Some Random Stuff...

it has been like a month and I haven't heard of anyone who speaks English trying to translate anything in the Idol Complete Book because the world just doesn't want to educate itself I guess

Like I think Noah and Mio are a bit more of an interesting take on the whole "constantly reincarnating star-crossed lovers" thing because really, if you think about it, all of Xenoblade 3 is taking place in a virtual world. Because "it's a game", the idea of reincarnation feels more logical. The idea of residual thoughts and feelings remaining in the 'game code' and eventually resurfacing as something else feels a bit more believable than actual reincarnation.

also mio wasn't made to be noah's mother.

I do honestly like Xenoblade 3's plot a lot, even though it loses momentum in the last few chapters and goes kind of "random bullshit go, here are all the leftover character arcs we didn't have time to implement properly"

But if you think about it actually a lot of JRPGs end up doing this. including maybe most famously Xenogears itself. Really, especially if they're Square, but not just them.

Whereas perhaps uniquely Xenoblade 2 has the inverse problem. It has a really good ending, but the beginning is kind of the worst part. At least when it comes to awkward anime tropes. Like, 2 doesn't really 'get good' until you get to Indol, and then at that point the subtext and more serious themes start hitting you so hard you wonder if you were playing the same game.

I do actually have to play 1 fully instead of watching other playthroughs of it to really compare it to 2 and 3, but I feel like 1's story is a lot more...gameplay-first? Like things happen to introduce new Monado mechanics and it's not until the last few hours it unveils the Tetsuya Takahashi Bullshit (Affectionate)

anyway, Xenoblade Genesis sounds up my alley. Girl protagonist, I think the school setting is neat actually because school tropes can be a great way to slowly introduce you to a world. Might end up avoiding the issue of dumping too much on the player at once to the point it's hard to remember important worldbuilding details.

by process of elimination and looking back through the staff interviews I had amateurly machine translated

I think the rabbit boys transforming (in the TV show too) was producer Maki Takahashi's idea

Because both the director and the head writer didn't initially expect it to happen, and they were also both brought on after they had decided that the cast would consist of four girls

so it could have been like, Takahashi felt a bit disappointed they couldn't do the boy Cure, so decided they should let them transform at least once as a way to make up for that

she was also producer for Hirogaru Sky, and while Cure Wing was Washio's idea, clearly she was also okay with it

the year is 2026 and people on the internet will still say "yes it was good that they removed this biblical analogy or turned this character's name into something meaningless because it sounds better in English"

I feel like it's aimed at a slightly older market than Precure's usual target of 3-6?

Although the website still says it's recommended for 3+ (even Pretty Holic isn't that), they're small, elaborate and more than double the price of a typical gachapon. It feels like it's aiming more towards a market that 'values' a toy rather than young kids who don't care if they break something by playing too hard.

Plus they're in blind boxes, and blind boxes are a popular trend right now, especially the ones from China.

It's almost like it's aiming for an audience who cares about the looks of Precure toys, but not the actual 'toy' part of the toy because the play is often very childish.

I did see something that said Star Detective is trying to capture a slightly older demographic, and maybe Pretty Holic has always been part of that, but this feels like it's another step towards it too.

But hey, if you managed to get the green light to have Actually Precure in, you might as well use them, even if you don't get more specific than just using their likeness and catchphrases.

Do I care a lot about boys in Precure because I like the idea of breaking down gender boundaries and diversifying the cast

or do I care about them because I know they will always be supporting characters, and so it's more fun to watch to see if the staff throw them a bit of fanservice

after all, besides Yui, we do not have supporting cast characters who are girls. if a major character is a girl, they are going to be a precure. otherwise there is no reason for them to even exist.

whereas if you choose to make them a boy, we know they aren't going to be a main precure unless that's revealed from day 1 because there's no way bandai is going to give one of their later seasonal toy slots to a boy.

so it is like...it's like the boys are your oshi who you're 'supporting' because you know the plot by default won't give them as much love. so you're going to cheer them on hoping that somehow convinces the staff to make them a precure temporarily or something

Because if you think about it, they basically have the same dream - to be some kind of vague mature grown-up lady figure in the future, and do a variety of things aiming to get closer to that ideal. And their design as a Precure is basically them as that ideal.

So why do I really like Hugtto's plot but Go Princess's just doesn't vibe with me?

I keep thinking of reasons, but they don't feel like they stand up to scrutiny.

Like, 'being a mature adult is something anyone can achieve, but being a princess isn't something anyone can define and acknowledge' - but you could say the same thing for Hana's dream really, the only real difference is 'princess' has another literal meaning that you have to ignore because in Haruka's case it's more of a metaphor.

I guess it's like, Hana's dream is a bit more specific, whereas Haruka's story is more about the idea of having dreams themselves, no matter what they may be.

That the Princess Precure are these mysterious fairy-like figures who fight to protect the pure dreams of young children everywhere even if they're unrealistic or don't make sense. Whereas Hugtto Precure show up only if the future is in danger to save the world.

There's also the fact that a lot of the stuff Haruka tries to do in her episodes to become more like a princess are things I'm not really interested in. Like table manners, dress-making, dance. I'd be down for learning violin, but for Haruka it seems like it's more about the vibes of it looking elegant than actually wanting to express herself with music or something.

I did do ballet as a kid so maybe I did actually like stuff like that, but then again, when my mum was ill for a bit and couldn't take me to practice, I remember thinking "I enjoy having free time a lot more than doing ballet, so I don't want to go back". So maybe that was a sense of "I'll do it if it's part of a routine, but if I have other options I'd rather do those instead".

By comparison Hana's episodes have a lot more variety and are a lot less...gendered? They go to hardware stores, food markets, pools, bakeries, kindergartens, hospitals...and the plots for those episodes aren't really centered around Hana's dreams a lot of the time. That's more just another motivation for her.

so does haruka rub me the wrong way because she implies that you need to be into 'stereotypically girly things'? Or is it because her story is like 'we should protect the dreams of children especially if they're immature and don't make logical sense'? Is it too girly, or is it too infantile, is my question, I guess. My question to myself.

It could be both.

at least when it comes to weekly anime

we have to be honest here

when the first episode of You and Idol Precure was basically barely about idols and spent most of its time making gags about being extorted by Purirun and mistaking sumo wrestlers for Precure

the plot and support conversations going on about how Crests ruin people's lives because nobles try to pass them down and favour children who have them, meanwhile you're looking at ability sheets and saying "if I pair these two characters together, the combination of this Crest and this ability would make a great child unit"

Finding out that the children feature was inspired by racehorse breeding makes it feel like maybe Three Houses is a bit of a critique of that system.

That and the fact that it scraps the idea of the 'good and evil dragons', instead having the dragons as their own race who do the things they do because of trauma from being the survivors of genocide

like he just linked to an old hugtto interview when talking about how "the preproduction of a Precure series takes about 2 years"

I definitely want to read more hugtto interviews

It seems like (especially in comparison to the Murayama Star Detective interview they posted online today) Fumi Tsubota was very heavily involved in Hugtto's production and concepts. I'd heard that she was the reason behind Emiru's 'nano desu' manner of speech, but even Hana's design concept and backstory seemed to be her idea as well. That's not always the case with a series composer (head writer, not music).

At least, it doesn't seem like it.