Black Magician Girl



She may be small, but don't underestimate her. This spunky little thing is packing enough heat to take down a Swiss Bank, and that's just with the spells she learned in kindergarten.

The Black Magician Girl is a character type frequently found in fantasy that is primarily an offensive magic user. In personality, she is likely to be immature and outgoing, frequently a Genki Girl and Tomboy. This is carried over to her design, which is far less likely to be as elaborate or impractical as the Lady of Black Magic. She's also far less likely to be Ms. Fanservice than the Lady.

Physically, the Black Magician Girl is weaker than the fighters, often being a Squishy Wizard or Glass Cannon and being unable to attack for much, if any, damage. Her weapon of choice is usually a rod or staff, although ranged weapons are not uncommon, nor are improbable ones such as books. Her primary role in combat is to stand back and pelt the enemy with Fire Ice Lightning, not to get down in the mud, the blood and the beer with the melee types.

She will often be younger than The Hero, both physically and emotionally. Due to this, she will almost never be a love interest for him.

Black Magician Girls are, as the name would suggest, usually female, but male examples do exist. Black Magician Boys will be as immature as their female counterparts and may be physical cowards.

Subtrope of Black Mage. Compare to Lady of Black Magic, the other character archetype for Black Mages found in fantasy. In personality and skillset, this trope is the inverse of the White Magician Girl, for which this character type is often a Foil. See also Black Magic, which is magic that is evil, and White Mage.

NOT to be confused with Dark Magical Girl.

Anime & Manga

 * Pictured above: Slayers's Lina Inverse.
 * The Dark Magician Girl from Yu-Gi-Oh, the Trope Namer, as well as Ancient Egyptian counterpart, Mana, who's early appearances show just why extreme genkiness + powerful magic = trouble — before she gets dangerous.
 * Large Ham in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Vi Vid, in sharp contrast to the more quiet White Magician Girl Caro.

Video Games

 * Aika from Skies of Arcadia defines this personality-wise, despite arguably not being the best spellcaster.
 * Final Fantasy IV has Rydia, who starts out a child but undergoes a Plot Relevant Age Up. To an extent, Rydia seems generally boisterous, but this is tempered by her past as the sole survivor of her Doomed Hometown. She also isn't in love with any of the other heroes, but does serve as the unrequited love interest of Edge and comes to see Cecil as a father figure.
 * Also Palom is a Black Magician Boy.
 * Subverted in Lunar: The Silver Star. Mia Ausa, the Black Magician Girl, is the quiet, friendly, introverted one; whereas Jessica de Alkirk, ostensibly the White Magician Girl, is the loud, brash one.
 * Played straighter in the sequel Eternal Blue where Lemina (Mia's descendant) fits the trope by being the attack magic user and a Genki Girl while Ronfar, the healer is...um, a brash gambling guy.
 * The sprite kid Popoi from Secret of Mana is an impulsive and energetic male version of this trope. Except in the German translation, where this character was generally referred to as female.
 * Rita Mordio in Tales of Vesperia, Tsundere in personality and the brains of the playable characters. Worth noting she's only deredere for the White Magician Girl Estelle.
 * Female mages in Fire Emblem tend to either be Badass Bookworms or start as White Magician Girls before becoming Magic Knights through promotion, but there are still a few true Black Magician Girls (generally thunder or fire mages), including Tiltyu from the 4th game, Nino from the 7th, and Lute from the 8th. Empress Sanaki from the tenth (appears in the ninth game as well, but only in cut scenes). True to the above statement, her specialty is fire magic, but she's also skilled in thunder, wind, and light... and the only fully-promoted magic-user who can't use staves. And yes, she has the personality for it, much to Sigrun's consternation.
 * Relm from Final Fantasy VI. While the other two female members of the team are also very powerful spellcasters, she's the only one that fits this personality type.
 * Aurora from Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled. Tomboyish, Fiery, and loves tossing Fireballs about.
 * Annie from League of Legends is a cute, perky six-year-old girl who has a magical pet bear and a penchant for fire magic.
 * Arnoud from Wild Arms 4 makes a rare male example of the cowardly variety.
 * Qara in Neverwinter Nights 2. Is also The Scrappy on account of being The Rival of Deadpan Snarker and fan favourite Sand, and for being a Chaotic Stupid arrogant brat.
 * Arche of Tales of Phantasia.
 * Touhou's Marisa Kirisame fits this trope to a T. Loud, brash, and a pretty capable thief who uses her lifespan as an excuse for never returning anything she steals. Yet she's still one of the heroes of the setting, relatively speaking.
 * Aht of Radiant Historia fits the personality type of this trope so well you'd think the writers read this trope first. Her primary combat role is powerful trap and Area of Effect spells. She also comes with decent healing magic, but she's not as good in this role as White Mage Marco.
 * Genki Girl Arle from Madou Monogatari series is this. She's a One Girl Army who wanders around dungeon crawlers to beats up huge elephants, giant chickens, zombies, dragon girl, and Satan on her own simply with her magic, and she's just a kindergarten student in some of those games.
 * Merrill in Dragon Age 2: Genki, Moe, naive, dabbles in Blood Magic and deals with demons. Her magic repertoire is strictly damage-dealing, and her two main specialty powers are called "Blood of the First" and "Wrath of the Elvhen."
 * Melody Farklight in Nostalgia, complete with tons of spunk (and a side helping of Tsundere-ness).
 * Vanille in Final Fantasy XIII is cute, funny, genki and all around adorable. She's also the best Saboteur.
 * Alice in Shin Megami Tensei. One of the few demons capable of effortlessly maxing Magic stats, and a One Hit KO master as well, with her Signature Move being "Die For Me!", the ultimate Dark-aligned move.

Web Comics

 * Rose Lalonde from Homestuck. Black Magic user? Check. Consorts with Eldritch Abominations? Check. Barely a teenager? Check.
 * Angelika, from Our Little Adventure is a straight example. Even Emily the Squishy Wizard doesn't match Angelika's offensive magical power in combat.

Western Animation

 * Charmcaster from Ben 10. She's got the brash, forceful personality down; but unlike most examples listed, she's a villain.
 * As of the Ultimate Alien, that status gets heavily blurred.