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synopsis princess elle has been kidnapped from sky land. while trying to save her, sora harewataru jumps into a mysterious portal and lands in sorashido city, meeting mashiro nijigaoko and becoming pretty cute of the sky, cure sky.
intro a new february marks a new pretty cure season! ever since the first leaks, i’ve been ecstatic for this season. it’s a season of firsts (officially at least)! first non pink coded main cure, first main team male cure, first adult main team cure, and first…fart joke. even so, this 20th anniversary season has so much to look forward to. let’s see how the first episode holds up as an introduction to this new season!
hirogaru’s first episode starts with an introduction of the alternate place in the series; akin to the grand ocean in tropre and the garden of life in futari wa. skyland, although the name sounding like a trampoline place, is portrayed as a world in the clouds. having a blue and pink motif (clouds & sky blue; land itself pink), it fits perfectly with the main colors of the season. skyland itself actually reminds me a lot of my little pony, specifically the g3 styles. i really adore the art direction with the settings already!
we are introduced to sora who is flying on a bird, speaking about her goal to be a hero. get ready for that to be mentioned a lot. even in the first few seconds of introduction, sora’s character is established greatly. she’s a young athletic girl who dreams of being a hero! i want to also point out that i actually love her voice. akira-san does a great more tomboyish voice for the main character, something we haven’t seen in a few years.
it seems that sora is on her way to skyland for princess elle’s birthday! that means this episode takes place on march 12th in the universe. the world building for skyland is great honestly. from the few images we see, we can be able to tell a few things about it:
these bird creatures (like the one sora is flying on) seem to have a huge play in the society. maybe something to do with the economy? pets/companions? or just living amongst them?
royalty is especially important to them! they are celebrating princess elle and obviously there’s a giant castle. it’s clearly a kingdom
technology seems to be not as advanced as in the real world; shown later as well when sora gets there
the fashion style is definitely fantasy/medieval esque as it seems to be a lot of simple outfits and things of the sort
finishing our first look at skyland, we are then shown the royalty of this kingdom…including our baby of the season, elle-chan! her appearance is much better than her splash art. by a lot. many people were wary of another precure baby which is fair, but as you can see later on, i actually love her. So Far. elle and her parents- the king and queen of skyland- are on the castle, and her parents are spouting cheesy compliments at each other.
i actually do not like the king and queen’s designs. like at all. although the setting design i adore and the animation so far is beautiful, i can’t help but feel like these two characters seem really out of place compared to the rest. if they had a similar blue, pink and white motif i would have been able to accept them as being fit here but they just… seem really weird. the colors and the clothing design mostly. plus they do not look similar to elle at all. however, i must say i love how the king has a similar cape to cure sky! i also will give props for the wing on the queen’s hat and the collars they have, similar to the cure designs. i guess i just never usually liked the royalty/other (good) world character designs
below is an extremely extremely rough idea of wha4t colors i thought would be better with the queen at least. far too lazy to do the king as you can see from how rough this is in the first place but i think it gets the point across. i just think the colors they used are way too far from the overall feel of skyland and this season. would’ve just liked to see lighter colors!
anyhow, while celebrating, the evil big mean appears out of a pig costume. out come! another pig! wow! i know a big chunk of this has been about my nitpicks on designs but well, be prepared for another. the first villain introduced this season is kabaton, a purple pig with a mohawk and a circular body. he mockingly wishes elle-chan a happy birthday and throws a purple smile bomb.
it seems we’re back to animal/monster villains. i don’t really have any problem with that in theory, but this design so far is just…? i don’t like it. the pink sorta style would work well if it wasn’t for the fact that this character is portrayed as being like some disgusting pig (unsurprising that they made him a pig). i just really am not looking forward to seeing him a lot. i’d much rather go back to that lobster guy from tropre or even just a humanoid buffy big guy instead of a pig
also right now, we don’t really know the motivations for these villains. of course, that’s to be explained later, but i actually like that there’s some sense of mystery. usually exposition is given right at the beginning and it feels a bit like hand holding. but here this pig just REALLY wants to kidnap this baby. i hope they further explore that later!
with her main character senses, sora is able to tell something is wrong. skyland and princess elle are under attack! sora’s determination and confidence is present once again as she tells the reluctant bird to bring her to skyland so she can help. sora’s resolve to be a hero is something i really like since although of course every precure is strong, many have to learn to be strong. in sora’s case, her hero wish opens the doors to a character development of her learning to accept her not being exactly this hero girl that she wants to be, without the added development of getting used to her identity as a precure. it may also allow for one of those “getting your wish isn’t all it seemed to be” conflicts which i’m greatly interested in how it will handle
ITS OPENING TIME!! i feel like there’s so much to talk about with the opening that i can’t possibly put it in this post in good conscience. instead, i’ll try to make a separate analysis post sometime soon. so try to look forward to that if i get the time!
