LoliRock Revisited
It's been ten years since LoliRock first took the stage on Netflix, and rumors of a potential third season inspired me to watch the show again as I did with Winx Club, which recently previewed its upcoming reboot in Italy. LoliRock is a French Magical Girl show about a lost princess who must master her new powers while trying to liberate a mysterious faraway kingdom. It hits all the right plot notes to fit the Magical Girl algorithm, but poor writing prevents it from being a memorable entry in the genre. One thing that makes LoliRock unique is its focus on music. The three main characters aren't only magical princesses from other worlds but members of a hit rock band that performs full-length music videos at the end of each episode. Unfortunately, the overly synthesized sound of these songs is not very appealing to me, and I ended up skipping over them during my rewatch.
The main character in LoliRock is Iris, a beautiful girl who loves to sing that was raised by her aunt without knowing her true parents. Her crush, Nathaniel, works at a smoothie shop and encourages her to audition for a new band. The audition turns out to be a ruse set up by Talia and Auriana (which I thought was spelled Arianna until very recently) to find the lost princess of Ephedia. Iris turns out to be that princess, and her whole world turns upside down when she must suddenly navigate her newfound crystal powers, fighting bad guys, and becoming a rock star. The working title for this show was Star Princess, which does a better job of emphasizing these themes. The premise is very intriguing for fans of princesses, magical girls, and music, but the show plays it so safely that it never crosses the line from being a good show for girls to a great one.
Though I initially remembered Iris as a ditz who was more interested in her crush on Nathaniel than learning about her culture as an Ephedian princess, a second watch changed this perception. Throughout both seasons, Iris regularly writes in her diary about her curiosity of her true heritage and the struggles of living two very different lives. The problem is that the writers never let her explore this dichotomy. Instead, both seasons of LoliRock are extremely formulaic, following the Magical Girl format to a T. In almost every episode, Iris's necklace lights up to tell her someone is in trouble, and she finds the person and tries to help them. Then the twin troublemakers Praxina and Mephisto attack, the girls transform and defeat them, and an "Oracle Gem" is sent back to the crown of Ephedia, which needs an unspecified number of gems to restore its power and save the kingdom from the wicked Greymoor.
The show comes close to taking risks and introducing new ideas but takes the safest way out each time, which usually involves pressing a "reset" button at the end of the episode. For instance, there is one episode where Nathaniel sees Iris transform and learns her secret, which would have changed the entire dynamic of their relationship and set a new standard for romance in the Magical Girl genre. Instead, Iris turns back time so Nathaniel forgets everything and refrains from telling him her secret again even though he was very supportive. The second season introduces two new magical princesses, Carissa and Lyna, which could have given fans a chance to pick a new favorite character, but these two were rarely in the show as though the writers forgot they added them to the team. Another missed opportunity is when Iris learns late in the second season that her Aunt Ellen who raised her was from Ephedia all along. She could have been a mentor character from the beginning of the show, but her history is not brought up again until the final episode.
If I had never seen another Magical Girl show, I might have been amazed by the story and animation behind LoliRock. However, it came out when many other shows had used similar concepts more compellingly, making this a more forgettable one. That said, I love the designs of the characters both in and out of their Magical Girl outfits and the transformation sequences. Iris's pink and sparkly outfit stands out as one of the most tasteful and aesthetically pleasing Magical Girl looks of all time. If the rumors of a third season are true, my suggestion to the writers would be to spend more time in Ephedia and explore the life that Iris could have had if her kingdom hadn't been conquered when she was born. I would also like to learn more about the other princesses' kingdoms like Xeris and Volta, which are barely addressed in the two seasons that are out now.
What do you think, readers? Can LoliRock improve in a potential third season, or is it too late to make a lasting impact in the Magical Girl genre? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
