Flim Festival Week: Fresh Precure film- Omocha no Kuni wa Himitsu ga Ippai!?

I’ve talked about the Precure franchise many times. Fresh Precure being the most recent series I reviewed and one of the best. So, this film festival week we’re going to look at the film based off of that series. Omocha no Kuni wa Himitsu ga Ippai!? It came out in 2009 while the series was still airing. Is it a good addition? Let’s check it out.

Story:

We open with the girls planning to have three nights worth of pyjama parties. Unbeknownst to them, toys are disappearing around the city while they’re playing around. Naturally, when they find out they assume it’s Labyrinth only to find out that they have nothing to do with it. That’s when Love’s old stuffed rabbit, Usapyon, emerges from the closet to tell them that the trouble originates from the kingdom of toys and a being called Toymajin.

The big issue with the film is that the twists are all way too obvious. I understand that the Precure franchise is intended for a young audience but there’s a point where things are so obvious that you’re actively insulting that audience. And this doesn’t quite cross that point but it comes very close.

On the positive side, the film does have a strong sense of fun to it. The antagonist also has a legitimate grievance which does make things more interesting. I also appreciate the overall message of appreciating what you have. I also like the way each of our main protagonists has her own challenge to overcome. It’s kind of reminiscent of the X-men story where they get taken to different challenges in Arcade’s Murder World.

Characters:

Our main cast are as endearing as ever and all four of them get a chance to showcase the personality aspects that make them such. The two major characters who get added in for the sake of the film are Usapyon & Toymajin. Usapyon is quite a likeable character. Toymajin is more compelling than the antagonists we usually get in Precure films since he actually has a genuine complaint unlike, say, the antagonist of the Gogo film.

Art:

The artwork and animation are really good. It looks very much like the series. The only real issue would be the length of time spent on the stock footage scenes. The film doesn’t condense or combine the transformation sequences. So, we get to see all four one after the other with their full lengths.

Sound:

The acting is really good. Oki Kanae, Komatsu Yuka, Nakagawa Akiko & Kitamura Eri are all really strong in their roles. The film adds Sakamoto Chika and Tsuru Hiromi who are both solid in their roles. The film uses the same music as the series proper and it’s still fantastic.

Ho-yay:

The girls in this continue to read as a polyamorous lesbian grouping. There’s about as much les-yay in the film as there is in a standard episode after Cure Passion joins the roster.

Areas of Improvement:

1. Combining the transformation sequences would have allowed for extra time for more important content.
2. The film would have benefited from being less obvious with its plot line.
3. I would have liked to see more of the girls just interacting with each other.

Final Thoughts:

This film is pretty enjoyable. If you’re a fan of Fresh Precure, you’ll most likely enjoy it. It’s basically a long, stand alone episode. I’m going to give it an 8/10.

Fresh PreCure: The First Team Precure to do it right

The Precure franchise is one I’ve talked about pretty frequently. I started with Doki Doki and then I went back to the beginning with Futari Wa and I’ve been going in order since. So far about half of the franchise has been really good (Futari wa, Splash Star & Doki Doki) and half has been mediocre (Max Heart, Yes Precure 5 & Yes Precure 5 Go Go). When I talked about Go Go, the topic came up about how it nearly killed the franchise and I speculated that the likely cause was that the characters in Yes Precure 5 weren’t strong enough to carry a second series. Hell, they couldn’t carry a single series and have it be good. Well, Fresh Precure was the series that revitalised the franchise and ensured that it could keep going even to this day. So, I’m pretty excited to see this one.

Story:

Tart and Chiffon are two denizens of the Sweets kingdom. Tart is given two important tasks, find the legendary warriors, Precure and look after Chiffon. The pair wind up in Clover Town where they meet up with Momozono Love, a girl who loves dancing and her very close friends, Miki and Buki. Obviously, all three of them are Precure. The three of them have to defend Clover Town from the denizens of the shadowy, mysterious labyrinth who are trying to fill the sorrow gauge to locate Infinity, while also seeking out the fourth Precure.

The only real criticism I have for the narrative of this one is that I think the fourth Precure’s integration into the group and redemption are a bit too easy. I don’t want to go deep into spoiler territory, but this girl starts out more in the lawful evil alignment and just transitions to lawful good really quickly and immediately redeems herself. I get that it’s a series for a younger audience and they don’t want to be too fixated on a long redemption arc but I also think even Splash Star had a more gradual, stronger redemption story for Kaoru & Michiru and that a couple episodes where she has to really prove herself and work for that redemption would have done wonders.

With that said, the series has a lot of strong twists and turns. The whole theme about cooperating as a group but still being individuals versus complete conformity is an interesting one and the series handles it well. The series even takes digs at being overly individualistic when our heroines decide that they’re going to hone their own individual strengths only to realise that they’re stronger when they work as a unit. I also do love the whole ending sequence. Again, I don’t want to spoil anything, but what happens with the girls and their families as well as the way they affect Labyrinth once they go there and the truth about Moebius are all pretty brilliant. This series also has a strong subplot where there are some boys who are romantically interested in our heroines and we see them look for ways to let them down kindly without anyone being treated like “the bad guy” in that situation. The series also possesses a great sense of humour. There are a lot of strong comedic moments. The writers also knew how to pace things so that there’s a steady progression but there’s also plenty of time for the girls to face various monsters of the week, have light-hearted fun moments and build their relationships with each other.

Characters:

The Precure are all fantastic. Peach, Berry, Pine and Passion. They have strong personalities with plenty of information and build up for their back stories that help craft characters that are surprisingly complex. Fresh also does a really good job of building up their parents as characters. We get to meet Love’s, Buki’s and Miki’s families, see how they interact with each other and get a strong sense of the parents’ personalities. Which really pays off during the ending stretch when we get that excellent scene with the parents. This is also the first Precure series where all the heroines seem to be in a polyamorous grouping with each other. They have strong interactions and they’re very yuririffic. We saw the same thing with everyone except Ace in Doki Doki but this is clearly the instalment that started it.

I also do appreciate the antagonists. The whole Eas, Wester & Soular trio is really strong. Wester is actually kind of a delightful goofball. Moebius has a compelling back story and motivation once the series gets into it and stops having him as a shadowy villain figure. Northa and Klein are kind of the weaknesses there since they’re both a bit boring but the series actually explains why the pair of them aren’t complex and it’s in a way that works.

