Here's a fun fact about SwimSwim's design: It's stated in the books (Book 10 I believe) that she put 0 thought into it and just went with whatever the game defaulted to when she started playing it. It's supposed to be random and clashy because it's 100% randomized!
That's so funny because that's exactly what I thought when I saw Swim Swim for the first time. I have a niece the same age and when she plays dress up games or games with character creators she just cycles through and chooses outfits with no real rhyme or reason. It's just a jumble of things she finds cute.
The twins were designed that way to show how they are completely codependent to one another in real life, and i think the author once said they chose the whole angel thing because the girls, being mischievous, wanted to throw people off with their angelic looks before pranking (later killing) their fellow magical girls.
In the defense of Calamity Mary: I always saw her magical girl form as a coping mechanism for her aging body. She was a disgusting alcoholic and she knew that, so she made herself into a sexy cowgirl in a game to compensate.
That doesn't made her less evil! I mean she shoot innocents peoples JUST to attract Magical girls so she can kill them. She also ALMOST killed a women and her baby, that's so cruel ;( Mary didn't care for Magicaloid too which was selfish plus she never appologises to her husband for beating her own kid. This lady can't be forgiven.
“Classic magical girl sniping pedestrians” just reminds me of the meme of giving anyone a gun who is either a) extremely cute/innocent or b) in a world where guns aren’t real
The fact that the drawings from the original actually look like they came straight out of a smartphone game character creator is extremely impressive. Just the art style in general gets that across very nicely
In regards to Nana, I think her being a nun directly corresponds to her lack of faith. She never truly believed in winterprison and that she was willing to protect her and has never had real faith in people. I think she chose to be a nun to make up for her lack of faith in friends and her wife and instead to create an illusion of someone with faith like a nun.
I still can't get over what would Top Speed's husband would feel when he finds his dead wife and child. I should really look more about character designs like this. I have a few characters that stuck with me, but I never really thought about their outfits and motif.
Same! The poor man would be traumatized for life! He didn't deserved to see his wife like that and Top Speed didn't deserved to die. I was so sad when she got defeated by Swim swim ;(
In volume 10 of the novel series, swimswim says in an interview that the reason her magical girl design is the way it is, is because its the default avatar
I think there’s side material that says swim swim picked the swimsuit because her parents had her “decide between swimming lessons or English lessons” and she picked white because it’s the most “princess color” def a 7 year old thought process
Y’know these designs make me wonder just how they made them using an app. Like how?? They’re so diverse it’s unbelievable they managed it with a dress up feature like just what
The mobile game was just an excuse used by the antagonists to more easily find humans with magic potential in the 1st arc. This method of becoming a magical girl isn't used in future arc or for characters who've been magical girls for a while. As for how they made the mobile game in the first place, the Magical Kingdom is capable of some really impressive feats... when they're not being lazy, haha
In terms of 6:35 I imagine if you really wanted to look into the outfit choice, it could be said that she made her character like that as a means of irony. Everyone around her is constantly looking down on her for being like 'her mother' so maybe she thought that if she was still able to help others even when being connected with bad connotations she could break the barriers and show that she is not like how everyone else perceives her. However, there was no indication of this so it's just speculation.
I love how you explained Alice's self-healing ability, moreso as zombie power as she's among the dead. Its so much more in line with her character now, thanks 👍 Also personally, I like Cranberry's design the best.
I think that the girls are given their powers first before designing a character. Like “oh my character can command people to do anything! I’m going to design them like royalty” or “my character has knight powers! I’m going to design them like a knight” I also think that you get a base avatar associated with the power you get which you can customize further
Hardgore Alice reminds me of Homura Akemi design, the black and purple colors, the similar deadpan expression, the long black hair (except Homura is straight while Alice is wavy), and the similar dress length.
