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na-na-namine · 3 months

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Interview with director of Pretty Cure All Stars F (Yuta Tanaka) - Translated by Leontoi

I provided the link to the original translation above, but there were a few grammatical issues. I cleaned up and edited the translation below. It's a great interview and I recommend reading it after watching the movie!

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──The theme of the 20th anniversary movie is "What is Precure?" Why did you choose this as the theme of the movie?

I feel that because the Pretty Cure series has continued for so long, it has become extremely diverse.

Over the past 20 years, various Precures and Pretty Cure works have been created.

As a result, I think that the beginning of deciding the movie's theme was because I felt that it was no longer possible to say in one word, "What is Precure?"

For example, in terms of setting, when I started working 15 years ago, only ordinary girls could transform into Pretty Cure.

However, recently, more people with various origins, such as a mermaid and an android, are becoming Precures.

In addition to the main series for children, there is "Kibo no Chikara ~Adult PreCure '23~" which depicts the future of PreCure, and the stage play "Dancing☆Star PreCure", etc.

Derivative works aimed at adult fans who have loved the Pretty Cure series for a long time, as well as spin-off works from the main series, are now being created.

PreCure has continued to change with the times, so these may be part of that change.

However, the definition of a Pretty Cure has become vague, as to what makes someone a Pretty Cure and what doesn't.

In that case, asking this question once again might be an appropriate theme for the 20th anniversary.

Or so I thought.

──Tanaka-san, you have been involved in the production of the Pretty Cure series for over 15 years since "Yes! Pretty Cure 5" (2007).

In other words, from your point of view as one of the creators, you feel that there has been a big change in Pretty Cure, right?

This is just my personal opinion, but I feel that the creators of the early Pretty Cure series were really stoic and created anime with only the children in mind.

There were adult fans who enjoyed Pretty Cure back then, but the creators basically didn't care about them that much.

UMEZAWA Atsutoshi-san, who was the producer of the Pretty Cure series from 2009 to 2013, said this at the time.

"If we are too conscious of the adult audience, children will see right through it and feel that it is not theirs, and those who are our original target audience will turn away from Pretty Cure. In that case, it will no longer be PreCure."

I strongly sympathize with his opinion, and have been involved in the production of Pretty Cure while valuing it.

However, as the title suggests, the main target audience for "Otona Pretty Cure," are adults who used to like PreCure, and I think this work was created with their feelings in mind.

("Otona" means "adults" in Japanese.)

Although there are parts that I sympathize with,

Now that a "Pretty Cure work whose main target audience is adults" has been born, it's finally become difficult to understand what Pretty Cure is.

Going forward, I think the most important thing about the Pretty Cure series is that it was created with the children who are currently watching it in mind, but as a business, we need to consider other directions as well. That may be the situation. I also wonder what will happen to Pretty Cure in the future.

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About All Stars F.

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──This movie is an All Stars movie that features all 78 Precures from the past.

Actually, at first I wasn't planning on making an All Stars movie.

I thought it would be impossible to have all 78 people appear in the 70-minute length film, so I had an idea to divide it by different generations.

There was also an idea that only characters from three generations (Hirogaru Sky, Delicious Party, and Tropical Rouge) would appear, or they and several other Precure characters from other generations.

But, the idea of all three generations of PreCure coming together has been done so many times that I didn't think it felt fresh.

PreCure All Stars movies were made every year from 2009 to 2016.

However, with the exception of this work (PreCure All Stars F), we have only produced it for the 15th anniversary (2018) since then.

I thought, "If that's the case, it would be great if we could make it consist of the latest 9 generations of Pretty Cure series, who haven't appeared in many All Stars movies."

Considering the characters' activities in a 70-minute movie, I think that's about as long as we can manage in terms of the number of people.

However, due to various circumstances, we ended up having all of the Pretty Cure All Stars appear in this movie (lol).

──So you went through a lot of hardships.

Hahaha (lol). Planning is a living thing, so it changes over time.

──Was it difficult to get all 78 people to appear in this movie?

Oh no... there are so many people that it's impossible to treat everyone equally...

The length of the movie is about 70 minutes, so it can't be made any longer. Also, whether it's possible just because the movie time has been increased is another question. After all, the numbers are big.

That's why we decided to narrow down the number of characters who appear frequently in this movie. I wanted to show the Precures from all the different series as equally as possible, but I think it was difficult in reality.

