#the cell shading on the models in the screenshots looks really nice

[carnageform]

Look at him. This design is cute. Boy what did you do to your hair..

[dragynkeep]

Feel free to ignore this if you want, but how do you make your edits? I really want to do the same to create my oc's, but I wouldn't even know where to start.

I don’t mind teaching people the basics of how I do my edits, let’s start!

So, I use Paint Tool Sai, so everything I do is based around that. You don’t need Paint Tool Sai, but I don’t know how you could do it on other programs so you can either just get a free copy or play around and figure out the specifics for yourselves.

Now, let’s say I’m editing Ruby’s Atlas outfit, I’d need a screenshot of her, preferably one from the Atlas Arc!

Obviously, if it has a background like this with multiple people that I don’t feel like editing or don’t want, I’ll have to find a different background to put my finished edit on. Otherwise, I can just put the finished Ruby back on and carry on editing out any bits that can’t be hidden.

Open up Paint Tool Sai and first matter of business is... shrinking the head.

Yeah, I don’t know why, but the heads on the female bodies are always so dispropotionately big, especially when compared to the men. It can lead to some wierd shots like this:

Seriously, her head is twice the size of his. Someone tell CRWBY that women’s skulls are not sexually dimorphic, we all have the same skulls.

Fortunately, Ruby doesn’t need to be shrunk much in this specific screenshot, plus a bigger head is typically for younger characters and makes her look younger than everyone else, if it wasn’t for every woman having this head shape that it. 

But on some of my edits, especially my Ruby and Aurora one, I had to shrink their heads by like a third, it was horrendous.

After a good deshrinking, set the layer the ss is on at around 50%, it doesn’t really matter so long as you can see the lines you’re about to draw. I don’t have a drawing tablet, and the arthritis means that it’s too painful and uncomfortable to draw, so I just use a mouse.

Word of advice, here. It’s okay if your lines aren’t super clean, what’s important is you’ve laid the base down for the cleaner lines to be put on later. But here, you do have to put in extra work if you want a different body type since RWBY doesn’t offer much in terms of diversity. For Eirian, I have to physically draw the muscles for her since Ruby has none, so I would suggest either having some familiarity with drawing on your own or have plenty of references to guide you.

Okay! With the main sketch lines down, we move on to cleaning everything up! Set the sketch layer to around 50 - 60% opacity, or until you can see your lines over it but can still make it out from the screenshot.

On a lineart layer, choose the lineart tool and make sure it’s 0.7 width. I use 4 for drawing, but using this very skinny width makes it appear more like an actual RWBY model than just a drawing over it.

When you’re done with that, it should look like this! In the layers section, you’ll notice two new lineart layers as well. You have a main one for most of the lineart since the colour won’t change, but for the highlights, lips and eyes, it’s best to have them on a separate one underneath the main one.

The reason for this is because, once you change the colour of the lines later on during colouring, having them all on one layer means that the coloured lines overlap on the black outlines, which doesn’t look nice. The highlights in the eyes should be on the layer beneath the main one, and the layer for the lips and eyes themselves should be on the layer under that. Any other details you might wanna add that have a coloured lineart should go on that layer too.

Once the lineart is done, we have one more thing to do before we get to the next stage. Pressure tool.

It’s not hard to find on the tool bar, it’s right between edit and select, but I use this to make the lines flow more seemlessly rather than stop abruptly. When you select the pressure tool, simply pinch any ends of lines on your edit, like strands of hair or the fold lines on Ruby’s cape. 

It should look something like this when you’re done! Compress all the lineart together and move on to the next step: lighting.

Before we can get to colouring, we need to put done the lines for the lighting. First, determine where the source of light is coming from, and put down all the lines that would happen from that light source. Also, make sure the colour of your shadows lines are not black, so you can distinguish them from the base lines. I usually gross a mid tone grey.

Like this! Once all the lineart is done and its all on one layer, we can move on to colouring.