Art:

The character designs are fantastic. I especially like Cure Passion’s costuming though they did an excellent job of giving all the Precure costumes that are kind of similar but have their own individual touches. The monster designs and action sequences continue to be strong. The dance choreography we get in various episodes and with the ending theme tune is really good. The one criticism I can offer is that the series might spend a little too much time on the stock footage. Though this one spends a lot less on that stuff than Go Go did.

Sound:

The acting is excellent. Oki Kanae, Kitamura Eri, Nakagawa Akiko, Komatsu Yuka, Matsumoto Yasunori and the rest of the cast do a really good job and they all play off of each other like they’re performing a stage production instead of voice acting. The music is amazing too.

Ho-yay:

There’s a lot in this series. Every member of Precure seems to be romantically interested in every other member. It’s especially true with the other three and Love but they get their moments with each other as well.

Areas of Improvement:

1. Cure Passion’s redemption arc could have used a few episodes that explored the whole thing more deeply.
2. The series could have benefited from abridging the stock footage a bit more.
3. Maybe a bit longer for the epilogue.

Final Thoughts:

It’s pretty obvious why this series brought the franchise back. It’s excellent. The characterisation, action, sense of fun, just about everything in the series works really well. Yes Precure 5 may have been the first instalment in the franchise to put the focus on a group dynamic but this was definitely the first instalment that did it well. My final rating is going to be a 9/10. If you’re a fan of magical girl stuff, especially when they’re heavy on les-yay, this is one for you.

Yes PreCure 5 GoGo: Almost Killed It

I’ve discussed a lot of PreCure works before. And why not? The franchise has over a dozen series, a bunch of films, games and it’s definitely one of Toei’s big, profitable franchises. However, there was an early entry into the franchise that nearly killed the whole thing. That was the follow up to Yes PreCure 5. Yes PreCure 5 GoGo performed so badly in terms of ratings, that the next instalment had to be a rousing success or it was going to be the end of the franchise. And it’s the reason no PreCure has had a direct sequel since. So, what was so bad about this series? Let’s have a look.

Story:

Our heroines are continuing their normal lives and pursuing their goals when a strange delivery boy appears with a letter for them. The letter requests their presence at a place called the Cure Rose Garden. Unfortunately for them, a group called Eternal is also interested in getting into the Cure Rose Garden and they’ll do anything to get the Rose Pact away from the PreCure.

The biggest problem with the narrative is just how much time is spent on transformation sequences. Especially towards the end when we have their transformation sequence, Milky Rose’s transformation and exceptionally long special attacks when Coco or Nuts grants them power. It kind of reminds me of summoning Knights of the Round in FF VII, it’s cool the first time you see it but since it never gets abridged you start getting up to get yourself a sandwich or read a chapter of your book after starting it. Except that these sequences combine to be at least twice as long as that summon.

There are also issues that come from this being a sequel. To name an obvious example, Bunbee returns. Which is fine in and of itself, he wasn’t explicitly shown to be destroyed. What doesn’t make sense is that he gets a huge power boost for no apparent reason that makes him a threat again. I guess he did some off screen training with King Kai. The attempt at throwing in romantic tension between Coco and Nozomi is still awkward, uncomfortable and creepy. Since the dude is both her teacher and a different species.

The story does have its positives. Syrup’s story arc is pretty good. The series also has its share of fun moments that are worthy of a PreCure series.

Characters:

This is actually one of the big reasons I think this series flopped. The characters in Yes PreCure 5 are not strong enough to carry two series. They were trite archetypes in the first series. In the sequel, they’re very much the same. The first series at least tried to add some degree of depth by giving them episodes where they have to question who they really want to be. This series pretty much does nothing new with them as characters. Except for Milk who gains her own transformation and abilities as Milky Rose. Even then, the core of her character is the same. She’s extremely loyal to Coco & Nuts and she has a friendly rivalry going on with Nozomi.

The antagonists are fine. They’re pretty much an organisation that collects rare goods without regard to the people who produce them. They could rebrand themselves as archaeologists and their collection room as a museum if they wanted less flak over it.

Art:

This series has the weakest monster designs I’ve seen in the franchise. There are a lot of monsters that are just a random object with the hoshina orb somewhere on it. Which really is a lot different from taking something ordinary and warping it into a monstrous form. It’s just so lazy. Same with the overly long transformation/ big attack sequences. It gets exceptionally bad when we sit through the transformations and then we get both the rainbow rose explosion and the milky rose metal blizzard. Because all of those together are about five minutes. Which is about a quarter of the episode when you factor out the theme tunes.

Sound:

The actresses continue to be strong in their roles. Surprisingly so given how bland the characters are. Paku Romi makes an excellent addition to the cast. It’s also nice to hear Koyasu Takehito even as a short-lived villain. The series has decent music, but does the same thing as the first Precure 5 series where they replace their ending theme tune with one that’s very much a slightly modified version of Splash Star’s Ganbalance de dance. I know Splash Star is superior in every way, but taking its music isn’t going to give you its power.

Ho-yay:

There’s a little, mostly involving Karen and Komachi or Coco & Nuts. There’s also a bit with Karen & Kurumi. Not as much as any other PreCure series I’ve reviewed. Even the first Yes PreCure 5 had more.

Areas of Improvement:

1. Develop your characters. These characters weren’t strong enough to carry 49 episodes and have a good series out of it. Adding 48 more with the same lack of development just makes it more noticeable.
2. Seriously, stop pushing the idea of romance between an adult squirrel and human girl. It’s creepy.
3. Shorten your big attack/ transformation sequences. Seeing them a few times in their entirety is enough. They can be tighter and more condensed after.

Final Thoughts:

So, why did this series fail? Honestly, I think it has to do with the non-compelling, creepy romance elements in combination with these characters not having the strength to carry two series. There’s just not enough personality there. That being said, this series really isn’t any worse than the first Yes PreCure 5. It’s largely bland with some stand out negative and positive aspects. So, I’m giving it a 5/10.

Film Festival Week: Yes Precure 5- Kagami no Kuni no Miracle Daibouken

The PreCure franchise is one I’ve talked about quite a bit. Oddly enough, I started with Doki Doki before going back to prior entries. The last series I reviewed was Yes PreCure 5, which was one of the weaker instalments. But in my ongoing quest to watch everything PreCure, I’ve got to review the films based on the more mediocre series too. Which is why we’re looking at the Yes PreCure 5 film today.

