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randominstanceAh, just a typical day in the life of Cure Summer - using the monster of the week as a bounce castle. A quick round of stock footage and then:
"Is there anything that can get more people to pay attention to me?" HAHAHAH Laura, you glorious mer-bo (mermaid bimbo). I missed you. While she's going on about a singing content, some cute fluffy white snow-beings show up with an invitation for the Precures to come to a coronation of Sharon, the princess of Shantia's coronation! Shantia is a snow kingdom and the invitation is all snow-themes. She's inviting special people she scouted and feels have the power to make her kingdom be full of smiles.
Haha Manatsu tribal-dancing around a giant bowl of shaved ice. Yeah, but uh guys, you're the tropical team, maybe going to a snow kingdom is possibly bad news? Or a trap or something?
OH SURE YOU CAN JUST GET ON A TRAIN AND GO TO THE MAGIC SNOW KINGDOM WHY NOT?! Loving the civilian outfits though - super cute. Also some cute character work as the girls jockey for position in the four-seat carriage with five members. Poor Asuka. Kind of got the short end of the stick in general in this show, didn't you.
HEY I KNOW THOSE GIRLS IN THE OTHER CAR GOSH COULD THAT BE OUR PALS FROM HEARTCATCH? Yes, that's why I decided to watch this movie. It'll probably low-key spoiler me for parts of Heartcatch, but I don't mind that kinda thing.
♫ Galaxy Express Three-Nine will take you on a journey ♫ … Ahem. Right.
So the train has two sets of Precures and a few other random artists - a violinist who isn't Michiru but would have been really funny if it was (and should have been, come on Toei, you own them both!), a balloon artist and a Cubist painter.
After treating us to some lovely background painting of winter wonderlands - Toei's BG artists really never falter, do they? - we enter the kingdom of Shantia, complete with snow-based fauna. To be treated to: even more lovely backgrounds. I really like the color work and comps here, it's so clean but just realistic enough that you can almost imagine yourself there as a real place. The interior as they enter the castle is slightly less impressive though, having a lot of Go Princess Transformation Castle vibes to me, I can see where computers have been used to fill in the patterns in the background, etc.
And we meet Sharon, the princess of Shantia. Well.. There's good and bad about this design. I think it's kind of top heavy, but I love her ornamentation and the bright yellow stars in her eyes contrasted to her red and blue lashes.
Laura naturally jumps point as, well, she's a princess too, and the little people can just be quiet while the royals talk. Though her friends are a bit snarky: "she's not queen yet, nothing's been decided, she just says what she wants."
Anyway they go out to dink around in the snow and Laura pegs Erika right in the head with a snowball! And that's how our Precure teams meet! An epic snowball battle! I mean, I've seen worse random crossovers. Yuri just ninja-dodges like she's in the Matrix. Well then! Some more shenanigans happen and Yuri notes to Itsuki that it seems just a little TOO nice here, which I 100% agree with.
The Tropical girls are back in the castle, Laura presenting them with her egotistic plan to perform and a frankly GHASTLY outfit I expect Erika to fix any second now as she comes downstairs with the Heartcatch group.
"You tacked on too much. You'll attract the wrong sort of attention." Erika would be great at Precure Sins. YES THANK YOU. Anyway. After bickering a bit and clashing with Erika, Laura leaves the groups and finds a spring pool she decides to dive in in mermaid mode. Wouldn't that water be icy cold? Oh well. Kururin joins her.
Sharon is nearby, singing. Laura surfaces to listen and is invited to talk.
Holy shit Manatsu get over here - your girl Laura getting stolen by Sharon putting a hefty diamond ring on it!! Like a marriage! Hey! Don't you break up (one of) my Precure OTPs!, you… hussy overdesigned Elsa wannabee! As they talk for a bit about joining their kingdoms when they are both queen, Sharon teaches Laura the song of her people.
Anyway, the groups get ready for the coronation and I'm just like … where's the rest of the people? They're going onto this huge stadium where nobody is. Red flag!
hu-bu-whaaa DAMN all of a sudden the empty stadium is full of people. Uh. Toei. Maybe spray some people into those long high aerials too?? Dang. That was jarring.
