Hello there, humans of impeccable taste (yes, you!). Because no one has ever heard of a fourth sequel that flops, today I return with the fifth part of what is arguably the most comprehensive series about a subject that no one should take seriously, and yet here we are. Get in, read, and comment. You know the drill.
Part 5: A Good Day to Smile Charge!
Last time on Toku Special: We took a good, hard look at what are arguably the most popular seasons of PreCure, talked about some of the greatest Toku shows ever made and revived several childhood traumas that no one should have to live through, though that might have been just me.
As you may recall, I spent a significant portion of our last entry detailing how the new production team that took over the franchise after YPC5Gogo did its best to take the franchise to new, absurd heights. Well, the two seasons that we will cover today (or over the next few days if you are one of those really slow readers) comprise the second half of this “era” for the franchise, and even though they were clearly made using the same mold, the way in which they defied my expectations was rather baffling.
And by ‘Baffling’ I mean ‘Amazing’.
This is going to be insane, isn´t it?
Suite PreCure
This season is most famous for being the only music oriented season of PreCure, which is amazing if you consider that this was the eight season of the franchise and we are technically still talking about Magical girls here. No, HeartCatch Orquestra did not count as musical.
Musical my--HOLY MOTHER OF GODZILLA!!
As for the actual merits of the season, a lot people like to point out that Suite is quite similar to Fresh but with some HeartCatch elements added in. There is certainly some truth to that statement, but I still think that Suite did enough unique things to separate itself from its predecessors, and while the series is still a Magical Girl/Super Hero hybrid featuring 14 year-old girls, it did toned down the more overt Toku antics of series past. That is not really a bad thing though, since they replaced them with sheer self-awareness.
Of course I was going the reference this scene.
While self-awareness has always been part of the franchise, Suite did something rather amazing with it: for once, the characters actually acted according to their observations and did some rather clever things instead of relying on our suspension of disbelief. That is peachy and all, but what does that have to do with Toku? Well, while the franchise has always been rather unapologetic about how it´s borrows from Hero genre of Tokusatsu (which is precisely the premise of these articles), Suite was the point where they really started to brag about it.
Is… is that you Date-san?
As you may or may not be aware, in which case I am about to explain anyways, PreCure airs on the TV Asashi children´s time slot, a TV programming block aimed at children´s that contains four shows: a random Shonen anime for boys (FYI, this used to be Digimon´s spot), the current Super Sentai Season, the current Kamen Rider Season and the current PreCure season, in that order. Both Sentai and Rider air on their own special sub-block called ‘Super Hero Time’, and as you probably noticed, PreCure airs right after them, which is one of the reasons why people started associating PreCure with its Super Hero brethren.
Now, by this point in time Toei had already started promoting PreCure along with the shows from Super Hero Time quite blatantly, but the ‘Magical Girl’ franchise has never been actually part of that block… which made it all the more hilarious when Suite started to throw jokes and made nods that you could only get if you watched all three shows. But before we get into that, let´s talk about the one thing that everyone has been expecting since five paragraphs ago: Kamen Rider Hibiki.
Seen here fighting evil by moon… wait.
Books have literally been written about the tragedy that befell Hibiki, and while that is a very interesting subject in itself, it is hardly relevant to our current topic so I don´t know why I even brought that up. Now, when it comes to Toku-PreCure associations very few are as widespread as the Suite-Hibiki comparisons as the mountains of crossover fan arts can attest. The reason for this is quite simple: both Suite and Hibiki are musically themed shows about “heroes” who fight monsters, and since they were both produced by the same company people naturally started drawing comparisons. To be fair, there are a few details that can make you raise an eyebrow, like how the third Cure/Rider of each show wields and electric guitar as a weapon (it is as awesome as it sounds) or how the protagonists, Cure Melody and Rider Hibiki, used dual wielding weapons.
Also, they are both named Hibiki.
