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From my understanding, Mahou Shoujo = Magical Girl as the latter is normally
used when turning the Japanese title to English, i.e.

  * [Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=4576) = Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
  * [Sasami: Mahō Shōjo Club](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6071) = Sasami: Magical Girls Club
  * [Mahou Shoujo Lalabel](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1486) = Lalabel the Magic Girl

Now, I understand one of the themes of _Puella Magi Madoka Magica_ is Magical
Girl, and its Japanese name is _Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica_. I am wondering
how did _Mahou Shoujo_ become _Puella Magi_?


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madoka-magica
Why is "Puella Magi" equivalent to "Mahou Shoujo"?


The romanized title is not meant to be an English translation at all. It is
not half Latin + half English; it is all Latin from start to finish: _Puella
Magi Madoka Magica_. So we shouldn't read the "Madoka Magica" as if it were
English and then wonder at why "Puella Magi" is not English. "Madoka" is the
main character's name (鹿目 まどか), so that word is a native Japanese word.
"Magica" is clearly not Japanese or English; [it is also
Latin](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/magica#Latin). So 3 out of the 4 words
are Latin, and the Japanese word is a person's name, so it would naturally be
written "Madoka" in romanized letters when in an all-Latin phrase.

[According to the Puella Magi wiki,](http://wiki.puella-
magi.net/Madoka_Magica_Trivia#Puella_Magi_Madoka_Magica) "Puella Magi" in
Latin translates to "girl [form] of the sorcerer" in English. As this was the
translation decided by the Japanese company, it is possible that they did not
consult anyone fluent in Latin in order to translate "mahou shoujo" as
accurately as possible (we often see Engrish in anime [such as 「それでも世界は美しい」(
_Soredemo Sekai ha Utsukushii_ ), which was officially written in English as
"Still world is Beautiful" instead of a literal fluent translation like "Even
So, The World is Beautiful"]; there is no reason that they would necessarily
do better with Latin).

The wiki author makes an alternate hypothesis, saying "If interpreted a
different way, 'the sorcerer's girl', it implies that the girls are being used
- which they are, by Kyubey," but since we _do_ know the meaning of "mahou
shoujo" due to its use in the many, many magical girls series that _Madoka_ is
parodying, we can conclude that it does _not_ in this case have a unique
meaning of girls being used. The series is not a _mahou shoujo_ series proper
(it is a parody of the genre and is targeted at male viewers, whereas real
_mahou shoujo_ are a subset within _shoujo_ , meaning they are targeted at an
audience of young girls and if there is a manga origin or adaption, it runs in
a _shoujo manga_ magazine), so for it to use the standard style and meaning of
a _mahou shoujo_ series best serves its intent at parody.


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