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Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Just finished up the first episode of Star Twinkle and yeah I'm on board. This one episode already had more action scenes than the first twenty episodes of Smile so I was pretty stoked for that. Hikaru is pretty likable and the family situation seems like it could be interesting. I'm not too much of a fan of Fuwa but it's not like she's intolerable, she's a generic cute mascot character meant to appeal to the kiddies and she seems like she probably fills that role well. Puruns seems like he might be moderately entertaining.

So yeah hopefully I'll finish this one out, unlike Smile which I fell out of halfway through.

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Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story

MonsterEnvy posted:

Also I was a bit confused about the "Twincool" thing until I saw some places started spelling it "Twinkcool"

Oh, now I get it! I was like "Uh...star themed series so like, something to do with Gemini maybe?"

The singing during the transformation is weird but interesting, I don't have strong feelings one way or the other so whether they drop it or keep it doesn't matter to me. It doesn't seem very memorable, or at the very least it didn't immediately get stuck in my head like the Heartcatch transformation music, it doesn't seem like bad music though. And who knows, maybe it'll grow on me.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Me: Water types are weak to electric attacks.

Kappard: [says basically the same thing five seconds later]

I think Mr. Ryo is probably the most likely to get actively involved in the whole Precure shenanigans which would mean the grandfather probably won't be, but I assume at some point we'll get an explanation of why the grandfather is like that and I'd bet it somehow involves Hikaru's dad. Again as I've only finished on Precure series I'm framing everything in light of that and I just really loved how Tsubomi's grandmother was actually a Precure herself and was a constant source of support and help to her, and part of me wants more of that kind of stuff.

It's kind of a shame it was the same song being sung for Milky's transformation (though I like hers better), but that does give me hope that later when we have a full team and we get our first group transformation that we'll have all of them sing together and that'll be neat.

So I'm curious, what is this Cure Black/White fight you guys are talking about and what kind of backlash is it assumed that it had?

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
One long sock and one short sock is good.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story

Larryb posted:

Homare also had a crush on a hamster and in Yes! 5 Nozomi was in love with a tanuki fairy, both of whom commonly took the form of an adult man. Precure have weird kinks sometimes.

Don't forget Tsubomi having a huge crush on Coupe! Though, well, I guess she didn't know he was Coupe, and as soon as she found out she got weirded out.

Poor Tsubomi. Between Coupe and Itsuki her crushes just never turned out well.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Gaim is the closest Rider's gotten to not having MotW. The Invess still existed but they were mostly just reduced to the level of grunts while the big focus was on the Riders vs each other or later in the series vs the Overlords.

Anyway I continue to be very happy with this series, I'm looking forward to seeing what new cute forms Fuwa gets as the show goes on. Also if the princesses will actually do anything or just go "Sorry I'd like to help you but I'm too busy sitting on this throne."

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
There was a lot of good stuff this episode, I see we have another wolfman general. At least, I assume he's a general? Could just be a butler for the one-eyed girl. Also looks like, based on the link from earlier, the girl in that is the one who saw Lala and Puruns this episode.

And Elena has the best version of the song.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Hey if Gemini is twins that means there's thirteen Star Princesses not twelve! Or is only one of the two a princess and the other is just kinda there for the theme?

Also where's Ophiuchus (yes I'm the guy who learned about the zodiac through Final Fantasy Tactics so what)?

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Having higher stakes with the government snooping around is a really good development and it kinda makes sense. I haven't seen a Precure series yet where the local law enforcement/politicians actually get involved with monsters appearing. It happens pretty frequently in Rider/Sentai but magical girl series tend to not really have that happen, which is a bit odd if you think about it. Pretty sure someone in a position of authority is going to want to know what's happening with all these large monsters and explosions happening. And having the guy in charge of it be one of the Precure's fathers makes it even better.

And yeah, this episode just confirms Cure Soleil is the best singer.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Well Magic Knight Rayearth is in the new SRW game, that's a step forward at least.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Who are all these other Precures in the ending song? They don't seem to be from past teams, at least, I don't recognize any.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Ah that explains it, since I never really knew much about anything past Smile, I just figured if they were past teams there would've been at least one I recognized from seeing the Heartcatch All-Stars movie if nothing else.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
What sounds neat would be something like the recent Super Sentai Strongest Battle where you have five or six teams with one representative each working together, though that's probably best reserved for anniversaries or such to avoid having to explain why there's only one member from each group. I do agree that having every team would have gotten unmanageable, even when I watched the Heartcatch All-Stars movie it was a bit unsatisfying because they want every team to get focus, so you just ended up having multiple villains laughing evilly and then each team just did their finishers and immediately defeated them.

