This review does not contain any spoilers. It’s safe to read before watching. It doesn’t require any knowledge of the franchise.
As I watched more and more Precure, I started comparing the series to one another. I want to write down some notes on that.
It's the third Precure series I've finished. I want to see all of them and report my opinions. Each one I see will add to my experience, so I'll try to compare them a bit, too.
A short explanation for those not accustomed with the series:
- Sunday morning kids show targeted for young girls,
- the longest consecutively running mahou shoujo franchise ever - over 20 years of non stop anime,
- (almost) every series follows a similar pattern, introducing a new group of magical warriors, fairy mascots, and a lot of magical gadgets.
After seeing two new-ish Precure titles, I decided to check out one of the oldest - Yes! Precure 5. It’s the fourth series, the third one if you omit one sequel season. So, the third one introducing new setting, a new story and new protagonists. It’s also the first one to make them a bigger group - there are five girls instead of two.
The series starts with Yumehara Nozomi, a 14 years old girl, book-loving, kind, and clumsy. She randomly stumbles upon squirrel-looking magical fairy beings from another world, and decides to help them fight a mysterious dark group known as Nightmare. She’s soon joined by four more girls, and together they become the largest yet Precure party.
The series lacks a single major theme. The characters are representing various human emotions, and visually, there’s heavy use of butterfly motifs. The fairies are from a fairytale-ish magical land, and the villains are a corporation. It’s all a bit random, but it’s sewn together pretty nicely.
The dynamic between the magical girls is obviously much different from the previous series. The duo seem easy to manage compared to five of them. Everyone should be given some time to shine, to explore their background and dreams, all that. Of course the main protagonist gets the most time, but the rest shouldn't be neglected. But… I think they kinda were. At least some of them. While Cure Mint gets some additional screen time due to her relationship with a mascot (I'll explain it in a bit!), the rest isn't that lucky. Out of the three left, I feel like Lemonade got a pretty okay treatment too - we get to see quite a bit of her passion - but Aqua and Rouge were kinda just… there. Not completely left out, but not showcased enough. A shame, really. I like their designs and overall personalities, but the lack of focus made them into some of the most forgettable Cures I’ve seen.
Still, the girls do work together nicely. The scenes of their day-to-day life and their friendship are sweet. During action sequences they’re also a good match, even though, again, some are a little underused. I guess it’s only natural that the first attempt at a bigger group is a little rough and wonky.
The mascots are very prominent in this series, not only as little fairies fluttering about - they also have human forms and serve as love interest for two of the Cures. I don’t mind this idea, but damn, I despise those two little things. I found them incredibly annoying and just couldn’t stand them in either form. I admit they weren’t the worst love interests a magical girl could have, but still, they were unbearable. I swear, their fairy form voices are one of the most annoying sounds in the world. The third mascot that joined them started out just as awful, but at least grew on me with time.
My favourite part was the antagonists. The evil corpo theme worked beautifully. All the low level employees played their roles nicely, and the management was perfectly awful. The way they interacted, all the mobbing and manipulation, it was surprisingly dark - but engaging, too. Out of the antagonist group mentioned in the reviewed series, this one is not only the most entertaining, but also the most vile. Nightmare seems like one hellish workplace, but watching its employees try to fight the magical girls - and survive - was really fun.
There’s an additional little treat in the form of the Dark Cures, a minor antagonist group being the evil versions of the Precure team. While it’s a shame there aren’t more of them, they were still wonderful enemies with fantastic designs.
In this series Cures’ outfits aren’t unique, they all wear basically the same uniform in different colours. It’s not a bad thing in itself (Sailor Moon does make it work after all), but in Precure's case it’s really underwhelming. Speaking from the perspective of someone who's seen a lot of their looks by now, it's just such a disappointment. And hell, even judging only by Futari wa and Splash Star girls’ standards. Yes! 5 protagonists still look pretty, especially when they're standing as a group, showing off all the colours, but… it could've been better. I was watching it after Go! Princess and Star☆Twinkle, which had incredibly unique, diverse designs - it made Yes! 5’s simple uniforms even paler in comparison.
While I may complain about some things, it's hard to ignore the importance of the Yes! Precure 5. It's the first Precure series being more “Super Sentai”, similar to Sailor Moon in form. It took the Futari wa template and enhanced it. It’s hard to imagine a Precure series with only two characters now, and it’s partially thanks to Yes! 5. I’m glad they decided to make this change, even though a hand-holding duo was sort of a staple of the first series. I wonder if there were fans angry about it, opposing the idea of a bigger team.
No matter, Yes! 5 is an important title. I had fun watching it, even if it didn’t work that well in most aspects. It’s not a series I would recommend to people completely new to the genre, or the Pretty Cure franchise. It may be better to start with something a little more polished. This one is kind of rough - the Cure don’t look their best, and the focus is out of place. Still, an important watch for all the series fans.
***
Here’s my personal Precure rating - it’s a 5 ✿ scale, comparing the series.
Cures: ✿✿✿
designs: ✿✿
mascots: ✿
villains: ✿✿✿✿✿
story: ✿✿✿
theme and vibes: ✿✿
#Thank you for reading!
