Heartcatch Precure!

Heart­catch has one massive point in its favour over every single other Pre­cure: It can do drama. It’s not stu­pid. I can’t stress enough how import­ant this is. In Heart­catch, the evil mon­sters that fight the Pre­cure are cre­ated using the waver­ing hearts of humans. What that means is every epis­ode has someone wor­ried about some­thing hap­pen­ing in their life, and the epis­ode tends to revolve around how they get over that prob­lem. Usu­ally the issue is just that they don’t have enough con­fid­ence in them­selves. A girl is afraid of talk­ing to the Stu­dent Coun­cil Pres­id­ent she admires so much because she gets all ... nervous when she’s around her. A boy is afraid his mum won’t approve of his ambi­tion to become a manga author. Very simple little stor­ies, but each one is handled with care and enough heart, without the solu­tion ever being some­thing pathetic and pulled out of nowhere. Sure, the solu­tion is gen­er­ally “you’re not weak at all!”, but the solu­tion to each prob­lem is gen­er­ally the per­son just needs more con­fid­ence in them­selves. At its centre, that is what Heart­catch is about. Have con­fid­ence in your own men­tal strength and you can achieve anything.

Another point in Heartcatch’s favour is the anim­a­tion style. It’s done by the same team who did Cas­sh­ern Sins, which is a bit of an odd mix. Cas­sh­ern Sins is a great show, but it’s hella depress­ing post-apocalyptic mater­ial, and to have them do a Pre­cure seems like a match made in “didn’t think this through prop­erly” land. But it works, cer­tainly in the anim­a­tion style depart­ment. Heart­catch is styl­ish. The designs seem to be made with move­ment in mind, rather than other Pre­cures where the char­ac­ters don’t move freely at all and every fight scene is simply them pan­ning across the screen (*cough* Fresh Pre­cure *cough*). The anim­at­ors are rather happy to let their char­ac­ters go deformed for the sake of more fluid anim­a­tion, but the artstyle suits the free-flowing designs quite well. Heartcatch’s fight scenes are far and away the best out of the Pre­cure fran­chise, albeit that’s not par­tic­u­larly high praise. In com­par­ison to other action anime, it doesn’t com­pare to Bones or Gainax level mater­ial, but it sure is pretty to look at.

The trans­form­a­tion sequences are…well, actu­ally they’re not all that bitch­ing at all. At least, the main two aren’t. They decided a cell phone was too unori­ginal for this ver­sion of Pre­cure, so instead decided to use per­fume as a Pre­cure trans­form­a­tion aid. Full points for ori­gin­al­ity I guess, but this does mean what you get is a spray-on Pre­cure cos­tume, which is rather under­whelm­ing. It’s only until the third Pre­cure shows up that we get a proper bitchin’ trans­form­a­tion sequence

Not that Heart­catch solved all the prob­lems of the pre­vi­ous Pre­cures. The magical pets are still as annoy­ing as fuck. The BUY OUR TOYS still isn’t that well integ­rated into the plot. No really Pre­cure, I’m cool with your amaz­ing gos­pel 2nd end­ing song hav­ing awe­some CGI dan­cing in it, but it’s jar­ring when every instance of BUY OUR TOYS is accom­pan­ied with the product in ques­tion being in CGI itself. It makes it stand out all the more jar­ringly, espe­cially when they have to go through gimicky actions that the toys can also do. Like, come on. What sort of magical girl has to wind up their wand before they can use it? But the fact that it had a brain and wasn’t pain­fully stu­pid with its epis­odic plot­lines far out­weigh the prob­lems I had with BUY OUR TOYS and annoy­ing magical pets.

And yet…

And yet…

Pre­cure is a car­toon aimed at little girls. Kids like repe­ti­tion, or so I’ve been told. I did too, when I was, like, 4. Heartcatch’s non-plot related epis­odes fol­low such a strict for­mula that they start to get bor­ing after a while. It’s the same prob­lem I had with Hell Girl, and even that tried to mix things up a little more than Heart­catch ever tried to. Every epis­ode fol­lows the exact same damn pat­tern, to the point that they start to blend together. This is Not Good for an epis­odic show. Each epis­ode should have some­thing that makes it stand out from the rest. That was the one where they all talked back­wards for the epis­ode. That was the one where the col­ours all inver­ted. I dunno, I’m not a scriptwriter, but there’s noth­ing remark­able about most of the epis­odes. They don’t try to make them stand out, except on very rare occa­sions. Even the ones where plot-related stuff hap­pen, the show still goes through the exact same motions. It doesn’t mat­ter how great your for­mula is, it will be less inter­est­ing with every repeat of the for­mula if you don’t mix it up a bit.

