Sara Talks Anime

Finally, after all these years, I have them all. I’ve got posts about shows where I utilize the official English translation for a Japanese title (most of the shows I’ve covered, but I’ll use Detective Conan here as an example both due to TMS’s push for people to drop the Case Closed branding and to connect with the detective theme), I’ve got posts about a show where I use an English name that doesn’t seem to be an accurate translation based on the romanization of the name I’ve seen (Wash It All Away), and I’ve even got posts about a show where the English name and the romanization are so similar that I’m technically doing both (Dead Account), and now I have the show where, despite having an official English translation for the title, I use the romanized title instead because I dislike how the title was officially translated. Sorry Star Detective lovers, but I’m going the Meitantei route.

Know that despite me using the romanized title of the series, however, I will still be using the terms from the translations that Crunchyroll used for the subtitles. I just think Meitantei PreCure flows a lot better title wise than Star Detective PreCure.

I’m also going to try and keep my criticisms more reeled in for this show. PreCure is intended for children. I am 21. Just because I find a decision made in this show, now or in the future, dumb doesn’t mean that the kids who watch it (aka the actual target audience) won’t absolutely love it. Just because I find a case to be easy, now or in the future, doesn’t mean that kids won’t struggle with it. I’m going to try my best to focus on three things in my judgment of this series: how good of role models I think the protagonists are, how well Meitantei PreCure balances its tones, and whether I believe the continuity makes sense. I think these are things that I’d be best able to judge at my age watching PreCure. Time to get into it.

The story begins with Anna and her mom walking home after buying a cake. During that walk, Anna finds a girl who lost one of her hair ribbons. Anna herself manages to figure out the reason why the girl’s so sad, and even does the work of finding the lost hair ribbon!

Anna has a bit of a detective streak, but it’s also a very important day for her today (in universe): it’s her birthday! Yay! After getting home, Anna herself chooses to head up to her room and notices a pendant on her desk, which she automatically assumes is from her mother and thanks her for it. However, we the viewers learn that Anna’s mom had actually gotten her…well, something else. What? I can’t spoil too much of the episode!

To make matters worse, a fairy pops out of Anna’s closet and begins gripping to her, before eventually glowing and taking Anna away, with her mother walking in later and finding Anna’s room to be empty.

I’ll take a brief pause from the discussion I’m giving you guys about the episode to pivot to say they gave the opening theme and the ending theme subtitles. Last time I saw that was…

*checks notes*

Dragon Ball DAIMA. Which, ironically enough, was also something done by Toei. Well then, shout out to Toei for being one of, if not the only animation studio to care about giving the theme songs subtitles in the simulcast version of the episodes. Thank you, Toei, I love knowing what the lyrics basically translate to.

Anyway, Anna gets sent all the way back to the year 1999, with Anna and the fairy that chose to inflate itself landing on top of a girl who was approaching the CUREtto Detective Agency. Yeah, I know, capitalization is weird, but that’s the capitalization used in the subtitles at the time I checked. She introduces herself as Mikuru Kobayashi, and she thinks that Anna is a star detective from the CUREtto Detective Agency.

You wanna know what I think, though, Mikuru?

Okay, I might not have picked the best images for my comparison, but is it just me, or do Anna’s mom and Mikuru look similar? What if the plot of Meitantei PreCure is that Anna’s mom, who for this we’ll assume is Mikuru, actually wanted to become a member of the CUREtto Detective Agency, but failed and gave up on that dream, yet had to watch Anna have detective urges? The fairy, meanwhile, traveled back in time to have Anna help Mikuru not give up on her dream? While the synopsis on Crunchyroll specifically points out needing to figure out how Anna traveled through time, that doesn’t mean it can’t be both.

While that path seems obvious, and also a path that a kids show would do, I absolutely will not be upset with whatever path they choose in the end.

