#gogos i fw series

[gogovia]

these are just my headcanons and personal thoughts on each backstories!!! mindless rambling cuz i absolutely love the mc to bits ^_^

i fw with a touchstarved mc the alchemist addition!!! that brought a couple beakers, chemicals, magical books and other sciency magic stuff with them on their travel to eridia and plays around with it (totally not trying to conjure up their own cure with what they know and with the books nooooo…)

i fw with a touchstarved mc the hound (i think??) addition!!! thats used to having fast movements to get around and have a really good budgeting system for pretty much anything + amazing at negotiating!!

i fw with a touch starved mc the unnamed addition!! sometimes getting noticed by previous followers of the temple when they were an oracle in eridia and either brushes it off or tries to avoid talking bout the hands entirely 😓😓

example!! : “woah! [name]..? what are you doing here? i thought you were back at the temple with the priests—? anyway, may you give me a touch to bestow enlightenment on me? i believe i need it as of now..”

unnamed - “what hands i dont have that 🧍”

or something along those lines ㅠ ̫ㅠ

[pcd-status]

At the risk of making this my “sorry I haven’t posted a review in a while” blog, I’m sorry I haven’t posted a review in a while. I’ve really been dragging my feet with GoGo 11. I have maybe 4 paragraphs written and that’s just for the recap, not even the actual review portion. I wanted to get it out in June and here we are halfway through July. It’s been a year since i watched the first episode of GoGo for the project and that’s weighing on me, along with some other stuff. Maybe it’s the curse of yes 5.

Speaking of Yes 5 though I think I’ll do a special review of the Healin’ Good-GoGo movie when that comes out.

Maybe I should go back and do one for All Stars Memories as well since that prominently features the FW gang and even came out WHEN I was working on that series. I might have meant to before all the 2018 stuff got me down.

And of course on the topic of crossovers between new and old seasons.... Tropical-Rouge is doing a crossover movie with Heartcatch! That’s so rife with potential I can’t wait to see it.

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 140

Episode: Futari wa Precure Splash Star 42 - “Welcome Back! Michiru and Kaoru!” Date watched: 3 July 2019 Original air date: 3 December 2006 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/xgCNJSJ Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

The title kinda spoiled it

Another excellent episode! We left off with Saki and Mai in a bind because the Fairy Carafe was stolen and Dark Fall’s agents were revived and now more resistant to Precure’s attacks. Dark Fall holds all the cards and Saki and Mai are stranded in the Land of Fountains. It’s a good setup! Where do we go from here?

The Plot

Princess Filia reveals to the girls that the Fountain of the Sun is in the Land of Greenery and uses her own power to transport the girls, their fairies, and herself there... but she loses her corporeal form and ends up as a sphere of light that possesses Korone, Saki’s cat. Meanwhile in Dark Fall, Gohyaan has revived the rest of the generals, but Akudaikaan chews him out for not kidnapping the Princess when he had the chance, as she knows the location of the Fountain of the Sun, so Gohyaan dispatches Karehaan and Dorodoron to track her down.

This is the only time all 6 of these characters are together

Back at the Sky Tree, Filia explains that she needs the Fairy Carafe to return her body, but the villains appear before she can tell the girls more. Saki and Mai transform into Bloom and Egret but their power isn’t enough to defeat the enhanced warriors. Filia pointedly comments that the two spirits (Flappi and Choppi) alone aren’t enough, so she, Korone, Moop, and Foop gather their power and wish for a miracle. In a very emotional sequence, they connect with the slumbering Michiru and Kaoru, who receive the last remaining energy from the Fairy Carafe, and then revive and rush to the Sky Tree to save their friends. It’s a touching reunion, and some words are exchanged between both the sisters and their friends, as well as the villains who were eliminated before they changed sides. Ultimately, words aren’t enough, and Michiru and Kaoru fight Dorodorn and Karehaan.... and they’re winning! The power that Moop and Foop especially lent them, combined with their powers of darkness, are the perfect counter to the blend of dark and light that the villains possess, and the sisters are able to negate Gohyaan’s powerup (Dorodoron flees instead). This allows the Precures to perform Spiral Heart Splash and destroy Karehaan, who dissolves into a bunch of mini-Gohyaan heads that bounce off.

