PuraOre! Pride of Orange (プラオレ！～PRIDE OF ORANGE～) is a mixed-media project produced by CyberAgent and DMM Games about girls playing ice hockey. An anime television series produced by CAAnimation and C2C aired from October to December 2021, while a mobile game developed by EXNOA was released in March 2022.
Characters
Nikkō Dream Monkeys
"Newcomer Set"
- Manaka Mizusawa (水沢 愛佳)
- Left wing forward for the Dream Monkeys. Her family runs an inn, and she is a member of her school's embroidery club. She becomes inspired to take up ice hockey after coming across a poster advertising it in her school.
- Riko Saginuma (鷲沼 梨子)
- Center for the Dream Monkeys, She initially wanted to quit playing ice hockey, but was convinced to pick up the sport again by the Dream Monkeys.
- Yu Kiyose (清瀬 優)
- Right wing forward for the Dream Monkeys. She transfers to Manaka's school initially to avoid playing ice hockey at her former school, only to be lured into returning to the sport.
- Ayaka Mizusawa (水沢 彩佳)
- Manaka's younger sister; left defenceman for the Dream Monkeys. She also serves as the team's mascot.
- Naomi Takagi (高木 尚美)
- Right defenceman for the Dream Monkeys.
- Kaoruko Yanagida (柳田 薫子)
- Goaltender for the Dream Monkeys.
"Senior Set"
- China Yoneyama (米山 千奈)
- Left wing forward for the Dream Monkeys.
- Juri Kikuchi (菊池 樹里)
- Center for the Dream Monkeys. Captain of the team.
- Shino Ukita (浮田 志乃)
- Right wing forward for the Dream Monkeys.
- Runa Hirano (平野 るな)
- Left defenceman for the Dream Monkeys.
- Minato Shishiuchi (獅子内 湊)
- Right defenceman for the Dream Monkeys.
- Mona Fujishiro (藤代 もな)
- Goaltender for the Dream Monkeys.
"Staff"
- Yōko Matsunaga (松永 羊子)
- Coach for the Dream Monkeys. She aims to combine ice hockey and idols in order to increase the sport's popularity.
- Sō Satō (佐藤 想)
- Assistant for Yōko Matsunaga.
"Newcomer Set"
- Manaka Mizusawa (水沢 愛佳)
- Left wing forward for the Dream Monkeys. Her family runs an inn, and she is a member of her school's embroidery club. She becomes inspired to take up ice hockey after coming across a poster advertising it in her school.
- Riko Saginuma (鷲沼 梨子)
- Center for the Dream Monkeys, She initially wanted to quit playing ice hockey, but was convinced to pick up the sport again by the Dream Monkeys.
- Yu Kiyose (清瀬 優)
- Right wing forward for the Dream Monkeys. She transfers to Manaka's school initially to avoid playing ice hockey at her former school, only to be lured into returning to the sport.
- Ayaka Mizusawa (水沢 彩佳)
- Manaka's younger sister; left defenceman for the Dream Monkeys. She also serves as the team's mascot.
- Naomi Takagi (高木 尚美)
- Right defenceman for the Dream Monkeys.
- Kaoruko Yanagida (柳田 薫子)
- Goaltender for the Dream Monkeys.
"Senior Set"
- China Yoneyama (米山 千奈)
- Left wing forward for the Dream Monkeys.
- Juri Kikuchi (菊池 樹里)
- Center for the Dream Monkeys. Captain of the team.
- Shino Ukita (浮田 志乃)
- Right wing forward for the Dream Monkeys.
- Runa Hirano (平野 るな)
- Left defenceman for the Dream Monkeys.
- Minato Shishiuchi (獅子内 湊)
- Right defenceman for the Dream Monkeys.
- Mona Fujishiro (藤代 もな)
- Goaltender for the Dream Monkeys.
"Staff"
- Yōko Matsunaga (松永 羊子)
- Coach for the Dream Monkeys. She aims to combine ice hockey and idols in order to increase the sport's popularity.
- Sō Satō (佐藤 想)
- Assistant for Yōko Matsunaga.
Kushiro Snow White
- Seiko Kuga (久賀 セイコ)
- Left wing forward for the Snow White.
- Yuka Iihara (飯原 有香)
- Center for the Snow White.
- Sachie Kaibara (貝原 さちえ)
- Right wing for the Snow White.
- Eri Yamanaka (山中 依里)
- Left defenceman for the Snow White.
- Ema Yoshiike (吉池 えま)
- Right defenceman for the Snow White.
- Rio Teruya (照屋 理央)
- Goaltender for the Snow White.
- Maya Walker (マヤウォーカー)
- A Canadian girl who plays center for the Snow White.
West Tokyo Ice Rabbits
- Mami Ono (小野 真美)
- Left wing forward for the Ice Rabbits. She was a schoolmate of Manaka and the others, but transferred.
