#just the all star films and other precure

[aulga]

@sweepweep THE GIRLS EVER WON

Battle Couple Battle Round 2!

Percabeth (Percy Jackson) VS Nagihono (Futari Wa Precure)

[na-na-namine]

Interview with director of Pretty Cure All Stars F (Yuta Tanaka) - Translated by Leontoi

I provided the link to the original translation above, but there were a few grammatical issues. I cleaned up and edited the translation below. It's a great interview and I recommend reading it after watching the movie!

-----

──The theme of the 20th anniversary movie is "What is Precure?" Why did you choose this as the theme of the movie?

I feel that because the Pretty Cure series has continued for so long, it has become extremely diverse.

Over the past 20 years, various Precures and Pretty Cure works have been created.

As a result, I think that the beginning of deciding the movie's theme was because I felt that it was no longer possible to say in one word, "What is Precure?"

For example, in terms of setting, when I started working 15 years ago, only ordinary girls could transform into Pretty Cure.

However, recently, more people with various origins, such as a mermaid and an android, are becoming Precures.

In addition to the main series for children, there is "Kibo no Chikara ~Adult PreCure '23~" which depicts the future of PreCure, and the stage play "Dancing☆Star PreCure", etc.

Derivative works aimed at adult fans who have loved the Pretty Cure series for a long time, as well as spin-off works from the main series, are now being created.

PreCure has continued to change with the times, so these may be part of that change.

However, the definition of a Pretty Cure has become vague, as to what makes someone a Pretty Cure and what doesn't.

In that case, asking this question once again might be an appropriate theme for the 20th anniversary.

Or so I thought.

──Tanaka-san, you have been involved in the production of the Pretty Cure series for over 15 years since "Yes! Pretty Cure 5" (2007).

In other words, from your point of view as one of the creators, you feel that there has been a big change in Pretty Cure, right?

This is just my personal opinion, but I feel that the creators of the early Pretty Cure series were really stoic and created anime with only the children in mind.

There were adult fans who enjoyed Pretty Cure back then, but the creators basically didn't care about them that much.

UMEZAWA Atsutoshi-san, who was the producer of the Pretty Cure series from 2009 to 2013, said this at the time.

"If we are too conscious of the adult audience, children will see right through it and feel that it is not theirs, and those who are our original target audience will turn away from Pretty Cure. In that case, it will no longer be PreCure."

I strongly sympathize with his opinion, and have been involved in the production of Pretty Cure while valuing it.

However, as the title suggests, the main target audience for "Otona Pretty Cure," are adults who used to like PreCure, and I think this work was created with their feelings in mind.

("Otona" means "adults" in Japanese.)

Although there are parts that I sympathize with,

Now that a "Pretty Cure work whose main target audience is adults" has been born, it's finally become difficult to understand what Pretty Cure is.

Going forward, I think the most important thing about the Pretty Cure series is that it was created with the children who are currently watching it in mind, but as a business, we need to consider other directions as well. That may be the situation. I also wonder what will happen to Pretty Cure in the future.

-----

About All Stars F.

-----

──This movie is an All Stars movie that features all 78 Precures from the past.

Actually, at first I wasn't planning on making an All Stars movie.

I thought it would be impossible to have all 78 people appear in the 70-minute length film, so I had an idea to divide it by different generations.

There was also an idea that only characters from three generations (Hirogaru Sky, Delicious Party, and Tropical Rouge) would appear, or they and several other Precure characters from other generations.

But, the idea of all three generations of PreCure coming together has been done so many times that I didn't think it felt fresh.

PreCure All Stars movies were made every year from 2009 to 2016.

However, with the exception of this work (PreCure All Stars F), we have only produced it for the 15th anniversary (2018) since then.

I thought, "If that's the case, it would be great if we could make it consist of the latest 9 generations of Pretty Cure series, who haven't appeared in many All Stars movies."

Considering the characters' activities in a 70-minute movie, I think that's about as long as we can manage in terms of the number of people.

However, due to various circumstances, we ended up having all of the Pretty Cure All Stars appear in this movie (lol).

──So you went through a lot of hardships.

Hahaha (lol). Planning is a living thing, so it changes over time.

──Was it difficult to get all 78 people to appear in this movie?

Oh no... there are so many people that it's impossible to treat everyone equally...

The length of the movie is about 70 minutes, so it can't be made any longer. Also, whether it's possible just because the movie time has been increased is another question. After all, the numbers are big.

That's why we decided to narrow down the number of characters who appear frequently in this movie. I wanted to show the Precures from all the different series as equally as possible, but I think it was difficult in reality.

──However, this film has recorded the highest box office revenue ever, and I feel that it has been very well received by the audience.

The theme of this movie is "What is Precure?", and the character Cure Supreme/Prim appears as an original Precure exclusive to this movie.

Cure Supreme, she embodies the antithesis of the question, "What is Precure?"

Throughout the anime series, the Precures (Precure warriors) have basically been portrayed as ``strong, cute, and cool beings.''

And Prim is a character who is interested in PreCure, seeing only one aspect of them being "strong."

However, she lacked consideration for why Precure are strong and cool, and she didn't even try to find out why they were so strong and cool.

But I think what we've been making about over the last 20 years is the ``why'' part of why Precures are so strong.

The desire they have to become who they want to be.

They stand up hand-in-hand with someone.

Due to the aforementioned, they do not give up.

...That is why Precures are so strong.

I wanted to convey that basic idea in this work as well.

──At the end of this movie, Supreme realized "Why the Precures are so strong," and the Precures extended a helping hand to her.

Actually, in this movie, I wanted to focus on promoting good and punishing evil.

My first idea for the story of this movie was that I wanted it to end with the Precures completely defeating Supreme and making her disappear.

But in the end, the Precures extended a helping hand to her, even though they had fought against her many times before.

As a creator, I felt that I was a little naive in some ways, but I have no regrets. I think we've come back to the idea that "Precures are all about reaching out to even the enemy, right?"

──In the final scene, I felt that Puka and Supreme had become true Precures.

It's not explained at all in the movie, so I don't think it's wrong to say that they became Precures, and I hope people who watch it can come up with their own interpretations.

Speaking of characters, Supreme is a god-like being from another world.

She has powers that are far from human, such as the ability to reshape the world, and she can be described as a "superior being" or "transcendence", and it can be said that she alone is a complete being.

But that's not the case with Precure, and because each of them is, in a sense, an "imperfect being", I think there is a part of them that wants to join hands with everyone and stand up for themselves.

Supreme admires the appearance of such Precures.

And she created Puka from within herself. Originally, Supreme and Puka were completely the same entity (Supreme), but they separated into two entities.

This caused a rift and change in her being.

Depending on how you look at it, you could say that she went from being perfect to being imperfect, but personally, I find her imperfections more appealing than her perfect self.

Don't you think "imperfect" means "human"?

──Lastly, I felt that the design was reminiscent of the first generation (Futari wa Pretty Cure), with Supreme's color being black and Puka's color being white.

I think so.

It's not an homage to "Futari wa PreCure," but I thought it might be a beautiful ending to the 20th anniversary movie.

This is just a matter of how the movie looks.

──Why did both of them become Precures?

I think that's the "miracle of Pretty Cure".

WASHIO Takashi-san, the founder of the PreCure series, said to me while I was making this movie, "I want you to stop portraying admiration for Precures as evil," which was also a big inspiration.

Supreme has done a lot of incredibly annoying things, including destroying and re-creating our world.

However, when asked if she is an evil being, I have a slightly different image of her than an evil being.

More than anything, she wanted to become a Precure.

I wanted to save her that feeling.

I wanted the children to look up to Precures, so I felt like I shouldn't deny Supreme's feelings.

──What is the answer that the production team gave to the question “What is Precure?”

After much discussion, one of our answers was "Connect," which is also our catchphrase, because Precures have been connecting generations and feelings for 20 years.

However, when asked "What is Precure?", I ended up saying, "I don't really understand."

It's a series that has connected many people's feelings, so I think it's impossible to sum up the answer to the question of what Pretty Cure is in one word.

There are as many different types of PreCure as there are PreCure works, and we didn't want the production side to force us to say, ``This is what PreCure is!'' or to give a narrow answer.

The idea was to ask the movie audience a question within the movie, and leave it up to them to answer the question, ``What is PreCure?''

