Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Power of Hope: Precure Full Bloom
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zfunk
Posts: 311 |
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I was hoping this would be more slice of life, yes still have magical stuff, but have that in the background, with the focus being on these young adults trying to live their lives while the next generation takes care of saving the world and just in the background. That would be a interesting direction to take. Probably something you can't do with an establish franchise like this, if this was original characters they probably could.
Speaking of the next generation, you do have a couple of young girl protege characters here, I wonder if that is setup that at some point they will become the new Precures and have a passing of the torch moment at the end. |
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Nev999
Posts: 160 |
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Unfortunately the de-aging thing kind of killed it for me. Very few magical girl shows explicitly state being a magical girl is actually tied to being a teenager (the Sailor Senshi keep their powers in the future timeline sans Usagi deciding to be (a still magical) Queen, the Nanoha series allows her to be an adult with the same powers eventually), so the assumption that adult women don't get to have magical powers and be magical girls, that power is tied to youth in women and they have to deage to access power, really rankles me. I get that this might tie in to the themes of the show and recapturing your youth, the fantasies and easy answers of youth being dead, and the moral at the end might be you don't need to transform, you're fine as a normal adult, but that's pretty boring, to be honest.I really wanted to see magical women, and I think I'm not alone, so I decided to stop following the series week to week. If I hear it does anything that interests me, I'll binge to catch up, so I'm glad for these reviews.
Also, Toei will have to do better than simply showing Karen with Milk in the credits to actually develop it as a queer relationship, I want a little more than that tbh. I also don't fancy the idea of the squirrelblob romance resuming when Nozomi's an adult, still too many grooming vibes for me, and I have no idea what they were thinking making Nozomi romance her teacher in a show for five year olds in the first place and would like not to be reminded of it. Last edited by Nev999 on Sun Oct 22, 2023 2:50 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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StarFan13
 Posts: 353 |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2656 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Yes, because "magical girls" are usually in their teens or younger, so a magical woman would be an adult woman who transforms. Ageha in Soaring Sky Precure is legally an adult, so she's one example, but I think the more interesting one is the heroine of Arina Tanemura's manga Idol Dreams, because she's more what we'd think of as an adult. (And her story also has her transforming into a younger version of herself, but not to fight bad guys. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't at least a minor influence on this show.) |
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Saeryen
 Posts: 995 |
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I was pretty sure it was implied that Lumiere from Kira Kira Pretty Cure was over 20 when she first transformed, and I thought Cure Oasis from Tropical-Rouge was in at least her early 20s, so I don’t think the franchise is saying that there’s an age at which you can’t transform anymore.
I am loving this series so far! It focuses on issues adults face without being a “mature” show (other than characters drinking) and I love how the girls are subtly being Pretty Cures to the younger girls they are helping by spreading hope and love. |
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Nev999
Posts: 160 |
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I do agree that's contradictory (it also contradicts the Hugtto finale which was very firm that anyone of any age and any gender can be Precure as they are), but that kind of makes the implications of this series even more nonsense. If Precure can be adults, why do Nozomi and crew need to deage to transform in this series? Why did their power objects disappear, and why didn't they reappear when a magical threat arrived and allow them to transform as adults? Why do they need the Time Flower? Rin literally mentions "becoming adults" as a possibility for why they can't transform anymore and nothing in this series contradicts that. If Toei doesn't want that to be the implication, they need to put something in there to explain this, because otherwise that is absolutely what you have to take away from the series. Maybe they will put in an explanation, and if they do I'm back on board, but I'm not holding my breath. This also isn't the first time Precure has pulled this, the former Precure grandma in Heartcatch also deaged into a teenager when she transformed one time, which sucked since a magical senior citizen would have been cool. |
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zfunk
Posts: 311 |
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If you think de aging in this show is something, have you seen Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department, there was one episode in this old lady transfer into a magical girl, it was amazing. I wonder if they got the idea from that show.
I have to wonder though about the cafe they hang out at, do they have any customers that aren't Precures? If that is all the have, lucky for them this franchise has so many Precures, they can still do good business. Seriously do we have any theories on the villain? Could she be someone we have meet before, like one of the original Precures, maybe Hikari. Anyway the ED does give it away she is going to get purified and redeemed. Last edited by zfunk on Sun Oct 22, 2023 1:49 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Rogueywon
Posts: 265 |
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Given the way some of these characters knock back the booze (and why not), I'm betting that the secret new PreCure who shows up two thirds of the way through will be Cure Hangover.
