Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete literally translates to something like "I Admire Magical Girls" which isn't necessarily wrong, but i applaud whatever genius saw the vision and localized it as "Gushing Over Magical Girls." it's one of the most accurate pun-titles ever; when she's not fangirling out, Hiiragi Utena is losing gallons to the sadistic attacks of whatever lewd-as-hell monster she's cooked up that week. Strong premise ! We love girls who are perverts in this house, and of course the show has something more complex to say about shame, but that doesn't take away from how damn charming she is coming to terms with what she's into.
It kind of connects a lot with something i've been thinking about with regards to comic book superheroes, mostly from Marvel and DC, which makes sense because i think those characters fill a similar place in my life as Tres Magica do to Hiiragi Utena's. This is not a thought entirely uninfluenced by Devilman and the succubus theme of Utena's magical girl outfit, either. But in the 70's and 80's, if there was a character in a comic book dressed punk, goth or even remotely kinky, they were the bad guy. Think about Mindboggler from Firestorm, It wasn't until the unfairly-maligned 90's that things started to change; sure, it might have been a big shift all at once, but it was building. Like in everything else, the 80's were a far more conservative time in comics than people like to remember. Everyone thinks about Watchmen, a social satire written my an outspoken anarchist, as the emblematic comic of the decade, but also that decade John Byrne got his grubby mitts on both Superman and Fantastic Four. Both these books were emblematic of the beginnings of the Golden and Silver ages of comics, respectively, and have a People make jokes about black leather everything, or Spawn's corset, but that stuff is cool !! A lot cooler than Superman being born in Kansas, at least. 90's designs were something new for comic book heroes and clearly posed a threat to the state of comics. In embracing the grungy real world and influence from a variety of sources, artists like Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee held up a mirror to the unquestioned presumptions surrounding what a hero can look like. People got really angry after the initial honeymoon phase. That's how you can tell they were truly edgy–on the cutting edge. The old guard is still bleeding about it today, as they have been for some time; DC's Kingdom Come is an awful comic book, but in being so afraid of change in its medium that it literally demonizes a new school of design within it, it helped me codify this theory.