And I think it's important to connect this to the future. Be flexible when it comes to change, while preserving what needs to be protected. I think it's important to change with the times. If we do that, more new PreCures that we can't even imagine now may be created in the future.

[pochqmqri]

When I first saw the character designs revealed for MahoPre2, I initially thought that they (excluding Mirai) didn't change from the actual designs used for the grown-up characters at the end of the first MahoPre, so I thought they were just placeholder images.

Now that I look at it closer, there are some slight differences, notably Haa-chan is wearing a different top. From this, there are a few things we can take away.

The first is that, since the grown-up designs of Mirai and Riko closely resemble the designs they had in the epilogue, it seems MahoPre2 will take place around the same time as it, or shortly after. The epilogue takes place around five years after the final battle, meaning the girls are around 19. To add to this, Mirai's VA, Rie Takahashi, mentioned that Mirai is "now a college student" in the sequel, as she was in the epilogue.

The second is that, based on how similar the character designs are to the first MahoPre, it seems that MahoPre's character designer, Emiko Miyamoto, is returning for the sequel, unlike what OtonaPre did when Toshie Kawamura didn't return to design the grown-up versions of the cast, and another unrelated designer did instead. The last major thing Miyamoto worked on was for Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, where she was the character designer for that adaptation, and then a few small roles such as doing key animation in the recent PreCure All Stars F and GeGeGe no Kitaro films. As such, it seems she's not too busy to work on MahoPre2; hopefully other staff members such as series director Masato Mitsuka and head writer Isao Murayama are able to return!

On a side note, I remembered that in MahoPre, whenever Mirai and Riko transformed into Pretty Cure, they would noticeably "age-up," i.e. get taller. So, with the expectation that the adult Mirai and Riko will transform into Pretty Cure again, I don't expect any real change in design if they can just reuse those.

In hindsight, I find it really funny how in OtonaPre, Toei created new adult civilian designs for the cast, but made them de-age when they transformed into Pretty Cure again, while for MahoPre2, it seems that the reason they chose to do an adult sequel to this season, was because they technically already had adult designs for both the girls' civilian and Pretty Cure forms...and the adult civilian forms don't actually look that much different from their original 14-year old selves, besides being taller.

In the final episode of MahoPre, Mirai and Riko are also made to de-age just before they become Pretty Cure. I really hope they don't do that for MahoPre2, but I'm expecting the same thing like with that OtonaPre did. I just don't like the message it sends in terms of adulthood.

[mahou-furbies]

Closing thoughts on Precure All Stars Movie F

Early in the story there was a visual gag with La Mer and Prism that made me think "is this by the guy who directed the best episode in all of Precure (That tropiRouge one)?", so I had to stop and check. And indeed it is the case, and he also directed Go! Princess Precure (one of the best seasons) and the Star Twinkle movie (the best Precure movie), so I knew I was in good hands. And indeed this turned out to be a pretty good movie and a really good anniversary movie, even though it does come with the unavoidable issue that 17 characters is way too many for a 70 minute movie. Towards the end when everyone joins the battle they even have to swap to the 3d models because nobody wanted to animate all that by hand and it looks rough.

Clunky 3d aside this was a very pretty movie, with a lot of beautiful scenery and colours, creative shots and dynamic action. Unfortunately no new forms but at least there was a new Cure design to compensate.

There were also a lot of really good character moments, we did have to waste some time on characters just spouting their catchphrases, but there was still room for funny ways to have the characters from different shows interact with each other. The chaotic muscle brain energy of the Sky-Precious-Summer trio was probably my favourite. Also points for including almost all of my top tier Cures in the main cast! And as a known hater of the over-abundance of friendly and energetic Cures, I welcome the serious edgelord Cure Supreme with open arms.

Due to the short length of the movie and spending a significant amount of it on over a dozen characters just hanging out the story had to run through its worldbuilding, but I don't think that was a huge problem since the character interactions were the best thing anyway, and certainly more interesting than the exact mechanics on how the movies' world was created or where the Cures' ultimate power comes from. But I'd say the film would have greatly benefitted of some 20 extra minutes spent on the plot.

But who cares about the plot, this was very much an anniversary celebration movie, with the theme explicitly being something like "what makes a Precure?" and even a clip show of some of the franchise's biggest moments. Everyone is included in some way, even randos like HapiCha international Cures. Especially the nod towards mascots-turned Cures warmed my heart. Or really making it a plot point that the Cures have mascots in the first place, probably the first time in the history of the franchise that I appreciated it. And in the epic finale (that had music that slaps and some really good action in the shots that didn't use the 3d models) they clearly had fun grouping the Cures by themes, like here we have the mermaid Cures in the same scene for a few seconds! Here are the princesses (and Tsubasa)! Here go the butterflies!

Finally a shout-out to NOT including the stupid light sticks, or at least as obtrusively as usual. I was ready begrudgingly to accept them this time because it is a celebration of the franchise's history after all and they are unfortunately a part of it, but to my delight there were no calls of action directed at the audience.

My final verdict is that this is a very good movie for Precure fans, but probably not that interesting to anyone else. It was also not a very good Hirogaru movie since the Hirogaru girls kind of got buried in the sea of Cures, and didn't get that much of a connection with the antagonist, or even that personal character moments.

[kirric-the-fan]

Wonderful precure ep 17 and I'm becoming more and more convinced they're regularly sneaking in deliberate references to other seasons now.

Look, I'm surprised they haven't done more of this in other seasons already: precure has been going on for so long and already has an established cross-over setup between seasons with all the All Stars films (plus what they did in Hugtto) that it would be more surprising if they didn't drop references in.

But while I was making jokes about the Hugtto/Cure Yell Hooray Hooray! and the anti-bear sihlouette looking a bit like Cure Mofurun, this week sees another reference from another season: Star Twinkle. Firstly that the above point in Nyammy's transformation looks a lot like the skirt of another Cat cure: Cure Cosmo Which on its own is still a bit ~ in being a reference because there are only so many ways to depict a rainbow, but coming from a cat cure, where they still had other options to show the same thing (normal rainbow curve, or showing the colours within snowflakes or a snowflake shape) it does seem a bit too much of a coincidence.

And then we did get a little oyo from Mayu this week. (Right before her bunny cuddle puddle fantasy)

IDK. I do think it is funny quite how many references are appearing now. It's fun, and honestly something I'd love to see as more of a regular thing quietly slipped in like this.

My only thought is 'Is there a particular reason they're doing this for this season?'

To which I have no answer just yet. Guess it's going to be a case of 'wait and see'.

(Also on a semi-seperate note, given all the mirror references, and ignoring the animal-shape god we saw last week, I think it would be quite entertaining if the god that created the mirror stone was Blue, who did it ages ago and is now trying to tidy up the mess without worrying the Hap. Charge team.)

[precuredaily]

Precure Bonus Day

Film: Precure All Stars Go Go Dream Live! Date watched: 19 March 2023 Original release date: 8 November 2008 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/QBTEHWY Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

#squadgoals (I am hip)

2008 marked the fifth anniversary of Precure, as in the fifth season since 2004’s Futari wa Precure. I’m not sure of everything Toei did to celebrate, outside of a pair of song compilation albums and possibly some merch. But one thing they DID do was to release a short film before the fall movie. It was the first ever on-screen crossover between the different teams, and serves as a precursor for the crossover movies that ran from 2009 to 2020. So just as this short preceded the Go Go movie, I’m going to  precede my Go Go review with this! Let’s dig in.

The Plot

It starts with the title card over a bright blue sky, with a chorus of the 11 cures reading the title aloud.

The camera pans down to show a stadium and then we see Saki, Mai, and all their friends from Splash Star running up to the entrance. Saki drags Mai along by the hand past Akane and Hikari’s Tako Cafe, where we then see Nagisa, Honoka, and Hikari, and their friends from FW/MH in line. (as well as Masuko Mika from Y5)

The woman behind Hikari could be Shoko (Regine’s human form) from FWPC

Inside we see Nozomi running down a hallway past lots of people, leading along Rin, Urara, Komachi, Karen, and Kurumi, telling them to hurry up. None of them notice an ominous shadow following them.

Nozomi’s group emerges into the arena of the stadium, which is oddly empty, and are confused. Nagisa’s group as well as Saki and Mai emerge through adjacent entrances, all looking over at each other and the otherwise vacant stadium in confusion. Notably, none of the non-heroine characters make it inside.

