Middle school students Nagisa Misumi and Honoka Yukishiro are the epitome of dissimilarity. Popular with their classmates, Nagisa is the school's energetic star lacrosse player, while Honoka is the soft-spoken "Queen of Intelligence."
As unrelated as they may seem, Nagisa and Honoka live double lives as the "emissaries of light": Cure Black and Cure White of Pretty Cure. With the assistance of two fairies, Mipple and Mepple, the girls fight against the Dotsuku Zone—an evil force that has invaded the Garden of Light. In order to prevent the Dotsuku Zone from taking over the Garden of Rainbows as well, the pair must work together to find seven Prism Stones and restore the Prism Hopish to drive out the vile forces.
With strong foes standing in their way, Nagisa and Honoka learn to work together and harness their newfound powers in order to save the worlds from further ruin.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
ktulu007
We've reached the end of magical girl month, so let's dive back into the Precure franchise. It wasn't that long ago that I looked at Doki Doki Precure, one of the more recent installments in the franchise. This time let's go far, far back to 2004 when Toei animation first started the franchise with Futari wa Precure. Was the series as good back then or is this one of those franchises that got a rough start? Let's take a look and find out. Story: Young Misumi Nagisa is in her room when she notices falling stars. One of them crashes into her room, hits her in thehead and turns out to be a strange creature that had turned into a cell phone like device. He calls himself Mepple and asks Nagisa to take him to Mipple. She goes out, following his directions only to run into a classmate she barely knows, Yukishiro Honoka. The two are attacked by a strange villain called Jean Luc Pisard, who looks like he belongs in a Kabuki theatre. To fight him, they hold hands, go through rainbows and transform into Precure. After fending him off they find out that Mepple and Mipple are denizens of the Garden of Light, which was invaded by the Dark King. In order to save it they have to defeat his minions and get the seven Prism Stones, two of which they already have.
Let's open, as usual, with the narrative problems. The first is that the story arc is kind of bizarre. It's like the writers thought that the series was only getting twenty six episodes only to find out that it was going to be nearly twice as long when they'd already set everything up for the finale and they had to backtrack to rekindle the conflict. I'm glad that the series has the extra twenty three episodes because a lot of them are really good, but they still involve a lot of re-treading, at least in terms of the conflict. Another issue is that the characters who are supposed to be aiding them are frequently pretty useless. Take Wisdom as an example. He's so useless that the one time he actually does anything he has to be told to act by Pollun of all people. Bloody Pollun.
Now, I'm going to talk about the gratuitous romance separately since I wouldn't call it bad, but I also wouldn't call it a good element since it is pretty pointless. However, it is kind of interesting in its execution. What do I mean by that? Well, it has to be the most passive aggressive inclusion of a gratuitous male love interest ever. It's like the writers were told that they had to include a male love interest but they didn't want to so they gave the guy a boyfriend who would always be by his side and engage in typical romance story tropes with him. Like one running happily to the other and apologising for making him wait. They sometimes bring up Nagisa's crush on him and then use it as an excuse to develop her relationship with Honoka while avoiding doing anything between her and him. It's like they're actively sabotaging it with the combined power of yaoi and yuri. To be fair to the writers, if I was writing something for a studio and they insisted on it having het I'd do pretty much the same thing and it does lead to some funny moments.
There's a lot about the series that's praiseworthy. Futari Wa has a lot of really fun and funny moments, including an episode that focuses on Honoka's dog taking care of a puppy. More magical girl series need episodes about dogs. But it's not all fun. There's some emotional depth to the series. It manages some really good tragic moments. Sure, they're used sparingly, but they're still there and they really work. There are some good tense moments too. The series is also good at building up major plot points and giving them a strong payoff.
Characters:
Nagisa and Honoka are really strong leads and they have an excellent dynamic. Their families and friends are well fleshed out, with pretty much all of them having verisimilitude. There are also some strong interactions with them and their family and friends that really help flesh out their characters. I even like Fujimura and his boyfriend, and it's rare to find a likeable character who is technically there as a gratuitous love interest.
The villains are the big weakness. They're largely pretty one-note characters without much personality. To be fair, there is a reason for their actions that makes sense, but they still aren't developed or interesting in the least. There is one major exception with a sympathetic villain who gets complexity, but I won't spoil who it is. I also kind of like the two butler Zakenna. They aren't developed but they are pretty hilarious. The Garden of Light denizens are another weakness. Most of them are just bland. The exception being Pollun. If he's not as annoying as Ai was in DokiDoki, he comes really close. He's bratty, obnoxious, frequently throws tantrums where he repeats the same phrase in the most grating manner possible and just causes problems for everyone. Especially the audience.
Art:
The art and animation are largely really good. Futari wa has good designs, except for the second set of villains who just look boring. It also has really good physical action sequence and detailed backgrounds. The monsters are nice and creative and I do like the little black stars who start apologising when they lose. They're simple but well done. It does suffer a bit from repetitive stock footage. Especially in terms of special attacks. Nagisa and Honoka have two major attacks they use in the series and the animation used for them setting up even looks pretty similar. The big difference between them is what kind of beam gets fired. They get downright lazy with the Queen of Light too. Her design is pretty cool, but she doesn't really move or change expressions.
