At the end, Sophie kinda looks like she has the "never talk to me or my daughter or my daughter or my daughter or my daughter ever again" face and I love it
I love the idea of Chihiro summoning terrifying spirits and demons, and they do things for her in exchange for domestic help like picking up groceries or house cleaning
I’m surprised you didn’t have Sheeta from Laputa Castle in the Sky. I mean she’s a princess, she has magical jewelry, she has pigtails (not a full prerequisite but I have noticed that a least some magical girl protagonists have pigtails/side buns).
Maybe it's just me, but Sheeta is my least favorite Ghibli girl. She's a little better than a damsel in distress, but for the most part I felt like she was a walking embodiment of the refined Japanese young woman stereotype (even when she fell, she fell on top of Pazu so as not to get hurt) and it didn't help that she was lusted on by the entire pirate crew while being 13. Definitely not the most well written Ghibli character. I would rather see Pirate Mama Dola drawn as a magical girl instead.
@@greyfox4838 While I love Laputa as a movie (it's one of three Ghibli films I have on both dvd and bluray), I do agree that Sheeta herself is one of the weaker points. I don't think she's horrible, just, you know, middle of the road. Pretty bland. And yeah, the part when the male pirates flirt with her just doesn't come off as charming or funny as the studio probably hoped because, like you pointed out, she's 13. It's just creepy. I would still like to have seen her among the magical girls though. She'd fit right in the group as the reserved one who grows to be more confident (like her arc in the movie). Also it could be cool to see Pazu as her tag-along love interest. The non-powered one who fights to keep up with the magical girls. A sort of Sokka to their Magical Girl-Benders
Looking at Ponyos design I can really image her pulling down her hood with so much energy, with these big ghibli motions. And just, like she’s doing a flip, transforming into her fish self. It’s an adorable thing to imagine, and these designs are just so pretty^^
They're so cute!! I love Ponyo the most, but I'm so sad you didn't do Mononoke! She's my childhood, but the five teammates rule of magical girls is sacred, I get it, I love all of them so much!
Thank you for your periodic quality escapism ^^. This content really feeds the child in me, wishing for a simpler, kinder world. Noralities, coffee on a lazy Sunday. The good life right there!
While I mourned the loss of Nausicaa's mask/goggles I do think her final outfit really suit the overall look of the group more. Also, maybe Chihiro's outfit is pink or green by default but she uses the soot sprites to turn it black when she needs to go stealth?
Absolutely loved this, your interpretations of each character really brought out their individual personalities. Kiki and Sophie really stole the show for me. Howl's Moving Castle has always held a special place in my heart and my wife and I actually played "Merry Go Round of life" at our wedding. I love your art style, please make more of these if you enjoy them :)
The way all the details from each girl’s stories are combined is so impressive! I feel like I could pick out their whole movie from them! I want to watch a show about them so bad now, and please make more of these they’re awesome!!
I personally loved the option of keeping Ponyo’s socks mismatched with that light blue and green cause it bounces off the reds and yellows of her outfit really well. It even pushes that water motif even more as well as highlight that childlike innocence and joy
The whole idea of Chihiro slipping on the mask, changing the colour of her costume and side-stepping into a different dimension just DEMANDS animation. Great concept.
I'd love to see a lineup of Nintendo ladies as magical girls! Zelda, Peach, Daisy, Samus, aaaaand....Toadette maybe? The Ponyo of the group, as it were. That or maybe Sheik or Impa.
All of those drawings are great. Sophie looks like a total badass, and I’m here for it. Also, I prefer yellow Ponyo. And I think Chirio looks greatest in the pink outfit, similarities to her movie uniform be damned. Yes please, draw both the magic Baron and some Nintendo characters as magical girls/boys/enbies, that I think that would rock.
I love these designs and they look great together! Its hard to decide between the two Ponyo versions, but I would go with the yellow one if I had to vote.. Personally I would love to see a magical girl like design of Porco Rosso and Fio in your style.
Yeeessss!! Make the male protagonists in Studio Ghibli as magical girls! Or Nintendo characters would be fantastic. You could do link and base it off of his gerudo disguise or something lol 😂
omg i would cosplay each and every one of these in a HEARTBEAT. your love for the magical girl genre really shines through the designs, and i love the little pieces of lore and potential interactions you've thought up. would love to see you continue this series with the Baron and/or other franchises! P.S. i think yellow Ponyo was the right call, especially looking at her in the rest of the line-up!
Even though it was more of a drawing timelapse than a video essay, this was a lot of fun and really comfy. One thought that came to mind regarding Chihiro- what came to mind with the sootspirtes on a black ninja outfit, was 'teched up' to a cyberpunk style. Like the outlines/eyes/candies of the sootsprites pop in UV light. I can imagine the neon blur from movement as she skulks through a rave at the place she's pretending to work at as part of her operation/infiltration to the actual target. Granted, in totality thats about three genres shifted from magical girl...but I'm a sucker for genre shift/blending
Ahhh it's really fun to see you talk about your art process! I'm glad you gave ponyo more yellow than blue, because you already had two other girls with a lot of blue. Maybe sophie could have been a bit more green too? IDK if this is always the case, but I usually think of magical girl teams of each having their own colour that differentiates them from the rest And I absolutely love the idea for chihiro's power! I think it fits her character really well and it'd be so cool to see in action. I also really liked that first extra sketch you made for her! For kiki I totally agree about the gloves, they help elevate the outfit a lot!
Everyone looks so beautiful! I absolutely adore every one of your designs and I definitely see Kiki as the leader of this group while Sophie being the wise sage/mentor of the group! Chihiro is my favorite Ghibli heroine and making her Magical girl Ninja is a great idea! It's matches her quick thinking and all the running she did in the movie lol! Wonderful job all around!
