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Pretty Cure, aka PreCure, the Japanese magical girl franchise for children ages 3 to 6, made franchise history in their twentieth season, Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure, by adding a boy to the main cast of heroes (known as Cures) with Cure Wing.
His story has inspired children regardless of gender. But Bandai-Namco’s merchandising Namco showed that the franchise still had some lessons to learn. And in August, a viral social media post led to Bandai-Namco and Toei Animation correcting some of their behavior.
Pretty Cure Then And Now
The Pretty Cure franchise has always targeted Japanese girls. The show’s original tagline in Futari wa Pretty Cure was “Girls want to rampage, too!”. Their ability to adapt to the changing needs of the genre and girls’ media with each new cast of Cures has been the reason for their continued success.
In the mid to late 2000s, Pretty Cure competed with over a dozen other properties. As of 2023, it’s the only magical girl series that Japanese producers make for children. (Japanese dubs of Miraculous Ladybug and Cat Noir and Catch! Teenieping are also currently airing.)
Throughout the 20-year history of Pretty Cure, most of the characters have been Japanese middle school girls. With each Cure, the anticipated merchandise includes the items used in the show. There are also several toy lines that include the PreCure Style doll, as well as official costumes for children (previously part of the Charalite Kids line, currently Transformation PreTume).
As of 2021, Bandai-Namco added Pretty Holic, a cosmetic line for children. Pretty Holic includes lipstick, blush, and nail polish color-coded for each Cure.
For Star Twinkle Pretty Cure (2019), Toei Animation producers pleaded with Bandai-Namco to allow the introduction of Cure Soleil, a Mexican-Japanese Cure and still the only main team Cure with brown skin in the franchise. Her merchandise showed gaps in what Bandai-Namco was willing to do for diversity, with some goods making her skin orange, and others whitewashing her entirely.
Cure Wing’s Soft Launch
Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure followed the recent trend of introducing new Cures to the team more slowly, so Cure Wing didn’t debut until episode nine, on April 2nd. On the same day, Bandai published an introduction to his merchandise without a set release date.
Even then, some fans on social media noticed some missing items: the PreCure Style doll and the Transformation PreTume. Since some of the merchandising was meant to align with the debut of Cure Butterfly, many waited for more info.
After Cure Butterfly debuted in episode 19 on May 28th, fans anticipated whether the first adult Cure would likewise get a different treatment or not. However, her merchandise included the usual doll and PreTume. It became evident that Cure Wing was the odd one out, despite Butterfly’s debut episode featuring a boy who idolizes the boy hero. Fans celebrated Wing’s inclusion in the Pretty Holic line. But they also accepted for months that this other merchandise was simply not to come.
The Boy Who Cried Wing
On August 21, 2023, X (formerly Twitter) user @maruiTTR posted a thread about taking her son to the summer Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure event, Let’s Head Out! To A Soaring World! in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro.
“My son, who loves… Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure was concerned that it was weird for a boy to go to a [PreCure] event. I said ‘Cure Wing’s a boy too, so it’s fine,’ and so we set off. However, the Transformation Corner lacked just Cure Wing’s costume, so my son sobbed, went to color a picture, and then we went home. I’m saddened.”
The Transformation Corner was a photoshoot area where children could try on a PreTume and take pictures as their favorite Cure. Since there was no official costume for Wing, the event organizers could do nothing for this boy and other children who complained about the lack of 1/4 of this year’s team.
How did other PreCure fans take this post? The discussion of the lack of Wing’s costume shot キュアウィング(Cure Wing), ツバサくん (Tsubasa-kun, his civilian name), and プリチューム (PreTume) into X’s (formerly Twitter’s) trending topics for over 48 hours.
Other parents shared stories of their children being upset and not understanding the lack of Wing’s costume in stores. Some fans wondered how Bandai-Namco could remedy the situation. There was the understanding that this series is a business, but most seemed to agree that the company still had to consider the child viewers above all else.
