Precure S03E30 -- Cure Evolution

Splash Star Episode 30 was pivotal from a plot perspective, but middling from a storytelling one.  Our heroines have to face down Goyan to rescue their mascots in distress, and in the meantime, get the traditional mid-season cure power-up.

This is another example of the damage wrought upon our media landscape by "24".

Kannazuki no Precure

As has often been the case lately, the highlight of the episode was Ms. Shitataare.  Put out by Goyan stealing her thunder, she takes her revenge by leading the Cures to the secret (in a manner of speaking) Goyan Dojo, where he is applying “enhanced interrogation” to Flappi and Choppi.  Having failed to extract useful intel from him, he turns his attentions to Moop and Foop.

This leads up to the Precure receiving new equipment, and here Splash Star does something especially interesting.  Instead of getting an extra power level or simply a new attack, the characters gain the ability to transform into a completely separate set of Cure forms – Saki can now become Cure Bright, while Mai unlocks Cure Windy.  Goyan is soon dispatched in short order.

This could be a few different things, but I'm having a hard time believing it's a cell phone.

I really like how this part was handled.  While there’s the constant concern of running out of Cure names (in the series that gave us both Cure Sunny and Cure Sunshine), I love the idea of giving them alternate forms, instead of simply an evolved form.  Splash Star’s battles still emphasizes the abilities and movement of the individual Cures (rather than simply spamming their attacks as we see in later seasons),  so there’s a fair amount of room to distinguish these forms by their specific abilities.

The costumes for the new forms are interesting.  In Mai’s case, it’s a fairly subtle change, but I appreciate the light blue color scheme, and prefer this costume to Cure Egret.  In Saki’s case, I actually think the costumes to be reversed.  Cure Bright reminds me a great deal of a plant or flower themed Precure, with the emphasis on greens and yellows.  No matter the aesthetic concerns, this was a great way to mix things up, and I’d love to see this reused.

We call this style the "Dr Wily."

I can hook you up with an insurance policy that covers this kind of damage.

Overall, the strong points of this episode was the idea of new Cure forms, and anything Ms. Shitataare.  The weaker points involved the somewhat boring Goyan fight, and the mascot-focus.  The episodes really revolved around the relationship between Saki/Flappi and Mai/Choppi, and I didn’t think it was quite interesting enough to do the work it needed to carry the episode.

Precure S03E27 -- Summer Splashing

Summer Festival episodes are a great and venerable anime tradition.  I approve of every chance we get to see characters in kimonos or yukata, so as far as I’m concerned, every series should have at least one.  On this score, Precure doesn’t disappoint, and often has one for each season.

This does not look like a healthy fish.

Splash Star episode 27 did a fine job of upholding this archetype, though it wasn’t a standout episode overall.  My experience was colored by the Smile Precure festival episode, which hit many of the same plot beats (including mascot characters are prizes!), which  isn’t remotely fair to Splash Star.  Precure’s primary audience isn’t mostly not going to be watching the series for multiple years on end, and with fifty episodes per year, this is entirely understandable.  By and large, the series does a good job of mixing it up each time.

Those sunglasses absolutely make the look.

By far my favorite part of the episode was seeing Miss Shitataare kick ass at carnival games.  Seeing her act in the human world has been a highlight of the last few episodes, and as far as I’m concerned, could anchor its own spin-off series.  Seeing Goyan follow along, entirely for the sake of harassing her, has given us some of his best moments too.

Of course, it could be that I’m just entranced by those gorgeous, gorgeous eyes. 

The other noteworthy part of this episode was Saki’s conversation with Mai’s elder brother (side note – several Precure have annoying younger brothers, but their elder brothers are always admirable.  My younger sisters might take umbrage at this.)  I was initially afraid that it would mostly focus on Saki’s schoolgirl crush on him (heterosexuality has never been a Precure highlight,) but it instead turned to how important Saki was to Mai.  Lines such as “her face lights up when she talks about you” made this one of the best moments in the show about their relationship, and makes me very excited for future episodes.

A line from Saki about this stood out from me – she mentions always talking about Mai at home.  To be honest, I don’t actually remember hearing her do this all that much.  To some extent, that makes me wonder a bit about the nature of their friendship – perhaps Saki plays a more primary role in Mai’s life than the reverse.  After all, Mai is a transfer student, and doesn’t really have her own social network – her friends are all people she has met through Saki.  No wonder she grasps so hard onto Saki.

Gargantia E06 -- Dispiriting Dance

Remember when robot shows had space battles?  Those were dark times.

Gargantia episode six was controversial in online anime circles.  After much deliberation, it is with a heavy heart that I’ve decided to add my two cents, and let the chips fall where they may.  Thus, here begin my thoughts on the economics of the verdant planet, and how they relate to Earth today.

As Ledo has become established in his new role, he runs headfirst into that fact that he is, in fact, functionally obsolete.  His life up to this point have been training him in military tactics with limited applicability to where he is now.  During peacetime on Earth, his value lies not in his labor, but his capital – namely, his ownership of the mecha, Chamber.  Ledo isn’t even necessary to operate Chamber, and the robot is in fact most effective when delegated.

