Glowing Attack Action!: The Skeleton of the Mahou Shoujo Attack

Salutations and felicitations one and all! My name is DJ Harmony. I have logged onto this blog as a sincere promise to my good friend Melody with hopes of bringing a more scientific approach to the mahou shoujo perspective. *adjust glasses* And I am here to discuss my favorite part of being a magical girl and that henshin and attacks.

As you may already know, henshin is the transformation sequence that occurs when the average mahou shoujo changes into her alter ego. Both henshin and attacks are access through a special password or phrase that is called in order for the event to take place. Yet, believe it or not, there is a basic structure set to these phrases. Not too many people think about it when they call out the henshin of their favorite magical girl, but their is a certain sequence that most attacks and henshin follow in order for them to work. But, fret not, for I will walk you through the basics of constructing you own henshin or attack phrase!

Now, it really isn't all that difficult. It only takes a simple grasp of grammar (noun, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, etc.) and a basic break down of a given phrase. Let's start with Sailor Moon's henshin, "Moon Prism Power, Make Up!"

"Moon Prism Power, Make Up!"
(noun) + (adjective) + (noun) + (verb)

Did you notice that? When broken down and simplified, it demonstrates the basic formula used for henshin, kind of like P= l + l + w + w. Though it doesn't differ from a normal grammatical phrase, it is more symbolic than saying "Went to the park." Let's look at an attack phrase. We'll use a few from various animes since the formula can vary:

"Emerald Typhoon!"
"Azure Cyclone!"
(noun) + (noun)

"Ribbon Strawberry Check!"
"Mercury Aqua Mirage!"
(noun) + (noun) + (verb or noun)

"Saint Mirror Bridal Flash!"
"Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss!"
(noun) + (noun) + (adjective) + (verb)
or
(noun) + (noun) + (noun) + (verb)

While it doesn't differ too much from the henshin phrase, the attack phrase can be as short and concise or as elaborate and lengthy as you want it to be. In some series, you can judge the attack strength by the length of the phrase. Though, when creating your own mahou shoujo henshin/ attack phrase keep in mind that it's more than formulas, it is also about imagination! A good noun and verb relationship always makes it sound good and if you manage to through in a nifty adjective, you've got yourself a too-cool-for-school phrase.

If you still need some help putting together a phrase for yourself, Seventh Sanctum - Anime has a generator that can help you. You just put in the type of entity or elements your attacks consist of and it spouts out a plethora of different things! Try it, you might like it! Please feel free to leave your comments and findings if you have anything to share!

Well, I must be off. Though I am not taking summer school, I must wake up fresh to attend a lecture of the History of Algebra and It's Impact on Humanity. I hear it's simply scintillating! Take care!

-.+.-DJ Harmony

Mermaid Melody Review #1

Ugh, summer school really blows. It doesn't help that this creeper named Ken happens to be in my class. Apparently he didn't quite pass either and now he spends all lunch period being weird and telling me how much in love with me he is. Yeah, me and the rest of the girls in class. Ewww!

But, I didn't write to complain about summer school. I'm totally excited! I was over at a friend's house and she got me into this one mahou shoujo called Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch. Well, you can only imagine how ecstatic I was to hear of a totally cool music orientated magical girl and I watched it with high hopes. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. It's absolutely adorable, and tons of henshin. I stayed up most of the night and little into the morning watching the first fifteen episodes. Gosh, I love this anime!

Lucia, Mermaid Princess of the North Pacific Ocean, sets out to land to find the boy she saved from a shipwreck seven years before the beginning of the story, to whom she had entrusted with her pink pearl. She eventually finds the boy: a surfer named Kaito Dōmoto. But as the human form Lucia assumed, named Lucia Nanami, bears very little resemblance to her mermaid form, Kaito cannot recognize her. She cannot tell Kaito who she really is; otherwise, according to mermaid folklore, she would turn into bubbles. She tries to convince Kaito into figuring out who she really is (since the legend does not say anything about the other person discovering a mermaid's true identity by himself).
At the same time, Lucia has been told that a group of water demons or suiyō (水妖) have invaded the marine world and she must gather the six other Mermaid Princesses and their pearls to bring back the legendary goddess, Aqua Regina, to stop them. To fulfill this, she joins forces with Hanon and Rina, Mermaid Princesses who came up to dry land, use their pearls, turn into singing idols, and use their voices as an offensive power. (Wikipedia)

The Mermaid Princesses have awesome battle songs that are super catchy, though, by the time I managed to learn the first song, they came up with a new one. I was a little miffed about that. Their idol outfits are gaudily cute. I mean, I, personally, would not wear them, but they make super cute mahou shoujo uniforms! And Kaito, the object of Lucia's affections, while not all that cute, is a definite change from the normal mahou shoujo boyfriend: he's a bit clueless, but he's not always after her trying to save her, making Lucia appear to be a little more capable to do her job.

