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REVIEW: Healin' Good Precure Streaming




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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 3:14 pm Reply with quote
I love this season! Granted, Heartcatch will always be my number one favorite, but Healin Good comes a very close second for the reasons mentioned in this very review. I know the show did have to deal with having some content cut due to COVID, but for what it is, I think it still managed to make good use of what it had, and none of the other Precure seasons sans Heartcatch really tugged at my heartstrings and made me care as much as this one did.
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tfwnoymir



Joined: 03 Dec 2017
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 4:00 pm Reply with quote
It might not have been my favorite season, far from it, but I think theming-wise it solidly landed on its feet. Perhaps the pacing could have been better, for example the very last episode's themes could have been explored in the main series spoiler[as in how humans and byogens are both exploiting the planet and possibly that's why byogens exist in the first place, and if we [humanity] don't behave, we might make enemies out of some magical animals from some other dimension]. But there's plenty to like here; like Nodoka and Rabirin's relationship and Hinata herself, who might be an adorable goofball, but she's much deeper than that, possibly someone with learning disabilities and the worries that come with that.

Speaking of villains: to Precure's credit, at the very least in the other series, the villains are tend not to be completely irredeemable, sadistic asshats like here spoiler[especially Daruizen, who personally tortured Nodoka and completely robbed her of her childhood even before the series began, albeit at first not intentionally, but when he learns that fact, he's relishing in it], there's usually a reason why they joined hands with the villains, varying from brainwashing, being fooled by the big bad's honeyed words, or them just straight-up villains even before that. In some ways, Healin' Good is pretty old school in spoiler[just straight up killing off the villains for real, like in the older series], but at the very least, in this case there was an explanation to that, not just happening by itself.
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StarFan13



Joined: 06 Aug 2017
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 4:01 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
not falling into the “worried helper” role of someone like Luna and Artemis or “cute with little purpose,” as we also sometimes see.


Luna and Artemis are from Sailor Moon
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FireChick
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 4:33 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
But there's plenty to like here; like Nodoka and Rabirin's relationship and Hinata herself, who might be an adorable goofball, but she's much deeper than that, possibly someone with learning disabilities and the worries that come with that.


Yeah. I tend to really hate overly cheerful characters because most of the time, any anime that have them tend to make them act like five-year-olds high on sugar spouting cutesy catchphrases than like actual people. Hell, even some other Precure protags were like this (Megumi from Happiness Charge is one of them. God, she was soooo obnoxious and saccharine!). I'm so glad they avoided doing that with Hinata. Plus, there's an interview with the HealPre staff going around the net, and it details some things that were changed, like having to ax some of Hinata's development because of cutting down the number of episodes.
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Princess_Irene
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Joined: 16 Dec 2008
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 4:49 pm Reply with quote
FireChick wrote:
I tend to really hate overly cheerful characters because most of the time, any anime that have them tend to make them act like five-year-olds high on sugar spouting cutesy catchphrases than like actual people... I'm so glad they avoided doing that with Hinata. Plus, there's an interview with the HealPre staff going around the net, and it details some things that were changed, like having to ax some of Hinata's development because of cutting down the number of episodes.


Agreed! I fully expected her to be obnoxious, but, as tfwyomir said, instead she came across as a real person with her own set of real problems - the episode with her old friend was especially good. I also agree with the thought that she may have learning differences, which are, according to my memory, particularly awful in middle school because you feel like you should just be able to do things and labels are really starting to hurt. It definitely does show that she had her storylines trimmed, which is a shame.

Something I didn't get to go into in the review (because wow, is it long) is how nice it was to see that each of the girls had different family structures but that all three families were loving and supportive - Nodoka had a two-parent family, Chiyu's was extended with multiple generations in the same house, and Hinata's had a single father. It's a seemingly small thing, but I think it makes a difference.
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tfwnoymir



Joined: 03 Dec 2017
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 5:25 pm Reply with quote
@FireChick genki characters are my bread and butter so it doesn't bother me that much, but I'm glad that they've done more with Hinata than the usual cookie cutter character, even if they could've done much more with her character arc. She would carry the show even by herself, but thankfully the other characters are well-written too, although I'm a bit biased towards Nodoka, she's grown on me a lot by the end.

@Princess_Irene I think Hinata's biggest problems are her lack of being able to concentrate on one thing, how the usual explanations don't work on her and she remembers the oddest things but not the ones that are actually asked in tests. That's something I can deeply relate to. These things were not spelt out for us in the show itself, but I think the intention by the writers were there. This is especially nice to see because it's usually treated as a joke by many writers.
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FallenDomino



Joined: 09 Aug 2016
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 6:00 pm Reply with quote
That analysis of Nodoka and Daruizen's "relationship" is... not accurate.

spoiler[Daruizen shoved a Mega Part in Nodoka because he or the other two previously did the same to other living creatures and he was curious of what would happen if they put one in a human. There was no "standing over a screaming Nodoka while he shoves a green crystal in her," another Byo-gen was born as a result of it, and Daruizen didn't even realize his connection to Nodoka until that second Byo-gen was born. Nodoka wasn't afraid of Daruizen, either. She felt responsible for his creation and wanted to deal with him specifically. What she was afraid of, was anyone going through the same thing she did. That's why she freaked out the same way when Daruizen wanted to stay in her body and when Asumi wanted to absorb Shindoi-ne's Mega Parts.]

