a token of love

Not even gonna bother getting into what I didn’t love. I think almost all of us are at the point where we don’t want to hear it anymore and I don’t even really want to talk about it! So let’s focus on the happy things!

• The girls, naturally. Eren ended up being my favorite but I love all of them to a certain extent. Hibiki was just amazing, a total badass with tons of physical and emotional strength and an amazing leader. I don’t know that “the pink one” is always really leader material (though it isn’t as if they always try to make them “leaders”—more like “representatives” of their respective seasons). Hibiki, however, fit the role perfectly. I was really kinda blown away by it. That certainly doesn’t mean the other girls were worth any less because of that, though. Kanade is amazing too! She is, after all, a huge source of that strength Hibiki exhibits. I love her sensibility and her baking talent, and that despite her sensibility she’s also capable of being a total crazy fangirl (I can totally relate). Eren was great because you could always see she was never really evil, just deeply hurt and going about trying to nurse those feelings the wrong way. I think we can all relate to that somehow. The arc with her becoming Cure Beat was fantastic, and watching her get comfortable with a truly happy, healthy life was interesting. Ako also was a character we saw change dramatically, maybe even more dramatically than Eren? I was really pretty convinced when the season started that she was not going to be a Cure, that her personality was just too cold even if I was completely open to the idea of a younger Cure. Boy how wrong I was, both about her not becoming a Cure and about her cold personality. Yeah, she didn’t end the season as some super bubbly, happy kid, but she is most certainly not made of stone. She opens herself up to the audience and to the other characters rather slowly, and in the end both personality extremes make perfect sense.
• The Majorland royal family. What can I say, they’re just really adorable. Some might call it “predictable,” but I call it fantastic and respectful to the characters’ relationships that we were able to identify that Mephisto and Aphrodite were a couple in just one short conversation in the first episode. It was ambiguous enough to keep us guessing for awhile, but enough to make us think. Would Aphrodite really have spoken to her husband as if he were truly an enemy, especially knowing the circumstances behind his behavior? Good job to the writers for that. Really just can’t be upset at all that we correctly guessed all of the family ties many episodes in advance of the reveal. Happy, in fact, ‘cause it’s exactly what I wanted. I am super pleased that the movie focuses on them a lot because I want to see so much more of them!
• The Hojo family. Dan and Maria are a super precious couple yo, but add in Hibiki and you’ve got a super precious family!! Love them and wish we could have seen more of them!
• Trio the Minor. I don’t LOVE Baritone and Bassdrum, but I do like them. Can’t decide which I like better. Bassdrum’s personality is more interesting, but Baritone is pretty. HMMM shallow fangirl decisions. Anyway I do love the group as a whole, though, especially prior to Falsetto’s run as leader. And yes I do LOVE Falsetto. He is ADORABLE when he’s not being an evil leader and has his funny and badass moments when he is an evil leader. Did you notice he was the only one in the trio waving when the girls left Majorland!? I’M TELLING YOU HE IS SO CUTE
• Falsetto/Eren AHAHAHA IT MAKES NO GODDAMN SENSE, I’m pretty sure this only started because Siren seemed to hang around him more than the other two, but after she left that was kinda it! Oh well, not every nice pairing needs to be a canon one I guess! I can’t even really explain why I like it except that it fits my older guy/younger girl preference. I guess both characters individually being favorites in the season helps too.
• Oh yes, I almost forgot the Fairy Tones!! Haha actually can’t say much about them except they were cute, loved that they each had their own personality, and was really glad they didn’t get largely ignored like some similar fairy item things in previous seasons (like the Pickruns).
• The uniforms. Not simple in the least but still right up my alley. Super cute, super frilly, super fluffy, really nice colors. Possibly inhibited more dynamic animation of the fight scenes but that isn’t too much of a concern for me.
• The attacks. Absolutely the best in the franchise, they were AMAZING! Especially the Belltier attacks and Beat’s attacks. Beat Sonic is so freaking cool for an attack that does not have super elaborate animation!!
• The Love Guitar Rod. No need for an explanation. The Belltiers are good too, especially the sounds they make.
• The setting of Kanon Town. Really friendly, warm, colorful place. They’ve got that awesome giant piano, and I sure do love me a town with really nice public transportation (a sweet ass monorail).
• Majorland was also a cool setting. I think what I liked most about it was all the completely different beings that existed together within it. Humans, talking cats and birds, living musical instruments, etc. The rainbow pianos were awesome too.
• That scene in one of the earlier episodes when Hummy has a conversation with Falsetto and Baritone. I can honestly say that, among all the great and/or funny scenes, that one is my absolute favorite in the whole season. It does not get much more awesome than the cute little mascot on the Precure side having a casual conversation with the villains in which neither side cares much about the presence of the other.
• The fact that you could really see the girls struggle. Maybe this isn’t interesting to some fans but I found it really intriguing that you could really see that they were working their butts off, and they seriously kept getting kicked down (how many times did they get the notes stolen, damn) but they always got back up again, stronger than ever. A common theme in Precure, sure, but… I dunno, the feeling of “oh shit how are they gonna get out of this one” (and I mean that in a good way) isn’t one that I often feel when watching Precure, but I felt it a lot during this season, despite knowing full well that there would be a happy ending.
• The way the theme of music was used so perfectly. I cannot confirm or deny if there was any misinformation in it since I do not know much about music myself, and it’s a shame if there really is, but we can all assume that anyone who is inspired to take up music thanks to the show will learn what is correct soon enough. And I hope there were lots of fans who got more into the spirit of music thanks to this season, because they really did push that “love of music” theme to its fullest extent. Some seasons aren’t so clear with their theme(s) and their main message. Actually, I think Suite is just about the clearest.

I think that’s just about it! Thank you, Toei, for another excellent season. Now on to the next!

EDIT: Ah I did forget some things! I’ll just mention them quickly: #Kibou Rainbow# (love singing along to it, sometimes get it stuck in my head even). Hibiki and Kanade’s relationship, friendly or otherwise. Eren and Hummy’s friendship (super touching especially during the Cure Beat arc).