Shin Shirayuki-hime Densetsu Prétear

Upon first looking at the title you may be thinking to yourself, is this some sort of story about someone about to cry? (Pre-tear) Hahahaha but no, in all seriousness this is actual a magical girl style anime with a more interesting concept.

Story: 8/10
Basically it follows our main heroine "Himeno" as she tries to stop the evil demons made from the "Princess of disaster." (main villain) But how she does this is pretty interesting, she basically has to merge with these beings called "The Leafe Knights" in order to temporally take control of their powers, and this is quite important as she will need different ... elements against the right foe. It basically sticks to this the whole way through, all along giving the viewer some pretty nifty plot twists and surprises after the half way point. There is also a nice love story that takes place between Himeno and the main Leafe Knight, (even if it is pretty standard in anime. You know? The whole love--hate relationship) along with other mini plots to help prevent the story from keeping a sort of straight forwardness to the audience. In fact there are a handful of episodes that deal more with personal problems, and take a break from the overall story. The ending itself is by no means anything spectacular, but it does resolve all plot threads and questions, and should make you feel satisfied at the end. The action scenes I must say are a bit more on the shallow side and lack a certain flare and appeal, as some enemies were defeated in a matter of minutes once Himeno transforms, which might disappoint some viewers. This happens on most parts where they usually are involved with side plots, and make you feel like some of the actions scenes play second fiddle in some episodes. Though this is a magical girl style anime, it also has some pretty funny comedy scenes as well, but it’s never over the top and is mostly there to keep the audience into the anime. When they do gear up for battle and/or show more problematic scenes between the characters, the title quickly shifts into the appropriate mood, so you don’t have to worry about the characters acting comical at the wrong time, as it’s balanced with the seriousness.

Pretear does have some content that should be mentioned, for one there are some scenes that show Himeno and the Leafe Knights in a more nude look. It basically happens when they are about to merge with one another. Though they don’t draw any actual detail in the body, and are more just implied (ie Sailor Moon transformations).

Artwork: 7/10
Well being that this is a 2001 title, it will come as no surprise that it shows age. The character design that went into each is quite nice though, each article of clothing and facial expression is pretty decent to look at with a good scenes of detail and personality, however the backgrounds leave much to be desired, as most come off as a sort of bland watercolor style painting, this is especially true with the more natural environments, (such as the parks and forests) which aren’t the nicest to look at. Though some of the interior (such as Himeko’s house) is pretty detailed and well made with style.

Soundtrack: 8/10
The opening and closing themes are very pleasing to the ears, the first with a more mature magical girl style up beat theme, and the ending with a much more relaxed yet enthusiastic style. The background music is pretty forgettable though, it does play the right tunes at the right time depending on the situation. But you will most likely forget about it once you finished the series. The character voices are very well done (even in the dub version), and mix well with the character’s persona. An endearing soundtrack overall!

Characters: 7/10
Well to be quite frank they are very appealing and give off good vibes to the audience, but they lack real depth found on other magical girl series. As this is due to one problem, there are simply too many characters in the overall story that you really never get a chance to learn about any of them. In fact if I was to give number count of how many of them you get actual back story and/or knowledge of, I would say its around 5 or so. Which isn’t much considering there are around 14 characters in this. Still, they do spotlight the appropriate cast members whom of which are indeed important to the storyline.

Bottom Line: 7/10
All in all Pretear is an endearing tale that should satisfy its audience. Even though it lacks deep character depth found in other titles of this style, it makes up for it nicely with its mix baggage of genres (ie love, action, suspense, comedy). While I am not the biggest fan of magical girl titles, I certainly did have fun with this. And I think you will too!

At first, I thought Pretear would be some dumb rip off of Sailor Moon using elements instead of planets but man was I wrong. This show was much deeper than I thought it would be and even made me cry at the end! One thing I liked about this anime was that all of the characters developed into likeable people and it also wasnt predictable-- because predictable shows are just plain boring. I couldnt stop watching it and finished the series in one night! So I give this one two thumbs up, although I wish I could have watched it over time other than all ... at once so I dont reccomend my method haha. Well hoped this helped even though it was written kinda bad :]

"Solitude is everyone's greatest fear."

When most people look at the mahou shoujo genre nowadays, there are probably two things that immediately pop into their heads. The first is a traditional, happy-go-lucky mahou shoujo series with young girls fighting evil with the power of love and friendship, a la Sailor Moon or Pretty Cure.

The second is Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the dark and gritty reconstruction of the genre that became the darling of the anime fandom almost overnight.

