so many “dark” subversions of the magical girl genre kinda fall flat for me emotionally bc theyre presupposing a sort of… innocence and purity about the classic mahou shoujo. like almost pretending that there were never any mature themes, and they’re almost… “saving” the genre somehow by taking a twisted take on it. but like…. have these people watched princess tutu? utena? hell, even sailor moon can get fucking dark! shows like madoka magica pretend like theyre revolutionizing a genre aimed at young girls by instead making it for men and theyre not really doing anything particularly new or interesting at all