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[magicalgirllapinpuff]

Madoka Magica Design Reviews <3

Madoka Magica is my all-time favourite show...but also one of the most misunderstood by some people. I don't blame those people, especially as magical girls in general are misunderstood and dismissed...leading to a vibe of "Madoka isn't like those generic magical girl shows, it's GOOD" (said by people who have never interacted with another magical girl property before). I think we're moving past that though, thankfully.

I see Madoka as a very hopeful series about happiness and faith existing even within the most painful horror-filled situations, and about the strength of friendship, and love. Basically, against popular belief, I don't consider Madoka a "deconstruction" or even much of a deviation...I just think it's a very well-made, rightfully popular magical girl show for adults (and we need more shows like that!)

The writing is, imo, flawless, and the animation enhances this. Everything walks a nice aesthetic tightrope of cute and creepy, futuristic and vintage. So exactly my cup of tea. The Witches are basically my favourite thing in the world and I could spend hours talking about them, so maybe that'll be a future post? :o And the magical girl designs!! are my favourite of all time!!! There's so much to say...

Madoka Kaname

Madoka Kaname is our sweet pink poster girl, but in an interesting twist she doesn't transform until the very end of the show. Her design, like everyone in the Holy Quintet, is the ideal blend of simplicity and detail; everything feels cohesive and necessary on these costumes. Madoka's dress is a Classic Lolita style with bows and frills aplenty and pleasantly soft shapes, contrasted nicely with some sharpness from her hair and the top layer of her skirt. Madoka's design overall adopts the shape of a (shooting) star, representing her motifs of hope, light, and wishes.

The pinkish-red details go beautifully with the pink, as does the creamy yellow lace of her bodice. The tiny heart cut out of her back is a very cute detail. Her soul gem, on her chest, is roughly placed over her real 'heart' area and reminds me a little of Kyubey's...and it also, from afar, kind of looks like a wound. A literal bleeding heart. Madoka is, hands down, my favourite magical girl design ever. If you want to know how serious I am, when I was a fourteen year old with a constant magical girl alter ego daydream running in my head, I imagined myself with this costume...ha <3

Madoka's bow and arrow, made of a rose branch, is also super pretty, and they clearly considered the fighting styles that would suit each character best. Madoka's wish and personality varies across timelines, but her costume always stays identical, gunning down a few personal theories on how the costume design works...but I'd say Madoka's personality stays similar enough throughout the timelines for her idealised self as a magical girl to not change, same with the rest of the Quintet. I think Madoka's transformed costume is just her vision of a fluffy, idealised magical self, and it's perfect.

Sayaka Miki

Sayaka is introduced as Madoka's cheerful, outgoing friend who seems carefree but is surprisingly sincere and seriously in love. She's really lovable as a supportive-best-friend character but also ends up subverting that role and really coming into her own.

Note how this show flips the usual magical girl personality colour coding by making the lighthearted energetic girl blue, but I'm not sure if that was intentional, it's just neat. Her costume is based on a knight, mirroring her desire to save her crush Kyosuke and sweep him off his feet. I really love the simple outfit under the cape, which really suits her: it has a fashionable vibe with the belt and cropping, but also an asymmetrical skirt to hint at instability, lopsidedness. I'm really fond of the haircut--it almost looks like water dripping over her face. Sayaka's soul gem is a curved shape (a bit like a moon) over her belly button, suggesting vulnerability and yearning, and maybe connecting to the moon's control over water? Her general shape language suggests a teardrop, fittingly, and the colour palette gives subtle nautical vibes without any actual ocean imagery needed. Super clever.

Mami Tomoe

Mami is the flower-shaped magical girl with a flowery persona, projecting an air of wisdom and confidence despite being a child herself, and a deeply troubled, lonely child at that. Her magical girl costume conveys this by making her resemble a doll of a lady, or a child's idea of a refined adult. At the same time, Mami's ass-kicking is immediately suggested through the hunting elements of her costume and the muskets she uses. As someone who usually loves campy magical girl designs, I also love how the Madoka costumes are so subtly, tastefully themed but you still immediately know what's going on.

Mami's corkscrew pigtails balance her elegant persona with the truth of her age and innocence, and also call to mind her signature golden ribbons. I love the use of brown to compliment the yellow. The beret is another great touch--each Quintet girl has a hair accessory of sorts and it works well as one of a few features uniting these otherwise quite diverse styles and cut of costume. Mami's soul gem is on her hat, pointing to her knowledge as a magical girl veteran. The plum coloured stockings stand out in the yellows, browns and whites and yet they work perfectly, giving her lower half more visual interest. I didn't want to have to mention this, but I think it's important...the original Madoka anime gave Mami a more realistic body type, and it's disturbing to me that so much later material has ballooned her chest to comical, disproportionate size to force her into the "sexy" role.

Kyoko Sakura

Kyoko comes in to serve an antagonistic role but she's also immediately shown to be complicated, and softens quickly--she's really lovable for that. There's a cool contrast between her messy hair and the religious-looking, candle-shaped gown she wears (I guess in this case her hair is the flame). The dress is slightly longer, in the manner of many mentor-aged magical girls across the genre. The softer touches like the bow and frills point both to Kyoko's inner kindness and her background in church; the parting of her dress forms the silhouette of a church as seen from the front. I like this shade of cherry-red she's got going on, though I think the lack of contrast can be confusing on the eyes and I would have made her dress a slightly darker or lighter shade, personally. Kyoko's soul gem is on her chest, again, her heart. Her spear is a sick weapon, ties in nicely with her theming as Sayaka (the mermaid)'s foil, and it breaking into chains is always supercool.

