#pcd bonus

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:

Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! Ending 2: “Ganbalance de Dance ~Kibou no Relay~” (Relay of Hope) by Cure Quartet

Cure Quartet is a supergroup formed for this album comprising Gojo Mayumi, Uchiyae Yuka, Kudou Mayu, and Miyamoto Kanako. AKA all the theme song singers from the first 5 series. The B track on the single is a kind of medly/tribute to all the shows in honor of the 5th anniversary.

As usual it’s a catchy bop, this time with a little more of a full band sound to it. The animation consists of everyone doing the now-familiar dance in front of Natts House or other locations. The very first shot is the girls running out of the house and leaping into the air, wearing cheerleader uniforms. These are not seen again in this ending, or anywhere else in the show. It has always struck me as strange that they were designed and used for this one shot only.

There are no counting gags like in the previous few outros, everyone does their part and well. The moves are more or less the same as in previous Ganbalance de Dance renditions, which is to say, kind of silly. The lyrics are somewhat altered once again from the Y5 version, this time dropping any slightly negative causes from the preious version and going into full optimism. Essentially the lyrics say “keep your chin up and dance the ganbalance and everything will be okay!”

Halfway through, the girls all transform into their Cure forms and perform the rest of the dance that way. Real-time transformations are rare so it’s nice to have that here, for the remainder of the show.

While most of the dance moves are the same as ever, they simplify one step, where the characters face their backs to the audience during an instrumental transition. In the Splash Star version, the villains performed this step and were shown twisting one way and then the other. Here though, it’s just stills of the girls and fairies.

There’s some weird and funny scenes that don’t fully make much sense, like Mint and Aqua holding dishes containing bean jelly and lobster, though this is probably a reference to their questionable cooking abilities.

Also, that scene contains a brief shot of Jiya and Otaka, as well as two Cinq Lumiere students. I initially thought they were Kudou Mayu and Miyamoto Kanako, who got guest appearances in the show once last season, but they aren’t. Next I thought they might be student council members, but while the girl with pigtails resembles someone we’ve seen, I can’t find a match for the girl with straight dark har. She actually loosely resembles Honoka from FWPC, but most likely they’re just generic student designs.

Speaking of cameos, Masuko Mika appears in the ending for the first time! She’s trying to snap a picture of Lemonade and the other girls are confused/excited/upset at this.

When played at the 1080p of the blurays, the digital art looks a bit upscaled, while the CG roses used for scene transitions are extremely detailed. It’s a jarring contrast now that I’ve noticed it. Otherwise, the animation and art is good, perhaps not the best it could be, but fine quality for the remainder of the show.

The ending concludes with this nice group shot of everyone mugging the camera, it’s really fun.

The instrumentation in this one is a lot of light brass, strings, a piano, a rhythm guitar, and a drum kit. There’s a small saxophone solo in the full version. The flow is smooth and upbeat, and it feels more full than the previous versions of the song. The presence of four singers also helps this sensation. There are usually at least two people singing at the same time, with the others on backing vocals. Sometimes they’re all four singing the melody, and sometimes it’s just Miyamoto. However, I think it’s my least favorite at the same time. I liked the tune because of its simplicity, and making it a big composition takes away from that in my personal opinion.

Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! Opening: “Precure 5, Full Throttle GO GO!” by Kudou Mayu

Similar to its predecessor, this is an action song, but it’s a bit more whimsical and fantastical than the Yes 5 theme. It’s not lighter, but it evokes a different mood. As @sailorzombiestar​ described it, it screams “WE’RE BACK!” The instrumental composition is an electric guitar, violins, bass, a drum kit, piano, and brass. The full version of the song has some short one or two measure solos by each of the voice actresses for the main 5 and some instruments, like a trumpet and a guitar solo. The lyrics talk about the power of working together and how you can overcome any problem if you believe in yourself. The chorus says “I’m waiting for everyone’s help, so let’s move forward and shout together that we’re Precure 5 and our feelings are one!” which is nice and inspiring. 

The visuals are overall better than in the first series intro. There’s more unique and animated footage and less reused art from the series. While the Yes 5 intro had a build up to the title drop in the song, and therefore displaying the name of the show, in this one they sing and show it right away while the five main girls fade in from silhouettes in the background. After that, they do an interesting thing where they have all of the characters run past the camera, while the Precures are naturally first, Dream comes at the very end after Syrup, Coco, Nuts, Milk, and Kurumi/Milky Rose have been shown in order to transition to the next sequence. There’s not as much to show off each girl’s personality like there was in the Y5 intro, so they really are assuming you watched the last show. Following this, there’s some nice visual exposition by showing Flora crying, and in one of her tears is the Rose Pact. Later, there’s a scene of the cures raiding Eternal Headquarters, and a mysterious hooded figure representing the boss of Eternal is seen holding four orbs, each of which has the image of one of the four monarchs in it that the girls have to rescue over the course of the series.

Also there’s a really cool sequence where they flash between a bunch of still shots of the Precures appearing in the media, implying their existence is more widely known in this series. The first scene is a shot of Bunbee holding a newspaper, making him the only villain from this series to appear in the intro (the hooded figure above does not count). Another shot is from the journalism club, with the very strong implication that it’s Mika writing a piece on the cures, so it’s nice that she made it into the intro.

I don’t like it quite as much as the first series opening, but it’s another fun song and it’ll be good to experience for the next few months while I dig through this series.

Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! Ending 1: “Holding Hands Also Links our Hearts!!” by Kanako Miyamoto

Following in the grand tradition of Precure ending themes, this is another nonsense song. The lyrics are about holding hands to transmit energy and positivity and make each other laugh. The visuals align closely with this, and sometimes the girls lip-sync with what’s being said. They’re pretty much always acting out what’s being said. There’s some fun sight gags, like Karen coming in early on the first count-up (she’s supposed to be 5 but she comes in on 4 and both Urara and Komachi turn to look at her.) There’s a lot of floating heads in bubbles, and other times there’s a thick, colorful border surrounding the characters as they stand in front of generic backgrounds.

