In today's post, H.C., having heard the fallacy "Madoka killed the magical girl genre and made everything into ironic parodies or nostalgia milking" one too many times, goes into the actual reasons you don't really see as many new magical girl IPs nowadays and discusses how people who often claim to be "defending" the genre are actually just as guilty of underestimating it.
this is such a fantastic and comprehensive essay! it's really nice to see something like this that goes out of its way to maximize context--and display it really artfully! and it's similarly nice to have something so grounded not in abstract analysis of taste but in the material reality of the industry.
the discussion of "deconstruction" feels really good and meaningful, particularly since, as the essay points out, "deconstruction" has degraded as a term to the point of just meaning "it's dark (and that makes me unhappy!)" like, the analysis of Urobochi's works as being more about a critique of heroism resonates--I can't help but think of Re:Creators which has its magical girl character nearly bring down an entire building full of civilians in the second episode, but this character is contextualized by the fact that nearly the entire antagonist team is made up of heroic archetype characters, persuaded by the antagonist that they're fighting, essentially, sadistic gods (i.e. their own manga authors). that could be easily taken as "subverting tropes" or whatever but the story has more to say, particularly in light of its mid-story turn, about self-conceived heroic characters deciding who is a "deserving target".
I also, funnily enough, came away from this feeling more secure in my own gravitation towards "dark" magical girl works. sure, I gravitate towards a particular tone and subject matter. this is because I am not an elementary school girl but a middle aged lesbian goth. I'm sure there's marketing realities behind the "aimed at men!" charge leveled at some of these stories but when paired with the "it's yuri bait!" thing it starts to feel like veiled homophobia, like how dare adult lesbians have an interest in these stories. too bad, we're still here! and I think these works resonate to people like me not as tv tropes genre exercises but as, you know, lesbians with complex experiences.
meanwhile, I'm definitely feeling the discussion of what does and doesn't make its way over here, too, given one of the shows I've been enjoying most from the last season, Girls Band Cry, just didn't get picked up at all for release here. idk, just a lot of good food for thought here.