History Main / MagicalGirlGenreDeconstruction

* ''Anime/{{Granbelm}}'': the main character, Mangetsu, is a StockShoujoHeroine -- kind, sweet, and helpful. She feels empty and unfulfilled [[spoiler:because she actually is just a creation of Magic with no actual history]]. Magic power is a terrible thing that has been locked away for 1000 years for good reason. It lures young girls every generation into BattleRoyale in cute Super Robots, where their dreams will be destroyed and many are [[spoiler:erased to the point of never having existed in the first place]].

* In ''Literature/MagicalGirlRaisingProject'', a [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent middle schooler]] named Koyuki has always wanted to be a magical girl and still adores magical girls even after her peers have outgrown them. She plays a free-to-play mobile game called ''Magical Girl Rising Project'' that, rumor has it, allows one in every few thousand people to become a real Magical Girl (regardless of their age or gender). Koyuki ends up one of the people and gets [[AscendedFanboy turned into]] a Magical Girl whose alias is "Snow White". She and a group of other magical girls act as superheroes around their district. One day Fav, the fairy mascot who made them all magical girls, mentions that he accidentally allowed too many in one region and has to downsize by half. It's soon revealed that those who stop being magical girls die. Even if you voluntarily quit being a magical girl, you'll still die. This quickly leads into a BattleRoyale between the magical girls as each one fights to make sure they're not the one who is forced to quit, with most of them dead by the end.
* ''Manga/MagicalGirlSite'': The [[DrivenToSuicide suicidal]] main character is horribly abused by [[DomesticAbuse her brother]] and [[BullyBrutality brutally]] [[TheBully bullied]] by a GirlPosse before becoming a Magical Girl. A website called the "Mahou Shoujo Site" specifically targets troubled young girls and asks them if they want to become magical girls. Once she becomes one, it turns out that [[CastFromHitPoints using her powers steals from her lifespan]]. There is also a BattleRoyale among the magical girls. While ThePowerOfFriendship is a major element, it doesn't prevent it from falling into this genre given the other effects.
* In ''Manga/MagicalGirlSpecOpsAsuka'', Magical Girls are widely known and are treated as [[ChildSoldiers soldiers]] [[MilitarySuperhero by governments]]. The protagonist is a ShellShockedVeteran magical girl formerly attached to the [[UsefulNotes/KaijuDefenseForce JSDF]] who just wants to live an ordinary life after years of fighting monsters, but keeps getting dragged back in because there aren't many Magical Girls left.

* ''Anime/MahouShoujoMagicalDestroyers'': the three Magical Girls are all rude and crude, and don't want to be Magical Girls anymore. They are very [[PunkPunk Punk]], with drug use, sexual promiscity, sado-masochism, and a "burn it all down" attitude. They represent "Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll" (Blue, Pink, and Anarchy, in that order).

* ''Save Yourself'' is a miniseries published by Creator/BoomStudios (under the Boom! Box label), it tells about the main lead who finds out that the three magical girls she idolizes are revealed to be three shapeshifting criminal aliens, while the villains who are chasing them are actually the good guys.

* ''Anime/MahouShoujoMagicalDestroyer'': the three Magical Girls are all rude and crude, and don't want to be Magical Girls anymore. They are very [[PuinkPunk Punk]], with drug use, sexual promiscity, sado-masochism, and a "burn it all down" attitude.

** ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'' [[spoiler: Deconstructed further as a older Steven realizes that he spent so much time fixing everyone else's issues that once everyone is happy, he has no idea what to do with himself. He needs to be needed, seeing everyone moving on with their lives just makes him miserable.]]

* ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful'' is actually a magical girl {{Reconstruction}} set in the ''TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness''. Princesses suffer real risk of both injury and trauma. Monsters will not hesitate to go after your family. Different factions of magical girls may disagree on the details of things like "what is right" to the point that they attack ''[[WeAreStrugglingTogether each other]]''. But at the same time magical girls have access to more diverse powers than battle magic, and can call upon networks of support from all over mundane society, allowing them to succeed anyway.