Snow White's outfit really does suit her quite well. Of all the Magical Girls, she was the one who ultimately wanted to be an actual Magical Girl, in the Sailor Moon/Precure/Card Captor Sakura kind of way. Her power is not the most badass for combat purposes (*cough* *cough* YET) but is perfect for someone who genuinely wants to go around helping others, and the fower motif around the ears is a perfect call to that. That her Magical Girl design doesn't look totally different from how she looks in real life is also smart as-- well, it is Koyuki who wants to be a Magical Girl. She wants to be herself as a Magical Girl in much the same way so many girls who become Magical Girls in fiction do. Koyuki doesn't 'become' Snow White. She is Snow White. Spoilers below: All of this takes a dark interpretation after the first book. Her reasons for wanting her design as a Magical Girl to be so similar to herself in real life are ironic considering how much of a hard line she ends up drawing later on between her life as a Magical Girl and her life as a human. In fact, she... hates her real self behind Snow White and heaps upon Koyuki Himekawa all the blame for her weakness and failure as a Magical Girl. So much so that she only continues maintaining her human life as a pretense, barely going to school, pulling away from family and friends, wearing a social mask just to get by, and finding any excuse at all to stay transformed. It becomes a dark question of who the real Snow White is and if there's anything left of the kind, loving Koyuki Himewaka who survived that incident, or if that girl well and truly died with La Pucelle and Hardgore Alice, leaving only the Hunter. The design also proves an ingenious juxtapose later when we see how her life as a Magical Girl has changed her. While her outfit looks like something a pure, innocent, kind-hearted Magical Girl would wear, the things she regularly engages in are often dark and full of violence, often causing her to be covered in blood and possessing of a vacant, cold, or angry expression that often clashes with her motif in startling ways. She ends up looking very close to how you envisioned Calamity Mary should look interestingly enough (minus the wanton killing of innocents). My avatar actually is a fanart based on this and I think it perfectly illustrates how she comes to look: i.imgur.com/Kcg7UQv.jpg As for Ripple, I kind of like that her Magical Girl outfit really doesn't fit her personality at all. Something the books maintain is how she honestly doesn't want to even be a Magical Girl. After the events of the first book (or the anime), Kano truly was ready to just give up on being one all-together, focus on college, and go on with her life, a decision in stark contrast to Koyuki who doubles down on being a Magical Girl and becomes obsessive about it. In fact, it's only because Koyuki is so hellbent not just on being a Magical Girl but on throwing herself into danger that Kano even decides to remain one herself. She does it entirely to help Snow White and protect her, which of course ends up driving much of Koyuki's guilt complex when Ripple ends up disappearing after Limited and Snow White thinks she got her friend killed. Kano is like Breaking Bad's Jesse in Magical Girl form-- someone who doesn't want to be in the game anymore and deserves better but keeps getting dragged in, in one way or another, in part due to bad luck, in part due to bad decision making, and in part due to loyalty to a person they care for.
Being a long time fan of the series it's really cool to see content talking about mgrp! But honestly the "over designed" nature of the girls is one of the big appeals for me at least, especially in later arcs when the designs are more creative!! Also ngl the weak comparisons to madoka really start to ware on you the 100th time you've heard them... Cool video Anyway! It would be cool to see you talk about later arcs!
My personal favourites are Alice (for the reasons you said) and Magicaloid because I'm always a sucker for robotic character designs. Will you be ranking designs from other magical girls?
@@twiinsiink if you do them again, can it be Madoka magica? I love that anime and I'm reading the manga now, so seeing you rate their clothes would be amazing :D
i love mgrp and there’s like no fandom content for the show, so when i saw this video pop into my recommendations (and saw that it was by a youtuber I really like), i got very excited. have to say, the video didn’t disappoint.
Ok I loved your comment about "Classic anime girl sniping pedestrians" and now I totally see a missed Opportunity of Sailor Moon or Sakura just straight up glocking another girl
One thing I really like about Snow White's design is the matching pastel blue & pink color scheme along side the flowers and somewhat school girl uniform design! It stands out from other magical girls I've seen outside of this anime! She's my favorite!
To explain the hypersexuality of ripple, people who suffer sexual mistreatment (which does include sex based bullying and sexual advances from people in power) tend to hypersexualize themselves in online spaces to 'regain control'. It's a real, common issue. The complaining about the outfit makes sense, as when she's no longer able to distance herself from the representation of somebody powerful and gorgeous yet confidently sexual (her game character, a distant and cut off representation of her inner wishes to be safe) versus herself (the real girl suffering the trauma) it causes plenty of awful feelings.