Sound:
Honna Youko and Yukana both deliver strong performances as Nagisa and Honoka. Really, most of the cast does really well in their roles. Sendai Eri and Kiuchi Reiko both do really well too and Ono Kenichi makes for a pretty intimidating villain. The big issue is Ikezawa Haruna. She's not a bad actor, but she does voice a character who constantly whines, yells and is generally just painful to listen to. Honestly though, I don't think anyone could have done better with a character like Pollun since his main purpose as a character is to be an annoyance. The music is stellar and there are several cases where they incorporate lyrical works into episodes to great effect. The choir episode in particular.
Ho-yay:
I touched on this a bit when talking about the romance, so I'll refrain from repeating too much of that. For ho-yay we've got Fujimura and his boyfriend. There's a bit of les-yay between Shiho and Rina. The main source of les-yay comes from our leads, Honoka and Nagisa. Even ignoring the rainbows and hand holding, though they hold hands about a hundred and thirty three times, there is a lot of homo-eroticism between them. For every awkward scene that goes nowhere with Fujimura, Nagisa gets ten really adorable scenes with Honoka. These two talk about how close they've gotten and share a bed while holding hands. They also play Romeo and Juliet and Nagisa forgets her lines and speaks purely from the heart in an amazing scene. Even with the gratuitous male love interest, the series earns a 6/10 for ho-yay.
Final Thoughts:
Futari wa Precure is a really strong series. It has a nice level of emotional depth, it's fun, hilarious. a lot of the characters are well developed, the action is great and the acting is strong. Still, it does suffer from some story issues, Pollun, bland villains, Pollun, over-used stock footage, Pollun and some laziness. My final rating is an 8/10. I do suggest checking it out if you're a fan of magical girl works or if you like super subtexty les-yay. So, that's it for magical girl month. Next week we'll open February with Natsu no Arashi.
lkagaminer
Let me say, if you like heroines, watch it! I liked this anime because it was one like I have never seen. I've watched Sailor moon and Powerpuff girls z(and afterwords I started watching Sailor Moon Crystal), but this one stuck out to me. I honestly don't know why exactly, but maybe because they're basically powerless without each other. They can't even transform by themselves. In Sailor moon, usually not all the sailors are present. In powerpuff girls z, They can kind of survive by themselves, but are still stronger together. Perhaps it's because there's only two people. In the other animes, there were more people. Perhaps it's becausetheir powers are more associative with each other thus making a better team. If you notice in the other animes, they work side by side, but don't seem very connected.
P.S. I tried making this without spoilers, I'm sorry if I did.
Chouquette
I am a big fan of magical girl genre, especially older-style. I kept seeing Pretty Cure for ages and I finally gave it a try. It was a pleasant surprise. The story is in continuation despite being randomish at times, the girls level up in character and they don't magically know what to do from the get go. Very good and fun. The story is enjoyable. Nothing too special, but interesting regardless. I truly love the art so it gets a 10 from me as does the sound. I rarily do not skip openings and this one I *never* skipped. Characters are amazing. I don't know doI prefer Nagisa or Honoka.
In general, I truly like this show and anyone who likes the genre will have fun. It's not hard on the brain, but well done. I usually review only things I really like so, obviously, a 10 - or rather 9.5 from me.
Mione48
This is the original Pretty Cure serie and is a good season to start Precure. Is weird how can some Precure fans judge this show because this story is great and it shows what Precure is about. Friendship is the most important thing and the characters portray this very well. The characters´s development is great and there are very emotional and deep episodes. Misumi Nagisa and Yukishiro Honoka are like ying and yang.Nagisa and Honoka didn´t start close from the beginning and had to overcome many obstacles to become the best friends. They complement each other no matter how different theyare. Nagisa is a girl who loves sports and has a tomboyish personality menawhile Honoka is a very smart girl who is very calm. But both have other sides of their personalities, Nagisa can be very girly and romantic when she thinks about her love while Honoka is very strong when she has to speak her mind. They are the Pretty Cure team who use their own physical powers more than magic powers which make them a very unique team in magic girls series.
Not only these two are interesting, but other characters are as interesting as them, specially a boy named Kiriya. Futari wa Pretty Cure is a very heartwarming anime that can give hope to the audience. I really recommend this season. Hopefully Precure fans who never watched this will give it a chance.
TripleSRank
Don't make this your first Precure. I had mixed feelings toward this series even beyond the halfway point before I made up my mind on what I thought of it, and those thoughts never really changed or felt challenged afterwards: that this is a wholly average, yet enjoyable series. The show developed a good bond between Nagisa and Honoka and fleshed out their respective personalities quite well. This extended to the fairies also, which is more noteworthy in Mepple's and Popo's cases because I didn't like either of them at first. The villains' personalities and motives fluctuated a lot in quality, but overall I thought they werequite serviceable.
The plot was a lot more shaky and was the overall low point of this Precure iteration. Although there were definitely highlight episodes in relation to the plot, the big picture always felt very simplistic, and while that in itself isn't a bad thing, the straightforward nature or the villains' goals (regardless of their motives) combined with the repetitive feel this iteration had at times made the majority of the plot aspect feel lackluster. I do caveat that the ending was still pretty great and surprisingly bittersweet though.
Regarding themes, this is the first Precure I've encountered that was so theme-light, which unfortunately also contributes to its non-standout nature. There's a vague idea of never giving up and keeping hope that is conveyed, but little more.
