Did you know that a Precure Movie is going to premiere in a number of weeks? Well, if you didn’t know, the OP is here to remind you. In any case, while the previous episodes have all focused on the lead characters themselves, this was the first episode to completely focus on a random kid who feels down. It’s a staple of most mahou shoujo, and especially the thing that kills most of the bad ones. The mood of this episode is completely different from the previous ones and a lot of the comedy is gone now to focus on a more serious story. However, despite all that, this episode passed its test with flying colours. With this episode, it completely trashed all of the bad episodic series, by showing how simple it is to make a great story out of just one episode with a random character. With just a few modifications to a really overused formula, it showed the power of episodic stories. Tsubomi really wanted to help Miura, who had a very mundane problem; as he grew up his father couldn’t give as much attention to him because of his ramen shop, yet he couldn’t say anything about it because he didn’t want to disturb his dreams. I’ve seen this used quite a few times now, but this episode made it so genuine that it actually works. Being turned into a monster didn’t necessarily make him stop angsting, but rather it alerted his father about what made him worry, which lead to a pretty heart-warming conclusion. Also, with these monsters you usually see them wreck random buildings and people that nobody is going to care about. And here this guy was, about to hit his father! That’s some hardcore stuff for a kids’ show. And also, mind that we’re only at episode five yet. We’ve seen like, four monsters at this point, and yet this episode introduced yet another villain, instead of letting the previous ones try again. Could this be another sort of hint? NB. At this point, when it comes to the currently airing season, I actually consider Toei to be my favourite animation company. Bones, David Production, Brains Base, A-1, Madhouse and SynergySP may also do a great job this season, but they all have just one amazing series that’s currently airing. Toei has three of them: Kaidan Restarant, Marie & Gali and this one. While all three of them may just be kids’ shows, they’re all amazing in their own way, and for once they’re kids series that don’t look down on kids by making cheap stuff, but instead try to make something actually good and engaging. Rating: ** (Excellent)
The rest is here:
Heartcatch Precure – 05
