Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta mahou tsukai precure. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta mahou tsukai precure. Mostrar todas las entradas

martes, 28 de junio de 2016

MAHOU TSUKAI REVIEW: START OF DARKNESS

Let Liz explain:

Isaac explains that he's got no male students.
Maybe
-classes are gender seggregated
-wizarding schools are seggregated (i.e. there is an all-guy school as well)

JUNE: It's a plane?
KAY: It's a pegasus!!

Yes, it's a pegasus. It's not Supergrover.




Oh, Loretta and the Little Mer-Trio were back for the arc finale ;)

..........................................................................................................................................

To break the ice, the Supplementary Mates give a rundown of the Headmaster's Seven Mysteries: pretty much "How do I even begin to explain Regina George?" style:


KAY: Why don't we discuss the Seven Mysteries of the Headmaster?

JUNE: One: his age. Just how fricking old is the Headmaster?
Two: No one has ever seen him using magic.

KAY (sinister): Three: Wherever he is, a female voice can be heard around.
(Is she referring to Cathy [the crystal ball], to Kanoko, or to someone else?)
Four: It is unusual that he prefers bitter coffee.
(In fact, the Head' relishes coffee so strong that it makes Isaac wince)

Five: he can cast an ikemen aura to which muggle girls flock.


Kanoko, for an example. She even gave him treats blushing, with her eyes shut!

Six: there is a confidential wing of the Wizarding School library to which only he has got access.

Seven: only he can open this Art Nouveau door in the campus gardens.
Beyond this door, the cour (arc) finale battle of the Headmaster and Cures vs. Dokuroxy has recently taken place.




The first things I have to say concern the cadres of the show:
Batty, Spidra, and Turtlets, just like the Eye Trio in Sailormoon SuperS (Hawkeye, Tigerseye, and Fisheye) are actually non-human animals given humanoid form. Now purified, all three have reverted.

Heart-nosed Batty <3

Spidra in her original arachnid form...

...and Turtlets as a terrapin.


Dokuroxy's true gender is revealed: it's a guy!!!
Not only is Dokuroxy confirmed to be a he, but also a former friend of the Headmaster's, corrupted and turned to the dark side.
On the Headmaster's left/sinister side, Kushe, the one who would be Dokuroxy.
He was tempted to use the Forbidden Arts, could not control such power, was struck down and left for dead... and subsequently corrupted by the dark force he had unleashed...
#StartOfDarkness

#KUSHESTARTOFDARKNESS


Friendship? No. Rather bromance.

The Headmaster and Kushe could not be closer to one another.

Then everything changed when they found out about the Linkle stones,
(Besides, currently: #All12LinklesConfirmed!!!)

Kushe detached himself from his more than best friend...

...and spent many a night studying for clues to find the Linkle stones...

...even resorting to the Forbidden Arts.

From then onwards, he would never be the same...

Dokuroxy's Dark Spellbook

Notice their hair and attire, as well as the symbolism of left and right.


And yes, one of them has got darkness powers while the other has light powers. Even their sorcerer attire contrasts.
Dokuroxy and the Headmaster are like Hamlet and Laertes, Iago and Cassio, Stalin and Trotsky...
I’ll be your foil, Laertes. In mine ignorance
your skill shall, like a star i' th' darkest night,
stick fiery off indeed.


A purified Kushe, having finally come to his senses.




Which means... we've got another corrupted good-guy-at-heart brainwashed by the Entity Behind the Man (a concept that never gets old, and that, in Pretty Cure series, has been retold left and right).

Ha-chan is also supposed to grow and become a new flower-themed green Cure in pink (the only thing missing is for her to be royalty). At last she has become a Cure and reached adolescence :)


Ha-chan's muggle name is to be revealed.
Bonus if it is:
-a plant name (Iris, Élodie, Linnéa, Primrose...)
-Hannah (homophone of "hana")

Her Precure name has been leaked since springtime as Cure Felice (Italian pronunciation, "fe-LII-che," meaning "happy").

