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precuredaily · 4 years

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Precure Daily Halloween Special 2019

Episodes: SPC 37, HaCha 37, GPP Movie, MPC 38-39, KKPC 37, HUG 38, STPC 37 Dates watched: 30-31 October 2019 Original air dates: Sunday in October 1-2 weeks before Halloween, 2011 & 2016-2018, and the Saturday of Halloween, 2015

Is that little girl in the witch hat dressed as Akko from Little Witch Academia in a nod to her seiyuu, Han Megumi, playing Hime or is this just a coincidence? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

You may remember the PCD Christmas Special I did last year, where I watched every Precure Christmas episode and compared them to each other, charting the common elements and evolution in how they handle the subject. Well, I really love Halloween, but for a while, Japan didn’t celebrate it. It only started to catch on in the late 2000s and into the 2010s, and so despite several episodes of Precure airing on or near Halloween night over the years, the first time it was brought up in the franchise wasn’t until 2011′s Suite Precure. You can read more about how it became acceptable to celebrate and the ways in which the Japanese people enjoy themselves in this article, but the important takeaways are that Halloween events are more about food and festivities, and trick-or-treating is a highly organized activity, no going door-to-door.

At this point in the shows, all extra heroines have been introduced and the team is usually on the cusp of acquiring a new powerup. The villains have suffered significant losses and are preparing to pull out some form of trump card (this will facilitate the team getting their new attack). Typically, the monster of the week will be made from a Jack O’Lantern or some other Halloween decoration. In more recent years there’s been a tendency to explain what Halloween is about, but they don’t always do this. The biggest draw of a Halloween episode, though, in my opinion, is getting to see the characters in costumes. I’m going to briefly run down each Halloween episode (or movie) and then compare common elements at the end.

Note: At the time of writing, I am about 6 episodes behind in Star Twinkle Precure, did not wish to skip ahead for the purposes of this article, and didn’t have the time to catch up. I will add my thoughts on STPC 38 at a later date, and I will announce when I have done this via a reblog to @pcd-status. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Star Twinkle section added 12 Nov. 2019

Suite Precure 37 - “Wakuwaku! Everyone Transforms for Halloween!” Original air date: 30 October 2011

With Mephisto freed of his brainwashing, Falsetto takes charge of Trio the Minor and leads an attack on the girls. Ako has decided to stay in the human world, and the older girls take her to a Halloween celebration to brighten her spirits. Ako isn’t really enjoying herself, but some younger kids rope her into playing with them and that brightens her up. When Trio the Minor turn a pumpkin into a Negatone, they try to perform a new attack with Crescendo Tone: Precure Suite Session Ensemble Crescendo, but it falls apart, so Ako uses her invidual attacks while the older trio uses their group finisher. At the end, Falsetto sings an incomplete Melody of Sorrow to speed up Noise’s revival.

Costumes and references: Hibiki is dressed as a pirate, but specifically she resembles a genderbent Captain Marvelous, the red ranger from the contemporary Sentai series Gokaiger. Kanade is dressed as a pumpkin witch. Ellen is dressed as a black cat, an allusion to her true form, and Ako is a dressed as a princess, which she is. (not digging very deep for this)

HappinessCharge Precure 37 - “Big Bang, Defeated! An Unbelievably Strong Enemy Appears!” Original air date: 19 October 2014

Oresky, Namakelder, and Hosshiwa are all feeling weakened after taking the Happiness Big Bang attack, so Queen Mirage concludes they may not be useful to her anymore and prepares her next agent. Meanwhile in Pikarigaoka, Megumi encourages Blue to join them at the town’s Halloween festival, and he agrees. They all begin to share pumpkin cakes with each other, a local tradition. Seiji shares his with Megumi, Megumi eagerly shares hers with Blue, and the other girls look on from a distance as they recognize the love triangle unfolding in front of them. Oresky appears, trying to ruin the Halloween festival that makes people happy and attempting to prove his worth. He really wants to be the number one general in the Phantom Empire, as he feels that if he’s not first, he’s worthless and he doesn’t want to be replaced. The girls transform, and begin to persuade him that there’s enjoyment to be had in fun things, and it’s okay if you’re not first. They hit him with Happiness Big Bang and it begins to purify him, when suddenly an attack interrupts it. As the smoke clears, their new opponent is revealed to be a corrupted Cure Tender, Iona’s missing older sister.