The "specific interest," aside from that connection, is nothing more than the usual "First villain specifically antagonizes First Cure because things were going well until she showed up" that's been in Fresh, Smile, Princess, etc.
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Amuro1X



Joined: 02 Sep 2009
Posts: 202
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 6:13 pm Reply with quote
FireChick wrote:
I love this season! Granted, Heartcatch will always be my number one favorite, but Healin Good comes a very close second for the reasons mentioned in this very review. I know the show did have to deal with having some content cut due to COVID, but for what it is, I think it still managed to make good use of what it had, and none of the other Precure seasons sans Heartcatch really tugged at my heartstrings and made me care as much as this one did.


You know what's up. I've been on a precure break since Happiness Charge, and started Healin' Good recently. I'm already really liking it, and it does give me Heartcatch vibes in terms of aesthetic and tone. Even Cure Grace's transformation catchprhase of "Two flowers blooming as one" is a nice callback to the Blossom's and the other Heartcatch's single flowers, haha.
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 8:33 pm Reply with quote
And just in the epilogue episode we got commentary on spoiler[how humanity is destroying the planet and an ironic bit about people spreading disease by travelling]. Would have been nice to see some of this actually explored in the run of the show.

Amuro1X wrote:
You know what's up. I've been on a precure break since Happiness Charge, and started Healin' Good recently. I'm already really liking it, and it does give me Heartcatch vibes in terms of aesthetic and tone. Even Cure Grace's transformation catchprhase of "Two flowers blooming as one" is a nice callback to the Blossom's and the other Heartcatch's single flowers, haha.

HapiCha tried to use Hime to emulate Erika... with arguable success. But I've noticed that the last few seasons have been grabbing more of Heartcatch's visual cues and exaggerated expressions than the ones before.

tfwnoymir wrote:
Speaking of villains: to Precure's credit, at the very least in the other series, the villains are tend not to be completely irredeemable, sadistic asshats like here, there's usually a reason why they joined hands with the villains, varying from brainwashing, being fooled by the big bad's honeyed words, or them just straight-up villains even before that. In some ways, Healin' Good is pretty old school in, but at the very least, in this case there was an explanation to that, not just happening by itself.

Or they were just part of the corporate grinding machine! With every worker that bit the dust being easily replaced.

FireChick wrote:
Plus, there's an interview with the HealPre staff going around the net, and it details some things that were changed, like having to ax some of Hinata's development because of cutting down the number of episodes.

This... is annoying. Thematically Asumi's introductory episodes were incredibly dull, even if it was necessary to endear her to the audience. And Chiyu's was a bit awkward in how it echoed at several points of the series and then she just... spoiler[decided to do both? Completely ignoring why it wasn't possible before?].
While Hinata's arc was kind of baked into the finale, I would have preferred to cut one of the other two (or some of the many non-essential episodes in the way) if only because she's just such a fun character that having a couple more episodes focused on her would have been worth it.
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TsukasaElkKite



Joined: 22 Nov 2005
Posts: 4015
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 9:18 pm Reply with quote
HGPC was quite good, even though the episode count was cut down due to COVID.
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tfwnoymir



Joined: 03 Dec 2017
Posts: 325
Location: Hungary
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 9:24 pm Reply with quote
Yuvelir wrote:

Or they were just part of the corporate grinding machine! With every worker that bit the dust being easily replaced.


Yeah, that too lol

@FallenDomino I don't think Rebecca is wrong about spoiler[Nodoka being afraid of going through the same excruciating pain as in her childhood, and later in the middle of the series again, she herself admits that. She's no self-sacrificing hero and she's afraid being seen as selfish because of that, only for Rabirin to snap her out of it. She's obviously concerned about others but the reason she rejects helping Daruizen in the first place because it's her own body he shouldn't use out of convenience and he's shown not an inch of regret or willingness of changing his ways.]
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Saeryen



Joined: 26 Aug 2020
Posts: 988
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 5:27 pm Reply with quote
This was the first Pretty Cure I ever watched, and I absolutely loved it.

The Pretty Cures and animals were all awesome. The villains were fun (well, except King Byogen but his horribleness was necessary to the story IMO). And while spoiler[I did like the villains and hoped to see Daruizen and Shindoine get redeemed, I love how the show handled their plots].
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