Category: Heartcatch Precure

Well, so it happened: this episode confirmed the identity of the third Precure, even though it already has been obvious who she was going to be anyway. I really admire the way the creators ended up doing it, though. They chose for a very natural introduction instead of just forcing some convenient arc about the student council president.

It’s a shame that the entire design of this show is what revealed her identity: lead characters are pretty. That’s a cliche that even this series failed to avert. Ignoring that, though, this episode really introduced Potpourri to the student council president by sheer luck: they really just happened to bump into each other. No extra forced plot twist beyond the ones that the series already consists of were used.

In any case, this episode also showed that Tsubomi has joined the greenery club at school. This is really something that I notice with a lot of other bland lead characters in mostly mediocre series: characters like these really have no interests whatsoever. They’re bland because it’s not clear at all what they’ve been doing before their respective series starts. Heartcatch Precure however is the complete opposite: this essentially is Tsubomi, making the best out of her youth: trying out various hobbies, pursuing her own interests of flowers and fashion. The episodic format of this series is indeed somewhat forced, but it really makes excellent use of this format to give Tsubomi a taste of all these different hobbies.

Also, Kumojacky and the typhoon. I’m not exactly sure what’s so awesome about that, but the badass way in which he discovered his new technique: the typhoon punch, it just made this episode even better. Out of all three minions, this guy, with his pride and honour, is my favourite.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

I like this show. A lot. But I have mixed feelings about them dragging out the search for the next Precure.

I mean, I can see what the creators are trying to do: in the past two episodes, there has been no shallow hint whatsoever on the identity of this third person. The creators really tried to stay away from the formula that usually surrounds these kinds of tropes. (You know, everyone keeps looking, they can’t find anyone, and only at the last possible moments when the bad guys are about to beat up the lead characters does the mysterious character show herself). In this episode, Tsubomi and Erika were perfectly capable themselves in taking care of the Teacher’s fear of ghosts.

This is all fine and dandy… if it weren’t for the fact that it’s still pretty obvious on who the new main character is going to be. I mean, despite trying, it really made the mistake early on of giving this particular character character-designs that stand out, a mysterious introduction in the first episode, and quite a bit of background for a supposedly unimportant character.

So while I appreciate the series’ efforts, I’d rather just have it get things over with, because return we got a bunch of stupid antics from the three mascots that just went on and on as they sought out the new Precure. I know it was funny, I know it was great to see past characters back, but I also know that it was obnoxious.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Ohohoho, things are getting really interesting now: there’s going to be a third main character. I have a really good suspicion on who it’s going to be, but whoever it’s going to be, new main characters who show up half-way often have a great effect in terms of character development. Both for themselves, but also for the ones around them.

I also want to praise the creators for not giving any shallow hints towards this in prior: it really was this episode that dropped the bomb on a new character, so that the first half of the series would really focus on Tsubomi and Erika, instead of it becoming a sort of waiting exercise for this third character to appear.

Also, Dune has a boss. This is even more of a hint that we’re going to get him taken under the loop somewhere along the line. It does introduce the show to the “bad guy behind the shadows” syndrome, however. You know, those series that might have well developed mid-bosses, but very stereotypically evil end bosses who don’t end up doing anything until the final episode. It’s going to be interesting if this series manages to avoid this.

The main story of this episode wasn’t the best, nor the worst. It clearly was cut a bit short in favour of the third critter that appeared. It’s a nice story about being able to take criticism, but lacked the depth of the previous episodes.

And on a side-note: Kumojacky and Cobraja need to do that ambush trick more often, as it worked surprisingly well.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

To all of the fathers who happen to be readingh this blog: Happy Father’s day!

While this episode didn’t outright state this, it was without a doubt a father-themed episode. Erika’s father played a big role here (and we even got to see the point at which he met Erika’s mother! Yay for character development!), while the story of this episode was very much about a father-daughter relationship.

It was about the point at which kids are grown up, and ready to leave the house, combined with the sentiments that are involved. The father here was a typical farmer, who probably will be all alone as soon as his daughter, who found a nice boyfriend she wants to marry with, leaves the house. This episode consciously chose not to show anything about her fiancee, because that was not what this episode wanted to focus about. This wasn’t about a choice between love and family, but rather a story of growing up and realizing your own happiness.

The first half of this episode was seemingly pointless fluff, but the incredible amount of energy made it just as good to watch as the serious parts. Plus, we also got to know a lot more about Erika’s family as well, for example in the way that Erika taught her sister how to effectively cut up vegetables, or how Erika was somehow afraid of tomatoes.

It was also an excellent episode for Tsubomi to show her passion. This episode showed that she’s really interested in nature and flowers, but she also has this habit of completely getting engrossed into new hobbies that she never tried before. This episode turned her into a temporarily photographer as she was having fun with Erika’s father’s camera. It’s all done very naturally, I remember how as kid I also used to get really excited with the random hobbies, only to completely forget about most of them.

And on a side-note: I noticed that the creators were really playing around with Erika’s hairstyle in this episode. It’s great to see series that noticeably put effort into even the small details like that one.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

It’s as if the creators knew that episode 17 wasn’t as good as the others and thus used this episode to make up for it. Apart from being as charming as it ever was, the visual direction also was just awesome. You could really see that the creators were playing around with the formula a bit this time.

while it was of course awesome to see a Desatorian using Kumojacky as a paint brush (no, really), Kumojacky’s reaction to this was what made it priceless. The way in which he didn’t mind to be used as a brush to paint things with… I really wonder where the creators got that idea.