Bandai-Namco and Toei Animation Fly Like the Wind
On the afternoon of August 23rd, just two days after the viral post, official Pretty Cure X pages began to respond. First, the official page for the Pretty Store, a chain of stores that sell exclusive Pretty Cure merch, announced the addition of Cure Wing costumes to their photo shoot area in all locations starting September 15th.
At the same time, the official page for the TV series released a statement to the general audience: “Thank you for always supporting Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure. Likewise, thank you for your feedback on our work. We will continue to provide both works and experiences that please everyone. We thank you for your continued support.” Minutes later, the official page for Bandai announced the Cure Wing Transformation PreTume was coming to Premium Bandai in September.
Premium Bandai is where Bandai lists items exclusively for pre-order, for a limited time, so these costumes will likely be in children’s hands just in time for Christmas. Reactions to the announcements were overwhelmingly positive but also met with some disdain. Had this always been the plan? If this post hadn’t reached thousands of people, when were they planning to release the costume? After all, December is a fine time to get these costumes, but the season will end in January 2024.
Once a new season of Pretty Cure begins, children tend to move on to the new team. Those costumes might not get as much use as they could have if Wing’s costume had come out alongside the other ones.
The Hero Gender Divide
Bandai-Namco has not stated why they neglected to include Cure Wing in all the PreCure merchandising of his teammates, but this franchise and its brothers might indicate why. The other ニチアサ (nichiasa, or Sunday morning) hero shows, Kamen Rider and the Sentai series, air right after Pretty Cure and are marketed towards boys.
Kamen Rider and Sentai dominate the toy sales for boys, while Pretty Cure consistently dominates in the girls’ section. While Bandai-Namco provides the merchandise for all these Toei programs, there is very little attempt to allow real-life children to explore both sides of the toy aisle.
Cure Wing might be the first Cure on a main team to identify as male, but he is not the first to get short-changed in this way. In 2017, Cure Chocolat, a girl so masculine she is frequently mistaken for a boy, also received the same treatment. The four other starting members of Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode had PreTumes in stores just as the show began in early February. However, Chocolat’s costume was only available via Premium Bandai.
In 2008, before social media could make a significant impact on Bandai’s product decisions, Yes! Pretty Cure 5 Go! Go! followed the popular Yes! Pretty Cure 5, giving the team all-new outfits. Unfortunately, the sporty Cure Rouge did not get an updated Charalite Kids costume in stores alongside her teammates. This was a surprise to fans who believed her to be a popular enough character to warrant an updated costume.
What’s Next for Boy Cures?
The question of whether or not Wing will get a PreCure Style doll remains to be seen. The conflict there has to do with logistics. These dolls feature the same body mold, which is also used for other female Bandai-Namco dolls. Cure Wing would require a new body mold altogether. However, some fans have hope that the all-boy team Dancing Star Pretty Cure, the 2.5D musical stage show coming this fall, could lead to Bandai-Namco taking the plunge.
Time will tell if boys in Pretty Cure continue to be the norm. Will merchandising finally bite the bullet?
Pretty Cure is the current largest franchise for girls in Japan. In the past few years, Toei Animation’s gone back-and-forth in attempts to diversify the teams without getting too progressive.
If the studio took diversity seriously, it could impact children in a country where LGBTQ and racial progress is slow. Concurrently, Bandai-Namco will need to continue to match Toei’s wishes and make products for every young viewer.
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Sources
[1] MANTANWEB編集部. “プリキュア：20周年で大人に向けたアニメ制作 NHKで「オトナプリキュア」 「魔法つかいプリキュア！」続編も” Link
[2] プリキュアおもちゃウェブ. “キュアウィングアイテム 登場！” Link
[3] プリキュアおもちゃウェブ. “キュアバタフライアイテム 好評発売中！” Link
[4] ENCOUNT編集部. “プリキュア男性キャラの衣装“除外”が物議 ネットに広がる落胆の声「運営さんに届いて」” https://encount.press/archives/502995/
[5] おもちゃ情報net. “2022年の年間おもちゃランキング” https://www.toynes.jp/ranking_year2022/
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