Ask John: Is My Hime Really A Deconstruction of the Magical Girl Genre?

Question:
My friends keep insisting that My-HiME is a “deconstruction of the magical girl genre” that parodies all of the genre’s major tropes. Admittedly I’ve only seen a little bit of My-HiME & a few magical girls shows from start to finish, but I’m failing to see the connection. John, what are you thoughts?

Answer:
I have a great deal of respect for the critical and academic examination and critique of anime. However, in our eagerness to justify anime as respectable, legitimate art rather than negligible children’s cartoons, particularly English speaking otaku have a tendency to exaggerate and compensate. The desire to grant substantive significance to certain anime may be a means of justifying or rationalizing, either trying to establish a reason beyond reproach for watching a particular anime, or an attempt at elevating the self to a position of greater status and intellect. This tendency surfaces in attempts to retroactively apply modern conventions to older anime, for example, the argument that Angel of the Angel Cop OVA series is a tsundere or that Hokuto no Ken is actually a reverse harem story. In the same way, for the same reasons, otaku may try to argue that series like Ergo Proxy and Texhnolyze that seem profound and symbolic are profound and symbolic when, in fact, they’re actually just stylistic and pretentious. I haven’t watched My Hime in several years, so my recollection of its nuances has diminished. But I think I recollect the series adequately to address its primary characteristics and themes. My Hime is, certainly, an unconventional magical girl show. But the fact that it’s different from conventional magical girl anime doesn’t mean that it’s a deconstructive subversion of conventional magical girl characteristics.

In order to define My Hime’s position in the scope of magical girl anime, it’s first necessary to define the traditional and routine characteristics of magical girl anime. Per the necessity of the title, magical girl anime star girls who use magic. In many cases, such as Ojamajo Doremi, Sweet Mint, Maho no Yousei Persia, Minky Momo, Fancy Lala, and Magical Melmo, the titular magical girls are elementary or junior high school girls. Typically magical girls have a talking animal or fairy mascot partner character. Examples of this characteristic appear in series including Minky Momo, Fancy Lala, Sweet Mint, and Mahou Shoujo Lalabel. Typically magical girls either use their power to benefit themselves or their friends in routine, daily situations – such as Ojamajo Doremi and Himitsu no Akko-chan – or use their magic abilities to defend the world from the machinations of evildoers – such as in Sailor Moon, Wedding Peach, and Tokyo Mew Mew. And typically magical girls must keep their magical abilities and alter-egos secret, such as in Ojamajo Doremi, Himitsu no Akko-chan, and Hime-chan’s Ribbon.

My Hime is definitely a more mature and less conventional magical girl series than typical, traditional examples, but a primary reason for that difference lies in My Hime’s different target audience. Unlike typical magical girls shows targeted at preadolescent girl viewers, My Hime is a series targeted at adolescent and young adult male viewers. So My Hime feels darker, more grim, and more serious than typical bright, cheerful, humorous magical girl shows made for female viewers. But the fact that My Hime is darker and more serious doesn’t necessarily mean that it contradicts or undermines the conventions its based upon. The characters in My Hime are high school girls. So they’re older than the magical girls of shows like Doremi and Akazukin Chacha, but they’re the same age as the characters in conventional magical girl anime including Pretty Cure and Sailor Moon. The My Hime girls don’t magically transform, but magical girls like Majokko Tickle and Mahoutsukai Chappy don’t transform, either. The My Hime girls don’t have mascot characters, but neither do Akko-chan, Tickle, Melmo, or Meg-chan. Finally, unlike conventional magical girl anime, the characters in My Hime are forced to battle each other instead of using their magical powers to defend the world from evil. However, I question the extent to which the girls using their magical abilities to protect their loved ones varies from or undermines the familiar concept of magical girls using their magic for their own gratification or to defend their hometown or world. My Hime, along with Lyrical Nanoha and Pretty Cure, introduced a new variety of more violent, action-oriented magical girl anime, but I’m not convinced that My Hime is such a departure from magical girl convention that it constitutes a deconstruction of conventional tropes.

Rather, I’ll suggest that it’s actually creator Shoujo Kawamori that deserves recognition for introducing magical girl anime that genuine subvert and deconstruct the familiar tropes of the genre. Kawamori’s 2001 television series Chikyu Shoujo Arjuna subtly brought elements of Buddhism into the magical girl genre and introduced a magical girl whose duty was not to destroy darkness but rather to gain understanding of it and coexist with it. Unlike routine magical girl anime that depict girls gradually getting stronger and developing new powers and earning new equipment and weapons, Arjuna actually gives up abilities in order to become more receptive to the influences that she seemingly opposes. Kawamori’s recently concluded Anyamal Tantei Kiruminzoo similarly undermines the fundamental constructs of magical girl anime by subverting the magic and giving it genetic and scientific origins. Furthermore, early on in its development, Anyamal Tantei Kiruminzoo begins to abandon the traditional secrecy and mystique required of magical girls. Nearly all of the major characters in the show become aware that the girls can transform, and toward the end of the show, the ability to transform expands beyond just the main characters to become commonplace and normal, and the show also undermined the private mystique of magical transformation by introducing characters that transform without even conscious awareness that they’ve gained magical transforming abilities. While My Hime is definitely more grim than typical magical girl anime, it really doesn’t consciously introduce any great number of ideas of concepts that undermine or contradict the traditional traits of magical girl anime. Arjuna and Kiruminzoo, for example, aren’t as popular among American otaku as My Hime, but both do consciously and intentionally reject, parody, and undermine magical girl conventions far more extensively than My Hime does.