While I do find those comparisons interesting, I think this is one of those cases where people blew it out of proportion because it was a really neat joke. When you really get down to it, Suite and Hibiki are completely different shows in terms of tone, designs and overall story, which is not surprising since Hibiki is known for being a very un-traditional Kamen Rider show while Suite, as bizarre as this sounds, is a very traditional Super Hero show in a way that only makes sense within Precure. Even details like Cure Beat and Todoroki´s Guitars can be boiled down to the fact that transformable electric guitars are awesome, and the Belltier/Ongekibou Rekka comparisons are really flimsy once you consider that one is a pair of Glorified Bells (of doom) and the other are a couple of Glorified Drum sticks (of Doom), so the dual wielding part is the only real similarity.
Okay, that and they both shoot fire.
As for the name thing, well, ‘Hibiki’ is a rather common word in musical terms (it means ‘to echo’ or ‘resound’) so it is not all that surprising that the protagonists of two musically themed shows are named ‘Hibiki’, which is a rather cool name when you think about it. That said, I wouldn´t be surprised if this was actually an intentional nod on the part of the Suite production team; while its production was surrounded by controversy, Hibiki still managed to find an audience for itself and I would be honestly surprised if no one in the Suite production team was unaware of the parallel, after all, it would not be the first time PreCure pulls off this kind of stunt.
Seen here Cape-Crusading.
Cure Muse is arguably the most unique aspect of the season since no series had done anything like her before or since: while she was introduced very early (episode 11), the mystery of her identity became a somewhat important part of the series until it was revealed during the last quarter when the show dropped all pretenses and kicked the plot into full gear. For the record, Suite has arguably one of the best plots in the franchise.
I swear.
During what was roughly half of the show, Kamen Masked Muse ran around helping the other Cures who kept wondering who this mysterious comrade of them was, until it was finally revealed that the fellow Cure who had saved them countless times was actually… the 9 year old side character, Shirabe Ako.
Ehhh…Spoilers.
This might not seem like a big deal now (we will cover Cure Ace some other day), but back then Muse was a groundbreaking character since she was the youngest Cure in existence; by default, all Cures are 14 year old girls, the only exception being Cure Lemonade who was 13 at the beginning of the series, but Muse broke all paradigms by being an elementary school student who was also a Cure. The franchise suddenly had character younger than her companions and that because of plot related reasons had to fight by hiding her actual age and identity for most of the show. If you have been reading these articles, you may know where I am going with this.
Jason David Frank sure looks younger than I remember.
Back in 1993, the then-airing Super Sentai Series “Gosei Sentai DaiRanger” introduced the sixth Ranger for the season, Koushinsei Kou, a bratty 10 year old kid who could wield Byakko Shinken and therefore was able to transform into KibaRanger. Because of rather perplexing plot reasons that involve his mom, a lost brother and a lump of mud (seriously), he had to keep his identity a secret from everyone, so whenever he transformed his body grew and he fought along the DaiRangers without them knowing his identity, though he did eventually revealed it to everyone, at which point his character became irrelevant.
I know this comparison seems like a stretch, but Ako and Kou seem to be characters born from the same ideas: they are younger warriors who pretend to be older than they actually are, both hide their identities due to their relationship to the main villains of the show (Mephisto and Shadam) and both of them let their sentient weapons/items do their speaking for them.
Literally.
It is really easy to compare these two characters, but in retrospective I think this is a case where Toei tried to create characters that appealed to a younger audiences by being a proxy of them, and it just so happens that the characters they created with almost 20 years of difference ended up having a lot of parallels and reused several ideas. Still, it wouldn´t surprise me if the whole “Masked Muse” idea came to be from looking back at characters like Kou and thinking of how to incorporate such a character into PreCure.
The answer: Platform shoes.
These are all neat observations, but even I have to admit that Suite was not as overt as it predecessors when it came to its Toku influences; whenever Fresh and HeartCatch wanted to make a Toku reference, they did it with a wink, a smile and a chest full of pride. Suite was much more subtle in that regard, but it still incorporated elements from Super Hero shows in its execution, like making Hibiki (I am physically unable to call her ‘Cure Melody’) a cool leader that was more in line with your usual Red Ranger from Sentai.
