7 Magical Girl Anime Series Worth Checking Out.

"Magical Girl" is a genre that really goes unused outside of Japan. It is a genre which sees young girls using magic to fight the forces of evil. Essentially being super heroines targeted at young female audiences, akin to Power Rangers. Something Japan started doing decades ago was to tap into an audience that was being ignored. Rather than leaving it as wasted opportunity, they filled the void and Magical Girls have been transforming and fighting evil for the last few generations to enjoy. Very few ever get the western dubbed treatment, but those that have have seen some success.

With Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel both bringing girls a heroine to admire, it is perhaps time western regions cry out for some more of the Japanese Magical Girl anime series to get dubbed for audiences to enjoy. While for a long time the genre had a pretty repetitive formula, in the last 15 years some have began challenging what elements are needed for a magical girl series. Some of which have taken the rule book and thrown it out the window. Now the rules can be anything and these heroines face major challenges. Here we will look at 7 Magical Girl anime series and why they are worth checking out.

Be aware this article will contain spoilers for each series discussed. So stop reading now if you want to avoid information about the plots of each series.

7. Sailor Moon

Original Airdates:

• Sailor Moon: March 7, 1992 – February 27, 1993
• Sailor Moon R: March 6, 1993 - March 12, 1994
• Sailor Moon S: March 18, 1994 - February 25, 1995
• Sailor Moon Supers: March 4, 1995 - March 2, 1996
• Sailor Moon Crystal: July 7, 2014 – Present

This is perhaps the only series on the list you may have heard of. But Sailor Moon is on this list as it encompasses everything you expect from a typical Magical Girl series. Filled with a cast of diverse magical girls, each with their own powers, abilities and personalities, it has a character for any anime fan to identify with. Be that the quiet but intelligent Sailor Mercury or the tough and misunderstood Sailor Jupiter, the range in what the characters bring is endless.

The story itself is filled with elements expected within a magical girl anime. Friendship and love are at the core of the story, with Sailor Moon's destiny playing centre stage throughout the majority of the series. Sailor Moon gives viewers a story that goes into the past, present and future. This gives a more complex narrative, which makes the series even more compelling. Even to the point where we viewers discover the characters are reincarnations of a destroyed Moon Kingdom and how their future has them set as rulers of Earth.

Perhaps the success behind Sailor Moon lays in how in a series full of magic, evil to be fought and perils for the heroines to face, at the core is friendship. You witness characters making the ultimate sacrifice for what they believe, enemies turned into allies and plenty of scenes designed to bring a tear to the viewers eyes. So for any novice heading into the magical girl genre, Sailor Moon is a must see as it comprises the fundamentals required for a true magical girl anime series.

6. Hyperdimension Neptunia: The Animation

Original Airdate:

• July 12, 2013 – September 27, 2013

Hyperdimension Neptunia is one a few may have heard of in anime form, but this magical girl series started its journey through video games. Which is also the theme behind the magical girls themselves. Filled with four primary heroines, each represents a different gaming platform. The titular character Neptunia represents Sega, Noire is Playstation, Blanc stands in for Nintendo and Vert the XBox. Neptunia, Noire and Blanc all have younger sisters who even become magical girls representing the handheld versions of the consoles, leaving Vert without a younger sibling as XBox have never delved into the handheld market.

The world the heroines resides in are representations of these consoles own lands, and essentially takes anything you can think of for gaming being referenced in some form or another. This was taken further when two additional heroines, Plutia and Peashy enter to represent CPU gameplay. So for any console junky, this anime series will be filled with references and takes on gaming that they can enjoy. If that fails, the heroines are pretty scantily dressed to keep any viewer interested.

While it only has a single series, the series itself is enjoyable. It mixes elements of humour along with drama pretty well. Considering magical girl anime series tend to use some sort of magical source to empower the heroines, Hyperdimension Neptunia gives something truly unique to the magical girl genre by using existing gaming consoles as inspiration for the characters. Each character also holds their own quirks and personalities which some feel represent the average player for each console.

5. Magical Girl Rising Project

Original Airdate:

• October 1, 2016 – December 17, 2016

Starting like any other magical girl anime, the main heroine is given the opportunity to become a magical girl, but through an unconventional way. In the series there is a highly popular gaming app, where players get to create their own magical girl character to play in the game. However, for a lucky few, the game will actually choose them to become a real magical girl. When the main character gets her powers, she is the latest to join the already existing girls, resulting in 15 magical girls in the anime.