I used to just simple cell shading like Maya RWBY, but I’ve moved more towards detailed shading so it’s easier to give it more texture and such. I have a colour pallete handy, and colour using four different colours: the base, highlights, base to shadow, and the actual shadow.

For example, with Ruby’s skin tone, her colour pallete would look like this:

[Highlight, base, base to shadow, and shadow]

With the select tool, select all the area you want to colour in. Obviously, don’t do the shadow areas first, they gotta go on after. Add the base colour first, and then do the highlights like this;

With the blur tool, simply blend it together until it’s all blended together:

Like this. Repeat with the base to shadow colour, going along wherever the shadow lines touch the skin.

Next is simply doing the shadows on the face.

With your colour tool, simply click the grey shadow lines with the shade colour selected and they’ll turn that colour.

I add blush to my edits so they have more colour to their cheeks. The colour of the blush depends heavily on the person’s skin tone, so I do it by taking the base, darkening it while upping the saturation, and moving a bit closer to the end beginning of the spectrum where red should be.

The blush layer (the one currently selected) should be above the skin layer so that you can just clip it onto the skin. This means you don’t have to reselect every part of the face just to do the blush.

Slap the blush colour on like this and then blend until it’s as natural as you like.

It should look like this once everything is done, and you changed the lip line to the colour of the lips! You can do this for most textures, changing it up when you need to (i.e. cell shading for metal with more harsh highlights, leather has bright highlights that aren’t blended completely together with the base colour).

A problem with having the lines so thin is that, while colouring, the colours can tend to “bleed” if a layer with a lighter colour is next to a layer with a darker colour, and the lighter layer is on top of the darker layer. If you just make sure all the darker colours are above lighter ones, it should be fine.

Now, with hair, it’s a bit different to how I colour everything else, especially two toned hair like Ruby’s.

Rather than just highlighting the base part, I highlight all of it (save for the hair spike but that’s just because I don’t need to two tone that and it’s just get in the way).

Once selected, I put the base hair colour down and then the colour of the tips, before I put blend it all together..

The highlights and the first shadows are on separate layers. 

Since Ruby’s hair is two toned, we have to put the highlights on an overlay setting so that it changes depending on what the colour is underneath. Blend it in

Repeat with the first shadows layer, making sure its separate from the base and the highlights layers. Also, set the shadows layer to overlay for same reasons as the highlights layer.

Now for the shadows, deselect all of the hair and then select all the parts of the shadows only.

Once all selected, make a new layer for the shadows and colour it all a very dark version of the hair’s base colour, near enough to black without being black since we want it to be tinted a colour.

After making sure the shadows layer is clipped to the hair layer, like we did with the blush, we can delete all the grey lines where the shadows are. You can easily do this by holding Alt while on the lineart tool and simply click the lines to delete them.

Now set the shadows layer to around 50% opacity so the shadows match colour to the hair. 

Now, rather than use the blur tool, we use the gaussian tool instead. It’s not a tool that comes with Paint Tool Sai, so here’s my settings on a customised water brush:

With the Gaussian tool, just blend the shadows with the hair until it looks like softer shadows rather than harsh lines like on the face.

And that’s it for the hair! If the character’s hair is just one colour, you don’t need to do any settings on the highlights or the shadows, but the process is the same after!

Now that we have Ruby done, it’s time for the eyes! My most favourite part and the one I have to do last, otherwise I’ll do them and then abandon the project.

Note: The sclera (White parts) layer should be below the lashes but above the skin layer, since we’ll be turning the grey lines to white once done. The highlights layer should be between the sclera and the lashes, while the irises layer should be between the sclera and the highlights.

If you want the highlights to pop more, make the sclera an off white instead of pure white, while the highlights are pure white. It makes them stand out more.

Similar to the skin pallete, the eyes should have a base, highlights, shadows, and a darker colour for the pupils. Ruby’s pallete would be like this:

Now, with the bottom half of the eyes selected, fill it in with the base colour.

Then simply colour in some highlights at the bottom. 

