Welcome to Reality Anime Week. First, we’re taking a look at Kibou no Chikara ~ Otona PreCure ’23 ~ (キボウノチカラ～オトナプリキュア’23～ ), streaming on Crunchyroll as Power of Hope ~Precure Full Bloom~, a shockingly depressing look at post-magical girl life. I’m not kidding either, although we can see where this is likely to lead and the title is the Power of Hope, not the Power of Hopelessness, so I think we’ll be okay…eventually. ^_^
As we open, we see that Nozomi, the former Cure Dream from Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo!, (two seasons I have not watched for reasons I will discuss) is an adult and has become a teacher. These two season are among those that Crunchyroll does not (yet) have streaming, but I hope that if this season is popular, they might consider getting them. Nozomi and Rin (Cure Rouge) meet up to get drinks and bitch about work which, for both of them has been brutally depressing. By apparent chance they encounter the remaining team members, Urara, Komachi, Karen and Kurumi. Each of them is struggling in their “dream” career. It also comes to light that none of them can transform any more, as their devices have just disappeared.
Of course we need them more than ever and, when shadows attack townspeople, Nozomi struggles to protect students. In the nick of time, she transforms, but she finds time unwinding and she returns to the teenager she was in order to become Cure Dream to the disappointment of folks on the Okazu Discord.
So, let’s look at the reality of the adult world. In every case, the former Cure finds that they are expected to be able to do things without support, or with outright antagonism from the systems they work within. When they get together, they end up drinking as a form of anesthesia, a way to speak their minds and a way to blow off the frustration of their “dream” jobs being less a dream and more a nightmare. While surely this speaks directly to an audience of former PreCure fans now dealing with those same flawed systems, what does it say about us as adults? The only way we have to cope is excessive alcohol? Yikes, there’s a message I hope the kids aren’t hearing. ^_^;
But, given the setup, we’re definitely going to have to see the adults in the room become children once more in order to find their power…and in that I see possibility. Because it is not all that hopeful to imagine we must once again be young to have the power of hope. What I’m hoping (argh) to see is that in finding themselves once again, and their dreams, the Cures find power as their adult selves. Otherwise, ugh, that really would be depressing. “Adults are actually pretty useless and drown themselves in anesthesia so they don’t go mad over the banality of their lives!” … just doesn’t seem like a PreCure message. ^_^ Especially as folks are happy about the return of the Yes! and Splash Star team members who will populate this story. And let’s not forget the fairies.
I mentioned that I had never watched Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo!, despite being assured that they were pretty Yuri as PreCure series went. This is not entirely true – I did try to watch them both, but found the fairies absolutely intolerable. Episode 2 of Kibou no Chikara reintroduced the fairies with their original voices and instantly, I felt they were absolutely intolerable. ^_^ So this series is going to be a trial for me no matter how it goes. I don’t think I disliked any other series’ fairies as much as I disliked this crop. Oh PLEASE give me an adult version of Heartcatch, pretty please?
Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 5, but it had to start somewhere
Characters – I’m punting on this, as I don’t know them well enough yet, I’m hoping Kurumi kicks the CEO’s ass
Service – I’m punting on this one too, for reasons
Yuri – Other than Mint x Aqua doujinshi, I’m not holding my breath
Overall – 6 so far, we’ll see where it takes us.
“The Power of Hope” is a pretty big tease for a series that has begun knee-deep in powerless and hopelessness. I’m very much keeping my Cure Mo ready for an adult power up to adult PreCure lives.
