Claire, Mistress of Magick

Claire, Mistress of Magick is an anime-influenced animated series created by user CaraPrincess. The series incorporates elements from the magical girl genre, the dark fantasy genre, the mystery genre, and the entertainment theme of Japanese idols.

Origins
CaraPrincess stated that she has the interest in anime since the fifth grade. The series that brought her to the love for anime is the Pokémon series, to which she admires the "amazing" designs of the eponymous creatures in the series. Starting from sixth grade, she began have interest in the Pretty Cure series, PriPara series, and the Kiratto PriChan series. She began to have the idea that an anime series which incorporated the elements from these series would be fun after watching the content of these series, and then she decided to a fan-made anime series which incorporated elements from these series.

She has created concepts for three fan-made anime series which serves as forerunners to Claire, Mistress of Magick, dubbed Pokémon PriPara, Pokémon Idol Time PriPara, and Pokémon PriChan, respectively. After got bored with the second season of Pokémon PriChan, which is set to air in 2020, and her desire to create something "more original", she decided to "abandon" the series and moved on to create a series where all of the content is created by herself, but still incorporates the elements of the series said above.

She said that she has exposed to Undertale since primary school, but she didn't have much interest in it until around May 2020, after she discovered some Undertale GIFs and anime-styled artworks of Undertale characters, especially that of Chara. She then finally realized what to do, and decided to take Undertale as the greatest inspiration for the concepts and motifs of Claire, Mistress of Magick. She also make the protagonists of the series have allusions to the main characters of Undertale, with Kara alluding to Chara, Jane alludes to Mettaton (especially his Mettaton EX form), Astrid alludes to Toriel, and Leila alludes to Undyne. She also have the idea for a group of characters called the Seven Refugees, which is inspired by the Eight Humans in Undertale, in which Kara is the first character to be in the category.

She also cited Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba as another major inspiration for the mild violence and its depiction of blood in the series. She began have interest in the series while in seventh grade, but initially casts it in a negative light due to the "excessive violence" it contains that makes it "inappropriate" for teenagers of her age, and it is rated "16 years and up" on Netflix, the platform where she discovered the series. After realizing that the series is too violent for teens of her age, but found out that its concept of battle in the series is amazing, she decided to incorporate some of its motifs in it, such as the choice for having the main characters wield weapons, and the inclusion of blood as a major element. According to CaraPrincess, the content in Claire, Mistress of Magick is comparable to Demon Slayer, but it is considerably milder than the original, due to her efforts of making the series appropriate for teenagers aged 13 and up, rather than the original Demon Slayer, which is targeted at teenagers older than 16. She also said that she also draw inspirations for Kara and Leila from the Kamado siblings in the series, which she said that the idea of a pair of siblings whose one is a part-monstrous being, while that the other is possessing pure human blood,and both still treat each other with respect despite their racial differences, sounds appealing to teen fans of the mystery and dark fantasy genre.

CaraPrincess also cited RWBY, an American anime-influenced series as another major inspiration. The series' concept for a group of girl protagonists wield weapons that are modelled after real weapons and go for an adventure to fight back "creatures of evil, and the concept of magic, religion and fairy tales in the series have influenced the creation of many of the series' major motifs, and CaraPrincess also stated that the main protagonists of Claire, Mistress of Magick also alludes to one or some RWBY characters.

Also, being a fan of Winx Club since the third grade, she also cited the series as another major inspiration for the magical girl concept of the series. The series' focus on a group of five girls with magical powers and go on an adventure to protect the world from evil forces also influenced the theme of the series, in which it greatly inspires the idea for the character Kara to being a non-human princess that is raised by a human family, as well as the idea for each of the protagonists in the series to represent an element that is magical or spiritual in nature. The idea for including a sixth protagonist in the second season of the series is also inspired by the fact that Winx Club added a sixth protagonist, Aisha, in the series' second season.

The idea of having an incarnation of a deity as the main character is inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, two American animated series that are said to influenced by anime. CaraPrincess also makes the main protagonist of Claire, Mistress of Magick, Kara, to be an allusion to Korra, the main protagonist of The Legend of Korra. She stated that both of their names are similar, and their appearances are also quite similar, as well as both are incarnations of a deity, so she wants to pay homage to the Avatar universe by making the main protagonist of her series alludes to a main protagonist of a series in the Avatar universe, followed by many homages to the Avatar universe that is most commonly seen in characters of her series.