* ''Manga/GushingOverMagicalGirls'' is a highly sexual action/comedy work about Hiiragi Utena, a girl who dreams about being a magical girl but actually ends up being a DarkMagicalGirl. While at first horrified Utena discovers a hidden side to herself as she fights her admired heroines, she likes it...a ''lot''. The series also shows, at length, that most of the power and mental development of Tres Magia (the "traditional" magical girl group of the setting) could only happen because [[StealthMentor Utena kept pushing for them to grow]], is [[VillainsActHeroesReact the one instigating most of their conflicts]], and very much does not want to actually defeat them; when a villain ''wants'' them dead, or when Utena starts showing her hand, it's nearly a steamroll.

* Tokimekiwaku's ''Magical Girl'' setting takes place in a world that's largely bureaucratized the process of becoming a magical girl (all of the current ones only had to sign a contract), which greatly lowered the barriers of the age, gender, and morality of all those who accepted the call. Co-protagonist Pomf makes an active effort to protect her domain, as does the {{Occidental Otaku}} Gitchi, but she herself displays few characteristics of a "main" magical girl and is rather cold to [[HatesEveryoneButYou everyone except her girlfriend Gekka]], while most of the cast are only in it for themselves or make trouble with their newfound powers. The few magical girls that remain on the childlike and idealistic side, the aforementioned Gitchi and Baxter, are considered [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids naive at best]] by Pomf.

* Tokimekiwaku's ''Magical Girl'' setting takes place in a world that's largely bureaucratized the process of becoming a magical girl (all of the current ones only had to sign a contract), which greatly lowered the barriers of the age, gender, and morality of all those who accepted the call. Co-protagonist Pomf makes an active effort to protect her domain, but other magicals aren't very heroic and often cause trouble for the populace.

* ''Manga/GushingOverMagicalGirls'' is a highly sexual action/comedy work about Hiiragi Utena, a girl who dreams about being a magical girl but actually ends up being a DarkMagicalGirl. While at first horrified Utena discovers a hidden side to herself as she fights her admired heroines, she likes it...a ''lot''. The series also shows, at length, that most of the power and mental development of Tres Magia (the "traditional" magical girl group of the setting) could only happen because [[VillainsActHeroesReact Utena kept pushing for them to grow]]; when a villain ''wants'' them dead, they'll know it.

* ''Manga/GushingOverMagicalGirls'' is a highly sexual action/comedy work about Hiiragi Utena, a girl who dreams about being a magical girl but actually ends up being a DarkMagicalGirl. While at first horrified Utena discovers a hidden side to herself as she fights her admired heroines, she likes it...a ''lot''.

-->-- '''Neko-senpai''', ''Anime/{{Animegataris}}''

This genre twists the normal WishFulfillment part of most Magical Girl shows by showing that the magical powers aren't all fun and games but [[ComesGreatResponsibility serious responsibilities]]. These works are deconstructions where being a Magical Girl [[BlessedWithSuck comes with various]] [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome real-life complications]] [[SourGrapes that end up actually preventing the wish-fulfillment]]. This often comes in the form of trying to be DarkerAndEdgier. Common themes of these series are that you should BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor and that GrowingUpSucks (in sharp contrast with how traditional Magical Girl works treat [[OlderAlterEgo pseudo-adulthood]] as [[ComingOfAgeStory a form of empowerment]]). While "magical" is traditionally meant in the sense of "wondrous", here [[TheThemeParkVersion it's more of an aesthetic]] - you can expect the protagonist's identity to be common knowledge, and[=/=]or for there to be [[EveryoneIsASuper an entire class of similarly empowered people in which she's only a small cog]]. Sometimes they are treated as ChildSoldiers, with all the horrors that entails. If the protagonist is a StockShoujoHeroine, then she will often end up a DeconstructedCharacterArchetype. You can expect them to emphasize that being a magical girl is NotAGame.

** Star Butterfly, of the dimension Mewni, starts the series as a [[GenkiGirl fun-loving]], if [[BrattyTeenageDaughter irresponsible]] girl who would rather use her family's Royal Magic Wand to beat up Monsters than to take her royal duties seriously. But as time goes on, it becomes clear that all the Monsters that are supposedly menaces to Mewmans have been the victims of {{Fantastic Racism}} for centuries; a far cry from other examples of {{Monster Of The Week}}. From there, the history of Mewni is shown to be filled with violent war, death (with one of the main antagonists being responsible for [[HeroKiller assassinating Star's grandmother]]), cover-ups, propaganda, and corruption. And even as Star makes it her mission to [[CharacterDevelopment bring Mewmans and Monsters together again]], it definitely doesn't happen overnight, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome as she had hoped]].

