'Is it half-naked women ... and ... bums?' by Kara
Wednesday, March 1, 2006 at 8:17 AM

Okay, I said I'd talk about the Pretty Cure thing today, didn't I? (No one reminded me - for shame!)

Right. Well. For those of you who don't play with fansubs, Pretty Cure (or Futari wa PreCure or several other things) is a fairly typical magical girl show. Two girls with different personalities become fluffy heroes of love and justice, and have to defeat the evil powers threatening Earth while learning valuable life lessons and the values of teamwork. It's fun and cute and doesn't require much emotional investment. And I'm enough of a fan to have a pair of PreCure keychains hanging off my tote bag.

Well, 4Kids announced at New York Comic-Con that they have licensed PreCure for the fall 2006 Fox lineup. And you wouldn't believe the backlash. Or maybe you would. It started brewing in the Papillon Rose fan community (of all places) and has taken off a bit from there. Major complaints, as usual, being 'They're gonna screw it up!!!!' and 'They're gonna use it for dumb corporate commercial reasons!!!!'

Let me address the second one first. PreCure is a Bandai series. BANDAI. MAKES. TOYS. If you've watched even one episode of PreCure, you know this is a toy-selling series. Not that that's not a bad thing - it's a great show that just happens to force our heroines to use big sparkly cell phones and bracelets and plastic trinkets to get the job done. So everyone complaining that it's gonna turn into a big commercial blitz - duh. That's what it was in Japan. If anything, I'm hoping it'll be a big commercial blitz, because I want Honoka's henshin cell phone and a Rainbow Bracelet, and I don't feel like paying international shipping.

Now, the main complaint. You know what? Yeah. I'm certain they're gonna change the names, put in new music, blage together a new opening, and use the phrase 'It's go time!' far more than necessary. That's not what bothers me. Let them. Despite my ragging on them via the Gunbuster gag, let them. A lot of us got into anime with the re-spliced American dubs of stuff.

What bothers me is that those of us who watched the sub and liked it are most likely not going to get a nice straightforward unedited dual-language DVD. Nelvana put out Cardcaptor Sakura properly after toying with Cardcaptors, but I've never seen 4Kids do the same. I'm guessing they don't consider it necessary. But they're missing a large cross-section of pitiful fans (like me) who watched these things in fansub and would like some proper DVDs. Unfortunately, is anyone gonna speak up about it? No. Too busy being pissy over the fact that it was licensed at all.

The noble dedicated hardcore fan in me wants to lead a crusade to send them ten billion letters by post telling them this. The most we'll see from the angry fangirls is an online petition. If that. Natch.

If you have been, cut it in half next time.