Fushigi na Melmo

A list of magical girl shows released between 1966 and 1998. Made using this awesome tumblr post: https://chiibinomonodamon.tumblr.com/post/99031991319/there-you-go-every-fcking-magical-girl-from

before sailor moon took the mahou shoujo genre by storm in the early 90's, many magical girl series were (in my opinion, anyway) often more like pre-cursors to the nichijou-kei/slice of life and kirara-kei/cute girls doing cute things genres that are popular today.

in a time of economic turmoil in japan, sailor moon was a perfect series to receive an anime adaptation because it could--theoretically--appeal to multiple markets across gender-genre lines, giving it a "two for one" value to its production committee members. for example, sailor moon was able to incorporate elements of popular battle series' (that, supposedly, appealed to young boys) into a story that was aesthetically and thematically more familiar to the (supposedly) young girl readership of shoujo manga. add to this stellar combination an appeal to the important consumer demographic of the "first otaku generation" of the 80's, especially in regard to sailor moon's denotation as a "BISHOUJO senshi" in a sailor suit, and the companies sponsoring that anime adaptation had a brilliant piece of intellectual property that had nearly endless potential for merchandising.

the older magical girl series', especially those released in the japan's economic bubble period of the 80's, were more directly focused on the latter two of the three demographics described above. yes, most of them were supposedly intended as entertainment for young girls, but as the bishoujo era of the 80's kicked off, production committees could no longer deny the popularity of shoujo manga and anime with otaku consumers.

this list will contain mahou shoujo anime series that premiered before the premiere of the sailor moon anime adaptation. i'll attempt to order them from most to least important to viewing the genre from this perspective, but certainly my personal biases will come into play, so yes, i'm putting minky momo before sally the witch. please forgive me.


FORMAT:
common english or alternative titles
seasons the listed anime ran through


for more info, i highly recommend patrick galbraith's book on Otaku and the struggle for imagination in japan:
https://www.dukeupress.edu/otaku-and-the-struggle-for-imagination-in-japan

sources and further reading:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160401013143/http://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a03904/
https://isaacmeyer.net/2014/07/episode-60-womens-activism-in-japan/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43553398
https://www.amazon.com/Animerica-Anime-Monthly-September-Spectacular/dp/B0072N4D60

Compiling older magical girl in case anybody wants to do a deep dive into the genre. Anything before 2000.

The bottom 50 of the top 100 anime gathered from TV Asahi's Japan-wide survey, conducted with multiple age-groups, into the best animated series.

(No. 85 is Tom and Jerry)



(https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2005-09-23/tv-asahi-top-100-anime-part-2)

so what are your thoughts Sally the Witch called Magical Girls

Series that utilize philosophical approach when it comes to their portrayal of society. Usually featuring "outsider" perspective as a main vehicle for the exploration of the "society" and the philosophy.

Essentially a character that acts outside of the "society", that is at focus of the series, as far as the philosophy of the character goes when it comes to approaching the society. This role can also be called as the "observer". A role that acts as a tool for the audience to be able to gain understanding of the contrast of the philosophies of the "observer" and the supposed "society".

This approach enables that the audience is able to experience the contrast of these two philosophical approaches when it comes to the society and is able to experience often both sides the "observer" and the supposed "society" that is approached through the eyes of the "observer".

These series often also propose an alternative approach to the philosophy that is in contrast with the approach of the "observer" and present us an alternative way of seeing the "observer" through the eyes of the supposed "society"

1-3 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/14457
4-5 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/14459
6-7 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/14693
8-9 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/14694
10 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/14695 <= YOU ARE HERE

for shows with less than 4,000 members

Using this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLZYtFRoMGQ | Magical Girls Timeline 1966-2020] as reference for this stack, I made it in hopes it might help people who are into this genre find anime they haven't watched/didn't know existed yet.. or really just people who'd like to get into something new.

There are 4-5 anime I haven't included simply because they're ecchi and I really wanna try to keep this, well, non-ecchi.