Story:

We open with a strange figure on a throne giving orders to some teddy bear looking dudes. They give him a shard of glass with Nozomi’s face on it. He transfers it into a crystal causing a shadowy figure to appear. We cut to our heroines who just watched their own show and are, naturally, feeling a bit bored. They decide to head down to a Princess theme park where all the guests dress up in cosplay for some fun. Which gets disrupted when Coco & Nuts are dragged into a mirror.

The biggest issue with the narrative is just that it’s not very interesting. Yes, all the PreCure films have been quite predictable and they’re all equally guilty of following the same pattern of having the heroines dragged into a fight to save some random magic kingdom. The others, however, had some strong character moments and interactions to make them worthwhile. Because PreCure 5 is made up of bland archetypes, it just makes the usual pattern all the more noticeable. And there aren’t a lot of fun sequences to distract from it.

The film tries to have the same sense of fun that makes the PreCure films, as a whole, entertaining in spite of their formulaic nature but it doesn’t work all that well. The sense of investment just isn’t there.

Characters:

They’re still archetypes. It doesn’t help that the big draw of the film involves the PreCure fighting their dark versions. In some works, they make that cliché compelling by using the dark versions to tell you something about the characters. In this case, they pretty much all win because they draw strength from their friendship. This could have legitimately been an opportunity to add some depth to the heroines but it just doesn’t happen.

In terms of character interactions, about the best we get is a scene where Komachi, Karen & Urara are just joking around. And it is kind of a fun scene, to be fair, but there’s more focus on them participating in theme activities than there is in them actually spending time with each other.

There’s not much to say about the antagonist or the inhabitants of the mirror kingdom either. The antagonist is evil & the denizens are small, plush looking creatures that are easy to kick around.

Art:

The artwork is quite nice. The action sequences have a good amount of impact and the overall designs are nicely done. It does bother me that they spend so much time on transformation sequences when the film isn’t that long. Seriously, they have an abridged transformation scene and then one where they all transform one by one and it feels like they’re trying to pad out what is, ultimately, a fairly short film.

Sound:

The acting is well done. One thing I can credit PreCure 5 with is that the acting has always been better than you’d anticipate given the lack of complexity in the characters. The Dark PreCure don’t have the same actresses as their counter parts which is an interesting decision. Nishimura Chinami, Minaguchi Yuko, Kugiyama Rie, Kiuchi Reiko & Nagasawa Miki do give pretty good performances as the dark versions. The music is decent. It’s pretty much the same thing you get from the series proper, like every PreCure film.

Ho-yay:

There really isn’t any.

Areas of Improvement:

1. Make the victories over the dark versions more personalised. I get it, the theme of the importance of friendship and connections has to be represented. But you can still have the girls win over their dark forms in more varied ways besides just having them all rally because they have people they care about.
2. Cut out the long transformation sequence. Just have the girls already transformed when they enter the mirror kingdom. We don’t need two transformation sequences in this short a period of time. It just wastes our time.
3. Give us stronger character interactions. I know the characters are boring archetypes, but you can still provide some entertainment by giving them fun scenes. Like the aforementioned one with Komachi, Karen & Urara.

Final Thoughts:

This film, ultimately, is not very good. The characters don’t have strong enough interactions or personalities to really carry it which just makes the old PreCure film formula very noticeable. I can’t say the film is bad. If you really like Yes PreCure 5, it’ll probably be a fun time for you. But for me, it was a sub-par offering. I give it a 4/10.

Yes PreCure 5: Go Go Archetypes

I’ve looked at the PreCure franchise quite a bit. With Futari wa, Max Heart, Splash Star and Doki Doki as well as three different films. This time around, we’re going back to the first PreCure series to feature a team, Yes PreCure 5. This one ran from early ’07 to early ’08. The head writer was Narita Yoshimi, who also did series composition work on Splash Star. So, that’s a pretty good sign. Let’s delve back into the world of PreCure.

Story:

We open with our main heroine, Yumehara Nozomi, running late for school. Something we’ve never seen in any anime before besides ninety percent of them. On her way there she almost trips but gets caught by a very handsome older man. Being more than a little thick, she thinks of it as a fated encounter. Even when he turns out to be a gay squirrel. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. She’s in the library, presumably for picture books, when she encounters the stranger again. The pair of them are attacked by a Mantis man and she transforms into Cure Dream. The squirrel introduces himself as Coco and tells her that they need to find the four other legendary warriors to wake up his boyfriend who’s sleeping in the Dream Collet & the fifty five pinkies to revive the destroyed Palmier kingdom.

Let’s start with my biggest problem with this series, namely, the attempts at romance. Unlike the other PreCure series we’ve looked at where the straight love interest is either absent or a largely ignored element, this one likes to push the idea that a couple of these fourteen, maybe fifteen year old girls should get together with these grown ass men, one of which is their teacher and both of which are actually squirrels.

So, it’s the worst in the franchise in that regard so far. Say what you will about Soccer boy Senpai from Futari wa or Mai’s elder brother in Splash Star, at least they were close in age to the girls who were interested in them and not in positions of power & the same species. Every single episode where they try to push the romance aspect in this series comes across as more than a bit grotty & really cringey.

There’s also the way the whole pinky thing is handled. It’s very much an element the series brings up when it feels like it. Most of them are caught off screen & they barely do anything. There’s an episode where one gets used to treat an illness and another one acts like a photocopier a few times. I think that’s actually it.

But it’s not all bad. The way the overall theme of hope against despair and the way dreams for the future factor into holding on to your hope is pretty well handled. The ending has some nuance to it and really doesn’t unfold like you’d expect. So, that’s appreciated.

Characters:

The biggest problem with the cast here is that they’re very much a bog standard group. Nozomi is the super optimistic, good-natured, dumb as a brick variety of protagonist. Rin is the athletic one. Urara is the excitable, cheerful young one. Komachi is the calm older sister type & Karen is the smart one. And unlike, say, Doki Doki or Sailor Moon the characters never move beyond the most archetypical writing for those tropes in any significant way. The most interesting character in terms of writing is the main antagonist, Despariah. And that’s only because of what happens with the ending.

I will credit the series with trying to juggle the characters and give them all a decent amount of focus. I’ll also credit it with giving each of the main five their own little arc. Even if those arcs are trite. And the dynamics that aren’t pushing the idea of romance between young girls and adult animals can be fun.

