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The magical girl genre is a subgenre of anime that is well-loved and iconic. Characters like Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon and Sakura Kinomoto from Cardcaptor Sakura live in fans’ minds. The genre has many similarities across the board: cute outfits, transformation sequences, and an emphasis on friendships are common tropes.
While magical girls often win — except dark magical girl anime like Puella Magi Madoka Magica — there are plenty of mistakes that they all make along the way. Often, these mistakes are made because of their young age and the very nature of the genre and its tropes.
10 Magical Girls Don’t Listen To The Magical Anime Guide
Magical girls are often guided by talking animal mentors who know much more about their magical powers than the girls do themselves. However, the magical girls do not always listen to their animal guides, even though these animals often have more knowledge and experience than the magical girls could ever hope to have.
Because of this folly, the magical girls often find themselves in situations where their guide either feels undervalued or in which the magical girls are backed into a corner they could have easily avoided otherwise.
9 Magical Girls Don’t Confide In Their Friends Enough
Shouldering so much responsibility alone is difficult, and while many magical girls keep their identities a secret to keep their friends safe or to prevent them from having to carry the same burden, they often forget that they also deserve help when they need it.
While some magical girls do seek out the help of their friends (some even rope their friends into being magical girls too), magical girls try to handle things on their own too frequently, and they shouldn’t be so afraid to ask for help.
8 Magical Girls Care Too Much About Their Everyday Life
Just because these kids become magical girls doesn’t mean they stop being children; and, as children, they have other concerns than just their magical girl duties. Plenty of them not only have schoolwork to deal with, but they also have friendships and romance to focus on.
While having magical powers and fighting crime is exciting and fun, kids will be kids, and they should be allowed to pursue their friendships and school life. Unfortunately, there is no time to play when the safety of the world hangs in the balance, and these characters make things worse by not prioritizing their magical girl duties.
7 Magical Girls Act Too Childish
Along with wanting to focus on their social lives, these kids are also pretty immature (especially Usagi Tsukino). Often, they’re in grade school. Some are as young as elementary school, so it stands to reason that they wouldn’t always make the most well-thought-out decisions. On top of that, they cannot be expected to react in a mature and adult way.
When all the glitz and glamour of being a magical girl has been pushed aside, these situations boil down to being traumatizing. Even worse, they’re being asked to be selfless before they even get through their childhood developmental stages.
6 Magical Girls Are Too Nice & Merciful
Magical girls are often focused on love, light, friendship, and mercy, so they typically don’t want to jump straight to killing villains if they can avoid it. For example, even after Galaxia had killed Sailor Scouts, Sailor Moon still wanted to save Galaxia and avoid killing her.
Sometimes they let villains go only for the villains to return and be a thorn in the heroes’ sides once again by hurting more people. Furthermore, the villains sometimes don’t get the punishment they need for the crimes they commit.
5 Magical Girls Rely On Unreliable Tactics
Magical girls often go out on a limb and win using tactics that would normally be irresponsible to rely on. For example, banking on the power of love to change a villain’s heart is a risky move. However, it often works — until it doesn’t. Sailors Uranus and Neptune were guilty of this when they tried to pull a double-agent plan with Galaxia.
Not confiding in the other Sailor Scouts was bad enough, but Uranus and Neptune’s real folly was in trusting a tactic that was too risky and had far too many consequences.
4 Magical Girls Get Obsessed With Romantic Interests
There’s only one plotline that hooks both fans and magical girls more than the world’s safety hanging in the balance: romance. From Tuxedo Mask (also known as Mamoru Chiba), Pretear‘s Hayate, or Syaoran Li of Cardcaptor Sakura, magical girl anime are filled with magical boys, princes, and strong protectors.
However, love interests often take up more of the heroine’s mind than their saving-the-world responsibilities do. In some cases, this leads to magical girl shirking their duties or being too preoccupied to save the day effectively.
3 Magical Girl Hero Outfits Do Nothing To Hide Their Identities
While magical girls most of the time don’t get their secret identities found out, since they are primarily children’s shows, there have been few magical girls who actively try to keep their identities a secret. Most often, they wear outfits and uniforms that do nothing to hide their everyday appearance. For some characters, these outfits are not even part of their powers but are just cool aesthetic additions.
Although this is usually enough in the anime’s world, in real life, this would never work. In more serious magical girl anime, this also may not fly and could get both the magical girl and their loved ones in trouble.
2 Magical Girls Don’t Give Up Even When Taking A Step Back Is More Helpful
Being headstrong isn’t a bad trait for a world-saving, kick-butt magical girl, but rushing in without a plan has been proven to be a bad idea. Furthermore, relying on blind faith may work in some anime, but it’s never a particularly good idea. On top of that, these characters often rely on hope and perseverance being enough to stop the villain.
Especially in darker shows like Puella Magi Madoka Magica, this tactic is not only a bad idea, it can be deadly. Often, a more level-headed approach in which the heroes take a step back and regroup would be more prudent.
1 Magical Girls Care Too Much
Caring about other people is a good thing and having compassion is a positive trait, but sometimes magical girls care about others to their detriment. Consider Sayaka Miki, for example. She died in part because of her love for both Madoka and Kyosuke.
Not only can caring too much blur one’s vision of their goals, but it can also leave one vulnerable to making hasty or illogical decisions. However, these characters are often children, so it’s hard to expect them to make the right decision every time.
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