Sort of a weird character arc to have Ellee grow up throughout the series and her learning to walk and getting a first pair of shoes be a big thing and then speed run her growing up but eh, it’s nice finally getting her origin story and her being an incarnation kinda sorta of Ellelain (which kinda reminds me of several other franchises there being generational incarnations of the same hero) and I kinda wonder what happens to her after everything. Also pretty interested in seeing what sort of resolution there’ll being with Empress and Ellelain’s relationship, particularly since the latter is seemingly gone… I liked everybody’s big eye faces when Ellee did the gymnastics tumbling routine. Skearhead’s mind palace gets another mention! It looks like Ellee also got Magic Hour’s End from Ellelain, which is nice because it’s my favorite move name of this iteration (although now that I think about it, wouldn’t it be a bad thing in general for the magic to end?)

I tend to mix up letters and sometimes letters in acronyms so maybe I would be confused with Skyland words like Strichmas or Tasan and I forget what other words they mixed up or maybe it would be no different to me. Looking at “Futari wa Precure” written in Sora’s diary, I vaguely remember there was one ep with a reference or two to the original series back towards the beginning of the season? I guess the Princess comes up with her own ideas now? Anyways, sorta feels like endgame now with all the characters coming back, although the SOLy-ness kinda makes things not feel like endgame, but I guess it’s the brief respite from tension before the final climactic push. Also, I guess helping out Tasan is the second time they’ve done their henshin for non-fight purposes? They even managed to cram two finishers in (I think the Updraft Shining kinda makes a little more thematic sense here though since it’s wind related but eh). The lighting was nice with Sora and Mashiro in front of the tree, but the pacing of the cliffhanger was kinda weird but eh.

Magic Hour’s End is a pretty awesome name for a move. Was that Yuu Yoshiyama for Sora’s ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA (and also I guess throughout the ep)? Also, I guess this is the second time I’ve seen a magical girl do an ORAORAORAORA (the other time being

). The punk birds were pretty funny. Wait, Princess Elleelain isn’t the Empress? Smh, 2 for 2 wrong in this series (I forget what else I was wrong about). The fight between Princess Elleelain and the Emperor was pretty awesome too (and all her yells). The ep got kinda dark for a bit (at least for Precure) with the Empress getting cut. Anyways, pretty awesome episode and pretty hype.

In other news, I finally watched Amagi Brilliant Park and so discovering Mashiro has the same VA as Isuzu is something.

I guess Skyland doesn’t look so different from Earth in this series but them riding on chocobos gives it away. Looks like things are cranking up towards the ending if their transformation happens so soon in the episode. Them doing the majestic halation right off the bat kinda feels like trying to throw a pokeball right at the start of a Pokemon encounter, of course it isn’t gonna work. The cutoff transformation sequences is a fun gag. The cliff the princess/Cure Noble prays at looks an awful like the cliff where the crew meets Empress Undergu HMMM.

The storyboarding at the beginning was nice with Mashiro’s shadow cast over the book-in-progress and lens flare in the Battamonda scene. I guess in the general the framing was nice this ep, from the focus on the fallen leaf drawing to shoes and puddles and outlines of faces and what not. I liked the parallels between the Undergu Empire’s valuing of strength and power and Mashiro’s struggles (and the whole thing about how you find value in yourself in general). Interesting how they started up with mix palette, which I guess this time didn’t mix anybody’s powers but just worked as a powerup (or is the pink glow Ageha’s power)? Prism Shine was pretty cool although I kinda expected more glowy all-outness (I guess they’re saving up for the ending?). The pacing at the end felt kinda cramped with things just happening but eh. Good solid ep, probably one of the stronger eps of the series.

I like how things getting fixed after kyoborgs wreak havoc have an explanation besides anime magic. Wait, ひろがる means spreading or expanding (at least according to my internet searchesbut also sounds like Hero Girl? Sora’s VA was fun this ep. I looked her up and I guess she’s Charlotte in Princess Principal and Tokime in Fuuto Tantei, which are two characters pretty unlike Sora. Sky Punch was pretty awesome and I guess that was Yuu Yoshiyama again? I like Skearhead getting a bit more depth? and Sora getting a bit more character development from it.

