Magical girl retrospective - simulwatch starts 1st Feb 2025

Dai

Dai

Dragon Knight
Magical girl collage.jpg

In the name of love, justice and merchandising, welcome to the magical girl retrospective simulwatch. Rather than watching an entire series, this February's simulwatch will cover the first 1-3 episodes of several landmark magical girl shows, in broadcast order, to track how the genre has evolved over time.

When? Starting 1st February 2025. See below for specific episode viewing dates.

Where? Almost all of the shows are currently streaming in the UK. See below for sources. Note that Tubi is a free, ad-supported platform and doesn't require an account. The video quality is low as a consequence.

Who? All are welcome to join. Feel free to drop in later if you miss the beginning. Watch as few or as many of the below shows as you want. There's no pressure to watch everything. If you fall behind, you can skip episodes or catch up later.

Which? The number of episodes we're watching for each show varies based on an estimation of how many it will take to get a good feel for the nature of the series. Some shows cover their entire formula in one episode, others have an ongoing story or don't reveal their hand until later.

Princess Knight (1967)
Significance: from the pen of legendary "god of manga" Osamu Tezuka, this is often cited as the first magical girl show.
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
What to watch:
Ep 1 - 1st Feb
Ep 2 - 2nd Feb

Minky Momo (1982)
Significance: one of the most influential magical girl shows of the 80s, and a classic example of one who uses her powers to help people around town rather than save the world.
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
What to watch:
Ep 1 - 3rd Feb
Ep 2 - 4th Feb
Ep 3 - 5th Feb

Sailor Moon (1992)
Significance: revolutionary series that merged magical girls with tropes of sentai battle stories. Its influence is still felt today.
Where to watch: Tubi, but requires a VPN to access the US version of the site.
What to watch:
Ep 1 - 6th Feb
Ep 2 - 7th Feb

Sailor Moon R: The Movie (1993)
Significance: directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara (Utena, Penguindrum), this distills everything that's great about Sailor Moon into a single hour, and is a good primer if you can't access the TV series.
Where to watch: Tubi, but requires a VPN to access the US version of the site.
What to watch:
The movie - 8th Feb

Cardcaptor Sakura (1998)
Significance: from the legendary CLAMP collective, this was a breakthrough show when it reached western TV.
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
What to watch:
Ep 1 - 9th Feb

Fancy Lala (1998)
Significance: a classic example of the idol sub-genre of magical girls.
Where to watch: Tubi UK (no VPN required)
What to watch:
Ep 1 - 10th Feb
Ep 2 - 11th Feb
Ep 3 - 12th Feb

Princess Tutu (2002)
Significance: a unique show that eschews battle in favour of resolving conflict through dance.
Where to watch: HiDive
What to watch:
Ep 1 - 13th Feb
Ep 2 - 14th Feb
Ep 3 - 15th Feb

Pretty Cure (2004)
Significance: the first season of what would become the decades-spanning Precure franchise.
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
What to watch:
Ep 1 - 16th Feb

Madoka Magica (2011)
Significance: a subversive genre deconstruction that ushered in the dark magical girl (aka. tragical girl) sub-genre.
Where to watch: Not streaming in the UK, unfortunately. In the US, it's on Crunchyroll and Hulu.
What to watch:
Ep 1 - 17th Feb
Ep 2 - 18th Feb
Ep 3 - 19th Feb

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya (2013)
Significance: a magical girl parody that spun off from the Fate franchise.
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
What to watch:
Ep 1 - 20th Feb
Ep 2 - 21st Feb

Magical Girl Raising Project (2016)
Significance: one of the many tragical girl shows that followed in the wake of Madoka Magica, pushing for ever increasing levels of edginess.
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
What to watch:
Ep 1 - 22nd Feb
Ep 2 - 23rd Feb
Ep 3 - 24th Feb

Power of Hope: Precure Full Bloom (2023)
Significance: revisits a team of former magical girls after they have become adults.
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
What to watch:
Ep 1 - 25th Feb
Ep 2 - 26th Feb
 
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Dai said:
Madoka Magica (2011)
Where to watch: I'm seeing conflicting info about whether this is streaming on Disney+ in the UK. Can anyone confirm?
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Sorry dude, I can't find this on Disney+, hidive, Netflix, crunchyroll or prime 😔. Is it on tubi or maybe with VPN with one of the streamers?
 
