Although its not quite as talked about as other genres, the magical girl genre of anime remains one of the most popular genres of anime because it has a surprisingly broad demographic appeal. While a lot of people are more into deconstructions of the genre these days, you wouldn’t be alone when you say you were a fan of these magical girl anime recommendations.
Best Magical Girl Anime
Madoka Magica
When people mention magical girls in the current sphere of anime, it is Madoka Magica they think of. It is a series that was highly praised in its day for deconstructing the classic magical girl tropes. The girls were adorable, their magical uniforms were cute, and they were viciously ripped apart in dangerous battles. It wasn’t something fans were accustomed to seeing, but they still ate it up.
Cardcaptor Sakura
Before the deconstruction era, Cardcaptor Sakura was easily one of the most popular magical girl anime series. It also has the benefit of being one of the more beginner friendly anime series out there and one that many were exposed to at a young age. The classic adventure of this pure magical girl series etched itself deep in the hearts of many.
Sailor Moon
For many western fans of the magical girl genre, Sailor Moon was very likely one of their first introduction to it. Though Sailor Moon was targeted at girls in the west, it is that broad demographic appeal of magical girl anime that hooked itself a few boys as well. To this day, Sailor Moon is considered quite iconic.
Shugo Chara
As it has more basic animation and doesn’t feature a girl that transforms into pretty dresses, Shugo Chara may not have been appealing to all magical girl fans. However, it is a magical girl anime about a journey of self discovery and reaching your full potential. It is on the stranger side of magical girl plots, but that’s actually a good thing.
Pretty Cure / Precure
Pretty Cure, or Precure, is one of those cult anime series. It has like over 600 episodes now, and it can be something difficult to break into. However, unlike shorter series, it doesn’t depend on innovation to the genre. It is a very pure magical girl series and its abundance of magical girl waifus has likely been what keeps it going.
Day Break Illusion
Magical girl anime really needs to have some creative and colorful character designs to get people hooked, but may not always have the animation to see them to their full potential. Day Break Illusion is one of the rare beasts that has both. It is an absolute feast for the eyes with an interesting battle plot to boot.
Princess Tutu
Old, odd, and absolutely a staple of the magical girl genre, Princess Tutu tells a story similar to the ugly duckling. In this series, a duck turns into a ballerina, then helps people through the power of dance. It’s actually way better than it sounds, and darker too.
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
Despite how it looks, this series is one more appealing to older audiences. While it starts off with a standard “go find all the things” sort of plot, it actually later develops into something much more mature and complex. As it looks much like any other magical girl anime, this has been a series a lot of people slept on, but shouldn’t have.
Yuki Yuna is a Hero
This is in a similar vein to Madoka Magica, but not as dark and melancholic. That being said, it is still both of those things, but never goes to the extremes. As it also has a focus on action featuring characters that all have their own problems, it actually creates quite the addicting adventure where you get really invested in these struggling magical girls.
Symphogear
This is one of the newer “pure” magical girl series that has gathered quite a fan base. In it, the magical girl tropes aren’t deconstructed. It is cute girls in cool battle outfits that have various degrees of lewdness. The major hook of it is that each girl fights with the power of songs. This means if your taste in magical girl anime intersects with an interest in anime music, it provides a heady mix of entertainment.
Magical Girl Me
What if…It was magical girls, but when the girl transforms, she turns into a buff guy in a magical girl dress? Obviously, this is a series angled at comedy, but it is definitely a fun romp.
Gonna Be the Twin Tail
Speaking of magical girl comedies, this is another one. This series combines obsession with the twin tail hair style and magical girl transformations. It also takes a guy and turns him into Twin Tail Red, a magical girl, so it is a bit of a gender bender as well.
Magic Knight Rayearth
Although an old anime now, unlike others from its time, this series has aged quite well. Part of the charm of this particular magical girl anime is that it added a dose of realism into a genre that can be a little over the top sometimes. It’s not necessarily violent, but the girls lose and the do struggle a bit. It actually makes the characters a lot more likable.
Flip Flappers
Flip Flappers dared to do something that wasn’t a deconstruction, but wasn’t necessarily conventional magical girl either. It created a beautifully colorful series in which girls explore an alternate reality and essentially become magical girls there. The colors and fluid animation carry it over its kind of hard to follow plot, but it is breathed a little innovation into the genre without making things violent as a way to deconstruct it.
Magical Girl Raising Project
This show snuck in at the hype of the battle royale phase that engulfed gaming. It takes magical girls and has them fight in a survival game. It tries its hand at being a tragic sort of show, but mostly it is just fun to watch girls in costumes fight each other to the death.
Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka
In this recent deconstruction, they combined magical girls with post-war trauma. It is essentially about a group of girls who saved the world once, having to do it again. Yet they are still pretty damaged from the ferocity of the last time they had to fight.
Magical Girl Site
In classic magical girl shows, bullying was often included as some sort of element. However, this deconstruction takes that and turns the dial to eleven. It creates not just one abused magical girl, but a whole cast of them, and shows you how they then use those powers.
Wonder Egg Priority
This is the most recent edition into the magical girl genre, and likely at a glance, you wouldn’t even know it. Wonder Egg Priority has girls enter a world in their dreams and help those with various trauma in hopes to revive the friends they have lost. While their clothes don’t change, they have special items that turn into magnificent weapons. It is melancholic and poignant more in the vein of recent deconstructions, but enthralling in its own ways.
Do you have more magical girl anime recommendations? Let fans know in the comments section below.
