Review

Introduction

Starting off I do have to preface this by saying this is my first ever mahou shoujo. I tried getting into Madoka once upon a time but gave up mid episode 1 I think because the faces felt off to me. I then also watched 2 episodes of Heartcatch like a month or two before this season and while I did like the start I had no motivation to continue. And I’ll be frank, if this wasn’t a contract I would’ve dropped it very early on… most notably when the bane of my existence Emiru gets introduced. If you have come from the discord message I think you already know my thoughts on the creature that is Emiru but more on her existence later. This was definitely the contract I had the most pain getting through 2nd after perfect blue (overrated film). I don’t do well with bright colours, and especially I absolutely abhor sharp/high pitched voices as they just give me a headache. I physically couldn’t watch more than 2-3 episodes of Hugtto in a row as I was in agony. So yea you can guess how my experience was like.

Story

The story for the most part is a typical villain of the week scenario which brings us to the Oshimaidas… fucking annoying pieces of shit. They’re just pokemon (in the sense that they only say their name) and god did they make a normal phrase like “Oshimaida” a fucking trigger word for me in whichever anime I watch 😭 Other than that I do like the overarching message of “You can be anything. The future is limitless” I just could never fully get invested in it mainly because of the characters used to deliver this message and more on them later. The overarching plot of saving the future from the Criasu Corporation who froze time in the future then came to the past too to freeze time here and steal the white mirai crystal later turned mother mirai crystal or whatever… just not a compelling, like the entire ideology behind stopping time is flawed which I’ll get to when talking about George Cry because he’s stupid. The moments of weakness the various characters had with self doubt if they can even do something and then regaining the hope is a touching narrative but a bit overused imo like come on hana this is like the 5th time you have said “We can’t do it” in the last half of the series only for the same outcome each time.

Characters

Moving onto the characters well… I have way more negative things to say than positive so I’ll get the positive out of the way first. First of all, Hana’s family is goated like genuinely I liked all of her family memebers more than her 😭 grandma, dad, mom, and lil sis were all fun to watch and especially the parents were some of the good parents in anime which isn’t a high bar but still an achievement. Then we have Ruru Amour, by far my favorite character in the series and ironically the only who comes close to her? Is her own father Doctor Traum I genuinely loved both of them a lot. For Ruru seeing her growth from a typical android who just follows orders to someone who learns to feel emotions, do things of her own free will, get a heart, learn to love other it was all just peak, perfection And then Doctor Traum, omg a villain that actually thinks. Man was so goated like ~60 cures had to team up to stop his shenanigans truly built different. The father daughter dynamic between him and Ruru was also so sweet to watch and it is one of the 2 times I cried (the 2nd or well 1st one was just in Ruru’s own arc near the start-ish when Hana’s mother accepts Ruru even after she tells them she’s just a stranger). Homare I also actually liked practically throughout from start to end, just a solid character and I loved her struggles. And since we are on Homare Anri also deserves a mention or Cure Infini, however you want to call him another solid arc, I loved his descent into depression and joining Criasu and then that leading to him becoming an honorary cure. Saaya I was mostly indifferent towards through most of the series, but seeing all of like the 5 birth sequences with her show grows to be more prominent then her final arc with her mother where she declares her newfound dream of being a doctor, it was a nice and sweet character progression. Harry is also ok, I didn’t mind harry though his hamster form was annoying cause his voice would just get higher pitched. Ok that’s enough for the positives, time for all the negatives aka every single goddamn “main” character left.

Holy fuck, Emiru is an annoying piece of shit like genuinely infuriating creature that exists and I dare not bring her up to the level of any other being in existence. I hate her character, I hate the way she talks, I hate every single goddamn thing about her. Her archetype of being overly cautious for no fucking reason at all, I hate those people irl too and putting someone like that in fiction is just unnecessay. People say that she grows on you, no she fucking doesn’t. I don’t CARE if her family is partly to blame for how she is like because I fucking HATE them too, genuinely praying on their downfall every goddamn episode. Her becoming a cure was the actual downfall of my entire experience with the show there is genuinely nothing that can make up for anything. She safely joins Rachel from Tower of God as my most hated characters in media. I won’t go on and on about her more though as I have definitely expressed my grievances before too while watching but yea.