Minori is getting bad vibes: "something is off." I agree. People don't just manifest in the hundreds out of thin air! And Sharon looks more stoic and grim than happy to be coronated. Also I don't like magic staffs opening up with eerie purplish stones glowing in the middle of them, just SAYING.
So both Kururun and one of the Heartcatch fairies (the new yellow one I technically don't know about yet) end up breaking away and wandering into dark forboding places inside the castle. The Heartcatch group goes off to find their fairy. Kururun finds the fairy first - by smashing into them - and the fairy runs off yelling for Itsuki. Meanwhile it sure looks a lot like Kururun just found… a prison.
yeeeeep Sharon's just gone evil. One of the out of town performers just tried to say goodbye and nope, she won't let anyone leave. All the cute little snow fluffs have turned into evil snow beasts and the sky just turned stormy and awful!
"It's like their motivation is being stolen and their hearts are being frozen!" Good thing we have just the right nine people to deal with this! oh man, Sharon just gave a full Creepy Evangelion Closeup Stare.
one LONG set of transformations later - it's been too long, I can't remember if these are added sequences or just the full length individual henshin - the Tropical girls start their fight. I'm suddenly reminded of the battle with Kaguya-hime's snow maidens in the Sailor Moon SuperS movie, but there's no Tuxedo Kamen showing up as Santa this time (more's the pity.)
Well, there IS Erika and the Heartcatch girls up at the top of some nearby tower: "If it's a cool entrance you want, it's gotta be someplace high!" I think I love Erika a little more now, haha.
HAHAH the react shot from the Tropical girls is PRICELESS.
Another thing I think is really cool in Precure henshin in general is that 99% of the time the Precure's hair changes color. I don't know, I just think it's a really neat touch.
Man, Cure Moonlight's henshin REALLY looks like it comes from another series entirely. This is not a complaint. It's very cool and 'mature'. It just doesn't line up with the other girls at all, I'm sure that's on purpose. I don't know how they're managing to invoke Rose of Versailles without any actual visual relationship, but somehow they are!
See dammit this is why Precure has an unfair advantage over Sailor Moon - they have generations and generations of potential crossover teamups. Sure, there were like what… 20 Senshi by the time Sailor Stars ended? But it's just not the same. This fight they're now in just pure crossover porn fun. Also it's entirely appropriate that Summer joins in the Butt Kick move. and the Mass Butt Punch just happened. You won't see the high and mighty Sailor Senshi all teaming up to Final Smash with their asses!
A 9 member combination wave. Geez, we're really getting the Sentai finishers out here.
So, Shantia is actually a dead kingdom. Sharon's coronation day was interrupted by.. uh a meteor falling straight on the place and blowing it up. 13,000 years ago. The violent storms that followed unearthed some kinda evil stone that revived (reincarnated?) Sharon.
Realizing that Sharon is the problem, Cure Moonlight talks about attacking her. This upsets Laura a bit, because she's a Royalist and Sharon DID give her the shiny bling ring and all. She interrupts the Floral Power Fortissimo, like a doofus (it's fun to see the Heartcatch girls panic in the middle of their attack strike!) and all the Heartcatch girls get themselves captured because of her interference.
Tropical buys some time and escapes to regroup, though Laura wants to go tell Sharon off for breaking her heart being rude and all. Manatsu paints up Laura with some encouraging lipstick (they're really not subtle about the battle wives thing here, and never have been, and I love this about them) and they split to go rescue the others while Laura interferes more.
The Precures get rescued … by Kururun, who does something hilarious and retroactively makes me love him more since he did like.. nothing in Tropical Rouge. Another 'oh my god what' reaction shot from the Cures keeps it funny.
The Battle Wives (Summer and La Mer) put on their best Haruka and Michiru vibes and stomp into the castle to confront Sharon. Boy I hope this goes better than when the Outers went after Eudial at the floating church.
