No 6: Cure Flora vs Close! The Final Showdown!
The girls thought they finally defeated Dyspear when suddenly Close appeared in a more powerful form. Dyspear and Close has become one being with Close attacking furiously at the girls and him preaching that despair will never ended.
Cure Flora realised that the only way to end the chain of despair is to get through Close. She rushed in to confront Close with her Grand Princess Battle Form and tried her best to get through him.
Close overwhelmed her and even knocked Cure Flora down. Cure Flora started remembering the good and bad times she had as being a Princess and a student. She finally knew what Dream and Despair really meant. With her new strength, she finally got through to Close and told him that despair will never go away but so will dreams will keep on going. (Something like that-I need a better translation for this part)
Close finally gave up and left to places unknown. With that, Cure Flora used the Grand Princess key to open the door of despair and freed everyone on Earth...
No 5: The Hope Kingdom is restored but...
The girls, Kanata, Yui and the mascots arrived back at the Hope Kingdom and freed the people including the King and the Queen. Towa and Kanata were filled with tears of joy to see their parents again.
Later the Grand Princess Key disappeared and the girls got back their original keys. However the keys has lost it's brightness. Kanata suggested that the girls have completed their mission and the keys has returned to their slumber.
Shamour also explained that the girls will not be able to return to the Hope Kingdom since their worlds are not suppose to exist in the same dimension. The girls then realised the time of farewell will be here very soon..
No 4: Strong, Gentle and Beautiful!
The girls had one last tea party together with donuts. Kirara informed that she is going overseas soon and Towa took back the Dress Up keys and Perfumes from the girls. Before returning to the Hope Kingdom, Towa, Puff and Aroma couldn't control their emotions and started crying.
Haruka, Yui and Minami consoled them as they promised they will meet again. Everyone gave one last hustle and shouted out their motto-Strong! Gentle! Beautiful! Go! Princess Precure! With that, everyone began a new phase in their lives...
No 3: Life and Dreams goes on...
Everyone begin walking their path-Yuki continued to work as a great tennis player with his trio of female supporters, Kimimaro joined the student council, Ranko continued to work towards being an idol, Shut and a scarf talking Lock were invited by Mochizuki and Shirogane to work in the secret garden and Yui began her new work with Cure Flora as the main character.
Minami is working with Asuka in America, Kirara started her new modeling career in Paris with her mother and Bauanne supervising her. Shamour teaching Kuroro, Puff continued to work as a maid in the Royal Family while Aroma followed Kanata as his butler. As both Towa and Kanata play a tune together, Kanata recalled his final moment with Haruka on Earth...
No 2: We will meet again as our hearts are connected!
Haruka returned her Dress up key back to Kanata and he commented that it was her determination and hard work that make Haruka become a true Grand Princess. Haruka was modest about it and she told him that they will definitely meet again as their hearts are connected.
Kanata finally returned leaving Haruka alone. She cried a bit but quickly stand up and began her dream to become a real Princess...
No 1: Now and Forever Princess!
Time passed as the four girls grew up to adulthood. A little girl was reading "The Princess and the Key of Dream" written by Yui and was wondering whether the princesses will meet again. As the little girl went back to her mother, Haruka arrived at the same spot where she first met Kanata and held a crystal version of the Dress up key.
The other three girls who are in different parts of the world also held their keys as Haruka explained as long as they worked towards their dream, the Princesses will definitely meet again...
I am pretty speechless watching this finale..I haven't seen such a touching finale since the ending of Mirai Sentai Timeranger and Digimon Adventures Finale. (Both are from Toei too!)
The battle with Cure Flora and Close was pretty good although the preaching part is similar to Doki Doki Precure of how darkness and despair will always return but dreams is what kept people moving forward and not giving up. Although Close disappeared to unknown is kinda of lazy writing without any closure for him.
Everyone in the epilogue working towards their dreams was interesting and I was right from my first episode that Yui will eventually write a story on the Princess Precure and their adventures. With Haruka saying at the end that they will meet again despite their Dress up keys have been crystallised, I am really touched by her final lines and seeing them all grow up was really a good moment. (Although I could imagine that some doujin artists are starting to do doujins based on their adult forms)
Final Thoughts: After Happiness Charge Precure was so badly received despite being an anniversary series, the writers and producers probably came together and wondered what should they do to improve the next Precure series? The result-A Princess theme Precure series and do things that fans wanted to see-great characters, good villains, less usage of turning every episode into a toy commercial and an overall good story!
Princesses is kinda of odd for a Precure series but we already have Cure Muse and Cure Princess as actual princesses becoming Precures so why not go all the way? So Go Princess Precure was born! Instead of making turning every episode into a Disney Princess episode, I am glad that the writers choose to go for the "achieve your dream" route since it is more related.