One issue with the writing is that the series doesn’t know what to do with their underling antagonists. To the point where two of them exit the series in a really unsatisfying fashion. At least the others get big, final confrontations against the heroines. These two just kind of get unceremoniously axed.

Art:

The character designs are solid, especially for the villains. It also continues the proud series tradition of having very physical bouts and ending them with the big, magic attacks. The action scenes in general are nicely done. I especially like the horseback duel that Karen fights. The villain designs are quite good. The backgrounds are quite nice and, overall, the art just works well.

(They angered the Gazebo)

Sound:

The performances are well done. Nagano Ai, Ise Mariya, Maeda Ai, Takeuchi Junko, Sanpei Yuuko and the other various major actors are all good at what they do. Overall, I also did like the music. One issue I do have is that they get rid of their original ending theme tune partially through and just replace it with a remix of Splash Star’s. It’s like the Toei team responsible for making the series decided the tune they had wasn’t good enough and they didn’t have time to write something new, so they just modified something they already had. Granted, the theme tunes in this isn’t as good as the other PreCure series we’ve looked at, but they’re perfectly fine.

Ho-yay:

There’s a lot of it betwixt Coco & Nuts. There are also a few scenes with Komachi & Karen where they come across as more than friends. And there are some scenes where Urara seems to have a bit of a crush on Nozomi. (Notice her, Senpai.) This series does have significantly less ho-yay than the rest of the franchise we’ve looked at, however.

Areas of Improvement:

1. Get rid of the attempts at romance. Seriously, you don’t need romantic elements. In fact, they’re downright detrimental when the main stuff you’re pushing is gross in three different ways.
2. Give your characters something to set them apart. I get it, this was the first time they had a team and they didn’t really know how to juggle character development for five girls. But give us something that moves them beyond archetypes.
3. Give the two villains with abrupt departures proper send offs. Again, I know why they handled it the way they did. They wanted to emphasise a particular antagonist’s sadistic side with how he disposes of these two. But I feel like they could have done that and still had the send off. After all, they do with the villain who leaves before these two.

Final Thoughts:

Yes PreCure 5 is not nearly the best the franchise has to offer. Honestly, it’s kind of weak. While it has its enjoyable moments and a few interesting elements, it suffers from bland characterisation, the worst romance elements in the series thus far and some aspects that just aren’t handled in engaging or interesting ways. In the end, the closest series I can compare it to is Max Heart. Like that series, it’s very mediocre. I’ll give it a 5/10. Maybe the follow up to it will redeem it somewhat when I eventually look at that, but given that it’s the series that marked the end of direct sequel series in the franchise, I’m not all that optimistic.

Futari wa PreCure: Splash Star- Holding Hands with the one you love gives you power because… PreCure

Let’s take another look at Toei’s PreCure franchise. So far, I’ve looked at Futari wa, Max Heart & Doki Doki. This time around, let’s talk about Splash Star.The third instalment of the franchise that ran from ’06 to ’07. How well does it hold up compared to the other instalments we’ve looked at? Let’s take a look.

Story:

Young Mai is moving back to a city she used to live in. While exploring, she encounters a familiar looking girl, Saki, underneath the sky tree. The two encounter a pair of faeries, Flappy & Choppy, who remind them that they briefly encountered each other beneath that same tree five years ago. A brief instant that was so formative for the pair that it apparently caused their fates to intertwine because PreCure has never been subtle with its massive amounts of subtext. The two are confronted by a leafy looking menace who demands that the faeries disclose the location of the fountain of the Sun. Saki and Mai go to their defence, transforming into Cure Bloom and Cure Egret. Together, they set off on a mission to revive the holy fountains.

Honestly, there aren’t any major problems with the series. About the worst you can say about it is that it’s very much a magical girl series with all the optimism, enemies of the week, transformation sequences and such that are prevalent in the genre. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with a work in a genre being very much grounded in that genre. Especially when it’s something like this with a young target audience.

Splash Star has a lot of aspects that are kind of similar to Futari wa but that are also distinct. Both series feature an athletic girl and one who is into more intellectual pursuits. The characters even look a bit similar. But they’re involved in different things and have different issues related to those interests. Both series have a generic male love interest who’s barely acknowledged because every time he shows up for a moment with the girl who has a crush on him it’s used to transition into a bigger moment for her with the other PreCure but Splash Star makes use of that a lot less and has different kinds of moments betwixt the girls as a result. In both of them, the athletic girl has a younger sibling. But the relationship dynamic that Nagisa had with her brother was a lot different from the one Saki has with her sister.

I do like the pacing in Splash Star. It does a really good job of introducing a variety of major villains, giving them some time to be menaces and then bringing the next one in before you can get tired of the current one. Splash Star also features a superb redemption story with some surprisingly tragic moments within it. Darn it, PreCure writers, stop making me feel things. I’m supposed to be a cynical git. A cynical git who hates everything. Or so I’ve been told. There are some strong moments of tension in the series as well. They really make you curious about how Saki & Mai are going to resolve things. Although you know they will because it’s PreCure. The climax is really well done too. The series is just generally fun, cute and endearing.

Characters:

There are some strong characters in Splash Star. Saki and Mai are great. Their families are a lot of fun. Michiru and Kaoru are great. The supporting cast has a lot of fun, colourful characters within it. In terms of antagonists, most of them are pretty standard. The big exception is Alex Louis Kintoleski. There is something utterly delightful about him and his techniques that have been passed down the Kintoleski line for generations. Shitataare and DoroDoron are kind of fun at times. The worst character, by far, is Moerumaba. He comes across as a strange blend of gay and Latin stereotypes. The faeries aren’t particularly compelling, but they’re decent enough.

Art:

There’s a lot of praiseworthy aspects to the artwork. The backgrounds are nicely detailed with some very nicely done scenery. The action sequences can be absolutely amazing. I do love the way this franchise incorporates really physical brawling into its action sequences along with the special magic attacks and Splash Star is no exception to that. It does suffer from the same issue with the stock footage attacks that Futari wa did. Namely, that there are very few and they start to get dull after a while. This was before they’d learned to vary them a bit more, clearly. There are some really interesting villain designs. I can’t stand Moerumba’s and Alex Louis Kintoleski may be the best villain, but his design is kind of boring. He’s just a golden muscle man. Those two aside, great villain designs. I do like the PreCure designs too. I like that Saki & Mai have multiple Cure forms and I like their outfits. The monster designs continue to be very creative and interesting. Which is another thing the franchise has been consistently good at.

