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| THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE. ---------------------------------------- Rikka's episode..... I guess. I was actually putting my hopes on this for weeks (a little more than a month thanks to BBA) but man am I the only one that feels Rikka is so out of character this time? Somehow it feels like she's being carried away IDK because she's matured or something but it really disappointed me... I didn't really care plot-wise all this time but I feel the character development is a little off this time... |
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| So, uh, Toei is so lazy they aren't just stealing plots from other shows they did or from other Cure seasons, but they are stealing plots from THIS season: we already did a "Durr without Mana Sue they'll all fall because she's the best hurr" plot. At least this one shows the girls not being hopeless in a fight without Mana, even if that's diminished by the whole "We do well because MANA IS WITH US" speech. Okay, so from the beginning the main issue with this episode is obvious: it's entirely about Mana, yet it's meant to be Rikka's episode. That works about as well as you'd expect. Yes, Toei, Rikka cares about Mana, that has been established before, but not to the point Mana is the only thing her entire life turns around! Seriously, Rikka was horribly OoC the whole time. The plot itself is pretty silly, as no one seems to have much of a problem with the absurd King of SCP nor see through Ira and Mamo's obvious costumes even though they apparently picked up on not-Joe instantly. Okay, so it's not as bad as Ash Ketchum and friends, but come on. And seriously, EVERY scene without Mana was the cast talking about Mana, maybe she should also be louder, angrier and have access to a time machine even if Aguri asked Rikka for one last week. It was one of the worst Mana bias episodes, easily. At least Joe is finally back after six months, dude probably hid Marie Ange in Pluto. Also there's the yuri. I mean, it's not bad, but suddenly we're back to Raquel shipping Mana and Rikka together and both Rikka and Regina confessing how much they love Mana, this is a freaking yuri harem show out of the blue. I'm not even bringing up Ira anymore. At least Tsunderegina was cute. Oh, the fight. No, still no Rosetta Balloon, we got the same special as last week. Regina is back to using her powers in someone selfish despite not needing to do that, Toei remembering last week was a fluke it seems. I do like how Regina still has Genocide Cutter and Ira and Mamo fire Freeza's famous finger beams tho. But seriously, HOW DOES RIKKA KEEP UP WITH REGINA! They were supposedly outpowered by her a measly 5 episodes ago and now just ONE Cure is enough to Curehandle her, this makes less sense than DBZ filler. And of course Mana comes back so they can use long stock footage and save money, hooray. The preview shows Mana gets the last item, what a surprise. The real surprise is after all this Mana trying to get Regina back and Regina admiting her love for Mana and always talking about Mana, we get the destined match is Regina versus ACE. The hell, Toei. I sometimes wonder if each episode is made by a different writer with no way to contact the other writers, it'd explain things. |
| Regina, you tsundere. |
| @ZettaiRyouiki I find it kinda hilarious that you haven't dropped this show despite how much and how harshly you criticise it. Then again, we all came this far; so I can't expect you to drop the show just before the finale. However, this begs a question from me, a question that I should have asked you long ago: What made you struggle through this show every week? You do make some good complaints though. I also thought this episode's trap was too obvious, especially since they saw the fake Joe right away a few episodes earlier and that Mana should have known of a SCP contest from a more legit source if one was actually being held. I also can't help but agree that the character development balance is very lopsided towards Mana and Regina. Personally, I would have loved to see much more of Alice/Cure Rosetta as she is my favorite character from this series. I miss the Rosetta Balloon too, and it's a shame that we aren't seeing its other random effects. As for Mana, the way I see her is that she's the kid viewers' escapist character in much the same way Superman and Wonder Woman are for pretty much everybody else. I feel that it isn't so much Mana's being right all the time, it's that she knows how to keep a positive outlook, is unfailingly considerate, and is willing to accept resposibility at any given time; so of course people would talk about her when she's gone. She's a role model, and we have seen her