Pretty Cure general thread

Episode 11. Cure March. Not much to say about her, other than that she looks off. Yuuko is a troll, especially with Hime. Megumi and Seiji don't seem to mind. So Blue just randomly gives them out? What if a bad girl picks one up? Hime is understandably frustrated. Looks like Seiji has a brain, but to be fair to Megumi she hadn't seen Honey enough to reasonably work it out, and of course Hime doesn't know Yuuko as much. So it's the obligatory farming episode. Why is there always a farming episode? Hime doesn't appreciate being dragged into this stuff again, though she is trying. Mirage is setting up blatant foreshadowing for tragic past. Namakelder finally gets to be the villain again. Honey's transformation is decent. Probably better than Lovely's at least. She seems to be the Cure of life. I admit, Namakelder being immune to Honey's song by being lazy was funny. Lovely's giant fist returns again. Honey's costume wasn't outlandish enough. Her attack more than made up for it though. A freaking meteor strike. And she's the support one? And she really just wanted to make a dramatic entrance. Next episode, the show remembers Megumi is the advertised main character and thus needs to do something occasionally.

If a bad person picks it up, nothing happens.

Blue himself said that it will only react and grant powers to someone whose heart is full of love. And I assume not all kinds of love work.

edited 15th Apr '14 7:46:56 AM by HanabiraKage

Yeah I know, but it's funny to imagine that happening.

Yuuko is getting better, but she's still my least favorite of the now trio. Not sure why, but I'm not feeling her like I do the others. This show sure does know how to do attacks though.

Doing these analyses really helps me appreciate the characters I otherwise would dismiss. Even so, the thought put into different ones is apparent, and often separated by show. Last week Blossom had a dozen paragraphs and I still feel like I missed some stuff. This week I struggle to find stuff to say, not because she's a bad character, but because Smile doesn't quite have the depth some of the other shows have. With that out of the way, it's time to look at the honest Cure March.

Nao is pretty simple overall, which fits in with Smile a lot. As a green Cure, she doesn't have any particular expectations to fulfill. Komachi was the only previous one, and they are nothing alike. So among Smile, Nao has the greatest chance to distinguish herself. Since Smile was a comedy, what's important is what she brings to the cast dynamics. Well, she's the mature sensible one. She's not the type to go off and do wacky adventures or do something really stupid to set the plot in motion. She's got common sense, which can be a little rare in Smile at times, and that also leads to a decent amount of snark from her. She's a soccer player, the second one in the series, making her a tomboy of sorts. Most importantly, she loves her family, and boy does she have a lot of it. The Midorikawas, doing their part in reversing Japan's population decline. Family was central to Nao's character, and she was the only one to have a noticeable family in the show except for Yayoi.

Plotwise she did zilch. Well okay, she punched out a bunch of monsters, but everyone did that. Character development was also zilch, and that was a noticeable problem for her. She starts as a kind, mature girl who looks after others with 5 siblings, and ended the same, except with 6 siblings. Yeah, Tsubomi did the little sister being born plot better. Of course, no character development doesn't mean no flaws. Most noticeably, she was easily frightened. From bugs to ghosts to creepy rumors, it didn't take much to freak her out, and she never managed to overcome those fears. The best I can say is that she doesn't hate bugs anymore, but she still runs from them. Bugs that can be fuel for Bad Energy. I wonder if Pierrot threw up that batch. After Miyuki, Nao was the most noticeable problem Smile's lack of development had. She could also be a bit over-competitive. It's not that there was no where she could go, but it never gave her a direction. Which is kind of ironic, given her trait.

Lack of development was not her main problem though. Despite her unique color, she was in fact the most redundant character in the show. Sensible tomboy who snarks easily, yet is easy to make fun of? Akane handles that perfectly fine, and all else being equal Akane was generally the more fun character to watch. She brought almost nothing to the dynamic that someone else couldn't bring. It's not that her contributions were bad, but when it wasn't her episode she rarely brought something unique. Think of two of the shows best episodes, Happy Robo and Cinderella. In the former she and Akane were doing the exact same thing the entire episode, not understanding robots at all. Funny? Yes, but a tad redundant. In the latter, both were the mice, and if it weren't for their colors you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart. And then sometimes Akane's reactions became exactly like Nao's like in the tiny episode or the haunted school, where both of them became freaked out over the same thing at the same time. As long as Akane was there, there wasn't a whole lot of reason for Nao to be there.

