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- Feb 12, 2018
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I'm a sucker for manga like "Aa! My Goddess." Magical Girlfriend manga are stories in which some ordinary schlub falls in love with an idealized girlfriend-figure, whose origins are supernatural in nature. She might be a Norse Goddess like Belldandy, or an android maid, like "Mahoromatic's" Mahoro, or an extraterrestrial fugitive like Ichika from "Waiting in the Summer." Over the course of the story, her romance with the protagonist propels him into adulthood; he frequently gains in self-confidence, pursues and attains his goals, and takes his first steps into maturity. The magical girlfriend meanwhile, will usually learn something new about herself, or her mysterious origins, which will set her on the path towards her own personal quest, and the final confrontation with the antagonist (if any).
At the same time, there's a lot to be said about the limits of the trope. The Pop Culture Detective made a video about three years ago that took aim at what he calls the "Born Sexy Yesterday" trope, and he specifically calls out Chii from "Chobits" as an egregious example of this. Since there's some overlap between the trope he describes and the Magical Girlfriend, I thought I'd write a response to his video - it's still awaiting moderation, so I thought I'd share it here as well, in the hopes that my defense of the magical girlfriend will be of some value to someone.
Here is the original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0thpEyEwi80
And here is my reply:
No! The trope is emphatically about radical self-acceptance. As a man who constantly struggles with feelings of self-hatred and inadequacy, the message of the trope is that I am not merely the sum of my failures, and that my romantic rejections do not foreclose the possibility of future happiness; in other words, that I too am a worthy human being capable of giving and receiving love.
This is why I prefer the framing of the "magical girlfriend" which is less overtly hostile and politicized. The magical girlfriend is to be interpreted allegorically; quibbling about the mechanics of her origins or her patriarchal signification is like complaining about Rip Van Winkle's lack of bed sores. The point of Rip Van Winkle is not its plausibility. It's a metaphor about loss, displacement, and home. Similarly, the magical girlfriend's origins are frequently surreal, because this very unreality is a signal to the audience that they need to interpret her presence metaphorically, not literally. She reassures the male viewer that somewhere out there is a woman who will accept him as he is, without subjecting him to the relentless pressure to conform, or achieve. It isn't about complacency, but about the positive message that even men who've experienced professional (or other) failures, and who feel themselves to be worthless can still find love and acceptance.
The startling innocence of the magical girlfriend is not to be interpreted literally, but is a metaphorical way of encouraging men to reexamine themselves with fresh eyes and find value in parts of themselves that they may have previously dismissed as unexceptional. When the magical girlfriend is amazed at ordinary things like traffic signals, it's presented as patently silly in order to discourage us from reading it literally. Here, society is presented negatively, as a source of shame, judgment, and relentless self-criticism. The magical girlfriend stands apart from society, and her innocent gaze looks past our flaws and sees the value in our true selves. And the act of her looking gives us permission to do the same - to forgive and love ourselves.
It's also an invitation to reflect on, for example, our own ordinary pastimes and think, "hey, maybe the fact that I like quilting, or video games, or mountain biking can be interesting and new to someone to hasn't had these experiences yet - maybe I'll see my interests in a new light if I share them with someone else." Far from encouraging a kind of dull complacency, the trope leads us out of ourselves and back into communion with others.
These kinds of movies have always been a balm to me, and I hope those who read this aren't shamed into rejecting the things that give them comfort in these dark times.
Afterward
I'll add a few more words so that my meaning isn't misconstrued. I think we can all broadly appreciate the Pop Culture Detective's (PCD) intent. Nobody wants to to return to the gender roles of the dark ages, to violence, child brides, and the idea of women as property. PCD though takes the concept of equality and runs with it, further and further, to an authoritarian place where the only properly constituted forms of desire are those defined by a strict interpretation of equality; what this does is push out traditional conservative values like purity and innocence in female characters, because they automatically become representative of undesirable forms of relationship inequality. His "born sexy yesterday" trope is created by extracting the parts of the magical girlfriend archetype that support his argument, and removing them from their original context distorts their meaning and function within the story.
That is the point I hoped to make. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.
At the same time, there's a lot to be said about the limits of the trope. The Pop Culture Detective made a video about three years ago that took aim at what he calls the "Born Sexy Yesterday" trope, and he specifically calls out Chii from "Chobits" as an egregious example of this. Since there's some overlap between the trope he describes and the Magical Girlfriend, I thought I'd write a response to his video - it's still awaiting moderation, so I thought I'd share it here as well, in the hopes that my defense of the magical girlfriend will be of some value to someone.
Here is the original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0thpEyEwi80
And here is my reply:
No! The trope is emphatically about radical self-acceptance. As a man who constantly struggles with feelings of self-hatred and inadequacy, the message of the trope is that I am not merely the sum of my failures, and that my romantic rejections do not foreclose the possibility of future happiness; in other words, that I too am a worthy human being capable of giving and receiving love.
This is why I prefer the framing of the "magical girlfriend" which is less overtly hostile and politicized. The magical girlfriend is to be interpreted allegorically; quibbling about the mechanics of her origins or her patriarchal signification is like complaining about Rip Van Winkle's lack of bed sores. The point of Rip Van Winkle is not its plausibility. It's a metaphor about loss, displacement, and home. Similarly, the magical girlfriend's origins are frequently surreal, because this very unreality is a signal to the audience that they need to interpret her presence metaphorically, not literally. She reassures the male viewer that somewhere out there is a woman who will accept him as he is, without subjecting him to the relentless pressure to conform, or achieve. It isn't about complacency, but about the positive message that even men who've experienced professional (or other) failures, and who feel themselves to be worthless can still find love and acceptance.
The startling innocence of the magical girlfriend is not to be interpreted literally, but is a metaphorical way of encouraging men to reexamine themselves with fresh eyes and find value in parts of themselves that they may have previously dismissed as unexceptional. When the magical girlfriend is amazed at ordinary things like traffic signals, it's presented as patently silly in order to discourage us from reading it literally. Here, society is presented negatively, as a source of shame, judgment, and relentless self-criticism. The magical girlfriend stands apart from society, and her innocent gaze looks past our flaws and sees the value in our true selves. And the act of her looking gives us permission to do the same - to forgive and love ourselves.
It's also an invitation to reflect on, for example, our own ordinary pastimes and think, "hey, maybe the fact that I like quilting, or video games, or mountain biking can be interesting and new to someone to hasn't had these experiences yet - maybe I'll see my interests in a new light if I share them with someone else." Far from encouraging a kind of dull complacency, the trope leads us out of ourselves and back into communion with others.
These kinds of movies have always been a balm to me, and I hope those who read this aren't shamed into rejecting the things that give them comfort in these dark times.
Afterward
I'll add a few more words so that my meaning isn't misconstrued. I think we can all broadly appreciate the Pop Culture Detective's (PCD) intent. Nobody wants to to return to the gender roles of the dark ages, to violence, child brides, and the idea of women as property. PCD though takes the concept of equality and runs with it, further and further, to an authoritarian place where the only properly constituted forms of desire are those defined by a strict interpretation of equality; what this does is push out traditional conservative values like purity and innocence in female characters, because they automatically become representative of undesirable forms of relationship inequality. His "born sexy yesterday" trope is created by extracting the parts of the magical girlfriend archetype that support his argument, and removing them from their original context distorts their meaning and function within the story.
That is the point I hoped to make. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.
