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Action Heroine Cheer Fruits (TV).




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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15434
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Jul 08, 2017 7:28 am Reply with quote


Action Heroine Cheer Fruits (TV)

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Plot Summary: The "local heroine fighter" of a certain city became popular and a national star. Because of this, "local heroines" debuted in various other places, and their action live events became a hit trend nationally. In Hinano City, high school girl Misaki Shirogane and other girls become local heroines (at the urging of Misaki's aunt, the prefectural governor) and vow to produce action live events.
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Episode 1
I kind of had low expectations at the start of the episode, I was thinking that whatever the super hero show plot it was giving would probably not interest me much. Which was then thinking that the main heroine looks a lot like Kotori from Love Live, practically making me think whether this was some strange spinoff if the animation was kind of better. But it kind of sold me here that her kid sister wanted to see the show so much and then she decided to do the show for her.

I am strangely still reminded of Love Live, but also of Locodol. Rather than other shows that have been doing their bit of doing some obscure sport or cultural arts which kind of in ways make me roll my eyes, this one actually had me interested while seeing them prepare for the hero show.


Last edited by DuskyPredator on Sat Jul 08, 2017 6:50 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9812
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Sat Jul 08, 2017 7:35 am Reply with quote
According to the Preview Guide, the main character is supposed to be a senior in high school. I don't see anyone in that graphic old enough to be in high school, much less a senior. I realized that there is a tendency in anime to make girls look younger than their stated age, but this is ridiculous. Realistically they should all still be in elementary school.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 6:57 am Reply with quote
Episode 2

I don't know what it is but I can see all the parts they took from other shows. Even from the first episode, I was doing a head count of the girls, seeing if it reached that magical "nine" number which was kind of pointless since the opener presented in episode 2 introduces all nine girls. However, it's different magical numbers: a 5 member sentai group, two villain team up and the main production crew duo.

And then it gets weird. Not in a "This is symbolism!" anime sort of way you usually get, weirdness for sake of weirdness... I think... but in a "this is the theme of the show, nostalgia for childhood innocence of toys and live events... expressed as a mental breakdown." way. I did not see that one coming.

How much of that train car is real and how much is just in her head? I don't like repeating myself but this is closer to Melodies of Oblivion metaphor weirdness than any sort of idol/hero show, realistic performance or outright fantastic. Even Yuki Yuna is a Hero didn't do a "delusional" story.... though it did have a handicapped girl.

As I said, while all the parts are familiar, how they're being used is quite a bit different right down to its main structure. In most series of this type, the girls join the story/main group and then we learn about them but here, it looks like we're going to an episode on the character first and why they join... at least for the rest of the cast. And taking another look at the opener, one of the hero girls is the twin sister of the handicapped one...

Yeah, I'm intrigued. It's also honestly funny.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 7:04 am Reply with quote
Yeah, I gotta say the girl living in a subway car and talking to transforming train men was... unexpected. I continue to dig this, so far.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15434
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 7:39 am Reply with quote
I am choosing to take a lot of what we saw of her as some sort of exploration of her personality. Like from the outside she seems quite feminine, but looking at her home we see that some of her interests are, pardon my ignorance or insensitivity, kind of like more young boys, and that somewhat indicative by the train people she talked to. At this point it feels fairly safe to compare this to Love Live, but the scene in the train kind of felt like something I would be Welcome to the NHK, although I don't think it is a case of her hallucinating things. Part of it made me wonder if we were getting a case that she really is connected to some fantastical aspect.

I am curious of the directing decision, and whether this might be an indication of more.
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Sunny milk



Joined: 22 Jan 2014
Posts: 695
PostPosted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 11:05 pm Reply with quote
Alan45 wrote:
I realized that there is a tendency in anime to make girls look younger than their stated age, but this is ridiculous. Realistically they should all still be in elementary school.


Nah, I don't see it. The design are pretty simplified but not especially young looking.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15434
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 1:11 am Reply with quote
Episode 12 (finale)

It might have sunk a bit as a show after having a really good first episode, which I think was because it had a complete story that you could emotionally invested in. But I also think that it managed to end quite strongly too, that I think it actually had me feel invested in the unity of the group, and kind of actually felt like it went across the scene of also getting me pumped up when Mikan was calling the audience to do such, something she learned about earlier. I think that I want to give praise with how the show handled some of this character growth, that the finale was for Misaki, but earlier like when Mikan thought she was pointless in the group, and we saw her strengths as both script writer and with the kids. And totally with Genki, who I think was one of my favourites of the cast, that she too was called on to join the cast because she was just as important as the heroes that the kids see.

I think how much I especially like Genki, is what role she had in the show as a whole, that we know her sister was pretty dedicated because she wanted to do things in her stead, but Genki actually hated being pitied, and Yuuki stumbled in her idol career because she refused to use her sister as a prop for sympathy. It is a respect for the characters that I think it pulled off well. Although the episode they were kind of humiliated by Genki's training method was funny, it was never exploitive.

As was seemed kind of evident from the start, it is fitting of a comparison to do Cheer Fruits with Love Live. A nine member group of girls, part of a performance arts, with costume choreography, and generally similar characters. But I don't think you can call Cheer Fruits a clone, it did its own thing, it is not a big deal that Mikan even looks like Kotori, I still think it is just funny.

The show is not without its negatives though. This is not the highest artistic quality show, so is fair to mark down not great art and animation. In general it has some elements that don't feel like high quality, which I think may be a part of what makes it sag, but I also think that it kind of feels amateur in ways that are actually positive, that it is not just copying other things. For me at least it kind of had me want to cheer for this scrappy little show, which sort of runs parallel with what it is about, so I enjoyed my time with it. So I will rate it Good (7/10), it is worth seeing. Maybe it won't be worth that to everyone, but I think it is actually quite endearing.
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