The four girls finally have a moment to take in their reunion, and Saki and Mai cry tears of happiness as the camera zooms out and the credits roll.

(speaking of the credits, stick around at the end for my take on Ganbalance de Dance finally)

The Analysis

What a great episode. I could probably write pages about Michiru and Kaoru’s revival scene, the dialog and music and visuals all come together to make an emotionally powerful sequence. Bloom and Egret are overpowered, Michi and Kao feel so helpless and they can’t move, but they can tell their friends are in danger and they struggle their hardest, so their feelings connect with the energy Filia is trying to send and create a miracle. I love it. Also, you can really tell that Nishio Daisuke worked on Dragon Ball prior to this series because the sequence of the two powering up and emerging from the water is EXTREMELY evocative of something DBZ would do. Joke’s on me, he only worked on FW and MH and had no hand in this series, he was tapped for Powerpuff Girls Z instead. Still very Dragon Ball, I wouldn’t be surprised of some of the other staff had their hands in that before working on this.

Karehaan proves to be his own worst enemy. He doesn’t like working together, believing he’s strong enough on his own to dispatch the girls. He does make a better team with Dorodoron than with Moerumba though, as they don’t butt heads so much as Doro just kind of goes along with that Karecchi says, until it’s in his best interests to run. However, Karehaan’s arrogance and ignorance about Michiru and Kaoru’s betrayal allow him to overestimate himself and the threat the sisters pose. Together with Dorodoron, they actually do have the Precures on the ropes at one point, they could have defeated them there, but they hesitated too long and allowed the Kiryuus to save them. Ah well.

Princess Filia posessing Korone is..... weird, to say the least. For some unexplained reason, beyond simply habitating in his body, her power allows him to speak as well, independently of her, so you have this tiny cat talking in a pretty deep voice. Not the first time an animated cat has talked, of course, but since it’s not Filia speaking through Korone, it’s odd. I don’t remember how long this lasts, presumably up until the finale of the show... in fact I must have blocked it out of my memory completely because I forgot about it happening at all. Korone was portrayed as an intelligent cat up to this point, of course, but now he’s standing on his hind legs and talking like a middle-aged guy and it’s all so strange.

Last thing I want to touch on: animation. It’s uh.... not great here. Close-ups are passable, although the shading is often minimal. The faces may be a little off-model but it’s nothing extreme. Anything further out than a close-up is pretty bad though, especially for human faces.

I guess it’s the usual conserving budget for the finale syndrome but it’s still pretty laughable.

The Opening and Ending

Okay it’s time I finally talked about these.

The opening theme is called “Makasete★Splash☆Star★” or “Leave it to Us★Splash☆Star★”. While the FW/MH opening was a drama, the SS opening is more of a poppy, light rock number. The composition features lots of strings, bowed and plucked at key moments providing both the melody and the bass line. Some high brass comes in here and there and I think there’s some kind of synthesized percussion providing the rhythm. It could be an electric guitar, though, I’m having trouble picking it out. There’s definitely some guitar towards the climax of the song. Mayumi Gojo has been swapped out for Uchiaye Yuka on vocals, and she sings about how there’s strength in life and to use that as inspiration. All together, it’s a nice uplifting tune, and the visuals give us a good idea about what Saki and Mai are interested in, the fairies, and some action sequences. There’s even a scene of the Tree of Life glowing with energy that might be foreshadowing the end of the series? For the revamped intro starting with episode 31, they add a few scenes of Bright and Windy, as well as Moop and Foop, and impressively they edited all shots of Boom and Egret to replace the Mix Communes with the Crystal Communes.

Now, the ending!

“Ganbalance de Dance” is a little bit notorious for being used, and reused, and re-reused. Yes 5 and GoGo both used reversions of it for their second ending themes, and I kind of get it, because it’s a cute tune, but there’s another more important aspect: this is the first dance ending in all of Precure. Why a dance ending? Well, there was a rather popular anime that aired in Spring of 2006 that featured a dance ending, and the world would never be the same. That show was “The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi” and the dance, the “Hare Hare Yukai” took the world by storm. It’s speculated that Precure adopting dance endings was a copycat move. The timing lines up, Haruhi started in April and ended in early July of that year so Toei had time to say “Hey this is really popular, let’s do that in our show.” Dance endings were already commonplace in the contemporary Super Sentai shows as well, so there was precedent. (although somewhat ironically, the Sentai of that year didn’t have a dance) Whatever the reason, they did it again and again but the cell animation was not always the best, so they switched to CG with Fresh and never looked back. However, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

The lyrics to “Ganbalance de Dance” are half instructions for doing the dance, and half general uplifting messages about positivity and believing in yourself. The dance itself is fairly simple, due to limited animation most of the movement is in the upper body, so the girls twist their torsos and extend their arms while keeping their legs mostly still. when they move their legs, it’s only to stick them out and then back in, or to do some small marching. None of the more energetic moving around that later shows will use, again, probably a byproduct of the animation. Notably, since it’s cell animation rather than more expensive CG, they draw the girls in all three of their outfits: school uniform, Bloom/Egret, and Bright/Windy. The villains also dance a little, and I should point out that the text behind them reads “Uzaina” with only one “a” at the end. Suffice to say, I understand but I’m sticking with two. Also look at these guys.

Kintolesky is not present because he hadn’t been introduced in the show yet, and sadly they never update it to include him. This also marked the first reappearance of Michiru and Kaoru, only to segue into a shot of Bright and Windy and then they’re never seen again, but hey, it’s something.

Anyway, it all comes together to make a fun ending song. I’m sorry it took me so long to write about it.

I may revisit this if I think of more things to say about the episode, but for now I think that concludes it. Next time, everybody celebrates Michiru and Kaoru’s return....... but first it’s time for We Are Splash Gays: The Movie. Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 Zekkouchou Nari!

No more miracle drop count

[gogovia]

i fw with a touchstarved mc that went through so much, held it together and got to their breaking point where they basically just lost their mind to the torment and burden they have to carry with all the different backstories and having to deal with the curse everyday desperate to find a cure 😜😜😜

bonus points if any (or all) lls are genuinely worried about mc because of how they basically lost it ❤️❤️❤️

EVEN MORE bonus points if the mc cant even process sadness or any negative emotions anymore and just feels numb staring down at their hands with tears running down their face—finally letting out years worth of the pain of the curse

like dude mcs a trooper for withstanding that burden of not even knowing if their human because of their curse dude imagine the bullying and harassment they were subjected to because of the curse and not even knowing if there is a cure

i am so sane about touchstarved mc angst with the lls worried about them (bonus if theyre all worried together and have to witness mc breakdown at some point preferably the end of the story 😘😘)

[pcd-status]

Hello again! It seems trite to keep saying “I’m not dead” but here’s the state of things.

Yes 5 47 is done. 48 is almost done. 49 should be done by the end of the week. All of them will need to get a once-over and I might add some gifs or videos to the galleries, and they’ll go up all at once on subsequent days. I’m sorry this has taken so long, as you all know I wanted to be done with this in June. Heck, I wanted to be done with it in April. But here we are, almost a year out from starting Yes 5 and I still have a little bit to go. It is what it is.

The GoGo introduction and episode 1 reviews have been done for 2 months, just waiting to go out in sequence. And...... they might have to wait a bit longer, because once I finish Y5 I’m taking a small break to spruce up my Imgur. I discussed this before, back in March or April I think. I found some early galleries that had images out of order that needed fixing, and that means unpublishing and republishing them, which puts them at the top of my public posts and I can’t rearrange those, so they HAVE to go in order. If you’ve noticed I haven’t made any galleries public since the middle of Y5, it’s because I knew I’d have to unpublish and republish everything starting from early FW in order to get things back in order, and I didn’t want to create more work for myself by adding more galleries to the pile. So, since I have to repost all my galleries anyway, I’m going to take the opportunity to grab more screenshots from some of the FWPC and Max Heart episodes that don’t have many, back before I started taking dozens of screenshots per episode. I’m going to keep it modest, 10-20 images each, not like my current 90+ image galleries for Y5. It should be a minor undertaking that will last about 2 weeks if I’m lucky, and then I can resume regular posts later in September.

I’m also thinking about putting more non-PCD content on my Vimeo account, maybe creating a separate account where I just upload opening and ending themes, since they don’t seem to last long on YouTube, and that affects some of my older posts where I’ve used a public YouTube video to make my point instead of one I have greater control over. More on that when/if it happens.

Kujou Hikari’s birthday is on the 9th of this month, and since she’s one of the original team I’ll put her birthday post on my main blog.

Here’s some good news! I don’t remember if I mentioned this, but Crunchyroll and VRV are now simulcasting Healin’ Good Precure to North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa (and if you were wondering where episodes 1-12 were, they’ve been added now); and they also recently acquired Kirakira Precure a la Mode for all the same territories as well as Europe and the MENA region, and it’s available now. Hooray for official Precure streaming! Here’s hoping they acquire more series in the near future. And if you live in South America, Asia, or South-Central Africa..... unfortunately I don’t really have any good news for you. Continue pirating as usual.

Lastly, and unrelated to the main topic of this blog, but I was deeply hurt to hear about the passing of Chadwick Boseman. He was a fantastic actor with great screen presence, and an icon to so many people. I haven’t seen as many of his movies as I would like to, so I’ll be working on that in my off time. His death is the latest insult in a year that has already been extremely traumatic for many, so if you’re feeling particularly emotionally wounded or hurt, don’t be afraid to seek help.

I’ll see you all real soon with more PCD.

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 073

Episode: Futari wa Precure Max Heart 23 - “Repel the Power of Darkness! New Power gives Hope!!” Date watched: 6 October 2018 Original air date: 17 July 2005 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/cllELjq

You’re not seeing things, I did post the same picture twice

Following Intelligen’s advice, Nagisa, Honoka, and Hikari head back to the lake that they first found the Prism Hopeish. They look around a bit but it’s overcast so they can’t use the sun to help them find a mirrored spot. Intelligen pulls out some more clues about a “sleeping lion”, which turns out to be a rock formation, and while they’re atop that looking around the sun finally comes out and they follow the shadow of the lion rock to their true destination.

The girls, fairies, and Heartiels do some chanting that links the temple in the Garden of Light with this place, but before they can really do anything, the wind picks up, the water recedes, and a waterfall flows upward to reveal Baldez. After throwing the girls around a bit, he makes a telling remark that they haven’t even seen the limit of his power to destroy all things. (Remember who else had the power to destroy all things?) Luminous tries something that they haven’t yet, hitting him with Heartiel Action to freeze him, but although he’s hampered he manages to overpower his way out of it. Unlike Circulas before him, he’s still able to fight after doing this. Black and White are terrified but they can feel that the Earth itself is afraid of Baldez’s power, so they vow that there’s no way they’ll lose. This clearly strikes a chord with the Earth and the Prism Stones, as the girls are powered up with the Sparkle Braces. (I’m skipping some small details here, forgive me) Suddenly the tables are turned. Baldez finds himself on the losing end of the fight and he is FURIOUS. After giving him what for, the di-chromatic duo hit him with Marble Screw Max. He scoffs at this and blocks it, but with the power of the Earth and rainbows they upgrade the attack to Precure Marble Screw Max Sparkle. This is too much for Baldez to handle and he gets caught in a huge explosion that seemingly destroys him.

When the dust is cleared, Nagisa and Honoka ponder their new Power of Hope given to them by the Earth itself and Intelligen reminds them that they earned the power through their unending will to protect the world and refusal to give up, and then states her business is done and she’ll be returning to the Chairect. We close out on a beautiful sunset over the lake.

This episode was almost great. Almost. The only thing holding it back is the animation, which is okay but not as good as the show is capable of. Faces seem bland, proportions are slightly off, and the first half of the episode just seems a bit cheap. I have to assume this is compensation for the new stock footage of Black and White receiving the Sparkle Braces, which is very long and features a lot of superfluous arm spinning. And yes, as I referenced in the top caption and way back in my FW30 review, these are very much the same thing as the Rainbow Braces from last season. I mean sure they’re different designs but they’re still large chunky bracelets that they wear on their wrists which power them up and are available on store shelves at around this time. They have a bow this time, though, so that’s cool. Anyway I was extremely cynical of the Rainbow Braces last season so just assume most of my criticisms from there carry forward, and I’ll talk about the positive aspects instead. Due to the bow, these look a bit less jarring on their outfits. The way that they earn them is much more meaningful than in FW: the Earth itself cries out for help, and the girls can hear it. They vow to protect it and it’s through the combination of the Power to Create All Things stored within the Prism Stones and the power of all living things on the Earth that they receive the new power. Not to say that FW was bad, but just look at “the Earth granted us this power because we stood up to an immensely powerful enemy” compared to “We were losing and Porun was afraid so he tapped into power he didn’t know he had.”

If you needed a demonstration of how much more powerful the girls are now compared to last season, look at their foe: Baldez is so powerful that nature itself was afraid of him, and the girls were able to keep up with him before getting the braces, even if they lost. No enemy in the first season was capable of this level of menace. Then when they do get their powerup, they destroy Baldez completely. That’s strong!

Despite some silliness with trying to find their way, the journey is as important as the destination and the girls really worked hard to find this location and earn their new power. It’s not a trial by fire like Heartcatch, but it’s worth it in the end. The message about never giving up despite the odds is empowering and they truly live by it here. Sure, Nagisa gripes a little, but as I’ve said before, when push comes to shove she always pulls through, and Honoka is right there beside her to help show her the way.

Hikari is there but honestly she didn’t have much purpose to this episode. She gets her own powerup later in the series but given her abilities she doesn’t have a lot to contribute to this fight. Cure Black even has to push her out of harm’s way at one point because she’s not much of a fighter. The most she contributes to this battle is trying to stall Baldez with Heartiel Action, which doesn’t work. After Nagisa and Honoka power up she just stands off to the side commenting on the power of nature. I’ve said before that I like the idea of a differently abled team member but they took it too far with Luminous and it seems like the writers or directors didn’t know what to do with her a lot of the time. In Yes GoGo, Milky Rose has the opposite problem: she doesn’t seem any different from the Precures in terms of skillset. This might be why they dropped the idea of having non-cures on the teams, but I’d really like for them to revisit the idea and give a powerful ally a different role on the team without making them feel like dead weight half the time. But I’m not holding my breath.

That’s kind of a downer note to end on for an overall positive episode and I’m sorry, but I'm out of things to say so I’ll end it here. Next time: the return of an old friend!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: Uhhhhhhh I forgot to count. Maybe 1?

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 050

Episode: Futari wa Precure Max Heart 01 - “Yep, We’re Still Precure! The Legend Continues Forever!” Date watched: 5 June 2018 Original air date: 6 February 2005 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/JevHFWz

New year, new us

The original Futari wa Precure is one of only two seasons in the entire franchise to get a sequel, because t wasn’t really meant to kick off a franchise, it was just another show in spring of 2004 that got really popular and so they greenlit another right away. The only real problem with this is that the finale to FWPC was fairly conclusive, so Max Heart has to do a little bit of retconning to establish some villains. We see this quickly as they recap the events of the finale and add a scene of a piece of dark energy coming out of the Evil King’s body as he explodes, which travels to the Garden of Light and strikes the Queen of Light directly.

This causes the queen to revert back to her Original Form™: her life, her heart, and her twelve wills, in the form of the Heartiels. If you think this is a ploy to sell more toys, you’re absolutely right, because the Heartiels are represented as little fairies and the commercial bumper shows us a large jewelry box in which to store them. More on that when it actually appears in the show. Anyway, this sets up a Macguffin quest for the series, much like the search for the Prism Stones in the first half of FW, but this one will take place over the entire show. There’s something to look forward to.

As soon as the Queen disappears, we cut to the Garden of Rainbows and see a yellow-haired girl stand up with a blank look on her face. What could this mean? Does Toei think this is subtle? Wait until you learn her name. Anyway she just kind of wanders around the city with that blank expression, questioning her existence. Nagisa and Honoka see her at one point but she quickly disappears.

