Welcome to the Fantasy Zone
This Zone is dedicated to the lesser known elements of anime hosted by the cast of Victory Script.
What weapon is the best?
Who will win in this Death Battle?
Is this costume practical?
You name it, it's all covered here in the Fantasy Zone!
So I come into this Precure thinking we have lost some luster as I consider Doki Doki to have the weakest team.
Mana can be best described as a steam train trying to be the ultimate helpful girl; her ambitions are noble and it reflects in her precure form but my god slow down.
Rikka is just the poor sap who has to play caretaker to the hyperactive Mana and practically has no personality that hasn't already been done to death by now, she brings nothing new to the table and is way too generic to be a proper precure, worst precure so far.
Alice is the precure equivalent of Batman, she's insanely rich and uses it for her hero activities, and has an insane temper for a shorter girl, probably the best of the team in terms of personality.
Makoto doesn't sit well with me, her royal guard act strikes me as trying too hard to be a strong character but doesn't really mix well with her idol persona nor her attempts at understanding the human realm.
Aguri is the hardest precure to rank overall, her role as a super cure creates conflicting opinions, is she a badly needed mentor cure to the current team or is she a deus ex machina that renders the others useless and her so called time limit also feels very shoe horned in to justify her staying on equal levels with the other cures. In my mind if she's making me think this much then she's a good character.
Aida Mana - Cure Heart - 7.4/10
Hishikawa Rikka - Cure Diamond - 3.6/10
Yotsuba Alice - Cure Rosetta - 8.0/10
Kenzaki Makoto - Cure Sword - 5.6/10
Madoka Aguri - Cure Ace - 9.0/10
Best Dressed Award - Cure Ace, not the best team for costumes.
Smile Precure can be often seen as the franchise poster child incorporating everything that makes Precure, Precure.
Miyuki is like her cure name, Happy, pretty much without fail but it isn't brought on automatically and comes from her own courage, so it's a lot more bearable, it's also funny watching her faceplant everything.
Akane is the typical tomboy but with a difference, she's Kansai, so she does have more dimensions than other characters of her type but it's still not enough to be noticeable.
Yayoi is so frickin cute, that it's infectious; timid, crybaby, scared of her own attack but enthusiastic and happy to be part of the Precure.
Nao is a second tomboy? That's quite a rarity but her type is reliable big sister and caring about her family, doesn't really stand out much but then again this seems to be the curse of being a green cure.
Reika is this seasons graceful lady but is the most happy to go with the flow, she has the best character arc in the series and has the one of best solo battles in the franchise.
Hoshizora Miyuki - Cure Happy - 8.7/10
Hino Akane - Cure Sunny - 7.9/10
Kise Yayoi - Cure Peace - 9.0/10
Midorikawa Nao - Cure March - 8.3/10
Aoki Reika - Cure Beauty - 8.9/10
Best Dressed Award - This one is hard but if I had to be totally honest Cure Happy claims this one.
This rank is the hardest to do.
Having to follow Heartcatch would give anyone cold feet and Suite did it's best but it was no where near the same quality, that kind of reflects in the Cures.
Hibiki were back to the bright and full of energy pink cures, she's not bad per say but she's an awkward cross between Dream and Aqua, melding into a very botched character as it's difficult to play her as the lonely rich girl.
Kanade is very difficult to like as her bog standard girly personality doesn't mix well with some of her weaker traits such as stubbornness and for someone who's meant to be a second half to a duo, she's horribly underused as a Precure and causes the team to fall apart.
Ellen saves the team by having a good backstory, she starts as a fairy cat who gets manipulated into joining the bad guys and then after becoming permanently human gains precure powers, making her personality changes more believable, not to mention she's a great strategist and she can use her hair as a guitar, that's awesome.
Ako is a brat but with good reason having been forced into becoming a fleeing princess aged 9-10 and trying to act mature to save the Kingdom, so her rudeness is justified when other characters treat her like a kid. Plus her masked form is a homage to Doronjo
Hojo Hibiki - Cure Melody - 6.2/10
Minamino Kanade - Cure Rhythm - 4.2/10
Ellen Kurokawa - Cure Beat - 9.4/10
Ako Shirabe - Cure Muse - 8.4/10
Best Dressed Award - Cure Beat easily
Now we come to the easiest to review of the Precure series.
Heartcatch can be described as the series that went from A rank to S rank in terms of popularity and it's not difficult to see why.
In a change of pace our pink Precure leader Tsubomi is not a genki girl but a shy introvert making her unique among the other lead cures and her interactions with the others builds her up as one of the best leaders.
Erika is now the genki girl and while she's not much different to other genki characters, her saving grace is that she pairs well with introvert Tsubomi so their friendship dynamic is stronger.
Itsuki is the princely girl character, raised as a boy, has a desire to be more feminine, these character traits rarely disappoint and Itsuki is no exception, she also has the best transformation so far in the franchise.
Then there's Yuri.... she's so well written it's unbelievable that she came from Precure; up to this series, Precure kept a fairly samy set of plot lines and going more serious is rare but not only does her backstory give her more dimensions and set the standard future seasons needed to achieve, it gave a better understanding of the Precure mythology as a whole.
Hanasaki Tsubomi - Cure Blossom - 9.4/10
Kurumi Erika - Cure Marine - 9.1/10
Myoudouin Itsuki - Cure Sunshine - 9.1/10
Tsukikage Yuri - Cure Moonlight - 10/10
Best Dressed Award - Tie between Sunshine and Moonlight.
Welcome back to the Precure rankings where things start getting interesting as we move onto Fresh Precure.
The formula for Precure at this point is that pink precure is the default leader so lets start with Love.
No not the concept, the pink precure for this season cure peach's civilian identity is named Love, that has to be the laziest protagonist name since Arcana Heart's Heart Aino. Other than that she's a Hasbro executive's ideal teen girl, likes dancing, happy as hell, eager to match up her friends in romantic comedy situations, and enough emotions to relate to the viewer; she's more Glitter Force than the teams they chose to use.
Miki is an interesting case as she fits the mold for a fashion obsessed diva but is not an antagonist; I still find it pretentious that she sees herself as perfect but they somehow make her tolerable which is amazing writing.
Inori started the trend of having a younger/noticeably smaller character in the teams, they don't really add much to the team itself but gives the expected young audience a chance to look at precure through an audience surrogate especially when the other team members are teenagers, while this isn't every season and they sometimes flip it around it just makes said character's inclusion a token gesture, which Inori does well with but I'd be lying if I said she was memorable.
Setsuna is a former villain which by default always makes characters more interesting especially in a show like Precure, her arc is made stronger by her struggle to adapt to her new outlook which by extension makes Love a better character for being her adoptive sister.
Momozono Love - Cure Peach - 6.9/10
Aono Miki - Cure Berry - 7.0/10
Yamabuki Inori - Cure Pine - 6.6/10
Higashi Setsuna - Cure Passion - 8.4/10
Best Dressed Award - Cure Berry if only because of the way she works the outfit like the model she aspires to be.