Glitter Force (Kid's Anime Review)
Netflix’s new anime series Glitter Force uses many stereotypical tropes of the magical girl anime to weave together a simple and cute story. Also known as Smile PreCure!, or Smile Pretty Cure!, this is the ninth series within the Pretty Cure franchise. This particular review will be focused on the Netflix English dub of the series, for multiple reasons that will be explained.
When Emily transfers to Rainbow Hills Middle School, the last thing she expects is to literally have a magical book fall out of the sky. As this book falls a cute character named Candy pops out of the book to reveal that he is looking for Glitter Force to help save the world. Emily’s squeal of delight at the sight of Candy’s cuteness scares him into running away. Besides, she figures that it’s not her as she is extremely clumsy, and continues on to school. Nervously introducing herself, she finds that several of the girls in the class look similar to girls from a dream the previous night. This dream was about Emily and the girls transforming into the magical Glitter Force. Once nervousness passes, thanks to the fearless and athletic Kelsey taking center stage to introduce others in the class, Emily bravely introduces herself to the class.
Finding out that the middle school has a great library, Emily, excitedly hurries to see if there is a book on dreams that may explain her dream and fairy she ran into earlier. At the back of the library she finds a pink glow behind a book, but it quickly moves around the shelf. Finally catching the pink light, a portal opens and sucks the new student into a magical library. Realizing that this is probably the location of the magical book she puts it in an empty spot on a shelf. The book opens and tells of the kingdom of Jubiland, where fairy tale characters live. In this land of happy endings, an evil emperor attacks in the hope of bringing unhappy endings to the world. Jubiland’s queen uses the last of her power to seal away the evil emperor, but his minions have come to Earth to harness negative energy to revive him. Candy was sent to find five magical girls to stop their evil plan by defeating enemies to collect magic items as part of Glitter Force. The magical book reveals that Emily is the first to be selected.
Nothing about this anime could necessarily be seen as being new. The characters are all archetypes, the episodes are based around monster of the week writing, and dialogue is what any anime fan would expect from this type of show. These are all reasons is highly recommended series for anyone looking introduce a young child, specifically girls, to anime. Easy to understand stories that can be enjoyed as solitary episodes, bright expertly done animation, fun action scenes, catchy music, memorable catch phrases, and plenty of cuteness, all make this a perfect entry anime for children under the age of 12. Excellent job on the part of Netflix for bringing this series to their network, one that is being used as much by children as adults. Glitter Force also offers long time anime fans with moments that will find them grinning, as the remember other series, possibly ones from their childhood.