However once a while, Miss Shamour will teach the girls on how to be better princesses or rather better people and it did paid off in the end.
Let's start off with the supporting cast first. Puff, Aroma and Shamour are wonderful mascots compared to many of the other mascots from previous series, they were a breath of fresh air. Puff is lovely and loyal, Aroma is courageous despite his size and Shamour can hold on her own against Zetsuborgs. Overall, the best group of mascots in Precure series.
Kanata doesn't really have development other than his memory loss but most of the time, he only appeared to further the plot or explain exposition.
I am actually surprised that the producers actually get some of the best Seiyuus in the business to guest star in many of the human characters. I imagined that Sakamoto Maaya and Ueda Kana were hanging out in the Seiyuu office when the producers of Princess Precure asked them to fill in for Asuka and Furiya and they don't appear just once but rather a few times despite the limit lines they were given.
Yui herself is one of the better human supporting characters. I know many fans has expressed that Yui should be a Precure but if she did become one, I got a feeling her character won't be that well developed and might end up being a background character. Beside, if she did became a Precure, we will not have that amazing scene of her breaking the Despair cages with will power and explaining to her peers of the girls fighting to protect their dreams and even encouraging them to support them in their time of despair.
Next are the Villains. Lock was slightly interesting as he showed ambition to go against Dyspear by making himself powerful. However after Kuroro was separated from him, he is reduced to a talking hood and became a mindless zombie by Dyspear. Although he and Kuroro finally came to an agreement and they merged again to help the girls. Even at the end, Lock became a talking scaft for Shut and retain his playful tone which I think it is for the best for him.
When I first saw Shut, I already know this guy is a narcissist and tried his best to show to Dyspear how good he was with little success. He too also suffered quite an ordeal after Towa became Cure Scarlet. Close and Dyspear treated him with no respect and he went moping himself. However Shamour taught him to get back his self esteem and it worked.
But when Dyspear (who was having a bad day) warned Shut of his last chance, he tried his best and failed miserably. This led him to a path of self pity until he started pouring his sorrows during his crazed fight against the girls in the snow. But the girls and Shamour showed him the right way which he finally go against Dyspear and Close and now he is being "haunted" by two old ladies who wanted him to take care of the Secret Garden.
Dyspear is probably the weakest link for the villains. I didn't gave in the idea of her being the manifestation of Despair which is the writers lazy writing again as I rather have Dyspear being a real person who fell into darkness after something terrible happened. But no, Toei decided to use the same plot from Doki Doki and Smile Precure to show Dyspear is evil for the sake of evil. There are some moments that are creepy like how Dyspear tried to lure Towa before she became Cure Scarlet but overall, not an interesting villain.
Stop and Freeze are completely useless dummies and we still don't what or who they are. Close on the other hand is what I called a real antagonist. He started off being a loud mouth villain who refused to admit defeat in the beginning and was "killed" off early in the series. But then when he came, he is more sinister (how he came back is another question Toei failed to address) and is obsessed with killing Cure Flora in the most horrifying way he can think of.
Remember how he posed as a student and tried to isolate Haruka into fighting him alone. His plan succeed due to Kanata who lose his memories trying Haruka to give up her dream. But after Haruka find back her bearings, Close was pissed that he almost wanted to tear her apart. The final battle with Cure Flora was also interesting since he finally came to a compromise that she accepted his pain but where he go is another question.
Now to our main four girls. First, Towa who started off as Twilight. She was cold, ruthless and will do anything to defeat the girls. But thanks to Kanata and Haruka playing the violin tune that she once played as a child, she was able to overcome the spell and became Cure Scarlet. Of course, it didn't end there.
She lost most of her childhood and still think like a spoilt princess when she was enrolled into the school. But Kirara who is a perfect room mate for her taught her how to be independent and she became a crucial member in the final battle. Then, we have this scene of Towa went all coco puffs after Kanata has regained his memories and trying to be the best sister a brother could have.
Next is Kirara, she is probably my favourite yellow cure after reviewing five years of Precure. Yayoi is a klutz, Alice is a goody two shoes, Yuko has a poker face so came Kirara, who can be fun and cheeky but yet she is a true friend. Especially if she started giving nicknames to people, it means she treated them as a friend.
An independent girl who have celebrity parents, she doesn't show off her status but rather work hard on becoming a top model. Sure, her concern of her friends nearly cost her career when Karin was turned into a Zetsuborg and Kirara missed her flight which in turn, make her a complete sloth. But thanks to her friends and an offer to go to Paris, Kirara took her career as both a Precure and Supermodel seriously.
We have Minami which I find she is all right as most of her episodes are mostly about her own fear and conflict. Minami started off being unapproachable since she is the most popular girl in school and head of the student council. She has her own issues of being a control freak and afraid of ghosts which gave me a few laughs. Although she overcame it and even gave her so called Fiance, Kimimaro a piece of her mind after he talked bad about Haruka.