──However, this film has recorded the highest box office revenue ever, and I feel that it has been very well received by the audience.

The theme of this movie is "What is Precure?", and the character Cure Supreme/Prim appears as an original Precure exclusive to this movie.

Cure Supreme, she embodies the antithesis of the question, "What is Precure?"

Throughout the anime series, the Precures (Precure warriors) have basically been portrayed as ``strong, cute, and cool beings.''

And Prim is a character who is interested in PreCure, seeing only one aspect of them being "strong."

However, she lacked consideration for why Precure are strong and cool, and she didn't even try to find out why they were so strong and cool.

But I think what we've been making about over the last 20 years is the ``why'' part of why Precures are so strong.

The desire they have to become who they want to be.

They stand up hand-in-hand with someone.

Due to the aforementioned, they do not give up.

...That is why Precures are so strong.

I wanted to convey that basic idea in this work as well.

──At the end of this movie, Supreme realized "Why the Precures are so strong," and the Precures extended a helping hand to her.

Actually, in this movie, I wanted to focus on promoting good and punishing evil.

My first idea for the story of this movie was that I wanted it to end with the Precures completely defeating Supreme and making her disappear.

But in the end, the Precures extended a helping hand to her, even though they had fought against her many times before.

As a creator, I felt that I was a little naive in some ways, but I have no regrets. I think we've come back to the idea that "Precures are all about reaching out to even the enemy, right?"

──In the final scene, I felt that Puka and Supreme had become true Precures.

It's not explained at all in the movie, so I don't think it's wrong to say that they became Precures, and I hope people who watch it can come up with their own interpretations.

Speaking of characters, Supreme is a god-like being from another world.

She has powers that are far from human, such as the ability to reshape the world, and she can be described as a "superior being" or "transcendence", and it can be said that she alone is a complete being.

But that's not the case with Precure, and because each of them is, in a sense, an "imperfect being", I think there is a part of them that wants to join hands with everyone and stand up for themselves.

Supreme admires the appearance of such Precures.

And she created Puka from within herself. Originally, Supreme and Puka were completely the same entity (Supreme), but they separated into two entities.

This caused a rift and change in her being.

Depending on how you look at it, you could say that she went from being perfect to being imperfect, but personally, I find her imperfections more appealing than her perfect self.

Don't you think "imperfect" means "human"?

──Lastly, I felt that the design was reminiscent of the first generation (Futari wa Pretty Cure), with Supreme's color being black and Puka's color being white.

I think so.

It's not an homage to "Futari wa PreCure," but I thought it might be a beautiful ending to the 20th anniversary movie.

This is just a matter of how the movie looks.

──Why did both of them become Precures?

I think that's the "miracle of Pretty Cure".

WASHIO Takashi-san, the founder of the PreCure series, said to me while I was making this movie, "I want you to stop portraying admiration for Precures as evil," which was also a big inspiration.

Supreme has done a lot of incredibly annoying things, including destroying and re-creating our world.

However, when asked if she is an evil being, I have a slightly different image of her than an evil being.

More than anything, she wanted to become a Precure.

I wanted to save her that feeling.

I wanted the children to look up to Precures, so I felt like I shouldn't deny Supreme's feelings.

──What is the answer that the production team gave to the question “What is Precure?”

After much discussion, one of our answers was "Connect," which is also our catchphrase, because Precures have been connecting generations and feelings for 20 years.

However, when asked "What is Precure?", I ended up saying, "I don't really understand."

It's a series that has connected many people's feelings, so I think it's impossible to sum up the answer to the question of what Pretty Cure is in one word.

There are as many different types of PreCure as there are PreCure works, and we didn't want the production side to force us to say, ``This is what PreCure is!'' or to give a narrow answer.

The idea was to ask the movie audience a question within the movie, and leave it up to them to answer the question, ``What is PreCure?''

And I think it's important to connect this to the future. Be flexible when it comes to change, while preserving what needs to be protected. I think it's important to change with the times. If we do that, more new PreCures that we can't even imagine now may be created in the future.

#there was a part 1 to the interview but it was about go princess so it's not relevant #this interview is long enough as it is already #also the movie was F*CKING AMAZING #precure #pretty cure #precure all stars f #cure supreme #cure puka #yuta tanaka #translated by someone else #edits by me

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