Forum › Looking Up to Magical Girls discussion

7c3371fc-1218-42e3-9009-8520d7f626fa
joined Sep 15, 2020

I’m honestly so curious with which Seiyuu is gonna be voicing Utena and Kiwi, bc whoever it is they must be fucking wild as well lol

The immaculate
joined Mar 19, 2020

I’m honestly so curious with which Seiyuu is gonna be voicing Utena and Kiwi, bc whoever it is they must be fucking wild as well lol

Lmao didn’t think about that. Actually really looking forward to Utena’s vocal performance when she’s being evil

President%20and%20new%20hire%20profile%20pic%202
joined Sep 27, 2017

Japan doesn't care about twitter, thankfully.

Putting the drama aside, I love how strangely wholesome this manga manages to be. That scene with the girls feeding Berserga is just another in a series of scenes where the "good" guys resolve their differences with the "bad" guys using the power of friendship.

I'd more so say the power of love, even if it's often twisted love :P

Anime%20girl%20bong%20small
joined Jan 1, 2022

Yeah it looks like there's gonna be an anime. There's no way it isn't massively toned down, though. Honestly I have a hard time believing it will hold a candle to the manga. Too many people would whinge about it. Still, I guess we'll see.

Pretty certain people on social media will take issue with the series regardless. The main character is an outlandish sadist villain and that's not going to go over well. I'm just gonna do my best to keep my head down and avoid the drama the best I can..

You forget the biggest "problem". Most of the cast are suposs to be middle schoolers.

I'm not sure why problem is in quotes here. It is a problem. Like, I enjoy reading this, but I would never recommend this even to people that I know like manga. It's just a lot, and I don't think it's unreasonable to give this the side-eye. Plus, the Netflix Cuties controversy wasn't that long ago. The BDSM stuff is whatever, the ages of the characters feels like not only a huge barrier to entry, but a huge problem if this gets more widely known.

Yeah, I think most people who aren't huge perverts would be bothered by this. I personally would prefer if they were 18. From my own perspective, I know that I'm not attracted to middle schoolers, and that manga ≠ real life, but from an outside perspective, I'm someone who enthusiastically enjoys a manga about middle schoolers being molested.

I expect that people will make a lot of noise about this (as they did with the aforementioned Interspecies Reviewers and Redo of a Healer) but that not much will come of it. Us perverts will continue to quietly enjoy it while never discussing it with anyone we know irl and ignoring the circular arguments that will happen on twitter. All will be right with the world.

About the chapter itself: I like it. I think next chapter will involve Enormeeta sexually tormenting Berserga until Michika teams up with the magical girls and defeats them (right before Berserga's execution). Baiser will enjoy this because a bad guy joining the magical girls out of love is the exact sort of thing she's into.

last edited at Mar 21, 2023 10:59PM

Miowink
joined Aug 21, 2020

Wait is she... is she trying to turn them into actual bona fide heroic magical girls by staging something like this?

Mina_run
joined Apr 16, 2018

Wait is she... is she trying to turn them into actual bona fide heroic magical girls by staging something like this?

Yes, that was always the plan. She wants more heroes to dom.

Baiser_ugly_flower
joined Nov 26, 2022

Can I just say that I don't think I can express how psyched I am to watch a "Looking Up to Magical Girls" anime.

Yuibless
joined Jan 30, 2017

Anime announced

Will to live restored

Internet_lied
joined Jul 15, 2016

I really hope they don't execute her...

I am pretty sure that every evil deed Baiser announces is meant to be an invitation towards heroic magical girls to foil her. This is how it's always been and that's how Utena likes it. If there is one character trait (except being a top-level domme) that Utena has never strayed from, it's her love for genuine magical girls and what they do.

Akari-mizunashi-transparent%203
joined Oct 10, 2014

Yeah, Utena overhearing Berserga's love story showed her Imitatio/Enorme actually has redeeming qualities. She's using this hostage situation to force Imitatio to oppose her in a heroic fashion. Utena loves (to dom) heroes; other villains can get under her heel or gtfo.

__kawasumi_mai_and_kurata_sayuri_kanon_drawn_by_hiro_dismaless__af8fff43e603564f6b7349639e863a67
Fellowship of Freelancers
joined Oct 11, 2010

You forget the biggest "problem". Most of the cast are suposs to be middle schoolers.

