As promised, we’re bringing you more inspiration for Friday’s Magical Girls event at Meltdown Comics!

Again, if you haven’t RSVP’d or want more information about the event:

Mark it on your calendars! We’re One day away:

Magical Girls Reception – Free Public Event
Date: Friday, April 1, 2011
Time: 7PM to 11PM
Where: Meltdown Comics  Sunset Blvd. Hollywood, CA (Sunset Blvd at Spaulding ?)

RSVP or Share via Facebook Events Page (RSVP is not mandatory)

Live Paintings
Live Performances: The Aprils and The Lady Spade
Cosplay Contest: Our special guest judge TAVUCHI (owner/creator of SPANK!) will be judging all of your awesome magical girl inspired outfits! We have awesome prizes for our top three!
Food Trucks!!

COSPLAY CONTEST RULES:

Some of you have been waiting for this, and you’ll be happy to hear our rules are simple.

1. You can dress up as any magical girl character! Whether from a series, of an original magical character of your own design!
3. We do urge that you keep in mind this is an all ages public event, so don’t show up as a nude transformation scene!)
4. Our special guest judge, TAVUCHI, will be judging contestants based on magical cuteness.
5. We will be awarding 3 prizes: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize!
6. All three prizes include different a gift bag that includes (but is not limited to): gift from Meltdown Comics, SPANK!, TokyoPOP, and our wonderful sponsors!

Now onto inspiration.
This time, we’re focusing on villains and bad girls also known as Dark Magical Girls. That’s right, not all Magical Girls are sweetness and goodness. There is plenty of magic to be had on the dark side as well. And, there are girls that prove, you don’t have to be goody-two-shoes to be the Magical heroine.

Ultimate Rebellious Magical Girls: Panty & Stocking

Panty & Stocking from ‘Panty & Stocking with Garter Belt’ are definitely Magical Girls, just not your typical ones. Panty (blonde) is addicted to sex, while Stocking (violet & pink hair) is a champion consumer of sweets. They are both kicked out of Heaven, as they were angels, and are now forced to kill monsters to gain coins that would allow them to return.

Complete with transformation and costume changes, even if there are stripper poles involved, there is no way you can’t love this edgy slap-stick Magical Girl Duo.

Jubei Chan & Her Heart Shaped Eye Patch

Though she can be confused with an Action Girl, Jubei-Chan is definitely a Magical Girl. Jiyu Nanohana is given a heart-shaped eye patch that turns her into the reincarnation of Yagyu Jubei (yes, that Jubei). Once transformed, Jiyu/Jubei pretty much lives up to the hyper-fictionalized super ninja legend. Try that for goody-goody.

Enter the Dark Versions, plenty of Magical Girl series have good girls gone bad. Sailor Moon R had this happen when Chibiusa was brainwashed and became Black Lady. Her costume then becomes darker if not sexier.

And to finish off this inspiration post, we have Princess Kraehe from Princess Tutu. She is the alter-ego of Rue, friend of our heroine.

As you’ll notice, Dark Magical Girls tend to be much more sensual as a direct opposite of the bubbly cute Magical Girl trope. So you really can’t say that there isn’t a magical girl out there for you. Whether she’s spunky and cute, shy, bubbly, dark, sexy, or just an all around bad bitch, she exists.

Well we hope you all feel confident in your outfit choices for Friday! See you there.

ALSO, don’t forget that on Saturday, our awesome bands guest The Aprils & The Lady Spade, will be having a special J-Pop listening party and signing at JapanLA!

J Pop Listening Party at JAPANLA on 4/2/11

For more information please check out the Facebook Events Page!

Pandatone Gloomy Bear will also be present to take pictures with fans, we know we’re already excited to meet him! Mori Chak, creator of Gloomy Bear, has also collaborated with The bands and Sweet Streets artist EIMI to creat two special, limited edition posters for the event! If you’re a Gloomy Lover or a music lover, please come on down!

And if you’re confused as to why Gloomy would be there, you need to check out ‘Pan Da’ by the Aprils!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxdzEEBB52g&fs=1&hl=en_US]

See you guys soon, Magical Weekend is closing in!

