2014-12-21, 11:08
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Portugal
Age: 36
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About Mahou Shoujo Warrior kind of stories...
I'm not sure if this is the place to post this but I'll try it anyway...
Given what you may know about the "Top-Tier" Mahou Shoujo Warrior kind of stories, if you could devise an original story that could make the best use of the best elements of each of those kinds of stories, how'd you do it? Last edited by RDNexus; 2015-01-23 at 12:32. |
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2014-12-21, 12:45
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(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
 Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2006
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It's a deep genre. I'm not sure how you'd be able to create something unique without deconstructing the deeply imbedded tropes....which has already been done. By its very nature, the genre is defined by its tropes. If you simply combined the "best stuff" into one story, you'd probably just end up with a chaotic mess.
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2014-12-21, 15:26
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Sekiroad-Idols Sing Twice
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Blooming Blue Rose
Age: 33
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You'd have trouble combining Nanoha and Madoka into a serious, non-parody story 'cause the former is about we shall overcome with friendship beamu! while the latter is all welcome to cosmic slavery and your inevitable demise! :3
Sol-chan is talking about an in-joke you're better off not understanding.
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2014-12-21, 16:21
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別にいいけど
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: forever lost inside a logic error
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Well that's a very deep question.
Let's try to catch what is the best element of each of the popular series. I haven't seen them all though especially the most recent ones that are targeted to a young population. I'll start with Creamy Mami. While the theme of the magical girl who can transform was already done before, Creamy Mami set certain standards that consolidated the Mahou Shoujo genre as we know it today. The major idea to consider is that this story offers a fantasy in which an average little girl can become someone special, beautiful, elegant and so on. Now unlike Akko-chan, Yu always transforms into the same person, leading her to live a double life. Another important element of Creamy Mami is the introduction of the "cute mascot" which gives magical powers to the MC and works as a sort of guide to the new unknown fantastical world. This has become a staple of every Mahou Shoujo work henceforth. Sailor Moon This is another turning point of the genre. Takeuchi basically combined the Mahou Shoujo genre with the more adventurous elements of sentai works. She had already somewhat explored the idea with "Sailor V", and then she further consolidated it by adding a color themed group of "warriors". Starting from Sailor Moon, Mahou Shoujo are no longer just using magic as a mean to have wonderful experiences or to solve mundane problems, they fight enemies that threaten the world (or something equally important) like superheroes. Their magic isn't just about rainbows and fireworks, they have actual damaging attacks, even though the dramatic aspect is heavily toned down (no blood). Adding a group of magical girls rather than a single heroine acting alone greatly improved the complexity of the genre. You have a lot more interactions to play with, and several situations to explore within the same story. The watchers also have several models to identify with or to fan over. Almost every successful aspect introduced by Creamy Mami is preserved with the exception of the bodily transformation of the heroine. The Sailor Warriors assume different identities and roles but are substantially the same persons and they look exactly the same. The age of the characters has also increased which indicates a different targeted audience, from very young girls to teenagers. Nanoha Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is a very odd case. It starts as a very classic Mahou Shoujo, from before Sailor Moon. A single very young girl encounters a magical creature which gives her magical powers. Her first adventures aren't even involving fights. Then it changes, and the story focuses on her fight against another Mahou Shoujo like her who happens to fight for the "wrong side". The idea isn't even per se particularly original, but it has never been explored in depth. The dramatic interaction between the two characters became the center of the story and the most successful element of the anime. Nanoha burdens you with a heavy emotional load, the enemy has a heart and a very wounded heart as that, you feel compassion for her and her plight and that makes the whole war between her and the MC very dramatic. This concept was pushed even further with the second series. Here several new characters are introduced and we get even more heart-wrenching situations behind the "evil side" actions. Nanoha is also notable for introducing a very sci-fi approach to the "magical" aspect. The weapons and accessories have a distinctive mecha feeling. On top of that we have well defined organizations with complex structures, which add a layer of political dynamics to the story. Nanoha is actually a spin-off from an eroge series and it starts as a typical story aimed at prepubescent girls! But as I said the story then develops in something a lot more complex. Nanoha can be seen as the first true Mahou Shoujo aimed at a male demographic. The complete lack of a male love interest for the MC is a clear indicator (which is generally always present in Mahou Shoujo aimed at girls). It is instead replaced with strong friendship with other female characters which in later seasons transforms into Yuri undertones. My-Hime To consider My-Hime a Mahou Shoujo is a very huge stretch, but I still think that it deserves to be mentioned, because it first introduced several elements that have then influenced Mahou Shoujo aimed at a male demographic henceforth. My-Hime actually predates Nanoha by a few months. Here we start with a very strong "shounen manga" approach, very adventurous and aggressive, but with girls as protagonists. What is notable in My-Hime is the concept that "magical powers come with a very high price". The tones are therefore very dramatic and heart-wrenching. Violence and blood are no longer hidden or minimized, Yuri themes are shown without restraints. Madoka Magika If Nanoha started the trend toward the dramatic and My-Hime broke the taboo of violence and blood, with Madoka we reach the bottom. Madoka plays a lot with the contrast between the cute characters and cute themes typical of Mahou Shoujo and bleak, dark themes. Because of that it has a sort of trollish introduction which increases the shock value once the dark themes finally set in. Now My-Hime already dealt with "death" and the concept of "magical powers come with a very high price", but Madoka is the first true Mahou Shoujo that incorporates them and it definitely deals with them in a lot more dramatic way, even though it isn't really very graphic. Spoiler for Madoka Ending:
Now note that Nanoha is a sort of branching point. If you take that path you go toward Mahou Shoujo aimed at adult males which progress toward Madoka. Else you go through Tokyo Mew Mew and Pretty Cure which are aimed at young girls. Perhaps you can mix stuff from the two branches but the result will be on one side or another, you can't have both. However you mentioned Nanoha and Madoka so I guess this is where you want to head to. To sum it up, what can be mixed up together of all these successful ideas: -A group of Middle school or High school cute female protagonists -Depiction of the every day life of said main characters. -A cute (or creepy cute) mascot character which acts as the dispenser of magical powers and guide. -Magical transformation of the main characters with flashy cute costumes -An initial representation of the "magical self" as something fantastic and wonderful, like a dream becoming reality. -Magical powers and magical attacks which can potentially cause huge damages. -Enemies with a heart and with dramatic backstories (best if they are cute young girls too) -Sci-fi mecha elements (magic itself can have some kind of techno-babble explanation) -Organizations related to the magical powers and complex political\social dynamics -Yuri undertones -Magic comes with a huge price -Death, blood, violence and cruelty, played in contrast with cute characters and themes. -Plot twists. The good guys are evil guys. The evil guys are good guys. There is no good or evil. Everyone is evil! I don't care anymore, who's next?! -Climax culminating into the MC's ascension to godhood or a godlike status. -Something that should never be forgotten: strong focus on the characters' emotions.