No one has been so pink and yet so badass since Decade.
And this is where the self-awareness aspect comes into play, since the show did seem to make fun of this fact. Take, for example, the Halloween episode where everyone got to wear a disguise:
One of these is not like the others.
As you can probably tell, Pumpkin Witches are not a thing that exists, but besides that Hibiki is the only one who is wearing a rather odd disguise: unlike everyone else who wears a disguise that relates to some aspect of their characters, Hibiki is dressed as a pirate, a detail that would be unimportant if it weren´t because of…
One Piece?
…Gokaiger, the then-current Super Sentai season whose primary theme was Pirates and that aired concurrently with Suite. Again, this might seem like an unimportant detail, but this is what I mean when I say that Suite cranked up the self-awareness; up until that point, PreCure only did general references to Toku shows that could be easily written off as normal references that Anime makes all the time, but with Suite they started the trend of directly acknowledging the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai seasons that aired right before them in a very direct way, almost like saying ‘yes, we are part of the club now’. They didn´t do these kind of things all that often, but when they did it was hard to ignore.
Just like flowers can´t ignore the Sun(man).
And that is Suite PreCure, a show that while wasn´t as obvious in its use of Toku/Super Hero elements, it still acknowledged them and was never afraid to show that yes, the Cures are just as heroic as their live action brethren. It definitely had issues, but in the grand scheme of Precure it had a very good plot and the element of self-awareness gave it a very interesting feel. The Tokuness (there´s that word again) of the show was certainly light, but that was only the prologue of things to come…
Right now in fact.
Smile PreCure
Let´s get one thing out of the way first: Smile PreCure had the same character designer and same director as the YPC5/YPC5Gogo double series, and I think you know what that means.
This. This is what it means.
If you have seen 5Gogo then Smile might seem very familiar since in terms of structure these two shows are very similar, and yes, that means that Smile is a very Super Sentai-esque season, but it does have some very unique elements to it that make it stand out, and a lot of that has to do with the show´s main writer: Shouji Yonomemura.
I have rambled to the infinite (infinite!) about this guy before, not because I have a grudge against him but because I am a fan of the guy and I am disappointed that Toei keeps giving him the shaft; maybe he is talented, but most of his works are riddled with the producers meddling, so very few of his works have been genuinely successful. As you can probably guess, Yonomemura is one of the in-house writers at Toei who has worked on PreCure before but most of his work has been in Toku, as a matter of fact the only other big credit to his name besides Smile PreCure is 2006´s Kamen Rider Kabuto.
Jarring? What do you mean by ‘Jarring’?
I am not going to start making comparisons between Smile and Kabuto (probably), but I will say that Yonomemura´s background certainly influenced Smile since this season has the greatest amount of nods to Tokusatsu in PreCure, which is no small feat if you have been reading along. But before I get on to that there is something I would like to point out in relation to Yonomemura and the Smile PreCure cast.
How all of them dye their hair?
No, not that. See, one of the things that really distinguishes this cast in comparison with the ones from previous seasons is the fact that they are all underdogs; the show goes out of its way to emphasize how even if each of the girls has a certain talent, they are not the best at it and they even fail a few times when trying to achieve something. This character dynamic is actually very well used since it perfectly portrays the main theme of the season: it doesn´t matter if you don´t always succeed as long as you have the will to keep trying and move forward. I actually really liked this aspect of the show, but this was certainly not the first time Yonomemura used this particular character archetype. Now everyone, say it with me!
KAAAAAGAAAMIIIIII!!!
Back in 2007, Yonomemura used this exact same idea for one of the main characters of Kamen Rider Kabuto, Arata Kagami, a character that while was not the protagonist, a good chunk of the series did focused on him and he was arguably the character we were supposed to relate to as an audience since the actual protagonist had bit of a superiority complex.
And the hair of a greek god, if I might add.
Kagami was a kind-hearted guy who only wanted to protect people, which is a nice ideal and all but it had a couple of issues: first, he wasn´t very good at the whole “being a hero” thing and second, Tendou Souji/Kabuto was better than him in every conceivable way.