And as for the action, the Precure claim to fame, it was serviceable and on occasion well choreographed, but rarely ever well animated. For as much as I've seen Futari wa Precure hailed for the Cures getting their hands dirty with the action, I can't help but think those claims are somewhat exaggerated.
All of that being said, aside from some of the repetitive aspects there's very little I could point to that the series actually did "wrong", and the characters carried it pretty well enjoyment-wise. Futari wa Precure did the bare minimum I'd require from the mahou shoujo genre and as such it will in some ways work as a baseline for me going forward. This show is the line where, if a mahou shoujo isn't at least doing this well, I'm going to start levying criticisms more heavily and will consider dropping the series.
The thing is, if you can handle the repetitive aspects in Futari wa Precure, you can probably handle them in, say, Sailor Moon as well, and Sailor Moon gets much much better than this series does when it gets good, so if given the choice I would rather relegate this series moreso to people who are already mahou shoujo fans or those who really want the historical context. It's just not standout enough to recommend to most people outside those categories.
If you're interested, then go for it. Just be aware of where your expectations ought to be. Even within the Precure franchise there are iterations better at pretty much anything you could want from a mahou shoujo, be it great characterization, a great plot, great thematic development, or just great action. As such I'd ask that others don't base their views of the franchise on this installment, especially if they insist on this one as their first Precure.
SoraXNagisa
(as written on the Hateful Anime Truth on Facebook) Don't judge me on this line alone; I love some obscure anime. And thus I chanced upon Futari wa Pretty Cure about 6 years ago in a newspaper review in The New Paper. The preview picture looked a bit intriguing to me, so I gave it a shot. Basically, what do you get when you pit your typical Mahou Shoujo anime, with a genius directing mind? You get what Sailor Moon failed to do. Pretty Cure is one of those easy-to-skip over animes because of its looks alone, but when you find out it's done by the directingmind of DBZ director, Daisuke Nishio (which is why he's in my favorite people list)... you'll probably still not be impressed. But regardless, that's why I'm here. Let's get on with the review.
Story:
The sad thing about 99% of Mahou Shoujo animes is that, there really isn't MUCH story to cover at all. They're usually filled with filler, followed by a fight, followed by the girls WINNING the fight, followed by more exposition, followed by end credits.
Now when something important DOES happen, they actually focus on that one element throughout the entire episode, and it usually lasts about 3-4 episodes total before it building up to the final battle.
Precure is no different from normal Mahou Shoujo animes. It falls victim to filler, but really plies its trade when it comes to the important details. For story, not much to go on, but at least it's important.
Art:
The artists must have been on SOMETHING when they came up with this crackshot of a transformation sequence. The detail that goes into making the outfits for the girls, along with making the attacks really put the detail levels up to a high.
I applaud ANY artist and animator of any Mahou Shoujo anime, and Precure is no exception.
Characters:
For an anime based on friendship, overcoming hardships and fighting the darkness in our hearts, the difference in the two main lead heroines is like night and day. You have Nagisa, the sporty, tomboyish one and loves sports, and then you have Honoka, the strong, silent type who is also the school's resident genius.
See what I mean by night and day? How these two came to be friends is your imagination... but it's blatantly obvious how they became friends.
Overall:
I wouldn't really skip over this anime if you're an anime enthusiast like me. But if magical girls aren't your thing, you can stay away from this anime if you want. Those who do want action in something this cute should probably give this a shot.
Overall, highly, HIGHLY recommended.
Temere
A lot of the older "fighting hero" type shows have something about them that all the modern day ones do not. While I'm unsure what that is, it always seems to be the 90's shows that entertain me no matter what their target demographic is. Pretty cure is almost exactly what you'd expect a magical girl anime aimed at pre and early teens, to be. Each and every episode is an excuse to kick ass. However unlike some shows of this age, Pretty Cure ties it all in despite being 49 episodes long, making it seem like there are no fillers and every episode, whether iteven just be character development, is there for a reason. They go though their everyday school life while dealing with things an everyday student of that age would deal with. Only, to make it more entertaining, they throw in magic powers and someone to beat up every episode with the final battles spanning over a few episodes.
The art, for today's age cant be held much for trail as what's released today is much sharper and higher quality, not to mention the animation progressions allow more moving objects to be on screen at any one time. However for it own time of the late 90's, this is surprising well done, even for a childrens show. The occasional 3D for some items or major beings, while is clearly noticeable in the show, it still blends in astoundingly well. From there the rest of the animation can be jumpy at, time of large battles and seem like too much is happening too fast. However rarely does the animation noticeable stand out from the background and scenery as it all blends well and makes it all seem it was made together and not animations done over a still canvas. But then comes in irritably noticeable time scenes are reused. Some to the point where you lose count and just make you skip past it back to the actual show.
Music was very off and on. Many times were themes reused every single episode. Although there were a few themes that will actually make you move to the beat they're that catchy. Whether you like rock, jazz, orchestra or something more funk. Precure has it and it does it well.
Character is everywhere. From main to secondary and villains. Everyone has their own personality and for a school setting, they're played amazingly on key, its astounding how relate-able they can be. While there main two heroines are the shows main focus, there are episodes where even the secondary character get a lot of character development and it really works with tying into the main characters story line as it is called upon and mentioned in later episodes.
