I attended Anime Central 2025 last month! I enjoyed it a lot and ate a decent amount of Chicago’s iconic foods, so expect some reviews and other coverage in the coming weeks (or maybe months). The last time I was there, I was very under the weather (later finding out it was COVID-19), so it was sure to be a better overall experience this go around.
Kio had a talk at a gallery, and tweeted his wishes for how Gundam GQuuuuuuX would go.
Closing
I hear that a funny VTuber that may or may not be part Shark, part Mackerel is on the horizon. I hope she’s gonna be a part of the upcoming Virtual Vacation 2025 concert…
Kio was at Gallery Zenon and the Rakuen cafe. He went with manga author Tsuruta Kenji.
Kio founded the Madarame Cream Soda to be really fizzy, capturing the viewpoint of the manga. The gelatinous bits also make it dangerous to talk while drinking it.
Kio lays out his vision of what he wanted to see in Gundam GQuuuuuuX Episode 7 [SPOILERS KIND OF?]:
Machu and Shuji start the Clan Battle as MAVs -> Nyan deals with the money -> Deux goes berserk because of the kira kira -> The Psycho Gundam does severe damage to the colony -> The Military Police gets wiped out -> The Psycho Gundam reaches the building where Kycili and Machu’s mom are -> Machu and Shuji can’t stop it -> Xavier’s Gyan and Shallia’s Kikeroga arrive in style -> The Hambrabi is shot down -> The Psycho Gundam is pushed back, leading Deux to go Newtype berserk even more -> Zeknova -> The Red Gundam vanishes -> Xavier is shot down -> Challia and Machu form an impromptu MAV combo and destroy the Psycho Gundam -> Machu leaves her cockpit to find Shuji -> Machu’s identity is exposed by the broadcast -> She goes with Challia because he knows about Zeknova -> Nyan fails to procure the money and flees -> She runs into Xavier after he crashed -> Nyan goes to Zeon.
Orb: On the Movements of the Earth is either the best-timed anime release of all time or the worst. To begin airing in a time when scientific thought and discoveries of the past 150 years are under attack—by reactionary forces claiming to be speaking on behalf of God, no less—hits with stinging precision. But I’m very glad we have this show, which has a very good chance of being the best anime of 2025.
Adapted from a manga by the same name, Orb takes place in mid-20th-century Europe, and begins with a boy named Rafal, who has spent his life trying to present himself as the perfect child in pursuit of an easy life. However, he has a minor interest in astronomy, and when he learns the heretical idea that the Earth revolves around the sun, it sets him on a path in conflict with the Church and his own peace and comfort, and changes the lives of others who also similarly discover that the pursuit of truth isn’t easy when the authorities in your world want to keep you blissfully ignorant.
Throughout the show, one thing that stands out to me is how the characters are products of their time in terms of how they both follow and defy the predominant conventions around them. For example, while you have characters who are proponents of heliocentrism, they are often also deeply religious and believe that they are celebrating and worshipping God by doing so. They are shaped by both personal qualities and cultural forces, whether it’s a zealous inquisitor named Nowak who thinks his bloody work helps protect his family, a scholarly monk named Badeni who thinks scientific discovery is important but that literacy should be restricted to the elite, or a young girl named Jolenta who loves to learn but is faced with pervasive and entrenched sexism of her environment.
I hope as many people as possible watch Orb because while its ideas aren’t exactly new, they are especially important to remember and take to heart right now and likely in the coming decades. I would recommend that you go into this show knowing next to nothing, but if you don’t mind spoilers, I’m going to list some additional thoughts I had after finishing the series.
Before that, I need to mention the fantastic theme song, which has become a massive hit in Japan. If nothing else convinces you to watch this show, maybe the opening will.
