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Do western Magical Girl comics exist?

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Inflammable Slinky

Member
I was browsing through a comic/manga slapfight here and one of the points brought up was the difference of depth of genres between the two, which made me wonder about this thread's topic. I'm not exactly well informed on the finer details of western comic output (by which I mean completely ignorant) but I figure there must be something if from nothing else but influence by manga. For purposes of this, I'd totally include anything produced in Europe as well as the Americas. (I have high hopes for France!)

I guess if I had to define magical girl it would be basically a cast of prepubescent/early adolescent girls, and, well, a transformation of some kind.

e: Actually Sailor Moon itself had a way wider age range than that, forget the age requirement (too much precure on the mind I guess)
 
P

PSqueak

Banned
Winx club and WITCH come to mind.

None of them are american, but you said Western. I believe one is italian and one is french, don't remember which one is which.

Winx even had a Gatchaman parody in addition to being a magical girl show.
 
F

Ferrio

Banned
She-ra count?

Dz8bqJ0.jpg
Click to expand...

edit:
Oh comic, nm. Though wouldn't be surprised if there's comics.
 
I

Inflammable Slinky

Member
PSqueak said:
Winx club and WITCH come to mind.

None of them are american, but you said Western. I believe one is italian and one is french, don't remember which one is which.

Winx even had a Gatchaman parody in addition to being a magical girl show.
Click to expand...

Before googling, I bet they're french

....

Italy? Really? Ok wasnt expecting that. WITCH actually looks kind of interesting, any good or am I being suckered?

e:
johnsmith said:
Mary Marvel maybe? Never actually read anything with her in it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Marvel
Click to expand...

I think just a Captain Marvel style transformation falls a bit short. Plus, reading up, it sounds like the plots of this work focus on main DC continuity, so I'd say it falls under Superheros.
 
P

PSqueak

Banned
Inflammable Slinky said:
Before googling, I bet they're french

....

Italy? Really? Ok wasnt expecting that. WITCH actually looks kind of interesting, any good or am I being suckered?
Click to expand...

I was never too big into either, but most people basically tell me that WITCH is an actual decent magical girl comic/cartoon (Much more serious and with better serialization). Winx on the other hand felt reactionary to WITCH (they even make a few quips at WITCH in the cartoon), so it's always portrayed as the weaker of the two, other than that both have widely different plots.
 
P

PSqueak

Banned
Inflammable Slinky said:
Nah just animation is perfectly fine to include as well. I....actually have no idea where the hell He-man/She-ra/Thundercats type settings fall in terms of genre. Sci-fi fantasy?
Click to expand...

He-Man and She-Ra were set in a sci-fi fantasy world, but i think both shows hit all the notes of a magical girl show.

Also, before i forget again, for modern examples there is Miraculous Lady Bug from france, right now the CGI cartoon is out but they were supposed to also make a straight up anime one.
 
T

Teriyaki Blues

Member
More recently, My Little Pony: FiM? The movies definitely have a Magical Girl aspect. I haven't gotten caught up on the last two seasons of the show, so no idea if they do transformations there outside of one-offs or permanent upgrades.

Webcomics wise, there's Agents of the Realm. http://www.agentsoftherealm.com
 
S

SigmasonicX

Member
Inflammable Slinky said:
WITCH actually looks kind of interesting, any good or am I being suckered?
Click to expand...

I've only watched the cartoon, but the comic was a worldwide best seller, to my understanding. The first season of the cartoon is terrible, but the second season was done by Greg Weisman (Gargoyles, Spectacular Spider-Man, etc.), and it's pretty great.

As for other comics, there's a Star vs. the Forces of Evil comic, but it only just started and it's a TV show spinoff.

EDIT:
Teriyaki Blues said:
More recently, My Little Pony: FiM? The movies definitely have a Magical Girl aspect. I haven't gotten caught up on the last two seasons of the show, so no idea if they do transformations there outside of one-offs or permanent upgrades.
Click to expand...
Hmm, I guess that sort of counts, especially since it has so many comics. The ponies only transform sometimes, not even necessarily every season, but there are similarities with magic girl series. Equestria Girls is heavier on the magical girl stuff, especially in the latest movie, and that doesn't appear in the comics much.
 
P

PSqueak

Banned
Teriyaki Blues said:
More recently, My Little Pony: FiM? The movies definitely have a Magical Girl aspect. I haven't gotten caught up on the last two seasons of the show, so no idea if they do transformations there outside of one-offs or permanent upgrades.
Click to expand...

Equestria Girls is basically a magical girl series waiting to happen, i do not understand at all why hasbro hasn't gone fully with that.
 
I

Inflammable Slinky

Member
GentlemanCrow said:
Mona the vampire?
Click to expand...

That seems more Rugrats-esque than anything.

It also occurs to me that you could call Steven Universe Magical Girls....ish? I haven't seen the show myself but it seems like a good deal of it is a straight-up homage to Sailor Moon.