I caught a couple moments of particular closeness between Karen and Kurumi, as if the staff are really leaning into that pairing.

Instrumentally, it’s very heavy on the drum kit and electric guitar, with prominent brass cutting in again. There’s also a rubber piano providing harmony in the quiet parts. Other percussion like maracas can be heard at various points. At one point in the full version, there’s even a saxophone solo! The style is a very feel-good pop with lots of audience interaction.

It’s a catchy song, but I find it distinctly, maybe purposefully, non-memorable. Some Precure songs stick with me (Wonder Winter Yatta and H@ppy Together come to mind) while others are instantly forgotten when the show is over. It’s not a condemnation of the song or the work that went into it, but it doesn’t stick with me for very long at all. That being said, I think I prefer it over GoGo’s rendition of Ganbalance de Dance.

There are two things I find particularly interesting about the animation in both the opening and ending: first, Kurumi/Milky Rose is included here despite not appearing in the show until episode 11. They probably just didn’t want to re-animate these segments later to include her, lord knows all the Precure shows that have done this only half-ass it. The second thing is that they don’t reveal that Kurumi is actually Milk’s alter ego, which is definitely a big secret and I believe that isn’t properly revealed in the series until episode 14. (sorry for 12 year-old spoilers) They even go as far as to show Milk and Milky Rose together in that splash cards at the end of both songs, despite not showing off Coco, Nuts, and Syrup’s human forms at the same time as their fairy forms.

Yes! Precure 5 Opening 2: “Precure 5, Smile Go Go!” by Kudou Mayu

Second verse, same as the first. The only things they changed are adding Milk into a few shots and changing the attacks to be their new Symphony Set summons. Here’s some shots from the first opening, compared to the new one with Milk in it:

The Kowaina’s destruction was changed to be from Five Explosion rather than their individual attacks, and then the sequence from the first opening where a butterfly flies across the lunch table while they eat was changed to Milk chasing it through the library.

Yes! Precure 5 Ending 2: “Ganbalance de Dance~Yumemiru Kisekitachi~” (Dreaming Miracles) by Miyamoto Kanako

This is the big one. The second time, in as many years, that they have used “Ganbalance de Dance” as an ending. It’s completely remixed from Splash Star’s version and a lot of the lyrics are changed around as well. The meaning is the same, if you’re feeling down just dance a bit and you’ll destress and relax. I like the visuals, they keep Splash Star’s dance moves but spice them up a tad with the five girls. I appreciate them wearing their uniforms from Urara’s singing debut, they're nice outfits. The beat is light ska again, with bass, brass, and lots of clapping making up the instrumentation. Also a little light guitar thrown in the mix. The fairies cutting in as transitions is a nice little gag. Once again, like the first ending, the girls are in their civilian forms for most of the dance until the last chorus, where they dance as Cures, but the silhouettes in the background are still their civilian ones. SPEAKING OF WHICH I like the use of silhouettes here, they make for a neat background without a lot of work. One thing that’s lost from the Splash Star rendition is the villains dancing but.... let’s be honest, can you really see any of the Nightmare generals dancing? It wouldn’t fit. It’s a sacrifice that had to be made.

I love this little bit near the start when they’re counting up, because Karen’s face tells a whole story. Just look:

fun

surprise

hey

seriously?

Nozomi what

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the first episode with the new ending, episode 33, actually had an unfinished version in the first TV broadcast. Characters just froze where their animation was supposed to loop back, or a filter effect was supposed to be placed over them.

Episode 34 aired without an ending theme and episode 35 had the proper ending. On the blu ray copies I’m using, episode 33 has the fixed ending.

Futari wa Precure (2004)

Obviously, this is the show that kicked it all off. Toei made this two years after their highly popular Ojamajo Doremi series ended, with the gap year 2003 being filled with a non-magical girl shoujo anime called Ashita no Nadja. I don’t think they meant to start a franchise, and honestly I don’t think they even meant to make it a year-long show. The plot wraps up pretty nicely in episode 26: Nagisa and Honoka have defeated all the henchmen and the main villain and they can return to their normal lives, having become great friends along the way. However, it was popular and the merchandise sold well, so they continued it. At least that’s my theory, maybe it really was meant to be an annual show, but the back half feels extremely stagnant and not particularly connected to the first half. They changed the objective, changed the villains, and the animation quality went down the toilet.

Nonetheless, it established important concepts for this era: most obviously, the two-girl team. It’s in the title: “We Two are Pretty Cure” (there’s a reason you don’t see it translated much, lol) The two girls also come from different walks of life, and would probably not have much reason to interact if it weren’t for being Precure. This first season in particular establishes something of a yin-yang theme with the two. Short hair and long hair, sporty and scientific, middle class and upper class, black and white. While less prominent, this idea of girls from diverse backgrounds coming together will remain a theme well beyond the FW era, to the point where the current (as of this writing) team consists of two space aliens. A key element of the two-girl teams is that they have to transform together. They cannot operate as individuals; they are a pair and they are strongest when they work together. From a writing standpoint, this is an excellent idea that allows for a lot of scenarios that can test and strengthen their partnership.

Another big aspect of FWPC is the supporting cast that flesh out the world. Nagisa and Honoka have friends other than each other, who sometimes have their own story arcs despite not being the main characters. Shiho stands out from this series, as we saw her develop and explore an interest in theater, but possibly the unexpected breakout character was Odajima Yuka. I’m getting ahead of myself, because she didn’t really click with me until her single appearance in Max Heart, but that wouldn’t have been meaningful without her sporadic presence in this show. There are also a half dozen other characters who get a focus episode and then recur in the background throughout the show, and I love the consistency. The girls have love interests and we get to see them wrestle with their feelings. It all makes the girls feel more ordinary, despite their secret lives as superheroes. They have normal lives with normal problems. The girls aren’t the center of the universe, they just happen to be the focus of the show, and there are lots of other people that also inhabit it, going about their lives, whose paths sometimes cross with the main characters’.