SPOILER SECTION
I want to first start at the end, and think about the fact that the attempt by Rafal and all the others before the finale was ostensibly for naught, as they failed to get their book on heliocentrism published. However, by having the last protagonist be Albert Brudewski, showing him initially dismissing the idea heliocentrism but still believing in math, and explaining in the epilogue that this was a real-live person who would later become Copernicus’s teacher, the series emphasizes something important. Orb is basically historical fiction about what if there were earlier people who had made Copernicus’s discovery but were forgotten because their work was destroyed, but it also shows how the simple act of observing the stars with a curious mind can bring back ideas thought lost to time. Science has the power to persist because its findings can eventually be rediscovered. This even shows up when Badeni looks at the orb necklace hanging on two nails and inadvertently realizes that the planets have elliptical orbits—in the real world, it would be Johannes Kepler who theorized it over 100 years later.
The destruction of human knowledge is not fictional. Famous real-world examples of this include the destruction of the Library of Alexandria as well as the Imperial Library of Constantinople, and even today, we are seeing the loss of both knowledge and lives that has been the result of the current Trump administration and its sledgehammer gutting of science and health initiatives. The tragedy we are seeing will ripple forward, but there is hope that we can come back from this someday.
In thinking again about how the characters are shaped by their circumstances, one thing I really love about Orb is how the transmission of science across time is done through very imperfect individuals, instead of giving us brilliant intellectuals altruistically motivated to progress human thought. Badeni and his selfish scholarship is one thing, but there’s also Draka, whose profit-obsessed mind is what allows her to pursue unconventional avenues of thought and push things ahead where others might falter. Oczy is in no way an intellectual, but his tremendous eyesight and humble personality both help push things ahead, especially when he makes Badeni realize the potential there is in a simple book written for the (presumably dumb) layman.
Even figures who aren’t the protagonists or adjacent to them impact the course of events in fascinating ways. Count Piast pushes away a doubt he had about geocentrism for most of his life in the fear that it would render pointless his life’s work (and that of his mentor), but he ultimately acquiesces because he realizes being wrong is just as important to finding the truth as being right. A young inquisitor in training who thinks little about what his work truly entails later becomes the priest in the church where Albert makes his confession, and that priest’s questioning of Church orthodoxy is the result of seeing his colleague help Jolenta escape at the cost of being burned at the stake.
What a work, man. I hope it gets as much recognition as possible.
When I first saw the opening of Blue Comet SPT Layzner, I was blown away. The music, the animation, the dramatic flair, the giant robots—it all worked together to make me want to see the show for real someday.
This was my introduction to Layzner, and it would be a long time before I was able to watch the series. Now that I have, I’ve come away feeling that this Cold War relic is not only an excellent work despite major setbacks, but actually more relevant than ever, for better or worse.
Before actually watching it, I continued to encounter Layzner in different forms. In the first TV series of my beloved Genshiken, there’s an episode preview narration where the characters are talking about anime that got their runs cut short. The character Madarame (i.e. the nerdiest of the nerds) posits the curious notion that it’s not so much that great shows often get canceled but that getting canceled is the very sign of a great show. One of the series he mentions is the thinly veiled title Dizner, which taught me that Layzner was an anime that got kneecapped.
Was this abrupt end a case of a show burning bright and then fizzling out? Or maybe the merch simply didn’t sell; that happens all the time. But the truth is more bizarre, and tells the story of a series cursed by circumstances beyond its control—a faulty kerosene heater made by the primary sponsor of Layzner, Sanyo Electronics,meant funding ended up being pulled.
Later, I would command the characters of Layzner through my import copy of Super Robot Wars GC, but because my Japanese was not all that great at the time, my understanding of the story was limited, as was my awareness of how exactly it was rushed. (Having Shin Getter Robo and Mazinkaiser show up doesn’t exactly reflect the story of Layzner with great accuracy either.)
But now, in 2025, I can say I have watched all 38 episodes of Blue Comet SPT Layzner, plus the three OVAs made to give the series some semblance of a real conclusion. But before I get to the end, I need to talk about the beginning and all the potential this anime held and indeed lived up to, until things went sideways.