for now, we’re back to elle-chan’s kidnapping. trapped in an orb, she spends a good portion of the episode crying. it doesn’t really bother me at all mostly because yes i would also be crying if i was being kidnapped. but look at this stupid baby face. she’s just too cute to call annoying
we have a gag about kabaton stealing some apples and although i may just be overreacting i really hope that food association doesn’t continue even if it’s little because well. having a pig just like food and seemingly be gross is a bad look. but we will get to the gross part very soon
we have a really beautifully animated parkour sequence with sora. the animation in this part is seriously to die for. it really shows how much better they’ve gotten over the years. i especially just love this new style. even though it seems similar to all the other precures, the eyes are one of the defining traits for this style i’ve noticed. rounded eyelashes! the action sequence so far looks amazing- and this rooftop scene is proof of that
(gif via dailyhirogaru)
sora’s civilian outfit is really fitting of her athleticism shown in this scene especially. the more frumpy and bigger shirt and pants are really good for her since it seems easier to move around in. it also does give a sort of medieval fantasy feel so she’s basically just a dnd tomboy. i love it
sora catches up to kabaton and uses her…leapfrog attack? confusing on how this girl could jump over a basically circle pig but it’s precure. what do i expect. she’s so silly she’s a runner she’s a track star
elle is free of her orb prison and she looks at sora for the first time and i think i have really fallen in love with this stupid baby. i think a lot of it comes down to her design. i mean let’s look at elle compared to like…hugtan…
kabaton demands to know sora’s name and promises to remember it. as of now, our only characteristics of kabaton are that he is snarky, very stereotypically a villain (swears to remembers his enemy’s names), and…he farts. for some reason, kabaton then shows his ass to sora and says “welcome to heaven” before ripping a fat one. this is the time i realized wow i really hate this. precure never seemed like one to fall to really weird toilet humor especially farts. it felt really out of place and uncomfortable and i genuinely will cry if this continues. i don’t wanna say it seems like fetishy but. it did. especially with “welcome to heaven”. first fart joke in the series…groundbreaking i suppose
through his fart attack, kabaton is able to get elle-chan back and opens a portal- supposedly to try to get to the undergu empire. hesitantly, sora follows into the portal. i guess that’s the way that we are going to explain sora’s sudden appearance in the human world- a portal! if that’s the case though, i’m interested on why undergu empire seems to be an entirely different world and is so keen on kidnapping elle-chan. very excited to see what goes on there...
sora says something about wanting to protect a crying child- that she would never abandon one. another example of her wish to be a hero! suddenly, kabaton hits a giant rock and lets go of elle-chan who floats to sora almost immediately. as this happens, sora lets go of a notepad with has something written in a different language
as she reunites with sora, elle-chan seems to be able to feel the mirage pen within sora. with that, she relaxes into her arms. what a surprise, she’s a precure! and another super big surprise, elle-chan is our fairy that awakens the precures! the two exit the portal and end up in the literal sky. with a scream, they fall down
we have a cute eyecatch of sora and mashiro holding the shiny powder fragrance and then laughing together. super cute!!
the moment we get back to the episode, we’re greated to pretty holic. honestly, i’m not sure how i feel about pretty holic being a thing for every season after tropre. i know it’s all because it sells good and i truly do love the pretty holic themed art that happens due to it but it feels so forced sometimes and it makes the theme of the season kinda mess up because it makes it so like every season from tropre has an underlying theme of makeup. and it’s getting a little bit repetitive
the stationary shown is cute i suppose and of course if it is released physically i will definitely be buying. plus, at least this pretty holic seems to be fixed with the theme colors and motifs (wings, blue, pink, pastels, etc.) at least. mashiro’s grandmother also appears to be using the stationary for her note that she gives mashiro which is super cute
during the pretty holic and sorashido city introduction, we see a screen for a new arrival and a girl’s face. i wonder if this is maybe a character in the future? maybe cure butterfly’s civilian form. who knows!
