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Ataru Reviews - Happiness Charge PC 13-16

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Published: Jan 29, 2018

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Happiness Charge Pretty Cure: 4th ~~Happiness~~ Madness: Megumi finally gets the chance to go anywhere in the world, and ends up...in a shrine just in her hometown...seriously, that's not much imagination, Lovely; a boy remembers the franchise next door to the Cures and decides he wants to be one of those heroes instead...because they have to have someone to look up to too; Hime's perfect Mother's Day plan is ruined due to a goofy attempt to give her mother cupcakes...that are just going to go stale due to her being trapped in a mirror thanks to the villains; and everyone's favorite noisy reporter finally gets the chance to be a Pretty Cure herself! So...what would a reporter do with Cure powers? Any guesses? Ideas...it's not going to work, is it?

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Happiness Charge PreCure: Ep. 13: A Strong Enemy Appears! Cure Fortune vs Pretty Cure Hunter!

Note to Hime: if the TV is looking for a princess, they're not yelling for you.

It's strange that among the cast members of Happiness Charge, they happen to include a literal God! Well...that's basically what Blue is: the God of the world who more or less granted nearly all the Cures their powers this season. Unfortunately, Blue has a bit of a back-history that we sort of know about but ends up being reminded of here: remember that story about the god and the priestest in Pikarigaoka...well, if the beginning is to be believed, Blue is the God and the main villain, Queen Mirage...is the priestess. Thus somehow the priestess became Queen Mirage and became locked away within the Axia, which ultimately was opened leading to her return and Blue creating the current entourage of Cures, including Lovely and her group. He sort of feels at fault for what happened seeing how she returned and is still wicked and evil, but of course Megumi being Megumi, she somehow thinks that she can actually help even a God out of his own situation with the infection (or is it contageous?) happiness she possesses. But it gets worse: alongside Queen Mirage and the other Phantom Kingdom forces within the Axia, there also laid a warrior known as the Pretty Cure Hunter who goes by the name "Phantom". Phantom travels the world taking out one Cure after another, seeing that once they're all dealt with, then Blue will be defenseless and the world will belong to his master. And while Lovely tries and fails to deal with Phantom on her own when he tries to target the God, she is surprisingly backed up this time around by Cure Fortune, who has her own grudge against the Cure hunter. It's here where things get weird but interesting: Fortune's Cure powers...aren't her own, they're actually the powers of another Cure by the name of Cure Tender...who is her sister. Somehow Phantom captured Cure Tender and her sister (who we can easily assume as Iona) took the powers to become Cure Fortune in her stead; I'm not sure why they require a new name, but it is an interesting idea and seems to show that she doesn't exist within the rules that Blue has set up with this world. Likewise not known to Phantom: the power of Cure teams to crush an enemy such as him, with Fortune and Lovely crushing him together leading to him realizing that he needs to separate the Cures if he's to be successful in taking down Blue's army. It's surprisingly a good episode considering the nonsense we're stuck with for the season, adding more to the Cure Fortune mystery and delving more into Blue's mission...even if Megumi remains as annoying as ever.

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Happiness Charge PreCure: Ep. 14: A Hero Appears! He Is A Really Cool Guy!!

500 episodes!? ARIENAI!!!! (what did you think I'd say? "Shiawase happiness?" Get real!)

Despite the setback that Phantom had in taking on the Cures of Pikarigaoka, he seems to have gone through with his threat of taking out the Cures of the rest of the world with ease, defeating them one after another. Of course Megumi is still worried about him, but Blue sort of reminds her that as long as she keeps up her own happiness and love elements, then really there isn't anything to worry about. Thus...they decide to go on a kids' clambake. Yeah...not sure the sudden change in direction, but basically after all the insensity of Phantom last time, we just suddenly have them go on a clam dig and bake with Seiji's little sister. Their main focus is a boy whose part of this who thinks he's a Kamen Rider...no really, he's wearing a Rider mask and cape and thinks that he's a hero of justice. (the funny thing is this is airing around the same time as Gaim so...are you sure you want to be a Rider with Gen Urobuchi next door, kid; lest we remind him of what he did with magical girls?) Obviously Megumi and Yuko decide to boost him up and just make him into a good guy amidst it all, sort of teaching him to be courageous and stand up for others if he truly wants to be a hero; it's good of them but of course the two of them more or less seem more interested in the clams. (and let's remind ourselves: they're digging up live clams...to be grilled alive and eaten! How is this caring for life!?) Of course he protects two of his classmates when Oresky decides to capture them in a mirror (and no Mirrormonsters?) and the Cures end up fighting a giant clam monster...and as if we need more of a reminder of what's next door, Megumi more or less uses a lot of Cherry Flamenco in her battle, probably doing more to promote the power of the cherry than Sigurd probably would. In the end, it's brainless but at least they sort of boosted up a kid's confidence...and sometimes for a magical girl, that's all you need to do at times.

