I'm back on my blog today with an anime review I ment to do a little while ago; a review of Smile Precure! ^w^
Smile Precure is one of the only Precure series that was dubbed in english so that's probably the season most people got acquainted with the Precure series! However I didn't watch the english dub as I prefer watching my series in their original language. ~
I always preface my Precure reviews by saying that I watch them in order of release so I haven't watched the most recent series yet. (I started watching Dokidoki in the meantime about a month ago though!) As usual I will try to not reveal major spoilers with my review! :3
Smile Precure
Smile Precure is the 9th season of the Precure franchise and aired back in 2012-2013. It have 48 episodes and a movie. The theme of this Precure series is Fairytales! ^w^
Story
In this series, the Precure have to collect the "Cure Decors" to revive the queen of a land of fairy-tales called Marchenland. The decors have been stolen by the bad guys from the Bad End kingdom which sole purpose is to make every story have a bad ending.
Firstly, I want to say that I loooved the fairytale themes! In some episodes there was heavy connections to actual fairytales stories and I loved that it was inspired by these stories so much! I loved their magical secret base in the big tree stump and their "secret code" with the books to unlock it. ~ I also really liked the Smile Pact they use to transform, it kind of reminded me of the tacts from Ojamajo Doremi too! The pacing was okay with how they had to collect the Cure Decors and you would see kind of a "Villain Clock" thing ticking when they would fight a new monster.
However I felt that some episodes were a bit rushed in the plot developpement. I feel like there was some points that could have been answered more clearly or earlier in the series and it kind of get a bit messy in my opinion? It's nothing major but it was hard to follow at times... Some of their motives to fight also felt a bit rushed and I would have liked a bit more developpement to understand and connect with their motives a bit more... Maybe that's just me being picky though. XD;
Art
The art style was very colourful and bubbly, perfect for a Precure series! ^w^ I enjoyed the fact that the Cure's colours were made to be so bright and not "pastel" like the last few seasons. I also really liked how they made their eyes to be so round (kind of like in Heartcatch?) and the way their hair would flow. The first attacks that they get was quite "basic" for a Precure series in my opinion but the last ones shown in the series are nicely animated and breathtaking with the rainbows and glitters... And kind of overkill to say the least... XD;
Sound
The opening and both of the endings are really really good! XD; I was actually listening to the first ending way before I watched the series because... It was too good of a song. ^w^'' I liked the music that they used in the series, cheerful when it needs to be and more dramatic/fast paced for the fighting scenes, I liked it! ~ I also love Candy's voice so much, I feel like the higher pitch and speech patterns really suit her! :3 None of the Cure's voices really bothered me, same for the villains, they suited their characters and personality nicely. ~
Characters
I feel like the characters are probably one of the weakest point of Smile Precure, sadly... I wanted to like them all so much and enjoy their personalities, but I feel like since there was so many Cures to develop (and the fact that they all appeared at the beginning of the series) that it was hard to make them shine individually and to have a decent character development for them. There was probably one or two character development episodes per Cure (and I understand that they did with the amount of episodes they had) but it was hard to connect with them and their personalities in such a short time.
I loved Cure Happy and Cure Peace personalities; I feel like they tried to make Cure Peace a bit more "not stereotypical" and quirky because she is the soft and shy one that loves drawing but she also likes Mechas and Sentais... XD; I couldn't really connect with Cure Sunny and Cure March... I felt like their personalities and hobbys were kind of interchangeable being the ones that are hardworking, liked sports and supporting their families and stuff... Cure Beauty was okay, she was a bit stereotypical but it didn't annoy me as much and I ended up liking her with the very few development episodes she had.
The villains however were much nicely developed in my opinion. There was like 3 main ones, Aka Oni, Majorina and Wolfurun which are based around a demon/ogre, a bad witch and a mean wolf. XD; Very stereotypical for what it is but I really enjoyed it anyway! ^w^'' They have very distinct personalities and I liked how at the end there was a bit of redemption for them. They were made for comic relief and silliness more than anything and they were pretty likeable, as villains that is. The other villains were Joker and Pierrot. Joker was kind of the "leader" of the villains and was much more mean and evil. Pierrot which was the biiig bad villain that they had to defeat at the end and you kind of never see/hear about him until the end of the series.
Enjoyment
I really enjoyed the series despite the weak points I mentioned earlier. The villains were so nicely written and developed that it kind of compensated for the Cures that weren't. XD. I loved the attacks, I loved the transformation/attack items, their secret base (I which they would have shown it more though!) the theme of the series too and Candy is probably one of my favourite fairies up to now! I can see why Smile Precure is listed as a "fan favourite" Precure series! ^w^
Overall I give Smile Precure a rating of 8 out of 10!
I hope you enjoyed my review! ^w^ Until next time my precious sparkly strawberries, take care! :3
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