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Monday, February 1, 2016

Pretty Cure Ranked Against Itself:

Pretty Cure is a unique franchise in that its storyline is not singular but refreshes at the beginning of every February.  However, each new season is so similar in theme and content that it can't possibly be classified as separate series either.  It's a hybrid existence, much like Final Fantasy which keeps many things between games but also changes the characters and the world each time.

As such, Pretty Cure's relative rating to outsiders is a subject of one concern, every episode combined versus the foreign enemy, but Pretty Cure's relative ratings to each other is still never shown by a single number that unifies their power all together.  In fact, there's a diverse field of quality within Pretty Cure as well as without, and it's about time we exposed that reality to the outside world.

The way these series were measured was indubitably scientific.  Rather than just giving a hazy impression of the quality of each show after watching it all, I watched the first episode of each season, and listed their quality from #1 to #12 versus each other.  Then I watched the second episode of each season, then the third, and so on.  I added up the total sum of these ratings for each season and divided them by the number of episodes in that season to find its average quality.  The lower the number the better your season was.  Here is the conclusion found via this scientific grading system:

Relative TV + Movie Series Average Rankings:

1.  Suite Precure                              (Season 8)            (TV + Movie Series Average:  3.6111)
2.  Doki Doki Precure                     (Season 10)          (TV + Movie Series Average:  4.5091)
3.  Fresh Precure                              (Season 6)           (TV + Movie Series Average:  5.6250)
4.  Go! Princess Precure                  (Season 12)          (TV + Movie Series Average: 5.9464)
5.  Smile Precure                             (Season 9)            (TV + Movie Series Average:  6.0000)
6.  Yes! Precure 5                            (Season 4)            (TV + Movie Series Average:  6.0192)
7.  Happiness Charge Precure         (Season 11)          (TV + Movie Series Average:  6.2363)
8.  Yes! Precure 5 GoGo                 (Season 5)            (TV + Movie Series Average:  6.4118)
9.  Futari wa Precure Splash Star    (Season 3)            (TV + Movie Series Average:  6.7451)
10. Heartcatch Precure                    (Season 7)            (TV + Movie Series Average:  7.4545)
11. Futari wa Precure Max Heart    (Season 2)            (TV + Movie Series Average:  9.0754)
12. Futari wa Precure                      (Season 1)            (TV + Movie Series average:   9.2245)

With the movies included, Suite takes a decisive nearly 1 point lead over Doki Doki Precure for 1st place.  Doki Doki is still head and shoulders above the rest of the competition with over 1 point's difference between it and third, Fresh Precure.

After this it becomes an extremely close competition from 3rd to 9th with only a few tenths of a point difference at best between each slot.  Princess, Smile and Yes Precure are in a virtual tie for 4th place.

After that the quality drops off a bit as Heartcatch is nearly a point behind Splash Star, and Max Heart is over a point behind Heartcatch, with the 1st season bringing in the rear as the very worst.  These three seasons at the bottom are only borderline watchable even for diehard fans of the series.  Even so, even in these shows, there were occasional episodes where they ranked near the top --  Heartcatch was #1 on episode 48, and Futari Wa was #2 on episode 11.  So there are flashes of brilliance wherever you look in this series, nothing is wasted by watching them all.

The top four seasons are seasons 6, 8, 10, and 12.  Interesting pattern there.  I wonder if they switch out directors and producers between even and odd seasons?  On that note, Princess Pretty Cure ended up being a fantastic season, despite all my complaints, earning 4th place out of 12.  It's a huge addition to the pantheon, and I expect Mahoutskai Precure to be the same.  So long as they keep making quality seasons like this one, I hope Pretty Cure never ends.

There are many more interesting things you can do with this data.  For instance, instead of watching in chronological order, you could watch the Pretty Cure seasons from best to worst, and then just stop watching Pretty Cure once you no longer enjoy it.  Since the seasons aren't connected by any chain of causality, you can dive into the franchise from anywhere.  I highly recommend Doki Doki and Suite as a jumping off point to realize Pretty Cure's greatness.

But you could also do other fun things, like instead of watching all of one season, simply watch the #1 winning episodes from 1-50, skipping about between the various series as they wax and wane in quality like a planeswalker.

If you wanted, you could even create a new competition, ranking all 50 #1's against each other, then all 50 #2's, and so on.  You could create an entire additional table in this manner to compliment the first.

To avoid the risk of being too fond of novelty, I only rated Princess Precure's episodes after watching them for a second time, so it would be on even ground with the rewatches of the other shows I've already seen.  Every series ranked was based off of me seeing it for at least the second time.

Once Pretty Cure actually ends and all the series are available, I'll have another competition and include all the newbies as well.  But that's years from now.  For now, we can draw the curtain on a job well done.

