Young Lunlun wants nothing more in life than to live with her grandparents in France, helping them tend their garden and flower shop. That is, until she meets Cateau and Noveau, a cat and dog that insist they’re flower angels and were sent to Earth to find her. This is because the King of their Planet is dying, and the only way the heir can take the throne before this happens is with the Seven Color Flower and Lunlun is the only one who can help them in their mission.

Lunlun is a very good example of the earlier magical girls, who didn’t fight with monsters but instead used their powers to help people. She had a competitor, the faery Togenishia, who wanted the Flower to gain the crown for herself, but the most interesting part about Lunlun was a very good twist at the end, when she gets to choose between the Flower Prince and the human who helped her in her mission, Serge Flora. And because of the choice she makes, Hana no Ko Lunlun reaches the tenth place on our list.

The Witches’ World has a very special way to find out their next ruler: They send candidates to Earth, and whoever gets the most stolen hearts will be the next Queen of the Witches. Chocolat Meilleure and Vanilla Mieux are the latest candidates, and, despite being best friends, they also happen to be rivals. Chocolat is energetic and outgoing, which means that she can get a lot of hearts by putting herself out in the open, while Vanilla is shy and quiet, and is pretty much convinced she will lose. But it’s when Chocolate is in danger of losing her own heart to a human and Vanilla discovers a secret in her past that the contest really heats up.

A modern take on the classic Magical Girl conflict, where two girls would compete over the same prize at the end, Sugar Sugar Rune hits every point you expect on a series of the genre: It deals with love, friendship and the importance of family. But it also gives them their own twist, managing to surprise even old fans who have seen the classic magical girl tales, giving everyone both an enjoyable mystery and a satisfying end. And that is why Sugar Sugar Rune is the ninth choice on our list.

The land of Fenarinarsa is the land of dreams, but lately, the magic in the world is diminishing. The problem is that while the king slept, humans stopped believing in their dreams. In order to fix that, Momo travels to earth to pretend to be a normal earth girl while using her magic –which allows her to become an adult with the abilities needed for the situation- to make earthlings have faith in dreams again. This dreams go to her magic wand and create the Fenarinarsa’s crown jewels that will bring Fenarinarsa back to its place near to Earth.

Minky Momo is another classical magical princess, from the era before we had fighter magic girls. Her powers are very passive, and most of the time, she was moral support for the people who had to fulfill her dreams. However, the ending moved Minky Momo from a cute little story to a classic that even got a sequel in the nineties, that was almost as beloved as the original one. Because of that ending, that is unforgettable for anyone who had the luck to watch it, Minky Momo arrives at the eight place on our list.

Saki Uno wants nothing more than to be an idol, not so much for herself but because her crush –and her best friend’s big brother- is an idol himself, with so many fangirls that Saki guesses that the only way to get him to notice her is if she’s an idol too. Her plans get sidetracked when a very scary looking yakuza guy tells her that he is the magical mascot of her mother, and Saki has to take her place as the new magical girl for the city. Saki doesn’t want anything to do with it, but when her crush is attacked she doesn’t hesitate to make a contract. Unfortunately for her, her magical form is that of a cute, muscular guy in a pink dress. And that’s when things get really strange.

Mahou Shoujo Ore is a parody of the most common magical girl tropes but manages to give a very unique twist to its story by making the girl turn into a guy, instead of the other way around as other parodies end up doing. Not only that, but the love pentacles that form in the series are completely unique –and their consequences are hilarious- which makes the series stand out a lot. Because of that originality, it earns the seventh place on our list.

Himeno Awayuki has a fairy tale life. Unfortunately for her, she’s Cinderella before she meets the prince: After her mother died, her father remarried a widow with two daughters who pretty much hate Himeno. But the tale changes when she meets Hayate, a young handsome man who tells her he is the Leafe Knight of Wind, and she is a candidate to become the next Pretear and defend Earth from the Princess of Destruction who wants to destroy all life on the planet. Before she can tell him he’s crazy, a larva monster attacks them and thus, Himeno accepts her new role, unaware of the secrets the Knights are keeping from her.

Written by Jun’ichi Sato, Pretear brings a very interesting twist to two old tales because it examines both the tropes you can find in fairy tales and in magical girl anime. Not only that, it has a beautiful animation and an ending that won’t leave a dry eye in the audience, so it rightfully earns the sixth place on our list.

Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu are perfect strangers who happen to glance at each other when their schools schedule a trip to Tokyo Tower. The moment their eyes meet, they fall to the mystical world of Cephiro, and as they’re trying to figure out things, they are greeted by a child who calls himself the Master Mage Clef and tells them that they were summoned by Princess Emeraude to become her Magic Knights and save her from the prison where Priest Zagato has her locked in so that she can’t act as the pillar of stability for Cephiro. The girls accept the mission, not knowing that there’s a darker truth behind their mission.