Then there was the plot. Yeah. The plot. For gods sake, why do even the appar­ently good Pre­cure vil­lains fall foul of the pathet­ic­ally dumb Pre­cure vil­lain syn­drome? Dark Pre­cure is Cool. She has a single black wing and is amaz­ingly over­powered com­pared to our her­oes. Then why does she not attack them? There is a scene where she is about to deliver the fin­ish­ing blow, but then retreats because Mys­ter­i­ous Voice From The Sky calls her away. There was no reason for her to be called away either, she just went any­way. And it’s not like the vil­lains don’t real­ise what a threat the Pre­cures are to them. I don’t neces­sar­ily mind that the under­lings are stu­pid, spend­ing their time admir­ing them­selves in the mir­ror. They’re meant to be stu­pid, and the show embraces that. But why are Sabaku and Dark Pre­cure not attack­ing the Pre­cures when they real­ise what a threat they are? What the fuck do they spend their time doing in the dark castle? She had no prob­lem defeat­ing Cure Moon­light back in the day, why not these two Pre­cures before they get stronger? Oh wait yeah, I know. Pre­cure Vil­lain Syn­drome. Give them a stick and a banana just out of their reach, they’ll pro­ceed to choke on the stick.

But even the plot with the good guys is stu­pid. Every single rev­el­a­tion to the plot was lame. The rev­el­a­tion who the fancy man who kept sav­ing them was an incred­ible anti-climax. The reveal of who the third Pre­cure would be was a let down. Every time a plot related incid­ent would occur in the epis­ode, it would never res­ult in some­thing I par­tic­u­larly cared about. The plot related epis­odes were never par­tic­u­larly good, apart from maybe intro­du­cing a new bitchin’ trans­form­a­tion sequence or new move. The best epis­ode of the series was the Mother’s Day one by an abso­lute mile, and that had noth­ing to do with the plot. It was just a well-directed epis­ode that told a power­ful mes­sage. But non-plot related epis­odes, as I explained earlier, got repet­it­ive and dull. I found myself watch­ing the next epis­ode pre­views to see if any­thing poten­tially dif­fer­ent would hap­pen. But this too was a mis­nomer, as new events never suc­ceeded in improv­ing the qual­ity of the epis­odes. Next epis­ode has a new Pre­cure, hope­fully that will improve the qual­ity, right? Nope, still the same old stuff it has been pump­ing out since epis­ode 1, except now there’s an extra part to the trans­form­a­tion sequence.

I reached the epis­ode where we got the fourth Pre­cure. But her becom­ing a Pre­cure was tele­graphed to us for the past sev­eral epis­odes, so there was no joy in see­ing it be real­ised. How she came about gain­ing the power to become a Pre­cure was done via sev­eral ran­domly intro­duced plot ele­ments over the past few epis­odes, such as a magical fly­ing castle and the fact the Heart Tree can appar­ently travel across time and space, and that magical pets come from heart seeds, and all sorts of totally ran­domly intro­duced plot points for the sake of advan­cing the plot. But it’s not like the show ever changed. The vil­lains were still being stu­pid. The Pre­cures were still going through the same routine. The end of the epis­ode showed the fourth Pre­cure doing her bitchin’ trans­form­a­tion sequence and get­ting ready to fight Dark Pre­cure. I thought to myself “well that was bor­ing, but I gotta see the next epis­ode because she fights Dark Pre­cure in it”

…and stopped myself. I had fallen into that trap. I’m not watch­ing the anime to see what’s hap­pen­ing. I’m watch­ing the anime to see what’s going to hap­pen. Noth­ing that’s ever hap­pen­ing in the present ever enter­tains me. Only the prom­ise of changes in the future keep me going. Even if there is some­thing worth watch­ing, it comes out of non-foreseeable, non-plot related events like the Moth­ers Day epis­ode. And there was where I dropped it. Epis­ode 33. At the very point of the grand reveal, I gave up.

After Hugtto Precure convinced me hard to give a chance to the rest of the franchise, I went for the entry that seems to be the most loved and popular (except maybe the original) of the franchise, did it live up to the hype? Well, it sure did in my opinion!