This speech. "Sharon. I had so much fun talking with you. I want to know more about you too. And when you're in trouble I want to be of help to you. Doing things like this won't make anyone smile." LAURA YOUR WIFE IS RIGHT THERE GEEZ.
oh my god they're putting them in a face-to-face wide shot. SUMMER YOU'RE LOSING YOUR BATTLE WIFE, WAKE UP. Which she does, by literally grabbing Laura's wrist, making Laura's lipstick gleam oh my GOD the OTP energy is off the charts here and I love it.
oh this is a lovely sequence. "You realize it don't you,no matter what you do you can't bring your country back." And Sharon's hair just falls apart while Laura reads her the royal riot act. "Do you think your mother and father would be happy with this?" Ow.
"Shut up!" And Sharon raises LITERAL SNOW GODZILLVANGELION. Great.
The Tropical gang throws their best Power of Friendship speeches at Sharon while La Mer's diamond bling ring floats off her finger and starts getting all glowy. They get a special powerup that basically fuses their outfits with the Heartcatch suits - pretty interesting, actually. "Snow Crystal Tropical Style!" (Sailor Moon, I'm telling you. You gotta get like 85 more Star Senshi groups like the Starlights and do this kinda stuff!)
Wow they summon some kinda giant princess (I'm assuming this is a Heartcatch thing I'm not yet privy to, but she looks like Godoka combined with Cure Moonlight - the spirit of the Heart Tree maybe?) and now we have Giant Princess versus Godzillvangelion.
AWW DAMN that's excellent - the giant princess LOOKS like she's about to come down for a Godoka level punch but instead opens up her hand and PETS the Godzillvangelion on the head. And they both go poof.
Sharon explains she can't have her heart melted because there's nothing left. Everything she wanted to protect is gone. The power that animated her came from a fragment of the meteorite that smashed into everything, and she begins to fade.
Laura approaches her, and tells her that she wants to sing the song of Sharon's country as she was taught - to consecrate her.
Sharon is, I guess, guided by the song into Congratulations land and sees her parents and citizens gathered around her. Kinda dark, when you overthink it… the girls singing long about 'the land of happiness' when someone is dying?
Not quite believing that Laura will make sure the song of Shantia lasts forever, Sharon dissipates as the last of the meteorite's energy fades, and we white out to …
right back where we started, Aozora City in front of the train station. Erika pokes Laura and offers her a hanky, but Laura insists she's totally not crying, she's a future Queen you know. Manatsu just ugly cries loud enough for both of them. "But we just met her!"
Laura grabs her by the hand and then takes her hand in BOTH of hers and I'm like BATTLE WIVES FOREVER while everyone else quickly sidesteps out of shot. "Honestly, you're such a baby sometimes." Close up on Sharon's ring.
Coda: the girls all sing the song of Shanti for Aozora City, wearing Erika's costume design, which segues into a full 3D performance under the end credits with both teams of Precures. Intercut, we see that the song becomes popular enough that the girls sing it on national TV, ensuring its survival. And the fairies and Erika say "tropica-shining!"
The End.
Well. I think they did a pretty good job of balancing the two teams themes and such fairly well, although it was perhaps more than a little tilted toward Laura Apollodoros Hyginus La Mer The Everpresent Hogger of All Screen Time, which is basically typical for Tropical Rouge in general.
I feel like the end was a little darker than any aspect of these casts were necessarily prepared to handle, especially since there's really no way to peacefully resolve Sharon's primary conflict driver except to just… let her die. Which the movie kind of does in a way that feels awkward, drawn out and more than a little creepy if you over think it. In other series with similar scenarios, the dying one would have been played out more as softened and then a strong relief and a peaceful smile before she goes, but that wasn't the tone that Sharon went out on. Her purification wasn't 100% clear and neither was the state of mind she went out on. I think they tried very hard to convince her, but I felt ambiguity. So not quite sure why the fumble at the finale.
Overall: 8.5/10. The ending kinda tanked it a bit, but otherwise a fun watch with some good laughs and character beats. Animation on point, with both character design sets being respected while still looking distinct and yet part of the same world.
