Note: This is just my opinion. Please remain calm :P
This is a list of the 10 MG series that are underrated in my opinion. I have tried to take into account both how good I think the manga and the anime are, in the case it has both (and a lot of these do), as well as how popular it is both in Japan and Internationally (popular in terms of both how well known it is and how well liked it is, which tbf are pretty closely linked in the MG Fandom, things that are well liked are usually also well known and vice versa).
I really wanted to put Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt on this list btw because I think it's amazing even though whenever it comes up it's controversial. That said, I feel like it's only controversial because it's got a small distinct set of haters and the vast majority like it a lot.
10: Lingerie Senshi Papillon Rose (2003)
EDIT: Was mis-remebering.. I liked the OVA, and thought it was fun. I honestly don't remember the series very well and was gonna re-watch it vaguely soon.
9: Saint Tail (1995-1996)
Saint Tail is such a cute series and it's so close to being like a solid popular series but just doesn't for some reason. Trying to get any chatter about this series is bizarrely hard despite the fact that it seems like a quarter or more MG fans have seen or read this series and pretty much everyone enjoys it as a cute fun time.
8: Sugar Sugar Rune (2004-2007)
Sugar Sugar Rune should have been bigger then it was. It's got such an immediately catchy premise where the candidates for the queen of the magic land are two polar opposite best friends Chocolate and Vanilla who must compete in enchanting boys' hearts to become queen and it's got all the things that make a good magical girl series; it's full of charm and heart and cool world-building. It also has a famously good conclusion and yet I'm pretty sure no one has mentioned it on an MG Forum for years :P
7: Yuki Yuna is a Hero (2014)
Did you know Yuki Yuna is a Hero isn't actually very similar to Puella Magi Madoka Magicka?
I honestly think this series just came out at a bad time, namely the boom of more serious and darker magical girl series after PMMM. I think Yuki Yuna is a GREAT series, I really like, yet it often gets dismissed as just one of the Magical Girl series trying to be like PMMM despite having very little in common outside of arguably color scheme (and even then the art for the two series are not really that similar).
Episode 12 of Yuki Yuna reminded me of watching episode 45 of the SM anime as a kid.
6: Shugo Chara! (2006-2010)
Back in the 2010s it seemed like Magical Girls were going to go downhill, with the dark age on the horizon but a heroine stepped out of the mists, Shugo Chara!
Shugo Chara started out amazingly and some people thought it would lead to a second renaissance of the Magical Girl Genre and join the legendary ranks of Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura. It had a premise and main character that were as immediately striking as SM and CCS'. Amu Hinamori is a student that everyone admires but no approaches for her "cool and spicy demeanor" though this hides her secretly indecisive, conflicted nature that yearns for friendship. She finds the eggs of her Guardian Characters (Shugo Charas) reflecting her personality, each one of which she can channel to change her personality and give her powers to help her situation, the whole thing reflecting the young girl's quest to discover her true identity.
Unfortunately the series kind of petered out and got kind of repetitive, especially with it's romantic subplot. That said I think it's worthy of a lot more attention and respect then the little it gets today.
5: Wedding Peach (1994-1996)
I don't get the foreign reception to this series. Wedding Peach here in Japan is seen as a cute, cool, magical girl series with a dedicated sub fandom and is overall seen as if not amazing, then at least a fine to pretty good series.
Over in the West however this series gets called boring a lot, and sometimes worse things including "a rip-off of Sailor Moon" which....I don't get it.
I get it a bit more with the anime, since it was a sentai-styled series as was the SM Anime, and the west does not seem to like those as much nor are there as many as there are here, but the manga? The manga's cool!
4: Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (2002-2005)
Almost the exact same situation as Wedding Peach, MMPPP is a series that's seen as pretty fine to pretty good here and the west just seems to hate, and I don't get why.
Especially with the manga, Manga Mikeru is one of the coolest MG villains ever. I mean maybe the music isn't to your taste which I imagine would get annoying in such a musically oriented series but jeez the commentary on the series gets really harsh at times. People calling the writer utterly incompetent and sometimes "everything wrong with magical girl writers" which seems really harsh to me.
3: Earth Maiden Arjuna (2001)
Earth Maiden Arjuna is an environmentalist Magical Girl Series with strong influences from Indian Culture, especially Hinduism. Outside of being a bit preachy about environmentalism the series is pretty good with a lot of cool references and themes and just things you rarely see, concepts that I have very rarely seen in television, let along magical girl series. It's a series I'd recommended to someone who dislikes Magical Girl Series.
Yet I never hear anyone talk about it. And when I do, all that I hear about it is "oh yeah it's a magical girl series with environmental themes" and it's just like "REALLY?! Is that really all you remember about this?!"
2: Shamanic Princess (1996-1998)
It's a pretty similar deal with Earth Maiden Arjuna, except with Gnosticism instead of Hinduism. Honestly I like Shamanic Princess better then Earth Maiden Arjuna, and it's a really cool series in general. Warning: Chronological End to the series gets really trippy.
Shamanic Princess could have, should have been more influential then it was. It merged the cute witch and magical warrior genre without being even slightly fluffy. It was dark, refined, and straight to the point. It was psychological and philosophical and just....it was everything that magical girls are accused of missing.
1: Pretty Cure (2004-Present)
If you're a longtime Magical Girl Fan, you very likely saw this coming.
Pretty Cure is a juggernaut of a series here. It's everyone, with it's marketing and merchandise. Pretty Cure movies play in theaters semi-regularly. It is by far the longest magical girl series as far as I'm aware and yet with seasons mostly being distinct units it should be easy to get into.
So why is the rest of the world not getting into it?!
I think like a half dozen at best seasons of Pretty Cure have English dubs (poor ones from what I hear) and the rest don't even have official subs, they only have fansubs. There's such little interest. Yet whenever someone gets into Pretty Cure they just want more of it. In the English-Speaking Anime Fandom there's lots of people who just regularly post about Pretty Cure, who show off the cool fight scenes, how cute the character are, how funny this moment was or how beautiful this shot was or anything about it and the interest is just incredibly low.
And it's good too. Futari Wa/Max Heart and Heartcatch both rank incredibly high with me, Pretty Cure is great fun and yet the interest level in the west is just so low. Is it just cause of the length? I can't imagine it would just be because of the length because the seasons are generally distinct so you don't even have to watch any of them outside of each other.
Pretty Cure's lack of success outside of Japan is just baffling to most people in the MG Community.
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