Number one reason I'm concerned about the adaptation. Like these are 14 year olds and grade schoolers getting put in highly sexual situations. People are gonna talk MAD abt this

I mald so hard every day remembering BL and het series mostly get away with it but for some reason yuri has zero immunity

But at the same time I really would rather not have "basedlolicon1488" trying to defend something that's definitely too specific for them to truly enjoy

Edit: There's also the fact that 90% of the reason the cast is middle schoolers is because that's magical girl convention smh... if this started getting written after Hirogaru Sky now that it's got an adult in the main Cure squad it wouldn't be entirely tweens

I disagree that the series would work as well with adults. Underneath all of the perversion, MahoAko is a coming of age story — they "La Verita" (the Truth) when they accept something important about themself. And sexual development is super important in the 13-15 years. That isn't to say adults can't sexually develop, but from a thematic perspective, it works so much better with the characters being stereotypical magical girl age.

Khancrop
joined Feb 18, 2013

That was kind of a disjointed mess of a chapter. I'm PRETTY sure I understand everything that happened in it? But it was really hard to follow.

Also, still want Studio Bind to do the anime, they'd be perfect.

Hana
joined Jun 20, 2014

So Baiser once learning Beserga was a magical girl, wants to mess her up. xD

Surprise(2)
joined Jun 17, 2021

You forget the biggest "problem". Most of the cast are suposs to be middle schoolers.

I'm not sure why problem is in quotes here. It is a problem. Like, I enjoy reading this, but I would never recommend this even to people that I know like manga. It's just a lot, and I don't think it's unreasonable to give this the side-eye. Plus, the Netflix Cuties controversy wasn't that long ago. The BDSM stuff is whatever, the ages of the characters feels like not only a huge barrier to entry, but a huge problem if this gets more widely known.

Agreed. Like, I can say that I enjoy this story, but can't deny that you can't think too hard about it. It's fiction, which smooths over a lot of what is problematic in real life, but the question is, why do they have to be young girls, why couldn't they be adults? I can deal with it, I can enjoy the story, but that doesn't make it not problematic, it just means that it doesn't cross that line into "too problematic to engage with" for me. It will most definitely cross that line for a lot of people when it comes more into the mainstream with an anime.

I wanted to add some actual chapter discussion too:
When I first heard Beserga's story, I was like, ew, you just like her because she's strong and beat you up? Then Leo agreed with her, and I was like, oh yeah, that's happened before and I wasn't squicked because the character doing it wasn't "evil" Lol.

last edited at Mar 22, 2023 9:05AM

Heavy%20cruiser%20160
joined Apr 27, 2013

You could do smutty magic BDSM with older characters, but this specific story pretty much requires them to be teens. Like, even ignoring that magical girl convention is for characters to be in middle school, the story is about their sexual awakening. Which happens in the early teens

Ykn1
joined Dec 20, 2018

I really hope they don't execute her...

I am pretty sure that every evil deed Baiser announces is meant to be an invitation towards heroic magical girls to foil her. This is how it's always been and that's how Utena likes it. If there is one character trait (except being a top-level domme) that Utena has never strayed from, it's her love for genuine magical girls and what they do.

To quote Ackbar-senpai, "it's a trap".

Kimika3
joined Jan 1, 2019

As someone who is so far has been enjoying the manga, and is curious as to how the adaption will be handled, I simply think discussing the possible reaction to the anime is a natural part of the discussion, due to this being one of the more controversial series out there in terms of content. I'm not hoping for moral panic, that's exhausting, and I've already seen people in some Yuri circles deeply disturbed that this series is getting adapted.

I'm really curious as to where because I haven't seen takes like that anywhere. I see people constantly bring up Interspecies Reviewers and Redo of Healer but honestly most of the "controversy" I remember with Redo at least was stans of the series basically saying "come at me brah!" to any SJW they could find. With Interspecies they took a manga that wasn't particularly graphic and made it extremely graphic which I would actually be disappointed to see happen with this series. As far as the middle school setting or sexual awakening or whatever other people are saying -- I don't really remember any specific controversy over Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya or for that matter stuff like PEN15 either.

You act like those things don’t happen in other Yuri too, that entire description could apply to things like “I’m in Love with the Villainess” or Kannazuki no Miko”

I'm talking about the Gundam 'formula' which has been pretty consistent for 45 years now. GWitch is more accessible but its still squarely in "bait" territory IMO and I can't stand mecha melodrama so let me know how S2 goes I guess. S1 was fucking exhausting.