Enjoyment is... Well quite touch and go, while it has many entertaining parts. It has just as many cringe worthy moments that made you want to skip ahead. They seemed to go quite hand in hand as every second episode one or the other seems to happen. Lastly while each episode, when you take out the into and endings, is about 21 mins you still end up skipping more when you take into account the reused scenes that get really freaking boring to see every single episode.
VanillaIceCream
I'm a big fan of the magical girl genre, so I decided it was about time I watched Pretty Cure, a show which has had 7 seasons so far. I don't know if the other six seasons are any good, but the first one certainly wasn't, which has put me off watching the rest of the show. Story: 3/10 Basically, Nagisa and Honoka meet Mipple and Mepple and find out that they're the legendary soldiers, Pretty Cure, destined to protect the Garden of Light from the Dark Zone. And that is pretty much it. The entire series is basically filler, with Nagisa and Honoka fighting one enemyafter another from the Dark Zone in every single episode. There are no major plot twists and the romance between Nagisa and Fujipi-senpai doesn't seem to go anywhere. Possibly the most interesting thing that happened was the introduction of new enemies halfway through the series.
Art: 6/10
The art was the best aspect of the show for me. There was nothing wrong with it, but at the same time, it wasn't amazing. I did, however, like the character designs and the Pretty Cure costumes. Other than that, nothing really stood out for me.
Sound: 5/10
The sound was not particularly memorable. Like the art, it was acceptable, but uninteresting.
Character: 4/10
Nagisa and Honoka had the potential to become excellent characters - if they had been given any character development, which they weren't. Nagisa also got on my nerves with her constant wails of, 'Arienai!' As for Mipple and Mepple, I seriously wanted to strangle them. They were the most annoying mascots I've ever seen in a magical girl series. Porun was also incredibly irritating, and I found myself growing a large dislike for pretty much everybody in the series.
Enjoyment: 3/10
As I said before, the whole series was pretty much filler. Whilst I enjoyed the battle scenes in the first few episodes, it soon got stale and boring for me. I never enjoyed it and I ended up forcing myself to watch it, sticking to a strict schedule of 2 episodes on weekdays, 5 at weekends, so I could finish it as soon as possible. Watching it felt like a chore.
Overall: 4/10
Pretty Cure is probably the worst magical girl show I've seen. It was boring and unenjoyable and I wouldn't reccommend it. Of course, it's all a matter of taste - there's many people who have loved this first season and given it 10s. Perhaps the other seasons are better - this one, however, was very disappointing.
magicwonder19
I'm a Pretty Cure fan and I love this series!But this season is not for me.. I already watched other seasons and in comparison with this one, the others stand out so much more! I know lots of people love it but it's an okay season at best.. STORY 4/10 The girls find two fairies and become Pretty Cure, together they have to fight agains the Dark King and his minions and protect the garden of light and that's it. The story is decent enough to a magical girl series, not many twists happens and after the 2nd half the plot is very repetitive and boring. ART 7/10 It'sgood, it had great moments in some fights but that's it, doesn't have much to talk about it.
SOUND 6/10
It's fine, I barely remember any soundtracks but I think they do their job well!
CHARACTER 3/10
Nagisa is kinda annoying with her crush on Fujipi and how she's always mumbling about being a Pretty Cure and such, overall very annoying for a main character. Honoka is good, but she's barely explored, besides having a friendship with one of the villains, Kiryia, she doesn't get any spotlight. The fairies are terrible and super irritating, sometimes I just wanted to throw them far away or strangle them, sorry. The bond between Nagisa and Honoka is very well done in the first episodes, but after that nothing much happens and the series gets very static. However the bond between the fairies and the girls is pretty bad, most of the time they're just being annoying to the girls and they never develop from that or have any changes. As for the villains, they exist that's it, there's nothing interesting to talk about them,except for Poisonee, yeah I think she had cool strategies and a good design. Overall the main characters are meeh at best, they barely get any character development.
ENJOYMENT 3/10
The 1st half is okay, the first episodes were interesting enough, cause we got the bonding between Nagisa and Honoka and we also get Kiryia changing sides, but after they "defeat" the Dark King for the first time, the plot got super boring and I barely could have any enjoyment from it. I just finished this season cause I'm a Pretty Cure Fan, if I wasn't I would probably just drop it. Tbh, I wouldn't recommend anyone to start with this season, if the person wants to get into the PreCure world. Just start with other more great seasons, there are a lot of them.
Akiska
I love magical girl themed anime's and thought i'd give this one a go; My expectations were let down started off pretty well enough. Story: 4/10 Nagisa and Honoka meet Mipple and Mepple and find out that they're the legendary soldiers, Pretty Cure, destined to protect the Garden of Light from the Dark Zone and rest was fillers. I enjoyed the story but after a few ep's got boring and the fight scene's were becoming dull repeating the same battle movement and till half way through 1st one marble screw! 2nd rainbow marble screw such creativity and really original. Most of the ep's were just nagisa andhonoka going to school and they get attacked by dark zone i got bored half way through but i kept to it and watched it all.
5/10
Art was decent enough well drawn backgrounds and the outfits i liked weren't over the top but yet keeping the magical girl theme.
Sound: 5/10
Average for a magical girl anime; wasn't that bad but wasn't really that good either.
Character: 3/10
Nagisa and Honoka I liked them as characters and did have the potential to be good characters but after awhile nagisa got annoying and wanted to hit in the face. Mepple+Mipple annoying mascots ever existence and porun i wanted to strangle him and shut him up. not much character development at times i could connect emotionally to the story but was very rare.