Fashion sense being a primary example.
Still, Kagami never really stopped trying to help people and at the end his efforts paid off when he was chosen to become Kamen Rider Gatack, making his character arc one of the most endearing parts of that show as he literally went from zero to hero through perseverance and hard work, which is pretty much the exact same character arc the cast of Smile goes through, except that the focus wasn´t so much on how they became heroes as much as it was on them going from barely effective Cures to fighting Black holes.
In PreCure, this is known as a ‘Wednesday’.
I really don´t think this is a coincidence since the way Yonomemura wrote the themes of Smile is very reminiscent the growth of Gatack as a character, particularly in the way in which both shows present the idea that not giving up and doing your best is more important than being perfect. This might make Smile seem very dramatic, and while the show did have its share of drama (and crying, my lord the crying), it was far from serious; Smile is a fairly silly show and it seems to me that Yonomemura used his time in PreCure to make fun of the Toku genre while deconstructing the idea of heroes to a degree. And with that, I give you Cure Peace.
Remember that.
It is not exactly a secret that the character of Kise Yayoi/Cure Peace is portrayed as a Super Hero fangirl pretty much from the get go, and while some people see her as a “representation” of the Otaku fanbase, I think the truth is simpler than that: Yayoi is a girl who truly loves Super Heroes, so a lot of the jokes of the show revolve around her embracing her love for them while being one herself. This might not seem like a big deal, she is hardly the first character to do so, but a lot of times the show used Yayoi to acknowledge Kamen Rider and Super Sentai as being the “big brothers” of PreCure. The above quote for example, is a reference to Kamen Rider Decade´s catchphrase, a line so silly and yet so awesome that has been quoted to death ever since 2009.
Even Mazinger did it.
That quote is a perfect example of how Smile seems to make fun of the fact that the Cures are indeed Super Heroes even if they don´t look like it and how blatant their association with Toku is. If you think I am exaggerating, consider this: remember how I said back when we covered YPC5 that PreCure essentially copied the Super Sentai Roll Call?
Like this.
Well, Smile actually makes several jokes about it, the most obvious being the one above where the Cures made a reference to the Roll Call of Himitsu Sentai Goranger, the very first Super Sentai Series (the actual line is “Gonin Sorete GoPreCure/GoRanger”). The build up to that joke was quite funny since it started when Miyuki/Cure Happy decided that since the team had finally been assembled, they needed to decide on a group pose, a leap in logic that made sense only if your name was Yayoi.
Warning: There will be plenty of screenshots like this one.
The pay off for the joke is exactly what you would expect from PreCure: when they finally unveil their roll call, it is huge, elaborated and the moment they finish the MOTW* shoots a missile at them. It´s a silly moment but it also perfectly displays the absolute truth about Super Sentai Roll Calls: yes, they are stupid, but I will be damned if they are not awesome.
*loud wailing*
Of course, making fun of the Super Sentai is not the only recurring joke in Smile; one of the recurrent jokes in the series is one that was actually carried on from last season: the lone hero known as Sunman.
I am pretty sure this is a Tamasshi Web Exclusive.
The character of Sunman is a parody Toku hero that was actually introduced during Suite, but it only became a full-fledged element of the show during Smile. Naturally, Sunman is Yayoi´s favorite Super Hero and is basically an amalgamation characters from Kamen Rider and the Metal Hero series with some Ultraman thrown in.
If you don´t recognize this pose, don´t even talk to me.
It is worth nothing though, while Yayoi´s love for Super Heroes is usually the punch line of the joke, the show does take a serious stand every once in a while and praises the idea of Heroes as inspirational Figures that children look up and admire because they want to be better. In Yayoi´s case, maybe she is a crybaby with a childish love for Super Heroes, but it is her desire to be like her heroes what motivates her to keep trying her best.
She even made her own PreCure. Wait…
This is a very good example of how Yonomemura´s work on Smile seems to work as a homage towards the Super Hero genre; while sometimes he does make fun of it, it is always in a loving way and he makes sure of portraying the idea of Heroes as positive influences that everyone can enjoy, a perspective that is quite fascinating when it comes from writer who has done so much work on Toku.
