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Could this series be the next RWBY? Probably not, but it's certainly trying to be.


From the ombre bob cut to the sub-par CGI and questionable character designs, paired with surprisingly well choreographed action scenes, some nicely spicy dialog - mixed with utter cheesefest - and a good helping of a very original and genuinely fun universe.


Unfortunately, unlike RWBY, there's too few moments of joy, and the series takes itself far too seriously conscidering how evidently tiny the budget was. The few attempts at comedy range from nose-snortingly okay to having bafflingly awful timing, not helped by the switch to 2d that's clearly an attempt to ... convey more emotion than the 3d models were capable of - yes, that's a RWBY thing to, though theirs had far better timing and class.

Honestly, the best made part of this is the OP and ED . They slap, and have absolutely no right to be anywhere as good as they are. Even the action sound effects are surprisingly fun and the acting, while hardly award-worthy, is far better than a lot of similarly b-grade anime. Is sound where all the budget went? Because it definitely feels like it.


I don't think there's much use talking about character - they really did just rip a couple of RWBY and a few Sentai characters for the most part, and threw away a good bit of their growth to boot.


Look, if you're really that bored, you might as well give it a go. But don't say I didn't warn you!

If you're looking for a disney princess story written by someone who doesn't actually spend any time with women, then this is the story for you.


STORY: 4

Between the wacked out geography - how, exactly, does a ninja family shipwreck in Europe? - the weird history twisting that adds nothing whatsoever other than to remind us that Japanese content has a love affair with Joan of Arc, this series just feels like they threw tropes at a wall and caught the one that fell.


ART: 9

Honestly, the art ranges from gorgeous to glorious and the character designs are a cool mesh of true historic costuming and steampunk ... with a twist, which is exactly what the characters and setting call for.

The settings are so varied and creative, yet fit both the time period and the history revision concept. They're incredibly detailed and well thought out, particularly the ships, it's hard not to love them on sight.

CHARACTER; 5

Ugh.


It's blatanatly obvious whoever wrote poor Fena's character hasn't spent a lot of time with women. She's only traumatized when it make the men look like heroes. She's completely incapable of doing anything worthwhile to the plot unless she's basically magically hypnotized, which is horrifying. She knows medicine and healing but that only comes up to make the men look tough because they "don't need it", rendering her even more useless. I can't even argue she's a Mary Sue, because she's so utterly boring she almost might as well been replaced by a talking dog.


The Ninjas, at least, are a collection of quirky - if painfully tropey - characters. The twins are just Japanese Weasleys. Karen is your usual mad inventor token female. Yukimaru is the stoic love interest who blushes on his ears, because he has to show emotion somewhere, I guess.

Sadly, the entire ship full of actually powerful, cool women are pretty well reduced to villainous idiots. Ugh.



SOUND: 7

They clearly spent a bit too much on impressively loud canon blasts, solid OP and ED songs, and a good acting cast. A shame, when the score is composed of far too much basic piano music and cheesy one-liners.

Aikatsu Planet is, quite frankly, the perfect example of why most anime just do not work in a live action format.

STORY: 5/10

Look, they tried. Barely, but they did. This season does feature a mild mystery but, like AiParade before it, fails to actually make it matter or be at all interesting.

The new Aikatsu system is initially intriguing and fun, but is so underused it's easy to forget that anything has actually changed. Honestly, it feels like a half-hearted rip of early Pripara at times.

Overall, it feels like a cut-and-paste idol with none of the charm the animated series had, most of which was due ... to the....

CHARACTER: 2/10

The acting makes the poor girls look either shocked or horrified rather than happy sometimes. I hope they're doing okay?!

In all honesty, the characters just aren't that interesting or unique. As much as Raki's catchphrase annoyed me, she was at least sassy sometimes. As much as Ichigo's naivety could frustrate me, she was always up for a challenge. The girls of Planet, on the other hand, have everything simply handed over to them. There's no struggle, no growth, no personality to make me care about them.


