#other things have done it but how utena does it is so interesting and funny

[crayaks]

i aim to gaslight my audience about my story's themes and fake foreshadow events as much as the utena op does

[tithe2hell]

an amusing thing to me about the Yuri vs yaoi forever war fandom struggle discourse is that for the f/f fans mad about yaoi popularity and making lots of extremely funny (to me) Song-of-Roland-esque posts that make it sound like "we are going to WAR against the evil man-centering fujos terrorizing and colonizing our yuriship spaces!!!" Is that I never see the loudest trumpeters actually go to "war" or do any work organizing or strategizing to "win" their cause.

The only tactic they have is trying to do a "win hearts and minds by telling yaoi shippers they should feel Bad for Centering Men and being "dick-obsessed" (hmmm!) and "interrogate your kinks"-ass rhetoric (double hmmm!!!) which ok, let's take that at face value....that's a purely INTERNAL process. You're asking someone to sit down and Correct Their Thoughts and Soul, with hopefully ending towards the End Product of "After they've been Corrected, they will make More Content I Like, and the Big Number or AO3 stat will go up and surpass the Content I don't Like"

Which ok fine...but very hilariously ineffective, a very passive activism. Vague steps to take (be aware!!) It doesn't even really make or give people any steps to reach the supposed goal of Surpassing in Number for the Sake of the Number. The loudest ppl who seem to freak out whenever the stats number is down, I never see working to build connections of support and love for the people who make the stuff you want.

Like even framing as a matter of representation for real life women and wlw, we've had discussions for ages re: media industry how the conditions of ppl who create behind the scenes so that they have freedom of expression and control of their stories is essential to having "good representation." Even if the marginalized ppl in general end up making stuff that is maybe "gross" or "trashy" or Sexual in a Way You don't Like*, that support of the actual real creators and enthusiasts is what's important.

For fujos, I feel most of us are used to getting shit on so we don't really care what people say and will continue to toil in the posting mines make what we make, even if it's rare and gross so someone trying to simply make an Hearts and Minds "war" move is not very effective. We have our own work to do, the work (of play) is what makes things meaningful, bc if is done for its own sake. The best f/f fans and creators I've seen, the ones I see be lambasted for being "weird and gross" are the ones who are passionate and who commission and discuss and have relationships, don't need to bother with the Hearts and Mind because they are building castles and fortifications And making discoveries themselves, rather than worrying what other ppl think of them or if their ships or themselves are "approvable" or defined by a general public. The tactics that fujos use to boost and celebrate THEIR rarepairs etc are certainly not exclusive.

When I think Abt cool projects and esp stuff that has contributed to say, communities and celebration of media and creatives especially re: f/f fandom stuff, I think of stuff like Empty Movement and their massive decades-long archiving of utena materials, of people making zines and creative works around ships I wouldn't even consider until I see the cool ideas, or my friends who review and write and talk extensively about the novels and works they are reading both to reflect their tastes and raise interest. That builds foundations and connections between people . That is how you fight. That is how you wage your proper war...it does not have to be fruitless...

*I have maintained that if people REALLY wanted their numbers to go up they'd support the people making siscon and momdaughter stuff bc there's a sheer lack esp of the latter...a big part of yaoisms popularity is bc everyone loves Dadson, which imo is basically a very big fantasy even for heteros and pops up gratuitously in like every mainstream movie ever. Now that we are getting really mom generational trauma narratives it's time for momdaughter to shine. But unfortunately every time I check up on a false loud war trumpeter wondering where all the femslash is they're also recoiling with disgust about incest And agegap and other problematic tropes so like maybe they really don't care about the Number Going Up-just acceptability, and of things they personally can relate to? One can never know.

[arysthaeniru]

For the ask thing- Revolutionary Girl Utena- I saw you like it and I need more people to scream with lol

Yessss, Utena's a perfect media, haha!!!

Favourite Character

So difficult to decide! I think it has to be Anthy though. I love her, I love how vicious she is, I love how petty she is, and I love how funny she can be. I find myself always so excited by imagining the future, what Anthy's personality develops into when she leaves the garden.

Least Favourite Character

I mean. The correct answer is Akio, but actually, I think Ruka. Ruka is all of Akio's manipulation and lies, but he's stupid enough to actually lie to himself that the girl he tried to break for two episodes actually could fall in love with him. At least Akio never deludes himself into that.

5 Favourite Ships

Utena/Anthy - Duh. No notes, 10/10, liberatory lesbian love

Juri/Wakaba - I really like the idea of Juri finding real kindness and joy in Wakaba, and Wakaba finding somebody who thinks of her as her most special thing.

Juri/Anthy - Not as one of those ships that's cute and good, but one of those ships where they would be a destructively horrible trainwreck, but I find myself fascinated by it. My characterization of Juri is never good enough to do this, so the past three Yuletides, I've been trying to get my gifter to write me the year that Akio decided Juri would be the one who keeps Anthy as a Rose Bride? I think that would have been an unmitigated, fascinating disaster.

Saionji/Touga - Honestly, this one goes either way, in that I like the idea of them maybe leaving Ohtori themselves at one point, and learning how to have a non-toxic relationships to each other? But also, I LOVE the idea of them just stuck in Akio's nightmare play, getting worse and worse and being more and more horrible to each other.

Nanami/Freedom, get her out of there. Be free.

(bonus) Nanami/Kozue - Two things make me consider this intriguing pairing. One, the contrasted imagery they both have, where Kozue is the free bird, the wild animal snarling her way out of the cage, as Nanami as the cow, the domesticated. What does it mean for Nanami to encounter Kozue's philosophy? But also Nanami who drowns the kitten that draws Touga's attention, and Kozue as the one who saves the baby bird, even at her own expense. Something something, compassion, adoration, self-preservation. Fun contrasts! I feel like they would hate each other at first, but find something genuinely transformative in the other. Also they both love Miki.

Character I find most attractive

Juri. The long hair, the fencing, the way she can go both high-femme and pretty butch? Queen.

Character I would marry

Wakaba. I feel like she'd genuinely try to take care of me, and also I would fucking adore her. She's so cute. She's the sort of person you could hang out with for a really long time, and I value that in a person.

Character I Would Be Best Friends With

Tragically, probably Miki. Very similar interests, and as much as I would shake my head at the way he places the girls he likes on pedestals and then demonizes them if they ever tumble off that pedestal, he would also shake his head at my tendency to avoid all my problems like the plague.

(Canon OTP is obviously Utena/Anthy, and non canon is Nanami/Kozue.)

Pairing I Am Not a Fan Of

Obviously, all of the incest ones, but honestly, I'm pretty meh on Shiori/Juri. A fascinating dynamic when done correctly, but when people write stuff about them in the future where everything's fine and they don't have tension between them...IDK. I think it's important to me that even without the homophobic pressure of Ohtori trapping them both, that Juri has created this false image of Shiori in the same way that Miki does for Kozue, and that Juri doesn't really know Shiori very well, in the end, because of her inability to ever really recognize Shiori's jagged edges. I think that would haunt their relationships, even if they tried to be together, how much Juri doesn't actually see or understand Shiori's inner personality.

Most badass character

Anthy.