But going back to actual references, Smile continued the trend started by Suite of making nods to the shows that aired right before it, except that Smile was never shy about it, something that is quite amusing because most of these jokes would go right over your head if you didn´t watched all three shows in a row.
Like that Time when they visited the Toei Edo Village.
This one is actually a very good example of how Smile and PreCure in general can mix Toku references with sheer self-awareness: when you are a long time Toku fan, there is a point when you realize that these shows use a lot of the same locations over and over again, and one of the most famous is the Toei Edo Village, a tourist attraction/movie set normally used for period dramas that Super Heroes visit constantly, even when it doesn´t make a lick of sense. Suffice to say that the Smile Cures went there and ended up filming a (what else?) a Youkai film (ask your grandparents) that somehow devolved into them fighting a monster.
Speaking of repeated locations, Smile was also responsible for what is either one of the greatest PreCure-Toku nods of all time or a coincidence so amazing that it could very well herald the apocalypse.
Why yes, that is the very same station.
Episodes 13 and 14 of Smile focused on the crew going on a school trip to Kyoto, a plot device that is quite common in animes that use Middle/High School as their main setting. You know what other show use that very same setting? That´s right, Kamen Rider Fourze, whose episodes 33 and 34 also featured a school trip to Kyoto. Now you might be saying “So what? School trips to Kyoto are very common, you said it yourself!”, and you are right, I did say that, but what´s curious here is that those episode of Smile and Fourze aired in the exact same days, something that I find very hard to brush off as a coincidence since I doubt Toei would seemingly celebrated the unofficial “Kyoto Week” of Super Hero Time by mere chance. Yes, I know that the Go-Busters didn´t went to Kyoto, but Smile didn´t forget about them.
Good lord, now she has a beret.
If you pay attention, during one of Yayoi´s focus episodes you can see that she has a calendar of what is clearly a group shot of the Go-Busters, though they are disguised using some elements from the Goseigers because you can never be too subtle, can you?
Yes, yes you can.
Okay this one is actually one of my favorite references in the show because you would have to be crazy to even notice it: during episode 39, Miyuki and the others are trapped inside the Cinderella fairy tale, and because this is clearly not a copy to that one episode of 5Gogo that had the exact same plot, everyone becomes a different character from the story. In Yayoi´s case, she becomes a witch because of course she does and what do you know, the magic words that she uses to summon her spells are the very same magic words used by Shunpei, one of the sidekick characters from Kamen Rider Wizard, the Rider season that was airing at the time.
Shunpei´s one moment of relevance.
I found this one hilarious because this has to be the single most obscure reference you could make, like, the only way you could pick this one up is if you A)Pay really close attention to the dialogue and B)Actually remember something from Wizard. Well, besides that scene.
Believe me, knowing the context won´t help.
Honestly, that reference is so subtle and so well hidden that I can´t see how could they possibly top that of-
Wait…is that Biollante? Again?
Oh jeez, I guess this time I should properly explain this one: the monster on the right is the Akanbe of the week from Smile´s mother day episode and the monster on the left is the second part of the tittle from the 1989 DaiKaiju film ‘Godzilla vs. Biollante’. You could argue that the Rose Akanbe is just that, a Rose Monster, but this Akanbe in particular also happens to have the EXACT SAME attacks as Biollante in its Rose Form. Add the fact that ‘Godzilla vs. Biollante’ is one of the most popular Godzilla films in Japan and you could see why the production team decided to put Biollante in Precure yet again.
On their defense, this poster is super rad.
Speaking of Rad, you knew this one was coming.
Pictured: Precure throwing logic out the window.