Suddenly a deep voice calls out “PRECURE” and they see a huge giant black figure in the middle of the arena. It casts 4 shadows, with the three behind it revealing the face of a Zakenna, an Uzaina, and a Kowaina. It moves to punch the ground, threateningly, so everyone foregoes their secret identities and transforms into Precure.

There’s a brief moment of surprise as the three teams realize there are other Precures besides themselves, but they don’t have time to dwell on it as the Shadow Giant punches at them.

Bloom and Egret jump in to block the attack with a spirit barrier. Everyone else regains their composure, and the barrier shatters. Black and White leap through the air in an iconic scene from their opening, while the Precure 5 run along the ground. Black and White block a giant punch, then Bloom & Egret use a spirit attack on his chest. The PC5 team rapidly scatters. Lemonade wraps the Shadow Giant in her Prism Chain, followed by Aqua, Mint, and Rouge using their respective attacks.

Bloom and Egret fly high into the air and transform into Bright and Windy. Windy launches a gust of wind that catches Bloom, who adds her light to it as they charge rapidly down on the monster. Dream charges along the ground with her fists glowing, while Black and White rebound off some girders and leap straight at the Giant.

Everyone's attacks converge on the Shadow: the Wind and Light attack, Black and White’s double punch, and Shooting Star. A huge explosion of light is seen from the exterior of the stadium. The smoke clears as everyone regroups, but the monster is unharmed and blows everyone away in a huge gust of wind.

Cure Dream stands up amid the rubble. Black, Bright, and Dream explain in turn that they'll listen if the Shadow has anything to say, but there's lots of people there today who came to see the show and they won't let him ruin the event.

The Shadow spews an energy beam from his mouth at them in response, but Shiny Luminous and Milky Rose have blocked it with a barrier. The teams perform Marble Screw Max, Spiral Star Splash, and Rainbow Rose Explosion together, and the Shadow disintegrates.

The girls find themselves back in their civilian forms, standing on a stage in the middle of the arena. The Max Heart theme starts to play and the crowd cheers. The girls realize THEY are the performance. Nagisa doesn't want to dance, but Nozomi encourages her, and she joins in.

All the girls dance and sing along to a medley of the opening themes. The dance alternates between spotlighting each team, having all 11 girls dance together, and having just Nagisa, Saki, and Nozomi in focus. The sequence is interspersed with still images of everyone eating and having fun together while the credits roll. At the end, they all stand together in the shape of a heart, looking up at the camera, while “The End” is written in the middle.

The Analysis

What I Liked

Because this short is only 5 minutes from start to finish, it’s extremely fast-paced. The characters are introduced rapidly and they’re face to face with the monster in 45 seconds, and kicking butt by the 2 minute mark.

The fight scene does a good job showcasing the difference in fighting styles between the three teams. Max Heart are all about raw strength, punching and kicking, jumping off of things to get more leverage. Splash Star make use of the spirits to fly around and deflect attacks or emphasize them. Precure 5 use their individual attacks. Luminous and Rose don’t do much of anything, which is out of character for Kurumi, but it's going to be a theme in this double feature.

The dance at the end is fun! It’s also the only time All Stars will have a 2D animated dance ending, and the last 2D animated Precure dance ending in general. It is ALSO one of the last times that the dance ending will feature the characters in civilian outfits rather than their cure forms, with the only other instance after this that I recall being in Heartcatch’s first ending.

There is a really cool shot when the GoGo team is dancing that starts far out from the audience’s POV, zooms all the way in on Nozomi’s face, spins around her, and then zooms back out to show them dancing from behind, looking out at the audience. There’s another great shot where the camera pans down the line of cures as they all come together for the big finale shot.

Pretty much every named character from the last 5 seasons makes a cameo appearance in the crowds or the audience. This includes the villains.

You can see Miss Shitataare, Gamao, and Shoko (Regine) from the back here.

No, I am not listing out every single character here.

The individual outfits the girls are wearing are really nice. They’re more intricate, fancier clothes than their usual civilian attire, which suggests the show they expected to go see was somewhat upscale.

What I Didn’t Like

Milky Rose and Shiny Luminous just disappeared during the fight. After the barrier shatters they’re nowhere to be seen until after the big explosion of light when the smoke clears. Then the only thing they do is put up another barrier. Rose is capable of fighting, and Luminous has support abilities that would help the team, so it’s strange they didn’t take a few seconds to showcase either of these two.

Even on a movie (or short film) budget, some of the art quality is lacking.

Miscellaneous

As I pointed out in another post, for some reason the Blu Ray cut of the film is about 11 seconds shorter than the DVD cut, and presumably the theatrical version. The main cut is the shot of the giant’s shadows with the faces of the Precures’ past enemies in them, but lots of scenes throughout the film have a few frames cut off of them. I am unclear on the reason for this.

The establishing overhead shot of the stadium shows it surrounded by countryside, not many buildings around. Not where you usually expect a stadium to be.

For the sake of brevity, the Yes 5 team didn’t get to call out their Cure names in the roll call.

Between their transformation scene and Shadow Giant’s first attack, the cures somehow teleport onto the field of the stadium. Whether it was a continuity error or just convenience for animation, I don’t know.

Bloom and Egret are able to switch into their Bright and Windy forms instantly, without detransforming. In the series, these were completely separate transformations, but it’s understandable that the writers would do it here to keep the momentum of the scene. Also it looks awesome.

No fairies appear in the film other than one still image in the credits. Kurumi is never shown transforming into Milk, but she is present as Milk in the scene with all the fairies, and then also present as Kurumi when the human characters are shown. She lives a busy double life.

The villain is not named in the dialogue, but the credits call him “Kage no Kyojin”, or Shadow Giant, which is what I am also calling him.

Since this film is basically a teaser for the feature length Precure All Stars DX film, several of the action sequences end up being reused in that movie. I will do a side-by-side comparison when I get to that. Also, the design of the Shadow Giant is the same as the final form of that movie’s villain, Fusion. It’s unclear if they are meant to be the same character or not. Shadow Giant is certainly a fusion of the three enemy types, but Fusion in the DX movie is also shown to have Hoshiina powers not seen here, and is voiced by a different actor.

Unfortunately the voice actor for the Shadow Giant, Yanada Kiyoyuki, passed away in November of 2022 at age 57.

Conclusion

It’s a short, sweet, action packed special. It knows what it’s about and it doesn’t waste a second getting to the point. You want all the Precues teaming up and fighting a giant enemy? You got all the Precures teaming up and fighting a giant enemy! In its short runtime, it of course manages to pack in everything you want from Precure: pretty outfits, dynamic fights, and speeches about the value of friendship and community. It even ends with a dance! It’s a great showcase of how the series has evolved in its (at the time) short life, and what being a Precure means to its different teams. You can clearly see how each group’s approach to combat is different, and they all bounce off of each other excellently. And even though it’s short, it manages to throw in a ton of cameos for long time fans. As a teaser for the upcoming All Stars movie, it does a great job at whetting the audience’s appetite. And as a lead-in to the main event, the Go Go movie, it also gets the audience suitably pumped for a roaring good time.

Next time, on Precure Daily, we finally get to the movie itself. Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count:

1 Arienai 0 Zekkouchou Nari 0 Kettei

[maestrozaverick]

UPDATE ON ZAVERICK WONDEREVIEWS

The next Wondereviews after Emiya-san are going to be Precure related that being Hirogaru Sky and All Stars F.

Unfortunately, these two upcoming reviews will be the final newer Precure series and films. I mean I will still be reviewing Precure it just won’t be any newer series like Wonderful Precure.

The reason for this decision has come down to 2 different series, Delicious Party and Otona Precure.

In my Delicious Party review I said this, “This show is the worst thing I have seen that isn’t Oreimo or Higurashi Sotsu”, well I think it is also about time I would put Otona Precure in there with Delicious Party because while I didn’t watch Otona (and for very good reasons) the level on how bad Otona was pretty much the same level as Delicious Party but sadly with an incest ship that understandably makes me and the Precure fandom very upset.

The other reason is that I want to go other avenues in terms of what anime I want to review. I want to review something that I would enjoy.

After seeing the staff for this show, I have decided to no longer review Precure and taking a break from the franchise.

TLDR: I will not be reviewing any newer Precure stuff after Hirogaru and All Stars F

Thank you for your understanding.