Homura Akemi

This design is so iconic. Though I love Homura with the glasses more (so adorable), I think her costume makes more sense for her non-glasses self, and I get that, I'm sure that was designed first. I always thought glasses Homura would probably have a longer skirt, or even some goofy cute detail like a little witch hat, I don't know. It still works for both versions.

The (comparative) plainness of this costume makes sense, because Homura is a magical girl who lives and fights just for someone else and has little sense of personal identity. Her entire outfit seems to be a school uniform crossed with a flatter copy of Madoka's skirt, and with more modest long sleeves and full tights/boots. I love the shape and the layering of the sleeves. I love her shield!! There's something so cool and mechanical/scifi about it.

Only the small bows and skirt ruffles really suggest a conventional magical girl, and they're seemingly just what Homura emulated from her crush. With her hair down, she takes on a diamond shape--sharp, powerful--mirrored in her shield and her soul gem, which is on her hand, maybe implying her need to control things. The hand seems like a risky spot, but I have to believe they're pretty strong gemstones, since she's survived so long, lol. Homura is a bait and switch, taking on the role of a mysterious, antagonistic dark magical girl in the early episodes only to be revealed as heroic, and her design is perfect for this role. As an added bonus, it looks really good next to Madoka, which I'm sure Homura would be happy about.

Nagisa Momoe

Nagisa was surely designed after Charlotte, and they did a brilliant job of not just...copying the witch design, or palette. I think it's far more interesting that the witches don't necessarily have to look anything like their magical girls, though certain details can be similar. In Nagisa's case, she has polka-dot tights, Charlotte's head as her soul gem, and a a cute little hood from Charlotte's two forms. Her weapon closely resembles Charlotte's wormy form, but I'd guess this isn't how it looked before she witched out. I theorise it's more like how Sayaka summons Oktavia in the same scene, and how Nagisa can give herself Charlotte's face. Post-witch power-ups!

Nagisa looks like a little piping bag to me with her cream-like hair. Her soul gem is on her stomach because she's a sweet tooth, of course. The muted, brownish palette works so well; I think it's underutilised as a magical girl colour. Nagisa is just supercute. She has a 2010s twee vibe I really love, and fits in nicely with the original Quartet without feeling like she was designed to be part of their team, which would be a bit too convenient. It's a good balance. Also clever to make the first non-Quintet magical girl introduced a younger child to establish just how young magical girls can be.

I don't even mind the slightly Magical Girl Site esque edge of her magireco backstory that much. I mean, I'd prefer if it didn't exist (like most things about magireco) and for things to be left more to interpretation, but I liked a lot of the dialogue in it, and I find the idea of Nagisa's true self being more pessimistic and depressive interesting. That also lines up with the flat, dead expression of Charlotte throwing up a more energetic, happy creature. If you consider stuff in magireco canon (I personally don't) then her Rebellion self is Nagisa but allowed to be a happy carefree child for the first time, which is sweet.

[magicalgirllapinpuff]

Daybreak Illusion Design Reviews

I was obsessed with this anime when I was 12/13. I remember being extremely sick over Winter to the point of constantly passing out and having hallucinations, and watching this show kept me going. So I guess it's done some good in the world. Otherwise Daybreak Illusion is an amazing concept with a badly-written, morally disappointing execution, the kind you can only overlook when you're the same age as the characters and recycling your chicken soup into a mixing bowl. Still, even kind of trashy magical slop shows tend to have really good concepts (and often cute designs!), and that's what makes me especially sad about the missed potential.

I love the art style, I love the Tarot theme, I love what they have with the magical girls, and if you took out the especially tryhard edge and the underage nipples Daybreak Illusion could have easily been a good and even possibly a family-friendly magical girl show. I truly think it would have been better that way, because all it would have cut are the parts I dislike. Let's take a look at the best part of this show--the magical girl designs--and politely ignore the triplets because I have nothing to say about them. They're cute though.

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Akari Taiyo

Akari is the typical saintly cheerful protagonist with almost no emotional range and a sickly high voice. We only get hints of her nuance and that is a pity because her design is sweet enough for me to want to like her. The little sunny bob, the striped socks and the tie with the pin are all really cute personal details, and when she's transformed they play with her having a real alter ego, more serious, confident, and willing to fight, and with a way more tolerable voice. She's even got an emo bang, and her hair flares like fire in battle. I wish this alter ego thing had carried over to the rest of the girls, because transformation bringing a personality shift is one of my favourite magical girl tropes yet you almost never see it.

I really enjoy this show's bobbleheaded moe art style, which reminds me of some 90s cartoons or something by Studio Trigger, and it's such a shame it gets uncomfortably mashed with attempts to be "sexy". In other gross magical girl shows, they tend to make the teens look like adults...still deeply wrong, but it feels even worse in this show where the little girls look especially like little girls. On that note.

