Glitter Force

Glitter Force
The dub ain't no glittery.
Genre: Magical girl Running Time: 22 minutes Country: United States Release Date: December 18, 2015 – August 26, 2016 Network(s): Netflix Created by: Shōji Yonemura Starring: Laura Bailey Colleen O'Shaughnessey Alex Cazares Danielle Judovits Kate Higgins Debi Derryberry Todd Haberkorn Keith SilversteinMary Elizabeth McGlynn Seasons: 2 Episodes: 40 Next show: Glitter Force Doki Doki

Glitter Force is the English dub of Smile Pretty Cure! (Japanese: スマイルプリキュア！, Hepburn: Sumairu Purikyua!, lit. "Smile Precure!") dubbed by Saban Brands.

Plot

Five teenage girls learn they're a legendary superhero squad known as the Glitter Force. Their mission? To defend Earth from evil fairy-tale villains.

Why It Ain't No Glittery

1. The title change led to much backlash. This is because Futari wa Pretty Cure, the first season in the Pretty Cure series, did receive an English dub under the name Pretty Cure, and Saban Brands subtitling any show based around their Power Rangers franchise. This is similar to when 4Kids renamed Tokyo Mew Mew into Mew Mew Power (Because the dub takes place in the USA instead of Japan) and Ojamajo Doremi into Magical DoReMi (DoReMi being a fusion of the main characters’ dubbed names; Dorie (Doremi), Reanne (Hazuki), and Mirabelle (Aiko)).
   • The title itself is also very unoriginal and laughable. And how does glitter have to do with anything with the show when there's no glitter at all, but mostly just sparkles?
2. A lot of the characters were miscast in this dub as the voice acting doesn't match their personality. They sound so bad that they all made the original Japanese voice acting sound amazing in comparison.
   • For the main protagonists, Kelsey/Akane doesn't sound like a tomboy and mostly sounds like a little girl. Lily/Yayoi's English voice sounds a bit too old, mature, and raspy for her shy, timid, and emotional character. Candy's English voice can often be a migraine to the ears at times. Emily/Miyuki's English voice sounds irritatingly scratchy-sounding for her cute, sweet, and emotional character. Pop sounds like he has nasal congestion. Queen Euphoria/Royale Queen sounds like she's very tired or bored.
   • For the antagonists, Brute/Akaoni sounds more ridiculous than intimidating and Brooha/Majorina sounds like a stereotypical witch.
3. The names have changed, and even the original Japanese names that already have English names are given different names (e.g. Miyuki/Emily, Akane/Kelsey, Yayoi/Lily, Nao/April, Reika/Chloe, Cure Happy/Glitter Lucky, Cure March/Glitter Spring, Cure Beauty/Glitter Breeze, Royale Queen/Queen Euphoria and Joker/Rascal).
   • The settings also aren't safe from this, their names are changed as well despite already having English names too (e.g. Märchenland/Jubiland and the Bad End Kingdom/The Shadow Realm (not to be confused with the realm of the same name from the Yu-Gi-Oh! 4Kids dub).
   • Not to mention that the names in the dub are not even creative or interesting, except Jubiland.
4. Like many of 4Kids Entertainment's dubs, the dialogue is inaccurately translated:
   • Cure Peace/Glitter Peace's catchphrase is an infamous example as she says "Puppies and kittens, the power of love!".
   • Another laughable example is "It's like a fairytale, with girl power, and makeup!".
   • There is even out-of-place dialogue added. An example is the transformation scenes, it's obnoxious and very distracting to listen to.
   • They even add a dialogue about phones and online chatting despite the characters not even using them, such as Glitter Peace mentioning "video chat" during Chloe's goodbye.
     • Moreover, it makes the show sound more like a kids'/teenager show rather than an adult show. Going against the intent of people of all ages are allowed to watch the show.
   • Its English dialogue tries too hard to be funny, but instead, it feels more annoying, cliched, and cringeworthy, like Kelsey constantly making lame puns such as calling Queen Euphoria her "highness" because of her height instead of being amazed in episode 21 (24 in the original), or a lady joking to Emily and Lily that their meal was made from a bird's nest instead that the meal costs over 6.3 million yen in episode 13 (14 in the original).
   • It also uses filler dialogue, especially when originally the Pretty Cure are suggesting words to say at the end of their sentences when transformed into fairies to blend in with the fairies in Märchenland. Since the verbal tics have been removed from the dub, they talk about what the group should be called.
5. It suffers from Americanization (a trend common with many of 4Kids Entertainment's dubs), with characters given American names, and Japanese references removed. For example, okonomiyakis' are called pepperoni or Japanese pizzas. This was just like Pokémon's infamous rice ball edits, either calling them "jelly-filled doughnuts" or redrawing them as sub sandwiches that came from Subway.
   • Speaking of okonomiyaki, Episode 10 was removed in this dub just because the episode was heavily focused on okonomiyaki, even though other episodes show this food, and its name is referred to in episode 22 (25 of the original.)
   • Another example of the okonomiyaki, in episode 18 (21 in the original), Kelsey wishes she would flip 50 so-called "pizzas" without dropping any, instead of wishing for her family's business to succeed and make lots of money.
   • Candy shows Emily that Japanese bowing is a way to greet the citizens of Jubiland/Märchenland instead of Miyuki greeting Candy into the world.
   • Many writings, signs, books, advertising, and other Japanese texts are replaced with cheap text fonts in the dub, the most infamous and laughable part is when Kelsey’s restaurant in the dub is renamed into a generic "Restaurant." Not to mention they're poorly edited, not matching the mesh of the objects.
   • The dub also renamed the settings in Japan. Such as Osaka (a real-life location in Japan), being renamed the Asia-Pacific Expo. Also, the Asia-Pacific Expo isn't a city, it's a convention where people go try Japanese food. Mount Fuji was renamed The High Altitude Weather Station. And the Kyoto Tower was renamed The Expo Tower.
   • Aside from Americanization, they also cut out an LGBT+ subtext scene in episode 31 (39 of the original) where Chloe/Reika as a prince dances with Emily/Miyuki where Lily/Yayoi says "They make a great couple", which can be disrespectful to homosexuals. However, Pretty Cure fans may disagree on the homosexual context in the original since Reika was just filled in like a prince because Pop was not sucked into the Cinderella book.
6. Similar to Doogal, a bunch of ridiculous pop culture references are added that weren't even in the original Japanese version. An example is Emily making a Wizard of Oz reference when getting sucked into the library.
7. It uses unnecessary modern slang like "besties", "epic win", and "selfies", which weren't even used in the original Japanese version. It tries way too hard to appeal to younger kids by being "hip and cool".
8. Scenes with flashing visuals or fast movement are darkened and dimmed in an attempt to reduce the risk of viewers having seizures. This never happened in the Japanese version due to the Dennō Senshi Porygon incident and since then, we can simply turn down the brightness and backlight from our TV menu settings, which makes this decision pointless.
