The Extraordinary Fan(boy)
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Hello there, HJUers.

Today I come to you in a mission of madness and/or enlightenment, depending on how many times you have watched Raiders of the lost Ark in the last 48 hours.

In any case, I will go out on a limb here and presume that most of you peeps around these places know what Tokusatsu is, and if you have been in the fandom long enough then you may have heard of this anime called ‘PreCure’ one or two or a hundred times, but have you ever wondered why that is? Why is it that this Magical Girl anime seems to overlap with long standing Toku Franchises like Kamen Rider, Super Sentai and Ultraman? And why should we all care?

Well, since apparently I had nothing better to do and access to a broadband internet connection, I have written a series of articles in which I intend to answer these questions and explore the exact nature between Tokusatsu, a live-action genre defined for its use of special effects and gigantic explosions, and PreCure, a magical girl anime defined by its use of friendship and gigantic explosions.

Since this is an unreasonably broad subject and because I am of the belief that if you are going to do something then you better not half-ass it, I have spread my thoughts about this fascinating/controversial/absurd topic into 6 parts because never in the history of humanity a hexalogy has turned out wrong. So you know, read and enjoy, unless you hate having fun or something.

Toku Special:

Part 1: Toku and You.
Part 2: The Max Heartening.
Part 3: The Dream Warriors.
Part 4: A Fresh Hope vol. 1
Part 4: A Fresh Hope vol. 2
Part 5: A Good Day to Smile Charge!
Part 6: The Curse of Aguri Madoka.

I will be publishing a new part every Friday from here until eternity or until I reach part six, whatever happens first, so look forward to that.

Disclaimer: these articles are ridiculously biased opinion pieces based on a work of fiction and were written by a self-proclaimed extraordinary Fanboy, so if you take them too seriously that´s your own damn fault.

PS: I wasn´t entirely sure where this belonged since technically it is about anime but it is also extensively about Toku, so in the mean time i put it on this sub-forum.
 
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those are a nice read, even though i'm not really into PreCure, only watched reruns of the very first one in my local TV, but i like your writing style, do you also plan write Toku specials that are not precure related?
 
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Great articles so far. I enjoyed reading them. Lots of analysis but keeping it lighthearted so that it doesn't become dry.

It also comes at a fortuitous time for me. I was never particularly interested in magical girls until recently. I wanted to see some more of (Gaim head writer) Gen Urubuchi's work, and it dawned on me that I probably wouldn't get the most out of Madoka Magica if I had no idea of any of the conventions of the genre it's meant to be a twist on. So I decided to watch Sailor Moon Crystal (because hey, it's only two episodes per month) and, perhaps inevitably, somewhere between episode 5 and 6 I fell down the rabbit hole and ended up watching the entire first season of the 90s Sailor Moon series on hulu. One of the things that struck me about it was how it was more or less exactly like a toku show (and why doesn't Ultraman Ginga perform his 'Ginga Comfort' attack using a magic rod with a golden crescent moon on the end of it?). Since then I've gone back to work on my (seemingly never diminishing) toku backlog, but I've had my eye out for another magical girl (warrior) show that I could try out in the future.

TLDR, is there any particular series of PreCure that would be a good place for a n00b to jump on? Would the "Sentai-ness" of YPC5 make it an easy transition or is best to just start from the beginning of the franchise? Are there any other similar franchises that might appeal to a toku fan? (I've heard Lyrical Nanoha might?) Apologies if either of these questions are pre-empting something you had planned for later Toku Special installments.
 
The Extraordinary Fan(boy)
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is there any particular series of PreCure that would be a good place for a n00b to jump on?

There are a couple of approaches to this.

If you like doing things chronologically, then you can start with the first season (Futari Wa Pretty Cure) and work your way up. The only thing you should be wary is that you should probably avoid watching the third season (Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star) right after the first two seasons; Splash Star is a good show, but since it is too similar to its predecessor you might get burned out if you watch it right after those.

That approach aside, the other two good starting points i recommend are Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and Fresh Pretty Cure: YPC5 is a very good season with some great character development, so if you like classic Magical Girls shows or you enjoy Super Sentai, this is a pretty good option.

Personally i like to recommend Fresh since, as i will mention in Part 4, this season was headed by a new production team and as such it has a good combination of the more classic elements of Precure and some modern ideas that make it a very accessible show, not to mention that it is also Pretty damn good, easily in the top 5, and from there you can easily work your way up or down the franchise.

Now, a lot of people will probably tell you that you should start with HeartCatch Precure, arguably on of the most popular seasons, but i recommend you postpone it until you have watched at least one other season; HeartCatch is certainly very good, but it is also very unique, so you would probably get more enjoyment out of it once you are familiar with the franchise.

Are there any other similar franchises that might appeal to a Toku fan?

This is a tricky question, for you see, when it comes to Magical Girl animes there are usually two flavors: Magical Girl shows made for adult males that feature violence, absurd action and fan service, and Magical Girl shows intended for little girls and that as such are more focused on things like friendship, cute things and selling a boat load of toys.

