#FWPCMHMV1

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 060

Film: Futari wa Precure Max Heart - The Movie Date watched: 04 August 2018 Original Premiere Date: 16 April 2005 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/QoKMbB6

The Golden Girls reboot looks great!

Well here we are! Precure has finally gone theatrical! They got a big budget and a 70 minute runtime to fill! They have so much money to blow that the movie is literally filled with DIAMONDS! So how is their first foray on the big screen? Toei Animation certainly has a lot of experience, but every project is unique. Well, it turns out this one is pretty good!

After a cold open featuring an evil witch (who is never given a proper name) plotting to steal something called the “Diamond Line” from her lair, an old sailing ship, we cut to the opening theme. I checked it against the TV opening and it’s exactly the same, except that it’s been cropped to a 1.85:1 aspect ratio and the logo has an unflattering stamp beside it with the film’s registration number. I assume this is from Japan’s film bureau or something. Otherwise, no “THE MOVIE” label (in any language), no subtitle, nothing to differentiate it from the show aside from what I already mentioned. A little odd IMO.

After the opening, Honoka and Nagisa are eating at Akane’s on a Sunday morning while Hikari helps out. After teasing Nagisa about her eating habits not appealing toFuji-P, the real deal runs by and she gets really embarassed. This is the first time he’s been seen in the series in a while, as I mentioned previously, and even then it’s just for a one-and-done gag. After this, Akane sends Hikari on break so the trio head to a nearby park to hang out, when they’re accosted by a mysterious figure wearing a trenchcoat and a fedora who asks them if they’re the legendary warriors. They start to realize this character isn’t from the Dusk Zone but before they can say anything else, off comes the coat and seven frog-like beings attack them! The trio transforms and we’re treated to a dynamic fight with no dips in quality. You can feel the impact of each blow, everybody moves around a lot, and even Shiny Luminous gets in on the fun by tricking some of the frogs into running into each other. The frog gang surrenders and they explain they were just testing the power of the legendary warriors, and they need their help. They regroup at Honoka’s place where they further explain they’re from the Garden of Hope and they want Precure to protect them during an important ceremony involving the Diamond Line. Despite some protests from Hikari and Honoka, who have obligations, Nagisa says full steam ahead and after barely pausing to give them breathing room, the frogs transport them to the Garden of Hope.

This place is filled with diamonds and most of the inhabitants (anthropomorphic animals) are digging for them above ground. I’d like to make a snarky comment about the value of diamonds being undercut by how common they are, but they seem to use diamonds as an energy source, so there’s that. Good job, Habara Daisuke (the writer), you thought of everything. Anyway, they make their way to the castle, seen above, and run into the kingdom’s prince, who looks like Fuji-P with long hair, and consequently shares his seiyuu to justify getting him for those two lines earlier. Nagisa in particular is a bit flustered by this, since he’s obviously not her crush despite the striking resemblance, but unlike Fuji-P, she gets over it, and the girls are taken inside to meet the Queen. The Queen of Hope shows them the Diamond Line, which turns out to be a set of jewelry, and she explains the energy ceremony and how the balance of the Garden of Hope affects the balance of all the worlds, including the Garden of Rainbows (Earth), so it’s important for Pretty Cure to protect the Diamond Line The girls agree and are about to change into formal attire for the party preceding the ceremony when Honoka breaks off to talk with Square, one of the Guardians (frogs) who’s been antagonistic and dismissive of the girls the entire time. She tries to reason with him but he’s insistent that they don’t need the girls. Later that day, the trio arrive at the party in their fancy dresses, and they look great, but it doesn’t take long for Nagisa to start butting heads with Square, and she storms off in anger to clear her head. Unfortunately, while she’s out, the ceremony begins and the Witch swoops in on a flying boat and attacks! Nagisa tries to run back downstairs to transform with Honoka but all the party guests are running away from the witch and blocking her path, so Hikari transforms and tries to take her on with aid from the Guardians. Unfortunately since Shiny Luminous is more of a support hero than a fighter, she’s quickly knocked out, the Guardians are bested, and the Witch grabs the bracelet from off the Queen’s wrist. Nagisa finally arrives and she transforms with Honoka, but the Witch already has what she wants and she just blasts them with her shark-headed ship.

