Case Analysis for Girly Toys from the 80s and 90s

December is a time for holidays, gift giving, and childhood memories of receiving toys on Christmas or Hanukkah.  Ripping into the shiny wrapping paper and revealing the glistening plastic toy was always a joyful time to remember.  I thought I would share this updated toy analysis I originally posted on my Facebook in 2017.  I added a few items and refined my notes.  My points are that dolls are not necessarily sexist, and not just for girls.

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Third Wave Feminists say that girly toys like dolls are less empowering than Legos, which require building.  Dolls are puppets without strings that can be used for storytelling.  That definitely requires imagination.  They aren’t much different than action figures, whose superhero outfits are built into their bodies.  Action figures suggest adventure, and dolls are allegedly used for fashion experimentation – unless you can use your imagination to make them superheroines in ball gowns!

In years past, I walked through the Girls’ section of Toys R Us when Christmas shopping for my little cousins, and I noticed the popular lines were Monster High, Ever After High, Barbie, and Disney – in terms of dolls.  There were Goldi-Blocks for Legos and Nerf guns for girls in 2017.  Then there were techno gadget toys.  I prefer to shop for physical toys for my cousins and not let them get sucked into the technicolored black hole of a screen too early.  I came across some small, colorful toys that light up – similar to the Blinkins I had as a girl.

Going through my memories of girly toys, when the gender border was thickly drawn, I still see imaginative uses and the weirdness of nostalgic surrealism.  We didn’t just play with dolls in the 80s and 90s.  Some of our toys were not even human.

Below is a table listing of all the toys I can remember from my generation and slightly after.  I did not own all of these.  Some of them I have never seen at a store, like Rose Petal Place dolls.  I had a friend who liked that cartoon long ago.  I tried to be objective when making this list; including the non-feminist toys too.  Some of these toys were loved by boys too, like Care Bears, and Popples.  The columns cover topics that feminism examines like jobs and purposes.  Afterward, I give my analysis involving the qualitative statistics resulting from the columns.

This table was too large to display, so click to enlarge and then zoom in on the image.

 

 

Toy Analysis

There are 53 toys listed.  This is not a comprehensive list of every toy released in 1980-1999.  This is only what I could remember.  I could keep adding items to the spreadsheet, but then I would not be done by Christmas this year.  More than fifty toys is a good sample. 

Also to note, I retained Barbie and the Easy Bake Oven, because although they came out earlier, they maintained their presence in the toy aisles in the time period being observed.  Little Kiddles originated in the 1960s, but they had a gap in production and were brought back in the 1990s.

The following analyses involve the three columns and a cross analysis of those columns.  Additionally, I noted the toys’ link to cartoons and movies previously produced.  The terms, Species and Occupations, are not meant to be taken literally, but only in the sense of experimental imagination.

Species

Dolls and other toys are objects but they represent living things that children relate to in imaginary play.  The term, humanoid, refers to beings that are humanlike but not human.  For example, a mermaid is humanoid because she is part human.  The other categories are pretty self-explanatory.  A dragon would be a non-human fantasy creature.

Although there are 53 toys, some series had more than one type of character, hence the numbers are out of 61.  Below is a table with the numbers accounted per species class.  A corresponding chart comes afterward.

 

Table 1

 

 

 

 

 

Out of 61 characters,
44.2% were human.
16.4% were humanoid.
11.5% were non-human fantasy creatures.
19.7% were animals.
8.2% were playsets or objects that did not represent living things.

Four toys were floral people or flower dwellers.
Seven toys had a food or baking theme.

 

Chart 1

 

Occupation

Toy companies sometimes market toys to have jobs or play special roles in their fictional societies.  It sets an example for children and to vicariously live out those responsibilities through the toy.  While going through the list, it seemed like some roles were unintentional and left open to interpretation.  For example, Rainbow Brite manages a business where sprites mine for star sprinkles, which provide pigmentation for the world.  You could say she is the CEO of a color corporation, but that’s probably not what Hallmark intended when marketing their toy.

