How to fix DokiDoki PreCure (SPOILERS for the whole thing)

Dalek-baka said:
- disagree here, weird thing is why Aguri is there: Ace was perfectly fine as someone way stronger who just comes tells other Precure they suck and go towards the setting sun. Her normal persona was just boring. Last episodes were good but that stuff about birthday, for example was unnecessary

- attacks... here I disagree. Actually it was nice to have more of them (not that they were used too often but that is different stuff), especially compared with Futari wa where they had 2 of those (ok there was also Rainbow Therapy but it was forgotten along with shields but as a bonus we've got Heartiel Action which seems to be gaining functions with each movie).

- I always skip combination attacks :P so it doesn't bother me (except Splash Star where I really liked them)

DmonHiro said:
BS on bringing the princess back. You CAN'T bring her back out of thin air when she's scattered in three pieces. It would have been stupid to just bring her back in the end.

BS on Ira and Mammo in the human world. They are thousand old demons. I loved Ira, but I putting him is school with the girls is childish and stupid. It makes no sense.

ZettaiRyouiki said:
I’m sure I’m not the only one who noticed this, but DokiDoki’s plot isn’t very good in spite of “More plot focus!” being the gimmick of this installment. Most of it is due to Toei’s usual shortcomings of Pink Cure Bias and saving too much money, but some issues don’t have an excuse. Give I’ve been chastising the show for its flaws for the latter half of its run it’s only fair I offer some ideas on how to handle the plot better. Also, if the topic title didn’t give it away this has SPOILERS for the whole of DokiDoki, so if you haven’t seen it yet then go back. Anyhow, here we go:

-CHARACTER CHANGES

*First and foremost, stop playing Mana up so much. The show isn’t Cure Heart And Her Always Awed Harem, it’s DokiDoki PreCure, and New Stage 2 uses that title to refer to ALL Cures in this show. Minus Ace who wasn’t around at the time, duh. That means Mana should get less speeches, don’t do her heart pose as much, get less wins against generic Selfishes and overall let the other girls play too. She can have a bit more focus than the others for being the lead, but just a little. Also, the most unfair aspects of her character need to be polished: She needs to make the occasional mistake and have some flaws, as it’s terrible her mom is all “She was a great child” while Rikka has to feel bad because she was a crying baby that didn’t let her mother sleep. Seriously, flaws. She can then develop and fix some of them, like realize doing people’s jobs for them is not helping people in the long run. That’d make her more likable and relatable than just throwing in Little Miss Perfect alongside a few normals who praise her up all the time.

*Conversely, the other girls need more focus. Rikka is okay, mostly, but Makoto’s role in the story disappears a quarter in and is replaced by Aguri who does the same thing but better, and Arisu isn’t even on the same school so she gets left out often. Both are easy things to fix: Make the Makoto arc last longer, if she misses the crossover movie then so be it, and make her relationship with the Queen more personal, plus let her take the fight against Selfishes more seriously; now we have more reasons to have her talk and interact with the other girls, and perhaps even learn life isn’t a battlefield or stuff like that. Sure, it’s mainly taking from Yuri from Heartcatch, but if you’re going to steal ideas then steal good ones from good shows. For Arisu, have her be in the same school as the other girls and have Reina show up more than twice. Done. Seriously, they didn’t bother to show her uniform until the last episode, what the hell.

*More importantly, AGURI needs more focus. No, really. The story is essentially about her and Regina and yet both girls are introduced way too late, with their development and plotlines suffering from it. Have Regina appear from first episode and have her be at Clover Tower instead of Mammo so she can met Mana from day one and thus get interested on her from the beginning, but still take a bit to try to befriend her. If Mana and Regina being friends is still a thing, and it should since I’m fixing the plot and not rewriting it, then it needs to begin with an episode actually about Mana, instead of with an episode where Regina mostly trolls Makoto and barely interacts with Mana yet she ends infatuated with Mana anyway. Aguri also needs to show up from early on, perhaps overseeing things from afar or giving the heroines cryptic help once or twice. Sure, they are now like Setsuna from Fresh and Ako from Suite, respectively, but both girls were handled well in that regard, so once again if we’re going to steal plots then we should steal the good ones. Of course the last parts need to be all about Aguri and Regina, for Mana’s eternal spotlight hogging muddles things big time. Mana can help, sure, since her bond with Regina is there, but Aguri and Regina still need to be the most important persons to the plot since, well, they are.

