McDonald’s has shown itself to be all-in on the anime game. Not only has the fast food chain partnered with major shonen franchises in recent memory, McDonald’s has also created advertisements in Japan and North America that created anime stories of their own. Now, McDonald’s is planning to once again cross over into the anime world by creating a new Happy Meal that pays tribute to a classic anime franchise that might throw readers for a loop. While franchises like One Piece and Jujutsu Kaisen have partnered with Ronald McDonald in the past, the time has come for a magical girl anime to hit the Golden Arches.
If you’ve missed some of the anime partnerships that McDonald’s has forged in recent memory, a major example was the recent teaming up with Jujutsu Kaisen. While Yuji Itadori and the students of Jujutsu Tech didn’t receive their own Happy Meal, they did get a line of sauces to celebrate the unique fusion. Earlier this year, McDonald’s went so far into the anime realm that they even created their own universe. “WcDonald’s” was a promotion that saw the fast food chain teaming up with Studio Pierrot (Bleach, Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho) to create shorts along with making unique items with an anime aesthetic.
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The Pretty Cure Happy Meal
McDonald’s is currently offering anime fans a Pretty Cure Happy Meal in Japan, paying tribute to the magical girl anime franchise that first hit the scene in 2004. While the magical girls of the franchise might not be as well known as Sailor Moon and her Sailor Scouts, the amount of anime episodes this universe has garnered since its debut decades ago is jaw-dropping. Since arriving on the small screen, Pretty Cure as a franchise has twenty-one television series to its name. You read that right, it didn’t house twenty-one episodes, the anime franchise houses twenty-one individual series that arrive on a near-annual basis.
If you want to see more of this unique collaboration, McDonald’s Japan has released a new trailer highlighting the Happy Meal. The campaign began on October 18th and will continue for four weeks, giving anime fans the opportunity to pick up some unique items honoring the Pretty Cure franchise. Unfortunately, no word has been released regarding this partnership making its way to North America but it doesn’t appear as though McDonald’s is looking to halt its plans of crossing over with the anime world thanks to the medium’s growing popularity.
What is Pretty Cure?
For those who haven’t seen Pretty Cure before, the franchise has many of its series available to stream on Crunchyroll. Luckily, the streaming service offered a breakdown of what fans can expect from the first, of many, anime adaptations that tell the tale of the Cures, “In the beginning, there was Nagisa Misumi and Honoka Yukishiro. On a chance encounter with two fairies of the Garden of Light, they are granted the power to transform into Cure Black and Cure White. They are then tasked with defending their world and saving the Garden of Light from the forces of the Dark Zone. Though both girls are incredibly different, together, they become Precure, emissaries of light and the progenitors of an entire franchise.”
Anime is only continuing to explode in popularity, meaning that there are sure to be far more partnerships with McDonald’s in Japan, in North America, and around the world. Fingers crossed that the West continues to see major franchises teaming up with the fast food chain to help spread the good word on all things anime.
Want to stay up to date on how McDonald’s is exploring the anime game? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on Anime Happy Meals and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.