Created by CLAMP, Magic Knight Rayearth came right in the heels of Sailor Moon’s popularity. And while completely different –as the girls in Rayearth don’t fight on Earth, and their story is more of a fantasy setting- that didn’t mean there wasn’t some rivalry between the fandoms. In the end, Rayearth became the flag for the “darker” magical girl stories, as while they had some energy powers, they also fought with swords. And so, Rayearth wins the fifth place on our list as its influence is still noticeable.

Tsubomi Hanasaki is the new girl in Kibougahana, and she’s not quite sure how she fits in since she has always been very shy. To add to her problems, she has a very strange recurring dream where she sees Cure Moonlight, the protector of the Great Heart Tree, being defeated by a dark one-winged woman. One night, two faeries from her dream approach her and tell her that due to her dreams, she is the new guardian of the Great Heart Tree and mankind’s Heart Flowers, the great Cure Blossom. Armed with her pure heart, and a magical perfume, Tsubomi must fight against the forces that want to turn Earth into a desert.

With so many flower references, one could expect Heartcatch Precure! to be the softest iteration of the Pretty Cure franchise, when instead, it has fight sequences straight out of a shonen anime. Not only that, but the story is surprisingly tragic, with a very clear arc for each of the Cures that appear after Cure Blossom –Cure Moonlight being the most tragic of them all, and whose resolution is heartbreaking. It also includes a nice nod to previous generations of Cure fighters, and that makes it even more obvious that it can stand alone. And these are the reasons why Heartcatch Precure! reaches the fourth place on our list.

Imagine a cute little critter reaches you and tells you that he can grant any wish you have, no matter how impossible it seems. There’s only one condition: In exchange for that wish, you will become a magical girl and protect other people’s dreams from evil, invisible witches. Sounds like a fair deal, no? At least, that’s what Madoka Kaname and Sayaka Miki think when they’re offered that choice by Kyuubey, an incubator that offers them that exact deal: a wish in exchange of their work as magic warriors. However, they also meet two other magical girls, Mami Tomoe, who seems very happy at the idea of Madoka and Sayaka joining her, and Homura Akemi, a new transfer student that warns Madoka and Sayaka to stay away from Kyuubey and not listen to what he says.

A lot has been said about why Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica is an amazing deconstruction of the modern magical girl genre: from the consequences that having to fight for your life have on young girls, to the moment you realize that magic is not always the answer. Like other series, it also has inspiration from classic tales, the only difference is that Madoka’s inspiration is not a fairy tale, but the Faust legend, where Faust makes a deal with the devil to get the woman he loves. It has a lot of dark themes and imagery, as well as some of the most tragic villains in any magical girl series, and because of that, it earns the third place on our list.

Ahiru has some strange dreams in which she is a duck that wishes with all her heart to become a girl that can heal the heart of a sad Prince. What the clumsy girl doesn’t know at first is that she was born a duck and turned into a girl by Drosselmeyer, a mysterious being that lives outside the story of which she is the new protagonist. She also doesn’t know that she can turn into Princes Tutu- a beautiful and graceful ballet dancer who can touch people’s hearts and find the Prince’s heart shards to help him regain his feelings. Her story is a tale within a tale, where she has to decide if she wants to try to live with her Prince forever, or accept her fate and return to her original form.

First things first, Princess Tutu is a gorgeous anime. Directed by Jun’ichi Sato, every scene has a lot going on that advances the story and gives us more insight into Tutu’s world. The music, most of it based on classical ballet and, in particular, the Swan Lake, fits every movement, which is hard when you consider it has to be choreographed and animated. But where it really shines is in the story, that takes what seems to be a silly premise and turns it into an epic drama of betrayal and lost love. This is why Princess Tutu is the second place on our countdown.

Usagi Tsukino is a very clumsy girl who dreams of getting married and be happy forever. She is also Sailor Moon, the beautiful scout who fights for love and justice with the help of her friends. Together, they fight terrible menaces to earth, such as the Dark Kingdom, the Dark Moon Family, the Death Busters, the Dead Moon Circle, and the Sailor Animates. And through all those fights, Usagi never falters in her choice to love everyone and keep fighting even if she has lost everything.

It’s hard to explain why Sailor Moon is still the most popular and important magical girl of the modern era. She wasn’t the first magic girl, not even the first one to be exported from Japan, and she wasn’t the first warrior magic girl. But she was the one who popularized the idea of fighting girls who could still be sensitive, romantic, and more importantly, friendly. Usagi alone is not what makes Sailor Moon popular, but the fact that there’s one Senshi for every taste, and every single kind of girl is represented in the team. And that is one of the many reasons why Sailor Moon still is the best magical girl anime that has come out of Japan.