However, Shin Shirayuki-hime Densetsu Pretear, or simply known as Pretear, seems to straddle those two preconceptions. While the series starts out as light-hearted as a traditional magical girl ... series, the latter half exposes many of the darker elements that made Madoka Magica so popular, even though Pretear was created nearly a decade before. And while I'm not here to compare Pretear to every other mahou shoujo anime out there, I do find it important to place the show in the context of something in a genre that is meant for younger girls. With that said, let's begin the review.

Story: 8
Pretear definitely had a slow start, and the first quarter or so is extremely episodic with a monster-of-the-week formula. The tone was very light with numerous comedic moments that you would expect to see in a typical shoujo series. However, around the half way mark, Pretear begins to unveil some of the darker undertones and by the last few episodes, it becomes quite emotional and dramatic. There is a sense of despair in those final episodes, as characters are put through many difficult situations. Although I wouldn't necessarily call the story philosophical in any way, the depth is there if you look for it. Throughout the latter half of the series, themes like unrequited love, abandonment, and loneliness play a huge role in how the story pans out. And while this type of drama may not appeal to everyone, I certainly found the story to be quite gripping and emotionally charged where it needed to be. Pretear also borrowed some ideas from famous fairy tales, so it was also interesting to see those elements come into play at various points in the series.

For those who have read the manga and enjoyed it, keep in mind that the anime story line is quite different from the midpoint onward. However, I personally felt that the anime version was much more enjoyable with the changes added, since it contributed to the drama and overall feel of the series. Although the manga explored similar themes, the anime changed the plot in a way that made much more sense, in my opinion.

Art: 6
When watching Pretear, I tried my best not to gripe about the art and animation too much, given that the show was produced in 2001. Still, I can't say the animation was top-notch, and even the character designs weren't all that great. Himeno in particular had this problem of looking too thin and lanky from afar, and the faces of all the characters were often distorted slightly during some scenes. But since Himeno transforms into a different form with each guy, the costume changes were very pretty to watch. Overall, don't expect too much from the art and animation. It wasn't terrible to the point of making my eyes bleed, but it definitely wasn't outstanding.

Sound: 6
Unfortunately, the sound department for Pretear was also not top-notch, but this probably had less to do with the production year and more with the type of budget usually given to a title like this. There wasn't much music throughout most of the show, and even during the emotional scenes in the finale, they just reused the opening theme over and over again. Although the opening theme wasn't bad, it eventually became annoying because they played it often more than once in several episodes. At other points during the show, the music was either not noticeable or wholly nonexistent. As for voice acting, the roles were played out quite well but none of them stood out. A few were even slightly grating, such as Mayune and Yayoi, but this might have been due to the characters themselves being rather irritating at times. Overall, the sound was just mediocre. Not horrible, but not great either.

Character: 9
This is definitely where Pretear shined. Although the characters each follow archetypes, each of them develop enough that towards the end of the series they become quite likable. Save for a few, even the comedic relief characters end up being important towards the end. The main lead, Himeno, is your typical ditzy shoujo protagonist. What makes her unique at first is her physical strength due to years of martial arts training, but this aspect of her character is not brought up as often as you would think. Himeno is quite admirable as she attempts to understand and help others while blocking out her own vulnerabilities, and this makes for much of the drama in the series. The seven "Leafe Knights" are her comrades and protectors, and while two of them, Hayate and Sasame are fleshed out more than the others, all of them become endearing to the viewer by the end of the series. The antagonist, whom I won't name because of spoilers, is actually a very tragic figure and easy to sympathize with. Although I wished her character back story was elaborated upon a little more, I still felt like her plight was understandable.

And then, there's Himeno's family. One thing that really separates Pretear from the hoard of mahou shoujo anime is that a lot of attention is given to the main female lead's family. If you've ever watched Sailor Moon or even Madoka Magica (to a lesser extent) you'll find that the family is introduced, then effectively disappears for the climax of the series. But Pretear is not just about romance and magic; the theme of love in the family sense is also explored quite well. Throughout the series, Himeno's family serves as a source of happiness as well as conflict, and this was very interesting to watch. Although I do wish more insight was given on her relationship with them after the final battle, the growth of that relationship through the rest of the series was still quite good.

Enjoyment: 8
Overall, I have to say I was quite impressed with Pretear. Since I read the manga before watching this version, I was a little nervous as to how it would be adapted. I expected a normal magical girl series, but what I got was something that was actually a few shades darker than the source material. Of course this is no Madoka Magica, but it's definitely not Sailor Moon either. If you're a fan of mahou shoujo series, then Pretear is definitely a show you should watch if you haven't already. If you don't necessarily like traditional mahou shoujo but you would like a fantasy romance with a few darker psychological twists (but not enough to make it truly grim and gritty like Madoka Magica) then Pretear may be something you would like to check out. All in all, while Pretear wasn't perfect, I did enjoy it a lot. The first few episodes dragged a bit, but once I bit into the meat of the story it really captured me. The finale especially was quite enjoyable with all of the emotional drama.

Overall: 8
I've pretty much said everything that needs to be said, and this is already a really long review so I'll just leave it at that. Watch this series if it looks like something you'll enjoy, and keep in mind that it isn't actually all it seems to be at first glance.

At first, this show seems like every other Shojo anime you might've seen. And, you're pretty much right. This show is horrible.

Story: 3/10
This plot is very generic and boring. I cannot believe that I sat at watched this. A girl named Himeno Awayuki moves into her new home, and stumbles into a guy named Hayate. Then she discovers she has powers, yada yada yada. There's obviously romance involved, duh, it's a shojo anime. The rest of the plot writes itself, pretty much. I haven't read the manga (I never plan to) so I have no clue how much has been changed.

Art: 6/10
The ... art was probably one of the only half-way decent things about this show. It's not mediocre, but not amazing. So it's actually pretty standard. Though, it has some horrible art at times. That's one thing I can say about the art. The major battle scenes were animated the best, I think. But they usually are, arent they?

Sound: 5/10
The only songs I can really remember are the opening and ending songs, which weren't that great. So I can't really grade this aspect.

Character: 4/10
Besides the main heroine, I could stand all the characters. Though, like the plot, the characters were somewhat typical. There weren't many stand-out characters as most anime have, but if I had to choose one, it'd be Kei. He was the really gay one. He had a fucking doll of himself and used a picture of himself as his wallpaper. Come on!

Enjoyment: 3/10
This show didn't make me feel they way I usualy feel at the end of a series, satisfied. Though I hated the show, something seemed weird about the ending and I have no clue what. Anyway, the characters defenetly had something to do with the lack of enjoyment.

Overall: 3/10
I've stated that many times. ;)

First few episodes may have you wavering between dropping but if you stay with this its well worth it. Its a beautiful plot and works on the theme of magic and nature. The main characters father has remarried and this give the family settings a cinderella feel as the new home is huge. Our main character meets up wth a collection of people and our story begins. The anime is similar to princess tutu and sailor moon but more elemental.
Its worth continuing with and has some very suprising shockers in the plot, I enjoyed this anime and wish it had been longer so the ... plot could perhaps develope more.

From the first impressions I had about this series, it seemed like it’d be a simple magical girl anime about magic and something about fairy tales. It didn’t seem that it would go that deep and the art itself seems like it’d be a typical shoujo-slash-magical girl anime. I remember I came across the OP during my Internet travels and liking a lot because it’s by Yoko Ishida, one of the more well-known singers for anime.

The first episode introduced a lot of the elements to the series, more specifically, something exactly we’re going to get. There might have been attempts at being deeper while introducing ... Himeno’s feelings from taking care of her drunk novelist dad to sudden immediate comfort and her needs being met. Not only that, there seemed to be some tension between the sisters, Mawata and Mayune, and Himeno because of her previous status in life. This is where Himeno meets the guys, or rather, the Leafe Knights.

Leafe is the life force that everyone and everything has and it has been disturbed because the Princess of Disaster’s seal has been destroyed by someone. The Leafe Knights are those who, well, protect those. The Pretear is someone who helps protect the Leafe and do things that the Knights could not (after merging with her). After they found Himeno, they start training her (or rather, she trains herself) to the power that she apparently had dormant.

The anime is exactly what it says on the tin although it does try to be a little deeper. The question that resides most in this anime seemed to be: What happens when the Leafe Knights are done with the Pretear and everything is done? But this question doesn’t come up till a little more than halfway through the series.

If anything, the focus is more on the slapstick and the family element Himeno and Mawata are suffering through. And even then the slapstick takes the focus away (even between the Leafe Knights and the kids versus Go) from the main plot elements. We don’t really know what’s going in anyone’s head until they actually tell us which defeats the purpose of the visual media.

The art, at times, is really bad and shows its age. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s going on until the characters tell us what just happened. It seemed that most of the budget went towards the transformation sequences (which is a cool idea in itself – the Knights becoming her power and changing various outfits and elements) and the battle scenes.

Musically, it’s also pretty nice although sometimes there’s a random insert song that one of the voice actors sang for it that’s a little distracting from what’s going on. Granted, it doesn’t seem that the production team had a lot of music to choose from (mostly the instrumentals of the opening and ending songs as well as musical box versions of it) but, in general, the music does fit with the tones nicely (although sometimes it comes in a little too early or a little too late at times).

But for the themes itself, it’s a little clumsy on what it wants to focus on. There’s the element of family, adjusting to new life, and then there’s the thought: what happens to the Pretear after she’s done being useful? In Takako’s case, she fell in love with one of the knights and he rejected her – she didn’t realize the other guy loved her until sixteen years later.

As for the family elements, as mentioned before, it’s very clumsy. Mawata’s story is more of coping with loss many years ago and dealing with new family members, Himeno’s deal is adjusting from poor to rich life (as well as not understanding why rich people do what they do), and Mayune’s way of dealing with someone like Himeno who’s suddenly thrust into her world.

You would think, based on the focus on Mawata’s background about her feelings, this story is about her and not Himeno. It’s understandable that people would think her quiet and demure would mean she’s perfectly emotionally equipped to deal with all sorts of things on her own. She does very much care about her family but she’s carrying a huge burden that she hasn’t been able to release for whatever reason.

With Mayune, her bullying is actually most of the slapstick. In the first episode, you’d think that maybe there’d be a focus about bullying within the family but it never goes beyond slapstick comedy. She doesn’t make it clear, other than Himeno’s previous status, on why she’s even bothering to do it in the first place. And then she makes a personality twist that she suddenly cares about Himeno? This would have been more believable had there been a serious focus on Mayune instead of just laughing at her attempts to thwart Himeno and seduce one of the Leafe Knights.

Himeno, though, doesn’t really focus too hard on anything. There’s a forced romance between her and the main Leafe Knight, again, halfway through the series and there didn’t seem to be any chemistry (although more synergy since she needs him to use his powers). She doesn’t really interact with her parents unless it’s forced or they’re at the dinner table. The step-mother isn’t cruel or anything but she always tries to help Himeno into becoming a proper young lady of her status. The anime tries really had to make us believe that there’s a sort of tension between her and the step-mother but there really isn’t. If anything, Himeno is reacting like how any teenager would. Was that the point?

Despite these problems, though, the anime does try hard to focus on the “What happens to the magical girl after she’s done being useful?” It’s an important conversation to have though – especially in a situation where the Knights have to bond with her in order to give her her powers. For Takako, there was love and, eventually, despair.

For Himeno, life goes back to normal although she’s still really close to them. Try as they might, they want the viewer to believe so hard that the couple could become a couple but it seems that she’s a little closer to her family than ever. We wouldn’t know what was going on until Himeno told the viewer.

For what this series is, it’s exactly what it says on the tin. The transformation sequences are really cool and actually interesting (not enough time to see all the outfits in a battle though) but everything else is pretty basic and normal. It’s good that Himeno is more focused on her family than falling in love and worried that much over rejection.

This series is a decent start into the magical girl series that won’t ask a lot of questions right away and instead tries to entertain the viewer with some slapstick comedy mostly, instead of focusing in too much with what’s going in the actual plot.

(Part of Project Magic!!)

If there's one word that sums up "Pretear", that word would be "cliched". It's not a word I personally use all that often, but whilst watching "Pretear", I couldn't help but have that word pop into my head constantly.

The whole magic girl setting is a well treaded premises, but usually there would be at least something that gives the show a sense of identity, something that helps distinguish it in some small way. That something is absent in "Pretear".

And as I watched, the cliches piled on one after another: the generic character designs; the overused magical girl transformation sequences; the annoyingly loud heorine; the ... emotionless bishounen architype; the stereotypical villain with the signiture evil manic laughter. In fact the villain overused the evil laughter to the point of obsession. What's more, she had a textbook backstory that I predicted waaay before they tried to sell it off as a big twist. That's also far from being the only predictable part of the story, but I'll refrain from giving out specifics in order to avoid spoilers (given the predictable nature of most of the twists though, I use the term "spoilers" loosely).

On occasion, "Pretear" did manage to surprise me, but only because those
plot developments are feels so sudden and random that it was like they were made up half way through - there's no sense of things clicking together, no sense of "ahhh that explains why in that earlier episode this person did that" kind of thing.

But despite the dubious plot execution, the stale, over the top comedy tropes, the terrible lack of originality in general, etc, "Pretear" isn't that bad a show to watch. The last few episodes are particularly good and appropriately climatic, even through the deja vu inducing "I'M NOT GIVING UP!!!" battle of wills scenes. The reason "Pretear" isn't a bad show is simple: even though nearly everything it does have been done more than a few times before, it still does it pretty well, and it succeeds to be a lot more than the sum of its unimpressive parts. Overall, "Pretear" is a decent watch, no more no less.