[callgespenst]

I am abandoning making a Media Thread on the former bird website, and will update that here now. The plan is to list whatever I'm watching/reading/playing once a month or so, with how I'm feeling about it. Plus I'll probably make longer writeups for anything I really liked that I want to talk about at length. And of course, there'll probably be spoilers for whatever 20+ year old thing I'm into right now.

Anyway, here's what I've been doing so far this year:

Fist of the North Star, volume 8: The finale of the battle with Souther, up to Toki's death at the ends of Ryuga. Raoh and Toki's fight, and the reveal that they're blood brothers, was definitely /much/ better in the manga than the Toei anime. I definitely still love the Toei anime, but reading the manga, I'm realizing every problem I had with the series was anime-original.

Patlabor 2: Somehow, the only part of Patlabor I haven't seen yet is the last two movies. Patlabor 2 is a damn good movie! It's definitely a Mamoru Oshii film. There's a lot of neat stuff going on, and I liked having a big focus on Shinobu. But also, it's definitely so wildly different from the rest of Patlabor. I like it, and I want to rewatch it at some point, but it's not my favorite entry.

Police Story: Buddy of mine got in a nice new blu-ray that we watched. Now this is fucking cinema. Excellent fights, mind-blowing stunts, hysterical laugh out loud bits throughout. Absolutely want to watch the other two.

I Am A Dog: Don Matsuguro's Life: They got Yasuo Yamada, the original voice of Lupin, to play Lupin but a dog, basically. An entertaining movie about talking dogs for kids, but has a few bits that are maybe a little too brutal or intense for the target audience. My favorite role besides Yamada was definitely Toshio Furukawa as a loveable little scamp.

California Crisis: Probably not "good", by any real standard, but I had fun with it. Some good chase sequences, definitely really and truly feels like it's set in California in a lot of entertaining ways. Has something of a non-ending, but I think that's more of a riff on sci-fi alien encounter movies of the time, than anything.

That's all the completed! Currently in progress:

Anime: Metallic Rouge, Soaring Sky Precure, Dungeon Meshi, Shangri-La Frontier, Freiren (few episodes behind), Bang Bravern.

Going to start: Pon no Michi, Synduality S2, probably something else I'm forgetting.

Manga: Skip and Loafer (only just started v.1), Hokuto no Ken (need to buy a copy of vol.9)

Going to start: I swear I'm going to get into Berserk this year. I have the first three omnibuses.

Video games: A lot in progress, not sure what I'm going to play next.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Heyyo seen more Healin Good Precure? Also gotten around too watching the Mahoutsukai precure film?

Well, I just finished Episode 30 a few days ago and just learned about Daruizen’s “Mini-Me”, but, yeah, I think this series is already a lot better than Mahoutsukai and maybe even Star Twinkle.

There are some really strong filler episodes here like Episode 17 (Chiyu helps out a little at her family’s inn for a few days and helps an American girl adjust to moving to Japan), Episode 25 (A timid little girl mistakes Pegitan for a toy and accidentally kidnaps him while Pegitan struggles to tell her what he really is), and Episode 29 (Nodoka starts running more and risks overdoing it, so her friends have to help her find a healthy schedule and diet). I still love how both the Cures and their partners get their own focus episodes, and it makes the Healing Animals feel like actual characters instead of just transformation devices like what they did with Mofurun.

The main focus of this quarter is the introduction of a new character created by the prayers of Queen Teatine (Latte’s mother who I didn’t mention in my last post) to protect her daughter, said prayers manifesting into Asumi/Cure Earth. She was born from the Earth itself, is named after how the Japanese pronounce the English word “Earth”, and her name is Cure Earth, so obviously, that means she has wind powers.

Unfortunately, the Earth was under a little pressure to save Latte from being killed by Batetemoda, so they kind of had to skip over some key details when creating her, because outside of combat skills and a desire to protect Latte, Asumi is, for lack of a better word, kind of an airhead. She doesn’t really get a lot of social cues, is obsessed with caring for Latte (and even then, screws up at that occasionally), and would probably get killed if not for Nodoka, Chiyu, and Hinata helping her. I’m not even exaggerating that last bit. In one episode Asumi almost gets hit by a car because she didn’t know what a stoplight was, and another where she had to be told to take off the wrapper when eating a snack. You know, seeing how six Cures aren’t even from Earth or lack social awareness, you’d think they’d set up some kind of class to teach newbies this kind of stuff.

Obviously, Asumi’s main character arc is learning about becoming her own person and how to put Latte’s needs over what she thinks is right for her, which I like. I felt like Haa-chan’s character got bogged down with the whole Emerald and Mother Rapapa thing, so I like how they’re focusing more on Asumi individually instead of having the villains chase after her like a plot device.

I like how Latte gets a little more focus here, though her desire to join the battle is kind of muddled by the fact that she just helps Asumi transform and doesn’t really do anything else, not even the finisher like Mofurun does. There was this one episode where all four Cures transformed and then immediately placed Latte in a safe place to hide while they fought the Byogen.

Unfortunately, Batetemoda bites the dust far too early and ends up being Cure Earth’s first kill, which is a real shame, as it’s clear the writers were planning something with him wanting to take command of the Byogens, but possibly had to cut it due to COVID.

Admittedly, his final episode did introduce a way for the Byogens to power up their minions by injecting them with crystals created from their fallen brethren, causing them to evolve much faster, kind of like supernatural blood doping. It’s interesting, though I think the whole race by the general to get more “Mega Parts” could have been focused on more.

There were two other humanoid Byogens introduced, Nebusoku and Kedary, who both get killed in the same episodes they are created. Hell, Kedary at least impacted the plot while Nebusoku just got treated like a MOTW. Again, not sure if this was because of COVID, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

Of course, there’s the actual plot twist regarding Daruizen being responsible for making Nodoka sick all those years, and it’s a real gut punch. Daruizen just takes the first chance to taunt Nodoka with the information, and I just love how he isn’t that impacted by it. He just sees this as something that makes Nodoka more interesting to him. Nodoka even vows to take her conflict with him more personally in the same episode it’s revealed in.

Which I pretty much interpreted as her thinking “Mr. Daruizen... I should KICK YOUR FUCKING ASS!”

But yeah, this was overall a very solid second third, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how things are resolved, especially with Nodoka and Daruizen.

[silvermoon424]

Hello again, I am the same artbook anon from before. Just wanted to say that yay! I am so happy that you'll be creating a tutorial for scanning. I am looking for a guide and I am having a hard time looking for a guide. I really hope you make one soon and I also hope you get more votes in regards to the Mahou Tsukai artbook. Do you have anymore Precure artbooks or just mostly Madoka artbooks? Thanks so much <3!

Hi again!

Yeah, scanning is something I had to figure out on my own and it took a lot of trial and error to find techniques that work. I’ve actually only been scanning with a proper scanner for 3 years, before that I would just take pictures on my phone and then clean them up in Photoshop. I’ve actually gotten multiple people asking me how I do my scans so I’ll try to get a tutorial up soon. I would love to shoot a video explaining it (because that would probably be easier to follow along) but I’m not sure how I would be able to demonstrate the scanning. It’s usually a two-handed job and I would need one hand to film with my phone, haha. I might just have to make do with trying to explain via text, maybe with some pictures added in.

And I own a lot of Sailor Moon artbooks, but fortunately those have already all been scanned by other people. My Madoka artbooks (aside from the Magia Record ones I scanned) have all been scanned by other people as well. I would love to have more Precure artbooks, but for the time being all I have is the one of Mahou Tsukai Precure. I would like to get ones for Hugtto and Star Twinkle.

Thank you for your interest in my scans! It’s nice to know that someone really appreciates them.

[muthaz-rapapa]

Precure in the Arts (Civilian only)

Creative arts, to be specific. Therefore, this post encompasses a variety of subjects and is also not exclusive to the traditional kind.

I included as much as I could think of but it’s probably still incomplete, either because I don’t remember well enough or do not know certain characters well enough (like I said before, I haven���t watched the first three seasons) or whatever so if anyone wants to point out what I missed, please do.

Comments below the cut.

Note: This will be continually updated as new additions come along.

Music:

Singing

Musical Instruments (Classical)

- Violin: Karen, Haruka, Minami, Towa - Piano: Karen, Hibiki, Alice, Madoka

Musical Instruments (Guitar)

Performing Arts:

Acting

Dancing

Visual Arts:

Painting

Illustration

Literature:

**Generally speaking, this list was created with the idea (and hope) that these activities aren’t just hobbies or past times for the girls. In other words, their interests or specialties are part of who they are. A trait that makes up an important fraction of them as a character and a person.

