Please do continue with talking about cartoons and other girl-centric franchises! Lots of people talk about the franchises that are either targeted at boys or gender neutral but I rarely see people talk about things targeted at young girls. There are so many video games, books/ comics and animated series that could be talked about. By all means, if making videos about these types of things takes the pressure off then go for it! I'd love to see some deep dives into girls media!
For Winx Club content, I highly recommend Unicorn of War. He's constantly producing videos about the show and enjoys rewriting the seasons. For girl games, Dream Jelly did a video not too long ago. If you're interested in the lolita J fashion subculture, I recommend Lovely Lor. She's done a few videos on various games, anime, and other media. Negative Legend covers a lot of different ips, including doll content. And last of all, Judgemental Critter makes magical girl videos every May (otherwise they generally cover RWBY)
as somebody who watches you who doesn't care all that much about dolls, (i just like toys and learning about old stuff i never knew about, and your personality and voice are great to listen too while i draw) i am so here to see ya cover other things! i'm excited to see what other sutff ya do in the future :D
Basically everything on this list was new to me except sky dancers (which I had as a kid and even went as for Halloween in 2020) and star darlings which was what my lil sister was into when it was first out and while I didn’t get into it thought the character designs were so pretty ☺️✨ anyways great video! Now I’m off to create a sly dancer OC lol
I discovered you recently from the algorithm recommending your channel for me (plus someone sharing your video on twitter) and you have such a wonderful and insightful way of going into topics. I can listen to you talk about anything for hours. I really love that you are trying to diversify and I can't wait to see what other topics you discuss!
Just continue to be yourself, I am a huge collector of Dolls, Bears, toys, and just about anything else that has a face, or is fluffy or sparkly 😂 I don't watch you for just your doll talk, I think you are fabulous and I would be happy to watch you reviewing anything. Your fan base I am sure, watch YOU because they like you, your content is just a bonus 💖 you make me smile every time you appear on my phone, this is before you speak, don't ever worry about having nothing to share. We love you. ❤❤❤❤❤
ok, if you ever make a part two, please PLEASE cover LoliRock, it's from 2013, aired two seasons, made me cry at the end and apparently big news is that our long awaited season 3 just might be coming this year! waiting in tears for 6 years has changed me,
I would love to get a video about how you personally collect and display dolls in your collection. Or maybe just a collection tour. Honestly, I always love your videos. Thank you for all your hard work.
When I tell you I have NEVER met another living soul who's ever heard of Girls of Olympus, I mean that I would've convinced myself I'd hallucinated the trailer if it wasn’t up on UA-cam. I moved heaven and earth to get my hand on a copy of one of those books. It took 11 years, but it's finally sitting on my shelf. I haven't taken the time to watch the whole show yet, but even before the BBC released the English episodes, I had tracked down a password protected vimeo tab with like half the episodes on it through the distributor that brought the show to the UK. Researching Girls of Olympus has been one of the most frustrating and gratifying experiences of my life. Also! Another magical girl series that I want to see get more love is the new Tara Duncan! I don't think it has an English dub yet, but you can find the original French dub online. The new designs are super cute!
i think Mia and Me is an underrated magical girl-adjacent show! its a part live action/part animated show with a girl who transports to a magical land and has to save it from some pretty interesting villans as i remember. i never ended up finishing it (i think i watched the first 2 seasons) but there are 4 seasons in total! And as far as i can tell its a complete story too!
Time to give my opinions on each one of these 1. I first hear about this show from Mr. Enter of all places. He thought it was pandering to the left crowd. I haven't seen the show for myself. The only other think about it that I know is that the actress who played Loonette the clown from The Big Comfy Couch was involved with the project. (I think at least) 2. It's sad this animated series of shorts never became it's own tv series. (It looked promising) Never knew the author of the EAH books went one to write an incarnation of this character. 3.My biggest gripe with the web series is that they adapted all the episodes out of order. Also it took forever in my opinion to get to the granting the wishes of the people of Earth plot. (weird contradictory I know but it makes bigger since once you experience it or from what I can remember at least) 4.I actually watched a few episodes of this and all I can remember is that the main character is named Angelica. All I can think of is the character of Rugrats. 5. This was the only show I never heard of till this video. Honestly the series looks interesting. I might check it out.
Pfff lol I can heavily relate to that. I had a big absorbing everything non Christian mythology wise when I was younger and thankfully my parent was just happy I was reading. Now I'm part of the LGBTQ+ as well so guess it has some truth to it
@@Matoelukka my fave was Anubis because I loved half animal or anthro designs, still do. Oh the foreshadowing of the furry jokes.....how I didn't see them coming but they arrived to me anyway
That Amethyst short has just made me realise that I would be down for magical girl themed isekai/portal fiction. Those genres would go together insanely well.
@@amandaslough125 oh yeah, with classics like fushigi yugi! I totally forgot that was one of the first anime I watched. I just meant a more traditional magical girl spin.
"I am working on a big retrospective on star darlings" WOOOOOOOOO!!! FINALLY someone else fascinated with this franchise. I only ever had the first book, sage's, as a kid, but I remember getting really sucked into the world in spite of that because of how vivid and unique the worldbuilding was in a really whimsical and fascinating way. Really looking forward to the retrospective! 😁
SAME!! I remember getting the first book from a book faire in elementary school, and I still wish that I had an iPad that could magically give me any outfit I want in my perfect size
I had one book that explained the characters, the world, etc. The art is so good in it, and I wanted to live in that world. I think I saw a little bit of the show on tv lol
Honestly, this topic feels like such a natural extension of your content that I wouldn't have even thought about it if you hadn't mentioned it. I'm looking forward to more content like this from you!
Finally some Mysticons love! I wish more people saw it while it was airing. Sadly, Nickelodeon just doesn't seem to have a great track record with promoting their magical girl shows in general. They're technically not dolls, but I highly recommend taking a look at their action figure line. Very well sculpted and detailed toys. There's even some larger sized ones that scale well with most fashion dolls!
Yes, finally some love for them. Anyway btw do you know where I could re-watch the show for free? I tried some months ago but can't really find anything on the internet
Nick is unfortunately the worst network to pitch a show to. Good luck trying to make your show have airtime that isn't taken up by SpongeBob or The Loud House
I love Star Darlings so much!!! Omg. This whole star-themed aesthetic is so well-done. Actually ALL visuals are startastic! Sadly when I was a kid I ignored the books. Stupid little me didn’t know they could just not publish it anymore. And now I’m a book hunter…
I would love to see the Sky Dancers show get rebooted. Since there's been more push to properly represent different cultures, I think it could really be a great show.
One card game I have (Sentinels of the Multiverse) has a character based around Haka, a traditional Māori dance, and I think that if Sky Dancers ever gets a reboot a Māori character who’s dance style is based on Haka would be really interesting!
The Star Darlings & Sky Dancers inclusion has me hyped!! I'm truly so excited to see them highlighted!! I would love to see more magical girl content in the future!! 🩷🩷🩷🩷
THE GIRLS OF OLYMPUS ANIMATED SERIES WAS RELEASED??? I don't care what I have to do, I WILL watch this series. I've been waiting for such a long time. Ever since I found the trailer as a baby queer.
My favorite obscure “magical girl” (stretching the definition) series is Emara: Emirates Hero. It’s about a girl living in the United Arab Emirates, created by and for Emirati people. She has a double life - by day she works in her mom’s tea shop, often clumsy and with poor customer service manners. By night, she’s Emara, a superhero with arm cannons and a dope as hell costume. I consider Emara to be a tech-magical girl, because while her powers are pure cyborg enhancement, she still draws a lot more from magical girls than from superheros, in my opinion. She gives off very Tuxedo Mask vibes to me.
I found your channel some weeks ago, at the end of a long yt rabbit hole and then watched everything on it. I never cared for dolls much, but the way you talk about your little plastic women with both deadpan humor and deep geniuine love... fair to say whatever you'd like to talk about I want to hear it. Keep it coming! And I ordered myself a Rainbow High doll. Because why not? They're cute!
Yes! This is what I love about this channel. I liked dolls well enough growing up but I did grow out of them and never got into collecting, so I’m not necessarily here for the dolls themselves. I’m here for the funny commentary from someone who is also genuinely invested and cares about what they’re talking about
"It's middle grade so don't expect it to be life changing" I'd argue that kids magical girl content is some of the most life changing media out there. Cure Heart made me a better person.
*Crying* Star Darlings... they had *so* much potential. They were the closest I've seen to modern mainstream-ish astrology dolls. I'm currently working on re-rooting Piper to make her Starland doll, but the heads are rock-hard and I've broken 3 needles, so it's going slowly.
amethyst princess gemworld is actually pretty similar in concept to a lot of early magical girl anime, where a child becomes an adult version of themselves usually with a new identity and design, like marvelous melmo and creamy mami. So in my mind it still counts. also, if you don't know what marvelous melmo is, i don't reccommend looking it up lol.
OMG, i've literally never heard someone else talk abt Girls of Olympus until now?? Thank you so much??? I only had one of the books, and it wasn't the 1st, so i never really had a full grasp on the whole story, but i absolutely loved it! The illustrations were really beautiful. I wish i never had given it away to one of my relatives when i was in my 'im too mature for these things' phase. Love your channel
Please always talk about any fun-pink-fluffy-bubbly topic you want! Your videos are so soothing and informative, and I will consume any content that has to do with girly franchises and media
I had ONE issue of Amethyst as a kid, then my mom would never get me another issue. (I was like, 8 at the time) I don't know if it was a reprint or just REALLY old stock as this was in '85. I always think I imagined the comic, until someone online brings it up. Nobody I know in person has ever heard of it!