ART: 6

Sigh. I can't deny that Aikatsu' CGI has improved over the years, but at what cost? All the texture and sparkle and prints are gone, replaced by basic flat colours and vague checkers. Where are my giant flower decals and lace tiers? I loved seeing the gorgeous designs far more than I cared about the occasionally wonky-armed dancing scenes.

Their characters in animation have zero relevance to their IRL counterparts. It's a bizzare and jerking choice, and I often forget who is supposed to be who, which is a terrible problem given how often it switches between the two.

SOUND: 5

And here we have the worst downgrade of all this season's issues. Past Aikatsu had a bunch of bops, ballads, and rock. This series has generic pop songs and, if heard out of context, I doubt I could guess where they came from. Previous Aikatsu seasons never had this issue, nor should any idol. when the music is as much the selling point as anything else.

OVERALL: A Disappointment

Even on the completion of this series, the sad fact is, it never improved. I originally wrote this as a preliminary, hoping to come back and edit in any good bits, but there frankly hasn't been any worth mentioning.

Look, I wanted a cute anime girl series with a ridiculous premise. And I got it. But that's basically a summary of everything remotely good about this anime.


STORY: 4

Take one look at my profile and you'll know I love a good episodic, minion-of-the -day magical girl. But they have to have some motivation, some reason for existence, outside of just wanting to be evil. And this series delivers absolutely nothing of interest on that end.

I also love a good wacky premise, and while the idea of removing anything remotely Otaku related from the memories of people in various universes, the universes themselves do little to ... inspire interest, mostly being minor and silly variants of the original.


While the first three episodes may feel underwhelmingly odd, it soon becomes clear that this is just what it is, and always will be. It's predictable, cyclic, and quickly becomes a yawn fest.


ART : 2

Yeah, it's bad.

Firstly, there's a complete lack of understanding of anatomy, and ridiculous inconsistencies. Girls don't magically add or loose ten boob sizes depending on their clothes. They don't randomly change heights, either. Or face shapes. Or really anything.

Honestly, the art is so messy that even a toddler could choreograph the fight scenes. Which, again, are painfully inconsistent in every conceivable way. They're not even entertaining in their more absurd moments.

Some of their costume designs have the shadow of something that could have been cool, but frankly, all of it I've seen before, and better made. The steampunk magical girl outfits are so beyond cringe.



CHARACTER: 3

Did I mention the lack of bad-guy development? Well, the heroines are no better. If anything, they're worse, progressing and regressing their personality traits at random. I can't even complain that they're all Mary Sues, because frankly, I could barely tell who was supposed to act like who by the end. Sure, there was the gun-lover, the clumsy protagonist with pink hair, but that's about the sum of it in spite of a rather large cast.

There's a few hilarious side characters, though, and I do have to give some props to them for creating a cool teddy bear bunny mascot thing that actually isn't annoying for once.


SOUND: 5

Weirdly, they have a few banger tunes, some surprisingly decent one-liners, and a few rather appropriately unique sound effects. I can't hate on the Seiyuu girls either, as they're doing their utmost with some rather awful material. But once again, the inconsistencies are just something I can't overlook.


WHO DO I RECCOMEND IT TO?


Nobody. Literally nobody. This series is honestly not even worth the time it took to write this review, so I definitely wouldn't want anyone to have to sit through the whole thing as I did.

Look, if you check my profile, you'll know I'm a sucker for Pretty Cure and all thing magical girl. But we're past half way, and I've found myself completely uninterested in continuing to watch it - which hasn't occurred since the travesty that was Happiness Charge.

STORY: 6

Precure rarely has much of an overarching story - instead, it typically relies on a few narrative goals, surrounded by character arcs, to drive itself along. Tropical Rouge is no different, except for the part where it lacks both goals and growth.

None of the characters' grow much, apart from the one that makes me want to bash my head ... through a wall, which obviously isn't saying much, Any time there's so much as a semblance of evolution, or a hint of past traumas, the show just brushes it under a rug to be adressed... never. At least, not yet. Which, for a show nearing the half-way mark, is deeply frustrating.