Then her encounter with Asuka actually make her question about her own career path. Being part of an elite family, she is obliged to take over the family business but then her fascination of the Ocean and Asuka's passions wonder if taking over the family business was the right thing to do. Although it had some minor hiccups of her losing her belief in her dream and was unable to fight properly, she finally take the first step to tell her family what she really wanted to do and true enough, she finally became an ocean veterinarian.
Finally, Haruka. The main star of the show. She is what I called a great successor to Tsubomi/Cure Blossom. Being ridiculed as a child for wanting to become a Princess, her encounter with Kanata was what kept her moving forward to her dream. She was not afraid to take chance like talking straight to Minami the first time.
However her determination and training to become a Grand Princess was what I admire her the most. Although she has her silly moments like where she kept those ribbons on her head during Kirara's filming. But after Close's apparent death, she felt a sense of regret that she has to take a life in order to save the Earth. So when Close reappeared, she is determined to help him and not just him, even Lock and Shut who are victims of Dyspear, she and her friends are willing to save their souls and they did.
Of course, the last few episodes are really about her especially when she was tricked by Dyspear into become the Flower Princess but once she remembered that only hard work and determination is what make a Princess or rather a person to achieve their goals, she was able to overcome the spell and prove how powerful she can become.
The visual and the story itself are pretty good most of the time. Although it is still Toei's practice to introduce new items for people to buy the toys, I find that the Dress Up Keys are pretty important to the plot and were not one-off items for the sake of merchandising. The story is pretty consistent although there are fillers but they are mostly set up for the next episode which is plot related.
Overall, I said Go Princess Precure is up there as being the best with Heartcatch Precure in terms of story and characters. Sure there are some plot holes here and there but overall, Haruka and company have proved to be one of the best teams in Precure history.
Like how Haruka in the final scene with them holding their Dress Up keys, they might be worlds apart but they will always be connected as long as their dreams remained strong. (At least until the next All Stars Precure movie!)
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| Thank you, Go Princess Precure for a Great Year Together! |
So as we said goodbye to Haruka, Minami, Kirara, Towa and the rest of the cast, we welcome Mirai and Riko to the Precure Family next week. Let's have one final farewell to Go Princess Precure and welcome Maho Tsukai Precure! Gokigenyou to all!
And with this episode concludes the excellent Go Princess Precure *Sniffs I really don't want it to be over man T_T
ReplyDeleteAfter two consecutive years of watching the horrid Doki Doki Precure and Happiness Charge Precure, this season finally earned its place as one of the best Precure seasons ever, it was so enjoyable from start to finish! Almost all characters are so intriguing, from the Haruka's "male chasers" for her affection- Kanata, Yuki and Close (which concluded with Kanata's victory, Yuki X Haruka got dashed) to some ANNOYING characters like Kimimaro (he actually returned to Noble Academy at the end, but should he realized that Minami became a marine vet he'll die of shock XD) and the ever-fiery Ranko with her never-materialized rivalry with Kirara, my favourite sparkling star <3 ALL the Cures have really outstanding families too, like Haruka's little sister Momoka, her mom Moe and her crying papa Ibuki, Minami's handsome bro Wataru (no Wataru X Kirara hmm..) and her mega-rich parents Tsukasa & Masumi, Kirara's parents who're decorated celebrities (Stella & Ken, the latter didn't get his voicing role though :/), and finally the Hope Kingdom royal family with Puff and Aroma becoming actual maid and butler as well as royal teacher Miss Shamour lecturing Kuroro at the end. And god Shut still pursuing "beauty" with Lock as his scarf LOL (The most heated Shut X Towa fell flat though...) Close what a persistent villain who battled Flora from start to finish, Dyspear easily some of the most evil villains in the Precure universe, Nanase Yui the best supporting character ever... oh, and add Asuka and Karin to the fray too, tons of outstanding characters in one season! Now my verdict on the four major Cures:
Haruno Haruka: I admit I didn't like her from the beginning, but as the season progressed her growth was simply outstanding until she can overcome so many dilemmas on her own and deserved her Grand Princess title. The ever-blossom Cure Flora, good effort!
Kaido Minami: True that Minami centric episodes may be lacking, but she's so gorgeous and possessed a wide range of talents and genuine leadership, but her fear of ghosts was so funny XD in the end she stayed true to her heart and became a marine vet (bite that Kimimaro XD). The Princess of the Seas-Cure Mermaid, have a good splash in the future!