Larryb posted:

If you do ever feel like checking out some older shows then Suite and Go Princess are both great choices (as is Splash Star if you haven’t seen that one either). Last year’s season Hugtto was also good though I have some issues with how it ended.

I kinda want to watch Suite now, like I said I watched the first episode of it and I liked it but just never watched any more of it. Where are good places to find it? I know someone said Doremi sucks and that's the only place I know of.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
The only Suite Precure batch is one entire chunk of episodes, so I'm downloading them a few at a time rather than trying to get 19 gigs worth of something at once. I'm at episode five right now, and I'm mostly enjoying it. I had forgotten how little of a poo poo Hummy gives about anything going on.

Mephisto: "Mwa ha ha I am going to steal the Score of Happiness!"
Hummy: :3:
Siren: "I'm going to make this the Score of Sorrow and plunge this entire land into unending despair!"
Hummy: :3:
Aphrodite: "Oh no Earth is in danger of being turned into a land of sorrow now!"
Hummy: :3:

One thing I'm hoping is that the running theme of one or the other of Hibiki/Kanade going "I quit being a Precure!" stops soon. I mean, I get it, they require harmonization to transform and making them upset at each other means that the villains win by default, so trying to make them fight is going to be a sound strategy. I just feel like, from a viewer's perspective, it's a little tedious to keep having that happen. Also a minor complaint but it makes it difficult for me to take Hibiki's "I hate music!" in episode 3 seriously when at the end of episode 2 she's sitting there listening to the record smiling.

These are minor complaints really since I do think the show is good so far.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Episode five: Oh god I'm never going to see that jellyfish Negatone again am I? :negative: I need closure! You can't just say "They beat it off-screen"!

Episode six: Oh hey I know who this girl is from fanart. Didn't expect her to show up this early.

Actually one thing I've noticed, though I don't think it means anything in particular, is that the girls don't seem to really care about Hummy talking around other people. Not that anyone has noticed the talking cat, of course, but she definitely talks to them while they're walking around other people, or hanging out in town. This is a bit odd considering Heartcatch and Star Twinkle have "Hide the fact that we have these talking fairies" a thing, but as I said, since apparently nobody seems to notice the cat is talking, I guess there's no real reason to hide it.

The villains are operating a lot more openly in this season than others I've seen, too. Siren and the Trio have shown up at a concert and a TV filming and summoned monsters in front of the crowds. So far this hasn't seemed to make much of an impact on the townspeople, you'd think after a couple of big public displays like that talk of it would be all over the town, but maybe that'll happen later. On a side note, this does make it a little weird that it seems like Kanade tries to pass off the Negatone in episode six to Souta as a dream (or at least that's how I interpreted her telling him he was asleep).

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
We also see someone straight up get killed by the villains Sabark/Yuri's father blocks one of Dune's attacks which vaporizes him.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Repairing a rocket is hard, man! Did you ever try to repair a rocket? It's not all wipes and montages like in the movies. It takes forever!

Though now I'm curious where Elena was getting all that building material from.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Speaking of mystery people in OPs, I'm wondering when masked person in the Suite opening is gonna show up. They've been there since episode one!

Got up to episode nine. Otokichi seems like he'll be someone important, he's in the opening too, and he apparently knows that Kanade and Hibiki are Precures. Which sure makes it lucky that the only two characters to react to Hummy speaking already knew about her! It's nice to see Trio the Minor get some character development instead of just sitting in the background and singing things Siren says all the time, and even Siren herself seems like she's getting some good character development.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story


It's raining again.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Suite Precure, episode 11: oh hey, it's finally mask lady from the theme song! And uh...huh. Given what I know about Cure Muse, this seems...odd. Well, I'm sure it'll all be explained eventually. I guess I'm supposed to think Cure Muse is Siren, given that she appeared after Siren got fired from being the leader, looks like an adult, didn't speak so the voice couldn't give it away, had the Fairy Tone say she had no allegiance to either side, and Siren was being dodgy about where she'd been at the end. They did a good job making the evidence look overwhelming, at least.