Besides that, the goals of the team are lax at the best of times, and just pure selfish stupidity at the worst, which seems like the last thing a children's show should be promoting.


CHARACTER: 6.5

We've already covered their complete lack of growth, but in addition, most of this season's cast feel like they've been hodge-podged together from previous series without much care for how they actually relate to each other, or even for their own depth of character.

Summer, our lead, is incredibly annoying, but at least has some self-awareness unlike some comparable past leads, and is uniquely the child of apparently separated parents. But that's as deep as that gets, given it goes unexplained and unexplored - much like every other facet of her character. She's as flat as her cardboard cut-outs.

Laura is the equally irritating mermaid who steals every scene, every time, from everyone, and for no apparent reason. Her entire motivation is bland, unexplored, and entirely selfish, which makes her both unlikeable and uninteresting, feeling at times like a dupe of Milky Rose but without the tragic backstory. Which is a shame, given her unique sassiness had so much potential.

Flamingo is Chocolat 2.0, only with no chemistry with the main cast whatsoever. Poor Coral is both underused and underdeveloped, having a pathetic power set and often shown - even on the poster art - to be an outsider within their friend group. Sango's mermaid nerdiness is a copy-paste of Custard, but with none of the lovable quirks.

Overall, I struggle to see how any of this cast could possibly improve by the end of the season, without first nuking their existing paper-thin personalities.


ART: 7.5

Look, Precure has at least learned a thing or two about action sequences over the years, along with character design, and what pretty shiny plastic things it can sell to children (along with obsessive completionism collector adults like myself.) So of course the designs are mostly fabulous.

The lack of a tanned character in an island-themed anime, and clearly a tropical one, is troubling and rather bizarre. It's particularly concerning given Precure has proven that absolutely can include dark-skinned PoC characters - yet in this, a canonically foreign setting where natives would likely be just that, there are none represented.

But - at least aesthetically - where it fails the most is the generic bad guys, who could very easily fit into any other water-themed anime with evil. Though, villain are not what sells, so I can hardly blame Toei for keeping them looking rather basic.


SOUND: 6

Look, I don't want to get into the cultural appropriation , but let's just say I was not impressed with some of their choices.

That said, the op and ed are both entirely appropriate for the series, and the sound effects are as charming and mildly camp, as per usual.

The voice acting is perhaps some of the weakest in recent seasons, likely due to the majority of the cast being less experienced. I won't mention the full details, but let's just say Toei usually divies the funds up a lot more evenly than they did this season.


OVERALL & ENJOYMENT : 6.5

Look, I've seen worse series, and even worse Precure seasons. If you're a completionist or just deeply love mermaid magical girls, you may very well get a better kick out of this one than I did. But, I won't be waiting anxiously by my laptop for the next episode.

I'm not sure what this anime is supposed to be, in all honesty

STORY: 5/10

Look, there isn't an overarching story here, besides the vague "reincarnated overworker chills out but like, as a witch". It isn't meant to have a mystery or a deep dark dilemma, and a a slice of life addict I can appreciate a slower pace, but there's literally nothing tying the episodes together besides the recurring cast.

It repeatedly attempts to be a harem, only to find itself floundering with a disinterested lead and a weirdly aged cast making the implications seem weirder than they could have been. The show just ... clearly doesn't know who it's supposed to be aimed at, or what it's supposed to do with such a large cast.

The few episodic plots are actually somewhat interesting, largely due to the surprises that some from a mix of meeting and subverting isekai and harem tropes. There's also a bit of good world-building through exploration, even if it meanders through meadows more often than not.

CHARACTER: 6.5

Our leading lady is perhaps one of the most interesting isekai protagonists to date. She's avoiding overwork, but that doesn't mean she's lazy. She can be tough, smart, and protective, but truly wants to enjoy a simple life. So in spite of 300 blink-and-you-miss-it years, she's believably chill yet OP.

