#categorizing precure

[buryam-soul]

Predictably, I am immediately fond of the cat duo

Bonus:

[justworthlessreblogs]

WAIT is cure wing supposed to have a bird theme. or like birds. looking at his background in the ending song

[silvermoon424]

Hi! Is there an order/best way to watch Madoka and the others "spinoffs"? (and it is the same for the manga?) I would like to but I am not sure where to begin. It is like Precure with no real order between the series? or do I have to watch some to understand the others? It looks very complex with so many characters and timelines! Thanks!

Hi there! I'm glad there's someone who's interested in getting into the PMMM extended universe!

First of all, you can read my rankings/reviews of the spinoffs here and find links to read/summaries of them written by me here.

Secondly, there's not really a right or wrong order to watch/read most of the spinoffs in. But you should definitely watch the original anime first, followed by the Rebellion movie. That lays the groundwork for everything, plus they're just the best entries overall.

Aside from that, the PMMM spinoffs can be categorized by whether they're directly related to the main PMMM story (meaning they include characters/plotlines from PMMM) or feature an entirely original cast of characters and story. I'll outline them below:

Direct spinoffs:

The Different Story

The Wraith Arc

Oriko Magica and its spinoffs

The PSP game

Tons of other lesser-known spinoffs/gag manga like Homura's Revenge, Homura Tamura, etc

Original spinoffs:

Tart Magica

Suzune Magica

Kazumi Magica

Magia Record (this one is hard to categorize because it largely features original characters and an original plot, but characters from the original PMMM series do show up. However, they have less of an impact as the story continues and most fans agree that they were only really present to help sell the game to older fans (not that that's a bad thing, they're utilized pretty well). Overall I would categorize this as far more of an original spinoff than a direct one)

Most of the spinoffs are standalones and don't really require any prior knowledge of other spinoffs to enjoy. I will say that if you get really deep into the Magia Record game and not just the manga adaptation that there's a lot of overlap with the spinoffs in things like events, magical girl personal stories, etc. Nearly all of the spinoff magical girls are playable in Magia Record so that's something to keep in mind. But it doesn't really affect the main story.

[curecraft]

Why YOU should vote for Precure!

@multicolor-fandom-tournament

Magical girls love being color-coded. What’s better than one magical girl team? A butt load of magical girls! This year marks the 20th anniversary of Precure, which means a ton of color-coded girls to sort into groups!

Look at all those girlies! Most of the above pictures are from the 10th anniversary though, so you can imagine just how many characters we have now!

Now for the best part of any fandom, the discourse!!! A good portion of Precure fandom’s discourse is related to color categorization. Fans are sick of this topic, but it’s kinda unavoidable when Toei keeps making up colors. Like this:

Meet Cure Finale. Her transformation color is purple, and her dress is white. What color did Toei say she officially was? Gold. Why? No idea, but No One liked this announcement

We also consistently get discourse on whether we need more green Cures. There are entire YouTube videos on this subject. No I’m not making this up

Here, look at some characters whose colors are commonly debated. If you haven’t seen Precure, I’m curious to know how you would categorize them

Anyways, yeah. We’re obsessed with colors. It’s a huge part of our fandom, and the reason why we should win this tournament

[mahou-furbies]

Do you have any thoughts on the New Precure Official Color Categorization?

I don't have particularly strong feelings about it to be honest. I do care about what kind of designs we have in the show and how typical colour tropes work, but once a design exists I'm more interested in what it looks like to me instead of what official classification it has.

[aquarterasian]

also butterfly is pink ive seen people try to categorize her as yellow like shiny luminous like stop that 😭 i never really minded shiny luminous being categorized as yellow because really if you want to get technical she's not a precure. when it comes to merch and stuff butterfly probably will be placed with the yellows because sky's already with the pinks but shes very much a pink cure

[shizukateal]

The new Precure designs - I gotta know what you think. They have some unecessary details, a lot of which definitely fit in the category of "you'd probably dislike them," but personally I'm something of a fan! The big bows are unnecessary but endearing

Cure Precious

Anon, once again, I'm going to clear this up properly in a separate post but I do not have a categorical hatred of tails. Not only does my magical girlsona have one, but also my favorite magical girl of all times is Sakura Kinomoto, and my favorite dress from here is the princess dress that has a gigantic tail.