Tsubomi, the protagonist of this story, is a shy girl who definitely didn't fit with what the image of what the standard Precure protagonist looked to me, I think that this is played very nicely through the story and seeing her open up more while keeping what makes her be her was so satisfying to ... see. Together with the cheerful and absurdly lovable Erika by her side, they form the main duo of the story for a good time before the other Precure join.

Those episodes with them alone were "the weakest" part of the series to me (saying that in quotes because they were still enjoyable) and were focused on giving the spotlight to side characters (mostly classmates or the family of the MCs) and our girls helping them both via interactions, and by kicking ass defeating the "Desertrians", monsters created by the enemies of this story combining an object and the wiltered hearts of the characters. This anime uses the fact that Tsubomi loves flowers very strongly using that detail, with the flower each character has having a meaning that fits with their problem.

Once the other and equally nice Precure join the group, the plot starts to really pick up and only gets better and better, with very emotional moments and solid development for the characters. I don't want to possibly overhype it, but honestly the final episodes were some of the most epic I have watched.

With a nice main cast is also needed a nice villain side, and The Desert Apostles did a successful job on that. Precure does a very good job at being lighthearted while also not shying away when it has to be darker, and the villains were a good example of that in execution, I enjoyed the interactions and comedy moments between them and/or with the Precures a lot and they ended up being very memorable as well when it came to the more serious parts involving their characters.

The art style of the series is so visually appealing and allows for a wide array of nice reactions and goofy movements from the characters while looking perfectly fitting with the show, and the great designs by Yoshihiko Umakoshi (Casshern Sins, Boku no Hero Academia, Doremi, Mushishi...) definitely were a part of that, the action scenes are also solid, abundant and well animated, not to mention the nice transformation scenes of the characters. The soundtrack of the series is also nice and has some very memorable tracks.

After only saying more and more positives I guess that it's time to say the problems I had with the series, which honestly didn't affect my opinion in the long run:

- The first is the already mentioned slower start, while I always enjoyed watching the episodes, I didn't feel that it hooked me in nowhere as much as Hugtto or Princess Precure (which I watched right after) did, so I wasn't feeling as hyped and also a bit worried that maybe I wouldn't end up loving it as much as I wanted to, but yeah, that got fixed later on, boy it did.

- The second is the mascot characters of the main duo, that honestly were pretty annoying at first and I was never a fan of the "a heart seed is coming out!" scene after they defeat the Desertrians they face (and thank god the animation of that part got more polished, they are clearly pooping it, c'mon!) But they grew on me as the episodes passed and even took the spotlight in a comedy focused episode that made me laugh really hard and I loved.

- Lastly, this just seems to be a thing with the franchise as a whole. As a series that lives by selling the toys they make based on the anime they know that they have to advertise them, and how they do so? By making the objects the girls use look exactly like they would as a toy and even use CGI for some, this makes total sense but at times I couldn't help but feel like "man, they are really trying to sell the product here", which let's be honest, it's pretty stupid thinking about it: of course they are not making anime because why not, we wouldn't get more if it didn't sell! It's a matter of getting used to it, and why lie, I freaking want a Flower Tact! I'm not surprised at all that this is the best selling entry so far.

If you haven't watched any Precure yet and you're reading my review you might feel put off by the last two negative points and think that this is in anime that only kids might find enjoyable, but I can promise you that this isn't the case and that anyone has a chance to really enjoy it, the characters are very compelling and likeable, the comedy is solid, the action is nice looking and the story is interesting and has some darker moments that definitely surprised me seeing. This franchise is so painfully underwatched in the west and I hope that this slowly changes as time passes. Nice anime I can't recommend enough and a totally good point to start with the franchise.

How many times have you heard the saying that ‘The flower who blooms slowly is the best of them all’? Yeah, you are probably thinking that you might have heard it in some other ways, but, anyways, as old and boring as that saying sounds, Heartcatch is proof of that. And it takes it to another new level.
Flowers, like everything else, have a reason for being given, gifted. Heartcatch is here to explain that, and the main character’s heart seeds beautifully bloom. One thing that I will always like about Heartcatch is its creativity and experimenting with different flowers. At each episode’s end, they will ... say what somebody’s heart seed says about their personality. Now that’s something to watch, with that many different things. But nevertheless, the characters and their own development are a spectrum of flowers of their own. And each has their thorn.
Story: 8 out of 10
The story is like every other Pretty Cure series’. But with a twist. Each person possesses a heart seed inside their heart. They are all connected to the Heart Tree, which watches over them. But, of course, The Desert Apostles are here to destroy that tree and to desert the entire world. Cure Moonlight, a powerful pretty cure, ends up defeated, and two tree fairies/mascots, deliver the Heart Perfume, the Transformation Item, to a girl, Tsubomi Hanasaki, who is supposed to be the new Cure and defeat the enemy.
The story is cheesy, but what the creators do with it, takes the Pretty Cure franchise to a whole new level. The pacing is pretty good, not forcing things and giving each character room to develop and understand/agonize over things the right amount of time. It has some filler since it’s Pretty Cure, but each are enjoyable and not something to be bored of. Although, Heartcatch has a more focused storyline than different seasons, so there is not that much filler in it. The comedy is also good, without moments just being randomly thrown in.