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moony_badger
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Oh yay, weekly Precure reviews!
 I'll really be looking forward to these after episodes.
I'm still pretty new to the Precure franchise myself with the original Yes 5 being one of the seasons I was less interested in, but I've been enjoying this series so far. The little parallels it has with Soaring Sky are fun (teacher characters struggling to help a student who is moving away, an athletic side character needs a surgery that might put their sporting goals on hold) and I'm really interested to see how it handles the Splash Star characters. I don't LOVE the de-aging right now, but I'm willing to assume they're going somewhere with it thematically and how it'll tie into the idea of the time theme this season has (though I do still hope that they'll get actual adult transformation designs later on in the season!) I also don't like that they reuse the same transformation animation from the original season, but only for the very petty reason that I think Yes 5's transformations are some of the more boring ones the series has lol. I like the flashier ones more! |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
Posts: 2656 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Agreed! I'm also sad that they're using the second transformations from Go Go, because one of the few things I enjoyed about the Yes 5 transformations was Cure Lemonade's hair twisting. 
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Nipasu
 Posts: 130 |
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The Yes team have ben using their GoGo designs since 2008, so I don't see why Toei would revert back to their original designs. They also probably kept the GoGo forms because of Milky Rose, who would have looked out-of-place if everybody else was decked out in their 2007 outfits. As for the de-aging, I'm guessing the Time Flowers have something to do with it. |
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Everlasting Coconut
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We were robbed of adult Precure designs, which is a shame, but the adult drama is still there, so I can let the de-aging slide. Also, that fight scene at the end of episode 2 was nuts. It was short, but I like how cathartic it was, with Nozomi finally being able to release all that pent up frustration that comes hand-in-hand with adulthood.
Gotta say, not a fan of episode 3. The first two thirds of the episode were lovely, but it stumbled near the end. Kurumi should've had her own episode where she turns into Milky Rose. Here, she didn't have a moment of growth or realization, so her transformation didn't feel earned. It also took the spotlight away from Karen, who I'm supposed to believe could not handle a bunch of Shadow minions on her own. On an unrelated note, I've just recently found out that apparently the majority of the fandom prefers the Yes! designs over the GoGo! ones, which baffles me. The Yes! designs are probably the ugliest in the entire franchise next to Splash Star's, and the transformations were all pretty much the same for each of the girls. GoGo! was an improvement in that regard, tailoring each transformation to the girls' personalities. I'm very fond of the OST too. |
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q_3
Posts: 167 |
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I understand being disappointed at the lack of adult Cure forms, though I'm not really surprised. Given how thoroughly the franchise tends to leak or spoil character designs, we almost certainly would have seen their new forms before now if they were coming. My cynical guess is it's not really a deliberate decision for thematic reasons but just a cost efficiency measure, they already have the teenage Cure designs, not to mention stock transformation and attack footage, why spend money creating brand new ones? Especially since it's unlikely they'd expect to sell much merchandise with them (not saying that's an accurate assumption but it's what I would expect from the suits at Toei).
For me, though, I'm loving the series so far. It's not everything I ever hoped and dreamed of, but it is hitting a lot of the adult, former magical girl themes that I've wanted for a long time. And we did get an explicit "I love you" from Milk to Karen, which again is more than I was expecting. Witchy Precure 2 is probably going to be the real test for whether Toei is willing to have queer text, though. |
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gumbaloom
Posts: 310 |
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It would be good to see some commentary in the weekly reviews about the social commentary that this show is making.
It seems to be when not in monster fighting mode making a lot of commentary about some of the social ills of Japan right now. - Parents not being able to afford school fees = transfer to public school - Failing Businesses / Alcoholism - Women being treated like crap in business - even though they've done all the jobs they're still expected to do petty jobs by their male superiors like clean up the meeting room / service overtime. - Japanese drinking culture At least to me its doing a very good job of highlighting and discussing honestly some of the woes of Japanese society right now and making kids learn about them in a thoughtful way. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
Posts: 2656 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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I'm planning on it, I just had a lot to cover in this first review. I particularly like how they're handling drinking culture with Karen not drinking. As a nondrinker myself (and no judgement on people who do drink), I really appreciate the way that Karen's discomfort is shown and how the others feel the need to find an "excuse" for her abstention. |
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