Natsuru holds only the simple desire that his childhood friend and crush Sakura would one day develop feelings for him. Natsuru finds his dreams fulfilled, but he has transformed into a girl! And a magical one at that. He and other (female) students at his school end up transforming into Kampfers and battle each other based on the color of their bracelets. None of them know why; they just figure they should probably battle since they have magical weapons and cool transformations and what not. Natsuru is eager to keep his changing identity a secret not because he fears danger very much, but what would Sakura think if she knew the new female Natsuru she was crushing on was really the male Natsuru of her childhood??

Kampfer is a big step away from older mahou shoujo, mostly because of the intended audience. This is NOT A SHOW FOR YOUNG GIRLS. Not only is it a harem anime, but also ecchi. Female Natsuru keeps it fun and sexy for everyone even though in either male or female form, he/she does try to keep things PG. This is against nearly everyone's wishes, however, and he finds himself fighting off pursuers as much as he fights off enemies. There are several magical girls in the show, each with unique weapons and transformations, so the appeal of magic and fighting is not lost even with all the sexy overtones in the show. It may not be a shining example of ‘girl power’ but if you want your magic with a slew of boobies, this is for you.

Professor Utonium and son Ken accidentally create a new chemical when a mochi cake slips into Chemical X, thus creating Chemical Z. Deciding the best way to understand something is to immediately test it, Ken decides to test the reaction of Chemical Z and a glacier, which causes black and white lights to erupt from the combination. The black lights cause negative, violent feelings in those they hit while the white lights transform 3 young girls into magical girls! With the help of the clumsy scientist and his son, they seek to understand the nature of the light that changed their lives while keeping the town safe.

So if you wanted to watch this show because you loved the American Powerpuff Girls be warned things are VERY different in this world. While the addition of a son for Professor Utonium is an interesting yet endearing choice, the switch from Blossom’s fair, cool-headed, intelligent personality to a whimsical, gratification-seeking type is a bit jarring for those who grew up on the original. However, on its own, it is a funny, light-hearted show with slapstick humor and awesome bad guys that's especially entertaining for a younger audience or those not amused by violence.

Elementary school student Amu is known for being an aloof, cool girl who doesn't care what people think of her. At home, however, she's really a lonely and shy girl who doesn't know how to break this character everyone knows her as. After wishing for the power to be her true self, she discovers mysterious eggs. One by one, the eggs hatch, revealing character guardians! These tiny beings can merge with their owner and instill in them a new character and new abilities. Amu meets other students with character guardians and learns of an on-going battle against those that would manipulate the pain in people's hearts to create X-characters that cause suffering. While unsure if her current self has any chance of keeping up, Amu believes in the strength the gets from her character guardians!

Shugo Chara is both really cute and really poignant in that it talks a lot about the difference between how one represents themselves and how they truly wish to be. Shugo Chara is special in that, while most magical girls have one magical form and maybe a super rare form, Amu has several transformations available to her which help keep it fresh. No need to worry about sitting through the same animation over and over like some other shows.

Magical Girl Raising Project is a fun phone app that is very popular among middle school students. When it is announced that several players will get to become real magical girls, one player named Koyuki is overjoyed at the chance! It’s decided later on that the city cannot support the 16 real life magical girls, there is a notice that every week the player with the least amount of points will be removed from the game. When the first week rolls by and a player is eliminated, everyone is shocked when the player in the real world faces horrifying consequences. There is much more to lose than a character, but it’s already too late for Koyuki and the others to back out.

Yet another show that is not for young girls, Ikusei Keikaku is a combination of shows like Mirai Nikki and Madoka. No one is safe in this battle royale and people aren't even allowed to back out. This anime certainly lacks the themes of the power of friendship and teamwork, as betrayal and self-service run rampant. Due to its focus on a mobile game as a medium for recruiting girls, it also has a slightly more technological feel than many other mahou shoujo.

Things seem to be going well for young Momomiya Ichigo as she plans to go on a date with her crush, Masaya. Instead of a romantic evening together, however, Ichigo is unwittingly infused with cat DNA and transforms into the magical girl Mew Ichigo and now must save Masaya from a monstrous creature! After the battle, she learns that there is an organization that has infused 5 girls with various animals' DNA in order to fight off the parasitic aliens hoping to reclaim the Earth. Ichigo must try to find the other magical girls as well as protect innocent people from the rising monster attacks, but can she do that AND make it to school on time?

Tokyo Mew Mew another show aimed at younger girls but holds a lot of nostalgia for people to this day. You can tell Kish, one of the male villains, was made with little girls in mind seeing his flamboyant dress and flirty personality. The combination of magical AND animal properties the girls have makes it stand out for a lot of viewers. It’s not as heavy on the friendship thing as some mahou shoujo can be but it does show the importance of working together and trying to understand others.