Well, this little magical girl show is pretty much standard in many ways. It’s not that it’s bad, mind you, but the story feels like it was told before in other shows. A young girl is trusted with the power to save the world and only has to let pretty young men inside her… um, not that way.

The whole thought of ‘pretear’ing seems to stem around the thought that she and one of the leafe knights becoming one and sharing the power that leafe knight controls. You can consider it sexual except when you have three of the leafe knights as preteens and toddlers, it ... gives you a unsettling feeling. Each episode feels rather like a slice of life rather then a magical girl show because the only fighting that really happens is at the end of the shows and the rest is placed for talks of the heart.

When we get down to the characters, again, they are pretty standard. Himeno is a normal girl who has problems with family. She’s clumsy, whiny, and yet overly cheerful most of the time. Something that really annoys me about her is that it only takes her a couple minutes to get right back to being the out of control energetic girls.

Hayate is an asshole that blames himself for what happen to the first pretear. Sasame is the more gentle and playboyish who understands peoples feelings. Kei is kind of a narcissist. Go is… there isn’t much to say on him or Mannen, Hajime, and Shin. They just, well, are. We get barely any story about them and besides Hayate and Saseme, they only stand there to have more then two characters for the main character to pre with. When looking up the characters on the Wiki to get a little more of the backstory, besides Shin, Hayate, and Sasame, the others had only 4 lines or less explaining the characters and two were mostly filled up with who played the voices for them. Even Himeno’s narration was a bit short, there was pretty much nothing for any of them to go on.

The Animation is actually alright, mostly perfect with only a few hiccups once in a while. The transformations though should not be as long as they are every single time although they are shorter then most. The boys of course look rather pretty, and all the girls are rather cute to beautiful. This is basic for magical girl shows and have a bishonen look about them. Perfect for women who love that style, though men might find it annoying to see long lashed men.

The music is pretty much standard lovely sweet music that feels a bit like Sailor Moon music. Some feel wonderful, but other times, it just throws me out of the show a little. The English voices… leave much to be desired, at least for the women. They are rather high pitched and feel forced. The men sound better and I can only wish to hear Illich Guardiola do more stuff. For your information, he played Hayate. Chris Patton does the perfect voice for Sasame in that his voice is rather sexy!

The reason why I thought I'd watch this was because I love reverse harem!!
One girl - Himeno destined to be the pretear and fight against the evil princess who is draining leafe (a kind of life source) from the world... surrounded by 7 guys....
Kind of reminded me of sailormoon how she changes into costumes... but the wierd thing was- by combining with each individual guy. So if you think about it 13 episodes for the series... 7 changes with 7 diff guys and thats half the series gone just introducing the individual changes very briefly...

With all that taken into account, i felt the anime lacked ... a strong storyline and never really gave any depth to any of the characters...... Normally in a good anime I always feel a strong attraction to at least one of the characters but I didnt get that with this.

Despite there being seven pretty boys, theres only really one love interest and the others are just background roles with three of them being little kids... but thats just me being bias i guess as i love a plot when the main female lead has more than one love interest.

Overall it was fine to watch if you enjoy a girl changing costumes, trying to save the world with her love and lots of male eye candy.
With it only being 13 episodes I wouldnt call it a waste of my time and it is easy to watch with little brain power needed!

We all have a point in our life when we fall into this darkness of despair, when we are scared, don't know what to do, at times we feel it's best to disappear, or a knight in shining armour should come to our rescue. In times like these we also have options- get consumed by that darkness of despair or refuse to be consumed by it. That's the scenario Pretear presents to us.

Story
It's a whooping 10. It's about two Pretears; one who was once a Pretear and the other that wants to be a Pretear ... and in between a whole lot of things happen. The key point is I-don't-want-to-be-alone and I-want-to-be-loved kind of story. You can start picturing Friends and Family kind of relationship.

Art
It's very good, the preting (which i think it's more like mating, it's just that there are no kids or creatures borne here... i know i sound pervy), the clothes she has on during the preting, the demons and the clearly seen super powers.

Sound
It's clear and the music just suits it.

Character
The characters are well-developed, let me let you know, they are not predictable. Each character has it's own unique and distinct character and that's what makes Pretear Unique.

Overall it's awesome, you can't be bored.....bored is far from the whole setting, it has almost everything from Shoujo, fantasy, action, magic, super power, comedy to romance. It's 13 episodes of solid, unique, captivating and little-tear or much-tear shedding anime.
Just sit back and have a great time. I wished Hayate could just be honest with himself, the guy is such a baka.