I'm starting to really like Siren, her character development is really interesting. I just assumed she was going to be "the bad cat" the entire show but they seem to be doing a lot more with her.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Kanade. Hibiki. You have an enemy that can change what she looks like. You have seen her use this ability multiple times. You have seen her change into many different looking kinds of people.

How hard is it to go "Gee this person I know sure is acting funny and saying they don't remember doing this thing from five minutes ago, guess it must be Siren up to her tricks again."

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Yeah I hope they do a lot more with Sakurako.

This episode just kind of...ended. What I mean is, I thought we were going to get a scene where Madoka's father chews her out for skipping out on her lessons just to hang out with some friends, but we didn't get that. I'm also wondering if the archery competition is just something that just got brought up as another "thing Madoka has to be the best at" or if it'll actually show up in an episode (for that matter, I was thinking that her having to shoot the pen out of Eyewan's hand was going to be shown as helping her to focus at said archery competition). I guess considering that the focus was on Madoka having fun and learning about how everyone else works hard too, and then we had to have a fight, that it was pretty obvious there wouldn't be much more simply because the episode was almost over at that point.

I guess it's also way too early in the series to have Madoka butt heads with her dad, that seems more like mid/late season character development. And while I realize that her dad really only showed up as a plot device to have her start stressing and then resolved by having fun with the others, it really does feel like an incomplete episode without seeing the repercussions of her missing all her classes.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Hibiki and Kanade actually recognized someone they knew was acting strangely, remembered they have an enemy that can shapeshift, and recognized the silver necklace that Siren always has even when she changes forms. They can be taught!

...and then they fall for the trap anyway. :v:

It may sound like I'm being harsh on Suite but I really am enjoying it a lot. Siren as Hummy playing with the soccer ball was extremely cute.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Oh my god I just finished episode 21 and Siren IS A PRECURE WHAAAAT?! I went into this knowing that Ako was Cure Muse (even if that doesn't really make sense right now) but I had no clue that Cure Beat even existed let alone was freaking Siren!

Okay yeah this is series is really good.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
More words about Siren (and some about Mephisto!)

Siren losing her ability to turn back into a cat sucks. I think it would have been neat to keep that, but I guess that her retaining it would have made some things awkward considering where the last few episodes went. Hopefully she gets it back at some point because, well, she's not a human, so it'd be weird for her to be one the rest of her life. I really like that there was a bit of a struggle with her dealing with her actions while she was brainwashed, that it wasn't all just solved immediately. That she felt she didn't have the right to just go "Oh I'm good now, that's cool."

I'm also a big fan of how after Siren says "Don't call me by that name" Hibiki just calls her Ellen, for no reason, with no explanation, and Kanade just goes "Oh well guess that's her name now."

Now about Mephisto. I noticed this past episode that over his ears, he has the same "clam shell" things that he used to brainwash Siren and attempted to do the same to Hummy with. This would seem to indicate Mephisto himself is being brainwashed which is interesting. Especially since the Minor Trio don't have them. This doesn't mean the Minor Trio are inherently evil (Siren didn't always have them either, despite being brainwashed) but it would seem to indicate that Mephisto is in constant need of it, that his will is so strong that unlike Siren/the Minor Trio it can't just be a one or two time thing. Though it would be interesting if the Minor Trio were actually the real villains. I feel like I remember at least one anime or game or something where a seemingly weak henchman actually turned out to be a major villain in disguise. I would say Bladerun from Goseiger but he was never really portrayed as weak.


Larryb posted:

Speaking of which, I'm also curious if a season where the girls just don't have secret identities (or at least they get revealed early on) could work.

Sentai seems to do this fairly often, Go-Onger literally had their team named on the side of their van as well as their roll call phrases on their jackets, the Kyurangers made it well known who they were all the time, and of course the Patrangers operated openly. To me, secret identities never really made much sense if the villains know the identities (such as Power Rangers, where Rita was well aware who the Rangers were out of suit). I guess it would prevent them from being mobbed as celebrities or something, but really it always seemed like secret identities were so the villains couldn't just go to your house and attack your family or something, and in fact there would be a lot of benefits to making your identity open too, such as not having to worry about people finding out the secret, or just being able to transform openly without needing to find a place to hide, or just being able to stand up in class and say "Yo there's a monster attacking I need to go take care of it."