The last one I never heard of, I'll check them out. Some magical girls for everybody to learn meet: -Maho Tsukai Tai - the style is gorgous and Little Witch Acedemia takes inspiration a lot from this series. - Princess Tutu, not so unknown but very underrated in my opinion. - Super doll Licca- chan, the anime is fun and it was made by the same artist of Tokyo Mew Mew, before she did Mew Mew(may Mia Ikumi-sensei rest in peace).- AND yest it's based of the doll. - Sugar Sugar Rune, please someone other than me who have read this manga and watched the series, is so good, and is short. - Peach Bride, it has the same character designer of the 90s anime, but is not a Sailor Moon Knock off, for those wondering. - Cutie Honey- I know not many people consider Honey a magical girl, but I do, I don't care that she is an android, she has magical girl transformation. (18+ by the way guys, some of Honey's content is not safe for work). - Lolirock - DON'T LET THE NAME DECEIVE YOU! It's a very good series, well written, and it's finally getting a third season (you can find many episodes on the official youtube channel). - Mermaid Melody, if you like mermaids you will like this one, is very very late 90s and early 2000s but it's fun. -The first season of Pretty Cure. (the style is different, everything is very 2000s, but is not that gimmicky as some later seasons got). - Not magical girl, but I think it deserves love- Ashita no Nadja. - CORRECTOR YUI! For the love of god, if you can, do watch it, it's so 2000s it hurts, but we never got a Magical girl that went inside the internet once again. Yeah pretty much my recommendations so far.
Peach Bride is also called Wedding Peach! I loved it. They are so pretty. Sugar Sugar Rune will always be one of my favorites. I love the manga and anime. Collecting hearts, the wand accessories, Chocola in general!! All so good. Manga ending was definitely better though.
4 - grievous injuries aside, Sky Dancer has the coolest concept and most unique doll design . I wish the toy wasn’t so dangerous, because that is neat.
You talking about Star Darlings as a book series really brought back memories of my childhood Magical Girl book series "Rainbow Magic" or since I read them in German "Die fabelhaften Zauberfeen". The series is written by Daisy Meadows, who is actually a pseudonym for a group of four female authors. The books are grouped into seasons of sorts with seven books each. In each Season the two protagonist, Mona and Kathy have to help a differnt group of faires. The antagonist is the evil Wizard Jack Frost and his, I would call them, goblins. In the first season the Girls have to save the faires of the colours of the rainbow. The first books starts with them finding the red fairy trapped under a pot at the end of the rainbow and that is how they get introduced to the fairy world. And the next book is about the orange Fairy and so on. In the second season they help the seven weather faires find their weather feathers . In the third season they have to help the seven faires of party planning (cake, music, decoration, sweets, ballons, party dresses and presents) get back their magical party planning bags filled with fairy dust. In the fourth and finale season Mona and Kathy help the seven gem faires get back the gems Jack Frost stole from the fairy queens crown. The Moonstone fairy has to get back the moonstone and so one. Moreover there are two christmas specials and a summer special. Which means there are 31 books in total. And I have all of them and one day I will read them to my Future children. These books are so magical. The German covers and fairy names are beautiful. As some one who is obsessed with structure, this series was everything because it is so organized. I also remember Mona's and Kathy's friendship being really cute and they are just such sweet and caring girls. I haven't read them in forever but I do remember the Jack Frost and his goblins being very entertaining and I wouldn't say scary but definitly not boring. The books are short and were really popluar in Great Britan so today they are really easy and cheap to get. As you might be able to tell by the lenght of my comment, I love these books and it would be awesome if you could check them out.
Interesting. Over here in the UK the girls names are Rachel (blonde) and Kirsty (dark hair). If you're interested, I've written a few Rainbow Magic fanfictions myself.
oh my god I loved sky dancers as a kid. I remember going to blockbuster to rent the VHS of the show over and over again. It was probably my first true obsession
oh that last series looks so cool...the little closing animation is so cute and reminiscent of anime i feel like france and italy have had so many cool girls series, wish they were more widely distributed
strange cuz I'm italian, but never heared of that italian show. I agree french and italy do, but like, Angel Friends is from italy but we never got the italian dub of s2
@@AmicaSecretit was never advertised in Italy. From personal experience I can say that I've seen episodes airing really rarely until I eventually did not see them airing at all. It's a real shame
That show was my SHIT as a kid i sang that theme song with all my little heart. I watched both that and power rangers dino thunder with such strange passion and love.
omg, finally someone else acknowledges Girls of Olympus. I saw the first 2 books in romanian and immediately snatched them up, since I was a greek myths obsessed kid too. Only later I saw the trailer for the animated series, I seriously thought they never ever came out, I gotta hunt down the series (and the rest of the books, even if they're in italian, I am motivated to learn another language for this, lol; same thing with Tara Duncan). From the 2 books that I still have, it has STRONG w.i.t.c.h. vibes, it's not just because it's an italian series, but also because of the illustrations style (the book has pictures, and they're GORGEOUS) and the tone of the story, it can get a wee bit dark (not gratuitous, just a bit more high stakes and the characters aren't flawless i.e. Hoon has dyslexia, which can get her in school trouble soetimes, Syd deals with a lot of anger issues and Luce always gets very strong emotions which can overwhelm her -it feels kinda BPD coded, but I don't think it was intentional-). I highly rec trying to find the books. Even tho, I will say, the greek myths are moreso a loose inspiration, don't expect anything that's close to "cannon" (even tho I know there technically isn't such a thing as cannon in myths, but there are some generally commonly agreed upon things) the way Percy Jackson is. But they're really really fun.
As someome who had acess to the Girls of Olimpus books: they were absolutely perfect! I bought all 6 of them, I couldn't stop reading! The story and the characters were so good and all of the books had absolutely beautiful art of the characters! It was my favorite book series when I was in middle school and I'm pleasantly surprised about the cartoon. Thanks for sharing it!!
Well I do have lots of theories of why the Mysticons series is a disappointed: 1. The theme song is great but I do wished they made it a bit longer instead of sort because when I've watched the theme song on UA-cam I enjoyed the whole thing while the intros for the entire series they cut down some of the song which put me off. 2. Arkayna's step brother Gawayne is selfish, annoying and I really really can't stand his attitude in this series. Also he maybe Arkayna's step brother but why did he gets to be King because Arkayna is crown princess so it means that she should rule Drake City as she's a better leader than Gawayne. It's either he decided to crown himself King or someone else in the palace decided that Gawayne would be King. 3. Later in the first series Nova Terron and the Astromancers treated the Mysticons like if they're enemy instead of Necrafa ,Dreadbane,Tazma and the undead warriors. 4. Proxima who originally thought at the time that she's Arkayna's twin sister until a few episodes later revealed that Zarya is Arkayna's twin sister. She was heart broken and bitter that her past history was all a lie and that's why she became the villian to get revenge on, Nova Terron , the Astromancers and the Mysticons. However I've notice that there is someone else who is to blame for all this -Hortensia Sparklebottom herself. I'm suprise Proxima didn't decide to take her revenge on her instead of Nova Terron , the Astromancers and the Mysticons because she was the one who swapped her with Zarya to prevent the prophecy, but I bet Hortensia Sparklebottom never though about the conseques of her action which cause Proxima to push the side of evil. 5. Some majorly disappointed to the final episode of the Mysitcons, like Proxima did not show up at all during the climax and didn't help the Mysitcons to defeat the Vexicons as she was the one who created them in the first place and they did turn against her before Proxima return to the side of good again. Or at least Queen Goodfey could have adopted her to the royal family after Queen Goodfey learn of Proxima sad past life as a orphan and everything she'd been through then she could finally be part of the family as Arkayna and Zarya's third sister. 6. The series would have been more interesting if the Mysitcons have a fifth member to join them like the Power Rangers, they were originally a team of five until later on the series they added a sixth member to join them. 7. There's too much drama into the story plot and the Mysitcons character's could have been improved. They're not like the Winx Club, Sailor Moon Crystal and Starla and the Jewel Riders were they worked together and learn to put their differents a side in order to defeat evil and save the world.
I can't believe you talked about Amethyst! I had read these comics a couple years ago, (The 1980s run) and it was a guilty pleasure of mine. I found it similar to Shazam. I actually own some of the comics. Like you said, it started taking a dark turn, which I thought was so good. The ending is really sad though.
I’m super glad StarDarlings is getting recognition! I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, reading this series, I never watched the webtoon series actually, but I loved the books and I’m glad it’s finally getting recognition! (I read them in 2017-18 maybe? All I know is that I was probably 10-12 when I read these books) I also have an idea as to why Mysticorns failed, realistically, nothing in 2017-16 did all that well from what I remember and seen, a lot of things were failing, falling down from grace, all that etc. so it was probably really just the economy at the time, and not the show all that much.
You should do a retrospective on the Sabrina the Teenage Witch cartoons, there are four: The 70s one, the 90s animated series, it's sequel Secret Life, and a 2013 one called Secrets of a Teenage Witch based on an early 2000s Sabrina manga, which is the closest to a magical girl series, including Japanese characters like Shinji.
