p i x s o n a s

🏵️  Tropical-Rouge! Precure Fancure || 🦋   💦  

omg yeah sure! probably will just touch on why i like the female casts in these series rather than summarize them 

chihayafuru by suetsugu yuki (manga/anime) → if you’re tired of constantly having to see sports anime be dominated by series about boys then i think you’ll be very pleased with this it’s probably the most prominent sports anime centered on girls (and boys bc the sport is co-ed) and it’s a huge range of girls too like high school students, mothers, teachers, sisters, etc. 

kono oto tomare by amyuu (manga/anime) → i was only recently recced this but oh my goddd i binged it in like three days. satowa is one of the best female characters i’ve ever read about like the depth of her trauma and loneliness is so heartbreaking to read about but so worth it bc she tries constantly to overcome it. my babie my angel (also hiro is fantastic i’d die for her) 

legend of basara & 7 seeds by yumi tamura (manga) → her ensemble casts are phenomenal and what i esp like about her female characters is they’re allowed to be simultaneously strong and feminine and over emotional without being condemned for it. sarasa’s like a crybaby with a sword i think yona fans would love her (she might even have inspired her now that i’m thinking about it) 

magic knight rayearth by clamp (manga) → remember when isekai stories used to actually be good and girls had agency and wielded swords rather than be thrust into the role of male mc’s objectification target. thankfully clamp has got you on this (as they do with most of their series’ female casts tbh) 

precure (anime) → i realize this is a tall order bc there are a bajillion precure installments, but that’s exactly the fun of it because you can choose. . . anything. you can never go wrong by watching the original (nagisa and honoka are so gay it hurts), and then heartcatch is probably the most famous installment in recent years and with very good reason!

hanasaku iroha (anime) → for the girls who love generational trauma between the various women in a family. . . omg the angst and personal strife of this series is so good. so so good. idek how to describe it but the grandmother-mother-daughter dynamics explored are phenomenal 

nagi no asukara (anime) → what i love about the girls here is they’re not just distinct in terms of personality and aspirations but also romantic outlook. the perception of love and how we deal when it is or isn’t reciprocated is so well explored through their characters and it’s a love polygon anime that does really good justice to the narrative tool 

shirobako (anime) → notice how this is the third pa works anime i’m recommending. they’re just rly good at developing interesting female casts also the girls here work in the animation industry so it’s nice to get a taste of working girls if you’re tired of narratives about high school ones 

hibike! euphonium (anime) → admittedly i haven’t watched this yet but i trust my friends who have and like every other gif of it you’ll ever see is just so gay. is this a guarantee of well written female characters? idk but i would take homoeroticism between band girls any day over whatever tf shounen has going on 

sugar sugar rune by anno moyoco (manga) → anno moyoco’s amaaaazing at crafting independent female characters and while the story here is pretty short and sweet, chocolat and vanilla (and their mothers) are nonetheless timeless as protagonists and i think anno subverts their initially presented character archetypes very cleverly 

the twelve kingdoms by fuyumi ono (novels/anime) → another rec that i haven’t watched personally but it’s been lauded over and over again by friends i trust as one of the best examples of a series with an incredibly compelling female protagonist. and i mean, when can you go wrong with girls given swords and thrust into kingdom politics! 

wolf’s rain (anime) → the female cast here is limited but still impeccable imo. there’s tragedy upon tragedy wrested into each of their fates and it’s so heartbreaking to watch but the kindness, perseverance, and humanity displayed by each of these women in different capacities is incredible. also there’s jaguara who is an absolute bitch but she’s sexy so it’s okay

I honestly didn’t expect this! Pink is one of my favorite colors, but I have never ever thought of myself as “pink magical girl material”. Interesting!

A while ago me and couple of other creators took part in a Telephone game, the theme was victorian era and this was my entry.

Version 1.3

(Google Docs Vers & Changelog)

Maybe you follow people who like it, maybe you just love magical girls and never got into Precure, but there are over a dozen seasons and you don’t know how to jump in. Never fear, this masterpost is here to give you a rundown of Precure, and hopefully by the end you’ll have an idea of where you want to start. 

What Is Precure?

Precure (short for Pretty Cure) is a Toei Animation franchise started in 2004 and has been on the air nonstop since then. It’s a magical girl franchise, y’know like sailor moon or ojamajo doremi or other such shows. The main demographic is children so you don’t have to worry about any weird “fanservice” or panty shots or anything nasty like that, it’s very G rated. 

What Are The Shows About?

In a general sense, Precure is about a team of 2-6 middle school age magical girls fighting bad guys and giant monsters and saving the world on a weekly basis with pretty outfits and big flashy finishers and the power of love and friendship. Each season follows a pretty standard formula (toku fans should be pretty familiar with it for the most part), and each season is around 48-50 episodes long. 

In keeping with this toku-esque formula, most seasons will feature mid season additions to the cast, in the form of new precure heroes. For the sake of not spoiling these shows, these mid season cures will not be mentioned in our plot overviews unless they appear extremely early or something like that. Just know that almost every season will feature an additional cure joining the team later in the show. 

Additionally, every season has at least one movie, these days there’s usually two per season. Usually you’ll find the movies are a standalone self-contained romp, and a crossover movie with the preceding seasons, with a focus on the most recent 2-3 teams. These movies might as well exist in a continuity of their own, and have absolutely no bearing on the plot whatsoever, save for one except which I’ll mention when we get to that season. 

Why Should I Watch Precure?

Because it’s good. It’s a really stellar franchise with a ton of content and genuinely engaging characters and stories. Also this isn’t your mom’s magical girl show, these girls throw punches, and kicks, and big lasers. Precure is pretty well known for being extremely hands on with its combat compared to other magical girl shows, though don’t expect the same kind of fights you’d find in kamen rider or anything. Also a main draw for a lot of people is the amount of gay subtext in, frankly, every season. While there’s only one season with an explicitly confirmed gay relationship between two cures, every season has varying levels of subtext between cures, it’s pretty cool. We won’t discuss the subtext in every season overview but trust us, it’s in there. 

What Show Should I Start With?

It doesn’t actually matter which season you watch, every season is a new setting and with new characters and set in a new world (except for two sequel seasons i’ll explain later), so you’re free to watch whatever you want in any order! We’re going to spend the rest of this post talking about each season to give you, the beloved reader, a glimpse at what each season has to uniquely offer. Don’t worry, there’s no spoilers down there. 

~ Pururun Purun Famifami Faa! ✨