[WT!] Precure - Cute Girls Kicking Ass

#What is Precure?

Precure or Pretty Cure is a franchise of Fifteen different 49 episode series that has been airing one episode a week since 2004 with nearly 700 episodes under its belt as well as 24 films. It’s a children’s Magical Girl anime primarily aimed at younger girls. One could say that it’s the modern day successor to Sailor Moon.

It has become one of the largest Magical Girl franchises in Japan, completely overwhelming any competition in the children’s Magical Girl sphere. Precure was brought on to be one of the 2020 Japanese Olympics anime ambassadors alongside giants like Goku, Luffy and Naruto. More people in Japan were watching KiraKira Precure than were watching My Hero Academia. 2. The mangaka behind the anime Citrus was inspired by Futari wa Precure. A generation of Japan has grown up surrounded b Precure.

And yet the franchise is almost completely unknown in the west.

#Where Did It Begin?

The original series Futari wa Precure, or 'We are Pretty Cure, aired back in Winter of 2004. While on the surface it seems like a fairly standard Magical Girl series, it has a number of genre self awareness, with the characters even calling out some of the cliche’s and tropes. The tone and setting of the show was rather earthy, giving the show a more real life feel to it. The two magical girls, Cure Black and Cure White, both have more realistic hair tones

The big stand out feature is Series Director Daisuke Nishio who was Series director for Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and several DBZ movies. He had plenty of experience with not just action, but martial arts action, and brought that to expertise to the Magical Girl genre. Where most Magical Girls like Sailor Moon and Nanoha were shooting beams, Cure Black would run straight into close combat. Rather than have a bow, staff or sword for a weapon, the Precure fought with their fists. This dynamic and engaging action helped Precure to bring in a sizable Male audience while being family friendly for girls.

On top of that, a core element of Futari Wa was that Cure Black and Cure White were a connected pair. They could only transform together, and all their finishing moves were performed together and both of these would be major plot points in the series. Futari wa Precure is about the relationship of these two strangers forced to work together. In comparison to Tokyo Mew Mew, Shugo Chara or Sailor Moon that have heavy shojo elements with bishounen love interests taking major roles that even over the side Magical Girls, Futari wa Precure kept the focus primarily on the girls and developing their bond.

Also, and this isn’t really important but it definitely needs mentioning, but one of the major antagonists totally looks like David Bowie

Futari wa Precure would start off to low ratings but word of mouth about the intense action quickly gained it a sizable following that led to it extending it’s 26 episode run to 50 episodes, and then follow that up immediately with another 50 episode run in Futari wa Precure Max Heart and there hasn’t been a season without Precure since.

#Why Haven't You Heard of It?

Well it wasn’t licensed for one. Precure came out a bit late in the 4kids anime boom. When Futari wa Precure would have been licensed in the West Digimon and Yugioh were already on their downward trend. 4kids tried to adapt Tokyo Mew Mew, but couldn’t get past 26 episodes.

But it’s not like fansubbers were doing any better. Children’s anime aren’t popular with fansubbers. At this period trying to get Yu-Gi-Oh! Fansubs was a huge chore to near impossible, and Precure was a lot less popular in the west than that worldwide phenomenon. For the most part no one in the west knew what Precure was, so it was low priority.

That would change in 2011 with Heartcatch Precure came out. Just on the surface alone the series oozed style made it catch your attention. And it’s style wasn’t all for show either, it helped the series generate some of the best action in the franchise .

The lead Pink Precure for this generation was Tsubomi or Cure Blossom, voiced by the talented Nana Mizuki, subverted the usual trend of Magical Girl protagonist. She wasn’t the energetic Genki girl who would jump into danger. Tsubomi was shy and quiet and insecure. This flip of the usual dynamic made her a lot more relatable and human and gave the series a clear sense of progression. Viewers cared about Tsubomi’s ongoing adventures to try to change herself. And being a slow running long term series gave the growth more weight. Change isn’t done via the big moments, it’s small moments across a whole year.

Her partner is Erika or Cure Marine and the Genki Girl of the series. Erika is just such a clear Best Girl. She’s almost always in the top 5 most popular Precure polls, even half a decade after her series ended.

Overall though it was just the high level of polish involved with the Heartcatch. The action, the character arcs, hell even the filler episodes are noted for being heart wrenching or hilarious or both. Heartcatch Precure led Precure to becoming Toei animations’ second most profitable franchise, beating out Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon and Digimon. It’s easily the most popular installment of the franchise and considered the best by both Japan and the West. It was so good that it took a couple years for future seasons like Suite to come out of its shadow and be properly appreciated. It wouldn’t be until 2015’s Go! Princess Precure that another installment would come close to being as critically praised.

Though even with the Precure boon after Heartcatch the franchise would still struggle to break through it’s children’s franchise image and into the mainstream anime audiences.