Shows like Madoka, Lyrical Nanoha, Symphogear and Vividred Operation belong to that first group and are quite popular among Otakus because of the reasons listed above (i am not saying that they are bad shows, but they are clearly meant for a particular audience).

Shows like Jewel Pet, Mermaid Melody and Ojamajo Doremi belong to the second group and we could argue that they are more in-line with what "Magical Girl" shows are supposed to be, but they are also aimed primarily at very young children so save for a few exceptions (like Doremi), these are not very likely to appeal someone who is not already a fan of the genre.

As for what shows might appeal to a Toku fan, well, there really is only one answer: generally speaking, PreCure is a show aimed at the younger children demographic, so there is no real violence or fan service whatsoever (there is still absurd action though), but the secondary demographic for the show are actually young adults, similarly to how Super Sentai appeals to both young and old, so if you like Toku then you will find that a lot of what makes Toku charming is also in PreCure. Besides, since PreCure is produced by Toei, there is quite an overlap between the staff that works in Toku and Precure, mostly writters, so there is certainly a sense of familiarity.

If you want to find out more about that, then look forward to the future entries of Toku Special where i actually address that particular phenomenon. A lot.

draewon said:
do you also plan write Toku specials that are not precure related?

Most of everything i have written is PreCure related, Toku Special is sort of a Special project, and while i could certainly write more about Toku (i would love to), i actually don´t have a proper output for it: pretty much all of my articles are published in the LiveJournal PreCure community, which is why i write mostly about that franchise, but i might write something entirely Toku centered in the future if i find a good place to publish it.
 
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Most of everything i have written is PreCure related, Toku Special is sort of a Special project, and while i could certainly write more about Toku (i would love to), i actually don´t have a proper output for it: pretty much all of my articles are published in the LiveJournal PreCure community, which is why i write mostly about that franchise, but i might write something entirely Toku centered in the future if i find a good place to publish it.

i see, i will look forward to read if you actually write one in the future
 
The Extraordinary Fan(boy)
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Toku Special Part 4 is up!!!

A word of warning.

Part 4 covers Fresh and HeartCatch so there was a lot, and i mean a lot of material to cover, which is why i had to split it into two parts, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

Okay, to be honest i split it up because it was too amazing for a single post, and i am not saying that just because i wrote it.

(But seriously, it´s amazing, go check it out now)
 
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Ivanhobe said:
Hello there, socially adjusted internet mole-people!
Mogura_Beastman.jpg

Chu-Chu!?

You certainly make Fresh PreCure sound interesting. My memories of Sun Vulcan are that it was largely the core Sentai formula with moments of hilarious batsh** insanity (well hi there, Machiko Soga doing a tribal dance in a leopard-print leotard and a disco-ball headdress). So anything that takes inspiration from that is A-OK by me. :thumbs: Although you have also reminded me that I need to watch Kikaider 01 at some point (I've been avoiding it tbh because I found the original Android Kikaider a total chore to sit through).

I look forward to the next two parts, and have made a mental note that YPC5 and/or FPC needs to be seen at some point (probably Fresh based on what you've said of the content, although I've just watched it's first OP on youtube and I genuinely can't stand that vocal, whereas YPC5 sounds like it's riffing on Fiveman's theme tune :sweat:).
 
The Extraordinary Fan(boy)
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Finally, someone who speaks mole-ish!


I need to watch Kikaider 01 at some point (I've been avoiding it tbh because I found the original Android Kikaider a total chore to sit through).[/quote]

I kind of get what you mean, personally i love Android Kikaider, but the show is extremely formulaic so if you are not into that sort of thing then it can be a chore to watch.

Luckily for you, Kikaider 01 is a completely different beast; there are still monsters of the week, but instead of sticking to a formula the show contains defined story arcs and has some very well done character development. As i mentioned, everyone knows about the Bijinder arc but as good as that one is, it pales in comparison with the Warauder arc.

[quote]I've just watched it's first OP on youtube and I genuinely can't stand that vocal, whereas YPC5 sounds like it's riffing on Fiveman's theme tune[/quote]

Yeah, the Fresh OP is infamous for being...let say grating, which is why Fresh was the first season to have a second OP, "Let´s Fresh Pretty Cure Hybrid ver.", which was basically a remix of the original OP but with some beats added to it with a new new singer and new lyrics.

Also, do yourself a favor and go listen to the OP of Yes! Pretty Cure 5 Gogo, "Yes! Pretty Cure 5 Full Throtle Gogo". You can thank me later.​
 
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My memories of Sun Vulcan are that it was largely the core Sentai formula with moments of hilarious batsh** insanity (well hi there, Machiko Soga doing a tribal dance in a leopard-print leotard and a disco-ball headdress).

she also did exactly that in Gavan, except it was a hideous afro instead of a disco ball headdress, and she does disco aerobics instead, so i guess it's not really the exact same thing, but close :buttrock:
 
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