magical girl
English
Noun
magical girl (plural magical girls)
- In Japanese anime and manga, a young girl with superhuman abilities who must fight evil.
- 2013, Christopher Hart, Magical Characters, Watson-Guptill Publications (2013), →ISBN, page 17:
- The magical girl starts out as a typical schoolgirl. Her transformation—via a glamorous costume, and amplified by special powers—gives her a new identity.
- 2014, Lien Fan Shen, "The Dark, Twisted Magical Girls: Shōjo Heroines in Puella Magi Madoka Magica", in Heroines of Film and Television: Portrayals in Popular Culture (eds. Norma Jones, Maja Bajac-Carter, & Bob Batchelor), Rowman & Littlefield (2014), →ISBN, page 183:
- Contrary to conventional magical girl anime, in which protagonists happily accept their superpower, shōjo heroines are reluctant to become Magical Girls in Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
- 2015, Deborah Shamoon, "The Superflat Space of Japanese Anime", Asian Cinema and the Use of Space: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (eds. Lilian Chee & Edna Lim), Routledge (2015), →ISBN, page 98:
- The magical girl genre was originally aimed at girls: series like Sailor Moon were first serialized in shōjo manga (girls' comics) magazines and contained many traits common to that genre.
- 2013, Christopher Hart, Magical Characters, Watson-Guptill Publications (2013), →ISBN, page 17: