The drama “Hakozume” has attracted attention! Why “Pretty Cure and Cops Have an Affinity”?

The comical dialogue between Erika Toda (33) and Meika Nagano (21) is popular in the Wednesday drama “Hakodome – Tachibanaru! Police Girls” (NTV). The unusual angle of female police buddies seems to be giving viewers a fresh sense of fun.

In the August 25 episode of “Hakodome,” an interesting “parable” appeared. An interesting “parable” appeared in the August 25 episode of “Hakodome”: “Are female police officers Pretty Cure? It’s called “Are female police officers Pretty Cure? When asked by a group of elementary school girls, “What kind of job does a female policewoman have? Fuji (Erika Toda) replies that she is on the side of justice and is generally a Pretty Cure, but the elementary school girls deny it, saying, “Absolutely not.

By the way, Pretty Cure is an anime about a girl squadron that is very popular among girls. Mainly ordinary girls awaken and become Precure, and fight various enemies each time. That is the reason why Fuji compared female police officers to Precure.

However, at the end of the drama, Kawai, played by Meika Nagano, says to the children, “We are not Precures. We want to protect everyone’s lives, but we can’t, so we need you to follow the rules. Her words strongly touched the hearts of those of us who were watching.

So, do you agree with the opinion that female police officers are not Pretty Cure? Personally, I think that not only the female police officers, but more importantly, the very existence of this drama “Hakodome” is Pretty Cure. The reason for this is that the concept of Pretty Cure is not simply that of an ally of justice who defeats evil. A source close to the production of Pretty Cure said the following.

“It was 17 years ago, in 2004, that Pretty Cure started airing. At the time, there were still very few girls’ battle groups, and the creators thought, ‘Even girls want to be violent! That’s why Pretty Cure was born out of the desire of the creators to make it more masculine. For this reason, the main concept of Pretty Cure is to break all stereotypes, including those of masculinity and femininity.

The symbol of this is the way they fight, and intense battle scenes, which were still rare in girl warriors up to that time, appear as a matter of course. In addition to being warriors, there are also members who are raising children in their private lives, and boys who transform into Precures. …… There are also many gender-related issues involved.

The “Imposition” of Pretty Cure Fights

The purpose for which the Precures fight is not to impose a single concept of “justice. This is another characteristic of Pretty Cure.

“It’s true that there are “enemies” in the series, but they have their own justice to spread because their way of thinking is right. Rather than defeating them, Pretty Cure is more like ‘purifying’ them. Rather than trying to defeat them, Pretty Cure is more like ‘purifying’ them, getting rid of their beliefs, accepting each other, and finding a way to coexist. I think that is the reason why they are fighting.

In a sense, justice is the imposition of one side’s ideas. In a sense, justice is the imposition of one side’s ideas, and that’s what Pretty Cure is fighting against. If we replace this with the society in which we live, we will find that there is also an infinite amount of imposition. Women are not supposed to hit each other, men are supposed to protect women, police officers are supposed to be men, CAs are supposed to be women, etc. ……

Although the doors have been opened, as Fuji and Kawai say in the drama, there are still some people who are discouraged from becoming female police officers because of these assumptions, and men who want to become CAs are probably hesitant.

However, what if we grew up watching dramas that did away with such impositions?　For example, there are now many dramas featuring female doctors and lawyers. Of course, there is the background of the increasing number of female doctors and lawyers in the real world. Similarly, “Hakodome” may have “purified” our unconscious belief that “female police officers are rare” by depicting the existence of female police buddies in the drama.

In fact, it is only relatively recently that dramas featuring female police officers have appeared in Japan. As far as I can tell, the first female police buddy drama was “Miserable Woman: Police Agency Document Investigator” (TV Asahi) broadcast in 2006 by Haru and Kyoka Suzuki. Many “buddy dramas” depict detectives and detective professions, indicating that these professions have long been the sanctuary of men.

However, “Unsolved Woman” was so well received that a second season was produced. Its follow-up, “Hakodome,” is also enjoying high viewership ratings at the moment. In this way, professional dramas with buddy stories, which used to have a predominantly male cast, are now routinely portrayed by women, and have been successful. Similarly, nurse dramas and CA dramas, which used to be considered female occupational dramas, are gradually being portrayed by men.

As this trend accelerates, girls and boys alike will find themselves asking, “Is a police officer a man?　Is a nurse a woman?　What’s that?” What’s that?

It is important to argue strongly against the imposition of various ideas and to make efforts to correct them. But sometimes it takes a lot of energy and exhausts us. That’s why we should use the power of entertainment in the form of dramas to lightly and joyfully break down the imprint of society. It is not a case of “softness conquers stiffness,” but I am sure there are things that can be done only through entertainment.

In both cases, the existence of the characters softly removes the imprint of society. In this sense, I believe that Fuji and Kawai of “Hakodome” are like Precure.