Kawamura Toshie (川村敏江)? is an animator and character designer who has done extensive work in the Pretty Cure franchise. She is the main character designer for Yes! Pretty Cure 5, Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo!, Smile Pretty Cure!, and HUGtto! Pretty Cure. She has also worked on character design for the stage play, Dancing☆Star Pretty Cure The Stage.
History[]
Kawamura began doing key animation for several anime in the 1980s. She debuted as an animation director in 1990 with "Idol Angel Yokoso Yoko." She joined the Pretty Cure franchise from the very beginning in 2004, doing animation work for several episodes each season until the 2010s. She debuted as a character designer with Yes! Pretty Cure 5 in 2007, and would return as character designer for the sequel the following year, as well as Smile Pretty Cure! and HUGtto! Pretty Cure several years after.[1]
Work on Smile Pretty Cure![]
Kawamura said "she was drawn back to Pretty Cure for 'the desire to create something original, since much of the industry is derivative of other existing properties.'" In this season, she made each character's colors brighter, emphasizing their hair and wardrobe. She created character sheets based on their personalities. As the backstories for the characters were written, she'd have to revise her original designs to match those. For example, she changed the expressions of the lead, Miyuki, when she learned her premise was that she recently transferred to a new school and had yet to make any friends. Upon hearing Fukuen Misato, Miyuki's voice actress, at the first recording session, she "went back to the proverbial drawing board," claiming that Fukuen spoke so quickly, from which she was able to understand series director Otsuka Takashi's vision for the character (pg. 337).[2]
Director Otsuka has said that Kawamura is one the animators he relies on the most.[3]
Work in Pretty Cure[]
*Assistant Director role
**For the characters Kawamura originally designed
***Chief Animation Director role
Trivia[]
- She has worked as character designer on four seasons (the most of all character designers).
Gallery[]
Precure Works[]
Artwork[]
 Halloween art featuring Nozomi  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Nozomi (6 days left)  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Rin (12 days left)  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Urara (13 days left)  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Komachi (14 days left)  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Karen (15 days left)  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Kurumi (16 days left)  Illustration of the GoGo! team drawn by Kawamura for the first volume of the Kibou no Chikara ~Otona Pretty Cure '23~ Blu-Ray release.  Illustration of the GoGo! team drawn by Kawamura for the 20th anniversary of Pretty Cure, collected in the Pretty Cure 20th Anniversary Book. |
 Halloween art featuring Miyuki  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Miyuki (7 days left)  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Akane (8 days left)  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Yayoi (9 days left)  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Nao (10 days left)  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Reika (11 days left) |
 Official art featuring Hana for the Pretty Cure Day 2019  Halloween art featuring Hana  Official art celebrating Homare's birthday on April 8  Official art celebrating Saaya's birthday on June 10  Official art celebrating Hugtan's birthday on October 21  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Hana (1 day left)  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Saaya (2 days left)  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Homare (3 days left)  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Emiru (4 days left)  Art countdown for the Precure Works reprint: Ruru (5 days left)  Original sketch of Cure Amour's expression sheet  Original sketch of Cure Macherie's expression sheet |
 The Dancing☆Star Pretty Cure cast as illustrated by Kawamura. |
Character Design Samples[]
.jpg "Settei Dream Cure Grace (front).jpg (1.56 MB)")
.jpg "Settei Dream Cure Grace (head).jpg (3.46 MB)")
External Links[]
References[]
- ↑ Kato, R. (2012). "Precure Syndrome! 25 People who gave birth to the soul of 'Pretty Cure 5,'" On Site with Pretty Cure, Gentosha, pg. 186.
- ↑ Hartzheim, B. H. (2015). "Case Study: Pretty Cure's Convergence Text," Inside the Media Mix: Collective Creation in Contemporary Manga and Anime, UCLA, pp. 306-374. The thesis sources the "Kawamura Toshie: Toei Animation Works" and "Smile Pretty Cure! Complete Fan Book" books, with Hartzheim providing translations of the excerpts. Note that the author mistakenly calls Kawamura "Kawamoto" a few times in the thesis.
- ↑ A tweet by Director Otsuka on August 6, 2022, where he watched a re-airing of the 14th One Piece movie, "Stampede." He notes that Kawamura did key animation in this film, calling her an animator he can rely on (source is in Japanese).
- ↑ A tweet from the official PreCure movie account on Feb. 4, 2021 promoting the "Dream Cure Grace" form, crediting Kawamura as the designer.