#ypc5

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.

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!