How To Write A Magical Girl Manga Or Light Novel | Writing Tips With MidnightXCross

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[midnightXcross]

Want to learn how to take your magical story to the next level? Check out my complete course all about how to create a successful magical girl manga, comic or novel! 😊✨ Here's what's included in the full program:
🌸Lesson 1 - Types Of Magical Girl Stories

▪Target Audience
▪Focus Genre
▪Long Running And Short Magical Girl Series
▪Exercise: Understanding The Target Audience
▪Magical Girl Profile Template
🌸Lesson 2 - Themes And Morals

▪Themes (With Examples)
▪Morals (With Examples)
▪Exercise: Finishing Your Magical Girl Profile
🌸Lesson 3 - Magical Girl Design Tactics

▪Making Designs Purposeful
▪Everyday Life VS Magical Girl Designs
▪Magical Girl Design Aspects (For Manga And Light Novels)
▪Creating Meaning Through Colours
▪Character Sheet Template
🌸Lesson 4 - Designing Weapons, Spells and Transformations

▪Weapon Design (Building On Simple Aspects)
▪Weapon Or Ability Appearance
▪Spells
▪Transformations
🌸Lesson 5 - Enemies And Allies

▪Allies
▪Enemies
🌸Lesson 6 - Magical Girl Power Systems

▪Power Categories
▪Power Source
▪Power Origin
▪Simplicity Over Complexity
▪Keeping It Realistic
🌸Lesson 7 - Power Progression

▪Power Progression Stages
▪Exercise: Creating Power Progression In Your Manga/Light Novel
🌸Lesson 8 - Power Cause And Affect

▪Your Magical Girl's Personality
▪Exercise: Creating Realistic Character Responses
▪Reactions And Responses
▪Using Powers To Take Action
▪Power Cause And Affect
🌸Lesson 9 - Combining Design With Power Systems

▪Using design elements to emphasise a power system.
🌸Lesson 10 - Putting The World At Stake

▪How to choose a strong story goal and make it extremely dire to your magical characters.
▪Creating high stake goals.
🌸Lesson 11 - Magical Mascots And Guides

▪Using genres to create understandable mascots.
▪Mascot and guide roles.
🌸Lesson 12 - Perspective

▪Daily Life
▪Hobbies & Interests
▪Strengths And Weaknesses
▪Relationships
▪Personal Goals
▪Personal Perspective
▪Others Perspective
🌸Lesson 13 - Context Through Emotions

▪This lesson looks at emotional stages that your magical characters may experience.
▪How to create emotional moments to make other situations more important in your book.
🌸Lesson 14 - Everyday Life VS The Magical Girl

▪This lesson focuses on the balance between your magical character's daily life and their magical girl duties.
🌸Lesson 15 - Telling Their Story

▪This lesson focuses on how you can craft a story your audience will feel a connection with.
----

[theguy]

Just like magical girls, there's also henshin heroes, which are quite obscure but are basically similar in a way. Henshin heroes like Kamen rider, often have drama or story focus and tell stories that make you question or have endings that will leave you with a somber feeling. There's also a lot of gimmick toys that are somehow implemented into the plot and that are also the transformation devices much like a magical girl's wand device

[Lonking]

The people who often say Madoka is like the opposite of sailor moon didn't read sailor moon where people regularly die or get killed. Naoko had to shift all of the dark stuff off the page because of Toei's editors

[ssjgarfield]

I've got an idea for a Magical Girl story.

About a girl of Spanish descent (Spanish mother, Japanese father) who finds a family heirloom in the form of a bracelet with the depiction of Cocollona, a Spanish folkloric creature that looks like a crocodile with butterfly wings. When putting on the bracelet, a chibi-fied version of cocollona pops out of the bracelet who tells her about the myth and by merging with the creature, the girl turns into a crime-fighting super hero.

The girl would call her super hero persona Cocollona and she would be like a combination of Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) and Miraculous Ladybug.

