50 Fun Facts About Magical Girl Anime

Sally the Witch, widely regarded as the first magical girl anime, took its concept from which American sitcom?

Bewitched aired in Japan under a title meaning The Missus Is a Witch, and its suburban sorcery inspired manga artist Mitsuteru Yokoyama to create Sally in 1966.

In Sailor Moon, the name of heroine Usagi Tsukino puns on which animal that East Asian folklore places on the Moon?

A rabbit is what usagi means, and her full name can be read as Rabbit of the Moon, after the folktale creature said to be visible in the lunar face.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng transforms into the heroine of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir to protect which city?

Paris is home to both teenage heroes, who battle supervillains created by Hawk Moth. The French production is one of several European shows shaped by magical girl anime.

W.I.T.C.H. and Winx Club, two Western takes on the magical girl team, both originated in which European country?

Italy produced both: the first began as a Disney comic in 2001 and Winx Club followed on television in 2004, after Sailor Moon had found a European audience.

In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which cat-like creature grants a girl one wish if she agrees to fight witches?

Kyubey looks like a harmless mascot but is an alien who leaves out the vital terms of every contract, a twist that upended the genre's cute-sidekick tradition.

Mamoru Chiba, the love interest of Usagi Tsukino in Sailor Moon, throws roses in battle under which disguise?

Tuxedo Mask hides his face to aid the Sailor Guardians, though in the anime he mostly throws one flower and leaves the finishing blow to them. Some English versions renamed him Darien Shields.

The original English dub of Sailor Moon hid the romance between Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune by calling them what?

Cousins was the cover story in North America, while in Japan the director had told Haruka's voice actress to play the pair as if they were a married couple.

Which Cartoon Network series by Rebecca Sugar, about a boy who lives with the Crystal Gems, drew on magical girl anime?

Steven Universe wears its influences openly: Sugar has cited Revolutionary Girl Utena, and one reviewer named Sailor Moon among its strongest visual and structural models.

The title of the Disney comic and cartoon W.I.T.C.H., about five teenage Guardians, is built from what?

The girls' initials spell it out: Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin, who, despite the name they share, are not actually witches.

Which guardian beast, nicknamed Kero, emerges from the book that Sakura Kinomoto opens in Cardcaptor Sakura?

Cerberus takes his name from the three-headed dog that guards the Greek underworld, yet spends most of his time as a small winged figure resembling a stuffed animal.

Which studio animated Sally the Witch in 1966 and later produced both Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure?

Toei Animation made most of the genre's 1970s shows too, and Pretty Cure later borrowed talent who had worked on the live-action Kamen Rider and Super Sentai.

Cardcaptor Sakura and Magic Knight Rayearth are both the work of which all-female group of manga artists?

Clamp formed in the mid-1980s as a twelve-member circle making self-published fan comics, and settled into one writer and three artists whose roles shift with each series.

Which manga artist created Codename: Sailor V in 1991 and then reworked its idea into Sailor Moon?

Naoko Takeuchi rebuilt the concept when an anime was proposed, turning her solo crime-fighter into one member of a whole team of heroines.

In Sailor Moon, which talking black cat with a crescent mark on her forehead advises heroine Usagi Tsukino?

Luna comes from the planet Mau and can also take human form. Her fellow adviser Artemis looks after Sailor Venus.

In the 1990s English dub of Sailor Moon, what new name was given to heroine Usagi Tsukino?

Serena stuck so firmly that the dub also turned Princess Serenity into Princess Serena, while the Sailor Guardians became the Sailor Scouts.

In Winx Club, where does Earth girl Bloom enrol to train after discovering that she is a fairy?

Alfea College is where Bloom befriends four other fairies and forms the group that gives the show its name, fighting enemies across the Magic Dimension.

In Sailor Moon, bookish Ami Mizuno, the brains of the team, is the guardian of which planet?