I love these videos about character design. Gives good perspective to me about different designs comparably, especially for someone like me who just dabbles in trying to come up with ideas that never see the light of day because it’s fun.
My fav is La Pucelle! I’m really bias tho since I really connect with him since I am also a bit embarrassed about letting people know I like magical girl anime. Also love your thoughts on all their designs! Can’t wait to see more Magical girl content from you! ☺️
I usually hat the sexy warrior trope with a passion because it rarely looks good and when it does it doesn’t make any sense for the character’s personality and or the situation and only show so much skin because the designer wants a sexy girl in little clothes but La plluche is one of the only expiations because it both looks good and makes sense for the character
Me and my partner have a theory about how the characters designed there avatars: since in the game the avatars are presented in a chibi art style so its hard to gage what the outfits would look on a real body. So what will look good on a chibi won't nessassary work on a full boy character.
This anime isn't perfect but one of the things they got super well are the magical girl designs: They're all beautifully distinct and correspond with the character in a very nice way, not to mention that they actually look like something ripped straight out of an JRPG game.
I'm ridiculously in love with these videos. I hope this becomes your own little series to really dissect every design from anime or cartoon characters! Fingers crossed you do Madoka for this..
I'm just wondering if they gave Nana red shoes to show that she isn't as holy as she looks. If I remembered correctly, she did have a "kink" for knight in shining armor.
I would be a disaster if that mobile game was real. Because I always pick the ugliest options to see what kind of abomination I can make. And knowing I'd have to transform into whatever I created.... Oh god. 😅
That'd be a pretty funny character design idea though. Like a girl who just hates her magical girl look because she did that sounds like a lot of fun, lol.
19:07 OMG!!! I did that edit on the Wiki from MGRP. I feel so honored you used something I wrote for one of the few RU-vid videos that talk about Mahoiku!!!
Ok, this is very interesting, i never heard about magical girl rising, But it seems to be very good, i always liked magical girl stuff and when the idea gets used in a creative way is a must watch for me. I'm gonna check it out, great video!!!
Loved the beginning! I took your warning though and jumped out so I could watch the series without spoilers. I’m really looking forward to coming back and watching the rest of this!
Heyo! After watching you video I had the itch to go back and rewatch this show! Haven’t seen it since 2017 and now that I have I gotta say I have a much better view on certain characters especially Ruler! 👸 I had the same opinion on Ruler as you, some one who thinks they know it all but can’t really lead people like she thought. But even though she did end up biting it early on, her teachings to Swim Swim is what got her to the end of the game! Idk maybe I’m just cutting her some slack since I love her design and english voice actress but I think she was pretty solid as a leader. (Btw I love the scene where she helps Tama understand her writing that was really cute! ☺️)
Love this video format of ranking character designs! I have never even heard of the show but it was cool to hear about sit through the discussion of their character design.
Maaaaaaan. Seeing this video just makes me wish that there would be anime adaptations of the other light novels. MGRP has some of the most interesting designs and asthetics, it's such a shame it's not getting as much attention.
Please do Magical Girl Raising Project Restart too. The designs in my opinion are honestly way better and in the MGRP Episodes and in Restart you get to see characters' personalities and the reason they look the way they do. In the second book Pfle and Shadow Gale would definitely be number because unlike some other characters like Magical Daisy you get to see why Pfle look the way she does.
Magical Girl Raising project is getting a sequel! It's going to cover volume 2 and 3 of the light novels and I'm so hyped! I really hope you make a video on their designs once it comes out cause I love this series so much! 😊
Is it strange that I think ripple and top speed should have switched outfit ideas? Maybe when ripple started the magical girl game she would have easily thought to make a witch. Top speed with the biker gang thing might go well with the fishnets ripple has I haven’t really put that much thought into it but I just thought I would share the idea Also I haven’t fully finished the video at this point of writing this comment so sorry if this idea already gets touched on in the video
"Less than perfect" STOP RIGHT THERE!! I have a friend who's a dispatcher! Saying anything about MGRP being below perfection is an international crime!