Some toys had realistic jobs and others did not.  Realistic jobs included Baker, Ballerina, and Perfumer, because those jobs exist in the real world.  Of course not all toys are designed to be associated with jobs.  They just have functions that send simple messages like stay clean, or go to bed.  Some toys represent small children or pets where the focus is caring for them.  However in a fantasy world, animals and children can have societal roles that are relatable during playtime.  Some characters are children like Strawberry Shortcake, but she appears to have a job in harvesting strawberries.  In the cartoon, Miss Shortcake is an independent girl who can afford a house without marrying to attain dual income.  She is a real feminist without bragging about it.

In negating the sexism of girlish toys, it’s important to take vocational roles into account.  Jobs are empowering for women and in teaching girls their potential.

 

Chart 2

 

 

Table 2 accounts for toys in their varying levels of employment or exemption.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only 5 toys were princesses.  1 was a Lady.
22.6%, over one fifth had realistic jobs.
20.7% were either pets, too young to work, or were playsets/non-representative of living things.
28.3% of the toys were unemployed.  They did not seem to have any vocation.

A princess is a political figure, and most girls dream of enjoying the material wealth of a princess, but the political responsibilities are absent in play and leadership skills are not taught.  On a positive note, jobs that stood out were Rock star/Orphanage Manager, Superhero, Farmer, Baker, and every job Barbie has room in her schedule for!

There may have been multiple princess themed Barbie dolls, but I don’t count her as a princess since the toy line doesn’t emphasize royalty like Krystal Princesses or She-Ra.  Although princesshood is a highly unlikely career, it has its own category due to its popularity, and to prove the point that out of 53 toys, only 11.3% were royalty.

Some careers seemed unrealistic like aviation ballerina, pollinator, or working in the dream industry.  However they are fantastical roles that allow a child to think and literally dream outside the box.  Regardless of marketing intentions, children may decide to imagine their toys have jobs alternative to what’s printed on the box.  The toys are open to their interpretation too.  Maybe the Sky Dancer wants to be a doctor.

 

Purpose

While I indicated some of the toys were tools, like the Easy Bake Oven and Skip-It, as a general principle I believe all toys are tools that teach kids something.  Each toy has a purpose, meaning a use.

The following table and chart illustrate the different purposes of the toys from the sample.  There were 14 toys that had more than one use, so percentages are out of 67 and not 53.  Excluded from multipurpose toys were those listed as “hugging/cuddling,” and it’s counted as one function.

 

Table 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chart 3

 

49.25% of the toys were for storytelling.
10.4% had typically sexist purposes – fashion play, makeup, and motherhood collectively.
26.8% had other uses, most commonly just using features of the toy. 

Just shy of half the toys had a purpose of storytelling, which served me well because I love to write.  However there wasn’t much diversity in product uses.  Playing with multiple product lines can add more plot to the tales. 

Despite that fashion play, cosmetics, and maternity are associated with female gender roles, young girls back then still wanted to prepare for motherhood, and model after their moms by playing with makeup and wearing cool clothes.  So toy companies catered to those wishes.  Still, these uses only accounted for roughly one tenth of the toy functions in the sample, and that’s with all three categorical uses together.

Under the category of “Other,” was the second highest purpose in the chart, which was usually just playing with the toy.  Among the “other” uses were Making the Blinkins’ butts light up, Flying the Sky Dancer around, and Wish making on the rhinestone crested Troll. 

Overall, there needs to be a balance in the toy chest.  Dolls are welcome, but also add in building and exercise toys like blocks, balls, hula hoops, and Play Dough.  Then there are board games, which teach children rules, taking turns, not to cheat, and be a good sport.  Toys are tools, and each one teaches something important.

 

Based on Media

When an animated series receives high ratings, toy companies anticipate profitability in an associated toy line.  Sometimes it is the reverse, where the toy becomes popular enough to support the production of a TV show.  The next table and chart account for the number of toys that are linked to a TV show or movie.

Table 4

 

 

 

 

Chart 4

 

The results show that
20.7% were based on a preexisting cartoon series.
64% were not based on a TV show or movie. 

