Week 10 | Pretty Cure

Pretty Cure

Pretty Cure is one of those franchises that's so vast and huge that I'm intimidated to even try to put my toes in the water. With so many series made during Pretty Cure's 15 year history, it's hard to gauge where to start, so it was really nice to be introduced to what the series is as a whole and how it breaks down by Kelli.

There's just so many of them...

The franchise can be described as a very textbook depiction of magical girls: flashy transformations, color coded outfits, magical items, special attacks, monster of the day format, a big fight of good against evil, it's got it all. Because of this, I feel that many people unfamiliar with the shows are quick to write it off as a silly children's show with little merit. However, I believe the fact that the series has stayed so true to the principles actually sets it apart from other magical girl media coming out today. 

Over the recent years, the magical girl genre has experienced a trend towards darker, more adult storylines. The most notable example of this is Madoka Magica, which can be noted as the predecessor to the many other dark magical girl series that were soon to follow afterwards such as Magical Girl Raising Project and Yuki Yuna is a Hero. The result of shows such as these was a radical shift in demographics. The magical girl genre is meant to appeal to young girls, and so perhaps it would only make sense that the deconstruction of the genre would appeal to adult men. What these dark shows have in common is that their narratives are deeply unsettling and seem to focus on the despair of the girls whether this be through emotional trauma, physical harm or even death. Frankly, I find this to be a very troubling trend now that men are engaged in watching what can essentially be called "misery porn" of women and that more and more series are being created to cater to that.

The unwavering message of each Pretty Cure series offers a deep contrast to the dark magical girl subgenre and it's continued success showcases the strength of what the genre is meant to represent. Pretty Cure has never lost sight of it's target demographic and their goal to empower young girls. The show never sexualizes the main characters and focuses on friendship over romantic relationships. Dynamic fight scenes animated by some of the greats also show that being a magical girl doesn't have to mean being polite and pretty all the time, but that they can be strong. The increasing range in characters who get to be magical, girl or boy, offers greater diversity in who viewers can relate to as well.

Overall, Pretty Cure and it's almost blinding optimism offers one of the best examples of the traditional magical girl genre and especially how it can evolve in modern day. It's no wonder it has managed to stay as one of Toei's biggest IPs and it doesn't seem like it is going to stop any time soon.

(Side Note: From a CG animator's perspective, the 3D animation in the series is actually really quite good, at least from what I've seen. When Kelli first mentioned that the newer series were being produced in CG, I was a bit skeptical at first given Japan's past track record with CGI. When she showed the clips in class though, I was impressed with how the character models and animation were stylized to match the franchise look. I think this evolution of full CG productions in anime is definitely something else to watch for in the future.)