That's kind of problematic, seeing how her best relationship was with Akane. These two sportsy girls actually held a pretty good dynamic between each other. Nao tended to the more serious side, but they were good at snarking with each other and made good rivals overall. They even got to share an episode, and at the end they were combining attacks together. The point is that Niisan was Nao's best ship by far. Even the Shinozaki manga recognized that. Heck, Nao nearly confessed to her once. 8:40 however, was not a good ship. Her relationship with Reika was problematic in that we never really saw that. The two are established childhood friends, but not only do we not know how they met, we also never get any development between them at all, or even any exploration. They're friends, but we don't see that as strong as it should've been. It's probably the franchise's worst childhood friendship yet. She did get an interesting episode with Yayoi, where she helped Yayoi overcome her fears of being inadequate and not being good enough for the relay. And she actually succeeded, followed by her messing up. It's one of those moments that helps remind us that she's only human, and she can make mistakes as well. That was my favorite Nao episode. Her obligatory episode with Miyuki was the test of courage in the school where both of them had the same reactions to the apparent ghosts. Not much to say about her and Miyuki. Or with Candy for that matter.

Family was the most important thing for her, and it's no coincidence that her opening and closing episodes both had her siblings threatened. That moment when she thought Majorina had killed her siblings was good, giving her best freakout in the show. The kids episode was cute with her trying to be the mature one as the elder sister. Really, whenever she wasn't running scared, she was the mature, encouraging one. And of course, you can't forget her rivalry with Majorina, firmly established by the mid-season. That one worked out wellish, the straight-forward March vs. the trickster witch. Though I'm of the mind their personalities didn't clash well enough.

As Cure March, it's slightly difficult to pick out her trait. Courage stands out for being in her transformation phrase and coming up a few times, but it really doesn't fit her overall. In the end, it's straight-forwardness. Whatever that means. Being honest, blunt, and not beating around the bush? Works for me. When fighting she's got both wind and speed powers, a deadly combination. By all rights she should've been the strongest combatant on the show, but between her never utilizing her speed properly and the existence of Beauty, she disappointed. Seriously, even her final focus episode had her getting her ass kicked for most of it. That was due to her siblings being taken hostage, but still. Against Majorina and in New Stage 2 she makes a flurry of March Shoots, creating lots of straight-forward shots. That was cool I'll admit. The high speed battle against Bad End March was neat. Too bad we barely saw any of it. And it ended with her redirecting BEM's giant attack. Not sure if that means anything.

Nao is not a bad character. She was entertaining and had her own personality. However, she brought almost nothing to the table, and that plus lack of a character development sometimes makes me wonder why she was in the show. It didn't help that Yayoi and Reika completely stole the show, leaving her and Akane to fight over the scraps while Miyuki enjoyed pink privileges. Either way, I'm glad she was there, and I'm sure something would've been missing if she had been absent. I just can't figure out what that is.

Speaking of redundancy, Nao did rip off a Yes 5 character, even if it wasn't Komachi. Elder sister who plays soccer, is scared of ghosts, is the most sensible person on the show, and has a childhood friend among the Cures. Rin, is that you? Huh, maybe I should like Nao more.

Looks like this forum is pretty deserted. I think I saw a tumbleweed came rolling just now.

Anyway, Episode... 12 is it? Megumi failing her test? Why am I not surprised? Heart greets us with her usual energy. Seeing her pose faster than the usual makes me repeating that part several times because it's pretty nice, actually.

Somehow, an episode about failing mark turns into a baseball episode. The transition is so fast, my head was actually spinning when I watched the episode. But yeah, a pretty standard episode of studying and baseball, though the Chois' antic and the artistic take of the animation (heavy hot-blooded sport anime shading!) in this episode is very entertaining. I'm more interested with the preview. Finally the red guy makes his entrance. From I heard of the rumor, his name is Dark Destiny, but I can't exactly find the citation for that one and the link in the wiki was gone when I checked it again.

Yesterday, I saw a fan cover of Happiness Charge's opening. Done by a bunch of fanboys from the second demography of the Precure show. That's hilarious in so many level. No word can describe the sheer WTF of it.

Nope, his name is Phantom.

Anyway, a pretty good episode overall. I can't believe I miss Mana so much, all things considered. DDPC Movie subs can't come soon enough.

edited 21st Apr '14 10:23:22 PM by IrueruPunch

And I don't miss Heart at all. How appropriate we get Pink Perfect right when Megumi is dealing with her own failings. Seiji is pretty smart, probably second to Iona. Hime of course is excellent in English. We have another Kenta. Megumi sucks at this school stuff. She's a traditional pink and proud of it. Hime enjoys her time of being in the right for once. Blue decides that studying is more important than saving the world. I get his point, but still, priorities man. Studying goes surprisingly well. Yuuko really needs to get her mind off food. Hime may not be a traditional blue genius, but she's still relatively smart. Namakelder strikes again. Honey sticking in Popcorn Cheer was a nice touch. Machine Gun is still useless. Lovely can turn her sword into a bat. Sure, why not. Baseball antics were amusing. Seiji proves useful. I'm amused how Namakelder played by the unspoken rules and accepted his monster had to be cleansed. Megumi would still rather focus on Precure. Next episode we get Fortune and a Precure Hunter. Yay. We also get more Lovely. Eh.

Seriously, I thought Heart was going to be last. And I was at least hoping we would have the movie before doing her. Either way, this one probably won't be pretty.

We get it, you hate Cure heart and would rather see her die in a fire or something.

Nah, that honor belongs to Milk. Mana's character isn't the problem, though I'm not fond of it. The overall narrative around her is the problem, along with somehow inheriting problems from Melody and Happy.

There's a translated manuscript of the movie floating around somewhere, though I don't remember where I found it. The Blu-ray raw has been uploaded, too. The only problem is that the subber doesn't have a proper encode or something like that. And that's why the subs' been stalled for so long. If I remember correctly.

Someone deleted the part where the seasons are seperated into era in Precure main page, on ground that it isn't Kamen Rider. What do you think of that; put it back or keep as it is?

I'm not really sure why they were split up in the first place, unless Toei has done that themselves. And personally, I'd call Max Heart/Splash Star/Yes 5 the Classic era (no crossover movies), Fresh/Heartcatch/Suite the Deluxe era (based on their All Stars movies), and Smile/DokiDoki/Happiness Charge the New Stage era (based on the New Stage movies).

If Hime had just kept spamming Machine Gun to keep the Monster of the Week occupied while Megumi flanked it for a melee strike, it wouldn't have been so useless. Sure, it stil wouldn't have done any damage but it would have served some purpose. Instead, what we got was "Oh, Crap! it's not working!", giving it an opportunity to attack.

edited 23rd Apr '14 8:25:07 PM by HanabiraKage

I think Princess is like the Doki Cures before Ace; she's too dependent to the beamspam that they forget there other things Cures can do. Everytime we see Fortune, she rarely resorting to the Prebrace. Lovely might not as skilled as Fortune, but she has more imagination to create whatever attack that she needs in the situation. In short, Princess has neither Fortune's skill nor Lovely' street smart, and it damages her capability as a Cure who quite known to do some of the craziest maneuvers ever. To be honest, I don't know how she can take a level in badass if she's not asking Fortune's help to train her.

...? I don't even know what this franchise is trying to be anymore.

What brings this up?

This franchise is still trying to be a children friendly TV show.

, This franchise is trying to sell plastic to their demographic; both of its demographic .

But seriously, why bring that up?

Time to look at what may be Precure's most controversial character to date. She's certainly the most controversial recently. And for good reasons personally. She does things in a new way, but shows that just because it's different doesn't make it good. Or maybe it wasn't different enough. She is the lovely Cure Heart.

Originally, the person I most compared Mana to was Love. Both were relatively competent genki girls who were always positive and managed to draw in people around them. Plus DokiDoki was based off of Fresh. Plus, both go out of their way to help others. While it's still a valid comparison, I think Mana is actually more like Nozomi than Love. Sure, they're on the opposite sides of the competence spectrum, but personality wise they're very similar. They're both do-gooders that are hard to get down, very charismatic, prone to giving grand speeches that may not make sense, and overall a perfect match to be a magical girl. And that shows exactly why the typical MG lead is so clumsy and idiotic. While they may be great at battling evil, they still struggle in their day to day lives, and both are equally important in Pretty Cure. So when Mana comes along, who's at the top of her game in both aspects, it leads to the feeling that she has no weaknesses.

Mana is introduced as this great person who not only goes out of her way to help others, but also successfully solves their problems, gaining the love of everyone around her. She loves doing this, and gaining their love seems to be only a secondary concern. She is also very unselfish, refusing Joe's gift to her until he forces it on her. Rikka may complain that she needs to let other people sort out their problems, but Mana will not stand for that. She'll go out of her way for anyone in trouble, whether it's a friend in school, a random kid on the side, or some crazy girl threatening to kill all her friends. All of this builds up the image of her that says she's one of the kindest people out there, and anyone who tries to get in her way is just delaying the help she could give.

In general, magical girls have to transform in order to get their superpowers. It's kind of the point of the genre. Not so with Mana. Oh sure, she's not explicitly supernatural, but she does superhuman feats all the same. From running up 900 meters almost as fast as a Selfish crab, to apparently jumping up 10 meters, to shouting monsters back, it's almost like Cure Heart is just a bonus thing for her. Heck, she helps out with all the sports on top of her student council duties, basically combining Rin and Karen together into one package. Most others are shocked at the appearance of magic stuff, but Mana segues into it like it's the most natural thing in the world. This isn't some grand awakening of a sense of purpose, it's another point in her long list of duties. Even when she's not present, she's still manages to be a major help to everyone, as shown in the "student council president competition" episode. Everything about her seems to be flawless.

So is she perfect? No. Despite all the exaggerations around her, she does need some help every so often and can't solve everything by herself. If only thanks to the format of the show, she won't be solving every problem, as they'll throw a bone to Diamond or Rosetta after occasionally. Rikka and Alice, and later Makoto and Aguri, are there to fill up any holes she may leave behind. But that only leads to Mana looking even more perfect, as whatever mistakes she may make are quickly covered up by the others, making it near impossible for her to suffer the consequences of her own actions. Is Mana flawless? That's trickier. She's bad at singing, but that's not exactly a relevant flaw. Is her constant helping of people taking a toll on herself? The idea is brought up, especially with the Happy Prince stuff, but nothing actually comes of it, mostly thanks to Rikka. Even when she did get sick because of overwork, she got better almost immediately, and it almost felt like Aguri was overreacting to just reading the Happy Prince. Point is, Mana's friends don't just cover for her weak spots, they negate them.

Mana's true flaw, if she has one, is being too trusting of people she should be more suspicious of. That of course, primarily relates to Regina. Regina shows up attacking them just like any other villain does. Then she decides to befriend Mana because... she's Mana. And Mana manages to roll with it despite everyone telling her that is a terrible idea. And it is a terrible idea, but because Mana did get Regina to turn good, that makes her right all along. Because Mana can never be wrong. Her only real mistake was not firing on Regina when she was brainwashed the second time. And even that may have worked out for her, since it's unlikely that alone would've turned her back. There's also the time Bel kidnapped Ai and Mana didn't tell anyone, but her not wanting to risk Bel hurting Ai is reasonable.

Plot wise she's in an awkward spot, especially considering she's the main character. Ever since Yes 5, the plot has never been about the main character, but it really sticks out for Mana because the Trump Kingdom plotline gets so much focus. Everything from the Trump Kingdom dominates the whole show so much, and no matter how bad Mana might feel for it, she's still an outsider. It's not personal to her. Her only major role in the plot besides giving speeches and shooting down monsters is Regina. Bringing around Regina is important, but Regina is only around for half the show, so the rest of the time Mana just feels shoehorned into Makoto/Aguri's plot. This is something that's been an issue for Precure ever since Fresh, but it's the biggest here because Mana takes up so much screen-time. Ironically, the issue might have been fixed if she was given a greater importance to the plot, though that may have led to bigger problems. Still, while it was frustrating, it was bearable for the most part, and I'm willing to let some bias slide because she's the main character, and she did have some good moments, like her last cry on Leva and Gula's final episode.

Then came the last episode, and everything goes downhill. While the finale already had shades of massive Mana bias, it wasn't too horrible over all, and everyone got their own moment. But now it's down to the Ultimate Evil, and only Heart can stand up to it. First she just wills her psyche back in after Proto-Selfish corrupts it, making it look like she doesn't have a Selfish bone in her body. Then everyone gives her their power, and she's the only one who gets the super special transformation. And finally, she solos the Big Bad, turning everyone else into cheerleaders while she undermines the whole work together message the entire series has. The big final moment, and she hogs it all to herself. Unacceptable. Maybe if she had to be cleansed by the others it would be fine, but as it was was just massive favoritism on an already super special snowflake.

And it's really not just the finale either. The entire narrative bends around to show how awesome and nice and great she is. She is the only one who can get solo kills on a consistent basis, even though Sword should be getting plenty as well. She gives nearly all the speeches, even when it's more appropriate for someone else to get them. Everyone in school looks up to her. One of the villains becomes obsessed with her for no real reason. The second group attack foreshadows the ending by having everyone hand her their power. Somehow Mana getting sick and Aguri correctly lecturing her that she needs to rest leads to Aguri admitting Mana was right (about how the students can take care of themselves, but still). That's why she's called Mana Sue, because of these narrative reasons.

She's kind of boring when it comes to relationships too. Rikka is her best friend, and it's a huge callback to Nozomi/Rin. Rikka is the one who tries to keep her under control, but she can't keep up Mana. Rikka is the primary reason Mana isn't tiring herself out, and Mana admits she relies on Rikka a lot, but Rikka really looks up to Mana a lot. Mana initially admires Makoto for the idol stuff, being a fan girl herself, but the two become fast friends, and just like everyone else Makoto is looking up to her in the end, especially when she's calling for Mana to save them in the end. Aguri tries to lecture Mana, but Mana learns something from her maybe twice, and Mana ends up being the inspiration for her as well. Sharuru is basically a mini-Mana, especially when human, which I did like actually. Ai was arbitrarily close to her, even after she became Aguri's fairy. That was annoying, especially at the climax of the second Ai arc. Mana seemed to see Regina as someone she had to help and grew attached to this crazy girl because she needed help. I could never quite get what Mana saw in Regina, but whatever it was Mana became a bit obsessed with her, though never unhealthily I'll admit. I'd say that was her best relationship, but I'm not a Regina fan, so I'll give that honor to Rikka.

Did I forget anyone? Oh yeah, Alice. She existed. They were friends I think.

As Cure Heart, she represents love, taking after Peach. Everyone loves her, and in return she loves everyone, and at the same time no one. She cares for everyone, and a few people like Rikka and Regina even more, but unlike almost all other leads I never got a feeling that she was that close to anyone in particular. She spreads her love, but can't dedicate it to a single person. She's going to break a lot of hearts someday. Her fighting style was unimpressive from what I remember. Not much to say about it. Her attacks were also pretty boring. Heart Dynamite had potential, but it was only used twice. She was a casualty of DokiDoki's rather weak fights.

Is Mana a Sue? I'm going to say no, mostly on technicalities, since she doesn't usually dominate during the filler episodes, only the plot important ones. Still, straggles close to it. Maybe they should've run with Alice's brother. Would've helped if there was someone who looked good even compared to Mana. I think there is room in the Precure universe for someone like Mana, but the overall themes and narrative worked together to make her too much for the show. Maybe she and Aguri should've switched places. Mana is primarily an inspirational character, and that means less character growth, which as shown in Smile can lead to the show feeling unsatisfactory. Not only did she not grow at all, there was no where for her to go.

Even All Stars builds her up as something better. Typically the new team has to be rescued by the old team, showing they still have far to go. In New Stage 2, she and her team are the ones doing the saving instead. Sure, they don't win on their own, but it's a sign of what's to come. And obviously I haven't seen New Stage 3, but it seems like they return to the old formula, seeing how Mana rescues Megumi mid-air untransformed.

I do give her points for being different, but there needs to be good execution with it as well. Along with Miyuki, she's my least favorite lead for actively dragging the show down with her. Sort of. I think she's more a symptom rather than the source of the problems, but as the most notable symptom she's going to get the blame. It's a pity, because I did like her at first and thought she had potential. Hopefully she's been a good lesson to the writers of what not to do in the future.

If we have Alice's brother subplot, then Mana might be more like Charle; trying hard to meet the ridiculously high standard, and becomes self-depreciating when she can't do so even though she's doing pretty good. We can see some of the traces of it; when Regina got beamed by King Selfish and she loses against the not-holding-back Regina, she gets depressed because she's unused to failure. It would be interesting, but that would make Charle redundant.

It'd be worth it to improve Mana.

Forgot to mention one thing. Her dream to become the prime minister. Frankly, I think she can do it. Let's see, she's got leadership experience, she's popular personally, she's got a brain, she cares for everyone, she's famous, she's got rich donors, and she's got respect among the people. Yup, Mana is all set for that. Heck, I suspect Mana could take over Earth. Not by conquering it, but by doing something so great that Earth unanimously decides to make her queen of everything. Because why not. Eh, better her than Erika at least.

The problem I could think of had they go with Alice's brother, aside from what the writers told us, is that people would complain more about Mana's screentime-hogging. You don't want that, do you?

Speaking of Love Interest, this week's HaCha is quite...interesting, to say. We have Hime fangirling over a soap drama, Megumi x Blue Ship Tease, confirmation that Blue and QM were lovers or at least QM was in love with him, and Phantom's kicking an Egyptian Cure named Cure Nile. Oh and Fortune got her power from a fallen Cure named Cure Tender, who is also her older sister.

Mint's intro was very swag. Next week's Cure is...*drumrolls*...Toei decided to pull a Love and went all "not telling!". Understandable, since next episode is the 500th episode milestone celebration. They really want it to be a surprise, huh.

Oh and Phantom's seiyuu was Cobraja.

edited 27th Apr '14 9:47:03 AM by IrueruPunch

Episode 13, Meg has a date with Mr. God. What happens with Renai Kinshi, Blue? Mint is... for some reason I'm a little weirded out by her. Like something unusual then she, uh... usually is. But she's so sweet at the end

So... how many I Knew It! confirmed in this episode? Tanabata expy that is the legend of Pikarigaoka festival is about Blue and Mirage, romance went wrong forcing Blue to seal Mirage and her people into the box, Fortune's sister is a Cure and got Saiark'd... Everything about the main backstory is essentially revealed in this episode. Phantom is strong, but I not yet have enough proof for the generals' power level to compare Phantom's strength with. Though there's something different with how Phantom's bring himself; if the other general is like those of spoiled aristocrats (yes, including Oresky), then Phantom is like a warrior prince or someone who climb the social ladder through prowess. His loyalty to Mirage is holding my current interest. Lovely's using the form change against something other than the Choi is an very good detail, finlly people will stop complaining about the overhype of the forms. One thing that alarms me is that one line Fortune says about "100th year since we last met" or something of that effect. Either Fortune's from a long line of Cures and her power carries the memories of her predecessors, she's older than she looks, or she's time traveler.

Leak for several next episodes circulates in the net, with episode 15 as the Mother's Day. Hime goes back to the Blue Sky Kingdom to seek her mother. Prepare your tissue; it's directed by the same guy who write Heartcatch's Mother's Day and Doki's Trump Kingdom lava pit episodes. Though Episode 14 looks like a filler, it is the 500th of the franchise. I'll doubt they will waste it for a low tier episode. Maybe Cure Echo will get the honor.

edited 27th Apr '14 3:09:22 AM by AlaAlba

Hi Mint. Phantom takes down Cure Nile. How not stereotypical. Blue and proto-Mirage were lovers in the past of some sort. No surprise. Phantom is personally loyal to Mirage, vs. everyone else who's standard villain fare. Hime is looking for her prince. Too bad she hasn't realized yet that's Megumi. Megumi gets closer to Blue, who I still don't care about. Time for world traveling. Except not. Phantom shows up anyway because. Eye beams prove to be less than useful, as is Lollipop Hiphop. Blue is still worthless. Fortune to the rescue. She's good, but not good enough. Backstory hints. Lovely spams Punchy Punch to greater effect. Looks like Fortune is the Cure of Stars. Here we have Cure Tender being named, and the first sibling Cures if you ignore the Kiryuu twins and Dark. Blue proves that not only he's useless, he's also the real cause of everything. Megumi gets ship tease with him. Princess doesn't appear in this episode, which hurts my Hime is the main protagonist claim. Doesn't end it though, considering Tsubomi.

For the record, I don't hate Blue, but he's easy to make fun of, so I do so.

Where do you get these lines from?

Because I am watching the fansubs, and nothing like this is there.

As to the episode itself...huh, I don't know if this is a Wham Episode, but it was certainly dynamic. Interesting Things happened. It looks like the three big plot arcs are Fortune's past, Hime's past, and Blue's past, which all seem to tie into each other. Also, shades of Pretear, Batman!