Having a preset plot for toys can be positive and negative.  It gives children a starting point for elaborating on a story, but it’s also the toy corporation providing their imagination for them, whereas a child should use their imagination on their own.

The majority of the toys were not linked to any sort of broadcasted entertainment, so most of the toys were characters and objects before a blank canvas, letting children create the background.

 

Cross-Analyze

By focusing on the majorities from each table, we can gain deeper insight into different aspects of the toys.  The following sections involve Species, Occupations, and Purpose, titled with the mode value.
 

Human - 27

The most common species represented in the data sample was human, totaling 27.  All of the princesses were completely human with the exception of Ariel from the Disney doll collection, who is a half-human fantasy character.

Out of the human represented toys,
One third had realistic jobs.
3 were unemployed.
4 were too young for jobs.
5 had unrealistic jobs.

To give perspective, human looking toys were more likely to be associated with a profession.  One third, 33.333%, of the human toys had practical jobs versus 22.6% for the whole sample.  Three lacked a profession, while 15 out of the whole 53-item sample had no associated professions.  That’s one ninth, 11%, of the human toys versus 28.3% for all toys listed in the sample.  In negation of sexism, most of the dolls were shown to have practical jobs, which empower a girl’s imagination in believing she can vicariously take on the role too.

Although toys appearing to be human were more likely to have a professional role, slightly over half the unrealistic jobs were held by human toys.  Though not everything has to be serious and realistic; it can just be fun.  All four toys that were “too young to work,” were represented as human children, though they are just babies, who need care.  This allows the girl to entertain a maternal role.  With roles come purposes, which bring us to the next few stats.

The purposes for those dolls indicate that,
16 out of 27 were for storytelling, 59.25%.
5 were multi-purpose.
12 focused on beauty, 44%.
2 focused on baking. 

Almost 60% of the human looking toys were used for storytelling, whereas 49.25% of the whole data set involved storytelling.  It’s a 10% difference.  Five humanistic toys were multipurpose, and the other nine in the whole sample were not human in appearance.  Thus it can be inferred that a doll is going to be single-purposed.  More than two-fifths of the dolls involved beauty culture.  The arguments for and against sexism could be tallied like a scoreboard at this point.

It would make sense that dolls are used for creating stories, since human beings are the most common characters on television and in books.  It’s easier to identify with the character if they look somewhat like you.  If cosmetics and perfume were less emphasized, and there was more variety in the toys’ uses in this area, maybe women and girls could explore more talents and believe they have more abilities than just applying lipstick.  One could see where feminists’ arguments would be highlighted here.

Also worthy of noting is that,
13 were fantasy-like or originated from a fantasy realm, 48.1%.
6 out of 9 realistically employed were not from a fantasy land.
3 had fantasy characters in their series, 11%.
3 had animals as part of their franchise, 11%.
2 were not dolls, neither had a job.

Almost half the human population of toys had a background in fantasy, whether it was their homeland or their fantastical selves.  Two thirds of the human toys with realistic jobs didn’t have a fantasy backdrop.  Also 22% of human toys had animal companions or had fantasy friends in their product line.  Surprisingly, two human toys were not dolls, Smooshies and Star Castles.  Humans inhabit the castle, but they aren’t really dolls.  Neither of the non-dolls appeared to be marketed with an occupation.

 

Realistic Jobs vs. Unemployed 

While it’s obvious that toys don’t have occupations or unemployment rates, they can be represented as having real jobs as a part of imaginative play.  Moreover, feminism involves careers.  The two most common stats under Occupations were Realistic Jobs and Unemployed, with the latter being the mode.  The following displays the statistical points per category.

Realistic jobs - 12 

7 out of 12 were exclusively human.
3 are food related.
3 were beauty focused.
5 were multipurpose.
9 were for storytelling. 

Unemployed - 15

3 were human.
5 were animals.
5 were fantasy-humanoid.
4 were fantasy creatures.

11 out of 15 were for storytelling.
2 were multi-functional.
6 focused on beauty.
1 was food related, plus had its own kitchen and vanity sets. 