Mahou Shoujo are another career path facing increasing pressure from automation.

Ledo’s status as a NEET has broader resonance with the unemployed during our own Great Recession.  Long-term unemployment has a hysteresis effect – a person’s contacts start drying up, it’s difficult to maintain marketable skills, and employers are reluctant to hire you.  In a culture that defines people so much by what they do, this is like being told you have no place in the world.

Moreover, there are reasons to believe that this situation will become more and more trouble – and like in Gargantia, this will be partially the fault of the robots (an interesting article by Kevin Drum to this effect can be found here.).  As automation and artificial intelligence continue to develop apace, more and more of us will find ourselves in Ledo’s own position.  And at least in the medium term, there won’t be an obvious place for us – the productivity benefits of these robots will accrue to the people that own them.  

It's rather difficult to believe that Chamber couldn't figure out how to do this on his own.

Gargantia cops out on the question of Ledo’s ultimate fate with a device that stretches disbelief to the fullest – Chamber is shown as having uncharacteristic difficulty in assisting with fishing, suddenly requiring Ledo’s guidance.  Between this, and new salvage opportunities, Ledo manages to carve out a niche at last.  Somehow, we are to believe that an AI that was capable of deciphering an entire language in a matter of days could not understand that people would like fish whole.

Maybe Chamber is holding back so Ledo will feel better.

Let’s put that aside for a moment, and imagine that the narrative doesn’t demand opportunities for Ledo open up.  Where does that leave him?  In his case, Ledo owns Chamber, so while his being unmoored from society causes very really psychological effects, he can at least live on the money Chamber brings in.  What if that wasn’t true?  In Ledo’s place of origin, he doesn’t own Chamber – it’s owned by the government.  In that case, the overriding question becomes who gets to control the result of this robot plenty.  Is it held in common, to ensure each citizen an at least functional existence?  Do those benefits accrue primarily to a small elite, leaving the rest scraping by?  At least on our own Earth, there are depressing indications as to which direction it might take.

The arts are one way for humans to find their place in the world in a post-scarcity society.  And romance.

The show also raises the question about how citizens might handle a post-scarcity society, and where the fruits of their robots would be put to.  The government of Ledo’s world is completely dedicating those resources to its war effort, leaving the citizens a very rationed and regimented existence.  We don’t know yet if this is a true war for survival, a 1984-style effort to divert citizens from calling for a larger share in those resources, or something in between.  You can imagine the ideal situation being something like Star Trek, where they’re able to use their giant talking robots to achieve their own dreams and goals, rather than the robots being the proximate cause for their detachment.    

Precure Splash Star -- S03E28 and S03E29 The Train that Got Away

Aware no Precure

Episodes 28 and 29 of Splash Star were both fun, but they didn’t quite live up to the standard of previous Splash Stars, but were fun nonetheless.  Episode 28 had a unique setup to build up tension, while episode 29 had an unusual mascot character focus.

To my disappointment, this wasn't a metaphor.

The structure of episode 28 is centered around Saki and Mai having one last summer adventure, and taking a train ride to the end of the line (they were much more optimistic than I was – usually the end of the line here is a part of town you can’t wait to get out of.)  The train ends up being driven by Shitataare whom, thanks to some rather incompetent mascots, separates the girls, and traps Mai in a tunnel.  Saki saves her in the nick of time through the power of friendship.

To be honest, I wish episode 28 had been set up more conventionally, with less emphasis on the dire plot.  The beginning and ending had some wonderful Saki/Mai moments, and gave us a great chance to see them get some alone time.  I don’t think high speed city bus chase compensated for us getting less of that.

Episode 29 is about the girls doing last minute summer homework while the mascot characters squabble (summer homework episodes being another Precure tradition.)  This episode is most notable for ending on a cliffhanger, with Flappi and Choppi abducted by Goyan at the end.  The best parts of this episodes were easily Flappi’s facial expressions – fairy rage!

I enjoy seeing Flappi’s crush on Choppi, and watching him have his heartbroken again and again – the moment where he was shut down after acting out a scene from a movie was particularly well done.  This is a big improvement over Mipple and Mepple’s lovey-dovey scenes in the first season, but I think they overdid it in this episode.  There’s a limit to how many mascot mating rituals I can take at once, and this crossed a line.

 

The aspect of several of these episodes that I’m most unhappy with are Moop and Foop (seriously, we gave up Michiru and Kaoru for these things?  Refund please!)  To me, one of the biggest weaknesses of the franchise has been its handling of the more juvenile mascots – Chiffon in Fresh, Candy in Smile, and Ai in Doki Doki have all been weak links in their shows, and their appearances mostly make me wish they’d leave so that we can see someone more interesting.  I realize that many viewers appreciate these characters, but I wish they were handled better.  Hummy in Suite and Potpourri in Heartcatch were both improvements.

I think these kinds of mascots work best when they’re primarily used to bring out the personality of the other humans (or more mature mascots, like Tarte.)  For instance, Potpourri was a wonderful way to bring out Cure Sunshine’s nurturing side, and emphasize those aspects of her personality.  On the other hand, Candy’s episodes in Smile were mostly about Candy, who just wasn’t a compelling character