Snow white's power is useful to help others BUT she can't use it to defend herself. She can't control telepathy, jsut hears other's thoughts. Yes Snow could hear their plans and strategies but that won't help cause she's not that fast or strong. If the heroine would fight Swim swim or the Angel, she'll definitely loose! Same for La Pucelle's magic. A giant sword is cool and useful... untill she broke. She can't make millions appears or use differents types of swords. La pucelle only have one which is bad. If her weapon is melted or broken, she's dead O-O That's not reassuring!
Ok but she does look a lot like Homura when not transformed. It that same vein she looks a lot like Sailor Mars too. "Long black hair" isn't the most unique character trait.
When you got down to only 2 characters remaining, I knew they were La Pucelle and Hardgore Alice. IDK which order I agree on them being the best 2 designs, yes Process of elimination, duh, but what I mean is I instantly remembered them without reference of looking at a pic of the characters
I really enjoyed your video, as a french viewer I just wanted to told you that La Pucelle doesn't mean maid but in reality Virgin ( so a sign of pruity associated to jeanne d'arc because in christianity Virginity is quite important and show how you aren't temped by the sinful way of having sex before mariage) It's super emberassing to see so many japanese medium having those title for characters when nowadays in France it's something we don't speak about because it can be consider as an insult of something to be ashame of. Maid in French would have been Servante or Domestique.
I never would have expected you to follow this show but what a dope video! 👍 MGRP ended up being one of the inspirations for how I draw and color eyes, so it's cool to see you getting into the other aspects of the character designs. Spoilers for the MGRP Anime: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This show did Semblances better than RWBY - Each character has a unique, albeit limited power, that they have to think of and use creatively to counter other character's unique limited powers. It is kind of lame though with MGRP that once a Magical Girl's power is revealed that said character either immediately dies or dies the next time we see them. Tama for instance was probably the most powerful Magical Girl as with her invisibility cloak she could have "one-scratched" anyone into exploding into red confetti. Cranberry used her power of sound manipulation to locate her enemies' pulsing hearts and breathing... and that's on top of using her power to misdirect and trick her enemies. Snow White's power even works on enemies she fights, as "they're in trouble" when up against her, letting her read their minds and devise a counter strategy, further putting them "in trouble". Sadly the novels are pretty dry and characterization is hard to follow because of how frequently characters are offed but the designs and abilities are neat from a concept point. I hope you review those next because it gets pretty hectic.
I hope it's not lost on anyone, but as a (demi)guy, it's funny that a boy has a magical girl weapon that is a sword that he can change the size of at will. Perfectly phallic image for a boy that would design a magical girl that's heavy on the fan service.
16:54 There’s a character named Sanae in Touhou Project, so if I had to assume it’s pronounced Soh-na-eh? It’s how I pronounce the name, but I don’t know any Japanese, so I’m just guessing.
When I Tell you the shock I was in when Ripple was brought up and we see her human life. I saw her in some compilation of "How anime characters handle bullies" That I watched years ago. Ive been trying to find the Kano one cause the anime looked super interesting. I had no clue it was a magical girl anime let alone one that was meant to be pandering for madoka magica!
Huh, the only magical girl animes I have watched were sailor moon crystal and Granbelm, These videos are interesting! I want to see more magical girls now.
I really love the character designs as well it’s easy to tell who’s the main character from first sight. In my opinion my favorite designs are swim swim la pucelle, top speed and cranberry but the rest are great. SPOILERS: (DEATH SPOILERS) I did cry from some from some of the deaths like Top speed, Hardgore Alice, and Tama but it was fun while they last
Ngl when it came down to the final 2, I knew it was between La Pucelle and Hardgore Alice, and I did cheer a little when I got to number 2 and realized Alice was number 1. Love her design so much.
This is a really great ranking video. While I was a bit disappointed in how the show went, the designs were still amazing. Would you be interested in talking about the story some time?
I'm sure the implication is "seven year old BOY voice", which is funny cuz I'm an adult woman. Sometimes I wonder if people assume I actually am a little kid because of my voice, lol.
I just meant I like the voice you did for the seven year old never thought you were a dude I have said I like your voice in multiple videos I’m sorry if I offended or made you upset I meant no disrespect
