Article date: September 13, 2001

Pretear Authors: Kaori Naruse & Junichi Satou Manga: Volumes 1 - 4(complete) Anime: 13 episodes (broadcast on Wowow)

Y our Mum has past away, your alcoholic father has re-married to a (potentially) horrible woman and your stepsisters pick on you...does this story sound familiar?

Well there's no ball to go to in a pumpkin in this story - instead the Cinderella-esque Himeno gets whisked into another world, is surrounded by cute boys and has to save them!

The main character is Junior high school student Himeno. She's a sensitive girl always thinking about others. Her Dad Kaoru, a famous writer of novels for young girls remarries after the death of Himeno's Mum to Natsue a beautiful yet spoilt woman who has two daughters, Mayune and Mawata. They all live in a huge mansion surrounded by wide clean streets, other large luxurious houses, parklands and a river (somehow I do not think this manga is set in Tokyo).

However life is not completely rosy for Himeno - her step-sister Mayune is determined to cause her trouble, later in the first manga her other stepsister Mawata shows some kindness towards her - but Himeno soon finds out that she detests Himeno and is only helping her out to get to one of the "boys" and Natsue her stepmother doesn't treat her unkindly but still doesn't really accept her...

So where do the cute boys come in? They are the 7 Leafe Knights who fight against the Tane (seeds) which destroy and kill life (and look like eyeballs crossed with worm and squids) and later on the Dark Princess. These 7 each control a different element - brooding Hayate is the Knight of Wind, kind Sasame is the Knight of Sound, perky Goh is the Knight of Fire, Kei is the Knight of Light, Mannen is the Knight of Ice, Hajime is the Knight of Water and the littlest Knight is Shin who is the Knight of Plants. They each possess different powers but to fight against the evil they need a Pretear. A Pretear is a girl from which they draw their power to fight. Basically what happens is that one of them possesses her (side note - depending on which one her outfit changes to match his Knight outfit) and she does the actual fighting.

Shin is the first one to come across Himeno and he takes her into another place. There she meets the other boys who are pretty excited about her being the Pretear - except for Hayate who doesn't think she's up to it. Himeno doesn't think she is either and goes back...only to find that when she gets home they are all waiting there for her dressed in normal clothes!

The appearance of so many cute boys however makes Natsue and the girls a bit suspicious...

Himeno is still reluctant to become the Pretear - until the next day when she goes to meet her school buddy Yayoi - only to find her and everyone around the place unconscious! The boys turn up, and just in time Hayate catches her as she faints! She wakes up in his arms and they both become embarrassed as the other boys tease them. But there is not a lot of time for joking around if Himeno doesn't decide to become the Pretear and destroy the Tane then everyone will die...The best element to use is wind but both Hayate and Himeno feel uncomfortable about this. He enters her and they manage it but after Hayate is exhausted and says that Himeno can't do it...Sasame says that it was only the first time and she needs to get used to fighting first. So they start practicing together and Sasame tells her that it's like ballet - all support and balance, kill another couple of Tane, and generally start to work as a team.

However Himeno still has her home life to cope with and it seems that Mayune is trying harder than ever to hurt her, Mawata is madly in love with Sasame, who is a local radio personality and is trying to use kindness towards Himeno to get to him, and then there's the enemy - the Dark Princess...

31) Gravitation

29) NARUTO