Yes! Precure 5

I've looked at the PreCure franchise quite a bit. With Futari wa, Max Heart, Splash Star and Doki Doki as well as three different films. This time around, we're going back to the first PreCure series to feature a team, Yes PreCure 5. This one ran from early '07 to early '08. The head writer was Narita Yoshimi, who also did series composition work on Splash Star. So, that's a pretty good sign. Let's delve back into the world of PreCure. Story: We open with our main heroine, Yumehara Nozomi, running late for school. Something we've never seen in any anime before besides ninety percent of them.On her way there she almost trips but gets caught by a very handsome older man. Being more than a little thick, she thinks of it as a fated encounter. Even when he turns out to be a gay squirrel. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. She's in the library, presumably for picture books, when she encounters the stranger again. The pair of them are attacked by a Mantis man and she transforms into Cure Dream. The squirrel introduces himself as Coco and tells her that they need to find the four other legendary warriors to wake up his boyfriend who's sleeping in the Dream Collet & the fifty five pinkies to revive the destroyed Palmier kingdom. Let's start with my biggest problem with this series, namely, the attempts at romance. Unlike the other PreCure series we've looked at where the straight love interest is either absent or a largely ignored element, this one likes to push the idea that a couple of these fourteen, maybe fifteen year old girls should get together with these grown ass men, one of which is their teacher and both of which are actually squirrels. So, it's the worst in the franchise in that regard so far. Say what you will about Soccer boy Senpai from Futari wa or Mai's elder brother in Splash Star, at least they were close in age to the girls who were interested in them and not in positions of power & the same species. Every single episode where they try to push the romance aspect in this series comes across as more than a bit grotty & really cringey. There's also the way the whole pinky thing is handled. It's very much an element the series brings up when it feels like it. Most of them are caught off screen & they barely do anything. There's an episode where one gets used to treat an illness and another one acts like a photocopier a few times. I think that's actually it. But it's not all bad. The way the overall theme of hope against despair and the way dreams for the future factor into holding on to your hope is pretty well handled. The ending has some nuance to it and really doesn't unfold like you'd expect. So, that's appreciated. Characters: The biggest problem with the cast here is that they're very much a bog standard group. Nozomi is the super optimistic, good-natured, dumb as a brick variety of protagonist. Rin is the athletic one. Urara is the excitable, cheerful young one. Komachi is the calm older sister type & Karen is the smart one. And unlike, say, Doki Doki or Sailor Moon the characters never move beyond the most archetypical writing for those tropes in any significant way. The most interesting character in terms of writing is the main antagonist, Despariah. And that's only because of what happens with the ending. I will credit the series with trying to juggle the characters and give them all a decent amount of focus. I'll also credit it with giving each of the main five their own little arc. Even if those arcs are trite. And the dynamics that aren't pushing the idea of romance between young girls and adult animals can be fun. One issue with the writing is that the series doesn't know what to do with their underling antagonists. To the point where two of them exit the series in a really unsatisfying fashion. At least the others get big, final confrontations against the heroines. These two just kind of get unceremoniously axed. Art: The character designs are solid, especially for the villains. It also continues the proud series tradition of having very physical bouts and ending them with the big, magic attacks. The action scenes in general are nicely done. I especially like the horseback duel that Karen fights. The villain designs are quite good. The backgrounds are quite nice and, overall, the art just works well. Sound: The performances are well done. Nagano Ai, Ise Mariya, Maeda Ai, Takeuchi Junko, Sanpei Yuuko and the other various major actors are all good at what they do. Overall, I also did like the music. One issue I do have is that they get rid of their original ending theme tune partially through and just replace it with a remix of Splash Star's. It's like the Toei team responsible for making the series decided the tune they had wasn't good enough and they didn't have time to write something new, so they just modified something they already had. Granted, the theme tunes in this isn't as good as the other PreCure series we've looked at, but they're perfectly fine. Ho-yay: There's a lot of it betwixt Coco & Nuts. There are also a few scenes with Komachi & Karen where they come across as more than friends. And there are some scenes where Urara seems to have a bit of a crush on Nozomi. (Notice her, Senpai.) This series does have significantly less ho-yay than the rest of the franchise we've looked at, however. Areas of Improvement: Get rid of the attempts at romance. Seriously, you don't need romantic elements. In fact, they're downright detrimental when the main stuff you're pushing is gross in three different ways. Give your characters something to set them apart. I get it, this was the first time they had a team and they didn't really know how to juggle character development for five girls. But give us something that moves them beyond archetypes. Give the two villains with abrupt departures proper send offs. Again, I know why they handled it the way they did. They wanted to emphasise a particular antagonist's sadistic side with how he disposes of these two. But I feel like they could have done that and still had the send off. After all, they do with the villain who leaves before these two. Final Thoughts: Yes PreCure 5 is not nearly the best the franchise has to offer. Honestly, it's kind of weak. While it has its enjoyable moments and a few interesting elements, it suffers from bland characterisation, the worst romance elements in the series thus far and some aspects that just aren't handled in engaging or interesting ways. In the end, the closest series I can compare it to is Max Heart. Like that series, it's very mediocre. I'll give it a 5/10. Maybe the follow up to it will redeem it somewhat when I eventually look at that, but given that it's the series that marked the end of direct sequel series in the franchise, I'm not all that optimistic.