Interesting, I only caught a few episodes of Mysticons but I totally thought it was more of a superhero show than a magical girl show. The art style of those Amethyst animated shorts is absolutely adorable! I LOVE everything about Star Darlings 💜 The dolls have (in my opinion) the most beautiful faces of any fashion doll line to date, most of the cartoon is super sweet, and the art on the books is wonderful (I’ll admit I haven’t read any yet but I own 2 for the cover art alone) Haha omg I loved (and still do) my sky dancer and had a very cute sky dancer Christmas book and my brother had a dragonfly I thin they were called (the boy one), but I never knew there was a show or like, lore for it 😃 that’s cool. That last one sounds fun, I love mythology and the animation looks really nice, kinda totally spies meets winx club! I wish I could check that one out 😅
I'm just dropping in to say that I totally love your channel. Dolls were not encouraged in my life when I was a kid due to my mums misguided feminism, bless her. She was coming from the right place. But now at 31, I'm starting to realise that I adore dolls, and your channel has been such a part of that. It's been the best crash course I could have asked for! It's also been so cool to watch your channel grow and see you gain confidence in your art. Keep being you and happy Pride! 🖤
This was a great video! I never heard of girls of Olympia so I gotta check it out. Also, since you mentioned, Angel’s friends is really underrated imo, at least anywhere outside of Italy and Russia, people don’t talk about it enough.
I'm reading star darlings right now! I'm in my 20s and found them through the doll community but the books are honestly so good. I love how different the characters are and I'll be looking for a Cassie doll always
Oh I remember Star Darlings from when I was a kid! I never read the books or got any dolls because they weren't at any of the stores near me but I remember my friend showing me the website they had and us looking through the different character profiles together
Honestly, anything unrepentantly marketed or geared towards girls fits pretty well on this channel, along with anything even indirectly related to dolls. So I welcome the expanded content.
4:08 Aah, Mysticons... I recorded each episode when they came in my country (never watched them except the first couple)... but I'm not sure we had the final episodes. 😅 And soon after, the action figures are quickly went in destocking price. That's how I understood that the series was a flop. 7:12 It doesn't surprise me, the series feels like more an action series for boys. Except the fact that the main characters are girls, I never felt it was a "girl(y)" show. I have to watch all the episodes one day. 9:39 Never heard of Amethyst but I think Gemworld was mentioned in one DC Super Hero Girls movie. 16:40 I'm aslo fan of the asthetic of the Star Darlings. I would love you make a video about it since they never came in Europe. =D 21:04 Another old show I would like watched more when I was young and now... I need a strong will to dive into it because I know this is bad even if I kinda like the 90's magical vibe. 😅I only remembered there is one episode when Slam(?) can't help but dance hip-hop. Thank you for your video. ^^
Thank you so much for covering the Star Darlings. In my opinion Disney pulled the plug on this series way too soon. The intro book that takes the reader through Starland and its inhabitants is visually stunning. Two things I think I should point out: The five core members form a band also called the Star Darlings (Frank Zappa making his influence known from beyond the grave), and the girls don't lose their powers on Wishworld; they just turn down their shimmer so they won;t stand out. Girls of Olympus looks really interesting. I hope I can see it one day. Then again I'm still looking for a Tofffsy doll that is actually affordable (also Italian). When Sky Dancers came out I suspected way too many would be lost on roofs or behind neighbor walls. The truth was much worse. My introduction to Japanese magical girls was Mexican television. So much that was too edgy, too controversial, or just too weird for U.S. networks found its way there.
I have the star darlings guide/handbook and may possibly still have the first two books. It looks so pretty and had so much potential, I didn’t really like the dolls too much though
Omg so I watched this video earlier today and Star Darlings piqued my interest so much I bought an ebook and read most of it today. It's seriously such a cute and sweet story! Can't wait to finish the whole series! Ironically my favorite character design-wise is Vega and I'm a Virgo lol
I wonder if Mysticons would've had a better chance if Nickelodeon & Sean had the team be a gender equal ensemble with 2 girls & 2 boys instead of a team of all boys or all girls 💖💙 I couldn't help but smile at Sean's original ancient Mysticons team that appeared in statues & times past stories in the series, a gender equal ensemble comprised of leader & original Dragon Mage Imani Firewing & 3 teammates, a boy Ranger, a boy Knight & a girl Striker with the latter 3 remaining unnamed which is one of my big disappointments with the show - I wish we could've learned more about the other 3 original Mysticons & had their names be given as well. I think Sean created the ancient Mysticons team that way on purpose as a combined tribute to both his boy original Mysticons & girl new Mysticons.
as an aspiring content creator at the moment, i totally relate to the feeling of anxiety that you'll run out of content ideas to do... also i was so happy to hear about star darlings cause i read some of their books & watched a few eps of that show when i was younger
Does anyone remember Rainbow Rangers? It was on Nick Jr several years ago and several of my friends who watched Miraculous Ladybug also watched this show. If you're looking for a modern magical girl show this one's it.
Star Darlings has a great premise but the execution of the show..... I wish Disney did better with it. I also wish that Mermaid Melody did better in the US
Omg, so nice to see Amethyst get some love! My hubby introduced me to her some years ago and her comic is really quite good! Also, you're working on an episode about Star Darlings?!?! So exciting,i can't wait!
I've heard of most of these but haven't checked them out yet! Some recent magical girl shows I have checked out are Kitti Katz and Catch Teenieping. Kitti Katz is about a group of girls given the power to transform into cat and catgirl forms by an ancient Egyptian guardian. Catch Teenieping is about a space princess hiding out in a bakery on earth catching these small creatures called Teeniepings
OMG MYSTOCONS WAS MY SHOW BACK IN THE DAYY!!!!! I LOVED THAT SHOWWW!!! I think why they didn't catch on because NICKELODEON WOULD LITERALLY NEVER AIR IT!!! AND WHEN THEY DID AIR IT.... IT WAS LIKE AT 7 OR 6 IN THE MORNING ON WEEKENDS AND ONCE IT AIRED AT 12 AM WHYYYYY
NOOOO i grew up with star darlings i couldnt escape it as a kid 😭 It might have just been Aimed at People in denmark or the europes/nordics Specifically which is why it isnt popular or maybe it was just too basic? I watched some of it on TV as a kid from what i remember, but i Saw a fair amount of Them when i was small.
Oh my god Cammy you just unlocked a core memory in me! I remember screaming Wish Now from Star Darlings like it was my anthem and still to this day it holds up! I don't know if it is my nostalgia speaking but that song is still good to this day!
love how you're expanding topics like this!!! i wasn't necessarily aware of amethyst but i work at a library and definitely remember seeing that graphic novel, i believe i flipped through it at least once and the art was absolutely lovely! i'm also glad to hear i'm not the only one who feels weird about the star darlings webisodes though. i love the idea of star darlings and i have a sage doll i found at a thrift store once which i love, but mean-spirited is definitely an appropriate way to describe the episodes. like my favorites ended up being scarlet (an incredibly relatable character to me down to the way we act and dress/look) and libby, two characters that were treated as the butt of the joke in several episodes. like... the dolls are great and i really wish we could've seen more out of star darlings but it had the characters like judge and ostracize each other socially without really doing anything to actually combat that narrative and it reminds me a little too much of how people acted towards me when we were around the target age star darlings had in mind. i'll definitely have to find some way to check out the books!
I loved the Amethyst shorts when they came out, and I'm so glad to hear the original comic series was actually good!! I was interested in checking it out, but old comics intimidate me. I also LOVE Shannon Hale for her Books of Bayern series, so it's really exciting to hear she did a take on Amethyst as well!!
one of my favorite things when i was younger was a specific brazilian magical girl comic, turma da mônica geração 12. it's a spinoff/alternate continuity of the turma da mônica series (basically one of if not The biggest brazilian comic) where the main characters gain magical girl powers. i was completely obsessed with it until i stopped seeing the issues being sold. after that, i stopped seeking it out and just kinda forgot about it. i wonder if it's still going nowadays
Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic Was awesome. The dolls were simple but pretty. And I would have loved Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders if I had discovered it when I was younger.
Also the Tenko series was interesting because until teen girl Ali joined the Guardians near the end of the series it had a woman leading a team otherwise comprised of men. It may have been inspired by other shows like the original She-Ra from the 80s & Sailor Moon but unlike either of those shows it was quite fascinating to have a woman being the leader of an otherwise all male team & the guys all accepted Tenko as their team leader & respected her. Whereas with She-Ra & Sailor Moon the teams were comprised mostly of other women with just 1 or 2 men as either team members or close allies (which is an amusing gender flip on many other series where you have a male leader, several other men on the team & a token woman as 1 team member or ally) That sadly may have been the reason the series was doomed. Girls might've wondered why there weren't more girls on the team on a regular basis instead of just being allies who appeared occasionally until probable audience surrograte Ali joined the team late in the show. And many boys might've considered it a girls show & found the idea of a team of men willingly accepting a woman as their leader off-putting.