"Is there anything that can get more people to pay attention to me?" HAHAHAH Laura, you glorious mer-bo (mermaid bimbo). I missed you. While she's going on about a singing content, some cute fluffy white snow-beings show up with an invitation for the Precures to come to a coronation of Sharon, the princess of Shantia's coronation! Shantia is a snow kingdom and the invitation is all snow-themes. She's inviting special people she scouted and feels have the power to make her kingdom be full of smiles.
Haha Manatsu tribal-dancing around a giant bowl of shaved ice. Yeah, but uh guys, you're the tropical team, maybe going to a snow kingdom is possibly bad news? Or a trap or something?
OH SURE YOU CAN JUST GET ON A TRAIN AND GO TO THE MAGIC SNOW KINGDOM WHY NOT?! Loving the civilian outfits though - super cute. Also some cute character work as the girls jockey for position in the four-seat carriage with five members. Poor Asuka. Kind of got the short end of the stick in general in this show, didn't you.
HEY I KNOW THOSE GIRLS IN THE OTHER CAR GOSH COULD THAT BE OUR PALS FROM HEARTCATCH? Yes, that's why I decided to watch this movie. It'll probably low-key spoiler me for parts of Heartcatch, but I don't mind that kinda thing.
♫ Galaxy Express Three-Nine will take you on a journey ♫ … Ahem. Right.
So the train has two sets of Precures and a few other random artists - a violinist who isn't Michiru but would have been really funny if it was (and should have been, come on Toei, you own them both!), a balloon artist and a Cubist painter.
After treating us to some lovely background painting of winter wonderlands - Toei's BG artists really never falter, do they? - we enter the kingdom of Shantia, complete with snow-based fauna. To be treated to: even more lovely backgrounds. I really like the color work and comps here, it's so clean but just realistic enough that you can almost imagine yourself there as a real place. The interior as they enter the castle is slightly less impressive though, having a lot of Go Princess Transformation Castle vibes to me, I can see where computers have been used to fill in the patterns in the background, etc.
And we meet Sharon, the princess of Shantia. Well.. There's good and bad about this design. I think it's kind of top heavy, but I love her ornamentation and the bright yellow stars in her eyes contrasted to her red and blue lashes.
Laura naturally jumps point as, well, she's a princess too, and the little people can just be quiet while the royals talk. Though her friends are a bit snarky: "she's not queen yet, nothing's been decided, she just says what she wants."
Anyway they go out to dink around in the snow and Laura pegs Erika right in the head with a snowball! And that's how our Precure teams meet! An epic snowball battle! I mean, I've seen worse random crossovers. Yuri just ninja-dodges like she's in the Matrix. Well then! Some more shenanigans happen and Yuri notes to Itsuki that it seems just a little TOO nice here, which I 100% agree with.
The Tropical girls are back in the castle, Laura presenting them with her egotistic plan to perform and a frankly GHASTLY outfit I expect Erika to fix any second now as she comes downstairs with the Heartcatch group.
"You tacked on too much. You'll attract the wrong sort of attention." Erika would be great at Precure Sins. YES THANK YOU. Anyway. After bickering a bit and clashing with Erika, Laura leaves the groups and finds a spring pool she decides to dive in in mermaid mode. Wouldn't that water be icy cold? Oh well. Kururin joins her.
Sharon is nearby, singing. Laura surfaces to listen and is invited to talk.
Holy shit Manatsu get over here - your girl Laura getting stolen by Sharon putting a hefty diamond ring on it!! Like a marriage! Hey! Don't you break up (one of) my Precure OTPs!, you… hussy overdesigned Elsa wannabee! As they talk for a bit about joining their kingdoms when they are both queen, Sharon teaches Laura the song of her people.
Anyway, the groups get ready for the coronation and I'm just like … where's the rest of the people? They're going onto this huge stadium where nobody is. Red flag!
hu-bu-whaaa DAMN all of a sudden the empty stadium is full of people. Uh. Toei. Maybe spray some people into those long high aerials too?? Dang. That was jarring.