Enjoyment: 3/10
I didn't really enjoy it that much some aspects that pealed to me while others just annoyed me to no end.
Overall: 3/10
I didn't really want to bother with other seasons after watching this one; Was boring and poorly made i wouldn't suggest this one to any-one to be quite honest.
11AM
Synopsis & Plot: Pretty Cure is the first Precure! of the Precure! series. It features Nagisa Misumi and Honoka Yukishiro, two girls of Verone Junior High’s 2nd year Sakura class. One night Nagisa makes a wish to be noticed by boys instead of girls and is greeted by a strange creature named Mepple from the Garden of Light. Honoka finds a box containing a cellphone that turns into Mipple, the Princess of Hope. Mepple and Mipple were sent from the Garden of Light to find Pretty Cure and gather and protect the Seven Prism Stones from the inhabitants of the Dark Zone. From that point on,Nagisa and Honoka fight the Dark Warriors as Cure Black and Cure White to protect the Garden of Light and their own realm, the Garden of Rainbows.
Characters:
Nagisa Misumi is the ace of Verone Junior High’s lacrosse team and Honoka is a member of the science club. The most compatible match? Hardly. But the two make it work over time. Nagisa is tomboyish and athletic and it shows when often she spaces out to think about takoyaki or chocolate. Honoka on the other hand is more literal and at random times blurts out information that really doesn’t need to be known. The combo of the athletic Nagisa and the brainy Honoka makes for interesting interaction between our Precures throughout the series.
Art & Graphics:
The art in the anime is acceptable; nothing to particularly wow you but it’s nothing that will turn you off either. At some points in the series, you’ll notice the quality of the art being a little lower than usual while at others, you’ll notice it better than usual. This being a Mahou Shoujo, I have to talk about the transformation scene in the art section. At first, I wasn’t impressed with it comparing it to things like Sailor Moon, Nanoha and Corrector Yui but after a while I got used to it. Their Precure attacks were particularly fun to watch, especially in the second arc of the series. In fact, they were one of the highlights of the episodes :D
Music & Sound:
The opening and ending themes were typical cardboard Mahou Shoujo songs; perky, upbeat and girly. At first I listened to them but after a while you just find them stuck in your head playing over and over all perky like. On the point of voice acting, Yukana’s voice as Honoka jumped out at me instantly. She’s so kawaii ^_^. Nagisa on the other hand is voiced by Youko Honna who I’d never heard in an anime before. At the beginning I thought her to be a little annoying but by episode 10 or so, I got used to her catchphrase ‘Arienaiiiiiii’ every episode. One thing that I HAVE to mention talking about voice acting was the way they said the names of their attacks. I never got tired of hearing them chant ‘Black Thunder! White Thunder! Pretty Cure Marble Screw!’ all through the series. I was able to pick out Yukana especially from the duo and she sounded extra cute saying it. All in all, a great job by Youko-san and Yukana-san.
Enjoyment & Closing Comments:
Being a fan of Mahou Shoujo because of their light friendly atmosphere that’s able to pick me up when I’m feeling down or just in the mood for some cute. Pretty Cure was no disappointment. It was a little slow at times and I thought the story dragged a little toward the end but Mahou Shoujo fans will like Pretty Cure. The typical and cliché elements like young love and balancing their fight for justice with their regular lives are important in this series and it shows up quite a lot throughout the show. All in all I gave the show a 7. It lost points for slow pacing, the drop in art at some points and the cardboard sound of the opening and ending. Despite these things though, a mahou shoujo should take some time to watch this enjoyable series.
RealYRC
My Review of We are Pretty Cure Misumi Nagisa aka Cure Black is a Tom boy of the two who great at sports but not at anything else , she the leader , and was the best part of the show for me , she the star lacrosse player at Verone Academy Yukishiro Honoka aka Cure White is the Yang to Nagisa Ying , so she bad at sports but good at Science, and is smarter than her Jet Black Counterpart , and her parents aren’t always around with her The plot is about the Prism Stones to put into thePrism Hopish , so of course the toys they need to sell in real life , the villains were the low point for me both in terms of Design , and in character personalities
Dotsuku Zone
Pisard looks cool but was taken out very early
Gekidrago is just the big muscle , Poisony is the girl villain , Kiriya was interesting, but fail as a character Splash Star have way better villains than the first two seasons
Seeds of darkness the villain group of the 2rd half of the show isn’t much better plus The big bad Evil King isn’t much of big bad like later seasons of Precure , plus his design is too simple for , but his present was cool
This show have great animation , with dated technology in it , with of course Stock animation for both transformations, and ultimate attacks We are Pretty Cure is a good first try of the Precure franchise, it’s heroines are better than the villains but that not saying much for a franchise finding it’s place in the world , and also Cure Black is better than Cure White
MetaThPr4h
I'm not sure how much Toei had planned for Pretty Cure, but I really doubt that, at the time of this review, they expected it to be already close to start its 16th entry with Star Twinkle. In my way to watch all the franchise it finally came the time to tackle the original, that I wouldn't recommend as your first Precure, the fantastic main duo makes this anime well worth a watch and did overall did a great job building the foundation for one of the most successful series in Japan. The premise is pretty simple yet effective: A big baddie wants to take overliterally everything with the power of the seven stones, and to prevent that, our main characters, with the help of strange but pretty cute creatures, recieve the power to become Precure, giving them superhuman powers that they will use in big amounts to kick the ass of any villain (mostly in a monster of the week format) that comes to take the stones they have while hopefully trying to recover the other ones lost.