Character I feel the Writers Screwed Up

Mikage! While I LOVE the aesthetic and thematic focuses of the Black Rose Arc, I think they don't quite knock it out of the park with Mikage. I wish Mikage was a more interesting mirror to Utena, but his devotion to Mamiya just doesn't feel like it's in a strong conversation with Utena's relationship to Anthy, which I think was a missed opportunity! I would have loved to see more about Mikage's obliviousness, where he knows something is wrong but shrugs it off for one more day. Or I feel like pushing further into the idea of Mikage being a prodigy who is out of his depth as a parallel to Utena which doesn't get explored very much. Idk...after such an incredible slate of character episodes, I remember being pretty disappointed at the climax of Black Rose Arc!

Favourite Friendship

Miki&Nanami! I think they keep each other mostly in check! Miki can sometimes shame Nanami into not showing off her mean girl instincts, and Nanami's a lot more savvy and cunning than Miki is, which helps keep him away from self-loathing spirals, or being taken advantage of. They're fun together!

[enigmaincrimson]

Hm...

Considering how often she gets passed around, she's likely staying with one of her aunts. Said aunt is always working, so Evelyn has way too much free time to herself.

If the school had a magical girl club, Evelyn would be in it. Odds are that she'd probably connect with Hiiragi Utena first for that reason.

However, her interest in Magical girls is more... technical, like a scientist observing a wild animal and wondering how they work. She's definitely stalking the local magical girls and taking notes.

If someone were to visit her apartment, they'd find her room is full of drawings, models, and other things she made as references for her research. There's a clear assortment of detailed statuettes she made of various magical girls she's seen on display. Maybe a little too detailed.

While how she made such a thing is unclear (Although if the rumors about her family are true, it would explain things.), she mostly made AMP as a sort of ongoing project, both to mask her true nature, and allow her to build a working study.

Considering how AMP performs magical girl transformations, Magia Rouge might as well be an entirely different person. Although what she'd call herself while "untransformed" in that form is still WIP.

Magia Rouge's default appearance and uniform are based on the Tres Magia uniforms, but with intentional differences. Although you probably would have to have seen her a few times and be paying attention to notice. (Evelyn also has a few models of Magia Rouge in her room.)

I'm still debating what Magia Rouge's La Verita form looks like... even if Magia Rouge's design is based on the concept of aggressive camouflage.

While she usually prefers to aid civilians and fight any monsters that pop up and quickly leaves the seen once the job is done, any magical girl that intentionally crosses Magia Rouge's path would find she has something of an instinct to "test" anyone that catches her interest. Also, she can pretty much send back anything they can dish out at her.

If anyone was keeping track, they'd probably notice that Magia Rouge seems to be evolving... with her being more capable with every encounter... and in some cases... during an encounter. (To be fair, there's more going on, but that might be a long while before that comes up.)

She does have a sadistic streak, but it's more... analytical... She likes to push her opponents, seeing how far they are willing to go and what their potential might be. Of course, she can go wild if she's enjoying the looks of fear and panic as her target's world collapses all around them.

A detail that will likely come up rather quickly if they get to know her more personally... is that she's illusion blind. She can sense that something is supposed to be there, but well... Trans-Magia looks rather different to her than it would anyone else as the Recognition Inhibition doesn't do anything with her. Admittedly, considering what it's actually like living with that ability, she tends to keep that to herself.

As for why "Violagia" exists... There's a few reasons off the top of my head. One, she felt like she needed a mascot to be more like the other magical girls she's seen. Two, it masks who is really in charge by putting the blame on someone else. Three, it would be easier to recruit more potential people into her squad if they really thought her operation was like the other magical girl teams. Forth, it also works as a way to make the point to other factions that she's already been "recruited" among other reasons.

The transformation items spawned by AMP are diamond shaped, to compliment the Heart and Star shaped transformation items used by Tres Magia and Enormeeta.

Grey was picked out for Violagia because well... she wanted to leave some hints that she's a neutral party, but she personally feels like it looks more like a funny beige. (I haven't exactly settled on what the mascot interface looks like... outside of them not being white, black, and having diamond patterns where the hearts/stars would be)

If Evelyn did start recruiting for AMP, the magical girls running under the system would quickly overtake the territory lost from the Lord's Legion's magical girl hunts... as AMP users are much, much harder to kill. Like... they just kind of respawn if you kill them as it's not actually their real body.

But I'm going off topic here.

Knowing Evelyn, she'd likely befriend Utena Hiiragi first over a mutual interest in magical girls... she might even make her a few figurines as a present. If she meets the others in Utena's little group, it's probably through Utena.

Evelyn is definitely on both Vatz and Venalatia's social media accounts. She was probably stalking Venalatia hoping to collect some data on mascots when Utena was recruited. (She hadn't observed the recruitment process before and wasn't entirely sure if she wasn't seeing things, so Utena's misfortune was Evelyn's breakthrough. She'd likely apologize to her over not saying anything later.)

While she had been observing the Tres-Magia since she transferred to the school, she didn't get a legitimate confirmation that her observations were correct until Magia Baiser's debut. Also, it should be noted that she filmed the entire thing... but like everything else she does, she likely won't point that out unless she trusts them enough to share the info. (I mean, without proper evidence, even if she could see the truth, they might as well be cosplayers.)

Let's just say... the trio's sore butts the following school day kind of confirmed she wasn't seeing things. Although she'd keep that to herself until she feels like it. Admittedly, she was feeling like watching Tres Magia fight was getting kind of boring, so it was a fresh change.

Odds are that she might "adopt" Korisu later... I mean not actual adoption, more like Evelyn doesn't have any siblings of her own and they're more alike than you'd think.

To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if Kiwi and Evelyn don't get along well at first. Although I'm not entirely sure if it's because Magia Rouge will more than eagerly open fire if fired upon.

and... I've kind of ran out of steam.

[yellowocaballero]

ugh what you said about jon just helplessly missing deisha and despite being able to connect, still ultimately grieves alone forced me to think about this one book that said something like “grief is a room you enter alone” and I just ;_; something I love about your metas so much is that you rlly pick apart how it can be true that multiple things can be happening at once - he’s being understood, but he can’t be understood, he’s monstrous, but he’s human etc. basically I adore these essays and just reading how you build and present flaws in characters I think is genuinely making me a better writer

THANK YOU...I think we all grieve alone, just a little bit. With people, and maybe especially with more intangible things - when we move to another city or country, when we live alienated from our home cultures, when our bodies fail us, or when relationships fail. It’s inherently such a solitary thing.

And yeah, so often in life we’re feeling so many contradictory things!! Maybe even ALL THE TIME! I’ve loved and hated simultaneously, I’ve never wanted to see someone again and found myself constantly seeking out contact. You ever never want someone to text you, but you’re sad that they don’t text? I want to go back to my workplace but also I want to keep working from home forever. So it’s a real, legitimate feeling, I think.

But that’s also not why I write it that way. Stories inherently kind of have to work on both a literal and symbolic/metaphorical level. You said that you were interested in the writing bits, so I’ll get specific - I determine what happens in layers. Some things are the most essential aspects of the story, and everything else has to warp around that. Hope Etc is a very weird and bad example because a) I put no thought in this story and b) the nature of daemons is that they literalize the metaphorical. So basically every physical thing that Jon does is metaphorical for something. 

So what a story is ‘about’ is the most important thing, and this can change and shift throughout the story as you realize what keeps cropping up time again and again (which is kind of oxymoronic). I use monster vs human a lot for this specific fandom, because monsters can have whatever metaphorical significance you fucking want them to, but other stories such as hope vs desolation, optimism vs pessimism, wanting to die vs choosing to live, etc, work too. The second thing is tone - which determines the message of the story dramatically. What a story is ‘about’ can’t be pessimism when you have a light-hearted and comedic tone. Unless you’re getting REALLY creative. You can add a lot of additional themes to that, but a bunch of themes together make is what something is about. Also very important is that for me what something is ‘about’ includes genre. 

