Princess? She wants to be a princess? How lame! Why not be a prince instead?

I don't know if it's just a by-effect of airing directly after Happiness Charge but I thought ep 1 was really good. But just like you should never judge a book by it's cover you should never judge an anime by it's first ep.

There are several reasons to be cautiously optimistic and a couple to keep that optimism contained for now. The latter include 3DCG being back, excessive focus on toys being back (this started in Dokidoki, no? I don't remember Smile being that obnoxious about it), deliciously brown prince (I don't think I can take more lame romance after HaCha), lack of overarching theme yet again and a lame enemy general. PreCure is that much more enjoyable when enemy generals are cool.

Despite that I feel I can grow to like Haruka (who seems to have some personality unlike Megumi), they are trying several new interesting things (dorminatory setting, Haruka's best friend/roommate isn't a Cure), gokigenyou~, the transformation sequence was pretty (albeit worryingly lengthy), the projectiles are seemingly gone (thank God), the fight was nice.

For now I'll choose to stay optimistic. I'd really like PreCure to be enjoyable again.

Pretty nice first ep.
Getting some real maria-sama vibes from that school which is great.
Also looks like they've gone back to a more old school precure art style. Thank goodness too, last season was so simplistic and lazy looking.
The origin was a hell of a lot better than last season, it always bugged me how they just threw some marble randomly and the person it landed on became the main character. Really nice op/ed too.
3dcg isn't half bad these days it seems.
It stuck out a bit during the finisher, but it wasn't 'that' noticeable during other scenes.

I'm not sold just yet though, it's only the first ep in a year long series after all. Not to mention hacha wasn't too bad at it's start. we'll just have to see if it can hold up in the long run.

>>22027
>excessive focus on toys
yeah kinda stuck out how they showed the real life toys at the eye catch, all be it very quickly. Not sure how I feel about it.

>worryingly lengthy
I'm sure they'll trim it down latter and just use the full version sparingly. Pretty sure they've done it in the past.

It's Arisu wearing colored contacts!

>>22074
I wouldn't go that far.

>>22074
Which Arisu? There's like a billion.
You mean from doki?

>>22093

yes.

>>22074
>>22088
>>22093
>>22095

Sorry but I just don't see the resemblance. Aside fom hair color they look nothing alike to me.

We Utena now!

Although the Utena vibes were already ripe in ep 1.

Very good ep 2. Damn my hopes are up. This could be the breakthrough season where PreCure goes back to being good. Come on Toei.

I mean it's kinda disappointing that they defend the Hope Kingdom from DysDark lead by Dyspear (could you be any more generic?) and that the enemy generals are former KISS members. Moreover Minami seems a bit Mary Sue-ish but maybe she'll get fleshed out more later on. But I'm willing to forgive that much considering how much they got right so far.

The fights are still great. Where did Toei get the budget for this season? If this will keep up for a couple more eps the series might go back to Fresh levels of QUALITY.

I wonder if they'll keep the ballet thing going. Truth to be told I was hoping for a ballet-themed PreCure for a long while now.
Speaking of ballet, Haruno resembles Ahiru a bit if you squeeze hard enough (personality-wise). The way she looks up to Minami made me think of the Ahiru-Rue dynamic although Minami isn't much of a Rue.
Can't say I mind the least bit, if you want to follow the example of some older mahou shoujo shows Utena and Tutu is where it's at.

It's kinda interesting that Haruka addresses Minami using 'Minami-san'. Minami is a year older mind you. I thought the whole point of her being an upperclass(wo)man was changing the character dynamics in the series a bit but they are't paying that much attention to it so far.

>>22055

>Getting some real maria-sama vibes from that school which is great.

Too bad it's not an All Girls school, that would be interesting and they haven't done it before.

>I'm sure they'll trim it down latter and just use the full version sparingly. Pretty sure they've done it in the past.

For now they still haven't. Moreover Cure Mermaid's sequence is every bit as long - and every bit as pretty - as Flora's.

Legit spoiler ahead: Actually there will be a fourth Cure at some point in this season.