George Cry this man is a joke, like no actually not to mention his logic for stopping time is so stupid, like Ah yes there is so much suffering in the world we must not let the future come cause people will just suffer so we must stop time so that people can stay happy forever and not suffer… Meanwhile the people who are suffering when he stops time will technically then be suffering for eternity using his logic… Yea he didn’t think that one through at all. Also he’s downright creepy, idk who it is we see in the flashback but I can only assume his wife/lover but stop seeing your wife in a child sir! I know he is meant to be a husk of a man, but he is just uninteresting and nonsensical I just couldn’t care about him at all.

Ok rapid fire time since I can’t spend paragraphs on each character, Hana is mediocre at best, her fure fures got tiring within like the first 5 eps and overall not the kind of character I care about (I have to repeat, voices do a lot of work in making me not care about a character). Pupple, charareet and all the other randoms that converted from Criasu to the side of good just meh. Pupple was at least decent ig but all the other characters were just quirky and I just dislike quirky characters in general. Especially that 5 minutes guy, fuck that guy in particular. Hugtan… do I need to say more other than she’s an annoying af baby? I hate babies in general so having one this important to the story was just a pain

Music & Animation

This section will be short as I don’t have anything specific to say. Opening was nice but it got boring by the end, I still never skipped it but that’s mostly so I can guess it correct in AMQ and have rae crashout from listening to a precure opening. The endings on the other hand I did like more and neither of them got boring, which might be in part due to them switching it midway-ish though I vastly prefer ED1 to ED2 and no it definitely does not have anything to do with Emiru being in the second one, what? That’d be crazy

Conclusion

Overall it was an ok show, one I had a lot of gripes with and as my intro to the mahjou shoujo genre… not too thrilled. And it’s definitely a show I would’ve dropped and never looked back at if it weren’t for contracts. However, this does not mean I am against trying any other precures… I am somewhat interested in Meitantei cause mystery is my favorite genre in media… Blossom did tell me to revisit Heartcatch one day and told me that I might like tropical rouge so I might decide between the 3 after contracts, spin a wheel, or blossom if you really want me to pick one particular one of the 3 I could do that. Also cure rankings below as promised

Score: 7.5/10

Cure Rankings

As a preface, this is mostly going off what little I saw of them in the 2 eps where they all appear, I just looked at their design and ranked them, most of the rankings outside the top 10 and bottom 1 (cause Emiru) is vague so feel free to flame me if I rank your favorite cure very low

1. Cure Chocolat
2. Cure Gelato = Cure Amour
3. Cure Moonlight
4. Cure Black
5. Cure Macaron
6. Cure Scarlet
7. Cure Ace
8. Cure Rouge
9. Cure Blossom (omg it’s Blossom)
10. Cure Ange
11. Cure Marine
12. Cure Passion
13. Cure Magical
14. Cure Berry
15. Cure Parfait
16. Cure Yell
17. Cure Dream
18. Milky Rose
19. Cure Happy
20. Cure Sunny
21. Cure March (have to rank high cause my birth month otherwise I hate green)
22. Cure Beauty
23. Cure Sword
24. Cure Diamond
25. Cure Mermaid
26. Cure Beat
27. Cure Fortune
28. Cure White
29. Cure Flora
30. Shiny Luminous
31. Cure Aqua
32. Cure Bright
33. Cure Windy
34. Cure Heart
35. Cure Whip
36. Cure Melody
37. Cure Princess
38. Cure Rhythm
39. Cure Lovely
40. Cure Twinkle
41. Cure Pine
42. Cure Honey
43. Cure Rosetta
44. Cure Sunshine
45. Cure Peach
46. Cure Peace
47. Cure Mint
48. Cure Miracle
49. Cure Felice
50. Cure Lemonade
51. Cure Custard
52. Cure Muse
53. Cure Tender
54. Cure Echo
55. Cure Sunset (filthy american)
56. Cure Wave (filthy american x2)
57. Cure Flower (deserves to be here cause I saw her age is 67…)
58. Cure Mа Cherie