I’m trying my best to think of more obscure magical girl ajacent things tbh so these may stretch the definition a little Bratz had a comic style book we’re they had superpowers. There’s a series of books in the uk called rainbow magic which were about fairies specialising in different things like fairies of specific gems or colours and there was a movie released. The series Lolirock definitely deserves more love than it gets. Midnight magic which was a low budget doll line made to rival monster high had the plot of teenage girls drinking potions in science class and getting powers/transformations that way and there is a theme song which I’m struggling to find and I could have sworn there was a really bad animated short or series of shorts or something but either I’m completely making that part up or it’s lost And an honourable mention to dark magician girl from yugioh (and the other magician girls that are connected to her) the series obviously is not obscure at all or magical girl but that character definitely is in my opinion and I think if a magical girl fan happened to decide to watch that anime and they saw her they’d be as obsessed as I am with her 😆
As someone who actually watched it on Nickelodeon (or, more so, NickToons), I can confidently say that Mysticons had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. I have a habit of making small essays like these and I’m gonna spoil very integral things, so if anyone actually wants to watch it, avoid reading this comment further: I didn’t despise the change from male-Mysticons to female ones like other people did, but I’m in the camp that if they wanted female ones, maybe do two male and two female to keep it fair. Because Nickelodeon has been pretty poor with marketing cartoons that aren’t SpongeBob or The Loud House this past decade, I don’t blame Mysticons for getting much attention. But either way, I think airing the show on Nick was a BAD idea. Not just because of Nick’s poor marketing, but because it set the show up to compete against the other hero adventure shows airing on the channel. Say what you will about the modern seasons of Winx Club and the early half of the Power Rangers’ Neo-Saban era, but I feel that more people are willing to focus on them with how big those franchises are, watch them, and find SOME things to enjoy about them regardless of how those seasons underperformed with the story and the characters compared to earlier seasons of those respective franchises. Same with Ninja Turtles 2012 - it was hitting it home as one of the best iterations of TMNT, one that I still love to this day. With Mysticons, hardly anyone wants to risk wasting their time with characters and concepts taken straight from Winx and TMNT. With Winx, they’re magical girls stopping a powerful evil from awakening and endangering other worlds. There’s even an evil version of the Mysticons called the Vexicons who are very much the Trix and are often just as annoying. With TMNT, the girls fulfill the exact same roles as the Turtles: Arkayna and Leo are the leaders, Zarya and Raph are the tough ones, Emerald and Donnie are the smart ones, and Piper and Mikey are the goofy ones (heck, Em has Donnie’s purple and Piper has Mikey’s orange). I’m not saying the concepts are bad. In my opinion, they just don’t expand on them enough to distinguish themselves from the other shows airing on the network to the point where it seems kinda cliche and niche. But for what it is, the additional stories like Arkayna and Zarya being separated sisters without them knowing, Zarya formerly being a sky pirate and her betraying the others, and Emerald being a badass inventor with goals her father never approved of - those were all great to see (wish we got more of Piper and her past before meeting Zarya). Necrafa was easily more intimidating than Dreadbane. And the weapons and codex bracelets, I gotta be honest, were pretty fun. But that enjoyment is deteriorated by the bad. Nova Terron and, more so, the rest of that committee were pretty dumb with how they acted towards the girls, except for Proxima who proved really interesting a character with how she actually wasn’t the sister and proved her strength when corrupted. A lot of side villains were dumb filler characters that you could honestly skip without worry. And while I don’t hold it against the animation team since they likely didn’t have their desired budget to make the show as visually spectacular as they wanted, the animation is pretty stiff, especially when characters are running, and the 3D backgrounds often look work well. I enjoyed Mysticons, but it’s definitely not for everybody. I think if the team had a bigger budget and went to a network that would actually market it, it could’ve been widely beloved and get more than two seasons. With Piper’s last line of Season 2 ingrained into my mind (“But our quest isn’t over”), it makes me believe they had FAR more planned for the girls. It hurts to see, but it’s nice to see people actually acknowledge the potential this show had.
I think Mysticons creator Sean Jara hoped to get a renewal for at least one more season of Mysticons & he made a twitter post back in 2019 hoping that Mysticons could be revived someday. The question is where & how though? Is it possible the series could have a continuation or reboot on a streaming service? Could it continue in novel style books or comic books? Or perhaps in some other way? I'd really love to learn more about Piper somehow. She was the only one of the Mysticons whose past prior to meeting Zarya remains a mystery, we know a lot about Em, Zarya & Arkayna's families & lives before they became Mysticons but know nothing about Piper's birth family except that they were most likely elves like her. 🧝♀
A magical girl series that I loved that no one seems to remember is Princess Gwenivere (or if you were from Europe, Starla) and the Jewel Riders. Ran for 2 seasons and even had a toyline. It has a spiritual sucessor in the book series Avalon Web of Magic, and the sequel series Avalon Quest for Magic ( both of which I also love).
Brian Micheal Bendis RUINED the chances of Amethyst alongside every single Young Justice character... I truly hope that with the cult following she has and the success of her novel we can get her as a regular on the Teen Titans or Justice League Dark... the reimaginings of her have been interesting but I hope they can bring her more simple and earnest sides, she would mesh well with characters like Stargirl, Blue Beetle or Shazam.
I am now imagining the world if we had dueling magical girl shows by DC (Amethyst of Gemworld) and Marvel (via Disney's 'Star Darlings')- genuinely want to be in that universe currently...
THANK YOU, THNAK YOU, THANK YOU! i've wanted to watch girls of olympus for years. looking for ways to watch it as i type. but i've seen all the other cartoon series. looking for star darlings books too
For "Ragazze dell'Olimpo" like you said there wasn't great- if any- advertising, even in Italy. I remember stumbling across it on a channel that was airing it, completely unaware of what it was. In retrospect I probably didn't appreciate it much because I had grown out of the target demografic and also I remember being SO disappointed at how cis-het it was (not that it was a surprise tbh, it isn't the best here for the LGBTQIA+ community)
Someone for the love of God please read. Actually you could reboot mysticons but I feel like Star darlings will do better because of how good astrology has become and why people want to watch things that have to do with it and a magical girl show having to do with astrology what do really well in the long run especially saying that it's a reboot so that would make it already familiar to a fandom and this could help it more
I watched Star Darlings as the shorts, Disney would have them on in commercial breaks as well as bits of the songs that the group did and they were fine, it was just really fast paced and i didn't se much plot for it so i just didn't get into it
One magical girl show I never see mentioned anywhere despite having 3 seasons is SHEZOW! Shezow is about a magical girl that is actually... A boy! The basic plot: there is a special ring that transforms the one who finds it into the magical girl Shezow, but its accidentally found by a boy. Although I totally would understand someone criticizing Shezow for "just embodying all feminine stereotypes" in a way, in my personal oppinion having the character draw her power from being an unapologetically "girly girl" is a great thing, as the main character sets aside his previous standards for what masculinity is and accepts that being feminine is also a form of being powerful.
Please do continue with talking about cartoons and other girl-centric franchises! Lots of people talk about the franchises that are either targeted at boys or gender neutral but I rarely see people talk about things targeted at young girls. There are so many video games, books/ comics and animated series that could be talked about. By all means, if making videos about these types of things takes the pressure off then go for it! I'd love to see some deep dives into girls media!
What about Winx Club?
For Winx Club content, I highly recommend Unicorn of War. He's constantly producing videos about the show and enjoys rewriting the seasons. For girl games, Dream Jelly did a video not too long ago. If you're interested in the lolita J fashion subculture, I recommend Lovely Lor. She's done a few videos on various games, anime, and other media. Negative Legend covers a lot of different ips, including doll content. And last of all, Judgemental Critter makes magical girl videos every May (otherwise they generally cover RWBY)
100% agreed!
as somebody who watches you who doesn't care all that much about dolls, (i just like toys and learning about old stuff i never knew about, and your personality and voice are great to listen too while i draw) i am so here to see ya cover other things! i'm excited to see what other sutff ya do in the future :D
Basically everything on this list was new to me except sky dancers (which I had as a kid and even went as for Halloween in 2020) and star darlings which was what my lil sister was into when it was first out and while I didn’t get into it thought the character designs were so pretty ☺️✨ anyways great video! Now I’m off to create a sly dancer OC lol
I discovered you recently from the algorithm recommending your channel for me (plus someone sharing your video on twitter) and you have such a wonderful and insightful way of going into topics. I can listen to you talk about anything for hours. I really love that you are trying to diversify and I can't wait to see what other topics you discuss!
Just continue to be yourself, I am a huge collector of Dolls, Bears, toys, and just about anything else that has a face, or is fluffy or sparkly 😂 I don't watch you for just your doll talk, I think you are fabulous and I would be happy to watch you reviewing anything. Your fan base I am sure, watch YOU because they like you, your content is just a bonus 💖 you make me smile every time you appear on my phone, this is before you speak, don't ever worry about having nothing to share. We love you. ❤❤❤❤❤
ok, if you ever make a part two, please
PLEASE cover LoliRock, it's from 2013, aired two seasons, made me cry at the end and apparently big news is that our long awaited season 3 just might be coming this year!
waiting in tears for 6 years has changed me,
I was a sky dancer for halloween in kindergarten. I still have some of the toys in my childhood bedroom.
I would love to get a video about how you personally collect and display dolls in your collection. Or maybe just a collection tour. Honestly, I always love your videos. Thank you for all your hard work.
When I tell you I have NEVER met another living soul who's ever heard of Girls of Olympus, I mean that I would've convinced myself I'd hallucinated the trailer if it wasn’t up on UA-cam. I moved heaven and earth to get my hand on a copy of one of those books. It took 11 years, but it's finally sitting on my shelf.
