Pretty Cure Max Heart Review
I fear if I say anything here, I'll just end up repeating myself several times over during the rest of it. However, here we are, the first series review of Wave 2! Unfortunately it's not a good one.
Dare I say and open this with, that for the most part, I regret watching this as the damage it does do Futari Wa is not an understatement.
Let's be fair though, it does have a few plus points, like successfully pulling off a single group of villains for the whole series, despite the villains getting no power ups or changes through out.
Max Heart biggest plus though, is probably the relationship between Honoka, Nagisa and Hikari. Heck even bonds in general, Akane and Hikari, Hikari and Hikaru, the school clubs, general Senpai/Kouhai relationship; they all sit at different levels and they hold different importances and it does come across clearly.
Another plus point would be that it follows on smoothly from Futari Wa and we do literally end the series with having Honoka and Nagisa graduating, which is a really nice spot to wrap up; even if it could have done with some more nods or references to events prior as those past battles and experiences probably could have been helpful to overcome current ones.
On the other hand, nearly everything else and that's quite serious. It baffles the mind how a show could set a bar so high and then completely botch it up the second time around, instead of just doing what they did before? And if they thought they had, that may be even more confusing?
Plot threads that I can't quite tell if they got bored of or just flat out forgot about them? A cast size that got too big they couldn't manage them all effectively,Hikari and Hikaru, squandered, they should have had more focus, villains that did not get the explanation they deserved or needed, Dark King's revival being under whelming, Queen just being a thing who does little once again. Honoka with no storylines of her own and little solo screen time, a lover angle that hits a brick wall after spending nearly two whole series on it, it doesn't get a satisfying wrap up in anyway, no new attacks off Cure White or Cure Black? Shiny Luminous who only exists to occasional power up the finishers and really, the worst culprit, it is the Nagisa show; the flaws and follies of Futari Wa are gone, now everyone treats her and speaks about her as if she's the best thing since sliced bread. (っ- ‸ - ς)
Our big bad wasn't anything particular and we're just pinning it down to Precure miracles for most of the rest of the stuff. Is a shame though because fight choreography was on point a lot of the time in Max Heart.
(YES 5! Is somehow still worse though)
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Cure White/ Yukishiro Honoka
Honoka is here by default but is a shadow of her former self. Cure White was better in every regard in Futari Wa, in Max Heart she was rather forgotten, even worse than the second half of first series. Aside the science club, did she even have any storylines herself? I swear most of the time she was either being Black's cheerleader or being saved by Black, what happened to the grounded, strong willed, unrelenting, tirade giving, determined, awesome fight from Futari Wa? These two were better when they were on equal ground, they both shined better as characters.
Shiny Luminous / Kujou Hikari
I so much wanted to like you, you checked all the boxes to be something interesting and at no fault of your own, nada. Honestly, I don't know why the writers included her? They didn't care about her, this big plot point was an after thought, that faded into the background, who could do nothing for herself. There was just so much more that could have been explored and explained with her. Luminous/Hikari should have been the driving force of the story. I do like her design though, it's a nice middle ground of the two but I can only assume they went with pink because girls show.
Cure Black/ Misumi Nagisa
Where the mid-drift was something to be feared apparently? You had to know it was coming, good gravy, characters that take 90% of the spotlight do tend to get on my nerves and don't say she's the protagonist, this series is dual-tagonists/co-tagonists. For every two eps it felt Nagisa got, everyone else fought over one and the ironic thing is, she didn't really have any notable storylines. Her best one was probably her as Captain of the Lacrosse team, during the tournament season but the more you saw of her, the less favourable she became.
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Polun
Let's face it, once more Polun was the hero of the hour, again. However, out of all of them, he probably got the best treatment, he had definitely matured a bit and was taking on more responsibilities, with out leaning on Mepple and Mipple as much. It's unfortunate, that the suggested bit of a character arc, in learning to be a good big brother for Lulun never materialised.
Lulun
I've got nothing for her? The power up for Luminous, an odd little arc about wanting to protect others, especially Hikari? Was that suppose to be some tie in to the Queen? Lulun simply followed Polun around, while also giving him a taste of his own medicine and lived with Hikari. It felt like they wanted to give her a mini character arc but the series just had so many extra characters to tackle, they forgot just as many.
Mepple
A lot more tolerable with less screen time. While in Futari Wa it was easy to list his antics that made him so annoying, in Max Heart, he felt more like a second thought, being the chosen hero never really came up. Feeling more background filler is ironic, considering how much focus Nagisa had. Regardless, the screen time he usually did have, either had him trying to annoy Nagisa or getting annoyed at Polun again.
Mipple
There isn't a lot to be said about Mipple, it was easy to forget she was even there but when she did show up, she was very much the maternal figure, even more so than before. If anything, aside from worrying about Honoka, that may have been her only trait.
Heartiels
They were a mixed bag, some were quite snazzy, others gone in the blink of an eye, that they made no impression at all. They just started to feel like a chore or a plot thread they forgot about? Aside Seekun, the only other two you ever saw again were Inteligen and Wishun.
Although, impressively, despite their small size, they are all quite unique looking. I do like most of their designs but I think I'll give it to Pyuan for simply representing her trait best. (Bravun = Zelda is not lost on me)
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Best:
Circulas
The guy who took forever to learn the name of because he just didn't feel like sharing it, despite being the first to appear. He's the only one who makes sense and again, the bar isn't too high but still higher than the darn Seed trio from the end of Futari Wa. (Uranganos had a personality but was boring, Viblis has A,B,C but absolutely on idea why on any of them?) Outside that, I don't have much, his feuds with Black were usually fun to watch.
Baldez
The guy shows up, with the whole, oh no, he's the worst of the worst, gets wiped out in the ep he appears in, takes a limbo like vacation only to come back and do squat all but speak in riddles until the very end. Then, to top it all, he's still perceived to be the strongest of the four, has the gull to go and replace the Dark King and in the end, still folds like paper... seriously, what was the point of you that one of the other three couldn't have covered?
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⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ I jest not, this may be one of my fave attacks so far, well one for the list anyway.
It's just all the hand action and spinning, it really is quite a delight to watch; the girl should not be that skilled at baton twirling basically. The crouch as it slows down before pushing forward as the attack blasts out. It's a rare attack that doesn't get boring to watch, possibly because the full process was so rarely seen.