Art: 8 out of 10
The art is amazing. Extremely luscious, pastel colors are used. The characters are drawn differently from the other series, but that just makes it interesting. Their moods are portrayed very well in their face expressions and movements. They also have hair colors, clothes, according to the side they are on. If they are good, they have bright colors. If they are evil, they have dark colors. The art depends on the atmosphere, if it’s a happy scene it’s pretty vivid and bright, if it’s a dark scene it’s pretty dark. It’s very creative and it was a pretty good direction for this season.
Buildings, sceneries, towns are drawn very well and you can point out the details. As I said and will probably keep on saying, it’s very creative. Some things are pretty quirky and fun and they give you a pretty good feeling. It’s extremely vivid also.
The special effects and CG are also good. They seem much vivid than in other seasons and they just blend in with the show and its creativity naturally.

Sound: 7 out of 10
The sound is good, but that’s it. The opening theme is pretty catchy and so is the first ending theme. Characters dancing, ‘bringing it to life’ in the ending themes help out. The second ending theme is more slow and has a softer tune. It is enjoyable, regardless. The OST is cool too, with happy themes and not so happy themes. Still, as I said, it’s not the most memorable thing, but enjoyable.
Voice acting is perfect. Nana Mizuki does a great job in voicing Tsubomi and making her introverted yet quirky personality come to life. Fumie Mizusawa also does a great job in showing Erika’s lively character. Overall, the voice acting is pretty good.

Character: 8 out of 10
What Heartcatch does with it’s characters it’s amazing. Honestly, that’s it.
Tsubomi, unlike many other mahou shoujo heroines, who are clumsy, ditzy, cheerful and extroverted is weak-willed, shy, studious and introverted. That’s one of the many things that sets this show apart from Pretty Cure and probably some other magical girl shows. Tsubomi does not actually want to be a Pretty Cure. Remember the Fresh season? Love accepted her powers so fast and without any questions, but Tsubomi is the complete opposite of that. You will only hear her screaming for help and complaining in the first episodes. And she’s right . It’s not easy putting your life out on the line and getting introduced to such unreal things. What the show does with her is amazing. She says she wants to change and she does. It’s not a one episode change where it all happens and she becomes confident and stuff. It happens slowly. In the end, she not the same she was at the beginning, but she’s not also fully changed either. That is something that I find very true, that people can’t really change completely and that it takes time.
Contrasting Tsubomi and her shyness is Erika, who ironically is supposed to be the ‘blue’, water-themed character, but she is the total opposite of that. Erika is lively, confident, talkative and fun. She may come off as nosy at first but she is a great friend to Tsubomi and her other friends. And she does not change. A bit. But that’s what I love about her.
Other characters include Itsuki, the yellow cure, who is a very courageous and quirky character. Her development with some things going on with her is pretty good and in the end, you see that she has changed a lot since the beginning. Yuri, Cure Moonlight is a fallen cure, who slowly regains her pride and comes to terms with what she’s done. She seems like a strict individual, but has a good heart. Her development is nice too.
The villains are fine. There’s Sasorina who is a selfish and proud woman, who always wants to be the best. Kumojacky, a hot-blooded man who lives for fighting, but is respectable and wants a good opponent to fight. There’s also Cobraja, a narcissistic blue-haired man who has a great love for beauty. There’s also Dark Pretty Cure, who as the name implies is a Dark Pretty Cure, badass and surrounded by mystery. Things will get intense if she appears.
Overall, Heartcatch is a good magical girl series. If you want to watch a fun magic girls show, then Heartcatch is for you. It’s okay if you don’t even want to watch the whole Pretty Cure franchise, just watch Heartcatch. It’s on a whole new level. But you can always drop it, you know. Anyways, Heartcatch is the most critical acclaimed Pretty Cure season for a pretty good reason.