FWPC established a bit of a trend for the villain faction: they were fronted by a big, giant monster of literal darkness and each of the subordinate generals has a portion of the macguffin. Each general had a gimmick in how they plotted and attacked, be it brute force, overwrought scheming, subterfuge, or infiltration. The inevitable result of this was that some villains felt more interesting than each other, of course. Pisard and Gekidrago were nothing but archetypes. Poisony had a personality, because she played off of her brother Kiriya, and he had his own arc where he learned to appreciate the good side of humanity. Ilkubo combines aspects of several of them, being extremely powerful and basically the Dark King’s right hand, but for all his gesturing he doesn’t amount to much. The Three Seeds of Darkness from the second half of the show have less going for them. They have personality quirks but they’re not particularly memorable as characters. A lot of their time was spent sitting around saying “We need to find the macguffin.” Their most interesting moment was when they realized that they would be consumed by the Dark King, and tried to betray him (unsuccessfully), otherwise they were just kind of there to pad out the series.

Aside from the down-to-earth nature of the characters and the world, the other biggest element that FW gives us, which the series became famous for, is the fighting. The show’s director, Nishio Daisuke, had recently come off of work on the Dragon Ball series, and he went into Precure with the mindset that “girls like action too.” The combat is physical, the girls kick and punch the monsters rather than fighting with magic wands or special attacks, except for the finisher. This set Precure apart from the crowd and I honestly think it was a big contributor to its early success. It offered little girls something they didn’t often get without branching out into the other Sunday morning offerings, which were targeted at boys. Nishio was good at directing action and he made the fights entertaining to watch.

The major failures of FWPC are some truncated character arcs. Kiriya deserved better than to be forgotten halfway through the series, only to come back as something of a guiding spirit at the end and then die an unsatisfying death. Yumiko (the lacrosse captain) was completely forgettable despite the show trying to make her a notable recurring character. Some of the early guest characters of the week had really lame reasons to exist, like Mayu (the girl who looked like Nagisa). The Seeds of Darkness were utterly lame villains so the second half of the show feels less compelling than the first half. Also, the ending is just kind of strange. Mipple, Mepple, and Porun go to sleep seemingly forever, and Nagisa and Honoka’s graduation feels bittersweet when they think about that and see a boy that looks like Kiriya. I’m still not sure if the ending was so sad because they knew the sequel was coming or despite it, so if it’s the former, it’s a strange choice that only kinda works if they knew that the audience knew that Max Heart would be starting the next week and all the sad stuff would be undone. If it’s the latter, then it’s a bold choice to have a downer ending that was undercut by the show’s own popularity. Either way, I don’t think it was effective given the direction Max Heart took. Without Max Heart I’d consider it strong, but I can’t ignore the effect of the sequel. Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

Futari wa Precure Max Heart (2005)

Max Heart is an interesting animal. As the sequel to a fairly closed-ended series, it has to invent a reason to exist and uh.... it doesn’t do that very well. The Dark King apparently attacked the Queen of Light before his defeat, and now a few months later she dies and splits into her life, heart, and 12 wills, each of which are marketable in their own way. It essentially turns into another Macguffin quest, but the girls aren’t even actively seeking out the Heartiels, they just come to them. And unlike FWPC’s quest which wrapped up in the first half of that show, they stretch this one out for the entire season, so it gets tiring. That’s my big criticism of MH, but it’s not all bad.

Nagisa and Honoka were enjoyable characters in the first season and I am beyond delighted to get to spend another year with them. This season sees them deepening their friendship as they deal with their new leadership positions in their clubs, offering advice to underclassmen who are struggling with issues they dealt with in the first season, and further exploring Nagisa’s romantic feelings. She finally confesses to Fuji-P at the end of the show, even if he doesn’t actually hear her and consequently nothing comes from it. Season 1 Nagisa would never have gotten that far. Honoka’s development is rather subdued. She learns how to be a good club leader, and in episode 17 she helps push the club out of safe territory for the sake of their passion, but there’s really not much else to be said. She acts as Nagisa’s life coach sometimes when she has anxiety about her future, and helps her confess to Fuji-P, but she really does take a backseat this season next to Hikari. With that said, let’s talk about Hikari!

Hikari is, of course, a new character for this show, and thus her character arc is the most prominent of the trio. She also has more room to grow, since she starts out as basically an empty shell. Even if she is the Queen’s Life, she fully develops into her own person with her own life, friends, interests, and personality. Her overall kindness is probably a side effect of the Queen but she’s still not the Queen. She goes to school, makes friends, gets a job, builds a family, and generally discovers the joy of life. She’s a really enjoyable character to follow, because her journey isn’t just friendship like Nagisa and Honoka’s was, but becoming human. The tragic irony of her character is that the more of an individual person she becomes, the closer the Queen’s resurrection is, which means losing Hikari, and by rights this should form the backbone of the show’s conflict, but they don’t really seem to get this until the last quarter. They raise the question periodically but they don’t give it the discussion it deserves, and that’s a major weakness of the series. They ignore the problem until they can’t anymore. If they had given the audience the sense that this was intentional, that they were actively ignoring the matter, then it could have been interesting. Unfortunately, we never get the sense that Nagisa and Honoka were deliberately ignoring the inevitable question, and it seemed more like they just didn’t care.

As Shiny Luminous, Hikari somewhat changes the team dynamic, but she’s also not just a third fighter like Black and White. She is less combative, except when she has to be, and instead her abilities are more support-oriented. She stays back and activates barriers, slows down the enemy’s movements, and powers up Black and White. Her lack of combat skills means that sometimes Black and White have to protect or save her during fights, which interrupts the flow of battle and can make the fights a bit more drawn out than in the first season. I appreciate what they were trying to do by adding Luminous, and I am not in any way calling her a bad addition to the team, but her particular skills aren’t a very good fit for the style of fights that this show was built on. A lot of times she hides away from fights instead of transforming, making her more vulnerable. It seems like the staff wrote themselves into a corner with that aspect of her, and weren’t sure how to properly utilize her abilities.

The villains in Max Heart are an odd bunch. They’re slightly more memorable than the Seeds of Darkness, but no more competent. Their fights are meaningless, because Baldez is the only one who understands what’s going on with Hikari and Hikaru and the Dark King’s resurrection, and he doesn’t explain anything to the other three, so sometimes they just straight up defy his orders because he hasn’t told them what their objective is. I’m fine with villain infighting but I want there to be a good reason, a clash of ideals or something, not just straight up lack of communication. They have personalities, but that doesn’t play into their fighting styles in any meaningful way. The most interesting thing about them is how they form a family around Hikaru, and try to nurture and protect him while he grows. It brings out the soft side in some of them at home, and causes them to lash out in anger if he comes in contact with the girls somehow. Watching how Hikaru grows and parallels Hikari’s growth was a nice subplot. I’ve never been certain if the audience was supposed to recognize that he was the Dark King’s life before they reveal it in the series, but I really hope they were. Hikaru goes from a carefree kid content with living in the manor to wanting to get out of the house and see more of the world, which leads him into contact with Hikari on a few occasions, spiking each of their innate powers. Since he’s younger, though, he never reaches Hikari’s level of emotional maturity, which actually makes him a little more tragic because he’s just a little kid who unknowingly hosts this great evil. He just wants to do his own thing. Fortunately, in the end he is able to have a life with Hikari and Akane, even after the Dark King is destroyed. Which brings me to.....

Baldez. The final arc where Baldez revives the Dark King and then reveals that he himself now has the power of the Dark King is a neat subversion on expectations. He was always the most mysterious villain of the bunch, he was absent for half of the series and when he was around he played his cards close to his chest. He encouraged Hikaru’s growth by stoking Hikari’s development, and got in the way of Uraganos, Circulas, and Viblis when they tried to defeat her outright. He was a large threat to the girls whenever he did appear, and in a lot of aspects he seems like a precursor to Gohyaan. Ultimately though I can’t say he left a big impression. Most of the time he sat around the mansion saying “They’re developing nicely, the Dark King’s revival is soon....” and rarely set foot on the battlefield. He had no personality to speak of, and didn’t answer to anybody, so he was just flat and boring.

The next thing I want to discuss about Max Heart are some continuing storylines. I discussed the evolution of Nagisa and Honoka’s characters, but their friends get some further development as well. Shiho comes to mind, of course. In the first season she flexed her creative muscles by directing the action version of Romeo and Juliet for the cultural festival. In the sequel she goes a step further, deciding that she wants to be a Hollywood movie director, and chooses to incorporate special effects into their school play. It’s not a lot, but since not a lot of the side characters even get a character arc, it sticks out. However, there’s one character from the first series who didn’t get much to work with who suddenly is a lot more interesting when she recurs in this season, and that is Odajima Yuka, which is especially surprising since she only appeared in one episode, but due to it, all her past appearances suddenly make more sense. This is the episode where she, as a high schooler, joins the middle school science and lacrosse teams on their annual retreat, and ends up challenging Nagisa in a game. She gets out there, works her hardest at a sport she’s never played, and goes toe to toe with the team’s star player. They never outright say this, but what Yuka needed was to be challenged, to compete against somebody at her level. In all of her encounters, Nagisa is the only person who can outrun her. Nagisa may be clumsy at times, but she excels at athletics and gives Yuka the challenge she craves. In fact I think Yuka even envied Nagisa’s laid-back lifestyle. It is remarkable to me that the writers brought her back for Max Heart at all, and saw fit to conclude her story. She was never an important character, but she was memorable, largely because of this season. Later seasons with more main characters tend to sideline their supporting cast, so it’s nice that a minor character gets this kind of focus.

Lastly, there was some attempt to develop Akane early on. There was a three episode arc where a man from her old job stopped by and the girls all thought he was trying to pull her back into an office job. In the end, she declined his offer but he was still interested in dating her. She seemed to take to the idea, and there had been some hints that she wanted to get married and have kids someday, but after this arc, her potential suitor was never seen again and nothing more ever came out of it, beyond her effectively adopting Hikari and Hikaru as her children. It would be interesting to see adult romance play out, even in the background. The first season had Ms. Yoshimi getting married but we never saw any of her life outside the classroom, so giving Akane a little bit more spotlight would have been nice. Sadly, this was not the direction the show took.

Max Heart also got the theatrical treatment, and the movies were honestly very good. Famously, it’s the only series to get two movies, because the first film was originally intended to be just a FWPC film. They share a premise of whisking the girls off to a different land to resolve a problem that the locals are having, and they have their friendship tested along the way before coming out as better and stronger friends than before, acquiring exclusive new forms to defeat the villains. These would become signature elements of all Precure movies.

As I said earlier, the ending to FWPC was very finite, and that was strange juxtaposed to the fact that there was an imminent second season. There’s some strange irony, then, that the finale to Max Heart, the final series that will ever follow this cast of characters, feels a lot more open. It ties off loose ends, of course, and Nagisa and Honoka graduate from middle school, but while it’s implied that Mepple and Mipple go to sleep again, and Hikari is gone after reviving the Queen, less than two minutes pass for the viewer before they find out she and Hikaru are living with Akane, and that all their fairies are awake and as energetic as ever. Even though there ultimately weren’t any shows with these characters, there is room for more. Could they have known what the franchise would become? Could they have had any idea that these characters would still be popular 15 years later?

Futari wa Precure Splash Star (2006)

Splash Star is of course the first full reboot. I don’t know why, maybe they didn’t think they could continue the story of Nagisa and Honoka into high school. Could’ve been neat, but I’ll save the “what ifs” for another time. It rebooted the series, and that set a precedent for shows to follow. It keeps the two girl dynamic of course, and the visual similarities are hard to ignore, but those are fairly superficial, and it manages to find its own identity while improving on the ideas of the prior shows. The theme of the show changes from yin and yang to nature, and that affects everything: the aesthetics of the heroines and villains, the objectives they fight for, and most especially the combat style.

Once again, one girl is athletic while the other has a more academic hobby. Saki has two major friends on the softball team where Nagisa had two major friends on the lacrosse team, but Mai’s companion in the art club is less notable than Yuriko was to Honoka. This time they attend a coed school, and their circle of friends includes a couple of boys, as well as another girl who isn’t a member of either of their teams. Splash Star does the best job at managing its recurring and ensemble cast out of these three seasons. Characters are introduced, have their focus episode, and continue to make notable appearances, often hanging out with the main characters. Kenta even helped Miyasako find a hobby outside of being a class representative. They keep the number of recurring characters lower than FW/MH, use them in better roles, and the result is that they’re better developed and remembered. The romance plots are less fleshed out than in FW, but that’s about the only drawback. Also, Saki and Mai’s relationship with each other is much more immediate. Nagisa and Honoka took a few episodes to warm up to each other and only really cemented their friendship after a big fight, but Saki and Mai are fast friends by the second episode, and all attempts by the villains to introduce discord just backfire because they have absolute trust in each other. 

The villains are also extremely fun and memorable. Whether you like them or not, they leave a distinct impression, much like the generals in the first half of FW. They have unique designs, quirky personalities, and at the end of the series we get to see them interact with each other. Karehaan was fairly straight-laced and I don’t like him much. Moerumba has a spicy personality, his problem is his short-sightedness. Dorodoron gets a laugh from me for being so timid. He might have been boring on his own, but he got to spitball with the Kiryuus, which helped him a lot. Miss Shitataare is powerful and cocky but completely inept. Kintolesky was easily my favorite of the lot, being honorable and straightforward and impeccably muscular. Aside from Karehaan’s overall blandness their biggest problem is not having enough cross talk with each other, with that being saved for their revival arc. Later shows do this a lot more often and better, thankfully.

Speaking of villains, however, Gohyaan stands out. He kind of serves multiple roles as both the comic relief of the villains, like the Zakenna Butlers, and as the right hand to the big bad. He spends most of his time sucking up to Akudaikaan, but occasionally he does go out on the field and demonstrates how powerful he actually is. His memorable personality and the twist where he reveals he’s the mastermind all make him a welcome addition. And just to reiterate, that twist had very minimal foreshadowing! Akudaikaan himself was the opposite, very not memorable, he’s blander than the Dark King, and that’s no easy feat. The most interesting thing about him is his physical design, as rather than being an amorphous blob like the Dark King, he has a defined face and a robe. His head resembles a Samurai helmet and a demon mask, and he has fire in his eyes. It’s a shame this theme didn’t really amount to anything.

Michiru and Kaoru’s redemption arc has to be the highlight of the show. The writers took some cues from Kiriya’s similar storyline in the first show but they gave the sisters a lot more time in the limelight, which allowed their characters to be better fleshed out. Over the course of the second quarter of the show, we get to see these girls go from a faux friendship with Saki and Mai into a legitimate one, because they actually listened and learned about the beauty of the natural world. They start to understand what it means to be cared for, to be appreciated for who you are, and not have your value be dependent on what you can provide for someone else. If more villains would take the time to see things from the perspective of the people they’re trying to defeat, they might also understand this, and truly some of them do. We’ll explore several types of redeemed villains in the shows to come, and I look forward to comparing and contrasting them with this. The biggest problem I have with the Kiryuus is that they were absent between episodes 25 and 41, and barely mentioned. Mai and Saki worried for them, and Miss Shitataare gave them hints that they were still alive, but it was sad to see them shoved aside for half the show with no particular explanation being given about what Gohyaan was doing with them. That’s my only major strike against Splash Star.

The fighting in the series is still punchy, but this time the spirits spice things up. There’s bursts of spirit energy whenever they kick and punch, they can concentrate the spirit power in certain parts of their bodies to jump farther, punch harder, and block attacks. As Bright and Windy they have elemental attacks using the light and wind. It’s an evolution of what the first series started, and I enjoy it. Finally, the victories feel meaningful, because every battle they get the reward of a Miracle Drop. Every seven episodes or so they collect enough drops to revive a fountain, and Princess Filia grows more and more complete. There is constant progress throughout the series, so even the slow parts of the show feel meaningful.

Of course, the series got a movie, and it was very similar to the prior two in overall plot: Tension arises between the two, they’re thrust into another world before they can resolve their feelings, the villain takes advantage of their personal conflict to overpower them, they get separated, then they make up with each other and come together stronger to defeat the villain. The closes they get to a movie form in this one is a glowing outline surrounded by the spirits of the zodiac, somewhat bucking the trend, but it’s an excellent movie. That really isn’t something I can say about all of them, so I’m grateful that these early films are so strong.

Splash Star has been described as the perfection of the Futari wa formula, and overall I have to agree. Of the three shows, it is the most consistent in all regards. There’s constant progression, character growth, meaningful supporting characters who you really sympathize with, and a fun and enjoyable cast of both heroes and villains. The first half of FWPC may be more fun, but the second half drags it down. Max Heart as a whole isn’t really sure where it wants to go. Splash Star sets a destination and arrives there at the right time, with some twists and turns along the way. I strongly recommend it to anyone trying to get into the series for the first time.

Unfortunately, despite Splash Star being arguably the best of the three seasons (both Eastern and Western fans ranked it above Max Heart), it tanked in sales after its first quarter, so it was decided that, if the franchise was going to continue, they needed a new look. Thus, they turned to the most enduringly popular magical girl series around for inspiration for their next season. But that’s a story for later.

