Mahou Shoujo Ore is a meta comedy anime focusing on and attempting to make humorous commentary on the main genre’s tropes and popular themes. It stars a young girl who desires to be both a stereotypical pop idol and also a magical girl who fights evil, only to eventually be given that chance, start up her transformation sequence and turn into….a dude.
This is not the first time the magical girl genre has done gender bending. In true “The Simpsons did it” style for the genre, Sailor Moon covered this back with the Sailor Starlights in the 90s, and even more recently there was that magical boy anime – Cute High Earth Defence Club Love! – that quickly arrived and just as quickly was forgotten about.
The selling point for Magical Girl Ore is how much the meta commentary on the genre will get lost on you or not. Here’s an example. In episode one, we have the main pair of female characters singing a song that’s basically an off-key rip-off of the Cutie Honey theme. It’s not exactly the theme, but that’s what they were going for. But, if you don’t get why that’s at least interesting if not downright hilarious, then this show probably won’t be for you.
That is not saying that there is something irredeemable about this series to a non-fan of the genre or to a casual fan. Its jokes thus far are not limited specifically to the genre, having the main character run out the door with an entire plate of food instead of just a piece of toast in her mouth is something that most anime fans will understand.
Plus there’s the whole WTF factor to it. The main character transforms into a buff, musclebound guy in a dress, and then goes off to fight equally musclebound bear things that sometimes have tentacles because hashtag ThatsSomeonesFetish. That could be a draw for some people.
This series is like on the opposite end of the spectrum from say Madoka Magica. They are both taking pot-shots at the genre’s tropes, but while Madoka does so in a very serious “these characters are going to have a bad time” kind of way, Ore just puts it all on display for us to laugh at. With mixed results.
Sure you can have a magical girl staff! But it does nothing and a gun would be far more effective! The rules and laws of this universe are decided by how much comedy they can attempt to squeeze out of any given situation.
On the plus side though, the manga it’s based off of is completed, so this will (or at least should be) a complete adaptation. It’s got that going for it at least.
But honestly, I don’t know if this is the kind of show that I’m going to be continuing personally. I might have to from a scholarly standpoint as I’ve been making it a thing to watch a bunch of magical girl anime because it’s one of my favourite genres and I even run a panel about its history at conventions sometimes, but that’s more of a work thing. If I was watching this purely for pleasure, I might only try out another episode or two to see if it starts to reuse gags at all, which for me is a major turn off in a comedy anime. But we’ll have to see in a couple of weeks.
Why a couple of weeks? Well, because apparently Crunchyroll got this show two episodes early. Japan hasn’t even aired these episodes yet, so that’s a thing. But also if you want more, that means you’re just going to have to wait until they come out in Japan like every other series. We just need to wait for Japan to catch up.
Perhaps whatever enthusiasm I have for this series will be gone by then though and I’ll drop it entirely. Not sure.
But if you have seen Magical Girl Ore and have thoughts, let me know down in the comments! Until next time, everyone, stay frosty!
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