Intro

Mahoushoujo/Magical Girl anime has been popularized by animes such as Sailor Moon, Madoka Magica, Tokyo Mew Mew, and many others. But an often overlooked anime has yet to be brought into the spotlight. The show in Sailor Moon’s shadow, the anime reaching its 20th anniversary, PreCure (aka Pretty Cure) deserves way more appreciation, and I feel that it’s my job to bring this franchise into a wider scale of popularity.

If you are not interested in anime, I recommend exiting this article.

What exactly is “PreCure?”

If you have ever gone on to Netflix and watched the show known as “Glitter Force”, then you have already seen PreCure before. Glitter Force is an Americanized dub of Smile Pretty Cure!, the ninth season of PreCure. The dub, however, takes out multiple episodes from the original, changes nearly every character’s name, and even establishes from the first episode that the dub is set in America rather than Japan, where the original show took place. This dub has angered many PreCure fans around the world, and eventually Glitter Force’s trademark was removed, and is now just barely staying on Netflix.

PreCure is a magical girl anime series that has been running in Japan since 2004. It is currently one of the highest grossing animes in Japan and is extremely popular among people of all ages and genders, especially among Japanese elementary/middle schoolers. The most popular movie, Pretty Cure the Movie: All Stars F, had a total of more than 1.08M viewers, with people coming from all over the world to watch the movie in Japan. Ever since the first season, Futari wa Pretty Cure, began, more and more Japanese voice actors began auditioning so they could become the next person to voice a main protagonist, a villain, or even a side character with a single appearance. Basically, this show is very popular in Japan, and it is still unknown why it isn’t nearly as popular in the US.

How many installments are in the franchise?

Since 2004, a new installment, or season, has been released every year, with each season finishing around the end of January and starting around the beginning of February. For the first time this year, another season has begun during the airing of another season. The 20 main seasons are:

• Futari wa PreCure
• Futari wa PreCure: Max Heart
• Futari wa PreCure: Splash Star
• Yes! PreCure 5
• Yes! PreCure 5 Gogo
• Fresh PreCure!
• Heartcatch PreCure!
• Suite PreCure
• Smile PreCure!
• Dokidoki! PreCure
• Happiness Charge PreCure!
• Go! Princess PreCure
• Mahou Tsukai PreCure
• Kirakira PreCure a La Mode
• Hagutto! PreCure
• Star Twinkle PreCure
• Healin Good PreCure (which coincidentally aired during the COVID-19 pandemic)
• Tropical Rouge! PreCure
• Delicious Party PreCure
• Hirogaru Sky! PreCure

There is also one season directed towards older audiences called Kibou no Chikara: Otona PreCure ’23.

Which seasons are the best to start with?

The fortunate thing about most seasons of PreCure is that each one has unique storylines and characters, setting them apart from each other. This is with the exception of Futari wa PreCure: Max Heart and Yes! PreCure 5 Gogo, which are sequel seasons to their predecessors. So any season would be good to start with. Most fans usually start out with Smile Pretty Cure! due to its dub being on Netflix, while some fans start with whatever season they want to. A season that I highly recommend, however, is Star Twinkle PreCure, because it has an interesting storyline and fun characters.

Closing

Overall, PreCure is a really interesting and fun show, and I recommend it to any anime fans who want to watch an anime that’s a little less popular in the US. Let me know if you want to learn more about this show!