Even this girl here, yeah, I wouldn't say her tail or rather the general overskirt is good, but it's not all that bad either. However, it probably wouldn't have been needed at all if the skirt puffed up a bit better instead of having this clunky awkward movement to it, although that could just be the artist. The problem is that between its sharp, stiff edges, general weird shape, the unnatural way it transitions from the sash and overstuffed apron. Moving to the top, I'm not sure I understand the flaps on top of the sash, but more importantly it was pointless to make it so that the top "zips" to the side with the trimming of the neckline following through. One can barely notice it at all because the front ribbon distracts from it and beyond that it interrupts the aesthetic the outfit is going on in the first place and it makes one question how it carries through to the overskirt. Her hove-sock-boots are odd but not necessarily ugly, so they can stay as far as I'm concerned. All in all she could be slightly more polished, but she's far above acceptable! Congrats to her.

Cure Spicy

The blue one is called spicy???? Um, ok I guess? She does look like she has an attitude I do like how her stance compliments her outfit. The short boots with the stockings and this kind of slitted/ asymmetrical overskirt plus the long gloves, it all gives a mature edge to the look. Sadly, the transition from top to skirt is awkward due to the apron -and even without it it's a bit hard to imagine how to make it work properly- and the back ribbon takes away too much attention. Still, she retains points because this approach is rare to see and it makes her stand out.

Cure Yum-yum

There's the skeleton of a very interesting idea here, once again suffering under the weight of excessive ornaments. The bowler hat/ hairpin? doesn't even have anything to do with the chinese hairbuns, the chest ribbon looks clunky because of how big and distracting it is, and the top line of frills on the skirt adds nothing needed. The shoes are also... impractical? clumsy? Like, those aren't actually shoes, those are short socks with frills with two ribbons shoddily tied around the ankles to give the impression of shoes the same way a white sheet with wholes gives the impression of a ghost. The sash upholding the apron being striped like that is also tiring to the eyes in between all of the other pattern and color combinations it competes with.

As for the back ribbon... Hm :/ See, I don't hate it and I think on itself it is pretty, but it's positioned too low on her back to fully sell itself as butterfly wings and it is too big to properly highlight her waist. I'd call hell Diet Tsuruno, but let's be real: next to eachother Tsuruno is a properly balanced meal and this girl is a sundae overstuffed with every candy in spite of any sense of flavor and texture balance.

Cure Finale

It's a bit hard to put into words how she fails, because the ideas behind her choices make sense on paper, but they simply do not get together.

First of all, here's a good opportunity to compare why I might like a tail and not another. While certainly not perfect, Cure Precious' tail gets a pass over this one because hers is more aerodynamic, for lack of a better word. It's cut in such a way that the weight is not unanimously placed on the lower back, even if the shape of it is not all that attractive. Meanwhile Finale is hard to imagine moving with much free-range, because there's so much weight behind her between the tail -which also starts at a lower point that Precious' and is longer-, her hair and the big ribbon. The drapes attached to the orbs are also jarring and they bring out this sorta uncanny-valley effect of how stiff and 2-dimensional the skirt looks. Once again the apron is cute, and it kinda helps the hipline transition because it starts too low, but at the same time it doesn't fully match the skirt either. Not because of the colors of course, but because, again, the skirt looks like a paper cut-out, and that makes the apron look taped on top of it.

I also get why they cut her sleeves, but it doesn't really help. This looks to me like a case of someone trying to make the square peg fit into the round whole by literally cutting it. It would've been better to just give her shorter puff sleeves, ones that look like they actually belong to the jacket and overskirt. In summary she is pretty, but not consistent enough for me to find her admirable.