The idol concept for the series in fact not just come from the PriPara and Kiratto PriChan series alone, and she also cited Kuu Kuu Harajuku as another major inspirations for the series' idol concept. The ideas of an idol unit which have five members are stemmed from this series. Many of the characters in Kuu Kuu Harajuku are also serve as the inspiration for the personalities of the characters in Claire: Mistress of Magick.

The darker themes of Claire: Mistress of Magick compared to her earlier series pay tribute to the Puella Magi Madoka Magica series. She also stated that the concept for the series to have "magical girl" characters wield real weapons is based upon the fact that many characters in the series wield weapons that is otherwise too "dangerous" with magical girl characters, such as spears, swords, and firearms. Two of the series' characters, Homura Akemi and Kyoko Sakura, serve as one of the inspirations for Kara and Leila, the leading protagonist and the "true" deuteragonist of Claire, Mistress of Magick.

After fearing that Nintendo could halt the distribution and production of the series due to the Pokemon elements in it, she scrapped all of the references to Pokemon in the series, and created an entirely new setting, still based on the Great Britain like the original concept, named Avalegione, a portmanteau of "Avalon", a location in Arthurian legend, and "regione", Italian for "region".

Synopsis
See also: List of Pokémon: Claire, Mistress of Magick episodes"'Kara is a young princess from the Kingdom of Obakeneko, a Kingdom in the enigmatic 'Second Universe' inhabited by Majuunekos, humanoid cat-like creatures with supernatural powers. One day, she and her two best friends, the android idol Jane and her Royal Guard sister Leila, are sent to the Earth for safety from the clutches of the villains who aimed for her most treasured possession: a relic called the Pentagram Stone. On Earth, the three meet the kind Perkins family of magicians, who adopted them and gives them a place to take refuge. They then set on an adventure and make new friends on the way, and realizing that their friends are magical, just like them! With the power of the 'Great One', an omnipotent being that rules over both universes for billions of years, the Mistresses of Magick have to defeat any forces of evil who are aimed to the Pentagram Stones and seek to take control over the world using these Stones. Will they be able to conquer all of the evil that is lurking within?' - Series synopsis"

Protagonists:
Mistresses of Magick:


 * Kara: The 14 year-old main protagonist, Crown Princess of the Obakeneko Kingdom, one of the current Incarnations of the Great One, and the leader of the Mistresses of Magick.
 * Jane: The "nominal" deuteragonist of the series, and the android idol and TV personality of the Obakeneko Kingdom. She has no biological age, but her "age" is considered to be 14 in the series' canon.
 * Astrid Bennett: The 16 year-old tritagonist of the series, and the daughter of the previous Incarnation of the Great One, Aleister Bennett.
 * Leila: The 15 year-old "true" deuteragonist of the series, one of the Admins of the Royal Guard, and Kara's elder half-sister.
 * Rougelune: The Maneko mascot of the team, who is hiding a big secret about his true identity.

Secondary characters:


 * Ryo Hika: Kara's 14 year-old Earthly love interest, and the most popular male pupil of the Ruby Class.
 * Moe Wakaki: A 13 year-old student of the Topaz Class, and Leila's staunch devotee.
 * Karon: A young medium and the other Incarantion of the Great One. Being not evil deep inside his heart, but he is driven by his greed to fulfill a nefarious plot: To fully take possession of Kara's Pneuma Core and merge them together.

Antagonists:
Rancordai:

The main antagonists of Season 1. They are an organization of monsters and monstrous spirits who are controlled by the mysterious Mephisto, whose goal is to seize control of all Pentagram Stones.


 * Kyoko: A jiangshi who is the Commander of the Rancordai. She is in fact a notorious serial killer who struck terror to the hearts of Avalegione's people about two hundred years ago.
 * Geistine: A poltergeist who is a General of the Rancordai.

Video Games
An RPG created using the RPG Maker MZ engine, entitled Adventure in Magick Mundo, is currently under development.