Given the massive number of live shows this franchise has put on, it’s no surprise they don’t always go off without a hitch.

As the parent of young girls in Japan I often attend live shows based on the animated world of Pretty Cure, in which teams of magically enhanced teens do battle with the powers of evil. The anime is hugely successful and rather well-crafted even after fifteen years of production.

The live shows, however, have widely varying degrees of quality. The best thing I can compare them to are department store Santas. Sometimes Pretty Cure‘s heroines appear on a large, well-decorated stage in front of an audience of hundreds. Other times they pop out from behind a plywood partition next to the canned food section of a supermarket.

It’s in these more budget-conscious shows that we often see mishaps occur. Luckily, PE’Z, a Japanese YouTuber who specializes in goofing on things he finds on the internet, just happens to have compiled a quick video highlighting some of these unfortunate imperfections, so that we may all enjoy.

The first few scenes start innocently enough with some strange dance moves that kind of resemble the Charleston, and a surprise appearance by a character from Kamen Rider, the stereotypically male counterpart to Pretty Cure which also puts on countless live shows across the country.

Whenever I’m watching these shows, I often daydream about who’s underneath those full-body tights and plastic anime masks. My best guess is a motley crew of struggling idols and backup dancers. I figure law of averages dictates that a lot of them are actually dudes too.

This probably results in some unusual combinations of personalities which, as the video shows, sometimes manifest themselves on stage. In one scene Cure Black, an OG of the Pretty Cure scene, gets shoved off the ridiculously tiny stage and then mockingly waved to by relative newcomers Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm. Hardly a way to treat your elders.

And in another really bizarre example, the four main characters of Doki Doki Pretty Cure are doing a human train dance move, except that they are clearly refusing to touch Cure Rosetta. Afterwards, Cure Rosetta dejectedly walks of the stage early and although we can’t see the true faces of the other actors, their body language is palpable. As PE’Z points out, there clearly is a dark side to this whole scene.

Even without these odd happenings, normal Pretty Cure live shows still don’t really live up to the magic of the anime, to me at least. During the live shows I sometimes glance over at my little girls and wonder, “Are they really buying all this?”

They say they enjoy them, so I guess thanks to a child’s imagination it all works out in the end. That, or they think I’m the one that really believes it and are really just playing along for my sake.

Source: YouTube/PE’Zpezumaru

Images: YouTube/PE’Zpezumaru