>>22107

the first xformation scene is always like that.
Once all 3 girls are introduced and get their full xformation scene, we'll get the group xformation scene which will be 1/3 the length of all 3 full xformations combined.

Otherwise, Flora fights with her legs splayed out wide too much to ever be considered a princess.

>>22111

>we'll get the group xformation scene which will be 1/3 the length of all 3 full xformations combined

I sincerly hope we won't because those always look beyond shit. The ideal solution would be a joint sequence like Suite but I'll settle for a good montage ala Smile. Split screen transformation sequences are cancer.

>>22107
>Too bad it's not an All Girls school

I didn't notice any guys in the first ep, but yeah hard to miss them in the second. such a shame too...

So far so good. As expected the animation quality took a dip this week but it wasn't that bad. We also managed to avoid the worst case scenario of a retarded split screen transformation sequence and for now we have a montage. Nowhere near as good as Smile's but hey, at least it's not split screen.

Not much to say about this week's ep but I'm glad they actually threw in a 'filler' ep right off the bat. Dokidoki and Happiness Charge tried to stick to plot and it certainly didn't work well for them; you can't expect good plot from PreCure. I prefer this episodic formula much better, it's a freaking monster of the week show.

Third Cure next week, looking forward to it~

>>22167
> As expected the animation quality took a dip this week but it wasn't that bad.


>We also managed to avoid the worst case scenario of a retarded split screen transformation sequence and for now we have a montage. Nowhere near as good as Smile's but hey, at least it's not split screen

I wouldn't judge the xformation scene until we get the actual 3-cure xformation that we'll be stuck with for the next 20+ episodes, which won't come around until the week after next at the earliest.

>>22171

Which is why I actually said 'for now'. I think it'll be a montage still but we'll see.
Too bad they have seemingly given up on joint transformation sequences, that'd look so much better than a montage. Oh well.

Is it just me or does the puppy remind anyone else of Kirari from Idolmaster?
I wonder if this is even just a coincidence since this season has a main character who's named Kirara and who just so happens to be an idol. Not to mention both anime started airing around the same time.

So, did that monster attack kill off more than half of the students or what?
Even when taking into account the space off screen, those numbers are way off.

Post edited on 20th Feb 2015, 8:34pm

Consume!

That seems like a pretty good reason to get cocky.

Still looking good. As expected Kirara is a fun character. I don't think we've had a girl like her before, either. Sure, there were some girls which were kinda selfish - like Erika or Hime - but none of them went 'I guess I could help... but I won't'. I hope the developments which will lead to her accepting her role as a PreCure will be handled well and won't feel asspull-y.

Man this brings me back...
must be a nod to the originals.

Not the first time there's been a character who turned the role down but still, She's something else.

Lot of people's dreams seem to involve trophies.

Wonder what would happen if they attacked someone without hopes or a dream, like the average /tc/er

>>22246

>I hope the developments which will lead to her accepting her role as a PreCure will be handled well and won't feel asspull-y.

Well, I've gotta say that I'm perfectly willing to accept 'I want to be with Haruharu!' as a very good reason.

>>22254

Makes me think of Fresh personally.

God I love the ED, it's easily one of the best ever in my opinion. OP is great too.

So they plan to teach them how to be good princesses using LesPad, interesting. I can't say I have anything against this idea.

Also that thing does legitimately cost 90k yen, goddamn. I never really paid much attention to the toys and I think this is the third series in a row which uses this kind of touchpad (?) - maybe they were always this expensive and I just didn't know. At the same time I feel that now I understand were they got the animation budget for this year's series.

Anyway, we're collecting keys for now. Good sign as this points to less plot focused, more episodic content. I'm very much okay with this.

On the other hand it's a damn shame Haruka's roommate gets no screentime at all. I was hoping she won't suffer from the Akkarin~ effect. But they might still bring her back, we just got past what I believe to be the final ep of the introductory phase. All the characters are around, we know what we're aiming for, episodic content is go. Hopefully.

Oh and we kept the montage transformation, no split screen bullshit. Thank God.

>>22383
I think the precure replica toys have always been expensive.

>>22384
electronics in general in Japan are expensive as hell. They are easily 2x MSRP of what they would be in America (this is including the sexy 120+ yen/dollar exchange rate), for the most part.

oh, and then licensing fees.