Costumes and references: Megumi is wearing a Halloween-themed dress, orange with jack-o-lanterns on it. Hime is dressed as a princess, which much like with Ako, seems kind of low-effort since she’s an actual princess. Yuuko is dressed as a witch, and Iona is a fortune teller. Also, Blue is dressed as a vampire.

Go! Princess Precure: Go! Go!! Gorgeous Triple Feature Original release date: 31 October 2015

The Princess movie was experimental, being made of three shorter films: a chibi short with no dialog, a 50-minute traditional feature, and a 20-minute all CG adventure. The film leaned hard on its Halloween theming, with Pumpkins and Halloween being prominent motifs in all three parts. I’ll break them down individually.

Cure Flora and the Mysterious Mirror

This is a cute sketch where Cure Flora finds a fancy crown, puts it on, and accidentally startles some mischievous sprites on the other side of what she thinks is a mirror. They have the ability to transform, so they take on her appearance and mirror her, but they forget to duplicate the crown and eventually they begin to compete with the real Flora, doing tricks. She accidentally breaks the crown, so the sprites decide to transform into a special pumpkin outfit for her, just as the other girls come in. The 5-minute short uses a super deformed art style with all CG animation and has no dialog.

Costumes and references: Cure Flora’s pumpkin dress and hat.

The Pumpkin Kingdom’s Treasure

Haruka, Minami, Kirara, and Towa are transported to the wondrous Pumpkin Kingdom, where the royal chancellor Warp is hosting a Princess Contest to find a princess for the kingdom. Towa, being well-versed in evil schemes, smells a rat and is on edge. Haruka finds the true princess of the kingdom, Pumpururu, who is locked away, and learns that the Pumpkin King and Queen are under Warp’s control. Minami, Kirara, and Towa each win their rounds in the contest, but the former two are captured while Towa is able to avoid capture. Haruka participates, even managing to snap the monarchs out of the control. She transforms, frees the others from their capture, and Warp transforms to a giant monster. Pumpururu, the sprites, and the Precures’ strong feelings summon Halloween Dress Up Keys that the girls use to defeat Warp and save the Pumpkin Kingdom.

Costumes and references: The girls get special outfits to wear for the Princess Contest (not halloween themed), as well as Mode Elegant Halloween dresses that feature pumpkin flowers on them.

Precure and Leffy’s Wonder Night!

This is an episode-length feature using the CG animation style from the dance endings. Haruka discovers a doll on her desk, when she’s suddenly transported to the Pumpkingdom, already transformed, and the doll is now a girl named Leffy. Leffy tells the cures they need to defeat Night Pumpkin, who has taken over Pumpkingdom and stolen the daylight from them, making it always night. What follows is essentially an ongoing chase through the city to the top, where they fight and defeat Night Pumpkin and restore daylight to Pumpkingdom. Haruka is then transported back to her room, and the Leffy doll is gone. It’s worth noting that Leffy appeared as Pumpururu’s doll in the previous portion. The connection to this section of the film is unclear. Also, Minami, Kirara, and Towa do not appear in their civilian forms at all.

Costumes and references: Leffy isn’t overtly pumpkin themed, and nobody else gets any special forms in this one. However, there is a glorious moment where Flora accidentally bonks Night Pumpkin on the head.

a proud Precure tradition

Maho Girls Precure 38 - “Is it Sweet or Not? The Magic Pumpkin Festival!” Original air date: 23 October 2016

This isn’t explicitly a Halloween episode, because the Magic World doesn’t celebrate Halloween, but they have fall traditions that involve pumpkins and sweets so it counts. Their tradition is to chase a Pumpkin Bird that appears every year. It shoots candy from its mouth, and if it hits someone, they turn into a giant piece of candy. If you capture it, you get a special prize. One of the villains brings up the actually valid point that the creature may not like being chased and that’s why it runs, but Mofurun talks to it and finds out it just has a cavity. The girls transform into Topaz Style to fight Shakince in a creatively silly battle. When they beat him, Mofurun gets the credit for “capturing” the Pumpkin Bird and so she gets presented with its prize, which turns out to be a seed that grows into a tree which sprouts toothbrushes. I am not making that up.