My overall assessment is that they are below the A La Mode and Healing Precures, but above the Huggto Precures.

[curelore]

I've been seeing quite a few people on my feed making tier lists for precure seasons and honestly I might join in once I finish fresh so that I can easily categorize what I have/haven't seen and my thoughts on them

[whorenerdking]

I’m pretty sure the main reason people so freaking feral over Heartcatch being the best season is because the leader artist being the one who did doremi or whatever it’s called

[muthaz-rapapa]

PreCure stock footage

More pointless ponderings.

This is a comparison count of all the recurring attack animation sequences (meaning excluding one-time attacks) we’ve seen so far in Precure’s tv series. Done mainly because I wanted the numbers all on one page. :P

Of course, as I haven’t watched all the seasons (Futari to Splash Star) and my memory is crap, this should not be considered accurate. So any help correcting would be appreciated.

Originally, this was supposed to focus only on sub-attacks but that term’s definition seems to vary widely from season to season. So let’s not confuse ourselves with what counts as a “finisher” and what doesn’t and just stick with the general words “stock footage”.

Futari wa [3?] - Marble Screw, Rainbow Therapy, Rainbow Storm

I’m reading here on the wiki that Rainbow Therapy is “hardly used”...I don’t really know what that means, hence the question mark if it counts as a recurring attack or not.

I also don’t want to include upgraded attacks as separate entries if there are hardly any significant differences between the original and the upgraded one (like StarPre’s) but when I compare it to Marble Screw...it seems okay in my book? Since I haven’t watched this season, I’m not confident enough to make the final call so I will leave it at 3 for now.

Futari wa Max Heart [2?] - Heartiel Action, Extreme Luminario

Alright, Marble Screw Max is pretty much the same as the original with a little extra tacked onto the end. So technically, if there’s nothing else I’m missing, the count for this season should be 2. But still gonna leave room for debate.

Splash Star [3?] - Twin Stream Splash, Spiral Heart Splash (2)

The two versions of Spiral Heart Splash are distinct enough from each other to count as separate.

Spiral Heart Splash Star is a one-time, final boss group attack so not gonna include it.

Yes! 5 [7]

Individual Attacks [6] - Dream Attack, Crystal Shoot, Rouge Fire/Burning, Lemonade Flash/Shining, Mint Protection/Shield, Aqua Stream/Tornado

Group Attacks [1]: Five Explosion

Yes! 5 GoGo [7]

Individual Attacks [6] - Shooting Star, Fire Strike, Prism Chain, Emerald Saucer, Sapphire Arrow, Milky Rose Blizzard/Metal Blizzard

Group Attacks [1]: Rainbow Rose Explosion

Fresh [5]

Individual Attacks [4] - Love Sunshine Fresh, Espoir Shower Fresh, Healing Prayer Fresh, Happiness Hurricane

Group Attacks [1]: Lucky Clover Grand Finale

Not going to include Triple Fresh since it’s just a mash-up of three individual attacks.

Heartcatch [10?]

Individual Attacks [7?] - Pink Forte Wave, Blossom Shower, Blue Forte Wave, Marine Shoot, Gold Forte Burst, Sunshine Flash, Silver Forte Wave

Group Attacks [3?] - Floral Power Fortissimo, Shining Fortissimo, Heartcatch Orchestra

This is where things start to get confusing with the introduction of sub-attacks. I’ve only included Blossom Shower, Marine Shoot and Sunshine Flash because it’s obvious they were meant to be shown as a set for the initial trio while everything else was done in real time.

And after debating about the Fortissimo ones, I decided that I’ll keep Shining as its own entry for now. Not quite happy about it (Shining is just old attacks laid out on top of one another with some minor new animation in between) but it doesn’t seem entirely right to call it just an upgrade either......I dunno.

