Transforming and queering identity: The influence of magical girl anime on queer-inclusive western animation

Abstract

Following the success of Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe there has been an explosion of openly queer representation in US children’s animated television through programmes such as She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and The Owl House (2020‐present), among others. The majority of these programmes follow trends seen in Steven Universe. These queer-inclusive children’s programmes tend to exist within the sci-fi/fantasy genre, visually reference Japanese anime, focus on female queer identity and attract adult fan bases in addition to young audiences. These factors can be accounted for, at least in part, by the direct influence of the mahō shōjo or magical girl genre of Japanese anime and manga or its indirect influence through Steven Universe. Scholarship has already commented upon the queer tropes common in magical girl programmes, both open and subtextual, and the direct influence of this genre on Steven Universe is well established. However, while the influence of the magical girl genre is obvious in programmes like Steven Universe and She-Ra that are closely patterned on the magical girl, it can also account for the aforementioned similarities in a majority of seemingly different recent queer-inclusive programmes such as The Owl House, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts and others. The anime influenced visuals of these programmes are partially a result of borrowing from aspects of the magical girl genre, such as the iconic transformation or henshin sequence. It is the sci-fi/fantasy nature of magic and transformation, just as in magical girl programmes, that allows young women to access magical power and agency through explorations of identity. These similarities make for an accessible language of transformation and exploration through which queer narratives can be expressed. By tracing the influence of the magical girl genre and its focus on the power of self and interpersonal exploration, we can begin to see why modern, queer-inclusive children’s animation exists in the form it currently does and begin to question what this means for queer representation and messages in contemporary US children’s animation.