Between this and 16bit this season, I’m appreciative of how squeaky Aoi Koga can get. Obviously Ageha is the best of the Precures this season because she can eat the most. Is Battamonda doing a hot dog/coffee combo? Or is the cup just coffee cup like? Kinda seems dangerous on the stomach. I guess Mashiro is chill with Battamonda even after that last ep with the henshin? Skearhead just happening on Monda and Mashiro kinda makes me wonder what he does when he’s not on screen, I guess he just takes walks or something. Was kinda hoping kyoborg would shoot hot dogs and mustard and relish and what not but I guess those coffee cup things are good too. Looks like maybe we’re getting hints of things ramping up towards end of series with the direct confrontation of Skearhead and the next ep preview.

Good to have this show back after a week break. Kinda wonder if there were dinosaurs in Skyland. I mean, they have dragons and birds so why not. Life’s Journey yahoo! does seem to cover quite the range of topics though, from dinosaurs to weddings (and as we all know, being a dinosaur is such a magical part of one’s life journey).

I liked the look of the opening sequence, especially with Mashiro’s little glowly light. Are pumpkin ghosts actual things? They look great in their costumes anyways. I guess overall the animation looked a bit more lively than the last couple weeks. The kids are trick-or-treating during the daytime though? Wait, is Pretty Holic a Precure thing in general? Because I remember it from Tropical Rouge i think… Not a big Battamonda fan but I liked his henshin into Cure Pumpkin (also now that I look his VA up, I did like KENN in Uchuu Kyoudai and it looks like he has a main role in iDOLISH which I’ve been meaning to get to…). Cure Majesty getting the baby treat and having to eat it when she turns back just raises more questions for me in terms of her mental age going back and forth… but also it was a pretty funny gag.

I guess we don’t get to see everybody en route to Skyland this time around and just start with everybody there. I really like that “hammoak” pun, I guess that’s a subs-only thing? (my Japanese is not great ,… at all, but I’m hearing “kaze no ue no ki no ha”). I guess Tsubasa is a bird riding on top of a bigger bird huh. What a coincidence that the members of the Dragon Tribe are all kinda the same colors as our main crew huh. I kinda wonder if the Dragon Tribe, namely the purple one, is weirded out by Ellee’s age change. Tsubasa and his complexes with flying and the Dragon Tribe and the momentary Chekhov’s leaves were a nice little bit. Does Skearhead really have a mind palace or is that just his weird way of saying he’ll remember this.

I’m a fan of goats. The last goats I remember seeing in anime were in Gundam shows and movies. I like their tendency to climb on top of things but I guess we didn’t get that this ep. That squirrel bit with it posing and having a big smile on its face after Sora sneezed was a little weird lol.

Also a fan of when anime take place in more rural settings like Gin no Saji, Sakura Quest, Non Non Biyori, Hanasaku Iroha, Yuru Camp, etc etc etc etc etc. The shot of the fields reminds me a lot of parts of California, but then again I guess those fields look like a lot of places. Anyways, I liked the backgrounds in this ep with the smudgey leaves.

alright, holding off on the otona precure for now since i haven’t seen the prequel series to it but i’m here for hirogaru sky. animation quality seemed to dip a little bit compared to previous eps? characters seem to be drawn a little weirdly, especially when they’re a little further away in the scene. Bits of the fight looked pretty good though and felt yuu yoshiyama-ish. Anyways, it was a nice episode. It’s nice seeing Ageha in her role as a nursery school teacher and how she engages with the kids.

Finished binging Tropical Rouge at the beginning of the week and then there was a gap of no mahou shoujo anime during the week but then here we are again. Overall, the animation was pretty solid but the lower-res versions of Mashiro and Sora were kinda freaky looking when they were walking up the hill around the 8:25 mark. I found Battamonda funnier this ep than last, I guess he works better in smaller doses for me. Surgery seemed a little bit extreme for pitcher’s elbow but I guess it’s an option if things don’t improve after 6 months? Chroniclon is still pretty hype after the 3rd-ish time.

I think it’s helpful to watch Love Live Sunshine beforehand to get a feel of who the characters are and how they relate to their Genjitsu no Yohane versions, but maybe Genjitsu is okay watching on its own?