Suite [10]

Individual Attacks [7] - Music Rondo (2), Miracle Heart Arpeggio, Fantastic Piacere, Heartful Beat Rock, Sparkling Shower, Shining Circle

Group Attacks [3] - Passionato Harmony, Music Rondo Super Quartet, Suite Session Ensemble/Crescendo

...I think Suite has everyone else beat on having attacks with the longest names.

also, it’s a travesty that there is no HD video of Session Ensemble uploaded to youtube.

Smile [7]

Individual Attacks [5] - Happy Shower, Sunny Fire, Peace Thunder, March Shoot, Beauty Blizzard

Group Attacks [2] - Rainbow Healing, Rainbow Burst/Royal/Ultra

Can’t remember how often the upgraded individual attacks were used but to my knowledge, there are no stock footage for those anyways.

DokiPre [17]

Individual Attacks [14] - My Sweet Heart, Heart Shoot, Heart Dynamite, Twinkle Diamond, Diamond Shower, Diamond Swirkle, Rosetta Reflection, Rosetta Wall, Rosetta Balloon, Holy Sword, Sparkle Sword, Sword Hurricane, Ace Shot, Ace Mirror Flash

Group Attacks [3] - Lovely Force Arrow, Lovely Straight Flush, Royal Lovely Straight Flush

*whistles* Quite a jump in number of unique attacks. Just wait till HaCha.

HaCha [20]

Individual Attacks [17] - Pinky Love Shoot, Passion Dynamite, Poppin’ Sonic Attack, Lovely Powerful Kiss, Blue Happy Shoot, Arabesque Shower, Hawaiian Alohaloe, Princess Windy Wink, Sparkling Baton Attack, Ribbon Heart Explosion, Maracas Rhythm Spark, Honey Temptation, Stardust Shoot, Starlight Ascension, Oriental Dream, Sakura Blizzard Dance, Emerald Illusion

Group Attacks [3] - Twin Miracle Power Shoot, Happiness Big Bang, Innocent Purification

Oh yea, if this wasn’t stock footage-restricted, HaCha would still go home with the prize and the cake because of the sheer number of sub-attacks not listed here.

Go!Pri [18]

Individual Attacks [14] - Floral Tourbillon, Rose/Lys Tourbillon, Sakura Turbulence, Mermaid Ripple, Frozen/Bubble Ripple, Coral Maelstrom, Twinkle Humming, Full Moon/Meteor Humming, Galaxy Chorus, Phoenix Blaze, Scarlet Illusion, Scarlet Spark, Scarlet Flame, Scarlet Prominence

Group Attacks [4] - Trinity Lumiere, Trinity Explosion, Eclat Espoir, Grand Printemps

A lot of the secondary attacks are essentially the same thing but with different effects. Scarlet Spark and Flame almost look identical but the movements diverge once the attack is released so I consider them distinct from there.

Trinity Lumiere and Trinity Explosion would’ve been under just one entry, too, but the CGI animation leading up to the attack are different.

MahoPre [9]

Individual Attacks [4] - Linkle Stone Spells (Miracle ver, Magical ver, Felice ver), Emerald Reincarnation

Group Attacks [5] - Diamond Eternal, Ruby Passionale, Sapphire Smartish, Topaz Esperanza, Extreme Rainbow

I’m glad that I changed it from sub-attacks to simply stock footage. Counting the same animation sequence thrice would just make my head spin worser.

KiraPre [10]

Individual Attacks [7] - Whip Decoration, Custard Illusion, Gelato Shake, Macaron Julienne, Chocolat Aromase, Un - Deux - Tres Bien! Kirakuru Rainbow, Parfait Étoile

Group Attacks [3] - Three-2-Wonderful A La Mode, Animal Go Round, Fantastic Animale

Hugtto [13]

Individual Attacks [9] - Heart For You, Flower Shoot, Heart Feather, Feather Blast, Heart Star, Star Slash, Heart Song & Dance, Macherie Poppin’, Amour Rock n’ Roll

Group Attacks [4] - Trinity Concert, Twin Love Rock Beat, Cheerful Attack, Tomorrow with Everyone

I know Heart Song and Heart Dance can be standalone attacks but since we didn’t get to see much of either of them before Macherie and Amour got their Twin Love Guitars not long after, then I count them as one. Also, Macherie and Amour are considered as one Cure split into two anyway so there’s that.