Yes! 5 Precure is so boring. All of the other Precure seasons I’ve seen thus far have something to offer, but this one has absolutely nothing, and I mean that with complete sincerity. Most of the Precure are your bog standard tropes that Toei loves using, like the blue one being the rich girl, and the red one being athletic. I know this was the first series to have more than two/three girls, but still. They could’ve done way better. The characters are super boring, and while their relationships were cute, they’re nothing special. I was considering actually dropping this season outright because it was soboring, but Milk saved the entire show. Yeah, I like Milk. She’s bitchy, and honestly, it’s a breath of fresh air. Besides, after her debut, she’s really only mean to Nozomi, and has a nice friendship with Karen. Nuts is also a great character, mostly because he’s brutally honest, and his trauma of causing the ruin of his kingdom is really interesting. The backgrounds are pleasant to look at, but the animation is a bit strange at times. Plus, the transformations are so boring. For context, I watched this series after finishing Star Twinkle, the Precure season with the most elaborate transformation sequences, so that definitely added to my disappointment. The magical girl outfits are also lacking. The episode I had the most to say about was the writing episode with Komachi and Nuts, and that’s mostly because I’m a writer myself. By the way, I agreed with Nuts and Komachi’s sister. All in all, Yes! 5 is not the best or the worst of the Precure seasons, but it’s the worst thing a piece of media can be: boring.

My long Precure journey continues and now it’s time to make a stop at Yes! Precure 5. Expanding from two to three to four(?) in "back-to-back-to-back" seasons, the most logical step for the Precure franchise was to broaden even more the number of members in this brand new instalment. Thus, we get to meet five new senshis with a promising story, which I’ll be reviewing down here. Story Regarding the plot, there’s no innovation in the basic component of the story, as the precure fight in hopes of restoring the Palmier Kingdom, which has been destroyed by an evil organisation called Nightmare. The novelty, though, isthat the senshis do not transform at the same time nor are they picked by the mascots, among other things. In fact, the first thing that struck me was that the leader (Nozomi) tries to recruit her best friend right away, telling her all the precure stuff and leaving behind all the secrecy that comes with it. The first half dozen episodes are dedicated to the task of “choosing” the rest of the members. After all five senshis are chosen, the episodes usually unfold on the same note, with the girls slowly getting to know each other better and overcoming each one's problems together. In between that, the villains try to stop them with monsters called kowaina, which are possessed by a mask. All of them follow the typical beginning (exposition), middle (conflict) and end (resolution) structure that we are used to, so it’s nice to see that they tried to add a little bit of freshness in some of the battles. For example, when they fight inside Komachi’s story or when Karen duels a villain in a joust. Going back to the first episodes topic, they all build up to the mid-season climax nicely. That’s why I think the pacing is pretty good, at least for the first half. The second half is a bit weaker in terms of a build up to the ending, although most of the episodes are enjoyable with some of them deepening more into their relationships. The main theme in Yes! Precure 5 is the clash between hope and despair. The succeeding battles test the protagonists to not fall into despair and always fight for hope and, ultimately, for their dreams. The two climax battles, the mid-season one and the ending one, depict very well this feeling. One thing I left out that has an impact in the story are the pinkies. Catching these small magical creatures, 55 of them to be exact, is essential to restore the kingdom. The problem is that their importance is not displayed properly, catching most of them off screen and becoming kind of a side quest. They are pretty much ignored after collecting them, finding a use for only two of them (one of them as a copying machine, I’m not kidding). At least the heartiels from Max Heart talked in a funny way. To wrap up the story related things, I think there’s overall more drama in each episode than in previous Precure entries. There’s definitely more romance which, if you let aside the fact that the crushes the two precure members have are some kind of alien squirrels in their original form, I think it works. Characters At first sight, the precure girls have the standard personalities you would expect just by looking at them. Nozomi, the optimistic leader; Rin, the sporty tomboy; Urara, the cheerful underclassman; Komachi, the shy and calm bookworm; and Karen, the smart seito kaichou. In the end, even though they don't move much past those archetypes, the different interactions between them are more than enough. There’s chemistry between them and it’s nice to see them working together to figure out their dreams. I’m not going to talk much about the mascots cause I don’t particularly like them or hate them. They just serve their purpose, I don’t know. The only thing I can highlight is that Coco and Natts have human forms that make things more interesting. The villain side being an evil organisation that resembles a private company was cool, and I liked watching them argue in some sort of a board meeting room. That being said, most of the underlings were pretty boring, especially the first three. Bunbee was the one I liked the most, having some funny moments. Kawarino’s role as Desparaiah’s “favourite” was well executed. The development of the latter at the end was nice to see, but other than that she didn’t have a lot of protagonism. One thing I didn’t quite like was the kowaina monsters. The majority of them were very uninspired and just a giant thing with a mask. Finally, being five protagonists, there’s almost no room for side characters, unlike in Futari wa. Masuko is the only one worth mentioning, as she’s the only one with a character arc. Sad, because I really enjoyed the side characters in the past entries, but I understand the five protagonists needed more screen time. Art My biggest disappointment here is the action. There doesn’t seem to be much of it, mainly because they rely too much on their special attacks, which look almost the same to me. The action starts to pick up in the second half with some nice sequences, like one where Karen stops a punch from the chocobo-looking obasan with a flying kick. The battle outfits are okay, as well as the overall character designs. The western style town was nice too. Sound Not much to highlight here other than the soundtrack using recurring tracks from Futari wa. The OP and first ED follows the line of the previous ones and the second ED is a remix of the Splash Star one, which I liked, but I would have preferred a new one. Nice voice acting. Conclusion In short, apart from taking the Precure franchise in a new direction, Yes! Precure 5 tackles some interesting topics, like the hope vs. despair and the dream stuff, and has some great episodes. It’s not the exponent of the genre or the franchise, as it has some flaws here and there, but overall is an enjoyable show for any mahou shoujo and Precure fan.