Watching Layzner
In the future year of 1996, the Cold War between the US and USSR has expanded into the stars. During a visit to a space station by a youth culture club, a mysterious figure appears. His name is Eiji Asuka, and he has come to warn the Earth of an impending invasion by his home planet, Grados. Eiji is half Earthling, and he does not want his father’s world destroyed by war. The advanced giant robots known as SPTs are far superior to anything humankind has created, but luckily, Eiji has an SPT of his own: the powerful Layzner. However, his abhorrence towards killing weighs heavily on him when he might have to turn his weapons on the very people from his home planet. This is made doubly troublesome because the A.I. of Layzner seems to hold a dangerous secret that makes it much less merciful than Eiji himself.
Layzner drew me in instantly with its compelling story, its characters’ political and philosophical conflicts, and its overall animation and style—80s “real robot” anime at its finest. Every episode brims with drama and intensity, and the action is consistently exciting. Central to it all is Eiji himself, who definitely has a place in the Mecha Angst Hall of Fame. Unlike the stoic Chirico Cuvie from director Takahashi Ryousuke’s Armored Trooper VOTOMS, Eiji is deeply passionate about his love for both Grados and Earth, and the determination he must hold while his heart aches makes for one of the finest (and indeed angstiest) protagonists ever. His compassion also helps win over some of the more skeptical Earthlings, who go from mistrusting him to being some of his closest allies. One of those humans, a 14-year-old girl named Anna Stephanie, acts as the narrator for the series.
The Mid-Series Tonal Shift
Like with so many anime that are set to run for an entire year, the “halfway” point for Layzner comes with a massive shift and changing of the status quo. Whereas the first 26 episodes are about Eiji trying to reach the Earth in the hopes of preventing or at least slowing down war, the second part sees the plot jump forward a few years to a time when the Earth is dealing with a brutally regime that is trying to stamp out all nearly aspects of human culture, including books and art. Given our current political climate—where right-wing leaders who are largely fascists, racists, and grifters who are trying to force their backwards view of humanity onto the world and bilk us for all we’re worth—I found myself taking a bit of psychological damage. Seeing the main New York Public Library being set on fire hits a little too close to home, and it makes me all too aware of the fact that I might have viewed this series differently if I had watched it even 10 years earlier.
Eiji himself changes during this time, abandoning some of his more pacifist tendencies in favor of outright opposition against the powers that be. He also goes from that angsty young man with a thinner build to a brooding and brawny freedom fighter. While he isn’t Fist of the North Star Kenshiro levels of being a barrel-chested Greek god, the difference is noticeable.
However, the biggest transformation goes to Anna Stephanie, who grows into a strong 17-year-old girl and has basically learned what it means to fight in the face of oppression from her time with Eiji. Anna might be a sticking point for viewers, as her younger self seems designed to appeal to lolicon fans, and they set up a burgeoning romance towards the end of the first 26 episodes that’s made more blatant after the timeskip (including an ending theme talking about love and longing). While Eiji is supposed to be 16 (later 19), his design is such that he looks much more mature than Anna, and I have to wonder if the timeskip designs are meant to make the pairing more generally palatable.
The Early Finish
It’s fairly clear around when the sponsorship got pulled because the show begins to make giant leaps forward in time with only the briefest explanations as to what has changed. The final episode answers next to nothing, functioning like a canceled manga’s non-conclusion. The third and final OVA episode basically replaces Episode 38 and gives a greater sense of closure to Layzner as a whole, but still has to suffer from the fact that the series was originally forced to rush through its story by the end. That said, it’s truly fascinating to see what a work of fiction prioritizes when it suddenly doesn’t have enough time left, and Layzner chooses to up the political and emotional drama of its characters.
If there’s a significant flaw of the series that is not wholly related to having its year-long run cut short, it’s that Lazyner sometimes doesn’t seem to know what to do with certain characters. For example, the initial image of Eiji’s sister comes from the ending sequence, where it implies that she is some kind of gentle soul draped in a white dress. However, when we finally meet her in the series, she is a focused warrior intent on revenge. Then, after the timeskip, she becomes more like a messianic religious leader whose pacifism gives hope to the people. Another character whose purpose seems to change over time is Le Cain, the talented and powerful son of the Gradosian commander who is leading the assault on Earth. Introduced later in the series, he swings from arrogant and brutal antagonist to honorable rival to naive noble desperate for his father’s approval, with some romantic sparks between him and Eiji’s sister. I get the sense that Le Cain ended up being a popular character, and that the show tried to lean into this.
