Toei Animation has been making magical girl anime since Sally the Witch in 1966 – and TV Asahi (previously known as Nihon Educational Television, or NET) has been airing these shows for just as long. Sally the Witch, for the uninitiated, is largely considered the first animated magical girl series. (Himitsu no Akko-chan preceded it as a manga first serialized in 1962, but it would not be adapted into an anime until 1969. Yes, Toei did that one too.)
Inextricably linked, Toei and TV Asahi have brought the world far too many magical girl shows to recount here, although some of the more popular ones include Cutie Honey, Sailor Moon, and Ojamajo Doremi. By the time the 21st century hit, Toei was no stranger to the world of mahou shoujo and its sister concepts. Witches from another world? Androids? A team of Super Sentai-esque magical warriors? Together, Toei and TV Asahi had been there and done that.
So they were looking for something a little different for 2004. Ojamajo Doremi had been highly successful in the 8:30am Sunday time slot, so perhaps returning to magical girls after the then-currently airing (and underperforming) historical romance Ashita no Nadja would be a decent idea. This new series would be directed by Daisuke Nishio of Dragon Ball Z fame, and feature characters designed by Akira Inagami. Notably, this would be Inagami’s first shot at character design – his background includes key animation in Dragon Ball Z and directing some episodes of Ojamajo Doremi.
Takashi Washio was chosen to produce this new series. He had no prior experience working on a girls’ series, as the biggest credit to his name up to this point was assistant director on One Piece. Washio is the one credited for coming up with the first seeds of Toei’s new show. There was no real difference between the way girls and boys acted when they were very young, he noticed. Both girls and boys want to save the world. Both girls and boys like action. Transforming heroines had been very popular in the past, but why not throw in something more? In his notes for laying the groundwork of the series, Washio said one of his most popular and oft-quoted lines: “｢女の子だって暴れたい｣” – “Even girls want to rampage.”
With that idea in mind, Pretty Cure was born.