Then what’s kind of wrapped around that is the metaphor. Literal things happen, which have metaphorical meaning, which advance what a story is ‘about’. Not everything that happens is metaphorical - sometimes things have to happen to advance the plot - but things that happen need to advance something. Either plot, or a character arc, or they need to have metaphorical significance. In my opinion the most deft writing is when everything that happens has all three. 

I think over metaphor is character arc and character. When something happens in a story it has to advance the plot and advance the character’s arc. The character’s arc forms a trajectory that spells out the theme. A character arc for me frequently means the relationship between two characters, which often really really work to highlight theme. I think people push each other to change and grow a lot. If it’s a romantic relationship I push that ‘growth instigated by the other’ hard. Also, foils. I think the best romantic relationships are foils. I love foils. I always write foils. Just adore them, they’re so easy to write. Just make someone the opposite of someone else but give them the same theme. It’s great. This is also why I’m always saying that I don’t really sit down and ‘make characters’, characters just happen based on what needs to happen. I don’t decide anything about a character when I start out besides “haha exact opposite of canon character” or “haha amnesiac PI” or “haha roleswap”. And that’s coming from someone who rarely uses canon characterizations and who writes everybody as a thinly veiled OC...and maybe that’s why everybody kind of ends up a thinly veiled OC...

Over that is plot. Plot is what has to happen to make all of these other things happen. I can’t plot. I think I can’t plot because I’m too worried about these other things and I forget ‘oh yeah, Things Have To Happen’. Maybe there’s other people who plot first and then figure out these other things based on what happens in the plot? ....why...

So I kind of made that a gumball, layered thing, because that’s how I build the story. And I shouldn’t have, because these things all feed each other. What a story is ‘about’ is highly dictated by what you’ve decided the character arc to be - highly - and it creates a feedback loop as both of these things get changed and twisted and tangled during writing. A story never ends how I intended, because different things crop up. But there is a ‘priority list’ for me, and that’s kind of the layers - these characters have to act in X way because that’s one of the cornerstones I need to hit for the genre, so I have to have their character arcs match this. Characters can’t act in a certain way just because the plot makes them - granted, sometimes they do, but that means that you have to go back and tweak their character arc to match. You cannot have something metaphorically happen that goes completely against the theme, unless that has repercussions. Plot isn’t the story for me, the about is the story. None of this is hard and fast, and there is nothing that you can’t do, you just really have to view all of these things in a complex interplay that constantly affect each other.

I think of it like gears? They all work together and churn together to make the story work. But if you twist one gear, the others move too. You first imagine it this one way, but then you keep on tweaking and tweaking and tweaking, and then everything else has to change too, so then you’re like why did I even bother to outline, outlining is stupid, and also I have this funny joke so I have to go back and change everything, and...

Wow, maybe that’s why I’m so bad at planning shit..

My...goal? Is to make it so that Everything works on every level. You should be able to read a story completely literally and completely miss the metaphorical meaning and still vibe. But unfortunately the way it turns out for me sometimes is that the symbolism outweighs the literal. When I write absurdist/surrealist stuff it’s just me being lazy and not having to have things be literal, lol. What you get when something only works on a symbolic level and not on a literal level at all is Utena. And I’m writing trashy fanfic so I can’t do that. What normally happens in practice is that things happen literally for a bit, and then I’m like ‘oh I’m Sensing a Theme’ and then I start playing into the theme, and then things happen because it’s thematic. Plot is...plot should be more important to me...

And then of course there’s grounding all of this in human emotion and making sure there’s a climax (me, shaking hope etc: THERE’S NO FUCKING CLIMAX), and dealing with all of that stuff that makes it actually emotional and impactful instead of just abstract and dumb. 

I chose not to use examples for all of that because I wanted it to just be broad writing advice? I can kind of point out there examples of that line of thinking in my writing, and I probably can for Hope, Etc, but it would be a bad example - both because the NATURE of that story is that the literal is INHERENTLY a metaphor so you really cannot view anything in that story as literal, nothing in it is literal - also because I put no thought into it. 

Of course that’s not my process. That’s not my process at all. I don’t sit down and figure this shit out. I didn’t read any of that anywhere, it’s just me bullshitting, that entire thing was just me bullshitting relentlessly I am so fucking sorry. My process is that I joke about ideas with friends, I sit down at a computer and I kind of thump a keyboard for a few hours, I live my life and daydream stuff and kinda make little movies in my heads, I go home and slam the keyboard some more, halfway through I walk up to my beta and go “hey what’s the plot of this?” she helps me figure it out by giving me very bad ideas, I kind of slam my keyboard some more, and then it’s done. And then I kinda edit it a little maybe whatever and then I post it. 

There’s not a lot of thought involved. I really can’t stress enough how I don’t think about all of this when I write. I’m really brain empty. When I do these analyses what I’m doing is that I’m looking back over my story and then I’m like...Oh That’s What I Was Doing! Huh! Neat!

Haha that got long. I’m not a good writer. Thanks for the ask!

[gveret-fic]

Alright HtN final thoughts

Similarly to the last book, I’m overstimulated to all hell and back. Gideon is my favorite protagonist of all time, no question. The sheer endorphin rush I get reading her cracking jokes and being insufferable is just bonkers. I started this book with 2 spoilers, without which I might never have even started this book: 1) there was Gideon content in HtN, and 2) there was multiple Gideons content in HtN. On the first point, I’m more than satisfied; I’m currently buzzing with how ecstatic that was as a reading experience. On the second, Gideon 1.0 was a boring lump of dude lmao, the only interesting thing about him was his bodyswap poly relationship with Better Gideon’s mom, which, wow. What a 10,000 year old soap opera. So that was disappointing, but you know what, one Gideon is really enough.

The vast majority of this book was a miserable slog and it genuinely hurt to read to the point where I don’t know that I can recommend this experience to anyone who isn’t already a huge fan. Yeah, the payoff was massive and I was played like a perfect little fiddle, but I don’t approve of the tune. I think Muir could’ve cut out a good third of the book and at the very least 50% of the relentless torture she put Harrow through and it would have still been effective. I still have a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t have a problem with difficult or hurtful stories and I’m not trying to invoke any moralistic outrage here, but that wasn’t what I expected or frankly could have prepared for coming out of the (drastically tonally different) first book and I do believe it was excessive. It was blow after blow after blow to an isolated, terrified, pointedly disabled protagonist with no single moment of relief, comfort or connection until the fucking reveal and I don’t want it, thanks.

Okay that’s enough about that. Now the rest of it.