Story: Story has never been a strong point for any tokusatsu/magical-girl anime. This is proven again as we're treated to a fun, albeit predictable story. If you've seen Sailor Moon or Power Rangers growing up (and let's face it, who hasn't?) you know the monster-of-the-week formula by heart. Having said that there is enjoyment to be found in it's light hearted fluffy plot, assuming you don't take it too seriously.

Art: Definitely a strong point for Heartcatch. The animation is very smooth and colourful, making the series a treat for the eyes. Bright colours, explosions, Dragonball level beam-spam and fun to watch battles make up ... for most of the series shortcomings.

Sound: While some character's voices can become irksome at times (Shypre Coffret come to mind) the voice casting is generally well done. Nana Mizuki does a great job capturing Tsubomi's timidness and strength as a Precure, and Fumie Mizusawa is always a delight to hear as the spastic Erika. The rest of the sound is somewhat generic for an magical-girl anime, but still crisp and fun to hear every time they use their special attacks. The music is also extremely well done, easily meeting cinema level quality and composition.

Enjoyment: Ah yes, here's where it's up for you to decide. I myself enjoy the cheesy plot and epic fights that tokusatsu/magical-girl series are famed for. But again, your mileage may vary.

Overall: While Heartcatch Precure may not be the anime of the year, it's certainly worth a glance if not to reminisce upon those days of yonder spent planted in front of the television watching Saturday morning cartoons. Highly enjoyable, assuming you're not looking too deep into it.

Heartcatch Precure is absolutely gorgeous to look at and Yoshihiko Umakoshi’s character designs are absolutely stunning, the fight scenes in this series are well-choreographed. If you’re looking for a series that is rich in pretty sakuga then Heartcatch is definitely that, oh!, and if you like this then Katanagatari would definitely be up your alley!

• To me, Heartcatch is far more of a story-driven plot than character. I didn’t feel much of an affinity for any of the characters. I felt like a had a girlfriend, who looked very pretty, but I didn’t like hanging out with her for too long. Yeah, that’s an apt ... comparison.

• As the Precure series have evolved, Japan seems increasingly aware that their target is no longer children, but mostly otaku… because, well, the Japanese aren’t reproducing. So, over the years, the lesbian innuendoes in Precure are heavy and the girls are more moe than ever.

• I liked how the plot wrapped around, and the landscapes as well as the characters and choreography were stunning. The twist at the end was fairly obvious to someone who is not a child, but it was a fun adventure.

• Some parts of the series felt like tiresome filler to me, which made Go! Princess Precure a slightly better series overall. Minor character growth happens but not in spades, growth especially with Tsubomi breaking out of her timid, meek, nerd shell (ironic, since the name Tsubomi literally means blossom), but some characters really didn’t change much, like Erica and Itsuki.

• The change in Yuri’s cool and collected act seemed pretty subtle as well. I think the series was a rather enjoyable experience on the eyes. If you’re looking for an intellectual, deep plot then no, you wouldn’t like this series, but if you just want basic fun and pretty girls then… yeah, totally! It’s like a field of flowers… that happens to be full of floral symbology!

• Overall, I initially was going to rate Heartcatch Precure a 7/10, because the filler segments seemed uninspired and empty at times, but the way that the ending tied the loose ends together deserved a 8/10 in my eyes!

Heartcatch Pretty Cure taught me the importance of the precure template used in each series. The heads and bodies are of similar design. Factors as eyes, hair color and texture, relative size work to differentiate each girl of the team. These external factors plus that most important internal.

Personality.

I was surprised at the animation style used for HeartCatch. The characters appear more cartoonish than the precure series before and after them. Eyes accentuate each member. But, for the extremely different style, I would say that important changes were made with the coming of Cures Sunshine and Moonlight. As if ... their entry into the plot demands a stricter presentation. So much so, that I would have Cure Sunshine as one of the 'Five Most Stunning' Pretty Cures in the franchise. For the record, my picks would be 1. Cure Beauty; 2) Cure Ange; 3) Cure Sunshine; 4) Cure Melody; 5) Massive tie involving 45-50 other precures (and please, don't ask me for the 'Ugliest Precure." Such things aren't possible!). I could offer you the rationale for these selections, but we need to get back to the important matters of Precuria.

So much for intriguing animation technique. Let's get back to the issue of personality.