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Happiness Charge PreCure: Ep. 15: I Wanna See My Mom! Hime Returns to Blue Sky Kingdom!

Seriously, ninja Cures. I don't care if it's a Naruto ripoff, WE NEED A SEASON WITH NINJA CURES!

It's Mother's Day in Pikarigaoka and that means that Megumi and even Seiji and Mao get to spend plenty of time with their mothers happily. And Hime...her plan for Mother's Day is simple: bake her mother's favorite cupcakes, then eat them all in her honor. It's obvious: when the Blue Sky Kingdom fell, Hime's mother and father were both captured by the Phantom Empire and thus they're more or less mirrors at this point with Queen Mirage ruling over her home. Thus she knows that if she tries to return to even give something to her mother (who, by the way, is trapped in a mirror), she's basically going to be on enemy territory and impossible to get what she needs to done accordingly. Blue likewise agrees, seeing that if the Cures were to transform in enemy territory, their power will be severely drained and thus they won't be able to do anything, not even against a simple Choiark mook! But because Megumi is insane and is like "you must see your mother, Hime, she's your mother!", the Cures basically take a suicide mission to get in, drop off the cupcakes and leave. It basically goes how you'd think: they go in, get into a lot of trouble with the locals in the conquered kingdom, find a secret passage and drop the cupcakes off...oh and the Oresky Trio and an army of Saiark armor and Choiark confront them and it becomes nearly impossible for them to escape. At that point it basically becomes a matter of running and getting out while they still can....and again, this is all Megumi's fault because she's the one who wants to force Hime to see her captured mother on Mother's Day! I get love and sentiment but really if Hime just went through her initial plan of "I'm eating cupcakes in honor of mom", none of this would have happened...but instead they did it and now Megumi wants to get stronger so they can fight on equal terms there...then again considering they're probably the strongest Cures in the world now, really it just makes it all the more frustrating.

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Happiness Charge PreCure: Ep. 16: I'm The Press!! I'll Find All Of Pretty Cure's Secrets!!

At least she got free gyoza out of her nosiness.

It's weird that this season of PreCure basically has an adult version of Masuko Miko from Yes! 5 in Masuko Miyo, particularly with her being this woman obsessed with the Cures alongside her own job of reporting for a show about their activities against the Phantom Empire. Of course with how much is going on in Pikarigaoka with three multi-colored hair girls (this isn't Fresh or Suite so they can't hide it), Miyo decides to do a scoop on the Happiness Charge girls...and amazingly picks up rather quickly that it's Megumi, Hime and Yuuko due to a lot of what she knows about them. In a weird way I actually do like that this sort of is against the typical "superhero trope" where the media can never figure it out and the heroes end up being exposed due to someone being smart and nosy enough...and while Megumi does try to get back at her with "reverse reporting", she ultimately spills the beans. In truth, Miyo ends up revealing she wanted to be a Cure after the start of the Phantom attacks, but didn't know how. They take her to Blue and try to make her into a Cure, even giving her a crystal...but it doesn't work. As typical, you'd think this was more or less playing on the classic trope of "she's an adult, how in the world can she be a Cure?"...and while we have seen adult Cures in previous and later seasons, usually they end up gaining power when they're younger and still have it later on (this isn't Madoka Magica where basically power corrodes because of the potentially of getting older...and anyway you're basically a dead soul in a crystal anyway so you're not going to age once you sacrifice yourself to the great Kyubey). We get a neat fight where Namakelder makes Miyo into a Saiark that knows their every move, only defeated in a well-placed hold-back of Honey's new Coconut Samba form. But the lesson here is actually a lot smarter than you'd think considering how dumb this show's been: Miyo doesn't need to have a dream granted to become a Cure because she's already granting other people's dreams...in fact, her dream is to convey the Cures to the world and the kids and people who watch her show gain said dreams, perhaps allowing for them to dream of being Cures too...or at least supporting them. Heck, if any Cures come out of this whether or not the Phantom Empire's stopped, you could say Miyo's reporting is as strong as Blue's reach!