Ya get what I mean? Well, you will as we go along.

Singing - A lot of girls sing in series but these are the ones who are known to perform for the public. With the exception of Aoi, who’s a rock star, all of them are idols, unsurprisingly.

Anyways, not only do they like what they do but they also enjoy performing for a crowd and sharing their music with others. This is why Ako, who despite the fact that she likes singing, is not listed because for her, singing is a more private matter to be done around those she’s close to.

As for Ellen, I was see-sawing between whether to include her in this list or not since Siren spent most of her time singing as a villain. In the end, I decided that she qualifies since she was one of the top contenders to perform for Major Land. In a way, that’s sort of like being an idol and had Hummy not been chosen, she probably would’ve been the one to sing the Melody of Happiness instead. Also, I believe I’ve seen clips of her doing street performances so that counts, too.

Musical Instruments (Classical) - In defense against the fact that we only ever got short moments of seeing the girls play music, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that most of them will continue to carry their talents with them as they grow older. Especially for those who spent a lot of time training and polishing their skills so it’d be a waste for them to stop, y’know? Not to mention, I’m pretty sure all of them like playing their respective instruments as well so that was also taken into consideration.

Which is my reasoning on not including Emiru even though she’s proficient in violin and piano. I’m choosing to believe she never forgets what she learned with the classical instruments but since she ultimately prefers the guitar over anything else, there’s little point in keeping her here.

A question mark for Karen, though. We all saw her with a violin in the first OP of Yes!5 (and some other promo art) but I could’ve sworn I’ve seen her play piano at least once sometime in the series. I’d go back and check but it’s such a minor detail and Yes!5 is so long that I don’t feel like searching for it so can someone confirm with me on this if she does know how to play the piano?? It has been confirmed that Karen does indeed play the piano. Thank you, @darkis4everinlight​!!

Musical Instruments (Guitar) - Nothing much to say here that isn’t already obvious.

**Performing Arts - Yea, yea, I know music is a type of performing arts but it’s big enough to deserve its own separate section so don’t argue with me on that.

As for why dancing is not listed has so little people despite there being a whole group of Cures (Fresh) who did perform in that area...well, like I said above, this is more of an individual sorting. I believe the Fresh group partook in dancing because they wanted to do it together. But when it’s not together, they have other stuff they’d rather focus on like Miki with her modeling and Inori learning to become a vet and Setsuna helping rebuild Labyrinth. I don’t know about Love, though, so...

EDIT: Looked back on the wiki and Love apparently does continue with dancing even after the group split up so she’s listed now.

...come to think of it, Minami fits in the dance section too because she did ballet but in the end that wasn’t her passion so...I dunno, should I list her? :/ Nevermind, it’s up.

Acting - I feel like we need more Cures in this field. I mean, there are so many types of acting out there so it’d be great if we can see more actors among our main cast members.

About Saaya, though. Yea, she chose to drop acting to pursue a medical career but it was partially through acting that she discovered her true calling in the first place. In that sense, the acting portion of her life is an irreplaceable part of her.

Dancing - Ok true, while Minami’s most noticeable attribute as a character is her connection and love for the sea, it’s also undeniable that she was a total Ojou-sama for most of Go!Pri’s story. And as Ojou-sama qualities go, they are like masters of almost anything.

Frankly, if I wanted to be very honest with this list, I would’ve completely scraped her (and Karen and Alice, for that matter) from musical instruments because the violin didn’t mean as much to her as it did for Haruka and Towa story-wise and the same extends to ballet as well. Like Saaya with acting, she put these activities, along with her heiress duties, aside to pursue her real dream. 

But also like Saaya with being an actress, being an Ojou-sama and everything that came with it (aka the “grooming package”) was a huge part of who Minami was before that realization.

By the logic, I can’t leave it out. So the same applies to the other Oujos, too.

**Visual Arts - Again, it might be because I’m forgetting some things and whatnot but seriously? This is all we have for Cures gifted in visual arts? What about film making, photography, crafts, sculpture, computer graphics??

Also, I’m wondering if I should include design under this but I feel that Fashion needs to be its own category so nah, probably not.

Painting - Haven’t watched Splash Star so I’m just basing this off of what I’ve seen in the All Stars movies.

Illustration - I don’t know what is or is not considered part of the arts these days but as I said above, this isn’t limited to the traditional kind so I believe I can put illustration under here. It doesn’t fit anywhere else, otherwise.

**Literature - Yeap, I need more Cures who aspire to become writers as well. Not just novelists. Screenwriters, playwrights, poets, etc!

So many areas of interests so why are you not using everything the world has to offer, TOEEEEEIIIIIII?!?!?!?!??

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Update log:

4/2/20 - Post published.

4/3/20 - Edited; updated Karen’s info and added Love to Dancing category.

[pcd-status]

Miracle Lights: Love ‘em or Hate ‘em, They’re Here to Stay

In 2007, the fourth Precure film “Yes! Precure 5 The Movie: MiracIe Adventure in the Mirror Kingdom!” introduced Miracle Lights to the Precure series, and the franchise was changed forever.

Miracle Lights are little plastic LED flashlights that get handed out to kids in the audience when they see a Precure movie, and at key points in the film they’re directed to light them and wave them in the air to help the Precures in a form of audience interaction. The one in the Yes 5 movie is just a flashlight, but most successive Miracle Lights have a clear charm on the top that the LED illuminates. From what I can tell, they’re also all unique molds from each other, to convince kids that it’s totally not the same thing they got at the last movie six months ago. They have appeared in every single subsequent movie, bar one, for a total of 24 variants at the time of this writing, and they’re prominently featured in the marketing as an incentive item.

At the start of the film, before the actual story starts, there’s usually an instructional featurette on the Miracle Lights. It typically features the fairies in a short skit, breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience, as they comedically demonstrate the do’s and don’ts of using a Miracle Light. As they explain “please wave it around but be mindful of your surroundings so you don’t hit your neighbors, don’t let go of it, and don’t look into the light or point it at someone’s face,” the consequences of this are shown via exaggerated images.

Which may or may not leave you mentally scarred for life.

In addition to the prologue, the Miracle Lights are incorporated directly into the movies as well. Usually there is a character who will establish them in the narrative earlier in the film, so that the other characters are familiar with them by the climax. They’re used almost exclusively by fairies, but sometimes civilian onlookers will get them as well, especially in All Stars films.

So how are they used? Well, depending on how heavily they’re incorporated to the plot, they may get used within the movie for some minor accomplishments to establish their power. But inevitably, during the climax of the film, the heroines will be at the end of their rope. They’re losing the fight, they’re beat up and out of energy and the villain is gloating. One of the fairies will say that they need to use the Miracle Light to give the Precures their power, but it won’t be enough, so they turn to the audience as well and ask for help, cueing kids to start waving their lights. The degree of the fourth wall breaking varies from film to film. Sometimes it’s framed such that the characters are turning towards other characters in the scene to ask for help and it’s a POV from their perspective, but it’s definitely intended mainly for the audience. Other times the fairies go so far as to leave the boundaries of the film, directly facing the audience.

Next there’s some gratuitous shots of all the supporting characters waving their Miracle Lights, and human characters if applicable. This will last a good 30-90 seconds as the audience waves their own lights and shouts something along the lines of “Do your best, Precure!” or “Give the Precure our power!”

if they really can make miracles, they should have restored Michiru, Kaoru, Yuri, and Kaoruko's powers so they could help, change my mind

After the audience has had enough time to wave their lights and wish for the Precure to press onward, the heroines will be encompassed in light and, at the very least, have their strength restored and the damage will wash away. Usually, though, this is a catalyst for their transformation into a special form or enables them to perform a special move, or a combination thereof, and this allows them to defeat the villain of the movie once and for all.

In more recent years, especially now that crossovers that bring together every single Precure are mostly a thing of the past, the Miracle Light may be used to summon select past Precure teams or members in order to give a show of support to the new guard, but their direct involvement will be limited. This was shown in 2019′s Precure Miracle Universe film, and some stage shows. In fact, Miracle Universe goes very hard on the lore of Miracle Lights, as the plot revolves around a factory in deep space that has manufactured every single Miracle Light for the myriad Precure teams.