Costumes and references: Mofurun gets a special orange and yellow dress to wear when she receives the prize but it’s never shown in closeup from the front. Also, there is a cameo appearance by Watanabe Mayu, who sings the insert song for the Maho Girls Movie that was in theaters around this time, and also served as the ending theme for episodes 38 and 39 (only on the TV version, on home release they use “Magic a la Domo”). She makes a special appearance as herself. Even better, in a flashback, she’s seen beside giant statues of Mipple and Mepple.

Maho Girls Precure 39 - “This is Halloween! Everyone, Smile!” Original air date: 30 October 2016

The girls from magic school come to visit the non-magic world and learn about Halloween! But Jun, Kay, and Emily have to be reminded, even when things seem bad, to not use magic to help out. The students of the non-magic world are running a crepe stand and the magic world students decide to chip in, and after being scolded for using their powers, they learn how to do things the old-fashioned way and appreciate the value of hard work. In the middle of all of this, Ha-chan changes costumes almost every scene. Benigyo is extremely confused by all the Halloween festivities and doesn’t understand what the girls want when they tell her to stop ruining it. They never do give her a proper explanation, but she summons a Donyokubaaru that blows air and the girls have to transform to Sapphire form to fight it off. There’s a small plot point about Mirai’s grandmother recognizing the magic school Headmaster from her own youth. At the end of the episode, it’s implied that Liko’s father has made a big breakthrough about relations between the magic and non-magic worlds, and more ancient powers. Kind of a disjointed episode.

Costumes and references: Mirai is dressed as Mofurun, Liko is dressed as a cat in an orange and purple dress, Mofurun is dressed as Cure Miracle, Chikurun is dressed as a bunny, and Ha-chan is dressed as:

an alicorn

a sarcophagus

a mummy

a sphinx

a UFO

and a thunder god (Raijin)

And just a cool thing I noticed, the final stage for the ending dance was updated with a Halloween theme. I’m really curious why, since they replaced the ending with “The Right Way to Use Magic” in the initial television broadcast of this episode, and I don’t think the Halloween version was seen in any previous or subsequent episodes.

Kirakira Precure a la Mode 37 - “Salut! Ciel is Going Back to France!?” Original air date: 22 October 2017

Ciel’s old boss, Madame Solaine, finds her and tries to get her to come back to Paris and work for her there, feeling that Ciel’s talent is wasted in this small town. Not wanting to admit that she initially came searching for her brother, and that she’s got responsibilities as a Precure, she tries to demonstrate what she likes about Ichigozaoka. Everybody is worried that Ciel is going to leave, and even lowkey encouraging her to do what’s best for her career, but she wants to stay. Ultimately she wins Madame Solaine over with a dish inspired by Ichika’s cooking style. Elisio is the antagonist of this episode but I honestly found the battle to be completely irrelevant. The most notable point for the villains is that Grave makes some kind of discovery at the end of the episode.

Costumes and references: Their costumes here are modifications to their patisserie uniforms. Ichika is a jack o’lantern, Himari is an angel, Aoi is a devil, Yukari is a cat (of course), Akira is a vampire, and Ciel is a witch.

HUGtto! Precure 38 - “Charged with Happiness! Happy Halloween!” Original air date: 28 October 2018

Hagukumi town is going to be hosting a Halloween Party, with Papple’s business providing food and entertainment. Daigan is tasked with food prep, but he gets frustrated with a very delicate task, and a visit from Bishin has him questioning his loyalties. The girls are ready to hit the town, and have even prepared costumes for Harry and Hugtan. They made a lot of costumes for Hugtan, in fact, but Ruru detects that she doesn’t really like any of them, so they ask her what she wants to be, and she responds “Pwecyua!” They set to work making her a Precure costume in short order, but an Oshimaida attack secretly requested by Daigan threatens the party. The girls transform and make a show of it to keep people’s spirits high, finishing the monster off with Cheerful Attack. Papple knows that Daigan was responsible and chides him for defecting, even momentarily, and informs him that everybody loved his food. Up at Beauty Harry, the girls finish Hugtan’s costume and show her to Harry, who briefly has a flash of Cure Tomorrow.

Costumes and references: Hana is a witch, Saaya is a lolita devil, Homare is a cowgirl, Emiru and Ruru are pirates, Harry is a werewolf (because he’s.... hairy, IDK if that was the joke), and Hugtan is dressed as Cure Yell. Foreshadowing ahoy!