Over half the toys with realistic jobs were human in appearance, while only 20% of the toys without a job linked to their product line were human.  It can be inferred that dolls are more likely to encourage girls to play a functioning role in society or give an example of what they can do in the future.  This adds some feminism points to the Dolls’ side of the scoreboard.  

Almost half the unemployed population consisted of animals and fantastical creatures, like birds and dragons.  So it’s understandable that a toy company wouldn’t feel the need to give them specialized positions, because in a fantasy realm the ideation of vocations is optional.

One quarter of the toys with realistic jobs focused on beauty culture, whereas 40% of the unemployed toys focused on beauty.  So if a doll had a job, it was less likely to be a beautician.  Combining beauty and food themes, it’s 50% for the practical job group.  Comparatively for the unemployed grouping, the one toy that was food related also had beauty qualities.  Their playsets involved sweet treats that transformed into a kitchen, a vanity, or patio furniture.  The dolls themselves transfigured from cupcakes into human beings.  They were the Cupcake Dolls, a favorite of mine.  Just because a doll isn’t marketed to have a professional job doesn’t mean they can’t be a collected keepsake with treasured memories. 

Maybe the dolls didn’t need jobs since they lived in peaceful worlds where all their needs were provided to them by the toy company gods.  Maybe some were disabled?  In entertaining the creative interpretation of Flip N Fancy, the conjoined twins could apply for disability.  However, they have twice the brain power, and the two sides could play different roles.  So in playing with the idea, they have twice the ability, rather than disability.  Playskool should have thought about careers, not just fashion, especially since they had interchangeable sections.  If the company made them 3D, they could have four sides, have more combinations of outfits to switch around, and they could be conjoined quadruplets.  This theoretical evolution of Flip N’ Fancy could get a job babysitting the Quints.

More toys with realistic jobs were multifunctional as opposed to unemployed toys.  A toy designed intentionally or unintentionally to represent a job was more likely to have a second use during play.  The toys without a marketed job were more likely to be more simplistic in purpose, like FairyTails, Bubblins, and My Pretty Mermaid. 

The purpose of storytelling was more likely to be found in unemployed toys than toys connected to a job, but not by a significant margin.  So the storytelling aspect isn’t really linked to a career.  A child could even pretend a toy has a job without a marketing company labeling it as such.  However, children don’t know all their career options.  With dolls like Paleontologist Barbie and Veterinarian Barbie, it helps open up a kid’s blinders that their future isn’t limited to an office cubicle.
 

Storytelling - 33 

While on the topic, storytelling is one of the most basic uses of toys, arguably since early civilization.  Some dolls were made to simulate motherhood, but with multiple dolls, stories could be told through their figurative interaction.  Storytelling involves role playing, character development, and evaluating potential causes and effects.  A plot could be as simple as having Barbie and Ken go on a date, or it could be more complex like having My Little Ponies and Popples team up to go on a treasure hunt through an imaginary mountain range full of volcanoes where they solicit the help of the lava mermaids and tropical birds (My Pretty Mermaids and FairyTails) to negotiate a trade with My Kissing Dragon to share the treasure.

16 were human, 48%.
7 were animals, 21%.
8 were fantasy humanoid, 24%.
6 were fantasy creatures, 18%.

9 had real jobs.
11 were unemployed.
1 was too young for work.
6 had unrealistic jobs.
6 were royalty.

12 were multipurpose.
13 out of 15 toys based on cartoons are made for continuing the story.

The majority of toys with storytelling qualities were humanlike, giving children something they can readily identify with because it resembles them.  Both human and fantasy humanoid account for more than two-thirds of this grouping.  A little over two-fifths, 42%, were fantasy characters whether humanoid or critter.  Fantasy is only one genre of tales, so other plots could unfold with the other 58%.

All of the royalty characters had storytelling aspects to their usage.  Only one of the four toys deemed “too young for work,” was for storytelling, while the others were for just using the toy features.  