God, your style is so cute!!! The lineart is so clean and makes me feel cozy. Also THE DETAILS! Super cute and balanced, and the themes are on point! Hope we see something like this again! Have a good day!
sometimes i forget noralities is an artist as well as a commentator, this video was just a delight to watch their style really fits the chill vibe of the video
These designs look absolutely gorgeous! And I agree that you should draw a magical girl (boy?) style Baron and can you please add Haru as well, I see her as a compasionate but feisty kitty princess who can summon cats for help and maybe even turn to the size of a cat? I also see Satsuki and Mei (my neighbour Totoro) as magical girls too, maybe they have a pouch of those little acorn seeds that can sprout into giant trees when needed and perhaps even calling help from Totoro himself. Princess Mononoke would be like a forest warrior type magical girl or a knight type? Who rides wolves and uses her hunting spear and knives against opponents, although that doesn't sound like a magical girl now that I think about it... Sheeta from Castle in the Sky could be a possible candidate? However, my only idea of her being a magical girl is that she can float because of her neckclace but maybe she can levitate items using her magic? Including larger objects? Idk Arrietty would be like Chihiro and sneak around as a borrower so maybe less of a magical girl and more of a spy Shizuku from Whisper of the Heart would be a passionate author who could possibly be another witch like character? She could have a book and her magic could also be self-actuallizing like she writes something down and it happens?
Thank you for ending your videos with "Everything is going to be Ok." It makes me tear up every time. I try to be a beacon of "It's fine." and I don't realize how much it weighs me down and hearing someone, anyone else say it, makes me happy. So thank you, Noralities, for something so genuine, and to you; Everything is going to be Ok.
I like the Idea that Chihiro's outfit changes from the bright pink when she is in the human world to the black/dark purple design when she pops into the spirit world. Like, when she is here it is ok for her to stand out, but when she slips over to summon a spirit or sneak around, she has to be careful to not be noticed. It keeps both of your designs and adds a fun transformation for her!
When you mentioned Nintendo at the end the first thing that came to mind is an entire Magical girl team comprised entirely by different incarnations of Zelda.
(Just started learning how to draw on tablets) "Holy shit Noralities is so talented, she's not even using any layers or anything that's incredible" "ah"
This video was so cute and really made me what to pick up my sketch book and draw ! All their designs are super pretty and fun , Sophie’s gotta be my fav , I’m a suckers for a good witch ✨ I hope you do more art content in the future, I loved hearing your thought process!
The girls came out incredibly!!!! I would love to see more ghibli characters- the baron??? Yes! But also do whatever your heart so desires! We’re along for the ride ^_^
Nearly hopped outta my socks when I saw the thumbnail! Your videos are the highlight of a lot of my cozy stay at home days💕 thank you for doing what you do.
This has the makings of a great crossover fanfic. I actually had an idea for one appear as I was watching this, and I'm gonna share that, plus some ideas I have for the outfits and how they could work. Anyone authors reading this, feel free to run with the idea! Be warned, Comment is long. Basic premise: Some sort of magical portal-based shenaniganry goes down, and Nausicaa, Ponyo, Kiki, and Chihiro (and possibly Haku and some others) end up falling into the world of Howl's Moving Castle. The girls come to the attention of Sophie and Howl, who realize something screwy is going on. They also notice that the girls each have a lot of magical potential and decide the best thing to do is to train them so that eventually they can learn Portal Magics to help them (and everyone else affected) get home. And while they're at it, maybe find out what the issue actually is and solve it, leading to the girls becoming a team of Interdimensional Magical Girls who work to preserve the stability of reality. As their training progresses, each girl gradually realizes and starts to hone their own unique forms of magic. Sophie, being a very creative woman with a talent for Craft-based Magics, is inspired to make the girls (and herself) customized enchanted outfits to help utilize their gifts. For herself and Kiki as they are more "traditional" witches/magic users their outfits are a bit more generic in terms of their enchantments (reinforcement, durability, easy cleaning, a minor hammer space enchantment on Kiki's apron pockets, etc...), but are made to be easy to enchant further later on. For the others however, they get more unique enchantments to go with their unique circumstances. (Also, yes, I totally see Kiki becoming Sophie's personal apprentice in this scenario because they are both traditional witches who are more "down to earth" than the others.) Ponyo, as you pointed out, is a combination of a mermaid and a selkie. Thus she gets a magical coat that allows her to transform into a fish at will, as well as allowing her to fly. Idea for the enchantments based on the issue you had with the color is that the coat is reversible, with a yellow outside and a blue inside. If she transforms while the yellow side is out she just turns into her normal fish form but with yellow markings. However, if she flips it to the blue side before she transforms she becomes a blue fish made of water that can camoflage itself really easily. Think what happened to her sisters in the second act of the movie. For Chihiro, based on your idea for her powers being more of a ninja-esque summoner type who specializes in infiltration, reconnaissance, and support magics, her outfit would have the most complex enchantments on it. One of the actual arts historical ninja's practiced was the art of disguise so they could hide in plain sight. To help her with blending in the outfit would be specially enchanted to essentially shapeshift into whatever Chihiro needed at any one time, with Chihiro herself supplying a bit of magic and an idea to trigger the change. Kind of like the holographic Idol Outfits in the later Macross series, but with magic instead of tech. Or Sailor Moon's Disguise Pen without the need for further transformations for combat. The finished outfit you made could be the base form, which can change color as needed. With a little more magic put into it by Chihiro could change the entire design of the outfit to whatever she needed to not look too out of place, with your other concept drawings being examples of alternative forms. Also, I can totally see Haku becoming her personal Guardian Spirit who keeps her safe. For Nausicaa, as a "warrior princess" from a post-apocalyptic world, I feel she would have a range of versatile combat magics as well as support based ones, including but not limited to healing, summoning weapons like guns and swords, enhanced empathic abilities, physical enhancement magics, and maybe some Parallel Processing abilities to help her analyze and adapt to tricky situations. As you said, she is the leader of her community, so she's gonna need a very versatile toolkit. Her outfit would reflect this with the Princess Knight aesthetic, and would hold very strong reinforcement and durability enchantments to accommodate for her dangerous world, plus the flight enchantment you mentioned on her cape. One thing I would add would be a pouch on either the back or side of the belt to hold her mask, so that if she needs it she can grab it, and maybe give her hat an enchantment to become more like the goggle/cap/helmet thing she wore in her normal outfit for when she needs it. ... And she would absolutely have Teto with her at all times because he's loyal like that.