*Finishing on the “characters” section, the characters who aren’t Cures need to be given more screentime. DokiDoki, like sadly also Smile, has an “empty world” feeling caused by the ludicrous amount of episodes focused on X or Y Cure, while most of the cast was left forgotten. Ira and Mammo got one episode each, sure, but Leva and Gula maybe got like two scenes without the other in it, and barely interacted with the other Selfishes. The fairies were also left aside compared to their usual treatment, with only DB being relevant, and also Ai-chan of course. Charles and Raquel got one episode each and Lance didn’t even get that. The parents were also mostly forgotten, but then again this is the only Cure season with so many almost-single-parent or orphan or something Cures, except Mana who is of course perfect. Then again this is the only season where all the girls are single children, so whatever. Aside from the Cures and their very few family members, the fairies and the villains almost no other character ever got focus. Other series would have non-Cure friends who would get the occasional episode, or focus on some other minor character, or just have some regular humans do something. Have people like that: Reina, Eru and Jun are nice but that’s just three of them, which barely do a thing aside from their focus episodes. Having Cures interact with people who aren’t their families, fairies, villains or other Cures won’t kill them; in fact it could even work with the setting of Mana helping others. The Heartcatch girls sure cared more for the people they helped than HER, for one.


-ATTACK CHANGES.

*This might sound radical and strange, but the girls have too many attacks. Four attacks a piece except for Ace in just 49 episodes are way too many, especially when they spend a full episode to introduce one and most fights are won with Combination Attack spam anyway. The only magical girl shows with more attacks are Nanoha, that used the moves like a regular fighting anime would and not just as finishers, and Sailor Moon, that had 5 seasons and 200 episodes so naturally it would have a lot of attacks as a combination of “new season, new moves” and just plain not boring the audience with the same moves over and over during 4 years. The end result is most of these moves are used once or twice, making them essentially filler. On top of that most of them aren’t too different, Rikka and Makoto’s first three moves are all basically increasingly bigger versions of each other and Arisu went from a shield to a bigger shield to shooting said shield. Therefore, it’d be best to tone down things to two attacks: the one they start with and the one the iCurePad gives them, as it comes about halfway into the show and is a good reason for the girls to get new moves, plus they’re the only ones that actually look and act different. Ace would get a support move rather than an upgrade, of course, as she is meant to be stronger than the rest even though the show keeps downplaying her.

*By that token three combination attacks are overkill. Yes/GoGo/Fresh only had one, and while Heartcatch and Suite had several that was due more to the growing amount of Cures than to anything else. Smile with two and a half was already pushing things, but three are way too many. Personally I would have just one, but since Toei likes selling toys and I’m fixing instead of rewriting then two it is. First would be the Love Heart Arrow’s PreCure Lovely Force Arrow, speaking of the item needs a name without “Heart” in it because Mana is everywhere, and then the iCurePad’s PreCure Royal Lovely Straight Flush, completely skipping PreCure Lovely Straight Flush because it looks really bland and it glorifies Mana for no reason, which is really tasteless in a combination attack. PreCure Lovely Force Arrow also glorifies Mana in the original show, but since now is “The thing the four Cures do” and not “The other Cures doing Mana’s new attack” it’s fine. Oh, and this goes without saying, but they shouldn’t spam these moves in every episode, just once every 3-4 eps is fine and that’s being generous. Yes only used it to kill named villains, GoGo almost the same and Fresh didn’t use theirs as much since they got it late, while HC and Suite were slightly more varied with the kills and the former more so. Only Smile was spammy, but Smile’s fights were aside from a few exceptions one of its weakest points so that’s not a surprise. That said Smile didn’t try to be serious while DokiDoki is the total opposite and tries to be very serious. Didn’t work.