Episode 35 of Smile can only be described using the words ‘amazing’, ‘bafling’ and ‘dear lord what has science done!?’. The plot of this episode revolves around Majorina creating yet another magic item that will defeat the Cures: a pistol that transforms anyone it shoots into a giant robot. Since we clearly abandoned suspension of disbelief long ago, the episode quickly devolves into one big parody of Super Robot Animes. Let me repeat that, PreCure, of all things, did a Super Robot parody. And I mean real Super Robots like Mazinger and Getter Robo and not that Eva thing kids nowadays seem to like. Of course, there is a Go-Buster reference in there were Yayoi (of course) uses the same command RedBuster uses to initiate the combine operation, but I am going to skim the details and prompt you to watch it yourself since your life won´t be complete otherwise
I swear, I had the exact same reaction when watching GaoGaiGar.
And that is the bulk of Smile Precure, unless I am forgetting something which I probably am. If you have heard of Smile before you probably know that this season is not held in a very high regard by most of the fans, which is not inaccurate but it is unfair; Smile is not as deep or complex as its predecessor, but its silliness and simplicity are charming nonetheless. If you like Tokusatsu this show is a very interesting viewing experience, it might not blow you out of the water but you would certainly find it amusing given that you don´t take it too seriously. Lord knows the show doesn´t.
Isn´t that right, Kumo-akane?
The Seiyuu Connection
It´s time for everyone´s favorite game that is not a FPS, has no violence or nudity whatsoever, its low impact and you can totally play indoors. It´s fun, I swear.
The first on today´s list is voice actress Fumiko Orikaza who portrayed Cure Rhythm and who is a very good singer to boost. I only point that out because I know someone who will wine if I don´t mention it (you know who you are. Yes, you). As for the Toku side of her career, back in the long-forgotten year of 1999 she also provided the voice for the totally-not-insert-toy Time Roboter from Mirai Sentai Timeranger.
Seen here on its natural habitat: a toy catalog.
Not a big role, but going from glorified alarm clock to Ami Koshimizu´s Wife is a pretty good promotion if you ask me.
Next we have Keichi Sonobe, a somewhat popular voice actor (note: my research methods are flawed at best) who brought life to the elder and totally-not-fundamental-to-the-plot Otokichi.
It´s like a really bizarre Brady Bunch.
Surprisingly, he has had more than a few roles in Toku, though most of them were monsters of the week, so naturally I only recognized like, half of them.
Moving on to the villain side we have Mitsuaki Madono who voiced Flat, one of the villains in the Suite Movie and that back in 2007 lent his voice to Kitaneidas of Engine Sentai Go-Onger.
I guess he likes trios’ har har.
And following that, we have the actual final villain of the show, the evil Noise, as voiced by Ryusei Nakao. Keeping alive Precure´s tradition of having awesome voice actors, Ryusei also provided the voice for Frieza in that anime about a boy and his Dragon spheres that you may have heard about, but back in 2004 he was also the final villain of the detective drama Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger. I am of course talking of Agent Aburera.
So, a Bird-man and a Bat-man walk into a bar…
Hey, and speaking of final bosses, Cure Rhythm/Kanade´s Father was voiced by Toru Okawa, who recently provided the voice for Deboss, the ultimate villain in Zyuden Sentai Kyouryuuger:
Oh my, what a big mouth you have there, Toru.
Yes, I am using the TVN spelling, sue me.
This one is kind of cool but slightly sad: Tomoyuki Dan, who provided the voice for Hojou Dan AKA Hibiki´s dad also provided his voice, face and the rest of his body for the character of Shinkuro Isaka AKA The Weather Dopant.
No funny caption available.
Sadly, Tomoyuki Dan left this world last year (2013) and joined the great cast of voice actors in heaven, where he presumably spends his time trading stories with Naya Goro.
Whelp, that was slightly depressing. Can I have a picture of Cure Moonlight to cheer me up?
*cries*
Oh goddamn it. Let´s move on to Smile and hope that it involves less crying.
First we have Cure March who was voiced by Marina Inoue, a voice actress with some experience and that a few years ago portrayed one of the main villains of the third arc of Tensou Sentai Goseiger. I am of course speaking of Agent Metal Alice.