#Precure Ending Theme

A tradition of Precure is it’s CGI dancing Ending theme. Every series since 2009’s Fresh Precure has both of it’s ending themes in the form of these dances. And after a decade of doing them, they got really good at them.

3x3	favorite	ED
KiraKira ed 2	Mahou Tsuka ed 1i	Go Princess Ed 2
Happiness Charge ed 2	Smile Precure ed 1	Suite Precure ed 2
All-Stars New Stage 3	All-Stars DX2	Splash Star ed 2

#Precure All Stars

Every year Precure has two movies. One of these is a movie dedicated to the currently airing series. The other movie is a crossover movie featuring every precure up to that point. For the first couple movies when this would be a crossover between a few magical girls but things got out of hand very fast and soon you had 40+ different Magical Girls in a single movie.

To be honest, most of these movies can be pretty bad. It’s blatant fanservice, but tbh that’s all it needed to be. It’s a fun harmless adventure where you can see all your friends old and new come together and sometimes in interesting combinations. Like what happens when all the #2 Precure work together

Also, movie budget only makes the action scenes better. This is when they get to really show off

#Why to Watch Precure

In the 15 years since Futari wa Precure originally aired, a lot has changed for the franchise but the core appeal has still remained the same

Breathtaking Fisticuff Action. Not much more I can say about the action at this point, so here are some clips from various series to help convince you:

• Suite

• Go! Princess

• Splash Star

It’s overwhelming optimism and light storytelling make it a dose of concentrated joy and happiness. Precure isn’t plot centric, the vast majority of its episodes will be simple monster of the week stories. Don’t come in expecting the plot to develop quickly. It’s better to imagine it as a CGDCT show except at the end of each episode the girls go kick some ass, save the day, and then have a nice dance number at the ending. You watch it because you care about Tsubomi and Erika or Nagisa and Honoka.

Not Magical Girl without the Shoujo. Unlike Sailor Moon or Shugo Chara this series isn't about the romance. There are no hot bishounen guys that the girls spend 40 episodes thinking about. There are no love triangles. If those shows are about the Power of Love, then Precure is about the Power of Friendship. The focus is always on the Magical Girls, all of them and not just one.

Precure offers absolutely zero fanservice. It’s primary audience is still young girls, and the designs reflect that. These are role models for girls, not objects to be sexualized. Even the transformation sequences go out of their way to keep all the girls properly clothed. It can feel refreshing to watch a series and not have to worry about seeing underaged girls sexualized.

#What Series to Start

Of the 15 Precure seasons, only 2 are sequel seasons. Every other season is a standalone season with zero continuity or carry over from any other seasons. This means that theoretically almost every series is a great starting off point. Though some are better than others. Here are some suggestions:

• Futari wa Precure The one that started it all. It’s also the only season with legal subs available via Crunchyrol, even if they are early Crunchyroll poor quality subs. Also, need I remind you that this season has David Bowie!

• Heartcatch Precure considered by the vast majority of fans both in Japan and in the west as the best season in the franchise. It was the entry that first got the West’s attention about Precure.

• Glitter Force, the two 4kids style dubs of Smile Precure and DokiDoki Precure done by Netflix. warning, can be cringe indusing

• Suite Precure is a music based action Magical Girl series with tons of yuri subtext and two main characters named Hibiki and Kanade… wonder who would like that. Seriously though, Hibiki and Kanade’s tsundere x tsundere dynamic have made them the most popular ship in the franchise.

• Just picking any series with designs you like. Seriously, every series in this franchise is a completely fresh Starting off point. It’s really hard to go wrong.

• Hugtto Precure the latest series. Episode 1 aired this Saturday, so it’s a great place to just give it a try.

I tend to favor suggesting people to watch Heartcatch Precure because if you’re only going to watch one, you might as well watch the best. Though I also recommend starting with the latest entry, especially right now when it’s so early into the series and easy to catch up to.

#Final Thoughts

It’s very likely you’ve already seen Madoka. It’s #47 in terms of popularity on MAL. If you haven’t you may have seen YuYuYu or MagicalGirlRaisingProject or Illya, or one of the other popular darker or adult Magical Girl anime out there. Most of these anime build their core on the idea of subverting or rejecting this concept of a traditional Magical Girl show. They build themselves as a darker interpretation of them. In my opinion enjoyment of these shows is increased when you understand what they are trying to parody. What it is they are subverting.

And in this day and age the answer to is undoubtedly Precure, the current champions of the traditional Magical Girl format. And while you could watch Sailor Moon instead, Precure offers a similar experience with better action, that isn’t in a dated 90’s anime, and in a 49 episode standalone format instead of Sailor Moon’s 200.

And at the very least you deserve to know who they are.

Futari wa Precure