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': The titular character starts out as an innocent, naive boy who happens to have three super-powered women called The Crystal Gems as his primary guardians, and powers he inherited from his late mother, [[RoseHairedSweetie Rose Quartz]]. However, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome things slowly begin to change]] as Steven starts taking a more active role in the Gems' missions. Over the series, the Crystal Gems are all shown to have their own flaws that [[InnocentlyInsensitive are capable of hurting those around them]], and Rose Quartz is revealed to [[BrokenPedestal not be the perfect warrior]] she is initially built up to be. Steven himself ends up going through a [[HeroicBSOD large amount of trauma]] due to the battles he takes part in, and he begins to develop an inferiority complex due to everyone comparing him to his late mother and [[SinsOfTheFather expecting him to fix her mistakes]]. Despite all this, Steven never stops being an {{All Loving Hero}} who will only resort to fighting back if he sees absolutely no other option.

The MagicalGirl and MagicalGirlWarrior genres are very popular genres for {{anime}} and {{manga}} in Japan; they're also popular internationally, with several non-Japanese works being produced for the genres. They're normally fluffy {{Coming Of Age Stor|y}}ies usually featuring a cast of [[KidHero young 8-15 year old girls]] who gain magical powers thanks to a TransformationTrinket. However, in the 2010s, a new sub-genre [[FromClonesToGenre began to form]]: the Magical Girl GenreDeconstruction, usually called "Dark Magical Girl" in anime fandom, though that is a [[DarkMagicalGirl different trope here]].

* ''Anime/MyOtome'' takes a minor subplot of [[Anime/MyHime its predecessor]] and puts it in full view: Magical girls have the power of fighter aircraft? Then they'll be treated as weapons of mass destruction and taken into the service of their nations, and they'll fight ''wars'' rather than the MonsterOfTheWeek. Also, the tendency for magical girl series to have a CastFullOfGay and strong yuri undertones is also spotlighted, because [[VirginPower sperm destroys the Otome nanomachines]], so Otome are [[SituationalSexuality expected to sleep with girls]], and the Academy's culture includes sexual relationships between [[SempaiKohai sempai and kohai]]. While the latter is fully romanticized, some Otome are actually straight and in love with men, leading to comedy and angst in equal proportion.

* VideoGame/HeroHoursContract is lighter than most examples, but this team of superheroines are underpaid.

2011's ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' is the TropeCodifier and GenrePopularizer for this genre (but it's not the UrExample). It's an anime which starts off looking like a normal Magical Girl story but [[WhamEpisode takes an unexpected turn three episodes in]], and portrays the stereotypical MentorMascot as a figure more akin to {{Mephistopheles}}. The series' twist proved popular enough that [[FollowTheLeader other works]] soon began exploring more serious interpretations of Magical Girls as well.

** Within the show itself, there's also Mina Loveberry, who's an obvious SailorSenshiSendUp but [[CorruptedCharacterCopy with darker undertones to her character]]. On the one hand, she's considered one of [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Mewni's greatest warriors]], having defended the land from Mewni's enemies for centuries. On the other hand, she's the result of a SuperSoldier project created by a [[FantasticRacism dangerously genocidal]] [[OldMaster past queen of Mewni]], and the unstable spells used in the project (combined with PTSD and her being [[Really700YearsOld much older than she looks]]) have left her [[BlackAndWhiteInsanity batshit insane]].

Compare to RealRobotGenre (in contrast to SuperRobotGenre), {{Capepunk}} (which takes a similarly deconstructive approach to superheroes), UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks, and NinetiesAntiHero (this could be considered to be to Magical Girls in the 2010s what these were to superheroes in the 1990s). Contrast NotWearingTights. In another comparison to the NinetiesAntiHero, it seems to have begun to burn itself out, with no new {{Anime}} entries in the genre in 2020, 2021 or 2022, and the ones that do pop up (in Manga or Light Novels) being held up to greater scrutiny.

2011's ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' is the TropeCodifier and GenrePopularizer for this genre (but it's not the earliest example). It's an anime which starts off looking like a normal Magical Girl story but [[WhamEpisode takes an unexpected turn three episodes in]], and portrays the stereotypical MentorMascot as a figure more akin to {{Mephistopheles}}. The series' twist proved popular enough that [[FollowTheLeader other works]] soon began exploring more serious interpretations of Magical Girls as well.

