Your magical girl expectations are about to get hit with a “wop, wop, wop, wop, wop!” ‘Cause lead pipes will mess you up. Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl is the refreshing reversal on the beloved mahō shōjo genre that we knew we needed, but never thought we’d get.
Created by Kiana Mai Khansmith, known for her work on Big City Greens and Pokémon: Path to the Peak, this indie proof of concept introduces us to Aika (Anairis Quiñones), a magical girl who’s completely over the glittery grind of saving the world and just wants to be regular. Not popular. Never popular. We’ve seen where that goes. With her cute but clingy magical sidekick, Hoshi (Christine Marie Cabanos), Aika meets up with the “loser” bestie of her dreams, Zira (Bennett Abara), and fights her nemesis who might also be a love interest, Eclipse (Aleks Le).
ooooh and there’s an Aika plushie. PLUSSSSHEEE!
(go ahead, it’s clickable)
The animatic pilot runs 11 mins 11 secs, blending snappy writing, giggles similar to Steven Universe / Adventure Time / Amphibia, and a hook that makes us want more. More lead pipes, more reverse transformations, more meta-magical-girl jokes. Watch the pilot episode below and, together, let’s go get this animation.
You can follow Kiana’s creative journey on Tumblr for behind-the-scenes insights, art, and updates. And, again, because I don’t know if you heard the first time: Let’s show our love for making this glitter-filled, trope-subverting, totally regular girl adventure happen. As a series. Because we want more nice things.