-PLOT CHANGES

*Now we’re talking. First, as said above Regina is introduced from the beginning, and she shows interest on Mana but not as “intense” as she does, since now we actually have more than 7-8 episodes to develop their friendship. Aguri should be there too, not doing much except look ominous, but at least tell us she exists. Overall most of the first few episodes are good and there is little to change here, except as said give Regina a bit of screentime and Aguri cameos here and there.

*The Sword part needs to last a bit longer. She joins way too fast and that ruins the entire point of her being a loner and not accepting help of others. If she misses NS2 then so be it, it’s not like AS3 had Cure Moonlight either. Basically have her show up every now and then, have her slowly warm up to THE GIRLS, not just Mana, and then have her ask the girls for a little help on going to Trump Kingdom or something. There they can fight Beel or something and the four Cures forge a friendship in battle. Hey, all shounens do this and it works for them, it can work for DokiDoki as well. Soon they can even get their combination attack to symbolize teamwork rules and all these things shows for children want you to believe.

*Speaking of, make sure to have Leva and Gula show up in the flashbacks of Marie Ange fighting the Selfish with the Miracle Dragon Glaive and throw some references to them in the dialogues of Makoto and of the Selfish Trio + Regina. Having absolutely no foreshadowing is bad for both heroes and villains.

*Pretty much everything else about the Royal Crystal part can stay the same. This part had little issues except Regina’s arc being crammed in it and now we fixed that. That said, one part of this needs to be fixed: Popsicle Marie Ange. She’s basically a decoy that never decoys anything, almost like if they changed plans halfway. Instead it should be her body, as her heart split into Aguri and Regina and her soul became Ai-chan. This of course isn’t revealed at the time, of course, at the time everyone thinks that is 100% the Queen. For starters, the Queen’s body curing Regina makes more sense than a decoy doing so. Also, when Joe leaves to hide Marie Ange the very episode that tells this needs to end with the scene from near the end of Ange telling Joe to look for the Eternal Golden Crown, with no further details to make this mysterious interesting, and Ai-chan leaving because, well, Cure Ace is coming. Add in a scene of Aguri suddenly waking on the night or something to link the two events together.

*From now on everything gets dumber, so it’ll be hard to fix it but I’ll try. The biggest change is that Regina doesn’t change sides because her giant dad made of selfishness said so or else she’d go to her room without supper, she reveals she had been playing Mana this whole time and her “dark side” is just her revealing her “real” appearance. Eventually this will be revealed to be a façade she put because she wanted her dad to like her as she deep in likes Mana and the girls, of course, but for now everyone is shocked and awed. Then Ace shows up guided by Ai-chan, she bails the girls, yadda yadda.

*Aguri basically chews on the girls for being so irresponsible as to forget how to fight in the middle of a fight, which makes the girls feel down. They eventually cheer up and ready for the next battle, but oh no, Gula and Leva show up instead of Ira or something and Makoto nearly wets her spats, crediting them as the strongest and most fearsome of Selfishes. Naturally the two beat up on the girls with ease, with only Ace saving them right on time. The girls then realize shit got real and ask Ace for advice since she seems like she knows things, and she replies in fact she also needs their help, so they decide to collaborate and be nice to each other for the time being.

*This leads up to Melan. Instead of being quickly settled in one episode this should be a two-parter, as it’s the perfect chance to develop Aguri and her relationship to the team. Thus we learn now about her mysterious past and stuff, minus the lack of a birthday because that’s dumb, and the girls reveal some of their secrets or something to show they trust each other. Melan is then beaten by teamwork, not by Mana being Cure Jesus and pulling shit randomly all the time, and the girls get the iCurePads.