Geriatric hedgehog said:
Sorry dude, I can't find this on Disney+, hidive, Netflix, crunchyroll or prime 😔. Is it on tubi or maybe with VPN with one of the streamers?
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D1tchd1gger said:
According to just watch. Available in the States on CR, Hulu and Disney+ via Hulu. Here's the Crunchyroll page: Crunchyroll: Watch Popular Anime, Play Games & Shop Online
As already mentioned I have it on blu-ray.
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Thanks for checking, guys. I knew it was a longshot, but just wanted to be certain. I've updated the first post with this information.

Fortunately I have the blu-rays too.
 
I've added direct streaming links to all the shows in the first post. Unfortunately, that was when I discovered that the Sailor Moon movies have been region-locked on Tubi. I'm sure they were available in the UK initially, but you will need a VPN to access the R movie now. 😑 If the resolution is as low as other things I've watched on there (around 360p), it at least shouldn't use up much bandwidth if you do use a VPN. I'm lucky I have almost all of Sailor Moon on blu-ray.

Fortunately Fancy Lala is definitely available in the UK.
 

Princess Knight - episode 1

We start with an Osamu Tezuka show that aired a mere four years after Astro Boy, the first TV anime. The Disney influence on Tezuka's work of this era is evident, right from the opening moments. We're firmly in fairy tale land here, so much so that the first episode climaxes with a twist on Red Riding Hood. This monster puts the big in Big Bad Wolf as he switches back and forth from puppy-sized to full-blown kaiju.

This episode features some bizarre moments, not least the assassins whose swords squirt gender-reveal fluid in a totally not sexual way. The wolf also comes across as an odd blend of the original fairy tale monster and the wolf-whistling horndog from the Looney Tunes cartoons, ratcheted up to an extra level of weirdness with his shapeshifting powers.

Based on this opening episode, it's hard to see much that would inform the tropes of later magical girl shows. It's easier to draw a direct line from Princess Knight to shows like Rose of Versailles and Revolutionary Girl Utena. If anything, what we've seen of Prince(ss) Sapphire's situation so far is an inversion of later magical girl shows. Sapphire spends most of their time in a combat-ready state with a sword at their hip, only dressing up to play the damsel in an attempt to disarm the wolf.

Princess Knight is the only one of the shows in this retrospective that I haven't watched before, so I can't say how it develops over its 52-episode run.
 
Princess Knight - Episode 1

Wow, I was not expecting the androgynous princess being a social commentary on the the prejudices relating to gender and class, right from the get go, in a presumably pg-rated show from the fifties with a completely Disney-inspired aesthetic and soundtrack. This even with the angel boy who brought along what one would assume is a divine directive to comply with the societal/religious expectations of one's gender. I can't imagine any creative in the west ever getting this greenlighted at that time? I haven't seen any of Tezuka's direct works, but inferred his aptitude for social commentary from the recent Dororo remake and the Astro Boy-inspired Pluto. Even then, colour me fascinated.

It also had, probably one of the scariest iterations of the big bad wolf - especially when he first revealed himself from within the miniscule old woman costume, with some great voice acting of that creepy evil laugh! That worked have certainly freaked out child me heh. Until of course he turned into Daffy duck 🙃.