Mercury is written in Japanese with the character for water, and Ami duly commands water and ice while gathering battle data on a supercomputer.

In Princess Tutu, the heroine who becomes a magical ballerina to mend a shattered heart is really which bird?

A duck is the heroine's true form, in a story that draws on The Ugly Duckling and Swan Lake and settles its conflicts through dance instead of violence.

Smile PreCure!, an entry in the Pretty Cure franchise, reached Netflix in English under which new title?

Glitter Force was the name Saban Brands gave its English adaptation, which arrived in 2015 as a Netflix exclusive in multiple languages outside Asia.

Which reckless princess from the dimension of Mewni is sent to Earth to calm down in a 2015 Disney XD series?

Star Butterfly is heir to Mewni's throne and carries a magic wand that villains keep trying to steal, in one of several American cartoons that borrow from magical girl anime.

Sailor Moon reshaped magical girl anime by borrowing transforming-hero teams from which Japanese live-action genre?

Tokusatsu is the home of Super Sentai and Kamen Rider, and Sailor Moon paired its team battles with romance and fashion in a mix that later heroines copied.

Which artist drew Princess Knight, the 1953 manga about a girl with two hearts that foreshadowed magical girl stories?

Osamu Tezuka wrote it after an editor asked for a girls' comic to match the success of his adventures for boys, and its heroine who transforms to do what she otherwise could not became a prototype.

Cutie Honey, a 1973 heroine who helped pioneer magical girl anime, came from which creator of Devilman and Mazinger Z?

Go Nagai made the original as male-oriented science fiction. A 1997 remake, Cutie Honey Flash, retooled it for young girls in the wake of Sailor Moon.

In Himitsu no Akko-chan, credited as the earliest magical girl manga, what gift lets Akko transform into anything?

A mirror was the gift, remade as a compact for the anime. The show's toy line was the genre's first and a huge hit, and compacts have been a transformation staple ever since.

In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, what does a girl's contract secretly remove from her body and seal inside a gem?

Her soul is extracted and sealed in the gem, leaving the body as a tougher shell for fighting witches, a cost the girls discover only after they have agreed.

In Tokyo Mew Mew, Ichigo Momomiya and her teammates gain their powers from the DNA of what?

Endangered species lend each girl her powers: Ichigo is fused with the Iriomote cat, and her teammates with a lorikeet, a porpoise, a tamarin and a gray wolf.

Which Sailor Moon character first led her own manga, Codename: Sailor V, as a solo crime-fighter?

Minako Aino debuted months before the main series as a lone heroine guided by her cat Artemis, then joined the team as Sailor Venus when the two stories merged.

In Cutie Honey, schoolgirl Honey Kisaragi learns after her father's murder that she is really what?

An android created by her father, Honey owes part of her design to the character Maria from Metropolis, one of the models her author drew on.

In Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, what are Tikki and the other beings inside the heroes' jewels called?

Kwamis are magical entities that embody concepts and resemble animals. Tikki, the one for creation, lives in the earrings that turn Marinette into Ladybug.

Which Japanese word for transformation names the costume-change sequences at the heart of magical girl anime?

Henshin heroes began in live-action shows such as Kamen Rider. The transforming heroine who took up the idea in the early 1990s has been a staple of the genre since.

In Cardcaptor Sakura, the given name of heroine Sakura Kinomoto is the Japanese word for which flower?

Cherry blossom is what sakura means, a name the heroine happens to share with her Japanese voice actress, Sakura Tange.

In Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, which classmate of Marinette secretly fights beside her as Cat Noir?

Adrien Agreste has a secret waiting at home too: for five seasons the heroes' main enemy, Hawk Moth, is his own father, Gabriel.

Little Witch Academia began as a 2013 short film from which company, also behind Kill la Kill?

Trigger was founded in 2011 by two former Gainax staff, and its tale of a trainee witch with no magical background grew from two short films into a full television series in 2017.