Final Thoughts
Hobbled by aspects outside of the production’s control, Blue Comet SPT Layzner is nevertheless an all-time great that tragically could have been even better if it was allowed to tell its full story. It has the characters, the story, and the thematic messages to be a timeless classic, and unfortunately for us, it is perhaps more relevant than ever before. I’m very glad I watched Layzner after all these years. While it might have taken forever, the timing might have been perfect: In the world we live in now, Lazyner makes me feel more invigorated to stand up for human dignity.
April was a hell of a month for VTuber fans. Between the departures from various major companies, a few surprise returns, and even a boatload of legitimate drama on the indie side, it felt like a nonstop rollercoaster. It has been (and perhaps will continue to be) such a frenzy of a time that I devoted more posts to the topic of VTubers than I usually would—a combination of things I had been wanting to write about, plus other things becoming more time-sensitive. Additionally, I want to write something encapsulating the tumult, because I think it deserves to be gathered together and contextualized.
The result is that many of the posts I had been working on that are more directly related to anime and manga have been pushed back. Hopefully, I can get some out for May.
Last month, I mentioned thinking about allowing tips directly through WordPress. I don’t really see Ogiue Maniax as my primary source of income, so I’m not desperate for more ways to make money, but it might be a way for readers to show support without having to use Patreon. I do technically have a ko-fi gathering dust as well, but maybe folks would prefer less hoops to jump through.
Kio spent all of April Fool’s driving, so he couldn’t see any of the jokes. Someone suggests he still has time to fly to the US and experience the day there, and Kio responds that he’d only end up seeing American April Fool’s gags as a result. Another person mentions that he heard Genshiken 3 was coming out, to which Kio replies, “Yay!”
Kio drew fanart of Sis-tan (the mascot of the arcade Okayama Fantasista) for her 10th anniversary. SIsta-tan tells Kio that he’s helped make her anniversary more splendid, and asks Kio what games he’s played at arcades.
Kio responds that there were certain games—namely Neo-Geo ones—that he would only ever watch at the arcades because he wasn’t brave enough to play against other people. He did get to play them at a friend’s house, though. When it came to games he actually played, he liked vertical-scrolling shooters like Gunbirdand RayForce.
Sis-tan replies in turn that it was still great that Kio had an environment where he could play Neo-Geo, especially one where no one as skilled as Kohsaka in Genshiken would show up. And while Okayama Fantasista doesn’t have a whole lot of vertical shooters, it would still be great if he came to play the ones that are there.
Kio got help to finish his work schedule for April, but it looks like some of his other work will spill into May. A person replies that Gundam GQuuuuuuX model kits come out in May, but Kio doesn’t think he’ll be able to buy them, so he’s giving up now. He really wants them all, though.
Kio is happy to finally have some time to watch the first episode of Gundam GQuuuuuuX. He’s jealous of those who can watch the first episode without having seen the theatrical release, The Beginning, which he did.
Kio thought nothing would really surprise him in the first episode of GQuuuuuuX just because he saw The Beginning in theaters, but the ending theme made him a lot more emotional than he expected. [The ED is by hololive’s Hoshimachi Suisei!]
He was already seeing fanart of the show’s characters before the first episode even aired, so watching the ending video had him in tears. The personalities contrast between the two main girls is right up his alley, and his imagination is running wild as a result.
Someone responds that he also expects to see old men dancing to the opening. Kio recalls grinning so hard he could die at “Naatu Naatu” from RRR, and wonders if the old men dancing to “Plazma” could beat that.
Despite a busy schedule, Kio went to the Hirano Kouta Super Expo gallery, featuring the work of the Hellsing author. He thought it was fantastic, from the way it showcased the power and insanity of the work, to the choice of manuscript pages to feature, to the way it showed off what makes all the characters great.