Tsubomi (Cure Blossom) is painfully shy to the point of introversion. We meet her as a bookish bespectacled girl just moved to a new town with all the feelings of inferiority which meshes with being the new girl in school. Devoted to her family and their love for flowers, Tsubomi enjoys the company of her grandmother who also has Prety Cure roots.

Erika (Cure Marine) is the converse of Tsubomi. Extroverted to the point of being pushy, Erika needs the gentle touch of Tsubomi to become more giving to her growing cadre of friends. Her gift is fashion, and she envies her older sister because of her popularity as a renowned fashion model. Erika wishes to be a model, too, but her talent is in fashion design. Ironically, her older sister envies Erika because of her ability to gather friends; the life of a model draws fickle admirers, but few friends.

Itsuka (Cure Sunshine) admires her older brother, but his sickly frame has disabled him to advance in his grandfather's dojo. So, Itsuka assumes the aura of masculinity to thrive in the arena of martial arts. But, she is a girl at heart and loves cute things as dresses and plush toys. Still, she must maintain this act of being strong and male. Tsubomi falls in love with the boy-like Itsuka and is disappointed when Erika tells her that Itsuka is a girl.

Yuri (Cure Moonlight) is the first Pretty Cure we meet and the last one to become part of HeartCatch Pretty Cure. She failed to defeat the forces of desertification years ago and has lost the ability to become a cure. She has the knowledge of the legendary warrior and offers Blossom and Marine sage advice in facing the foe. All this while enduring the depression which comes from the knowledge of failure. But, it is Blossom and Marine which motivates Yuri to strive to become the strongest precure ever. This in light of the fact that Tsubomi suffers the stigma of being the weakest precure ever.

It will take nearly the full forty-nine episodes for these girls to come together and weld into a well-disciplined fighting unit. Cure Sunshine enters in at episode 23 and Moonlight about ten episodes later. But the glue to the team is Tsubomi's grandmother who had been Cure Flower two generations prior. She leads the four girls into battles with self to prove their merit as Pretty Cure; Tsubomi has a particularly difficult time in facing her alter-ego, for this means the resentment of her introversion. She must accept that personality change does not mean the hatred of self but the acceptance of the change anyone is capable.

The villains are multi-faceted. A trio of generals who are resolved to destroy the Pretty Cure. A created cure called the Dark Precure who was responsible for the defeat of Cure Moonlight. A treacherous professor who has conspired to destroy Cure Moonlight. Then the ultimate foe, the world-destroying Dune who cannot be beaten by hatred, but is a poor mark for the reception of love.

The plotline was strong as we watch each girl develop into a stronger personality capable of the rigors of being a Precure. The whole series created a range of personability where Cure Marine could become the clown princess of Precuria, whose antics and facial rages would not have parallel until the coming of Cure Princess in Happiness Charge Precure. Where Cure Blossom could be the symbol of gentility which overcomes all obstacles. Where Cure Sunshine could find her proper role as a girl without sacrificing the power and strength of the martial arts she truly loves. Where Cure Moonlight can recapture the courage needed to face all challenges ... and win.

Where personalities, like flowers, bloom.

Back in 2010, I wasn't the biggest fan of the Precure franchise, and it's mostly because I hardly ever saw any of the shows back then. I remember watching the first episode of the first series long ago but I never went further than that because one fairy's voice annoyed the living heck out of me. But since about 2014, I've actually made an effort to watch a good majority of the shows for that franchise. So far, including this one, Heartcatch Pretty Cure, I've seen ten whole series in their entirety, though I did watch the first episodes of every series. Basically, Precure pretty ... much follows the same formula as Sailor Moon: a great evil and their minions try to take over the world, ditzy girls and their friends are given items that turn them into heroes by cute little animal creatures, and they defeat monsters of the week and save the world while learning more about themselves and getting along in the process. I never got around to watching the other shows, and I didn't think I'd have time to watch any of them considering how long the shows were...until I saw one of my favorite bloggers start blogging Heartcatch Precure. He really loved it and kept on praising it up the wazoo like crazy as it was airing, and I didn't have much else to watch, so why not? I saw the first episode and...wow! He really was right about it being awesome!

