In the midst of all the hype surrounding the new Precure show this year, the whole writing team decided to pick it up and write about it. For Lerxst, this is his first taste of the wonderful Precure franchise while Usny and I are already rotten to the core. So what did the team think about Dokidoki! Precure? Read and find out!

Lerxst: If you had asked me to tell you anything about the Precure franchise before watching episode 1 of Dokidoki! Precure, I would have told you it was a mahou shoujo. And that’s about it. I had about as much knowledge of the Precure franchise before watching this first episode of Dokidoki than I did about quantum physics. I can count the number of magical girl shows I’ve seen with one hand: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, and Sailor Moon. If I really wanted to, I could add Vividred Operation and Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt to that list as well. (editor’s note: Madoka and Panty & Stocking are not magical girl shows –kevo) So not only is this my first impression of Dokidoki! Precure, but it is also my very first impression of the Precure franchise as a whole. And I have to say, it left a much better impression than I anticipated.

I understand this is a magical girl show and it has supernatural elements like giant enemy crabs and the like, but it’s kind of humorous to see Mana and Alice accept giant crabs ruining their school trip. I’m not sure how accepting previous Precure were to their immediate change of surroundings, but this seems almost too accepting. I suppose in the situation where you have a split decision between saving an idol Precure or watching a giant Selfish shellfish run amok, I would pull out my Precure smartphone as well and dial LOVE for my transformation sequence.

That pun.

kevo: The beginning of the series is not the most reliable indicator of how well a show is going to go, especially if that show is 50 episodes long like the most recent addition to the Precure franchise: Dokidoki! Precure. That being said, I am pretty excited for Dokidoki! Precure. I’ve seen every Precure series since Heartcatch Precure and this time around something just seems different. Cure Heart is obviously our lead cure this time around, but it is very apparent that Dokidoki! Precure is a 4-Cure Precure show (like Fresh Precure and Heartcatch Precure) but the Cures are going to be introduced early on similar to a 5-Cure show (Smile Precure). Woooaaahh. I am curious which role structure Dokidoki! Precure will adapt (like Suite Precure or more balanced like Smile Precure), or if it will be completely different. We will have to wait and see.

Dokidoki! Precure also features the first new composer since Heartcatch Precure, with Takaki Hiroshi taking over for Takanashi Yasaharu. Takaki’s more notable recent work is with AKB0048. The guy has big shoes to fill.

Usny: The Precure franchise tends to recycle quite a bit from show to show, so the Heartcatch Precure vibes during the Dokidoki! Precure prologue were no surprise. Cure Sword battling against multiple Selfish monsters by herself reminded me a lot of Cure Moonlight single-handedly trying to protect the Heart Tree from Dark Precure in the first episode of Heartcatch. What I didn’t expect was the Madoka vibes as Sword looked on at the destruction she had failed to prevent. It’s pretty ironic, since Madoka shares a lot of similarities with various Precures, like color scheme to role correspondence or Madoka’s god-mode appearance being eerily similar to the giant woman summoned by the Heartcatch Orchestra.

It’s nice to see that Precure is promoting tech savviness by having the Dokidoki girls use smart phones to transform. Swiping “LOVE” to initiate their transformation is hella fruity, but anyone who has seen more than five minutes of any Precure should already expect this level of fruit. What I want to know is: can you root/jailbreak these Precure smart phones? And if you do, does it void the warranty? Also, please, for the love of god, tell me these phones come pre-loaded with a map application that shows the locations of all registered sex offenders in the area.

Jesus Christ, the ending theme. I swear, the main objective when composing Precure EDs is to produce the most contagious ear worms known to man. Not to mention the animation for the Precure endings, which just keeps getting more and more extravagant. At this rate, the second Dokidoki ED will have the girls dancing on galaxies with Gurren Lagann at the mixdeck, and there’s not a single thing wrong with that. Here’s a thought: let’s take all the money that’s currently being wasted on those useless, holographic Vocaloid concerts and spend it on holographic Precure concerts instead. Make it next year’s Super Bowl half time show. Seriously, I would pay an embarrassing amount of money to make this happen.