Forum - View topicHeartCatch PreCure!
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Andrez
 Posts: 67 Location: Tokyo |
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I'll admit it - often I'm a bit slow on the uptake, but in this particular case I think it may've been an unconsciously imposed disposition. I've known all along that Japanese animation production house Toei reinvent their Pretty Cure anime series every year, and that they'd done so seven times already since 2004.
Something to do with merchandising, mostly - they get a whole new range of products to hawk to kids. But my five-year-old daughter and I had grown so attached to the current incarnation, HeartCatch PreCure! over the past 40-odd episodes, and it's been so wildly popular here in Japan, that I fooled myself into believing Toei would change the rules this time round and continue the storyline romps of Blossom, Marine, Sunshine, Moonlight, et al. This was, in fact, my choice of anime series of the year for 2010 in British magazine Impact, on Japanese website Gaijinpot, and on my own hack blog - something difficult to swallow since it's a shojo girl's show aimed at little kids. But now, regardless, we've stumbled across the truth: HeartCatch PreCure! is set to go the way of the dinosaur, much like its predecessors - as per usual, Toei will sink the current series and introduce a new one from next month, actually from February 6th. It's called Suite PreCure♪, or Suīto PuriKyua♪ (スイート プリキュア♪) in Japanese (yep, they just make the English sound a bit more katakana-inflected. Given that this duo, Cure Rhythm and Cure Melody, have powers that revolve around music, you'd think I'd be the first to be won over - but when Cocoa and I first saw their character designs last night and my wife (less a fan of the whole Pretty Cure thing) asked us what we thought, my daughter and I both let out a cynical "Hmmm..." at the same time. Quite possibly this will change; the wavering optimist in me hopes so. Cocoa's already today saying how cute Rhythm and Melody's costumes are. In the meantime we have just a couple more episodes of HeartCatch PreCure! to say sayonara. This is not to say I'm a raving nut about a crap girls' show. Well, maybe I am. OK, I'll admit it - I'm hooked watching this anime series every Sunday morning from 8:30, and not only because it's my daughter's preferred eye candy. It's an infectious, disarming and super cute series that lacks the annoyance value of, say, Pokémon. Having kicked off on TV Asahi (Channel 10) in Tokyo back in February this year, HeartCatch is the seventh version of the long-running girls' concept created by the 'mysterious' Izumi Todo - actually none other than an alias for the creative types at Toei Animation - and to my mind its definitely the best interpretation to date. The earlier incarnations were just plain annoying, so skip them altogether to save your sanity. It all started up with our shy, upright heroine Tsubomi (Cure Blossom), swathed in pink, then she was joined by trusty neighbour and fashion-minded sidekick Erika (the all-blue Cure Marine). Five months into the series, the third heroine emerged with the gold enshrouded, androgynous Itsuki (Cure Sunshine) - and later the vaguely bitter and reticent Cure Moonlight joined the fray. For a young girls' romp, there's a surprising sense of patience in the development of the story-telling arc, there're surreal kaiju-style monsters every week, the villains ham it up, our heroes have a sense of humour, and the character designs are brilliant. While it's obviously aimed at the purchasing powers of the parents of the target demographic, there's something for everyone - even the more critical expat foreigners and their open-minded kids. And the infectious theme song by Mayu Kudou is being heard right now everywhere over here from kindergartens to keitai ring-tones. 
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