I really tried to care about the new characters, but no dice. God had his moments, but we haven’t really seen him do too much interesting shit. Ianthe was fucking excellent, though I really really didn’t want her to be. The rest were dead boring, I’m sorry. The blasphemous makeouts were their only redeeming moment. When we finally got some Palamedes and Cam, I could have cried. Wish we could have spent more time with them, but I have high hopes for the next book. Ortus, surprisingly, was awesome! I wish him a happy afterlife with his poetic legendary husband. Also he did nothing wrong and all that nonsense about finally fighting for what’s important yada yada was pure military propaganda, let the man write lengthy poetry about his ghost boyfriend in peace. Dulcinea was a fucking badass! So happy she got a chance to shine, and to say ‘nyah!’ Abigail was also fantastic. Well that whole section of the book had me swimming in endorphins so maybe it isn’t saying much, but I fucking loved them, I fucking loved how much Harrow cared about them, Harrow, who had been an emotionally depleted husk throughout most of the book, now showing the most heartrending vulnerability and care for this little found ghost family and practically rotating through them one by one to apologize in the most terrible, gutpunching way, and finally being told not everything in the whole fucking world is her goddamn fault. This is the only reason I was able to accept no Gideon reunion, not even a single word between them. I’ve been yearning for hundreds of pages for Harrow to find human connection and care, and I’m so happy these are the people she found it with.

Gideon. I’m like tearing up right now just thinking about this. After the endless tedium, suffering, emotional disconnect to the point where characters dying horribly seemed insignificant against the backdrop of unrelenting despair, to have that vibrant, wonderful, dumbass motherfucking voice back---it was beyond cathartic. I reread every single line multiple times and I still don’t think I’ve wrung em fully dry. It was amazing. The personality dripping off the page, the immediate chemistry with any character living or dead or dull as rock, the blatant, beautiful disrespect for the sombre self importance of the whole preceding narrative. It was my favorite character crashing into one of my least favorite books, and making it awesome. I think a lot of people try to write a Gideon, and most of the time the result is completely unbearable, and I’d posit there’s 2 reasons for this: 1) they tragically, mistakenly make their Gideon a man, and 2) they just aren’t funny. Of course an unfunny Gideon would be unbearable. Of course a funny but emotionally vacant Gideon would be dull. But this Gideon is a fucking delight with a real heartfelt gooshy selfless vulnerable yearning center, and every line I got to spend with her was a rush.

Harrow and Gideon. Oof. I’ve been going back and forth on whether I shipped them, whether I even could, whether it was the intention at all. But like, come on. This is clearly a love story. It’s a love story from start to finish, and it’s cool that it got me to doubt that so sincerely when it’s just this level of ride and die, jump into hell, carve out your brain, share a body and preserve its modesty against your every instinct and not even make any jokes about it, universe crossing, death defying, soul melding level of mushy ass romance. Harrow fucking kept Gideon’s shitty sunglasses wrapped in a love note. She did find&replace on her whole personality. She kissed Ianthe. I remember the first time I watched Revolutionary Girl Utena, where almost every other episode would begin with a lil fairytail backstory recap telling you about the little girl who saw a prince and was so enamored she decided to become a prince too. And you believe that narrative, because why wouldn’t you? It’s a stylized repetitive fairytale at the start of a show. Why would it lie? And then you find out, at the very end, that it wasn’t the cool manly prince who precipitated all of this, but baby Utena witnessing another young girl in pain, and deciding then and there that she was going to grow up and help her. And she does, even if she can’t remember why.

This was that level of paradigm shift for me. Harrow and her pile of letters and rules and her obsession and her nauseating work ethic, what was she doing?? Saving the world? Fixing a broken timeline? Trying to unlock unlimited power, bring back the corpse in the locked tomb, serve her god and emperor? Nope! She was just trying to keep her big beautiful dumbass girlfriend a little bit alive. 

Yeah. It’s a fucking love story.

Random thoughts: I liked Harrow’s grudge against food and the word ‘pommel’. I liked the diminishing ages Mercy inflicted upon her. I liked the first/second person shenanigans, tho really, there’s no way that was Gideon’s voice, first of all, there was way too much anatomical knowledge there. (Gideon’s secretly a time traveling bone doctor, calling it now). I liked the fanfic AUs, and very sad we didn’t get a fake dating one or like a nice “there was only one bed”. Not gonna mention soulmate AUs cuz that’s just canon.

That was a ride. Coulda done without some parts of it, but don’t regret it one bit. Let’s see what kinda nonsense the next one brings!

[docholligay]

So I just found your Utena liveblog and I love how you talked about Shiori. Like, when I first watched Utena, I just loved her because a) I love horrible, manipulative characters who really need some therapy and to stop being abusive pieces of shit and b) I saw a lot of the fandom hating her and my spiteful ass immediately went “I’m going to love her”. The first few times I watched RGU, I shipped Juri/Shiori a lot because I really want Shiori and Juri to be happy and healthy (even though I know, intellectually, that them being in a romantic relationship would not be happy nor healthy).

But reading your analysis made me realize that I’m actually… really lucky? By lesbian standards? Like, my parents are super supportive, my school was an art school (and thus full of gays), and I’ve never actually gotten a crush on a straight girl. But reading your thoughts on Shiori and why you cant love her, or even love to hate her, made me think like, wow. I completely understand it now. I still believe that shiori is a closeted wlw of some kind, with feelings for Juri (that doesn’t excuse her abuse, of course, and she’s not a precious misunderstood baby), but I didn’t really think about how, unlike a lot of the other characters, Shiori and what she does is very *real*. People having incestuous feelings for their siblings, or sword fighting under an upside down castle, or getting a ring from a dude who looks kind of like your fiancee and your fiancee’s brother…those things don’t happen a lot in real life. But the situation that Juri is in, with Shiori and Ruka and that brown-haired boy, is very real. Lesbians being threatened with being outed by people they loved, being manipulated and hurt because you can’t let go of this one girl, and feeling so sad and depressed and lonely because you don’t think you can be loved by someone you love; those are all things that happen to wlw and do happen and will happen.

The other reason my spiteful ass didn’t like seeing people hate on Shiori was because so much of what I saw was “Shiori is horrible because she’s mean to precious Juri who’s never done anything wrong!” And I didn’t really like Juri throughout the show (I didn’t really like any of the characters except the female Black Rose duelists and Anthy), so seeing people treat Juri like a princess while Shiori was constantly shit on…I really didn’t like. Because newsflash! Juri isn’t nice either! She’s not quietly manipulative, but she’s capable of being cruel (she doesn’t see anything wrong with trying to force Ruka to date Shiori, even though he’s already been shown to be abusive to her and, really, no matter how shitty Ruka is, you can’t and shouldn’t force someone to date someone else; also, I have a lot to say about how Juri treats Shiori in the series). But that’s what I like about your liveblogs: you don’t hate Shiori because you love sweet, innocent Juri–you can admit that Juri isn’t the paragon of innocence. It doesn’t take away from the abuse Shiori causes Juri, but Juri isn’t making an effort to try and help herself or Shiori in a meaningful way.

The final reason I love your liveblogs (that I’m going to talk about here) is that you were able to put into words how i felt about Utena and Anthy’s relationship in the first two arcs. I could never articulate it, but I really got the feeling that, for all Utena was talking about being friends with Anthy (and Wakaba), it just made me so mad because she wasn’t! She wasn’t really Anthy’s friend, and she definitely wasn’t a good friend! She was an actor who used Anthy as a prop and couldn’t and wouldn’t see beyond the surface of what was happening (and that was even if she noticed the stuff on the surface)! I was so confused when first watching because I kept seeing all these tumblr posts and pictures about how Utena and Anthy were such a great couple and how much they loved each other and I was just like… where??? But now you’ve put into words my uneasy feelings about Anthy and Utenas relationship and my lesbian anime soul can finally be at peace. (JK, I’m still going to go hunting for more Utena meta because god, what doesn’t this show make into a metaphor?)

