When a Magical Girl Doesn’t Want to be a Magical Girl

Pretty Pretty Please, I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl premiered on YouTube on February 28, 2025, amassing over two million views within a week of its release. The independent animated series is created and directed by Kiana Khansmith (@kianamai on Instagram), a former writer and storyboard artist for the Disney Channel series Big City Greens. Originally conceptualized as an addition to Khansmith’s animation portfolio, I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl turned into a concept for a full series, starring notable voice actors that have collectively worked on hundreds of English anime dubs, such as Anairis Quinones (@anairis_q) and Bennett Abara (@bennettabara). Right now, the series only has a storyboarded 11-minute pilot, as well as a few short comics on Khansmith’s social media pages, but fully animated episodes are in the works. As of now, she is credited as the only writer on IMDB, but the show has a team of voice actors, artists, and animators going forward. The show’s rise in popularity may possibly attract other writers to the team.

The pilot follows Aika, a 15-year-old girl who is thrilled to be starting at a new high school where nothing ever happens. However, she cannot escape her secret identity as a magical girl and the responsibilities that come with it. Aided by a sentient star named Hoshi, she must battle the forces of evil, including the mysterious Lady DeVoid and her henchman Eclipse. As the title suggests, Aika longs to be rid of her powers and to live a normal life. On her first day of school, she meets Zira, a shy girl who has a fondness for magical girl manga, and everything Aika wants to be: average and unassuming. As they strike up a friendship, Lady DeVoid sets her sights on getting Aika out of her way, once and for all.

The series is a humorous subversion of long-established tropes in the magical girl genre within Japanese manga and anime, and it pays particular homage to Sailor Moon, one of the foundational series in the genre. Instead of telling a story of an average young girl gaining powers and becoming a superhero, our heroine has become disillusioned with her role and wants nothing more than normalcy. Several gags in the pilot poke fun at magical girl tropes, such as Aika running to get to school on time only to realize she is not late at all, and her magical girl transformation sequence being instant while her detransformation into civilian clothes is extended. The series is a love letter to the magical girl genre while, at the same time, calling attention to some of its melodramatic tendencies and imagining what it could look like from a more grounded, realistic perspective. A fusion of anime and Western animation, it creates space for more Black representation within the genre, a point that Khansmith is passionate about. In her original announcement of the pilot, she stated that it was purposely released in February to commemorate Black History Month. In comics and during the end credits of the pilot, it is also heavily implied that Aika and Zira will end up as a couple, adding the element of sapphic representation as well.

With its cute character designs and whimsical music, I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl is a fun and lighthearted series for teens and young adults, combining adventure with a down-to-earth, slice-of-life story. Khansmith emerges as a new, notable figure in indie animation, especially since hand-drawn animation is becoming a lost art. In recent years, it seems that CGI animation has been all the rage in children’s and teens’ television, as it is cheaper and quicker to produce. There have even been attempts to create AI-generated animations, with AI companies claiming that this could lead to a revolution in animation. However, devoted fans of the medium are pushing back against this, wanting to preserve the beauty and human touch of carefully hand-drawn animation. YouTube has become a popular platform to showcase these kinds of independent projects; some notable titles include Helluva Boss and Lackadaisy. It is no surprise that I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl is following suit, and it especially stands out among these titles as a show that a younger audience is able to enjoy. Hopefully, it will serve as an inspiration for more teen and young adult shows that are smart, creative, and full of heart.

As of now, it is unclear when a fully animated version of the pilot as well as other episodes will be released, but since the storyboard pilot has gained so much traction, it is likely that the series will continue in the near future. Hopefully, the series will expand more on Aika’s origin story as a magical girl and how she became so jaded in her role, as well as Lady DeVoid and Eclipse’s motivations for plotting against her. Whatever the case, the Internet’s fascination with I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl does not seem to be letting up anytime soon.