Luna Tsukuyomi

Oh, Luna...really deserved better. I don't want to talk about her wolf form (conceptually an interesting twist, but done disgustingly) or the obvious reason they gave her a larger chest, but otherwise it's a darling design, probably my fave in this show. Making the Moon card girl a sort of werewolf magical girl is adorable and I wish they'd done more with that. Luna can summon plants, which is a fresh interpretation of moon powers at least. Her frilly long dress just works so so well, though a little more so in her magical form. I especially love the beret and the choppy, almost grasslike hair. She's an elegant but timid rich girl with an obsessive crush on Akari and you do get a lot of that just by looking at her--there's a slight darkness to that stare, or maybe that's just the art style lol. The crush never felt believable anyway. Luna please let me scoop you out of this show and put you in a Precure season or something. (Thinking about it, these girls really are named like Precure characters lol)

Seira Hoshikawa

Seira is a serious, smart and athletic girl who butts heads with Akari early on. She's been a magical girl a little longer and is already close friends with Ginka at the show's start, which makes for a cute little Pinky and the Brain dynamic. Seira still feels a bit generic, but I see what they were going for...designwise she's really neat looking. The bright violet hair and star accessories seem like they'd be more at home on a happier, fashionista sort of character, not one who seems more interested in brooding and working out, but I think the contrast is actually sweet. I like her magical form--she's the Star girl, with ice powers, and that's another fascinating twist. Space is pretty cold. She uses a bow and arrow, also made of ice. Makes sense for her. The ice crystals on her hands and in the new hair is lovely, though I could do without that third ponytail. It just looks silly.

Ginka Shirogane

Ginka, arguably my real favourite character of the main four because she's fun, consistent, and actually has some complexity, is cheerful and outgoing with a love of takoyaki. Her dad (who I remember liking a lot) is rich from inventing takoyaki makers, but throughout a lot of Ginka's childhood they were very poor. This translates to her Temperance card form allowing her to summon piles of coins as a weapon, which is cute...if slightly confusing. She also has a big shield. I love how noodley her civilian design is, though my favourite part is probably the hair. It's just a fun simple style. I'm less sure about her transformed hairstyle...it's not bad, but I'm sure they could have done something more interesting with it. That's my general critique. The Nintendo Switch halo and wings are neat.

Etia

Etia is the World card and the soft-spoken, Princess Celestia esque headmaster of their magical girl school IIRC. She doesn't do much, which is a shame with such a gorgeous Gothic Lolita design. I really like this shade of mint and it meshes well with black.

Ariel

Etia's coworker/possible girlfriend? or twin sister I guess?? They never go into their relationship but you've got to at least like each other to wear matching inverted outfits. The boobs look disproportionate in an art style that only allows for one body type on a height slider, but otherwise she looks just as good as Etia.

Priscilla

She's the knife-throwing jester girl with the Fool card and she's one of the magical schoolteachers, which is hilarious with only four students. She's a veteran magical girl of sorts, presumably an adult, which is cool, and is in a duo with Meltina. I think her civilian outfit (other than the wrapped hair, I like that) is goofy but it oddly works when she's transformed. The huge hair pushes it safely into an acceptably campy territory I enjoy. The outfit still needs a bit of work lol.

Meltina

The Magician (can you tell? :p) and another one of the teachers. She has bombs and a broomstick. I like this concept of taking a fairly generic base witch costume, then adding all the little abacus charms and the big eye on the hat. She has more design changes between forms than most and I love the result. The dress turning into a jumpsuit is fun. I really like her, even if she basically does nothing in the show, ha.

[magicalgirllapinpuff]

Fresh Precure Design Reviews

A few months ago, if you asked me my favourite Precure season, I would have said Fresh. Then I rewatched Fresh with my housemate and...it's maybe not quite as good as I remember as a Precure hungry 11-year-old watching ten episodes in a row on my cracked phone after school. The art is ugly most of the time. There is a distracting amount of reused animation, most of which isn't good enough to want to see that much. The theming is...............confused.

But Fresh will always have a special place in my heart. When it's good, it is GOOD. Certain topics, like Setsuna's arc, are handled with maturity while still feeling accessible for kids. The villains are entertaining and a genuine threat, and Chiffon (despite being a Precure baby, which is the equivalent of one of those crusty dogs you have to pretend is cute) is actually quite sweet. The (second version) of the opening is, melodically, one of my favourite anime openings. The transformations have a cool sense of movement and liminality.

And the designs are peak, so I guess everything is forgiven.

Cure Peach

Love (the most on the nose and adorable name you could give a magical girl leader) is introduced as a cheerful airhead who means well but is often too pushy, but they never really confront that, which I thought was a shame. There isn't much of a sense of growth with Love, but I like her enough. I do like that Precure writes its main protagonists sort of the way some shounen heroes are written, as these cheerful clumsy types who get along with everyone. It's nice to see that flipped and applied to female characters.

Love likes dancing, which is also cute--her room has a bunch of posters of Trinity, her favourite dance group. I like that she's childhood friends with Buki and Miki. Her school uniform is okay, except the skirt which just looks kind of stupid in an otherwise more realistic look.

I've seen Fresh praised for giving the characters more "mature" bodies but, well, I don't know if I agree these look like their supposed ages. I always felt the Fresh girls were designed to be in high school but, because of Precure's 14 year old protagonist rule, they were put in middle school.