earn that mentality among her friends and her school. If Clark Kent/Superman got kidnapped without Lois' knowing, I'm sure she would be worried enough to talk about him too (hur dur!). I'm also glad that Joe is back. I'd like to know why he couldn't reappear sooner, but better late than never. On another note, the final battle is at hand; it's not too late for Rikka x Ira. Addendum: RLinksoul said: When the show started out there was a strong Mana x Rikka thing going on, but as soon as Regina showed up that aspect died out. Of course that'd be the case. Regina is the most immediate and potent threat at this point. If the world is ending, my partner is gone/dead, but I can still do something to keep the world from ending, am I going to worry about my partner? No! I have a world to save! Thus, It's fair that the focus shifts. What bothers me more is that the Trio wasn't as involved in the fight as Regina was, despite being much weaker than her. |
aNinjaWithAIDSDec 19, 2013 12:10 PM
| My biggest gripe with this show is that Regina has too much emphasis. This snowballed into giving Mana more emphasis and it pretty much removed the spotlights from other likable characters like Alice and Makoto. |
RLinksoul said: At this point it's pretty obvious there's some connection between the two. And after we saw of Regina's origin story, it's not hard to imagine that TWO magically aging babies were sent to Earth, but only one made it there. We'll see what happens. Well, yeah. It's just Regina and Aguri have traded like four lines in 22 episodes while we just had a month and a half of Mana making everyone try to warm up Regina and Regina confessing for love for Mana in this ep. Even if justified it still is a bit jarring. RLinksoul said: And aside from the voices I didn't think those disguises were obvious. At least they weren't wearing black scarfs with a black heart pattern. And they weren't posing as people familiar to the Cures so there was no room for slip-ups like last time. They had the same face and bangs, but otherwise the disguises themselves weren't bad. It's more than the fact they showed out of nowhere to conveniently bring up something should've smelt fishy to Cures who just had something similar happen recently, but thet never thought a thing about this. It's like the team is as competent as the plot needs, that's bad. Or basically, what the above poster said: aNinjaWithAIDS said: I also thought this episode's trap was too obvious, especially since they saw the fake Joe right away a few episodes earlier and that Mana should have known of a SCP contest from a more legit source if one was actually being held. Yeah. RLinksoul said: I didn't care for the whole "This is a magical cage, you can't break it." thing and how it only got resolved by HIM showing up. The show should have either shown us the strength of Mana's determination by having her break it herself, or the cage be another selfish monster that she ends up overpowering from the inside. In one hand I agree, in the other I'll take anything that means Mana doesn't do everything and gives Joe something to do. RLinksoul said: Rikka shouting "Let go of Mana already!" at Regina felt like a shipping nod. When the show started out there was a strong Mana x Rikka thing going on, but as soon as Regina showed up that aspect died out. Now it's back with a vengeance to the point that Rikka is incapable of having fun without Mana. TsundeRegina is the best Regina. When she's not being an obnoxious selfish brat she's really cute and it reminds me of what a disappointment it is that her character is being handled so sloppily. Right, it's like they suddenly remembered ManaRitsu is a thing that gets a lot of Pixiv fanart and tried to overcompensate. Or something. Tsunderegina is adorable, too bad, well, what you said. aNinjaWithAIDS said: @ZettaiRyouiki I find it kinda hilarious that you haven't dropped this show despite how much and how harshly you criticise it. Then again, we all came this far; so I can't expect you to drop the show just before the finale. However, this begs a question from me, a question that I should have asked you long ago: What made you struggle through this show every week? Because for all I complain I still enjoy the show. I just like pointing out its flaws, but it's a fun show about cute magical girls and it's not annoying to watch or anything. I just wish it was more like Fresh or Heartcatch or Splash Star, not like Suite and Smile. But yeah, think of my posts as a critic persona and not as the real me. aNinjaWithAIDS said: As for Mana, the way I see her is that she's the kid viewers' escapist character in much the same way Superman and Wonder Woman are for pretty much everybody else. I feel that it isn't so much Mana's being right all