Yes! Precure 5 GoGo!

I've discussed a lot of PreCure works before. And why not? The franchise has over a dozen series, a bunch of films, games and it's definitely one of Toei's big, profitable franchises. However, there was an early entry into the franchise that nearly killed the whole thing. That was the follow up to Yes PreCure 5. Yes PreCure 5 GoGo performed so badly in terms of ratings, that the next instalment had to be a rousing success or it was going to be the end of the franchise. And it's the reason no PreCure has had a direct sequel since. So, what was so badabout this series? Let's have a look. Story: Our heroines are continuing their normal lives and pursuing their goals when a strange delivery boy appears with a letter for them. The letter requests their presence at a place called the Cure Rose Garden. Unfortunately for them, a group called Eternal is also interested in getting into the Cure Rose Garden and they'll do anything to get the Rose Pact away from the PreCure. The biggest problem with the narrative is just how much time is spent on transformation sequences. Especially towards the end when we have their transformation sequence, Milky Rose's transformation and exceptionally long special attacks when Coco or Nuts grants them power. It kind of reminds me of summoning Knights of the Round in FF VII, it's cool the first time you see it but since it never gets abridged you start getting up to get yourself a sandwich or read a chapter of your book after starting it. Except that these sequences combine to be at least twice as long as that summon. There are also issues that come from this being a sequel. To name an obvious example, Bunbee returns. Which is fine in and of itself, he wasn't explicitly shown to be destroyed. What doesn't make sense is that he gets a huge power boost for no apparent reason that makes him a threat again. I guess he did some off screen training with King Kai. The attempt at throwing in romantic tension between Coco and Nozomi is still awkward, uncomfortable and creepy. Since the dude is both her teacher and a different species. The story does have its positives. Syrup's story arc is pretty good. The series also has its share of fun moments that are worthy of a PreCure series. Characters: This is actually one of the big reasons I think this series flopped. The characters in Yes PreCure 5 are not strong enough to carry two series. They were trite archetypes in the first series. In the sequel, they're very much the same. The first series at least tried to add some degree of depth by giving them episodes where they have to question who they really want to be. The series pretty much does nothing new with them as characters. Except for Milk who gains her own transformation and abilities as Milky Rose. Even then, the core of her character is the same. She's extremely loyal to Coco & Nuts and she has a friendly rivalry going on with Nozomi. The antagonists are fine. They're pretty much an organisation that collects rare goods without regard to the people who produce them. They could rebrand themselves as archaeologists and their collection room as a museum if they wanted less flak over it. Art: This series has the weakest monster designs I've seen in the franchise. There are a lot of monsters that are just a random object with the hoshina orb somewhere on it. Which really is a lot different from taking something ordinary and warping it into a monstrous form. It's just so lazy. Same with the overly long transformation/ big attack sequences. It gets exceptionally bad when we sit through the transformations and then we get both the rainbow rose explosion and the milky rose metal blizzard. Because all of those together are about five minutes. Which is about a quarter of the episode when you factor out the theme tunes. Sound: The actresses continue to be strong in their roles. Surprisingly so given how bland the characters are. Paku Romi makes an excellent addition to the cast. It's also nice to hear Koyasu Takehito even as a short-lived villain. The series has decent music, but does the same thing as the first Precure 5 series where they replace their ending theme tune with one that's very much a slightly modified version of Splash Star's Ganbalance de dance. I know Splash Star is superior in every way, but taking its music isn't going to give you its power. Ho-yay: There's a little, mostly involving Karen and Komachi or Coco & Nuts. There's also a bit with Karen & Kurumi. Not as much as any other PreCure series I've reviewed. Even the first Yes PreCure 5 had more. Areas of Improvement: Develop your characters. These characters weren't strong enough to carry 49 episodes and have a good series out of it. Adding 48 more with the same lack of development just makes it more noticeable. Seriously, stop pushing the idea of romance between an adult squirrel and human girl. It's creepy. Shorten your big attack/ transformation sequences. Seeing them a few times in their entirety is enough. They can be tighter and more condensed after. Final Thoughts: So, why did this series fail? Honestly, I think it has to do with the non-compelling, creepy romance elements in combination with these characters not having the strength to carry two series. There's just not enough personality there. That being said, this series really isn't any worse than the first Yes PreCure 5. It's largely bland with some stand out negative and positive aspects. So, I'm giving it a 5/10.

