First Impressions: Smile Precure Ep 1-Birth! The Perfect Smile! Cure Happy!

Knowing that today is the first episode of Smile Precure, I watch it with less hype and I was immediately drawn to the show! Some might compare it with Yes! Precure Five Gogo with the similarities but if the opening kept me humming for like five minutes than you know you have a winner in it!

A must for Precure-The first encounter with a Mascot.

Our story begin with Hoshisora Miyuki who was late for her first day in school. She met a mascot spirit named Candy and a strange book it was carrying. Miyuki adore Candy but it quickly escaped and Miyuki brought the book along to school.

Hyuga Saki? Why are you here?

Yayoi is cute!

At class, she was nervous in introducing herself but the tension was relieved by Hino Akane and she introduced some of the classmates-Midorikawa Nao, Aoki Reika and Kise Yayoi (Why introduce these three classmates where there are more than two-third of  the class yet to introduce is anyone's guess?)

After school, Miyuki explored the school and found the library. Suddenly the books started to glow and she began to shift the books and it opened a portal to a forest full of books. Meanwhile Candy is trying to find the legendary warriors Precures when it encountered Wolfrun who belonged to the Bad End Kingdom.

Miyuki find another portal and rescue Candy. Wolfrun created a spell which cause people into despair and their "Bad End" energy are send to revive their lord-Pierrot. After some running and Miyuki giving that "never give up" speech, a ray of light surround her and she was given the Smile Precure Henshin Item-Smile Pact.

Kirakira Kagayaku Mirai no Hikari!

CURE HAPPY!!!

She transformed and become Cure Happy! Wolfrun created a monster make out of a house called Akanbe. At first, Cure Happy got afraid but after some trial and error, she got the hang of it but is unable to use her attack-Happy Shower.

You mean superheroes? I watch Gokaiger every Sunday!

Must increase my morale to 150!!! Guts +10, Guts +10!

Kamehameha?!

Domon Kasshu will be so proud of you!

She suddenly think of an idea to use it-By concentrating her guts to her Pact! Finally she is able to use Happy Shower and defeat Akanbe. Wolfrun escaped and everything went back to normal. Cure Happy found a strange tag which reassembled a strawberry and Candy told her to hold on to it...

First, let's talk about the five main characters. Miyuki is more fun than Nozomi who is more annoying. Her reaction to Candy in the opening scene was a norm for someone who spent her time reading fantasy stories. Her first battle is like the drawn back to the old Sailormoon series when Usagi ran for her life in battle. Miyuki was hilarious when she tried to use Happy Shower the first time. Usually, the Cures will somehow had reflexes or memories to activate their power but in Miyuki's case, she rely on the one thing-Guts which I can imagine if they do a la SRW game, her first spirit ability will be Guts.

Akane look like Rin/Cure Rouge but I think she has more appeal than Rin and beside she is good with Volleyball and Okonomayki as told by her. I keep thinking of Ika Musume every time I see Yayoi as her sudden outburst make me feel sorry for her. Being a mangaka is also different from Urala/Cure Lemonade who is an idol singer. I guess Yayoi can make friends with that Mangaka student from Heartcatch Precure (Cure Fire, I think?)

Unlike Komachi and Karen who are friends, Nao is the tomboy of the group and is a member of the Soccer team. But being the tomboy, I guess that there will be an episode where she dress up and she is probably on par with the more beautiful Precures like Aqua or Moonlight. Reika is the Gokaiger's Ahim as she is portrayed as a Yamato Nadeshiko with her elegant and kindness. Seeing that she used an ice sword in the opening is more bad ass as I believe she is the first Precure who used Ice as her element.

The villains as seen in the openings are like the characters from fairy tales-Wolfrun is the big bad wolf from the Three Little Pigs, the red Oni is from the Momotarou story, the witch is from Snow White and the Jester with the Joker mask which I yet to figure out is from which story but I suspect he will be the most dangerous among the four.

The battle was quite all right for a first episode unlike the last two series where they have a "turn your back from the enemy when it explode" finale, Happy Shower is like Yes Precure Series with just one hit attack and the enemy is defeated.

The theme in this series is fairy tales and most probably, the stories will focused on encounters with fairy tales characters but hopefully we get a back story on why Candy is searching for the Precures and the conflict with Bad End Kingdom.

BAKATSU!!! DYNA...OPPS! CURE SUNNY!

Next week, Akane will make her debut as Cure Sunny!

P.S. Most probably I will do the first five or six episodes for Smile Precure as a full arc of how the team is assembled. I won't be doing a regular review every week as I believe there are better reviewers who know their Precure history than me. But anyway, Hope you like it and see you next week!