Unfortunately, that depth doesn't cover the rest of the cast. From the horny, ditsy, energy drink making elf who'd fit right in with a frat house, to the sexy fly-demon, every character begins with interest before showing personalities as flat as cardboard. They either lack growth entirely, or change too quickly to be believable, and ultimately end up uninteresting,


ART: 9/10

Honestly, the character designs are near-perfect matches to their characters, and are utterly gorgeous. The only real flaw is the number of identically pale blondes, but that's hardly a big deal.

The landscapes, surprisingly well choreographed battles, and fun-looking magic attacks are definitely pieces of art in their own right.

SOUND: 7

A very unique, semi-spoken yet somehow catchy intro gives exactly the same vibes as the show itself, while the score reminds me of BOFURI - managing to be both calming and adventurous at the same time, which is entirely appropriate. It's not the kind of score you can jam out to, but it's well suited.

The voice acting is just fine, though feels quite generic, rather than being as unique as the art style suggests. If nothing else, giant dragons sounding like little girls is very entertaining.

Sigh. When trying to create an alternative idol series, it's important to put idols at the centre - and this series fails to do that. Repeatedly.

STORY: 5

This story has, essentially, multiple "major" plots with little to join them and even less to make you care.

The main character wants to act, not sing, so there's really no incentive to want her to succeed as an idol. It feels more like a means to an end, rather than her actual goal, which made me uninterested in what should have been the main plotline.

The secondary main plot is a sci-fi lovers' ... nightmare? Honestly, it's so ill-thought ... out, and feels so irrelevant and messy. It's supposed to be added motivation for the entire cast, but just feels shoved in as an attempt to appeal to a wider audience.

CHARACTER: 7

They've managed to make the characters entertaining and interesting enough that I managed to complete the series.

Our MC Seria is alone in Japan, and her loneliness - and denial of it - make for great motivators in her friendships, and for the viewer. Her softness is gentle, rather than annoying, and I quite liked her on the whole.

Her friends are equally interesting; from those who've failed to be idols, to those who succeed, each has an interesting perspective on the whole thing and make decisions that are as in-character as they are surprising. It's nice to see a show where becoming an idol, or remaining one, is far from a guarantee, and brings real stakes to the Seria's journey.

SOUND: 6

You can't get much more "generic idol pop balad" than this. No, really, you can't. It's nowhere near the level of Aikatsu or Love Live, but any of their many knockoffs could happily pinch the songs of Genkidol and you'd be none the wiser. That is to say, they aren't in any way bad, certainly they match the series, but they're just not worth listening to a second time. Or several times, given they're repeated across the episodes.

ART: 5

WTF is with the art??? It randomly inserts real people in the background photos, but the anime girls other times. The foreground and characters designs are painfully flat, and the dancing is also not great. It doesn't help that it's clearly all very inconsistent across the series.

The fact all the characters look like clones is bothersome, and is real proof that anime does better with different hair colours - or at least different cuts!

There's a few moments of glory, like the Holos

This series is a solid, all-round 7 of a show if there ever was one.

It's important to note that this is China's take on the magical girl genre and is often (mistakenly) given the label as a Precure rip-off. Now, I'll link a post explaining why that's not the case at the end, but for now, just take my word for it.

STORY: 7

This series carries on the wummer after the live-action debut season ends. The waht now? You're thinking. But don't worry, you absolutely DO NOT need to watch that one (in fact, in canon, it's series 0, with this one being series 1, ... making it more of a prequel.)

The series premise is that the potential future fairy queen has run away to Earth to find her "real" family, and the team of girls from the previous series must help her - all while battling evil forces that wish to overthrow the fairy kingdom. It's simply stuff, mostly featuring monsters of the week or, more often, magic mistakes of the week, and is pretty lightweight stuff even for mahou shoujo series. But it makes up for that with tons of slapstick-styled comedy, a surprising amount of character growth, and just being plain fun.

CHARACTER: 7

Again, there's a surprising amount of character growth throughout the series, as the fairies adjust to the human world and vice versa. Each quite literally grows up througout the series.

What I most appreciated was how they tackled tropes. In this series, Shirley is the yellow, 18-year-old group leader. She's clumsy as a human, but still mature, smart, and brave - quite different from the usual awkward pink lead we're used to seeing.