Analysis

The most obvious shared elements between the three shows is the two-girl team, which they each used slightly differently. In FWPC, it’s the two of them against the world. That’s it. Max Heart switches things up with a third hero, who is not combative, but supports them, and they have to protect her at times, sidetracking their fights. Splash Star goes as far as to introduce two more fighters whose power stems from the darkness but they use it for good. They help the Cures out and the Cures help them out, but it’s Bloom and Egret at the core. The key aspect of this period of Precure is that the duo are regular girls who can only transform when they’re together, and that their powers become stronger when their feelings are in harmony. The shows each explore the pros and cons of this setup, concluding that their teamwork is the most powerful force in the word, and this is quite possibly the best thing to come out of this period of the series. The thing I especially like, however, is that being Pretty Cures means that the protagonists have an especially close bond with each other, moreso than their other friends. Since they have to transform and work together, they more intimately understand each other, and they share experiences their other friends will never know about. They look out for each other in every aspect of their daily lives, they have absolute trust in each other, and they will go through hell to protect each other. Pretty Cure’s most powerful weapon is friendship.

As far as their individual personalities go, Saki tends to be more optimistic than her counterpart. Nagisa is lovable and relatable as all heck, but she had kind of a pessimistic view of the world at times. It’s evident even in their catchphrases: Nagisa always says “I can’t believe this!” while Saki proclaims she’s “In top form!” Neither of them would ever hesitate to help a friend, and especially their partner, but during the daily grind Nagisa is more likely to be upset at her circumstances. Meanwhile, Honoka and Mai are even more dissimilar to each other. Honoka has a scientific mind, she’s very astute and good at picking up details. She kind of struggles with making friends but she tries to help people out, always, especially when they don’t want to help themselves. She puts up with a lot of crap but she will chew you out in the name of making you a better person. Mai, however, is observant but she tends to hyperfocus on one thing while drawing and space out a lot. She is a little timid but not afraid to express when she’s upset. Both Mai and Honoka serve to temper and balance out their more energetic partner, serving as the voice of reason when they get heated, and in general keeping them grounded. I love how, despite the differences in their friendships, both sets of partners help to round each other out and make each other better people. It’s a testament to what a good friend can do for you, and of course the central motif of the shows.

Consequently, other friendships form a big part of these shows, too. The small cast means that the girls have friends besides each other, and in each series we see how the protagonists influence their friends, their friends influence them, and we even get to see Hikari make new friends of her own. Again, all the shows handle this well, and it’s something that will be missed next season, since the larger team size means their friendships are more insular. Having friends outside the team grounds the shows in relatable situations as the protagonists go about their daily lives, hanging out with their friends who become beloved characters and get story arcs of their own. Shiho, Rina, Yuriko, Nao, Miu, Hitomi, Yuuko, Kenta, Miyasako, and Kayo are all memorable and important pillars of the shows. They encourage the leads when necessary, get into hijinks with them, explore their own interests, hang out, and have fun together. This also allows conflicts to be resolved without the Precure. In most superhero media the central conflict of the episode is between people’s feelings or beliefs rather than a physical altercation, but the fight usually resolves things somehow, while in Precure, since the combatants are often not the ones with a disagreement, it instead helps them figure out how to help their friends resolve their troubles.

Since these are the stories of regular girls dealing with regular adolescent issues, love is not a strange subject. Nagisa and Saki each had crushes on slightly older boys in their shows, and they handle it remarkably similarly. They get flustered, embarrassed, and have trouble even speaking to their partner about it. However, Honoka is shrewd enough to discern Nagisa’s feelings, while Mai never learns that Saki has a crush on her brother. The writers even approach their romances differently. Nagisa tends to be more proactive in exploring her feelings. She makes active efforts to make gifts for Fuji-P and confess her love to him, ultimately culminating in that fateful Max Heart Christmas episode where she yells it for all the world (but him) to hear. Meanwhile, Saki tended to just admire Kazuya from a distance, except when he came to her. She got jealous when it appeared he had a girlfriend, but she never acted on her affections in a direct way. I theorized that Fuji-P might actually suspect Nagisa’s feelings, and possibly share them, but he wants her to be ready to tell him. Meanwhile, as far as we can tell, while Kazuya finds Saki interesting, he doesn’t really see her as anything more than a friend. I like these different representations of young love, they show how much or how little of a priority it can have in someone’s life.

Famously, Honoka also got a brief pseudo-romance with Kiriya. She helped him grow as a person, he challenged some of her overbearing ways, but they clearly respected each other. She was distraught when he was taken back to the Dusk Zone, and that was one of the most heartfelt episodes in the entire series so far. There were echoes of his impact on her in the rest of the first series, but I never felt like they explored that story to its full potential, and he was not even mentioned in Max Heart. Mai never got a corresponding love interest, and Hikari’s love was more familial: for Nagisa and Honoka as her partners, for Akane as her guardian, and for Hikaru as the only person who could possibly understand her existential crisis. She learned about romantic love but never experienced it herself, which is fine. Girl has enough to worry about as it is.

The physical fighting pioneered in FWPC set the groundwork for the rest of the series, and you can see it slightly evolve over the course of these three shows. While FW is pure punching and kicking except for finishing moves, Max Heart introduces a character with support spells to help the team, and Splash Star gives the combat a bit of flair and style with the spirit trails and elemental attacks. Each show has carved out its own little niche, and I really think that’s one of the fascinating elements of the series. YPC5 will usher in special weapons, which are a genre staple that the original trilogy avoided. That will become standard for all series going forward, so these three shows with their almost entirely unarmed battles are a true highlight of early Precure to me. They manage to keep the fights interesting, always, it’s not just straightforward sparring. The girls do a lot of jumping around, flipping, fighting in sync with each other or tag-teaming. They always have to find weaknesses in monsters that are designed specifically to be hard to beat. Sometimes they’re fast, other times armored, or they’re heavily offensive, they have special abilities of their own, or the commander is threatening someone else. Always, the heroines find an innovative way to defeat their opponent and save the day in a visually exciting manner.

