Staff Picks: Magical Girl Anime

Corrector Yui

It is the year 2020 when computers have become an integral part of human daily lives thanks to the advancement of technologies and sciences. In the midst of this advanced technological era, there is a girl named Yui Kasuga who can’t operate computer technology at all even though her father is a software developer. One day Yui got sucked into the digital world ComNet and being recruited as a Corrector, a special program which is installed to fight the evil software Grosser who wants to take over the ComNet system.

I actually just realized that I don’t really watch many magical girl anime, not because I don’t like them, but because I don’t have enough chance to watch many of them. But then I remembered about my first magical girl anime from my childhood, Corrector Yui. The most interesting part of this show for me is the theme that technological and magical girl tropes. If I recall correctly, the transformation of all the magical girls (Correctors) in this show is called “Download”. There’s also interesting experience when I watched this anime in Indosiar (Indonesian Local TV Channel). I used to always watch this anime secretly since I have some thoughts of “I’m a boy, but why am I getting attracted to this anime with female protagonists?” That was the conflict inside me that time. Hence this Corrector Yui is the anime which opened my perspective about how interesting an anime with female protagonists to me as a male audience who consumes anime. Even at that time I have some affection towards Yui, as my first waifu ever. (Rafly Nugroho/KAORI Newsline)

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya

Illyasviel von Einzbern is a normal schoolgirl in Japan. She lives with her older brother Shirou Emiya and her two maids, while her parents are perpetually out of the country, and she has fanciful dreams of using magic to make her dreams of love with Shirou come true. Meanwhile, two fierce rival magi, Rin Tohsaka and Luviagelita Edelfelt, have been sent to Japan by Zelretch, the Master of Parallel Worlds, with the powerful sentient Kaleidosticks to collect the mysterious Class Cards and clean up their mess. After getting fed up with their constant infighting, one Kaleidostick, Magical Ruby, senses Illya’s dream of magic and leaves Rin for her, tricking her into becoming a magical girl. Now Illya is being forced by Rin to collect the dangerous Class Cards in her place. But perhaps more dangerous still are Illya’s own mysteries that may have unknowingly attracted Ruby to her.

I like this series because it is one of the Fate series. In addition, the story is still related with the rest of the Fate series and the magic battles are quite numerous and interesting. The last reason is because of the character Illyasviel herself. (Hafizh Andifaisa/KAORI Newsline)

Futari wa Pretty Cure

Like oil and water, Nagisa Misumi and Honoka Yukishiro has different personalities: one strong-headed and one gentle. But their lives are forever changed when they met Mapple and Mipple from the Garden of Light. Bestowed with the power to become Pretty Cures, they must fight against the force of Darkness to protect the Earth

Honestly, I’m not a big fan of magical girls, but I did watch some of them like Minky Momo or Tokyo Mew Mew when I was a kid. But none has ever struck me as entertaining and lovely as Futari wa Pretty Cure. With loveable character and actions, the anime was not meant just for the girls, but also for boys who watched it. (Marwa Pranata/KAORI Newsline)

Heartcatch PreCure

Tsubomi Hanasaki is a shy middle school student who loves flowers and plants. One day, she dreams of Cure Moonlight’s losing fight, which caused the Tree of Hearts to wilt. When she transfers to Myodou Academy, the fairies that she saw in that dream appear before her. The fairies begged Tsubomi to become Pretty Cure to protect the Great Tree, but she refuses. However, the Desert Apostles suddenly atack, stealing the heart flower of her new classmate, Erika Kurumi. To save Erika’s heart, Tsubomi has no choice but to become a Pretty Cure and fight the Desert Apostles.

PreCure has always been a fun and charming series for me. While the characters in PreCure, or probably kids show in general, tend to be simple, but in its simplicity, there are realism, honesty, and sincerity which are difficult to find in other shows nowadays. And what makes Heartcatch shine among PreCure series (aside from its cleverly crafted characters and their developments of course) is its concept of heart flowers. Heart flowers are the representation of its owner’s hearts, and negative emotions such as anger or sadness will make those flowers wilt. The Desert Apostles seek such persons, steal their heart flowers, and turn them into monsters. Those monsters are the materialization of their hearts and capable of conveying the true feelings of those heart flowers’ owners. Through such means, Heartcatch PreCure managed to tackle various personal issues, which surprisingly not only relevant to children, but also to adults, such as career, love, family issues, etc. These idea, aside from its fundamental purpose, which is to create conflict for each episodes, is also capable of making the audience sympathize to  seemingly mundane side characters. And other than those, there’s also my personal bias towards Yoshihiko Umakoshi’s character design. So overall, Heartcatch PreCure is a warm, charming, entertaining, and optimistic series, and those things are everything I always hoped to get from a magical girl show. (Yoza Widi/KAORI Newsline)

To be continued on the next page