Old Time Radio at OTRCat!

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Hello, Ft. Smith. It's Saturday, and there's a con....


...And yes that means precisely what you think it means.

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A wonderfully sweet anime series that we were introduced to at AFO is an offering from the "Pretty Cure" group of shows. They fall into the "Magical Girl" genre, like "Sailor Moon" or "Pretty Sami". A young girl is granted magical transformational powers to enable her to fight EE-vil, and the minions thereof.

ANYway, the series we saw was "Heartcatch Precure" (the title exhibiting the Japanese habit of jargonizing a title ("Pretty Cure" - "Precure"...sounds like prep work for preserving a ham.) As soon as I saw the main character (a middle-schooler), I fell in love with the series (and no, I am not that guy...the main character, Tsubomi, reminds me of the Dread Dormomoo at that age - though I met her in college, I have seen pictures!)

Hear what Wikipedia saith:


In each person resides a Heart Flower, which is connected to the great Heart Tree that watches over everyone. Protecting this tree are the Heartcatch PreCures, who defend it against the Desert Apostles, who plan to wilt everything and turn the world into a desert. However, when the current PreCure, Cure Moonlight, is defeated in battle and the Heart Tree loses its flowers, she sends two fairies, Chypre and Coffret, to the surface in order to seek out her replacement. They find Tsubomi Hanasaki, a shy flower-loving girl that had just moved into the city with her family, who is given the power to become Cure Blossom. Joined by her new friend, Erika Kurumi, who becomes Cure Marine, they fight against the Desert Apostles who transform the wilting Heart Flowers inside people into monsters known as Desertarians. By defeating these monsters, they gain Heart Seeds which allow the Heart Tree to become healthier again.

I HEARTily recommend this odd little series.

Here is a dual transformation sequence:



 This is available on BakaBT for download, English subtitled. It is unlicensed in the US.








8 comments:

Jay said...

It ... it's ... The MLP Syndrome kicking in again! Must ... stop ... gag ... re ... flex!

The Aardvark said...

Philistine. There are no ponies.

Michael W said...

I really love these anime series where a character takes about an entire minute to transform . . . unleashing a Full Immersion Disco Hell in the process. You'd think that business alone would wallop the Bad Guy(s).

(You ever notice how, in Gatchaman, Ken never had anyone flying with him in his airplane when he transformed? Could you imagine being a passenger while all that was going on?)

(Sort of like you ever notice how, whenever the Batmobile had to do a Bat-turn, there was never any traffic close behind? Of course, anyone stupid enough to tailgate the Batmobile deserves everything that happens to him.)

Jay said...

Tip: Make sure you transform BEFORE you confront the badguys. Otherwise you could get the krap beat out of you before you're even halfway thru the conversion.

Yes ... I speak from experience.

The Aardvark said...

Wow, Jay.

Well, Michael, it is a reflexion of the politeness of Japanese culture. MegaDerp MUST wait while the sparkly backlit animation finishes. It would be bad form to kill Sailor Schmoon before she finishes.

Jay said...

Sailor Schmoon was where I first noticed the "tactical" error. Being a real bad guy (I do HATE MLP after all.), I noticed that a lengthy transformation could be fatal. Maybe she was relying on the idealized nudity to daze an opponent.

And on Fox Kids no less!

The Aardvark said...

In the original, the nudity was not idealized. Saban added the sparklies for our tender sensibilities about viewing undraped middle-schoolers.

Strange culture, Japan's.

Jay said...

Japan!? More like West Virginia.