Minori is getting bad vibes: "something is off." I agree. People don't just manifest in the hundreds out of thin air! And Sharon looks more stoic and grim than happy to be coronated. Also I don't like magic staffs opening up with eerie purplish stones glowing in the middle of them, just SAYING.
So both Kururun and one of the Heartcatch fairies (the new yellow one I technically don't know about yet) end up breaking away and wandering into dark forboding places inside the castle. The Heartcatch group goes off to find their fairy. Kururun finds the fairy first - by smashing into them - and the fairy runs off yelling for Itsuki. Meanwhile it sure looks a lot like Kururun just found… a prison.
yeeeeep Sharon's just gone evil. One of the out of town performers just tried to say goodbye and nope, she won't let anyone leave. All the cute little snow fluffs have turned into evil snow beasts and the sky just turned stormy and awful!
"It's like their motivation is being stolen and their hearts are being frozen!" Good thing we have just the right nine people to deal with this! oh man, Sharon just gave a full Creepy Evangelion Closeup Stare.
one LONG set of transformations later - it's been too long, I can't remember if these are added sequences or just the full length individual henshin - the Tropical girls start their fight. I'm suddenly reminded of the battle with Kaguya-hime's snow maidens in the Sailor Moon SuperS movie, but there's no Tuxedo Kamen showing up as Santa this time (more's the pity.)
Well, there IS Erika and the Heartcatch girls up at the top of some nearby tower: "If it's a cool entrance you want, it's gotta be someplace high!" I think I love Erika a little more now, haha.
HAHAH the react shot from the Tropical girls is PRICELESS.
Another thing I think is really cool in Precure henshin in general is that 99% of the time the Precure's hair changes color. I don't know, I just think it's a really neat touch.
Man, Cure Moonlight's henshin REALLY looks like it comes from another series entirely. This is not a complaint. It's very cool and 'mature'. It just doesn't line up with the other girls at all, I'm sure that's on purpose. I don't know how they're managing to invoke Rose of Versailles without any actual visual relationship, but somehow they are!
See dammit this is why Precure has an unfair advantage over Sailor Moon - they have generations and generations of potential crossover teamups. Sure, there were like what… 20 Senshi by the time Sailor Stars ended? But it's just not the same. This fight they're now in just pure crossover porn fun. Also it's entirely appropriate that Summer joins in the Butt Kick move. and the Mass Butt Punch just happened. You won't see the high and mighty Sailor Senshi all teaming up to Final Smash with their asses!
A 9 member combination wave. Geez, we're really getting the Sentai finishers out here.
So, Shantia is actually a dead kingdom. Sharon's coronation day was interrupted by.. uh a meteor falling straight on the place and blowing it up. 13,000 years ago. The violent storms that followed unearthed some kinda evil stone that revived (reincarnated?) Sharon.
Realizing that Sharon is the problem, Cure Moonlight talks about attacking her. This upsets Laura a bit, because she's a Royalist and Sharon DID give her the shiny bling ring and all. She interrupts the Floral Power Fortissimo, like a doofus (it's fun to see the Heartcatch girls panic in the middle of their attack strike!) and all the Heartcatch girls get themselves captured because of her interference.
Tropical buys some time and escapes to regroup, though Laura wants to go tell Sharon off for breaking her heart being rude and all. Manatsu paints up Laura with some encouraging lipstick (they're really not subtle about the battle wives thing here, and never have been, and I love this about them) and they split to go rescue the others while Laura interferes more.
The Precures get rescued … by Kururun, who does something hilarious and retroactively makes me love him more since he did like.. nothing in Tropical Rouge. Another 'oh my god what' reaction shot from the Cures keeps it funny.
The Battle Wives (Summer and La Mer) put on their best Haruka and Michiru vibes and stomp into the castle to confront Sharon. Boy I hope this goes better than when the Outers went after Eudial at the floating church.