>>22383
>On the other hand it's a damn shame Haruka's roommate gets no screentime at all. I was hoping she

She has a name. Do you even remember what it is?

>>22385
You mean her name isn't Haruka's roommate?

>>22385

>She has a name.

Wait, she does?!

>>22383

>All the characters are around, we know what we're aiming for, episodic content is go.

Yep, looks like it's happening. In a way this means there might be less to talk about but I'm really glad we seem to be back to more 'classic' PreCure considering how poorly the last couple of seasons went.
The only thing I have to say about this ep that for me Minami playing tennis and Haruka playing soccer(/football) would've made more sense. Kirara felt like a basketball type to begin with.

Oh, and we had a bit of QUALITY this week but it's not that serious yet; it's not Fresh for sure.

If I remember correctly there was someone here who was really disappointed by how the ballerina aspect of the previous season was limited to just an attack. They surely must be loving this season.

>>22535

Eh, I'm glad they keep coming back to this every now and then but it's a short cameo each time. I'd really like to have a ballet themed season someday. The themes grow weaker with each season anyway and there's actually quite a bit they could still explore (I'm pretty surprised they still haven't done anything with sweets considering we're 12 seasons in).

>>22542
>The themes grow weaker each season
While that might have been true for the last few seasons, I think this one is pretty clear cut.

Uguu~

>>22543

Fair enough, it's just that 'princess(es)' is such a boring and uninsprired theme.

Oooh shit, You done fucked up now dawg!

Common This season is actually good, stop reminding me of those turds from before!

Shit sure got real. Can't believe they'd take an enemy out so early into the series.

I like how they introduce these things by using the real life toys.

She's hella cute, I hope we get to see a lot more of her in the future.

Finally managed to catch up after being forced to take a break for a while.

Well, the most interesting thing that happened lately is obviously ep 11. There's a lot that could be said about that one.

Like >>22834 said it's surprising that they'd 'eliminate' an enemy general this early in the series - the first quarter of the show isn't even over yet. Ep 10 made it clear that a showdown is bound to follow but it still felt off. This is surely the earliest they removed one of the generals since Futari/Splash Star, right? We had a dozen of generals in those two and I'm still not entirely confident it happened that early.
[In the end I decided to actually look it up. My 'gut feeling' (I'd rather trust that than my rusty memory) was right - in Futari the first general fell in the 11th ep as well. In Splash Star it was the 7th ep.]

I'm guessing they decided to do it this way to spice the series up a bit by diving it into a series of regular general battles like Futari/Splash Star. I don't think I like this approach; I prefer when they face off against the generals towards the end of the series. One other reason why they might've decided not to do it this time is that it makes the ending of the series feel really 'dense' - it's 4-5 weeks of constant fights except the generals and the big boss.

Another thing that's kinda interesting is that the first general to get defeated was linked with Pink PreCure. Normally the order would be reversed I'd say - Pink starts out as the 'weakest' (not necessarily literally) Cure and grows over the course of the series. Haruka fits this profile - she looks up to the reliable Minami and confident Kirara. Then again Close was defeated by the joint effort of the three so there's that. I'm not a fan of this approach either to be honest - it emphasizes teamwork and stuff but I prefer 1on1 showdowns. These haven't been very good since Heartcatch I'd argue.

And finally it's time to address the 'eliminated' part briefly. This always leaves me with some very ambivalent feelings - on one hand the evil gets punished and justice prevails, on the other you could say that the bad guy gets 'killed'. I prefer when they use a brainwashing scenario or one where some creature gets turned anthropomorphized and it gets 'purified' - and since close did end up transforming into some bird I was hoping for that solution. Too bad.

I was a bit surprised they decided to powerup the Cures this early as well - normally that'd happen midseason - but then I realize they haven't been using any wands so far so it's only natural. Gotta make the money somehow.

