10 Forgotten Magical Girl Anime That Are Darker Than You Remember

Article excerpt

Magical girl anime have long wrestled with darkness beneath their sparkly surfaces. Before Puella Magi Madoka Magica brought the genre's melancholy into mainstream view, dozens of older series explored loneliness, sacrifice, identity crises, and trauma, they just wrapped these themes in bright colors and cheerful transformation sequences. Comic Book Resources digs into ten forgotten entries that prove the magical girl formula was never as innocent as it looked.