[SideswipePrime]

Suite Precure:

Overall, it was alright. I don't think it was as good as Heartcatch. Though, it still had it's moments, and it was always entertaining. I think all the characters are pretty good. The main standout to me being Ellen. Though, a big part of that could be because I like the "reformed villain" archetype. I also really like the shows general theme, which is no matter what happens, sadness can always be overcome. Though, that theming was always somewhat understated throughout the entire show, until the final battle.

The characters...let's start off with Hibiki and Kanade, since I don't think I can talk about one, without talking about the other. I like them, they're good foils for each other. You have Hibiki who's rash, and likes to just do whatever she wants. Then there's Kanade, who is her voice of reason, saying "Hey, Hibiki...you can't just go and do that." and they spend the early episodes constantly arguing, since they stopped being friends prior to the show. However, they eventually learn to accept each others differences, and become better friends as a result. Though, the amount of times Siren tried breaking up their friendship did get a little old after the fourth time.

Speaking of Siren. I started off not really liking her, since she was just unpleasant to everyone around her, but then she starts remembering who she is (more on that later) and eventually becomes Cure Beat. Aside from her reformation dragging on too long (again, more on that later). I liked it when she finally went back to the good guys and became a Precure. I liked how the show didn't focus too long on her guilt and how said guilt was resolved immediately, as well as how Siren went and made sure to apologize and talk about her guilt with the one she had hurt the most, Hummy (Looking at you, My Little Pony...). Even telling Hummy, that she should be mad at her for all she's done, with which Hummy replies with saying that there's no need to dwell on the past, and she needs to focus on what she can do now.

Onto Hummy. I'm of two minds on Hummy...because for one She's horribly bad at her job. So, the whole setup of Suite Precure is that the bad guys want to steal the notes from Major Land's Legendary Score, and turn the Melody of Happiness into the Melody of Sorrow, so in response the Queen of Major Land, Aphrodite (yes, Aphrodite) ejects the notes from the Legendary Score, and sends them into the human world and scatters them, so the bad guys can't get them. Now that I've explained that, here's why Hummy's bad at her job. She'd find a note, and instead of putting it away immediately, so the bad guys can't get to it, she either would hold it out and say "HEY GUYS I FOUND IT!!!" or trip over something, and then the bad guys would create the monster of the week. It got rather annoying, since a lot of the MOTWs could have been avoided if Hummy wasn't an idiot. At the same time...I find it hard to hate her, since she's a really good person and sees the best in people no matter what, and will go to any length to make sure people are never sad. This even entered into the final battle with Noise, in where she purposefully let herself be absorbed by him just so She could sing the Melody of Happiness within him to give the Precures the edge so they could defeat him (more on Noise later). Hummy is also pretty good comic relief, so she has that going for her as well.

The villains. They're all very cartoonishly evil, especially Mephisto. Though, they explain his (and Trio the Minor's) cartoonish evilness as them being controlled by the true main villain, Noise. Speaking of Noise, he starts off as "BLARGH! Must destroy everything good!" but then you find out what his deal is, and it does make him a more interesting villain, as he's the embodiment of all humanity's sadness, and thus believes that he can never be happy. So, his true plan is then revealed that he wants to silence everything, and make the world be at a standstill where there is no happiness or sadness, or anything. Though, the Precure's teach him through their fists and a lot of yelling that even he can overcome his sadness.

Now, the show could drag on sometimes, like when Siren started to remember who she was, and then got brainwashed not long after, because we needed to drag out that character arc longer, I guess. Speaking of Siren, I'm still not sure if she was brainwashed from the beginning or not, or if she turned to evil of her own accord. They didn't explain that clearly enough, I feel. I also felt that Cure Muse took a little too long to reveal her identity.

One very specific thing that bothered me was how twice in the show during big, climactic fights, they'd just reuse music from Heartcatch. The first time being when they fight the powered up Mephisto, and the second one (and this one bothered me way more) in the final fight against Noise, when they reuse the final battle music from Heartcatch. Yeah, I like those songs, but it just felt lazy.

I also took up issue with the fight scenes, as they'd kick or punch the monster maybe twice before pulling out their finisher. I want to see an actual fight, not stock footage, and then more stock footage. I don't remember Heartcatch having that problem either. I remember the fights going on for much longer. Suite did start doing that near the end of making the fights longer, but I wish that's what they had done the whole time. Speaking of stock footage...yeah marathoning a Magical Girl show is pretty rough, because of the transformation and finishing animations. It started to wear down on me after a while. Though, to be fair...that is more the fault of the genre, than with the show itself.

So, overall I liked the show and thought it was pretty decent, and really good at the end. I just found it much more flawed than Heartcatch was.

I wonder how Smile Precure will hold up...