Episode 1: I’m a Princess? The Birth of Cure Flora!

I’m starting a Go! Princess Precure watch-along and comment with some friends on the blorbo.social Mastodon server. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, so this should be fun.

In one of the interviews I quoted in the last post, Washio Takahashi, creator of Precure said:

For example, at first glance, you might think that the “princess” motif is not typical of Precure. However, at the time of planning, the Disney movie “Frozen” was a big hit, and I felt that there were many girls who liked princesses. If that’s the case, we can create a new image of a strong princess who carves her own path, rather than depending on the prince. With that in mind, I updated the motif itself in a PreCure style.

– “I want to protect the place of minorities” The origins of Pretty Cure’s first producer Takahashi Washio, who overturned the “common sense” of anime for girls.

Reading between the lines, I think it’s “Bandai demanded a princess series because of Frozen, so we subverted the classic Disney princess narrative.” It’ll be interesting to watch, knowing more about his philosophy and vision for Precure!

First, we see Haruka as a toddler, crying while being taunted by boys telling her she couldn’t be a princess in a million years. Then she’s sitting on a flowery hillside, doubting her dream.

Suddenly a handsome young man dressed in white appears and tells her “I’m certain your dream will come true if you hold it dear.”

She says she will, and he hands her a florid dress-up key. In a gust of wind, he disappears. Could this be a reference to the beginning of Revolutionary Girl Utena?

Jumping to the present, Haruka’s parents are driving her to the palatial Noble Academy. They’re driving a modest car- it seems like they’re making some sacrifices to send her to the school of her dreams. She meets her new roommate Yui and tours the dorm and school. When she sees the ballroom, she daydreams of dancing with a handsome young man while a crowd looks on…

…only to discover she’s been dancing with Yui, while a group of girls giggle at her embarrassment. As they tour the grounds, Yui shares her dream of wanting to create picture books that get read around the world. She asks Haruka about her dream, and she flees, too embarrassed to say she wants to be a fairytale princess. She meets the poodle-fairy Pafu and parakeet-fairy Aroma, on a mission to revive the legendary Princess Precure. The villain general Close appears, to lock Yui in a cage of despair and turn her dream into a monster.

The monster’s called a Zetsuborg (despair-borg), made from a book, with paint-tube legs, with a brush and painter’s palette. Close exclaims how stupid Yui’s dream, or any dream is. Haruka grasps her dress-up key and declares that she wants to be a princess. That begins the exciting transformation sequence for Cure Flora!

She jumps to avoid the Zetsuborg ‘s attack, finding herself hundreds of feet in the air, then plummets to earth. Ouch! That’s not a happy landing!

She needs to invent a challenge phrase on the spot, and make it princess-y. “That dream trapped in its cold cage… shall be released at once! Do Prepare yourself!” Not bad!

Precure generally has exemplary battle choreography, and Go Princess has some of the best. The Zetsuborg fires off balls of paint, while Flora charges forward dodging them. Looking at this sequence frame-by-frame, they elongate the paint balls to make it look like they’re going faster. They also pull focus to look like she’s moving too fast or out of the “camera” focus range, or when the force of an impact slams and rocks the camera. These effects go by so fast. but they add to the excitement.

She dives into the palette at supersonic speed, breaking it. Then the book charges her trying to eat her.

Finally she gets in a solid hit and disables it. It’s time for her finishing move. She invokes Mode Elegant, with a spectacularly impractical crinoline skirt, and purifies the Zetsuborg.

Yui is saved, and Haruka learns that Kanata is the prince of the Hope Kingdom.

Even though Haruka’s goal is to become a storybook princess, she’s surprisingly outgoing, friendly, and enthusiastic. Her character design allows for a wonderful range of expressions- surprise, dismay, shock, and a wide variety of ouchies. Yū Shimamura, her voice actress, deserves an award for ‘best non-verbal vocalizations’.

Her only concession to being a princess is practicing her curtsy. Otherwise, she’s almost the anti-ojou. It’s nice in this first episode that her outbursts don’t lead to bullying from her fellow students. She’ll have a lot of challenges ahead.

Haruka rushes to defend against the monsters, even when she’s hopelessly outclassed. She doesn’t hesitate a bit to wade into the fight, and gets slammed and bashed as a result. And you can tell that hurts– she’s paying a price. She doesn’t look elsewhere for help.

In this first episode, I think they did a good job establishing a Precure Princess. She’s an ordinary girl with an impossible dream, but she’s willing to put in the work to try and make it happen. They also avoid making her a stereotypical strong female character who is instantly perfect at everything she does, without any effort or work.

What’s your impression of Go Princess so far? Is Haruka finally the Princess We Need?