Part 2 here: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/15925

These anime have dubbing in albanian, and have been at one point in time on the kids channel where they are transmitted. (No other channel currently airs them.)
We all know and love some of these anime and they have a big dose of nostalgia in both the feelings that they gave us as kids and also the voices of the people that dubbed these shows. A very appreciated hard work from their side.
Also a list with good animes.
This list may be incomplete.

Anime series that appeared as manga in shoujo magazines between 1970 - 1979


1960s - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/1630
1970s - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/23865

This is the first part of a collection of articles where I aim to explore the evolution of anime related music. This part of the list attempts to collect a list of most iconic "Anime Songs".

The term "Anime Songs" used in this list refers to the theme songs that have a strong connection to the series demonstrated by their lyrics and the emotion invoked by the song related to the series. Essentially the song and the lyrics talk about the series or the characters in a direct manner forming a direct link between the performance and the series in question.

These types of theme songs were more common and popular before 1980s. The defining moment that can be said had influence on changing the theme songs away from this model is the popularity of the series "Urusei Yatsura" and how it used to promote a several "tie-up" songs that in contrast to "Anime Songs" by their nature don't necessarily have anything to do with the series, story or the characters.

I will write my thoughts on each of the entries on this list to further explain why I think the series and the theme songs included as a combined package have attained "iconic" status when it comes to the scene of "Anime Songs" in contrast to the "tie-up songs". I will also give a score related on how deeply intertwined I see the series and the performance related to the theme songs as a part of the experience as a whole. The series are ordered based on that score.

The term "iconic" in this list is defined by the popularity and how deeply established the meaning and the lyrical elements of the performance are in addition of them being intertwined with the series as a whole experience.

This list does not include iconic "tie-up songs" or other songs that by their lyrics or meaning do not establish a significant connection to the series, characters or the story.

More info about "Anime Songs" and "tie-up songs" and how they affect the performance from the perspective of the singer in this interview: https://www.cinra.net/article/interview-201509-horiemitsuko

Related stacks:

Chapter 1 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/24451
Chapter 2 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/24454
Chapter 3 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/24455

The Four Kings:

Mitsuko Horie - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9754
Ichiro Mizuki - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/15851
Kumiko Oosugi - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/24461
Isao Sasaki - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/24460

unpopular mahou shoujou series

Based on Captain-Nisaka's video "Evolution of shoujo animes - 1966-2021 (COMPLET)" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmrW6NNvnDc

other parts
part 2 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/28833
part 3 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/28836
part 4 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/28839

Includes all* anime on the Anime+/GRAPH mahou shoujo/magical girl achievement list

Notes:
If the anime is saved under a different name in the original list (and the ID matches), the listed title is added as a comment. The anime will keep its place according to the list - even if it will no longer be alphabetically correct according to its main title on MAL. This is to make the job of checking and updating these much easier for me.

*The main stacks do NOT include hentai. This is both for people who want to avoid it, and because including it will significantly limit the stack. Please proceed to the Hentai Edition™ in the list below if you're into that.

Links:
★ Club - https://myanimelist.net/clubs.php?cid=67199
★ Original list - https://github.com/anime-plus/graph/blob/main/data/achievement/anime-mahou-shoujo.json
★ Watch order guides (you're gonna need them...) - https://chiaki.site/?/tools/watch_order

The whole series:
★ Part 01 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31473
★ Part 02 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31474
★ Part 03 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31475 <== you are here
★ Part 04 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31476
★ Part 05 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31477
★ Part 06 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31478
★ Part 07 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31479
★ Part 08 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31480
★ Part 09 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31481
★ Part 10 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31482
★ Part 11 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31483
★ Part 12 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31484
★ Part 13 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31485
★ Part 14 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31486
★ Hentai Edition for a) serious completionists and b) horny people - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/31496
★ Manga version - coming soon

Last updated: July 03, 2023
Feel free to let me know if something has been added and I haven't updated in a while, or if I've made a mistake somewhere! <3

Part 1: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/37228
Part 2: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/51425
Part 3: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/60199
Part 4: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/61131
Happy Romantic Lolis: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/42419
Unhappy Lolis: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/58065