He wanted to listen to the audio guide by the Hellsing characters Luke and Jan, but he didn’t realize that he needed to connect to it through his smartphone, so he ran out to get some cheap earbuds.
Kio wears bifocals, but he likes to look at his work with the naked eye. However, when he does, he risks getting headaches and has to take Bufferin (a brand of aspirin).
Kio is happy that after a day of intently painting erotic naked skin in grayscale, he then gets to watch trailers for the new Ghost in the Shell and Steel Ball Run anime.
Thunderbolt Fantasy 4 aired a few months ago, with Crunchyroll making the series available to English speakers after it concluded. The season is the penultimate entry before the movie finale, and I wanted to just get some thoughts out before I finish it all. Everything I said in my first and second reviews still applies, and Thunderbolt Fantasy is still something that I hope everyone checks out, whether in spite of its medium (epic puppets) or because of.
More eyeballs on it! More!
Thunderbolt Fantasy is the story of Shāng Bù Huán, a mysterious wandering swordsman who is trying to collect and seal the mystical weapons that once helped humanity beat back an invasion from the Demon Realm, but are now dangerous remnants that are sought after. He meets many eclectic (and often dangerous) personalities—some friends and some foes, but always larger than life. This most recent season finally brings the story to the Demon Realm itself, and while it’s as eerie and dreadful a place as one might expect, there are some surprising twists about what it’s really like, and the powerful figures who run it. Reunions and revelations are plentiful, but there are also new characters who make a hell of an impression (pun only somewhat intended).
Without going into spoilers, this is a series where truly anything is possible and it hits on so many different levels of entertainment. You’re mainly interested in shounen battle anime? The fights in this series are amazing and the characters are some of the coolest I’ve ever seen. Oh, you love witty reparté by a large cast of charismatic characters? This is writer Urobuchi Gen (Madoka Magica, Saya no Uta) at his very best. How about a narrative with robust world building that rewards viewers but doesn’t take itself too seriously? Ample opportunities for shipping both queer and het? Great portrayals of characters not limited by gender stereotypes? All satisfyingly covered. Heck, are you really into yandere? Take your pick, because there’s more than one.
Thunderbolt Fantasy may be over in Japan, which means now is a great time to just sit down and watch through it. I hope to see you on the other side!
Super Robot Wars Y is official, which means we’re getting the first mainline game in the series since Super Robot Wars 30 in 2021. I once interviewed the (now former) producer of SRW, Terada Takenobu, and I came away with the impression that a lot of their resources were devoted to the Super Robot Wars DD mobile game. In light of this, I’m glad to see the console releases haven’t been abandoned.
One big difference this time is that they haven’t announced all the giant robot titles involved yet. I assume that they have come to understand the power of hype cycles in the current media landscape a la Smash Bros. This also means I have a bit of time to think about what titles I want to see in SRWY, and that’s what I fully intend to do. Some would be all new, some would be returning, and some would have only been introduced in SRWDD.
Bang Brave Bang Bravern
Just getting the theme song would be worthwhile, and I would love to see Bravern gushing over being surrounded by other cool robots. The way the series plays with time could also open the opportunity for more storylines to join together. This series also is one of the most overtly gay mecha anime ever, which would play well with Gundam: Witch from Mercury.
The Big O
I honestly just want tomato jokes involving Roger Smith and Suletta from Witch from Mercury. I even once made a drawing of the gag.
Gowapper 5 Godam or Gold Lightan
With Macross back, I want to see some other Tatsunoko series get a debut in SRW. The goofier, the better—hence these picks. Also, Youko from Godam is one of the coolest heroines ever. (Also, I know
Aquarion EVOL
If not Tatsunoko, what about Satelight, the current studio headed by Kawamori? The original Aquarion already had its time to shine, so I’d like to see Arata, MIX, and everyone get their chance.
Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter
I know this franchise is basically dead with no support, but I’m fond of this mecha series from the early 2010s. The show just had a lot of excellent energy and great character designs.
Promare
Promareis another series beloved for both its compelling SF mecha story and the very intense dynamic between its two male leads. Similar to Bravern, I would hope that the music and animation captures the beauty of the action sequences in the original film.
