Riot Headline Book Riot’s 2024 Read Harder Challenge

Hey YA Extra Credit: The Magical Girl Genre

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Erica discusses the magical girl manga genre, giving a brief history and a few magical girl book recommendations.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

To get even more YA news and recommendations, sign up for our What’s Up in YA newsletter!

It’s happening, readers — we’re bringing paperbacks! Whether you hate carrying around bulky hardcovers, you’re on a budget, you want a wider range of recommendations, or all of the above, you can now get a paperback subscription from TBR, curated just for you by one of our Bibliologists. You can also gift it (and the holidays, they are coming). Get all the details at mytbr.co.

Books Discussed

Emily Martin’s article on the magical girl genre in manga and anime

Princess Knight by Osamu Tezuka

Himitsu no Akko-chan by Fujio Akatsuka

Sally the Witch by Mitsuteru Yokoyama

Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi

Cardcaptor Sakura by CLAMP

Alice 19th by Yuu Watase

Little Witch Academia by Yoh Yoshinari, Trigger, Keisuke Sato

Hurricane Heels by Isabel Yap (out of print, but the story is part of a collection that has other stories that aren’t YA titled Never Have I Ever: Stories)

Magical Boy by The Kao