Long ago, a warrior named Cure Moonlight lost an arduous battle against an organization called the Desert Apostles, and before her defeat, she tells two fairies to find another girl who can take her place. That's a dream a shy young girl named Tsubomi Hanasaki has been having for some time. She and her family move to the town Kibougahana to be closer to their grandmother, and despite being sweet and loving flowers to death, she's cripplingly shy. She does, however, attract the attention of a rather loud and bossy girl named Erika Kurumi who wants to be her friend but Tsubomi doesn't like her forceful and invasive nature. Soon, she finds Erika's Heart Flower getting ripped out of her and turned into a monster called a Desertorian by some lady named Sasorina. The fairies, Chypre and Coffret, give Tsubomi an item which turns her into a magical superhero called Pretty Cure, just like in her dream, but she calls herself Cure Blossom. Soon, she's joined by Erika, who becomes Cure Marine. They have to save people's heart flowers and take on the mission to restore the Heart Tree back to normal so that the Desert Apostles can't destroy the world. But it's going to be a tough and perilous task, especially considering how high the stakes are for everyone.

Unlike the first few series, which had the exact same animation style, Heartcatch's animation and character designs are completely different and go into their own direction, and it's a very welcome and refreshing change. There's lots of varying facial expressions, the movement is more dynamic and fluid, the colors are more vibrant, and it conveys more emotion and life than the other series. There's hardly any wasted frames here. Not only that, the anime doesn't just make the characters look good, the animators actually go way out of their way to bring the characters to life in the best ways possible, which really shows in both the every day scenes and the transformation scenes, the 3rd Pretty Cure's sequence being the best animated, the most fluid, and the best looking out of all of them. For fans of Ojamajo Doremi out there, you may notice that the character designs here are very similar to those of Doremi's. That's because both series had the same character designer, Yoshihiko Umakoshi, who also directed the animation for both series. So the two shows have a lot of things in common, from the character designs, the overly cartoony facial expressions, and...well, being magical girl series made by Toei. Thankfully, both series are able to carve out their own identities so they don't come off as ripping off one another despite having a lot of similarities. Plus, Heartcatch's action scenes are also animated amazingly well, excelling in both long-range and hand-to-hand combat, and the battles are always dynamic and never get boring or repetitive, even with the repeated transformation sequences in every episode.

The soundtrack is where things start to get tricky. Pretty Cure is notorious for reusing pieces of background music in their shows, often starting from series where they switch to a new composer and then re-use their music every time they hire that composer back for whatever shows follow until they're done with them. I haven't seen the original Futari wa series, Yes Precure 5, or Fresh Pretty Cure, and from Fresh to Smile, Toei had Yasuharu Takanashi do the music for those four Pretty Cure seasons. Since Heartcatch came right after Fresh, I can imagine that this series reused music from Fresh. But again, I haven't seen Fresh, so I don't know specifically which pieces they used from that season in here. But on its own, I think Heartcatch's soundtrack is pretty nice. The opening and ending themes are standard cutesy J-pop fare, which is no surprise there. Yasuharu Takanashi has always had a good track record with his soundtracks, and Heartcatch Pretty Cure's music is no different and no less awesome for what it manages to do. Plus, the insert songs are great, with the one being sung by Cure Moonlight's seiyuu being the absolute best one.

Of all the seasons I've seen of Pretty Cure, Heartcatch has the absolute best, most three-dimensional characters in the entire franchise that I know of, bar none. Now, Pretty Cure has a bit of a reputation for sometimes giving too much screen time to certain characters at the expense of others, which is a flaw that's gone as far back as Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart. Later seasons such as Hugtto, Star Twinkle, and Tropical Rouge, are the biggest offenders in regards to this flaw. Thankfully, Heartcatch successfully manages to avoid this problem, as every single character, from the main ensemble to even some minor characters, like the girls' families and classmates, is wonderfully developed and fleshed out, right from the very start. They all have their own distinct personalities, strengths, weaknesses, idiosyncrasies, and flaws to overcome, and the series make sure to portray them all as down-to-earth kids whenever they're not busy fighting monsters and dealing with relatable problems. Even the minor characters and victims of the week are fleshed out surprisingly well and with subtlety...though if I had to name one problem with some of the victims of the week, it'd be that the series tries to make some of them come off as sympathetic, but their methods of doing so make said characters come off as the opposite. Of course, this is mainly restricted to some of the minor characters, and not all of them have this problem, thankfully.

