ALL RIGHT, THIS IS THE FIRST IMPRESSION REVIEW OF MAHOU TSUKAI (MAGE) PRECURE.
There are some things I like from ep 1, and some disappointments that crushed me rather hard.
THE PROS:
PRO 1: OPENING SCENE - AND THE LEAD'S FAMILY STRUCTURE (SO SIMILAR TO MY OWN CHILDHOOD)
One evening in a random Japanese suburbia, a young girl who looks like me, minus the freckles, watches a star fall from the sky... or was that something else than a space rock? She tells her ridiculously attractive, carrot-topped mum (who looks like my own mum) that she (the daughter) saw a witch flying by on her broom.
Mirai: I saw something shiny near the moon, mum, I want to go and search for it.
Kyoko: Okay, I will go with you, just let me put some make-up.
Mirai: That sounds very... Oh you were joking.
Kyoko: Of course young lady, even if you are in vacation you just can't go outside in the night.
Mirai Asahina, her mother Kyoko, and granny Kanoko are introduced to us. Three female generations living under the same roof. Plus, their family has a theme naming, aside from being all-female: their names mean "past" (granny's), "present" (mum's), and "future" (our heroine's), respectively. One can correlate them to the goddesses of Westeros (Maiden, Mother, Crone), to the classical goddesses in the Judgement of Paris (Athena, Aphrodite, Hera)... you name it. This is an archetype in its own right, but the characters embodying it in Fictionland are nearly always sisters. I myself prefer this approach, to make them three generations, which to me makes more sense. So, mum (a jeweller) does not believe in magic, but granny does. A granny very warm and similar to Olenna Tyrell (even more than Yume Mochizuki).
Mirai: I wonder what was that object?
Kanoko: If you saw something flying maybe it was a witch in her broom.
Mirai: A witch!? I want to go and find her.
Kyoko: I doubt it's a witch, but since you already helped me here, you can go, I will ask your dad to help us here.
Mirai: Thank you, mum!
Kyoko: OK, since you help me working in the shop, I give you an accessory as the reward.
Kyoko rewards her daughter's good behaviour by giving her a choice-free jewel from the shop as a present. Mirai picks a pink pendant with a large gem and hearts, in a golden chain. A pendant which happens to look just like any Precure transformation trinket... but Mirai does not even think of it as a McGuffin...
My preciousssss...
Oh, and Mirai's got a favourite pet, a teddy called Mofurun. A teddy that I want to hug right now... Now he's snuggled up in his owner's basket handbag as she leaves the family business...
Kyoko: Enjoy your day.
Mirai: Thank you, mum.
Kyoko (before Mirai departs): Hey we already had that pendant before?
PRO 2: MIRAI AND RIKO
Riko: Safe landing.
Cat: Meow.
Riko: Hey don't look at me like that! I didn't hit the ground.
Soon after dropping her teddy Mofurun, the miraculous and magical encounter happens.
Riko: Hey, you dropped your toy.
Mirai: Thank you. Huh? YOU ARE A WITCH!!!! I saw you falling last night.
Riko: I didn't fell! I have other things to do. Cure-up Rapapa! Broom, fly high!
Mirai: Please don't go! I have so many questions it is so amazing I found a witch! My name is Mirai Asahina.
Riko: I didn't asked for your name! Broom fly high! Oh no I'm going to fall!
Om nom nom... strawberry buns...
RIKO: This is delicious!
MIRAI: Is it? These are my favourite buns,
In the local park, Mirai spots a raven-haired adolescent witch flying by on her broom. Suddenly, she falls off, exhausted. After feeding Riko a strawberry bun (mmm... a strawberry bun), Mirai wins her trust, and our two heroines begin to become friends. Nice gesture, the bun. If I were Mirai myself, I would buy Riko something sweet that packs a punch of power as well.
As they fall, their pendants begin to glow at unison, and they're revealed to be similar except for one minor difference: Riko's is purple. The light from the pendants saves our falling heroines and helps them to land safely.
Mirai: Your pendant...
Riko: ...is like mine.
RIKO: Now, Mirai, I'll show you some magic. That tortoiseshell cat... I will make her speak human. CURE UP! RAPAPA!
CAT: Meow...
RIKO: The cat was supposed to talk!
MIRAI: Can you make Mofurun speak?
RIKO: An inanimate object? Sorry, I can't do it.
Riko: That teddy bear seems very dear to you.
Mirai: Yes. Mofurun is a gift my grandma gave to me when I was born, he is like my sibling, he goes with me everywhere, I would really like to talk with him.
Riko: By the way my name is Riko, and I'm searching for something very valuable.
Mirai: Riko! I will help you to find what you are looking!
So Mofurun is like her little bro... Being an only child myself, I know what it's like to have plushies and dolls for friends.
Mirai pulls Riko out of harm's way.