StarPre [8]

Individual Attacks [6] - Star Punch, Milky Shock, Soleil Shoot, Selene Arrow, Rainbow Splash, Cosmos Shining

Group Attacks [2] - Southern Cross Shot, Star Twinkle Imagination

Again, how ironic is it that the season that touts the theme of imagination has the least creative stock footage across all variations in their attack arsenal?

HealPre [tbd]

Individual Attacks [4?] - Healing Flower, Healing Stream, Healing Flash, Healing Hurricane

Group Attacks [1+] - Healing Oasis

Since the secondary elemental bottles barely have any animation sequence and don’t even include the Cures in them, they won’t be counted. 

That said, with the upcoming super form upgrade (new promo art has already been released), we know there will be one more group attack to be added. I suspect there might be another upgraded version of that super group attack as well so perhaps a total of 6 formal attack sequences for HealPre altogether.

Unless they plan to give the Cures individual attacks with that...needle arrow weapon whatever it is but I somewhat doubt it.....we’ll see.

~~~~~~~~~~

Season with the most attack sequences: HaCha [20] Season with the most individual attack sequences: Hacha [17] Season with the most group attack sequences: MahoPre [5]

Top 5 Seasons w/greatest total # of attack sequences: HaCha [20], Go!Pri [18], DokiPre [17], Hugtto [13], Heartcatch/Suite/KiraPre [10]

Again, if I’m missing anything, let me know.

----------------------

Updated 9/10/20

[vulturevanity]

So Klein is a literal Dragon. Fascinating.

[queensparklekitten]

DNI if you: have ever spent money on reddit coins, play minecraft with keepinventory off, think you’re superior for not listening to taylor swift, think it’s cringe to love fandom as a lifestyle, have separate folders to categorize the bullshit images you make and save, prefer princess aurora in blue, have never been at least a little in love with rosalina from super mario galaxy, do homework immediately after it’s assigned, prefer cold weather to warm weather, unironically like dark academia, have ever watched any of mahou shoujo site, rave endlessly about halloween in any month other than september or october, use html format on ao3, prefer the disney princess og designs over the newer ones with tons of glitter (except in merida’s case, it’s the other way around for her), know what precure is but don’t watch it, aren’t even slightly afraid of endermen, prefer white christmas lights over multicoloured ones, spell gray with an e, prefer yoko kanno to yuki kaijura, main lime or white in among us, get mad at people who bring up christmas in november, wear oversized clothes, have never played stardoll, drink skim milk, think roleplay asterisks are cringey, wear earbuds, are a dog person, have ever gnomed anyone, use commas instead of periods for ellipses, play point and click adventure games without relying on a walkthrough, have never tried to shoplift from a museum gift shop as a kid, go to sleep before 3am, have ever listened to bts, didn’t have an outer space phase, have ever dissed disney’s frozen, actually read homestuck, are horny for any SCPs, use serif fonts, say sksksk, write uwu with capital u’s, don’t own any pink clothing, complain about hermione’s yule ball dress from the movie, don’t use the oxford comma, hate 3D animation, have a pinterest account, have a 4 column blog theme, sit in the middle of the swinging boat carnival ride, eat crunchless apples, or your favourite aikatsu season is friends

[vanilla-blessing]

qb’s 2020 Anime List

[Representation of making my brain recall anything from last year]

As usual, these are ordered by whatever arbitrary mood I was in when I constructed the list. Do not cross reference this ordering with any other evaluations I may have done. 

0. kiratto prichan but only after it lost all pretense of being grounded in reality

I don't want to explain why I watch this anime, but I will do it for the fans. It's the franchise people, by all rights, should make fun of me for watching instead of Precure, which is harmless; the Pretty Rhythm series is ill-advised subculture shitpost brainrot which has at least halved my IQ. PriChan had been very boring for at least a year since its premiere, but during 2020 went off the deep end in way that rekindled the unique flavor the decade-long series has traditionally had of doing the most dumbass thing every week and not letting any sort of television authority or good ideas stop it. I had fun every week once it got in the groove and remembered its roots as a dumbass crossover franchise with nothing to prove and nothing holding its stupid, fantastic ideas back. It’s always the most insane thing on TV and it never even has to try. 