Star☆Twinkle Precure 37 - “Cryptids Will Win! The Halloween Costume Contest” Original air date: 21 October 2019

Mihoshi Town is having a Halloween costume contest with prizes for best group, so everybody brings their A-game. Except Yuni, she takes the chance to walk around in her true Rainbownian form. Everybody is having fun and the girls get to explain Halloween to Yuni and Lala. Unfortunately, Kappard is hanging around, reminiscing about what happened to his planet, and he doesn’t like the festivities. Everyone thinks he’s just dressed as a sexy kappa and they want pictures with him, which annoys him even more, so he steals one arguing couple’s imagination and goes on the attack. In an effort to guide him away from all the people and hide their identities, when the girls transform, they claim to be the Mihoshi Stars and do a full Sentai roll call, finally settling the debate over Milky and Cosmo’s color designations. (I was probably one of the last people to maintain that Milky was blue by this point, tbh) They lead him away from the festivities and then try to talk him down, but all he can say is he doesn’t believe different species can live in harmony, that Lala and Yuni are living a lie by celebrating Earth customs, and he doesn’t understand this holiday at all, so they defeat him and return to the festival. Elena wins prizes as part of two different groups, but Kappard is declared the overall winner. Too bad he’s MIA. This episode doesn’t do much for the plot, but it does give a little backstory to Kappard, as we see that his planet got destroyed by a non-native species monopolizing all of their natural resources. Considering what we see of Eyewan and Tenjou in the next few episodes, it’s possible we’re aiming to redeem the villains. Hard to tell with an ongoing show.

Costumes and references: Hikaru is a yeti, Lala is a tsuchinoko, Madoka is a cat, Elena is a flower (with her family) and a cat (with Madoka and Yuni), Yuni is herself, Fuwa is a sheep I guess, and Prunce is the Michelin Man (TELL ME I’M WRONG).

Analysis

Halloween episodes, unlike Christmas episodes, don’t have as much of a running theme. Halloween is more of a dressing than an opportunity to explore feelings. The placement of these episodes in the series means that things are usually starting to ramp up, but none of them features a major conflict. In a few episodes, the fight with the villains felt downright inconsequential, while it was more meaningful in others. There was a trend in more recent years to explain the origins of Halloween, as a gathering of spirits, but otherwise there aren’t as many identifiable patterns or shifts in patterns as there were in the Christmas episodes, it’s mostly been “this is Halloween, have fun.” The Go Princess movie had the opportunity to make the most of their halloween theme, but instead they just focused on pumpkins, pumpkins, and more pumpkins without really diving into what makes Halloween as a holiday special or significant. It’s an alright movie but it’s a sour note on an excellent series that knew what it was doing. HappinessCharge probably utilized Halloween the best as a setting, using some Halloween traditions to create romantic tension, and I appreciated Maho Girls’s attempt to create a Halloween-ish fall holiday for a fictional culture, and then also bringing those people in to explore our Halloween. Since it’s a newer holiday for Precure to work with, only getting regular exposure since 2014, we might see them figure out more ways to spin Halloween in the future. Honestly I hope so, and I’ll be here to write about it for you.

Happy Halloween, everybody, and look forward to more Yes 5 coming soon. Hopefully I’ll finish that by the end of the year. Hopefully. (yeah not likely)

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Suite Precure #HappinessCharge Precure #Go! Princess Precure #Maho Girls Precure #Kirakira Precure a la Mode #HUGtto! Precure #Star Twinkle Precure #PCD Halloween

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precuredaily · 5 years

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Precure Day 141

Film: Futari wa Precure Splash Star The Movie - Tick Tock! Escape in the Nick of Time! Date watched: 11 July 2019 Original release date: 9 December 2006 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/2vJnPUD (over 200 pictures, so enjoy!) Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

this is about the closest we get to a movie form

This movie really demonstrates what the series is capable of. The animation is gorgeous, fluid, and very dynamic. The fight scenes have the characters moving all over the place and the character expressions are wonderful. It’s going to be hard for me to go back to the series after this (although I do want to pick up the story of Michiru and Kaoru). There’s so much quality in this, it really proves what you can do with animation. But I’ll elaborate on my thoughts after I put them in context.

