UPDATE: D. G. D. Davidson responds.
Yesterday, I read a number of blog posts by D. G. D. Davidson, the owner of the blog Deus Ex Magical Girl. In these articles, he explores the reasons ([1], [2]) why the magical girl genre, long associated with optimism and cuteness, has taken a dark turn recently. Other bloggers, such as Rachael Lefler and Christopher Kinsey, give their own explanations for the shift.
All of these are good and thoughtful, but I think the root cause is far simpler.
This chart says everything.
Magical girl series are dark today because there are fewer little Japanese girls to aim a traditional optimistic series at. Though the modern anime industry is far more globally integrated than it was in 1991 (when the Sailor Moon manga was first published), a series still has to get some play in its home country before trying to go worldwide.
Remember that child-focused anime aren’t only trying to sell themselves, but associated merchandise as well. Before, they could aim at parents. Now, since there are way fewer parents and way more childless adults (who have way more disposable income), magical girl anime no longer have to be child-friendly. There’s no money in the children’s market anymore because there are too few children.
Note that with the My-HiME anime (about a contest where magical girls have to kill each other), the dark trend was already becoming apparent — and that was in 2005. 2012’s Puella Magi Madoka Magica, however, blew the genre to pieces the way Watchmen did with American superhero comics and Neon Genesis Evangelion did with mecha anime. Now every magical girl anime will either imitate Madoka Magica or react to it.
I also believe there is a nostalgia factor; the 90s kids are adults now, and they want their entertainment to “grow up” with them. Combined with Japan’s demographic problems, this was a perfect storm for magical girls to go dark.
Like Davidson, I don’t like this trend toward ever-darker entertainment. However, it’s important to understand that the causes of these shifts are simpler than we realize.
Then the question becomes why can’t they create optimistic magical girl shows for adults?
They can make optimistic mecha and sentai for adults then surely they could do the same for magical girl. Something like Heartcatch Precure focused on adults could be very powerful if done right. It has all the right elements and could shift very well to an older audience. But no one has ever done it.
It is as if positivity is for children and negativity is for adults, which is just plain wrong. That nihilism also contributes to why Japanese birthrates are so low to begin with. They should be giving their audience some hope, not grinding their heel down on those who already have their head in the dirt.
I would think Japan would be sick of this kind of stuff by now. It’s been decades of it. A new approach is needed.
You raise a good question. Perhaps the birthrate is merely a contributing factor.
The nihilism is a question separate from the birth rate.
It’s called Lyrical Nanoha, quite an extensive franchise, aimed at the older male audience and much more upbeat. It is sometimes credited with being the first magical girl show aimed explicitly at otaku (it wasn’t, but became the best-known). It made its appearace, perhaps not coincidentally, the same year Pretty Cure did.
An excellent point. Thanks for shedding some additional light on the topic.
Rawle,
but the nihilism isn’t separate from the declining birthrate they’re intertwined.
I’ve taught many Japanese students especially women and this is what I’ve learnt/discerned
1) Japan is a very patriciarchial society where the moment a women falls pregnant, she’s immeditaley fired. I’ve had students tell me that the company wrote the resignation letter and in some cases forged theirs signatures.
2) Following from (1) many capable and competent women (who in some cases would do a far better job running Japanese companies) are regulated to overglorified coffee servers who simply don’t matter. Those that break the glass ceiling are equivalent to nuns but with no community to support them
3) When they have kids, they’re expected to practically raise them on their own because the husband is litterally forced to go boozing with the office mates and supervisor after work on top of the regular work. Worse is that the moms can never really go back to work even after the kids are old enough
4) The atmoic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki allowed them to regard themselves as victims of WW II rather than come to terms as aggressors who committed war crimes. But deep down they know perfectly well their role and as a form of atonement they’re volunteering to disappear.
5) Japan is a cruel, unsentimental society to those who are odd, eccentric, creative or non conformist.
Hence many of the Japanese students- particularly females- are both frustrated and deeply melancholic. Consequently, it’s not hard to see the dark turn in pop culture.
I dislike a lot of the contemporary animie and manga precisely because the nihilism is so in your face and histrionic.
xavier
Didn’t know this, though I strongly suspected that something like this was afoot. Thanks, Xavier.
Rawle,
You’re welcome. There’s a nihilism that pervades the society. So much so that many men and women have never really socialized or even engaged in intimate relations. We’re talking people in their 20s and 30s.
The rampant consumerism is a very poor substitute for what the Japanese had before WWII
Man. That makes it sound like the entire society needs a giant collective hug.
Starting to understand a lot more about Paranoia Agent too.
I bet 3 is why dad is often absent in anime.
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As usual, there can be multilayered reasons behind this so none of this is really a contradiction.
I do think we should note that humans just have a love of contradictions. For the flip side, go diving into the Warhammer 40k memes and note how much they like to make it light and fluffy. Likewise we’ll take something light & fluffy, and darken it up for the lulz.
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I’ve seen several anime where the villains have depopulation as their goal, which might be related to Japan’s population trends.
I was surprised when last year’s Avengers movie did similar, I don’t think I’d ever seen that from Hollywood before.