The Queen also took a heavy blast and she and Hikari are both unconscious. Feeling bad for their personal failure, Black and White set out with the guardians to the Witch’s lair to reclaim what was stolen! They cross over a yard full of half-sunken ships from various eras until they’re attacked by some human-sized bat monsters. The unusual terrain makes for a great fight, and the cures and guardians barely maintain the upper hand until the Witch herself shows up and just blows up the ship they’re on. After rescuing all the guardians from the flames, they press on. Back at her lair, the Witch reveals that her plan after upsetting the balance of worlds is to revive the Dark King! Fortunately, the girls barge in and swipe the orb containing the bracelet she stole. They give it to the Guardians to return to safety and begin fighting her. Black and White get a few good hits in, but she takes the upper hand. After remembering there’s a sale on chocolate back home, Nagisa is encouraged to push forward and Honoka quips that that’s the Nagisa she knows. Black rushes the Witch and lands a powerful blow in her ribcage, strong enough to break the wall behind her and hurt Black’s wrist a bit.

But the witch isn’t done yet, and she blasts the two at point blank range, catching them in a massive explosion before leaving them for dead and taking flight in her ship to get the bracelet back. The Prince of Hope finds the guardians and takes the orb from them, with help from a newly awakened but not fully recovered Hikari. The Witch spots them and the Prince tries to fight her off, overcoming his trepidation, but she’s still too powerful and she fires an attack at him. Hikari jumps in front of him to take the hit, dropping the orb, and dropping to the ground herself. Black and White show up, fighting off all the bat minions, before they find Hikari and get righteously mad at the Witch for hurting their friend. Black gives a big speech about believing in your friends and allies and declares that that’s why they’ll always win and the Witch, who cares for naught but herself, never will. After blowing away some more of her minions, the Witch decides to handle it herself and transforms into a giant, purple-skinned form that would make Go Nagai proud.

She effortlessly blasts Black and White in the air, and they fall to the ground. They still refuse to give up, reassuring each other that they’re alright, and Honoka even imitates Nagisa by saying “Us giving up? ‘Totally unbelievable!’” This gets them both laughing and they stand up again, and they walk over to Hikari. The Guardians, the Prince, and the newly arrived Queen all will the power of the diamonds to heal Hikari and it does, restoring her health and transforming her back to Shiny Luminous. The Guardians then offer the cures their diamonds as a powerup, and the three ascend into the air with the stones, transforming into golden forms with heart-shaped diamond earrings and brooches.

The trio can now fly around, and they effortlessly avoid the Witch’s attacks, hitting her with their own, before performing a powered-up Extreme Luminario attack on a weak spot they had exposed earlier. The Witch is defeated once and for all, the bracelet is freed from the dark orb, and the power of the Diamond Line restores the Garden of Hope to its rightful glory, but the Queen lets them know that it was their courage that allowed such a miracle to happen.

Throughout all of this, Square has come to respect the Legendary Warriors, to the point where he begs them not to leave. Honoka hugs him and says that they don’t want to go, but they have to. On the way back, Nagisa laments that she didn’t take a diamond with her after all. Hikari arrives back at Akane’s stand apologizing for taking so long, but it turns out her 30 minute break isn’t even over yet! Meanwhile Honoka rushes to bring in the laundry before the rain, while Nagisa sits and mopes. Honoka spots a frog and jokes that it’s the Kero Kero God. Nagisa says they should try to fly back to the Garden of Hope again, and they try the incantation together, but obviously they don’t go anywhere, and as they laugh it off, the credits begin to roll.

There’s a song that plays about halfway through the film between the girls’ defeat and their journey to the shipyard called “Tears of Hope ~Tears for Tomorrow~” by Mayumi Gojo, the main theme song singer for the show, and that’s really nice. It’s billed as the main theme for the movie. The ending theme is “The Power of Hope” by Shizuka Kudo, which is also nice. I’ll be honest though, I find the ending to be better than the insert theme. While “Tears of Hope” fits the mood at that point in the film, “Power of Hope” is something I’d probably be humming on the way out of the theater. You can find both songs on the movie’s soundtrack or the theme song single if you want to listen.

this is the album cover for the single. Reverse search it and maybe it’ll help.

