Sing me a bawdy song, make me merry

I'm not going to do that "skip to the ending" thing with Heartcatch or Suite because, well, I actually like those shows a lot, and they have way more plot and less filler than previous Precure seasons. So here's some commentary on the Cure Beat arc and other miscellany.

-The Fairy Tones are way less annoying than the average Precure mascot, and I loved that bit where Hummy realizes that she forgot that there's really 8 Fairy Tones instead of 7, and then this happens:



-Also loved Hummy's little Cure Muse puppet theatre, crewed by Fairy Tones.



-Cure Muse has by far the sexiest outfit in all of Precure history, which becomes extra awkward later when we find out that she's, what, 10 years old? Dammit Toei, stop putting the elementary schoolers in catsuits!

-But okay, I'm not watching this show for the cute mascots or the skintight leather — I'm watching it for the "homoerotic cat angst" as Quaedam put it when explaining her gorgeous fanart of said angsty gay cats.

If you watch a lot of Precure, you come to expect that an average season of Precure will contain lots of gay subtext, especially between the Dark Magical Girl(s) and the heroine, provided that a DMG is present in the story. Sure enough, Suite Precure adheres to this rule, except that the DMG and the heroine in question are both mascot characters. By which I mean...



..they're freaking cats. This show is making me ship a couple of cats. OH ANIME.

( Cut for more about GAY KITTIES )

-Seiren: I don't care what happens to me! But if you hurt Hummy, I'll never forgive you!

Yep, still shipping the cats.

-Despite this show having possibly the most hideous henshins in Magical Girl history, I do like some of the other stock footage, like the Belltier attacks and the duo's Super Quartet finisher. And dang, this season's attacks really went overboard with the explosions. I approve!

-Cure Beat can play a guitar riff on her cowlick. Okay, all you other Magical Girls can go home now, because nobody is ever going to top that.

How to tell that you've been watching too much Lucky Star:

When you start hearing your internal monologue narrated by Wendee Lee and Kari Wahlgren.

This has seriously happened to me several times.

Also it occurred to me that since I watch this show so much, it's about time that I learned to sing along with the opening theme. So I googled up the lyrics and HOLY BALLS you guys, this song is fucking impossible. I generally think of Japanese as a pretty easy-to-pronounce language, but this shit is bananas! The lines right before Konata does her finger-point "da-da-da-da" bit are particularly sadistic and tongue-twistery, and they sing it so fast that I can't even make out which syllables are supposed to be sung on which beats. arglebargle.

To make matters worse, the fansubbers can't even agree on what the lyrics are, and their translations of said lyrics are similarly divergent, so I doubt I'll ever find out what "Motteike Sailor Fuku" is actually about. I'm gleaning that it's about sailor-suited schoolgirl uniforms. Probably something about how hot they are. Also something about cherry pie. ?__? Though considering the kind of show this is, perhaps it's best not to know what the lyrics mean.

It feels kind of weird to make an actual post about Lucky Star — I mean, what is there to say about a show in which a bunch of girls sit around and talk about nothing all day long — but come to think of it, I do have a few comments:

-Obviously I'm all over the Konata/Kagami stuff, although their LesYay is much more subdued than the fandom would have you believe. Still, they get plenty of cute moments, like when Kagami gives Konata chocolate on Valentine's Day and is quick to assure everyone that THEY'RE JUST FRIENDSHIP CHOCOLATES TSUN-TSUN-DERE-DERE and then Konata says "The fact that you went to the trouble of making these even though you suck at cooking totally turns me on, Kagami!" Seriously, in the dub, "turns me on" is the exact wording she uses. asjkdfsjhfdfh. I also liked the scene when they're at the Haruhi concert and Kagami switches spots with Konata so that Konata can see better, and the scene where Konata's trying to get Miyuki to go to a "festival" with her, and Kagami pops up behind her and rests her elbows on Konata's head and spills the beans that this "festival" is actually Comiket. Because of the art style, they look really cute with their two plushy heads stacked one atop the other.

-Regarding the famous food conversation in the first episode: as a staunch hater of mayonnaise, I was pretty mortified to hear Tsukasa detail all the things she puts mayo on. Beef bowls? Rice? D: D: D:

-When Konata's doing her homage to Da Capo, I was amused to note that not only is she playing all of the harem girls, she's also playing the male lead! She's fantasizing about dating a male version of herself!

-Amongst the supporting characters, Yui and Misao are my faves. On the other hand, I tend to fast-forward through any scenes between Miyuki and Tsukasa. Their combined ditzyness is just too much for me to stomach.

-I watched the final episode for the first time recently, and it was really cool to see the whole cast perform the full version of the cheerleading routine. :D

-The scene with Konata and her dad discussing Gundams had me in stitches because of all the loopy sound effects they were using for the censor bleeps.

-However as much as I enjoy the main show, I have to say that the high point of Lucky Star is hands down the Lucky Channel segment. Minoru and Akira are endlessly hilarious together (and I kind of ship them, ffffff), and Stephanie Sheh's performance as Akira is pretty much the greatest thing ever. I think it's an absolute tragedy that Sheh is so often typecast as squeaky-voiced too-shy-to-function girls like Hinata and Mikuru when she's obviously got so much versatility and talent. Come on, casting directors, give this chick some more interesting roles!

-And the yawning head-cat that appears on the title cards is adorable. I want one.

This week on the Magical Girl Project, I'm skimming my way through the English dub of Cyberteam in Akihabara, which is conveniently on Youtube for the moment. At first I was just skimming for research purposes, but my genuine interest was piqued by Episode 8, which provides us with something that every Magical Girl show must have at least one of:

The Lesbian Episode!

This one was so delightfully gay that I felt compelled to make a picspam of it. But first I should introduce the characters:

Hibari: Red-headed heroine and ordinary junior-high student. (Luci Christian)
Suzume: Blue-haired best friend and gadgeteer genius. (Tiffany Grant)
Tsugumi: Black-haired martial artist with orange headband. (Kira Vincent-Davies)

(I point out the voice actors because in spite of a frequently awkward script, the English dub has some good actors working on it.)

Anyway in this episode, Hibari finds a love letter in her locker which she thinks is from this "Prince" guy she has a crush on, but it turns out to be from a girl named Uzura (Cynthia Martinez). Uzura turns out to be your typical obsessively lovestruck schoolgirl lesbian and Hibari isn't sure how to turn her down. Hibari's friends suggest that she pretend to have a boyfriend, but since they don't know any boys, that means one of them will have to dress up in drag as Hibari's fake boyfriend.

( Let the homoerotic crossdressing hijinks begin! )

Fun fact: This is not the only time that Cynthia Martinez and Luci Christian have been partners in LesYay — in Puni Puni Poemi, they played Poemi and Futaba, although their roles were reversed, with Christian playing the obsessed lesbian and Martinez playing her object of affection.

(crossposted to LJ)