Amanogawa Kirara: SPARKLING STAR OMG, she's my No.1 favourite in this season!! Her gorgeous looks accompanied with her cheeky personality and her genuine love of donuts made her such a sweet girl :3 Like Minami, Kirara centric episodes were lacking too, but so happy when she resumed her once-jeopardized model carrer in Paris and her on-stage walk with Stella watching! Ever-shining Cure Twinkle, my Star Princess <3
Akagi Towa/ Princess Hope Delight Towa: If Kirara was my favourite Cure in this season, then Towa is the BEST Precure I've ever seen! Her background as Dyspear's "daughter", her firm bond with Kanata, her motives for battle, her transformation & battle style, and her large array of talents, no wonder Towa centric episodes were always a joy to watch! In the end she finally returned to Hope Kingdom and so glad she can play her favourite violin tune with Kanata anytime! (Oh, and her fan club was huge too, with Shut the most prominent example) The blazingly radiant Cure Scarlet, may your flames ignite the world!
The drama between Haruka and Kanata finally came to a conclusion, and at the end all of them have grown up! Big shame we didn't get to see their adult faces, but it is 100% certain that their dreams have come true!! With one last golden phrase of the series: Gokigenyou all and GOODBYE!!!
What's interesting is this one has 50 episodes, while the others had 49.
DeleteClose actually explained how he and Lock came back: all Dys Dark members were created by Dyspear, who is despair itself. Since despair will always come back no matter what, that's why he wasn't killed and came back!
ReplyDeleteAnd I think you mistook Doki Dok with Suite! King Selfish was born when the King of Trump Kingdom opened the door of something-full-of-Jikochuu-whatever-I-forget and was possessed by the huge amount of selfishness, whereas Noise was born from Sorrow itself, like Dyspear was born from despair!
For me the last episode had the better ending as far as boss fights go, maybe if they all had summations of what they learned while being Precure that would've made it a little stronger as well as having Dyspear move a little more or send more energy beams or something. But other then that last episode was perfect and all that needed to be done in this episode was a wrap-up, instead we got a Flora and Close fight which wasn't needed. And if we had to have it why was it only Flora and Close? I never understood his fixation with Flora, it's things like this where out of nowhere a villain becomes completely focused on one member of the team, especially when the other team members are just as troublesome. But, the animation was decent this season and I didn't hate it as much as the last two seasons. Toei is making their trek back to making a good season again. Can't wait til Saturday.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved this Precure series!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI watched the very first Precure with Cure Black and Cure White.
Then Splash Star which was great!
Then I watched Yes! Precure 5 and the season coming after that which was GoGo! I LOVED and I mean LOVED the Yes Precure series so much that I never thought another Precure series could beat it.
Fresh was okay but not my favorite.
I admit that HeartCatch Precure was really good but not as good as Precure 5.
Suite and Smile didn't really interest me. I stopped watching in the middle because it wasn't as good as I expected. The storylines weren't that good but that may because I was comparing it to other Precures but nonetheless, they weren't my favorite.
Then came DokiDoki which was meh. I wanted something fresh after the two on top but this didn't satisfy those desires.
The one that I really couldn't watch was Happiness Charge. The Princess Precure's cowardly nature really got on my nerves and ruined my views for the Blue Precure which was that they were always elegant and graceful. I couldn't watch it for the life of me.
Finally came this Go! Princess Precure. I started watching it in the beginning of this month (late I know) but I usually like binge watching. So I started the first episode and just COULD NOT STOP! OMG! This show was like drugs. Once I kept watching, I couldn't stop. It was so interesting and so good. Before I knew it, I had watched all 50 episodes in just 3 days. I immediately downloaded the series and watched the last episode again. The final scene was something I kept replaying because it was so beautiful and touching. With confidence, I can say that this was the BEST PRECURE SERIES EVER! Amazing job!
As someone with experience with shoujo, this one is a drug to me as well.
DeleteThis series turned to be my very favorite season of the Pretty Cures!
ReplyDeleteIt really did and I will always call it as TLoZ: Skyward Sword, or just Skyward Sword, and Kingdom Hearts of the Pretty Cures!
Especially because of its similarities with them, such as taking the legacies of the past seasons, keyholes, emotional and touching moments, darkness and light, some changes or surprises compared to the past seasons, and, of course, dreams come true. :)
Really love this season! The story, the episodes, the characters and the legacies from the past seasons like a cure helper, a villain turning into a Pretty Cure, evil energy gauge and others,
I really will miss this season a lot, but I will never forget it.
Congrats to the team at the Toei Animation for this amazing, touching, beautiful and magical season.
And this episode ends so beautifully and will always touch my heart and memories every time I watch it. :')
Gokigenyou, minna.
And arigatou.
Just watched the series, that was pretty good. Watching Maho waiting for something critical to happen, but it seems like it will happen at episode 15.
ReplyDeleteThis will forever be my number one Precure season
ReplyDelete