[tfae]

One thing worth mentioning is that many magical girl tropes are driven by business concerns.
Magical girls wear pretty outfits and use special items because these things are sold as toys.
Magical girls have long, ritualistic transformations, because that lets animators reuse stock footage.
If you're writing your own story then you might like to play with these elements or skip them altogether.
Revolutionary Girl Utena is particularly good at this, wielding the genre's repetitive nature to critique itself.

[soschar]

Basically what I was thinking is, I was looking at all these cliches that pop up in classical Magical Girl stories and thought to myself: "What if they just...WEREN'T there?"
What if there's Magical Girls but no Monster of the Week for them to fight? No "talking animal mentor character"? What if the Magical Girl identities are NOT secret?
Here's what I got so far:

Basically, Artifacts that allow any female (meaning it works with older women as well) to turn into Magical Girls have started appearing all over the place for an unknown reason. Because there is nothing stopping them from using these powers for selfish reasons, and they are too powerful to be stopped by normal humans (see power system below), chaos has broken out all over the globe.
The main character is a small schoolgirl who is obsessed with love and showing affection to people to the point she just kind of weirds everyone out. Turns out the necklace she inherited from her late mother (except not really, it just kind of "appeared" after her death) is one of these artifacts and she can turn into one! She is quickly found (alongside the school's resident delinquent, another magical girl) by a woman who leads a small group of vigilante magical girls bent on keeping people safe from the bad ones and also researching anything that might be vaguely related to them. She happily joins because a magical girl she idolizes is part of them, and because she believes in the whole "great responsibility" thing. Being part of these vigilantes involves combat training and learning how to use their powers and/or work around the limitations of said powers. This obviously ends up messing up her school responsibilities among other things.

Here, she learns a bit about the power system:
-the artifacts are completely indestructible and will not let anyone else intentionally touch them once a girl has transformed with it once. Any attempt to do so will cause a surge of unbearable pain throughout your body.
-every magical girl has a unique clothing style and a unique weapon they can summon and dismiss like a keyblade and can be repaired or reloaded (if it's a ranged weapon) with very simple hand motions. Any weapon is on the table, but MC-chan's is a staff.
-every magical girl has stock powers such as flying, summoning light that can be molded into various attacks, shield projection, superhuman speed and strength, and regeneration that will heal absolutely everything that doesn't kill them outright.
--because their summoned light can be directly controlled, it can be compressed onto a single point with devastating and potentially universe-ending results (but no magical girl is strong enough to pull off an "End of the World" scenario like this, let alone "End of the Universe", but there have been cases of local distortions in reality caused by this. They stabilize after a while though).
-Every magical girl also has one power that is completely unique to them, and they work like Quirks from Hero Academia except purely magical. MC-chan's is "weakening people".
-All of these powers only work if the magical girl is actually transformed, and they can be used by just thinking about them, but involving body motions and incantations, or giving your attacks names that you yell out, can make them stronger. For example, MC-chan's "weakening people" can be done via just thinking or gestures but she prefers to do that by hugging them. The same applies to actually transforming. Basically, Transformation Sequences are 100% optional, but if you can pull one off it gives you a power boost.
-There is no way of knowing what powers, weapon, or attire you'll get from your artifact until after you've transformed once, and they may or may not have a will of their own.
-if a magical girl dies, she un-transforms and her artifact disappears.
There are more details to all of these, but this segment is too long already.

anyways, there are other girls that share the role of MC, including her former, and now orphaned, childhood friend whom she had a falling out with before the events of the story, and turned to a life of crime because she believes her only two options are living as a criminal and starving. She is also a magical girl, and her powers have caught the attention of a local yakuza group, who let her and her little brother live in a run-down hotel owned by them. She's a potential love interest for the MC (because you can't have magical girls without yuri)
Another major character is a mysterious magical girl who keeps popping up every now and then, teaches a few tricks to the main character, sometimes does sparring with her, and in some occasions saves her life. Also a potential love interest.