   • Some scenes dimmed when they have nothing to do with seizures, such as characters running, panicking, pillow fights, getting knocked to the ground, strong winds, lightning, power beams, falling, and even the transformations.
   • Not only are all scenes darkened, but also tinted. Yellow is mostly tinted in most of the "Season 2" episodes where Yayoi's hair can look brown, which can be painful to watch for some viewers.
9. The new English soundtrack is simple and bland and most of the music videos are songs from the now-defunct Asian girl group, BLUSH. The theme song, for example, completely contradicts the premise of this series. The song "All-Stars" (though not an original song for Glitter Force) has some hypocritical lyrics like "Shopping sprees", and "Spend all our money. Forget about all our problems." That is an irresponsible and bad moral for children.
   • On top of that, most of the music sounds like teen pop, which goes against the demographic of the original Pretty Cure series where the music from the Japanese version incorporated rock music, and both kids and adults can enjoy the series.
   • On top of that, the soundtrack plays throughout the entire show, which means that unlike the original, there isn't a scene in the show without music in the background. Not once.
10. The so-called "exclusive" music videos are animated and look something out of YouTube Kids. The characters look hideous with flat colors rather than blends, and the effects are photoshopped. The models also look like they were made from MMD (Miku Miku Dance) and/or Blender, and the backgrounds from some of the "exclusive" music videos look like they were taken from Google Images and Windows Desktop Backgrounds. Ironically, they look like MMD and/or Blender Music Videos.
    • Speaking of the "exclusive" music videos, the songs are good but most of the MVs themselves range from mediocre to bad.
      • The "Wake Up, Shake Up" is a dub of the end credits for the second half of the original Japanese named "Full Bloom * Smile!". They cut and edited some parts of the original and the lyrics follow what the main characters are doing in the credits.
      • "What We Need" is another dub of the end credits for the first half of the original named "Yay! Yay! Yay!". It repeats the same exact scene from the beginning and the lyrics also follow what's happening in the credits.
      • "Run (All Together)" is the first music video to use the MMD and Blender models and the poor backgrounds, there’s no floor the main characters are in space, and the lyrics are cringeworthy to listen to.
      • "All-Stars", just read WIS #11.
      • "Believe in You" is pretty nice to hear, but the background for the music video is an ocean at the beach and the characters are standing on hearts with their trademark colors.
      • "Yeah" is not only a music video but an announcement for "Season 2" of Glitter Force (when it's not a second season but a second half of the original Japanese anime). The effects look okay, but they also look lazy.
      • "You Can't Stop Me" has to be one of, if not, the worst out of all the music videos. The main characters are dancing in the middle of the road and the vehicles (such as cars, buses, trucks, vans, etc.) and background look like stock images that can be easily found in a quick search on Google Images.
      • "Every Woman" is kinda unpleasant to look at. The characters are dancing in questionable and unnerving ways that can make you feel uncomfortable.
      • "Lucky Girl" is kinda of nice, but the backgrounds used here, however, make it seem as if they’re dancing on a loading screen.
      • The final music video "Glitter Force" is just a remix of the main theme and the characters are dancing on the clouds with rainbows.
11. False advertising: Glitter Force is advertised as a "Netflix Original Series", like most other acquired series. In reality, it is a Japanese anime series that premiered in 2012, ended in 2013, and was dubbed into English two years later. It would be more accurate if it was advertised as a "Netflix Original Dub" at MIPCOM 2015 because that's what it is due to Netflix's egotistical agenda.
12. Eight of the episodes weren't even dubbed, which resulted in many plot holes and a loss of character development in these episodes. This is noticeable with the
13. It is only available to watch on Netflix, and the available translations on Netflix are based on Glitter Force rather than the original Smile Pretty Cure. This insulted the intelligence of viewers from other countries where the Pretty Cure series has been introduced and dubbed in countries such as Italy, and seasons like Fresh Pretty Cure were shown in Italy with a faithful translation. It is like Saban Brands was trying to fool the viewers into thinking the Pretty Cure series did not exist.
14. Many of the emotional scenes were edited, which went from sad to humorous, or just cut out entirely:
    • When Glitter Spring reunites with her siblings; they aren't crying because they are finally back together nor almost lost each other, they are crying because they're happy, which doesn't make sense. Plus, they cut the scene where it was briefly implied they were killed.
    • In the intro for this show, they replaced Lily's (Yayoi's) introduction with a scene from an episode where she's smiling. In the original scene featuring her in the intro was shocked to see the viewer and startled, which was supposed to be her establishing character moment.
    • Another example is that they removed an entire episode where Glitter Peace (Cure Peace)'s father was dead because it featured the death of a parent, which is offensive.
    • In episode 35 (43 in the sub), when the girls and Candy were crying over Chloe leaving for her trip, the dialogue changes already did something to minimize the emotional impact the scene had, but the real kicker had to be when Candy asked if they could have chocolate. Since they could only cut out some of the scenes when they're crying and screaming, they had to insert this line to destroy any hint of the emotional energy left.
    • In episode 40 (48 in the sub), they edited some of the scenes where they don't want to say goodbye to Candy and Pop, they cut out the scenes when they're crying and screaming, and the dialogue in the dubbed scene sounds ridiculous.
    • In the same episode, when Candy leaves her friends, she sounds quite ridiculous when she bids her farewell. And they added dialogue when they didn't even seem to care that she'll be gone forever and they cut out the scene when they all cried and screamed, making it sound like the characters don't even care about Candy at all. Mean-spirited, much?
    • To make matters worse, the characters' crying and screaming baby faces are cut out, and funny dialogue is added to make these scenes less emotional and more "comedic".
15. It spawned a second and last installment of the Glitter Force franchise, which was called Glitter Force Doki Doki, which is DokiDoki Precure's English dub. It can be argued that this installment is worse than this as 19 episodes were cut from the dub. It doesn't help the fact that most of the problems of this dub weren't fixed in this installment but rather it shares these from its predecessor listed here.

