Heartcatch Precure: Episodes 13 and 15
Jul. 17th, 2012 02:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_sun_is_upWell after subjecting myself to crap like Ultimate Girls and Twin Angel: Road Apples, I think it's about time I treated myself to some good Magical Girl anime and watched some more Heartcatch Precure.
Episode 13
-Funny I should watch this shortly after writing that post about PMMM getting undeserved awards, because guess what this episode focused on: the strong bond between one of the heroines and her mother, who is the family's sole breadwinner. There's even a scene where Yuri hears that the villains have attacked near her mom's workplace, so she immediately dashes over there and beats up a bunch of mooks with her bare hands, without transforming, in order to protect her mother. And then her mom finds her at the end of the episode and is all like "I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU WHERE WERE YOU" and awwww.
-Relatedly, Yuri is a major badass! Taking out all those mooks without being able using any of her superpowers was really cool.
-I'm continually impressed by how dark Yuri's subplot is. I'm struggling to think of another show that features an ex-Magical-Girl who got defeated so badly that she can no longer transform and now she's stuck as a muggle with lots of angst, no powers, and a pathetic-looking shard of broken transformation trinket as a sad memento.
-I'm also impressed by how freaking terrifying Dark Cure is, especially since most of the other villains are pretty doofy and ineffectual. Like, at the end of this ep, she was totally about to blast our heroines' heads off with her laser beam thingy. Also, I really liked the moment just before that, when both sides have fired their lasers at each other and they're having a battle of wills to see whose laser beam will win out, and the music and the mood are telling us that the heroines are totally going to use their willpower and determination to push back the villain's laser and win the day and then Dark Cure's eyeball is like
LOL NOPE. YOU LOSE.
And then triumphant music just drops out and it's like GIANT RED LASER DEATH and then HUGE EXPLOSION and then Cure Blossom's wand sails out of the dust cloud and clatters forlornly on the ground. And I'm like "UM. If I didn't know better, I'd swear you guys just killed off the main characters."
Episode 15
My thoughts on this one are of a more picspammy nature:
Yep, Tsubomi's still gay. Haha and Itsuki's mom is standing right there. "UH, IT'S NOT LIKE I HAD A GINORMOUS CRUSH ON YOUR DAUGHTER BACK WHEN I THOUGHT SHE WAS A DUDE OR ANYTHING"
Awww aren't they adorable.
I also love the bit where Blossom and Marine jump in to save Itsuki from the monster, and she's like "ZOMG it's Precure! They're so cute, squeeee!" and they're both like "STOP FANGIRLING US AND GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!1!"
Who knew that busting the gender binary could be so exciting?
Seriously though, I really liked the arc of this episode and how it ended with Itsuki deciding that she doesn't have to choose between being a tomboy or being a girly-girl — she can be both!
I also have one observation that's spoilery for later episodes:
HMM, I DUNNO, WHY DON'T YOU ASK THAT HUGE FUZZY GUY SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO YOU. I BET HE KNOWS.
Coupe-sama has the best poker face.
Episode 13
-Funny I should watch this shortly after writing that post about PMMM getting undeserved awards, because guess what this episode focused on: the strong bond between one of the heroines and her mother, who is the family's sole breadwinner. There's even a scene where Yuri hears that the villains have attacked near her mom's workplace, so she immediately dashes over there and beats up a bunch of mooks with her bare hands, without transforming, in order to protect her mother. And then her mom finds her at the end of the episode and is all like "I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU WHERE WERE YOU" and awwww.
-Relatedly, Yuri is a major badass! Taking out all those mooks without being able using any of her superpowers was really cool.
-I'm continually impressed by how dark Yuri's subplot is. I'm struggling to think of another show that features an ex-Magical-Girl who got defeated so badly that she can no longer transform and now she's stuck as a muggle with lots of angst, no powers, and a pathetic-looking shard of broken transformation trinket as a sad memento.
-I'm also impressed by how freaking terrifying Dark Cure is, especially since most of the other villains are pretty doofy and ineffectual. Like, at the end of this ep, she was totally about to blast our heroines' heads off with her laser beam thingy. Also, I really liked the moment just before that, when both sides have fired their lasers at each other and they're having a battle of wills to see whose laser beam will win out, and the music and the mood are telling us that the heroines are totally going to use their willpower and determination to push back the villain's laser and win the day and then Dark Cure's eyeball is like
LOL NOPE. YOU LOSE.
And then triumphant music just drops out and it's like GIANT RED LASER DEATH and then HUGE EXPLOSION and then Cure Blossom's wand sails out of the dust cloud and clatters forlornly on the ground. And I'm like "UM. If I didn't know better, I'd swear you guys just killed off the main characters."
Episode 15
My thoughts on this one are of a more picspammy nature:
Yep, Tsubomi's still gay. Haha and Itsuki's mom is standing right there. "UH, IT'S NOT LIKE I HAD A GINORMOUS CRUSH ON YOUR DAUGHTER BACK WHEN I THOUGHT SHE WAS A DUDE OR ANYTHING"
Awww aren't they adorable.
I also love the bit where Blossom and Marine jump in to save Itsuki from the monster, and she's like "ZOMG it's Precure! They're so cute, squeeee!" and they're both like "STOP FANGIRLING US AND GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!1!"
Who knew that busting the gender binary could be so exciting?
Seriously though, I really liked the arc of this episode and how it ended with Itsuki deciding that she doesn't have to choose between being a tomboy or being a girly-girl — she can be both!
I also have one observation that's spoilery for later episodes:
HMM, I DUNNO, WHY DON'T YOU ASK THAT HUGE FUZZY GUY SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO YOU. I BET HE KNOWS.
Coupe-sama has the best poker face.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-17 04:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2012-07-17 05:27 pm (UTC)This is so much of what I love about Heartcatch!
And I love the way that they handled Itsuki's storyline. At first I was so afraid that it was going to turn into another "tomboyish girl sees the light and becomes *~more feminine~*" story but it didn't end up that way at all. Instead it was much more HEY ITSUKI GIRLY THINGS AREN'T INFERIOR AND LIKING GIRLY THINGS ISN'T A SIGN OF WEAKNESS and then Itsuki is able to keep being true to herself (meaning: very tomboyish but not longer ashamed of liking feminine things) because she realizes that femininity isn't inferior to masculinity. That's a much more complex take on the issue than most shows for adults manage to pull off successfully, let alone cartoons for kids.
(no subject)
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