I haven't taken the time to watch the whole show yet, but even before the BBC released the English episodes, I had tracked down a password protected vimeo tab with like half the episodes on it through the distributor that brought the show to the UK. Researching Girls of Olympus has been one of the most frustrating and gratifying experiences of my life.
Also! Another magical girl series that I want to see get more love is the new Tara Duncan! I don't think it has an English dub yet, but you can find the original French dub online. The new designs are super cute!
i think Mia and Me is an underrated magical girl-adjacent show! its a part live action/part animated show with a girl who transports to a magical land and has to save it from some pretty interesting villans as i remember. i never ended up finishing it (i think i watched the first 2 seasons) but there are 4 seasons in total! And as far as i can tell its a complete story too!
Mia and Me is awesome.
Time to give my opinions on each one of these
1. I first hear about this show from Mr. Enter of all places. He thought it was pandering to the left crowd. I haven't seen the show for myself. The only other think about it that I know is that the actress who played Loonette the clown from The Big Comfy Couch was involved with the project. (I think at least)
2. It's sad this animated series of shorts never became it's own tv series. (It looked promising) Never knew the author of the EAH books went one to write an incarnation of this character.
3.My biggest gripe with the web series is that they adapted all the episodes out of order. Also it took forever in my opinion to get to the granting the wishes of the people of Earth plot. (weird contradictory I know but it makes bigger since once you experience it or from what I can remember at least)
4.I actually watched a few episodes of this and all I can remember is that the main character is named Angelica. All I can think of is the character of Rugrats.
5. This was the only show I never heard of till this video. Honestly the series looks interesting. I might check it out.
I LOVE this kind of content, and I'm so happy that your doing it! Keep experimenting!
"Like any self respecting member of the LGBTQ community, I had a huge greek mythology phase growing up" OKAY... let's... not be so loud... 💀
Pfff lol
I can heavily relate to that.
I had a big absorbing everything non Christian mythology wise when I was younger and thankfully my parent was just happy I was reading.
Now I'm part of the LGBTQ+ as well so guess it has some truth to it
I feel so called out
Shit I totally forgot I had one when I was like 9 and changed my favorite goddess like once a week:D
@@Matoelukka my fave was Anubis because I loved half animal or anthro designs, still do.
Oh the foreshadowing of the furry jokes.....how I didn't see them coming but they arrived to me anyway
and dragons, don't forget the dragons
That Amethyst short has just made me realise that I would be down for magical girl themed isekai/portal fiction. Those genres would go together insanely well.
It's kind of amazing how people forget isekai's was originally a girl dominated story trope. It was huge in the 90s for anime.
@@amandaslough125 oh yeah, with classics like fushigi yugi! I totally forgot that was one of the first anime I watched. I just meant a more traditional magical girl spin.
there's a few more magical girl series that are also isekais like flip flappers magic knight rayearth and genmu senki leda
Amethyst was also a part of DC Super Hero Girls, in two episodes, though Dark Opal was not actually the main Antagonist
Reminds me of Digimon as well.
"I am working on a big retrospective on star darlings" WOOOOOOOOO!!! FINALLY someone else fascinated with this franchise. I only ever had the first book, sage's, as a kid, but I remember getting really sucked into the world in spite of that because of how vivid and unique the worldbuilding was in a really whimsical and fascinating way. Really looking forward to the retrospective! 😁
SAME!! I remember getting the first book from a book faire in elementary school, and I still wish that I had an iPad that could magically give me any outfit I want in my perfect size
I never actually read the books but my god did I love that show growing up! I can still quote a few episodes
I never did read the books, but I watched the show and loved it!
I read all the books, and the other ones that came after the main series when I was younger LMAO it was so good and underrated
I had one book that explained the characters, the world, etc. The art is so good in it, and I wanted to live in that world. I think I saw a little bit of the show on tv lol
Honestly, this topic feels like such a natural extension of your content that I wouldn't have even thought about it if you hadn't mentioned it. I'm looking forward to more content like this from you!
Finally some Mysticons love! I wish more people saw it while it was airing. Sadly, Nickelodeon just doesn't seem to have a great track record with promoting their magical girl shows in general. They're technically not dolls, but I highly recommend taking a look at their action figure line. Very well sculpted and detailed toys. There's even some larger sized ones that scale well with most fashion dolls!
I know I love mysticons piper is like my sprit animal
It also didn’t help that it came out around the time the Loud House began its climb in popularity on the same network
That's reason why I hate Nickelodeon for not promoting their magical girl shows 😠 for focusing on The Load House wacky show 😒
Yes, finally some love for them. Anyway btw do you know where I could re-watch the show for free? I tried some months ago but can't really find anything on the internet
Nick is unfortunately the worst network to pitch a show to. Good luck trying to make your show have airtime that isn't taken up by SpongeBob or The Loud House
I love Star Darlings so much!!! Omg. This whole star-themed aesthetic is so well-done. Actually ALL visuals are startastic! Sadly when I was a kid I ignored the books. Stupid little me didn’t know they could just not publish it anymore. And now I’m a book hunter…
i have 5 of them. scarlet, vega, adora, gemma, and clover
i had some of the books and i enjoyed them as a kid, but then i sorta forgot about them 😅
I would love to see the Sky Dancers show get rebooted. Since there's been more push to properly represent different cultures, I think it could really be a great show.
One card game I have (Sentinels of the Multiverse) has a character based around Haka, a traditional Māori dance, and I think that if Sky Dancers ever gets a reboot a Māori character who’s dance style is based on Haka would be really interesting!
Star Darlings was diverse too. Sage is Indian, Vega is Asian, Leona, Tessa Gemma, and Adora are black, Cassie has glasses.
@@finland4ever55 lmao cassie has glasses
The Star Darlings & Sky Dancers inclusion has me hyped!! I'm truly so excited to see them highlighted!! I would love to see more magical girl content in the future!! 🩷🩷🩷🩷
Yeah, especially Breeze and Slam! Those wings make good mantles!
THE GIRLS OF OLYMPUS ANIMATED SERIES WAS RELEASED??? I don't care what I have to do, I WILL watch this series. I've been waiting for such a long time. Ever since I found the trailer as a baby queer.
My favorite obscure “magical girl” (stretching the definition) series is Emara: Emirates Hero. It’s about a girl living in the United Arab Emirates, created by and for Emirati people. She has a double life - by day she works in her mom’s tea shop, often clumsy and with poor customer service manners. By night, she’s Emara, a superhero with arm cannons and a dope as hell costume. I consider Emara to be a tech-magical girl, because while her powers are pure cyborg enhancement, she still draws a lot more from magical girls than from superheros, in my opinion. She gives off very Tuxedo Mask vibes to me.
I love Emera I was watching it when it came out would love to see more but sad that nothing else came out beside thoue few episodes
I really missed this show :( so much potential
OMG I completely forgot about that series! I need to give that show a watch
I LOVE Emara! I just hope Eating Stars Studio can get some more backing to continue the story someday. YT is TOUGH for original animation anymore.
Looked it up after seeing your comment - they have an English dub of it!! I'm def going to have to watch it. Thanks for mentioning it
Star Darlings!! Oh, how I wish their dolls were sold here😭Libby (that was her, right? The pink one) was my GWORL
libby was so cute!
I found your channel some weeks ago, at the end of a long yt rabbit hole and then watched everything on it. I never cared for dolls much, but the way you talk about your little plastic women with both deadpan humor and deep geniuine love... fair to say whatever you'd like to talk about I want to hear it. Keep it coming! And I ordered myself a Rainbow High doll. Because why not? They're cute!
Yes! This is what I love about this channel. I liked dolls well enough growing up but I did grow out of them and never got into collecting, so I’m not necessarily here for the dolls themselves. I’m here for the funny commentary from someone who is also genuinely invested and cares about what they’re talking about
"It's middle grade so don't expect it to be life changing"
I'd argue that kids magical girl content is some of the most life changing media out there. Cure Heart made me a better person.
*Crying* Star Darlings... they had *so* much potential. They were the closest I've seen to modern mainstream-ish astrology dolls. I'm currently working on re-rooting Piper to make her Starland doll, but the heads are rock-hard and I've broken 3 needles, so it's going slowly.
amethyst princess gemworld is actually pretty similar in concept to a lot of early magical girl anime, where a child becomes an adult version of themselves usually with a new identity and design, like marvelous melmo and creamy mami. So in my mind it still counts.
also, if you don't know what marvelous melmo is, i don't reccommend looking it up lol.
"Marvelous Melmo" sounds like an in-universe show from another cartoon.
W.I.T.C.H. also did this as well, so it shows the trope carried a little into the 2000's!
OMG, i've literally never heard someone else talk abt Girls of Olympus until now?? Thank you so much??? I only had one of the books, and it wasn't the 1st, so i never really had a full grasp on the whole story, but i absolutely loved it! The illustrations were really beautiful. I wish i never had given it away to one of my relatives when i was in my 'im too mature for these things' phase. Love your channel
THANK YOU for talking about Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld! I love the character and her stories, and I agree she's TOTALLY a magical girl
Please always talk about any fun-pink-fluffy-bubbly topic you want! Your videos are so soothing and informative, and I will consume any content that has to do with girly franchises and media
I had ONE issue of Amethyst as a kid, then my mom would never get me another issue. (I was like, 8 at the time) I don't know if it was a reprint or just REALLY old stock as this was in '85.
I always think I imagined the comic, until someone online brings it up. Nobody I know in person has ever heard of it!
