Holy crap folks, we’re watching some Precure. If you’re not in the know, Precure is short for Pretty Cure, one of the most enduring magical girl franchises of recent years. Pretty Cure isn’t a Madoka or Nanoha-style property aimed at older audiences – like Ojamajo Doremi, it’s genuinely intended to be a show for children. Also like Ojamajo Doremi, it has a pretty sturdy reputation among anime fans as a genuinely great property, with its many seasons varying in quality, but always attracting a solid crowd of western fans.

As one of Toei’s signature series, Pretty Cure has turned out to be the proving ground for a wide variety of talented anime creators, from creative action animators to Rie Matsumoto, whose Heartcatch Pretty Cure film is considered a resounding highlight of her early career. Many key artists on works like One Piece and Dragon Ball have also contributed heavily to Pretty Cure – hell, the show’s first season was directed by the same guy who directed the first two hundred episodes of Dragon Ball Z.

Personally, my own experience with Precure is very limited. I basically know what I know via osmosis from more knowledgeable friends on twitter, and though I’ve long been interested in checking the series out, its substantial length and the implausibility of turning this into a work project made that a tough prospect. Fortunately, you generous readers are picking up the slack this time, and so we’re at least watching through the first episode of Precure’s highly regarded current season. Let’s check out Precure Hugtto!

Episode 1

We open with a pink-haired girl letting her hair down. My understanding is that Cures (what the magical girls call themselves in this universe) are generally color-coded, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the hair color always fits

She’s psyching herself looking in her mirror in the morning. I like the soft pastels and loose linework of this background – it feels cozy and lived-in much like Doremi’s sets tend to

More loosely drawn backgrounds, as well as an emphasis on soft focus. Use of generally soft or racking focus tends to convey a sort of “filmic” tone, giving the impression that a scene is important and consequential regardless of its actual substance

Our heroine’s name is Hana, and she’s cutting her bangs to signify she’s no longer a little kid. Kids learn early on the dramatic importance of a character development haircut

Alright, so our heroine’s first act is to entirely butcher her character development haircut. Excellent start

“You can do anything!” Our OP begins with one more motivational cheer from our heroine. She seems like a good type – the good-hearted screwup whose energy makes up for their mistakes. Obviously also a fine message for the target audience

So it looks like we’ve got pink, blue, and yellow cures. And also an actual baby, who might be this show’s mascot character? It’s generally some strange animal, but I guess a baby works too

The characters are very expressive, the backgrounds are detailed and inviting, and the lighting is purposeful. Very strong aesthetic front so far

Yep, those are the three colors so far. Their magical girl forms look a bit older, a style choice that I believe was initially used in Creamy Mami? Magical girls are often sort of an aspirational thing, so it makes sense that the heroines’ idealized self-image would be cool older versions of themselves

I guess our first cure is Cure Yell

Oh my god Hana’s dad is large

Hana has a younger sister who loves to mess with her, and still has fairly childish taste in food. These characters continue to be wonderfully expressive, bouncing between tons of exaggerated faces

Time to first Hugg: three minutes, forty-eight seconds

God, the backgrounds in magical girl shows are always so good. Things like the design of street lamps and public facilities all follow this picture-book logic and general tendency towards visual warmth that make it an inherent pleasure to spend time with these shows

Hana is very excited about her school debut

The OP showed Hana as an actual cheerleader, and that seems to be a meaningful part of her character. She constantly peps herself up with little dance-cheers

Oh no, an old lady is about to get decked by a baseball

Time stops for a moment, and everything turns greyscale. Grey worlds seem to be a generally accepted shorthand for “nothing moves or changes here”

Hana Nono is her full name

“My dream is to become a hot and stylish young woman!” That’s a little vague, Hana. Anyway, we now know she’s thirteen years old. So she just transferred into a new middle school?

The school’s interior design matches the ornate, fairy tale look of the outside world. That choice does create a slight sense of distance from the show’s reality, but personal drama generally closes that gap

Ooh, I love this introduction to the yellow cure. Lovely shot of her solemnly walking down the school hall. Here’s where those background designs pay off, working with the evocative lighting to giving a real sense of majesty to this composition

Homare Kagayaki is her name. She kinda smirks at Hana’s very bad haircut

The sound of a crying baby draws her to the roof, where both blue and Homare are hanging out on… a gorgeous, garden-filled sunlit terrace. God, this school gets all the perks

Whoever’s directing this episode really likes light saturation. Not only are basically all outdoor scenes fitted with a fairly pronounced filter, but lots of the most critical moments are composed as a key object/face/etc contrasted against a glowing full-white backdrop. It certainly does add to the mythic tone of this episode, contrasting against Hana’s relatable dorkiness

And blue is Saya Yakushiji. We’ve got our main trio

Oh hey, Homare actually compliments Hana on her bangs. Thanks, Homare

Homare’s body language is so very distinct from the other two. She moves lethargically between laid-back, stereotypically “cool boy” poses, which match naturally to the baggy looseness of her hoodie

The compositions are also still very strong. I like this shot panning up from Homare’s elevated seat out across the roof. Lots of focus on visual depth in this episode

Welp, we’ve got our villains. Dark greys, purples, and blues contrast extremely against the light pastels of the rest of the show, and continuous pans lead us up to our evil leader. They’re searching for a “Mirai Crystal”

“The Boss promised a promotion to whoever can attain the quota.” Is that… are they, like “business-themed?”

Haha, YEP. Our requisite “I’ll handle this!” first episode minion says he’ll, uh, handle this, and then that choice is “submitted for approval” to the main boss, who fires a giant approval stamp out of his mouth. Amazing

“Kuraiasu Inc.” Mirai is ‘future,’ kurai is ‘dark.’ Simple enough

“I can’t wait to grow up, and I’m not going to let anything stop me!” That more than anything else feels like the prevailing attitude of this narrative

A magical flying baby is approaching Hana’s balcony at terminal velocity from the moon

This baby is adorable

Oh man, the expression for Hana’s surprise here is so good. Love the thick borders and wild lines they shift to for this dramatic face

“Hagyu.” Cute. So Hana names her Hugtan

And now there’s Hariham Harry, who is a hamster with a mohawk. Things are moving pretty quickly here

“I guess animals can’t speak here. So behind the times.” Good gag

Harry is an extremely useless magical girl familiar. He basically just wants to bum a bed

Welp, they disappeared

It’s interesting how at this point, so many of the narrative beats of magical girl shows can be shorthanded like this. The fact that Harry’s actually kinda grumpy and useless is itself an inherent joke, because the assumptions regarding how a “first meeting” should go between a magical girl and the creature which imbues her with power have been so solidified over the years. And it also means explanations can be cut down, because who needs how magical girls work explained to them?

“Gross… school, youth, all this hope for the future.” Man, I hear you

Oh, this is interesting. So it seems the bad guys in this world can take over people based on their dissatisfaction with their job, or something similar. So Hana’s “hopes for adulthood” are being directly contrasted against this evil organization that is literally modeled after a faceless corporation

“Hope for the future, buzz off! Negative wave!” Yeah, that’s not a thematically charged attack name at all

Oh my god the baby’s crawling straight at that giant evil walking building

“Hooray hooray… me…” Man, they really built that into a payoff, didn’t they. Whether for the first day of school or a threat like this, Hana is empowered by her little mantras

“It wouldn’t be cool to run away now. That’s not the Hana Nono I want to be!” I already love our heroine. All her strength is aspirational – she’s not that strong, but she wants to be

Ah right, you gotta sell the trinkets that they transform with. Big focus on those as we get our first, altogether quite reasonable transformation sequence

“The Precure of Spirit, Cure Yell!” Hah. It’s all very, extremely Hana, even down to how she keeps those uneven bangs in her transformation. This has been a terrific episode for establishing our heroine

“I’m totally hot!” Oh my god Hana ahaha

The animation of this fight is so good! I love how active the camera is during all of this – the whole frame is continuously curving with Hana and this massive opponent, making his size clear while also dynamically conveying Hana’s counter movements

Yesss, she gets the pompoms! Cheer theming is complete!

“Cure Yell” actually makes sense as a title now, too

So our quest is to give this baby enough charge crystals that none can challenge its power

And Done

Oh man, that was great! I expected it to be a polished, visually appealing, and generally charming episode, but I didn’t expect Hana to be such a terrific heroine. She was a fantastic character to follow through this episode, and I already feel like I know her pretty well as a person. On top of that, I’m very into this show’s apparent “fighting for hope for the future” theme, which is so far being illustrated in surprisingly pointed ways. All that and the great visual drama to boot made for a fantastic premiere. I’m eager to see where Hana’s story goes next!

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