*Insert your own ‘Bad End March’ joke here*
I actually find this kind of cool since Metal Alice only appears in 10 episodes and yet she is arguably the best character of the show, which either speaks wonders of her as a voice actress or really puts Goseiger´s quality into perspective.
Okay, this one is only barely related to Toku, but is still kind of interesting: prolific voice actress Sumi Shimamoto lent her voice to the Royal Queen, our monarch in distress for the season, and it just so happens that once upon a time she was casted in ”The Ultraman”.
Huh, they actually kind of look alike.
In case you don´t know (which is highly unlikely), “The Ultraman”, also known as Ultraman Jonias, is the only animated entry in the long standing Ultraman franchise. This is the last time I reference Ultraman in this article.
Jumping onto the Villain Bandwagon (best bandwagon) we actually have a double timer: Tesshou Genda provided the voice for the main villain of Suite Precure´s Movie, Howling, and returned to Smile in order to voice the final villain of the show, the Evil Clown/Blackhole hybrid Pierrot.
So, a bird-dragon, a gorilla and a giant clown walk into a bar…
On the Toku side we have two remarkable roles as Gorisaki Banana from Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters and as the modern voice of the evil inter-dimensional monster Yapool of Ultraman Ace´s fame.
Yes, I was lying about the whole ‘No more Ultraman’ thing.
Only slightly below in the Bad End hierarchy we have Yuuji Mitsuya who played the overly creepy but ultimately ineffectual Joker and that many moons ago also lent his voice to PP Adamsky of the (technically) Tokusatsu show, X-Bomber.
That robot is clearly evil, just look at it
Wait, what´s that?
Well, my editors have just informed me that this is officially the single most obscure reference I have made on these articles. I am getting a medal.
To wrap this up, let´s have a look at the secondary cast where we have a few interesting actors, like Emi Shinohara who once upon a time provided the voice for Sailor Jupiter in an old anime about planets you probably have never heard about. As far as Smile and Toku goes, she lent her voice to Shizuko Aoki, Cure Beauty´s mother, and Burstosaur Pteranodon from Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger.
If only Pteranodon had been blue…
Next we have Masaki Terasome, who portrayed the father of Cure Sunny, Daigo Hino, and that a few years ago did the voice for the yellow imagin, Kintaros.
His lack of screen time will make you cry.
This is quite funny becau- wait, wasn´t he also the voice of ShadowMoon in Kamen Rider Black and Black Rx?
The Century King?
Holly cow, does this mean that Cure Sunny is the niece of the Child of the Sun?
She of the Fire Transformation?
Man, her character just got 10 times more awesome.
Well, to close this off…okay, seriously?
Apparently Toshihiko Seki, known for his role as the Imagin Momotaros, also played the father of Cure Happy, Hiroshi Hoshizora.
The Fairy tale loving Cure is the daughter of Momotaros. Subtle.
So basically Ryuutaros fought the Fresh PreCures and Momotaros and Kintaros are the fathers of Two Smile Cures. If Koji Yusa is also in this show I am screaming.
Closing thoughts.
Well, that was an interesting trip.
For as much as I have talked of how PreCure is related to Tokusatsu (which is no small feat as you can attest), so far this has not been a fundamental element of a PreCure experience; up until now you could watch PreCure without having the faintest idea of what “SHUWATCH” means, but that really started to change with these couple of seasons. While past seasons where more than contempt with just being part of the PreCure franchise, from Suite onwards the series really started to embrace its position among Japan´s finest Heroes, almost proclaiming that these girls didn´t need a mask or a robot to protect the world.
Believe or not, it will only get more insane.
So, what do you think? Is Suite a great season that is often overlooked due to its behind-the-scenes issues? Is Smile Shouji Yonomemura´s love letter to the Hero genre? Did i totally spoiled one of the big twists of Suite and have no regrets whatsoever? Hey, it´s been almost 3 years, if you haven´t seen it then you have no one to blame but yourself.
Anyways, leave a comment and get ready for next week when we will finally reach the earth-shattering conclusion of Toku Special!!!
Why yes, i love being overly dramatic.
For my previous works, go here.