Magical Girl

Magical girls (魔法少女, mahō shōjo^?, also known as mahou shoujo or majokko) is a subgenre of Japanese fantasy anime and manga which feature girls who use magic.

Manga and anime historians regard the Princess Knight manga, released in 1953, as the prototype for the magical girl genre.Himitsu no Akko-chan, serialized nine years later (1962) in Ribon, is generally accepted to be the earliest magical girl manga.Sally the Witch is regarded by historians as the first magical girl anime. It was adapted from the Sally the Witch manga, which was serialized in Ribon from 1966 to 1967, which was inspired by the Japanese dub versions of the American film Mary Poppins and the television series Bewitched, which were popular among Japanese girls in the 1960s.

Mahōtsukai Chappy (1972) and Majokko Megu-chan (1974–1975) popularized the term "majokko" (little witch) as a name for the genre. Megu-chan has been noted for its portrayal of multiple magical girls and the friendship between girls. Due to the women's lib movement in Japan, magical girls began displaying a "certain coquettishness" in the 1970s.

In the 1980s, Magical Princess Minky Momo (1982) and Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel (1983-1984) showed girls transforming into a "grown-up image of themselves". This has been linked to the increasing prominence of women at this time such as Doi Takako, as well as the girl band Princess Princess and idol Seiko Matsuda, and the passage of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act.

...
Wikipedia