The idea of Miracle Lights has even been used in stage shows and the special musical productions, although the item isn’t referred to as a Miracle Light and the lower quantity of them points to them being a separate purchase rather than a freebie. The same concepts apply from the movies: the Precure are in trouble, fairies ask the audience for help, everyone waves their lights, and then the Precure recover. This doesn’t usually result in a powered up form, but the Cures will turn the tide of the fight and defeat the villains.

As seen in this scene from the Go Princess musical, sometimes it summons past cures for a little help as well, but they don’t steal the spotlight from the current team.

If you’re older than the target audience of Precure, you may be cynical about the prevalence of Miracle Lights. At best, they interrupt the flow of the story for a moment, and at worst, they ruin your immersion in the film. It largely depends on how well-integrated they are into the film, and that varies from movie to movie. However, they’re a cheap and easy way to encourage audience participation and let little kids in the theater believe that they’re actually helping. Kids seem to like them, and by making each one different, Toei has created something of a collectible market for them. Their one and only attempt to try something different was in 2015′s Precure All Stars Spring Carnival, where the audience present/powerup trinket was a special Dress Up Key, the collectible gimmick item of that year, but by the fall movie they were right back to Miracle Lights so I don’t think their experiment had good results. (2015 was a very experimental year, but I’ll discuss that on the main blog when I get there.) Their continued use indicates that they’re popular, so for better or worse, we’re going to keep seeing them in movies for the forseeable future.

[mahou-furbies]

Closing thoughts on Pretty Cure Dream Stars!

Precure requires a lot of concessions on the grounds that it is a children's franchise, but this film felt like it skews even younger than usual. Let's get the usual out of the way first: the light sticks play an even bigger role than average, and this time the characters even jump out of the movie and directly address the movie audience multiple times, instead of the usual where they give the "support the Precure with your light sticks" speech to side characters who act as audience surrogates.

Overall the film also had the same issues as the other crossover movies, in that it just throws in way too many characters who all either feel the same (the typical generic hero who instantly befriends everyone and jumps into rescuing every troubled bystander they see), or if they're lucky get one moment where they get to display their one individual personality trait. I was looking forward to seeing Haruka again even in this flattened form, but even she felt like a complete nothing of a character. This combined with the main story being pretty weak made the whole film feel even more of just a product than usual.

Then some assorted complaints:

The villain had the kind of annoying monotone voice that instantly made me think that he must be voiced by a manzai celebrity and that turned out to be the case.

The movie-exclusive kid character is kind of annoying

In the emotional climax of the film the kid character's friend has forgotten about her due to magic (oh no!) but actually nevermind, she just remembers her like 10 seconds later, what was the point of those few seconds of drama?

No new powerups or even civilian clothes for anyone. Or the movie's idea of a powerup was stamping some barely noticeable sakura flower symbols on their Cure outfits.

All was not bad; the CG fantasy land parts had really nice colours, the Japanese-themed visuals give the film its own identity, the new girl's design is fine, the CG animation isn't awful and Akira kabedons Yui. They also play the "funny and upbeat stuff happens" classical music during an action scene and it pisses me off that I can't remember the name of the piece, and it wasn't even in the credits (I think).

The best thing about the movie was this end card with these lovely kimono:

Still in the end this is very much a children's movie, so if the 5-year-olds like it I guess my opinion doesn't matter and I really should have spent my evening on something else than bitching about it for 300 words. But I would still say that the 5-year-olds deserve better.

[kirric-the-fan]

Precure all stars f movie: looking at the trailer and Cure Supreme. So, theory time

Puka is the new mascot. Rabbit themed, which carries over to cure supreme (appropriate for the year of the rabbit). BUT I think the most interesting thing here is the hair, particularly those two bits on top, because who do they remind me of the most?

Elle-chan! We still do't know if she's going to be a cure or not but I believe it is very likely she has something to do with the creation of cure supreme.

That said, I am thinking it's less likely that she'll be cure supreme, because of this:

I'd wager that's Puka in human form in the back of the cart, and thus it's more likely just to be Puka becoming another fairy cure (which also explains why we have a few fairy/fantastical cures in the mix already).

I have said before about the vibe of Cure Supreme being that she looks like she's borrowed from all the other cures. Now I know that once you get to so many magical girls, you're going to get repeating patterns, but there's somthing about supreme that looks like a much more direct homage to the cures in the film (and cures in general).

Hair flicks: elle-chan Single fringe strand pink tinge: Cure Sky Gold-edged rabbit bit: Futari wa and splash star hearts on the hands, and the Fresh hearts on the hair, and the Heartcatch hearts Poofy sleeves: Grace, Felice, La Mer, Finale Half butterfly flicks off the chest rabbit: Yes!5 + cure summer Those white hair bits: Could be a mascot carry over, but also Cure Milky as there's a couple of points where they look a bit star-like There's skirts, there's bows, there's a really interesting floating rainbow thing around her there which I quite like from a design pov. I could go on.

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out.

[precuredaily]

Precure Daily Halloween Special 2019

Episodes: SPC 37, HaCha 37, GPP Movie, MPC 38-39, KKPC 37, HUG 38, STPC 37 Dates watched: 30-31 October 2019 Original air dates: Sunday in October 1-2 weeks before Halloween, 2011 & 2016-2018, and the Saturday of Halloween, 2015

Is that little girl in the witch hat dressed as Akko from Little Witch Academia in a nod to her seiyuu, Han Megumi, playing Hime or is this just a coincidence? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

You may remember the PCD Christmas Special I did last year, where I watched every Precure Christmas episode and compared them to each other, charting the common elements and evolution in how they handle the subject. Well, I really love Halloween, but for a while, Japan didn’t celebrate it. It only started to catch on in the late 2000s and into the 2010s, and so despite several episodes of Precure airing on or near Halloween night over the years, the first time it was brought up in the franchise wasn’t until 2011′s Suite Precure. You can read more about how it became acceptable to celebrate and the ways in which the Japanese people enjoy themselves in this article, but the important takeaways are that Halloween events are more about food and festivities, and trick-or-treating is a highly organized activity, no going door-to-door.

At this point in the shows, all extra heroines have been introduced and the team is usually on the cusp of acquiring a new powerup. The villains have suffered significant losses and are preparing to pull out some form of trump card (this will facilitate the team getting their new attack). Typically, the monster of the week will be made from a Jack O’Lantern or some other Halloween decoration. In more recent years there’s been a tendency to explain what Halloween is about, but they don’t always do this. The biggest draw of a Halloween episode, though, in my opinion, is getting to see the characters in costumes. I’m going to briefly run down each Halloween episode (or movie) and then compare common elements at the end.

Note: At the time of writing, I am about 6 episodes behind in Star Twinkle Precure, did not wish to skip ahead for the purposes of this article, and didn’t have the time to catch up. I will add my thoughts on STPC 38 at a later date, and I will announce when I have done this via a reblog to @pcd-status​. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Star Twinkle section added 12 Nov. 2019

Suite Precure 37 - “Wakuwaku! Everyone Transforms for Halloween!” Original air date: 30 October 2011

With Mephisto freed of his brainwashing, Falsetto takes charge of Trio the Minor and leads an attack on the girls. Ako has decided to stay in the human world, and the older girls take her to a Halloween celebration to brighten her spirits. Ako isn’t really enjoying herself, but some younger kids rope her into playing with them and that brightens her up. When Trio the Minor turn a pumpkin into a Negatone, they try to perform a new attack with Crescendo Tone: Precure Suite Session Ensemble Crescendo, but it falls apart, so Ako uses her invidual attacks while the older trio uses their group finisher. At the end, Falsetto sings an incomplete Melody of Sorrow to speed up Noise’s revival.

Costumes and references: Hibiki is dressed as a pirate, but specifically she resembles a genderbent Captain Marvelous, the red ranger from the contemporary Sentai series Gokaiger. Kanade is dressed as a pumpkin witch. Ellen is dressed as a black cat, an allusion to her true form, and Ako is a dressed as a princess, which she is. (not digging very deep for this)

HappinessCharge Precure 37 - “Big Bang, Defeated! An Unbelievably Strong Enemy Appears!” Original air date: 19 October 2014

Oresky, Namakelder, and Hosshiwa are all feeling weakened after taking the Happiness Big Bang attack, so Queen Mirage concludes they may not be useful to her anymore and prepares her next agent. Meanwhile in Pikarigaoka, Megumi encourages Blue to join them at the town’s Halloween festival, and he agrees. They all begin to share pumpkin cakes with each other, a local tradition. Seiji shares his with Megumi, Megumi eagerly shares hers with Blue, and the other girls look on from a distance as they recognize the love triangle unfolding in front of them. Oresky appears, trying to ruin the Halloween festival that makes people happy and attempting to prove his worth. He really wants to be the number one general in the Phantom Empire, as he feels that if he’s not first, he’s worthless and he doesn’t want to be replaced. The girls transform, and begin to persuade him that there’s enjoyment to be had in fun things, and it’s okay if you’re not first. They hit him with Happiness Big Bang and it begins to purify him, when suddenly an attack interrupts it. As the smoke clears, their new opponent is revealed to be a corrupted Cure Tender, Iona’s missing older sister.

