Lets just get this out of the way first, crusty ol' Maguro is a fan of the, oh how you say, 'magical girls'. Sakura and the Sailor of Moon are some of my favs. Pretear tries to break out of the old molds and while it carries along some great ideas I can't help but feel like it's going against some unwritten laws. This may have to do with something they call "preeting", but I'll hash that out later. Now lets concentrate on the really terrible things about the show, the parts that I do understand my feelings on.
The first two or so eps are some of the worst set-up I have ever seen in anime. A mismatched gaggle of pretty boys (Leefe Knights) make the task of being the magical girl in this series sound tortuously boring. I stand with the heroine on this one as she decides against it at first, I would too I think. They all group around her and basically say, "You have to help us beat the monsters!" and "You are the only one who can!" You just can't walk up to a magical girl to be and blurt everything out like that. They were practically ganging up on her when these important moments are usually handled just 'talking animal' to 'magical girl'. It sounds ridiculous, because it is, and this animal talks, what is going on here?? That is how it is done. In Pretear this roving band of male leads just waylays her with the truth. Her initial rejection isn't nearly as believable especially when she turns right around and joins the scooby gang the next minute! The reluctance just isn't there in the beginning. The way I see it the discovery of her powers and purpose are the whole point of shows like this and they totally screwed it up. I was ready to stop after the first ep, but out of duty to you, my readers, I went on.
Secondly the magical girl does not truly control her own power. To use her powers she must 'preet' with one of the knights. What is this 'preeting' you ask? Well I can tell you that kids in Texas can't learn about it in health class. In the biggest state of the union they have a 'abstinence' curriculum, and preeting is only for lawfully married couples. Ok seriously, they really just hold hands and the knight turns into a battle dress or some such that allows her to shoot her lasers. It's... just the process... her expressions are... not very wholesome. Lets not even mention the fact that some of the knights are like, five or younger.
You just have to see it I think. Maybe I'm just crazy. You decide!
Thirdly Pretear really wants us to care about their characters, major emotions are tossed about with little regard to the sanctity of the unflappable magical girl archetype. Well most magical girls are hardly unflappable, they whine and doubt themselves sometimes. The problem here is that in Pretear our magical heroine has a full blown Shinji Ikari meltdown, complete with the screaming and the sobbing and on and on. WAY to much there. Not very fun to watch. A few of the knights end up tangled in this hurt-feelings and unrequited love soap opera emo thing and you just don't care about any of them. Seriously.
It bears mentioning that Pretear is a 13 ep OVA so they are short on time, ok that makes sense. Also it wasn't the creator's intention to do just another magical girl show, fine I can see that too. It's just so backward! I am constantly finding myself preaching things like the 'creator's intent' and 'genre bending' on this site but I somehow feel that Pretear isn't enough like other magical girl shows. Perhaps this is because all of the usual suspects are present; transformation sequences, special attacks, monsters and saving the world themes, while it turns everything else on it's ear. If you're going to try to make the post-sakura magical girl anime, then do it. Leave convention behind and do something else, don't tease us with this Moon Kingdom imagery and ruin it all. It's a bait and switch, people! Bait and switch!
Now, what did I like? The bald guy is really funny. As a matter of fact lots of the comedic moments are really funny. One of the knights wears a pair of bed-pans on his shoulders. That's pretty funny too. The toddler knight is sort of cute, and he actually cries when he realistically should because honestly a toddler should not be fighting extra-dimensional monsters, or preeting for that matter. For pete's sake, where are their PARENTS?!?!
1 comment:
Out-of-Place step daughter who wants to be loved
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Cold, new step-mother
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Two new, self involved step-sisters
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Uninvolved Father
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Magic
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Cinderella
Pretear is what you get when you pret (prete?, WHATEVER!) Disney with an emo, porn flick.
I think the whole thing would be much improved if wasn't riding almost completely on an interesting premise. Do you want the truth? I like magical girl shows. Monster-of-the week, sometimes reluctant heroine, magical powers, transformation sequences, an evil nemesis, the secrets - they're my weaknesses. Pretear however strove to be a magical girl show PLUS SO MUCH MORE! *sigh* Give it a rest, would you? The whole thing would have been much better served by focusing in on one or two things, killing a couple of those ridiculous knights (but leave the baby, I like it when he cries), and, for the love of god, STOP WHINING!
Oh, and you really should have rode the "eep, this strange man is inside of me, infusing me with his manliness" pony a little harder. Geez, why do you think I bought this series if not to watch the heroine freak out as she slips further and further into the dark underworld of pornography?
Still, for all that, I liked watching the show. It was soft viewing and demanded little from the viewer. Sometimes, on the heels of other, more intense anime, its nice to take a break. Pretear is that sort of show. Also, much of its awkward phases ended in the first couple of disks, so if you can suffer through the first eight or so episodes you're in for a pleasant story.
Regards,
Una-sama
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