Prétear, written by Kenichi Kanemaki and directed by Junichi Sato. Hal Film Maker (). 13 episodes of 24 minutes (approx. 312 minutes). Rated TV-14.
Available on Funimation.
Funny story: Although it looks like a much earlier series, the information on Prétear from the Funimation site claims that the show comes from 2010. Since that’s the year before Puella Magi Madoka Magica made its appearance, I was all set to interpret this show as the end of an era, the last of the primarily Sailor Moon-influenced magical-girl anime before Madoka took over the genre. But Funimation’s metadata is wrong (which is good because that means I wasn’t crazy when I thought there was no way this was from 2010); Prétear is actually from 2001.
That, however, suggests perhaps equally interesting connections: It bears some apparent influence from Revolutionary Girl Utena, and it also predates Princess Tutu by just a few years. It comes from the same studio as Tutu and resembles it in some respects; so while this isn’t a bridge between Sailor Moon and Madoka, it might be a link between Utena and Tutu.
The Plot
The Setup
Filling a modest 13 episodes based on a manga of only four volumes, Prétear is a briefly told blend of the magical-girl and reverse-harem genres. The story opens in a world called Leafenia, where four young men and their three little-boy companions are “Leafe Knights,” whose job it is to protect various organisms’ life force, called “Leafe,” from the monstrous “demon larvae” that seek to consume it. Their job has grown difficult on account of the evil “Princess of Disaster,” who commands the demon larvae, so they travel to Earth in search of the “Prétear,” a girl who can combine with them and enhance their magical abilities.
They encounter the tomboyish sixteen-year-old Himeno, a karate enthusiast whose widower father, an alcoholic ex-novelist, has recently married into money—specifically, he’s married the wealthy heiress who runs their small city.
But rather than putting Himeno on easy street, this sudden change has made her the rival of her spoiled stepsister Mayune (since a shoujo heroine is required by law to have a mean rich girl for a rival, probably). Mayune, in antics and even appearance, is almost the spitting image of Nanami from Revolutionary Girl Utena, which is the main reason I suggest a connection to that earlier title—but then again, Utena and Prétear draw from the same collection of established motifs, so this could be a coincidence.
Himeno has a second stepsister, the quiet and introverted Mawata. Although Mawata at first appears to be another of Himeno’s antagonists, she eventually develops an interesting subplot of her own and becomes integral to the story.
Although Himeno’s basic problems are formulaic for a heroine in a shoujo anime, Prétear deserves some credit for introducing them in an unusual way and, by the end, resolving them in a satisfactory manner. Himeno herself is a likable heroine, moving away from the clumsy, ditzy, and cutesy types; she’s level-headed and tough, though her martial-arts prowess is played purely for laughs, and she remains dedicated to her adopted family even when they mistreat her. Once the magical-girl business starts, she proves unusually dedicated.
The Shenanigans
Once the Leafe Knights find Himeno, she begins vanquishing demon larvae with little in the way of confusion or reluctance. She is able to “prét” with each of the knights, combining her body with his so that she can use an enhanced version of his magic; each Leafe Knight has a different elemental power, so she gets a different costume and wields different abilities depending on whom she préts with. However, Prétear is uninterested in the technical side of magical battle tactics, so, just as in Shugo Chara, the implications of the ability to turn into multiple magical girls are unexplored.
The process of “préting” with her male counterparts takes the form of a typical magical-girl transformation, with the typical amount of nudity. Since she needs a male counterpart to perform her transformation, the imagery is explicitly sexual though not graphic. As is common with anime, Prétear can’t let its symbolism stand on its own, but must point it out to the audience with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer: In this case, after her first “prét,” Himeno blushes profusely at the thought of repeating the process. Fortunately, that gets dropped quickly rather than devolving into a running gag.
Also, the insistence on pointing out the possible sexual implications makes it decidedly uncomfortable that she’s able to prét not only with her adult male counterparts but also with the shotas—though when she does, much of the customary nudity is left out.
Discussion
Altogether, this is a competent show, but given the warmth of its fans’ praises, I was expecting something more. The animation is minimal, but I find its older, watercolor look refreshing; Prétear is a reminder of just how homogenous anime has come to look in the last two decades. It does, however, evince the creeping-in of CGI shortcuts: All the water and most of the magic is done with intrusive computer-generated effects.
Perhaps my biggest complaint is that it’s too short. A lot of the building blocks of a good show are there, but Prétear doesn’t have time to work with them. It sets us up with a reverse harem, but the characters get minimal development, and no love triangle appears. Toward the end, a sudden betrayal figures prominently in the plot, but due to a lack of backstory or foreshadowing, it fails to have its intended impact. The same is true of the villainess: Her story isn’t fleshed out enough to make her motives convincing.
What the show does do well, however, is undermine some of the typical “cop-outs” of the genre: For example, although it’s established early on that the Leafe Knights can create a sort of arena or sub-universe in which to have their battles so they don’t cause real-world damage (a conceit I hate, as I explained at length in my discussion of LoliRock), they eventually lose that ability, and the climax involves large-scale destruction.
The final episode is strong overall and succeeds at some of the emotional impact the show had been—mostly without success—straining for up to that point. However, I personally thought the conclusion, which has two deus ex machinas, is weak.
I do, however, think this show offers a few important things to the potential viewer. First, it’s a chance to see some good-quality older anime, something today’s weebs don’t do enough of. Second, it’s a good entry point into the magical-girl genre: It’s not excessively saccharine or girly, it hits all the genre’s major motifs, and it’s brief—so it need be neither off-putting nor too long a slog for someone who isn’t sure if he’s interested.
For these reasons, and because it’s a title of some minor fame, I recommend it.
