Sailor Moon went over my head a lot as a kid, and I watched the (presumably) heavily sanitized English version, so maybe that’s why I missed a lot of the death and despair.

Or maybe because I wasn’t blogging back then. XD

If what you say about Sailor Moon is right, it’s true that it’s a lot darker show than NanaDrops. Maybe it just all depends on how much you can foretell the plot; i.e. of course Yuki (Haru), the main love interest, would come back, while perhaps side (?) characters were more expendable in Sailor Moon.

And, hopefully I’ve finally fixed that [/span] issue. ^^

However, it’s all done tastefully if you can consider that; I’m a fan of a majority of the pairings, smile a bit when I see the hints, and still think of CCS as a “pure magical girl” show. They’re just little subtleties that make the show a little bit more interesting for older viewers while not tainting the younger ones.

In Sailormoon, characters died. Maybe it was mostly villains, but there was death and darkness. And goodness, how many times must we hear “Don’t use the silver crystal; you’ll die!” While the suspense sometimes makes for great heroic acts and good endings, it by itself could be a little stressful.

I guess you could argue then that Yuki effectively ‘died’ when he was frozen in plush form all that time; hm… But I mean, that’s so much more trivial than an actual, violent death. x.x Maybe I’m just becoming biased now. Sure I felt sad for Sumomo, but I certainly couldn’t relate to her pain, unlike with Sailor Saturn.

I think Chris is referring to the actual HTML/BBcode for the Schrodinger post. It’s missing a [/span] tag at the very end of the entry.

cameron: I’m not much for action shows, but I could see where you’re coming from. (Maybe because you’re seeing where I’m coming from? XD) It’s the same idea with different genre.

Although, sometimes I can’t stand too light of a show. Even magical girl shows have some form of advancement sometimes.

harry: I use the term ‘pure magical girl’ on the basis that such a show contains no fanservicey or otherwise off-color elements that might pander to those looking for something other than a nice, fluffy, happy time.

That said my memory of Sailor Moon is not strong enough to know whether it applies to that or not; but I don’t see anything wrong with a little bit of despairing in a show. Didn’t NanaDrops have that a bit when Yuki was stuck in, uh, sheep-form?

Still, you’re very much right in saying that there aren’t villains, just challenges; the story doesn’t center around saving the world or whatnot, but instead on watching the lead character develop.

Cardcaptor Sakura is my all-time favorite. I think I’m a ‘pure magical girl’ fan because I am assured that it’s a “safe” series. Sailormoon isn’t pure magical girl, because it gets a little bad, a little dark, a little “omg the bad guy’s going to win” where you’re just feeling despair.

But that doesn’t happen in CCS. Or if it does, it’s only for five minutes while Sakura panics and can’t figure out what to do. But then she does, and it’s all fine and dandy again. And was there really a villain in that series? Not at all. There isn’t one in Nanadrops either. Just challengers.

And so with that safety, you get to drop all your defenses and just innocently enjoy a series with cute characters and a touching storyline.

There was an article about how Japanese men prefer 2D girls over 3D ones… It’s because 2D girls can’t hurt our feelings, or we can have our private selfish fetishes about being dominant or what-have-you with these 2D girls. So the safe ‘pure magical girl’ story allows us to be that role partly, as we watch these girls from afar solve their problems and achieve happiness. We’re right there with him.

…Now I haven’t had the time to invest in Shugo Chara yet, but I’ve been told it’s quite nice and I should like it, given my love for CCS.

Honestly, that tends to be why I like to occasionally watch more light action shows, because there isn’t as much pressure on my head and generally I can just float along with the series. Although I’m still undecided about whether I want to try out a Naruto or a Bleach.

But I can see why they’d provide a nice counterpoint to more serious shows.

I’m using IE7, but it doesn’t normally do things like this.

I can get around it, though. If I view this post on its own page, everything loads fine and I can access the rest of your blog. And I have Firefox, too, for emergencies like this. Just thought I’d report what seems to be an incompatibility. ^^;

harry: Do you mean you can’t read any posts past the Schrodinger one? Or you can’t “read more” in the Schrodinger one?

I’m not experiencing either problem, though. What browser are you using?

bluemist: Nanoha and Rozen Maiden, I suppose, are two of the Big Things recently that I haven’t seen, so I can’t quite comment a lot on that.

Yeah, I don’t expect the guys from the picture to be the pure-show type; it was a bit of a stretch made to illustrate the point that Shugo Chara is being pretty well recieved around the blogging community (which is mostly male). I don’t know which audience composes a higher share, though.

And regarding the NanaDrops debate, I think I might have to revise it to a category of its own. It’s not ‘magical lolicon’ in my sense of the definition for sure (a magical girl show enjoyed mostly by guys, with fanservice elements usually; think Moetan) - even if it was an eroge originally, the anime was blindingly shiny clean, replete with far-too-catchy J-pop openings.

But I could see why it could be slanted towards guys as well, and it’s tough to tell whether Sumomo or Haru should be considered the main character.

It probably hits best that niche of ‘romance orientated toward males’, where while the romance may be a bit tacky and guy-escapist, it’s pure enough that both genders can enjoy it.

chris: Yeah, to be honest I still fastforward through the actual transformations and battles - it’s the characters, somehow, that draw me in.

I don’t know what it is about these kinds of shows and characters that are reasonably realistic and appealing. (discounting the magic part, anyway) Is it one of those shoujo-anime things, I wonder?

And I bow to your knowledge of magical girl anime, the three I referenced were the only ones I really know. I don’t know if I’d buy a magical girl show blind but if I see it lying around the library or for rent I might see if you’re on to something.

Anon (3): Well, there’s got to be one reason I fanboy about Nagato so much.

And to tell the full story, like most ’sad’ moments, Fuuko got me to that one “I think if I try to breathe I will tear up” moments…just not flat out-and-out crying.

Sometimes I do feel a bit bad that I’m not human. XD