mashiro is introduced looking for ingredients for her grandmother. they are very strange including rose oil, a cinnamon stick, and a dried frog. it appears that mashiro’s grandmother is a witch or something along the sorts with magic. i think that there may be some lore about her being from sky land or another land of the sort. kind of like heartcatch. i really love all the callbacks to things they’ve already done. it’s sweet for the 20th season
while ruminating over where she will get these silly ingredients, sora’s notebook falls from the sky and soon, sora herself. oh how i’ve missed people falling from the skies in precure series. it is truly the most amazing trope. fortunately, before the two become splattered, elle-chan floats them safely to the ground. mashiro is stunned. even with her introduction, i think i’ve fallen in love with her. she seems like a really interesting character- seems like a sweet but kind of easily shy and overwhelmed girl
sora is immediately entranced by the new technology in this place- especially the cars and green lights. she continues on and on about how everything is strange until mashiro “TIME OUT”s her. the two agree that this must be a dream and them talking about it being a dream is actually really fucking funny. they’re just like “oh hello dream girl how are you” “oh i am good other dream girl what is your dream name”
when sora notices mashiro has her notebook, she takes it back with a “thank you” and describes that the lettering on the notebook is sky script. it’s revealed to be her hero journal. it really identifies her as a kid when you think about it because it’s basically like the same sort of thing as a princess diary or something of the sort. i find it super duper cute
suddenly, kabaton appears and we are introduced to the summoning monster of the season. ranborg! i’m always looking forward to the nonsensical monster names and how silly they will be. this one of course is no disappointment. to be fair, it’d be pretty hard for it to be a dissapointment
we get a random quip about “curetube” which honestly made me laugh and then mashiro finally realizes she’s not actually dreaming. sora hands over elle to mashiro and tells her that she will fight, but mashiro wants them to run away. i really really like soras expression of being this tough girl but then she’s actually extremely scared and shaking when mashiro tries to keep her from fighting. i think it’s my favorite part of the episode entirely
and also gay people
we get a good one sided battle as sora tries to fight ranborg and kabaton. we also see that kabaton’s gem on his head is magic- maybe a reoccurring theme for the other villains we may see? when kabaton gets sora down, he tries to attack mashiro and take elle-chan but sora tells him the battle is between her and him- not mashiro
her notebook lands on the floor and kabaton takes it. we get our first look at her hero journal. it’s absolutely adorable and good character exposition. sora is a tomboy who wants to be a hero- that’s her dream
unfortunately, we didn’t get to see this hero journal in a good way. kabaton snorts at her dream and immediately rips up the journal. sora, still down from the attack, is powerless to do anything. it’s honestly amazing that i can feel so bad during this scene for a character i met like 13 minutes ago. it just shows how good precure is at developing characters
sora is thrown the empty notebook back at her and she stands up, showing her resolve to still fight. she promises elle-chan she’ll bring her back. after all, she would never abandon a crying child. elle-chan realizes that sora is a precure and we see a drawing of sora’s that resembles zakenna. sora would never back down. she’s a hero!
the mirage pen appears in front of sora and elle-chan screams to make her a elle-chan assigned precure. elle’s screaming actually made me laugh out loud because it’s just so stupid but i love her
ready to become a hero, cure sky is born with a beautiful transformation sequence. honestly...just watch it
the transformation is amazing and i love the transformation items too. i really want to buy the mirage pen and sky mirage and i hope i will be able to. i also especially like the part in the transformation where it’s the monochrome images of cure sky and then it turns to the colors. there’s also text in the background which is kind of surprising to me?!?! i didn’t expect that but it mirrors the website so it makes sense! i just love this transformation and i love cure sky. i really love her cape and just the way she’s supposed to be a hero (hero girl....hirogaru....haha)
we get the regular “precure figures out they can fly/jump really high” scene and then go on to cure sky’s fight. again, beautifully animated. i really don’t have much to say about the fight itself because it’s just regular precure fight but i love it of course because i love precure. here’s all i can say:
live kabaton reaction
after defeating the ranborg, kabaton seems to be afraid of cure sky and runs away. cure sky detransforms and realizes that elle-chan and mashiro are still there, having watched her entire battle. sora seems worried for mashiro but thankfully she isn’t hurt
and then, we get the ending. mashiro asks if sora is a hero. and instead of answering, “yes of course i’m a hero” she says she doesn’t know. it seems my want for a development of her dream is probably going to happen. it’s such a little and sweet moment but i think it’s a good identifier of things that are yet to come. sora and mashiro’s relationship is growing steadily even in just one day. i can’t wait to see more
similarly, i think i will probably do a separate post for the ending but i love the dance and the song. it might be one of my favorite endings in precure- though of course nothing can beat shubidubi sweets time
overall, this episode is near perfect. my only genuine criticism comes from kabaton and the fart joke. i’m so excited for more of this series and can’t wait to see how it develops. next episode is going to be aired today so let’s hope this good show continues well!
best character this episode: sora harewataru
favorite part: sora trembling while deciding to fight
funniest part: “this is a dream!”
ranborg design score: 4/5
overall score: 9/10
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