Magical girl, or mahou shoujo, anime is a much-beloved genre that’s, well, magical. The transformations, the outfits, the vanquishing of whatever evil dares show its face this week with the power of friendship and inner strength; the variety of gimmicks are just as endless as they are charming. From its early black-and-white television days in 1966, with Sally the Witch considered the first in the genre to modern audiences still Gushing Over Magical Girls, the love for the genre remains just as strong as its girl power.
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Even with such a wholesome, adorable genre, the magical girl fandom can have its own heated contentions. What makes a magical girl? Why is Sally the Witch considered a magical girl but other anime featuring witches aren’t? Why are magical girl transformations competing with the screams in Dragon Ball on how long they can be drawn out? We send a special shout-out to the YouTube channel doreimani for her insight into some of these heated magical girl questions. Regardless of the subjectivity surrounding the genre, if an anime features a girl who’s magical, we’re going to reveal what the best ones are.
Sailor Moon
One day, when Usagi Tsukino, a klutzy, crybaby below-average student, saves a cat from danger, her world is turned on its head. As it turns out, the crescent-marked cat Luna actually appeared in order to inform Usagi that she has a certain destiny: to become Sailor Moon, one of the planetary guardians of Earth. Transforming with her magical brooch to transform, she must protect the earth by defeating the evil monsters sent by the Dark Kingdom’s Queen Beryl and find the lost princess of the Moon Kingdom, the other Sailor Guardians, and the Legendary Silver Crystal.
Sailor Moon, or Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon / Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, is arguably the most iconic magical girl anime. The franchise as a whole consists of: the 1991-1997 18-volume manga created by Naoko Takeuchi and published by Kodansha; the original 1992-1997 Toei Animation 4 seasons (each having approximately 40 episodes) and 3 films; and the 2014 reboot Sailor Moon Crystal that aims to be a more faithful adaptation of the original manga. With its iconic characters, monster-of-the-week tropes, and dreamy (accidental) pink hue, Sailor Moon has become a timeless, beloved magical girl franchise.
Sailor Moon is available for streaming on Hulu, Tubi, and Pluto TV.
Princess Tutu
Ahiru, albeit a bit clumsy, is sweet, gentle, and a duck. Using an egg-shaped pendant granted to her by a mysterious, sadistic man known as Drosselmeyer, she’s able to transform into a human ballerina, Princess Tutu. With the power of dance to heal peoples’ hearts, Ahiru collects lost shards of her storybook prince’s, Mytho’s (aka Siegfried’s), heart after he had shattered it in order to seal an evil raven away for all eternity. Little do the tragic characters know, Drosselmeyer has more of a role in these stories than they realize.
Inspired by The Ugly Duckling and Swan Lake, Princess Tutu stemmed from creator Itō Ikuko’s lifelong love of classical music. With her previous prominent role in the creation of Sailor Moon, Itō Ikuko, having teamed up with magical girl genre dignitary Junichi Sato as director, made for a legendary duo that strove to great lengths to make this anime happen. Created by HAL Film Maker, Princess Tutu consists of two seasons, season 1 having 13 episodes and season 2 having 24.
Princess Tutu is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
Magical Doremi
Elementary school student Doremi Harukaze, with her family constantly bickering and her crush having feelings for someone else, feels as though she can’t catch a break with her bad luck. But little does she know that her life is about to change when she discovers that the owner of the House of Magic shop, Majo Rika, is an actual witch. Being found out as a witch by humans places a curse on Majo Rika, and she’s transformed into a frog, forcing her to make Doremi her witch apprentice so she can return to her original form. Unfortunately, Doremi isn’t too lucky with magic, either. Along with her fellow witch apprentice friends, Hazuki and Aiko, Doremi must learn enough magic to pass the witch exams and repay her debt to Majo Rika.
Created by Tōdō Izumi producers of Toei Animation in 1999, the original Magical Doremi series spans four seasons, each being about 50 episodes, along with three additional OVA/ONA series in 2004, 2019, and 2020. While many anime feature either middle or high-school-aged main characters, Magical Doremi gives a fun spin by featuring elementary school-aged kids — perfect for the magical girl-obsessed parent who wants to introduce the enchanting genre to their aspiring apprentice otaku offspring.