One major conflict is MC-chan's refusal to kill people OR let her allies kill people, no matter how cruel they may be. This causes occasional in-fighting, and sometimes blows up in her face. What if she spares a wanted criminal who then goes on to cause more mayhem? And remember: their identities aren't hidden, which means they can target her family directly.

Another thing that will only get answered towards the end: Why are there magical girl artifacts to begin with, and why now of all times?

[antoniosoto]

This is amazing keep doing more videos your really helping a lot of people out who wanna be manga writers

[caetmoniza]

This is a great lesson for those who want to write a manga or a novel about Magical Girl. My friend is a huge fan of magical girls ever since she fell in love with Sailor Moon. Adding different genre to a Magical Girl story, even for just an episode or a chapter is also great like you mentioned, even for non-crossover stories/chapters. An amazing video that I am going to share with my friend

[chariotsx]

Thank you for making a video on this topic. This is one of my favorite genres because it’s so fun to write about. It allows a lot of room for creativity.

[generationmillennium]

Thanks for these tips since I’m writing a MG light novel right now :) Just trying to figure out how to put in a good amount of comedy throughout the adventure.

[ramondelgado]

In the theme of magic girl plus another genre: The Saga of Tanya the Evil / Youjo Senki could be argued is a magic girl + history + military

[Sonicfalcon]

So I've been writing them very differently. Im kind of happy about this. I feel like going where i going is smart

[ItsShaz]

Loved the video Midnight! Sailor Moon and Madoka Magica were some magical shows that I loved!

[forgotten_lumis]

You: Mentions something about being approached by an alien in order to gain magical powers

Me: *Crumples into a ball of pain remembering a ~certain~ anime...*

[amycollins]

I have came up with an idea for a magical girl story. It’s about a young girl who is transferred to all boys school and and has to pretend to be one. She joined the anime and manga group with four members and the headteacher who is a woman gives her a special pendant. Then the school is a tap by a monster and the girl transforms but not only her, but her new friends also transforming into magical girls, and if you wanna know more of it just ask

[Lilas.Duveteux]

