#PCD052

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 052

Episode: Futari wa Precure Max Heart 03 - “Could this be fate? Porun and Hikari, twin souls!!” Date watched: 07 July 2017 Original air date: 20 February 2005 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/obI9dkR

but then I saw her face

I’m trying to remember if this series picks up once Shiny Luminous debuts but honestly I don’t think it does. Without a driving force like the Prism Stones in FW they just kind of take their time getting to stuff. This episode features more of Hikari wondering who she is, Nagisa and Honoka wondering who she is, Porun starts talking about how he’s going to awaken, all the non-mascot residents of the Garden of Light exposit about finding the Queen and cause trouble for Nagisa, and Seekun escapes again. Also in Dark Mansion, ~evil things~ are going on.

Obviously the boy is the same as Hikari, some kind of reincarnation of the Dark King, but they’re going to drag that revelation out for a long time. However, this is pretty much all we see of him this episode. He rides around on his tricycle and nearly falls down the stairs before Circulas catches him and delivers the above lecture. THE END, NOTHING WAS ACCOMPLISHED. Oh but the house musical theme is a more relaxed version of the Dotsuku Zone theme from FW, it’s nice.

I know subtlety in this show is pretty much nonexistent but I want to laugh at hos this bit of Nagisa’s opening monologue was done. She’s talking about how they need to collect the bits of the queen’s wills and her life and heart and the camera chooses to cut to a shot of Hikari when she says that.

Just in case there was any doubt.

As I alluded to above, Hikari’s role in this episode is to wonder who she is. While she’s in class, the rest of the students remember an elementary school trip to the planetarium and she has no idea what a planetarium or a field trip even are. Later she ponders this while staring at some flowers, bathed in light, and the Queen’s voice reassures her that Hikari knows all of this, that she knows so much more than anybody else, about the past and the future. This reassures Hikari. It’s also revealed that she’s made a few friends, fellow freshmen who recognize Nagisa and Honoka by reputation. They’ll go on to be supporting characters in this show but i think it’s a while before their spotlight.

More like All Stars but you’re close

Porun sneaks along with Nagisa to school because he feels a premonition and wants to awaken. Nagisa is not pleased and tells him to stay in the bag until they get home but he sneaks out while she’s at lacrosse practice and finds his way to Akane’s Tako Cafe, where he runs into Hikari. Cue more stares:

They exchange a few words but Porun runs off when Akane shows back up, and Hikari chases after him. Meanwhile Nagisa and Honoka are looking for the runaway Porun (while Seekun is also out and about, unbeknownst to them) and they find themselves face to face with a Zakenna, so they transform. Little do they know Hikari is nearby hiding and sees them.

This fight is also less impressive than some in the previous show. There’s a part where they perform a flying kick on the Zakenna but they’re moving so slow it feels more like they’re slowly being pulled in, and that’s symbolic of a larger animation problem in this and the last episode, but let me finish the summary first. The duo defeats the Zakenna, recover Porun, and turn home while Hikari tries to make sense of everything she’s just seen with a beautiful shot of her staring into a river.

If I had to assign this episode a numerical rating, I’d probably give it a 6/10. It progresses the story a tiny bit, pushing Hikari and Porun together and makes us wonder about Hikari, Porun, Seekun, and the rest of them, as well as that boy from Darkness. The gags with Elder, Wisdom, Seekun, Mepple, and Porun all being trapped at Nagisa’s place and hiding from her family are getting tiresome quickly. They only serve as comic relief to pad out the episode, unlike more purposeful character developing home life sequences from the last show. Also the animation in this one (and episode 2, I forgot to note) is somewhere in the realm of generally passable but frequently slips into bad. Just look at Hikari’s chicken legs here.

Faces lack detail, the eyes tend to be spaced a tad too far apart, and expressions just look blank. I made some budget observations about the latter half of FWPC but it looks like they tried to stretch all that budget across the entirety of Max Heart, with all new funds going towards the production of two movies (the first of which was originally going to be a FWPC movie but more on that in a week). I know there’s some particularly egregious episodes ahead of me so we’ll just have to see what happens. It’s not all bad, but it’s frequently bad enough at close range and/or for prolonged shots that it’s noticeable. Alright I’ve been saying I would talk about the new opening and ending themes so let’s talk about them! The new op, “DANZEN! Futari wa Precure (Max Heart ver.)” is a remix of the one from FWPC into a more rocky upbeat tune and Mayumi Gojo yells “MAX HEART” a lot. Where the original was a mix of piano and synth with a little trumpet for emphasis, the Max Heart remix is mostly electric guitar and brass with synth, plus a little bass guitar thrown in. The lyrics are the same (except for the added “MAX HEART”s) but it feels like a stronger song. That being said, I think I prefer the original.

The ending theme, “Murimuri!? Ariari!? IN ja nai~” by Mayumi Gojo and Young Fresh is a cute song about how it’s tough to be a schoolgirl, balancing love, studies, sports, a desire to eat lots of sweets (good thing they never met the a la Mode team!) and being Pretty Cure. Okay that one only applies to our protagonists but hey. It’s silly and peppy and as far as I can tell the beat is mostly a synthesizer and a drum machine with a little guitar thrown in. I like to envision that it’s the girls of the Sakura Class singing it together, and there’s one moment in the second version of the ending animation that features Natsuko, Kyoko, Yuriko, Shino, Rina, Honoka, and Nagisa (and later very notable character) sort of dancing along to it briefly in a precursor of the dance endings. But the first version that plays for... I don’t know how many episodes is mostly some still frames featuring various mascots or chibis of the girls in shenanigans with a box somewhere showing clips from the day’s episode. Very low budget. I’ll discuss the V2 when it comes up.

Oh real quick before I end this, here’s a cute picture of Honoka.

Lastly..... Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0. I don’t believe there were any “Arienai”s this episode, sadly.

Next time, an awakening!