Outside of the obvious action elements that the series has due to the premise, what really makes or breaks the franchise to me is the characters and their interactions, and I think that they did a great job with the first main characters of Precure. Nagisa and Honoka are two girls with very different personalities and nothing they really shared outside of being in the same class, but after becoming Precure they are basically forced to be close to each other in order to save the day because they can't transform individually, this means lots and lots of interactions between them and if they weren't entertaining and the development of their friendship wasn't satisfying the series would have fallen apart hard, but that thankfully isn't the case.
The rest of the cast is pretty good but nothing special with an exception. The mascot characters are good source of comedy (especially Mepple and Nagisa moments) but sometimes they can be annoying as well, especially in the second half of the series, the villains are pretty one-note but their interactions and personalities are solid and quite entertaining to watch, there is a exception to that with one of them which is a character I personally loved due to his personal struggles, lastly there is the classmates which get the spotlight from time to time and while they aren't particularly memorable, they always give a push for more development for the main duo.
Now it's time to comment the other part of what makes Precure be Precure: the action scenes, and boy this first entry already did a very nice job showing that element! The fights are well animated and fun to watch, with lots of punches, kicks, and whatever movements the girls think of to gain the upper hand. They also get hit back hard and in some cases the situation is completely overwhelming for them, especially when the villains attack personally and not via calling a monster (something that Futari wa does way more than the other Precure I watched), this makes the fights tense which only adds to the enjoyment. The music of this anime is also solid with some rarely used (which is a good thing) inserts that add a lot of impact to the scenes where they play, making them very memorable.
Even if maybe I didn't talk that well of the side characters, all I have said so far has been pretty positive, so why do I say that I don't recommend it as first Precure? Well, this anime honestly suffers from repetitiveness. This isn't something particular from this entry due to the monster of the week format of the franchise (and I suffered it pretty notably with the first half of Heartcatch too) but while others like Princess or Hugtto use well their settings or themes to give variety, or Smile just does whatever it wants and it's freaking hilarious, Futari wa gets quite stale even when switching focus to side characters or events like Nagisa playing lacrosse or the small romance element this anime has with a senpai of her.
As the first entry (and so the one that has to create everything for the rest to adopt, change and/or improve) it also struggles with the transformation scene of the girls, and in general with the stock footage used, being pretty unimpressive, the girls also do attacks together and so one pretty much only sees two or three different magic attacks through the series in comparison to the better looking and more varied attacks that future entries have for the characters.
Lastly, the story of this first season is also split into two parts, with the first being pretty well paced but the second not adding enough to keep things fresh even if it still has nice episodes and more satisfying development for the main duo. I read that this series was originally meant to be two cours but went longer (up to the nearly 100 episodes including the sequel Max Heart) due to its popularity, and if true I'm not surprised at all with how I felt about the second half and worries me a decent amount for how the sequel will avoid getting stale.
Did that put you off? I can totally see why people would dislike this anime, way more than with any other Precure I watched so far (that to be fair are mostly the praised ones), yet I think that this anime is nice and well worth a watch thanks to Nagisa, Honoka, their interactions, and the already awesome fights this franchise has from the first season, but for that I think that one already needs to be into Precure thanks to another entry to know well what the franchise is capable of to get really in the mood for this one. I have read from other people (and I feel that I myself would have felt the same way) that started with Precure via Futari wa and eventually quit because they found it too repetitive and expected the rest of the series to be the same way. I'm sure that some people who will read this review actually watched this one first and loved it and watched the rest too, but from my point of view I would recommend to try some other ones first (and I have/will write reviews for them too!) Before watching this one.
In conclusion, while flawed, Futari wa Precure is an anime that also did things right and created the starting point of an amazing franchise that keeps providing hours and hours of fun up to this date, stay strong Precure!
GiantSpaceFlea
The mahou shoujo genre has come a long way since its beginnings in Himitsu no Akko-chan, and today it is almost as wide as pizza topping options. We have series that are cute and series that are dark; series with magic beams of lights and series with mecha piloting; Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card-hen and Mahou Shoujo no Ore. Things have changed a lot since the sixties, huh? One of the stepping stones of these changes is Futari wa Pretty Cure (literally “We Are Pretty Cure”), which started airing in 2004. The first in a franchise that nowadays includes more than fifteen titles, this series was oneof the first to join the idea of physical action with the concept of the magical girl. The power of friendship is discussed as a theme when applied to the way Nagisa and Honoka — the two girls in the title — learn how to connect to each other despite their different dispositions and interests.
I started watching the anime with the intention of learning a little more about the mahou shoujo genre, but, after 49 episodes, I have to say I am disappointed.
The framework of the story is simple: Nagisa and Honoka are chosen by two beings from a parallel universe called “The Garden of Light” to protect the Prism Stones, a bunch of jewels that hold the power of creation. To get those stones, the villains use evil spirits called Zakenna, which possess the objects around the Pretty Cure and turn them into monsters. The plot never really goes beyond; we don’t know where these people came from, where are they going to, what exactly are they and how things work in their world. Simplicity can often be a positive trait in a series — here I am thinking about series like Bleach, so lost in their own plot points they’re never going to get out of that mess —, but here it ends up leading to shallowness. It’s hard to worry about the destiny of the Garden of Light when we’re too busy wondering why is their queen giant and how can she speak without moving her mouth.