So yeah. I tried really hard to make sure I didn’t mention anything past your most recent liveblog, but if I missed anything I’m really sorry. The best thing about your liveblogs is watching you theorize and discover this stuff on your own, which I didn’t get to have (I envy your self-restraint. I end up spoiling myself on so much because I want to read up on as much as possible halfway through the story). All I really want to say is that I really love your analysis. It’s funny as shit (can you imagine the kinds of family reunions Michiru and Haruka would have? There’s Michiru and Saionji, Haruka and Tsuwabuki, and the Michiru/Haruka angsty lesbian daughters, Juri and Hotaru), but even more importantly, it actually made me rethink how I thought of Shiori, which is what the best analysis do. I still love her in the way I love manipulative, cunning characters (Kozue is one of my fave RGU characters as well and Anthy is my favorite character of all time), but I guess you could say that you “changed the window” through which i saw RGU. I can’t wait until your next liveblog!

I’ve read this multiple times since you sent it, and I hadn’t published yet because I feel so blushy about it. It was such a kind and amazing thing to say, and this made me feel so loved and interesting and I wish I was better at tagging so I could keep a tag of when I get this kind of stuff, because it means so much to me. 

And I’m so glad that my relative evenhandedness with the characters works for you! I do hate the fuck out of Shiori, but the idea that Juri is some innocent maiden makes me laugh into the distance forever. No one in Utena is good except perfect angel Wakaba, I think we all know. 

And yes! Utena and Anthy are def not the sweet couple I’ve seen a lotof fanart of, and it’s actually kind of interesting to me that it’s sprung up so much of that (PLEASE NO ONE SPOIL ME FOR THE END OF UTENA I ADMIT MY FEELINGS MAY CHANGE) And also has only cemented my belief that Anthy and Utena aren’t Haruka and Michiru at all. 

Anyway, thank you so so much for sending this. It made me feel so good. 

[officialshojobeat]

The Manga We’d Want as Gifts

As Black Friday looms, I asked the other Shojo Beat editors to give me a short list of the manga they would wish to receive as a gift if they hadn’t already edited it. I thought it would be interesting for you guys to know the titles we cherish, and maybe it could also help you in selecting some of your holiday gifts! You can find these series on sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and RightStuf, but you may need to ask for a special order for some titles if you are using a brick-and-mortar bookstore for your holiday shopping. 

☆☆☆Pancha’s Picks☆☆☆

Skip•Beat! by Yoshiki Nakamura I love the balance of goofy, over the top humor and serious subjects. The main character starts out naive, but a rude betrayal sends her into a vengeance-fueled rage spiral that sweet friendships slowly help her to heal from. I also enjoy seeing Kyoko get better at acting and look forward to the day that she becomes a star!

Kamisama Kiss by Julietta Suzuki Nanami suddenly finds herself in the world of gods and monsters, and even though she's completely out of her depth her innate competence helps her thrive. At the center of this story is the god of bonds (like marriage, friendship, family etc), and I really enjoy how the series explores the different types of bonds that people can have, and how they can make us stronger. And I love that Nanami is good at her job as a god, even though it is totally alien to her.

Honey and Clover by Chica Umino This is a really poignant college tale that reminds me (sometimes too much!) of my own time in an artsy school. While it's not a comedy, it does have some really funny moments and I like its quite push towards self-discovery.

☆☆☆Amy’s Picks☆☆☆

Queen's Quality by Kyousuke Motomi

I love anything by Kyousuke Motomi (Dengeki Daisy, Beast Master, QQ Sweeper) because of her zany sense of humor and deep characters. I really love Kyutaro's introverted adorableness in Queen's Quality, and I like how Motomi Sensei is trying new things with this supernatural series (with cleaning tips!).

My Love Story!! written by Kazune Kawahara and drawn by Aruko

This series never fails to put a smile on my face! The friendship between Takeo and Suna is the best, and this feel-good manga is guaranteed to make you laugh out loud. I also love that Takeo doesn't look like your stereotypical pretty-boy protagonist in a shojo manga (but you grow to love him!).

Otomen by Aya Kanno

This manga series about boys who love girlie things like baking, makeup and flowers (to name a few!) is done in such a smart and beautiful way! You totally want main character Asuka to get together with tomboy Ryo, and you root for all the other "otomen" to be able to be their true selves in front of others. Also has one of the best endings out of all the manga I've edited. :)

☆☆☆Nancy’s Picks☆☆☆

Revolutionary Girl Utena Box Set

It’s our nicest release ever: Fancy slipcase, beautiful hardcovers, and color illustration pages (plus a poster)! And it’s the story of Utena, so it’s a timeless gift. The mood of it seems to fit with the holidays as well—fairy tales and romance.

We Were There by Yuki Obata

This series probably came out a little before its time here, but it remains one of the best shojo manga series written in the past decade. Yes, it will seem typical at first, but then you will find a depth and complexity of writing that other mangaka rarely attempt. Keep with it—it’s beautiful and full of hope. I will always want this series in my manga collection.

The Demon Prince of Momochi House by Aya Shouoto

Easily Aya Shouoto’s best work. Gorgeous artwork in a romantic fantasy that is heartrending at times. I find myself wondering about the characters when I am not working on this book. Aoi is a mystery that is being lovingly revealed. Of the various books I gave my niece, she kept rereading this one, so you know it’s a keeper!

-Editor Nancy

[madegeeky]

Giftening 2020: Obligatory Vote for These Post (spoiler version)

Want the non-spoilery version? Seriously, though, super spoilery for main plot points for a lot of these. Skip the ones you don’t want to know about.

Ones with * are my nominations, so you know where my biases lie. :P Ones in bold are my top pick for the categories. I did not include things that don’t need the boost (like Utena).

ANIME 

Aggretsuko - A tv show about an unassuming shy red panda woman who works in an office building and deals with the stress of it by going to karaoke and screaming out death metal. The show largely deals with her making friends with two women who she admires and a dude who likes her. The dude who likes her is actually a geniunely interesting storyline because at the end of the first season (which I’ve not seen beyond), he basically admits that he’s built this image of her in his head that isn’t real and he wants to know the real her. (Which, fuck yeah.)

Fushigi Yuugi* - This is a story about two teens who used to be friends fighting over a man which is literally the antithesis of everything Jet is. And yet, Jet watched the whole damn thing. Watch her squirm as she has to deal with that in a liveblog format. You can get a preview of some of that in Doc’s liveblog of it that she did for Jet.

NON-ANIME ANIMATED

Archer* - This is an animated parody of James Bond made for adults. It's offensive as fuck because Archer, the titular character, is a James Bond stand-in and that character can also be offensive as fuck. In fact, one thing to appreciate about this show is that all the characters are shitty, awful people and the show never attempts to excuse their shitty, awful behavior. Plus, it's one of the few shows where half the main characters are women. I am a tiny bit hesitant to rec this for a liveblog due to the offensivness however, as far as I can tell it's not popular on tumblr, and those are generally the ones that cause the most trouble so... 

Daria - The story of a misanthropic teenager, her family, and her best friend. The characters are specifically meant to appear to be tropes before slowly being unveiled as three dimensional people. It's got a dry sense of humor that I think Jet will enjoy. I actually didn't know until years after I watched this that it was a spin-off of Beavis and Butthead (which I hated) so don't let that dissuade you. 

