When you become a Magical Girl you're often instantly gifted with enhanced physical prowess. You can run further, jump higher, punch harder. In Precure, it's even become a first episode trope that the girls are amazed by their new abilities to the point of comedic worry. The idea of magic granting enhanced physical performance is the core reasoning behind the joke in Magical Girl Ore.
If these enhanced physical traits aren't granted sometimes the characters are already predisposed to it. Cutie Honey and Miracle Limit-Chan are robots and there is no shortage of girls born as witches or magical princesses. The reasoning as to why Magical Girls can do what they do usually ends at that, explained away in a mythos of magic. It makes sense! There's nothing wrong with that, there isn't need for anything further, but it's intriguing when the narrative delves deeper and connects real world talent with Magical Girl performance. In Sailor Moon, Makoto's real life fighting talents translate flawlessly in Sailor Jupiter's combat style and Rei's shrine maiden influences gives her an extra edge as Sailor Mars. Several Precure series sometimes have training episodes dedicated to the girls improving their Magical Girl abilities in their civilian lives. But my personal favorite example of this underused idea is Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne.
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She's a blond princess who doesn't know she's the princess of a lost magical kingdom. She's being raised on Earth with a new family with no knowledge of a former, more magical life. Suddenly, on her 13th birthday she finds out she has a magical destiny to defeat the evil force that destroyed her home world. She's granted magical powers, a cool animal friend, and some friends to help her fight. Sailor Moon? Nope, Amethyst Princess of Gemworld DC Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld (1985) | Paris Cullins
What's a Magical Girl without the magic?
Cutie Honey? Vividred Operation? Yes! But also Saint Tail. The definition I use to define the shows I watch and talk about stipulates that advanced technology is perfectly at home in magical girl shows- so long as the tech used is so far out of the realm of reality it mimics magic. Meaning shows like Cutie Honey and Miracle Shoujo Limit-chan are secure in their rolls as magical girls. But what happens when a magical girl doesn't have any actual magic? |
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