The Plot

Saki and Mai are planning to enter a karaoke contest, but Saki oversleeps and is almost two hours late meeting Mai, who has wandered into a nearby clock shop to wait. Saki is annoyed that she wasn't at the meeting point and hurries her along. They take a shortcut across a river, but are stopped by a strange man who inquires about a very old clock. They direct him to the shop they just came from and continue to the contest. However, at the registration desk they're told that they're too late to enter. They apologize and beg to be allowed in, and the staff relents and puts them in the last spot. Saki is happy that everything worked out but Mai reminds her that she was late and that they are only being allowed entry out of kindness. There's some friction developing but they both try to put their best foot forward and continue. They prepare silently in the dressing room, with Saki putting on a monkey kigurumi and Mai dressing as a poodle. Eventually it's their turn to perform, but seeing the crowd gives them massive stage fright and they freeze, silently begging for time to stop.

Then time stops. They take a moment to collect themselves and try to figure out what happened when they see two spirits land near them. They follow the spirits back to the clock shop, where they are transported to the Land of Clocks, and the spirits named Hours and Minutes explain that an evil man stopped the Infinite Clock. Surprise surprise, it's the man who stopped Saki and Mai earlier, who introduces himself as Sirloin from Dark Fall, and they transform into Precure and battle him. Unfortunately, he can keep up with the girls and he even tricks them into attacking each other before he sucks them and all the fairies into a maze.

When the girls regain consciousness they find they've been separated from Moop and Foop, and they argue over whether they should prioritize getting out of the maze or finding the fairies first. They wander around for a while but ultimately they get fed up with each other and Bloom storms off, only to come running back when she hears Egret getting attacked by an Uzainaa. By the time Bloom arrives, however, she can't find Egret, and the monster punches her back across the desert. It turns out Egret was actually nearby but she was trapped behind a disappearing door, unable to call out to her partner or do anything to get her attention before the door faded away and they were separated. Being separated causes their feelings and strength to waver and the two wind up detransforming.

They wallow in their doubt for a while but Hours and Minutes encourage them to make up with each other, so they each start looking for the other. Saki is yelling Mai's name, and Mai calls back, but their shouting attracts unexpected company: Moop and Foop with a bunch of clock spirits, and the Uzainaa, who swoops in to attack the girls. The monster stops them from transforming but they realize there is a double door on its head: the escape! Saki and Mai each jump to grab a handle, at great personal risk, and the Uzainaa dissolves as everybody is sucked out of the maze and lands back in front of the Infinite Clock, while Sirloin just looks confused.

He commends them for escaping before trying to crush them in a pillar of sand, but Saki and Mai finally come together, hold hands, and apologize to each other. They slowly begin to transform into Cure Bright and Cure Windy as they explain how much they value each other's friendship and declare how, when they're together, they can save everyone and there's nothing to be afraid of! They break free of the sand and fight Sirloin again, and this time they manage to break through his barriers and dodge his attacks, defeating him before embracing each other.... until he transforms into a giant red bull. He yells out that he wants to stop time so he can be alone, but the girls counter that life is more fun together and they won't let him destroy everyone's lives. They perform Spiral Star Splash as he fires his own beam of sand at them, but despite him seeming to have more power, Hours and Minutes contribute their energy, all the clock spirits give strength, and the Infinite Clock itself comes to life as the animals of the zodiac, carved into its border, shine and burst out to surround the Precures. They add their energy to the attack and then they charge Sirloin one by one while the girls yell that even if he's more powerful than them, when they're together, they can do anything, and that's why Pretty Cure is two people! All together they manage to finally destroy Sirloin, and restore the flow of time. The first credits roll past the screen as Hours and Minutes reaffirm their own friendship by holding hands like the Precures, and then Saki, Mai, and their fairies are all instantly transported back to the moment they left as time is fully restored. The music has stopped, so the MCs restart it and Saki and Mai dance to Ganbalance de Dance.

The Analysis

This movie is beautiful in every sense of the word. Beautifully animated. Beautifully written. Beautifully paced (okay maybe that could use a little work...). It shows the truest sense of what Splash Star can be, and that long, non-stock transformation while Saki and Mai talk out their feelings may be one of the best things ever put to film in this franchise. Interestingly, the upgrade in animation means there’s less use of spirit power, as Bloom and Egret fight much more physically than what we typically see in the series. And the motion! The first battle with Sirloin has everybody moving around extremely rapidly, with none of the lag that commonly plagues the show’s attempts at dynamic motion. The final battle is similarly spectacular, with the addition of some creative ways to use the moon and wind powers. Plus, the scene of all the zodiac animals coming out of the clock and aiding the Precures in their attack is really cool! Some of them are only represented very briefly, which makes me appreciate the effort all the more.

