Magical Girl Friendship Squad

• Alex (voiced by Quinta Brunson[8][9]) who thinks of becoming a barista at a coffee ship in the local area, before meeting Nut.[6] Her magical powers are stored in her birth control
• Daisy (voiced by Anna Akana[2]), a friend of Alex, who loves the John Wick franchise like Alex.[6] She is also a stoner and antihero.[10][11] She also reportedly slept with all the baristas at the local coffee shop, including Michaela, and the No Tattoo Barista. Her ex-girlfriend, Yolanda, is revealed to be working at the urgent care clinic in the show's fourth episode. The object in which she stores her powers is a Tom Selleck bong.
• Nut (voiced by Ana Gasteyer[3]), a red panda who gives Daisy and Alex the ability to transform into magical girls, allowing them to work together to "save the Universe from otherworldly threats."[3] It is revealed in the show's sixth episode, "Just Two Weak Girls," that Verus was Nut's ex-girlfriend.
• Corvin (voiced by Matteo Lane[12]), the evil henchman of Verus. As such, he is part of Arregon, the evil corporation in Brooklyn, which is run by Verus. He is fired from the corporation in the fifth episode. In the sixth episode, it is implied that he has a crush on Coffee Dude.

• Verus (voiced by Christine Baranski) is an "icy and efficient omni-universal being."[13][14] Although having a cameo in the show's third episode, she is formally introduced in the show's fifth episode, where she, the evil corporate executive who runs Arregon, fires Corvin.[15][16] In the show's final episode, it is shown that Nut is Verus's ex-girlfriend.
• Coffee Dude (voiced by [Manny Jacinto]]) is an optimist who Alex has a crush on.[13][14]
• Daisy's mother (voiced by Helen Hong)[13][14] is part of a religious fundamentalist cult like her husband.
• Daisy's father (voiced by Eric Bauza)[14] is part of a religious fundamentalist cult like his wife.
• Lulu (voiced by Sarah “Squirm” Sherman) is a old man and landlord who dislikes late rent and millennials.[14]

• The Emptier (voiced by Jason Mantzoukas[17])
• Gloriana (voiced by Paget Brewster[17]) a goddess and Nut's sister. She is introduced in the episode "The Real World" and has a strained relationship with Nut.
• CBD Monster (voiced by Vella Lovell), which saps energy from those at a favorite coffee spot of Daisy and Alex through the use of CBD and wreaks havoc.[6][18] She is the first monster defeated by Daisy and Alex. Although she transforms from her original form as the "No Tattoo Barista,"[19] her ultimate fate is not known.[20]
• The Mushroominations (voiced by Patti Harrison[21])
• Nightscreamr (voiced by Jamie Loftus[17]), a "goth bully."[22]
• Yolanda (voiced by Stephanie Sheh[2][23] the ex-girlfriend of Daisy,[24]) who works at an urgent care clinic and was designed as a "cute, classic style anime female character" based on Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon and Nurse Joy from Pokemon according to character designer Marika Cowan.[25] Her character was designed by Cowan and Alyssa Fullerton, a character and prop designer for the show.[26]
• Pansy[lower-alpha 1] who calls herself Daisy's "monogamous live-in girlfriend." She only exists in the dimension created by Nut's sister, Gloriana, as shown in "The Real World."

Magical Girl Friendship Squad was created by Kelsey Stephanides, who is also the showrunner, and is inspired by anime, riffing off the magical girl genre popularized by Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura.[33] The show was made, according to Stephanides, between the end of 2019 to August 2020, after it was pitched to Syfy, which wanted a polished reboot with "longer episodes."[34] In January 2020, TZGZ, Syfy's new adult animation block, ordered six 15-minute episodes for the series.[2] At the same time, the short form version, Magical Girl Friendship Squad: Origins, began airing on Syfy's late-night block.[35][36] Also anime-inspired like the main series, this pilot series was written by Diana McCorry, who created Human Kind Of and features show's two same protagonists.[14]

Stephanides stated that she was influenced by series such as The Simpsons and Futurama but that they had mostly male casts, making her think about "what a show with a mostly female cast would look like" beginning in 2015.[37] She then decided to make a parody of the magical girl subgenre, using Rick & Morty and Archer as a basis. In the same interview, she stated that the themes of the show are about what it's like "to gain and hold power as a woman today" without losing a part of yourself, building upon the setup of the characters in the pilot series. Furthermore, she stated that the themes of friendship and honesty are key to the series, as is the message that people are stronger when they are "more open" and connect with others. She also hoped that the series expands the "types of new animated stories" with more variety in adult animation.[lower-alpha 2] She also noted that the show is anime-inspired, not anime itself, despite the number of anime references in the show's backgrounds, while hoping for "different ways" to do adult animation in the future.[34]