One other thing I've been thinking about is Minami's role in the show. I think it's a wasted opportunity. This is the first time we had a 'full time' older Cure. But it totally doesn't feel that way. Sure, she's mature and reliable but that's where it ends. Haruka doesn't even address her using 'senpai' (something that I found pretty surprising from the get-go). I was hoping for some senpai-kouhai dynamic to be honest. Maybe they decided not to employ that because Haruka is supposed to take over as the real leader later on but if that's the case why make Minami older at all? It's kind of counter-productive if anything - 'Minami is so mature and reliable... but she's a year older so that's fine'.
I think they should've started with just Minami and Haruka. Kirara is a fun character but she has no chemisty with Minami and doesn't seem to be as close to Haruka as Minami. In the end she feels a bit third wheel-y. Shame.

Overall there are a bunch of things that I found a tad disappointing - lack of senpai-kouhai dynamic, Kirara's third wheel role, enemy generals getting completely wiped out, no 1on1 showdowns with said generals and the fact that one of them is already gone. But all in all it's still a great season.

>>22915
>I prefer when they use a brainwashing scenario or one where some creature gets turned anthropomorphized and it gets 'purified'
agreed. I think turning bad people/things good is a much better message to send kids than simply killing anyone who gives you a hard time.

>>22915
>And finally it's time to address the 'eliminated' part briefly. This always leaves me with some very ambivalent feelings - on one hand the evil gets punished and justice prevails, on the other you could say that the bad guy gets 'killed'.

You missed the stoic sigh of regret as the feathers fall from the sky in such numbers that it resembles a goose flying through a helicopter's blades. Only without the chunks, just the absurd number of feathers absolutely EVERYWHERE.

Why, hello there Eas Seiren Regina.

I'm not sure how I feel about Haruharu picking up violin. She's already learning ballet. Trying to juggle too many things at once isn't good even when you're MC capable of achieving everything through willpower; she should focus on something.

>>22936
>even when you're MC capable of achieving everything through willpower
She's still incapable of achieving a decent looking hairstyle.

Jesus that Twilight sure is something.

Yes indeed, but it seems to me the more they point out this fact the more it feels like she's gonna get slapped by every branch in the ugly tree before this show is over.

Not really, but she looks a hell of a lot like Nozomi Yumehara. Maybe Haruka's dad should have a little chat with his wife and Nozomi's father.

Is it just me or does the design of her human form kinda seem more like that of a villain type character?

>>23152
I agree. Maybe we are just not used to dark sexy characters one of the good guys.

This is why anime girls aren't allowed to have noses.

>>23187
Goddamn jews

I wonder why~

Shabon Spraaay~

As for the dolphin thing, a dolphin saving a drowing human is probably not as retarded an idea as you might believe it to be. It happens from time to time, although not exactly in the way portrayed perhaps. Whether dolphins are aware of what they're doing and what's the real purpose behind their actions is something we probably won't figure out for decades. It's most likely not a 'concious' effort to actually save humans, though.

>>23190
Because her body's filled with midgets.

I thought she said she could only take that form in that VR type of place?

oh boy, here we go...

I know it's just temporary but dang that's a lazy costume design.

>>22934

Welp, here we go.

Shouldn't be hard to draw attention with lips like those. Holy shit.

>>22934

Well, that sure didn't take long. But damn, she's way more of an Eas than I thought she'd be.

Her new color scheme is disappointing, though. Her old silver-black-red one was way classier and cool looking.

This is so lame...

I'll miss you twilight!!!

Huge glowing red disembodied eyes in a deep dark scary forest tell her in a menacing voice they can make her a princess, and she walks right on in.
She deserved what happened.

How do you even sleep in something like that?

This please.

>>23463

Here
we
go.

She went full Eas. Then again the drama got sorta resolved in the second half so instead of having a full blown Eas Redemption Arc it might be kept to just these two eps.

New OP next week? They already changed the wording in the 'prologue' (from 'three' to 'four').

In other news I always disliked how the Cures who join mid-season get all sorts of elaborate trinkets instead of 'standard' wands. I understand the reason behind it but I still dislike it. Moreover they are usually comparatevily overpowered. Can't say I care for that, either. Oh well.