PRO 3: BEARLY EVEN FRIENDS
CURE UP! RAPAPA! Pretty catchy and lively incantation, the one used by the Cures du jour to transform. And they need to hold one another's hands and have their teddy, who has been given life, near. Yes, Mofurun has become sentient in some way or another. Which makes him soooo much moooore adoooorable!!
Suddenly both girls find surrounded by the light from before and by holding the hands of Mofurun, he changes his design and their pendants become golden with a real diamond in the inside.
Batty: What's this power!? Those are Linkle Stones!?
CURE UP!! RAPAPA!!
Mofurun is the catalyst of the transformation.
Mirai and Riko: Dia! Miracle and Magical Jewelrelay!
Together we are miracles! Cure Miracle!
Together we are magical! Cure Magical!
Batty: Those foolish girls became legendary witches, Precures!?!?! I must inform Lady Dokuroxy inmediately! Desiral, come with me.
Unexpectedly, Batty and the desiral retreat to report to the Dark Lady du jour. And the Cures detransform.
Riko: We became legendary witches!? I can't believe it...
Mirai: Mofurun, there you are.
Mirai: I thought something bad would happen to you.
Mofurun: Hey you are squeezing me-mofu.
Riko: You need to be softer with him. Huh?
Mirai and Riko: HE TALKED!!!
Mirai: Riko... what have you done? It is amazing!
Riko: I didn't do anything!
Mirai: Mofurun, it's amazing you can talk!
Mofurun: Yes-mofu.
PRO 4: PLATFORM NINE AND THREE QUARTERS
It's off to wizarding school we go!!! And the railway station, and taking the Express, is here the first step. Yes, it's like in Rowling's stories, only that the Muggleverse and the Magicverse are here located in different dimensions.
Riko: A lot of things happened, we became Precures and we need the answers, come with me.
Mirai: We are going to take a train?
Riko: Kinda.
Mysterious ghostly being: Welcome to the Magic Station.
Mirai: This is too amazing!!!
The station looks even more different... and, as Riko saunters ahead, an awestruck Mirai admires the Magicverse railway station.
Run or we won't catch the train to wizarding school!
PRO 5: LINKLE
The McGuffin gemstones both factions are here warring for are called Linkles. Link+Twinkle, plus the -kle/-kal sound at the end of "Cure Miracle" and "Cure Magical." I like the word "Linkle" because it has a beautiful ring to me. And there are a dozen Linkles. As many as there are months, star signs, Olympian gods, Apostles, Marshals of France, stars in the EU flag, you name it. There's definitely symbolism in here... maybe there is an evil thirteenth Linkle as well?
Centuries ago, a powerful magic crystallized and took the form of twelve gemstones, that were lost over time and scattered. This series will deal with the war for the Linkles.
Twelve is a magic number...
The most powerful of these gems is the Linkle Emerald. Like the One Ring, it appears to be the catalyst for this whole new epic story...
THE CONS:
Oh no. Now we come to the dark side of the review, and to finding out that the Precure creatives are beating a pair of stone dead horses I thought they never would unearth. Yes, we're talking about the presence of animal-themed cadres and of object-based monsters of the week.
Batty: Well well well, it is very weird to see a witch in the Muggleverse, so if you are here you must be searching for the Linkle Stones too.
Riko: Who are you and how do you know about the Linkle Stones!?
Batty: Because I'm searching for them too, especially for the Linkle Emerald.
CON 1: ANIMAL-THEMED CADRES
C'mon. Batty? Batty is what the creatives are. We've already had many bugs (in
Yes! 5 and
Yes! 5 GoGo) and a big bad wolf (
in Smile!) not to mention the grasshopper (Namakelder). Or the scorpion, the cobra, and the other spider (in
HeartCatch). And now the first cadre who appears is Batshit. Then there's Spidra, Turtle Knight, and the villainess's lizard yes-sayer. At least Close, Shut, Lock, Stop, and Freeze were more human- than animal-themed (more similar to a punk, aristocrat, bratty child, and twindividuals rather than a crow, cat, dragon, and serpents...). And the Jikochuu/Selfcenter cadres were also human-themed, due to their inspiration being the seven deadly sins (which is fricking awesome). Think of it... a cliché popping up again and giving me nausea, but much more nausea do I get from the next con I will diss, something I frigging hate and that makes me frigging wince even more.
BATTY: Dark magic, come forth! Desiral, I summon you!
CON 2: MONSTER OF THE OBJECT
Ewwww. I thought that dead horse had decayed completely, but no-o-o-o-o. Guess the Fleeting Demographic Rule had the staff bring that trope back. I mean, they're called desirals, so the idea of having the same source as the Jikochuu or the ? Characters was what I expected. Wham. A fooking inanimate object. A motherfooking inanimate object. A motherfooking truck with a cranium on it (the villain leader appears to be called Dokuroxy, which sounds like a Corrupter name, like "Craniumtoxy" or something like that [impossible to translate the name pun], and the monsters are called desirals...). Finely Used Convenient Kitkat... I might as well go bite a lemon. Now that I've got canker sores.