One third of toys made for tale telling were unemployed, so because creating stories is such a basic function, you might as well use rocks as dolls to tell a story.  However combine the groups of employed dolls, with real and unrealistic jobs, and they make up a greater portion, 45%.  In effect, storytelling with set roles does give a child a chance to expand on a preexisting story.  On the negative side, a corporation is doing the child’s imagining for them, in part.  On the positive side, that part is called inspiration.

Less than half, 36%, were multipurpose, but interesting to note the most common secondary function was cuddling and hugging.  It’s possible that it gives a sense of security. 

Thirteen out of 33 tale spinning toys were preceded by a TV show or film, which means only two toys from the whole sample were unprecedented by an entertainment source.  Sometimes it’s fun to continue a story that we see on television.  With the story already set, there is a starting point, but a rigid frame for imaginary play, unless some kids rebel against marketing ploys and think for themselves.  Instead of Blinkins preparing for a harsh winter and fending off the evil frog and wicked bear from the animated feature, the Blinkins could run a hotel business and give light shows with their luminescence.

 

Last points

All in all, whatever the toy’s purpose is, or whatever the doll looks like can give varying experiences to each child.  The same present could be under the tree or around the menorah, and no two children would play with that toy the exact same way.

A toy can inspire you in ways that we hold onto into our adult years.  Cartoons can do the same, and the toys produced afterward are extensions of those animated adventures.  When I was a young girl, I liked fun shows like Chip N’ Dale Rescue Rangers and more somber shows like Rescue 911, and when I played with my Barbies, I tended to role play conflicts and crime dramas.  Now I have a Masters in Criminal Justice and I have a career in security and investigations. 

Look back at your childhood.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a girl, a boy, or a gender non-binary child.  Remember which games and toys you played with, and see if there are any parallels to your career.

 

Sources:

Sarah (Sept 2003).  Ghost of the Doll.  [Website].  Retrieved from:  https://www.ghostofthedoll.co.uk/toys.php#P

Anonymous (2021).  I Love The 80s.  [Website].  Retrieved from:  https://ilovethe80s.com/toy/girl/barbie-80s-toys

Other quick resources included Wikipedia and YouTube for finding release dates and vintage commercial clips.

The rest is from my memories.

Magical Girl Anime - 12 Series that are Noteworthy

 

                Almost everyone has a favorite anime, and with a neverending array of titles, they are split into genres – so there is something for everyone.  One of the most recognized anime genres is Magical Girl.  In America, superheroes have a few traits in common like the cape, superpowers, a side kick, and a secret identity.  In Japanimation, Magical Girl type superheroines also have common attributes, with few exceptions to the formula.  They are ordinary girls who gain superpowers and have an animal life coach.  Once the heroines’ new identities are realized, they have lengthy transformations and attack sequences.  More often than not, the title heroine has magical friends who work as a team to conquer villains and promote morals and believing in oneself.

                The first Magical Girl anime dates back to 1966 with Sally the Witch.  In the 1970s, there were more added to the category, with Majokko being popular.  In the 1990s, the genre grew exponentially with the debut of Sailor Moon.

                Magical Girl anime and manga can be uplifting and give a sense of female empowerment, which women and girls vicariously experience through the superheroines.  Our joys and struggles are reflected in the characters, and since multiple heroes cooperate as a team with diverse personalities, viewers have more characters to identify with.

The following is a list of twelve Magical Girl titles that are recognized in contemporary anime/manga.  Included are the elements of the Magical Girl genre, storyline synopses, manga comparisons, some marketing techniques, and cultural reactions.  By the way, manga is a Japanese comic book, and anime is the Japanese word for animation.  An otaku is an anime nerd. 

I have watched most of these animes or have read the manga, sometimes in Japanese or German.  However, I only became recently familiar with two titles, Wedding Peach and Tokyo Mew Mew.  Some passages are short as not to spoil too much, especially if it’s a favorite, like Princess Tutu.

Just as a quick way to compare and contrast, here is a table displaying the Magical Girl aspects each show exhibits.  Then there is a short analysis of the table, and after that come the more comprehensive detailing of the twelve shows from the table.

                To clarify the abbreviations….

T seq = Transformation Sequence
A seq = Attack Sequence
Yes and No are shortened to Y and N.
N/A is Non-Applicable.

 

 

 

                Ten out of twelve series have a signature transformation sequence, and three quarters have attack sequences.  Half of the titles have magical girls with nature-related powers.  Looking over the individual warriors, it is still 51% as having nature magic.

                One quarter have cats for coaches.  The cat who dresses like a soccer coach in Princess Tutu hardly takes on the advisory role, so he doesn’t count.  However there are two robots serving as guides in Tokyo Mew Mew.  Although they are not fuzzy, they fulfill the role as pet/life coach in a Tamagotchi capacity.  The second robot emerges in the sequel.  There is an average of 1.5 mini-advisors in these titles.  Having half an advisor may not seem possible, but Japanimation may predictably try it someday.

                The next column regards where the story takes place most of the time.  Three quarters of the titles take place in the real world, including fictional Earth cities.  By fantasy standards, this is called low fantasy since impossible things happen in a real world, whereas high fantasy takes place in a fantasy realm exclusively.

                Some stories fit into middle fantasy, meaning the character transcends into a fantasy world.  The Wizard of Oz is a perfect non-anime example.  In these Magical Girl animes, more than half involve transcending into another world.  Five stories involve being whisked away into a fantastical realm, while two are the reverse.  For instance, the sailor scouts leave the Moon Kingdom to live on Earth.

 

 

Sailor Moon

 

It’s undoubtedly a classic and a first anime for scores of otakus.  The creator Naoko Takeuchi created an epic story about solar systemic princesses who unite to take down villains with geological names.  Each sailor scout embodies the personality traits of astrological signs associated with their respective planets.

                Serena is a normal teen until a cat, Luna, gives her super powers to fight monsters.  She becomes Sailor Moon and meets friends who become her fellow sailor scouts.  The sailor scouts represent planets and have mostly elemental powers, with some exceptions like bubbles.  They all eventually find out that they were princesses from other planets, and that their souls were sent to Earth after the Moon Kingdom was sieged by the Negaverse’s army. 

                American marketers tried to target the show to little girls, but the show appealed to teens and adults with no gender boundaries.  For awhile it was the highest viewed show on Cartoon Network.  Acquiring more seasons was difficult due to conservatives’ protests against Uranus and Neptune’s relationship, which required altering the English translation to portray them as cousins.

                The show’s popularity has spawned storefronts with Sailor Moon related merchandise, a Sailor Moon café in Japan, and even a musical.  To dispel the uninformed argument that Sailor Moon is just for kids, there is a hentai titled, Sailor X, and there is Sailor Moon themed lingerie.  Ultimately, Sailor Moon is for all ages, but some things are adults-only.  Nothing is kids-only here.

 

Sailor V

 

She was the predecessor of Sailor Moon, and Takeuchi’s original idea.  The V is short for Venus.  She was the video game character in Sailor Moon’s earlier episodes, and later Serena meets her gaming icon who joins the team.  The manga has been rereleased and is easier to obtain, but usually Sailor Venus is depicted in her orange skirt and collar, and rarely in her original colors and mask.

                Like Sailor Moon, Sailor V finds out she has magical powers from a talking cat named Artemis.  In contrast, Sailor V is British.  What the two sailors have in common are that they are both frequently late for school.  It makes me wonder if the creator had similar personality traits to her first two heroines.

                Here is the original opening theme song for Sailor V, and you can see how much the original heroine had in common with Sailor Moon.  Molly and Melvin were in the series too.

                Code Name is Sailor V - Opening Theme

 

Magic Knight Rayearth

 

A masterpiece by CLAMP, alongside Chobits, Rayearth’s breathtaking imagery draws in the fans.  The artistic complexity is best shown in the manga with its mural-like displays of scenery and characters.

                Three girls from different schools are whisked away to Cephiro to save a princess who protected her world from chaos.  A wizard initially explained everything and gave the first sets of armor and magically empowered one girl.  The other two gained powers from the bouncing creature, Mokona, who seems to have a one-worded vocabulary.  Their armor and weapons evolve, and their elemental powers advance with their convictions of friendship. 