The episodes are mostly formulaic, intertwining problems that the girls face in their day-to-day lives with their Pretty Cure fights. That is not a negative aspect in and of itself; times were different and it was more important to have a long contract than a practical plot. What truly annoyed me about this is the way everyone — villains included — go out of their way to keep this formula, for *no reason at all*. Why do the villains care that no one at the school figures out Nagisa and Honoka are the Pretty Cure? I don’t know, but there they go, conveniently putting all the other girls to sleep before summoning the Pretty Cure to a fight.
By the way, the villains’ lack of common sense comes dangerously close to stupidity. They soon figure out the girls’ civilian identities, without any big “eureka moment” — and proceed to do nothing useful with the information afterwards. Barring a few exceptions, they never go after them at their home, only at school, and conveniently after classes. They never go straight for Mepple and Mipple; they always wait for the girls to transform and fight them. They get to the point of *saving them* from *their own attacks*, because “it would be harder to get the Prism Stones from you if you’re dead”. I’m sorry, but isn’t it easier to take something off an unconscious person?! Nagisa and Honoka are always yelling about how “they’re never gonna forgive” the villains for some reason or another, but, considering everything they *could* have done, I think the girls got off easy.
Most of the villains also lack personality or interesting motivation; they have a single funny character trait and that’s about it. This a problem with most of the secondary characters, but for one or two people (Honoka’s grandma, you’re a lighthouse in a stormy sea of shoujo). I have to acknowledge the fact that the anime tries hard: conflicts are set up some episodes before, and their consequences continue to be brought up episodes later; characters we met in standalone episodes show up again with the marks from their contact with the Pretty Cure. But, in the end, it seems like the interactions lack sincerity? To me, the big emotional moments always feel a little forced — though that might be due to the fact I never managed to get into the series’ way of doing things. (And the less we say about how annoying Mepple is, the better.)
The animation itself was another thing that bothered me. Yes, it’s pretty amazing to have magical girls punching the villains on the face, but Nagisa and Honoka fight like string dolls. Getting stronger because of the transformation is one thing — changing directions mid-jump to spin like a drill is quite another. The visual aspect of the characters is great (with the exception of Belzei, who looks like a Dragon Ball Z background character who was rejected from Freeza’s army), but the girls are often badly drawn and badly animated, even in traditionally important moments like their special attacks.
Sound-wise, the soundtrack is good; it’s comforting when it needs to be, exciting otherwise, and it probably constitutes the only interesting aspect about the villains. The opening song is surprisingly catchy, and not in a bad way; it’s easy to catch yourself singing “pretty de, cure-cure” without meaning to after watching five episodes at a time. My biggest problem was the ending song, which not only has nothing to do with the show at all, but is also filled with weird screaming in the background that totally kills the mood. The studio’s decision to keep it as the only ending theme for the 49 episodes *and* to choose it as the girls’ choir song later on probably didn’t help any.
In the end, I must say that, for such an influent anime series, Futari wa Pretty Cure lacks quality. There are good moments, but, even at its best, the series doesn’t quite catch up with other classics of the mahou shoujo genre. That said, I can see that there was an effort to build a good story, which is a point on its favor. I am sure many people have had fun with this series and many more will have fun with it in the future, but, in my opinion, if you’re looking for mahout shoujo anime that *really* makes you feel something, you should skip this one.
nyuuyear
Just finished my first Pretty Cure season!!~ 💕 This show is really funny & heartwarming, it even made me feel nostalgic even though I never watched it when I was younger. The music was incredibly catchy and I never got tired of listening to the intro & outro. I would recommend this to you if you like early 2000’s anime/magical girl shows, or if you like Precure and want to see how the franchise began/start watching from the beginning. I would not recommend it if you are annoyed by repetition or are looking for a deep story or fantastic villains. 🌸 My Favourite Characters 🌸 Honoka Yukishiro(Cure White)
Mipple
Kiriya
🎀 **MINOR SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT** 🎀
The Good!!~
Nagisa & Honoka’s friendship was incredibly genuine and you can feel their bond grow throughout the show. I also loved their relationships with their fairies, Mepple & Mipple~ They grew gradually as well and the real stand-out was with Nagisa & Mepple who have some pretty emotional moments with each other in later episodes. I also loved Wisdom the Stone Keeper and thought the Garden Of Light was designed beautifully. Though the villains weren’t great, I absolutely loved Kiriya for reasons I won’t spoil 💖 The magical items (Mepple & Mipple’s phone case thingies) were gorgeous and I want one incredibly badly 🥺💕 Overall, I prefer the first half storyline to the second.