Dai said:
Based on this opening episode, it's hard to see much that would inform the tropes of later magical girl shows.
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I, too, was wondering about how this would be considered a prologue to the magical girl genre. It seemed more in keeping with feminism taking on the classic fairytale male hero/saviour stereotype.
Dai said:
If anything, what we've seen of Prince(ss) Sapphire's situation so far is an inversion of later magical girl shows. Sapphire spends most of their time in a combat-ready state with a sword at their hip, only dressing up to play the damsel in an attempt to disarm the wolf.
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Heheh that is a great point, it certainly is the opposite in that regard!
 
Geriatric hedgehog said:
I haven't seen any of Tezuka's direct works, but inferred his aptitude for social commentary from the recent Dororo remake and the Astro Boy-inspired Pluto.
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Tezuka really was one of a kind. Not only was he hugely prolific, but he tackled a huge range of genres. You have everything from child-oriented stories like Astro Boy and Princess Knight, through an action-heavy medical drama like Black Jack, to philosophical epics like Phoenix and Buddha.
 
Princess Knight ep1

Well, that was a trip. Despite my interest in vintage anime generally, I must admit to not having seen many of the early shows - prior to this, the oldest thing I’d seen was the first Lupin series from 71 - and the editing takes a bit of getting used to. It feels like the camera chops back and forth between shots often without much regard for continuity of where the characters are in a scene, and I found it a little disorienting at times. Cutie Honey 73 has a bit of that going on in the early episodes too, although Honey is criminally insane it seems more intentionally psychedelic, so it kind of fits there. I see ya boi Yoshiyuki ‘I have never seen two humans interacting’ Tomino is credited with storyboards for Princess Knight, so maybe that tracks…

It is interesting to see how progressive the show feels for its time though. Much like Geriatric Hedgehog, I did think how unlikely it would be that you’d get anything comparable to the show’s disregard for traditional gender roles in a western cartoon from the same time. I’m not sure I could even name you a cartoon with a female protagonist amongst the Hanna Barbera-type fare from that era.

I do wish Crunchyroll had the original Japanese audio with proper subtitles though. The dub is… functional enough, but I’m willing to bet the dialogue isn’t a particularly faithful adaptation and I felt like a lot of character names seemed to be changing from scene to scene - who the heck was Gary? Maybe the real Gary was the friends we made along the way.

Edit: Okay now that I’ve said that about Hanna Barbera not having a cartoon with a female protagonist at that time, I’ve suddenly remembered Josie and the Pussycats, although that was certainly less confrontational. They did have long tails and ears for hats, mind.
 
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Princess Knight - episode 2

As @Professor Irony mentioned, the blocking of shots is a mess at times. This is especially noticeable towards the end of episode 2 where the director doesn't seem to have any awareness of the 180-degree rule. Despite that, what strikes me most about the look of this show is the cinematic direction. It's especially evident in establishing shots for locations, but also in the wild energy of the action scenes. The slapstick chase sequence in the middle felt like peak Looney Tunes.

In this episode we find out that Sapphire hasn't just been forced to dress like a boy for political reasons; they're non-binary in the most literal sense. And oh the irony that a horse with wings and heart-drilling laser vision is the one who has been sent to enforce normality. Take a look in the mirror, dude.

It's a shame that there isn't a subtitled version, as it's hard to know how much the dialogue has been changed from the original. I suspect it's dub-only due to edits in the US version meaning the original audio wouldn't line up. There's a place in the fight against the masked assassins that looked like something was cut out.

There's still not much here that feels archetypically magical girl. I had a skim through the synopses for later episodes and it looks like Sapphire does eventually don a masked alter ego called Phantom Knight. That doesn't happen until halfway through the series though. It's a sign of how much the times have changed. Modern manga authors know that an adaptation is only likely to get 12 episodes, so most either frontload a lot of plot development or just establish an episodic formula. In the 20th Century it was far more likely for a series to be commissioned for 26 or 52 episodes all at once, so they had the luxury of taking their time. The aim of anime was to be a complete adaptation, not just an advert for the source material.

It feels like we've barely scratched the surface of Princess Knight, but it's already time to step into the TARDIS as we leap 15 years forward to 1982 tomorrow.
 
