Gushing Over Magical Girls is being controversial for…just being itself, it seems, so here’s some options so that you feel less guilty about being on a government watchlist.

Since Gushing Over Magical Girls is all about crossing lines in the form of BDSM, I’ve implemented “Furthest It Goes” ratings, which are correct to the best of my knowledge. Use them like content warnings.

Twin Angel Break

For those who like their magical girls more by the book, this is an anime based on…and this is no joke…a slot machine premise and it was the first example that came to mind when I read the Anime News Network article which inspired this listicle. It’s a bit of a difficult sell because cursory research says it’s related to Kaito Tenshi Twin Angel, which I’ve never heard of streaming anywhere, in the form of having the original magical girls’ ally Kurumi as the mascot for the new generation.

Furthest It Goes Rating: some mild butt shaking from middle school students during the transformation sequence.

Fairy Ranmaru

I gotta agree on Fairy Ranmaru being Gushing Over Magical Girls’ male counterpart – I mean, the BDSM imagery in the ED says it all for that.

However, that’s not all there is to Fairy Ranmaru. This anime sits somewhere at the crossroads between Madoka and Jojo’s and it was created by many of the staff who were responsible for Cute High Earth Defence Club LOVE! and Happy Kiss (but notably they’re not made by the same director, which might explain where the anime differ).

(On a related note, I have the personal hell(…?) of having to translate the rest of those blog posts, even years after the anime finished airing…)

Furthest It Goes: The BDSM ED, as stated. Also, there is a guy on guy kiss…but this is meant to be a no spoiler post, so I won’t say who kisses who.

Cute High Earth Defence Club LOVE!/Happy Kiss

(Or Boueibu for short, from the Japanese name, Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boueibu [LOVE/Happy Kiss].)

For something tamer but nonetheless full of male fanservice (just the way I like it), look no further than “Sailor Moon with boys”. Despite the first incarnation being ostensibly about love, the title is pretty much window dressing for something much wackier and full of wordplay (again, just the way I like it).

Furthest It Goes: Bath scenes. Many, many bath scenes…also, some subtle sadism/masochism references which are never really dug into in Happy Kiss.

Sidenote: I never mentioned this when covering it with Astral because I didn’t realise it until well after the anime finished, but Honyara Land (from Happy Kiss) is named such because honyarara means “something or other”.

Yuki Yuna is a Hero

Most of these are affectionate parodies, but the article that inspired this also mentions the string of dark magical girls that were in vogue some time back and are still coming out today (for example, see Magical Destroyers from the last year (as of the time of writing), which has a magical girl called Anarchy).

Since most people only know Madoka from this particular subset of magical girls, I will suggest Yuki Yuna as the final anime for this listicle. Sure, it’s rather popular in its own right, with its multiple seasons, but people tend to gloss over it for how it came out as a direct competitor to Madoka and not look at it on its own merits as a genre deconstruction.

Furthest It Goes: It’s been a bit since I watched the original series (all I’ve seen as of the time of this post, although with my HiDive subscription, I can now fix that), but as far as I recall, there’s nothing requiring a warning that isn’t already a part of the genre space or subtext.

There are obviously more anime you could look at for this, depending on the exact angle you want to take regarding Gushing Over Magical Girls, but these are just some anime which fly under the radar for their more popular counterparts…I doubt there are many who’ve watched all 5 unless they’re magical girl fans like myself.