LIVE ACTION

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - I haven't seen past a certain point because it starts going super deep into exploring depression and that is one of my main triggers for a depressive episode, so I cannot speak of later eps. However, this show starts out funny and silly and evolves into a show exploring how toxic the main character actually is and how unhealthy her coping mechanisms are. It's amazing to see a character type whose actions are usually excused or written off as funny instead be specifically called out as being awful and toxic. (It was a Shit Show is still one of the best songs I've ever heard and Mr. Geeky and I sing it to each other whenever shit hits the fan.) 

Hannibal* - If you know of Hannibal, you know the basics premise is that of a man who eats people and is chased by the FBI. The writing in this is some of the best writing I've ever had the pleasure of seeing in a piece of media: it's subtle, smart, and trust its audience to follow along without having their hand held. However, what's really great about the TV show is that it's not afraid to do its own thing. It constantly fucks with your expectations and deconstructs and explores tropes in ways I've never seen before. I haven't seen the ending yet but I highly doubt it's going to end in a place where Silence of the Lambs will happen. The acting is fucking great and even though Anthony Hopkins gives an amazing performance as Hannibal Lector, after seeing Mads Mikkelsen play him there's no going back to Hopkins. In general, if you're looking for something original (which is ironic considering it's based on a book and there are several movies) and smart, I cannot recommend this enough. 

Russian Doll* - (Doc, please skip this one, as in 5 years when you're done with Two Storms, this is one of the things I'm considering nominating should I ever win a liveblog again.) I don't really know how to explain this show because it's so fucking weird and is so focused on character and ideas that the plot is both super simple and extremely complicated. It's a story about a woman who starts to relive the same day over and over again except, instead of the typical thing where it starts over when she falls asleep, it's only until she dies (so sometimes she lasts for hours, other times for a couple days). However, almost immediately there are signs that something else is going on, that something outside of the main character's repeating day, something has gone horribly wrong. (Count the fish.) It's a very thoughtful, character-driven show, more about exploring ideas than plot which I, personally, didn't mind at all. Another one I highly recommend overall with much less blood and gore than Hannibal.

Xena - IT'S FUCKING XENA PEOPLE! Okay, but just in case you don't know what the show is about is through cultural osmosis, Xena is a show about a woman who used to be a truly horrible murderous bitch and her continual attempts to make up for the wrongs she has done. The main relationship in the show is between Xena and her (girl)friend, Gabriel, and although the show can be ridiculously silly (time is made up and history doesn’t matter!), it also explores deep, dark issues. One of the best things this show explores is the idea of redemption and forgiveness and that perhaps nothing Xena does will ever get her those things.

LIVESTREAM

Crank* - Jason Statham plays a man who has been given a poison that slowly cuts off his adrenaline, meaning that eventually he'll die. He has to do increasingly ludicrous things to get his adrenaline pumping overtime to make up for it slowly being cut off. It's one of the most fucking bananas thing you'll ever watch but is just a bunch of fucking fun. (CW: Public sexual assault. I only mentioned because it’s a scene that last for a bit. It's a complicated scene so I won't get into it here but send an ask if you want more details.)

Dale and Tucker vs Evil* - Dale and Tucker, two hillbilly best friends, are going into the woods to fix up their vacation home when they stumble across some college kids. Random circumstances make the college kids think D&T have kidnapped their friend and so they decide they need to attack D&T to get her back. Hijinx ensue. I don't want to say much more because there's a moment that is, to this day, still one of the funniest fucking things I've ever seen, largely because I did not see it coming.

GAMES

Doki Doki Lit Club - This is a game about games. You play a guy in a dating sim. Your first playthrough everything seems normal enough. You join the literature club, meet and talk to girls, and then one of the girls commits suicide. And then game restarts and the girl who committed suicide just... doesn't exist anymore. Your replay the exact same days but it's as though she never existed. Things only get weirder from there. This game does a great job of turning dating sim tropes on their head, as well as exploring games in general. (Content warning for a lot of things. Let me know if you want more details.)

Slime Rancher (stream) - There's really not much to spoil here. You play a woman who is in charge of a ranch full of slimes. There's some messages you'll find, left by the old owner, telling story about their romance. There also some messages between you character and a deliberately gender-ambiguous significant other. And that's about the closest to story you get. Otherwise it's just catching and ranching slimes.

Subnautica* - Fucking fuck I love this game. When this game first starts it appears to be your typical survival game with no real direction other than what you want to explore. But then you find an alien structure. And you realize that your spaceship didn't randomly crash. And you find out that there's no way get off this planet except to explore deeper and deeper and find out what the aliens were doing on this planet. A genuinely beautiful story, told mostly through entries in data pads and voice messages left behind, this ending is one of the most moving ends I've ever experienced and I never ever would have expected to be able to say that about a survival game.

We Happy Few* - In this alternate universe, the Germans invaded Britain during WW2 (although, through exploring the world, you learn that the differences started well before that). When the story starts up, the Germans have left Britain behind and Britain, for unknown reasons, appears to be cut off and/or abandoned by the rest of the world. The majority of the country is constantly hopped up on a drug called Joy, which is specifically used to help them forget something horrible that happened in the past. (I have theories.) The story starts when your character goes off his Joy and gets kicked out of society. There's a general sense of unease about everything and the more you learn the more that unease grows. The art style is great and the world building fascinating.

MISC (there’s nothing spoilery here but it feels weird to not have it)

Interactive Horror Story Livestream - Doc has talked a bit about this in at least one of her Xmas streams and it sounds amazing. Not only is Jet hilarious with horror stuff but knowing Doc’s writing skill, it will be something that we’d never want to miss.

Bean Boozle When Failing a Hard Game* - I am a sadistic bitch, I admit to this, and I love watching people eat Bean Boozle, the jelly bean of horrible flavors. One of my favorite videos content creators has done is playing an incredibly difficult game and then being forced to eat a random one every time they fail. 

[hawk-in-a-jazzy-hat]

Dual Anime Review: Flip Flappers, Magical Girl Raising Project, and the Post-Madoka Magical Girl

The Magical Girl Raising Project is a popular social network game allowing people all over Japan to create their own magical girl heroes, fight monsters and collect points and items. But what most people don’t know is the game’s secret; if you’re lucky enough to be chosen by the admins, you can actually become a real magical girl, complete with enhanced physical abilities and extraordinary magical powers. So it is for Snow White, who takes it upon herself to be a force for good, while getting to know the many other magical girls throughout her city, some of whom are friendlier than others. All’s well and good, until the game’s mascot, Fav-pon, suddenly announces that he’s cutting the number of magical girls down by half...

Meanwhile, in a different show...

Cocona is a middle-school girl with good grades but low self-esteem or ambition. While she struggles to figure out what to do with her life, the eccentric wild-child Papika literally flies into her life and whisks her off to a wondrous and magical dimension known as Pure Illusion. Cocona soon meets the people behind Papika’s journeys, the mysterious organisation FlipFlap, who wants the two of them to travel throughout Pure Illusion and gather the Amorphous fragments said to be able to grant wishes. As they encounter ever more dangerous worlds and even more dangerous organisations, Cocona ends up finding out more about herself, and her own wishes, desires and past, than she could ever imagine...

So, I’m gonna do something different. On the surface, these are two very different shows with very different styles and approaches, and for the longest time I was debating on how best to tackle them. But honestly, despite how different they are they are both magical girl shows. And while there are massive differences between them, both of their approaches can both be tracked back to a single show which, for better or for worse, has completely reshaped this genre for the foreseeable future.