Sound:

The best performances come from Kimoto Orie, Enomoto Atsuko, Fuchizaki Yuriko & Imai Yuka. There are plenty of other good performances as well. Sato Naoki is back for the soundtrack work and he does a really nice job.

Ho-yay:

Saki and Mai may be marginally more homo-erotic than Nagisa and Honoka were. They’re heavily inspired by one another. They gain strength when their hearts come together as one. They talk about their fated meeting. They have a date where they actually feed one another home made bento. They talk about how energised they feel when they hold hands. I can only imagine how much that’s going to increase when they get older and start snogging. In any case, their dynamic is adorable.

Final Thoughts:

So, that’s Futari wa PreCure Splash Star. If you’re a fan of the whole magical girl aesthetic, it’s for you. You will almost certainly garner enjoyment from watching it. If you aren’t a fan of the genre, it’s not going to change your mind. For myself, I pretty thoroughly enjoyed it. Loved the characters. I give it a solid 8/10. Next week I’ll look at Wolf Guy.

Futari wa Precure: Max Heart: Surely, the most pointful of all sequels

Last year one of the magical girl anime I looked at was Futari wa Precure, the first in Toei Animation’s long-running Precure franchise. It was a strong start with endearing characters, a lot of good moments and strong, surprisingly physical fight scenes. Unlike many magical girl works, Precure believes in having their characters kick and punch instead of just tossing out stock animation special attacks. It also had a pretty strong ending that wrapped everything up. Which makes today’s material a little odd. Futari wa Precure: Max Heart is a direct sequel with the same characters, one of the only series of its like in the franchise. So, do they have something interesting for Honoka & Nagisa to do?

Story:

After the events of the first series, Honoka and Nagisa have entered High School. It’s at this point where Honoka notices some feelings starting to well up, but she’s afraid to act on them since Nagisa hasn’t shown interest in girls like that. Thus begins their sweet and sublime love story.

Okay, so that doesn’t happen. The actual story takes place with the two of them in their last year of junior high. They’re living normal lives in the wake of the Dark King’s defeat. Unbeknownst to them, the Queen was critically wounded during their battle. She loses her cohesion, splitting into her life, her heart and her wills which take the form of tiny fairies called Heartiels. To make matters worse, the two heroines find themselves under attack by a new band of villains, Shampoo Advert, Moustache, Chin & Female. This time around they also have help, in the form of Shiny Luminous, Mai. In that fashion, Honoka, Nagisa & Saki find themselves in a race against time to find all the aspects of the Queen before their antagonistic foursome can bring back the Dark King.

Let’s start by looking at the big issue with the series as a whole. There’s way too much of a focus on Nozomi and Pollun. He’s as obnoxious as he was in the last series, except now there’s a lot more of him, and she’s just boring. Consequently, all of the emphasis on the two of them is tedious at best. Aside from that, the series just feels pointless. They’re back to fight the same big bad with the same major attack, except powered up while working towards gathering the pieces they need to get the same resolution. How very exciting for all of us.

On the positive side, there are still some strong moments, particularly when Urara stays on the sidelines and lets Nagisa & Honoka do their thing, and there are still some remnants of the good humour and generally entertaining moments that made the first series work. They’re just not nearly as prevalent or as strong.

Characters:

Nagisa and Honoka are still really good characters and there are a lot of colourful and endearing personalities from our reoccurring side cast. Unfortunately, most of them have much more limited roles in this series. That being said, there are a lot of issues with the new characters. I’ve already mentioned how dreadfully dull Karen is, and how obnoxious Pollun is, so let’s look at some of our other major characters. Our antagonists in this series, Shampoo Advert, Moustache, Chin & Female, are really one-dimensional. The Heartiels are also really dull. Although, in their case there is some reason behind it. Each one is supposed to represent one aspect of the Queen’s still non-existent personality. I guess it was easier to imply that she has these traits than it was to actually show her use any of them ever. We’re also introduced to Pollun’s sister, Lulun. She has all of the characteristics that make him such a nuisance, but she’s actually less annoying to me due to the simple fact that the one who suffers the most from it is Pollun and it’s a bit cathartic to see him get a taste of his own obnoxiousness.

Art:

The art isn’t as strong as the first series, oddly enough. It still has creative monster designs, although fairly bland designs for the main four villains. It’s action sequences aren’t as strong either. There are still some really good action sequences, particularly during the climax. The punches, kicks and grapples get used, especially in those stronger scenes, but they’re downplayed in this one. Komachi doesn’t even bother with them. She either uses special attacks or, at one point, she lets the light coming from her device deflect attacks while she just holds it up like an idiot. Speaking of Luminous, there’s also the issue of Rin’s facial expressions. With the other characters, they’re allowed to display a wide range of emotions. With her, most of the time she just has a blank look or an expression of dull surprise. It’s almost like the animators wanted to capture her lack of personality.

Sound:

The strongest performances in this come, like the last series, from Honna Youko & Yukana. Ikezawa Haruna and, to a lesser degree, Tanii Asuka are the big weaknesses. To be fair to them, they did get cast as the annoyances and I doubt anyone could make those characters sound pleasant or emotionally complex. Even if they’d had Ishida Akira & Hayashibara Megumi voicing them they’d almost certainly still be cacophonous. To be fair, most of the actors sound fine. There are some, like Tanaka Rie, who sound like they’re not trying but I’m almost certain that’s a result of their characters having less emotional depth than your average paper-clip. The music is still good although, in some cases, a bit lazy. The opening theme is seriously just a remix of the opening from the first series.

Ho-yay:

The les-yay isn’t as strong in this series as it was in the first. Primarily because Setsuna acts as a third wheel, showing up whenever Honoka and Nagisa are having a moment and ruining the whole thing.

Final Thoughts:

Futari wa Precure: Max Heart is a pretty underwhelming sequel. While it isn’t bad and it does retain some of the good aspects of the first series, it also gets encumbered with a lot of pointlessness and suffers from adding a whole lot of trite characters with the most egregious being Miki. Yuru Yuri likes to joke about Akari’s lack of presence, but that girl is so unbelievably boring I’m not sure I even got her name right. It also suffers from excessive use of Pollun. All in all, I think the annoying moments and the good moments even out pretty well. In the end, I give it a 5/10. It’s an average series. Next week it’s Overlord.