UPDATE: Ha-chan's muggle name is finally confirmed as Kotoha Hanami (like always, I put the name in Western order, given name first). The surname sounds to me like "flowerspotting," i.e. having a springtime picnic under cherry blossoms... yet the final -mi is written with the kanji for "ocean" (花海, "flower ocean"; homophone of 花見, "flowerspotting"; both pronounced "hanami"). It's a pun, to sum it up. Her given name Kotoha (ことは) is meaningless yet a homophone of "kotoba", i.e. "word." Her full name is a reference to the language of flowers, or "hanakotoba." Which means that it's, at heart, is a string of puns.

Oh, and the Headmaster's real-life form is revealed to be a centuries-old Dumbledore- or Gandalf-like character with a wise old mentor beard to boot:
Nearly all classical-style mentors in Fictionland have got long white flowing beards.

Gecko survived the defeat and purification of Dokuroxy, so now he'll be working as right-hand lizard to this ogre guy...

This ogre guy... "Lustucru" (real name unknown)
We already got an ogre in Smile!, the dumb muscle with the convenient name of Akaoni (literally "Redogre": the Netflix English dub calls him Brute). But he was mostly the stupid fat henchman. This ogre looks far more sinister...
So can this be the Entity Behind the Man... or yet another pawn of the real-life dramatic evil in store?


Fanart of today: "Curiosity Can Kill"




lunes, 30 de mayo de 2016

LONG TIME NO SEE!!!

Mahou Tsukai Precure: what happened so far?

EPISODE 16 - THREE VERY SPECIAL VISITORS (PLUS ONE)

Yes, those three in the background, from your left to your right, are June, Emily, and Kay.
Songs to listen to:
For June: Lady Marmalade (Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?)
For Emily: Alles klar, Herr Kommissar
For Kay: Un fiocco per sognare, un fiocco per cambiare


JUNE, KAY, AND EMILY ARE BACK!!!

(Pop that bottle of Moët we kept in stock for the ShutxTowa hookup that never happened at the end of the day! Now it's come in handy!!!).
Besides, a canon name for the bright-hair trio has been introduced: Supplementary Mates, or Hoshú Mates (meito) in Japanese... "Mate" sounds so Aussie that at least June must have taken to it like a duck to water :)



PLEASE, RIKO... CAN'T U TELL US HOW IT WAS!!??
RIKO: Easy, girls...

JUNE: GPS. I know, Global Positioning System. Done my research...

JUNE: I've got oodles of Muggleverse tour guides, in fact!
1) She's savvy
2) She's the rare kind of reading tomboy, like Rainbow Dash and like me.

It's the Supplementary Mates' first time at Tsunagi Mall. Emily is fraidy as usual, and Kay also appears a tad insecure, but June... that smug look of hers beats everyone else's. The square thing beneath her left arm is her shopping bag.

June meets Plasma. And she is amazed.

Kay is curious about the camera, peering into it.

EMILY: Kay, is that you?

EMILY (frightened by a close-up of Kay's right eye): AAAAAHHH!! (shudders).

Let's have a drink, or maybe two, or maybe three or four,
or maybe six, or seven, or eight, or nine, or even more!!
Kay, always so gauche... ;)

Kay having a look at the group photo all the girls took in the photobooth.


...nos hicimos unas fotos 
de cabina en tres minutos..., 
parecemos la cuadrilla de la muerte. 

Awwww, this bunny is soooo soft... Kay's found herself a new comforter... but she'll forget to buy the bunny... (typically Kay!)

June is drinking it all in at Tsunagi Mall. And she has only seen one third of it!

We also learned of June's future plans: once she has graduated from the Wizarding School, she would like to attend a muggle university. Because muggle culture interests her so much...
I'm almost there... (Tiana's song)

Having a snack of strawberry buns with François, who chaperones them in the Muggleverse. 
KAY: MMMM... Delicious!!! :9

FRANÇOIS: I always buy cloth in the Muggleverse. 
In fact, when I was your age, I was as excited as you are now... 
...when I was young, and I came to this world to study the art of tailoring...


