Remember when Power of Hope: Precure Full Bloom was legally available with English subtitles (among others) even though the three series it was a sequel to never had an official English-language release? That won't be a problem for Witchy Precure!: Mirai Days. In a miraculous turn of events, Witchy Pretty Cure! magically appeared on Crunchyroll in the summer of 2024, fulfilling an attempt to license it that began in 2016, where it was pitched to licensors at a convention. It may have taken eight years to reach us, but it was worth the wait.

The middle of a trio of licensed Pretty Cure series (coming after Go! Princess Pretty Cure and before Kira Kira Pretty Cure a la Mode), Witchy Pretty Cure!, originally titled Maho Girls Pretty Cure or Mahotsukai Pretty Cure, is a return to the original style of the series. Mirai and Liko, who become Cures Miracle and Magical, cannot transform without each other, and they pass their transformation between their linked hands, just like Cures Black and White in Futari wa Pretty Cure. They have one more restriction in the form of Mofurun, Mirai's teddy bear who becomes sentient through the power of magic; the girls have to be holding hands with her as well to start their transformation, as she's the catalyst for the powers of the Linkru Stones that fuel their transformations.

It's an interesting concept because it fully presents the three as a team: they cannot fight or transform alone. Symbolically, it shows how people from different places can and must work together if evil is to be defeated since, by the story's logic, Mirai, Liko, and Mofurun should never have been able to meet or interact due to the strictures placed upon Liko as a witch from the Magic World. (Mofurun's from Japan, but she was just a stuffed bear before the story's start.) Interestingly, this carries over not only to the third Cure, Cure Felice, who is from a different, non-human race, but also to the villains, who are all transformed Earth creatures, most of whom willingly give their power to Dokuroxy to fuel his attempt to destroy the Cures. When, after the first set of episodes, only Yamoh survives, he's so bereft that he constructs a Dokuroxy doll to give himself the motivation to continue his master's mission, implying that wanting to be part of a team is universal.

This may not be one of the stated themes of this particular Pretty Cure series, but it is evident throughout these first two cours. Liko and Mirai are an excellent team because they balance each other out. Mirai is all boundless enthusiasm, but that comes with the understanding that she's terrible at being bored – in one school-based episode, we see that she's not unintelligent or not good at academics; it's that she's only interested in subjects that she finds fascinating; since math isn't one of them, she presents as being bad at it, but that's not the case. On the other hand, Liko is anxious, primarily about her magic performance. Her older sister Liz, if not an actual prodigy, is one in Liko's mind, making her desperate to live up to what she sees as the family legacy. She's only in Mirai's world in the first place because she's determined to prove her worth by finding Linkru Stones, and her horror at being better academically than magically makes her willing to work herself to the bone, to prove that she can. She and Mirai, therefore, balance each other out in a significant way. Liko learns joy from Mirai, while Mirai learns restraint from Liko; neither girl is fundamentally changed, but their lives are better for having each other in them.

Their bond, including with Mofurun, is crystalized when they discover the Linkru Smartbook, a magical tome that holds a fairy whom they name Ha-chan. When the book first comes into their hands, Ha-chan is a baby, and throughout these episodes, she grows into a young teen like them. But until episode 22, Mirai, Liko, and Mofurun raise her and refer to themselves as Ha-chan's mothers. There's very clear co-parenting going on, with each girl (and bear) taking on different duties and helping to guide the little fairy's growth. This event continues after Ha-chan has reached their age, as episode 25 amply demonstrates: Ha-chan may look fourteen, but she's still only about a month old, and sometimes she very much acts like it, and other girls adopt a very parental tone with her as they try to guide her towards not revealing the existence of magic to all and sundry – and protect her as Cures Miracle and Magical, even when she's able to become Cure Felice. This dovetails with the relationship between Doxuroxy (before he became a villain) and the headmaster, which bears keeping in mind in the second half of the series.

Speaking of age and growth, this entry into the greater franchise makes it clear that Mirai, Liko, and Ha-chan all age up a bit when they transform. We mostly see this with face shape and bust size, but the implication is interesting. One potential takeaway is that they're being put at their point of greatest strength, which aligns with the headmaster of the magic school Liko attends – he's the oldest character in the series, but he looks like he's in his early twenties. While he's revealed to maintain this appearance with a special tea, the more important takeaway is that this form is him at the height of his power, and when paired with the way that the Cures age up a few years (they look around sixteen or seventeen when transformed), may tell us something about the way magic works. Of course, on the less savory front, aging the girls up allows their magical girl outfits to be slightly racier, but I'd like to hope that Cure Magical's Ruby transformation wasn't trying to be Cure Sexy Santa.

The different transformations are a major appeal of this particular Pretty Cure entry. Because the girls are collecting the magical Linkru Stones, the story can allow each of the many gems to give them different powers. Emerald is the most powerful (and explains why Cure Felice is in some ways the strongest, at least on the surface), Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire, and Topaz all give the Cures unique transformations and powers. The other supporting Stones allow for enhancements to those powers, giving them a wide range of abilities and four distinct transformations. Diamond is the "regular" look, where we see the pink and purple theme colors, and each has a distinct theme, with Ruby borrowing a winter holiday look (Miracle's is more Valentine's Day), Sapphire using a sea-and-sky theme, and Topaz based in sweets. Cure Felice thus far only has the Emerald transformation, with a distinct art nouveau look and plant-based powers, but as mentioned, her base powers are very strong, so she may not need the boost of other stones to fight effectively.

The translation for this series is decent, although I'm torn on whether "linkru" was the way to go; the more basic "link" feels like it would have been better, particularly with the way the stones are used, although that may have felt too mundane. The animation is decent until it needs to be excellent, like the fight in episode 21, and most of my design complaints are related to Cure Magical's terrible hair and random fur accents on all of her outfits. The only major issue, however, is that the subtitles for episode 12 are wildly off, with the timing not matching the action; this was an issue no matter how many times I attempted to rewatch it.

Witchy Pretty Cure! feels like it's just getting started in this first half. That doesn't mean that it isn't satisfying, because it is, but more that it's laying out its thematic elements in a way that implies that they'll come to full fruition in its second twenty-five episodes. Story beats are established, like the way that bonds between friends enhance powers, and consistent Pretty Cure elements, such as the role that grandmothers tend to play in the franchise as links between the present and the past, best seen in Delicious Party Pretty Cure and Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure but a factor here in Mirai's grandmother. Hopefully, Dokuroxy isn't entirely gone (and I don't think he is) because his life as Kushi and his relationship with the headmaster stand to really mirror the girls' relationships, albeit in a more tragic light. Although all seasons in the franchise have their strengths and weaknesses, this one feels solid, and it's easy to see why it was chosen to get a sequel.