I'm watching everything related to Pretty Cure in chronological order and it was time for the 4th season: Yes! Precure 5 There's a lot of good things about this season but also a ton of things that went wrong and I'll explain why I had to give this season a low score. Visuals: 1) I like the character design but the backgrounds don't fit at all. They're pretty to look at but they have nothing in common with the characters and it looks very out of place. 49 episodes in, I still wasn't used to it. 2) I like the effects used in some of thespecial attacks animations. 3) Sometimes the animation gets really sloppy like characters with different proportions (ex: one eye bigger than the other and such) 4) I really like how each Precure has a slightly different uniform Sound: 1) the soundtrack could be better 2) Most of the seiyuus are incredibly talented, famous, have versatile ranges and are of legendary status. Most of them have also worked together on different animes. You'd expect top notch voice work but that isn't always the case because someone who must have had an ear infection thought it would be a great idea to have two grown man with very deep voices to squeal all their lines for 49 episodes. I'm talking about Coco and Natsu's in their real forms. Good lord, my ears are bleeding and I'm pretty sure their throats at the time must have been as well. They should've went with Takeuchi Junko which was cast as Natsuki Ren and Sugiyama Kazuko which was cast as Desparaiah to voice them. They certainly have the range for it. Story and characters: 1) This season has a theme and it's dreams. Dreams that you have and pursue. Or, like our girls, haven't theirs figured out yet. I believe we can all relate to that on a personal level. I think this was a nice change for the Precure series. 2) I love how the show doesn't focus on the main girl. In fact, it never really felt there was one main girl but 5 main girls. All of them are important and are the protagonists of their own arcs equally throughout the story. Nozomi (the leader) isn't always the one that finishes fights or makes the plot move forward and this makes watching the show that much more interesting and unpredictable. 3) However, there's still a lot of predictability in this season. Some arcs suffer from this, there's not any strategy involved in the fights and no new combination of moves used to beat up the baddies. This made the action scenes kind of a bore to watch sometimes. 4) Milk's addition to the story was awful. She's one annoying useless brat without a true impact on the story. My enjoyment with this anime suffered greatly with her joining the cast. 5) I really liked the way the girls handled the last boss. It was unexpected and it felt appropriate. 6) SPOILERS ABOUT CHARACTERS AND RELATIONSHIPS: for whatever stupid reason, someone thought it would be a great idea to have squirrels that turn into 20-something year old men date 14 year old girls. This makes no sense at all and it's outright disgusting. Also, Urara's grampa introduces himself to the same 14 year olds as someone who'd sexually abuse them if he was 30 years younger. Isn't this fun? No. It's outright disgusting. Despite a lot of things that I like about the anime, the flaws with voice acting and characters really hurt my overall enjoyment and that's why despite loving some changes to the precure formula, I can't give this any score above 6.

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