Cure Peach is one of my favourite Precure designs by far. She looks like a magical girl Barbie. I love that the uniform this season is basically a dance costume and the crossed ribbons and clover emblem really connect the four designs. The boots!! The pigtails!! Blonde hair works so well on a pink cure, and in this case kind of implies her peach palette. I really really like the hearts on her head and the way her everyday hairties are still there, only upgraded.

Cure Berry

On watching Fresh, my housemate said "I didn't know Berry was a diva, I thought she'd be a generic serious blue cure" and I think about that lmaoo. She really is a diva. I like the purple hair, and her uniform is also a lot nicer than Love's. This is another character I'm protective of because I grew up seeing a lot of fans rag on her for being "a bitch" or "vain", mostly because her catchphrase is "I'm perfect". So what? She IS perfect. Everytime a fanbase has a disproportionate amount of hate for a confident and/or hyperfeminine female character I wither away a little.

Berry's look is also so fire. There's some really nice colour distribution, especially the black stockings (underutilised colour in Precure designs imo) and the periwinkle hair--a gorgeous colour, and the shape kind of reminds me of frosting, lol. Or, well, blueberries. The big ribbon is so cute too. She's definitely showing her model side in this fit, the cut of it. I loveee.

Cure Pine

Buki is a vet-in-training and her theme is faith, since she's a Christian and her attack is a prayer. Which is really cool btw, I feel like we haven't seen anything even remotely like that again. She looks like she could be a background character, which is not an insult--I like when they do that, and it suits her initially backing away from the battlefield. I think Pine works next to her teammates, but not really on her own. The shoes are bad and there's not really much I like. The hair and the skirt are cute though.

Cure Passion

Okay this is an easy sweep. Setsuna is easily my favourite character in Fresh, and one of my top Precure. That's not a niche opinion, either. She has a really standout arc of redemption. She starts as a villainous member of a cult, is thrown out by the cult, dies of a heart attack, then gets resurrected into a Precure. She has a red herring in the show, too, an older dancer girl who looks comically like Cure Passion. But no, it's Eas! (Who, in her villain form, is absolutely NOT 13 unless this is Magia Record...I think that's mainly why I think these girls were designed to be older)

I wish Setsuna kept more of her personality when she got redeemed, but that's my only issue. She keeps a sense of her darker style, at least. There's something a little tentative and awkward about her civilian outfits which I like--when she's trying to trick the Precure, she wears an elegant white dress and hat, like she's cosplaying an innocent rich girl, and then later switches to something more authentic to herself.

Cure Passion is perfect, of course. Pink hair on red looks great, especially with the black as a supporting colour. Giving her a slightly longer dress and leggings makes a more mature look which suits her. I adore her angelic theming, the wing headset, the ruffles, aghh. And her harp weapon!! which itself has such a good design. No wonder it sold well from what I know. In concept art, Passion's outfit was planned to be a copy of Peach's, and I still kind of get that impression, just more subtly. It makes them match :] I think in my ideal world she would have respawned with the Peach copy dress on her first transformation, then maybe a few episodes later formed her own more unique outfit. That would have been cool.

[magicalgirllapinpuff]

Yes Precure 5/GoGo Design Reviews

I feel like Yes 5 has become very iconic, especially with its revival in recent years. This is another one I want to watch more of! I remember really loving the almost plague doctor mask aesthetic of the monsters of the week...which is one thing I can't often say about Precure lol. They're genuinely really creepy in this season.

(I won't be talking about the newer show where they're all adults bc it doesn't really count...the girls just revert to their teen magical girl forms which is a big missed opportunity to see more adult Precure imo. Especially with how adult Precure tend to get those cool ethereal looks to show they're more experienced/stronger. I also just don't love the designs they gave the girls as adults. Saki and Mai look good though!)

Cure Dream

Nozomi is cute!! (I fear you'll be hearing "____is cute" a lot from me in reviews haha) This is the start of more unnatural civilian hair/eye colours, though they're often still darker or more muted as civilians. Plus the start of the differences between civilian and mahou getting more extreme, which I tend to prefer in my own designs too. I really like early 2000s fashion and I would totally wear this outfit :p well, maybe swapping those shoes. I generally like Nozomi and I share the opinion that she really should not have been in that creepy ass relationship, shoujo fantasy or not lol.

The Yes 5 girls are designed to be a matching set, with their cute uniform of cream dresses and butterfly brooches, but they still look great isolated. Repeating what I said about a previous season, the early Precure girly-fighting-game-character look really appeals to me: the visible shorts and more movable outfits. Not that it's superior to more extravagant magical girls, but it has an equal charm, and does imply they're probably doing a bit more hands-on fighting (while still being adorable as hell).

The uniform being white and having the girls' colours as accents is smart! It looks great! And GoGo is the perfect upgrade. Everything just got enhanced, streamlined. I love the blazer over the ruffled dress, which just looks really satisfying and does a good job of subtly ageing the costume up a year. The new borders of hot pink really tie Dream's design together. The upturned collar is so cool too. All I miss is the shape of the original socks.

The cute butterfly hairclips are sacrificed for roses with golden leaves to match the new theme (which thankfully looks just as good), and still give the impression of her civilian hairclips being powered up, which is another thing I love in magical girl designs: personal details carrying over, being enhanced. Like Nozomi's pigtails becoming donut loops which is so iconic and my favourite part of Dream's whole design.

