Tech Speaks

First off, yeah, I haven't been active at all on my blog. I pretty much don't do deep analyses these days for anything and that's because A. I'm more so busy with art and writing, that I don't really want to focus on just watching stuff and doing reviews, including stuff that I like unless I can something that others haven't said because I don't want to repeat what others have said. Though I will try to be a little more active if I have something to talk or deeply analyze something that maybe some people haven't said as much. And B. Life has been kicking my butt these past months. It wasn't until the end of January that I finally get a breather!

Anyway, lets get into this! My first thoughts for Kimi to Idol Precure was not very excited. I like idol anime like Aikatsu somewhat but for the most part, I just mostly enjoy the singing and dancing of the music videos and that's about it. I'm usually not that invested in the stories so.

With that being said, I did enjoy this series very much. Was it perfect? No. Was there that much development especially in the characters? No but for some reason, I didn't mind that with Kimi to Idol. I think after Wonderful Precure left us with some heavy stories, (And Kimi to with Kokoro's dad and Uta's grandma) I think having a fun series where it's just some cuteness, nothing too serious, was what we needed. I will say, yeah, after those heavy subjects, it didn't become nearly as serious as it started out but I was okay with that.

It was your standard Precure anime and I've faced way worse when it came to watching Kira Kira Precure and Happiness Charge Precure.

The characters were decent at least. Uta/Cure Idol is your typical happy go lucky cure. She's got a cute design in both civilian and cure design that's pleasing and cute. Her design definitely draws inspiration of other cures in the past like Cure Flora while still being her own thing.) Kokoro had a decent backstory and as someone who lost their mom not long ago, the story with her dad hit close to home and naturally I balled over that. She's certainly interesting, though her song I like the least. Her song isn't bad, I just prefer the others over hers.

I even liked Cure Wink and that's a miracle when I like or find the Blue Cure interesting! That's a feat given how I feel about Blue Cures usually. (Go read my "Are Blue Cures Boring or Is It Just Me" ) She wasn't the most developed and upon seeing her, I immediately thought she was gonna be the most boring and surprisingly, her debut episode made me a fan almost instantly of her! She's kinda like Mashiro in a sense but still very much her own character. She didn't grow much sadly and there was hardly any episode involving her but I liked the episodes we got.

Of course, my main love was Cure Zukyoon which I ended up getting a keychain plush of. (with Kiss because even though I don't like her as much, they're still a duo and I like her design and I do appreciate her growth too. I just wished the others had the same growth and focus.) Zukyoon/Puriun is entertainingly an airhead but is so charming, I love it and I will also defend this hill that they are a non binary cure. Not straight up female! They're non binary! They even go by "they/them" in the subs. Not she or her, though I guess, it depends on the sub so please don't "at me". Zukyoon being non binary will forever remain my main head canon for this series!

Course, I do like Cure Kiss. She's not my favorite and I do agree, she may have had a little bit too much focus episodes. It feels like all the development went to her honestly and yeah...I wouldn't lie if I said that might have hinder my reason to like her, a little bit. Still not a terrible character. At least her behavior before was understandable and she grew out of her "Wanting her sissy all to herself" .

The rest of the cast is decent too. I like we got at least a temporary male cure in Cure Connect, though I do feel like Kaito's character was a little...lacking. (Satoru, how I miss the!) and his relationship with Kazuma was more interesting than his relationship with Idol/Uta, though I do find the relationship between Uta and Kaito sorta cute from what we got, I just think KazuKaito had more chemistry.

Animation was decent. I love the eyes they did. The music was good too! Probably one of the best and that's to be expected for an idol focused series with my favorites being Cure Wink's song and ZukyoonKiss' song (I'm lazy to look up titles XD)

The worst defense was the villain. Yeah, terrible design and boring backstory. Probably the worst villain I've seen in ages! She looks like that one neighbor that many people have that puts on way too much make up to make herself look younger but she looks ridiculous combined with the "old woman that yells at you to get off her property and leave her alone" (cuz that's literally her back story. She couldn't stand the noise! XD).

A side from that and overall, Kimi to Idol Precure was not a terrible series. It brought back fights and it felt like a standard Precure series that didn't break the mold but I think it wasn't trying to be. I feel like this was a break from trying a bunch of new things a side from them singing for their finishers and after what Hirogaru and Wonderful brought, it's welcoming. It wasn't crazy and I can understand if people felt like it was boring or not investing, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

I would give this a solid middle of 7 out of 10 stars. Not bad, not great but a solid series after two amazing series. Grab some plaid and make up and check it out if you haven't!

First off, I apologize for not being around so much. For a while I haven't been watching a whole lot of stuff so Precure has been the only thing besides Dragon Prince I had been seeing. Now, I've seen Hazbin Hotel and the new Avatar the Last Airbender live action series, so I'll review those later. That and I've been primary focused on art and story projects which is for the best anyway, but I still like to occasionally review things I find interesting. So reviews will be more so scattered once and while. So without further a due, let's begin with this review.

Hirogaru Sky is about Sora who comes from Skyland. She's training to be a hero and one day when she comes to the Kingdom of Skyland to complete her training and be one of the Azure Guards and become a hero. See, Captain Shalala rescued her once when she was little and that inspired to constantly train to become one, even at the risk of not having any friends. One day though, as she's coming to the kingdom, Princess Elle, the baby princess of the kingdom gets kidnapped and Sora tries to rescue her. She ends up on earth where she meets a girl named Mashiro and with the mysterious power Princess Elle (known as Elle-chan through out the series) has, Sora becomes Cure Sky, the first Blue Cure that's the main lead. Together with Mashiro who becomes Cure Prims, Tsubasa, a bird who can turn into a boy as Cure Wing, the first boy cure of the main team and Ageha, Mashiro's childhood friend and nursery school teacher in training as Cure Butterfly, the first official adult cure, they become Hirogaru (Hero Girl/Soaring) Sky Precure!

This series, I'm just gonna say right off the bat...is probably the best series to come out so far in a long time!

I know I tend say something along the lines of that, mainly because Kira Kira was such a disappointment to me at the time, though I do admit I might a bit too hard on Kira Kira at times. This honestly how I feel. The last series Delicious Party Precure kinda became boring for me after a while. The lore was okay, I liked Rosemary and how the male characters actually had important roles in that series which probably was what open the idea that male cures could really be a thing, but I didn't care for the other characters enough to be engaged with anything else. I even stopped watching for a while and just picked it back up afterwards once in a while because that's how much interest I was in it.

Hirogaru Sky surprised me with not only it's action but more so the laidback tone it has. It kinda focuses more so like a slice of life kinda series with action in it, than a standard Precure series, which you wouldn't expect from a series that's about "Hero Girls". I mean, don't get me wrong, there are slice of life moments in Precure but the main focus is fighting the evil thing and saving the kingdom. Here, we don't even know who the main villain is until the near end after a few generals defeated. The action stuff just comes as a climax to the end of each episode or almost each episode so the main focus is the life and times of these characters. They still do focus on important lore stuff but it's sprinkled in few and far between.

You would think this would make the series weaker but it honestly makes it unique and it works so well because the characters are so likeable and the pacing for the episodes are written for the most part pretty well.

Sora is not my favorite character. I guess for me it's the curse of the Blue Cures. I usually never find them as interesting or likeable but Sora isn't a bad character at all. I just think her friends are just a bit more interesting. She's honestly a good lead and fun to watch as she tries to understand the human world. It's not too over the top but goofy enough to enjoy. I'm also glad we finally got an athletic tomboy kinda girl as supposed to a very happy go lucky, girly girly that just happens to do sports well. It's what started the franchise after all with Nagisa/Cure Black, so it's nice they starred the first blue lead cure as an athletic tomboy as well.

Mashiro has got to be my favorite character in this and it's surprising because I didn't think I'd like her so much. She's very soft spoken but she's not exactly shy. She lacks confidence at first but she doesn't do it all the time to where it's a character trait. More so something that naturally happens with someone especially her age. She's kind but has her spicy moments and will even tell the general who's interrupting off (which is hilarious often that happens XD) and I overall love how she grows and develops. A prime example is when she gets her picture book she worked so hard on to make torn up by one of the generals as a desperate attempt to fall at the top general's better graces. Instead of believing his horrible words and being completely upset that her picture book got destroyed, she completely understands that the general is actually in grave danger of possibly being killed and wants to save him as she recognized that he was the one suffering the most. Which leads to what I will explain a little later.

