魔法少女mahou shoujo
Quick definition:Magical girl is a genre of anime and manga about a girl, or a group of girls, who gain magical powers, usually transforming into a costumed form to fight evil or help others.
Meaning
In a magical girl story, an ordinary girl receives a magical item or a magical companion and gains the power to transform. She is typically a schoolgirl who keeps her abilities secret and balances everyday life with her duties. The transformation, in which her outfit changes in a burst of light, is a signature moment.
The genre has two broad styles. Classic stories are gentle and focus on friendship, kindness and small adventures, with the heroine using magic to solve everyday problems. Fighting-team stories, sometimes called bishoujo senshi, meaning beautiful girl warriors, send groups of heroines against monsters. More recent series offer darker versions that question the genre's themes.
Several elements recur, including mascot companions, magical wands, wardrobe changes and teams with colour-coded costumes. The genre is aimed at girls, but fans of every age and gender enjoy it.
Origin:Mahou shoujo is Japanese for magical girl, joining mahou, meaning magic, with shoujo, meaning girl. The genre took shape in Japanese television in the 1960s, when early series featured witches and girls with magic powers, and it grew with later series that added transformation scenes and team-based fighting.
Example:Sailor Moon follows a clumsy schoolgirl who discovers she is a warrior with moon powers, transforms in a flash of light and teams up with other girls to protect the world. Puella Magi Madoka Magica offers a much darker reimagining of the idea. Together they show how widely the genre's tone can vary.
Did you know?The transformation scene is usually a short animated sequence that is reused in every episode, which saved studios time while giving fans a signature spectacle. Toy companies also sold wands and compacts so children could act out the transformations at home.