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2014-12-21, 17:20
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Portugal
Age: 36
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Good going, Jan-Poo, it was the kind of thing I was asking about with this topic.
Also, what about Mai-Otome? It doesn't fit in the Mahou Shoujo category? I sure did love the series, more so than the original material. Now, if someone else have other ideas, so they could be discussed, come forward please. Also... If you could use those ideas to create a story capable of rivaling or overcoming the most popular ones, how'd you do it? |
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2014-12-21, 17:40
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別にいいけど
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: forever lost inside a logic error
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I've made a list of plot elements but those alone do not make a good story. A good execution is what matters in the end and mixing several different successful elements doesn't mean that the result will be even more successful, they don't have an additive property. For example Madoka was extremely successful but it really doesn't have what made Nanoha so popular, and Nanoha didn't care about the "group of magical girls" part that distinguished Sailor Moon. If you want to make the new milestone in the Mahou Shoujo genre it is probably better to think about something new to add, rather than mixing together all the old stuff, although it's not entirely a bad idea to do the latter, it could be interesting. In the end the only thing that I can say is something vague that can work for any kind of work that involves storytelling. Create something that can touch the emotions of people, that can make them think, smile, cry, rage and that can generally make them feel something, your message, your soul.
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2014-12-21, 17:45
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Senior Member
 Author
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Age: 42
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I'm going to give this some thought, probably over a week or so, before I make a comprehensive reply to it.
But I'll say this right now - I think that the anime world is now truly ripe for there to be a Gurren Lagann response to Madoka Magica's NGE. In other words, the situation is now perfect for a Mahou Shoujo version of what Gurren Lagann accomplished in the mecha genre. With that in mind, I'd counter and/or subvert many, if not most, of the ideas that Jan-Poo brought up. For example, the main magical girl familiar would seem to be another Kyubey... until it's revealed that he actually has very good, and immediately concerning reasons for tricking teenage girls into a magical girl role that has definite downsides to it. Putting such intricate specific asides... Quote:
I'd also base my lead character a fair bit off of Love Live!'s Honoka Kousaka, and maybe put an added idol spin on the show given how that's big right now in the anime world.
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2014-12-22, 05:15
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Join Date: Dec 2014
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The first mahou shoujo that I saw is Saint Tail. It is about a girl phantom thief who is also a magician and a boy detective who is trying to catch her. She always give him notice about her next caper. Her mother is a phantom thief while her father is a magician. In the end she was "captured" by him. Aside from that it is sailormoon. I out grew mahou shoujo genre.
To add there is also super boink I think. It is about a girl that transform into a chibi pig that have to perform a series of quest/good deeds in order to become real mahou shoujo or else she would be in that permanently. . |
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2014-12-22, 05:58
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Join Date: Dec 2014
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2014-12-22, 08:56
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Black Steel Knight
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Indonesia
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 . Many consider that Cutey Honey truly is the prototype of the magical girl genre, kinda like the original MS Gundam is the prototype of Real-Robot genre.Quote:
Out of many things it did, the show does take a jab at mahou-shoujo's skimpy outfits and rationalize it by making Senketsu (the talking clothes of the heroine) tries to cover the heroine's body as little as possible to reduce the risk of it taking too much of the heroine's blood while giving her superhuman power.
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Last edited by Obelisk ze Tormentor; 2014-12-22 at 09:07. |
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2014-12-22, 09:18
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別にいいけど
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: forever lost inside a logic error
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That is the Mahou Shoujo prototype. Then you have Mahoutsukai Sally (1966) which is the first Mahou Shoujo anime. Go Nagai was most likely influenced by those and reinterpreted them according to his own style. Quote:
As for the rest it must be said that the fact that "Mahou Shoujo" have been crossed with "Sentai" makes it difficult to distinguish the two and the confines become very blurred, but I would sai that "Ore Twintail ni Narimasu" is leaning a lot more toward the Sentai genre. I haven't seen Symphogear so I can't say.
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