Chapter 168: Magical Girls Squad
Is "magical girl" a suitable theme for literary and entertainment creation?
A decades-long debate has been going on in the material creation and publishing circles around this topic, and this debate has not yet reached a clear conclusion.
In the past material world, dating back to about 50 years ago, entertainment creations related to "magical girls" have always been a popular subject. People are full of imagination about the mysterious magical girls and try to pin all kinds of imaginations on these mysterious guardians.
Some of these imaginations are beautiful, full of praise and admiration for heroes; some are critical, questioning the origin and purpose of magical girls; of course, there are also many that are difficult to talk about and are often not acceptable in public.
This prosperity of creation lasted for a long time, and "magical girl" has changed from a well-defined noun to a symbol of entertainment products. Eventually, even real magical girls were given certain idol and entertainment attributes, and some fans of magical girls spontaneously organized themselves and tried to support their favorite magical girls in various ways.
But, everything is excessive.
When works related to magical girls become popular, naturally some people with bad intentions will mix in, either grabbing the right to speak for their own benefit, or spreading rumors to discredit dissidents. The public, swept up in public opinion, cannot distinguish between truth and falsehood, and the term "magical girl" gradually begins to change its meaning in the field of public discussion.
Faced with those disturbing rumors, most magical girls can only choose to turn a blind eye or endure them silently. After all, their voices are too small in the face of public opinion, and no matter how they speak out, they cannot avoid being further misinterpreted.
However, even among magical girls there are people with different personalities. Faced with those increasingly outrageous rumors, gossip and entertainment works, a few strong-willed magical girls were angered.
"I can't control the mouths of most of you, but can't I control those unscrupulous paparazzi?"
These were the words of a retired magical girl from Xiluo Province who revealed her identity during an interview about 40 years ago when the conflict broke out.
So, starting from Xiluo Province, the magical girls and retired magical girls began a direct confrontation with the publishing and distribution circles. This confrontation gradually spread to the eastern states, and in the end it was a mess, and no one got the upper hand. But on the surface, it seemed that the magical girls still won.
Because the magic kingdom spoke to the city governments of various states and regions, the dispute was directly ended.
Works that misinterpret, spread rumors, or maliciously speculate about magical girls will not be published or distributed. In the 40 years since then, commercial works with the theme of "magical girls" have gradually faded out of the market in the following years, and the only ones left are those magical girl animations created for young girls as the target audience.
Of course, works that portray magical girls as positive images still exist in the world and still have many audiences, but they are no longer a topic of concern to the general public.
Today, 40 years later, people's perception of magical girls seems to have returned to the past: in reality, magical girls are heroes who protect the city; on the virtual level, magical girls are animations for children.
It was in this context that a few years ago, a mobile game called "Magical Girls Sentai" quietly began operating on the intercity network in the East Japan region.
The mode of this mobile game is the very popular card drawing and development mode on the market, and the content is really unremarkable: it allows players to form and train their own magic girl team, and the system presents very ordinary development and turn-based battles. The game graphics are not very outstanding. The illustrations of the magic girls are all cute simple drawings like those in children's picture books, and the game levels are pixelated figures with two heads, which does not arouse the desire of others to try it out.
According to a later interview with the game producer, he said that he felt this was the magical girl in his mind.
Unfortunately, his "magical girl" was not recognized by the market. The mediocre and even dull appearance, coupled with the extremely plain name, naturally failed to get the corresponding feedback. This mobile game was already in deficit after a few months of operation.
This is also the norm in the physical world game market. Too many games are released or launched and then disappear into the sea, and no one has noticed them since then. This game is also the case. Even if there is no news about it since then, no one will take a second look at it.
But the game did not end its operating career, it miraculously survived.
The turning point happened two years ago.
At that time, Magical Girls Power Rangers was in a complete operational crisis. As a trial work of a small company, this game put its producer on the verge of bankruptcy. Then, I don’t know whether it was because the company was acquired or there were new investors, but this game was inexplicably revived.
The game has been updated to version 2.0. In addition to retaining the original picture book art style and development gameplay, the game's graphics have evolved significantly. Not only that, the producer has also added a detailed game background and story to this game that originally had almost no background settings and plot.
In the new setting, the player plays a creature called "fairy" who will look for magical girls in a fictional city and form his own team of magical girls by collecting and training them.
The game has added certain management and strategy gameplay, and optimized and improved the original turn-based combat, making a game that was not fun finally become fun.
But this still cannot make "Magical Girls Power Rangers" a popular game.
There are many games with excellent quality, but no matter how good the art is or how interesting the gameplay is, it cannot guarantee that a game will become a big hit. Moreover, "Magical Girls Power Rangers" is only produced by a small company, and it has been operating for a long time and has almost no topic. Even the version update has not brought many new players to it.
What really made this game popular was a blog post on social media with only a few words: - "Is this me?"
There is a picture below the blog, which is the development interface of "Magical Girls Sentai".
The owner of this blog is the current "strongest magical girl" who is famous in the material world - Blue Star.
As the captain of the magical girls of Tiandu City and nominally the strongest magical girl, Lan Xing's social media account has countless fans. Every day, countless people express their support under her account, which only has a few words.