I really enjoyed this video! Seeing your design process through magic girl-ifying these characters was interesting, but I do think you jumped into things a little to quick. I would've liked to get an overview of who we were looking at in this video, and maybe a better overview of what the video was fully about (i.e; taking ghibli characters and redesigning them to be magical girls). It felt a little too abrupt, imo. I'd love to see more, though! I think this idea would flow well with very neutral, "ordinary" character designs. Maybe from some of your favorite series? Anywhoosles, thanks for the video!
Maybe if Chihiro’s design had a gauzy overlay it would help convey more magical girl like quality to her. I do like it a lot! It just doesn’t fully read as magical girl like as the others do to me. The others all look fantastic by the way! I’m super happy you showed your art work and time lapse as well! It’s just such a nice video to watch!
I love these final designs so much! I would be interested in seeing you tackle another group, maybe the male counterparts to the respective girl characters? Whatever you choose I’m here for it.
It's a coincidence that I just watched Whisper of the Heart today and then you upload a Ghibli video, though unfortunately Shizuku is not involved in this. On second thoughts, a neko magical girl like the Baron would be really cool. Edit: oh shit, you had the same idea lol
I think Shizuku's dream from from her story would make a great magical girl design. Also, Haru from The Cat Returns would make a good neko magical girl.
This is so soothing, I am gonna keep it in my watch queue for another go. The designs themselves are very beautiful, and showing the process to get there was just neat. Thank you for this.
This is one million percent the kind of content I love and am so hyped to see in my notifications. ❤️❤️ not all the time, because I LOVE your video essays and have already benefited a lot from your recommendations and your breakdowns of the symbolism and thematic elements of different series. You’ve genuinely helped me enjoy anime more and give language to a lot of feelings I hadn’t been able to articulate. But I love that you’re coming up with related concepts from a love of the magical girl archetype. This was super fun to watch!
Thank you for the lovely video! I love ponyo in the yellow coat, it definitily gives the feel of a little kid splashing about in puddles having fun, and also reminds me of a bright piece of coral with the pinks.
Great design work. The finished outfits look plausibly like magical girl costumes while keeping the characters being instantly recognizable. That couldn't have been an easy needle to thread. Also, thank you for sharing your creative process with us. It was so much fun to watch the pieces come together, especially the color!
You have a really soft sense of color, I really like it! I think my favorite is Chihiro or Sophie, but that's because Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle have my favorite character designs in Ghibli movies overall
sophie would honestly be a real powerful kind of magical girl who is also the mom friend, but consider her old persona's personality in the movie. she would not hesitate to barrage, bully, blackmail her way so people do things as she wants. (kiki adopts that strategy in life, too, eventually.)
I honestly think Ponyo might be my favourite out of all these designs which is surprising to me since she's also the character in this line up I think I'm least emotionally attatched to. I just love how cute her design is and how magical it feels, it's so wonderful! I love all the other designs too though hehe I think they turned out wonderfully and each have aspects that I really love! thank you for the small escapism your videos always provide
I too liked the darker version of Chihiro but it does make sense for her to keep her pink. But what if, when she goes into the spirit world, her clothes change to black, the small spirits on her/maybe in her bottle too come to life and can help her move around and find the other spirits that she needs to help the rest of the team. Could also be fun if she has a small Haru like Sofie has a small Calcifer.
Loved watching you drawing and talking about it ! Sophie is my favorite but they're all great, i really like seeing ponyo and sophie standing together, they have a great dynamic (i think you were right to go with yellow)
I don't think anybody has suggested this in the months since this was posted, but with the side-by-side final designs of Ponyo's poncho having yellow inside of the blue and blue inside of the yellow made me think: Ponyo has a reversible, blue and yellow rain poncho.
They all came out so cute! Seeing them all together I feel like the various pinks in all the other outfits tied Chihiros into the team and made it feel unique from the bathhouse uniform. And I have to go with yellow Ponyo because I’m a sucker for condiment pallets.
omg sophie is so stunning... im in love, those are also my favourite magical girl elements and sophie rocks them ~ i also really liked that today's video was a speedpaint! I really like your art and love to see more of it
I loved this! My favorite was Chihiro out of all of them. Both her concept and design just tickled my personal buttons so much. I do think the pink was the best option for the design but the purple one was rather cool too. Who knows, maybe think of it as the sprites enveloping her pink outfit turning it darker whenever she needed to blend in
Oooo, this is such a dangerous video because I had an instant desire to make and embroider Sophie's outfit. And that selkie coat in blue was GORGEOUS. I think that one made more sense, since selkie coats are such an important link to the sea. Perhaps yellow may attract too much attention as well, haha! Wonderful video as always!
I never thought I needed Ghibli Magical Girls. But now I desperately need a ghibli magical girls anime. Kiki has main character vibes. Sophie is the best mentor type character I've ever seen. Ponyo is so cute and chaotic. Nausica is has the Prince energy despite wearing a dress and I love it. Lastly, Chihiro my love!! She look so spirited and just want to help.