People need to talk more about Star Darlings cause I want it to come back so badly
The last one I never heard of, I'll check them out.
Some magical girls for everybody to learn meet: -Maho Tsukai Tai - the style is gorgous and Little Witch Acedemia takes inspiration a lot from this series.
- Princess Tutu, not so unknown but very underrated in my opinion.
- Super doll Licca- chan, the anime is fun and it was made by the same artist of Tokyo Mew Mew, before she did Mew Mew(may Mia Ikumi-sensei rest in peace).- AND yest it's based of the doll.
- Sugar Sugar Rune, please someone other than me who have read this manga and watched the series, is so good, and is short.
- Peach Bride, it has the same character designer of the 90s anime, but is not a Sailor Moon Knock off, for those wondering.
- Cutie Honey- I know not many people consider Honey a magical girl, but I do, I don't care that she is an android, she has magical girl transformation. (18+ by the way guys, some of Honey's content is not safe for work).
- Lolirock - DON'T LET THE NAME DECEIVE YOU! It's a very good series, well written, and it's finally getting a third season (you can find many episodes on the official youtube channel).
- Mermaid Melody, if you like mermaids you will like this one, is very very late 90s and early 2000s but it's fun.
-The first season of Pretty Cure. (the style is different, everything is very 2000s, but is not that gimmicky as some later seasons got).
- Not magical girl, but I think it deserves love- Ashita no Nadja.
- CORRECTOR YUI! For the love of god, if you can, do watch it, it's so 2000s it hurts, but we never got a Magical girl that went inside the internet once again.
Yeah pretty much my recommendations so far.
Omg someone else that watched sugar sugar rune and corrector yui
LOLIROCK SEASON 3???? FINALLY!!!!! Sorry I've been waiting for so long thank you for saying
Small question, but do you know if corrector yui has anything after episode 21?
I loved Mermaid Melody it was the only magical girl anime that I enjoyed as a kid
Peach Bride is also called Wedding Peach! I loved it. They are so pretty.
Sugar Sugar Rune will always be one of my favorites. I love the manga and anime. Collecting hearts, the wand accessories, Chocola in general!! All so good. Manga ending was definitely better though.
4 - grievous injuries aside, Sky Dancer has the coolest concept and most unique doll design . I wish the toy wasn’t so dangerous, because that is neat.
Excited to see you branching out! I’m a huge magical girl fan as well, though mostly Japanese ones, so I learned a lot from this video!
You talking about Star Darlings as a book series really brought back memories of my childhood Magical Girl book series "Rainbow Magic" or since I read them in German "Die fabelhaften Zauberfeen".
The series is written by Daisy Meadows, who is actually a pseudonym for a group of four female authors. The books are grouped into seasons of sorts with seven books each. In each Season the two protagonist, Mona and Kathy have to help a differnt group of faires. The antagonist is the evil Wizard Jack Frost and his, I would call them, goblins.
In the first season the Girls have to save the faires of the colours of the rainbow. The first books starts with them finding the red fairy trapped under a pot at the end of the rainbow and that is how they get introduced to the fairy world. And the next book is about the orange Fairy and so on.
In the second season they help the seven weather faires find their weather feathers .
In the third season they have to help the seven faires of party planning (cake, music, decoration, sweets, ballons, party dresses and presents) get back their magical party planning bags filled with fairy dust.
In the fourth and finale season Mona and Kathy help the seven gem faires get back the gems Jack Frost stole from the fairy queens crown. The Moonstone fairy has to get back the moonstone and so one.
Moreover there are two christmas specials and a summer special.
Which means there are 31 books in total.
And I have all of them and one day I will read them to my Future children. These books are so magical. The German covers and fairy names are beautiful. As some one who is obsessed with structure, this series was everything because it is so organized.
I also remember Mona's and Kathy's friendship being really cute and they are just such sweet and caring girls. I haven't read them in forever but I do remember the Jack Frost and his goblins being very entertaining and I wouldn't say scary but definitly not boring.
The books are short and were really popluar in Great Britan so today they are really easy and cheap to get.
As you might be able to tell by the lenght of my comment, I love these books and it would be awesome if you could check them out.
Interesting. Over here in the UK the girls names are Rachel (blonde) and Kirsty (dark hair). If you're interested, I've written a few Rainbow Magic fanfictions myself.
oh my god I loved sky dancers as a kid. I remember going to blockbuster to rent the VHS of the show over and over again. It was probably my first true obsession
oh that last series looks so cool...the little closing animation is so cute and reminiscent of anime
i feel like france and italy have had so many cool girls series, wish they were more widely distributed
strange cuz I'm italian, but never heared of that italian show. I agree french and italy do, but like, Angel Friends is from italy but we never got the italian dub of s2
@@AmicaSecretit was never advertised in Italy. From personal experience I can say that I've seen episodes airing really rarely until I eventually did not see them airing at all. It's a real shame
@@arson821 they didn't? I don't see tv that much but I have never seen it on it
@@AmicaSecret yeah I've seen it like once years ago on Rai Gulp
I know this is off topic but do you guys remember Dino Squad?
That show was my SHIT as a kid i sang that theme song with all my little heart. I watched both that and power rangers dino thunder with such strange passion and love.
omg, finally someone else acknowledges Girls of Olympus. I saw the first 2 books in romanian and immediately snatched them up, since I was a greek myths obsessed kid too. Only later I saw the trailer for the animated series, I seriously thought they never ever came out, I gotta hunt down the series (and the rest of the books, even if they're in italian, I am motivated to learn another language for this, lol; same thing with Tara Duncan).
From the 2 books that I still have, it has STRONG w.i.t.c.h. vibes, it's not just because it's an italian series, but also because of the illustrations style (the book has pictures, and they're GORGEOUS) and the tone of the story, it can get a wee bit dark (not gratuitous, just a bit more high stakes and the characters aren't flawless i.e. Hoon has dyslexia, which can get her in school trouble soetimes, Syd deals with a lot of anger issues and Luce always gets very strong emotions which can overwhelm her -it feels kinda BPD coded, but I don't think it was intentional-).
I highly rec trying to find the books. Even tho, I will say, the greek myths are moreso a loose inspiration, don't expect anything that's close to "cannon" (even tho I know there technically isn't such a thing as cannon in myths, but there are some generally commonly agreed upon things) the way Percy Jackson is. But they're really really fun.
As someome who had acess to the Girls of Olimpus books: they were absolutely perfect! I bought all 6 of them, I couldn't stop reading! The story and the characters were so good and all of the books had absolutely beautiful art of the characters!
It was my favorite book series when I was in middle school and I'm pleasantly surprised about the cartoon. Thanks for sharing it!!
Well I do have lots of theories of why the Mysticons series is a disappointed:
1. The theme song is great but I do wished they made it a bit longer instead of sort because when I've watched the theme song on UA-cam I enjoyed the whole thing while the intros for the entire series they cut down some of the song which put me off.
2. Arkayna's step brother Gawayne is selfish, annoying and I really really can't stand his attitude in this series. Also he maybe Arkayna's step brother but why did he gets to be King because Arkayna is crown princess so it means that she should rule Drake City as she's a better leader than Gawayne. It's either he decided to crown himself King or someone else in the palace decided that Gawayne would be King.
3. Later in the first series Nova Terron and the Astromancers treated the Mysticons like if they're enemy instead of Necrafa ,Dreadbane,Tazma and the undead warriors.
4. Proxima who originally thought at the time that she's Arkayna's twin sister until a few episodes later revealed that Zarya is Arkayna's twin sister. She was heart broken and bitter that her past history was all a lie and that's why she became the villian to get revenge on, Nova Terron , the Astromancers and the Mysticons. However I've notice that there is someone else who is to blame for all this -Hortensia Sparklebottom herself. I'm suprise Proxima didn't decide to take her revenge on her instead of Nova Terron , the Astromancers and the Mysticons because she was the one who swapped her with Zarya to prevent the prophecy, but I bet Hortensia Sparklebottom never though about the conseques of her action which cause Proxima to push the side of evil.
5. Some majorly disappointed to the final episode of the Mysitcons, like Proxima did not show up at all during the climax and didn't help the Mysitcons to defeat the Vexicons as she was the one who created them in the first place and they did turn against her before Proxima return to the side of good again. Or at least Queen Goodfey could have adopted her to the royal family after Queen Goodfey learn of Proxima sad past life as a orphan and everything she'd been through then she could finally be part of the family as Arkayna and Zarya's third sister.
6. The series would have been more interesting if the Mysitcons have a fifth member to join them like the Power Rangers, they were originally a team of five until later on the series they added a sixth member to join them.
7. There's too much drama into the story plot and the Mysitcons character's could have been improved. They're not like the Winx Club, Sailor Moon Crystal and Starla and the Jewel Riders were they worked together and learn to put their differents a side in order to defeat evil and save the world.
STAR DARLINGS!!!!!! I LOVED THIS SERIES SO MUCH WND I WISH MORE PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT IT UGHHHH
I can't believe you talked about Amethyst! I had read these comics a couple years ago, (The 1980s run) and it was a guilty pleasure of mine. I found it similar to Shazam. I actually own some of the comics. Like you said, it started taking a dark turn, which I thought was so good. The ending is really sad though.