And blend together!

After that, just add in the shadows and recolour the lines.

With the irises, I always colour them in a very dark tone of the eye colour, similar to how Yang’s are coloured in canon! Recolour the pupil’s colour line, and the lines around the iris itself.

And that’s how to colour in the eyes!

Now that Ruby is done, we just have to give her a background! If you picked a good screenshot, you can just put the person back on it and edit out anything peeking out from behind them, but this specific screenshot has a lot of people in the background that looks way different to how Ruby is coloured, so I’ll have to find another one.

If you can find one of just a background, great! Slap the character on and move to the next stage, but a lot of the screenshots on the wiki are either too cluttered or just not right, so I’m gonna have to do a lil’ trick I constantly do when characters won’t get out of the way.

A screenshot like this, with a character far away and plenty of background, is a good enough one for this.

Take a part of it and stretch it out, you can make it seem like the person is part of the set. Obviously, you need to get a pretty good chunk, otherwise it could look pixelated and just not great.

Since Ruby still looks like she’s not part of the set, she needs to have a filter put over to adjust her lighting. The best way to get the lighting to match the scene is to find a character from the OG screenshot, and colour pick the colour off any white parts of their body. You’ll always find white on their person since everyone’s scleras are white.

Once you have the filter colour, clip a new layer on top of your character layer like so:

Change the layer setting to Multiply and then paint it on the character!

With the filter on, you can adjust it with some darker and lighter so it looks like the light is shining on her.

And there we go! There’s other little tricks that I do, like making the character’s eyes glow in the dark like with Blake and Ruby, or the Maiden’s fire eyes like in my Aurora piece, but this post is already so long. If people wanna learn how to do those, I can make another tutorial to help!

[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

[getnewseveryday-blog]

Lenovo Tab 4 8 Review: Affordable And Functional

Lenovo's Tab 4 arrangement of tablets was acquainted with us back amid Mobile World Congress prior this year, and amid the occasion we didn't get the opportunity to invest excessively energy with the models in the lineup, however we got to deal with them for a bit. Presently, we've really been spending about the most recent week or so with the Lenovo Tab 4 8, the littler tablet in the arrangement, and have possessed the capacity to look at what it brings to the table, how it runs and performs different assignments, and simply get the general feel of what it resembles to hold this gadget for a stretched out timeframe to perceive how agreeable it is. While we loved what we saw at first in the start of the year, having somewhat more time with the gadget has allowed us to investigate it, and show signs of improvement point of view of regardless of whether it's justified regardless of your well deserved cash. We should investigate the Lenovo Tab 4 8 together and perceive how it stacks up as a portable figuring gadget.

Specs

While Lenovo makes some entirely capable gadgets both in the tablet advertise and in the handset showcase, the Tab 4 8 isn't one of those gadgets, in any event not as in it looks at to gadgets which somebody would consider first when solicited to think from a capable tablet. All things considered, the Tab 4 8 is likely sufficiently effective for specific buyers. Much like the name suggests, the Lenovo Tab 4 8 accompanies a 8-inch measure show with a 1280 x 800 determination, and it utilizes a LCD board so it's anything but difficult to see in coordinate daylight however it won't be as brilliant as an AMOLED or OLED board. Over the show it's working with a 2-megapixel forward looking camera that can be utilized for video talk and selfies, and on the back it's working with a 5-megapixel camera for fundamental photographs, however it's essential to remember this is a tablet, and is both not the perfect size for a cell phone when taking pictures, and it doesn't have the most astounding quality sensor so pictures aren't generally a driving element for this gadget, yet it has a camera if you need to take a photo and this is the thing that you have accessible.