* In ''LightNovel/MagicalGirlRaisingProject'', a [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent middle schooler]] named Koyuki has always wanted to be a magical girl and still adores magical girls even after her peers have outgrown them. She plays a free-to-play mobile game called ''Magical Girl Rising Project'' that, rumor has it, allows one in every few thousand people to become a real Magical Girl (regardless of their age or gender). Koyuki ends up one of the people and gets [[AscendedFanboy turned into]] a Magical Girl whose alias is "Snow White". She and a group of other magical girls act as superheroes around their district. One day Fav, the fairy mascot who made them all magical girls, mentions that he accidentally allowed too many in one region and has to downsize by half. It's soon revealed that those who stop being magical girls die. Even if you voluntarily quit being a magical girl, you'll still die. This quickly leads into a BattleRoyale between the magical girls as each one fights to make sure they're not the one who is forced to quit, with most of them dead by the end.

* ''Anime/{{Witchblade}}'' is an aversion, subversion, and deconstruction all in one. Although both the Witchblade and the Cloneblades are equipped with a rather dark {{Transformation Trinket}} to occasionally fight a {{Monster of the Week}} [[spoiler:and each other]] in a {{Super-Powered Alter Ego}}, they hardly show any of the standard fancy tropes of their heroic magical girl counterparts: instead, [[BloodKnight they seek violence]] and their blades [[spoiler:are inadvertently destroying the body and mind]]. Where the Cloneblades are esentially expendable [[TheLabRat lab rats]] armed with a [[EvilKnockoff cheap knockoff]], the eponymous Witchblade [[spoiler:[[ArtifactofDeath treats its hosts no better]].]]

* ''Anime/{{Witchblade}}'' is an aversion, subversion, and deconstruction all in one. Although both the Witchblade and the Cloneblades are equipped with a rather dark {{Transformation Trinket}} to occasionally fight a {{Monster of the Week}} [[spoiler:and each other]] in their {{Super-Powered Alter Ego}}s, they hardly show any of the standard fancy tropes of their heroic magical girl counterparts: instead, [[BloodKnight they seek violence]] and their blades [[spoiler:are inadvertently destroying the body and mind]]. Where the Cloneblades are esentially expendable [[TheLabRat lab rats]] armed with a [[EvilKnockoff cheap knockoff]], the eponymous Witchblade [[spoiler:[[ArtifactofDeath treats its hosts no better]].]]

* ''Anime/{{Witchblade}}'' is an aversion, subversion, and deconstruction all in one. Although both the Witchblade and the Cloneblades are equipped with a rather dark {{Transformation Trinket}} to occasionally fight a {{Monster of the Week}}, they hardly show any of the standard fancy tropes of their heroic magical girl counterparts: [[BloodKnight they seek violence]] and their blades [[spoiler:are inadvertently destroying the body and mind]]. Where the Cloneblades are esentially expendable [[TheLabRat lab rats]] armed with a [[EvilKnockoff cheap knockoff]], the eponymous Witchblade [[spoiler:[[ArtifactofDeath treats its hosts no better]].]]

* ''Anime/{{Witchblade}}'' is an aversion, subversion, and deconstruction all in one. Although both the Witchblade and the Cloneblades are equipped with a rather dark {{Transformation Trinket}} to occasionally fight a {{Monster of the Week}}, they hardly show any of the standard fancy tropes of their heroic magical girl counterparts: [[BloodKnight they seek violence]] and their blades [[spoiler:are inadvertently destroying the body and mind]]. Where the Cloneblades are esentially expendable [[TheLabRat lab rats]] armed with a [[EvilKnockoff cheap knockoff]], the eponymous Witchblade [[spoiler:[[ArtifactofDeath]] treats its hosts no better.]]

* ''Anime/{{Witchblade}}'' is an aversion, subversion, and deconstruction all in one. Although both The Witchblade and the Cloneblades are equipped with a rather dark {{Transformation Trinket}} to occasionally fight a {{Monster of the Week}}, they hardly show any of the standard tropes of their heroic magical girl counterparts: [[BloodKnight they seek violence]] and their blades [[spoiler:are inadvertently destroying the body and mind]]. Where the Cloneblades are esentially expendable [[TheLabRat lab rats]] armed with a [[EvilKnockoff cheap knockoff]], the eponymous Witchblade [[spoiler:[[ArtifactofDeath]] treats its hosts no better.]]