YTV’s website has updated with a few new shows beginning this Spring and that includes the premiere of the previously announced anime, Pretty Cure. As you may recall, Pretty Cure is coming to Canadian television dubbed due to a deal directly between YTV and Toei Animation, definitely an interesting surprise move by them when we first heard about it in December.

The first episode is due to play at a depressingly obscure time of 8:30am (Atlantic time)  March 6th, but returns with a more favourable rerun at 2pm the following Saturday afternoon. (via Zannen.ca)

YTV’s synopsis of the show (with lead character dub names):

“Natalie and Hannah are suddenly thrown together as the legendary warriors known as “Pretty Cure”. They’re each entrusted with a Card Commune, a device that looks like a cell phone, and by sliding their Pretty Cure Cards through them they are able to transform. As Cure Black and Cure White, they must fight against the evil monsters of the Dark Zone who are after the magical gems called “Prism Stones”. It’s up to these ordinary girls with extraordinary powers to collect all seven Prism Stones and restore the Garden of Light before the darkness devours everything.”

Outfits may be silly in the way only animes can be, but with some pretty slick looking animation and magical girls who literally kick their enemies’ butts, I’ll certainly be catching a rerun of the first episode (would watch the premiere but I’ll be busy that weekend!).

In a bit of a surprising move, YTV has made a deal directly with TOEI animation to bring their anime series, Pretty Cure, to Canadian televisions. Some may recall that the American company 4Kids had licensed the series originally but failed to air it. The series will be getting the classic anime-to-TV treatment with some character renaming, an English dub and most likely some cultural-note tweaks and possible censoring (does Pretty Cure need censoring?).

Related: I’ve recently updated the Anime in Canada page. I’ve removed the schedules since I don’t watch anime on television, so keeping up with what played when became near-impossible. The list now shows which Canadian station is playing what and I’ll leave it up to the stations’ websites and local television listings to tell you the rest.