Media
Anime
In December 2020, an anime television series produced by CAAnimation and animated by C2C was announced.[4] The series was directed by Takebumi Anzai, with Touko Machida in charge of series composition, Kii Tanaka designing characters based on Craft Egg's original designs, Takashi Murakami and Hiroshi Takita served as producers, and MONACA and Yōhei Kisara composing the series' music. Funimation licensed the series outside of Asia.[5] Medialink licensed the series in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.[6] It aired from October 6 to December 22, 2021 on Tokyo MX and other networks.[7][8] The seven main cast members, under the name "Smile Princess", performed the series' opening theme song "Fire Fight!", while May'n performed the series' ending theme song "Orange."[9]
The English dub was released on December 30, 2022.[10]
Episode list
Episode list
Game
A smartphone application game, titled PuraOre! Smile Princess (プラオレ！〜SMILE PRINCESS〜), was developed by EXNOA.[14] It was released on March 15, 2022 for Android, iOS, and PC via DMM Game Player.[15] The game ended service on November 30, 2022.[16]
Reception
The anime series' first episode garnered poor reviews from Anime News Network's staff during the Fall 2021 season previews. Richard Eisenbeis felt "utterly shattered" by the premiere's mixture of idol and sports anime elements through "real world logic", saying that all-girl slice-of-life fans will enjoy it more than him. Caitlin Moore was also baffled by the series' opening and found the idol angle insulting for infringing on the ice hockey segments. Nicholas Dupree commended the production values of the hockey and idol parts in the beginning, but felt the premiere stretched itself too thin by trying to appease to both genres and lacked characters for viewers to care about, saying "the overall show feels stitched together by a marketing department trying to build a money printer out of spare parts." Rebecca Silverman criticized the episode for not showcasing enough ice hockey scenes for its intended audience and found framing issues when utilizing idol elements throughout the sports segments.[17] Fellow ANN editor Christopher Farris reviewed the complete anime series in 2022 and gave it a B− grade.[18] While praising the engaging story for developing its cast and showcasing ice hockey with appealing presentation, he felt the technical aspects of the sport were "incidental" and "surface-level" because of "languid pacing" and both the slice-of-life and idol elements being prioritized more than the overall narrative, concluding that: "It definitely still isn't the hockey anime a lot of people were hoping for, but it is more of a hockey anime than those initial visions of girls breaking out into dance numbers indicated, and ends up decidedly working better as a sports show than a lot of the other let-downs out there."[18]
External links
References
- PuraOre! Pride of Orange Studio Nano, retrieved January 5, 2023^
- Rafael Antonio Pineda. Pride of Orange Project Reveals 6 More Cast Members Anime News Network, March 27, 2021, retrieved March 27, 2021^
- Rafael Antonio Pineda. PuraOre! Pride of Orange Hockey Anime's Videos Preview Theme Songs, Unveil More Cast Anime News Network, July 22, 2021, retrieved July 22, 2021^
- Egan Loo. CyberAgent, DMM Games Unveil '1st Girls' Ice Hockey Anime,' Pride of Orange Anime News Network, December 4, 2020, retrieved December 5, 2020^
- Nicholas Friedman. An Ice Hockey Anime?! PuraOre! ~Pride of Orange~ Comes to Funimation This Fall Funimation, October 2, 2021, retrieved October 3, 2021^
- Ani-One Asia. 📌 Medialink October Line-Up Simulcast on Ani-One Have you ever seen an anime about girls playing ice hockey? Here comes《Plore!～PRIDE OF ORANGE～》🧡 With their friendship and endeavor, are they able to win the matches? 😮 This new anime will be streaming on Ani-One this October❣️ Facebook, September 28, 2021, retrieved September 28, 2021^
- Jennifer Sherman. Pride of Orange Anime's Promo Video Reveals Cast, Staff, October Debut Anime News Network, December 11, 2020, retrieved December 11, 2020^
- Rafael Antonio Pineda. PuraOre! Pride of Orange Hockey Anime Reveals October 6 Premiere Anime News Network, September 6, 2021, retrieved September 6, 2021^
- Egan Loo. PuraOre! Pride of Orange Girls' Ice Hockey Anime Unveils Theme Song Artists Anime News Network, June 26, 2021, retrieved June 26, 2021^
- Crunchyroll - Simulcast Calendar Crunchyroll, retrieved December 31, 2022^
- Terebi Anime "Puraore! ～Puraido Obu Orenji～" Kōshiki Saito puraore.com, retrieved October 8, 2021^
- Hōsō Jōhō｜Puraore! ～Puraido Obu Orenji～｜Anime｜Tōkyō Emu Ekkusu Tokyo MX, retrieved October 6, 2021^
- Terebi Anime "Puraore! ～Puraido Obu Orenji～" Kōshiki Saito puraore.com, retrieved September 29, 2021^
- 青山吉能「ここにいなかったかも」審査に一度落選 - 芸能 : 日刊スポーツ nikkansports.com, retrieved October 2, 2021^
- Adriana Hazra. CyberAgent, DMM Games Unveil '1st Girls' Ice Hockey Anime,' Pride of Orange Anime News Network, December 13, 2021, retrieved December 18, 2021^
- 『プラオレ！』サービス終了のお知らせ DMM.com, October 31, 2022, retrieved October 31, 2022^
- Richard Eisenbeis, Caitlin Moore, Nicholas Dupree, Rebecca Silverman. PuraOre! Pride of Orange – The Fall 2021 Preview Guide Anime News Network, October 6, 2021, retrieved March 24, 2022^
- Christopher Farris. PuraOre! Pride of Orange – Review Anime News Network, March 21, 2022, retrieved March 24, 2022^