Comment on [Discussion] What anime became the blueprint for future works?
HetareKing@piefed.social 6 days ago
Himitsu no Akko-chan. Basically the first magical girl. Well, anime-wise Mahoutsukai Sally predates it, but the Akko-chan manga is older than Sally’s (or Sunny’s, rather). It also introduced the idea that the basic power of magical girls is transforming (mind you, not yet into a combat form), which is the standard for magical girls to this day. Even Sailor Moon, which made a more superhero-like transformation the norm (though Cutie Honey did it earlier), had the Disguise Pen that worked similarly to Akko-chan’s mirror. The current Precure series, Star Detective Precure, has something similar too. And the also currently-running LuluttoLilly features a more free-form kind of magic, but even there it’s mostly used to transform into older girls.
Unique_Emerald_Sol_I@ani.social 5 days ago
I’ve been waiting for people to mention the first few magical girls. Basically all my knowledge on the subject comes from Kenny Lauderdale videos, I would have suggested Minky Momo or maybe Creamy Mami. I’m not actually sure how wide-reaching their influence is.
HetareKing@piefed.social 1 day ago
Creamy Mami is a pretty important show. It was the first idol anime and it created a link between idols and magical girls, which became its own subgenre (think Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, Pretty Rhythm, Aikatsu). It’s also the first entry in the Pierrot Magical Girl series. Incidentally, LuluttoLilly, which I mentioned in my previous comment, is actually a revival of that series, and it takes more than a few ques from Creamy Mami.
Minky Momo is a very prominent show and so was influential in the sense that a generation grew up with it, but in terms of its magical girl elements, it doesn’t really do anything that wasn’t already pretty well established; she’s from a magical land but goes to Earth and starts living with a normal human family, she can transform into an adult with various occupations, she has talking animal friends. I think maybe its storytelling may have been a bigger deal than it looks like today? Most of it is pretty lighthearted and silly, but it also has more serious stories with some pretty dark themes, something you would also see in later shows like Ojamajo Doremi. It may have also sent a message that there’s a male audience for this kind of show, because it was pretty popular among boys, too.