Which toy maker behind Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure merchandise later sold a life-sized Moon Stick to adult fans?

Bandai marked the 20th anniversary of Sailor Moon in 2013 with cosmetics modelled on the heroines' transformation items, aimed at women who had grown up with the show.

Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura and Tokyo Mew Mew all first ran in which Kodansha manga magazine for girls?

Nakayoshi had earlier carried Princess Knight, and in the 1990s its editor-in-chief steered it from first-love stories toward fantasy, which opened the door to Sailor Moon.

Which 1983 anime, about a ten-year-old who becomes a teenage pop idol, was Studio Pierrot's first magical girl series?

Creamy Mami is the stage name the heroine takes after a magic wand turns her into a sixteen-year-old who is asked to sing on television and becomes an overnight success.

Which writer, hired for Puella Magi Madoka Magica on the strength of his Fate/Zero novels, scripted its dark story?

Gen Urobuchi was asked by producer Atsuhiro Iwakami to make the storyline heavy, and the script went on to win him the Tokyo Anime Award for best scriptwriter.

Which director left Sailor Moon and went on to create the duelling drama Revolutionary Girl Utena?

Kunihiko Ikuhara took over as series director during Sailor Moon R, then quit in 1996 over a lack of creative control and formed his own group, Be-Papas, to make Utena.

In Sailor Moon, which child travels back from the 30th century and proves to be Usagi Tsukino's future daughter?

Chibiusa later returns a few years older to train as a guardian herself, and the first English dub renamed her Rini.

In Sailor Moon, where does Rei Hino, the future Sailor Mars, live and work alongside her grandfather?

A Shinto shrine, Hikawa, is her home, and the role came from life: the manga's author drew on her own experience of working as a shrine maiden.

In Ojamajo Doremi, a witch whose identity is exposed by a human is cursed to turn into which creature?

A frog is the fate of shopkeeper Majo Rika, who makes Doremi Harukaze her apprentice in the hope of being changed back.

In Cardcaptor Sakura, rival card hunter Syaoran Li travels to Japan from which city?

Hong Kong is home to Syaoran, a descendant of the cards' creator Clow Reed, though the authors at first planned to make him Japanese.

Which 2004 late-night anime, a spin-off of the adult game Triangle Heart, aimed magical girl stories at older men?

Lyrical Nanoha grew out of a minor character in the third Triangle Heart game, and its late-night slot let the story explore darker themes than children's shows could.

Which Japanese term, literally 'little witch', was the usual name for magical girl shows during the 1970s?

Majokko spread with 1970s shows such as Majokko Megu-chan, noted for showing several young witches and their friendship, before a new label took over in the 1980s.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica was animated by which studio, home of director Akiyuki Shinbo and the Monogatari series?

Shaft had already scored with Bakemonogatari in 2009, and Madoka gave the studio another critical and financial hit two years later.

Which Kamen Rider creator was behind a hit live-action magical girl series on Japanese television in 1989?

Shotaro Ishinomori launched it inside a comedy strand, and its popularity led to five more shows before toy competition from Sailor Moon cooled interest in the early 1990s.

Balala the Fairies, a live-action magical girl franchise accused of copying Pretty Cure, comes from which country?

China has had the franchise since 2008, first with live actors and later as a cartoon, and it drew accusations of plagiarising several Japanese hits.

Magic Knight Rayearth calls many of its characters, such as Eagle Vision of Autozam, after what?

Cars supplied the names because the authors thought they would stick with children, who can struggle to learn names written in katakana.

In Sailor Moon, Rei Hino fights as Sailor Mars with paper charms, psychic visions and which element?

Fire suits a heroine whose titles across the franchise include Guardian of War and Guardian of Flame and Passion.

In Shugo Chara!, Amu Hinamori's three Guardian Characters first appear in her bed as brightly coloured what?

Eggs in pink, blue and green hatch into Ran, Miki and Su, each one a version of the person Amu secretly wishes she could be.