 

 

Cardcaptor Sakura

 

                Another wildly popular anime by CLAMP, this is like Pokemon mixed with Lolita fashions.  A 10-year-old girl, Sakura, finds a sorcerer’s book in her basement, and inadvertently releases numerous cards containing beasts.  Keroberos, a small yellow winged primate, serves as her guide in retrieving all the Clow Cards.  Sakura has a magic staff with a winged end, allowing her to fly.  The other end has a beak-shaped jewel that unlocks a card’s creature to battle escaped Clow Card monsters.  Each conquest results in collecting more Clow Cards to use in subsequent battles.

                Unlike the other Magical Girl series, Cardcaptor Sakura does not transform or have a lengthy attack sequence.  Her cousin, Tomoyo, provides her costumes for donning her superheroine identity.

 

Glitter Force/Smile Precure

 

 

This is a more child appropriate version of Sailor Moon that will appease even the most conservative parents.  The heroines wear shorts under their dresses, and there’s an absence of romance.  Instead the focus is more on friendship and morals with fairytale themes throughout the series.  The villains are ones featured in folklore, and they conjure the least nightmarish monsters for the heroines to battle. 

The five Glitter Force warriors have more innocent weaknesses like shyness and a fear of bugs.  Whereas in Sailor Moon, characters had tempers, eating disorders, and one was expelled for fighting.  The original Japanese version of Sailor Moon had alcohol references.  In the sailor scouts’ defense, they were not mono-dimensional characters.  Moreover, it’s fun to find the parallels between Glitter Force and Sailor Moon.  I jokingly refer to Urlic as “Furry Malachite.”

In Glitter Force, there are creative episodes, where the members shrink, become invisible, turn into children, and one girl temporarily is transformed into a giant robot.  Whoever writes the script is pretty good at clean comedy too. 

Glitter Force is the Americanized version of the Japanese original Smile PreCure, which is the ninth in the Pretty Cure franchise.  There are a total of 18 Pretty Cure series so far, and it was Glitter Force/Smile PreCure that caught my eye.  A few years prior, I had seen a picture of some PreCure characters and I loved the color usage.  Along with Sailor Moon, each series can be compared and contrasted with the others, yet the stories and characters are all lovable in their own way.

 

Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch

 

 

The premise of the story is simple.  Mermaids turn into popstars and save the world.  A mermaid princess leaves the sea to become human to pursue her love interest.  If people find out she’s a mermaid, she dies by turning into bubbles.  Her two friends from school are also mermaids, and when the villains try to cause problems, the protagonists transform into human songstresses and thwart them with their songs. 

The animal companion who gives guidance is an anthropomorphic penguin named Hippo.  He may seem bossy, but in the Japanese voiceovers, he speaks in honorifics towards the main character since she is royalty.

 

Alice 19th

 

                A teenage girl, Alice, saves a rabbit from a busy intersection.  The rabbit transforms into a human with rabbit ears, and for saving her she empowers Alice with a jeweled bracelet to become a Lotis Master.  Her first Lotis Word is Courage.  With magical words coupled with runes, Alice could enter people’s minds and vanquish the darkness from within their inner-worlds.  With time, Alice gains more Lotis Word virtues to advance her mastery as an inter-psychological warrior princess.  The oppositional terms are the Maram Words, which are vices.

                Unfortunately, this beautiful manga did not make it to anime, so there’s no epic transformation into her Lotis Master outfit or her casting of her virtue runes.  However, there is still hope that an Alice 19th anime may be developed, and you may live the dream of voicing the talking rabbit, Nyozeka.

 

Princess Tutu

 

                A storyteller’s fictional world lives on after his death.  Within this realm, a girl attends a ballet school run by a cat in a jogging suit who threatens to marry everyone.  Ahiru morphs between humanity and duckhood every time she deals with her low self-esteem.  When she gains inner-strength, she transforms into Princess Tutu in time to battle a perceived enemy.  Her powers are derived from classical ballet.

