To lead with a simple truth; this project is the actual reason I created this WordPress blog in the first place. I’ve tried this once before, last year I tried liveblogging HeartCatch Precure on my now-defunct janesanimeblog site on good ol’ tumblr before life got in the way. I wanted to give it another shot, as doing just half an hour a week feels a lot more doable. Whether I have a ton to say or very little will vary week by week of course, but I do want to write at least a little bit about every single episode.
Why? Very simple; I love magical girls. That’s not rare among transwomen (or women in general honestly), but something about the pure-hearted straightforwardness of the genre speaks to me. Both in the rare show like Precure that is still actually for kids, and more adult-oriented things like Symphogear.
So what of Healin’ Good itself? Well, every Pretty Cure series has two raisons d’arte. The first is pretty obvious for any show marketed to kids. The second is usually an examination of some simple theme or group thereof. Last year’s Star Twinkle Precure (the first Precure I watched end to end!) examined aspirations, imagination, and, aesthetically, space. It’s a little too early to say much that’s definitive about Healin’ Good, but it’s obvious that taking care of yourself is a big part of it. I’m a little iffy on the “health food” tone some of this takes here in the first episode, but honestly, it’s a solid message for kids. Especially given that one of Precure‘s recurring sponsors is McDonald’s. The second seems to be taking care of the planet. There’s a little “Gaia theory” going on here, even this early on the show makes some implicit connections between keeping yourself healthy and keeping Earth healthy.
But enough about all that deep stuff. Let’s meet our protagonist. This is the memorably-named Nodoka. She is an extremely good girl.
Precure protagonists tend to come in a couple different moulds, and Nodoka definitely fits into the “diligent girl who likes to help people” archetype. Seiyuu fans will already know that Nodoka is voiced by the great Aoi Yuuki, who seems to have taken a circuitous path from voicing Madoka of Madoka Magica fame, to Hibiki of Symphogear, to finally a “no-frills” magical girl in the form of Nodoka. She brings a lot of palpable enthusiasm to the role, and it’s infectious.
Nodoka herself seems to have something of a sad backstory. We’re not given the details, but given her parents’ comments early in the episode and a very brief flashback we get later, it seems like Nodoka is or was sickly for much of her life. Her moving to the health resort(?) town is what opens the first episode, and seems to be the result of the old-fashioned “move to the mountains to get her some fresh air” diagnosis.
Well before we get to the actual magical part of the episode, Healin’ Good goes out of its way to establish the girl at the heart of it. She enjoys walking around town, helps an American couple take a picture, lounges on some grass to soak up the sun, helps an old lady carry some things, and of course, briefly runs into the two characters who she will doubtless eventually form a trio with. (Let’s pretend to be surprised by that when the time comes, hm? Makes the whole thing more fun.) She is accidentally bowled over by a chatty type with twintails, in what is one of several pretty strong physical comedy breaks.
The other girl she encounters running. I could say more, but I think I’ll just let these pictures speak for themselves.
Of course, this is Pretty Cure. So while all this is happening, a completely different half of the story is going down nearby. Meet this season’s mascots.
This is the first episode, so details are sparse, but these four (who I will be referring to simply by their respective animals for now, not sure what sub group I’ll end up watching long-term) are tasked with partnering with a human to save the world from evil pollution people. By their queen, who is one of those long-haired French dogs I forget the name of. Specifically, she phrases it this way:
To which our penguin-shaped friend has a pretty understandable reaction a few minutes down the line.
Also a petrified lady is just kind of…there, in the animal kingdom (itself implied to be underground). Just kind of hanging out. We’ll get back to her later in the show, I’m sure, but for the time being it’s just kind of an amusingly incongruous detail.
The way they eventually cross paths with Nodoka is pretty standard, but I must shout out the bunny for using this absolutely impeccable piece of logic to figure out what kind of person they should be looking for.
Eventually, our baddies show up, created by corrupting tiny nature spirtis called Elements. These things are called Pathogerms, because this is Pretty Cure and Pretty Cure knows that subtlety is for cowards. Your average (Mega-)Pathogerm appears to look something like this.
This thing starts corrupting the park that Nodoka was hanging out in. It’s here that Precure and Sidekick cross paths for the first time.
You know what happens next.
Can I level with you? It’s hard to make a magical girl transformation sequence that I don’t love. I love how simple this one is, and the flower motif is lovely. Will we see it a billion times over the course of this show’s run? Absolutely. Is it ever going to lose its magic? If so, only a little, and by repetition alone.
The only quibble I have is, yes, the mascots do become part of the “healing stick” wands the Precures have. Yes, it’s kinda weird. It’s alright, we’ll get over it together, you and I.
Nodoka–now Cure Grace–promptly puts her priorities in the exact wrong order, proving again that all magical girls are required to have at least a small amount of Powerful Dumbass Energy.
Grace, in grand Precure tradition, then A) jumps real high by accident, and B) pounds the Megapathogerm into the dirt with nothing but a couple of kicks and throws. There’s a “magic bunny shield” thrown in there briefly as a block, but still.
Importantly we’re also introduced to this show’s version of the “wawawawawa” from HeartCatch, and it iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis somethin’.
Standing around vaguely during all this is this person, who, well, we don’t really know much about them yet, but hey! They’re here if you like androgynous demon folks.
I’m not wild about that particular visual trope to be honest (there’s a long history of giving villains stereotypically femme or gay traits), but it’s nothing over the top here so far and who knows, there might be way more to this character than meets the eye, so we’ll let it slide for the time being. Plus, if this sort of design is your thing, I doubt you’re much minding.
The episode kinda just ends there, honestly. Other than a genuinely hilarious bit where Nodoka finally registers that she’s been talking to a bunch of animals for the past 15 minutes.
But other than that, that’s the wrap for the first episode of the first Precure of the 2020s. Honestly? I loved it. I’m not that hard to please with this kind of thing though and I’m curious as to how more discerning / picky (choose whichever adjective you find more applicable) Precure fans will size up the show. Regardless, you can count on a blog post like this per week barring some kind of major personal problem. I hope to see y’all around, but before I truly end things on this post I wanted to just drop some random thoughts I had no place for elsewhere in it.
- I believe this is the first Precure to start in the same season as a Madoka series since HeartCatch. This really doesn’t mean anything at all, but it’s kinda neat, trivia-wise. I like to think Nodoka and Iroha would be friends, vastly different settings aside.
- The image I used for the banner has a similar scene that it cuts to immediately after. I like the juxtaposition of both Nodoka and the Rabbit about to start on their adventures with each other, but neither knows it yet.
- Gonna try to do a Distance Shot Of The Week as I kinda love distance models and think they’re endlessly charming. Today’s entry is this extremely powerful shot of a waving Nodoka.
The Magic Planet 