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Princess Tonight - ep2

Maybe my mind has adjusted to it more now, but I didn’t find camera nearly as distracting this time. Having the context of Sapphire’s apparent creation also adds something, I think - Choppy being there certainly makes more sense now, even though I was surprised that he suddenly seems fully committed to helping Sapphire be whoever they want, rather than pushing them towards any gender norms. Even the story seems more engaging, with the idea of everyone being so enthralled by the sight of a flying horse feeling oddly prescient (“it must be a sign of good fortune, the wise men said so!”)

It hadn’t occurred to me until watching this episode, but I think at least some of my bewilderment last time is down to the subtitles frequently misinterpreting words (not to rag on the dub unnecessarily, it just worked out more convenient for me to watch it with the sound off). I’m not sure what the process must have been like, but it does feel as if they’ve been done in the same fashion as YouTube auto-generated captions - Choppy also appears as ‘Chubby’ and ‘shop’, ‘knight’ came up as ‘tonight’ and it even transcribed ‘prince’ as ‘Fritz’ on one occasion, which might explain the mysterious Gary everyone was talking about in the previous episode. I imagine subtitling is a pretty thankless task at the best of times, but if these subs were done by an actual person, I doubt they were being well paid for their efforts. Why did Choppy say ‘trapped in a subtitling factory, send help’?

But yeah, I’m not sure I’d necessarily want to watch 50 episodes of it, but on the whole I liked Princess Knight and I wouldn’t mind seeing some more of it at some point. It genuinely surprises me that this seems to be the only time it’s been adapted into anime - I’m quite sure if they remade it now with a more modern looking aesthetic, it would do well. Maybe it’s the horses - no-one seems to want to animate horses these days.
 
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Princess Knight eps 1-2
Umm well I will say it felt very Western in style, lots of slapstick comedy and dastardly villains that need stopping every episode. Like others I didn't really see much magical girl type of things, but I suppose the Princess being someone else to fight crime(?) is a start and like @Dai I did a bit of further reading and there's apparently a Prince character later that knows her as 3 different people: a Prince, a mysterious beautiful Princess and a possible love rival in the masked Phantom Knight.

Talking of Western attitudes it seems it was turned down by NBC execs because of the "sex switch" nature, but someone rescued it and it aired in the US, UK and Australia with cuts and that's the reason it's dub only because the Crunchyroll version is that version released by Nozomi and the original Japanese dub wouldn't sync. If they have the original audio you'd think they had the original version, but maybe not? Choppy was called Tink in the original

The original manga is from the 50s when a shoujo magazine asked Tezuka to "do Astro boy, but for girls" and the anime is from the late 60s. The English version of the manga only came out in 2001.
en.wikipedia.org

Princess Knight - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Professor Irony said:
female protagonist amongst the Hanna Barbera-type fare from that era
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Not sure, but would Penelope Pitstop count? Wacky Races started the year after this aired in Japan.
 
Princess Knight - Episode 2

Angel boy's backstory (ah man he is so annoying)! So it is his shenanigans that lead to Princess Knight getting a Y chromosome in addition to a second X - so would this then make them the very first animated intersex character? And those two horses seemed rather amorous at the end, no? Tezuka most certainly did not shy away from any topics gender-related whatever the species 😅!

Aside from that, more random depiction of the mythologies and religions of regions further west, with now the Greek Olympus team getting involved - interesting viewing the Japanese take on these. Moreso given the recent Haibane Renmei simulwatch and the mixing of the more Western take on angels in that being inserted into eastern mythology and religion (I still maintain their halos were purely for comedy!) and then of course there is the pretty well known Judeo-Christian depictions in Evangelion, serving mainly as fancy-sounding but ultimately meaningless jargon.