In February, all the voiceovers for the show's six episodes were recorded, resulting in Akana getting "really, really sick after recording everything," with Daisy's voice not in her "natural register," making it rough.[10] Some of the recording was finished up in early March just before the pandemic hit.[38] Months later, in early September, Stephanides made similar points as she had in the interview with Comics Beat but added that she wanted to make a "genderbent" version of previous adult animations that was more feminine in its themes, leading her to the magical girl genre, specifically a genre parody.[39] She further noted that because of the show she is getting back into watching anime like Kill la Kill, One-Punch Man, and Mob Psycho 100 and stated that the show is trying to modernize the magical girl genre. Additionally, she commented about how it was easy to work with Brunson and Akana, that the red panda was chosen to differentiate from a cat as a magical familiar, the "adjustment period" that Daisy and Alex have to go through before they become magical girls, and the experience of having Stephanie Sheh do voice work on the show. She hoped, at the same time, this would encourage more networks and platforms to create adult animations like it, while inspiring others to make their own unique shows. The next month, Marika Cowan, character designer of the show, shared her designs for the No Tattoo Barista and her form as the CBD Monster from the show's first episode, noting the fun in designing the character and saying she "referenced a LOT of Sailor Moon monsters when developing her look."[19]

The show is produced by Cartuna, a New York animation studio, with each producer having their own style.[40][41] As Stephanides put it, the show would have been "totally different" if another studio produced it. Erica Perez is the animation director for episodes 1, 3, and 5. Krystal "K" Downs is the animation director for episodes 2, 4, and 6.[40][lower-alpha 3] Cartuna worked with over 100 artists on the series.[42] The animation is done on Adobe Animate, the backgrounds done in Adobe Photoshop, and character design done in both.[43]

Hallie Cantor is the lead writer[44] and co-executive producer with James Belfer,[45] Adam Belfer[46] and Max Benator.[47] The two Belfers are also executive producers on the pilot series. Additionally, Marika Cowan is a character designer.[19] Before the show's official release, the show's writer, Cantor described the show as featuring "dangerously horny teens," "snake demon ex-girlfriends," and other aspects, while noting that all six episodes of the show will be available on Syfy's website with a login, while the first episode will be free to stream on the same website.[48]

In May 2020, it was announced that Quinta Brunson and Anna Akana were leads of the show's ensemble cast.[2] As Stephanides explained it, Akana voiced Daisy in the pilot series, but that in the main series they wanted to "do a bit more character development," whereas for Brunson it was different.[40] Instead, in the words of Stephanides, she "added a new layer to Alex's personality." Brunson stated that she joined the cast because representation in anime as a Black woman was the reason to join in, and that she agreed with all of the material, especially the content about "outrage culture."[38] In September, Matteo Lane said he loved playing a villain like Corvin, noting the magical girl anime influences, and said that a lot is packed in each episode, even saying the character has a "gay voice."[49] He even speculated what totem would allow Corvin to transform if he could do so, while saying that people should take away that there can be diverse representation among superheroes. He also revealed that he had done recordings of his lines three times because of the pandemic and ambient noses in New York City, while hoping that in a possible Season 2 his character would get a boyfriend. The following month, Brunson said that she enjoyed playing the character, calling it a lot of fun, and about the transition from stand-up comedy to voice acting.[50] She also stated that the voice of Alex was not the far removed from her actual voice, while trying to make her more optimistic rather than deadpan, and noted that she was sent an offer to voice this character and didn't have to audition for any others.

Also, Taylor Ortega and Daisy Hobbs voiced characters in the show.[17]

On January 1, Magical Girl Friendship Squad: Origins entered the fray.[51] Six episodes of the adult animation, inspired by Sailor Moon and other magical girl animes, began airing on Syfy.[52][53] The series, written by Diana McCorry who created Human Kind Of,[54] features two women, Alex and Daisy, with the latter a lesbian who sleeps with a woman during the show. The series appeared in a new iteration on September 26, named Magical Girl Friendship Squad, with some new cast members and longer episodes.[52][55] In the latter show, Daisy is unambiguously queer as she has slept with "every barista" at the local coffee shop.[56] In the second and third episodes of the main show, "The Cool S" and "Agony Solstice", a sticker with the transgender pride flag is shown on Daisy's laptop. She is later shown to have an ex-girlfriend in the fourth episode, "Anti-Fungal Spit Skanks," a classic-style anime character, named Yolanda,[57][58] who works at urgent care center in the city. Additionally, in the episode "The Real World," Pansy, who calls herself Daisy's "monogamous live-in girlfriend" is introduced, but she only exists in the dimension created by Nut's sister, Gloriana. Then on November 1, 2020, Hallie Cantor, a writer for the show, responded to a question on whether Daisy is trans, stated that they hadn't yet "identified her as trans or cis,"[59] meaning that she could either be a cisgender lesbian or trans lesbian.