Okay, I have this idea for a more josei (adult women) magical girl series:
There is two fantasy main organisation in the fantasy world as well as two parallel dimensions (Hell and the Dark World). There is demons, vampires and evil spirits, who either obey the Devil or go rogue. There is the IPS (Institute of Paranormal Studies) which is an organisation which tracks paranormal and fantastical creature to study them. They are highly unethical in their method, starting with using human beings as Guiana pigs and ending with the recruitment of their employees with everything in between. Not all members of the IPS are evil, but many are. They were once a great organisation but has since degenerated into this. They are top secret but legal. There are the magical schools, which are used to hide and educate those related to the Dark World and the Magical Girls and Boys, from between the ages of 12 to 20. The magical girls and boys grew up as regular human in the normal world until they discovered during their adolescence they had the power to transform into these powerful beings. In this school, they have the highest status amongst students since they can both blend with humans and protect the school from the multiple dangers. The school doesn't lack normal humans as students, which mostly follow these categories: are from the Dark World and thus cannot be smoothly integrated in society via the usual immigration services, are the children of the teachers there or are a few select private students who's parents pay a hearty sum. There are also elves, which come from the Dark World and need a place to stay until they can be sent back into the dimension they came from, which requires a very complicated and risky ritual that require full compliance and competence of the sendee who isn't a passive object in this endevor. There are also vampire teachers, but the school does not accept vampires as students, as their thirst for human blood paired with the impulsivity of youth would make them too dangerous to handle. The school is a semi-boarding one, producing part of it's own food and sorting the students in 6 to 16 member "houses", half girl and half boy. Also, these magical girls have powers associated with ice-age biomes. The school have a strict discipline, especially by the fact they are not allowed to use any tractable devices (Internet, phones and official post mail), and they virtually never expel. These schools, are not official entities and thus often struggle to find resources, especially because of the fact they must hide their pupils from both evil spirits and IPS.
The basic plot would go as follow:
The main character lives an average life in a small Canadian town, peacefully minding her teenage life until she stumble on a rogue incubus who tried to attack some innocent girl in the cemetery she passed by to go home. There she creates a power blast which repels him. In the next days, she learns she MUST attend this magical school. There, she uses the same dorm. She also shares a common room with her childhood friend and crush she hadn't met in four years had grown into quite a beautiful young man and is still a normal human. After a while, they eventually start dating, and use the trips they do together to buy food for their school to do lovey-dovy stuff. One day, however, he lures her into a IPS center. Soon, she is tortured by a man she recognizes as the father of her crush who was also the a friend of her family and known surgeon. He eventually heals her and make sure to hide most of her injuries and interrogates her on the location of her school. She eventually breaks, but is unable to locate her school. One day, her tormentor's "boss" comes close, holding a little boy in his hands and said boyfriend stand next to him. He gloats that he'll harm the little boy if the guy doesn't participate in her torment. As that boy is his little brother, he accepts, and that was the only reason why father and son obeyed the bad guy all along. However, since he didn't hold his promesse, the father (family doctor) was so infuriated that he decided to stab him with his scalpel. They free the MC and ask her to use her powers to help them hide the body, something she doesn't mind doing since she resented that man so MUCH. They later do nice time, since getting her pregnant will buy her time. Shortly after, her friend finds her and the two girls run away. Shortly after, the doctor and his eldest son are arrested after they defuncted from the IPS. They choose not to cooperate with the police, since they feared and with good reason that the rest of their families are now in danger. They are soon joined in their race towards the school by a young archivist who after months of constant bullying and insults have decided to quit. Since the IPS is a top secret organisation, that means her days are numbered. They used her phone to track her, and soon the three girls were caught near a wild lake in the middle of spring. Lucky in their unluck and knowing they have no other choice than transform to fight to death (except the archivist) and manage to win and survive. The victory is only partial since they are in the middle of no were and are forced to survive in the wilderness and to destroy their only means of communication. They eventually manage to reach one of their teachers and after a thorough questionnaire, they accept the help of the flunked IPS member. She told them everything she remembered in her work. There, MC-chan takes a pregnancy test and it's positive. Because of that, and should she have an abortion she'll loose her special privilege's as a pregnant woman (since IPS have a policy of keeping them alive so they can study the reproduction of paranormal beings and the extra legal protection that comes with it), she decides she will need a father for her child, so she decide to give all the legal help she can to her now ex-boyfriend, coming to the police as soon as she was able to to testimony in his favor. The next day, she's home with her family as part of a "recovery vacation", where she meets the step-mother of her boyfriend who thank them with all her heart and her best cooking. All the testemonies in their favor had caused the judge to re-open the case and set the boyfriend free and the father's sentence quite reduced due to attenuating circumstances. The new group celebrates their victory and are heading for a complicated and troubled future life. The End.

[samriddhinayak]

Great video.👍 Could you please make a video on character goal motivation ?

[LeeAndTv]

I want to create a magical girl series & I've already created characters & villians. But I'm having trouble coming up with episode names or plots.

[Tacomster]

Im making my own Heavy MEtal Superhero team, Think Sailor Moon but METAL!!!! Got any more tips of group dynamics, Im studying The Beatles, like my strongest character is such a Ringo

[CaptainrdGaming]

Made it here early this time but there is alot of things to consider here 😁



Now looking back at some of the magical girl animes that ive seen i actually didnt think there was alot to consider when it came down to making one and now i learned alot 😲 Though i dont think i have one planned out but i strongly feel that this can be helpful too aswell when it comes down to other genres aswell espicaly when you take it on how they got there powers, aswell as how it affects there daily life 😄 not too mention the background theme aswell as whats at stake 👍 Once again i thank you for making these helpful videos for us my dudette and apologize for coming on here late but i do look forward too your latest 😁




btw i sent you an email back for the continuation of the part 2 of the manga i was working but was curious if you ever received it? 🤔