Teriyaki Blues said:
Webcomics wise, there's Agents of the Realm. http://www.agentsoftherealm.com
Click to expand...

Oh I have zero doubt there's a shitload of magical girl stuff in webcomics.

e:
TwEE-N-Toast said:
Yeah sure probably.

Alan Moore's Promethea comes to mind.
Click to expand...

Haha, oh Alan Moore you card. Now I have to read it I suppose.
 
S

SigmasonicX

Member
Inflammable Slinky said:
It also occurs to me that you could call Steven Universe Magical Girls....ish? I haven't seen the show myself but it seems like a good deal of it is a straight-up homage to Sailor Moon.
Click to expand...

Oh right, that slipped my mind. It even has comics. The series shifts focus from Steven to the other characters more as it goes on, but the comics are still focused on Steven from my understanding.
 
I

Inflammable Slinky

Member
SigmasonicX said:
Oh right, that slipped my mind. It even has comics. The series shifts focus from Steven to the other characters more as it goes on, but the comics are still focused on Steven from my understanding.
Click to expand...

wait steven is the magical girl in it?

...well I suppose there's no reason boys can't be magical girls as well.
 
S

Shig

Strap on your hooker ...
I mean, most female superheroes are basically magical girls. Sailor Moon takes a lot of cues from Wonder Woman.
 
T

TetraxShards

Member
lightskintwin said:
I agree, it's very light and inoffensive.
Click to expand...

It didn't help that I saw Madoka for the first time around the same time, where it went:

Episode 1 Intro: "This is garbage."
Episode 1 end: "This is kinda nice."
Episode 3: "NO NO NO NO WTF IS HAPPENING?"
*queues up rest of the series*
 
T

Toxi

Banned
Inflammable Slinky said:
It also occurs to me that you could call Steven Universe Magical Girls....ish? I haven't seen the show myself but it seems like a good deal of it is a straight-up homage to Sailor Moon.
Click to expand...
As someone who hasn't watched much magical girl anime but has watched Steven Universe... Kinda no? Biggest difference I can tell is that the Gems are more motherly/sisterly figures to Steven, rather than being the main characters.

The show makes a lot of references to anime in general. One of the episodes, Garnet's Universe, is a parody of Dragonball Z.
 
M

MagnaderAlpha

Member
Inflammable Slinky said:
Nah just animation is perfectly fine to include as well. I....actually have no idea where the hell He-man/She-ra/Thundercats type settings fall in terms of genre. Sci-fi fantasy?
Click to expand...

Pretty much Sci-fi Fantasy, which was all the rage in the 70s and 80s(pretty much died out in the 90s and the west has had a heavy separation of both sci-fi and medieval fantasy since then). You basically had medieval worlds on alien planets, knights and fantasy kingdoms with robots and hovercrafts, laser guns and broadswords. No doubt a big inspiration for MUCH Japanese fantasy from the 80s and onward(as well as being a setting that still inspires many JRPGs).
 
T

thefro

Member
Jem (and the Holograms)? 80s show is probably the earliest example I can think of that both has a transformation (it's holograms from a supercomputer, but pretty much the same as magic powers) and a group of female leads.
 
S

SigmasonicX

Member
Tizoc said:
Weeeelll there was this awesome amethyst princess of gem world shorts on DC Nation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZTMv_zBNzQ

Don't try reading the Nu 52 DC Comic series though.
Click to expand...

Reminded of this post by Verelios' post. I thought the shorts were adorable, and it was a shame it didn't become a full series.

And yeah, it's absolutely insane how much DC screwed over Amethyst once they decided it should be incorporated into the main DC universe. I remember there was an article outlining this point by point, but I can't recall it, so look at Wikipedia instead. Basically, child friendly comic that decided to go dark and gritty.
 
M

marzlapin

Member
thefro said:
Jem (and the Holograms)? 80s show is probably the earliest example I can think of that both has a transformation (it's holograms from a supercomputer, but pretty much the same as magic powers) and a group of female leads.
Click to expand...

Came here to post this. Jem is 100% a western magical girl show.
 
M

mattwhite924

Member
There's Star Vs the Forces of Evil

tumblr_oe85apjFkE1rrl7leo1_540.jpg


I haven't read the comic, but if it's anything like the show then it's pretty good. It's kind of a deconstruction of magical girl stuff. Gets surprisingly dark too.
 
G

Grenouille

Member
I...have actually written and drawn my own indie comic which fits that criteria I think. Sadly I have not translated it to english so I guess I can't help you.
 
S

SigmasonicX

Member
^ The Japanese spinoff was actually a straight-up magical girl series.

Fat4all said:
aww crap, the comics don't have cool transformation stuff? but that shit's like the best part of the movies...
Click to expand...

There have only been two Equestria Girls comics: the first My Little Pony annual special (2013), which is a prequel; and the first MLP holiday special (2014), which is about cyberbullying. No room for magic battles there.
 
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