happiness Charge, Smile, and everything after Princess, my least favorite was Suite

The bits I've seen of Wedding Peach have been pretty nice, refreshing even. I'd like to see more, but I haven't been able to find a good torrent yet.

I only ran in to Full Moon when watching a guy's review series on it, but it seems really nice as well. Has that nice and distinct shoujo feel that I don't get from many modern anime. Makes me wonder what even happened to shoujo manga/anime.

Was going to reply with this, also Go! Princess Precure has some darker moments and thrilling fight scenes, so much so that the little kids watching it said it was "too scary" and now the precure battles will never be as exciting again.

I understand that you haven't seen it a long time but how the fuck would you have any doubts about it being a mahou shojo? In fact, its the elusive mahou shojo reverse harem that should've sky rocketed it to fame because it had all the elements that should've drawn in all kinds of female audiences. You can ship the dudes together for fujoshi. You can ship them with the girl for heterofags. You can self insert as the girl and have your own personal harem. They could've had the fujo, hetero, otome, yuri and mahou shojo demographics if they'd played their cards right but clearly the world wasn't ready for such a big hitter just yet.

I used to own the boxset and I do agree its highly underrated. It was a solid show that would be nice to see a competent reboot for.

I was thinking about Madoka earlier today and I remembered how much I wish we had a cute/easy going mahou shoujo anime with Ume character designs.
I love this one unconditionally and always will.

>Magical Girls
But user those are liches, abominations of a magic most foul.

I want Magical Girl who is actually a boy.

This is honestly my problem with Illya. First season was good but then they couldn't fucking decide if it wants to be comedic magical girl stuff or dark Fate shit. After the first series, Shirou's arc is the second best part of Illya for me because it decided to go full Fate instead of flipflopping like the rest of 3rei.

It can be fun if you're into it. For me as time passes, it seems harder to care about the brighter stuff where magical girls are mostly fun and good. The last one I really liked was Madoka, where magical girls are basically the worst. I guess I'm a cynical edge lord at this point.

I like the aesthetic qualities and a lot of the genre hallmarks but I hate Monster of the Week.