Five constructive ways to improve Doki Doki Precure & Kigurumikku

Okay, it’s time to try the final idea I had for weekend posts. Going into this, I couldn’t decide whether to do the list for something that I had given a high rating or something that I had given a low rating. Doing it for something good takes more work but the changes are also going to be less extreme. In the end, I decided to do one of each. For the good we’ve got Doki Doki Precure and for the bad we’ve got the series I reviewed this Wednesday, Kigurumikku V3.

A couple things to keep in mind. First, there are going to be spoilers. So be aware of that. Secondly these are things that I think would improve the series in question.  You may agree with my thoughts on it or you may think I’m off base or completely crazy. Which I’m not, I’m just eccentric. Either way, feel free to share your own ideas on the subject. Thirdly, these aren’t going to be in any particular order. With those details in mind, let’s begin with the bad series.

Kigurumikku V3: 

1. The fan-service. This series focuses far too much on bosoms and other feminine parts. Part of the problem is just that it’s in poor taste, especially given that most of the characters are really young. The other part of the problem is that it doesn’t really do anything from a comedic perspective. Women having bosoms isn’t funny. Women getting their clothes ripped and having their bosoms seen by strangers is also not funny. When you’ve got thirty minutes of content and you’re trying to be comedic you really can’t waste time on attempts at titillation.

2. The train scene. I didn’t really talk about this one specifically in my review, but there’s a scene where the older sister goes on the subway, gets groped by a pervert, rescued by one of the girls and told that she shouldn’t have dressed like that. First off, someone getting molested on a train isn’t funny. But what makes this scene particularly horrible is the whole victim blaming aspect. Not just because it’s bullshit, but because it’s been used on actual people who have suffered from terrible things being done to them. It would be one thing if this was a drama and they were actually using it to contribute to the conversation about victim blaming, but it’s a comedy and it’s not smart enough for that.

3. The performances. The series doesn’t have bad actresses. In fact, I think all of them have had roles in better light-hearted series. Koyama was in Gokujou Seitokai, which I’ll probably review at some point. Iguchi was in Girls und Panzer & Tomatsu was in Sakura Trick. The problem is that the direction in this series called for them to go loud and obnoxious. Subtle and dramatic performances wouldn’t have worked for what they were doing with the series, but there’s a happy middle ground between that and super exaggerated which they should have gone for.

4. The mascots. Yes, mascot characters are a part of most magical girl series. However, given how short this series is they really shouldn’t have had three mascot characters. You really only need one to make jokes about that particular trope.

5. The humour. They have a few genre jokes like having all the girls be instantly recognisable and actually having people recognise them unlike a lot of magical girl series where their identities should be obvious but no one seems to notice but most of them are more focused on the girls talking about boobs or the older sister getting stripped. Most of the jokes are rather tasteless perverted jokes. If they’d focused more on the parody aspect and less on that then they might just have made something funny.

Doki Doki Precure: 

1. The problem with carrots. Let’s talk about one of the bad episodes specifically. There’s an episode where we find out that Ai and Aguri hate carrots. Which you might not consider a big deal. Everyone has foods they don’t like so just let them eat some other vegetables. But no, this is played up as a big deal and they’re taken to a farm to learn about how much work brought those carrots to their plates. Which is bull crap since disliking one type of vegetable hardly constitutes being overly picky. In fact, that’s an easy way to fix it. Have the two of them be really unreasonable about not wanting to eat vegetables at all. Then you’ve got a situation where the other characters don’t come across as majorly over-reacting.

2. Aguri needs more development. When I reviewed this anime I talked about how Aguri is an under-developed character. This did not have to be the case. They could have taken time during those five weak episodes to focus more on her and develop her as a character beyond her liking sweets and scolding the other girls a lot.

3. Ai. The series actually does something interesting with Aguri and Regina being two parts of Princess Ange resulting from the selfish overtaking half her heart. Then it’s further revealed that Ai is a third aspect of Princess Ange and that’s why she needs to be there. Except that this plot element would be stronger without a third aspect. Not only that, but four of the five weak episodes focus on Ai and she’s just really annoying. As such, my solution would be to have Regina and Aguri as the split aspects of Princess Ange, give Cure Ace a regular non-ear splittingly obnoxious fairy to use for transforming and use those extra episodes for more character development.

4. The Fairy ticks. I know that it’s a staple of the precure franchise to give the mascot characters verbal ticks. However, I don’t think it’s a good element to them and I think the acting would have been stronger if the faeries had just spoken normally. At the very least they could have had some kind of different accent instead of saying parts of their names with every sentence.

5. Stock footage attacks. This is one that’s a staple for the genre and, again, the stock footage doesn’t look bad. I still think it would have benefited from taking more time to make the special attacks a more seamless part of combat and ignored the stock footage convention.

Futari wa Precure: Rainbows and hand holding

We’ve reached the end of magical girl month, so let’s dive back into the Precure franchise. It wasn’t that long ago that I looked at Doki Doki Precure, one of the more recent installments in the franchise. This time let’s go far, far back to 2004 when Toei animation first started the franchise with Futari wa Precure. Was the series as good back then or is this one of those franchises that got a rough start? Let’s take a look and find out.

Story:

Young Misumi Nagisa is in her room when she notices falling stars. One of them crashes into her room, hits her in the head and turns out to be a strange creature that had turned into a cell phone like device. He calls himself Mepple and asks Nagisa to take him to Mipple. She goes out, following his directions only to run into a classmate she barely knows, Yukishiro Honoka. The two are attacked by a strange villain called Jean Luc Pisard, who looks like he belongs in a Kabuki theatre. To fight him, they hold hands, go through rainbows and transform into Precure. After fending him off they find out that Mepple and Mipple are denizens of the Garden of Light, which was invaded by the Dark King. In order to save it they have to defeat his minions and get the seven Prism Stones, two of which they already have.

Let’s open, as usual, with the narrative problems. The first is that the story arc is kind of bizarre. It’s like the writers thought that the series was only getting twenty six episodes only to find out that it was going to be nearly twice as long when they’d already set everything up for the finale and they had to backtrack to rekindle the conflict. I’m glad that the series has the extra twenty three episodes because a lot of them are really good, but they still involve a lot of re-treading, at least in terms of the conflict. Another issue is that the characters who are supposed to be aiding them are frequently pretty useless. Take Wisdom as an example. He’s so useless that the one time he actually does anything he has to be told to act by Pollun of all people. Bloody Pollun.