I kinda wonder why Flea is teaching them multiplication tables but maybe I won’t question it… The face Walter did to Bocchan during the water training segment was pretty fun as well as the pencil sketch thing when Daleth said “they’re not my friends”. The ending scene framing with Alice and Bocchan was nice with Bocchan in the blue and Alice in the yellow and the shadow cast over his eyes by his hat’s brim.

• I think the anime I looked forward to most week-to-week was Genjitsu no Yohane. Yeah, the plot reused a lot of elements throughout to keep it going and the pacing was a little weird, but it was one of the prettier shows, the fantasy world was interesting, we got new Aqours jams (and the OST was great), and Yoshiko/Yohane was one of my favs from Love Live Sunshine.
• Undead Girl Murder Farce, despite it being maybe not my usual genre of preference, was probably the best overall anime of the season I watched (mostly thanks to the director from Kaguya and all the great, inventive visuals).
• Helck isn’t the prettiest anime visually, but it’s got a director who can balance humor and seriousness in Tatsuo Satou (director of Kidou Senkan Nadesico and Uchuu no Stellvia among other things) and it shows and so it’s been pretty enjoyable.
• Hirogaru Sky! Precure has been pretty solid. Not my favorite installment of Precure (been watching through Tropical Rouge and I think I like that one more, maybe because of its humor and weirdness) and it definitely has its fair share of obvious animation quality dips, but the last couple eps have had really energetic and lively animation with pretty background art so we’ll see where we go from here.
• Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid 2nd Season has been alright. Never was the prettiest show, but this season has had some nicer-than-usual animated moments and bigger plot lines are coming into play so maybe I like it more than season 1?
• wasn’t expecting that much from it (and maybe I like other Naomi Oozora demon-ish shows more than this one) but Lv1 Maou to One Room Yuusha was pretty fun and the longer plotlines driving the events were pretty interesting.

And yeah there’s Zom 100 which is great but is quite a bit further from done than everything else and who knows when it’ll finish…

I kinda barely remember who Battamonda was tbh, feels like his episodes were so long ago, I guess his temper was the thing that defined him (and still does). Whenever I hear “toki wa kita”, I think of Machikado Mazoku. I suppose “I wuv it so much” is a bit on the longer side for a sentence but I’m kinda giving up on tracking Ellee’s speech growth.

The use of blur and shadows was pretty nice this ep, particularly when Battamonda dropped his brush and the focus shifted from the sketchbook to the brush.

Eh, not so much of a fan of this ep. Battamonda’s expressions were nicely animated, but the back and forth thing didn’t really land with me. And it was kinda obvious with the full transformations and attack sequences they had to pad things out a bit (although yeah, the chroniclon one still looks great). Are they trying to draw parallels between Ellee’s liking Mashiron’s books and the Cure Majesty closing the chroniclon?

The folk song Beatrix had on her audio player was Sakura Sakura, which seems fitting for her character.

The lighting at the beginning was quite nice with the long shadows and everything, feels like this show doesn’t show off lighting like that often. I wanna see Bocchan in a skirt, why not show us that in a Viola’s imagination scene smh. Nico’s and Flea’s hair remind me of Kirika from Symphogear.

The intro was quite pretty, but mb I would’ve liked more of that worldbuilding sprinkled into the rest of the season, feels kinda weird tojust put it in the last episode. The transitions to the performances are kinda abrupt in this series, particularly in this last ep. It kinda makes me want the performances in less usual idol-garb and their fantasized stages and stick closer to the theming in the rest of the show, but eh.

I liked this show and it’s been a show I’ve been most looking forward to watching week-to-week , it’s on the prettier side of shows and more aligned with my usual preferences as a SOL. Yeah, pacing throughout the show has been a little weird and the same sorts of events to push the plot forward was a little annoying, but the fantasy world is pretty interesting (and wouldn’t mind seeing another season or two of), both the OST and new Aquors tunes were nice, and I’d say Yoshiko ahem,… Yohane was probably one of my favorites from the original series. Yeah, the themes of finding yourself and finding your place in the world and how that relates to everybody else aren’t super unique, but the way the show tied it to expressing yourself and putting yourself out there through song and also tying it to the whole “kokoro no oto” thing and Lailaps was pretty nice.