Summary: Take the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, replace the dwarves with cute boys, throw in a step-family situation a bit like in Cinderella, some magical girl genre and shake until you can't recognize the original fairy tale anymore. The result? A quite-not-so-stereotypical magical girl anime.

Rating: 9 of 10 - some silliness with the relationships of teenage boys and girls typical to shoujo anime aside, both funny and touching with great characters, gorgeous designs and wonderful music. No filler episodes or monsters-of-the-day whatsoever, with all 13 episodes moving the story forward.

Story
Pretear tells about the seven protectors of Leafe - the Leafe Knights - who are fighting the Princess of Disaster, who would devour all Leafe (the life force of all things) from the world. To save the world they need a girl who can become Pretear by merging her soul with one of the Knights. This girl is Himeno, a 16 years old young woman who (due to her father's remarriage) has been thrust into a high-class society life where she has trouble adjusting.
The series starts off as a bit too silly, with one of Himeno's new step-sisters playing pranks on her and her first meetings with the Leafe Knights being somewhat on the weird side, but becomes more balanced between comedy, action and human relationships as it progresses. It's also very touching when serious themes are portrayed. I've watched the whole series three times by now and the last episode still has me crying my eyes out.

Characters
First of all, having seven bishounen as part of the main cast can't be a bad thing. And Himeno is definitely neither a princess waiting for her "Prince Charming" nor a stereotypical shoujo heroine with her tomboyish attitude and martial arts skills. Each of the knights has a certain role they fit in (e.g. Sasame a wise, always-ready-to-listen older brother, Mannen the oldest kid who doesn't want to be treated as a kid) , but they all also have distinct, multi-layered personalities. I guess there will always be a tiny bit of stereotypes thrown in, but the main characteristic I noticed was that all the characters (main characters and minor characters alike) were wonderfully...human. They all have their little flaws and weaknesses, their hopes and dreams. They regret past mistakes, get scared or lonely and fail to notice how others around them may be in just as much pain, but still they keep trying to make the best of their lives - even though sometimes it takes another person to notice them and offer a helping hand when they're ready to give up.

Animation
Well, it is a 21st century anime, so a certain quality of animation is to be expected. As for the character designs, they're great! I especially like how the Leafe Knights each have "knight" clothes that reflect their element and how also Himeno's Pretear form changes depending on which Knight she is merged with.

Music
My favorite is definitely the opening theme, "White Destiny", but all the other songs with lyrics are great too. I think the background music is also good, as I didn't pay it much attention. That's just the way background music works - if it's good, it blends in well; if it's bad, you'll notice.

Overall
In the very beginning it's rather silly, with Himeno freaking out about the whole Pretear thing - can't really blame her, though, as any teenage girl would probably get really embarrassed with the idea she's just become one with a teenage boy. There's also more of the teenager awkwardness silliness, especially between Himeno and Hayate, but gradually it gives way to deeper, touching themes of family, friendship, love, sorrow over losing any of those, and most of all, how important it is to try to protect and understand those one loves.

If you like this anime, you'll probably like...
Fushigi Yuugi - Not a magical girl anime, but still a good shoujo one with gorgeous bishounen, a bit more stereotypical heroine, tangible emotions and a big dose of silly situations. Somewhat long, though, with 52 episodes and 3 OVAs.