While you may think this is all going to be a fun magical heroine filled series, it becomes dark quickly. The system informs them that there are too many active magical girls and based on their heroic acts will result in a points system. It is simple, the one with the fewest points will lose her powers. Unknown to them at the start, but the girl with the lowest points will not just lose her powers, she will also lose her life. As the episodes progress the series quickly become a magical girl version of the Hunger Games.

This series is definitely not a series for younger audiences, as it become very graphic as magical girls start killing each other one-by-one. As a viewer, you start even hoping for some of the characters to die while you hope for others to live. One character purely designed for viewers to hope to survive is the heroine Top Speed, as it is revealed outside of her magical girl world she is newly married and heavily pregnant. For a magical girl series that will keep you gripped to the end, this series delivers as you watch the carnage unfold.

4. Symphogear

Original Airdates:

• Symphogear: January 6, 2012 – March 30, 2012
• Symphogear G: July 4, 2013 – September 26, 2013
• Symphogear GX: July 4, 2015 – September 25, 2015
• Symphogear AXZ: July 1, 2017 – September 30, 2017
• Symphogear XV: July 6, 2019 – September 28, 2019

Symphogear is special within the magical girl genre, as it successfully explained all the magic behind the series with scientific explanations within the series. The heroines use ancient relics to transform, but these relics can not be used by anyone. Each relic is harmonically tuned and can only be activated when the user sings to match the vocal harmonics to activate it. To increase their powers in combat they even have to sing as they battle. Each user has an ultimate power known as the "Swan Song", where if performed the backlash from the gear will be so great it could kill the user in the process.

The primary foes in battle are inter-dimensional beings, known as Noise, who only need to make contact with their victim to turn them to carbon dust. You witness true terror as victims plead to not be killed and the only defence against these beings are the gear users. As the series progresses from season-to-season, the heroines face new threats, form new allies and are forever tested in their convictions. They even increase the magical elements within the series, so along with the magical relics others individuals are shown to have the ability to use necromancy to transform themselves.

But the way the story mixes the elements of magic and mythology into a science within the series is what makes this series shine. It also does a good job of linking elements from series to series to explain why their fight is never truly over. While it is hard to classify the series solely as a magical girl anime, it is just too good to leave off this list. It invests viewers in the plight and struggles the heroines face and the evil they face does seem terrifying.

3. Yuki Yuna is a Hero

Original Airdates:

• Yuki Yuna is a Hero: Yuki Yuna's Chapter: October 16, 2014 – December 25, 2014
• Yuki Yuna is a Hero: Washio Sumi's Chapter: October 6, 2017 – November 17, 2017
• Yuki Yuna is a Hero: Heroes' Chapter: November 24, 2017 – January 5, 2018

This magical girl anime has a very non-linear way of tell its heroine's stories from season to season. The first season introduces to audiences the heroines who are all members of the "Hero Club". One day they are hit by a wave of light and sent to a strange forest. From there they are charged with protecting the world from Vertex, a force aiming to destroy the Divine Tree. The second series is a prequel to the first series and focuses on the past of one of the characters, as she was once part of a team of three trying to save the Divine Tree. The third series is a sequel to the first series and continues the heroines attempts to save the world. This approach to telling the story is very unusual for a magical girl series and each series reveals shocking truths for audiences to cope with.

The series tells of how young girls have always been the ones in history to stop the Divine Tree's destruction. The heroine accept it is their turn and fight with all their might, unlocking their "Mankai" form for more power. However, strange things start happening to them one-by-one. One loses sight in one of her eyes, another loses her voice and one loses her sense of taste. It turns out, in the past young girls were sacrificed to save the world, but now the girls instead slowly sacrifice parts of themselves each time they use their Mankai forms. This can even get to the point where they are left paralysed, blind, deaf and a mute. So you might think death is a better option, which the girls do. However, their mascots reveal they are not allowed to let the girls die, even if by their own hands. This traps them in their contracts and they have to face the dark reality before them.

It is a take on using magical girl character in a fashion never seen before. You watch as these heroines accept their fates and literally start sacrificing their bodies to save the world. It is a truly emotional story to watch and has so many moments that will make your jaw drop in the process. Each series opens up the lore and story more and the story is not over yet. It has been confirmed that Yuki Yuna is a Hero: The Great Full Blossom Arc is in production. But where will this story take place? Given the non-linear storytelling already present, it is uncertain if this series will be a prequel or a sequel to the story we have already received, but it is sure to deliver just as many shocks as the first three series.