*This leads to the third AND FINAL set of episodes about one Cure each, where each Cure learns to use their second move and kills the Selfish with it. Slowly then gain confidence on fighting Leva and Gula, which makes them realize they need a little help and reluctantly ask the Selfish Trio for it. Beel accepts and sets up the whole thing about the Miracle Dragon Glaive, but it’s actually a double trap to make the Cures and the Selfish Duo fight to the death, since whoever wins HE wins. Much like in the regular series the Cures cannot win until they finally figure out the second and last combination attack, only without Mana’s random tantrum. The attack actually kills Leva and Gula, but Beel uses their souls to make the rings and empower Ira and Mammo. By chance Regina stumbles on the Glaive and pulls it out, which combined with the rings gives the villains the upper hand once again and makes the Cures retreat. Regina makes a sad face when they do however, which Mana notices.

*The girls are now in a corner, as the situation is pretty dire. Mana then says Regina was sad and thinks they might talk her back. Makoto and Aguri oppose this, but Rikka’s times with Ira and also Arisu’s with Mammo/Cutie Madame, which would be given more focus this time around, make them think Mana might have a point. With this new resolve the girls fight Regina and the others and put a better fight, enough to make Regina show her feelings a bit more openly, but not enough to make her change sides. At least the girls now know there is hope!

*Joe comes back for real with the Eternal Golden Crown. Aguri then touches it, she remembers things, and instead of being secretive she just tells everyone things. This can basically stay the same except with a few changes: First, the girls agree the King wasn’t perfect but he just wanted his daughter to get better so this wasn’t overly Selfish, thus avoiding this from being passed as more serious than it is. Then we’re shown the scene with the sealing. It shows the wise men saying they need to make a proper seal but the current King, not the actual one, says to just use the damn Crown, showing he is really Selfish and cares not for people’s opinions, thus explaining why the Crown was such a bad seal and tying with the show’s general theme. Finally they should make a strong connection between the oozing Proto-Selfish and Ange’s illness as well as the general poor behavior of Trump Kingdom denizens: it’s right there and it makes far more sense than Random Magical Super-Illness and Trump Kingdom being inferior because Mana Jesus wasn’t born in it.

*Now, the final part sucks, so I’m pretty much rewriting it to be better, that is to say like those of previous seasons. Rikka fights Ira, Arisu fights Mammo, Mana and Makoto join forces against a Hulked-up Beel with the power of the rings as this is far better than making them be Combination Attack fodder, and Ace fights Regina like in the series, only she is the one to get her to come back to her senses. Mana matters because Ace mentions her, and her and the rest show up to try to get Regina to just ditch the Dark Side, but only after they have a cool fight. For that matter the fights with the Selfish Trio are all real, proper fights, think Erika vs. Kumojacky and Itsuki vs. Cobraja. The trio doesn’t die, but they’re implied to be purified, which is still better than what the show really does.

*Once the minor bosses are handles is time for the final boss. Regina and Aguri try to talk to King Selfish, but it does nothing, so the two think they might reach him better if King Selfish is weakened. This can still be on Earth, just without Mana revealing her identity: People just cheer on the Cures because they’re saving the world, simple as that. However King Selfish is too strong, so the will of the Cures and the iCurePads react and GIVE EVERYONE THE FINAL UPGRADE. Again: EVERYONE. Even Regina can get wings or something. This lets the girls beat up on King Selfish hard until his heart pops out with the King on it. Aguri and Regina talk to him and manage to pull him out, then the four first Cures defeat the body with an upgraded Lovely Force Arrow. But oh noes, Beel is still around even tho Ira and Mammo tried to stop him, and he eats the last part of Selfishness like in the original.