Personally, I prefer monsters made from people. Especially if they (like the possessed ones in Zenki, the Jikochuu in DokiDoki!, the ? Characters or Nazo Kyara in Shugo Chara Doki! and the akuma in Miraculous Ladybug), are made from people whose desires/wishes have been corrupted and driven to the extreme. It's a heart-rending true-to-life metaphor for the destructive power of passion and the darkness that dwells within every human heart. An inanimate object or a summon from another dimension does not have the same emotional and philosophical load. To be honest, I was expecting another premise of monsters made from humans, especially if it employed The Heartless trope... Such a disappointment.
BATTY: Now tell me where is the Linkle Emerald...
RIKO: I don't know!! I'm searching for it as well!!
WHAT TO BE EXPECTED
Yes, it's like in Rowling's stories, only that the Muggleverse and the Magicverse are here located in different dimensions. The Magicverse seems also to be more country-esque and more surreal than the Muggleverse. There's also a hot magic teacher (also a werewolf called Remus?) and an adorable Fairykins called Haa-chan. But we'll have to put up with the cum-bucket that is the Monster of the Object...
Hot Rhaegaresque teacher showing our Cures the location of the Linkles...
Love the Rococo or Neo-Baroque style of the wizarding school and its uniforms... And are these more students coursing through the skies??
I totally LOVE Fairykins dolls, so this adooorable little child fey Haa-chan, like Mofurun, is definitely worth sleeping with to soothe myself...
Mirai's various transformations/fairytale theme: Ruby Style-Red Riding Hood, Sapphire Style-Little Mermaid, Topaz Style-Gretel.
Riko's various transformations/celebration theme: Ruby Style-Christmas, Sapphire Style-Tanabata, Topaz Style-International Pudding Day!?
UPCOMING EPISODE SUMMARIES:
Episode 2: TO THE EXCITING wizarding SCHOOL! WHERE'S THE headmaster!? (2/14)
In which we meet a slew of Magicverse characters and get tons of world-building.
TV ASAHI
Mirai and Riko have transformed into the legendary witches: the Precures. The stuffed animal Mofurun can talk now too... Just what is going on!?
Riko returns to the Wizarding School to discuss the situation with the principal, taking along Mirai to the Magic World!
Actually... Riko left the Magicverse on her own accord. She's going to be expelled for breaking the rules!? Rico is shocked by the angry deputy head...
They might understand after a talk... Thus Mirai goes to search for the headmaster with Riko. "Headmaster! Where are you??"
As she looks all over the Magic School, she finds herself before a large tree. There, she meets a man who tells her, "This is the wand tree"......
???
Coming along to magic world with Riko, Mirai is over the moon when she sees the Magic World for the first time. At last they arrive at their destination of the Wizarding School, but Riko finds herself in trouble when she gets scolded by a teacher for leaving without permission. Mirai goes to look for the headmaster to help Riko out, but instead meets a mysterious man......
NEWTYPE
>Riko gets in trouble for bringing someone from the Muggleverse over.
The Wizarding Express is pulled by a snail!? (With a French accent, I presume).
The Wizarding School.
Like Noble Academy, I totally adore the country-esque feel of the place.
Mirai meets the Rhaegar-like young man.
Mrs McRottenmeier is harsh on Riko...
Episode 3: SHOPPING on THE MAGIC high street! THE POWER OF THE AWAKENED RUBY! (2/21)
In which the girls visit Diagon Alley and the female spider cadre debuts.
NEWTYPE
After the headmistress arranges Mirai's enrollment into the Wizarding School, Riko takes her out to shop for school supplies. There, Spalda, Dokuroxy's underling, makes her appearance and snatches the pendant Mirai needs so she can transform.
ANIMEDIA
>They go out to purchase a magical broom and uniform for Mirai.
Episode 4: BEGIN THE MAGIC LESSONS! SEARCH FOR THE MYSTERIOUS BUTTERFLY! (2/28)
The fitANIMEDIA
Classes at the Wizarding School have finally begun. Riko on one hand, has to attend six supplementary lessons in all. There's a test everyday, and she'll have to repeat the year unless she passes all of them...... That's how strict they are. The headmistress instructs Mirai and Riko to work together in order to clear her supplementary lessons. For their first assignment, they will have to capture paper that flutters like a butterfly and turn it in to their teacher. Though Mirai is eager...?
Episode 5: N/A (3/6)
ANIMEDIA
Their assignment for the second day's supplementary lessons is going to Glacier Island, concealed in ice and snow, to steep tea in a magical kettle. For one to be able to use their magic on Glacier Island, it is necessary to forget the cold and be able to concentrate. However, Riko and the others are too numb from the cold and can't concentrate. So Mirai suggests for everyone to play Oshikura Manju to warm up their bodies.