Love this! Sophie turned out so perfect! For a part 2 of Ghibli I'd love to see Sheeta, Arrietty, Satsuke, Mononoke and the Baron! Your style is amazing and I'd love to see more 😍
you saying that the ~100 layer cap you had on your canvas in procreate was worrying/a small issue for you was so mind blowing for me. i’ve been using procreate for years and i’ve never once met the cap, but i suppose it depends on everyone’s digital art process! it makes me wonder how many layers you end up using on photoshop
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one! It's really interesting thinking about a magical girl team where almost everyone has matured, usually having to work to make a living or have high responsibilities. It wouldn't be school rumble, anyway. I love the character art for Sophie, and I like what you landed on for Nausicaa's outfit! In general I love Nausicaa most out of the ghibli protagonists, so I wish she had her mask but it lined hard to work with aesthetically. Very cool, thanks for sharing!
omg i love the concepts so much!!! it's so heartwarming to see them thy out new outfits that goes with the aesthetics of their movies so well!! i think my favorite is Sophie 'cause she looks really classy with the most wizardly vibe a lot of inspiration from this video!
I would definitely like to see this type of video again 😊 Coming up with character designs, describing why are the details the way they are? Ditching a character for another so you can return to their design another day with a fresh perspective? MWAH that's just my jam. I wish you would show more of the concept art and the process of coming up with all designs, as opposed to art tutorial timelaps of just the final stage of the entire process with the most interesting parts being completely off-screen. But to be fair, you probably just didn't do it because you didn't plan for this to be a whole video so no hard feelings about that one! I would like to see more art and/or design oriented videos.
I adore your Sophie. To the point that I want to cosplay her! Also, a magical Baron would be amazing! I adore the cat returns, so if you continue this series, I’ll be looking forward to it :)
Oh my gosh, I learned about chatelaines from Bernadette Banner, AND got excited seeing one on Abuela in Encanto as well!!! This is such a sweet video, I love all your designs ❤️
Well that was just the cutest thing! Completely caught me by surprise but it makes a whole lot of sense! Ponyo with the yellow cape, certainly, I remember a lot of glowing yellows from the film, gives her a vibrant glow that goes with her youth and enthusiasm. Not sure I can see Nausicaa as a magical girl tho, the manga is so... and those boots sort of like what Miki Sayaka has, well no, but hey you had an artistic project and its your vision. Chihiro is totally a ninja and I love it, I can't imagine she's been near a frilly dress in her life xD I feel Sophie is the best candidate for an actual magical girl, all the elements came together very nicely and have relevance for her personally. Kiki looks very cute, but given her character and the low-magic setting she's from maybe some connection to Tombo's flying contraptions would have made more sense. But it was a lot of fun seeing you go through your creative process, and the results are extremely cute!
They all look amazing! Kiki & Chihiro are my favorites, they both look so pretty. I would love to see more of the ghibli girls turned into magical girls or even some of the ghibli boys as magical boys! I love this idea a lot!
I love this vid & the gals! It’s cool to see your process and hearing you talk about how the characters would actually use their accessories as you added em! Great work!
This is so cute! I loved seeing your process for magical girl designs. I especially loved watching how you do lineart and the soft shading, since they're what's most appealing about your art style to me! If you'd like ideas for magical girl designs, what about Pokémon-inspired magical girls? I'm in a large discord server with a lot of artists who like magical girls (since the server is for the magical girl webcomic Sleepless Domain), and we host a ton of art games. The Pokémon-themed magical girl games make us all go NUTS- we had well over a hundred entries the last time, including every single Vivillon design as their own character! There's something about Pokémon plus cute frilly outfits that's like catnip to artists. I highly recommend it- not even necessarily for a video, just as a super fun exercise!
im sure you probably already had the idea, but maybe having both green and pink for Chihiro? perhaps make the pants some form of green for clarity purposes? (or vice versa) either way, I absolutely love Chihiro and the concept(s) and have acquired "ghibli Madoka" as my monthly obsession.
I loved the video, and now I need to see the gang relaxing after a day of battle at Sophie's house. They can drink tea, recharge, and Howl is just there as cheerleader.
These designs are awesome! I like watching this video because I like magical girls because thats the only kind of anime and other kinda that I can actually get myself to watch. I love your art style and your content, its amusing to watch! Good job :D
At the end, Sophie kinda looks like she has the "never talk to me or my daughter or my daughter or my daughter or my daughter ever again" face and I love it
Or my daughter
She would definitely be the overprotective mom of the group
I love the idea of Chihiro summoning terrifying spirits and demons, and they do things for her in exchange for domestic help like picking up groceries or house cleaning
Honestly seems like good battle anime with occasional SL elements.
I’m surprised you didn’t have Sheeta from Laputa Castle in the Sky. I mean she’s a princess, she has magical jewelry, she has pigtails (not a full prerequisite but I have noticed that a least some magical girl protagonists have pigtails/side buns).
Maybe it's just me, but Sheeta is my least favorite Ghibli girl. She's a little better than a damsel in distress, but for the most part I felt like she was a walking embodiment of the refined Japanese young woman stereotype (even when she fell, she fell on top of Pazu so as not to get hurt) and it didn't help that she was lusted on by the entire pirate crew while being 13. Definitely not the most well written Ghibli character. I would rather see Pirate Mama Dola drawn as a magical girl instead.
@@greyfox4838 While I love Laputa as a movie (it's one of three Ghibli films I have on both dvd and bluray), I do agree that Sheeta herself is one of the weaker points. I don't think she's horrible, just, you know, middle of the road. Pretty bland.
And yeah, the part when the male pirates flirt with her just doesn't come off as charming or funny as the studio probably hoped because, like you pointed out, she's 13. It's just creepy.
I would still like to have seen her among the magical girls though. She'd fit right in the group as the reserved one who grows to be more confident (like her arc in the movie).
Also it could be cool to see Pazu as her tag-along love interest. The non-powered one who fights to keep up with the magical girls. A sort of Sokka to their Magical Girl-Benders
Yeahh as a kid that was a little bit off to me with the pirate thing but she still could have had a cool design
Fio from Porco Rosso would make a great sky themed magical girl partner with Sheeta! 🤩
@@greyfox4838 Hell Ya! Dola was AMAZINGLY well written!
Kiki as Sophie's apprentice is such a cute idea 😭 and all these designs are so pretty and creative!