*The last part is easy: Proto-Selfish is reborn taking over Beel’s body, so here’s another villain down. The girls try to talk to him but clearly it does nothing, and eventually he’s defeated with a souped-up Royal Lovely Straight Flush that includes Regina. He still says he’ll come back as long there is selfish feelings in hearts, but the girls say that then he shall be stricken down by the Cures of the time as they’ll make sure good people exist on the future or something similar. Cue happy ending, Ira goes to class with Rikka, Arisu, Mana, Regina and Makoto, Mammo becomes a maid so she can be with Arisu and Sebastian or something, Regina and Aguri use their Wonder Twin powers to somehow bring Ange back and the Cures can still be famous. Or something. This part is absurd so I dunno what do with it.

Okay, so at this point I think I’ve given more thought to the plot of DokiDoki than Toei did. Any ideas to improve this?

ZettaiRyouiki said:

*Finishing on the “characters” section, the characters who aren’t Cures need to be given more screentime.

Nagato-sanAOD said:
Though I loved and thoroughly enjoyed this Cure series, I agree with certain parts of the first half of your post. However, this is one that I must say no to. Personally, I got so tired in other Cure series seeing "kid with a problem" of the day in previous shows. Max Heart was very, very bad about this. Likewise, SplashStar and Heartcatch would be perfect 10's in my book had they not have done that routine.

Nagato-sanAOD said:
There are definite problems with DDPC, but I think some are way overboard in calling this the Seed Destiny of the Cure franchise. It's different, but I felt that the DDPC characters were as developed as any from more recent series. In fact, I must say that I easily tire of the typical team show formula of every character having a development episode focusing on them in a five episode pattern for the whole series. Heck, it feels like DDPC did that. Aguri got plenty of development, and the main cast got about as much development as they needed.

DokiDoki, like sadly also Smile, has an “empty world” feeling caused by the ludicrous amount of episodes focused on X or Y Cure, while most of the cast was left forgotten.

Aguri basically chews on the girls for being so irresponsible as to forget how to fight in the middle of a fight, which makes the girls feel down. They eventually cheer up and ready for the next battle, but oh no, Gula and Leva show up instead of Ira or something and Makoto nearly wets her spats, crediting them as the strongest and most fearsome of Selfishes. Naturally the two beat up on the girls with ease, with only Ace saving them right on time. The girls then realize shit got real and ask Ace for advice since she seems like she knows things, and she replies in fact she also needs their help, so they decide to collaborate and be nice to each other for the time being.

However King Selfish is too strong, so the will of the Cures and the iCurePads react and GIVE EVERYONE THE FINAL UPGRADE. Again: EVERYONE. Even Regina can get wings or something. This lets the girls beat up on King Selfish hard until his heart pops out with the King on it. Aguri and Regina talk to him and manage to pull him out, then the four first Cures defeat the body with an upgraded Lovely Force Arrow.

Cue happy ending, Ira goes to class with Rikka, Arisu, Mana, Regina and Makoto, Mammo becomes a maid so she can be with Arisu and Sebastian or something.

Snow_Queen said:
The Mana focus would make more sense if she was supposed to be something more, like what Aguri/Regina was to the princess. I mean, look at Usagi in Sailor Moon, the show focus on her (not entirely) but we know that she is Princess Serenity so it's normal for the other scouts to protect her and love her like that. And even so, the outer scouts weren't very attached to her. However Mana was nothing, just a normal human who turned into Precure and everyone worshiped her like she was some sort of goddess. Typical Mary-Sue.

Snow_Queen said:
I agree with the most but I wasn't bothered by the many attacks, it wasn't much of a big deal. Mostly it bothered me how the execution was handled, especially throwing all those things towards the end and Mana being so 'loved'.

ZettaiRyouiki said:

*Finishing on the “characters” section, the characters who aren’t Cures need to be given more screentime. DokiDoki, like sadly also Smile, has an “empty world” feeling caused by the ludicrous amount of episodes focused on X or Y Cure, while most of the cast was left forgotten.