I'd be interested in seeing it done in Precure, though I guess they did to an extent in Doki Doki like you said. Heartcatch kind of did it, although given that Kaoruko was a Precure herself years before I guess that doesn't totally count. It does kind of feel like secret identities is the kind of cliche the series would be pretty hesitant to give up, since "wacky misunderstanding involving them trying to keep their identity secret" seems to be a pretty common form of humor in a show like this.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story

Larryb posted:

So I've been rewatching The Suite Life of Hibiki and Kanade lately and I'd forgotten just how annoying the constant infighting between the two main Cures can get (it seems to be the focus of almost every episode so far), that goes away eventually right?

It mostly goes away around episode...13 or so? After that they still fight but it never leads to "Well we're done as a team!" or the enemies trying to use them fighting as a plan to defeat them.

quote:

Speaking of which, it's kind of a pity that Siren lost her shapeshifting abilities after becoming a Precure (that I can remember anyway), it seems like that could have been useful at times.

It sucks and I wish it hadn't happened but I sort of understand why they did it, when she was confused about what was going on and how she felt it would've been real easy for her to hide as a cat, or just shapeshift into someone else so Hibiki/Kanade/Hummy couldn't find her and nothing would have been resolved.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Coupe is still the best fairy even if he spends 99% of the series standing around doing nothing.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Yeah at the end of this episode I was about to say maybe we're getting that series where their identities are revealed early on right now, but after seeing the preview I think they're going to just narrowly avoid being seen by Madoka's dad (or get seen but not identified, and succeed in escaping from them).

This is at least the first definitive defeat I've seen a Precure team suffer (I don't really count stuff like Moonlight being defeated in flashbacks). Like, Blossom/Marine/Sunshine lost pretty badly to the Desert Apostle generals in Moonlight's debut episode, but that's the thing, Moonlight showed up and saved them and thoroughly trounced the generals. This time it was nope, no one saves the day, Puruns just grabs them and high tails it out of there.

And losing an additional pen to the one that Eyewan found hurts pretty bad.

e: after reading the toku thread that reminds me that this episode forced the Precure out of their transformations, which happens literally all the time in Rider/Sentai but very rarely happens in Precure.

Twelve by Pies fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Apr 8, 2019

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
I hope cat butler gets to do cool things at some point in the series.

I'm also a bit curious about the Notraiders' motivations. Given his anger at Hikaru, it seems likely Kappard at least came from a planet with a pretty harsh environment where life was tough, and he resents her for being from a planet that supports life much easier. I wonder if that's just true for him or if all the generals have that in common.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
"I like black cats the best."
"Why's that?"
"Well, I used to be a black cat..."

Oh Siren, you're the best. :allears:

I'm glad the Fairy Tones have gotten to be actual characters in the last few episodes. They always hung around and could always talk but never really did anything except show up for transformations and finishers. They don't have distinct personalities but that's fine, they're very cute and fun to watch and just the fact that they're out there doing things on their own is great.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Also I'm glad they finally explained (well, didn't really explain, more like implied) Siren is living with Otokichi. Since I was kind of wondering that for a few episodes.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story


It doesn't happen a lot, but I always enjoy when the show remembers that Siren is a cat currently trapped in a human body.

Very excited to see how the hell the old man not only knows the Crescendo Tone exists but is also friends with it, but I need to torrent more episodes first.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
It looks like to me at least that Mr. Ryo only learned that Lala was an alien, and not that they were Precure specifically. Hikaru kind of hinted about the bad stuff that went down last episode but she didn't get into any detail, and just having space joyrides with friends doesn't really hint at "We're also transforming superheroes."

It'd be really awesome if Hikaru's power awakening Lord Darknest was a ToQ #1/Zed situation but I don't think I'll get my hopes up.

Gonna go ahead and state the obvious and say that the mystery figure is Mr. Ryo posing as a movie producer and saying that all this was special effects and that the girls are starring in a movie to throw suspicion off them (for now).

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
See it's interesting because I took the "It would be an imbalance of power" as "I'm weaker than the others so I'd hold them back" but it could absolutely be interpreted the other way people in this thread have taken it, and I think I'm on board with that interpretation.

Garogre is still really cool and reminds me of an 80s super robot villain so I hope they do more with him.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
It would make sense for her element to be gravity, given stars are the center of solar systems due to their gravitational pull and all.

Cat Butler was very visibly upset when Lord Darknest gave the three generals power ups and it zoomed in on him when he reacted so it's definitely meant to be an important plot point.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Goddamn Suite Precure got real good all of a sudden. Just got up through episode 36 so now I know everything such as Mephisto's deal, who Otokichi is, and Cure Muse's true identity revealed. Everything is explained! Well...kind of.

