General Anime/Manga Discussion 14: Second Cour

[DJ Yung Crunk]

Revolutionary Girl Utena is your best bet, as long as you're okay with a slow start. I don't know how deconstructive Princess Tutu is, but that's my other recommendation given your comment.

I've heard that name thrown about. Thanks, I'll look it up.

If you like insanity at breakneck speed there is Puni Puni Poemy, a two-part spin-off from Excel Saga. It's not so much a deconstruction as an extreme parody of magical girl shows. It may help to have seen a number of them first to get most of the references but PPP was the first magical girl-related thing I ever saw and I had a blast with it. I just grew to like it more after becoming more familiar with the genre.

Is Excel Saga considered a legitimate anime? I had no idea. I figured that was like considering Airplane! a legitimate disaster film or Monty Python's Holy Grail a legitimate fantasy epic.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha mostly plays it straight, but might still be interesting. It, especially the first season, plays straight most of the things PMMM deconstructs, which could be interesting to see. With just 13 or so episodes in 1st season, it might be worth watching for that.

And there's a bit of a genre shift happening in the show between seasons. If the names were accurate, it'd be:

S1: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
S2 (A's): Magical Warrior Lyrical Nanoha
S3 (StrikerS): Military Combat Instructor Nanoha After Timeskip
S4 (ViVid): Some Kids Fight In A Tournament!

S3 is more of a military fiction, really. Military fiction for kids, granted, but still.

I get gradually less interested in each one of those, I gotta admit.

From what I've heard of it: Yuki Yuna is a Hero.

Just what I was going to recommend. In terms of tone and theme, you'll probably see a lot of similarities, but it's an excellent show in its own right.

Never heard of it. Googling now. Thanks.

It's not deconstruction that makes Madoka good though just like how it's not deconstruction that makes Evangelion good.

Speak for yourself. The aspects of both I like are symptoms of their alternative nature.

So the question here should be "what other magical girl shows I can watch and enjoy without feeling weird for liking a little girls' series?"

No, I still feel pretty weird about liking PMMM. That part I'm just going to have to live with.