Still on the subject of music, there’s a really aurally clever moment during the fight in the ship graveyard. Black and White are performing Marble Screw on the Witch, and it has that awesome uplifting theme to go with it. But of course she doesn’t go down there, she blocks the attack, turns it into negative energy, and fires it right back at the cures. And RIGHT when she turns the tide of the attack, the music changes to one of the ominous villain themes. It’s been a long time since I studied music theory so I can’t describe the effect in technical terms, but the switch is perfectly timed in the Marble Screw music to hit right on the beat, and it changes the key and tempo seamlessly. That was a nice touch.

Before I give my analysis I want to make a few comments. It’s not confirmed, but there’s rampant speculation that this film was originally meant to correspond to the first series, but got reworked to be a Max Heart film when that series was greenlit. A big piece of evidence is the relative absence of Hikari for half of the movie, despite her being the new character whose products you’d think they’d want to advertise. Even during the fights she is in, she doesn’t do much and her role could easily be filled by one of the guardians or the Prince. Hikari doesn’t feel tacked on, but she also doesn’t contribute a lot of significance. Her being less of a fighter than the others works in her favor for how they treat her. If this theory is even true, the change was obviously made early enough in production that they could rewrite the story to include her in natural ways, and I’ll admit the idea of her defeat being cause for revenge against the witch is an interesting one. There’s a certain level of guilt that Nagisa in particular feels for HIkari’s situation, since it was her fault for storming off and leaving Luminous as the only one who could fight, and that’s a clever writing tool.

I just learned this while doing some research for this review but apparently the movie was sponsored by one or more jewelry manufacturers and the Diamond Line is the name of an actual product they make, so the jewelry theme is an advertisement for them. I can only assume that was for the parents in the audience. It’s a bit odd, but I’ll take it over going all-in on a Halloween theme for a movie that releases ON Halloween so anybody that watches it after the first day of release gets something out-of-season. *stares pointedly at the Go! Princess movie*

Diamonds are a magical girl’s best friend

Last note, I didn’t go over all Guardians individually because this is already long, but their names are Square, Round, Marquis, Pear, Oval, Heart, and Trilliant. These are all cuts of precious stones, and they all wear those cuts on their capes.

So what did I actually think of the movie? I thought it was great! It’s a lot better than I remember it being, a strong first outing for Precure on the big screen. I’d honestly be willing to pay money if this got a US theatrical release like the Sailor Moon films currently are. (C’mon, Funimation, cut a deal with Toei.) I still like the second film better, but there are much worse Precure films out there. (looking at you, Kirakira) The plot is reasonable, the pacing is good, the animation is much better than anything we’ve seen in Max Heart so far, and especially better than our next episode. The fight scenes are very fast-paced with characters moving all over the place and you can feel the power of every blow. They used their opportunity to great effect, it’s truly a cinematic experience. It’s got the gags you’d expect from a normal episode but it doesn’t get bogged down trying to shove in EVERY in-joke from the show or a bunch of side characters. The Guardians aren’t especially memorable but Square has some solid character growth, going from the outlier who doesn’t think they need Precure to being extremely grateful for their help and their part in saving his home. If I had to make one nitpick, it would probably be that the Queen and Prince’s parts could be combined together and they would make a better character overall. The Queen doesn’t have anything to do except bless the diamonds, she’s knocked out for most of the film like Luminous, so I think if they tied the prince’s hesitancy to fight with her royal duties they’d end up with a more rounded part.

I think when I get to the second movie, I’ll allow myself two days to review it. Screenshotting, uploading, researching, and writing has taken up all of my day today, but now I know what to expect for future films. But until then, look forward to Max Heart 11, the one where the animators quit, coming at you soon.

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 3! 3 Areianai! And a bonus “Arienai” from Cure White imitating Nagisa.