Now, I’m going to talk about the gratuitous romance separately since I wouldn’t call it bad, but I also wouldn’t call it a good element since it is pretty pointless. However, it is kind of interesting in its execution. What do I mean by that? Well, it has to be the most passive aggressive inclusion of a gratuitous male love interest ever. It’s like the writers were told that they had to include a male love interest but they didn’t want to so they gave the guy a boyfriend who would always be by his side and engage in typical romance story tropes with him. Like one running happily to the other and apologising for making him wait. They sometimes bring up Nagisa’s crush on him and then use it as an excuse to develop her relationship with Honoka while avoiding doing anything between her and him. It’s like they’re actively sabotaging it with the combined power of yaoi and yuri. To be fair to the writers, if I was writing something for a studio and they insisted on it having het I’d do pretty much the same thing and it does lead to some funny moments.

There’s a lot about the series that’s praiseworthy. Futari Wa has a lot of really fun and funny moments, including an episode that focuses on Honoka’s dog taking care of a puppy. More magical girl series need episodes about dogs. But it’s not all fun. There’s some emotional depth to the series. It manages some really good tragic moments. Sure, they’re used sparingly, but they’re still there and they really work. There are some good tense moments too. The series is also good at building up major plot points and giving them a strong payoff.

Characters:

Nagisa and Honoka are really strong leads and they have an excellent dynamic. Their families and friends are well fleshed out, with pretty much all of them having verisimilitude. There are also some strong interactions with them and their family and friends that really help flesh out their characters. I even like Fujimura and his boyfriend, and it’s rare to find a likeable character who is technically there as a gratuitous love interest.

The villains are the big weakness. They’re largely pretty one-note characters without much personality. To be fair, there is a reason for their actions that makes sense, but they still aren’t developed or interesting in the least. There is one major exception with a sympathetic villain who gets complexity, but I won’t spoil who it is. I also kind of like the two butler Zakenna. They aren’t developed but they are pretty hilarious. The Garden of Light denizens are another weakness. Most of them are just bland. The exception being Pollun. If he’s not as annoying as Ai was in DokiDoki, he comes really close. He’s bratty, obnoxious, frequently throws tantrums where he repeats the same phrase in the most grating manner possible and just causes problems for everyone. Especially the audience.

Art:

The art and animation are largely really good. Futari wa has good designs, except for the second set of villains who just look boring. It also has really good physical action sequence and detailed backgrounds. The monsters are nice and creative and I do like the little black stars who start apologising when they lose. They’re simple but well done. It does suffer a bit from repetitive stock footage. Especially in terms of special attacks. Nagisa and Honoka have two major attacks they use in the series and the animation used for them setting up even looks pretty similar. The big difference between them is what kind of beam gets fired. They get downright lazy with the Queen of Light too. Her design is pretty cool, but she doesn’t really move or change expressions.

Sound:

Honna Youko and Yukana both deliver strong performances as Nagisa and Honoka. Really, most of the cast does really well in their roles. Sendai Eri and Kiuchi Reiko both do really well too and Ono Kenichi makes for a pretty intimidating villain. The big issue is Ikezawa Haruna. She’s not a bad actor, but she does voice a character who constantly whines, yells and is generally just painful to listen to. Honestly though, I don’t think anyone could have done better with a character like Pollun since his main purpose as a character is to be an annoyance. The music is stellar and there are several cases where they incorporate lyrical works into episodes to great effect. The choir episode in particular.

Ho-yay:

I touched on this a bit when talking about the romance, so I’ll refrain from repeating too much of that. For ho-yay we’ve got Fujimura and his boyfriend. There’s a bit of les-yay between Shiho and Rina. The main source of les-yay comes from our leads, Honoka and Nagisa. Even ignoring the rainbows and hand holding, though they hold hands about a hundred and thirty three times, there is a lot of homo-eroticism between them. For every awkward scene that goes nowhere with Fujimura, Nagisa gets ten really adorable scenes with Honoka. These two talk about how close they’ve gotten and share a bed while holding hands. They also play Romeo and Juliet and Nagisa forgets her lines and speaks purely from the heart in an amazing scene. Even with the gratuitous male love interest, the series earns a 6/10 for ho-yay.

Final Thoughts:

Futari wa Precure is a really strong series. It has a nice level of emotional depth, it’s fun, hilarious. a lot of the characters are well developed, the action is great and the acting is strong. Still, it does suffer from some story issues, Pollun, bland villains, Pollun, over-used stock footage, Pollun and some laziness. My final rating is an 8/10. I do suggest checking it out if you’re a fan of magical girl works or if you like super subtexty les-yay. So, that’s it for magical girl month. Next week we’ll open February with Natsu no Arashi.

Doki Doki Precure: Restoring your heart-throbbing excitement.

You know, as long as I’ve been doing this I’m surprised that this is the first Precure series I’m looking at. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Precure or Pretty Cure is a long running magical girl franchise from Toei animation. It all started with Futari wa Pretty Cure and the most recent installment is Happiness Charge Precure, which is currently ongoing. Most of the series within the frranchise don’t have anything to do with one another aside from a similar aesthetic and Doki Doki Precure is the tenth series within the franchise. The writing for this one was handled by Yamaguchi Ryota, who anime fans may recognise as the writer behind the Escaflowne anime. So, how does this one hold up?

Story:

Our story opens with a Precure, we later learn that her name is Cure Sword, fighting monsters in a desolate landscape. Skip ahead to a group of students on a field trip and student council President Aida Mana’s efforts to keep order. Their trip is interrupted when a teal-haired boy creates a monster from a person’s heart which attacks the area. Mana is told that she can transform, which she does, enabling her to save the day. She finds out that the monsters are called the Selfish and they’re attempting to gather dark energy to unseal their ruler, King Selfish, who was trapped in stone during the Selfish’s invasion of the Trump Kingdom.

It’s a pretty standard magical girl plot. So, the question becomes, how well is it executed? Well, let’s start with the positive aspects. The way the Selfish turn people into monsters is interesting and I do like that they always use the kinds of selfish thoughts that we all have at times. The antagonists in general are well handled, not being portrayed as outright evil but more as inconsiderate jerks which both makes for an interesting conflict and opens up the possibility of redemption, which is definitely taken full advantage of. The story also has some really good twists which are hinted at but are still difficult to anticipate. There are some excellent humourous moments as well and quite a few superb heartwarming moments. The series also manages some crowning moments of awesome.

