Everything You Should Know About KING OF PRISM And Pretty Series in 90 Seconds

Everyone and their cat knows how Shinkai Makoto’s Your Name revolutionized anime cinema in 2016, breaking through Spirited Away‘s records. What few know, however, is that another movie made anime history the same year: KING OF PRISM by PrettyRhythm.

As you may know, the KING OF PRISM movies are spin-offs of the Pretty Rhythm franchise. The first movie, KING OF PRISM by PrettyRhythm (shortened as Kinpri) was initially released in 14 theaters on January 9th 2016. Three weeks after release, it was only screening in 9 cinemas, and the staff was preparing for the worst. However, the movie ended up earning more than 800 million yen, and by May 2016 it was in over 100 cinemas across Japan. All thanks to dedicated fans’ word to mouth and the movie’s “Cheer Screenings” (応援上映 in Japanese), screenings where you can come in cosplay, use glowsticks, scream and sing along during the movie, or dub lines during subtitled scenes specifically made for it. The movie had a 9 months run in cinemas, and its final screening was at Shinjuku Wald 9, on September 2nd 2016, even though the movie was already out on DVD/BD since June 17th. KING OF PRISM was a huge success in South Korea as well. The first movie released there on August 11th 2016, and broke the record of longest screening period for an anime film, a record previously held by Love Live! The School Idol Movie!
The sequel movie, KING OF PRISM -PRIDE the HERO-, ended up releasing simultaneously in Japan and South Korea on June 10th 2017.

However, the Kinpri movies have a hidden history unrecorded even on Japanese anime sites. In the first place, how did a kids franchise spawn movies geared towards adults? Why are the movies gayer than actual Boys Love anime? Why does what seems to be a Yuri on Ice! ripoff with Shinji and Kaworu clones is a big enough deal to be screened at Los Angeles Anime Film Festival???

Note: While similar, I’ve added a lot of things compared to the French version of this article I published back in May 2018.  This is basically the XX+ Reloaded Definitive edition of the “Pretty Series History”.

Edit: I fixed the post’s layout, as it got screwed up after I changed the blog’s theme, even though it was fine beforehand during preview.

Daily remainder that the CG feathers in Love Live things are from Pretty Rhythm

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-01-11/love-live-sunshine-idol-project-gets-tv-anime-this-summer/.97449

Also today 1/11 is Shion’s birthday

Also David Bowie dying finally made me check whether Crystal Boy/Bowie in Cobra is a reference to him and it is. I’m not into music but it’s things important to know to understand Japanese culture more.

Pretty Rhythm news&twitter 04/20/2014 edition

Storyboard illustration cover of episode 39 tweeted by the Director.

Director posted on Twitter some new revelations on Pretty Rhythm’s background.
Post isn’t too long but put the read more to hide the spoilers about Rainbow Live.

Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live – 40

They did a penguin version of the aho aho crow joke.  Come to think of it you don’t see that often in anime anymore. Can’t remember the last time I saw it in a recent show. I’m kinda sad about it because I really like it too. Most of the shows I saw in my childhood had it, as it was pretty popular before. Warning long post. The longest yet.