Pretty Cure general thread

There's a limit to how terrible professional animators can be, even if they're new.

The directing and voice acting aren't that good either. :/

the Eas storyline is really good though, though I think Fresh is overrated in terms of story and characters.

Though it was a massive success, and helped keep the franchise afloat when Yes Pretty Cure 5 Gogo Bombed before it by comparison.

The music is great, though, as it's when Yasuharu Takanashi took over from Naoki Sato as the music composer.

edited 11th Apr '14 5:16:09 AM by Demongodofchaos2

I can't say much about the storyline yet since I'm only at episode 3, but what I CAN say is that the directing's not very good. And it's either the voice acting or the script that's bad, I'm not sure which...well, okay, the lines tend to be kinda awkward...

The fact that the only subs I can find (by CureCom) aren't very good just makes the whole thing even worse. I don't mind that they're taking liberties with the translations but...

edited 11th Apr '14 5:23:44 AM by HanabiraKage

The subs improve eventually. "Nasty things nasty things fly away" gets changed to something much more bearable. Animation takes a nosedive in the second half though.

How bad does it get? The animation within the first three episodes is so bad that someone like me can tell, and I'm terrible at spotting this kind of stuff.

I remember being impressed by one of the fights in one of the early episodes. I think it was the date one. Anyway, everything is so stilted and unimpressive later on that Pine riding a tiger gets a meh reaction out of me. And the finale would've bored me if the plot hadn't been interesting.

Naoki Sato isn't bad though. I mean, listen to Eureka Seven's soundtrack.

It's funny, I enjoyed the hell outta Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and Go Go yet they were a near Franchise Killer, but Fresh somehow revived it despite being worse in quality... Don't get me wrong, Fresh has some good story arcs going for it, but nearly half of the show and its cast is just... blah to me. The Infinity arc was infinitely and infuriatingly annoying too! Sure, let's have viewers hear a Broken Record every other line for the next 10 episodes.

Oh I agree, Yes 5's soundtrack is a very enjoyable listen on a smooth and joyous day. Urara's theme is just the definition of bright, optimistic, and carefree.

edited 11th Apr '14 10:13:20 AM by aNinjaWithAIDS

What Fresh does and the Classic era season don't is breaking the mold. People want to see something new, even though the aim of the improvement might fly over one half of the demography. Thought it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, Fresh panders the otaku part of the fandom pretty subtly and unsubtly. From the new artstyle to the science-fiction atmosphere of Labyrinth to that one episode of Miki trying to have her power-up that ends up like a secret case of teen pregnancy, and it saved the Precure series pretty much because the otaku fandom buys the merch.

Nowaday, its breakthrough (and the QUALITY) might not age well, but I think many people agree that it becomes somewhat Fresh's endearing charm.

I can see why they needed something different, but Fresh still felt like an annoying mess when I watched it for the first time, and if I have to go through it a second time, it'd feel like swimming in wet cement. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I took the time to watch Fresh, but I just question the fanbase's overall taste at this point in the franchise's time. That's all.

I have inconsistent tastes, in case you couldn't tell from my opinions on Nozomi and Miyuki. Yes 5 and Fresh are polar opposites in a subtle, but important way. Yes 5 is the least conceptually interesting season, while I find Fresh the most interesting conceptually. Both are top tier for me. Yes because of the wonderful character development. Fresh for the drama and the interesting characters.

Also, Fresh has the overall best side cast. Though Yes has my favorite side character, and the lack of her in Gogo is one of the reasons I don't like it as much.

I enjoyed Fresh...kinda. It wasn't painful to watch, but at times, it felt kinda like I was watching it solely for continuity reasons.

That right there sums up why and how I got through Fresh at all.

Here's my opinion on that matter: I prefer to see an older concept done well than to see a new concept be handled poorly. I say that because it's too much of a shame to see something promising become a disappointment which is how I feel about Fresh. Heartcatch, Suite, and Smile greatly and thankfully restored my faith in the franchise each in its own way, but that's another matter.

You know, looking back... yeah, Fresh's support cast was kinda awesome. I may have stated this before: I loved Tarte and find him to be an excellent Mentor Mascot and barely coming in second to Hummy. Chiffon also gave new life to the mascot line for the franchise as well (both literally and metaphorically) with her bubbly and humorous personality. Miyuki (the dancing diva, not the Cure) was also pretty cool. The only major support character I didn't like at all is Kaoru. His signature "ah-heh!" laugh was annoying to me, and he had it as a Verbal Tic too. His personality also felt very plain and unmemorable as well especially when compared to Akane from Max Heart.

As for my favorite support cast, Heartcatch gets that win. Every Mentor Mascot is personally involved in the fights making themselves rightfully as Badass Adorable as their partners, Never Mess with Granny is played with in the coolest way possible, the Cures' relatives were always fun and exciting to watch (Tsubomi and Yuri's in particular had Backstory, and the good kind! Crazy, I know!)

edited 11th Apr '14 1:17:27 PM by aNinjaWithAIDS

I would gladly give a break to Fresh's staff mostly because many of them were basically green; though I won't whitewash the terribad aspect of the season, especially that incredibly ugly episode of Setsuna re-meeting her Nakewameke victim. I heard many stories about how utterly lack of respect Toei executives has for their staffs; hiring new people for new concept is quite an achievement of them. And personally, they did pretty good for the season.

I think Fresh's staff have a clear goal of what they want to tell the story of, but they had a year worth of season and they had trouble with the filler. So, the storyboard got seperated into 'story-heavy' and 'not' with different directors had their own idea. This created a pretty jarring quality gap per episode, even for the Precure show. Fresh is one of the seasons that run on rogue gallery instead of sequential kill-and-replace boss rush; we saw from Precure history at that moment (second half of Futari wa and Max Heart) just how difficult to maintain the steadiness of filler storyline from that kind of premise. When the quality is good, it's incredible (the wig Nakewameke and the episode with Love's grandfather) while when it's terrible, it's shitty like episode 11 of Max Heart.

Of course, which episode got the good part is diiferent too; that aforementioned Setsuna meeting her former victim is very good on the paper, but the execution is so terrible I physically repulsed by it. I think the online watch sites also disgusted by that one episode too; when I checked several of them to watch the episode, they instead skipped it to show the next episode.

But no matter how wildly different the quality of each episode, at least the season never loses its humor.

Though, Happiness Charge Pretty Cure ep 10 seems like it will be a Setsuna visits her nakewameke victim 2.0 in regards to QUALITY.

Which episode is this re-meeting her victim thing, again?

It wasn't that bad. Ep 10 was last week's episode, right?

edited 11th Apr '14 8:09:25 PM by HanabiraKage

Episode 25; which is such a shame because episode 24 and 26 is my personal favorite. Watching Setsuna interacting with people's kindness always warm my heart, mostly because she feels she's undeserving of such kindness. Episode 25 is where her fear seems to chase after her, but the way the episode depicts it makes it a little silly. And that's still not counting the extreme off model of the episode...

edited 12th Apr '14 2:18:14 AM by AlaAlba

Yes, It was that bad.

Derp faces everywhere in that episode.

This week's HaCha:

March sounds kinda off, but dat mofu-mofu hair. PANKEIKI. Blue was the one who gave Yuyu power, Hime-style. Why Yuyu didn't reveal her identity right away? Because she thought it'd more dramatic if she introduced herself by saving our duo. Even Seiji knows! Hime gotta be Hime. Hime doesn't like being dirty. All dat planting and muds. Namakelda again, I kinda miss him. DAT HENSHIN. DAT GROUP PHRASE. DAT POPCORN CHEER. DAT CLOVER METEOR

Next week's Cure is *drumrolls* Heart!

edited 12th Apr '14 7:03:25 PM by IrueruPunch

Whoa, hold it, that fast?

That person probably watched the raws. Subs aren't out yet. At least, not from doremi.

More accurately, I livewatched the episode.

I missed the livewatch.

Boo. If any Doki Cuyre deserved to show up first it was Rosetta.

What the...Cure Honey's finisher must be the biggest solo finisher ever. She summoned a giant four leaf clover from a huge portal she opened in outer space!

I really should have mentioned this last episode, but "Lovely Punching Punch" is a dumb name that reeks of chuunibyou. Burning Fighting Fighter, anyone?

edited 15th Apr '14 3:12:29 AM by HanabiraKage