When it’s not showcasing awesome girls fighting for friendship and love, Precure is about selling toys. Bandai has a long history of designing toys to coincide with Toei’s Sunday morning shows, and they put their experience to work here. Nonetheless, they had some difficulty with the rather nondescript themes of the early shows, so the toys sometimes come across as very out-of-place. The transformation toys are generally cutesy enough to pass, the powerup braces stand out, the mid-season fairy’s compact forms are extremely gaudy (ESPECIALLY the Splash Commune, it’s literally just a computer in a show about nature), and the macguffin storage object of each show (Prism Hopish, Queen Chairect, Fairy Carafe) starts a proud Precure tradition of being a large, expensive toy first and a sacred artifact later. Additionally, there’s at least one object in each show that is Precure-branded merch in the real world which has no combat use and is forced into the plot of one episode before being quickly forgotten. As the years go on, the toys will be more unified with the theme of the show, and we’ll see some new patterns emerge.

One last element I realize that I forgot to bring up before now, but that becomes a franchise trend, is a trademark food and a restaurant of sorts. In FWPC and Max Heart, of course, their food of choice is takoyaki from Akane’s Tako Stand, where Hikari winds up working in Max Heart. Splash Star’s restaurant is Panpaka PAN, the Hyuuga family bakery, and their signature food is chocolate coronets. The restaurant or food stand is always a recurring location, where the girls and their friends often meet to talk and hang out and eat some delicious food. This is certainly not exclusive to Precure, or even the magical girl genre, as having recurring locations saves on the budget, both in animation and live-action, and food is an easy way to get people to congregate. Nonetheless, it’s sort of brought up in Precure All Stars, and there’s some truly great food ahead of us, so I wanted to point out that the trend goes all the way to the start of the series.

Obviously, 2004′s Futari wa Precure wasn’t intended to kick off a franchise, so when it got popular they stuck to what they knew for the second season. I’m not sure why they didn’t take the Doremi approach and keep aging them up a year for more seasons, but perhaps they thought they had exhausted the storytelling potential of the original cast and realized that it had franchise potential if they followed the annual reboot model of other superhero shows. The biggest issues with the first two shows are pacing, which is fixed in Splash Star, and you can see them tweaking and refining the formula in other ways through the three shows as well. If I had to describe this era in a word, relative to the overall franchise, it would be innovative. While the two-girl partnership would take a break for a few years after this, these shows laid the foundation for plot structure, villain organization, toy integration, and combat that would be utilized and enhanced by the rest of the franchise, so it’s cool to trace the roots of many Precure conventions back to their origins. What began as a humble action show for girls meant to sell some toys got popular, and continued past its intended conclusion. It was even referenced in other pop culture of the time.

Powerpuff Girls Z (2006)

The series had gotten the attention of the masses and was a proven success. We got five memorable and lovable heroines, a bunch of beloved supporting characters, some wonderful villains, and even some welcoming food stands. Of course, there were bumps in the road. The series was still finding its footing during this period, and will continue to do so as we head into Yes 5, but without these three shows laying the groundwork for the franchise, I might not be here talking about it.

That’s my ode to the Futari Wa era of Precure, I hope you enjoyed it, I’m sorry that it took so long to get out. Look forward to Yes! Precure 5 reviews coming your way shortly, and remember:

Yes! Precure 5 Opening: “Precure 5, Smile Go Go!” by Kudou Mayu

It’s a catchy action song. It feels a bit more like the Max Heart theme than the Splash Star one, to draw a comparison. It’s dramatic and uptempo but not heavy or anything. The composition is guitar, piano, synth, drums, strings, and interestingly, a xylophone section in the middle (I actually did not notice this until just now, and I first watched this show back in 2009 I think so make of that what you will). Kudou Mayu will go on to perform the opening to 5 GoGo, the ending songs to Heartcatch, and the opening to Suite Precure in the future. I really enjoy the song, it sets the tone of the show nicely. The visuals aren’t spectacular, it’s a lot of showing off the girls one at a time in sequence (Nozomi, Rin, Urara, Komachi, Karen) or reverse sequence, some stock footage from the show, but it gives you a sense of their personalities and hobbies. Nozomi is a lovable goof, Rin is athletic, Urara has stage aspirations, Komachi wants to write, and Karen is wealthy and talented. Actually, her section is the least indicative of her dream in the show, but they may not have even had that planned out at the start. I like the transitions between them. It also gives you a quick look at the transformations, and the villains of the show, the Kowainaa. Cure Dream is briefly trapped by one but escapes and all the girls use their special attacks to defeat it. We see Coco and Nuts in both their human and mascot forms, making no secret of their identities well before Nuts actually gets introduced to the show. The lyrics are, dare I say, generically inspiring. They’re about deciding what you want to do when you grow up, and transforming (metaphorically in the song but it corresponds to their literal transformation) into happiness, fighting and doing your best at everything no matter the odds.

I REALLY like this bit where the show’s title card comes up and as they sing out the title, the characters fill in and the scene goes from night to day.

It’s a lively song that’s going to be fun to listen to for the next few months.

Yes! Precure 5 Ending 1: “ Kirakira Shichatte My True Love!“ by Kanako Miyamoto

As far as I can tell, the lyrics to this are pretty much nonsense, but hey, they’re nonsense lyrics set to a ska beat, so that’s a plus! The instrumentation is lots of brass and lots of guitars. Visually it focuses on the girls looking good and having fun, they aren’t seen in their cure outfits until the very last shot. Instead we get Nozomi waking up with bedhead, stills of the girls, and a loop of them walking. Coco and Nuts do their thing and that’s about it. I like the stills but it does all feel pretty generic. Precure endings haven’t been phenomenal up to this point, but they were starting to carve out an identity. The second ending is Ganbalance de Dance again so that’ll be nice when we get there. We’ve still got a bit to go before dance endings completely take over, so enjoy the oddness of early Precure trying to figure out its identity I guess.