the time, it's that she knows how to keep a positive outlook, is unfailingly considerate, and is willing to accept resposibility at any given time; so of course people would talk about her when she's gone. She's a role model, and we have seen her earn that mentality among her friends and her school. If Clark Kent/Superman got kidnapped without Lois' knowing, I'm sure she would be worried enough to talk about him too (hur dur!). This is mostly true, except there's a small difference: Supes and Diana are AFAIK the sole stars in their respective comic books, while Mana has to share the series with 3-4 more girls. It's more like the JLA, and if Superman was kidnapped I wouldn't expect Batman, Flash and Green Lantern to discuss this fact all the time and to think of what would Superman do. Or eat Superlunches he did for them. QUICK EDIT: RLinksoul said: I wouldn't mind the whole thing with Mana so much if she EVER gave even the slightest logical reason for being so into Regina. When Regina first showed up she was completely unapologetic about trump kingdom, and only wanted Mana as a friend because Mana was strong and would provide amusement for her. Regina was consistently rude and obnoxious toward Mana's friends, and Mana barely reacted. And then her whole reason why she trusts Regina so much? "My instincts never lie." Good, because those instincts nearly got your friends killed. And Mana seemed completely oblivious to the fact that Regina was brainwashed up until the part where she got the spear. After Regina showed up I found that the whole show went downhill. Mana became irrationally, stupidly devoted to Regina. They tried to have Regina develop only to reset it twice (first the red crystals, then by having her father brainwash her) Cure Ace shows up with absolutely no foreshadowing and starts being really obnoxious and rude. Seriously, taking away Mana's transformation item, lecturing MakoPi about how she's not putting enough feeling into her singing, then taking credit for each character's personal growth. We're still waiting for some real answers about who she is and where she comes from. She's become a better person, but a lot about her and Ai-chan is still baffling. The show casts aside its four main villains to bring in two new ones... then chucks them aside roughly ten episodes later. It's sad because when the first ten or so episodes were airing I was ready to declare it the best season yet. Now it'll be lucky if it manages to not be the WORST season. I agree with this. The whole thing. |
| Again, I'm inclined to agree mainly for the fact that the cast size was too large for the writers to handle in an effective manner. I don't mind shows with larger casts (my prime examples' being Mai Hime/Otome, Hamtaro, and Yu Yu Hakusho), but letting 1-3 of those characters drive the show just alienates the fanbase or even worse: have all of them agree that the show is not as good as it could have been. It's troubling but very convincing that the latter has happened with Doki Doki. |
aNinjaWithAIDS said: Again, I'm inclined to agree mainly for the fact that the cast size was too large for the writers to handle in an effective manner. I don't mind shows with larger casts (my prime examples' being Mai Hime/Otome, Hamtaro, and Yu Yu Hakusho), but letting 1-3 of those characters drive the show just alienates the fanbase or even worse: have all of them agree that the show is not as good as it could have been. It's troubling but very convincing that the latter has happened with Doki Doki. Thing is, Fresh and Heartcatch have similar-sized casts and they turned out fine. Or even the original two seasons and its many, many regular and semi-regular classmates. Either way this is why I hoped Happines Charge would be 2 girls since we could be have some development now, but it's currently looking like DokiDoki WITH DANCES. Hopefully it'll be better, because it could be! |
ZettaiRyouiki said: Thing is, Fresh and Heartcatch have similar-sized casts and they turned out fine. Here's the difference between Fresh and Heartcatch vs Doki Doki when it came to the cast implementation: Fresh and Heartcatch balanced their emphases and characters were normally introduced without shoving aside others. Doki Doki...was overly whimsical and got overzealous with overly important characters that made other characters barely matter. It was clear who the Creator's Pets were, and that's something that NEVER plagued me before now. ZettaiRyouiki said: Or even the original two seasons and its many, many regular and semi-regular classmates. Either way this is why I hoped Happines Charge would be 2 girls since we could be have some development now, but it's currently looking like DokiDoki WITH DANCES. Hopefully it'll be better, because it could be! ! It also could be just as good as Heartcatch! Although, that might be setting my hopes too high, but if they're fulfilled, I can just imagine the fanbase's reaction :P. Funny tidbit: I loved Smile, but couldn't stand Fresh. Hell, my first (and, so far, only) review is for Smile. which you can read here http://myanimelist.net/profile/aNinjaWithAIDS/reviews. Sure I may have neglected to mention a few things, but still it's a high favorite of mine. |