Yes! Precure 5 had a few things done right and a bunch of other things done wrong. The sequel Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! did very little right and had no choice but to continue doing the wrong things for another season. Visuals: 1) they improved overall but there's a few scenes where the animation is very sloppy and inconsistent 2) dialog and animation aren't always in sync 3) I hate how their uniforms look more similar between the girls. Last season the little differences were more noticeable and it just gave more personality to the girls Sound: 1) top notch casting for most of the newcharacters. Getting Park Romi to give her boyish lovely voice to a character similar to Coco and Nuts only proves that the casting for this original duo is a mistake since the prequel 2) soundtrack isn't memorable enough Story and characters: 1) Once again we get pedosquirrels and 14 year old girls as one of the main focuses of the season 2) lack of creativity for each episode's plot. Evidence of this are the number of transformations and special attacks performed each fight. They take way longer than in the prequel and not only that, but 90% of the fights always follow the same routine: confront enemy, transform, kick & punch & twirl, special attacks, not enough, major power up out of "nowhere" and victory. Rinse and repeat for 90% of the fights. This is both annoying and boring to watch. They should've explored strategy and combos to keep things fresh and interesting. The fighting scenes were awful for this reason. However, the mini stories themselves are truly boring to watch, unlike the previous season. It seemed they had a point to give a platform to each character and develop them as characters but this sequel had very little of that. This sequel was a huge mistake and completely unnecessary. 6/10

48, the final episode of Yes 5 Gogo! It's been quite a wild ride... but here we go. So the Director disregards Flora's seed as useless since it has no value, and he just wants to destroy everything that has no value. But despite the Cures attempts to tell him it doesnt need value, all it needs is to be loved and nurtured and it'll become something beautiful he refuses to listen. The Director destroys multiple worlds at once but something happens. Mailpo (who got lost earlier) reappears and delivers endless, literally endless streams of letters: born from the unbelievably strong feelings of everyonein different worlds and their desire to help Precure. So the Cures power up and combine the powers of the red and blue roses with Coco and Nuts and Milk's help and the attack warps into an ULTRA ROSE!!!!!!!! instead of destroying him it transforms into Flora who simply hugs the Director, trying to help him understand life's care and such. He seems to say something like "why didnt you tell me earlier" before he succumbs to ULTIMATE FLOWER POWER and dies. The entire Eternal building and EVERYTHING in the collection is freed and returns back to everything's original owners, and the Garden revives. Flora, entrusting the Cure Rose Garden to Nozomi, also dies Well she semi-dies; she claims she's going to be "reborn as a seed," and she literally is, which falls into Nozomi's hands. Nozomi decides to make the Cure Rose Garden public and Coco and Nuts help rebuild their own gardens I think, everyone achieves their dreams, and Milk becomes a tour guide for the Garden. Nozomi also plants the Flora-seed and waits for any sign of life caring for it with her friends. She writes a letter to Coco desperately wanting to see him and bumps into him just like the first time they met. And Coco sense that the Flora-Flower is blooming and indeed, it's become a little sprout! Everyone gathers and decides to tell the other kingdoms, and Nozomi invites all the Cures and all the mascots, and simultaneously, they all do Nozomi's KETTEI! (It's Decided/Settled!) pose. And the ending is a bit corny but it shows all of their dreams coming true in their own way: Urara gets to stand on the stage her mother performed at and play, Rin and Karen take care of the Rose Garden, Komachi gets Nuts to be her editor, I think was the implication? But YES!!!!! We have GoGone into a very interesting series, I think, a slightly better take on the "life is precious" approach than Max Heart, although I can't place my finger on why. Anyway, the episode score I'll get over with, it gets a 5/5 as if there was any doubt. But there is a LOT to dissect here, almost enough for a third paragraph I will say that the themes of life and roses worked out better than before, by a slow margin. The story was pretty good, even though it could be a bit sluggish at times and feel like it's retreading old ground. It was expected at least slightly due to it being a sequel season, but as I said, despite how happy the characters are, they're still barely any closer to achieving their dreams than they were at the end of Yes 5. THAT was their dreams coming true in my opinion, they never really changed from that perspective and it feels like the series is trying to act as though it's a new thing. Syrup's character arc was actually really well-built, as was the Director and Anacondy's specifically. The thing with Syrup is that his arc is way too slow, and the Director's motivation can be described as, how could you say it...overly simplified. His sole reason for wanting to see the Cure Rose Garden was to destroy it and kill Flora, for the singular reason that it "has no value." Anacondy was actually a REALLY interesting character (she came back when the Director saw the Flora illusion and went to go hug him). Flora's character is somewhat poorly explained I must admit; the Director himself states that Flora had power to protect the Cure Rose Garden, bringing into question why she didn't try to defend it and still held off attacking whatsoever in the series. Syrup's arc in particular was kept in the dark for too long and the villains were overly simplified, with the exception of Mucardio and Bunbee OH!!!!!! BUNBEE STARTS HIS OWN NEW BUSINESS WITH A KAWARINO LOOKALIKE After taking all these factors into consideration, I must admit that I didn't enjoy GoGo as much as I'd hoped, sad as it is. I'll need to give it only a 5/10, possibly due to all the lukewarm elements. Fresh Precure apparently rebooted the franchise from the ground up so I've heard, so I'll be starting it tomorrow and hopefully we'll get off on the right foot with it. Here's to a FRESH new look at the series!