Noralities has a stranglehold of the "I had no idea how badly I wanted to watch this" niche
Ik you had the most trouble with Nausicaa but she is my favorite of the bunch
desu wa
I really want a magical girl Ghibli show with this lineup now. Imagining Kiki working with Sophie to learn magic is just the cutest thing. 😭
Looking at Ponyos design I can really image her pulling down her hood with so much energy, with these big ghibli motions. And just, like she’s doing a flip, transforming into her fish self. It’s an adorable thing to imagine, and these designs are just so pretty^^
They're so cute!! I love Ponyo the most, but I'm so sad you didn't do Mononoke! She's my childhood, but the five teammates rule of magical girls is sacred, I get it, I love all of them so much!
maybe in the far future you could do mononoke, arietty and sheeta?Idk all the ghibli girls are a gift
Having a selkie-inspired Ponyo is an interesting choice. On that note, have you seen Song of the Sea? I think you might like it.
omg song of the sea is one of my favorite movies!
@@sourryebread me too . this movie is SOOOOOO gorgeous 😍
Thank you for your periodic quality escapism ^^.
This content really feeds the child in me, wishing for a simpler, kinder world.
Noralities, coffee on a lazy Sunday. The good life right there!
While I mourned the loss of Nausicaa's mask/goggles I do think her final outfit really suit the overall look of the group more.
Also, maybe Chihiro's outfit is pink or green by default but she uses the soot sprites to turn it black when she needs to go stealth?
Absolutely loved this, your interpretations of each character really brought out their individual personalities. Kiki and Sophie really stole the show for me. Howl's Moving Castle has always held a special place in my heart and my wife and I actually played "Merry Go Round of life" at our wedding. I love your art style, please make more of these if you enjoy them :)
The way all the details from each girl’s stories are combined is so impressive! I feel like I could pick out their whole movie from them! I want to watch a show about them so bad now, and please make more of these they’re awesome!!
I personally loved the option of keeping Ponyo’s socks mismatched with that light blue and green cause it bounces off the reds and yellows of her outfit really well. It even pushes that water motif even more as well as highlight that childlike innocence and joy
The whole idea of Chihiro slipping on the mask, changing the colour of her costume and side-stepping into a different dimension just DEMANDS animation. Great concept.
I'd love to see a lineup of Nintendo ladies as magical girls! Zelda, Peach, Daisy, Samus, aaaaand....Toadette maybe? The Ponyo of the group, as it were. That or maybe Sheik or Impa.
All of those drawings are great. Sophie looks like a total badass, and I’m here for it.
Also, I prefer yellow Ponyo. And I think Chirio looks greatest in the pink outfit, similarities to her movie uniform be damned.
Yes please, draw both the magic Baron and some Nintendo characters as magical girls/boys/enbies, that I think that would rock.
I love these designs and they look great together!
Its hard to decide between the two Ponyo versions, but I would go with the yellow one if I had to vote..
Personally I would love to see a magical girl like design of Porco Rosso and Fio in your style.
Yeeessss!! Make the male protagonists in Studio Ghibli as magical girls! Or Nintendo characters would be fantastic. You could do link and base it off of his gerudo disguise or something lol 😂
They're so pretty; and I really wanna cosplay Sophie, I love how she matches Howl I can see him getting all excited over that
omg i would cosplay each and every one of these in a HEARTBEAT. your love for the magical girl genre really shines through the designs, and i love the little pieces of lore and potential interactions you've thought up. would love to see you continue this series with the Baron and/or other franchises!
P.S. i think yellow Ponyo was the right call, especially looking at her in the rest of the line-up!
Even though it was more of a drawing timelapse than a video essay, this was a lot of fun and really comfy.
One thought that came to mind regarding Chihiro- what came to mind with the sootspirtes on a black ninja outfit, was 'teched up' to a cyberpunk style. Like the outlines/eyes/candies of the sootsprites pop in UV light. I can imagine the neon blur from movement as she skulks through a rave at the place she's pretending to work at as part of her operation/infiltration to the actual target. Granted, in totality thats about three genres shifted from magical girl...but I'm a sucker for genre shift/blending
Ahhh it's really fun to see you talk about your art process!
I'm glad you gave ponyo more yellow than blue, because you already had two other girls with a lot of blue. Maybe sophie could have been a bit more green too? IDK if this is always the case, but I usually think of magical girl teams of each having their own colour that differentiates them from the rest
And I absolutely love the idea for chihiro's power! I think it fits her character really well and it'd be so cool to see in action. I also really liked that first extra sketch you made for her!
For kiki I totally agree about the gloves, they help elevate the outfit a lot!
Actually, maybe Chihiro's outfit might look less like her bath-house outfit if the top part was green but her pants were still pink
Everyone looks so beautiful! I absolutely adore every one of your designs and I definitely see Kiki as the leader of this group while Sophie being the wise sage/mentor of the group! Chihiro is my favorite Ghibli heroine and making her Magical girl Ninja is a great idea! It's matches her quick thinking and all the running she did in the movie lol! Wonderful job all around!
God, your style is so cute!!! The lineart is so clean and makes me feel cozy. Also THE DETAILS! Super cute and balanced, and the themes are on point!
Hope we see something like this again! Have a good day!
I may not actually watch magical girl anime, but I absolutely adore these designs! Sophie and Ponyo are probably my favorites
sometimes i forget noralities is an artist as well as a commentator, this video was just a delight to watch their style really fits the chill vibe of the video
These designs look absolutely gorgeous! And I agree that you should draw a magical girl (boy?) style Baron and can you please add Haru as well, I see her as a compasionate but feisty kitty princess who can summon cats for help and maybe even turn to the size of a cat?
I also see Satsuki and Mei (my neighbour Totoro) as magical girls too, maybe they have a pouch of those little acorn seeds that can sprout into giant trees when needed and perhaps even calling help from Totoro himself.
Princess Mononoke would be like a forest warrior type magical girl or a knight type? Who rides wolves and uses her hunting spear and knives against opponents, although that doesn't sound like a magical girl now that I think about it...
