Pretear

I’m struggling a little to decide what to blog about, so decided to go with another old one.  Pretear is a series based on a manga.  It is also a combination or re-working of several fairy stories into one basic love story.

The main character of Pretear is a high-school girl named Awayuki Himeno.  Himeno’s father, Kaoru, is a poor, struggling romance author and artist who fell in love with and married a rich woman named Natsue.  Natsue has two daughters Himeno’s age, Mayune and Mawata, from a previous marriage.   Himeno and her father become part of the life of this rich family in their massive mansion.  Mayune actively hates Himeno and goes out of her way to make Himeno’s life miserable.  Mawata is so consumed with her own loneliness and sense of loss from losing her father, that she’s not interested in much around her and mostly ignores Himeno.

This is the state of affairs as the story begins.  And at this point, into Himeno’s life come seven “Leaf Knights”.  The Leaf Knights and their powers are:  Hayate : wind; Sasame : sound; Kei : light; Go : fire; Mannen : ice; Hajime : water and Shin : plants.  The Leaf Knights fight to keep life force (referred to as ‘leaf’) flowing in all living things.  They battle life-force-sucking creatures or demons who are controlled by the Princess of Darkness, Fenrir.   Three of the Leaf knights, Mannen, Hajime and Shin, are little kids because the original three Leaf Knights that held those powers died in their battles to seal Fenrir away.  Now Fenrir is breaking free and the Leaf Knights are looking for the “Pretear”, a girl who can combine powers with them and make both them and her more powerful in their battles against the forces of Darkness.


Himeno, of course, is the Pretear.  Hayate doesn’t accept her at first, feeling that they can fight fine without her, and you find out why he's so against it later.  Also, at first Himeno is unwilling to get involved with them.  So they take a little while to get used to each other and begin working together and combining their powers.  Hayate is the last to accept Himeno.  About the time they do begin melding, Fenrir breaks free and attacks in force.

At this point, Himeno finds out the big Leaf Knight secret.  Fenrir was at one time the Pretear, a girl named Takako.  She fell in love with Hayate, who didn’t return her feelings.  So, spurned, she fell into despair and vowed to destroy everything they held dear – she became Fenrir.   When Himeno learns all this, her own questions and inadequacies surface and she becomes unable to combine forces with any of the Leaf Knights.  They all begin taking a serious beating from the forces of Darkness.  In addition, Sasame admits that he has always loved Takako, even knowing she loved Hayate, so he deserts the Leaf Knights to side with Fenrir and become her right-hand man and a knight of Darkness.  Fenrir of course doesn't trust him and it's not until he's killed that she realizes she loves him also.

At the series climax, Fenrir has won all the battles and come close to destroying everyone and everything, including turning Mawata into a center and force for darkness.  All looks lost, with Sasame dead in the battles and Hayate soon to be dead.  But at the last minute, Himeno gains power from all the Leaf Knights and transforms into the White Pretear, with almost unlimited power.  In the end she saves her family, Takako, and all the Leaf Knights, including resurrecting Sasame.  She herself appears dead but Hayate wakes her with a kiss.  The series ends with a huge happily ever after, Sasame and Takako together and Himeno and Hayate together.  They all live happily with Himeno’s now combined and happy family in the big mansion. 

Yes, this is a harem anime, and a take-off of Snow White and the seven dwarfs and being awakened with a kiss, with elements of Cinderella and her evil step-sisters, but for all that, it’s fun to watch and entertaining.  And best of all, nobody dies.  It’s not at all a bad series to spend some time watching.