dirt eater

The Kagawa/Umakoshi book on designing magical girls is getting a US release.

Yes hello I have discovered a new energy I like to call BCOE (Big “Carry On” Energy). It is called that because it sounds like this. 

(I’m tagging this as Precure just because a lot of Precure fans seem to be interested in this. Balala is “China’s Precure” after all.)

I posted images on my aesthetic blog and they have been getting some attention, so here is some info I’ve gathered about the series.

The title is 巴啦啦小魔仙: 魔法海萤堡 which roughly translates to Magic Sea Blast or Sea Glow Fort. I’m sure they will give it a better English title as most titles tend to sound clunky when directly translated (Like the last season, Over the Rainbow, it’s original title directly translates to “Flying over the color castle”.)

Mao Naxiya, the blue sting ray girl, appears to be the main character’s name (though don’t quote me on that as I am using google translate. Also characters tend to be given English in promo stuff and official subs names like Qiao Lin to Jessi.) and she uses a weapon called the “sea fire magic sword”.

The Pink jellyfish girl is Ling Haijun and the yellow starfish girl is Xia Fan. They use the Haiying Love Heart Magic Stick and the Haiying Heart Diamond Magic Stick respectively. 

Also, here is a new image released by Alpha Co. for International Teacher’s Day. Not much is different, just Naxiya is in a different pose.

The European adaptation of Idol x Senshi Miracle Tunes is coming out next month, though no exact premiere date yet. 

For those who don’t know, Miracle Tunes was originally a magical girl toku series that was originally released that year, and is the start of what Takara Tomy is calling their “Girls x Heroine series” (The second and current series in it being Mahou x Senshi MagiMajo Pures). Takara Tomy then teamed up with some Italian companies to adapt it for a western audience. The show is being filmed in English surprisingly, even though the only countries they announced releases for was some European countries (no mention of UK) and Latin America. 

Here is some general promotion stuff they’ve been showing. The buses are being used in some cities in either Italy or Spain (the series was filmed in Valencia). They also opened an official instagram page, though only making two posts so far.

Hasbro made a sneaky update to the Glitter Force website, now confirming they do own Glitter Force in some capacity.

Both the terms of use and privacy policy pages now mention Hasbro numerous times. Judging by some of the statements made, they may even finally make the site more than a splash page with just a logo on it, but we will have to wait and see. Now, it does still say “ TM & © 2018 Toei Animation Co. “ at the bottom of the page, but if Hasbro is running the website, it is at least some kind of co-ownership of the brand.

I’ll keep an eye on the site to see if they update it anymore. I may even email Hasbro to see what they can tell me about their ownership of the brand, if they can even say that much in this time.

Glitter Force Saban era: 2015-2017

Ok, so if guys have been following me for a while, you know I’ve been interested in the South Korean series “Flowering Heart” for a while, and that it recently received a dub that is being released on Youtube. I expected to like this show, but it has done something that really surprised me. 

(Note: Each FH episode is 10 minutes longer but ever episode is a 2-parter, so ’ll treat episode 5 “Diet of Despair” and episode 6 “True Beauty” as one episode for this post.)

Meet Juyeon. She classmate of the three main characters, and is overweight. During a scene in which the class is receiving school physicals, she is at first insecure over the perfect weight of the girl in front of her. She is then teased by the boys behind her. She then decides to run away, saying she’ll do it “later”, as this made her too scared to weigh herself in front of people. 

She later goes to the “Problem-solving Club”, run by the three main characters, asking for help dieting. She is seen to have serious self-worth issues when she sees the character Trump (yes, all the characters kept their original names and they didn’t change his. I’m sad too.) leave the PSC building. She then thinks to herself “why do people only like those who are good-looking?”. 

With help from the PSC, Juyeon later starts exercising with Min as her couch. This doesn’t last long, because Juyeon receives a bomb-shell. It is revealed Juyeon was dieting only to impress a boy she likes. It is revealed the boy needs to leave South Korea and move to New York, and Juyeon is devastated. The next day, she starts binge-eating out of despair. She is so ashamed she let herself do this she says she’s done dieting. 

As this is a magical girl series, Min (pictured above) transforms into a personal trainer to help convince Juyeon to not give up so easy. This is where the show started surprising me. They tell her she shouldn’t focus on dieting for a boy, she should be dieting for herself. After showing an exercise montage, Juyeon weighs herself. All of the girls congratulate her, Juyeon comments “but I only lost 2 and a half kilograms!”. The girls then tell her that’s fine. Dieting doesn’t happen overnight, and losing weight too fast can lead to even worse problems. They put a huge emphasis of pacing yourself.

And here is when the show got really good. 

Juyeon’s crush is leaving much earlier than expected. She feels she has not made enough progress in her diet, so she decides not to confess to him. They also show the extent of her bullying, and that the boys she likes was the only one sticking up for her.

Then, the obligatory magical girl mascot, Chess says this. 

“Who says somebody can only confess after succeeding on their diet! What’s important is her heart!”

Ari then transforms into a stylist to give Juyeon a confidence boost. They all comment on how pretty she is, despite having not lost any significant weight. Her beauty was there all along, she just wasn’t being confident in it. She confesses to the boy, and they agree to swap phone numbers so they can stay in touch. She didn’t need to lose weight, she just needed to love herself. 

Many dieting episodes have similar morals, but I have yet to see any executed like this. Juyeon is adorable, and I hope she becomes a recurring character as the show progresses.