My beef with the legacy of Madoka Magica is not any increase in "darkness" or "edginess" in the Magical Girl Warrior genre, no that was an inevitable result of the genre turning 20. I'm more annoyed at how it's become more acceptable to actually use the term "Magical Girl" (Or "Mahou Shoujo" in Japanese) in universe.
For me it greatly helps the immersion of a Magical Girl show when they have their own uniquely Branded term for what a Magical Girl is in that universe. Sailor Senshi, Love Angels, "Cardcaptors", Pretty Cure, Twin Angels and so on. And some shows may have not really had a term for it at all.
Pre Madoka the only Anime that might have used the term in universe were one off parodies or hentai. It is in the full title of the first two seasons of the Nanoha franchise, but in universe they never used that term, not in the Dub anyway.
In the case of Fate/Khalied Liner Prisma Illya the Manga predates Madoka but not the Anime, I think the term might have been used a couple times but it isn't standard. At any rate because this is a Fate/ AU it doesn't need to immerse me, I'm already immersed in this multiverse just show us what happens when you throw Magical Girls into it.
I wouldn't mind having a throw away line where a character says something like "that girl sure is magical", like how some Comic Book Movies homage a Codename they don't actually want to use.
Now this is the kind of thing where in Madoka itself it works because.... well my mind continues to fluctuate on how appropriate I think it is to call Madoka a deconstruction, but whether or not it's a proper deconstruction the way Watchmen is, it's definitely a Meta Commentary of some sort. So in that context using the name of the genre in universe works. I also have only watched it dubbed and so don't know whether the original dialogue uses "Mahou Shoujo" or "Puella Magi" (I hate when certain spin off Manga use "Puella Magi" in the English translation, it just doesn't sound right).
Not all post-Madoka shows have done this, leaving aside older franchises that either never stopped or got a revival, we've got Yuki Yuna Is A Hero, Symphogear, Hina Logic and I haven't watched Daybreak Illusion yet, but generally it seems like you know whether or not a show will do this based on whether or not it puts "Magical Girl" in the title.
But why don't I feel this way about other genres? Superhero films and Comics use the term "Superhero" and it doesn't bug me, in fact I was annoyed at the 2015 Supergirl pilot for refusing to use the word "Superheroine", insisting on instead awkwardly saying "Female Superhero" constantly. In fact you may be thinking "Yuki Yuna just calls them Heroes, isn't that even more generic?". And when an Isekai uses the word Isekai the dubs I watch translate it in a way where I generally don't even think about it.
I guess it's just in the context of this genre's history, where it took about 20 years for a hit show to use the name of the genre in-universe, and that show was at least perceived as being some sort of important Meta Commentary. That makes it feel like now you only would use the term in universe if you want it to have the same cultural relevance, but it really just comes off as a lack of creativity.
Which is why this very superficial complaint of mine can easily be seen as overlapping with the more common complaints about post Madoka trends. The shows that didn't simply throw "Magical Girl" in the title seem a bit safer from being completely dismissed as Madoka Clones, at least to some extent. They showed their creativity while the ones with "Magical Girl" in the title are just "Battle Royal with Magical Girls" or "Magical Girl Rambo".
I however am someone who has tried to oppose dismissing shows that way. To me the most useless criticism you can make of any art is to say "it tried to be like _____ but without understanding why ____ actually worked in the first place". Because to me all good derivative art is based on applying this new innovation differently, it should work for a different reason not the same reason, maybe even a completely opposite reason.
Last year I was putting myself at odds with a lot of my AniTwitter mutuals by defending Magical Girl Site as it was airing, even though I was indeed thinking about this very nitpick at the time. And I can't help but fear my being more critical of Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka right now is an unfair result of my not being in the same mood I was then. Literally right after Site ended I experienced something that has since greatly decreased my tolerance for Nihilism in the media I consume. Before that Site was lucky enough to premier during the time in which I'd finally come to terms with the fact that I like Batman V Superman, so defending a darker take on something traditionally bright and cartoony was all the rage in my brain.
Still, all that context in mind something about episode 8 of Asuka feels like far more of a betrayal of the genre then anything last year's hated edgfest did. Outside of my opinions about the state of this genre, I have low tolerance for military themed fiction, that's the first reason I can't get into Rob Skiba's Seed project. So it's the last genre I was looking to see crossover with the Magical Girl genre.
But I'm never gonna blame Madoka or the very idea of Dark Magical Girl shows for the fact that a current show isn't one I like. It's simply that this one didn't appeal to me.
This issue might also relate to how only the Magical Girl Warrior sub-genre is doing this, which only further causes westerners to not know that the term can apply more broadly.
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