Speaking of understanding characters that I didn't expect to like, Ageha would probably be next to Tsubasa for the second place of favorite characters. It's funny how when the first image of Cure Butterfly came out, most everyone including myself thought she was gonna be some diva with a snooty side. She can be one but that's not entirely the case and I'm glad. She wants to be the "Best Nursery School Teacher Ever" and to be that you gotta understand kids and boy does she understand kids! Not only full of energy but also patience and she stops to listen to what they want and need. She doesn't look down to kids (though somewhat with Tsubasa she does at least by calling him "boy" most of the time) and doesn't dismiss when a kid might be onto something important like most adults and even the other cures might. It's refreshing to see an adult character show this and it helps kids understand there are adults who will listen and it shows the importance of listening well listening to kids. Children may think stuff up but there are times where they do need to be taken into consideration especially if they're not known to make up stuff and lie.

When I found out that Cure Wing was gonna be a boy, I squealed so much I'm surprised my parents didn't come to see what was going on! I was sooo ecstatic to find out we were getting our first male cure to be a part of the team and I honestly was not disappointed when we finally got to meet Tsubasa! His debut as Cure Wing was amazing and again, I keep using this word but surprising! The fact he was willing to drop and fall to his doom just to help Elle-Chan escape was not what I was expecting and it was done so well! Then his debut came and went and it seemed like for a while he was pushed a side and became less interesting, partly due to Ageha.

Remember what I said that Ageha sorta looked down at Tsubasa somewhat? I feel like that's what happens. She calls him "Boy" instead of by his name which makes no sense to me. She calls the kids in the class she's training in by their names so why is Tsubasa any different? This leads to Tsubasa going from a very smart and very calm character to being really snippy and brass at times. I mean, he is a kid but he's not that much older than Sora and Mashiro. So I don't understand why Ageha treated him like that especially when she took some of the younger kids including Elle-Chan with a little more decency. Maybe she knew he needed to lighten up maybe but still she treated Mashiro and Sora with respect and decency to call them by their names.

When Ageha becomes Cure Butterfly, the dynamic becomes a little better. In fact, I became more interested in them as a duo than I was for Cure Sky and Cure Prims duo relationship. They got a good brother and sister dynamic and I like seeing how their friendship evolves. Tsubasa shines the best when the episode focuses on how smart he is such as his knowledge over air currents and different animals. It shows that while he is a kid, he's very smart and reliable. My favorite episodes are when they go to the vegetable garden with Yoyo and the airport episode where they help a lost girl.

Elle-Chan is pretty decent as a baby character. A lot of people are annoyed by her since she is a baby and they say she is pretty bland and I kinda agree/disagree. I like her as a baby and the few times we get her in grown form than I do as Cure Majesty. When she's Cure Majesty, it seems like she loses more personality. As Elle-Chan she does have a little more personality to her. I know that sounds weird, but hear me out.

Most of the time when we get a baby character, they don't grow. They just cry and well be a baby. They're not that aware of what goes on around them. Elle-Chan actually does grow. Now she doesn't learn her lessons like sharing and being friendly right away but she does come around. They show her growth in a tiny pace which feels more natural and she is more aware of what's going on around her, even to the point of wanting to help the people of Skyland during a dire need, even planning with the cures on how to brighten things up for her people.

Out of all the baby characters, she wasn't a bad one and was useful at times, not just because she's the power source and then a Cure but also just as herself and I liked that. Though, I do hope we don't get anymore babies for the cures to care for, least not for a long time. Much like everyone else, it does bother me they push that onto them.

Yoyo is a nice mentor character. She gives that nice wisdom to the Cures and it's interesting that she too is from Skyland and being Mashiro's grandmother, makes her Skyland decent! Which is really interesting!

Animation is great! I especially like the over the topic, almost cartoon super hero vibe when they do some of the punches! They did not mess around when giving us a fight scene!

Overall, Hirogaru Sky is an amazing addition and especially a great way to celebrate 20 years of Precure!