The first check box in my personal definition of a magical girl says the following: "The piece of media must be about a girl, or a group of girls, who use magic or advanced technology so far out of the realm of reality it mimics magic to overcome their problems, go on adventures, and/or defeat evil."The reason I include technology is because there are several series that explicitly don't use magic as defined by the narrative - they use science. Show's like Cutie Honey, Corrector Yui, Vividred Operation are all undeniably Magical Girl shows- by peer consensus, their respective marketing, and the framing of their tropes within their narratives. But what's a magical girl show without magic? Well, exactly like a magical girl show with magic. Corrector Yui (1999) Proto-Magical GirlsEarly in on genre history there wasn't a particular unified name. The genre was still being developed and with that come a slew of media trying to find itself and marketing executives trying to figure out where it all fits. The earliest term was coined by Toei (Sailor Moon, Precure) in the 70s. They had created the majority of early Magical Girl series and finally decided to dub them Toei's Majokko Series (東映魔女っ子シリーズ) - which they still use to this day to market the shows from that time. Majokko (魔女っ子) literally meant "little witch" and was used primarily as a means of how to market this new genre of media. It allowed Toei to control the narrative and the marketing around their new soon to be franchise characters. There's lots of examples of early Majokko shows being confused as to who the demographic would wind up being. Sure, Sally the Witch was inspired by the American sitcom BeWitched, which was a hit with younger girls in Japan, but that didn't mean Toei had to limit it's market just yet. There were bouts of weird fan service in shows like Creamy Mami and Majokko Megu-chan which seemed to be aimed at male audience. While the over all tone, marketing, and time slot of the shows were aimed at young girls there was just enough fan service present to try to draw in male viewers as well. Majokko Megu-Chan (1974) Why the crash course in Magical Girl's history identity crisis? To talk about one of the founders of the tech/magical girl blend: Cutie Honey. Honey Flash!As detailed in the 1993 book Majokko Daizenshuu, Cutie Honey (1973) was originally conceived as a standard mahou shoujo show without nudity or violence but the proposed time slot was lost to another cyborg, Miracle Girl Limit-chan. Cutie Honey was modified to appeal to a preteen male audience instead. The exact timeslot Honey was supposed to be in was every Monday at 7:00 P.M. on NET TV (Asahi TV). This timeslot previously aired all Mahou Shoujo series since the first, Sally The Witch. Cutie Honey was moved to Majuu Kaijin Daihenshin!!! which had previously aired Micord S and Devilman (also by Go Nagai). Though elements suited for different demographics were added in, Cutie Honey maintained many of the magical girl elements. Most notably her multi-outfit transformation. Cutie Honey (1973) This was before transformations became a cornerstone of the Mahou Shoujo genre making Honey one of the early pioneers of the now very common trope. The problem? Toei didn't consider Cutie Honey a Mahou Shoujo yet. "The first anime aired in 1973 and is considered a magical girl series in retrospect."Retrospect being the key word in that sentence. Remember, Majokko was only coined recently and it was coined in part for marketing reasons. Cutie Honey no longer fit the nebulous market of young girl Majokko was aimed towered, she now fell into a different category of hero that was aimed toward boys. She was labeled a Henshin Hero (Transforming Hero), which is a subtrope Magical Girl will eventually fall into but isn't considered currently. Most proto-magical girls/Mojokko either didn't transform or their powers weren't contingent on their transformation. Rather, if they used magic to transform the power itself was not stored within the alter-ego, which is a key component of being defined as a Henshin Hero according to most sources of the definition. "The Henshin Hero is a variation or subtrope of the Superhero in which super-powered characters only have their special powers some of the time. A Henshin Hero has distinct normal and powered "forms," and needs to actively switch between the two."- TV Tropes So when was Honey finally invited to sit at the Magical Girl table? When the need for merchandising arose of course. What is this? A Crossover episode?Merchandising is a huge part of the Animation Industry as a whole, but specifically the Anime Industry and why it's able to see any sort of success at all. Nunokawa Yuji (involved in the production of Pastel Yumi, Magical Emi, and Fancy Lala) in Patrick W. Galbraith’s The Moe Manifesto points out the link between Magical Girl shows and merchandising, and to paraphrase Saito Kumiko in her essay “Magic, “Shōjo”, and Metamorphosis,” most magical girl shows are essentially 25-minute toy commercials. Merchandising is everything. So when it came time to aggerate their magical heroines into one marketable collection Toei wasn't going to let something like "technically, they don't use magic" stop them- especially then they realized girls like Cutie Honey too. In 1999 Toei partnered with Toys for Bob and Bandai to make a PlayStation game featuring their Majokko Collection called Little Witching Mischiefs (魔女っ子 大作戦, Majokko Daisakusen). It compiled the protagonists from seven Majokko series specifically under the title 'Majokko' and not just Shoujo. These series were:
Though other series will eventually be included in Toei's Mojokko line, this games marks one of the first commercial instances of Cutie Honey being included as an official Majokko. Miracle Girl Limit-chan will be included with the rest of the Mojokko girls in CD releases that same year. From this point onward Toei has considered both Honey and Limit-Chan Majokko, and by extension Magical Girls. Popular consensus followed and just like that the Magical Girl genre was not exclusive to magic. Modern MagicAs personal computers and access to the internet became more prevalent, series started reflecting it as a popular interest. Shows like Digimon (1999) and Serial Experiments Lain (1999) start airing and with Sailor Moon off the air a flood of Magical Girls started hitting the market all vying to be the next big thing. Between Sailor Moon's end in 1997 and the next Mahou Shoujo giant Pretty Cure's start in 2004, 34 unique Magical Girl titles dropped. Among those 34 titles were Corrector Yui (1999) and Cyberteam in Akihabara (1998) - two magical girl shows that capitalized on the computer craze. Cyberteam in Akihabara (1998) Like Cutie Honey, Cyberteam in Akihabara was not marketed as a Magical Girl show. Unlike Cutie Honey it never got the proper acknowledgement from it's production studio. It was simply adopted as a Mahou shoujo in retrospect by fans of the genre. Corrector Yui was marketed as a Magical Girl from the get go. It had the right time slot, the right merchandizing, the right tropes. The studio, production company, and audiences all agreed: this was a Magical Girl show even though it did not include any actual magic. Yui wasn't a reincarnated princess or given magical item by a cute talking animal. Instead, she's transported physically into the internet after being chosen by Software to become a Corrector. It's crazy, fantastical, and seems like magic only it isn't ever called magic. Within the context of the show it's all technology even though it's not something that could ever really happen. This is why my expanded Magical Girl definition includes technology; because if something is magic in every way but a name it should be included within the genre. If popular consensus deems something a Magical Girl show even though it technically has zero real magic, it absolutely is a Magical Girl show. “Magic's just science that we don't understand yet.”- Arthur C. Clarke The FutureThe blending of magic and tech is more likely to happen with the aesthetics of the genre than anything else. Even if something looks futuristic it can still be called magic, the opposite can and does apply within the genre. Explaining something as tech doesn't automatically make is less magical from the perspective of the viewer and those involved- that was even a running joke in Vividred Operation (2013). Calling a wand a remote doesn't make it less of a wand, and making a science based Magical Girl doesn't make her any less magic. Symphogear (2011)
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