hey I just read your post on PMMM as a deconstruction of the magic girl genre, from 2013. I clicked your blog and wow you're still talking about magical girls 10 years later! I really admire your enthusiasm, it makes me happy when people are so passionate about something!
I guess I should ask something then, how do you feel the genre evolved or changed from 10 years ago to now? lots of trope changes? any modern magical girl show you enjoy?
Oh wow, thank you so much! If you're interested, I rewrote that PMMM deconstruction post literally just a few months ago.
As for trope changes- I would say the biggest change in the past 10 years is that following the success of PMMM a lot more magical girl shows are adult-focused and darker than the standard fare. It's not as common now but for a long time we were inundated with Madoka clones, lol. Except most of them didn't have PMMM's heart and soul so they kinda fall flat.
In general I've also noticed a steady decline of the genre. The 90s and 2000s were full of traditional magical girl warrior shows, and in the wake of PMMM the 2010s had a lot of "edgy" magical girl shows. But now, aside from Precure, there really don't seem to be consistent entries in the genre.
It makes me very sad. It's not like magical girls are extinct or anything, far from it, but imo it's not the popular genre it used to be. I swear 75% of the anime coming out nowadays is isekai or vaguely fantasy themed in general and it just holds no appeal to me. You'd think with the dozens upon dozens of anime that get made every year they could squeeze in more magical girl shows than Precure.
I'm hoping that the magical girl genre goes through another revitalization. Sailor Moon reinvented the genre in the 90s, and PMMM was another trailblazer that changed the direction of the genre. Who knows, maybe we'll see another breakout hit in the 2020s.
