Deconstructing Magical Girls / Review 1: Jubei-Chan

When you hear the word, "magical girl" what's the first thing that comes to mind? Is it girls wearing tutu's accompanied by glittery transformations and heart-shaped wands while screaming the triumph of love and friendship? Or is it something darker, complex even. What I'm getting at is that at the height of the magical girl genre, there's bound to be some sort of "deconstruction" of the very foundations that made the genre popular in the first place. In this review series, Deconstructing Magical Girls, I'll be exploring the very stories that drive away from the sparkling optimism and venture into something more serious or even silly.

For the first review, I'll be covering Jubei-Chan: Ninja Girl.  It revolves around an ordinary schoolgirl named Jiyu Nanohana who's living her life until she runs into a scatterbrained 300-year-old samurai. He tells her that she's the reincarnation of Yagyu Jubei. With the help of the Lovely Eyepatch, she transforms into a legendary samurai and fights adversaries that wants to reclaim that title. 

Now just from the synopsis, there's already some deconstructing going on. Most magical girls don't take on samurai aesthetics in terms of clothing or power. They only brandish the katana which is infused with magical energy. There's also the Lovely Eyepatch which helps Jiyu transform. And yes, it wouldn't be a magical girl anime without a transformation scene. 

Onto the other things, a few things I noticed was that Jiyu's friends knew about her magical girl persona earlier in the series. Usually, magical girls try to separate their superhero-ing from their personal lives. But somehow, it always bleeds through, and the villains use it to their advantage. Same can be said in this anime but it doesn't affect the relationship between 

Speaking of villains, Jiyu's aren't monsters but humans that looked like they came out of a samurai movie. Which makes sense if we're going off the show's motif. Also, a running gag is that every villain works at Jiyu's school and every time one of them dies, they get replaced by the next villain. It's a great way to setup the whole "monster of the week" thing that most magical girl anime has. 

As for the themes, it dives into some mature territory beneath its slapstick humor and flashy fight scenes. One of the core themes is identity and inheritance, the struggle between who you are and what others want you to be. Jiyu didn't ask to be the successor of Yagyu Jubei, yet she was burdened with centuries of conflict and revenge. This contrasts sharply to the "chosen one" narrative magical girls who want to be heroes of justice and love. Jiyu's journey is about reluctance, responsibility, and ultimately, self-acceptance. 

Another theme is that it clashes with the past and present. This is especially evident in the sequel, Jubei-Chan 2: The Counterattack of Siberia Yagyu. It's about Jubei's daughter, Freesia, coming back from the dead to take revenge on her father. She goes to Jiyu's school to befriend her and try to take the Lovely Eyepatch for herself. It leans into the generational curse motif---the sins of the father being carried by the daughter then passed onto Jiyu, who had no real stake in the ancient feud. Like I mentioned before, the show uses samurai elements not for style, but to explore how outdated ideals such as honor, revenge and legacy, clash with modern life. It's almost satirical: ancient warriors reincarnating to fight their old battles in a middle school suburban middle school setting.

The show also toys with gender expectations. Instead of the stereotypical magical girl tropes---cute, nurturing, and selfless---Jiyu's alter ego is confident, battle-hardened, and downright intimidating. The Lovely Eyepatch doesn't only give her power but shifts her personality completely. It's almost like the show is asking viewers what would happen if ferocity and femineity were put in a blender. And the answer is a magical girl wielding a katana instead of a wand.

All in all, Jubei-Chan is a very interesting deconstruction anime. It takes the magical girl tropes and turns them into something more "niche" and original. Magical girl shows that revolves around samurai, ninja, and other warriors from the past is a bold creative twist that rarely gets explored, even today.