I’m looking for magical girl manga where the girls discover and learn magic by themselves instead of it being granted through some contract
Also I don’t like ones where they have to give up the magic when they grow up because that trope is stupid and I hate it
There are a lot of magic school series, but that kind of goes against the “discover” requirement, since it’s already well known enough to have a school for it.
I highly recommend Mahoutsukai no Insatsujo/ A Witch’s Printing Office, though it’s not very focused on magic use.
The Fate series has women who use magic, though men use it too. Start with Fate Stay/Night.
Gonna show my age, but Chobits fits this bill very well, though the magic part is a very slow burn (and is less “learned” than… uncovered). It’s also debated whether it is actually magic or just technology, but imo it’s very clearly magic.
Sousou no Frieren has multiple arcs based around (mostly women) mages learning magic. It’s also one of the best mangas or animes in decades, imo.
Mai HiME is a classic magical girls series that has great characters and is literally all about them “discovering” their individual powers. I actually recommend the anime over the manga, which shifts the POV from a male protag to Mai, his love interest, who is the real, titular MC.
Haven’t heard people mention Mai Hime for ages. Certainly an anime worth watching.
I showed it to my wife and she loved it. My Otome, not so much (she kept asking when Mai was going to show up again, and was very sad when it was just the very end).
Chobits mentioned… cute story, but all the explanations are technology based, no magic needed (except “the magic of love”, hm). It’s more of an exploration of our upcoming IRL approach to humanoid robots with an AI, and what will it take to train them for human relationships: a humanoid training platform learning from human interactions.
I may be misremembering, but as she “awakens” she starts being able to basically fly and stuff.
You remember correctly, it’s still explained as a technological feature. Kind of a case of “sufficiently advanced technology, looks like magic”, though.
Is the magic innate or can anyone learn it because I prefer magic systems where anyone can learn it
It is innate.
I already watch sousou no frieren but its very hard to binge watch unless you’re in the right mood for it so I don’t watch it much