12/12/2025
In early 2025, animated-series veteran Kiana Mai released a short pilot animatic titled Pretty Pretty Please I Don't Want to Be a Magical Girl! — a parody of magical-girl tropes with a twist: its heroine Aika doesn’t really want to be a magical girl anymore. The pilot instantly made waves online for its sharp humor, bold style, and subversive tone.
From casual viewers to long-time animation fans, the reaction was strong: excitement, memes, fan art — and questions about whether the pilot would expand into a full series.
🧑🎨 Kiana Mai’s Vision — Two Seasons, If All Goes Well
In a recent interview and social-media update, Mai revealed her ideal plan for the project: she’d love to see Pretty Pretty Please run for two seasons, with a standard structure — about 10 episodes of ~22 minutes per season.
At the same time, she acknowledged the constraints typical of independent animation and said she remains “open to doing whatever time and budget allows.”
In other words: while two full seasons is the dream scenario, Mai seems committed to flexibility — whether that means shorter seasons, fewer episodes, or perhaps even more animatics / web-shorts depending on resources.
🎬 What We Know — From Pilot to Online Hit
• The pilot was officially released on YouTube on February 28, 2025, under her pen-name.
• The 10-minute animatic quickly went viral: within days, it amassed hundreds of thousands — later millions — of views, and inspired a wave of fan art, posts and social-media buzz.
• The style is a blend of magical-girl parody and sharp comedy, with mature undertones: the protagonist is disillusioned with her magical duties — a premise that resonates with both nostalgia-driven fans and those looking for a subversive take on the genre.
• The core team is small but experienced: Mai herself directs, writes and storyboards. The pilot features professional voice actors: for example, Aika is voiced by Anairis Quiñones.
If Mai’s vision becomes reality — two seasons of fully developed episodes — Pretty Pretty Please could emerge as a standout adult-animation series for several reasons:
• It could redefine what “magical girl” means in Western animation: mature themes, genre-aware humor, and a protagonist disenchanted with heroism — offering a fresh alternative to traditional, hopeful magical-girl stories.
• It might appeal to both nostalgia-driven anime fans and new audiences craving dark comedy, satire, or relatable coming-of-age elements — broadening its reach.
• It could inspire more indie animators to try similar hybrid formats (animatic → pilot → series), showing that creative control and online platforms can still launch original animated content.
Pretty Pretty Please I Don't Want to Be a Magical Girl! began as a passion project, a quirky animatic made by a devoted animation-artist wanting to play with genre tropes. But in 2025, that pilot didn’t just land — it soared, igniting fan excitement and online chatter.
Kiana Mai’s hope for a two-season run shows ambition, vision, and faith in the project. Yet whether that dream comes true will depend on a mix of fan support, budget realities, and studio interest.
For now, the pilot stands as proof: even in a streaming-dominated, big-budget world, small creators can still make waves. If you like — I can pull up 5–10 of the strongest fan-reactions (Reddit, Twitter, comment-sections) to the pilot — to show how the community feels about the series’ future.