I’m super glad StarDarlings is getting recognition! I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, reading this series, I never watched the webtoon series actually, but I loved the books and I’m glad it’s finally getting recognition! (I read them in 2017-18 maybe? All I know is that I was probably 10-12 when I read these books)
I also have an idea as to why Mysticorns failed, realistically, nothing in 2017-16 did all that well from what I remember and seen, a lot of things were failing, falling down from grace, all that etc. so it was probably really just the economy at the time, and not the show all that much.
*The Star Darlings should be talked about far, FAR more!*
Scarlet is my type of constellation, and I'm from Wishworld/Ground Star (Earth).
You should do a retrospective on the Sabrina the Teenage Witch cartoons, there are four: The 70s one, the 90s animated series, it's sequel Secret Life, and a 2013 one called Secrets of a Teenage Witch based on an early 2000s Sabrina manga, which is the closest to a magical girl series, including Japanese characters like Shinji.
Interesting, I only caught a few episodes of Mysticons but I totally thought it was more of a superhero show than a magical girl show.
The art style of those Amethyst animated shorts is absolutely adorable!
I LOVE everything about Star Darlings 💜 The dolls have (in my opinion) the most beautiful faces of any fashion doll line to date, most of the cartoon is super sweet, and the art on the books is wonderful (I’ll admit I haven’t read any yet but I own 2 for the cover art alone)
Haha omg I loved (and still do) my sky dancer and had a very cute sky dancer Christmas book and my brother had a dragonfly I thin they were called (the boy one), but I never knew there was a show or like, lore for it 😃 that’s cool.
That last one sounds fun, I love mythology and the animation looks really nice, kinda totally spies meets winx club! I wish I could check that one out 😅
I'm just dropping in to say that I totally love your channel. Dolls were not encouraged in my life when I was a kid due to my mums misguided feminism, bless her. She was coming from the right place. But now at 31, I'm starting to realise that I adore dolls, and your channel has been such a part of that. It's been the best crash course I could have asked for! It's also been so cool to watch your channel grow and see you gain confidence in your art. Keep being you and happy Pride! 🖤
22:30 that little ginger man is giving me Camp Rock "wow, she's REALLY good!"
I haven't heard about all of them for a very long time, mostly Mysticons and Star Darlings since they were a part of my childhood.
This was a great video! I never heard of girls of Olympia so I gotta check it out.
Also, since you mentioned, Angel’s friends is really underrated imo, at least anywhere outside of Italy and Russia, people don’t talk about it enough.
I'm reading star darlings right now! I'm in my 20s and found them through the doll community but the books are honestly so good. I love how different the characters are and I'll be looking for a Cassie doll always
Oh I remember Star Darlings from when I was a kid! I never read the books or got any dolls because they weren't at any of the stores near me but I remember my friend showing me the website they had and us looking through the different character profiles together
Honestly, anything unrepentantly marketed or geared towards girls fits pretty well on this channel, along with anything even indirectly related to dolls. So I welcome the expanded content.
Honestly as long as you're passionate about the subject I will always enjoy watching :) You make great vids~!!
4:08 Aah, Mysticons... I recorded each episode when they came in my country (never watched them except the first couple)... but I'm not sure we had the final episodes. 😅 And soon after, the action figures are quickly went in destocking price. That's how I understood that the series was a flop. 7:12 It doesn't surprise me, the series feels like more an action series for boys. Except the fact that the main characters are girls, I never felt it was a "girl(y)" show. I have to watch all the episodes one day.
9:39 Never heard of Amethyst but I think Gemworld was mentioned in one DC Super Hero Girls movie.
16:40 I'm aslo fan of the asthetic of the Star Darlings. I would love you make a video about it since they never came in Europe. =D
21:04 Another old show I would like watched more when I was young and now... I need a strong will to dive into it because I know this is bad even if I kinda like the 90's magical vibe. 😅I only remembered there is one episode when Slam(?) can't help but dance hip-hop.
Thank you for your video. ^^
Thank you so much for covering the Star Darlings. In my opinion Disney pulled the plug on this series way too soon. The intro book that takes the reader through Starland and its inhabitants is visually stunning. Two things I think I should point out: The five core members form a band also called the Star Darlings (Frank Zappa making his influence known from beyond the grave), and the girls don't lose their powers on Wishworld; they just turn down their shimmer so they won;t stand out.
Girls of Olympus looks really interesting. I hope I can see it one day. Then again I'm still looking for a Tofffsy doll that is actually affordable (also Italian).
When Sky Dancers came out I suspected way too many would be lost on roofs or behind neighbor walls. The truth was much worse.
My introduction to Japanese magical girls was Mexican television. So much that was too edgy, too controversial, or just too weird for U.S. networks found its way there.
I have the star darlings guide/handbook and may possibly still have the first two books. It looks so pretty and had so much potential, I didn’t really like the dolls too much though
Omg so I watched this video earlier today and Star Darlings piqued my interest so much I bought an ebook and read most of it today. It's seriously such a cute and sweet story! Can't wait to finish the whole series! Ironically my favorite character design-wise is Vega and I'm a Virgo lol
I have Star Darlings Leona and she's so beautiful! She's my favorite obscure doll! :D
I wonder if Mysticons would've had a better chance if Nickelodeon & Sean had the team be a gender equal ensemble with 2 girls & 2 boys instead of a team of all boys or all girls 💖💙
I couldn't help but smile at Sean's original ancient Mysticons team that appeared in statues & times past stories in the series, a gender equal ensemble comprised of leader & original Dragon Mage Imani Firewing & 3 teammates, a boy Ranger, a boy Knight & a girl Striker with the latter 3 remaining unnamed which is one of my big disappointments with the show - I wish we could've learned more about the other 3 original Mysticons & had their names be given as well.
I think Sean created the ancient Mysticons team that way on purpose as a combined tribute to both his boy original Mysticons & girl new Mysticons.
as an aspiring content creator at the moment, i totally relate to the feeling of anxiety that you'll run out of content ideas to do... also i was so happy to hear about star darlings cause i read some of their books & watched a few eps of that show when i was younger
Does anyone remember Rainbow Rangers? It was on Nick Jr several years ago and several of my friends who watched Miraculous Ladybug also watched this show. If you're looking for a modern magical girl show this one's it.
I used to be obsessed with Star Darlings as a kid, I had books 1-8 and had every doll except Vega
Star Darlings has a great premise but the execution of the show..... I wish Disney did better with it. I also wish that Mermaid Melody did better in the US
I'm gonna judge a book by its cover because the Star Darlings books have amazing covers and I want to read them
Omg, so nice to see Amethyst get some love! My hubby introduced me to her some years ago and her comic is really quite good!
Also, you're working on an episode about Star Darlings?!?! So exciting,i can't wait!
Star Darlings is great
I've heard of most of these but haven't checked them out yet! Some recent magical girl shows I have checked out are Kitti Katz and Catch Teenieping.
Kitti Katz is about a group of girls given the power to transform into cat and catgirl forms by an ancient Egyptian guardian. Catch Teenieping is about a space princess hiding out in a bakery on earth catching these small creatures called Teeniepings
OMG MYSTOCONS WAS MY SHOW BACK IN THE DAYY!!!!! I LOVED THAT SHOWWW!!! I think why they didn't catch on because NICKELODEON WOULD LITERALLY NEVER AIR IT!!! AND WHEN THEY DID AIR IT.... IT WAS LIKE AT 7 OR 6 IN THE MORNING ON WEEKENDS AND ONCE IT AIRED AT 12 AM WHYYYYY
Mysticons! omg i love mysticons!
i had a zarya doll when i was younger
Me waiting for Girls of Olympus and slowly not looking it up anymore
Me hearing it got a complete series now
Me: FLATMATE! Let's watch this series
Thanks, now I have the urge to spend my money on a set of main 5 Star Darlings dolls I found online
NOOOO i grew up with star darlings i couldnt escape it as a kid 😭
It might have just been Aimed at People in denmark or the europes/nordics Specifically which is why it isnt popular or maybe it was just too basic? I watched some of it on TV as a kid from what i remember, but i Saw a fair amount of Them when i was small.
Star darlings! Those books helped me and my sister from a move to another state! Also Adora is gay.
I loved star darlings when I was younger like I binged all episodes
OML MYSTICONS AND STAR DARLINGS didn't expect to see that here
Oh my god Cammy you just unlocked a core memory in me! I remember screaming Wish Now from Star Darlings like it was my anthem and still to this day it holds up! I don't know if it is my nostalgia speaking but that song is still good to this day!
wait who's Cammy ?
love how you're expanding topics like this!!! i wasn't necessarily aware of amethyst but i work at a library and definitely remember seeing that graphic novel, i believe i flipped through it at least once and the art was absolutely lovely!
i'm also glad to hear i'm not the only one who feels weird about the star darlings webisodes though. i love the idea of star darlings and i have a sage doll i found at a thrift store once which i love, but mean-spirited is definitely an appropriate way to describe the episodes. like my favorites ended up being scarlet (an incredibly relatable character to me down to the way we act and dress/look) and libby, two characters that were treated as the butt of the joke in several episodes. like... the dolls are great and i really wish we could've seen more out of star darlings but it had the characters like judge and ostracize each other socially without really doing anything to actually combat that narrative and it reminds me a little too much of how people acted towards me when we were around the target age star darlings had in mind. i'll definitely have to find some way to check out the books!
I loved the Amethyst shorts when they came out, and I'm so glad to hear the original comic series was actually good!! I was interested in checking it out, but old comics intimidate me. I also LOVE Shannon Hale for her Books of Bayern series, so it's really exciting to hear she did a take on Amethyst as well!!