Cure Rouge

I love the subtle elemental feel of these designs, and the flame shape of Rouge's hair is perfect. I think the butterfly being purple is a little odd but doesn't look bad. I didn't mention their wristwatches before but they're very cool! Apparently the Yes 5 girls were also supposed to have full on vehicles, like, magical motorbikes, at some point in development and I wishhh we got that omg?

This is a really cool way to design a more masc ('this is the butchest girl Precure can handle' image here) magical girl :3

Cure Lemonade

This design always gives me cuteness aggression like she's one of those rubber toys you squeeze. Urara is so adorableee and I'm glad she kept a sense of this style in her adult design. I love pastel yellow.

Cure Lemonade has a really good name, too. She's the only Yes 5 Cure I think looks better in her original design. It was so fluffy and cute...I think the redesign loses a lot of personality. At least she kept the corkscrew pigtails, like, easily one of the best Precure hairstyles.

Cure Mint

I have a big soft spot for Komachi. She's my fave Yes 5 girl and one of my favourite cures overall. I'm a writer like her, so there's that connection...which I feel we don't often see as a hobby for cures--maybe it's hard to convey in animation? but also she's just such a nice girl. I love her design. She dresses like a cartoon rich girl but also kind of comfily--I gravitate towards characters who dress like cute grandmas. And she has a bob, so, bonus points. This season is where we start Precure's VERY colour coded civilian designs to a camp degree and I think it's sweet. And hilarious. Oh no, we have to find the green Precure, who could it be??

Cure Mint gives me Mew Lettuce vibes (even the names) and that is a compliment. There's something so satisfying about the way her hair starts in the 80s cut and then loops out into vine-like strands. Her shoes are a lovely colour which I wish they used for her dress stripes, too, over the uglier, more lime green. Her GoGo design is a big step up. The shoes peel out sort of like cabbages (cute!) and the hair has an even nicer, more definite shape. The new way her headband tapers around her head is my favourite detail. It's like a tiara! And the soft pink of the rose compliments her green so well...pastel pink and green is one of my favourite colour palettes. (Oh I'll get to my girl Felice someday...)

Cure Aqua

I remember Karen surprising me with how much I liked her. As a kid I never connected much to the serious student council president type characters, but I like them more now, especially when they have something more going on. Her being a pair with Komachi is also adorable. I'm pretty sure I used to ship them.

Cure Aqua always reminds me of a dolphin. Her hair is what I really remember about her design--the kinetic flow, the sharp ribbonlike cut which makes it look more like waves? It's SO good. And her headband is also sick, the sharp points of it...and her GoGo design is an upgrade. The visible coat-tails are a little confusing since they're so similar in shade to her hair but that's minor. If anything, the red brooch is also kinda mismatched now that her headband is pink.

Milky Rose

I feel very protective over Milky Rose, which maybe isn't fair when I haven't seen the show and the people who dislike her have, lmao. Still, I really enjoy annoying kinda selfish characters as long as they're meant to be annoying and kinda selfish and still have that balance of being nice people. In general I just saw a lot of misogyny in Precure fandom spaces growing up, so I'm wary. But it's also fine to genuinely just dislike a character! It doesn't make you a misogynistic. It's about WHY and HOW you hate them.

I really like Milk from what I've seen. The fairy form especially, omg. She looks like Lopmon my beloved. Her looking so different as a human is interesting and I like that. Her civilian outfit is kind of messy but I feel that's intentional, like she's a fairy trying to be a human and dress herself for the first time. She did a pretty good job.

Milky Rose is GORGEOUS. When I first saw this design my jaw dropped. I lovee that twilighty shade of purple and it goes so well with the white. Everything here just works well. She matches the team while having that sense of being special. She looks more like a Yes 5 character than GoGo, which is a cute detail, like she's replicating the Precure she knew. I've always really liked her name, too...these Precure who get their power source from some other source so they're kind of Precure, kind of different? We only got two of them really but they were fun while they lasted.

[magicalgirllapinpuff]

Precure Design Reviews: Futari Wa/Max Heart

Hi! This is the start of a series where I'll look at magical girl designs and give my thoughts :) Magical girls have been my biggest interest as far back as I can remember, so I wanted to share my heart a bit.

I tend to basically like basically every magical girl costume as long as it's cute and fun so a lot of this might be fangirl gushing but that's fine, ha. I can be equally scathing if I REALLY don't like something but that tends to only happen if it's, like, morally wrong.

I'll give brief thoughts on the series I'm discussing and will include civilian forms :3 But special forms and minor characters may be reserved for separate, future reviews.

Kudos to Precure wiki (and other respective magical girl fandom wikis) for the images I'll be using!

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Futari Wa Precure Max Heart

This is the Precure series that started it all, and the series that started at the same time I started being alive. I remember seeing the dub on TV as a kid, and I was immediately drawn to magical girls and the Precure series. The dub is good, by the way! Other than a few name changes (just a product of dubs at the time) it's very faithful and the voice acting really fits the characters.

I've not yet seen Max Heart, but Futari Wa is a dear series to me. I love the vibe of 90s/early 2000s anime aimed at girls, and there's just something really pleasant, almost earthy, about this season. I love the bright peppy pastel direction Precure soon went, but I equally love these earlier seasons, which are a bit more muted and combat-focused. Plus Nagisa and Honoka have an adorable bond, arguably my fave of all Precure duos.