ZettaiRyouiki said: I would agree with HeartCatch and first 2 series - especially Splash Star did good job here, with boy who in following series became Precure ;) Thing is, Fresh and Heartcatch have similar-sized casts and they turned out fine. Or even the original two seasons and its many, many regular and semi-regular classmates. Either way this is why I hoped Happines Charge would be 2 girls since we could be have some development now, but it's currently looking like DokiDoki WITH DANCES. Hopefully it'll be better, because it could be! But Fresh has same problem as DDP: cast of potentially good characters who aren't developed well enough - seriously Miki is one of most interesting characters ever but they just touch surface of her issues with self-esteem. On the other side it doesn't have as many plot lines as DDP and, except that character development of other members it does good job. Not to mention Tarte is rather awesome. As always I will complain about Mana :P she is so perfect that she is boring as hell... sure it was nice to have leader that isn't an idiot but way she became center of the universe is just wrong. Not to mention that other girls feel unnecessary. Sure either Nozomi and Love had ability to bend reality to their "logic" but rest of team had things they were great at. Here it's just Mana's harem, especially Ace who could be good Precure not taking her ideas/plans. In the end it wasn't bad episode - bad guys went again with idea of separating one of Precure in order to gain some advantage, which is nice but it didn't felt too... dramatic like that adorable moment when Black simply went berserk. And couldn't Mana punch the ground to make some hole and than escape? |
aNinjaWithAIDS said: Here's the difference between Fresh and Heartcatch vs Doki Doki when it came to the cast implementation: Fresh and Heartcatch balanced their emphases and characters were normally introduced without shoving aside others. Doki Doki...was overly whimsical and got overzealous with overly important characters that made other characters barely matter. It was clear who the Creator's Pets were, and that's something that NEVER plagued me before now. Right, I explained myself poorly but that was my point: DokiDoki just handled things poorly, but the cast size can be managed well. The last two seasons made clear the Pink Cure>the rest, but not to the levels Mana has. aNinjaWithAIDS said: It also could be just as good as Heartcatch! Although, that might be setting my hopes too high, but if they're fulfilled, I can just imagine the fanbase's reaction :P. It might! Still, my worries come mostly from the fact we already got 4 girls announced and Cure Lovely is described as having to help those in need, which makes her sound like Mana 2: The Revenge. For all we know she could be Mana DONE WELL, but better safe than sorry. Dalek-baka said: I would agree with HeartCatch and first 2 series - especially Splash Star did good job here, with boy who in following series became Precure ;) But Fresh has same problem as DDP: cast of potentially good characters who aren't developed well enough - seriously Miki is one of most interesting characters ever but they just touch surface of her issues with self-esteem. On the other side it doesn't have as many plot lines as DDP and, except that character development of other members it does good job. Not to mention Tarte is rather awesome. Fair enough, I noticed that when I saw it too. It's just the rest was good as you said, plus at least the Love and Setsuna thing was interesting, while Mana and Regina are just a pale shade of them. Dalek-baka said: As always I will complain about Mana :P she is so perfect that she is boring as hell... sure it was nice to have leader that isn't an idiot but way she became center of the universe is just wrong. Not to mention that other girls feel unnecessary. Sure either Nozomi and Love had ability to bend reality to their "logic" but rest of team had things they were great at. Here it's just Mana's harem, especially Ace who could be good Precure not taking her ideas/plans. Basically. Hibki and Miyuki had some "hog" traits but at least they were still dumb and had flaws and stuff, there was this one Suite episode with a quiz Negatone where Hibiki couldn't get things right to save her live while Kanade and Ellen did well. If this happened in DokiDoki it'd be like in Smile when Reika was the only one with a 3-digit IQ and saved the rest by getting the questions right, but Mana would be the one doing the saving. That doesn't make for a very interesting lead. |
