Ask John: Will Pretty Cure Turn Lesbian?

Question:
Pretty Cure is so frustrating! I want to scream at Nagisa, “Forget Fujipi! He doesn’t love you! You have a perfectly willing and attractive life partner in Honoka; embrace her and live happily ever after!” Do you think there’s any hope that Nagisa and Honoka will find each other romantically in the series? Will we ever see a mahou shoujo anime aimed at girls with openly lesbian heroines as the main characters? Sailor Moon has the secondary openly lesbian characters of Uranus and Neptune, and in Utena it’s heavily implied Utena and Anthy are more than “deep friends” and Juri clearly has romantic feelings for Shiori, but I can’t think of any mahou shoujo anime for preteen audiences in which the lead characters are definitely lesbians.

Answer:
I’ve long thought that the relationship between Honoka and Nagisa of Pretty Cure is more intimate than either girl consciously realizes. First series episode 40 clarifies that the girls are friendly enough with each other to platonically sleep together, and no episode so far better illustrates the intense devotion and love the girls feel for each other than first series episode 42. But even though the romance between the two girls seems obvious to viewers, I don’t think that the Futari wa Precure anime will ever clearly escalate the relationship beyond its present implied homoeroticism. Making the girls overtly lesbian would change their characterizations, and would alter the thematic dynamic of the show. Pretty Cure is appealing to mature male viewers, even though it’s overtly a show for pre-adolescent Japanese girls, because it has a subtle, consistent romantic tension. Nagisa’s personality is “tomboy-ish” because she silently pines for Fujipi. I think that Nagisa would be perceived as too feminine if she were to discard her interest in boys. Likewise, I think that Honoka would soften too much if she acknowledged a crush on Nagisa. Honoka’s personality stays chaste because she’s an intellectual, modern Yamato Nadesico. Nagisa has friends and schoolmates, but no romantic involvements because she’s too preoccupied with study and a sense of responsibility to her family and friends. If Nagisa’s priorities were to change, her personality would change. The same applies to Honoka. And if the clearly defined personalities of Honoka as the romantically clumsy, athletic tomboy and Nagisa as the brainy yet considerate feminine ideal evolve, the friction between the masculine and feminine dynamics that characterize the Pretty Cure anime dissolve.

Ranma and Akane never consummate their relationship. Nor do Inuyasha and Kagome, Ataru and Lum, Spike and Faye, Belldandy and Keiichi, Linna and Goury. These relationships are the thematic foundation of the stories they come from. The tension, the “will they/won’t they” uncertainty is part of the identifying character of series like Ranma, Inuyasha, Urusei Yatsura, Cowboy Bebop, Ah! My Goddess, and Slayers. The potential romance between protagonists isn’t necessarily the primary narrative of some of these shows, as is the case with Pretty Cure, but in all of these cases, potential romance is a narrative draw. As soon as that situation is broached, the story must thematically change. The tease of mystery is removed and as a result, the show may lose some of its novelty. I do think that Nagisa and Honoka becoming lovers would be an interesting and revolutionary event in the continuing Pretty Cure story, and I think that it could happen, but I don’t expect that it will happen. Quite simply, the old principle applies. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

That’s not to say that I don’t anticipate an eventual magical girl anime with overtly lesbian protagonists. Many anime shows targeted at male viewers, including Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito, Kannazuki no Miko, Battle Athletes, and El Hazard, have included lesbian characters. Adult anime including Nami SOS, Famires Senshi Purin, and Papillion Rose have dealt with highly sexualized magical girls. There hasn’t yet been a shoujo magical girl program with lesbian protagonists, but I think that the anime industry may be slowly preparing for such a show. Sailor Moon was a magical girl show targeted at young Japanese girls that introduced a lesbian pair of supporting characters. Pretty Cure is a magical girl show for young Japanese girls that hints at mutual romantic feelings between its main characters. If anime has progressed from auxiliary cast lesbian magical girls to primary cast implied lesbianism, the next step is a mahou shoujo anime specifically designed to introduce and star a lesbian couple of transforming magical girls. I don’t think that Pretty Cure really lends itself ideally to either overt hetero- or homosexual romantic relationships, but I do think that Pretty Cure is a major stepping stone on the path to a revolutionary event in the mahou shoujo anime genre.