Costumes and references: Megumi is wearing a Halloween-themed dress, orange with jack-o-lanterns on it. Hime is dressed as a princess, which much like with Ako, seems kind of low-effort since she’s an actual princess. Yuuko is dressed as a witch, and Iona is a fortune teller. Also, Blue is dressed as a vampire.

Go! Princess Precure: Go! Go!! Gorgeous Triple Feature Original release date: 31 October 2015

The Princess movie was experimental, being made of three shorter films: a chibi short with no dialog, a 50-minute traditional feature, and a 20-minute all CG adventure. The film leaned hard on its Halloween theming, with Pumpkins and Halloween being prominent motifs in all three parts. I’ll break them down individually.

Cure Flora and the Mysterious Mirror

This is a cute sketch where Cure Flora finds a fancy crown, puts it on, and accidentally startles some mischievous sprites on the other side of what she thinks is a mirror. They have the ability to transform, so they take on her appearance and mirror her, but they forget to duplicate the crown and eventually they begin to compete with the real Flora, doing tricks. She accidentally breaks the crown, so the sprites decide to transform into a special pumpkin outfit for her, just as the other girls come in. The 5-minute short uses a super deformed art style with all CG animation and has no dialog.

Costumes and references: Cure Flora’s pumpkin dress and hat.

The Pumpkin Kingdom’s Treasure

Haruka, Minami, Kirara, and Towa are transported to the wondrous Pumpkin Kingdom, where the royal chancellor Warp is hosting a Princess Contest to find a princess for the kingdom. Towa, being well-versed in evil schemes, smells a rat and is on edge. Haruka finds the true princess of the kingdom, Pumpururu, who is locked away, and learns that the Pumpkin King and Queen are under Warp’s control. Minami, Kirara, and Towa each win their rounds in the contest, but the former two are captured while Towa is able to avoid capture. Haruka participates, even managing to snap the monarchs out of the control. She transforms, frees the others from their capture, and Warp transforms to a giant monster. Pumpururu, the sprites, and the Precures’ strong feelings summon Halloween Dress Up Keys that the girls use to defeat Warp and save the Pumpkin Kingdom.

Costumes and references: The girls get special outfits to wear for the Princess Contest (not halloween themed), as well as Mode Elegant Halloween dresses that feature pumpkin flowers on them.

Precure and Leffy’s Wonder Night!

This is an episode-length feature using the CG animation style from the dance endings. Haruka discovers a doll on her desk, when she’s suddenly transported to the Pumpkingdom, already transformed, and the doll is now a girl named Leffy. Leffy tells the cures they need to defeat Night Pumpkin, who has taken over Pumpkingdom and stolen the daylight from them, making it always night. What follows is essentially an ongoing chase through the city to the top, where they fight and defeat Night Pumpkin and restore daylight to Pumpkingdom. Haruka is then transported back to her room, and the Leffy doll is gone. It’s worth noting that Leffy appeared as Pumpururu’s doll in the previous portion. The connection to this section of the film is unclear. Also, Minami, Kirara, and Towa do not appear in their civilian forms at all.

Costumes and references: Leffy isn’t overtly pumpkin themed, and nobody else gets any special forms in this one. However, there is a glorious moment where Flora accidentally bonks Night Pumpkin on the head.

a proud Precure tradition

Maho Girls Precure 38 - “Is it Sweet or Not? The Magic Pumpkin Festival!” Original air date: 23 October 2016

This isn’t explicitly a Halloween episode, because the Magic World doesn’t celebrate Halloween, but they have fall traditions that involve pumpkins and sweets so it counts. Their tradition is to chase a Pumpkin Bird that appears every year. It shoots candy from its mouth, and if it hits someone, they turn into a giant piece of candy. If you capture it, you get a special prize. One of the villains brings up the actually valid point that the creature may not like being chased and that’s why it runs, but Mofurun talks to it and finds out it just has a cavity. The girls transform into Topaz Style to fight Shakince in a creatively silly battle. When they beat him, Mofurun gets the credit for “capturing” the Pumpkin Bird and so she gets presented with its prize, which turns out to be a seed that grows into a tree which sprouts toothbrushes. I am not making that up.

Costumes and references: Mofurun gets a special orange and yellow dress to wear when she receives the prize but it’s never shown in closeup from the front. Also, there is a cameo appearance by Watanabe Mayu, who sings the insert song for the Maho Girls Movie that was in theaters around this time, and also served as the ending theme for episodes 38 and 39 (only on the TV version, on home release they use “Magic a la Domo”). She makes a special appearance as herself. Even better, in a flashback, she’s seen beside giant statues of Mipple and Mepple.

Maho Girls Precure 39 - “This is Halloween! Everyone, Smile!” Original air date: 30 October 2016

The girls from magic school come to visit the non-magic world and learn about Halloween! But Jun, Kay, and Emily have to be reminded, even when things seem bad, to not use magic to help out. The students of the non-magic world are running a crepe stand and the magic world students decide to chip in, and after being scolded for using their powers, they learn how to do things the old-fashioned way and appreciate the value of hard work. In the middle of all of this, Ha-chan changes costumes almost every scene. Benigyo is extremely confused by all the Halloween festivities and doesn’t understand what the girls want when they tell her to stop ruining it. They never do give her a proper explanation, but she summons a Donyokubaaru that blows air and the girls have to transform to Sapphire form to fight it off. There’s a small plot point about Mirai’s grandmother recognizing the magic school Headmaster from her own youth. At the end of the episode, it’s implied that Liko’s father has made a big breakthrough about relations between the magic and non-magic worlds, and more ancient powers. Kind of a disjointed episode.

Costumes and references: Mirai is dressed as Mofurun, Liko is dressed as a cat in an orange and purple dress, Mofurun is dressed as Cure Miracle, Chikurun is dressed as a bunny, and Ha-chan is dressed as:

an alicorn

a sarcophagus

a mummy

a sphinx

a UFO

and a thunder god (Raijin)

And just a cool thing I noticed, the final stage for the ending dance was updated with a Halloween theme. I’m really curious why, since they replaced the ending with “The Right Way to Use Magic” in the initial television broadcast of this episode, and I don’t think the Halloween version was seen in any previous or subsequent episodes.

Kirakira Precure a la Mode 37 - “Salut! Ciel is Going Back to France!?” Original air date: 22 October 2017

Ciel’s old boss, Madame Solaine, finds her and tries to get her to come back to Paris and work for her there, feeling that Ciel’s talent is wasted in this small town. Not wanting to admit that she initially came searching for her brother, and that she’s got responsibilities as a Precure, she tries to demonstrate what she likes about Ichigozaoka. Everybody is worried that Ciel is going to leave, and even lowkey encouraging her to do what’s best for her career, but she wants to stay. Ultimately she wins Madame Solaine over with a dish inspired by Ichika’s cooking style. Elisio is the antagonist of this episode but I honestly found the battle to be completely irrelevant. The most notable point for the villains is that Grave makes some kind of discovery at the end of the episode.

Costumes and references: Their costumes here are modifications to their patisserie uniforms. Ichika is a jack o’lantern, Himari is an angel, Aoi is a devil, Yukari is a cat (of course), Akira is a vampire, and Ciel is a witch.