Cure Black

Nagisa is the sportier, more openly emotional half of the girls and she's a super likable protagonist. She's a nice girl but still feels believably complicated, allowed to show her frustrations. I don't tend to connect to endlessly forgiving, endlessly nice leader magical girls, so it's appreciated! I also like that she's a little less conventionally feminine presenting without that being a bad thing that needs to be "fixed". (Other anime could take notes lol)

Side note but Precure literally always nails school uniforms. They look pretty realistic but with that cute mahou flair!

Early Precure definitely have that Sailor Moon thing of not really being disguised in their magical forms, which has never really bothered me since I just assume it's some kind of magical protection veil making sure nobody recognises them. (Miraculous Ladybug may be a mess but at least they got that detail in)

I know these Precure designs might seem a bit simple compared to what we get now, but I really like that, especially since these are very hands-on, combat magical girls--Black and White only really use magic for their special attacks. They kind of look like girly fighting game characters! These two are inspired by Gothic Lolita specifically which is a neat reference point! I love that fashion style. Black just has a really good design imo, I love everything. The frills, the leg warmers, the heart belt...and, since they were already so good, Max Heart doesn't fix what isn't broken. Instead, they add some uncluttering but extra-nice details and the result is improving on perfection. I'm glad they didn't change too much. Max Heart Cure Black mainly just gets some extra pink and black, some extra frills, and gold instead of silver to match her new teammate Shiny Luminous. So good!

Cure White

Honoka was one of my favourite Precure from the second I saw that shot in the opening of her innocently mixing chemicals and causing an explosion aghh she's adorable. I tend to love characters who are scientists, even though I suck at the subject myself. Honoka is the more academic, reserved half of the two, and she has a really sweet personality. I love her sm. (Also we totally need more magical girls with black hair)

Cure White looks more different transformed than Nagisa/Black, with her different hairstyle, which is really cute. It gives her a princessy vibe, especially with her outfit. It's simple and elegant but still looks like something you could kick ass in. I think she looks even better in Max Heart, especially the pouch hanging off her new belt buckle. The gold seems a little less fitting on White, but I like that contrast. The new skirt is also very princessy and sweet.

Shiny Luminous

Hikari my baby is definitely winning the Precure forehead off. Despite never watching Max Heart, I've always really loved her in clips I've seen. Adding anyone to the dynamic of Nagisa and Honoka would be hard, but Hikari's almost apathetic-seeming quietness works well and has an in-universe explanation. The way she seems to forget to pose at the end of her transformation and then last-minute raises her arms with a dead expression always makes me get cuteness aggression LMAO.

Shiny Luminous is such a me design. I love pink and white and gold combos, and she's soo cutesy with all those ribbons and frills. The longer, straighter dress with the angelic shoulders matches her being reincarnated royalty. And she still matches the other two so well! Making her a softer pink so she doesn't step on Black's toes was smart. Her pigtails are one of my favourite Precure hairstyles; they have enough detail and shape to feel shockingly like real hair while still having a fantastical element with the length and faint heart silhouette. And the bright golden yellow framing the soft pink is so effective!

[magicalgirllapinpuff]

Tart Magica Design Reviews <3

With the event in Exedra, the Tart girls were on my mind again!

The inevitable hurdle with Madoka spinoffs is that telling a satisfying story of normal magical girls would be tricky when their fate is plainly to die. (Madoka works so well because it is the end of that cycle.) Most spinoffs go a little too melodramatic to avoid this imo. But Tart Magica has the advantage of being historical-inspired fiction about one particularly high potential magical girl, and it's probably my favourite of the Madoka spinoffs. It's just a lot of fun. I'll be judging these designs unlatched from the real history and just focusing on this Madoka-fied version.

Tart

Immediately, the poster girl is my favourite design from this series. The cute art style of her origin manga is a bonus (I just have to use mobile game models instead to show the colour scheme), but even separated from that this look is adorable and very functional. She's a clear visual balance of magical girl and knight. The colour palette is this sweet soft pink on white I have a bias for, but also the pops of green and brown are lovely, smart choices. The armoured glove unbalances the design in a way I find cool...everything here is just very intentional-feeling, and shares that with the original Madoka. It's uncluttered, but also frilly and cute. It's perfect. Tart herself is also an adorable character, saintly without feeling unrealistic. I like that her innocence is not a flaw, not something that has to be disturbed; it's just a part of her, even allowing her to better treat others with empathy.

Liz

Liz definitely looks nicer in her original art style (future material, as above, has given her the Mami treatment) but this outfit is still really cool. Since she wished for a hero, it makes sense she'd resemble the shadow OF that hero, and the effect is neat, broken where necessary with just enough white. She looks like a crow to me and that is a compliment. Her soul gem being a reflection of her intent to bring light to the world is also a cool touch! I really liked Liz and her death did actually get to me...I teared up a little. My only design critiques are personality-design harmony based: I feel like the cropping of/and the short tennis skirt are a bit out of character. I wonder if a full, fastened cloak might be more fitting for Liz, but as it stands I like this look.

