Magical girl anime is often some of the happiest. From Sailor Moon to Cardcaptor Sakura, the stories it tells are typically those of friendship, empowerment, and joy. Its characters might face challenges, but light, growth, and potential are the dominant themes.
That isn't always true, however. Some magical girls in anime experience tragedy and loss. Their accomplishments are torn away. Their friendships dissolve. Pain and death for them are all too real. It means something different to be a magical girl in that kind of world, and the heroines of these tales can be even more remarkable than those that will never know what that heroism cost.
10 Yuki (Yuki Yuna Is A Hero)
Yuki of Yuki Yuna Is a Hero has seen her fair share of hell, even if the series is on the lighter side of dark anime. Even before getting her powers, Yuki was part of her school's Hero Club, which says more than a little about her character. She wants nothing more than to help others, but in Yuki Yuna Is a Hero, the cost of heroism is high.
The powers that Yuki and her friends receive from a magical phone app are linked to their physical wellbeing. Saving lives means blindness, deafness, and paralysis. Part of what makes the series so brilliant, and stressful, is watching Yuki and her friends pay the terrible price of their powers again and again in the name of altruism.
9 Ichika (Uta Kata)
Predating Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Uta Kata is a more straightforward take on many of the same themes. As the protagonist of a series that is a frank portrait of mental illness, eating disorders, and abuse, Ichika Tachibana is no stranger to hardship.
Magical powers and no less than twelve stellar transformation outfits aren't enough to spare Ichika from unrelenting hardship. Indeed, having powers becomes more of a curse than a blessing as Ichika's use of them becomes increasingly selfish and uncontrolled, accelerating her spiral into darkness. As it is with some of the genre's best, this tunnel only gets darker.
8 Mai (Mai-Hime)
Mai-Hime distinguishes itself from most anime in the genre by starting out with an even mix of comedy and drama only to abandon its lighter side halfway through the series. Pain is dispersed through its ensemble cast of friends, but the pain Mai experiences may be the greatest.
She begins in a healthy, optimistic place, only for ongoing hardships to leech away at her happiness. Because she starts in a brighter place, her fall into darkness is all the harder to watch, especially as her coping mechanisms fail. Mai tries, but in Mai-Hime trying isn't always good enough.
7 Chris (Senki Zessho Symphogear)
When an alien race known as the Noise invades earth, it falls on idols Tsubasa and Kanade to protect it. Kanade dies protecting another girl, Hibiki, who must then take her place as hero. Senki Zessho Symphogear may be over the top and silly, but that doesn't mean its characters have an easy time, and of all of them, Chris has it the worst.
Her parents die in a terrorist bombing. She is kidnapped and sold into slavery. After escaping slavery, she is kidnapped again, this time by the series's villain, who uses her as cannon fodder. Things do not improve from there. Chris's character arc is the most interesting in an already great series, but it's a miserable one for her.
6 Ryuoko (Kill La Kill)
Given her iron-willed stubbornness and penchant for gratuitous murder, it's easy to forget that Ryuko is suffering throughout Kill la Kill. She transfers to Honnoji Academy in search of her father's murderer, so blinded by her quest for revenge that no amount of bloodshed or bodies will dissuade her.
Kill la Kill is a self-knowing parody of anime, magical girl and otherwise, and there's not a bit of it that isn't better taken with a grain of salt. That said, if one considers both the psychological toll of losing her father and that of the constant violence in which Ryuko is entrenched, it's clear that her experience is a miserable one, even if a strong anti-hero like her grins and bears it.
5 Koyuki (Magical Girl Raising Project)
Most of the citizens of N-City will never be a real magical girl, but by playing one in their favorite video game they can at least imagine what it's like. When Koyuki becomes her character, Snow White, she learns that being a magical girl is far from the dream it appears to be.
No sooner than her dream is fulfilled, it is threatened: magical girls that complete the fewest heroic activities each week will lose their powers and suffer a tragedy soon after. The situation degenerates as Koyuki watches girl after girl experience the harsh consequences of losing their abilities, and as new rules make the fight for survival anything but a fairytale.
4 Asuka (Magical Girls Spec-Ops Asuka)
Military trauma and PTSD are two serious topics that Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka embraces. Though the plot centers around an alien invasion it doesn't detract from the hard reality of its other subject matter. Asuka doesn't want to be a hero. She doesn't want to fight. She doesn't want to kill. As a magical war hero, she doesn't have much of a choice.
She has lost her parents and her friends, is haunted by the terrible things she has seen, and yet is forced back onto the frontline, because the alternative is simply worse. The series deserves every accolade it receives for its brutal portrayal of war, and Asuka stands at the center of its bloody stage.
3 Aya (Magical Girl Site)
Even in the darker magical girl anime, redemption and goodness typically exist. Hope remains, even when its light is but a faint flicker. Most people are irredeemably bad. Then there's Magical Girl Site, where every character is either a disgusting perpetrator of evil or a miserable victim.
Magical Girl Site, more than any other anime in the genre, exists to provoke its audience by tormenting its protagonist. Aya's torment is so over-the-top, vile, and constant, that for many viewers it may destroy the actual viewing experience because it makes rooting for Aya impossible. It's debatable to what extent the series should be taken at face value, but what's certain is that Aya is having a terrible time of it.
2 Ai (Wonder Egg Priority)
Wonder Egg Priority is another magical girl anime that tackles serious, real-world subject matter like bullying, abuse, and assault. It's not an anime for kids. Ai, Neiru, Rika, and Momoe all have their struggles. For Ai, it's the loss of her best friend Koito to suicide. The loss transforms her into a shut-in, unable to cope with others after what she has experienced.
Wonder Egg Priority blends natural and supernatural terrors without letting one dominate the other, focusing on characterization so that when Ai hurts, viewers feel it. Whether or not its symbolism is overdone, this series excels at exploring the hurt that its magical girls go through, even as they do their best to protect others from that same misery.
1 Madoka (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is the crown jewel of magical girl suffering. All of its magical girls experience tragedy of one kind or another, but perhaps none more so than Madoka. Exactly what makes her story so tragic is a massive spoiler. Suffice it to say, the story of this anime is one in which even good people trying to do good things suffer.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica turns most happy magical girl tropes on their head. Friendship is punished. The gift of power is a curse. Saving people doesn't always save them. Madoka just wants everyone to be okay, which makes her experiences all the more soul-destroying.