I would like to add the Princess Sissi cartoon and doll line! Super cute
Also, the Star Darlings music was great. I still listen to it often.
one of my favorite things when i was younger was a specific brazilian magical girl comic, turma da mônica geração 12. it's a spinoff/alternate continuity of the turma da mônica series (basically one of if not The biggest brazilian comic) where the main characters gain magical girl powers. i was completely obsessed with it until i stopped seeing the issues being sold. after that, i stopped seeking it out and just kinda forgot about it. i wonder if it's still going nowadays
I had the purple star darling doll! She was so pretty, and a gift from my mother ❤😊
Since you are talking about Magical Girls, a Pretty Cure ranking would be cool!
Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic Was awesome. The dolls were simple but pretty. And I would have loved Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders if I had discovered it when I was younger.
Also the Tenko series was interesting because until teen girl Ali joined the Guardians near the end of the series it had a woman leading a team otherwise comprised of men. It may have been inspired by other shows like the original She-Ra from the 80s & Sailor Moon but unlike either of those shows it was quite fascinating to have a woman being the leader of an otherwise all male team & the guys all accepted Tenko as their team leader & respected her. Whereas with She-Ra & Sailor Moon the teams were comprised mostly of other women with just 1 or 2 men as either team members or close allies (which is an amusing gender flip on many other series where you have a male leader, several other men on the team & a token woman as 1 team member or ally)
That sadly may have been the reason the series was doomed. Girls might've wondered why there weren't more girls on the team on a regular basis instead of just being allies who appeared occasionally until probable audience surrograte Ali joined the team late in the show. And many boys might've considered it a girls show & found the idea of a team of men willingly accepting a woman as their leader off-putting.
I’m trying my best to think of more obscure magical girl ajacent things tbh so these may stretch the definition a little
Bratz had a comic style book we’re they had superpowers.
There’s a series of books in the uk called rainbow magic which were about fairies specialising in different things like fairies of specific gems or colours and there was a movie released.
The series Lolirock definitely deserves more love than it gets.
Midnight magic which was a low budget doll line made to rival monster high had the plot of teenage girls drinking potions in science class and getting powers/transformations that way and there is a theme song which I’m struggling to find and I could have sworn there was a really bad animated short or series of shorts or something but either I’m completely making that part up or it’s lost
And an honourable mention to dark magician girl from yugioh (and the other magician girls that are connected to her) the series obviously is not obscure at all or magical girl but that character definitely is in my opinion and I think if a magical girl fan happened to decide to watch that anime and they saw her they’d be as obsessed as I am with her 😆
Rainbow Magic just unlocked a memory istg. I really liked the pony one 💀
As someone who actually watched it on Nickelodeon (or, more so, NickToons), I can confidently say that Mysticons had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. I have a habit of making small essays like these and I’m gonna spoil very integral things, so if anyone actually wants to watch it, avoid reading this comment further:
I didn’t despise the change from male-Mysticons to female ones like other people did, but I’m in the camp that if they wanted female ones, maybe do two male and two female to keep it fair.
Because Nickelodeon has been pretty poor with marketing cartoons that aren’t SpongeBob or The Loud House this past decade, I don’t blame Mysticons for getting much attention. But either way, I think airing the show on Nick was a BAD idea. Not just because of Nick’s poor marketing, but because it set the show up to compete against the other hero adventure shows airing on the channel. Say what you will about the modern seasons of Winx Club and the early half of the Power Rangers’ Neo-Saban era, but I feel that more people are willing to focus on them with how big those franchises are, watch them, and find SOME things to enjoy about them regardless of how those seasons underperformed with the story and the characters compared to earlier seasons of those respective franchises. Same with Ninja Turtles 2012 - it was hitting it home as one of the best iterations of TMNT, one that I still love to this day. With Mysticons, hardly anyone wants to risk wasting their time with characters and concepts taken straight from Winx and TMNT. With Winx, they’re magical girls stopping a powerful evil from awakening and endangering other worlds. There’s even an evil version of the Mysticons called the Vexicons who are very much the Trix and are often just as annoying. With TMNT, the girls fulfill the exact same roles as the Turtles: Arkayna and Leo are the leaders, Zarya and Raph are the tough ones, Emerald and Donnie are the smart ones, and Piper and Mikey are the goofy ones (heck, Em has Donnie’s purple and Piper has Mikey’s orange).
I’m not saying the concepts are bad. In my opinion, they just don’t expand on them enough to distinguish themselves from the other shows airing on the network to the point where it seems kinda cliche and niche. But for what it is, the additional stories like Arkayna and Zarya being separated sisters without them knowing, Zarya formerly being a sky pirate and her betraying the others, and Emerald being a badass inventor with goals her father never approved of - those were all great to see (wish we got more of Piper and her past before meeting Zarya). Necrafa was easily more intimidating than Dreadbane. And the weapons and codex bracelets, I gotta be honest, were pretty fun. But that enjoyment is deteriorated by the bad. Nova Terron and, more so, the rest of that committee were pretty dumb with how they acted towards the girls, except for Proxima who proved really interesting a character with how she actually wasn’t the sister and proved her strength when corrupted. A lot of side villains were dumb filler characters that you could honestly skip without worry. And while I don’t hold it against the animation team since they likely didn’t have their desired budget to make the show as visually spectacular as they wanted, the animation is pretty stiff, especially when characters are running, and the 3D backgrounds often look work well.
I enjoyed Mysticons, but it’s definitely not for everybody. I think if the team had a bigger budget and went to a network that would actually market it, it could’ve been widely beloved and get more than two seasons. With Piper’s last line of Season 2 ingrained into my mind (“But our quest isn’t over”), it makes me believe they had FAR more planned for the girls. It hurts to see, but it’s nice to see people actually acknowledge the potential this show had.
I think Mysticons creator Sean Jara hoped to get a renewal for at least one more season of Mysticons & he made a twitter post back in 2019 hoping that Mysticons could be revived someday.
The question is where & how though? Is it possible the series could have a continuation or reboot on a streaming service? Could it continue in novel style books or comic books? Or perhaps in some other way? I'd really love to learn more about Piper somehow. She was the only one of the Mysticons whose past prior to meeting Zarya remains a mystery, we know a lot about Em, Zarya & Arkayna's families & lives before they became Mysticons but know nothing about Piper's birth family except that they were most likely elves like her. 🧝♀
A magical girl series that I loved that no one seems to remember is Princess Gwenivere (or if you were from Europe, Starla) and the Jewel Riders. Ran for 2 seasons and even had a toyline.
It has a spiritual sucessor in the book series Avalon Web of Magic, and the sequel series Avalon Quest for Magic ( both of which I also love).
I was absolutely obsessed with the show and I remember loving the toys.
I never watched Star Darlings but UA-cam recomendet it to me after I watched a Lolirock video.😂
Brian Micheal Bendis RUINED the chances of Amethyst alongside every single Young Justice character... I truly hope that with the cult following she has and the success of her novel we can get her as a regular on the Teen Titans or Justice League Dark... the reimaginings of her have been interesting but I hope they can bring her more simple and earnest sides, she would mesh well with characters like Stargirl, Blue Beetle or Shazam.
I'm surprised they never really explored how interesting of a dynamic Amy and Billy would have
@@DarlingDollzOh, absolutely! I have always been puzzled about how no one thought of the obvious chance of Billy and Amy meeting.
I am now imagining the world if we had dueling magical girl shows by DC (Amethyst of Gemworld) and Marvel (via Disney's 'Star Darlings')- genuinely want to be in that universe currently...
ok nobody cares but THE PPGZ DOLLS IN THE BACKGROUND??? SOBBING
THANK YOU, THNAK YOU, THANK YOU! i've wanted to watch girls of olympus for years. looking for ways to watch it as i type. but i've seen all the other cartoon series. looking for star darlings books too
For "Ragazze dell'Olimpo" like you said there wasn't great- if any- advertising, even in Italy. I remember stumbling across it on a channel that was airing it, completely unaware of what it was.
In retrospect I probably didn't appreciate it much because I had grown out of the target demografic and also I remember being SO disappointed at how cis-het it was (not that it was a surprise tbh, it isn't the best here for the LGBTQIA+ community)
Star Darlings!! When I was little I watched clips on UA-cam, I always thought they looked soo cool.
Someone for the love of God please read. Actually you could reboot mysticons but I feel like Star darlings will do better because of how good astrology has become and why people want to watch things that have to do with it and a magical girl show having to do with astrology what do really well in the long run especially saying that it's a reboot so that would make it already familiar to a fandom and this could help it more
I watched Star Darlings as the shorts, Disney would have them on in commercial breaks as well as bits of the songs that the group did and they were fine, it was just really fast paced and i didn't se much plot for it so i just didn't get into it
One magical girl show I never see mentioned anywhere despite having 3 seasons is SHEZOW!
Shezow is about a magical girl that is actually... A boy! The basic plot: there is a special ring that transforms the one who finds it into the magical girl Shezow, but its accidentally found by a boy.
Although I totally would understand someone criticizing Shezow for "just embodying all feminine stereotypes" in a way, in my personal oppinion having the character draw her power from being an unapologetically "girly girl" is a great thing, as the main character sets aside his previous standards for what masculinity is and accepts that being feminine is also a form of being powerful.