Maybe I'm being nitpicky but they didn't really explain why Ako looked to be the same age as the other girls when she was Cure Muse. I know that I'm probably just supposed to accept "It's magic we don't have to explain poo poo" but it would've been nice if that had been addressed since just wearing different clothes wouldn't really cause her to be two feet taller.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Yeah she was definitely foreshadowed way earlier since I went in knowing her identity from the start, so things like her dodging Souta's water gun at the beach were very obvious foreshadowing. So at the very least they were going for that since before episode 20.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Coffret and Chypre are also named for perfumes.

But not Coupe. He's named for a sports car.

Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story
Got around to the latest Star Twinkle. My feelings are...mixed. I don't think it was a bad episode exactly but I'm not really sure of the message it's trying to send.

So Lala can magically speak Japanese, but she still can't read it at all. It does seem like this episode sort of implied she's going to try to learn it (when she read her name off the chalkboard) but that's still going to take time. Likewise she doesn't understand a lot of earth customs or items. So yeah, having her use the AI to tell her that "This is what the book says" while she's still trying to learn (because she is in school and the teachers almost certainly expect certain levels of reading ability) seems totally understandable. And she definitely felt awful and depressed because she screwed up a lot and having the AI help her also makes sense, it's going to help her feel more comfortable and give her more self-esteem instead of feeling like a failure like she did at the start.

But then the episode made it look like the message was going to be "Lala was wrong to use the AI to help her" which is a really lovely message. Then they ended up kind of dropping that though? And all the episode really cared about was "She says -lun at the end of sentences but everyone likes that so it's totally fine." Except that still has nothing to do with her not being able to read any Japanese or knowing how certain earth tools/technology are operated which would still be an issue. They didn't mention any of that though so I guess they kind of didn't say "She was wrong to use the AI to help her" which would be nice except at the end of the episode she's going to school and doesn't have her glove on so it seems like they really are going for that.

I don't know. I'm thinking way too much about a cartoon for children because I feel like Lala is totally justified to use the AI since she's at a severe disadvantage at school and making the message that she shouldn't have rubs me the wrong way because then it seems like they're saying "Disadvantaged people should never use anything to help them."

Anyway Fleetfoot was cool and I hope he's in more episodes, also interesting that the other generals can take people's IMAGINAAAAAAATION and use them to do things that aren't just making monsters (that seems to be solely Ayewan's skill).

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Twelve by Pies
May 4, 2012

Again a very likpatous story

Pikestaff posted:

Now that I think about it, I suppose that maybe the message is left ambiguous, but the music during the whole scene where she was using her AI seemed to be happy and upbeat enough that I read it as being portrayed in a positive light.

Mostly what I'm thinking about is when they're walking home and Lala says that using the AI helped her avoid making mistakes, and Hikaru says "It's okay to make mistakes." I feel like if the message was supposed to be "Lala is acting weird" then Hikaru should have instead said something like "You're not acting like yourself" or "You don't have to try so hard to fit in." But making Hikaru talk about how it's okay to make mistakes made it seem like she was saying using the AI was a bad thing. And while she's not wrong, it is okay to make mistakes, not being able to read a single bit of Japanese in a Japanese middle school is not a good thing and something Lala shouldn't feel bad about using the AI for. Again, not that she can't study it and learn it on her own (and as I said it does seem like they vaguely implied she's going to do that) but until she gets better, using the AI is not a bad thing. Like, if I went to Japan right now and couldn't read a word of it, it wouldn't be bad for me to have some sort of booklet that has common characters and such to tell me what some basic signs say, and that's basically what the AI was doing for her.

Which is why I felt a little relieved that the resolution after the battle was more "It's okay to have a weird speech quirk and be unique." That's definitely a good message, and I can accept that maybe Hikaru was just being an idiot when she was talking to Lala earlier and said something dumb. It wouldn't be the first time in this series. And her not having the AI at the end I can accept as "Hikaru and friends are going to work harder to help her out in learning earth things so she doesn't need it."

Darth Walrus posted:

If that little glove of hers breaks, there's no guarantee she can fix it. Learning to do things the local, low-tech way is just basic good sense.

I guess this is where suspension of disbelief comes in because if they can't even add double digits in their heads how could her race fix the AI if it broke on her home planet? But I know I'm not supposed to think that hard about it. :v:

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