I really can't wait to start watching more of this anime, though I'm a little annoyed that I have wait another week before I can, Rhythm is really getting on my hiney on this studying thing. At least I have Harmony here to tutor me. Though I find it quite unfair how she's so much younger than me, but knows so much. Well, I won't let it bother me and go and study!

~DJ Melody

Magical Disaster!

It's been a couple days since I last posted, only for the fact that I have to go to summer school. I've been moping around the house for the longest time. *sighs* So much for summertime freedom and raves. Now my schedules gonna be busier than ever! *sniffles*

Anywho, while I was in economics class the other day, my teacher was talking about how much the country spends on military persons and defenses along with those high-tech gadgets and stuff. I couldn't help but think, "Wouldn't it be more economical to have a handful of magical girls as opposed to four different types of militaries?"

Think about it, magical girls themselves are one woman armies. We don't cost that much to feed or keep happy (give us some sweets and a super cute boyfriend and we're pretty much good to go). The destruction is usually kept to a minimum (stardust and hearts don't cause entire building to crumble.. usually) and there really is not cost to deploying us (we could teleport or just fly there).
Though, I suppose we have are cons as well, such as the occasional bad hair day or break up...

But really, don't you think it's a little more economical to own a few magical girls instead of hoards of beefy army guys? I'm love to hear why you would think why... or why not!

~DJ Melody

Wedding Peach Review

It's the Sunday of summer vacation and I thought I'd celebrate by having a mahou shoujo marathon of one particular anime in particular. I chose to watch Wedding Peach amongst the mass collections of anime on the internet. I'm beginning to think perhaps I should have chosen something a little more... interesting.

Wedding Peach was another one of those animes that I had overlooked during the time Sailor Moon came out. I hadn't heard to much about it and I used to see the manga on the same shelves as Magic Knight Rayearth and Peach Girl. Yet, when I heard it was a magical girl anime, I thought I'd give it a shot.

In Wedding Peach (or Ai Tenshi Densetsu Wedingu Pīchi), there are three known worlds--the human world, the angel world, and the devil world. The evil queen Raindevilla yearns to destroy the angel world with help or her many devil minions. The goddess Aphrodite sends an angel to the human world, Limone, to summon three love angels in the form of three school girls, Momoko Hanasaki, Yuri Tanima, and Hinagiku Tamano, who together become Angel Lilly, Angel Daisy, and Wedding Peach. The three girls must fight to overcome the evils of the devils, as well as their own lives, and restore peace to the angel world by gathering all pieces of the Sacred Four Somethings (or Saint Something Four) (Anime News Network).

While most mahou shoujo plots seem pretty superficial upon a simple read of a summary, after watching the first 10-15 episodes, the anime still remained flat and shallow to me. What you see is pretty much what you get. To be honest and as objective as humanly possible, it just seemed like a really bad Sailor Moon rip-off, no to mention the anime art looked incredibly similar. It had an abundance of henshin, which, of course, I liked, yet it was what most people dread and cringe when they think about magical girl anime.
You maybe wondering about in what ways I see this anime to be a Sailor Moon knock-off. Well, for example, Momoko, the main character, is incredibly similar to Usagi in the sense that she's a bit of a crybaby, boy-crazy and a bit irresponsible. I'm sorry, but I think there is only room for one annoying mahou shoujo heroine and Sailor Moon has already filled it (I promise, crybaby and flakiness are not prerequisites for being a mahou shoujo). Also, Wedding Peach's two different forms (her bride form and her fighter form) are quite similar to Sailor Moon's princess form and senshi for, but what makes it even more annoying is that she can do it any time she wants, dulling any kind of symbolic significance either form has (having two different forms, again, is not prerequisite). The need for people's energy and manipulating them is something both anime's villainess' share, but dubbing it Love Energy was a little too corny for me.

I can't say there was very much I liked about it, except for the idea for the Saint Something Four artifacts which comes from the whole wedding-good luck-ritual thing: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. I thought that was a super cute idea. Jama-P, the Love Angel's official magical pal, is really cute, before and after he's purified. I feel kinda bad how he gets knocked around though.

To be honest, I really don't feel interested enough in it to actually finish the series. It's become extremely predictable (as far as mahou shoujo goes, so that's kinda saying something) and I haven't even read the manga. So, since I'm pretty sure how it's gonna end, I think 15 episodes under my belt is good for now. Who knows, maybe I'll go back to finishing it some time later.

