A refined Japanese lady and a Parisian — Hugtto Precure

In episode eight of Hugtto Precure Kagayaki Homare, the third Precure and super talented figure ice skater is visited by Wakamiya Henri, the Prince of Skating, who comes to take her back where she belongs. It’s not an unusual plot point for a Precure series. There’s always one extra special Precure who is the best at some sport or talent or other, who either gets an offer to go study abroad or gets visited by somebody like Henri, who wants her to stop faffing about and work on her career. Normally that’s good for one episode of angst and nothing more, the guys who visit being little more than good looking cyphers, but Henri is different:

It may go too far to call Henri trans or genderqueer just for his willingness to dress up in female coded clothing, or for him to talk about himself as “a refined Japanese lady” (yamato nadeshiko), but he certainly seems comfortable being “girly”. There is of course a long tradition in amime of handsome boys being pretty enough to dress up as girls without censure; I liked how it was only the dumb hamster sidekick who mildly objected when Henri came out in a dress with nobody else was bothered. It goes to show how accepting a kid show like Precure can be, when nominally adult anime series can’t get past cheap tr*p jokes. Representation always matters, so to have this sort of thing in Precure, one of the most popular anime franchise in Japan is important. Also, this is interesting:

Having Henri stick around as somebody who knows the Precure’s secret, who is portrayed as at least a bit genderqueer and who may want to be a Precure himself? That could be fun. Note that they’re still supposed to look out for the fourth Precure, so it’s not entirely impossible that it would be Henri. In the meantime, for a more general overview of why you should watch Hugtto Precure, watch this video: