(Making this in the general Precure section until the appropriate subforum is made)

I don't know what possessed me to return to being on speaking terms with Precure. Maybe it's the cute character designs or the witch theme. Either way I'm glad I did.

This is the first time where a Cure's intro scene, two minutes into the episode made me say "I love her!". Riko is just... wonderful. Her "I try to be serious and confident but I'm really awkward" personality is just lovable. She doesn't come off as condescending like a certain purple Cure from two seasons ago.

Mirai, our leader is very cuddly herself, but her personality is a bit more typical. She reminds me a lot of Miyuki and Nozomi, very excitable and bursting with happiness. As of the end of this episode I pretty much adore her as well. Carrying a teddy bear with her in a basket. It's very childish but somehow I can't be upset. She's just too precious.

I really liked the set-up of this episode. Having the main character in the middle of spring break is a nice change from the usual, and we're getting a magic school instead of the standard. It's a small touch, but this first episode felt like they were doing a little more to refresh the Precure formula.

Batty. XD Such an original name for a villain. Definitely got some Joker vibes from him. Strange that the OP didn't show any of the antagonists though.

Speaking of the OP, what a strange one. It definitely had some unique art styles going, and the music had a bit of that Precure vibe, but very different in some parts.

All in all, a nice start to what should hopefully be a very interesting series. 

Now I'm caught in the trap.

1 ) I've fallen victim to Doremi Fansubs's inconsistent release schedule. Don't miss that.

2 ) Precure seasons always tend to start out great, but then get kinda bleh later on. Hopefully this won't be another Doki/Smile/Hacha.

I'll make a board tonight. I didn't realize it was out yet. So are there no subs?

There are subs! It's on GoGoAnime, I just finished watching it!

I loved it!!! I loved every single thing about it!! The opening was probably my favorite Pretty Cure opening I've heard so far, I loved the characters, and even the ending theme was really good!! I hope that it doesn't take Doremi too long to put the subs up online, because I'm really excited to see the next episode after watching the preview!!

EDIT: Well, it looks like we won't have to worry about Doremi, because they dropped it! Imagation Station is subbing this too, so Doremi wants to promote their work instead. Now, according to some people on MAL, Imagination Station is "Americanizing" the show. However, I read the translation notes on their site for episode one, and all they really did that was bad was localize a few puns so they make sense in English. Which...isn't that bad. The people on MAL are way too picky. As long as they don't do what Commie did to Go! Princess, then I am fine with watching it.

I may or may not check this out.

The board for this series has been created. This topic and the other one Mahou topic have been moved to the new board. 

And episode 2 begins on an interesting note. Upon heading to their website, they confirmed this was an error. The word Mirai uses is "Mikan" which is "Mandarin Orange".

And we have another moment of Riko being all "I did this perfectly. Ignore the complete screw-up." I really hope the moment when she starts to admit her faults doesn't kill the viewers in the feels too much, or have some overblown backstory to it. Characters facing their flaws don't need to come with a giant backstory about a character hasn't been able to do magic properly since their mom died or something.

Edit: And they did exactly that, having her admit her she's not very good at magic without a complex sob story involved.

And so our protagonists head to the aptly-named "Magic World". How creative. XD Then again Steven Universe has a place that's just called "Home World".

All in all it was a nice episode, always fun with no real downs other than wanting to bop the deputy headmaster.

Still haven't seen the main MAIN antagonist. Nice to see they're building that up.

Also, I don't know what's up with this new subbing group, but the transformations, finishers and ED are suddenly too much for my 2002 dinosaur laptop that  can SOMEHOW run Windows 7.

Oh Toei. Nothing ever changes. XD



Glitter Force joke!

Gotta say. I thought two Cures wouldn't be enough to carry a season, based on my displeasure with Splash Star, but these two are interesting and likable enough that I don't know if I'd want there to be anyone else on the team.



Tsuuuuuuuuuun~

I said a while back that I'd follow this as it came out, but I'm behind several episodes already. I suck! I need to catch up!

On episode 7 now and still really liking this season. It's not "wow so amazing!" but then I don't really think any Precure season is.

I really like this magic school concept, and that they're actually doing something with it. Most Precure seasons barely show the characters doing anything worthwhile in class. It's such a unique setting, detached from anything Precure has ever done, that it makes me forget this is a Precure season, before the monster of the week shows up.

Riko... seems to have a lot of problems, as episode 6 reminds us again. Still the sweetest purple cure so far and her backstory isn't dripping with suffering, so I can get behind it. She's starting to outshine Mirai a little in terms of characterization. Mirai's a cuddly baby but she could use more fleshing out.

And finally I'll say I really like the fact that the new forms are actually alternate Cure costumes, rather than the way they were handled in HaCha. They're all nice, but I think Mirai's Sapphire outfit could use some different colors. The blue and pink clash too much imo.

I'm going to start watching it after I complete Smile and Suite.

Finally caught up completely, and so far I really like this season.

I'm a little bit bummed that the focus is going to move from the magic school to the human world school. The fact that magic played such a huge role in this season really set it apart from the others, and such a unique setting was really appealing to me. I'm sure this won't mean a sudden drop in the focus on magic, but it does make me think that this season has thrown all of its cards on the table and now I can expect the quality to decline. Hopefully not as bad as Doki, but still.

And speaking of bad quality, I find it a little ridiculous that the stone would appear RIGHT in front of them at the train station as soon as they get there. And of course as soon as you see a crow, you know it's going to snatch it. And then as soon as you see a cat, you know it's going to snatch it. Pretty typical stuff, but we got some nice character moments out of it.

Mirai's mom is a nice character. She probably shouldn't be taking random thirteen year old girls home, but still. Very nice interactions between her and Riko.

If there's one thing I truly feel like criticizing with this show, it's the villains. Ten episodes in and I feel like we know nothing about their personalities. I mentioned before how much I liked the villains in Heartcatch because they each had a personality and an ideology they pursue. But here we just have villains who seem like they're from the Splash Star era, generic "I'm so evil I do evil things". Heck, we don't even know the first thing about their supposed leader, other than he's apparently a skeleton.

And since I'm sure this is something anyone can see coming a mile away, I'm calling it now. Mirai's grandmother is from the magic world.