In terms of magical girls, the only commonalities I see thus far are an apparently female protagonist as the hero of the tale? It's only off of two episodes but feeling a bit like calling them the first magical girl is a bit of a stretch; and I'm not buying what to me is an implied biological reality, as magical, any more than there being anything magical about this old geezer losing his youthful vitality (that he never really possessed anyway heh) with age!


Professor Irony said:
the editing takes a bit of getting used to
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It certainly does, I just put it all down to it being the best they could manage back then.
Professor Irony said:
The dub is… functional enough, but I’m willing to bet the dialogue isn’t a particularly faithful adaptation
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That's a very good point - one does wonder how much we're really missing in translation, especially if the dub itself is ancient and made to suit their expected audiences sensibilities! Did they by any chance hire the Hannah Barbara voice actors for the dub? I keep picturing Daffy 🦆
Dai said:
This is especially noticeable towards the end of episode 2 where the director doesn't seem to have any awareness of the 180-degree rule.
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I love learn something new everyday! Good point, that last fight needed my imagination to fill in some of the gaps in what seemed to be happening heh.
Dai said:
And oh the irony that a horse with wings and heart-drilling laser vision is the one who has been sent to enforce normality. Take a look in the mirror, dude.
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That horse also came across as a creep, not just a hypocrite😅, with that framing, but maybe I'm busy being a prude..
Dai said:
It's a shame that there isn't a subtitled version, as it's hard to know how much the dialogue has been changed from the original. I suspect it's dub-only due to edits in the US version meaning the original audio wouldn't line up. There's a place in the fight against the masked assassins that looked like something was cut out.
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Ah, that all makes sense, as well as your next point about the alter ego later in relation to consideration for magical girl status. Didn't think about how the editing would restrict the ability to release with subs!
Professor Irony said:
It hadn’t occurred to me until watching this episode, but I think at least some of my bewilderment last time is down to the subtitles frequently misinterpreting words (not to rag on the dub unnecessarily, it just worked out more convenient for me to watch it with the sound off)
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Ah that's interesting, I've had my subs off so didn't notice these discrepancies.
Professor Irony said:
Why did Choppy say ‘trapped in a subtitling factory, send help’?
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🤣
Professor Irony said:
Maybe it’s the horses - no-one seems to want to animate horses these days.
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The creators of the next James Bond really need to watch this episode and stop wasting their time on foolish humans but rather look to our equine mammalian cousins for their next sleuthy protagonist. And that point reminds me of a great scene with the youngsters learning from the old animator who had a passion for drawing animals in Shirobako - what a legend of a character!
D1tchd1gger said:
Talking of Western attitudes it seems it was turned down by NBC execs because of the "sex switch" nature, but someone rescued it and it aired in the US, UK and Australia with cuts and that's the reason it's dub only because the Crunchyroll version is that version released by Nozomi and the original Japanese dub wouldn't sync.
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Nice bit of investigative journalism dude, you have confirmed the others' suspicions!

It's certainly been interesting but I am looking forward to moving ahead a few decades tomorrow heh.
 

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Minky Momo - episode 1

The general lack of accessible western releases for early anime meant we had to take a long leap from Princess Knight, so with Minky Momo we see most of the recognisable magical girl iconography in place. Toyetic magical device? Check. Naked transformation sequence? Check. Talking animal sidekicks? Check. A loose overstory that involves collecting mysterious jewel-like MacGuffins? Check.

Minky Momo differs from modern magical girl shows in a significant way though. The 80s magical girl era isn't about being a fighter; it's a dress-up fantasy. In her attempts to solve local problems, Momo indulges three childhood fantasies in one: not having to wait to become a grown-up, dressing up in different costumes, and instantly becoming the best in the world at whatever she wants to do.

Transforming into various job-based costumes comes straight from Cutie Honey, which we have unfortunately skipped due to the original series not streaming anywhere. I'd argue that Momo makes much better use of the gimmick though. When Honey transforms into anything other than her warrior-of-love combat form it tends to just be a momentary disguise to distract enemies, essentially a ninja trick. Momo takes on the skills of the costume and uses it to solve problems in the story. Having a magical do-anything ability is a huge deus ex machina for plot purposes, but that's hardly an issue when it's the whole point of the show, rather like the OP isekai power fantasies of today.
 
