User blog:StrangerAtaru/PreCure Rewatch - Futari 1-4

Bare with me here: this is a repost from my Rangerboard and sort of want to see if this catches on or not.

'ARIENAI TO WAKUWAKU MON DA (and everything else in between) A Pretty Cure Rewatch'

''It's amazing to see how the Cure love on RangerBoard has been exploding for a while now, to the point that I don't feel alone anymore when talking about the franchise. So with that said, I figured "since many probably didn't see me review them before and don't know where the reviews are, let's do it again"! So...as is, I've seen the franchise from Futari to Maho Girls, and it's been a few years for a few of them (and the weirdness of how I started the watch) so I figured I'll just start from Futari and see how far this watch will go (and for those who want to know: yes, KiraKira PreCure A La Mode is still coming towards the end of this year). So then...''

Futari wa Pretty Cure OP: The funny thing about the first ever opening to the franchise is, like the first ever series, it really feels nothing like a magical girl anime...at all. Sure you have the henshin devices, the fairies and the short skirts and midrifts, but it's really just an action anime with magical girls, not...a magical girl anime. Heck even the factor that Nagisa, the original pink, IS A BLACK AND NOT A PINK should alert you to that. The song is action-packed, the visuals are amazing (well the stuff like the classic scaffold leap and the Cure parts) and we get a good idea of two girls who aren't friends becoming friends visualized. My only problem: too much time trying to push Nagisa and Fuji-P...considering the way that ends, do we really need a lingering shot with his back to the camera while Nagisa walks by? If you compare this opening to what we get by at least the DX trilogy (my nickname for the definitive trilogy of Fresh/HeartCatch/Suite), it really just feels like...you have no idea it's the same show.

ED: Ministry of Silly Walks...seriously, that's all this ending is. Though at least it has contemplative moments...and oh yeah: OTHER CHARACTERS ASIDE FROM THE SHORT SKIRTED SUPERHEROINES DANCING IN CGI!!! (I get why Toei keeps doing it and this isn't even my favorite of the pre-dance endings, but seriously Toei at least give us one normal ending and then dance your heart out for the second one!) Heck, we even get all the Dark Five appearing...remember when villains mattered too!?

1: The opening episode of the entire franchise really does feel like the beginnings of the "Kuuga" of the entire PreCure franchise. No over the top towns and girls with wacky colored hair, no magical superweapons, no "they're all friends and then they all become superheroes"...it's just basically what happens when two random girls in the same class who barely know each other become a team to fight evil...and that's it. Sure it has moments that basically have become tropes in this franchise (the heroine being hit by their future fairy partner, the "leaping scene" which gets wackier and more over the top the later we go), but simplicity is key when you're basically playing with magical girl tropes such as making the beefy lacrosse playing tomboy as your hero and the science girl her partner. (and again: what I love about this is that it is playing with the typical tropes that magical girl anime seemed to have...tropes that seem to be hugged and embraced by so many later Cure seasons with just this, Splash Star and Suite defying them) I love we get the two have their own lives before the fairies fall into them, and I even love how they both end up in the same place at the same time; I even like how their first opponent, Pisard, ends up working: he senses the power when it activates and actually fights the Cures himself before just deciding to send out a MotW. Heck, considering how they utterly screw up later with the Dark Seeds "always being here until they're not", Pisard in that one shot in a crowd as a human sensing Mepple's arrival is way more telling of him blending in than anything done with the Dark Seeds and feels more like it was only ever done right again with Fresh and the main Labyrinth trio of Eas, Westar and Soular setting the shop up in town before the ferret showed up...well unless you count Happiness Charge but that was already in progress. Also, I really liked little things like Yuriko being there from the beginning too (I knew Shiho and Rina were but forgot Yuriko was in the opening pre-episode scene too) and even the part where Nagisa's brother ends up checking out the Commune and Mepple just saying and doing nothing so he thinks it's just a cell phone; that's smart and shows the realism instead of how everything has to be kept secrets...until not like later.

2: More or less more set-up and we get a lot of really weird moments in this episode; mainly during the fight with stuff like Honoka somehow having psychic powers during one point of the battle and the "Cure Shield" element when the two hold their hands together. We also get more on the whole "Garden of Light's fall" here, which gets weirder later but seems simple enough at this point: Dark Zone invades fairy world, Mepple and Mipple are thrown away until they reunite in Wakaba Town; with of course the Evil King wanting the power they have. We also get the weird "servant system" that they occasionally use in later seasons but they never really explain how it works (especially since once we get to the Garden of Light, they appear in the flesh) and silly stuff like the tiny footprint on the vacuum turned into a Zakenna. Oh but I do like stuff like the girls using friction and not the obvious super-strength to stop the crashing elevator with Shiho and Rina in it; plus just the unworldliness of the Evil King being chained up and needing the Prism Stones for immortality...on the other hand...Fuji-P...can we just skip to the end since I know how it ends...meh, fine.

3: I do like there's actual continuity in the "normal lives" element of the Cures even this early on, with this episode having Nagisa and Honoka working out a plan for their school trip (and the weirdness of not revealing Honoka's parents like it's some big deal or that Albert Einstein knockoff she idolizes) The interesting part is about Pisard, though, who is already on the clock with the Evil King stating "I have others" (the ones from the ending) and him trying to figure out how to deal with the Cures, ultimately actually abducting their teacher while disguised as a student teacher. With the big deal about the student teacher thing, I probably expected it to last longer than it did; but the factor that he created so many Zakenna at once just shows how powerful he is which for a first villain is supremely surprising. Also surprising: I know Yoshimi's VA later does Komachi/Mint in Yes! 5, but sometimes I hear Komachi and sometimes I hear her sister...then again Shiho is Milk/Kurumi/Milky Rose and I don't hear any similarities. (then again Shiho and Milk are vastly different...) Oh and the Principal and Vice-Principal show up here...two of the more amusing characters of the first season who add to the wackiness and aren't just "mystery characters of mystery who really do matter" like other seasons make their school relations.

4: For the fourth episode, we get a lot of weirdness and even a couple major story bombs here. The main focus is what was brought up last time with the trip to the art museum, which ends up having a bit too much focus on one of Nagisa's admirers, Mayu, who seems to be obsessed with an Italian artist from 100 years prior. The big reveal here is that we also have a bit of Einsteinian physics occurring between the Garden of Light and the Garden of Rainbows, when we find out that Mipple came to Earth a century ago (as depicted in that paining)...except, to Mepple, it was only a day had passed since they were separated in the Garden of Light! This leads to some important plot elements later on that actually make things more interesting regarding Mipple...oh and a stupid element but let's not think about it here. As if it didn't get surreal enough, we also get Pisard literally bringing paintings to life and turning everyone he meets into actual statues that die if you break them...yeah, he's that powerful but I also like he's sort of on the clock as we start meeting the others of the Dark Zone (mainly intros for Poisony, Kiriya and Iilkubo; there's also a fifth big guy...but we'll see more on him shortly) I find it weird this episode hypes up Mayu yet this is really her only appearance. (and it isn't like her VA is that important in the long run either, only really being a victim of the day in early HeartCatch) Oh...and Nagisa destroys public property.