The human twins are wonderfully awkward and independent despite being so young, while the very young princess manages to be extremely intellegent but also lacking in social skills and still very childish. All three improve on their flaws across the series.


SOUND: 7

Look, it's an old series made by a ,low-budget Chinese studio. It's at times tinny and the VAs are obviously very young, but they do their darned best! The songs are cute and very appropriate, and surprisingly catchy, especially the OP.

ART: 7

Okay, the mix of 3d animated backgrounds and 2d foregrounds is a bit janky and can be difficult to get used to, but it' very much a product of its era (it's very much like a Chinese version of early Winx Club!) But the character designs are absolutely gorgeous and the transformations are just as fun and funky as you'd expect from any Precure season.


Overall, this series does more than enough to earn it's place in the magical girl genre. If you'd like to read how it compares to precure, here's an article explaining the differences:

https://mahoushoujofiles.tumblr.com/post/619573668924784640/balala-vs-pretty-cure

STORY: 7

The story is a bit inconsistent, and not very well paced, but you don't really expect much of either from Chinese magical girls, which are usually aimed at the 6-to-10 crowd.

In saying that, they still put a surprising amount of thought into it, with a few twisted characters and unexpected reveals and, in true Balala fashion, do a great job of meshing the fun, single-episode arcs with the overarching semi-serious main plot.

It's nowhere near as dark or serious as Precure gets, but given the well-timed comedy moments and genuinely adorable rescues, it really doesn't need to be.

CHARACTER: 8
...
As always, I love that Balala has no qualms about ignoring the usual Moe status quo. The lead character is awkward, quiet, grumpy, and prefers to be alone, yet finds herself the leader of two very energetic and naive humans. Those humans, though somewhat trope-y, do evolve and grow with the season, and in turn, help their leader be a bit less uptight!

ART: 8

Yet again, Balala has upped their quality by miles. Their wand designs and costumes are adorable, their sea creatures look fantastical and cute while still being recognizable (which Precure epically failed at,) and the backgrounds are gorgeous. The intermittent 3d moments are well-timed and used solely on things that ought to be that way.

The attack sequences and action scenes are still awkward, but they've never been the focus of Balala, so that's unsurprising.

SOUND: 7

The music is cute, if generic. I like that they have much lower voices than many Japanese magical girls, but still sound like children. The sound effects are rather limited and do get annoying when repeated too often, but overall suit the show well.

OVERALL 7.5

This season shows a lot of growth and promise as part of Balala's franchise, and is definitely worth the watch for any fan of lighthearted magical girl series.

It's like someone took the world's most uninteresting visual novel and tried, badly, to animate it. If you care for the magical girl genre, good comedic timing, or even just well-drawn fanservice, don't bother with this series.

STORY: 3

There basically isn't one. Well, there is, but it's lackluster generic concepts from other magical girl anime haphazardly smashed together.

ART: 3

Look. It's robotic. Flat. Incredibly inconsistent. Badly timed. Consists of far too many still images But for some bizarre reason, someone clearly put some effort into making decently original character and wand designs, as well as cute mascots.

It does, repeatedly, attempt to provide fanservice, but the ... boob bouncing looks more like what happens when a ballon deflates than bouncing. And al their underskirts, panties, and shorts are white, so even upskirt shots are worthless. Really, it's a wonder they bothered!

SOUND: 2

It's like someone's' high school garage band decided to try their hand and kawaii kids sound, but lost all will and interest half way. It's below-par, boring, but not inherently horrific.

Add in the bad acting, constantly talking over each other, sounding like a bunch of clueless tween streamers, making the audio unbearable to listen to.

CHARACTER: 1

Do you know what happens when you take a bunch of generic moe girls, strip them of interesting backstories, and stick them on screen, with zero real motivation or brain power? This. This is what you get. They aren't offensively awful characters, but they're not remotely interesting.


In conclusion, don't be the kind of crazy person like me who tries to watch everything under a genre header. Some unpopular, lesser-known series really ought to stay that way, and this is one of them.