Within the Tab 4 8 is controlled by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor, combined with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of interior storage room, which isn't really a great deal nowadays with regards to capacity, however it does likewise bolster expandable capacity by means of microSD card openings on the off chance that you happen to require more space than what's accessible installed. One truly decent thing about the tablet is that it has double speakers, and that as well as they're fueled by Dolby Atmos innovation and they're forward looking, which made for a truly decent involvement in the sound division, yet we'll get into that later. For network, the tablet bolsters Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0, and in conclusion it comes running on Android 7.1 Nougat and for charging and information exchange it utilizes small scale USB, and is fueled by a 4,850mAh battery to prop it up for the duration of the day.

In The Box

There's very little in the case here with the Tab 4 8 as you simply get the tablet itself, the charging link, and the divider connector and also a snappy begin control. It's a truly essential offering yet you get all that you require truly, and the bundling is good which doesn't generally have any effect on the tablet itself or how it capacities, however it is a piece of the experience and decent bundling certainly improves the experience that much.

Equipment And Design

With regards to the fabricate nature of the equipment utilized, Lenovo certainly assembled a strong tablet. It feels great when holding it, it doesn't feel shoddy in the smallest and it's general agreeable to hold for broadened timeframes. It looks pleasant as well and in spite of the fact that it doesn't generally look premium, the plan isn't awful. You can disclose to it's a tablet that is promoted at the lower end, however not badly. It's extremely characteristic of the look and feel of Amazon's latest Fire tablets in this size. Not the most a la mode but rather despite everything it looks decent and feels well-made. For me, the best piece of the outline was the delicate touch back that has a slight grasp to it which made it simpler to hold for more, and this was particularly imperative in the event that I was playing a diversion or something for a hour or two as the gadget like some other cell phone or tablet can get somewhat warm under substantial utilize, and that tends to make your palms a smidgen sweat-soaked.

This wasn't an issue much gratitude to the back covering. To the extent whatever remains of the outline and position of the equipment, both the power secure and the volume and down catches sit on the correct side, while a little tab on the left side towards to the best end has the Lenovo logo, yet this isn't only a place for the logo as this is likewise where the microSD card opening is. The two forward looking speakers sit at the best and base closures, with the charging port on the best side of the gadget notwithstanding a 3.5mm sound port for earphones.

Execution

Having a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor within and only 2GB of RAM makes it quite obvious this isn't intended to be a powerhouse tablet, and in the event that we were utilizing it in that capacity then that may turn into an issue however we didn't generally keep running into a lot of an issue with slack or stammering. There was maybe a couple times where it appeared to hang up a tad when running a diversion and after that pulling out to open up numerous different applications that could be named an overwhelming channel on the assets, yet generally there weren't any issues. One thing to remember is that Lenovo didn't manufacture this to be a powerhouse tablet implied for the do-all in a hurry overwhelming client who needs to multitask constant, while likewise playing the most requesting top of the line diversions.

That doesn't implied that it can't play any top of the line amusements whatsoever or that it can't multitask by any means, however it will have its cutoff points, and this will be more obvious when taking a gander at some of its benchmark scores. Generally however, anybody taking a gander at the Tab 4 8 for a standard tablet with light utilize, say for some web perusing, some online networking, some perusing, recordings all over and the intermittent amusement, this will hold up pleasantly as it can do those things fine and dandy, you just might not have any desire to do them at the same time for quite a long time at any given moment before taking a break or the execution may endure a bit.

Show

This isn't the best show on the planet, and particularly so on a show estimate this enormous contrasted with a cell phone with a 5-inch or 5.5-inch screen in the spending level, yet frankly the show truly isn't too awful and keeping in mind that not the most honed, it filled its need for each errand I utilized it for. The individuals who are sticklers for having the most keen designs with the most clear hues and the best lucidity for amusements, or truly anything, might need to look somewhere else, yet that aside the screen is unquestionably acceptable for diversions, recordings and whatever else. It gets bounty splendid and has nice survey points, and shading proliferation is quite great as well, however it could be a tiny bit better. At the cost however, Lenovo has made utilization of a better than average screen and this is conceivable in substantial part on the grounds that respectable boards aren't as costly as they used to be.