Redeeming Qualities

1. It did introduce Pretty Cure to a Western audience. If it wasn't for that dub, the Pretty Cure series probably wouldn't be popular in the English-speaking community.
2. At least the original version of Smile Pretty Cure! is much better, but that isn't saying much, though many fans wish they could get a good fandub (or a DVD dub of a company that is known to make good dubs such as Funimation, ADV Films, Viz Media, Geneon Entertainment (USA), DKP Effects/DKP Studios, Nelvana, and The Ocean Group) of it so it'd be also better than these awful dubs.
3. Despite the bad voice acting, it has tons of great dub actors.
   • On top of that there is some decent voice work, such as Chloe (Reika), April (Nao), Ulric (Wolfrun), Rascal (Joker), Pop, and Lily (Yayoi) (depending on your opinion).
4. It's quite interesting and unique to have Debi Derryberry in the English dub of a Japanese anime again after Zatch Bell!, the HD remaster of Sailor Moon, and its remake, Sailor Moon Crystal.
5. Some of the funniest moments never got censored like Buffoon (Akanbe) getting hit by every X every time Chloe (Reika) got the question right in Episode 15 (16 in the original).
6. Thankfully, Saban has lost the rights to the Pretty Cure series due to its end, so we won't be getting any more Glitter Force seasons. Pretty Cure seasons Futari ha, KiraKira, Healin' Good, and Tropical Rouge are available to watch on Crunchyroll, adding hope that the Pretty Cure series will get a proper release in other countries. However, being on Crunchyroll, because of the controversial decision-making that is currently happening, it is better if the Precure series gets an accurately translated release on DVD without requiring to pay for Crunchyroll.

Reception

Unlike Smile Pretty Cure!, which received a positive reception, Glitter Force was critically panned by critics and fans alike and is widely considered to be the second-worst English dub (Or even the worst) of all time, next to the 4Kids dub of One Piece.

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