Also following the twitter cult that formed around a rare plushie from this show with a wide face. That was the most entertaining thing of 2020 for me. 

1. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Creatively inspiring in a year without many sources of creative inspiration, the airing of this anime mirrored my unwilling dive into learning too much about anime production than I ever meant to. Eizouken takes the sketchbook ideas of the manga and fully realizes its world into animation in a way that only Masaki Yuasa and Science Saru could pull off, while simultaneously giving rising stars in the industry their first chance at directing episodes. It's a very satisfying show to watch and if there's anything on this list that inspired me to finally just slam words on paper and get this out it was thanks to watching Eizouken at some point in my life. 

The season is split into three distinct “projects” and each of these end in a such a strong climax that I have to recommend watching it 4 episodes at a time, if you are able to. Here’s an endcard by tkmiz

2. Magia Record: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Gaiden

3. DECA-DENCE

I like a nice contained science fiction and this one's episode 2 hook was so shocking that I was glued to my screen until the very end. It’s not perfect, but it’s about as perfect as you could reasonably expect to get from the year 2020. The less you know going in the better so I’ll shut up but it’s a much more ambitious sci-fi than you think it is at first. It might have been a had-to-be-there serial experience, so it could be impossible to really get the hype that was around this show at the time, but I think there’s enough there to stand on its own, and just having a definitive, satisfying ending in one season is an anime rarity worth recommending by itself. 

4. Toilet-bound Hanako-kun

I love looking at pictures of cryptids and Lerche paneling and this gave me both in abundance. It rides the line between telling Shonen and Shoujo stories, like many Seinen that defy easy categorization do, and I’ve always been a sucker for that. Along with the anime being drop dead gorgeous on a weekly basis, I enjoyed the lovable cast of various SUPERNATURAL DANGER BOYS and also Yashiro who provides the funniest faces and widest ankles of the whole show, despite stiff competition. 

5. Talentless Nana

Came outta nowhere and exceeded expectations for a frankly kind of mediocre thriller manga by absolutely nailing the strong first episode/chapter hook, then continuing to nail it every week with smart directing. I’m obligated to pay attention to this team in the future if they're capable of making something this compelling on a limited drawing budget. (the core staff were all Heybot regulars, which either means something or doesn’t)

6. Extra Olympia Kyklos

The one-person studio that made this did not have a high bar to clear to be the best Olympic tie-in anime (the only other one I can recall is the rare media Eagle Sam which sucks complete ass) but despite the Olympics not even happening in 2020, it soldiered on, and was easily the most I laughed at anime in that year. Kyklos takes serious source material and just spices it up beyond recognition with bizarre jokes, perfect timing, and hilariously cheap original music videos at the end of every episode that wouldn’t be out of place on adult swim bumpers. Overall it’s very surprising that this was funded at all once anyone saw what it was, but I’m so glad the creator got away with it. In a way, it’s the perfect monument to this psychotic year. 

7. Kakushigoto

I just think the author is funny and this is a good anime adaptation that outpaces the original, by the author's own admission/intention. 61-sensei is the best girl

All Hail The Daia Bread All Hail The Daia Bread

these were all enjoyable too:

Gal and dino 

Hit in the right spot at the time, when we all needed a roommate who couldn’t catch covid

Star twinkle precure movie

I'd show this to people to introduce them to precure if not for the song and dance number at the end being kinda lame

Mewkledreamy

it’s not going to end precure but it has incredible faces

BOFURI: I don’t want to get hurt so I maxed out my defense

gamer has logged on

- qb kiranichiwa 

[magicalgirlinlove]

Why I get so annoyed at the criticism against dark magical girl shows

(Litteraly no one follows me or will see this but I need to vent because I constantly feel guilty for enjoying things)