Sheeta from Castle in the Sky could be a possible candidate? However, my only idea of her being a magical girl is that she can float because of her neckclace but maybe she can levitate items using her magic? Including larger objects? Idk
Arrietty would be like Chihiro and sneak around as a borrower so maybe less of a magical girl and more of a spy
Shizuku from Whisper of the Heart would be a passionate author who could possibly be another witch like character? She could have a book and her magic could also be self-actuallizing like she writes something down and it happens?
Thank you for ending your videos with "Everything is going to be Ok." It makes me tear up every time. I try to be a beacon of "It's fine." and I don't realize how much it weighs me down and hearing someone, anyone else say it, makes me happy. So thank you, Noralities, for something so genuine, and to you; Everything is going to be Ok.
I like the Idea that Chihiro's outfit changes from the bright pink when she is in the human world to the black/dark purple design when she pops into the spirit world. Like, when she is here it is ok for her to stand out, but when she slips over to summon a spirit or sneak around, she has to be careful to not be noticed. It keeps both of your designs and adds a fun transformation for her!
When you mentioned Nintendo at the end the first thing that came to mind is an entire Magical girl team comprised entirely by different incarnations of Zelda.
(Just started learning how to draw on tablets)
"Holy shit Noralities is so talented, she's not even using any layers or anything that's incredible"
"ah"
Really enjoyed watching the drawing process! Your designs are elegant! So cute!
Oh my God they all look amazing! Chihiro is def my favorite.
They are so cute! You did an amazing job. I didn't recognize Ponyo at first, but that's probably just cuz I haven't seen her in ages!
This video was so cute and really made me what to pick up my sketch book and draw ! All their designs are super pretty and fun , Sophie’s gotta be my fav , I’m a suckers for a good witch ✨ I hope you do more art content in the future, I loved hearing your thought process!
The girls came out incredibly!!!! I would love to see more ghibli characters- the baron??? Yes! But also do whatever your heart so desires! We’re along for the ride ^_^
Nearly hopped outta my socks when I saw the thumbnail! Your videos are the highlight of a lot of my cozy stay at home days💕 thank you for doing what you do.
I really like the yellow raincoat in Ponyo, it kinda reminds me of Flounder from Disney's Little Mermaid...
(And I LOOOVE all of the costumes!! ❤)
I would LOVE to see a magical girl version of the baron, yes please! 😸
These are so cute! Sophie and Chihiro are my favs! Also Ghibli Magical boys to match would be adorable!
This has the makings of a great crossover fanfic. I actually had an idea for one appear as I was watching this, and I'm gonna share that, plus some ideas I have for the outfits and how they could work. Anyone authors reading this, feel free to run with the idea! Be warned, Comment is long.
Basic premise: Some sort of magical portal-based shenaniganry goes down, and Nausicaa, Ponyo, Kiki, and Chihiro (and possibly Haku and some others) end up falling into the world of Howl's Moving Castle. The girls come to the attention of Sophie and Howl, who realize something screwy is going on. They also notice that the girls each have a lot of magical potential and decide the best thing to do is to train them so that eventually they can learn Portal Magics to help them (and everyone else affected) get home. And while they're at it, maybe find out what the issue actually is and solve it, leading to the girls becoming a team of Interdimensional Magical Girls who work to preserve the stability of reality.
As their training progresses, each girl gradually realizes and starts to hone their own unique forms of magic. Sophie, being a very creative woman with a talent for Craft-based Magics, is inspired to make the girls (and herself) customized enchanted outfits to help utilize their gifts. For herself and Kiki as they are more "traditional" witches/magic users their outfits are a bit more generic in terms of their enchantments (reinforcement, durability, easy cleaning, a minor hammer space enchantment on Kiki's apron pockets, etc...), but are made to be easy to enchant further later on. For the others however, they get more unique enchantments to go with their unique circumstances. (Also, yes, I totally see Kiki becoming Sophie's personal apprentice in this scenario because they are both traditional witches who are more "down to earth" than the others.)
Ponyo, as you pointed out, is a combination of a mermaid and a selkie. Thus she gets a magical coat that allows her to transform into a fish at will, as well as allowing her to fly. Idea for the enchantments based on the issue you had with the color is that the coat is reversible, with a yellow outside and a blue inside. If she transforms while the yellow side is out she just turns into her normal fish form but with yellow markings. However, if she flips it to the blue side before she transforms she becomes a blue fish made of water that can camoflage itself really easily. Think what happened to her sisters in the second act of the movie.
For Chihiro, based on your idea for her powers being more of a ninja-esque summoner type who specializes in infiltration, reconnaissance, and support magics, her outfit would have the most complex enchantments on it. One of the actual arts historical ninja's practiced was the art of disguise so they could hide in plain sight. To help her with blending in the outfit would be specially enchanted to essentially shapeshift into whatever Chihiro needed at any one time, with Chihiro herself supplying a bit of magic and an idea to trigger the change. Kind of like the holographic Idol Outfits in the later Macross series, but with magic instead of tech. Or Sailor Moon's Disguise Pen without the need for further transformations for combat. The finished outfit you made could be the base form, which can change color as needed. With a little more magic put into it by Chihiro could change the entire design of the outfit to whatever she needed to not look too out of place, with your other concept drawings being examples of alternative forms. Also, I can totally see Haku becoming her personal Guardian Spirit who keeps her safe.
For Nausicaa, as a "warrior princess" from a post-apocalyptic world, I feel she would have a range of versatile combat magics as well as support based ones, including but not limited to healing, summoning weapons like guns and swords, enhanced empathic abilities, physical enhancement magics, and maybe some Parallel Processing abilities to help her analyze and adapt to tricky situations. As you said, she is the leader of her community, so she's gonna need a very versatile toolkit. Her outfit would reflect this with the Princess Knight aesthetic, and would hold very strong reinforcement and durability enchantments to accommodate for her dangerous world, plus the flight enchantment you mentioned on her cape. One thing I would add would be a pouch on either the back or side of the belt to hold her mask, so that if she needs it she can grab it, and maybe give her hat an enchantment to become more like the goggle/cap/helmet thing she wore in her normal outfit for when she needs it. ... And she would absolutely have Teto with her at all times because he's loyal like that.