Melissa

This one is so cute!! Melissa is a sweetie and I like her contrast of polite devotion and an occasional temper. I'm not usually much of a dark blue person but I find it pretty when done well, like here, especially against the black. I love her hairstyle, her hat, her tie and the floral pattern against her skirt...I love the little hearts too.

Eliza

I lovee Eliza, she's really my favourite type of haughty character. This is a fairly intricate costume with all the tiny details and gold embroidery, but I don't find it tips the scales into 'too much'. The standout detail for me is the cut of her hems of course, it's so sick. The palette of red and gold is beautiful...I just really like this look. I personally would have made the corset white or gold though.

Corbeau

Oh this is sickkk I've always loved this costume so much. There's a bit of a strange cut to the trousers, but it's not too bad. I find the Tart Magica antagonists cartoonishly villainous but lovable, sort of in a very twisted Team Rocket way. Sometimes cartoonishly villainous characters are just very fun, as long as they're not MEANT to be too sympathetic at the same time. I really like the wing-shaped cloak and its lining, which is pale enough not to blend into the silver hair. I really like Corbeau's haircut, too, very Ramona Flowers...it's pretty much the hair I have irl.

Minou

This is another banger magical girl villain design...it's clearly pretty booby but I remember these characters being adults so that's no issue. It's an interesting take on the black catsuit trope, peeling it out into an evening dress, and I find that really neat, especially with the silver accents. She kind of has an emerging cocoon look, which if intentional is great symbolism. I love the cut of her gloves, her tiny bell, her cool mask, and goshh her cat o' nine tails train!! It's also interesting that she resembles Tart, like she's her evil alter ego. They don't comment on it, I just find it neat. I really love this look.

Lapine

I have such a soft spot for Lapine...I love bunnies, I love pink, and I love cute but scary characters. I think this is probably objectively the weakest Tart design, with too many clashing pinks (especially the arm warmers, eugh) but I can't help but still like it. It seems to be going for a vague stage performer aesthetic (just realised I have a Madoka OC with this exact bunny-magician combo) and I wish they'd leaned into that more! I think this could benefit from more black to match the skirt and her sisters. Still, it's pretty cute, especially the fluff trimmings and the very Tokyo Mew Mew hairstyle. I really love her witch form, which is probably roughly what I'd end up looking like too.......

Pernelle

I don't actually remember much about Pernelle in the manga, but she's an older adult magical girl which is pretty cool--the costume also does a pretty good job of balancing a magical look with maturity, though more details would have been welcome too. A more plain, monochrome design, but it suits her. The gold accent charms don't work too well in the palette, but their planetary shapes make for cool details...

I think my favourite part is her hairstyle. The looping shape is really satisfying!

[magicalgirllapinpuff]

Smile Precure Design Reviews <3

Like a lot of people, the questionable English dub was what got me (back) into Precure as a kid. I have fond memories of Smile Precure, and its cheerful rainbow fairytale aesthetic was really pleasant. I like all the characters a lot too!

Cure Happy

You'll notice the Smile girls have a really vibrant palette, and that their outfits are fairly uniform--both things work really well! They look like a cute marching band. Miyuki, the classic cheerful leader, has distinct drill pigtails and a cute but comfy, moveable looking outfit. She's very pink (all the girls in this season have matching eye and hair colours) so the pops of yellow help to break it up. The tiny cowlick also hints at her personality--Miyuki is pretty slapstick, often the comic relief. I don't think anyone could say anything bad about the Smile Precure designs and neither could I; Cure Happy is just adorable. I'm really impressed by how the Smile costumes convey fairytale princess, fantasy knight, and angel all at once. And, again, some sort of marching band. Happy's hairstyle is one of my favourites from all across Precure (though the thinner strands are a slight pain on her figurine I own, lol) and I like that her elemental power is the somewhat vague and slightly funny "Holy Light". While the Smile girls wear a uniform, they're also subtly differentiated through the coat-tails, sleeves, bows, and footwear. It makes each one of them unique, while as a team they look very coherent.

Cure Sunny

Akane is a sporty, outgoing, honest girl. I like her snuggly oversized fit a lot. Cure Sunny wears the uniform of the other girls, but they keep Akane's personality in a way I can't quite place...she just has that sporty sense. Maybe it's the hair being out of her way, and the detail of her skirt (like March's) not having the other girls' layer of frills. I appreciate that they switched things up a bit, going with orange to represent fire rather than red!

Cure Peace

Yayoi is a fan-favourite, and she's one of mine too, even back when I was a kid. She's a timid, nerdy artist with big wet eyes, so go figure she gives us all cuteness aggression. Pairing someone so sweet and shy with electric powers is a really neat idea! Cure Peace has a ponytail that sort of looks like bananas, an extra frilly skirt, and coat-tails which resemble a cape, maybe a nod to her fascination with comic books and superheroes. So adorableeee.

Cure March

I honestly can't remember a ton about Nao, but I liked her. She's sort of a big sisterly character, and also a literal big sister to a lot of siblings, which makes her serve as the group's voice of reason a lot of the time. She's also into sports, like Akane. She definitely has that ready-to-go look, kind of a hiking vibe, and it definitely looks like something she'd choose to wear. I do wonder if her ribbon would have worked nicer in a different colour, just so it's not accidentally matching Miyuki's. Cure March is probably the most noticeably different alter ego of the group, unrecognisable in a really cool way. Her hair is so ridiculously big and plasticky and I love it; because March is a wind elemental, her hair is designed to flow in battle. I like that she's green as a wind elemental too. It just feels right. Side note, I've always really liked her cure name. It's an example of Precure going for something a little more subtle, which they often do.

