The Essentials
Name: Pretear, The New Legend of Snow White
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance
Episodes: 13
Released: April 4, 2001 - June 27, 2001
Based On: Pretear manga by Kaori Naruse
Director: Kenichi Tajiri, Kiyoko Sayama
Produced By: Kadokawa Shoten, Rondo Robe
US Distribution By: ADV Films
Major Japanese Cast
Himeno Awayuki: Sayuri Yoshida
Hayate: Kousuke Toriumi
Sasame: Takahiro Sakurai
Princess of Disaster: Yui Horie
Kei: Makoto Naruse
Gou: Shoutarou Morikubo
Mannen: Akiko Yajima
Hajime: Misato Fukuen
Shin: Tamaki Nakanishi
Natsue Awayuki: Kikuko Inoue
Mawata Awayuki: Akemi Kanda
Mayune Awayuki: Satsuki Yukino
Kaoru Awayuki: Yuji Ueda
Tanaka: Takehito Koyasu
Major English Cast
Himeno Awayuki: Luci Christian
Hayate: Illich Guardiola
Sasame: Chris Patton
Princess of Disaster: Kaytha Coker
Kei: Victor Carsrud
Gou: Spike Spencer
Mannen: Greg Ayres
Hajime: Hilary Haag
Shin: Sasha Paysinger
Natsue Awayuki: Lauren Goodnight
Mawata Awayuki: Mandy Clark
Mayune Awayuki: Shelley Calene-Black
Kaoru Awayuki: Jason Douglas
Tanaka: Paul Sidello
Scores
Animation: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Story: 7/10 (x 4 = 28 pts)
Music: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 9/10 (x 2 = 18 pts)
English Dubs: 8/10 (x 1 = 8 pts)
Gut Score: 6/10 (x 5 = 30 pts)
Total: 152/200 (76.0%)
Review
Pretear is a story about a girl, Himeno, who is chosen to be the Pretear. The Pretear is someone who, simply, is the most powerful person able to wield leafe, and who must defeat the Princess of Disaster and her larvae before they suck all the leafe - which is roughly equivalent to life-force - out of everything on earth. However, in order to user her powers, the Pretear must “preat” with one of 7 Leafe Knights, each giving the pretear a particular power. However, the Leafe Knights has a history with the Princess of Disaster, a history which may ultimately undo them and the Pretear.
I’d have to say that I was rather disappointed with this series. It was rather slow developing for a 13 episode season. The first few episodes are about Himeno, the Pretear, searching for and fighting demon larvae and, well, not very much else. And the actual battles with the demon larvae, at least to begin with, were so short that if you were even briefly away from the TV you could miss it. The second half of the series mainly goes into character development and into the relationship between the Leafe Knights and the Princess of Disaster. There aren’t necessarily all that many surprises either, and the events the occur in the run-up to and into the conclusion were, if not predictable, then not necessarily surprising. The second half of the series does improve on the first half, but the first half seriously brings the quality of the series down, especially given it’s length.
Given that Digimiation, who has since merged with Gonzo, did much of the animating, the animation quality is very good, and the musical score isn’t too bad either. I have to give credit to Pretear for being a somewhat novel story idea, at least as far as the basis of the story is concerned, it is just executed poorly. If your a fan of magical girl anime series, then you may enjoy Pretear quite a bit. However, if you’re looking for something exciting or with much originality, you’ll probably be disappointed.
First Watched: August - December 2006
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: No
Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast Episode #32 is now online! In this podcast, I re-review both seasons of the anime series Pretear.