SSSS.Dynazenon/Gridman Universe
With or without SSSS.Gridman, this could have all sorts of awesome combinations and attacks. Plus, I want to see the adult Anosillus II as a playable character.
Danguard A
In a world without Matsumoto Leiji, maybe it’s time to see his giant robot (and not just his giant spaceship) join the battle. As a joke, they could introduce the characters, but make you wait like 13 missions to get the actual Danguard A—just like how it took 13 episodes for the robot to finally do something.
Darling in the Franxx
Controversial as it is, I’d like to see how they integrate this series with other ones. I’d also like to see them bond with the Getter Robo Arc cast about fighting dinosaurs, and it’d be funny to see others comment about the unusual cockpits. Or maybe Kallen from Code Geasswould look at them and not think anything was amiss.
Atlanger
I’m continuously fascinated by this 1970s-era giant robot that mostly existed as toys. It technically has an anime and manga and thus qualifies for entry into SRW, so I’d like to see Atlanger, no matter what form it would take.
Let’s See If I’m Rightor Wrong
It turns out that there’s a special video for Super Robot Wars Y Sunday, April 20 in Japan, so I’m embedding the stream in advance to see how I did.
If we somehow manage to get Bravern, Promare and Aquarion EVOlin there with Witch from Mercury, we could end up with the most overtly queer Super Robot Wars ever. Heck, let’s throw in Kannazuki no Mikofor good measure.
Once in a great while, the Soul of Chogokin Gold Lightan goes on sale again in some form, and every time, I feel tempted to buy it. The thing fascinates me, and not just because the anime is one wild and surprisingly violent ride. I think I’m just intrigued by how Gold Lightan defies the typical sensibility of the SoC toyline and makes it stick out like a sore thumb.
Soul of Chogokin is all about high-quality toys that aim to capture the coolness of a given mecha by finding a nice middle ground between the original toy and its representation in media such as anime or live-action. Over time, this has often meant trying to match body ratios, colors, and aesthetic details while retaining gimmicks like transformations. But Gold Lightan is a weird case because it’s a challenge to get him to look “anime-accurate,” “toy-faithful,” and also “cool” at the same time.
Conceptually, Gold Lightan is supposed to be a flip-top cigarette lighter that transforms into a robot. He is essentially a box with a head and limbs, and there is only so much you can do with that. He doesn’t have anything to tuck or fold in to give him a more dynamic appearance. If you look at the very first toys, his arms and legs are hilariously small in order to get them to fit.
The creators of the anime by Tatsunoko Pro clearly knew this, so they gave Gold Lightan more human proportions. However, if his limbs are that size, they can’t possibly fold into the torso without cartoon magic. The SoC toy compromised by making them longer to somewhat better match the anime, but they’re not thick enough to look good relative to the torso. The “chest” and “gut” stick out so far beyond the head as to be comical.
Then there’s the issue of actual physical texture. The original physical toy had that pattern because it was trying to mimic real cigarette lighters. This would have been a nightmare for the animators, so Gold Lightan in the show is generally portrayed with a bright, flat yellow. However, during close-ups, the anime implies that the textured pattern is still there; it’s just not being rendered most of the time. A toy likely cannot simultaneously achieve both the saturated “gold” of the anime and the look of the original toy/close shots.
The one portrayal of Gold Lightan that managed to achieve something of a visual balance between these two aspects is the Tatsunoko vs. Capcom fighting game franchise, but that’s in terms of non-physical 3DCG without the need to include the cigarette lighter transformation. There’s also the “Full Action” subcategory of the SoC line that eschews transformation and combination functions in favor of extensive poseability, but it’s probably very difficult to give a box with limbs and no waist the “Obari Masami” that defines the FA entries.
Consequently and perhaps more than any other Soul of Chogokin, the design of Gold Lightan prioritizes its toy-friendly qualities over everything else. It’s as if they abandoned any hope of making it look exciting. And let’s be real: Even if they managed to make it look just like the anime, it’s not like that animated design is all that exciting either. The appeal is precisely because Gold Lightan is so ugly and weird, that it is a curio that makes you wonder who even thought it was a good idea.
