Over the wide sea
Towards its many distant isles
My ship sets sail.
Will the fishing boats thronged here
Proclaim my journey to the world?

Dreams are a precious thing that we hold onto, a thing that keeps us going during our most troubling tumults. It provides us with the drive and focus to succeed, and is born from a promise made with those we love, and from those who love us in return. Dreams born in childhood are partly precocious due to the romance of determining importance in a future that kids naively envision. For Rikka Hishikawa, there’s an image in her mind of a future that most people share at her age and even older. It’s a wonderful, romantic thing that brings out our emotions and keeps us in check, especially for Rikka herself. Luckily for her, she has two amazing parents who are the first loves of her life. Karuta, as she eventually discovers at the end of this week’s episode, is but another.

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“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” – Mother Teresa

The real value behind a supporting role is often overlooked, simply because not much is expected of them. Upon first glance of a particular unit of individuals striving towards a particular goal, whether it is to beat up on Selfish or otherwise, the eyes are almost always on the leader and their partner in crime. This 1-2 combination takes up the glory, and the relationship between the two determines a great deal the ceiling of what the unit can do together. Egos are checked at the door, and the hierarchy needs to be in place in order for people to carry out what is needed to succeed. Every Michael Jordan needs a Scottie Pippen. Every Heart needs a Diamond.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_xT_GW43o4

Happy! Go! Lucky! Girls! Titaaaaaaaaans, yay!

When it comes to matters of the heart, Toei knows how to catch individual feelings and spin fantastic little moments and stories from them, all within the framework of a formula involving magical girls and flashy finishing moves. Heartcatch PreCure took on this concept and concocted a fantastic plot device in the form of the Heart Flower, which represents the feelings of individual people, capable of blooming and wilting based on the individual’s feelings. The Desert Messengers aim to make the world tree wilt by exploiting the negative feelings of people, making their heart flowers wilt, thus turning the world into a planetary desert.

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The best part about PreCure as a giant metaseries is that the different continuities therein serve to reinforce the same theme of the power of friendship in many different ways. The formula set by the original Futari wa Pretty Cure is one that truly stands on its own, but it is only through that formula that one can truly appreciate the design space available when re-framing the central ideas that encompass nearly all magical girl shows. Varying cast sizes establish the nature of friendship between individuals in group settings as well as more intimate dynamics between singular pairs of focal characters like Honoka and Nagisa. Even between setups where cast sizes are generally the same, one can observe the change the focal approach of each show’s respective characters and how they are depicted, yet still result in new ways of examining friendship between them.

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There’s an old adage that goes, “the more things change, the more things stay the same.” And for this week’s wonderfully wacky episode of Dokidoki PreCure, that sort of saying rings true for every aspect of the franchise (and in this particular case, of the series as well). Most everything we’ve observed and perhaps learned from the direction that the franchise is now taking with Smile PreCure is quite in full effect with Dokidoki PreCure, whether it be fondly calling back to PreCures past, or stepping towards the future with a specific production approach. No matter how seasoned you are with the franchise, there’s always going to be something to love and take away from these kinds of series, and that’s what makes franchises like these so endearing, despite years of conceptual reboots and revisits.

Synopsis

Joe leaves Ai with the Mana and Rikka even though they are busy with attending school. They enlist the help of Sharyl, Raquel, and Lance to look after Ai, but the three fairies are easily overpowered by Ai’s latent powers. The baby takes off at school, causing ruckus and chaos all around, and the fairies chasing her cause a misunderstanding amongst the students at Mana and Rikka’s school, who presume the events to be caused by ghosts or other mysterious phenomenon. Meanwhile, the soccer and baseball team captains argue over scheduling use of the school field, which leads to their hearts being corrupted by Ira and turning into baseball and soccer-shaped selfish. The entire PreCure team group up and rely on timely help from Ai to defeat the selfish by resorting to their super-speed and sports-related tactics.

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