[Daikaijuman54]

This is an interesting analogy. I happen to see this a lot in some shows, where I'm watching one thing, yet has similar themes to another at the same time. I know you've yet to see Kamen Rider Gaim, which is often compared to Madoka, both by Gen Urobutcher, but I'll leave that for another discussion.

Now, I don't have anything against your comparisons, and maybe this is just me, but I feel like comparing Anime and Tokusatsu/Live-action is a little unfair. Now, granted, these are both by Toei, Pretty Cure is basically considered Anime Kamen Rider, and both are at the end of the Heisei Era, and you make good points on both.

The thing is animation will more often than not, be superior to Live-Action, as there no limitations to animation. Now I don't like to talk about the Disney Remakes, but an example being The Lion King (the remake is still animated), where the characters in the original have so much personality to their designs, you can tell just by looking at them what kind of character they are, whereas in the remake, because they went with a photorealistic look, they lack that spark and don't reflect to the audience, because they're more in line with what real animals look like, and we can only make guesses based on an animal's expression, so it feels like looking at blank cardboard most of the time. Or how visually different the two are in every scene.

Now I agree, the thing about Tokusatsu is that the more visually interesting transformations are usually saved for big moments like a form debut or turning point in the story, and I don't doubt every transformation past the debut for Pretty Cure (The thing about Magical Girls is that they always know how to transform in style) is of the same quality, if not better, but being two different mediums like this (much like I did for comparing Gaim and Madoka, or Ryuki and Fate/stay night), I always look at their stories or whatever can be gleamed barring whether they're live-action or animated.

Again, not trying to say anything like "you're wrong, son," it's still an interesting comparison, and you make some great points on both, but I feel like judging visual flair on live-action to animation is usually going to fall to the latter, and it's something that I'm sure you'll explore again once you see Gaim and Madoka. Still, funny how we end up watching shows with such similarities at the same time.