I really enjoyed this video! Seeing your design process through magic girl-ifying these characters was interesting, but I do think you jumped into things a little to quick. I would've liked to get an overview of who we were looking at in this video, and maybe a better overview of what the video was fully about (i.e; taking ghibli characters and redesigning them to be magical girls). It felt a little too abrupt, imo.
I'd love to see more, though! I think this idea would flow well with very neutral, "ordinary" character designs. Maybe from some of your favorite series?
Anywhoosles, thanks for the video!
Maybe if Chihiro’s design had a gauzy overlay it would help convey more magical girl like quality to her. I do like it a lot! It just doesn’t fully read as magical girl like as the others do to me. The others all look fantastic by the way! I’m super happy you showed your art work and time lapse as well! It’s just such a nice video to watch!
As Magical Girl fanatic, this seems very interesting
I love these final designs so much! I would be interested in seeing you tackle another group, maybe the male counterparts to the respective girl characters? Whatever you choose I’m here for it.
Pony especially the inital sketch gave me strong duck from princess tutu vibes and I love it!! You should definitely do more like Princess mononoke
hell yeah! make a Ghibli magical boy video with all the Ghibli boys!
It's a coincidence that I just watched Whisper of the Heart today and then you upload a Ghibli video, though unfortunately Shizuku is not involved in this. On second thoughts, a neko magical girl like the Baron would be really cool.
Edit: oh shit, you had the same idea lol
I think Shizuku's dream from from her story would make a great magical girl design. Also, Haru from The Cat Returns would make a good neko magical girl.
Ponyo wearing yellow makes more sense to me, it's reminiscent of the bright yellow raincoat Sosuke wears in the film.
This is so soothing, I am gonna keep it in my watch queue for another go. The designs themselves are very beautiful, and showing the process to get there was just neat. Thank you for this.
I'm glad you actually know a lot of magical girls because before it seemed you only really knew of what you watched in childhood.
People are interested in it- love your art style and your commentary, this was an absolute TREAT to watch
i really dig the turning things into magical girls, very fun! nice job
Really cool concept. Sophie and Chihiro were my favourites.
This is one million percent the kind of content I love and am so hyped to see in my notifications. ❤️❤️ not all the time, because I LOVE your video essays and have already benefited a lot from your recommendations and your breakdowns of the symbolism and thematic elements of different series. You’ve genuinely helped me enjoy anime more and give language to a lot of feelings I hadn’t been able to articulate. But I love that you’re coming up with related concepts from a love of the magical girl archetype. This was super fun to watch!
Thank you for the lovely video! I love ponyo in the yellow coat, it definitily gives the feel of a little kid splashing about in puddles having fun, and also reminds me of a bright piece of coral with the pinks.
I love chihiro wearing black cause it looks like she's wearing stars due to the spots of color
Great design work. The finished outfits look plausibly like magical girl costumes while keeping the characters being instantly recognizable. That couldn't have been an easy needle to thread. Also, thank you for sharing your creative process with us. It was so much fun to watch the pieces come together, especially the color!
You have a really soft sense of color, I really like it! I think my favorite is Chihiro or Sophie, but that's because Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle have my favorite character designs in Ghibli movies overall
sophie would honestly be a real powerful kind of magical girl who is also the mom friend, but consider her old persona's personality in the movie. she would not hesitate to barrage, bully, blackmail her way so people do things as she wants.
(kiki adopts that strategy in life, too, eventually.)
I honestly think Ponyo might be my favourite out of all these designs which is surprising to me since she's also the character in this line up I think I'm least emotionally attatched to. I just love how cute her design is and how magical it feels, it's so wonderful! I love all the other designs too though hehe I think they turned out wonderfully and each have aspects that I really love! thank you for the small escapism your videos always provide
I too liked the darker version of Chihiro but it does make sense for her to keep her pink.
But what if, when she goes into the spirit world, her clothes change to black, the small spirits on her/maybe in her bottle too come to life and can help her move around and find the other spirits that she needs to help the rest of the team.
Could also be fun if she has a small Haru like Sofie has a small Calcifer.
Loved watching you drawing and talking about it ! Sophie is my favorite but they're all great, i really like seeing ponyo and sophie standing together, they have a great dynamic (i think you were right to go with yellow)
mermaid melody and tokyo mew mew 😍😍😍 best childhood magical girl animes
"yuuki yuna is a hero" is also a GREAT anime, just more on the mature side
I don't think anybody has suggested this in the months since this was posted, but with the side-by-side final designs of Ponyo's poncho having yellow inside of the blue and blue inside of the yellow made me think: Ponyo has a reversible, blue and yellow rain poncho.
They all came out so cute! Seeing them all together I feel like the various pinks in all the other outfits tied Chihiros into the team and made it feel unique from the bathhouse uniform. And I have to go with yellow Ponyo because I’m a sucker for condiment pallets.
these is still one of my favorite video on the whole internet
omg sophie is so stunning... im in love, those are also my favourite magical girl elements and sophie rocks them ~ i also really liked that today's video was a speedpaint! I really like your art and love to see more of it
Oh man that was super cool. I love all the color palettes for them! Also yes, magical girl Baron, is a great idea.
I loved this! My favorite was Chihiro out of all of them. Both her concept and design just tickled my personal buttons so much. I do think the pink was the best option for the design but the purple one was rather cool too. Who knows, maybe think of it as the sprites enveloping her pink outfit turning it darker whenever she needed to blend in
Oooo, this is such a dangerous video because I had an instant desire to make and embroider Sophie's outfit. And that selkie coat in blue was GORGEOUS. I think that one made more sense, since selkie coats are such an important link to the sea. Perhaps yellow may attract too much attention as well, haha! Wonderful video as always!