So I am a big fan of magical girl shows and when I wanted to watch a somewhat shorter show, I landed on this one. It's short, it's sweet, it's a magical girl anime: I enjoyed myself.

But seriously guys, the main conflict of this show is beyond stupid.

STORY

So the story... In my opinion, the show moves through it's story beats relatively well and it doesn't try to be too complicated or sophisticated.

Which,, might be what's the problem here. The conflict in this show is SO melodramatic and #firstworldproblems , it's just plain funny. I wanted Himeno to roast the main villain for her ridiculous ... motivation so badly, but alas, the plot took itself seriously.

If you are above the age of 14, you probably can't take this story too seriously.

It is very much a magical girl show centered around the romance, so if that isn't your thing, then I'd stay away.

Some of the humour is a bit outdated. Some of it was still funny and a few jokes were a bit yikes (mostly centered around Tanaka, the butler, who isn't against the idea of one of the girls falling in love with him, apparently), but most of it just fall flat to me.

The theming is a bit lackluster in my opinion. So it's based on Snow White,, but only in the sense that her father remarries rich and her new family member don't treat her right sometimes; her father isn't dead or anything. Which, as a setting, I liked surprisingly well, but then you have this whole Leife deal, which brings in a more "everything is alive and connected" type of theming, but it doesn't really do that much with that either? Like I said, this show is mostly about who will become whose boyfriend by the end lol

ART

I REALLY love Himeno's general design and transformations, it's just really iconic. Her hair looks really bright in the pictures on this website, but her hair is such a beautiful soft orange in the show...

Her transformations are very dated and it's not something you'd see nowadays, but that's what I really love about it. It's also more pastel instead of the BRIGHT colours you'd see in say Tokyo Mew Mew a few years later. One thing I really liked about the character designs are her LONG legs

The transformation sequence itself isn't bad, but not my favourite.

SOUND

The opening is really good, I listen to it pretty often haha. It's honestly one of the reasons why I wanted to watch this show.

didn't notice the OST that much, but I did really like some of the voice acting, Himeno's VA in particular. She has a very soothing voice.

CHARACTER

Himeno is a very stereotypical main character. Eats a lot, loud, is physically ridiculously strong, but very sweet on the inside, ect. ect. But I do think it was executed well enough. I liked her and the way she treats the younger characters in the show.

Anyobdy else notice that Hayate is just EXACTLY like Tamahome from Fushigi Yuugi? lol

I liked the male characters in this show, I liked their dynamic with Himeno and their designs. Some of them get development, which is good. I liked the younger characters a lot, I think they were very cute!

This show has that one magical girl cliche that was really prevalent around this time, which is good character turns evil~ ooohh,,- I have yet to see this executed well honestly... Like,, brainwashing is fine, but I specifically mean this trope where they are jealous or something and that is their motivation for turning evil haha

ENJOYMENT

Yeah, I enjoyed myself. It wasn't exceptional, but I hadn't really expected it to be that way either. I think it was the perfect length and it had some definite merits (designs and the opening) But i don't think you should watch this if you aren't into shows from this era or into magical girl shows

OVERALL

It's a real 6/10 for me. If it had a better conflict I would have liked it way better, but it's not too long so it's watchable.

Oh man. I loved this anime so freaking much. I bought it on a whim because it looked a bit like Sailor Moon and as soon as I finished the DVD, I went out and bought the next two in the series. This was the kind of anime that you tell all your friends about, not only because it's fun to watch, but also because the story is gripping.

I absolutely loved the characters. I loved their personalities, the way they interacted with one another, and how each one of them never felt like an unimportant part of the story. I can't remember if I watched ... the original with subtitles, but I can honestly say that I was satisfied with the dubs of this anime. As it was one of my very first anime to watch, I did not know better but now that I am a bit more experienced and have heard some horrible, HORRIBLE dubs, I can say that the VAs for this show were very well chosen.

I LOVE the music in this show. The theme song can get old, but the rest of the music is superb and matches the moods perfectly.

All in all, I would recommend this anime to anyone. It's short yet sweet and definitely an anime you won't forget!

I had overlooked this series for years and while I was watching an ADV outtake of another anime one of the voice actors said how much passion they put into vocing Pretear.

This is what finally made me check it out and I have to admit UNFORTUNATELY it was a decent shojo-ish anime despite a huge waste of episodes at the beginning

Animation

Lets take into account this series was made back in 2001, animation is quite decent even up to today’s standards, yes the transformations are korny as well as Pretears special attacks and enemy designs but its kinda in line with the style this anime is ... going for.