>>23500
I don't much like that either. In some cases it really breaks the flow and leaves us stuck with a completely separate transformation scene/attack while the other cures of the same series do theirs together. Wouldn't be that much of an issue were it not something that comes up in the all star movies in which the back to back transformation/attack scenes drag on enough as is without giving the mid season cures their own special treatment.

Is it just me or does her violin's bow looks like a huge dildo? Please tell me it's not just me.

lol, she sleeps with her tiara on?

so... when are they gonna fuck already?

>>23608

You mean you take your tiara off when you go to bed!?

>>23525

Guess what was in Minami's third bag.

But boy they sure don't want to dish out the new OP, do they? Every week I keep thinking 'new OP this week for sure'. Maybe this week...?

>>23673
I'm sure it'll start with ep 26.

Oh my god that new ED. They're using the same horrifying style of cg from the Charge ED.

I think I'm gonna have nightmares.

Wouldn't someone notice those ears?

This is the second time they did her isn't it? Guess she's developing a resistance.

How did it take them so long to notice? Didn't they think something was off when their transformations were abruptly cut off?

>>23813

writers ran out of ideas.

common it's not that big of a deal.

>>22834

Considering how fast they got rid of him it's weird Shut is actually still around. We're in Lock's arc pretty much and two new villains appear in the OP.

>>23500

Dang yo, 11? way to blow the competition out of the water.

>>23903
Asians

They really kicked up the scale and production values for this ep.

>>23903
future porn artist right there

What's the female equivalent of bros before hos anyway?

Chicks before dicks?

But isn't he also wearing makeup?

well guys?

>>24027
No more so than Kirara I'd say.

>>24070

All of them looked like that. It's the eye shade.

33 had a pretty heavy Smile vibe. Comic relief fight (running away from a bunch of fishes) and that casual interaction between Shamour and Lock. Liked it a lot.

Can't stop thinking of Daft Punk whenever I see Stop & Freeze, I wonder if it's intentional.

>>24079
Well... Kirara does actually kind of dress like a vietnamese prostitute.

I think Kirara looks better in this hairstyle...

... and this one as well.

Is Yui /fa/, /tc/?

>>24124
what the fug is /fa/?

/fa/shionable, /v/-chan.

Everyone who can afford it you mean, right?

>>24124
I'd give her a 6.5/10

NICE BOAT!

They're really making it seem like this horrifying CG makes up the bulk of the movie. I really hope that's not the case.

>>24318
I just had a scary thought. What if they someday make a whole precure series in 3D like that?

>>24318

From what I gather Toei felt like testing new grounds this yar and they made three separate short movies: one full chibi CG (like the ED), one full CG (like the attacks in the show) and one 'normal 2D'. Too lazy to look it up but I'm pretty sure they are all around ~30 mins. It's not about money, either - you can watch all three with one ticket (unless I've been lied to).

In other news the next series will be called Mahou Tsukai PreCure. Pretty silly name for a mahou shoujo show but it could be fairly interesting if they'll go down the brooms and pointy hats route.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2015-10-19/maho-tsukai-precure-trademark-filed/.94388

Fuck the forth wall.

>>24364
What's the 4th wall breaking here? I don't see it.

>>24411
I think it's the timer

Bows so big they double as wings, that's a first.

Hard to believe it's almost over...

Wow three times now?
I love how she's really starting to build an immunity to it now. At this rate by the sixth time they try it on her it should have no effect at all.

>>24812

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Cut this girl some slack!

>>24753

That's because it doesn't feel like it. We got rid of >>22834 early on and he was even brought back but not much has happened to metaplot since then. They even added Daft Punk to increse the number of enemies.

Anyone else thing it's bull crap that Yui isn't a precure? Never before has someone been so closely involved with precure and their issues but not actually been a part of it.
Precure have had plenty of normal friends over the years, but those people never knew who the precure were let alone went on adventures with them and stuff.

Don't worry Kirara, if that was the flight you missed then you had no chance in hell of making it anyway.

That manager is surprisingly tolerant.

As for the for the reason, is not trusting your team mates enough to finish the job without you really a valid reason?

Here I was wondering recently if we'd ever get to see her again, and then she shows up for all of five seconds.

>>24991
I see I wasn't the only one who got M7 flash backs from that.

