Dokidoki! Precure

There is a natural human tendency to be complacent and repeat the same formula over and over again. This includes the Precure franchise with the previous Smile Precure being nothing more than a rehashed Yes5, according to reliable sources. The inability to adapt to a changing world has been the cause of failure of governments, corporations and society. Dokidoki has shown that even a well-established franchise is able to change with the times and cater to Generation Z children who have evolving and different needs.

The first and foremost difference is that the Pink cure, Mana takes a far stronger leadership role in ... this series compared to the past. In the run-up to Dokidoki, Japan has faced a leadership crisis, having 6 different Prime Ministers in as many years. Mana is a kind, but domineering character who knows no fear of attempting the impossible. Mana's ultimate dream of becoming a Prime Minister is no coincidence and her character is an inspiration to the children of Japan to take more risks, and get the job done in an otherwise risk-averse society.

Despite Mana's superb level of competancy in many things, one that children should aspire for through diligence and hard work, it is strongly emphasized that she is only human and is imperfect. At one point, Mana loses motivation and a new character, much like the political opposition takes over the leadership role for a while, developing Mana and the cast until Mana is well again. This really draws paralells with the second coming of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, who after a weak first stint, has returned with strength, dominance and assertiveness not seen since the Koizumi era.

That said, governments are essentially a team who need excellent leaders and followers. The cast knows when to stand up and lead, and when to provide excellent support to Mana. Even the said opposition is able to accomplish both roles, a life skill that is necessary for everyone.

Dokidoki also takes a concept that is very relevant in life; selfishness. This relatability is a change from fantasy elements such as music, flowers and fairy tales. Almost every episode involves a person having selfish desires. Even the smallest selfish thought can escalate into something big, and Dokidoki shows how such thoughts can be suppressed, a crucial life skill that children need.

Each member of the cast faces their own relatable trials and challenges in life and is given time for growth and development. An excellent example of this is the exploration of the theme of conflicting friendships. Little girls have a tendency to become upset when their best friend decides to get to know a new person. They become lonely and jealous, resulting in petty arguments along the lines of "I'm her best friend, how dare you take her away from me?" Dokidoki recreates this situation and provides a viable resolution.

The theme of separation is also explored like never before in previous Precure seasons, something very relevant to the globalizing world. The Children of today are more likely to part ways and travel to far-flung places in their lives than ever before. The common reaction of sadness and depression is a strong theme and Dokidoki provides meaningful advice to children in the same situation in order to stand up, keep going, finding happy things in life and getting the job done.

Another big theme is brainwashing. In this information age, we have easy access to a wide range of different sources, including less reputable ones. Children are especially vulnerable when it comes to listening to an unreliable source. Dokidoki explores one character who faces such a situation and the amount of love and care that is needed in order to restore and rehabilitate such children who take the wrong path in life.

Last but not least, Dokidoki's plot has so many twists and turns that will put Code Geass to shame, catering perfectly to a generation that has ever-shortening attention spans. The wide range of themes that are covered, and the sudden changes in the predicament of the cures will put anyone at the edge of their seats. The transformation scenes are no-nonsense and different background music is substituted in to convey the mood of the situation, in what must be a first for the franchise and is rarely seen in the Mahou Shoujo genre. The endgame also takes a shocking twist which would leave the audience in awe.

Combined with a character design that is easy on the eyes, consistently high quality artwork, animation and effective use of music, Dokidoki is a series that has succesfully managed to move on and adapt with the times. This is evidenced by a YouTube reaction video of a 5 year old who is fully engaged with the series, and is shocked and awed by the attention-seeking techniques that Toei animation has used in order to keep today's audience glued to their screens.

The antithesis to Dokidoki is the "Aria the Animation" franchise. This series should never be watched as it was made for a previous generation born in the 1990s and is familiar with devices such as the VHS and the floppy disk. These devices are common in the fact that they are slow, and will sedate anyone from the 2000s generation into boredom and sleep.

You know, as long as I've been doing this I'm surprised that this is the first Precure series I'm looking at. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Precure or Pretty Cure is a long running magical girl franchise from Toei animation. It all started with Futari wa Pretty Cure and the most recent installment is Happiness Charge Precure, which is currently ongoing. Most of the series within the frranchise don't have anything to do with one another aside from a similar aesthetic and Doki Doki Precure is the tenth series within the franchise. The writing for this one was handled by Yamaguchi Ryota, ... who anime fans may recognise as the writer behind the Escaflowne anime. So, how does this one hold up?