This speech. "Sharon. I had so much fun talking with you. I want to know more about you too. And when you're in trouble I want to be of help to you. Doing things like this won't make anyone smile." LAURA YOUR WIFE IS RIGHT THERE GEEZ.
oh my god they're putting them in a face-to-face wide shot. SUMMER YOU'RE LOSING YOUR BATTLE WIFE, WAKE UP. Which she does, by literally grabbing Laura's wrist, making Laura's lipstick gleam oh my GOD the OTP energy is off the charts here and I love it.
oh this is a lovely sequence. "You realize it don't you,no matter what you do you can't bring your country back." And Sharon's hair just falls apart while Laura reads her the royal riot act. "Do you think your mother and father would be happy with this?" Ow.
"Shut up!" And Sharon raises LITERAL SNOW GODZILLVANGELION. Great.
The Tropical gang throws their best Power of Friendship speeches at Sharon while La Mer's diamond bling ring floats off her finger and starts getting all glowy. They get a special powerup that basically fuses their outfits with the Heartcatch suits - pretty interesting, actually. "Snow Crystal Tropical Style!" (Sailor Moon, I'm telling you. You gotta get like 85 more Star Senshi groups like the Starlights and do this kinda stuff!)
Wow they summon some kinda giant princess (I'm assuming this is a Heartcatch thing I'm not yet privy to, but she looks like Godoka combined with Cure Moonlight - the spirit of the Heart Tree maybe?) and now we have Giant Princess versus Godzillvangelion.
AWW DAMN that's excellent - the giant princess LOOKS like she's about to come down for a Godoka level punch but instead opens up her hand and PETS the Godzillvangelion on the head. And they both go poof.
Sharon explains she can't have her heart melted because there's nothing left. Everything she wanted to protect is gone. The power that animated her came from a fragment of the meteorite that smashed into everything, and she begins to fade.
Laura approaches her, and tells her that she wants to sing the song of Sharon's country as she was taught - to consecrate her.
Sharon is, I guess, guided by the song into Congratulations land and sees her parents and citizens gathered around her. Kinda dark, when you overthink it… the girls singing long about 'the land of happiness' when someone is dying?
Not quite believing that Laura will make sure the song of Shantia lasts forever, Sharon dissipates as the last of the meteorite's energy fades, and we white out to …
right back where we started, Aozora City in front of the train station. Erika pokes Laura and offers her a hanky, but Laura insists she's totally not crying, she's a future Queen you know. Manatsu just ugly cries loud enough for both of them. "But we just met her!"
Laura grabs her by the hand and then takes her hand in BOTH of hers and I'm like BATTLE WIVES FOREVER while everyone else quickly sidesteps out of shot. "Honestly, you're such a baby sometimes." Close up on Sharon's ring.
Coda: the girls all sing the song of Shanti for Aozora City, wearing Erika's costume design, which segues into a full 3D performance under the end credits with both teams of Precures. Intercut, we see that the song becomes popular enough that the girls sing it on national TV, ensuring its survival. And the fairies and Erika say "tropica-shining!"
The End.
Well. I think they did a pretty good job of balancing the two teams themes and such fairly well, although it was perhaps more than a little tilted toward Laura Apollodoros Hyginus La Mer The Everpresent Hogger of All Screen Time, which is basically typical for Tropical Rouge in general.
I feel like the end was a little darker than any aspect of these casts were necessarily prepared to handle, especially since there's really no way to peacefully resolve Sharon's primary conflict driver except to just… let her die. Which the movie kind of does in a way that feels awkward, drawn out and more than a little creepy if you over think it. In other series with similar scenarios, the dying one would have been played out more as softened and then a strong relief and a peaceful smile before she goes, but that wasn't the tone that Sharon went out on. Her purification wasn't 100% clear and neither was the state of mind she went out on. I think they tried very hard to convince her, but I felt ambiguity. So not quite sure why the fumble at the finale.
Overall: 8.5/10. The ending kinda tanked it a bit, but otherwise a fun watch with some good laughs and character beats. Animation on point, with both character design sets being respected while still looking distinct and yet part of the same world.