Sound

A pretty strong point with this anmie imo. The opening and closing credits where very nicely sung. Character voices where decent I liked the wisecracks/jokes between the Pretear and her “handsome rude knight”. Overall very decent.

Story

The story is a basic anime style fairytale. A girl has powers to save the world from darkness and has many “knights” or shall I say guys with individual powers that help/guard/guide her on her quest. Now this story seems very basic until the villain shows up and complicates things. Its after this point somewhere after episode 6 that the story really picks up and if you haven’t been bored by the previous hokey introduction episodes you surely get sucked into a very emotional/romantic storyline that will attempt to pull on your heartstrings.

Character

Well the characters where all kinda what you see is what you get except for the obvious few main characters who had a little depth to them because of their past storylines. Generally all the characters are likable some are even hilarious (the short servant). My only quarm is I felt there where too many “knights” (children knights??) that seemed to serve little point in this anime.

Enjoyment

Well although it was seeming like a rush watch anime for me I did quite enjoy a lot of the jokes in the beginning and the emotional parts at the end I did not really enjoy how it was implemented and I feel it could have been done better but overall i will have to go with
“I don’t want to admit it but I enjoyed it” if that’s a valid answer.

Value

I would say if you like emotional type stories consider this a quick watch and maybe even a quick recommendation to others. For a fairytale type anime it was a good watch (you can’t really expect greatness can you) so I have to say its got decent value but it might not be for everyone.

Planet Tyro Rating: Watchable

Planettyro.com

Himeno Awayuki was a normal sixteen-year old girl until her father married a woman who happens to be rich. Since then, she has been perceived as an outcast by both her new stepsisters and her classmates. Later Himeno finds out from seven men called the Leafe Knights that she is something called Pretear, a girl who has the power to merge with and control the nature of the elemental-oriented powers from the Leafe Knights and stop an evil being called the Princess of Disaster.

My thoughts:
I really enjoyed this anime. I love the characters and my favorites are Hayate and Sasame. It's very well dubbed and ... her outfits change when she preets with a different Leafe Knight. Kinda reminds me of Sakura in Cardcaptors when she changes outfits when chasing down a card. Prétear is an anime worth watching in my opinion.

"The snow falls. The snow of miracles fall all over. Those with a weak heart. Those who have committed sins. The white Leafe will heal them all."

First of all I adore Pretear and writing a review about it should have happened years ago but I always ran out of words to describe this anime.

The synopsis is rather simple, Himeno moves into a mansion owned by her new step mom and two step sisters where she has a hard time fitting in with her new reality. One day she meets 7 Leafe Knights who tell her she has special power needed to save the world ... which requires her become Pretear together with the knights, each knight acting as her armor, sword, and shield. The highlight of Pretear are the transformation scenes and the emphasis on character interaction and development. There is hidden depth in how the main characters and her family grow to understand and love each other.

In Himeno's case she had a hard time fitting in with her new family, and her school mates spread rumors about her behind her back. It's lonely to be in a new place with no one to call friend. As I continued to watch Himeno's strong resolve to improve herself so she can better understand her new family made me a sympathizer to her cause. Himeno's father adores her in his own way, and I enjoyed their father/daughter interaction where he makes sculptures of tulips naming it Himeno and she smashes it in rage. Himeno's step sisters obviously dislike Himeno as the interloper in their house. They are spoiled rich girls who think less of Himeno's upbringing. However Pretear excels in masking motivations of seemingly shallow characters and unearthing them later, suffice to say I really couldn't find it in my heart to hate Himeno's step sisters.

For a 13 episode show Pretear covered character development for Himeno's family and found time to develop the villain's character and story. Unfortunately this meant cutting off the character development for the Leafe Knights. Hayate and Sasame are the primary love interests in Pretear and their story gets fleshed out a bit more while the remaining five Leafe Knights only played minor roles in the show and part of their purpose was simply to act as wardrobe to make Himeno's magical girl transformation look prettier.

Music in Pretear is very good in my opinion. This anime has a extremely good OST, the opening and ending songs are both extremely attractive to the ear. The character songs in the ost are all good, my favorite being Sasame's song that is used as a theme during the anime a few times. One of the reason this anime has remained in my memory for so long definitely has to do with the opening song White Destiny which I can still hum it even ten years later.

I can definitely say I enjoyed this anime way above and beyond the rating I gave it. On top of the surprising depth and how much I liked each of the characters, Pretear had a very fairy tale romance to it that really got to me like no other anime has. Like the story of snow white where the princess is awakened by a magical kiss, sometimes a simple fairy tale rooted in reality is more beautiful than any fantastically spun story.

