How to explain to my 10 year old niece that Puella Magi Madoka Magica is not a kids show? My 10 year old niece loves watching cartoons, and she has a Netflix kids account for her with all parental controls. But while I was browsing my account, she took notice of the Madoka Magica cover and became quite curious and interested.

Logically for her (and many people who see it for the first time) it shouldn't be a problem because it's a colorful anime with magical girls with cute designs.

How do I explain to her that this one is not like the others in a way that makes sense?
Perhaps by letting them know that in Japan, Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a late night anime, not a children's anime?

Children's anime in Japan is an anime that caters to audience from baby up to middle schooler. Examples are Pretty Cure series (and most of magical girl anime), Doraemon, Hello Kitty, and Pokèmon. The screening times are either morning (weekend) or evening, where children are on their free time (not school time).

Late night anime, on the other hand, tends to cater to audience from teenage to young adult, usually with more serious &amp; in-depth plot, and even violence and sexual topic. Other examples are Cowboy Bebop, Rozen Maiden, and Attack on Titan. The screening time may start as early as 10pm, up to 2am, the time which children should have been sleeping.



For your 10-year-old niece case... I think I can agree with other answers: let her watch it with  parental guidance (though I wish their parents should have known about this anime first), then let her judge the anime by herself.



P.S. Sailor Moon series is also listed as children's anime, and I could argue with myself that the series sometimes also has dark and adult-oriented theme that can only be understood by older viewers, so...

Most of the info was taken from Japanese Wikipedia, not its English counterpart, since it's more descriptive.