Oh, and he's been there as well. In his youth, when François was as young as the girls he chaperones, he learned the crafts of needlework among muggles (on the Left Bank of the Seine, I presume), and there are many other mages who have done the same.

FRANÇOIS: The boy with the laptop is a mage, and so is the waitress. 
They have to conceal their powers in this world.
So there are even more mages in the Muggleverse in-story...
JUNE (elated): He-e-e-y!! Wait for me!!

Sadly enough, all good things must come to an end...

At last the sun sets, and the Supplementary Mates must return to their realm.

KAY: I didn't get the chance to buy that bunny...
JUNE: I still want to explore the Muggleverse some more...
EMILY: It's so sad that it had to end this early...
Yes, leave-takings are usually that mournful. I still remember Towa's return to the Hope Kingdom...

FRANÇOIS (ushering the Mates, flamboyant): I will take you all here again!!!
KAY, JUNE, EMILY (unison): Really!?


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Headmaster still relishes his favourite scones...

...like that muggle girl once gave him, back in the 50s...

On a certain windy day, clutching a bag of scones...


...she saw him save a tabby cat from a treetop.


It was love at first sight.

KANOKO: This kitten is not mine...

A young (adolescent, in her mid-teens) Kanoko Asahina (Mirai's granny) 
with the Headmaster of the Wizarding School, who saved her kitten and stole her heart.

KANOKO (mustering her courage): ...but still, thank you so much!! Here, some scones...

Kanoko gives the Headmaster treats, blushing and with her eyes shut.

Reminds me a lot of Lyanna and Rhaegar, aside from explaining why the Asahina matriarch believes so firmly in the supernatural.
Every night in my dreams
I see you, I feel you,
that is how I know you 
go on...



Far across the distance
and spaces between us,
you have come to show you 
go on...

Near, far, 
wherever you are,
I believe that the heart does 
go on...
Once more,
 you open the door,
and you're here in my heart,
and my heart will go on and on!
Love can touch us one time
and last for a lifetime,
and never let go till we
are one...

Love was when I loved you,
one true time I hold to...
In my life we'll always 
go on...

Near, far, 
wherever you are,
I believe that the heart does 
go on...
Once more,
 you open the door,
and you're here in my heart,
and my heart will go on and on!




You're here, 
there's nothing I fear,
and I know that my heart will 
go on...
We'll stay 
forever this way:
you are safe in my heart,
and my heart will go on and on!




Oh, and if the Headmaster (like elves or drakharin) ages at a far slower pace than us humans, and was still the same tall and dashing young man already in the 1950s... how old is he, in years, actually?

Nevertheless, he and Kanoko were already star-crossed lovers, living parallel lives and with far different lifespans. Letting her marry another muggle/human was the best thing he could do...
#KanokoxHeadmaster: a real thing, yet star-crossed...


We also get to know that Mirai's granny is an accomplished artist. Here's one of her wonderful paintings to feast your eyes on:
(PS. Kanoko painted this in springtime 2016)



Oh, and the Cures and Ha-chan defeated Spidra with Sapphire Smartish, so she became an arachnid, hinting at what Batty, Turtlets, and Gecko once were (reminds me of the Eye Trio in Sailor Moon Super S: Hawkeye, Tigerseye, and Fisheye... could you guess which animal species they were, before being turned into humanoids?). So maybe we get more promising, humanoid cadres in the second half of the series...

Oh, and Dokuroxy's got this sinister spellbook with the Scream mask on its cover... There is speculation among fans that it could be a Dark Smartbook...


So, soon we will return to the Magicverse once more! 
More June! (now that it's her month, she's truly worth it!)
More battles! More lush landscapes! More country-esque eaves! More people in bright colours!
More secrets to be revealed...