HUGtto! Precure 38 - “Charged with Happiness! Happy Halloween!” Original air date: 28 October 2018

Hagukumi town is going to be hosting a Halloween Party, with Papple’s business providing food and entertainment. Daigan is tasked with food prep, but he gets frustrated with a very delicate task, and a visit from Bishin has him questioning his loyalties. The girls are ready to hit the town, and have even prepared costumes for Harry and Hugtan. They made a lot of costumes for Hugtan, in fact, but Ruru detects that she doesn’t really like any of them, so they ask her what she wants to be, and she responds “Pwecyua!” They set to work making her a Precure costume in short order, but an Oshimaida attack secretly requested by Daigan threatens the party. The girls transform and make a show of it to keep people’s spirits high, finishing the monster off with Cheerful Attack. Papple knows that Daigan was responsible and chides him for defecting, even momentarily, and informs him that everybody loved his food. Up at Beauty Harry, the girls finish Hugtan’s costume and show her to Harry, who briefly has a flash of Cure Tomorrow.

Costumes and references: Hana is a witch, Saaya is a lolita devil, Homare is a cowgirl, Emiru and Ruru are pirates, Harry is a werewolf (because he’s.... hairy, IDK if that was the joke), and Hugtan is dressed as Cure Yell. Foreshadowing ahoy!

Star☆Twinkle Precure 37 - “Cryptids Will Win! The Halloween Costume Contest” Original air date: 21 October 2019

Mihoshi Town is having a Halloween costume contest with prizes for best group, so everybody brings their A-game. Except Yuni, she takes the chance to walk around in her true Rainbownian form. Everybody is having fun and the girls get to explain Halloween to Yuni and Lala. Unfortunately, Kappard is hanging around, reminiscing about what happened to his planet, and he doesn’t like the festivities. Everyone thinks he’s just dressed as a sexy kappa and they want pictures with him, which annoys him even more, so he steals one arguing couple’s imagination and goes on the attack. In an effort to guide him away from all the people and hide their identities, when the girls transform, they claim to be the Mihoshi Stars and do a full Sentai roll call, finally settling the debate over Milky and Cosmo’s color designations. (I was probably one of the last people to maintain that Milky was blue by this point, tbh) They lead him away from the festivities and then try to talk him down, but all he can say is he doesn’t believe different species can live in harmony, that Lala and Yuni are living a lie by celebrating Earth customs, and he doesn’t understand this holiday at all, so they defeat him and return to the festival. Elena wins prizes as part of two different groups, but Kappard is declared the overall winner. Too bad he’s MIA. This episode doesn’t do much for the plot, but it does give a little backstory to Kappard, as we see that his planet got destroyed by a non-native species monopolizing all of their natural resources. Considering what we see of Eyewan and Tenjou in the next few episodes, it’s possible we’re aiming to redeem the villains. Hard to tell with an ongoing show.

Costumes and references: Hikaru is a yeti, Lala is a tsuchinoko, Madoka is a cat, Elena is a flower (with her family) and a cat (with Madoka and Yuni), Yuni is herself, Fuwa is a sheep I guess, and Prunce is the Michelin Man (TELL ME I’M WRONG).

Analysis

Halloween episodes, unlike Christmas episodes, don’t have as much of a running theme. Halloween is more of a dressing than an opportunity to explore feelings. The placement of these episodes in the series means that things are usually starting to ramp up, but none of them features a major conflict. In a few episodes, the fight with the villains felt downright inconsequential, while it was more meaningful in others. There was a trend in more recent years to explain the origins of Halloween, as a gathering of spirits, but otherwise there aren’t as many identifiable patterns or shifts in patterns as there were in the Christmas episodes, it’s mostly been “this is Halloween, have fun.” The Go Princess movie had the opportunity to make the most of their halloween theme, but instead they just focused on pumpkins, pumpkins, and more pumpkins without really diving into what makes Halloween as a holiday special or significant. It’s an alright movie but it’s a sour note on an excellent series that knew what it was doing. HappinessCharge probably utilized Halloween the best as a setting, using some Halloween traditions to create romantic tension, and I appreciated Maho Girls’s attempt to create a Halloween-ish fall holiday for a fictional culture, and then also bringing those people in to explore our Halloween. Since it’s a newer holiday for Precure to work with, only getting regular exposure since 2014, we might see them figure out more ways to spin Halloween in the future. Honestly I hope so, and I’ll be here to write about it for you.

Happy Halloween, everybody, and look forward to more Yes 5 coming soon. Hopefully I’ll finish that by the end of the year. Hopefully. (yeah not likely)

[monkey-network]

Mini Stuff of Good: 2019 1st Quarter

We’re doing a lightning round of anything up to this point, no holds barred! 3. 2.. 1...

Mob Psycho 100 II

Animation is great as this comes once in a lifetime, complimentary to one of the most organically poignant stories in our lifetime. They pulled no punches in making every episode engaging and visually awe-inspiring, and this came out in January. (Grade: A)

Moominvalley

A quiet yet popular series from Finland that certainly blew up on social media here in the west. Reminds me a lot of Winnie the Pooh with its world and characters and Netflix’s Hilda because it took me a bit to watch the 1st season. It’s a simple slice of life but provides quite some introspection. It’s worth a watch when you’re in the right mood (Grade: A)

Carmen Sandiego

It’s up there with Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego and reminds me a bit of Sly Cooper with the team dynamic as well as giving us Carmen’s history but I was more invested in the adventurous educational aspect of it rather than any of the lore building. (Grade: B+)

Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitty

Well this show came and went, especially when they just plopped it over to Nicktoons where the ratings for it burned as expected. In fact this is the one show I know that started from Nicktoons, went to the main Nick channel, then back to Nicktoons. As for the series itself, I can kind of see why since while it can be imaginative, there’s nothing about it that you can say helps it stand above the rest. Guess they’re letting it die out. (Grade: C)

Lego Movie 2

The 1st and Lego Batman flics will always be the best, but this sequel honestly didn’t feel unnecessary. Rex Dangervest didn’t impress me all that much, but the other characters with the music and animation certainly enhanced this pretty touching story with an ingenious feminist message. (Grade: B+)

Star Twinkle Precure

Haven’t gotten into the Precure franchise up ‘til this point and I can say I was blown away. The characters are friendly and their bond overtime is natural and you feel for them when tensions rise or when things get serious. The transformation sequences are always a joy to see and while I do need to catch up, I’ve grown to very much enjoy this series. (Grade: A-)

A Madea Family Funeral

Tyler Perry is never gonna quit this series and I’ll never stop giving him the same rating. (Grade: D-)

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Honestly a lot of middling and pacing issues that didn’t make this conclusion as impactful as I’d hoped. I honestly cared more about Astrid’s relationship with Hiccup than I did the latter and Toothless. And the villain was yet another mirror antagonist that didn’t leave much of an impression on me. (Grade: C+)

Kaguya-sama: Love is War

The Valentine’s version to Death Note that is both funny and wholesome in every way. (Grade: A-)

Mr. Magoo (2019)

Technically started last year, but I only heard about it in January so why not. Now I enjoyed the Mr. Magoo movie and a couple of his animated specials but as unfortunate as it is to say, the Nostalgia Critic was right, there can only be so many times you can have the joke or gimmick before it gets stale. (Grade: C-)

Alita: Battle Angel

Kudos to Robert Rodriquez for making a good live action adaptation, what Ghost in the Shell, Death Note 2017, and plenty of video game movies wished they were. (Grade: B+)

The Dragon Prince

Rayla is the only interesting character for me. Everything is decent, but the amount of lore they provide doesn’t help this be less of a boring fantasy adventure. I’m done. (Grade: C)

Pinky Malinky

Sorry, but comparisons to Gumball made this hard to keep track of or remember. It’s not bad by any means, and the style they have the episodes is a plus that I’ve never seen before, but it’s honestly nothing to shout from the heavens about (Grade: B-)

Captain Marvel

It’s clear this movie isn’t for me because I never want to see and/or think about this film ever again. (Grade: D)

Wonder Park

I was gonna give it props for bearing some interestingly mature themes, but the way they ended it made me Wonder why I bothered. (Grade: D+)

Five Feet Apart

This movie was honestly more disgusting than the disorder they essentially romanticized in this film (Grade: F+)

Alien News Desk

It’s like Interdimensional Cable skits of Rick and Morty but without the in your face improv of the comedy. Shows that SNL can actually be funny if effort is actually planned out sometimes (Grade: B)

Victor and Valentino

Rough start, Vic’s voice will take some getting used to, but I say this show certainly grew on me with its handling of Hispanic mythical culture. This is a well diverse show and I’m glad it’s getting a second season (Grade: B+)

T I M E’S U P ! ! ! ! ! !

Well, a pretty average start up for this 2019. Any media that I missed? Probably. But tune in next time to see if things pick up to the present mark.