Battery Life

It's been a while since I utilized a tablet, yet it felt like the battery ought to have endured longer than it did here. At that point I looked again at the extent of the show and the measure of the battery limit and to be very legitimate I think Lenovo has made a decent showing with regards to in the battery office. It could simply be better, yet for a 8-inch tablet with just a 4,850mAh battery inside, I could get around 10 hours of battery life out of this gadget for screen-on time, and I could take a decent couple of days before expecting to connect it back to. Generally speaking, you shouldn't be baffled by battery life here as it was really great particularly for the size. What's more is that numerous customers wouldn't utilize the tablet each and every day for more than a couple of hours on end, so for a lot of clients the battery will last a long time in case you're simply lifting it up to use all over.

Benchmarks

This is a territory where the Tab 4 8 didn't do as such hot, however you need to recall that Lenovo didn't make this to smash benchmarks. It comes in at a value purpose of just shy of $130 and it has a passage level processor with just 2GB of RAM. Benchmarks additionally don't mean the world as despite the fact that the Tab 4 8 didn't get the best scores, it functioned truly well and the execution was better than average. In case you're intrigued you can see the aftereffects of the benchmarks in the exhibition of pictures just beneath, which will have screenshots from running the tablet through AnTuTu, Geekbench 4, and 3DMark for the designs.

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 146

Episode: Futari wa Precure Splash Star 47 - “A Sudden Twist!? Who’s Behind the Curtain?” Date watched: 27 July 2019 Original air date: 14 January 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/WeK3L86 Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

I can see through you, see to the real you

This episode is where things get real and all your expectations for the show are shattered. Akudaikaan is defeated, and in his place..... well, we’ll get to that.

The Plot

Akudaikaan is truly a force to be reckoned with. The combined strength of Cure Bright, Cure Windy, Michiru, and Kaoru has hurt him a tiny amount but really only been enough to anger him. However, his anger is causing Dark Fall itself to fall apart. The girls insist that if he’s going to use his hands to destroy everything, they’ll use their own to protect everything. Back in the Land of Greenery, a storm brews and Minori feels uneasy. Princess Filia recognizes that Akudaikaan’s evil power is spilling into their worlds, and we also see fairies in the various fountains looking unwell.

Bright and Windy try to fell the dark lord with their light and wind attacks but he’s too strong for them, and Michiru and Kaoru have to save them. While this is going on, Moop and Foop want to help but the Kiryuus explain that they don’t want them to get hurt, as they care about them now. The two sprites take the advice but decide to try to take the Fairy Carafe from Gohyaan, who is watching from a distance and doesn’t see them.

Akudaikaan mocks the girls’ efforts to defeat him, reiterating that he will destroy everything and all life should crumble, to which the girls all retaliate that it’s because life is fleeting that it has value. Akudaikaan doesn’t like them contradicting him and he prepares to destroy them with his strongest lightning attack. However, the girls vow to never give up, even when everything seems hopeless, and Bright and Windy perform Spiral Star Splash with Michiru and Kaoru joining in with their beam attack. The two attacks combine to counter the lightning, and they sit at a stalemate until light penetrates Dark Fall and the power of all the spirits, wishing and praying for the Precures to help them, powers them up, and they manage to best Akudaikaan, who falls to the ground. In the confusion, Gohyaan drops the Fairy Carafe and the Wind and Moon spirits grab it.

However, victory is short-lived, as Akudaikaan stands up, angrier than ever, with a giant hole in the middle of his chest, and yells that he will destroy everything: the Land of Fountains, the Land of Greenery, and even Dark Fall. Gohyaan tries to calm him down but he won’t be persuaded, so Gohyaan plays his trump card.

Gohyaan destroys Akudaikaan like it’s nothing, then turns around and reveals to the Precures and Kiryuus that he himself created Akudaikaan to destroy everything, then he was going to take over afterwards.Yes, Gohyaan, the sniveling little imp, is actually the final boss. He transforms into his true form, a muscular dragon-man.