Anna is rightfully confused, to which Mikuru assumes that means that the detective test has already begun, due to the fact that Anna came with the fairy. And then…

Yeah, I felt major Detective Conan vibes here. Even if it was just a main character providing a fact about famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Honestly, if I had to choose between Mikuru and Shinichi when it came to who I think is the bigger Holmes fan, I’d still pick Shinichi. He was able to cite a specific person that Holmes had used his methods on. Mikuru’s like “oh, yeah, Holmes can tell where someone had been from their shoes”, and I’m like “okay, now name the character he actually did that with, because I’m sure someone who looks like a Holmes freak can do that”.

This involves Mikuru taking Anna out to buy shoes (since Anna arrived without any shoes), and the fairy (who I believe at this point we’ve found out its name is Pochitan) leading Anna and Mikuru to a wedding hall, where we see a bride looking for something that’s been lost.

The lost item is a tiara, and at first, it seems impossible to figure out who took it. After one of Mikuru’s ribbons gets undone, and Anna gets it much like she did the other time she got a ribbon in this episode, the “one truth”–er, the answer to the case is realized, and Anna and Mikuru go and point it out.

Now, despite me keeping the name of the culprit under wraps, it wasn’t really necessary because guess what?! The culprit was actually a phantom thief, Nijee, in disguise!

After Nijee steals the tiara, Anna and Mikuru chase after him, with Pochitan causing Anna to speed up. They face off against Nijee, who reveals that he took the tiara because it had formed a Makoto Jewel, which is the object of collecting that we have for this PreCure series. The tiara gets turned into a minion (there’s also Anna and Mikuru having a motivational speech somewhere in this), and eventualy Pochitan makes another one of those pendants that Anna found, and Anna and Mikuru use them to transform into the Pretty Cure warriors Cure Answer and Cure Mystique.

They beat up the minion, Nijee flees, the girls get the tiara back, and the wedding goes off without a hitch. Anna wants to go back to her world, but after finding out she went from January 2027 to April 1999 (hence meaning time travel), she freaks out.

Prior to that wedding, though, Nijee refers to a “her” who also refers to herself as a Pretty Cure after hearing Anna/Answer and Mikuru/Mystique refer to themselves as Pretty Cure. Now, I know who this refers to, but…I’m gonna wait until they reveal it in the series proper before I say who it is. :]

Thankfully, the simulcast on Crunchyroll includes next episode previews, and the title of Episode 2 literally calls out that we’re going to be meeting another character, this one being called “Jett-senpai”, though once he does get introduced, I’ll just call him Jett. I already read up about him when the official site for Meitantei PreCure got released to the public, and he seems like an interesting character. I also already made a joke about him that connects to Detective Conan back on another social media of mine when the preview of the first episode went up on the official socials, but…we’ll see if I get to make it again next week or not.

Now…

1. Do I believe that the girls are good role models so far?

Yes! They stumbled into a scene that needed the help of a detective that police weren’t at, and solved the case! Anna also thanking her mom for the present (even if the present wasn’t actually her mom’s present) is also a nice touch!

2. Do I believe that Meitantei PreCure balances its tones well?

Yes! When there were moments that I laughed, I didn’t feel like I was laughing at moments that were supposed to be serious.

3. Is the continuity in the series making sense so far?

It’s the first episode, so this is literally the baseline. As a result, this question cannot be answered yet.

I’m excited to see where Meitantei PreCure goes from here! While the title of Episode 2 gives me something to expect, that doesn’t mean I have all of the answers! God, I haven’t had this much fun making a writeup since doing my previous Sara Watches Detective Conan writeup. Speaking of that, I still have one that I need to get out of the queue. Hehe…maybe later this month as a little treat to make up for not leaving the episode that was best suited for that date for then? Who knows. Anyway, I can’t wait for Episode 2 of Meitantei PreCure!

Previous Post: N/A

Next Post: Episode 2 (“Introducing the Genius, Jett-senpai!”) hasn’t aired yet. Unless the episode gets delayed, the post should go live on February 8th, 2025 at 12 PM (PST)