skycat-unofficial - Tumblr blog

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Quick sketch from my sketchbook

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Has it really been two months since I’ve posted to this blog? Huh

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sometimes people think that magical girl anime is about cute girls in pretty dresses fighting monsters. and it is, but it’s also about confronting your inner fears and doubts and overcoming adversity through the power of connection and compassion. and sometimes it’s about lesbians. or being transgender.

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Expanding my thoughts on adult magical girls.

If you are writing a plot or genre that is usually centered on young characters and making your main characters young wasn’t a deliberate decision on your part, and you are struggling to make your story work, I suggest seeing if the story would work better if your main characters were older.

I initially imagined my characters as teenagers around my age, as any young OC creator does. My characters kept getting older with me over my years of messing around with them, and by the time I’d decided to pull these OCs together into a story and world and make this an actual thing, the thought occurred to me that I might want to make the story set in college instead of high school. I weighed the pros and cons against each other, and found that it was a good idea. (Putting the post under a read more because it’s longer than expected)

The pros of doing this:

* Don’t have to mess around with secret identity shenanigans, parental permission, or anything else like that

* More autonomy and independence means that the characters have more freedom to make their schedules work and go more interesting places and get into dumber shenanigans

* The characters being adults means more emotional maturity and better decisions made overall, which helps me not have to deal with the sort of drama present in teen-centered media that I find annoying (it’s not a bad thing that teens are emotionally immature! I just don’t enjoy writing it)

* Don’t have to address the ethical problems with kids/teens fighting or putting themselves in dangerous situations that are baked into the genre

* The main characters’ families don’t have to be a part of the story unless I want them to be, which cuts down on the number of supporting characters I have to keep track of

* Better for urban fantasy horror and general nightmare fuel -fewer people will notice when something is wrong, fewer people will react or care if something bad happens, the main characters are more isolated from their families and peers and their support systems are smaller, less pressure to keep the horrors tame and family friendly (which is a whole other topic entirely tbh that I might make a post about)

* I need to use fewer dumb contrivances/hand waves to bypass logical limitations and make the story make sense

* Setting the story in college instead of in high school gives me an opportunity to explore new spins on the usual magical girl plots, and new storylines that are only possible in a college setting, and I generally haven’t seen many college magical girl stories

The cons of doing this:

* The main characters’ families and old childhood friends aren’t part of the story unless I go out of my way to make them present, so if someone from their past enters the story or gets involved, I have to justify them being here at this college

* Many plots, themes and character archetypes that are a staple of the genre (or of urban fantasy in general) no longer make sense, or would require major alterations to make sense

* I have to keep a closer eye on the timeline, because the characters go home at the end of the semester

All in all, I had a lot to gain and very little to lose, and for the kind of story I want to make, aging them up to college students made the most sense. It ain’t a perfect solution (still doesn’t answer the question of where the characters find the time to get into shenanigans) but I definitely find it easier and more enjoyable to write.

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Love this! This is partially why I chose to make my characters adults lol; I found that it just makes more sense for the kind of story I want to have overall.

Concept: magical girls' mothers who find out their 11-12 years-olds have been chosen by the sentient animal/fairy of the plot and say "fuck it, she's a baby, I'll do it until she's 18 at least".

Like, Green mom wants her daughter to enjoy her youth unlike she did, Blue mom thinks it's more practical if she does it so her daughter can study as she should at her age, Purple mama was waiting for a break from her boring married life, Yellow mama simply loves magic and magical girls and wanted to give it a try, Red mom has a grudge against the villains that ruined her coffee shop, and Pink mom... Pink mom used to be a magical girl herself and she's like "I'll be damned if I let my own daughter go through what I had to" because, uh, she had seen cosmic horrors, you see, and that's not something a child should see.

Bonus if one of the villains is related to the girls (whether they switch sides or not by the end is up to you).

Double bonus if he's Pink mom's runaway ex-husband who doesn't pay for child support.

It may or may not end with the girls taking up the mantle from their moms as they should have, but only when they're ready, OR it ends with two teams, the Moms' team and the Girls' team.

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Here's a bunch of kbity doodles for ya

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The real villain all along was writer's block

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One of these days eventually I'll draw a reference sheet for my OCs with short descriptions about each of them. One day. But until that day comes, I shall instead feed you sketches and the occasional high effort piece and let you slowly piece together who these OCs are and what the fuck I'm talking about through little breadcrumbs of personality and lore :3

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Drew another one of my OCs. Amy's not normally much of a creachure, but the cursed monster form has... a few side effects.

