Review of Gushing over Magical Girls

This is a show that seems to have complete contempt for its audience. The central premise is that main character Hiiragi Utena, is a huge magical girl fan, but as soon as she is given power, she uses it to exploit and abuse the girls she idolises, unable to stop herself exercising her perverted and sadistic sexual fantasies. Some shows are bad because they are painfully generic, or poorly produced, or maybe painfully dull. This show isn't any of those, it's bad because it seems to want to appeal to the basest of desires without ever even trying to deliver on that level. Mahou Shoujo niAkogarete is a show containing it's own Rule 34. Utena is a girl with the power to make her own Rule 34 fantasies into reality, taking the pure image of magical girls and despoiling it for her own sexual gratification without anyone in the show ever acknowledging the depravity of her actions. None of the characters respond to the SA like real characters, with one SA victim actually responding to it positively! The scenes of SA are presented as the central gimmick of the show and as such Utena becomes a cynical projection of the anime fandom itself with every character she encounters being potential victim of her sexualisation and a chance for the show to give the audience some fan service. The show needs Utena to succeed in her SA of the other characters in order to give the show it's central hook.

Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete through its main character Utena, makes the sexualisation and dark pervasion of anime characters it's central hook. There is no commentary or reaction or exploration of her actions from the perspective of a normal moral human being, the SA is the entertainment. It is as if the writer is saying to the audience "this is all you really want from anime isn't it? To see cute girls get abused and tormented for you own satisfaction?". It assumes that we are like Utena, repressed sexual deviants that can't wait to lewd every cute anime character at the first opportunity.

Which brings me to the first thing I found so odd about the show: given that the sexual content seemed to be the selling point of the show these moments were, strangely, rare, brief and vapid. Anyone coming to the show in the hopes of something genuinely titillating will likely be disappointment by the sprinkling of poorly drawn soft-core that cynically and lazily illustrates a handful of common fetishes.

If they show was really trying to sell itself on its sexual content you might expect it to revel in its perversity but it never seems to fully commit, using the small amounts of sexuality as a token gesture, bait to keep people watching in the hopes that there will be more. The show seems to make a point of ending most it's sexual moments as quickly as possible with sexual acts ending almost as soon as they begin.

Putting the sexual content aside there is some humour with two or three moments actually making me laugh out loud, at least one moment of brilliant comic timing, but these moments too are few and far between. The characters, frustratingly, are not completely dull and boring but are created with some thought and consideration, with some scenes that would be genuinely touching if everything surrounding them was not so morally and artistically shallow.

There is some measure of character development, with characters being given just the slightest and smallest of arcs, not completely omitted but never explored in any depth, teasing meaningful character moments in the same way it teases it's sexual content, including just enough to get your attention before dusting its hands and moving on. It teases good ideas without ever developing them into anything substantive. Elements of character development seem to exist to give just enough personality and depth to the characters to add some verisimilitude to the sex scenes, to make the character's suffering and humiliation just that bit more believable.

What compelled me to watch all the thirteen episodes in a single evening was that I couldn't stop thinking about all the different ways this show could have been great. As I watched I kept thinking of all the various themes and ideas the show included that could have explored and turned into something meaningful it if it had any self awareness or thoughtfulness whatsoever.

There could have been an intelligent commentary on the sexualisation of anime characters. It could have been an exploration into how repressed desires can be made manifest when weak people are given power and opportunity. The show could have explored the difficulties of magical girls maintaining an image of purity, or how show genuine friendships can form though shared healing of their respective dysfunctions. All of theses ideas exist within the show, but only ever glimmer for a moment whilst passing unaddressed.

One of the aspects I was most intrigued by were the differences between Utena and her friends, and the members of Tres Magia. Utena and her friends ultimately bond through the sharing of the darker parts of themselves with each of them ultimately being accepted for how they are, although they are trying to be the "bad guys" they each grow and become better people by being open about their flaws. In contrast the Tres Magia begin the series but giving the outward appearance of being paragons of virtue and the closest of friends whilst each of the has unresolved personal issues the wrestle with internally. The show seems to start to examine to examine this contrast, but the show never gives any character much time to develop their back story or develop a solid "arc".

Ultimately Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete is a soleless attempt to produce something vaguely edgy whilst going out of it's way to squander all of it's genuinely creative elements. Worse than a mediocre product who's flaws are benign, Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete intentionally uses what it assumes are the perverse instincts of the viewer to bait engagement, expecting the audience to set aside all moral considerations and to look forward to and enjoy Utena's sexual escapades.

To be clear, if the show was just directly and straight forwardly a dark and depraved hentai I could at least give it that credit in the "it is what it is" sense. The problem is that the show has no substance what so ever, baiting the audience with edgy sexual content to drive engagement. The show isn't porn, it isn't a subversion, it isn't a dark comedy, it isn't a drama. It is sleezy, cold, calculated exploitation based on the assumption that anime fans are soulless misanthropes who will watch the show out of lewd curiosity; it's interesting ideas used to pad poorly drawn, unimaginative soft-core porn, when those ideas could have been used to produce something genuinely interesting and thoughtful.