That would be the 2011 show, and my personal favourite, Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

There have been loads of magical girl shows throughout the years, some of which have made their way over to our kid’s TV channels, and some which are lying on the back half of obscurity. Pani Poni Dash, Cardcaptor Sakura, Magical Knight Rayearth, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, and of course, the many many incarnations of Sailor Moon. The main premise is often similar; an average Joe schoolgirl comes across a magical power and becomes a superhero, fighting for justice and looking pretty at the same time. She often gathers a series of friends with their own powers who support her and follow their own storylines, and the stories tend to focus on the power of friendship, positive attitudes and actions, and just generally being a nice person. Yeah, it sounds corny, but honestly as kids’ shows go they range from harmless to actually quite exciting; I remember really enjoying Cardcaptors back in the day (despite the questionable dubbing) and frankly the stories told could be just as epic or intense as your normal superhero show. The magical girl genre was no stranger to dark stuff, or complex stuff, as can be seen with Princess Tutu or Revolutionary Girl Utena. It is, after all, a genre like any other, and you can do what you like with it.

But then came along Madoka Magica, and suddenly, to the anime-creating masses, magical girls could suddenly be a new and unexplored territory.

Madoka Magica took the genre and flipped it on its head. Whimsical fantasy gave way to brutal reality, the power of friendship gave way to the flaws of human nature, and the bright, pastel worlds suddenly seemed far more dangerous and foreboding than they’d ever been before. Whether you like the show or not, there’s no doubt that it did for magical girls what Evangelion did for super robot shows. Madoka Magica has become an icon, and ever since, magical girl shows have and will be judged by that standard, whether unfairly or intentionally.

There’ve been a few definite attempts to cash in on Madoka’s popularity in the ensuing years. Day Break Illusion was one of the first, coming out in the summer of 2013 to the raucous sound of people not caring. Whereas Madoka was subtle in its approach, Day Break Illusion was a blatant attempt to be ‘dark and edgy’ just because Madoka did it. Of course, as I’ll explain later, that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad show. No, it’s the bad cliche characters, terrible plot twists, lack of focus, contemptible fanservice, 2deep4you attitude and general messy aesthetic that makes it a bad show. But I digress.

There have been other notable ‘post-Madoka’ works throughout the years as well, including Wixoss and Yuki Yuna is a Hero, both of which I’ve heard mixed things about but sadly have not seen yet. I daresay there have been others as well that have slipped under the radar. But the point is, magical girls have not gone anywhere, as is evident from the two shows that came out last season. But even though Madoka is over five years old now, its influence isn’t going anywhere either.

In some ways, this is utterly obvious, as can be seen with the first of these shows, Magical Girl Raising Project. Now, this is actually an adaptation of a light novel that was published in 2012, only a year after the release of Madoka. I can’t and won’t say whether the novel itself was directly inspired by the show; there may have been enough time but I daresay the idea was there before Madoka came out. What I can say though is that even if the novel is definitely not inspired, the anime certainly is.

Let’s take a break and mention the production, as I usually do at the beginning. The studio behind this is Lerche, probably most famous for Assassination Classroom and DanganRonpa the Animation. The look of the show pretty closely follows that formula; it’s...decent. Characters are always on model, but often look a little stilted and wooden. The animation is good but nothing spectacular. The direction is very by the books and straightforward, but at the very least it’s not bad. Just unambitious. The music is the same; the pieces do the jobs they’re supposed to, and are never particularly standout or particularly distracting. It’s weird how mundane the production feels considering how dark and brutal the subject matter gets, and honestly I think that works against the show; it’s one thing to pretend the show is all happy-clappy and jolly and then hit the Sudden Dark Turn button, but if the show’s already kinda muted and, let’s face it, bland, the brutal twists don’t hit as hard.

And yes, this show is brutal. Whereas Madoka is sort of ambiguous until the infamous episode 3 (and even then, is nowhere near as dark as some people like to make out) MagiPro gives you only one episode of Shiny Happy Funtimes before it hits you with dark twist after dark twist after dark twist. The fights are brutal and bloody, the characters are pushed to their limits, and just when you think it can’t get any more messed up, you get proven wrong the very next episode. This show is utterly vicious.

Normally, this would put me right off. Vicious and brutal for the sake of vicious and brutal can very easily come off as tasteless and offensive if done even vaguely right (see: Elfen Lied), and utterly laughable if done wrong (see: Mirai Nikki). I was ready to go into this show and tear it a new one; I had virtually no expectations. But the funny thing is...it works. As much as the production is bland,  the actual story itself has a heck of a lot of thought put into it. About four episodes in, I found myself really enjoying it, and wondering where it was going to go next. I was interested. I was excited. It was trash, but it was lovingly crafted trash, and such trash demands my attention.

There are a couple of reasons. Part of that is the characters, although not because any of them were particularly deep or complex or anything. They were just fun. Some very unique designs, and all of them had unique personalities, stories and interactions. It certainly helped that, although Koyuki was supposedly the main girl, the show actually gave sufficient screentime to...pretty much everyone now I think about it. The balance is just right, with the slightly more troubled characters staying around for longer and ‘leaving’ just at the right time. It wasn’t perfect (I’ll get into that in a minute) but it was far better handled than, say, Mirai Nikki, where half of the ‘contestants’ had barely any screentime, character, or both. And there were 16 magical girls (plus Fav-pon) mingling around here, and only 12 episodes to do it all in. I’ll admit, that’s impressive.

That’s the other thing though; the pacing was absolutely spot-on. Right from the get-go, the stakes were there, and you got to see what everyone was up to. It’s hard to describe how essential good pacing is to storytelling, but MagiPro is the show to bring up as evidence for why. Even at its trashiest, the handling of the story itself was really rather masterful. And that’s the other thing; the show was very self-aware. Not in the way that it was constantly turning to the camera and making 4th wall jokes, but rather that the tropes that usually come up in these things kinda did...but then got twisted around at the last second. If I were to give you all of the characters at the beginning of the show and ask you to guess what happened, chances are you’d make a few wrong guesses. As I said, the characters themselves aren’t particularly complex, but the way they’re used feels fresh and new. For the most part.

It’s easy to see the influence from Madoka Magica here, but does it actually work as a successor? In many ways, it gets a lot of things right. It takes the Dark Magical Girl tone and plays around with it, making a show that is actually entertaining, which is always a good start. And of course, it’s far darker and more brutal than Madoka ever was. So is this really the second coming? Eeeh....no. Not really.

For a start, MagiPro has problems. And when MagiPro shows its problems, it really goes downhill. Whereas most of the characters are handled well, one or two really miss the mark. There’s a character called Top Speed who, while a fun character in her own right, has one of the most predictable and hammered-in ‘stories’ I’ve ever seen. They try, lord knows they do, but it’s really difficult to feel any sort of emotional attachment when all she’s doing is spouting clumsy foreshadowing. And where she gets a bit too much, there are a few girls who really don’t get enough, especially with all the build-up some of them get. There’s an attempt there, and most of them get backstories or context (albeit often quite clumsily), but there gets to be a point when they really don’t have much reason to be there.

And that’s the biggest problem with MagiPro; for all of its clever writing and excellent plotting...it really doesn’t have a point. The story just starts, people die...and then it kind of stops. At a stopping point, yes, but it almost feels like a prologue. Maybe they’re waiting on a second season, I don’t know, but as it stands it definitely feels unfinished.