There are some moments of less than stellar animation and drawings but those shots are still on the level of an average TV episode.

I adore the message about two people coming together. Obviously, teamwork and partnership are at the root of Precure, but the movies especially give them a chance to shine a light on what it means and why. Despite Sirloin being stronger, the heroines are fighting together! Their bond is their strength, and when they aren’t perfect, when they can’t do something alone, they have help from each other, and help from everyone around them! That’s why Hours and Minutes lend their strength, and all the zodiac animals on the clock appear because of the power of their partnership. Their journey through the film cements this. They had a conflict, it weakened them, but even when they separated, when they were at their lowest, they still cared about each other and wanted to apologize, and that is where they started to rebound and become stronger, strong enough to defeat Sirloin.

I found the plot to be a little uneven. It’s similar to the second Max Heart film in broad strokes: the two girls have a disagreement that causes friction between them, which impacts their ability to fight, they are separated from each other but eventually reunite and make up, and with their resolve now stronger than ever, they overpower the villain, proving that their bond is strong enough to overcome any obstacle. The big differences between the two lie in the approach. MH2 began with a pretty minor offense and there was fairly equal blame to go around, while in Splash Star it’s pretty clear-cut that Saki’s extreme tardiness and subsequent lack of consideration for the burden she imposed on everybody else as a result is the problem, and Mai getting irritated at her for this is perfectly reasonable. It seems like the narrative wants you to say “Saki was late but Mai wasn’t where she was supposed to be so they’re both at fault” but I can’t really agree with that. This doesn’t break the movie, but it affects the perception of the resolution. Instead of Saki apologizing for being late and inconsiderate, they both apologize for their own faults. This is not bad, and it’s true that Mai has some issues to apologize for throughout the film, but treating the two as equal just.... doesn’t quite make sense to me. Saki was almost two hours late to meet Mai, which caused them to miss the deadline to sign up for the event that Saki wanted to do in the first place, and she gets pissy at Mai for not being at the exact meeting point when she finally shows up, and again when Mai reminds her that she inconvenienced the registration folks. Frankly she’s lucky Mai had confidence in her and didn’t just go home.

Additionally, the pacing feels a tad rushed in the middle. This movie is 50 minutes, the shortest of any Precure film period (the Go! Princess triple feature counts as one movie, fight me), when they’re normally about 70-75 minutes. They didn’t necessarily need another 20 minutes, but I think a further 10 minutes exploring the maze (especially separately) might have helped the resolution feel more earned. Them feeling remorseful almost immediately after they sit down and think about their fight makes sense, but have them work harder to reunite! Have them really desperate to find each other for that little bit longer, and it would be better to me.

That being said, there’s a particular sequence I like, when Saki and Mai are walloing in their doubts, they both flash back to the night they met as children at the carnival, but in each of their flashbacks, they are their current age looking down at the younger version of the other, who acts uncertain and runs away, visualizing their fear of separation.

There’s a bit of distortion, like a soft fisheye or something, that really sells the unease.

When I was first getting into Precure back in the early 2010s, the people I chatted with described the Splash Star film as exceptionally gay, and in particular were fond of describing the slow transformation as essentially an open declaration of love. Love is much less of an overt topic in this film compared to the Max Heart films, where Nagisa’s romantic frustrations were at least shown, or outright contributed to the plot. In this movie, Kazuya is only shown once, sitting in the audience with the rest of Mai’s family, and absolutely no allusion is made to Saki’s crush on him. However, is it there beneath the surface? All I can say is that it’s an understandable read of the film. The text of it treats them as good friends who care deeply for each other’s well being, and want to rectify their wrongs to each other. Fundamentally, that’s what love is, but they never quite spell it out to the audience for multiple reasons, so what you’re left with is subtext. After my MH2 review, I had a discussion with @punk-mahoucore who pointed out that the writers gave themselves plausible deniability about the intent of the romantic subtext in that film by the inclusion of a male love interest, so it’s interesting that they don’t even have that here. You can choose to see them as close friends, or as girlfriends, and there’s nothing but heteronormativity to really say you’re wrong.