I never thought I needed Ghibli Magical Girls. But now I desperately need a ghibli magical girls anime.
Kiki has main character vibes. Sophie is the best mentor type character I've ever seen. Ponyo is so cute and chaotic. Nausica is has the Prince energy despite wearing a dress and I love it. Lastly, Chihiro my love!! She look so spirited and just want to help.
Love this! Sophie turned out so perfect! For a part 2 of Ghibli I'd love to see Sheeta, Arrietty, Satsuke, Mononoke and the Baron! Your style is amazing and I'd love to see more 😍
aaaaa love bernadette banner, chatelaines, and sophie's entire everything!
you saying that the ~100 layer cap you had on your canvas in procreate was worrying/a small issue for you was so mind blowing for me. i’ve been using procreate for years and i’ve never once met the cap, but i suppose it depends on everyone’s digital art process! it makes me wonder how many layers you end up using on photoshop
This was a very relaxing watch between study sessions
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one! It's really interesting thinking about a magical girl team where almost everyone has matured, usually having to work to make a living or have high responsibilities. It wouldn't be school rumble, anyway. I love the character art for Sophie, and I like what you landed on for Nausicaa's outfit! In general I love Nausicaa most out of the ghibli protagonists, so I wish she had her mask but it lined hard to work with aesthetically. Very cool, thanks for sharing!
MAGICAL BARON SNAPPED ME OUT OF DEPRESSION AND MADE ME SHOCKINGLY INHALE! Loved the whole video!!!
omg i love the concepts so much!!! it's so heartwarming to see them thy out new outfits that goes with the aesthetics of their movies so well!! i think my favorite is Sophie 'cause she looks really classy with the most wizardly vibe
a lot of inspiration from this video!
Awesome video idea, would love to see the rest of the Ghibli girls. Princess Mononoke or Arrietty especially
“I want her outfit for me” samsies ❤️
I would definitely like to see this type of video again 😊 Coming up with character designs, describing why are the details the way they are? Ditching a character for another so you can return to their design another day with a fresh perspective? MWAH that's just my jam. I wish you would show more of the concept art and the process of coming up with all designs, as opposed to art tutorial timelaps of just the final stage of the entire process with the most interesting parts being completely off-screen. But to be fair, you probably just didn't do it because you didn't plan for this to be a whole video so no hard feelings about that one! I would like to see more art and/or design oriented videos.
I adore your Sophie. To the point that I want to cosplay her! Also, a magical Baron would be amazing! I adore the cat returns, so if you continue this series, I’ll be looking forward to it :)
Oh my gosh, I learned about chatelaines from Bernadette Banner, AND got excited seeing one on Abuela in Encanto as well!!!
This is such a sweet video, I love all your designs ❤️
Well that was just the cutest thing! Completely caught me by surprise but it makes a whole lot of sense! Ponyo with the yellow cape, certainly, I remember a lot of glowing yellows from the film, gives her a vibrant glow that goes with her youth and enthusiasm. Not sure I can see Nausicaa as a magical girl tho, the manga is so... and those boots sort of like what Miki Sayaka has, well no, but hey you had an artistic project and its your vision. Chihiro is totally a ninja and I love it, I can't imagine she's been near a frilly dress in her life xD I feel Sophie is the best candidate for an actual magical girl, all the elements came together very nicely and have relevance for her personally. Kiki looks very cute, but given her character and the low-magic setting she's from maybe some connection to Tombo's flying contraptions would have made more sense. But it was a lot of fun seeing you go through your creative process, and the results are extremely cute!
They all look amazing! Kiki & Chihiro are my favorites, they both look so pretty. I would love to see more of the ghibli girls turned into magical girls or even some of the ghibli boys as magical boys! I love this idea a lot!
I am so behind you making the Baron in your Magical Girl style (and the other characters from that movie because it's awesome)
❤😄
Yes, I'd absolutely love to see more!! I adores this video a lot Ghibli and magical girls! I'd love to see the boys, like Howl, Baron, and Haku!
Yo you are making me obsessed with your channel 😭😭😭😭
yes please do nintendo characters as magical girls that would look awsome
I love this vid & the gals! It’s cool to see your process and hearing you talk about how the characters would actually use their accessories as you added em! Great work!
I totally want to use Sophie art for a dnd character now.
ponyo and sophie turned out so cute! also it would be cool to see more drawing x as magical girls
This is so cute! I loved seeing your process for magical girl designs. I especially loved watching how you do lineart and the soft shading, since they're what's most appealing about your art style to me! If you'd like ideas for magical girl designs, what about Pokémon-inspired magical girls? I'm in a large discord server with a lot of artists who like magical girls (since the server is for the magical girl webcomic Sleepless Domain), and we host a ton of art games. The Pokémon-themed magical girl games make us all go NUTS- we had well over a hundred entries the last time, including every single Vivillon design as their own character! There's something about Pokémon plus cute frilly outfits that's like catnip to artists. I highly recommend it- not even necessarily for a video, just as a super fun exercise!
im sure you probably already had the idea, but maybe having both green and pink for Chihiro? perhaps make the pants some form of green for clarity purposes? (or vice versa) either way, I absolutely love Chihiro and the concept(s) and have acquired "ghibli Madoka" as my monthly obsession.
ps: also side tangent i am *living* for the sketch of kiki with a coat
I think leaving Ponyo's cape as yellow was the right call, because there is already a good amount of blue in the group as a whole
I loved the video, and now I need to see the gang relaxing after a day of battle at Sophie's house. They can drink tea, recharge, and Howl is just there as cheerleader.
These designs are awesome! I like watching this video because I like magical girls because thats the only kind of anime and other kinda that I can actually get myself to watch. I love your art style and your content, its amusing to watch! Good job :D