Draw a cryptid!

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Art prompt delivered. Katie (featured above) is the most experienced magical girl in the group, but all magical girls start somewhere. When I saw the above post I couldn't help but imagine Katie as an awkward sixteen year old newbie magical girl (in more ways than one) asking her cat-shaped mentor for costume advice and getting an exposition loredump from a cute but slightly annoying mascot creature

Anything can be a magical girl outfit if you feel magical enough in it.

A frilly dress? Yes.

A nice elegant suit? Yep.

A suit of armour? Of course!

A mecha suit? Go for it!

Your pjs? Kick ass in the most unexpected way possible!

Even if you just battle in your regular clothes that you have on you, it still makes you feel just as powerful as the glittery and sparkly uniform other mgs wear.

As long as you feel comfortable batyling in it and it screams "you", it's already a magical girl outfit.

[skycat-unofficial]

She-Ra and The Princesses of Power is a magical girl show and I will die on this hill. It has literally so many tropes and hallmarks of a magical girl anime (this post contains massive spoilers, beware)

Aside from the obvious existence of a transformation sequence where the main character turns into a cooler version of herself with a sword and increasingly OP powers...

The main character's main companions are a literal sparkly princess, the normal guy with no powers, and a cat girl. The cat girl has extensive gay tension with the hero. There's also a pointless and slightly annoying talking mascot animal (I'm so sorry Swift Wind fans), and two less pointless companions later on.

There's a team of other characters with cool powers that all work in a very similar way to the way the main character's powers work but like with different theme colors and elements.

The world almost gets destroyed at least three times. Most of the villains get power of friendship'd into being not villains, including the hero's rival. There's also a whole season-long subplot about having to use the power of friendship and just a little violence to un-brainwash victims of the final villain's scheme, including a very painful fight between the hero and her rival/love interest. At the end of the show there's that anime thing where all the destruction and bad stuff is reversed in a world healing wave

The power of friendship appears to literally exist MLP style, in important scenes everyone starts glowing before unleashing some powerful combo attack that usually instantly wipes out the villain. This is never given an in-story explanation, it's just a thing that happens.

She-Ra is 110% a magical girl show

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magical girls who sign their special attacks.

magical girls who use text readers for their special attacks.

magical girl teammates who have sheaths or pockets so they can put their magic items down and sign to their deaf teammate.

magical girls with magical wheel chairs or hearing aids or walking canes.

magical girls with prosthetics that get the whole glitter get up when they transform.

magical girls who have a supportive team to help them when they get depressed or get a flare up.

magical girls whose mascots remind them to take their meds and rest up.

magical girls who feel overwhelmed in battle and cope by stimming with their magic items. bonus points if this makes a new spell or something.

magical girls who keep their glasses even after transforming.

magical girls, young or old, who have disabilities and kick ass as magical girls while taking care of themselves.

[skycat-unofficial]

Anything can be a magical girl outfit if you feel magical enough in it.

A frilly dress? Yes.

A nice elegant suit? Yep.

A suit of armour? Of course!

A mecha suit? Go for it!

Your pjs? Kick ass in the most unexpected way possible!

Even if you just battle in your regular clothes that you have on you, it still makes you feel just as powerful as the glittery and sparkly uniform other mgs wear.

As long as you feel comfortable batyling in it and it screams "you", it's already a magical girl outfit.

[skycat-unofficial]

Finished an old WIP of mine, ft a catgirl

[skycat-unofficial]

About me!

I’m an artist/writer with a bunch of magical girl OCs that I’m just messing around with at the current moment, but I hope to eventually create a story about them! In the mean time, this blog exists for me to post concept art and OC lore. Feel free to send me asks in the meantime, I'm always open to art prompts and questions about my OCs

Also, this blog itself is a WIP, so expect updates and changes

My tags (will be updated as I go):

#text post -posts that are purely text.

#worldbuilding -posts that are about worldbuilding in general.

#my art -art that was made by me!

#sketch -low-effort drawings made by me

#my ocs -stuff that concerns any of my original characters.

#my oc lore -lore about the world my characters are in. (tag may change names once I figure out a name for this concept)

#meta stuff -posts about the creation process of my story or my opinions about stories

#random thoughts -off topic posts

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Magical girls are lucky the authors don’t think about (or care about) the legal implications of the existence of magic and monsters the way superhero authors do because the one thing that’s certain is that if the justice system resembles real life in any way, the law would not be on the protagonists’ side if there was an incident involving them

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Was my first post to this blog seriously a reblog where I ramble about fantasy court proceedings