Minky Momo ep1

For some reason, I always get Minky Momo mixed up with Creamy Mami (what a sentence), despite never having seen either. But yeah, she’s a bit presumptive our Momo, isn’t she? Seems like she just barges into that poor couple’s home and gaslights them into believing she was there all along…. I’m being silly, but the setup does seem to be introduced in an oddly blunt fashion. Presumably they wanted to crack on so that she could start solving folk’s problems, but everything just kinda happens. Maybe if the jewel things had come in earlier it would feel more logical? Am I overthinking this children’s cartoon? No, it’s the children who are wrong.

Anyway, this definitely does feel more recognisably like how I would picture a magical girl show; all the familiar elements are starting to fall into place. It also feels more obviously like a bid to sell merchandise, with the wand, vehicles and even Momo’s animal friends looking suspiciously easy to reproduce as toys. Once it settles in, I was still entertained by it though; the horses talking to each other (again with the horses?) and the increasingly silly race to save the farm were quite fun in particular. This one is also more my thing in terms of its aesthetic; I feel the little squashy character designs of this era are more distinct and original than the Disney-esque feel of Princess Knight.

Dai said:
I'd argue that Momo makes much better use of the gimmick though. When Honey transforms into anything other than her warrior-of-love combat form it tends to just be a momentary disguise to distract enemies, essentially a ninja trick. Momo takes on the skills of the costume and uses it to solve problems in the story.
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That’s a good point, although I would argue that Cutie Honey was good about putting Honey in very macho, traditionally male-dominated jobs (such as lumberjack, racing driver and wino), and I’m not sure if Minky Momo would go so far in that regard.
 
Minky Momo - Episode 1

If I had a veterinarian other-half who decided they were going to go off on a jolly to Antarctica to "treat polar bears with colds", I'd file for a divorce. Then, if they suggested to address being lonely with the joys of balancing a household+/-job? with childcare, I'd look into hiring a hitman to sort out the vet and whichever polar bear/s they were shacking up with. So starts Minky Momo, with some quality sarcastic humour throughout, which I'm guessing was something for either the creators themselves or any parents having to listen to their kids watching their shows.
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Crunchyroll won't let me screenshot the magical alien king and Queen's exchange but the latter's exasperation in the subs says it all heh. Not to mention the PG rating in the top left that any good cartoon exec in the west would look for when importing a show.

Certainly have magical elements here with the wand and transformation, albeit the latter being generally into an adult variant in order to get things done! Don't believe the lies kids - adulting sucks!! Also, does Momo's fancy set of wheels remind anyone of this bizarrely excellent show (in child-me's opinion) called The Highway Man from the 80s?
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Yes my friends, our leather clad cool dude here, and his grumpy dad??, are the proud owners of a truck with a helicopter tucked in at the front end, and I think it was a sports car and bike, and maybe even knight rider, in the trailer, to go set right all the wrongs in the world. Ah the good ol' eighties...


Dai said:
Minky Momo differs from modern magical girl shows in a significant way though. The 80s magical girl era isn't about being a fighter; it's a dress-up fantasy. In her attempts to solve local problems, Momo indulges three childhood fantasies in one: not having to wait to become a grown-up, dressing up in different costumes, and instantly becoming the best in the world at whatever she wants to do.
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Excellent point! It all reflects an era where children actually respected adults as aspirational characters, unlike today's happy-slapping ruffians.
Professor Irony said:
she’s a bit presumptive our Momo, isn’t she? Seems like she just barges into that poor couple’s home and gaslights them into believing she was there all along
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That was hilarious, I was thinking this idiot couple totally deserve to have an alien and her comedy pets invade their domicile!
 
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