>>24997

Pretty sure it was an intentional reference.

>>25009
I'm not so sure about that. Precure isn't exactly known for referencing other anime. Plus this show's primary audience wasn't alive when M7 aired. It's also not 'that' weird of a thing for an aspiring idol to say.

>>25017
>Precure isn't exactly known for referencing other anime.

All this would've been way more convincing if not for the fact that last year we had Cure Lovely who was also known as Walking Mazinger Reference Booth. That combined with the way she copies Basara's catchphrase almost word for word (the only change it 'ore' to 'atashi') makes me think it couldn't have been anything but an intentional reference.

PreCure references old mecha anime every now and then. Of particular note is one ep from Smile - 35 if I recall correctly - which wasn't just loaded with Gundam, GaoGaiGar and Mazinger references, they actually hired the goddamn Obari himself to direct that episode.

>>25023
I remember that ep but I felt it was more generic mecha rather than anything specific. You might be right though. Could be one of the guys working on that ep was a m7 fan, or even worked on it themselves. who knows.

I love it when anime match events to the current time of year. Too bad it's mainly just kids anime that do this, while late night anime have their xmas eps in the middle of summer if they have one at all.

While her dedicated eps lately have made her seem a bit... I almost want to say moody?
I've certainly grown to like her more over the course of the series for sure. I don't think there's any denying she was really uptight for a while there.

That sure is a lot of expensive plastic crap they've gathered up.

>>25066
>>25124

I've fallen a bit behind on PreCure but I watched 44 an 45 yesterday and I've gotta say, 44 is probably the best episode of Princess yet.
The somewhat realistic dilemma and the way Minami tackled it reminded me of some older PreCure series, back when most episodes had a moral of sorts. On top of that Kirara was added to the mix and they did a good job showing that she wanted to do something for Minami but had no real idea how she's supposed to act. The action scenes were pretty decent as well which didn't hurt, despite some QUALITY moments.

It made me think how the show would work if Kirara had in fact been the pink PreCure (and my conclusion was that I wouldn't mind watching that - the last two seasons had forgettable pinks and I'd probably classify Mana in the same category if not for her position as the harem lead). Minami is a classical level headed blue but if you think about it Kirara has the markings of a typical pink. The dynamics between the two of them have been somewhat bland earlier in the series but that episode did a good job of putting them in conflicting positions despite the good intentions of both parties.
The follow up 45 was pretty good as well, if a tad superflous.

We're nearing the finale.

46 was another great ep. The 'flowers are beautiful because of their growth' analogy was superb... except it was basically a small remark that they never delved into. It was a great way to reach a young audience, too: such a down to earth and yet vivid example. I wonder if the kids even picked up on it as was.

The way they've been handling the enemy generals has been wildly inconsistent. First we eliminate Close right off the bat >>22834. We make it look lke the show will be arc based like Splash Star and then we skip all the general fights for like 30 eps. We proceed to purify Lock and essentially write him off the show. And then towards the end we try to befriend Shut, after reviving Close and adding Stop and Freeze to the mix. It's completely all over the place.

>>24812

Looks that way.

49 was unsurprisingly bland. The only surprise is that they apparently managed to get rid of Close, Stop, Freeze and Dyspear all within 24 minutes. Impressive. Normally the season's finale is stretched over couple of eps.

It's a shame we're back to the old days of 'humongous final boss'. The action bits of PreCure are all about fist fights, not projectiles. The final boss should be 1.5x the size of PreCures at most.

The series ended last weekend but I haven't watched 50 yet so there's still that to look forward to.

>>25429

Looks like I was wrong. We weren't done with the fight yet. Not like there was much left for the final ep, though.

I honestly have surprisingly little to say about 50. I think it used a brighter, more pastel palette compared to earlier eps but maybe it's just my imagination. It kinda lacked the eomtional load that you'd expect to build up for the finale of a 50 eps series, even though many past PreCure series handled this pretty well. Felt more like a regular ep but maybe my mind was already occupied with Mahou Tsukai.

All things considered there's one thing I need to say to sum up this past year with PreCure: Princess was the best series in the franchise in a long while and the ride was really fun while it lasted.