                The plot displays fairytale elements and Tchaikovsky storylines, and of course ballet.  The Ugly Duckling and Swan Lake are recurring themes.  Overall, if you love weirdness, this is an anime for you.

 

Wedding Peach

 

                Three friends in the school newspaper club become angel warriors with bridal superpowers and battle devils from the hellish realm.  Their celestial leader is Aphrodite, and their transformation tools and weaponized jewelry are prefixed with Saint.  They are angels reincarnated into humans on Earth, and the main angel warrior is Wedding Peach.  Her fellow Love Angels are Angel Daisy, Angel Lily, and Angel Salvia.  (I don’t recommend salvia usage; that’s just her name.)  The latter’s secret identity is named after the protagonist from Gone with the Wind, Scarlet O’Hara.  This same angel falls in love with someone named Dean Butler.

                Their magical attacks include, “Wedding Engagement Gift - St. Crystal Love for You,” “St. Mirror – Bridal Flash,” and “St. Pure Sword – Passionate Cake Cut!”  Wedding Peach has a gun with a heart-scope that shoots love only.  A whip comes out of Angel Lily’s armor-garter, and Angel Daisy has boomerangs and a fan.  Angel Salvia has a sword and sometimes she fights in a wedding gown.

 

Tokyo Mew Mew

 

                Young waitresses merge with endangered species’ DNA to become the Mew Mews, who fight Chimera Animas, which are alien parasites that turn animals into monsters.  The villains controlling the parasites are aliens named after fattening foods, and the heroines are named after health foods and one herb.  No major food group is left out, including pudding – wait that’s not a health food!  Oh, it might be low fat.  Anyway, onward!  One villain, Quiche, falls in love with the first warrior, Mew Ichigo – but he wants to destroy all her friends, which may pose a problem.  She never gives into Quiche’s romantic demands.  In contrast, Mew Pudding struggles with her emotions akin to Stockholm Syndrome after being abducted by Tart.  She eventually has to face him in magical combat.

                Mew Ichigo, whose name means strawberry in Japanese, is the main hero who merged with Iriomote cat genes.  Her weapon is a bell attached to a heart-shaped ring.  Mew Mint loves ballet, and she mixed DNA with a blue lorikeet, a rare bird.  Don’t be fooled by her wings and tutu, because her archery is en pointe.  Mew Lettuce merged genetics with finless porpoise, and morphs into a mermaid once in awhile.  Mew Lettuce and Mew Pudding have musical instruments for weapons, castanets and a tambourine respectively.  Mew Pudding was exposed to golden lion tamarin genes, which is a reddish primate – not a lion.  Mew Zakuro, whose name is Japanese for pomegranate, was infused with gray wolf genes, the only non-endangered species.  Her genetic totem fits her persona since she prefers to be a lone wolf.  Her weapon is a laser dancing ribbon attached to a crucifix.

 

 

Honorable Mention:  The following fit the formula of the Magical Girl genre, but they are both Italianimation.

 

Winx Club

 

This is a combination of Sailor Moon, Harry Potter, and fairies.  Six fairies attend Alfea College for good magic, and they fight off evil witches from the rival school of dark magic.  Their powers involve elements, music, and technology.  The witches have different powers as well – ice, storms, and mind control.  Instead of having an animal to provide moral support, they each have a miniature fairy, a pixie, who tries to help them with their weak spots in life.  Their pixies seem to embody personality traits that are opposite of their own.

                The storyline feels like a soap opera except more colorful, with its relationship dynamics, personal problems the girls face, and the saga-type continuity in plot.

 

W.I.T.C.H.

 

Five girls are elemental guardians whose first names spell “witch,” and ironically they are not witches.  The original comic book is from Italy, and was later adapted into an animated series for American and French production companies.  In the original Italian comic book, the girls are guardians with powers of earth, air, fire, water, and energy, and they guard the center of the universe.  In the cartoon, the energy empowered character has the element of quintessence, and the team guards the Veil.  They transcend their fictional Earth city of Heatherfield into fantastical realms.  They have to manage superheroine issues as well as mundane teenage girl responsibilities on Earth.