This Week in Anime

Pretty Pretty Precure

Nick
Gotta love 2020, where even innocent and escapist kids cartoons get dragged kicking and screaming into being topical.

So yeah, after 10,000 years, Precure is finally free from licensing hell and ready to conquer the world of English language anime streaming. We were originally planning to hit up Kira Kira A La Mode, since Crunchyroll put all of that up last week, but they also conveniently filled in the missing first 12 episodes of the latest series, so why not try to stay topical? So let's talk about Healin' Good Precure, or as I like to call it:

I've only known Pegitan for 6 episodes but if anything happens to him I will personally slap every employee at Toei.

So up front: My exposure to Precure is extremely minimal. I've seen like, half of the original Futari Wa Pretty Cure, a handful of scattered episodes of other series, and I remember like 1 episode of Glitter Force where they talk about "Japanese Pizza" and nothing else.

Back in the days we only had TWO Pretty Cures to protect us from the ever encroaching forces of darkness, and we APPRECIATED IT.

So just putting that up front. We're both neophytes to the Cures that are Pretty, and going into this mostly with our own experience with other kids' anime for context. So, I have to ask hardcore fans to cut us some slack if we miss some particular references or misinterpret some traditional parts of this newest entry. For instance, I have no idea if having a whole team of Mascot critters to go along with the main girls is a usual thing or not, but the Digimon-loving part of me very much appreciates that all the Pretty Cures are technically Biomerge Digivolutions this season.

All I know is I like these little squirts a lot more than Mipple and Mepple.

That's right, these stuffed animals have a license to practice medicine, magical though it may be. I can only imagine how their simulations went.

Really though, I dig this season's use of medical imagery for its theming. The over all "healing" aspect seems to have more of an environmentalist bent - they're healing the corrupted elements of the world like water, trees, etc - but the way they incorporate doctors coats into the transformation sequences is just aces.

Oh, it's absolutely a shameless advertisement for plastic, but the better toy vehicles are the ones that can build a likable cast and compelling story around the stuff designed to suck money out of parents' wallets. And from the episodes we checked out I'd say Healin' Good does a pretty good job of that.

Through osmosis I gather every season has at least 1 absolute doofus of a Cure, but Hinata really takes the cake- er wait, this isn't the Dessert themed series. She takes...something, alright?

Speaking of those jokes, I get the feeling the official translator is likely less fond of Hinata.

But yeah, girl's an absolute bundle of energy and excitement that runs head-on in whatever direction she happens to be facing. Which just so happens to be where the giant monster is.

I mean, she should be. She certainly has the most enthusiasm for this whole superhero shtick.

Jokes aside I actually really like Nodoka. She suffers a bit from having to be the mediator between dunkass Hinata and super-student Chiyo, but the way they tie her own past into both the superhero aspect of being a Pretty Cure, and specifically this series' focus on "healing" works really well.

And that's a really strong, emotional way to set up our lead! I can easily imagine a shallower take where Nodoka wants to help because Helping Is Good and that's why she wants to be a doctor, but by giving her a more personal motivation, it both fleshes her out and makes any ensuing fights feel more weighty.

And that's all I can really ask from a show aimed at 7-year-olds. It's polished to a candy-coated shine and every episode introduces a new toy, but if it can craft sincere and endearing characters then I can weather a lot of gaudy plastic accessories. It also helps that the mascot-partner system means the girls also each have a Digimon-esque foil to bounce off along with the other Cures. Heck, instead of immediately introducing our 2nd magical girl, episode 2 instead takes the time to flesh out Rabirin, and how she has second thoughts about basically drafting a recently chronically ill girl into their fight.

It's a solid message for anyone, but especially kids. And it's a credit to the character writing so far that despite literally having Rabirin say the moral of the story out loud, it doesn't feel like it's talking down to the audience to get the point across.

They're good kicks. Healin' Good Kicks even.

Don't you dare besmirch my tiny cat son.

Pegitan will be fine, he's got the one (1) responsible character in this show to look after him.

It hasn't been stated (in the episodes we watched anyway) but I get the impression Chiyo's a bit awkward when meeting new people. She's plenty comfortable helping them out, like meeting Nodoka, but when it's time to just chill and hang out she's unsure of how to handle herself.

But yeah, I like how even in a cast of uniformly kind and generous personalities, there's still clashes and growing pains between these 3 kids who barely know each other and suddenly have to be sisters in arms. Plus I certainly relate to Chiyo worrying about Hinata considering she's...Hinata.

Girl's first instinct is to throw hands with a virus demon, she needs at least one momfriend to bail her out of the consequences of her own actions.

But yeah, Healin' Good is a real Feelin' Good time through these early episodes, and now that the whole series (so far) is out legally I'm def planning to catch up at some point. It's a genuinely engaging, well put together show and I encourage folks who haven't boarded the Precure train to give it a show. Just look at these adorable little twerps!