Pretty Cure
Although Nagisa Misumi, a star lacrosse player, and Honoka Yukishiro, the quiet “Queen of Intelligence”, may seem like average middle school students, they both have secret roles: Cure Black and Cure White of Pretty Cure, “emissaries of light.” With the assistance of fairies Mipple and Mepple, they fight against the evil Dotsuku Zone (aka Dark Zone) that invaded the Garden of Light and is gunning for the Garden of Rainbows next. Together, they must find the seven Prism Stones and restore the Prism Hopish in order to stop the parallel world filled with evil monsters ruled by Evil King from taking over.
Also created by Tōdō Izumi producers of Toei Animation in 2004, each of the Pretty Cure, or PreCure, series within the franchise surrounds the narrative of the Pretty Cure magical girls fighting against evil. While the general premise may sound fairly vague, the series boasts 22 seasons comprised of about 50 episodes each, 20 main series films, and nearly 1000 ongoing episodes total — definitely nothing to sneeze at if you’re looking for a magical girl series to binge. Although many magical girl animes tend to lay the color saturation on thick, Pretty Cure turns that dial up a few notches as though Lisa Frank was given free rein over its color palette.
Pretty Cure is available for streaming on Crunchyroll and Tubi TV.
Tokyo Mew Mew
Ichigo Momomiya is a normal junior high student on a date with her crush Masaya Aoyama. But when the date ends with her passing out and dreaming that a cat had entered her body, she begins exhibiting some strange, feline-like behaviors the next day. When Masaya is attacked by a monster, Ichigo, upon receiving a pendant from a mysterious boy, transforms into a magical girl with cat ears and tail, Mew Ichigo, and is able to save Masaya. Afterward, the strange boy, Ryou Shirogane, and fellow researcher, Keiichiro Akasaka, approach and bring her to their headquarters to reveal that they had injected her with Iriomote cat DNA to fight aliens. But she’s not alone in her endeavor — Ichigo must find the four other Mew Mews to save the world from the invading aliens.
Adapted from the 7-volume manga written by Reiko Yoshida, illustrated by Mia Ikumi, and published by Kodansha in 2000, studio Pierrot premiered the Tokyo Mew Mew anime in 2002. The original series consisted of 52 episodes spanning 2 seasons while the English 4Kids dub, under the name Mew Mew Power, had 26 episodes with, unsurprisingly, many major changes. In 2022, a reboot series, Tokyo Mew Mew New, had been announced with a second season premiering the following year. Although the unscrupulous method of injecting a middle-schooler with cat DNA would definitely violate human rights, if aliens attack earth, the only way to save the world would be to create a magical cat girl, right?
[RELATED: Tokyo Mew Mew Reboot is Returning for Season 2]
Cardcaptor Sakura
Sakura Kinomoto, a 10-year-old fourth-grade student who lives in Tomoeda, one day stumbles upon an odd book that, little does she know, has its own magical secrets. The book, titled the “Clow”, contains magical Clow Cards. But after a magical gust of wind scatters them, the Beast of the Seal, Keroberos (aka Kero), awakens. Kero informs her that the Clow Cards, having been created by the sorcerer Clow Reed, have dangerous powers that can activate on their own, which is why they were sealed away. Appointing her as Cardcaptor, Kero grants Sakura the Sealed key and helps guide her in her task to capture all the Clow Cards back.
The 1998 studio Madhouse Cardcaptor Sakura anime, adapted from the 12-volume CLAMP manga published by Kodansha in 1996, consists of 70 episodes spanning three seasons. In 1999, it was awarded the Animage Grand Prix award for Best Anime. In the world of magical girl anime, Cardcaptor Sakura has so much to give — a wide variety of magical outfit transformations, the iconic collectible cards McGuffin that each has distinct abilities from elements to sentient creatures, and a broad range of magical tools and spells.
