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Meanderings
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Written by maehara
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Monday, 30 January 2006 17:00 |
..and definitely no "ugly" - not from a genre where cute & fluffy isn't just normal, but a necessary requirement. I've always had a soft spot for magical girl shows - I'm secure enough in my manliness that watching girls in fluffy outfights fighting to protect the world with love, justice & magical wands doesn't worry me. After watching a few different mahou shoujo series recently, though, it's occurred to me the genre is split into two camps - and that I'm only really interested in one of them. And for those of you who have spotted this already: it's quite possible that I'm a little slow on the uptake.
First, there's the good. Pretty Cure and Kagihime are good recent examples, and old favourites Sailor Moon and Pretty Sammy fit the bill as well. Here you have lead characters who are fighting for a defined, good purpose, whether it's saving the world or getting themselves released from a cycle of fighting. The action scenes give you something to get your teeth into, you can cheer for the heroines as you can understand why they're fighting, and there are identifiable "bad guys" that you can grow to both love and hate, depending on how the series progresses. This type of show suckers me in almost every time, particularly if the lead characters' personality begins to develop quickly.
Then there's the not-so-good, to my tastes at least. These tend to have little or no conflict & a bit too much of an emphasis on morals (Futago Hime), or perhaps the girls' aims seem to be more self-serving than anything else (Sugar Sugar Rune). Shows in this category tend to be aimed generally at younger kids, which partly explains the problem, and are also generally far too cute, fluffy and sugary for their own good. For me, there needs to be something to balance out all that sweetness, and this kind of show simply doesn't provide that.
There are exceptions to every rule, of course. Lyrical Nanoha ticks all the boxes for the sort of series I would like but somehow manages to miss the mark, while I love Cosmic Baton Girl Comet-san, so this isn't a precise science yet, but now I've got something else to think about when checking out new shows...
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