But you could say the same thing about Madoka Magica if you look at it objectively; that has quite an open end as well. But the thing is, the characters are rounded off. The themes reach a natural conclusion. MagiPro doesn’t really have any themes; it’s just pointless violence for the sake of pointless violence. It’s easy to see the influence from Madoka, and the good plotting from Madoka, but unlike that MagiPro just doesn’t really have anything to say. It’s like a bloody fireworks display; pretty and impressive at times, but nothing really substantial.

Despite what many people may think, Madoka Magica is not a great show just because ZOMG DARK SUBVERSION. That’s certainly an aspect it has, but it’s not what makes it special. It has a story to tell and a moral to show and characters and a world to explore while doing so. The problem with most so-called ‘ripoffs’, no matter how good they are, is that they fail to actually understand what makes the original so iconic in the first place. It’s just an attempt to cash in on the popularity, without the effort needed to actually understand them. It’s not just an anime thing either; look at the DC vs Marvel thing going on right now. The MCU, for all its problematic elements, has a definite direction, character arcs and subtle elements and foreshadowing to make everything feel that much more real. The DC cinematic universe is just trying to slam together as many things as they can, get the big events and the big villains and...it doesn’t work. Even if the film itself has good elements (Suicide Squad) it doesn’t feel natural, or real, or integrated in the way that it really should in the bigger picture.

Basically, Magical Girl Raising Project feels like the anime version of Suicide Squad; a decent flick with great elements that ultimately misses the mark on what it’s actually trying to be. And that’s almost a shame, because there’s obviously a lot of effort going in.

So that’s the obvious Madoka ripoff, but what about the other show? On the surface, Flip Flappers seems like something completely different and new. But I promise, the influence is still there; just implemented a little differently.

So how is Flip Flappers’ production? Well, the studio behind it is the relative newcomers 3Hz, who haven’t really got a lot on their backlog; I think the only major thing they’ve done is Dimension W from early 2016. That being said, it’s clear they pulled out all the stops with this show because it looks absolutely phenomenal. I’ve always preferred the rougher, sketchier animation style to the real smooth polished stuff that tends to come out nowadays; Flip Flappers kind of has the aesthetic of a studio Trigger show, but without the off-model characters and clear budget cuts, making it a feast for the eyes alone. Even the real-world stuff is pretty, with very unique and wide-eyed character designs, and once we actually get into Pure Illusion? Ooh boy...every world looks different and every one is a fireworks display of colour and sakuga, and the occasional batpoop insanity. If you want to get a taste of the show at its best looking, watch the third episode. Just the third one is fine; the backgrounds, locations, characters, and especially the fight scenes are glorious to behold. The music is also unique...ish. It definitely has a style all of its own but I’m struggling to think of any tracks that really stood out to me. I will say that there are one or two that I swear sound like something from Spyro: A Hero’s Tail, but that’s just me. The opening’s pretty, and the ending is just adorable, with a little bit of a sinister edge in the fairytale setting. Flip Flappers has a look and a sound all its own, so when it sneaks the slightly darker tones in (say, a living brain in a robot, or a creepy as all heck goop witch), you don’t quite realise the Madoka influences are there, but they are.

Because behind the bright colours and the whimsical adventures is actually quite a mature story, and one that might well have gone over a lot of people’s heads. The amount of fanservice (some of which is admittedly unnecessary, although also quite creatively symbolic), sexual themes and the interactions between the two mains might suggest this is nothing but crass yuri-baiting, but honestly there’s more to it than that. This isn’t just a fantasy adventure; it’s a coming-of-age story. It’s the development of a young relationship through the eyes of an adolescent, and how the worlds of children, adults and those inbetween collide. It’s really quite clever and I should really rewatch it to see if I can pick out some of the symbolism in the background. Certainly there are some great bits of direction and allusions to optical illusions (hehe) that are well-handled and, again, give the show its own style.

I’ve been talking about Madoka but the far clearer comparison to make is with a Kunihiko Ikuhara show, with the bizarre locations, character development done through symbolism and action rather than exposition and dialogue, and the general otherworldly, almost fairytale-esque nature. Also, lesbians. You can argue yuri-baiting all you want, but just like in those shows, the symbolism and intent is definitely on a gay relationship. It doesn’t have to be explicit like in Yuri!! On Ice to be effective or heartfelt, and the characters do not need to kiss in order to make the relationship ‘proper’. Yes, I’m looking at you Tumblr.

Is the show perfect though? Weeeeell...no. Apparently the head writer left halfway through and somebody else took up the reins, and it shows. The writing never gets bad but it suddenly leaves behind the clever symbolism and relationship building and instead focuses on a deep conspiracy plot that honestly comes out of nowhere. Ideas which were built up in the first half are kind of sidelined for a lot of really confusing backstory and some scenes which are just blatantly ripped from Evangelion, and as much as they try to tie everything together, there are big gaps in the final story. What is the deal of the other amorphous child, and the twins? We never really find out. What are Hidaka and Sayuri’s stories? We never really find out, although you could make a solid case that episode 8 delves into Hidaka’s mindset through Bu-chan. That’s not to say it’s ‘bad’, but all the build-up and subtlety from the first half is just sort of forgotten. Thankfully the series does eventually get back to its roots and the main focus it should be on; the world according to Cocona, and her relationships (familial, platonic and romantic). There’s a character I’ve neglected to mention called Yayaka, who honestly has a brilliant arc from beginning to end, and may even be more interesting than Cocona. Even when the show’s writing does lose track, the solid base is still there.

In many ways Flip-Flappers is the antithesis to Magical Girl Raising Project; it’s a visually ambitious production with a lot of great ideas and some marvellous character study, let down somewhat in the end by some lacklustre plotting and pacing. And yet both shows are good. Really good, in fact, despite the flaws. And definitely a product of the post-Madoka anime world.

See, while MagiPro is a clear spiritual descendent of Madoka, I’d argue that Flip-Flappers has been influenced even more. Because as I said, the entire point of Madoka is never that it was dark. The point of Madoka was to take a magical girl, and explore the humanity behind her. It does for magical girls what things like The Dark Knight and Iron Man did for superhero movies, or Evangelion did for mecha shows. Magical girl shows prior could be complex, and could be dark, and could be undoubtedly human. But Madoka Magica took that concept and showed it to the world, and frankly, Flip-Flappers is far more its child than MagiPro is in that regard. Flip-Flappers is a show so in tune with human nature and human relationships that it kinda sorta works to its detriment, although not enough to stop it from being a great show.

But of course, this is all just conjecture on my part. What I can say though is that, despite being remarkably different, both of these shows are really very good and you should watch them. If you’re a person who prefers solid storytelling, shocking twists and thrilling entertainment, Magical Girl Raising Project is the show for you. If, however, you prefer ideas to stories, and would rather explore a character than see them in a fight to the death, or you just want to marvel at the fantastic worlds, then you’ll probably prefer Flip-Flappers. I definitely fall into the latter category myself.

Still, whichever you prefer, it’s reassuring to know that magical girls aren’t going anywhere soon. As proven with superheroes, they are not just kids stuff, or lazy shows with simple characters and lessons on friendship. They never have been. They have the potential to be something great, and in a community changed by a show about a shy, pink-haired girl in a big nasty world, we’re certainly going to see a lot more of that greatness coming soon.

I’ll say it here so I’ve got it in writing; I love magical girls. They are incredible heroes. They are inherently human. And they are utterly magnificent.

My scores:

Magical Girl Raising Project: 7/10

Flip-Flappers: 8/10