Wonderful Precure! is the 21st anime series to carry the Precure name, and it continues a trend of breaking unspoken rules of the now decades-old magical girl franchise. But whereas the previous series broke age and gender barriers, Wonderful Precure! defies one of the most core aspects of its predecessors: how it approaches violence.
The story of Wonderful Precure! centers around Komugi, a Papillon Dog and resident of Animal Town who wishes she could communicate with her owner, Inukai Iroha. When the town’s mystical Mirror Stone grants Komugi the ability to speak human language and even transform into a person, her friendship with Iroha grows closer than ever. She also gains the ability to transform into the magical girl Cure Wonderful and face off against monsters called Garugaru—once-peaceful animals who have been twisted and corrupted into dark creatures. Later, she’s joined by Iroha (as Cure Friendy), as well as Cure Nyammy and Cure Lilian.
Komugi is not the first combination of magical girl and mascot in Precure, with characters like Milky Rose and Cure Parfait coming before her. However, she’s the first to be the main heroine. This in itself is a notably different angle taken by Wonderful Precure!, but even bigger is the fact that Wonderful Precure! is the first Precure to all but eschew combat as a fundamental part of the Precure experience.
When Futari no Pretty Cure hit Japanese airwaves back in 2004 and kicked off the Precure franchise, something caught the eyes of viewers about the way its heroines fought. Action-focused magical girls had been a thing since Cutie Honey in the 1970s, and Sailor Moon was home to heroines who could shoot lightning and cause earthquakes, but Cure Black and Cure White threw hands. They’d punch, kick, back fist, throw, and when the time came, shoot a massive energy beam to finish monsters off. (The original director also famously worked on Dragon Ball Z). Though never portrayed in a bloody manner, violence became a key element of Precure. Later entries would follow this to varying degrees, some preferring to concentrate more on elemental blasts and mystical energies, while others continuing the fisticuffs with gusto.
In contrast, outside of a few episodes where it’s a point of character conflict, the heroines of Wonderful Precure! don’t ever try to hurt the Garugaru. Rather, they try to corner them like, well, animals so that they can heal and restore the poor transformed critters. The approach is understandable: The creators probably wanted to discourage kids from punching animals. I also can’t tell if removing violence from Precure is a brave move or a conservative one, but it does make for a much less action-packed anime as a result, for better or worse.
Precure has always primarily targeted young girls (with things for older fans to appreciate), but Wonderful Precure! has a more childish feel than all previous titles. That said, this series isn’t entirely toothless. The animal theme emphasizes cuddles and fun, but the series also brings up the harm humans have inflicted on animals and the environment. The reality of people being responsible for the extinction of entire species becomes a vital part of the narrative, especially towards the end. It’s just that Wonderful Precure! approaches its pacing more like episodic anime from decades past, saving all the heavy stuff for the final stretch. It also has what I think is the best execution of an actual heterosexual romance Precure has ever seen, as well as possibly the best main villain ever.
One other thing that I believe is particularly cool about the series is that it tries hard to counter gender stereotypes. Iroha’s dad (who as far as we know is straight) is a mountain of muscle who dresses in frilly pink and shows tender kindness to all the animals he takes care of. Iroha’s longtime friend, a boy named Toyama Satoru, is a gentle soul who uses his dedicated study of animals to support the girls. And funnily enough, Satoru has a pet rabbit named Daifuku, who you might expect to be an adorable cinnamon roll. But when Komugi translates Daifuki’s speech, it turns out the fluff ball has the most badass manly speech mannerisms in the entire series. Trust me that the last aspect pays off.
While Wonderful Precure prefers it heroines to not kick ass and take names, that isn’t the case with the next series, You and Idol Precure! This may very well be the first and last time Precure decides to take a more peaceful approach, but it makes for a series that stands out all the more as a result. Wonderful Precure! can be profound in its own ways if you give it the chance to tell its story.
OGIUE MANIAX 