To summarize while Pretear doesn't go above and beyond what one expects of a typical magical girl anime, its good points are the fact it is short and to the point with no unnecessary dragging of the plot via character intros and monster of the week. The story starts off being very run of the mill but it does offer unexpected depth with its theme focusing on merging of families and the harsh reality that comes from moving to a brand new place. Later the plot starts to introduce the villain and that's where this anime really picks up. Finally music is definitely one of the reason to watch this anime in my opinion.

"The snow falls. The snow of miracles fall all over. But there is one heart which has not been saved."

Overall Pretear is a very good magical girl anime and one of my favorites to this day. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for a fairy tale/fantasy theme anime with emphasis on character and costume/outfits.

I just finished it today. 1/13/09
And i've got to say it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
I thought "oh this is going to be another salior moon knock off,"
but to my surprise, it was slighty different. Yes, there are magical beings, and such, but this was such a tear jerker.
I mean at first the series is very corny! (I did watch it dubbed, since I was to lazy to read subs)
But once you get into the 2nd-3rd episode, you think, "it's not so bad" and you kind of get hooked.
Once you get deep into it you can't help ... crying since the characters affection have for each other is so sweet!
But if your looking for an amazing series...
I wouldn't say this would be good for you. I liked it, but wasn't totally in love with it.

At first, I thought Pretear would be some dumb rip off of Sailor Moon using elements instead of planets but man was I wrong. This show was much deeper than I thought it would be and even made me cry at the end! One thing I liked about this anime was that all of the characters developed into likeable people and it also wasnt predictable-- because predictable shows are just plain boring. I couldnt stop watching it and finished the series in one night! So I give this one two thumbs up, although I wish I could have watched it over time other than all ... at once so I dont reccomend my method haha. I defenitily reccomend this series!!!!!

As a high schooler with little experience watching anime, but plenty of enthusiasm, I jumped at the chance to buy Pretear when I found the series in the bargain bin at Best Buy. If I could go back in time and warn myself against this total waste of money I would. This series belongs in the bargain bin for sure, not in a DVD player.

Even as a 16 year old, when my tastes were far less developed, I was disappointed with this show. The characters are shallow, the plot is pointless and the stakes are very low. It tries to pull at your heart strings ... without investing you emotionally in the characters.

The protagonist and main love interest are both fairly unlikable. In fact all the characters are very one dimensional. It was very difficult to finish watching Pretear and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

So, I seemed to have rated this lower than a lot of other people.

I will spare you the synopsis because, well, it's on the first page.

I went into this anime due to the art work. I'm one that bases a story by it's cover first. If the art doesn't appeal to me, I don't want to try it unless I run out of things to watch.

I really was enjoying this story to begin with. I felt it was going a little quicker than I would like, but I was still enjoying it.

Then there was a huge twist that did not make sense to me ... at all towards the end and that just turned me off from the show.

I enjoy twists in shows, if they logically make sense. If there had been hints and things through out the series I wouldn't have mind the character change.

I finished it, it had a fairly decent ending but due to the out of the blue twist just to do a twist, I was turned off from the show. It made me really sad. But, I decided to see if there was a manga it was based upon and I found it. I started to read the manga and I am finding it more fleshed out and slower. I feel the characters develop more in the manga so far than they did in the anime. It's amazing that only having 13 episodes can do to a story. IF they would had made it a longer series, I bet they could have focused more on the twist and developed the character more I would have enjoyed it more.

I may give the series another try to see if I see the hints better, but it is not on my high priority.

Ah, another magical girl anime. I loved this because I typically binge watch these types of anime! The mc Himeno has the ability to "preet" with handsome slightly older men. They give her the ability to fight against demon... larva(?) and aid her in her battle against the princess of despair...

(Spoilers here)

In the end I kept getting upset over the deaths that happened (aka Sasame dying to be the princess of despair's knight, and Hayate dying to protect Himeno from the tree) but then they came back to life- and I almost shed a tear after Himeno "died" but then she came back to ... life after Hayate kissed her- I- my feelings had been toyed with at that point. It would have been great if it ended with a little bit of angst, but still a great beam of hope. But it was still good I'd watch it again like the magical girl anime nerd I am.

(More spoilers)

I read somewhere in the wiki page that the three little kid knights were the reincarnations of the knights who lost their lives 16 years ago in a battle with the princess of despair. I was surprised they didn't include a scene of this in the anime, revealing that they were, indeed, those three knights who lost their lives that day. But ig it's in the manga... I'll need to read it now ahahah