We hope you guys are breaking out any of your magical girl outfits, dust them off, send them to the cleaners…
but most importantly, practice your transformation sequences!!!

If you need somewhere to go next Friday, be it for art, music, booze, or CUTE GIRLS, you need to come to Sweet Street’s Magical Girls at Meltdown Comics on 4/1/11 from 7pm – 11pm!

in case you need the info (write it down, rsvp!)

Mark it on your calendars ladies, gents, and magical sidekicks:

Magical Girls Reception – Free Public Event
Date: Friday, April 1, 2011
Time: 7PM to 11PM
Where: Meltdown Comics  Sunset Blvd. Hollywood, CA (Sunset Blvd at Spaulding ?)

RSVP or Share via Facebook Events Page (RSVP is not mandatory)

Live Paintings
Live Performances: The Aprils and The Lady Spade
Cosplay Contest: Our special guest judge TAVUCHI (owner/creator of SPANK!) will be judging all of your awesomely magical girl inspired outfits! We have awesome prizes for our top three!
Food Trucks: Jogasaki Truck (SUSHI BURRITO!!) & The Sweets Truck

We have awesome gifts for our top 3 (1st, 2nd, 3rd place) contest winners!

Are some of you perhaps stumped for the cosplay contest? Do you need a little inspiration? We’ll we’ve got some inspiration for you.

Some people think that Mahou Shoujo is just a little girls genre. How very wrong indeed you are! Mahou Shoujo (Magical Girls) is a genre of anime and manga that is so popular, it stretches across a wide audience.

You have the classic:

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (Pretty Soilders Sailor Moon)

What girl or girlfriend doesn’t know about Sailor Moon? Which one was your favourite? You know someone who does! Dress up as your favourite version, there are plenty of variations and characters from Sailor Moon you can pick from! Not all of them are women, and not all of them are even human!

The CLAMP Power House:

Umi, Hikaru, and Fuu!

If you’ve ever read manga or watched anime, then you’ve come across the ladies of CLAMP! And if there’s anything from CLAMP you’ve definitely heard of, it’s the kick ass trio known as MKR (Magic Knights Rayearth).

CLAMP is a manga/anime giant! They have a distinctive story/art look. The appeal of their manga/anime has crossed both genders, and MKR is no exception.

If you like armor or swords, MKR is the way to go!

RELEASE!!

Adding to the CLAMP awesomeness, you’ve definitely heard of Sakura Kinomoto! Though you may recognize her in the TSUBASA Chronicles with her fellow castmates, she was the most popular magical girl of CLAMP history: Card Captor Sakura!

Besides Sakura’s own amazing outfits, there are plenty Clow Cards to choose from. Drawn in CLAMP’s legendary style, I dare anybody to call the Clow Card character art, less than amazing. And lets not forget Yue, or the many male characters of this series.

But those were mostly geared at girls, we hear you say. Well let us introduce:

Honey FLASH!

This sexy girl known as CUTIE HONEY!

Cutie Honey was definitely not drawn to appeal to girls, but men. Her happily sexualized outfit and character is iconic of the Magical Girls genre, as wel las her nude transformation scene.

She is one of key examples of how not girls-only, the Magical Girls genre can be.

And if Cutie Honey is still a little too vanilla for you, Let us expand your horizons.

Meet Sayuka, of Beat Angel Escalayer!

Echhi? :O

Who?

Beat Angel Escalayer is a eroge (erotic game) turned anime. Yes, it is Magical Girls for the 18+. And when we say 18+, we mean specifically geared at 18+ males.

It’s an erotic version of the Magical Girls genre, but holds true with glittering transformation sequences and all things needed.

If you don’t already feel inspired to make an outfit for the event by now, you can try watching anime with in anime! That’s right, the meta magical girl.

I give you Stardust Witch Meruru! She’s the favourite magical girl character of the main character in ‘My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute!”:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhC-zQ3Kf-g&fs=1&hl=en_US]

The reason why Magical Girls is a huge genre is because of it’s widely cast net. There is a huge database of Magical Girls and cross over genre list available on Wikipedia for your choosing.

Well we hope you’re uber amped now! And if you’re not into sugary cute kawaii, don’t worry! We’ve got your Magical Girls Villian’s inspiration coming up tomorrow!