Ah, you know what? Who cares. I’ve been looking for something to replace Ookami Kakushi with. I used to be a big fan of mahou shoujo, I blogged quite a few mahou shoujo in the past. Heck, even my favourite series ever can be considered as a mahou shoujo. It’s awesome to finally see another one that might actually be good, so I’m going to blog it. I can always drop it at the start of the spring season when it turns out to be too repetitive.
The thing with the shows that are currently airing is that while it’s below average in terms of nearly every genre, but there’s one genre that blossoms: the kids’ series. Marie & Gali is a great educational series, Kaidan Restaurant always delivers with simple but effective horror, Anymal Tantei Kiruminzoo has also gotten fun again, there’s Hanamaru Youchien and Kobato, where kids are very important characters, and now this series has appeared. It’s been ages since we’ve had this many actually good kids’ series.
So yeah, in these entries I’m going to try and explain why the heck I’m such a big fan of this genre. There are many aspects that can make a good mahou shoujo, but for me the key often was a vibrant cast of characters. Another obvious one is of course a continuous storyline, like in Mahou Shoujotai, Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club, Umi Monogatari, Nanoha and the latter half of Full Moon wo Sagashite, but even episodic they can be a lot of fun.
In a lot of cases, it’s really not about the premises. Take one of the most successful mahou shoujo out there: Futago Hime. Its premise is that it follows a bunch of twin princesses as they go on adventures and meet cute princes and princesses of other countries. It sounds completely ridiculous, but the good animation and fresh execution made it a very enjoyable series. Or Telepathy Shoujo Ran: an adventure series in which a bunch of telepathic kids solve mysteries. However, what made that series enjoyable was its characterization and chemistry that even made a number of downright stupid cases and mysteries really enjoyable. And then there is of course the archetype of good mahou shoujo: Cardcaptor Sakura which was a very enjoyable slice of life series, combined with its various adventures.
But yeah, the problem is that there are also a lot of bad mahou shoujo. Kamichama Karin, Saint October, Shugo Chara… they had no personality, were way too repetitive and lacked creativity. A big mistake I also see in bad shoujo series is too big of a focus on hot guys that try to be cool, rather than have a personality (I’m looking at you, mysterious guy who appeared out of nowhere in this episode: you’d better have a personality). A good mahou shoujo isn’t just a matter of adapting a manga and writing random adventure: you have to make them constantly fresh and enjoyable.
Anyway, about this episode: one thing that I also noticed about this series is how great the soundtrack is. Yasuharu Takanashi composed it, and some of his other include the soundtrack for Jigoku Shoujo, Toward the Terra, Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge and Mononoke. Awesomeness. I also liked that touch of having one of the previous Precures, being one of the lead characters grandmother.
In any case, what I like best about this series at this point is its wide variety of emotions throughout each episode, and how seemingly easy it manages to convey that. Now if you ask me, that’s the core of storytelling, whether you’ve talking about the incredibly complex Mouryou no Hako, or just a simple and fun mahou shoujo as the Seventh Precure series, which finally seems to have put more effort into its execution.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