Give me your comments and/or arguments, be nice though (especially if you're a defending fan)! I really wanna hear your thoughts!

Magic Knight Rayearth: Review #2

Yay, exams are finally over and I can go back to posting normally! I hope you enjoyed DJ Rhythm's blurbs and thoughts on yuri. She usually knows more stuff about that than I do. Probably because she's so much older and worldly than I am. At least, that's what I keep being told.

Anywho, I just finally finished watching Magic Knight Rayearth and I must say, it was extremely odd. Don't get me wrong, it was enjoyable, it was just... odd. I think it was the use of mecha as Rune-Gods that threw me off. And boy were there alot of mecha! I keep trying to remind myself that I was watching a mahou shoujo and not Gundam 00. Yet, the mechanical fights were certainly something! I enjoyed them immensely.
As for the characters, I seemed to have grown very fond of only a few of them and the others I didn't very much care for. For example, I loved the diversity of those that came to invade Cephiro. Yet, the constant heroic antics of the boys for the Magic Knights became somewhat bothersome and boring. I know, I know, it's what they do, but I couldn't help being bored with it. Eagle was so awesome and kicked so much butt! Alcyone and Princess Emeraude I could've done without. I'm not a big fan of being so haplessly in love that you don't care about the world around you, especially the way they used the whole frail damsel-in-distress motif.
Oh, and before I forget, is it just me or does Lantis and Prince Endymion (Sailor Moon) look alot alike to you:

Lantis
Prince Endymion

*scratches head* It was bugging me the whole time and I wondered if anyone else noticed the similarities. Either way, we all know who the cooler one is, of course! *draws hearts around Lantis*

Anywho, I gotta go, but if you have any comments, please make your voice heard! you know I'd love to hear anything you have to say! :3

~DJ Melody

Magical Nannies: What I Want to be When I Grow Up

They're magically inclined, quirky, deal with hordes of naughty children, and usually carry a proper British accent. If you've never been entertained by a proper magical nanny, then it was high time you were!

Though, they're not part of a separate genre of their own, in anime or otherwise, magical nannies have always captured our hearts one way or another. Nannies such as Mary Poppins and Nanny McPhee manage to change not only the children's behaviors, but the thoughts and views of the parents (as most nannies tend to do) with a nifty magical advantage. They're usually tactful, clever, and full of awesome surprises. A few to note are:

Mary Poppins- This practically perfect nanny of 17 Cherrytree Lane can make a jolly holiday out of the most mundane things. Being able to entertain her charges with going in and out of chalk pavement pictures and winning a horse race with a carousel horse is all in a days work for this nanny. She's a friend to all and teaches an important lesson to us: a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. It never hurts to see a bright side in all the bad things that happens, is what she teaches her children and their work-a-holic father.

Nanny McPhee- Though her appearance is quite the contrast to the aforementioned nanny, her homely visage should not cause anyone to misjudge the might of her powers. Her ability to handle several children at a time is unsurpassed. With a tap of her cane, she shows her young charges the error or their bad behavior through visible consequences. By setting a situation into mass chaos does she show them how to correct themselves without a qualm or harsh word.

Fraulein Maria- If you've never gotten the opportunity to watch the Sound of Music, now is an absolutely perfect time. Fraulein Maria, much like Nanny McPhee, must deal with a handful of children who have lost their mother and have a very emotionally distant father. She is also 12th in a long line of governesses (another term for nanny, I suppose), proving that the children are quite misbehaved. However, she has no magic powers at hand, except for her miraculous love of song. Patiently, she teaches the children the wonders and disciplines of music while reawakening their father's love for it. I won't give to much away, but it is a very compelling true-to-life story that only Rogers&Hammerstein could pull off.

Mrs Piggle-Wiggle- She lives in a topsy turvy house with an old horse and dog. She holds random neighborhood parades that consist of nothing but children. She even remembers each child by name. While she is more of a psychologist than a nanny, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle manages to rid bad habits with the aid of her chest full of magical cures. From the Picky Eater to the Bickering Twins, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has a cure for everything and anything. Sometimes the cure tells the parents to leave the child be and the children learn the lessons on their own. Sometimes there is a special aid like a powder or radish seeds. Whatever the case may be, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has the answer.


If I ever have to stop my job as a magical girl, I would definitely love to use my magic in such an awesome way. Or better yet, I'd open up an academy, just to teach awesome magic stuffs to nannies in need of a little boost! Thanks lots for reading and if you have any other nifty nannies to name or comments about anything in this post, feel free to comment. I'd be happy to hear from you!

~DJ Melody