From the mega anime series franchise Pretty Cure and creator Izumi Todo , we are graced with another PreCure series this year shortly following its predecessor Suite PreCure. It’s called Smile PreCure! and it’s proving to be just as fantastic as the many series before it.

I’ll admit it, I’m always up for a magical girl show. A majority (if not all) magical girl shows, especially the PreCure series, are meant for much younger usually female viewers (the toys are too!) than I am, but I find the simple lessons about friendship, teamwork, and hope for the future can apply to all ages.

Ah yes, PreCure series focus on teamwork and friendship (with varying themes throughout each series). There is never just one magical girl who fights to protect the world. Before the new My Little Pony, PreCure taught us that friendship was magic.

Smile PreCure! happens to have five girls who all become magical girls, and since this past Sunday was the fifth episode and the reveal of the final PreCure (each character gets their own introduction episode), now is a good time to jump into this series.

The main girl, Miyuki, is like any other middle school student: she loves picture books and is ultra happy all the time! Okay, so not really like any other middle school student, but she does have a spring in her step, which is something she’ll need for the future ahead of her.

On her way to the first day at her new school (she’s late, though) she runs into Candy, a strange creature from Marchen, the land of fairy tales.

This, of course, is a dream come true for the picture book loving Miyuki, but before she has time to make friends with the furry little being, Candy flies away, leaving Miyuki to remember that she’s still late for school.

This leaves the normally upbeat Miyuki rather nervous while trying to introduce herself to her classmates, but luckily, she meets four other girls in her class that help her out and make her feel welcome.

Needless to say, like every PreCure series, the inevitable happens. The villains show up and threaten the world. This time around, fairy tales are the main theme, so the goal of the villains is bad endings for everyone.

Once they spread the black paint in the book, everyone becomes depressed and pessimistic about their futures. This produces bad energy that will apparently awaken the Emperor of Evil.

But more importantly, this is when Miyuki realizes her power and becomes a PreCure. She wants everyone to be happy, or at least have a chance to have a happy ending. And in spite of bad things that happen, she always keeps smiling the best she can (her favorite thing to say is “If you cry, happiness will run away. Smile smile!”). Thus, she appropriately becomes Cure Happy.

With her newly gained power, Miyuki easily defeats the bad guy, but he gets away to fight another day.

Yet, the villains get stronger, even for Miyuki; thus four more PreCure are introduced, all of which happen to be those girls who helped out Miyuki on her first day of school.

First, we have Cure Sunny, a sporty girl with a ball of fire personality. She’s always ready to jump into action and believes in the burning power of friendship. If you couldn’t tell from my poorly added puns, her element is fire.

Next is Cure Peace, a very shy, girl who is an artist, but she’s still unsure of her talent and cries at the slightest tease. She is still scared of a lot of things, but gains courage from her friends who are always ready to help her out.  Her element is electricity.

After that, we meet Cure March, a girl who has many younger siblings and knows the importance of family bonds. She believes that bonds of friendship and family can never be broken. Her element is wind and she has the most fabulous hair.

And last, but certainly not least, we have Cure Beauty, a very responsible girl who is the student council vice president. She takes her job very seriously, but doesn’t really try to accept help from others. But, she’s always willing to stand up for her friends, not matter what. Her element is water/ice.

So, the show is highly inspiring and happy, so why should we care? It’s a kid’s show, right? Well, yes. But even kid shows can have some merit. In fact, it’s better when they do.

One of the cool things about all the PreCure series is the word “cure” in the names of the magical girls. They don’t fight to defeat or kill, they fight to cure and purify the bad guys while protecting the world. That is their hope, to protect the world in the hopes they will be able to purify and cure evil. In Smile PreCure!, there is a clear good vs. evil, but more specifically it explores the idea of being able to make your own future happy instead of it being written as a “bad end” for you. The PreCures strive to give the world this chance.

Sure, it’s a stretch, but the series does inspire hope for the future. It’s a blank canvas full of unlimited possibilities.

Now that we have all the characters introduced, the story is just beginning. How will they work together? What new enemies await them? Will they be able to keep the bonds of friendship? One thing is at least certain, they will all keep smiling despite all the dangers they face.

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Goldy

Goldy is an illustrator in training who lives in the depths of the Northwestern desert, where the sagebrush and the rattlesnakes play.She's known for procrastinating in just about everything, except when it comes to drawing and anime.

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