2. Puella Magi Madoka Magica & Magia Record

Original Airdates:

• Puella Magi Madoka Magica: January 7, 2011 – April 21, 2011
• Magia Record: January 4, 2020 – March 28, 2020

Puella Magi Madoka Magica was perhaps the first magical girl anime to take the typical formula used and simply set fire to it rather than read it. It is presented as a normal magical girl series, where young girls meet a magical sprite known as Kyubey. Kyubey makes them a simple offer, he can grant them any wish they want in exchange for them becoming a magical girl and fighting evil witches. The heroines make varied wished, from Mimi wishing to survive a car crash to Miki who wishes to restore health to a guy she has a crush on. But the price of the wishes is more than they bargained for.

When they make their contract with Kyubey, they are given a Soul Gem which enables them to transform. However this Soul Gem is now where their own soul resides. If their Soul Gem is too far away from their body, the body will simply drop down dead, but can be stored to life with the Soul Gem returned to it. So that is bad enough, their souls have been physically removed from their bodies. However, it gets worse. If their Soul Gem is destroyed, they die. Or if their Soul Gem becomes too tainted by using magic, they will turn into a witch. This revelation reveals the forces they have been fighting are magical girls who have effectively died. The only way to purify their Soul Gem is to defeat the witches and use their seeds to cleanse their gems.

It is a rollercoaster of a series and the lore has been expanded further in the spin-off series Magia Record. Magia Record has introduced a new set of heroines and has featured some of the heroines from the original series in smaller appearances. With Magia Record confirmed for a second series, the story is nowhere near over yet and fans eagerly look forward to finding out what is going on. Especially with Iroha, who can turn into a witch and then restore to normal. Just like the first series, fans wait for the bombshells to drop more in the second series and more than one viewer will be stunned at what is revealed.

1. Precure/Pretty Cure

Original Airdates:

• Futari Wa Pretty Cure: February 1, 2004 – January 30, 2005
• Futari Wa Pretty Cure Max Heart: February 1, 2004 – January 30, 2005
• Futari Wa Pretty Cure Splash Star: February 5, 2006 – January 28, 2007
• Yes! Precure 5: February 4, 2007 – January 27, 2008
• Yes! Precure 5 GoGo: February 4, 2007 – January 27, 2008
• Fresh Pretty Cure!: February 1, 2009 – January 31, 2010
• Heartcatch Precure!: February 7, 2010 – January 30, 2011
• Suite Precure: February 6, 2011 – January 29, 2012
• Smile Precure: February 5, 2012 – January 27, 2013
• DokiDoki! Precure: February 3, 2013 – January 26, 2014
• HappinessCharge Precure!: February 2, 2014 – January 25, 2015
• Go! Princess Precure: February 1, 2015 – January 31, 2016
• Maho Precure!: February 7, 2016 – January 29, 2017
• KiraKira Precure a la Mode: February 5, 2017 – January 28, 2018
• Hugtto! Precure: February 4, 2018 – January 27, 2019
• Star Twinkle Precure: February 3, 2019 – January 26, 2020
• Healin' Good Pretty Cure: February 2, 2020 - Present

Precure is the most successful magical franchise of all time, so making it the top spot on this list is a must. Akin to Super Sentai/Power Rangers, Precure use a format where typically every year a new set of heroines with new power and a new threat to face will tell their story. This has resulted in quite the mixture of characters, themes, villains and powers. This means there is a Precure series for any magical girl fan to enjoy. Literally anything can be altered from series to series, even down to the number of heroines. Numbers have ranged from 2-6, but HappinessCharge Precure! even introduced international Precure, so the number in that series reached much higher numbers.

Starting way back in 2004, the heroines Cure Black and Cure White started a franchise that has brought so many twists and turns, fans are never sure what to expect from a series. The only guarantees today are the series will contain a pink, blue and yellow Cure and for a mid-season Cure to join the team around episodes 20-25 of the series. Outside of that, anything is possible. The mid-season addition is always one point every years fans try to predict, as the newest heroine could be a character they have seen for some time. They have used villains turned into allies, friends of the heroines and even the odd fairy mascot to become the additional member of the team.

With it's wide range of themes and settings, it has been one of the few magical girl anime shows to attempt a wester dub. These dubs were titled Glitter Force, but these adaptations pale in comparison to the original Precure series. They reduce the numbers and will actively remove some of the better episodes as they attempt to remove some of the raw emotions seen in the series. While it may not get as graphic and heavy in tones to some of the other series listed in this article, it does not remove the enjoyment Precure has to offer. It is also a prime candidate to get a true push to offer young girls in the western regions a franchise of heroines to admire, especially with the push for further female inclusion in the superhero genre. But here is hoping for a true adaptation without taking away emotionally powerful episodes believing children are too sensitive to deal with.

Which Magical Girl anime series your favourite? Is your favourite one that is not on this list?