Being a magical girl in the Precure universe isn’t all sparkly beam attacks and poses. There’s a lot of physical combat involved, including our heroes being thrown into cliff sides a la Dragon Ball Z. However, this doesn’t deter our protagonist Hana from giving everything she’s got to fighting evil and encouraging her fellow Cures.

Hana is kind of a dorky kid, as evidenced by her cutting her bangs horribly wrong on the first day of school. But her greatest trait is her unbridled enthusiasm, which makes her the perfect fit to be the cheerleader-themed hero Cure Yell. It doesn’t matter how much punishment she takes in battle, she’ll make sure to save everyone’s dreams for the future with a smile on her face. We want to let her know that her hard work isn’t going to waste.

Suggested Present: an adorable plush from Tasty Peach Studios.

In an anime practically overflowing with amoral and violent human/animal hybrids, Ui stands out by far as the most peaceful of the lot. Her animal is the rabbit, which makes her easy prey for the more vicious fighters in the Killing Bites battle royale. But peaceful doesn’t mean useless, and Ui proves herself by executing some brilliant stealth strategies that get her through the tournament unharmed.

We almost wish we could see this adorable bunny girl in another, less brutal anime where she could just live out her life in peace. She’s a kind soul who manages to come out on top in a world of killers, and that deserves serious praise.

Suggested Present: a basket of the finest carrots in all the land.

Satoru Mikami’s life came to an abrupt and tragic end when he was murdered on the street by a random thug. And instead of being reincarnated as something cool, the powers that be decided that he should be a slime blob in a fantasy world. He eventually gains a humanoid form and is rechristened Rimuru Tempest, powerful Demon Lord and moe extraordinaire.

Rimuru finds new friends and gains powerful abilities in this world, but we still feel sad for the salaryman life that they had to leave behind. With even his original name gone, there may be no trace of Satoru Mikami left. We wish we could reassure them that their previous life was real and had an impact on Satoru’s friends and family. That they don’t need to be best friends with a dragon to be worthy of love.

Suggested Present: a photo of Satoru Mikami with his friends.

What is it with recent anime completely screwing over lovestruck girls with short blue hair? It happened to Rem last year, and poor Ichigo from Darling in the FranXX is the latest one to lose her man to a shallow girl who the story has arbitrarily decided is far more interesting than her.

Ichigo eventually gives up and learns to love her partner Goro, which is a surprisingly mature path for her to take (and, considering Hiro’s taste in women, Goro may have been the better choice anyway). Still, she gets massively shafted by both her crush and the show’s creators, and we want to show her how valuable she really is.

Suggested Present: a “Best Girl” ribbon.

Juri seems to be permanently stuck in one place—jobless, passionless, and still pressured to be the breadwinner for her family. As if things couldn’t get any worse, one day, her brother and nephew are kidnapped and held for ransom with only 30 minutes before getting killed. Juri has to use the Yukawas’ secret time-stopping power of Stasis to rescue her relatives, but she only barely knows how to use it.

That amount of pressure that Juri is under would crush most people’s spirits (both before and after the kidnapping), but she soldiers on and strives to save her family anyway. Once she gets through this mess, we want to help her get back on her feet so that she can find happiness in her own life, not just in providing for others as a necessity.

Suggested Present: connections to some influential people who can get her a fulfilling job.

Sakura’s greatest aspiration in life was to be an idol singer, but that dream was cut short by a speeding truck barreling into her on her first day of school. 10 years later, she wakes up as a zombie in the house of some strange guy named Kotaro, who promises to make her into an idol along with a group of other zombie girls culled from various points in history.

She valiantly makes the best of the situation, living out her dream in a twisted mockery of the real thing that can’t possibly be true happiness for her. Kotaro’s theatrical makeup covers up Sakura’s decaying flesh just enough for her to pass as a human, but we’d like to give her some actually cute makeup that makes her feel like the carefree teenager she once was.

Suggested Present: Scandal Queen Waterproof Mascara by Fairydrops.

It’s difficult to find a more tragic upbringing than being raised as a child soldier, and Violet bears all the hallmarks of an emotionally stunted teen who knows nothing other than war and orders from her major. She doesn’t even understand what the major meant when he told her he loved her shortly before he died.

Violet’s life as a civilian brings with it some happiness, but also the realization of how traumatic her childhood really was. Seeing how normal people live and relate to one another opens Violet’s eyes to what she didn’t even know she was missing all of her life. We can’t heal those scars for her, but giving a present made with love would at least show her that she’s worthy of it herself.

Suggested Present: a handmade blanket for her to cuddle.

Like Ui and Sakura, the Priestess probably wishes that she were in a different anime. She goes on a supposedly routine goblin-slaying mission with a rookie adventuring party, but that ends with the rape and murder of every member of the party except for her. From then on, she must work with the terrifying Goblin Slayer and slaughter countless enemies if she wants to stay alive.

She’s just a young girl who wants to do good in the world but instead has to use her miracles to make flashbangs and poison goblins by purifying their blood into water. We wish we could whisk her away from the barbaric life she’s been thrust into and let her be the holy woman she’s always wanted to be.

Suggested Present: a spa day that’s far, far away from any goblins.

Formerly known by her alias Krista Lenz, Historia is nothing like the peppy girl that she pretended to be for so long. She’s actually burdened by the duty of becoming a titan and the true queen of the walls, something that her abusive and neglectful father forces upon her when he has no other options available (no doubt taking a cue from one of the most infamous fathers in anime history, Gendo Ikari).

Season 3 was essentially a conga line of suffering for Historia, since she had to take down her own father and assume control of a government that had just been overthrown in a military coup. And all without the support of her best friend Ymir, who seemingly betrayed the Survey Corps at the end of the last season and never returned. None of the Attack on Titan characters are particularly good at consoling each other, so we’d like to offer her a shoulder to cry on.

Suggested Present: something that Ymir once owned (to remember her by).

Shio is a carefree little kid who blithely believes anything that adults tell her. She adores her caretaker Satou and works hard to take care of the house while she’s away. This would normally be fine, but Satou is a sadistic yandere (and possibly a pedophile) who exploits Shio’s innocence for her own nefarious purposes.

Satou locks Shio in the house and keeps her blissfully unaware that her father is searching for her. She keeps the child for herself, telling her lies that Shio has no way of knowing are slowly indoctrinating her into a life of abuse. We just want to yank Shio out of Satou’s hands and take her to a family who will teach good morals and actually love her.

Suggested Present: a Christmas shopping spree with us, and jail time for Satou.