“Pretty Cure” Too Expensive? A Young Girl Raised the Issue at a Shareholder Meeting

At Bandai Namco's 2026 annual shareholders' meeting, a young girl told executives that Precure toys were too expensive. According to accounts later shared online, the company representative did not dodge the question: he openly agreed the toys were "indeed quite expensive," then jokingly suggested she go home and sweet-talk her dad. Once that exchange spread across social media, it quickly turned into a wider debate about children's products, family budgets, and who these prices are really built for.

The reason it resonated is obvious. Kids want the toy; parents have to pay for it. For an IP originally aimed at children, that gap says a lot about how far pricing may have drifted from its core audience.

Many commenters focused on the tone of the reply. The executive did not deny the issue and plainly admitted the toys were pricey, but the joke about asking her father for help was the part that stuck. Some took it as a blunt summary of the underlying business logic: parents are still the ones making the payment decision. Once the exchange spread, a shareholder Q&A turned into a broader discussion about child-focused spending, household finances, and the assumptions behind these prices.

The bigger question is why the prices have climbed this far in the first place. The reporting points to a shift in demand around Precure merchandise. While the brand was originally built for children, more and more adult fans with real spending power have joined the buying rush in recent years. Adult demand alone is not the issue. The problem is that the same product line now has to satisfy both kids buying toys and adults buying collectibles. That imbalance pushes prices up.

The report also points to merchants and scalpers hoarding stock and driving up prices, making it even harder for ordinary families to buy these toys at normal retail prices. At that point, this is no longer a normal children's toy market. For some items, prices have reportedly been pushed to levels approaching luxury goods.

That pattern will feel familiar to anyone who follows game-adjacent fandoms. Once a child-oriented IP develops a stable adult customer base, merchandise can shift from something meant to be widely bought into something treated like a collectible. One model depends on accessibility; the other is shaped by scarcity, premium pricing, and collector demand. That is where the friction starts. If something made for children ends up being priced mainly around adult buyers and the secondary market, the barrier has already moved.

For families, the lesson is to be wary of launch rushes, inflated resale prices, and the hottest individual items. For Bandai Namco, though, the girl's question got to the heart of the issue. A children's IP cannot be measured only by what adults are willing to spend on it; it also has to remain affordable for the kids it was made for.