The genre is built on a girl who receives magical power and takes on a mission. Recurring elements include a talking companion that grants the ability, an item used to transform, a double life between an everyday identity and a fighting one, and plots centred on wishes and their cost.
History and representative works
Sally the Witch, the first Japanese television animation of this kind made for a female audience, was broadcast in 1966 and adapted from the manga of the same name by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. In the 1990s Sailor Moon established "battle magical girls" as the mainstream form, and Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011) deconstructed the genre along dark fantasy lines, after which it developed in a variety of directions.
See also：Transformation item (magical girl)、Sailor Moon、Pretty Cure、Puella Magi Madoka Magica <!-- see-also -->