[SIGH] I going to be completely real with you: I have nothing positive to say about the finale, much less the last three episodes. It was honestly infuriating to watch. Frankly, nothing moved forward these past three episodes. It was more or less repeating the same things we already knew, and the finale wasn’t any better because I feel like absolutely nothing has changed– except for maybe the girls’ mindset, which they were perfectly capable of figuring out individually outside of this crisis with Bell and the Shadows.
The finale resolved nothing because as they showed us, Humans have a memory and attention span of a god damn gold fish. Next they explained nothing as to why the Time Flowers had such an effect on the girls, to the point it put Nozomi into a coma. Which, by the way, she wouldn’t have woken up from anytime soon had Bell not intervened with her miracle powers. So it begged the question, what was even the point of those Time Flowers? I can’t even call half-baked when it wasn’t even baked in the first place! I’m just so disappointed in Precure. I expected so much more out of this anniversary spin-off, and it was such a let down. Nostalgia-bait at it’s finest, and insultingly so.
And please, going into this: Did anyone really expect the girls to transform back into their younger selves? I certainly did not, in fact I was hoping for the exact opposite. I was so excited about the very idea of possibly seeing grown-up Precures. But instead, to further prove their half-hearted investment in this series, instead of even redoing the animation to give it higher quality or a little extra pizzazz, they dished out RECYCLED CLIPS FROM THE PAST (and man I think Cure Luminous’ attack aged the poorest, that was rough to watch.) But worst off, we saw them revert to their child-like mentality of irresponsibility and stupidity. Nozomi was the biggest one at fault here, because for someone who worked so damn hard to become a teacher, suddenly she’s like ‘oh protecting the town as a precure is more important!’. Uh, being in your god-damn classroom to tend your students is your CURRENT RESPONSIBILITY.
Oh if that wasn’t bad enough, they decided to make it a half-ass “All-Star” sort of thing by throwing in Splash Precure’s Michiru and Kaoru–neither contributing to much at all. I honestly thought the Dark Night Light Stream was a complete waste of time, and the story could’ve progressed in other ways. And don’t even get me started on the last minute inclusions of Futari wa Precure: Max Heart’s cast, Honoka, Nagisa and Hikari. While they were foreshadowed earlier on with Sanae’s episode, the point is— they really didn’t have to make an appearance. Simply put, having too many characters in a story that’s only going to be twelve episodes long is a recipe for trouble, and naturally nobody really got to be fleshed out much at all. Nozomi was probably the only exception as she was the one who consistently showed up to fight from start to finish. And at best it was merely scratching the surface and watching her be utterly irresponsible, which was also frustrating to watch.
Now here’s the main problem with this series: The absolutely BOTCHED the story. Obviously they were trying to convey this message of: Life is shit, the world is on fire, but you know what, we all gotta think about how we can all work together to make a better future! GREAT! EXCEPT THE WAY THEY WENT ABOUT IT MADE NO FREAKING SENSE.
It started out with talking about the whole environmental crisis of climate change/global warming that’s (legitimately) messing up the planet, and Humans being self-centered and stupid. This made Bell, the Guardian Angel of the town really mad, so she decided: In order to protect her beloved town, she needed to turn everyone (including the good folks) into a zombie shadows and wreck havoc!!! Wait… WHAT?!?!?!!? How in gods name is that supposed to help protect the town from falling into ruins? HER ACTIONS CONTRADICT HER INTENTIONS!!!!!!! Look if she was gonna punish them, have her cast the people she identifies as “bad” into the shadow realm or something! Not have them hurt people and destroy the town! Why!??!?! And you know how they ended it? Oh look, people purely on the whims decided to briefly think how “I can do something” and with that Bell was like, ‘Okay I don’t trust Humans, but I guess since Precure exists then maybe…’ and she’s turns into a white angel again and that’s that I guess!
?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
I can’t even…. Oh and of course Nozomi falls into a coma after that, and the only way she was able to wake up was thanks to the miracle of Bell. Go figure.
Well I suppose if there’s anything that got a somewhat proper resolution, it’s Nozomi and Coco’s relationship. I don’t ship them, but I am glad that they actually decided to stay together and get married. I figured they could make it work despite living in two quite literally different worlds. I wished they had at least let them kiss instead of interrupting them, or at least a wedding in the Nozomi’s world instead of Pailmer Kingdom— Not gonna lie, it was kinda weird to see Coco in his fairy form, even if in his homeland. Whatever, it is what it is.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Kurumi gonna be Prime Minister to help balance out the workload for Natts and Coco, and honestly good on her. Was it random? Kinda. Do I care at this point? Not really. Go Kurumi, do what you wanna do! Though I will say it was absolutely hilarious to see her drop that on her former boss. Talk about a mic drop exit!
So with that, this concludes my utter disappointment with this show. And truly, there’s no way to sugarcoat it. And it’s so sad, because for those of us who grew up with the franchise really hoped this was going to be something special…
Would I recommend watching this? No. Just skip it. You’re not missing anything interesting whatsoever, it’s a complete waste of time.