That being said, there is one thing I've noticed in recent years: I've seen Erika get a lot of hate as a character in recent years, with some people I know of claiming that her actions border on being abusive or predatory, with some even going so far as to call her a bad person just because of a line she says about Tsubomi in one episode later in the series. While I can understand why some wouldn't like her, and I won't judge them for it, I feel like a lot of the hate she's gotten lately is overblown, and that some people ignore a lot of context from the series. For one, Erika does, in fact, get called out on a lot of her behavior throughout the series, even if a lot of it isn't explicit, and a lot of Erika's character arc is about learning to be more sensitive to other people's feelings and personal space. She even flat-out admits that she's very much aware of her flaws as early as episode 2 and understands that people do find her annoying and is trying to be more sensitive, even if her methods of rectifying her flaws don't always work. Plus, the one line that people have a problem with—in which Erika makes a jab at Tsubomi in the power-up episode—could be interpreted as her only saying it in jest. Besides, what group of friends DON'T occasionally rib each other or dunk on each other every now and again? If you don't like a certain character, that's fine, but deliberately ignoring a lot of context in regards to how a show depicts a character's flaws and deals with them really doesn't make you look good. I've seen far worse characters in other series whose flaws are not only completely ignored and not called out for what they are, but the series they star in really try to go out of their way to justify and encourage them (Examples of this include Hanasaku Iroha, Daimidaler, Aesthestica of a Rogue Hero, Rising of the Shield Hero, Mushoku Tensei, and...this awful book series called Elsie Dinsmore). Also, would you really like Erika any better if she were an overly perfect little Mary Sue who was always nice and could do no wrong? Characters are more interesting to follow if they have flaws to deal with! Nobody likes characters who are perfect because they're boring!

Honestly, the only real flaw I can say that Heartcatch has is that, in the end, it follows a pretty predictable formula, as do many magical girl anime. Any surprises it has are more in the smaller, finer details than in the main plot. But shows like Heartcatch show that you can do amazing things even with cliches and predictable formulas as long as you put in care, passion, and effort, and execute them well. For every trope Heartcatch Pretty Cure adheres to, it also excellently subverts others. Just recently, I watched Tropical Rouge Pretty Cure, and I found it to be utterly disappointing because of the following reasons: Its plot was extremely cliche and made no effort to have any real stakes, tension, or conflict, it actively ignored opportunities to develop and flesh out its characters, most of the episodes were pointless, comedic filler used to pad it out, and the characters it did bother to focus on never really changed or moved beyond their most basic character traits, remaining bland as hell. Having watched ten seasons of Precure so far, I still feel that Heartcatch is the best one I've seen, and the best season in the franchise, and so far, nothing has managed to take its place as my number one favorite Pretty Cure season. Healin Good Pretty Cure came close, but not quite. Seriously, there are reasons why Heartcatch Pretty Cure brought in a slew of new fans into the franchise, and had Fresh Pretty Cure not managed to save the franchise from certain death, we never would have gotten this season or any of the other ones that came after it.

I really have to thank the blogger I followed way back when for introducing me to this series, even if indirectly, because had I not decided to follow his recommendation, I wouldn't have bothered with Heartcatch Pretty Cure at all. If you want to get into the franchise in any way, or just want to watch a genuinely good magical girl show that takes a lot of risks and doesn't talk down to its audience, I'd highly recommend giving this season a watch. It has everything a good magical girl series could ever need and executes all of its ideas amazingly. Seriously, don't sit this one out. It's my favorite Pretty Cure season ever, and maybe it'll be a favorite of yours if you give it a chance, and even if it isn't, that's okay. I know I'll never stop loving Heartcatch. Also, Tsubomi is best girl. Fight me.

Heartcatch Precure was another disappointing Precure season for me. This will be spoiler free.

Visuals:
1) it's a drastic change from all previous seasons. It has a very cartoonish, very western style that I don't appreciate. I thought that maybe I would learn to like it but it wasn't the case;
2) poor monster design


Sound:
1) legendary seiyuus, as usual
2) soundtrack was okay
...

Story and characters:
1) Overall, it's too predictable and repetitive to be enjoyable. Every single episode, aside from character introductions and the final showdown, follows the same exact script: present new character and theme, have them meet precure girls, have them be attacked by villains, have precure girls fight villians using the same old attacks without strategy whatsoever. 40 something episodes of this is boring and dull.
2) The setting doesn't feel very Precure to me. The monsters lack creativity and a catchphrase like Uzaina or something. Not only that, but there are characters that are meant to be from older generations of Precure warriors and yet there isn't a single reference to any of the previous 6 seasons. There was even the perfect oportunity when we are introduced to the Precure Palace.
3) The ending felt incredibly rushed. One episode we're still doing everyday episodes and on the next we get PLOT! The twists at the end didn't feel satisfying at all and the timeskip at the end made no sense whatsoever.


It's a 5/10 for me.