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Anime Girls Bring Down the Patriarchy!
I was a reluctant convert to Puella Magi Madoka Magica, known affectionally to fans by just the last two words. You can easily see from pictures of the heroines that it’s what’s called a “magical girl” series, a sub-genre of “shoujo” (anime aimed squarely at female teens, of which I’m neither). These kind of granular categories of anime are well-established in Japan, but Westerners might recognize them just from familiar series like Magic Knight Rayearth, Pretty Cure, Cardcaptor Sakura, and of course, Sailor Moon.
I’m admittedly no expert on the genre, as most of the series haven’t really appealed to me. Aside from the Studio Ghibli films that every self-respecting cinephile should watch, the bread and butter of my anime enjoyment usually falls into the sub-genre apparently called “seinen”, which according to the guide from Reel Rundown “ targets male viewers around the age range of 18–40. The shows here are depicted in a more mature light and often include more explicit content such as gore, sex, and violence. More cerebral narratives are present as well.” Wow. I thought I was a beautiful and unique snowflake, but they’ve got me pegged.
“…Oh, and incidentally, it‘s all a metaphor for the nightlife Japanese Hostess Club industry….”
The basic setup of the show is not much different than the various MacGuffins that give other series a reason to empower their young heroines with magical abilities. Here, two middle school friends (Sakura and Madoka) find out they have the potential to become magical girls when they stumble into a “labyrinth” created by a “witch”, something most people would not be able to see. There, they encounter veteran magical girl Mami Tomoe, who is there to defeat the witch. Mami (which is pronounced like “mommy” in Japanese) fittingly takes the two girls under her wing so that they can see what becoming a magical girl is all about and decide if that’s truly what they want to do. Fun, frivolous stuff, no?