Story:

Our story opens with a Precure, we later learn that her name is Cure Sword, fighting monsters in a desolate landscape. Skip ahead to a group of students on a field trip and student council President Aida Mana's efforts to keep order. Their trip is interrupted when a teal-haired boy creates a monster from a person's heart which attacks the area. Mana is told that she can transform, which she does, enabling her to save the day. She finds out that the monsters are called the Selfish and they're attempting to gather dark energy to unseal their ruler, King Selfish, who was trapped in stone during the Selfish's invasion of the Trump Kingdom.

It's a pretty standard magical girl plot. So, the question becomes, how well is it executed? Well, let's start with the positive aspects. The way the Selfish turn people into monsters is interesting and I do like that they always use the kinds of selfish thoughts that we all have at times. The antagonists in general are well handled, not being portrayed as outright evil but more as inconsiderate jerks which both makes for an interesting conflict and opens up the possibility of redemption, which is definitely taken full advantage of. The story also has some really good twists which are hinted at but are still difficult to anticipate. There are some excellent humourous moments as well and quite a few superb heartwarming moments. The series also manages some crowning moments of awesome.

So, with all that going for it, what are the weaknesses? The truth is that there's only one major flaw to the storytelling. There are five episodes towards the end of the series (34-38) that have no bearing on the plot and are just kind of filler. Now, that probably doesn't sound that bad. But these episodes are just annoying. The character interactions in them are weak. They lack the good humour of the rest of the series and four of the five put the focus on the worst character in the series, but we'll get to her later.

Characters:

Most of the characters in this series are really lovable and just generally amazing. Mana, Rikka, Alice, Makoto and Regina are all great characters who interact perfectly with one another and they're a lot of fun to watch. Most of the side characters are quite enjoyable as well, especially Sebastian. (I wouldn't mind seeing more of that charming man and his epic mustache.) There are really two weaknesses here. The first is Aguri. She is a severely under-developed character. Whereas the other girls act and feel like actual girls, Aguri is just kind of two-dimensional. Her main defining characteristics are that she scolds people and likes sweets. Her scolding can also get a little grating at times. That being said, Aguri is not that bad. The series has Ai for that.

Ai is the exceedingly obnoxious character I mentioned earlier who gets the focus for four of those five bad episodes. Most of the time Ai stays, thankfully, in the background, but there are moments when she comes into the forefront and she spends all her time there crying, throwing tantrums or just being generally the most obnoxious thing since Navi. Now, some of you are probably thinking “she's a baby character, aren't you being harsh?” No, no I'm not. There are two main reasons. One, she frequently doesn't even act like a real baby so you can't say “well, it's a realistic portrayal of an infant.” It's like she was deliberately written just to be annoying. Two, she is a pointless character. I'm not even kidding. The explanation they give to justify her existence in the story is really flimsy. You could literally replace her with a black Labrador and the story would still be just as cohesive, if not more so since most of the stupid and pointless episodes would be gone.

Art:

The art is done in kind of a cutesy style, which does work perfectly for the aesthetic of the series. I do appreciate that the girls look very different when they transform into Precures, which makes it realistic that they wouldn't have their identities discovered. Unlike some magical girl series where they're just wearing different outfits. I love Sailor Moon, but it's a prime example of that as a problem. The monster designs are strange. There's a mailbox goat, a stoplight monster and many others that are just weird. That being said, the designs are creative and I rather like most of them. Sure, a lot of them are silly but that works for the franchise.

The usual transformation and special attack stock footage are present and they're just as lazy as they usually are. In all fairness, however, they aren't bad sequences in the slightest. The special attacks are dynamic and the transformations, except possibly Aguri's, do look good. I will give the series credit for its action sequences, a good percentage of the special moves involve actual weapons instead of wands, microphones, castanets and the like. The action sequences also involve actual fighting moves with punches and kicks. The combination of that with the stock attacks does make the action scenes a lot more dynamic and interesting.

Most of the action sequences are really good, but there are some that move up into excellent. I don't want to give anything major away, but I will give one example. There's a particular scene where an enemy breaks Alice's shield in half. In a true crowning moment of awesomeness, she actually grabs the pieces and uses them like swords. It is just as cool as it sounds and definitely ranks among the best action sequences I've ever seen in a magical girl anime.

Sound:

Doki Doki Precure has some really talented actors. Mana is voiced by Nabatame Hitomi (Gokujou Seitokai's Kanade.) The other main characters, Rikka, Makoto, Alice and Regina, are voiced by Kotobuki Minako (K-on's Mugi), Miyamoto Kanako (who I have not heard in any other major roles), Fuchigami Mai (Girls Und Panzer's Miho), and Watanabe Kumiko (Sailor Moon's JunJun.) They all give good performances. The music is really good. Especially Makoto's songs.

