Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to dive back into an absurdly charming new adventure, as we return to the vividly illustrated HeartCatch Precure! Our first two episodes saw young heroine Tsubomi doing her best to integrate into life in Kibougahana, making some faltering efforts to abandon her introverted ways, and ultimately finding herself utterly overwhelmed by her new neighbor Erika. And if that wasn’t enough, she was subsequently conscripted into some sort of supernatural defense of Yggdrasil, with two ridiculous crystal-pooping fairies demanding she transform and face off against the nefarious Sasorina.
Thus Tsubomi evolved into the gallant Cure Blossom, and saved Erika in spite of maybe technically being the weakest Precure in history. We’ve got a hearty stew of narrative variables a’brewing here, from the unique mythology of this universe to the mysteries concerning Erika’s grandmother, the fate of Cure Flower, and the identity of that scarf-clad stranger. But on a more immediate level, HeartCatch has been an absolute embarrassment of visual riches, showing off the dynamic appeal of fully powered Umakoshi designs, and also letting director Nagamine flex his action boarding talents. All that plus the wondrous gremlin that is Erika have made for a superb start to our journey, and I’m eager to see how she torments Tsubomi next. Let’s get to it!
Episode 3
We open with another fantastical dreamscape beneath an overwhelming moon, a blue-tinted garden with flower petals once again dancing through the air. I love these flourishes of background design, and hope the show continues to lean into such Casshern Sins and Doremi witch world-reminiscent visual theater
As whimsical flute melodies wander on their scales, Tsubomi thanks the mysterious scarf man for saving her, and is drawn into a hug. We deliberately avoid his eyes, reducing him to an imposing, mysterious presence
And then Tsubomi wakes up, flinging away the awful faeries who were presumably trying to suffocate her like cats
As usual, incredibly good faces for their mutual looks of disappointment. Big fan of the generally accepted visual shorthand that pouting actually makes your entire jaw puff out like a deflating balloon
After the preceding episodes’ consistent use of windows as emotional barriers, we begin this episode with our heroines pointedly opening their windows and reaching out to greet each other
I like that their houses are also color-coded according to their Precure themes. Also that Tsubomi apparently has an entire friggin’ tree on her balcony? Nice place
Interesting that this OP offers no indications of any further Precures. We’re really honing in on this specific friendship for the time being, which seems like a smart choice – once you have enough Precures for an entire social group, it becomes harder to stress-test individual bonds rather than having an episode focus character and a chorus of friends
“I think that changing my outer look will help me change from the inside.” This seems like a good direction to take this season’s focus on fashion. Fashion choices can be aspirational – just like how we might perform a better self in hopes of internalizing such behavior, we can choose to dress the way we ultimately want to perceive ourselves
“The Second Precure is Full of Energy!” Damn, we’re not wasting any time! Figured we’d get at least one “gotta hide my Precure secret from Erika” episode, but it seems the show is more focused on establishing immediate honest communication between these two
Erika leads Tsubomi to her favorite lunch spot: the school roof, where they can stare down upon the entire town. Nice use of exaggerated perspective here; it appears as if the school is on a high mountaintop, evoking a sense of freedom and opportunity, like the world is now theirs to explore
Erika reveals she’s had that same Cure Moonlight dream, and the faeries immediately pop out to recruit her
Incredible contrast of the faeries’ excitement and Erika’s no thoughts head empty expression
I don’t know if she’s incredibly level-headed or just stupid, but Erika takes all this faery business in stride with incredible speed
“Right, right? Just become a Precure!” These goddamn Precure-pushing faeries
We then meet the Student Council President, a boy who also featured in the OP. Tsubomi is instantly smitten
We get an establishing shot of a delightful new setting as we cut to our villains, a curving mountain peak with twinkling structures built into its slopes. Again, quite happy this season is embracing such fantastical flourishes; this mixture of industrial structures and Night on Bald Mountain gothic styling is lovely
Imposing low-angle shots with heavy shadows introduce us to a mysterious masked overseer
“At her level right now, I alone can easily defeat her.” Don’t do it Sasorina! Don’t consistently underestimate the magical girls until they’re too great in strength and number! Don’t let your pride as a villain keep you from teaming up with your associates until it’s too late!
That always sorta works as both theme and mechanical conceit – the good guys embody friendship and collaboration, while the villains shoot themselves in the feet due to their arrogance and mutual disrespect. A fine way to justify “why don’t all the villains just jump them at once”
Meanwhile, Erika is on the Fashion Club warpath
“I don’t want to join such a weak club.” What a funny way of phrasing that. They demand a club with a much higher power level
Ah, she apparently wants to join the soccer club, but is being rejected because she’s a girl. Hence her preoccupation with “strength”
I appreciate that our Fashion Club girls are immediately presented with a case emphasizing how your gender shouldn’t dictate your passions. If you don’t like fashion or other stereotypically girl-coded things, that’s also perfectly fine!
A simple yet valuable lesson on not assigning your own feelings or preconceptions to the situations of others. Everyone wants to shine in their own way
Soccer girl Sayaka is discovered by Sasorina, who claims her Heart Flower. These various Heart Flowers are a fun way to weave the fundamentals of flower language into the narrative
I don’t appreciate her objectives, but I have to applaud Sasorina’s whimsical nature
Gosh, the character designs in this show are so lovely. Such confident, minimalist forms for these profile shots, with light linework that cedes to outline-free segments to convey the softness of lips or the point of a nose
Erika is of course dazzled by Tsubomi’s cool-ass Precure outfit
Nice disorienting dutch angle shot as we look out at the soccer monster from beside Sasorina; the world is presented as inherently off-kilter, with Sasorina’s presence pressing down on these helpless kids
Hearing how these faeries use the urgency of the moment to play on Erika’s feelings, it’s really not hard to see why Urobuchi thought to reframe magical girls as Faustian bargains
I will admit though, after Hugtto’s “am I falling for our mascot?” subplot, it’s very funny to switch to mascots who are unquestionably Grotesque And Terrible
Thus Cure Marine is born, through another incredibly expressive Umakoshi special. I like how much fun Erika is clearly having with this transformation
“Come on! I’ll be your opponent!” Hell yeah Erika. It’s like she’s just been waiting for her chance to be a shonen hero
Excellent distortions of form for these attacks. As in Casshern Sins, I like how often the animators contort character faces into a sort of fisheye look for closeups, which evokes a sense of energy and momentum, like they’re on the verge of pushing through the screen
Sayaka ultimately resolves to make her own girls’ soccer club. Kinda hasty conclusion, but I suppose that’s a natural consequence of this episode also covering Erika’s debut as a Precure
We end on a final affirmation of their friendship, with Tsubomi no longer hesitating to call her “Erika” with no honorific
And Done
Excellent work, Erika! While it took Tsubomi two episodes of flailing to get her Precure shit together, Erika seems like an absolute natural, pulling off canned one-liners and cool poses and even unique signature moves with total confidence. It actually makes for a nice contrast with her often flailing or spaced-out normal mannerisms; she may not be entirely sure of herself as a middle schooler, but she can absolutely adorn the cape of a hero and play the part with confidence. That itself dovetails neatly with this episode’s framing of fashion as a route to a happier self-image, with Sayaka’s story offering the welcome assurance that there is no one correct way to define yourself. An elegantly constructed and visually delightful installment of Precure!
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