So, with all that going for it, what are the weaknesses? The truth is that there’s only one major flaw to the storytelling. There are five episodes towards the end of the series (34-38) that have no bearing on the plot and are just kind of filler. Now, that probably doesn’t sound that bad. But these episodes are just annoying. The character interactions in them are weak. They lack the good humour of the rest of the series and four of the five put the focus on the worst character in the series, but we’ll get to her later.

Characters:

Most of the characters in this series are really lovable and just generally amazing. Mana, Rikka, Alice, Makoto and Regina are all great characters who interact perfectly with one another and they’re a lot of fun to watch. Most of the side characters are quite enjoyable as well, especially Sebastian. (I wouldn’t mind seeing more of that charming man and his epic mustache.) There are really two weaknesses here. The first is Aguri. She is a severely under-developed character. Whereas the other girls act and feel like actual girls, Aguri is just kind of two-dimensional. Her main defining characteristics are that she scolds people and likes sweets. Her scolding can also get a little grating at times. That being said, Aguri is not that bad. The series has Ai for that.

Ai is the exceedingly obnoxious character I mentioned earlier who gets the focus for four of those five bad episodes. Most of the time Ai stays, thankfully, in the background, but there are moments when she comes into the forefront and she spends all her time there crying, throwing tantrums or just being generally the most obnoxious thing since Navi. Now, some of you are probably thinking “she’s a baby character, aren’t you being harsh?” No, no I’m not. There are two main reasons. One, she frequently doesn’t even act like a real baby so you can’t say “well, it’s a realistic portrayal of an infant.” It’s like she was deliberately written just to be annoying. Two, she is a pointless character. I’m not even kidding. The explanation they give to justify her existence in the story is really flimsy. You could literally replace her with a black Labrador and the story would still be just as cohesive, if not more so since most of the stupid and pointless episodes would be gone.

Art:

The art is done in kind of a cutesy style, which does work perfectly for the aesthetic of the series. I do appreciate that the girls look very different when they transform into Precures, which makes it realistic that they wouldn’t have their identities discovered. Unlike some magical girl series where they’re just wearing different outfits. I love Sailor Moon, but it’s a prime example of that as a problem. The monster designs are strange. There’s a mailbox goat, a stoplight monster and many others that are just weird. That being said, the designs are creative and I rather like most of them. Sure, a lot of them are silly but that works for the franchise.

The usual transformation and special attack stock footage are present and they’re just as lazy as they usually are. In all fairness, however, they aren’t bad sequences in the slightest. The special attacks are dynamic and the transformations, except possibly Aguri’s, do look good. I will give the series credit for its action sequences, a good percentage of the special moves involve actual weapons instead of wands, microphones, castanets and the like. The action sequences also involve actual fighting moves with punches and kicks. The combination of that with the stock attacks does make the action scenes a lot more dynamic and interesting.

Most of the action sequences are really good, but there are some that move up into excellent. I don’t want to give anything major away, but I will give one example. There’s a particular scene where an enemy breaks Alice’s shield in half. In a true crowning moment of awesomeness, she actually grabs the pieces and uses them like swords. It is just as cool as it sounds and definitely ranks among the best action sequences I’ve ever seen in a magical girl anime.

Sound:

Doki Doki Precure has some really talented actors. Mana is voiced by Nabatame Hitomi (Gokujou Seitokai’s Kanade.) The other main characters, Rikka, Makoto, Alice and Regina, are voiced by Kotobuki Minako (K-on’s Mugi), Miyamoto Kanako (who I have not heard in any other major roles), Fuchigami Mai (Girls Und Panzer’s Miho), and Watanabe Kumiko (Sailor Moon’s JunJun.) They all give good performances. The music is really good. Especially Makoto’s songs.

That being said, it’s not all positive. The faeries all have verbal ticks that can get kind of annoying. Ai doesn’t get much dialogue aside from her usual shrill screaming, but when she does it’s pretty grating. The unfortunate task of voicing her went to Imai Yuka, who is not a bad actor by any means. You can even tell that from this series since she also voices Princess Ange, who is not obnoxious to listen to.

Ho-Yay:

You know, I’ve seen a lot of anime with shoujo-ai subtext, subtext so blatant it might as well be text and text. This is the first time I’ve seen a series that has a shoujo-ai poly-amorous five-some. Mana, Rikka, Alica, Makoto and Regina all seem to be into one another, all of them but Regina even come out and say they love all the others. Regina only ever says that she loves Mana, but there are some really homo-erotic scenes where the other three reach her heart, particularly Makoto and Alice. You also get some lovely scenes wherein Rikka is said to be an ideal wife for Mana, which Mana agrees with, and wherein Makoto and Mana are likened to a newlywed couple. Some of you are probably wondering which pairing makes the most sense when it comes to those five? The answer really is a poly-amorous grouping. All five of these girls are incredibly homo-erotic with one another, and I respect their decision.

That isn’t even the extent of the les-yay in this series. Even Aguri gets some homo-erotic scenes with one of her classmates, Eru. It’s also heavily implied that Makoto had a crush on Princess Ange before the Trump Kingdom fell and, unlike some magical girl anime, there are no gratuitous male love interests to try and disguise it. The Ho-yay is at a solid 7/10 for a huge number of really cute scenes.

Final Thoughts:

This anime is cutesy, overly optimistic, kind of cheesy and I absolutely love it. It’s a highly enjoyable series with some great characters who have awesome interactions, surprisingly epic scenes, and some amazing tender scenes. It’s just a delight to watch. That being said, it does suffer from Ai, five bad episodes, Ai, a reliance on stock footage and, of course, Ai. Fortunately, those aren’t major problems since Ai is mostly kept to the background, and the bad episodes can be easily skipped without losing anything of value. I do highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys the magical girl aesthetic. Unless you’re one of those people who thinks that the worst trope commonly used in magical girl anime is the shoujo ai subtext (yes, those people do exist. No, I don’t understand it either) because there is a massive amount of it in this series. For myself, I give it a 9/10. Next week I’ll take a look at Sword Art Online now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to look for plushies of Mana, Rikka, Alice, Makoto and Regina.