A lot of us have seen the shows. Those shows that had those wonderful magical girls. The ones where girls will have their pretty transformation scenes and fight for the powers of love and justice and friendship. And as a little kid, those shows meant the world to me. They weren't necessarily to everyone taste, but all I wanted to be going up was a magical girl. But where do the shows come from?
Well, most people would say that a lot of the shoes actually come from Japan or the US. However, what most people don't realize is that while those countries have capitalized the most on the magical girl genre, they are not the only country to put out those types of shows.For example, some of the most popular traditional magical girl shows to air in the United States in the early 2000's were W.I.T.C.H, Winx Club, and Cardcaptor Sakura. Only one of these three shows is actually Japanese and none of these shows was originally produced in the US.
W.I.T.C.H was a show created in December 2004. The countries of origin for the show are Italy, France, and Germany. The original languages for the show are English, French, and Italian. The show was originally created by several different European animation companies and initially was shown in other countries before making its North American debut a few days after it's debut in Italy and France.
Winks club is an entirely Italian animated TV series. While FOX America did in fact purchased license to air the show in June 2004, by that point it had already been airing for four months in Italy. Finally the show Cardcaptor Sakura is a Japanese animated show. The show was actually animated in Japan back in 1998 following the release of it successful manga in 1996. Studios in America did not receive the license to hear the show until several years later in 2003. Thus the magical girl legacy is truly one that is global having far reaches to girls and definitely significant impact.
But why is it that I bring up these magical girl shows now? Well, as I stated before, they affect girls lives in a fairly significant way. The shows are some of the first real in representations of strong women that we get as young children. While there are other representations, like Disney princesses, these shows take girl power to the next level. But the sad part about it is when people grow up we tend to think that all of the magic is gone. And that can't be further than the truth there are many women who have gone on to lead wonderful lives.
And I hope that this article concerning serves as a small reminder to never really give up that magical aspect of your life. I know I never will sure I'm not going to be in my first job by storming across the room and pointing at the Boss saying "in the name of the moon I will punish you" like Sailor Moon. However, the interactions that I have with people will be ones that they will never forget just like you never forget those wonderful magical girls.
Many grew up wanting to be a magical girl just like on TV. Just as many people have given up on that dream as they've got older and realize they don't have powers. But, just because we don't have powers like our fave characters, doesn't mean we can't still be magical.