Akari is a bright and happy child despite having lost her mother and now lives with her aunt, uncle, and female cousin. Her childhood innocence is lost one night when a mysterious creature attacks Akari in her room and the sun tarot card given to her by her mother binds with her, somehow causing her to gain fiery powers and destroy the monster. When she comes out of her near dream-like state, she sees to her horror that where the monster once stood is now only the corpse of her beloved cousin. The monsters her mother fought against, and now that Akari must fight against, are humans possessed by creatures called Daemonia. In order to stop their murderous intent, they must be killed… along with the human they possess.

Akari is such a sweet, optimistic girl that the bloody fate before her is incredibly jarring and depressing. While lots of mahou shoujo anime have fighting and maybe the girls getting roughed up sometimes, this anime shows creatures being actually killed. You see the blood pouring out with each new wound. The knowledge that this creature is possessing a human host that also will die and that poor Akari must carry this heavy burden makes viewing this show all the more painful. It’s got the pretty transformations and magical powers down, but this is definitely not a show aimed at young children.

Tsubomi wants to make the best of having to move with her family and start at a new school, even though she’s a shy girl. Together with her new friend Erika, Tsubomi feels like she can start anew. She certainly does when fairies visit her and beg her to become a magical girl herself, Cure Blossom! Later, Erika answers the call from her dreams as well as Cure Marine, and vows to fight alongside Blossom to protect people's hearts. As they fight back the villains more and more, the two grow stronger physically and as friends!

We see a lot of the same features that make more recent mahou shoujo stand out. You have your beautiful transformation scenes, very clear villains, and adorable sidekicks. What makes Heartcatch Precure stand out is the balance of magical and physical fighting that takes place. These girls really kick butt and are not afraid to take a hit in order to land their own. It’s similar to Futari wa Precure in that there are two main characters and the danger seems more real, but Heartcatch is more recent, so the artwork is prettier.

Yuuki Yuuna is a proud member of the Hero’s Club at her middle school. It seems on the surface to be a fun club for her and her friends Mimori, Fuu, and Itsuki; until one day, a destructive creature appears and the girls are transported to another dimension. They learn that the Hero's Club is actually a front for bringing together girls with the potential to become heroes for the Divine Tree Shinju and that if Shinju is destroyed, so will the world fall to ruin. Blessed with Shinju's powers, the girls must fight to keep the world safe no matter what that means.

Yuuki Yuuna is a great magical girl anime because it has a good balance of friendship themes and fighting. As a more recent addition, the artwork is sharp and pretty and the enemies are monstrous and intimidating. This is different from the common choice in older mahou shoujo anime where villains were sexy human-like beings in eccentric outfits. What really makes this show stand out is the character Mimori, who is confined to a wheelchair. The appeal of mahou shoujo is that any girl can become a hero under the right circumstances, and including a character that many would have written off is inspiring for a new generation.

Madoka is a good, hard-working girl who enjoys her everyday life. She has a loving family and precious friends at her side. When she’s exposed one day to a different dimension containing witches and magical girls, she’s utterly stunned. The veteran magical girl Madoka meets tells her how her dreams were fulfilled by becoming a magical girl, and a mysterious transfer student warns Madoka that if she wants to keep the things she loves, she must never become a magical girl. She cannot remain ignorant and yet can’t fight as a human, but without a wish to grant she can’t commit to becoming a magical girl. As more people she loves are pulled into this endless way, she must decide what is most worth protecting.

While not the only violent or sad mahou shoujo, Madoka manages to create a realism that is often not seen. The focus on school and home life, as well as waning relationships with 'normal' people, really bring home the sacrifices these girls face. Madoka has everything you want in a magical girl anime and some things you don’t want as well (Don’t hurt the cuties!!) and an intriguing story to boot. The shifting artwork between the human world and witch dimensions help create a more dramatic shift.

Usagi is a clumsy girl with little ambition in life. Her world is turned upside down when a talking cat tasks her with becoming the magical girl Sailor Moon and obtaining the silver crystal while also finding the other sailor scouts. That’s a lot for a girl who can’t be bothered to finish her homework. To top it off, she now has to deal with the evil Queen Beryl who wants the Crystal to further her own evil plans.

Sailor Moon is arguably THE mahou shoujo people think of when you ask them to name one. It’s got it all from a group of girls, episodes about friendship, and awesome magical transformations. Things can get kind of confusing, which is why Sailor Moon Crystal is so great! It’s more faithful to the manga and skips so much of the filler episodes that made the first Sailor Moon hard to watch at times.