Next time, I pretend I don’t know any of these characters yet as we get a ~mysterious encounter~ between a clumsy girl with twintails and a talking animal. Look forward to it!

This is the last bit of exclusively Splash Star-related media I’ll be covering. This 12 minute short film was released in IMAX theaters in July of 2006. I can’t find a more precise release date but date-wise it was around the Kiryuus’ face turn and continuity-wise it fits anywhere between episode 19 and 24, as the girls are in their summer school uniforms, Moop and Foop are not around, and they use the Twin Stream Splash finisher. Anyway, the reason they released this short film was to show off the latest 3D film technology (this was a couple years before Avatar really kickstarted the modern 3D cinema fad) so there’s a lot of exaggerated depth shots and objects coming straight towards the camera, which in 3D would look like they’re coming out of the screen right towards you. Presumably, Toei determined that it wasn’t in their interests to further pursue this technology, they didn’t make any other 3D movies until about 2008 or 2009, and the only other Precure 3D movie they made was a short All Stars film in 2011, which I will cover in due time. I’m not sure what the exact technology was they were trying to showcase, and maybe we’ll never know because the only home video release of this movie came 6 years after the fact and it was converted to 2D. If you’ve ever watched a gimmicky 3D movie that was downgraded to 2D you know the result is silly, and this is no exception. Thank goodness it’s short. But this preamble has gone on long enough so let’s dig in.

The Plot

The Seed of Hope has been spotted and poses a threat to Dark Fall’s mission, because it will spread more and more hope to people, so Akudaikaan tasks Gohyaan with tracking it down and destroying it. Gohyaan uses his own seed, the Seed of Despair, to find it. Meanwhile, Saki, Mai, Flappi, and Choppi are out and about when Flappi sprouts a bud on his head. He’s frustrated because it won’t come off, Saki is laughing at him, and Mai just wants to draw it instead of helping. Suddenly the Seed of Despair appears as a giant floating eyeand identifies the bud as the Seed of Hope. It quickly buries itself in the ground, sprouting a tree that sprouts a bunch of gremlins.

Saki and Mai transform and fight the plant monsters (they don’t call themselves Uzainaa, they only yell out “Zetsubou!” or “despair”) but there are too many of them and they run away. A giant Seed of Darkness pops out of the ground and swallows them whole and they fall through its guts (a dark cavern) in a sequence that was probably a lot better in 3D, before it spits them out and they fall through the rain into another dark chasm, where they’re bound by vines.

Gohyaan mocks them for having hope and wanting to do trivial things, saying the seed of despair will consume all their hope. The girls are weak but thinking about all the things they want to do, spending time with their friends and families and enjoying life, renews their motivation, and the sprout on Flappi’s head begins to bloom. A pair of giant claws reaches towards them from the dark but they’re powered up by the Seed of Hope and they manage to break its grip and the vines, and suddenly they’re standing on a cliff as a giant Uzainaa made of roots stretches out.

They jump and dodge for a bit but they quickly finish it off with Twin Stream Splash. The uzainaa dissipates into what appear to be spirits from the Fountain of Gold, but instead of a Miracle Drop in the middle it leaves the Seed of Darkness. Mai catches it and it glows and cracks open to reveal a flower, which flies off. Saki comments that it’s spreading hope now. Suddenly the flower on Flappi’s head also blooms into a large dandelion, going from flower to fluff, and then blowing away in the wind. The rest of the flower disappears from Flappi’s head and the girls comment that a lot of hope is now lowing out into the world, then Saki optimistically remarks that she’ll be in top form tomorrow too, and the credits roll.

The Analysis

This little short is trying to do a lot at once. It’s certainly not bad, but it’s not good either. The 3D effects are rarely overwhelming, especially since I can’t actually view it in 3D, but they do tend to be distracting enough that I was forcibly reminded that I was watching it in the wrong format. The biggest problem with this movie is that it was made for 3D IMAX but its only home video release was on a 2D DVD, six years after the fact. I can see high quality backgrounds that get shredded in the video encoding. The character models appear to be TV quality but the animation is fluid with some vibrant fight scenes. There is some ugly blending of cell and CG animation that doesn’t layer well and a lot of times these are also the gimmick shots that remind you it’s 3D, so it’s really jarring. The girls’ faces are frequently drawn off-model and that is also a little disconcerting. I assume this was put out in a bit of a rush so the budget was probably tight, but there were enough good quality shots that it’s more noticeable when something isn’t up to par.

The plot is kind of silly and doesn’t give you enough time to absorb the information before it rushes into the next setpiece. One moment the girls are fighting in the woods, then they’re falling down a bottomless tunnel, then they’re in the air, then they’re in a chasm, then they’re on a cliff. It all goes by so fast and the transitions don’t make much spacial sense as we aren’t shown how A turns into B. Again, a lot of the locations and camerawork are picked out to showcase the 3D effect, and it becomes obvious with just how much time is spent on certain shots. However, while it’s fast-paced, the simple story is given adequate build-up and resolution to not feel rushed. Bloom and Egret yelling about how they like the small things in life and being powered up by the hope of seeing their friends and family again is really sweet and tender and resonant.

I would have loved to see this movie in IMAX 3D to see if the effect of everything is better in that format, but as I can’t I have to try to imagine what it was like. Despite a lot of “in your face” shots, it was an enjoyable experience from start to finish and a good, short adventure with the girls. I can’t knock it for being experimental because it delivers on what it promises. All that to say, I liked it.

Next time on Precure Daily, it’s the long-awaited FWPC era overview! When will I have that out? Maybe by this time next week but I’m not making any promises. Look forward to it whenever, and hey, if you’re new here, take the time to look back at my older reviews. I’ve got 150 of them for you to digest so there’s plenty to keep you occupied.

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1 Zekkouchou Nari!