I’m honestly so curious with which Seiyuu is gonna be voicing Utena and Kiwi, bc whoever it is they must be fucking wild as well lol

I was wondering this myself the other day... HanaKana is probably the gold standard for innocent + batshit characters but I'm positive they'll go for someone lesser known. No one I can really think of off the top of my head...

20220104_023724
joined Feb 11, 2013

Are we all happy with the current title? I think the adaptation needs a more badass name... like Destroyer of Magical Girls or How do I break Magical Girls or Saving Magical Girls with BDSM.. just some ideas?

Screenshot%202024-01-18%20181127
joined Jun 21, 2021

Are we all happy with the current title? I think the adaptation needs a more badass name... like Destroyer of Magical Girls or How do I break Magical Girls or Saving Magical Girls with BDSM.. just some ideas?

It already has an official English title, "Gushing over Magical Girls", so I imagine they'll use that one.

Anime%20girl%20bong%20small
joined Jan 1, 2022

You could do smutty magic BDSM with older characters, but this specific story pretty much requires them to be teens. Like, even ignoring that magical girl convention is for characters to be in middle school, the story is about their sexual awakening. Which happens in the early teens

It's specifically a BDSM sexual awakening though. I didn't realize I was into that stuff until I was like 20. Utena would work just as well as an 18 year old late-blooming high school senior, and I think the magical girls would work fine as people who are aware of their sexuality but never considered that they might enjoy being dommed by an evil villain. It WOULD go against magical girl conventions, but not so much so that you couldn't get away with just lampshading it and moving on—they'd still be school girls after all.

Angryface
joined Mar 22, 2021

That child is ruined after getting a power fetish. I love braiser face on the screen, it is just insane.

At least it seems that lord (I forgot her name) cares about the captured girl.

Sshot-8
joined Oct 25, 2011

We're only getting half the story here. This doesn't explain Lord's feelings.

President%20and%20new%20hire%20profile%20pic%202
joined Sep 27, 2017

I'm really curious as to where because I haven't seen takes like that anywhere. I see people constantly bring up Interspecies Reviewers and Redo of Healer but honestly most of the "controversy" I remember with Redo at least was stans of the series basically saying "come at me brah!" to any SJW they could find. With Interspecies they took a manga that wasn't particularly graphic and made it extremely graphic which I would actually be disappointed to see happen with this series. As far as the middle school setting or sexual awakening or whatever other people are saying -- I don't really remember any specific controversy over Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya or for that matter stuff like PEN15 either.

There's various Yuri based news pages on social media, and anime news, where some interactions have generally been positive I should say, but I've seen various people that are also mixed and others that don't want this to get adapted. Also as someone who is a Fate fan I can tell you Fate/Kaleid gets a TON of hate on social media. If you've seen just positive comments on all of this I believe it though, I have a friend that tells me she doesn't see any of the hate I see. I feel like social media just tries to give me a headache sometimes, and other people are really good / very lucky with avoiding it haha

Edit: And I'm sure you probably want specific examples but it's been a few days and I don't want to look through which pages and posts exactly have the most hate comments. I know that sounds like an excuse, I just don't want to subject myself to going through social media again, especially after already deciding I'm going to steer clear of posts for the anime adaption in the future. Since the haters aren't hard to find unfortunately in my experience. I don't feel as if I have anything to prove, if you believe me that's cool and if you don't that fine. I'm simply prioritizing my mental health here.

last edited at Mar 22, 2023 11:07PM

Baiser_ugly_flower
joined Nov 26, 2022

We're only getting half the story here. This doesn't explain Lord's feelings.

I don't know, that ice pick confession was pretty convincing.... Who wouldn't fall for her?

Internet_lied
joined Jul 15, 2016

We're only getting half the story here. This doesn't explain Lord's feelings.

I don't know, that ice pick confession was pretty convincing.... Who wouldn't fall for her?

It must be understood that Lord was a very vulnerable headspace at that moment, too. She has just lost everything, from her entire organization to her ability to walk. Berserga has nursed her back to health and then informed her how much she needed her in her life. The combination of spending a lot of time with someone, natural gratitude (as soon as her suspicions had been cleared), and a desire to be wanted (especially strong since the loss of her previous position) has created a very strong feeling of affection, which Utena is currently helping to turn into outright love.

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