It seems every time I try to follow any type of magical girl related tag or discussion, all I’ll find will be constant bashing of any darker-themed magical girl shows and, as someone who actually loves both opposing styles (my favourites being Sailor Moon Crystal and Magical Girl Raising Project) I just get so disheartened by how elitist and reductive a lot of the reactions can be.

It’s always jumps in saying ‘’these shows are for guys’’ when the majority of people I’ve seen geniunely invested in these series are girls, or ‘’people just want to watch young girls suffer’’ when literally all I ever see is people gushing over how much they adore their favourite characters. It just feels to me that anything that isn’t Tokyo Mew Mew or PreCure (which are totally good shows, I’m not saying otherwise) is suddenly ‘’ruining’’ the genre. While I agree that some series like Magical Girl Site and Magical Girl Apocalypse both deserve every bit of the criticism they get and more (also it’s the same author for both and for that one it’s definitely torture porn), so many other shows, to me, feel more like a subversion of the genre rather than a perversion.

I love Magical Girl Raising Project for the same reason I adore Sailor Moon Crystal: it presents me interesting, strong female characters and all builds on a thematic of hope. Yes, because just because everything isn’t bubblegum happy all the time doesn’t mean hope isn’t the point. That was the core of Madoka Magica and, if you bother actually caring about MGRP and its later stories, it’s the core for that too. I watch them because I enjoy magical girls and because I enjoy more mature-themed shows, so putting them together creates something enjoyable for me to watch.

Reducing any show that isn’t flawlessly happy into ‘’torture porn for sickos who hate magical girls’’ is the same as categorizing PreCure as ‘’silly mindless kids shows’’ when there’s so much amazing fun to be found in classic magical girl media. 

Sailor Moon had death and mentions of suicide. Cardcaptor Sakura featured incest, pedophilia and the grieving of a loved one. Magical girls have never been completely unproblematic

. It’s about a balance of hope vs darkness. When it’s only darkness, like Magical Girl Site, then there’s absolutely no enjoyment to be found. It’s that mix of strong characters to root for and difficult circumstances that make these shows interesting, not the suffering. Does the existence of shows like Gundam, with it’s darker themes and stories, invalidate or discredit shows like, I dunno, The Power Rangers with its colorful giant robots? Of course not!

And of course one point I completely sympathize with is that magical girl media has always been an important genre for young girls in their representation of strong female superheroes able to overcome any odd. And that’s why lighter shows are SO important. But what about when the same little girls are grown? Sometimes, it’s important to see that overcoming any odd isn’t just as simple as constant happiness. Sometimes there’s depression and sometimes life IS horrible, but through it all, these superheroines still manage to fight their way through for a better tomorrow. It’s the same lessons I needed when I was younger, but adapted to my more mature point of view.

Also literally it’s so annoying to me just how much we focus on all our media being pure, completely 100% positive. To me it feels like some sort of search for morality. Well sorry if I don’t always just want to watch sweet coffee shop AU stories. Sometimes I’m ok with embracing the darkness in light. But never giving up hope. That’s what magical girl warrior stories have always been about. 

[rainbow-reilly]

Did the world need a chart categorizing PreCures by signature color? Probably not. But too bad, because I made one! 

Notes:

The “Misc” category is for colors that fall outside the typical six. Not for multi-colored designs like Felice and Parfait.

I’ve taken the approach that two characters in the same series cannot share a color. Cosmos and Milky cannot both be blue, etc. This cleared up any ambiguity pretty quickly.

Futari Wa is hard to categorize because it was created prior to Toei turning PreCure into a meta series with formulaic color schemes. I decided to focus on their accent color, not the color of their costumes.

[tastes-like-ciel]

I have a hot and spicy new way to categorize characters both my own and from shows I watch. And that is to separate them by who would willingly dance to a Precure ED and who would not. //brick’d