Cardcaptor Sakura is available for streaming on Crunchyroll and Tubi TV.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
When junior high school student Madoka Kaname and her friend Sayaka Miki happen upon the cat-like magical creature Kyuubey, the contract it offers of being able to grant them each a wish in exchange for becoming magical girls to fight witches sounds too good to be true. Homura Akemi, a transfer student who turns out to be one of said magical girls, tries warning them that it is. But Mami Tomoe, an upperclassman who’s also a magical girl, offers to allow Madoka and Sayaka to accompany her on a witch hunt so they can decide for themselves. In battling the surreal evil creatures, Madoka and Sayaka soon learn that the idea of becoming magical girls isn’t as it seems.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica, or simply Madoka Magica, may be a magical girl anime, but, with its subversion to the genre and darker themes challenging conventions, it isn’t for the faint of heart. Created by Magica Quartet (the collective names of Akiyuki Shinbo, Gen Urobuchi, Ume Aoki, and studio Shaft,) Madoka Magica premiered in 2011 with 12 episodes. Following the original series, some additional films and series followed: a 2012 double feature film set, movies Part 1 – Beginnings & Part 2 – Eternal retold the original story; Rebellion in 2013 continuing the story and introducing creatures called Nightmares; Magia Record: …Side Story in 2020 is, well, a side story series based off the mobile game; and coming Winter 2025 is the highly anticipated overarching resolution Walpurgisnacht: Rising.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is available for streaming on Hulu and Crunchyroll.
Magical Princess Minky Momo
Fenarinarsa, the land of dreams, once a kingdom on Earth, has drifted away just as humanity’s belief in dreams did. And so, the kingdom’s princess, Minky Momo, is sent by her father, the king, to restore peoples’ dreams. After becoming the adopted daughter of a childless couple on Earth, Minky Momo, with her power to transform into an adult and accompanied by animal companions, sets out to restore the belief of dreams in the world.
Under the studio Ashi Productions, Magical Princess Minky Momo had a run of 63 episodes between 1982 and 1983. The series was created by Takeshi Shudo who was also the chief writer of Pokemon, creating both Lugia and Team Rocket’s iconic motto, and is known for his witty dialogue. Minky Momo has the reputation of being the father of the Truck-kun trope in anime as, spoiler alert, at one point in the series, Minky Momo gets run over by a truck.
Magical Princess Minky Momo is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.
The Demon Girl Next Door
When weak and kind high school student Yuuko Yoshida wakes up with with demon horns and a tail after dreaming of a mysterious ancestor, her mother reveals that their family is descended from the Dark Clan who were banished by the magical girls of the Light Clan to live in powerlessness and poverty. Now that Yuuko has awakened her demon ancestry, she might just be able to break her family’s curse. But doing so requires her to pour the blood of a magical girl over her ancestor’s Demon God Statue. Although Yuuko is determined to defeat local magical girl Momo Chiyoda, the two actually become good friends, Momo shortening her demon alias “Shadow Mistress Yuuko” to Shamiko.
Adapted from Izumo Itō’s 6-volume manga, The Demon Girl Next Door anime series created by studio J.C. Staff in 2019 consists of two 12-episode seasons. This anime puts the magical girl trope on its head by having the enemy of a magical girl as the protagonist. With more of a slice-of-life pacing and as a refreshing inversion of the genre, The Demon Girl Next Door is a very sweet look at what the magical girl and evil enemy can accomplish when upholding friendship in the face of ancestral disputes.
The Demon Girl Next Door is available for streaming on HiDive.
Magical Girl Ore
15-year-old Saki Uno, a member of the unpopular idol duo Magical Twins with her friend Sakuyo Mikage, wants to get close to her crush, Mohiro, Sakuyo’s brother. She may just get her wish when her mother introduces her to a yakuza-looking brutish man who tried forcing his way into their home and claims to be a Magical Girl mascot, Kokoro-chan. As Saki learns that her mother used to fight demons as a Magical Girl herself, Kokoro-chan says he’s seeking to recruit a replacement. Hesitant at first, Saki accepts when Kokoro-chan urges that Mohiro is a target for demons. Though her confession to Mohiro transforms her into a Magical Girl with Love Power, her transformative form isn’t what she expected. Regardless, Saki must team up with Sakuyo to protect Mohiro from the fluffy, buff demon squirrels.
Admittedly more of a parody of the magical girl genre, Saki actually transforms into a buff man in a frilly dress. With her magical “Ore” form being a constant cause of embarrassment for her, her situation becomes further complicated when both her crush and best friend become attracted to it. Magical Girl Ore is a 12-episode series created by Studio Pierrot+ (now renamed Studio Signpost) in 2018. It was adapted from its 2012 Fusion Product 2-volume manga counterpart created by Icchokusen Mōkon.
Magical Girl Ore is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.
Who’s your favorite iconic magical girl? Let us know in the comments if you have a favorite we missed!
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