Lan Xing updated her blog, which was an extremely rare event. Lan Xing posted screenshots of the game in her blog, which naturally led to a large number of her fans downloading the game. That day, the game server of "Magical Girls' Squadron" was directly paralyzed because of this.
Later, as some players got to know the game more deeply, they gradually discovered a shocking truth in the game - many of the settings in this game are too real.
Putting aside the urban legend of "fairies" that has long been associated with magical girls, the content about the magical girls' abilities and combat in this game is too detailed. There are even people who claim to be retired magical girls who have stated online that the person who designed version 2.0 of this game is likely to be a retired magical girl, because the settings are too real.
But if that were all, it wouldn't seem like a big deal. There weren't many retired magical girls in the material world, but there were definitely quite a few, and it wasn't unusual for some of them to enter the gaming industry.
The matter was further aggravated by the fact that people found many characters in this mobile game that were based on real-life magical girls. These characters all had some characteristics of the prototypes, and some details were set in a shocking degree of detail. There were many character settings that even the fans of magical girls had never heard of.
Take the game character that "Blue Star" had screenshotted on social media, for example. The character's appearance was not very similar to Blue Star himself, but whether it was the combat ability settings or some details in the personal file, they were all exactly the same as Blue Star's. There was even a lot of information that Blue Star had never disclosed to the outside world.
It was for this reason that Lan Xing used a question sentence at the time. After all, she was also quite confused about this.
If you say that this is a leak of privacy, the game doesn't actually mention anyone by name; if you say that this is a rumor and smear, the image of the magical girls in this game is very positive.
It can be said that "Magical Girls Sentai" completely circumvented the various restrictions on magical girl works before, and found a way that would not be banned from distribution but could satisfy people's desire for gossip simply by relying on its "authenticity and reliability".
From then on, this game became truly popular among magical girl fans, and based on these fans, it gradually gained a large number of passers-by players.
Two years have passed like this, and the 2.0 version of "Magical Girls Power Rangers" has been operating in full swing. Only recently, it finally affected its original target users - adolescent girls.
It wasn't just Jiang Yuan. In Class 3, Grade 2 of Xizhao Middle School alone, there were several girls discussing this game during breaks.
Lin Xiaolu, a girl who is not very interested in games and prefers lying on the sofa watching magical girl animation, downloaded this game because of the theme of "magical girl" at the strong recommendation of Jiang Yuan.
After school, Lin Xiaolu briefly patrolled around Luoming District and then returned to the secret base. She lay on the sofa and turned on "Magical Girls Power Rangers".
After watching the opening animation with a blank expression, Lin Xiaolu ate snacks while waiting for the game's hot update. However, it seemed that there was too much data content, and the update was not completed until she finished a bag of snacks, which made her gradually impatient.
Playing games is so troublesome, why not just watch TV? She couldn't help but think so.
However, her interest in the "magical girl" theme eventually overwhelmed her impatience, making her wait until the game was updated.
After entering the game, reading a confusing opening plot, and going through a series of yawn-inducing tutorials, Lin Xiaolu was finally able to get started on her own and began to experience how to play the game.
She held the phone in her hands, expressionless at first, then frowning, and finally sitting up suddenly, baring her fangs and yelling, "Ah! So boring! I don't want to play anymore!"
She was originally thinking, what kind of unique game would this be, with the title of "magical girl" and such a hot commercial performance. However, after actually entering the game, the slow turn-based combat and complicated skill data instantly emptied all her interest.
Throwing her phone aside, she picked up the remote control and turned on the TV, casually tuning to her favorite animation channel, but found that the program being broadcast today was a show she didn't like very much, and she felt even more bored.
In desperation, she had to take the phone back and continued her gaming experience reluctantly.
After controlling the most basic team to pass the novice level and going through a completely uninspiring plot, finally, the system prompted Lin Xiaolu: It’s time to discover a new magical girl.
Although it was said to be a call for team members, in fact, the form of expression in the game was drawing cards. This kind of thing seemed to have been established in the mobile game industry, so Lin Xiaolu didn't have any ideas and just followed the prompts and clicked into the game's card pool.
Then, her eyes were drawn to the cover of the latest issue of the card pool.
The cover of the card pool features a magical girl wearing a purple bubble skirt, with a slightly timid and inexplicably resolute expression on her face.
The magical girl holds a weapon that looks like a notebook in her hand. According to the explanation in the game, this is called "spiritual outfit", which seems to correspond to the magic outfit of the magical girl in reality.
This seems to be a new character that has just been implemented. The name of the card pool is "Reappearance of Longing". The code name of the magical girl on the cover is "Morning Glory". There are also small words written next to the picture on the cover: "Blooming magic to protect the unfulfilled longing".
For some reason, Lin Xiaolu always felt that this magical girl was inexplicably familiar. She was obviously not someone she knew and looked like just an ordinary picture book cartoon character, but she always felt that she had seen her somewhere.
However, this sense of familiarity was fleeting and soon disappeared without a trace. When she looked at the magical girl on the cover again, she no longer had this strange feeling in her heart.
Because she was just playing a game, Lin Xiaolu thought it was just her own illusion and quickly put it aside. She followed the instructions of the novice tutorial and went to the game card pool for novices.
Then, with an inexplicable excitement, he clicked the "Call Team Members" button.
(End of this chapter)
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