That being said, it's not all positive. The faeries all have verbal ticks that can get kind of annoying. Ai doesn't get much dialogue aside from her usual shrill screaming, but when she does it's pretty grating. The unfortunate task of voicing her went to Imai Yuka, who is not a bad actor by any means. You can even tell that from this series since she also voices Princess Ange, who is not obnoxious to listen to.

Ho-Yay:

You know, I've seen a lot of anime with shoujo-ai subtext, subtext so blatant it might as well be text and text. This is the first time I've seen a series that has a shoujo-ai poly-amorous five-some. Mana, Rikka, Alica, Makoto and Regina all seem to be into one another, all of them but Regina even come out and say they love all the others. Regina only ever says that she loves Mana, but there are some really homo-erotic scenes where the other three reach her heart, particularly Makoto and Alice. You also get some lovely scenes wherein Rikka is said to be an ideal wife for Mana, which Mana agrees with, and wherein Makoto and Mana are likened to a newlywed couple. Some of you are probably wondering which pairing makes the most sense when it comes to those five? The answer really is a poly-amorous grouping. All five of these girls are incredibly homo-erotic with one another, and I respect their decision.

That isn't even the extent of the les-yay in this series. Even Aguri gets some homo-erotic scenes with one of her classmates, Eru. It's also heavily implied that Makoto had a crush on Princess Ange before the Trump Kingdom fell and, unlike some magical girl anime, there are no gratuitous male love interests to try and disguise it. The Ho-yay is at a solid 7/10 for a huge number of really cute scenes.

Final Thoughts:

This anime is cutesy, overly optimistic, kind of cheesy and I absolutely love it. It's a highly enjoyable series with some great characters who have awesome interactions, surprisingly epic scenes, and some amazing tender scenes. It's just a delight to watch. That being said, it does suffer from Ai, five bad episodes, Ai, a reliance on stock footage and, of course, Ai. Fortunately, those aren't major problems since Ai is mostly kept to the background, and the bad episodes can be easily skipped without losing anything of value. I do highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys the magical girl aesthetic. Unless you're one of those people who thinks that the worst trope commonly used in magical girl anime is the shoujo ai subtext (yes, those people do exist. No, I don't understand it either) because there is a massive amount of it in this series. For myself, I give it a 9/10. Next week I'll take a look at Sword Art Online now if you'll excuse me I'm going to look for plushies of Mana, Rikka, Alice, Makoto and Regina.

This is one my favorite seasons with my favorite Cure, Cure Heart. Many fans dislike her because of she gets the most focus, but she's really an awesome character. I like the specific combat roles of the characters and I like the heavy les yay moments.
The story is heavily focus on the plot and has very little fillers. The season also introduces my favorite villain, Regina.

When I started watching this series, I was aware of how most people consider it "the worst Precure series ever". However, I didn't feel it that way. I enjoyed the series from start to finish. The characters are loveable, the story advances in a quick pace and even though there are some flaws, I can let them slide.
The story focuses on two opposite human emotions: selfishness and love. If the villains try to take over the world by manipulating people's selfishness, then the Precure counter it with love. As the series goes on, we see that almost everyone has a bit of selfishness in ... their hearts, including the Precures, but they can overcome it by love.
This is a series with a meaningful message and it is my second favourite Precure series after Fresh.

Doki Doki Precure is tied with Kira Kira Precure a la Mode for my favorite Precure season and is one of my favorite anime of all time. The overall tone of this show is uniquely happy and up lifting. All of the protagonists carry this optimistic attitude towards achieving their goals. Aida especially is a great role-model for both child and adult viewers with her forgiving nature and constant desire to help others. She's the perfect type of person to lead a group of heroes. Although I typically don't enjoy lackeys of the main villain in anime, my personal favorite character is Ira. His smug ... attitude is very entertaining thanks to both the show's writing and the Japanese vocal performance by Tanaka Mayumi. The art is beautiful with distinct designs for each Precure and villain. The action is well choreographed, as it is in the rest of the Precure franchise. Though the Precure typical monster of the week plot line, the characters and their strong friendship with one another keep every episode engaging. The messages this show gives to their audience about friendships and other relationships are very well presented and are applicable in the real world. I would highly recommend Doki Doki Precure to any fan of the magical girl genre. This was my introduction to Precure, and as long as you don't watch the English dub, I believe that it's a great starting point for anyone hoping the get into this franchise.

SO, the story is the same old thing. Boring. But over all, pretty good, just the story was too easy to catch on to. I knew what was going to happen because in Glitter Force, this is the same thing. Its kind of just boring, like I dont even want to watch the episdoes again anymore. They should include different personalites, not the same old cliche. Ive created an entire squad of glitter force ocs, and instead of the blue haired girl always being smart, I made mine an airhead. Instead of the pink haired (the pink one for mind has blue hair actually) being ... helpful, mines a bit sarcastic.