Here is the raw data of all the episodes and their relative rankings from which I drew my conclusions, for those interested in delving in deeper:

Season 1

9
11
10
11
9
9
9
7
11
6
2
10
11
10
12
8
7
8
10
9
7
12
11
11
11
7
9
2
7
11
12
12
11
12
7
11
7
4
12
10
11
6
10
11
11
10
12
9
7

TV + Movie Series average:  9.2245
Relative Ranking:  12

Season 2

12
10
11
7
10
11
12
11
10
10
8
12
10
11
4
11
10
10
9
12
11
9
12
10
10
11
10
12
12
10
6
10
10
11
9
10
6
8
11
9
7
3
8
12
10
7
6

TV + Movie Series Average:  9.0754
Relative Ranking: 11

Movie Ranking:

6
6
6
4
4
4

Season 3

10
5
4
10
4
8
7
1
5
11
10
11
12
5
8
10
9
6
8
8
9
8
4
4
4
6
3
1
8
3
11
11
9
9
2
6
9
11
8
3
5
2
4
10
7
12
10
8
3

TV + Movie Series Average: 6.7451
Relative Ranking:  9

Movie Ranking:

3
3

Season 4

4
4
1
9
7
7
4
5
12
4
1
4
7
7
6
4
6
9
5
6
10
6
6
1
1
2
7
9
4
2
1
6
8
5
4
5
2
12
4
12
8
7
12
7
4
6
8
6
5

TV + Movie Series Average:  6.0192
Relative Ranking:  6

Movie Ranking:

7
7
7

Season 5

6
12
12
1
12
6
5
10
2
1
7
3
6
4
7
7
12
4
11
10
8
7
5
3
5
12
8
4
6
4
4
7
7
3
5
4
3
7
7
6
6
11
7
8
12
11
7
6

TV + Movie Series Average:  6.4118
Relative Ranking:  8

Movie Ranking:

2
2
2

Season 6

5
3
7
12
6
1
3
6
4
3
9
5
2
2
3
3
4
5
4
7
5
2
2
9
12
3
12
3
11
12
9
9
3
4
11
9
4
10
5
1
3
8
6
5
6
5
4
4
4
1

TV + Movie Series Average:  5.625
Relative Ranking:  3

Movie Ranking:

9
9
9

DX Movie Ranking:

4
4
4

Season 7

3
9
3
6
8
12
11
3
6
2
12
9
5
3
9
6
8
12
12
11
12
11
10
8
9
10
11
10
9
9
8
5
5
8
10
7
5
5
6
7
12
12
11
9
8
3
3
1
6

TV + Movie Series Average:  7.4545
Relative Ranking:  10

Movie Ranking:

8
8
8

DX Movie Ranking:

2
2
2

Season 8

1
1
2
2
3
3
2
4
3
9
6
2
3
6
2
2
3
2
3
1
1
5
9
7
6
8
5
8
2
8
3
3
4
2
1
1
1
2
3
8
10
9
9
4
1
2
2
5

TV + Movie Series Average:  3.6111
Relative Ranking: 1

Movie Ranking:

1
1
1

DX Movie Ranking:

1
1
1

Season 9

11
7
6
5
2
4
10
2
1
5
11
6
1
9
5
5
11
3
2
5
6               
10
1
6
7
5
4
11
5
1
7
2
2
10
3
12
12
9
9
11
2
1
3
3
9
4
9
10

TV + Movie Series Average: 6
Relative Ranking:  5

Movie Ranking:

10
10
10

DX Movie Ranking:

3
3
3

Season 10

2
2
5
3
11
2
1
8
9
8
5
1
4
8
10
1
1
7
1
2
2
4
3
2
3
4
2
6
1
7
2
1
1
1
12
8
11
3
2
4
1
5
5
2
2
1
1
2
2

TV + Movie Series Average: 4.5091
Relative Ranking: 2

Movie Ranking:

12
12
12

DX Movie Ranking:

7
7
7

Season 11

7
8
9
8
5
10
8
9
8
7
3
7
8
12
11
12
5
11
7
4
3
1
8
12
2
1
1
7
3
5
5
4
12
7
8
2
10
6
10
2
4
10
1
1
3
8
11
3
1

TV + Movie Series Average:  6.2363
Relative Ranking:  7

Movie Ranking:

5
5
5

DX Movie Ranking:

6
6
6

Season 12

8
6
8
4
1
5
6
12
7
12
4
8
9
1
1
9
2
1
6
3
4
3
7
5
8
9
6
5
10
6
10
8
6
6
6
3
8
1
1
5
9
4
2
6
5
9
5
11
8
2

TV + Movie Series Average: 5.9464
Relative Average:  4

Movie Ranking:

11
11
11

DX Movie Ranking:

5
5
5


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