Veering away from the heavy subjects, I have a few minor things that don’t merit paragraphs of discussion.... starting with Sirloin.

Okay, sure, the movie is probably not canon, because it’s hard to fit it into the quest to revive the Fountain of the Sun, but Sirloin flies in the face of Dark Fall’s objectives, since he wants to stop time for everyone, eternally, and this would undermine Akudaikaan’s rule. It makes much more sense for him to just be a rogue villain as he doesn’t fit in with Dark Fall thematically, aesthetically, or in motivation. I don’t know why they chose to do that. Also, it’s such a silly name, I legitimately laughed out loud the first time they said it in the movie. I wonder if it was meant to be a pun with a title, Sir Loin, like Miss Shitataare. As it stands it’s just a strange name until he reveals his bull form. Also he’s voiced by Aizen from Bleach so that’s neat.

Hours and Minutes are a fun batch of movie-only mascots. They’re a bunch of references in one: Hours is shorter than Minutes because the hour hand is shorter than the minute hand, they are a turtle and a rabbit respectively because turtles are slow (like the hour hand) and rabbits are fast (like the minute hand), and they also represent the fable of the tortoise and the hare. They manage to not be particularly annoying! In fact I really like them! They’ve got a fun dynamic, with Minutes being more sentimental while Hours is a bit more aggressive, but he’s nice at heart and very open about how much he cares about his partner in time. Also, they don’t speak with a vocal tic, a rarity for fairies in this franchise, and that’s a plus. They’re brought to life by a couple of veteran seiyuu, Tarako as minutes and Kikuchi Misami as Hours.

The Land of Clocks itself is a pretty interesting place. It’s got lots of rock formations with various rocks shaped like numbers just scattered about, as well as grassy fields with lots of clocks laying there. The Infinite Clock is a giant hourglass inside aperture, with some gearing and weights. The disc that it’s in is shown to have illustrations of the zodiac animals on it, although the reason for this is never made clear.

Saki and Mai also get some really lovely outfits for this movie. Saki has a yellow belted dress or coat that has rolled-up sleeves and her cat emblem on the left hem of the skirt, with a pink long-sleeve shirt underneath, and she’s wearing dark gray pants with tan boots. Mai’s attire is a light pink shoulder-cut sweater with a darker pink collar and waist, worn over a white button-down shirt. She wears a blue skirt with tan hose or leggings, light blue pumps, and white leg warmers with a blue bow at the top. They’re outfits that evoke cool weather, which makes sense as this movie was released in late fall/early winter.

I want to move on to the opening and ending. I really love how the opening wordlessly tells the story of how Saki is desperately running late and Mai patiently waits for her, and it also showcases just how gorgeous the animation is going to be in this film. Take a look!

vimeo

As cheesy as it is I’m especially fond of Saki rolling down that hill.

The ending, meanwhile, is “Ganbalance de Dance - Saki & Mai ver.” and while it plays in-universe, they don’t actually sing (weird for a karaoke contest), and most of the footage is external stuff. I do like the shots of Saki and Mai dancing with both of their alter egos, though, that’s pretty cool.

youtube

In conclusion, this movie is excellent. The Precure movies so far have all been strong. I don’t think it passes MH2 as my favorite movie but it’s a close second for sure. Some minor issues with pacing in the middle keep it from its full potential but it’s in the upper echelon of series films due to its strong characters and wonderful animation.

Finally, I want to note for the record that Kenta is present and has a few lines at the beginning of the film, but none of the other major cast members have any dialog. Mildly strange. Also, the judges for the karaoke contest are two real-world people: Uchiyae Yuka and Mukai Aki.

Uchiyae Yuka (on the left) sings the opening song, so her inclusion makes sense, but Mukai Aki has no involvement with Precure except for this part. I looked her up and she seems to be a TV actress and talk/variety show host from the late 80s and 90s, who has continued to make public appearances. I have no idea why they tapped her for this movie but I guess she fills the minor celebrity quota.

Next time we resume our normal activities. It’s Kintolesky and Dorodoron’s turn to attack, and Michiru and Kaoru get to celebrate their reunion with their friends! Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1 Zekkouchou Nari!

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Futari wa Precure Splash Star #FWPCSSMV #PCD141

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