But the entire pacing of this episode was just fun and quirky, this episode again had such a wide variety of facial expressions and emotions through each other, it’s something that especially the earlier episodes of this series shined at, and it’s great to see that it’s back. And at the same time, ‘Ban-kun”s story was very charming. While not exactly a mother’s boy, this episode was more about being proud of what you want to do, rather than being honest to your mother. And at the same time it also didn’t pretend to have that black and white of a message, as there are definite disadvantages in his future compared to him becoming, say, a salary-man.

Also, I’m not exactly sure why the creators were purposefully stretching the sailor-moon-syndrome to its limits here. I mean, there were literal pages in which ban-kun drew Tsubomi and Erika in his manga, it makes no sense, but it’s a nice find. One thing I also loved about this episode was how supportive the two of them were for Ban-kun’s dreams.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Yay, more Cure Moonlight. This really was a build-up episode, meant to develop the relationship between her, Tsubomi and Erika. From now on we should probably see her more often.

The Desatorian of this episode was a bit less compared to the other episodes, though. He lacked the time due to this focus also on Cure Moonlight, and the conclusion was overly simplistic. This series is set up in such a way that being turned into a desatorian shouldn’t make you see the light, however the way in which the guy in this episode immediately realized what he had done wrong felt forced.

But ah well, there’s always next time. The parts that focused on Cure Moonlight rocked as ever, and even though the drawings of the baking family lacked a bit of inspiration, just about everything else in this episode looked again beautiful.
Rating: * (Good)

Perhaps one bit of criticism for this series would be about its battles. If Erika and Tsubomi have this all-finishing attack that returns Desatorians back to their original form, then why don’t they use it immediately? It’s also a bit formulaic that the bad guys always pick out a depressed kid that happens to be near our two lead characters. But still, those are just minor nitpicks. I’m happy enough with how this series has managed to breathe new life into the mahou shoujo-genre.

This episode was all about leadership. We get to see the captain of the school’s drama club versus Erika, the leader of the fashion club. This episode used this comparison to give a lot of depth to the drama club’s captain. The girl is very talented, and you can see that she’s a perfectionist when it comes to acting. As a leader however, she failed to take care of her team: make all of them feel appreciated, listening to them, et cetera. Erika in this episode shows how to do this well: she uses her energy to make everyone in the club comfortable: she cheers everyone on, gives hints and listens, and creates an overall great team spirit, even though her huge amount of energy takes a bit of getting used to.

Turning her into a Desatorian was also mostly necessary for her former teammates to see that she was willing to change. The girl very much knew that she screwed up, but her pride refused her to just go to her teammates and apologize.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ah, I’ve been waiting for this: the student council president returns. To have another episode devoted to her, she really turned into an incredibly charming character, and it looks like she’s going to make many reappearances after this, now that she’s also in the fashion club.

The first episode dedicated to her was mostly used to introduce the fat that she also likes cute stuff, despite her male appearance. This episode then perfectly uses this, and forces her to come to terms with them. Not because the bad guys suddenly pop up, but rather because of the energy of Tsubomi and Erika, who keep pushing her to join the fashion club now that they know that the president also has her feminine side.

Crucial was here her sick brother, who pretty much lead her to grow up as a strong boy in his place. It wasn’t mentioned in the first episode, but I do think that that was for the better. Because of that, this episode was able to add an extra layer to how the president grew up. I also loved how, despite the fact that her grandfather allowed her to grow up as a boy because of her brother, the creators wisely avoided going down the one-dimensional route by claiming that the martial-arts weren’t part of the president’s true characters. Instead, clothing and martial arts are something that she both enjoys, and chose to do herself.

Also, finally we get to see the red-haired guy a bit more involved with the battles. Usually they just stand around and turn people to desatorians, but here he actually tried to have some fun (not to mention that GIGANTIC CLIFF he created there. Will this return in the future episodes?). And again, this episode made no attempt to god-mode its regular kids: the president showed that she has the skills to bring someone down, but just throwing someone to the ground and expecting to hold him there when he’s twice as heavy as you… that ain’t gonna stop him.

The weak spot of this episode was that red-haired guy, who just got too little time to really show anything more about him other than “graugh I want to be accepted so I’ll just challenge you”. It was interesting that he of all things got turned into a desatorian, though. At the beginning of the episode I thought that the creators would try to use the president for this again.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Happy Mother’s Day everyone.

You know, I often dislike it when creators kill of a characters’ parent. It’s overdone, a cheap way to care about a character… ah, screw it. This show just surpassed itself. This was the best episodic story that Heartcatch Precure has shown us so far, and it pushed all of the right buttons. Screw cliches, there’s nothing wrong with them if used right!

It’s an awesome idea from the creator to make a mothers day special, because it really fits the main themes of this series (family) perfectly. The main focus of this episode this time fell on one of Tsubomi and Erika’s classmates, who has lost her mother a number of years ago (probably due to the birth of her younger sister). It’s really an episode about the loss of one’s parents, and how this forces her to take on responsibilities, even though she’d rather be playing around.

Shiku really was a strong girl for her age, but at the same time that went at the expense of her childhood. This episode was all about her, sorting out her own feelings about her mother. Her character-development was also handled really well: after she realized that she shouldn’t be so hard on herself, she really started experimenting with being a kid again, joining the fashion club. Speaking of which… this means that we’re going to see much more of her, right? This sounds very, very promising.

As for the bad guys… they intrigue me a bit. With the main theme of this show being family, it really hasn’t been reflected at all in those three grunts that always change people to desatorians and whose name I forgot. However… was it really a coincidence that that narcissistic one was walking around with a bouquet of flowers on MOTHER’S DAY? I mean, something tells me that that was a bit too much of a coincidence.
Rating: *** (Awesome)