Dalek-baka said: As always I will complain about Mana :P she is so perfect that she is boring as hell... sure it was nice to have leader that isn't an idiot but way she became center of the universe is just wrong. I share a similar sentiment; however it's a bit more sensical: I think Mana was more intrusive than perfect. She knows what she's good at and sticks to it, but always steals the spotlights from everyone else. Her critical weakness is her lack of restraint which bit her ass on more than one occassion. Perfect example from this episode: she doesn't check the legitamacy of the contest's sponsor because she was so excited about winning it. Also, episode 32 (her sick episode): all she cared about was the festival even though she should have stayed down, which Aguri helped her with that one because Mana wasn't perfect -- she needed to be taught a lesson in self-restraint. |
| "AHHHH!!!! STOP IT DDPC! YOU GIVE ME SHIPPING FEELS!!!!" This was pretty much my whole reaction. Cheezy and corny and recycled. But I kknow that and will just skip to a thing about Rikka. A painful thing to hear from her was the obvious fate of kids becoming full blown teenagers and splitting up... Ahhh... Girl, you do not need to go through that! ;; But yet.. Selfless love... I don't know.. It rings a bell to me... She and Mana were childhood friends and cares for her, okay enough. But I guess having Regina is a huge bugger for her and wanted that tsuntsun to be "honest"... And I think for a X-Mas episode, this is the only thing it can offer, ahaha... But yea... TsunRegina is the cutest. <3 P.S. Yes I would love Rosetta Balloon... A Party by Alice never happened, blah. But I came here this far, so I can not drop it. ;w; I still can't debate what's better, but since ti's an X-Mas one, I want to feel good for my Holiday season. (Because hey, isn't PreCure about giving smiles and joy no matter what?) P.P.S. A bit random, but I still feel like I missed Smile PreCure a lot. Though my lame excuse is because it was the first season I ever watched and Yayoi was like my favorite moeblob... But I treat it as slice-of-life-ish that somehow connects, but do not get lost in it. I think it's easy to share your favorite/strongest episodes to friends that way (even if one got into "ponies"). DDPC has a bit of that, but it's also connected to this one plot-point that is REGINA. *Cough* Just a heads up that after I write this I will not return to that thread. This is just my opinions and so forth. |
 "Everyone go love Cyan!" |
| As if the yuri harem wasn't noticeable till now? It's only a wonder how far they will go with it. The main love triangle with Rikka Mana and Regina. I am sure once past that who knows what will happen? But I am sure that will probably be the end of the show. As for people saying this is the worst season I still kinda like it. I started Splash Star recently and not liking it too well. But go figure. I usually have different taste anyway even though the earlier two shows I liked more. Smile is still the best overall I think so far. Even with it's annoying points. |
| I'm getting kicks out of this show but for all wrong reasons. It's Doki Doki all right... Pros of this episode was WONDERFULLY BEAUTIFUL parade shots. Really, that European feel and whatnot. Altough I wonder where does it really take place, because it seems like they were aiming for Cure-Japan and now we suddenly get Cure-Europe. Or maybe that's just a theme for the parade. Which would be quite a feat when it comes to building those houses so fast. And also the lol factor - The Yuri Wars are there in full bloom, we are Mammo and Ira, and today we are your commentators! How does Rikka stand up to Regina? Power of jealousy waifu of course! TsundeRegina broke all the rules. And hey, Bel's back! YAY. Cons? Obvious Rikka's OOC which leads to relying or Mana way too much. She's not here but she made notes, yeah right. I understand ninja's (withAIDS) point, but given that Mana is everywhere in this show, they could tone it down for this episode. Moral is good and logical, I just can't live with Rikka's suddenly having problems with keeping up. She doesn't. Actually she's the one that keeps Mana in check or at least it goes both ways and both of them have their heads on their shoulders when it comes to student council. Eh, I'm a sad panda. |
| Mana's yuri harem. Tsunde Regina was so adorable. She really loves Mana. <3  |
SerafosMay 27, 2024 10:33 PM
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