Futari wa Precure

I am on episode 26 and thus far it is a fine show. the story is your typical mahou shoujo setup with the all the standard fare. i would attribute the story's downfall to the fact that the target audience for this show is probably that of a much younger age group.

my issue with the "story" would be that there is never a time when you can emotional invest yourself in the lives of these magical girls, and that is a real shame because Honoka and Nagisa, as character types, have great potential. i wish i could say the same for their furry friends... at ... times i wish that they would dispose of their cell phoned sidekicks-mepo!

the girls transform together, they call on their powers through an elaborate creature-infused cell phone & card system. with one swipe, journey through an epic transformation with music to match. the way they fall into place right before they let you know who they are and what they plan to do with you, is thee sweetest part of the transformation for me.

the battles happen according to a formula that you pretty much get by first couple of episodes and it DOES get stale. i wish their attacks had been upgraded by now or they would get new ones.

what i would like to see are more episodes that deal with the girls' daily lives with no episodic battles... they have 49 episodes i am sure they can find a way to spare a few.

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 were ... quite 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.

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 one ... of 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.

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.

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 be ... an 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.