Pretear

Pretear presents itself as the "new legend of Snow White," and indeed the anime has many similarities to the fairy tale. The teenage heroine, Awayuki Himeno, acquires a new stepmother and two stepsisters when her father marries the richest woman in town, and has trouble adjusting to her new life when her new family members don't make life easy for her. Just when things seem to be going badly for Himeno, she happens to meet seven male knights -- not dwarves, thankfully! -- who make her into the Pretear, a magical girl destined to safe the world's Leafe energy from the Princess of Disaster. As Pretear, Himeno is able to "pret" or bond with the Leafe Knights and use their particular elements as her own power, complete with naked transformation sequences. However, her ultimate goal is to become the "white Pretear" and make the snow of happiness fall all over the world.

While Pretear has a lot in common with the Snow White fairy tale, the most important difference is in her seven companions. Not dwarves, but bishounen -- four of them, at least! For reasons that are revealed as the story progresses, three of the Knights, Mannen, Hajime and Shin, are still children. But the other four are well-developed bishounen characters just right for slashing. Hayate, the Knight of Wind, is the reserved and cold leader. Sasame, the Knight of Sound, is his soft-spoken friend. Go is the spunky caretaker of the younger Knights and predictably the Knight of Fire. Finally, Kei is the girlish-looking Knight of Light who is entirely too serious and much too in love with himself.

The natural pairings are to put withdrawn Hayate with gentle Sasame, and energetic Go with over-serious Kei. When the Knights have time together away from Himeno, these are the pairs they are most often seen in. However, since Hayate is inevitably paired with Himeno, and Sasame with another female character later in the series, making any yaoi plausible is pretty hard to do. Still, the boys are beautiful and the eye-candy is constant. Especially pleasing to the yaoi fangirl is when Himeno "prets" with one of the older Knights and each of them is momentarily completely naked, though surrounded with the usual magical light and sparkles.

Pretear is completely shoujo, so the plot is fairly predictable to anyone familiar with mahou shoujo anime. However, Pretear is unique in its light-hearted humor and sweetness, and a completely lovable heroine. Himeno is determined and cheerful, without any of the usual annoying qualities of a mahou shoujo heroine. With a likable main character, it's a lot easier to like Pretear even with the prevalence of straight romance. Plus, Pretear is funny, fast-paced and generally adorable, enjoyable for just about any viewer.

Pretear: the New Legend of Snow White isn't the best series for the yaoi-loving anime fan, and if pretty boys making eyes at each other are a prerequisite for your viewing, then Pretear isn't for you. But if eye candy is enough and you're interested in a short, sweet story that wraps itself up with no loose ends, then give Pretear a try. It's a modern fairy tale with a twist or two that will keep you interested to the very end of the thirteen episodes.