He observes that Dark Fall is going to crumble regardless, so he transports all the combatants to the beach in the Land of Greenery, where he will destroy them and the world in one fell swoop. Thus, the episode ends with them facing off for the true final confrontation....

The Analysis

The reveal that Gohyaan is the true mastermind behind everything took me by surprise when I first watched this. There are very few hints along the way and they were easy to overlook, so I sincerely thought this would be another case where the girls have to fight a giant shadowy abomination like the first two FW shows. But nope, they beat him before the grand finale and the real final boss is Gohyaan, looking like a proper monster this time. I’m still impressed with this reveal, and that it’s been kept a relative secret for all these years. I was actively chatting with people who had already seen it when I first saw this show and they never let on that Akudaikaan wasn’t what he seemed. I don’t see it brought up much in the fandom, either. You would think that after 13 years it would be an open secret, like Darth Vader’s identity, but no, it’s still fairy under wraps. Obviously you can find the information if you go looking, but it hasn’t invaded the public consciousness of the series, which I think is fantastic for new fans who get to be genuinely surprised.

Physically, his transformation from the imp to the demon is really reminiscent of the show’s Dragon Ball connections.

It looks like Frieza or Cell transforming, with aspects of a Super Saiyan transformation thrown in. That kind of semi-grotesque body morphing, the angles, if you told me this was a cut DBZ villain I’d believe you.

So what hints WERE there? A lot of Gohyaan not seeming to care too much about pleasing Akudaikaan, his power level on the rare occasions that he did flex, Akudaikaan’s relative inactivity while Gohyaan did a lot of heavy lifting behind his back, that’s about all I’ve got. The revelation that the fire itself is his life force is, to the best of my recollection, not hinted at prior to this episode, and in fact I’d completely forgotten about it. Those are all the clues I can remember. As a small note, I find it funny and chilling how his demeanor changes after the gig is up. He acts less sniveling and is more straightforward in his speech, no longer referring to Akudaikaan with “-sama”.

The battle with Akudaikaan is intense as he’s brandishing lightning and all four girls are dodging and diving out of the way. We still have time for emotional beats, as Moop and Foop bond with Michiru and Kaoru. The sisters compare their relationship when they first met in the arid Fountain of the Sky to now, and it shows how they’ve managed to all grow closer to each other in a fairly short amount of time since Michiru and Kaoru were revived. I appreciate that they found time for this. Moop and Foop are now essentially partners with the Kiryuus, and that makes the sisters’ exclusion from the meta-franchise that much more damning. I appreciate how the sisters’ concern leads Moop and Foop to try to save them all by stealing the Carafe back from Gohyaan, which is a really clever plan. At the same time, I like how the support of the fairies leads to the sisters supporting the cures at their lowest point. They’re losing hope fast but Michiru and Kaoru remind them how out of character this is for them, and that snaps them out of their funk to reiterate that they will never give up.

I love hearing them all say this together.

The spirits from the various fountains praying and lending their energy is a nice way to bring this show full-circle. We haven’t seen most of these fountains in a long time but it re-iterates their gratefulness for the cures’ help, and what Princess Filia has been saying about strong beliefs turning into miracles.

Once again the animation is not up to par for the finale of a series. It’s better than the previous episode but there’s a lot of shots where the shading is minimal to nonexistent, detail is poor, faces are drawn off-model, and it’s generally of poor quality. Even some of the close-ups, which are usually safe, are spotty.

Imagine how much better this would be with better quality control.

This episode takes you on a roller coaster ride for sure, and I think it be setting up for the highest stakes finale we’ve yet seen. From Akudaikaan overpowering the girls, to them turning it around and defeating him with the help of all the spirits of the Land of Fountains, only for Gohyaan to reveal that Akudaikaan was just a tool he created to do his dirty work and he’s actually vastly more powerful than the entity they just defeated.... I’m on pins and needles, even though I’ve seen this before, and I can’t wait to continue. So look forward to the next one!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 Zekkouchou Nari!