Cure Beauty

Reika is the serene and smart girl, and she likes archery. Sweet that three of five of these main girls are athletes! You don't see that a lot in magical girl media. Her hair is really aesthetically pleasing in colour and cut and the combination of elegance and comfort in her outfit is nice. Cure Beauty, meanwhile, is just gorgeous. Her hair kind of resembles her ice arrows and just has a nice shine to it. The dark blue panelling is probably what makes this look go from beautiful to perfect.

[magicalgirllapinpuff]

Magia Record Design Reviews (Magius)

The Magius are a cult of magical girls seeking liberation from witchdom and that's such a badass concept, but was pretty poorly-done. I always thought the amount of their members was a bit silly and they end up comically evil but still meant to be sympathetic...it just doesn't quite work. Their designs are a step up from the main cast, though.

Touka Satomi

Touka is realllyyyyy annoying and I'm sure her VA is lovely and is doing what the director tells her to but that voice is not helping at all. She's the big bad of the Magius, and her backstory is basically that she was in a hospital room for some vague illness with two other kids called Nemu and Ui and then they all somehow figured out exactly how magical girls and witches work and stole Kyubey's powers with their own wishes. It's definitely silly, especially with how these three are meant to be about eleven, but I think with better writing it would have been interesting. If they were just normal child prodigies maybe, not so extremely...

As it stands, Touka is just cartoonishly evil and they never much go into her child genius thing aside from her namedropping scientific terms (which, if intentional as her overcompensating, could have been cool!). I usually find these bratty rich kid characters endearing but Touka just has nothing much to like other than her perfect design. She has a big parasol weapon and that little rich anime girl dress which I think is supercute; she's probably one of my favourite Magireco designs overall. The palette is so beautifully dark academic, the cage skirt is a cool idea, and it forms a pattern with the other two Magius leaders: Touka is a cage, Nemu is a prisoner, and Alina is a jailor, as we'll see. Also, Touka, Nemu and Ui sort of have a vague magical girl trio look to them, which is nice and makes sense, though it slips a bit with our next girl.

Nemu Hiiragi

Nemu is the super booksmart little child genius, but she's a bit more likeable than Touka because she seems more capable of feeling remorse and guilt. Her cape and hat are very cute for the little scholar theme, though her 'jailor' theme hardly comes across. They tack a (removable, I must assume) ball and chain to her ankle in some art, which is kinda cool, at least. The dress is what bothers me, because it has nothing visually appealing or reflective of Nemu. I think if it had sleeves it might look less awkward...she just doesn't quite fit with Touka and Ui's somewhat friendship bracelet costumes. Also I don't get why she'd take her glasses off when she transforms...they kind of fit your whole theme, girl. If you can wear an ankle bracelet for the aesthetic you can keep your specs on. But this is an inoffensive look; it's still pretty sweet as magireco goes.

Ui Tamaki

Ui isn't technically an active Magius member, but she created the system so I'm putting her here. She's Iroha's breathing macguffin the whole game and as you can imagine she's kind of boring, which must be genetic. But she is adorable. I like the construction of this costume, the darker palette compliments the pink, and I especially love the beret and the subtle moth elements. I like her hair too. Very very cute, no notes.

Alina Grey

Oh, Alina. Her whole thing is that she's the crazyyy insaneee girl who does insaneee things because she's insaneee and okay with murder and still she's one of the best characters in the game lol I love Alina. She's a deeply eccentric artist who does things like theme her Doppel after a virus (though it's probably a good thing she changed which type) and film her suicide for attention. She's got a surprisingly cute friendship with fellow artist Karin. She uses gratuitous English. In the anime, she fuses herself with the final boss just for fun and the resultant witch name is hilarious, you really have to look it up. Her power is weird little floating cubes. She's such a dork and I have to support her. Best of all, her design is REALLY good. The rainbow skirt with the black, prison warden look is very effective and she's pretty fashionable with the translucent puff sleeves and waist ribbon. Her hair being green is also a neat contrast to the black.

Mifuyu Azusa

Mifuyu's design is a little lifeless but I really like it for some reason. Sure, she looks like a gijinka of a vacuum cleaner, but the colour palette is soft and appealing, the haircut is adorable, and her weapon works with what she has going on. I think, if anything, her hair ties were unnecessary, but I don't mind them, they're sweet. I would have probably made her socks black too and changed the red ribbon of her corset to a darker shade. Side note, her civilian outfits, like her ex girlfriend Yachiyo's, are really good. I really wish they did more with her character because I do like her a lot.

Amane Sisters

Their annoying asses...anyway, their designs are pretty nice, and I like their personalities sometimes...it really depends on the scene/event. These two are the trope of inseparable telepathic twins but at least it makes sense since their wish was to be super close to one another and be best sisters forever or something. Not sure about how they push that into borderline incest territories; I guess if they'd made that a horrible side effect of their wish it would have worked, but it just feels pervy as it stands. These fits are good. I like the matching socks and the frilly sleeves.