Magical Girl

Magical Girl is a well-known and well-used character stereotype/template in Japanese Animation, Manga and related fictional material. Known as Mahou Shoujo ("magical girl") or just Majokko ("witch-girl"), Magical Girl characters are typically young girls or women who are empowered with fantastic/magical powers that both assist and complicate their lives.

First appearing in the late 1960's, the first two anime/manga series to feature the character type (Sally The Witch and Himitsu No Akko-chan) credited their inspiration for the character from the American live-action series. The genre gradually evolved, with Codename: Sailor V (later known as Sailor Moon (1992)) and Cardcaptor Sakura (1996) becoming the modern examples of the typical Magical Girl stereotype.