What other changes to the status quo are there? Well, since the Queen’s life is now in the Garden of Rainbows, Elder and Wisdom move there as well and decide to live with Nagisa. As for why nobody ever chooses to stay with Honoka, who has more living space and fewer potential intruders, it’s probably because.

she’s not the pink

staying in a full house with the more expressive girl leads to greater comedic opportunity.

Additionally, Mepple and Mipple have evolved from flip phones to swivel phones and the cards are now heart-shaped and inserted by the pointy end at the top of the cover, then the top is spun around to scan the cards and after that the girls either scan their palms or swipe a roller ball in the middle, I can’t really tell which. All of this as opposed to the old swiping of a card through the slot. Why the change? Toys.

It’s usually toys.

These new forms are called the Heartful Communes, while the old ones were the Card Communes. I may or may not refer to them that way in the course of the show, but if I do, that’s what I’m talking about.

There’s a small technical change to the pre-transformation scene as well. In the first series, there would be a closeup of Nagisa’s hand ticking up in the air (this shot was often cut out for time), then a wide shot of the two girls on a white background with their outer hands raised as they said “Precure Marble Screw” and then a closeup of them holding hands. This season, they grab hands first, then Nagisa’s hand goes up, then the wide shot on a black background with the duo in a spotlight. The actual transformation is very different. Whereas in FWPC they were shown as silvery nude figures flying through a rainbow tunnel and their outfits formed over them piece by piece, going from Nagisa over to Honoka, this time while they’re still silvery and nude, their outfits (sans bows) form on them almost instantly and the camera pans over their uniforms for a few seconds, and then the chest bows appear in glowing light. They land, Black in a deep squat at a low angle and White lands on her feet upright and then IMMEDIATELY DOES A BACKFLIP for no real reason while Black does her roll call.

Their Precure uniforms are also different, as you can see in the top screenshot. Most notably, Cure Black’s midriff is now covered, while Cure White has coattails over her skirt. There’s also some smaller differences, like gold earrings instead of silver, more lace trim, and hearts in the middle of their chest bows.The upgrades look nice overall. The loss of Nagisa’s midriff is sort of infamous within the fandom. Apparently they changed it because parents thought it was a little too much exposure for young children... which begs the question of why they did it again in Yes 5, GoGo, Fresh, Heartcatch, Suite, Princess, Maho Girls, and HUGtto but I don’t have time to question Toei’s internal logic. They changed it and this is the de-facto appearance for the rest of the franchise. It looks nice, moving on.

As far as the actual plot, it’s a nice reintroductory episode, taking place in the spring near the beginning of the new school year. Nagisa and Honoka are third years now and the leaders of their respective clubs. We see that they still talk to Mepple and Mipple everyday, even bringing the Card Communes along with them to school, and they sadly reminisce about the adventures they had as Pretty Cure. Suddenly, a dark cloud appears....

DARKNESS IMPRISONING ME. ALL THAT I SEE. ABSOLUTE HORROR

Streetlights and lampposts begin falling on the girls as they run and then a Zakenna forms from the rubble! The girls thought we were done with this, but nope! Fortunately at that moment, their partners reawaken, allowing them to transform and fight. Their new outfits come with greater strength, maybe comparable to the Rainbow Braces but they never make that comparison. The duo makes quick work of the Zakenna and prepare for their finisher. Once again, it’s powered up, and this time after they perform the chant and stick their hands out while saying “Precure Marble Screw”, they quickly pull them back into fists, where the electricity crackles for a moment, before releasing it and yelling “MAX!”.

Marble Screw Max is so strong, they’re pushed back by the force of it even as they obliterate the Zakenna.

After the girls are told about what transpired with the Queen, they meet one of the Heartiels, and we cut to a river bank where the yellow-haired girl is sitting and pondering. Then we cut to the Dark Mansion, where the two Butler zakenna are cleaning for nobody when all of the sudden, the door opens and there’s a young, blonde boy with a blank expression standing there. After a beat, the butlers welcome home their master. DUN DUN DUN.

Toei, your subtlety needs work.

This has gotten quite long, so I’ll discuss the music in the next one. Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1. 1 Arienai.