The Bad…;
Nagisa has a really cute relationship with Fujipi that sadly didn’t go as far as I would’ve liked. Crossing my fingers for Max Heart? 🤞 A big issue I had for this show was the girls powers. I don’t mind the repetitive nature of every episode or that the girls are powerless alone, but I felt that they were lacking in strength for many episodes. They have only one attack (Marble Screw) for the first half of the series and while they get another one later on, I just would’ve preferred their attacks to have more variety 😞 Porun was also a bit irritating despite being adorable, and quickly made me realize I was judging Mepple too harshly~ and lastly, the villains were really weak. Particularly in the second half of the show, I actually dreaded their appearance in every episode.
eednamoj
This is your cliché magical girl anime, but as one of the first (and THE first of the precure series), there is something nostalgic about it. The characters are likeable enough, and though it's been a hot minute since I've seen it, I remember really enjoying the story itself. It kind of builds the world of precure, giving it a history and context. The transformations are cute, the outfits are cute, everything is very cute. What really deterred me is - and this is a personal preference - I'm hard-pressed to enjoy any type of entertainment without romance. The show/movie/book has to be AMAZING forme to look past a lack of romance.
That said, there's a brief romance between a couple characters in this show that at least kept me hanging on. Bottom line: if you enjoy magical girl anime and you want a taste of nostalgia but you're sick of rewatching Sailor Moon, this is a great choice!
YukizoraHonoka
I've been looking for a long time for an anime that takes the topic of female friendship seriously, and I finally found Futari wa Precure. This anime is really worth watching and recommending. The plot idea is original and well-executed. The relationship between the heroines is born slowly, and the heroines slowly mature into a friendship. It also touches on important problems that best friends encounter. The heroines themselves (their characters, interests, etc.) are well-rounded, and although they refer to certain patterns they use them in interesting ways. The events depicted in the anime are extremely engaging and properly explained. In addition, the characterdesigns and the entire anime have been beautifully designed, making it impossible to take your eyes off them.
Animelover875
Futari wa Pretty Cure was the first season of Pretty Cure I have ever watched. I will say off the bat that as an introduction to the series, it works quite well, defining themes for all seasons to come, drawing the basic "starting point" for all series: that a magical fairy will come into your window and grant you magical powers. It also introduces the first transformation where you are required to be with someone in order to transform. As characters, Nagisa and Honoka are both well-written on their own merits; Nagisa is an athletic tomboy who is extremely popular, while Honoka appears to bean introverted bookworm. I believe that while the girls do have a nice friendship, I would be hard-pressed to find this type of interaction occurring in a natural setting. The girls appear to balance each other well, but some moments in the series between them felt forced and unnatural. The villains of Futari Wa Pretty Cure ranged from interesting (particularly the character arc of Kiriya) to quite bland and stale, having seen the same archetypes before. While this series is a nice addition to the franchise, it does not start on a particularly well-off note.
ProudElitist
Futari Wa Pretty Cure A.K.A the curse of the first historical 70's Kamen Riders and Sentais strikes again. Why I am making this comparison, you ask? because this is not a majokko but an animated Kamen Rider and Sentai/Super Sentai show masquerading as a magical girl one, and you don't need anything past the typical super sentai/kamen rider "plotline" (or, better said, lack of plotline) and the choreography fights to see that this thing is a 100% product of those tokusatsus and not of Sailor Moon (on itself, already influenced by the Super Sentais) or Ojamajo Doremi barring some slight elements reminescent of those two(hell, even the two protagonists' costumes are very similar to a Kamen Rider one). The problem is, if you've ever had the misfortune to watch the first 70's Kamen Riders (Don't do it, start with Kamen Rider Black if you're interested in the IP) and the first two Sentai shows you know that those (particularly the formers) had a serious problem with a repetition that would make repetitious writers from the 60's era (my second favourite era in the genre, and that should tell you something) of american superhero comics like yours truly Robert Kanigher from DC comics look like Shakespeare by comparison, and that's exactly what happened here. It's interesting and well done until the first 30 episodes, then the typical 70's Kamen Rider repetition of episodes being a carbon-copy of the previous ones starts to drag the show down until the viewer simply gets bored and goes directly to the ending, like it happened with my watching of the show, the first thing I ever watched of this franchise. Repetition that is not excusable due to the typical repetition of the tokusatsu source material and it's all due to the fact that the people making this still had no idea on how to mesh well the majokko part with the Kamen Rider/Super Sentai part, more or less what happened with the first Kamen Riders, Himitsu Sentai Goranger and to, some extent, JAKQ Dengekitai that were awful because those making them had no idea on how to develop them properly. Now, I am a fan of both the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai IPs (I even find the Kamen Rider Girls music to my taste) and there are some of those shows - one of which I'm currently waiting a Bandai Build-A-Figure to be delivered to me soon - that I consider 100% masterpieces of superhero medias (hell, I prefer the Super Sentais to any american superhero team a là JLA or Avengers and the Kamen Rider itself to Batman) even with me starting to get on those tokusatsus with the possible worst introductions ever to them, so I surely can cut some slack to this franchise and search for a Kamen Rider Black/Spiderman Toku/Battle Fever J amongst the twenty-something years this franchise has been going on. Still, outside the first thirty episodes and the fact that the animation of this beats to crap out of "newer" stuff produced by Toei like the terrible and completely unneeded Hades Chapter continuation of Saint Seiya, I can't really recommend this show on the whole, like I guess I will completely miss the sequel Max Heart because I had enough of the unwatchable Kamen Rider V3 and the mediocre JAKQ Dengekitai (thank you Sailor Moon Cosmos...sorry, I meant Big One for that!) at the start of my toku journey and I don't want to repeat the experience again. At least it's not as atrocious as the 70's Cutie Honey Monster, but that's not saying much TBH.
