Hugtto Precure - Futari wa Precure - All Star Memories
Hugtto's big solo film... is yet another crossover. Because that's what this season really needed. The All Stars movies have been more miss than hit as of late, but the one in the show was actually pretty good if you ignore how it hurt the actual story. So how does this one land? First off, I kind of hate the premise of this movie. You go through all the trouble of not only bringing back every single main Cure (RIP Echo), but all the seiyuus as well, setting up the biggest magical girl crossover of all time, allowing all these varying personalities and experiences to bounce off each other before culminating in an epic fight, and you turn them all into babies? That's how you decide to celebrate the big 15th anniversary? Really?
Now I get that having all the seiyuus doesn't mean you can go all out on this. Too many characters to deal with, very limited time, and the voice acting budget is still limited. And the target audience is young girls, not cynical grown-ups, so they're more likely to enjoy this kind of shenanigans. Except the target audience excuse doesn't work this time, which I'll get to later. Either way, making all the past heroines babies and damseling them yet again (the All Stars movies pull this way too often) is just lame. They can't do anything cool or have much funny background interactions in this state. There's a bit of that if you really look hard, but there's just so little of it that the massive crossover feels pointless. And they don't even do anything interesting with it like get all the babies to fight or something. Could've used the gimmick more effectively at least. Even the end fight was pretty lame from this view. No real crossover action, just everyone pulling off their signature moves and phrases, but now in CG. This all makes for nice marketing that I'm sure paid off in the box office, but the weekly show pulled off better fanservice, and that's kind of sad.
Nagisa and Honoka got some decent treatment at least. The luster of the OG and current teams working together is lost when it's the third time in like 4 months (if you saw this in theaters), but they were actually used enough with a few decent moments to justify them being in this. Mostly Nagisa as is custom, but I got used to that long ago. It's the cliche demonstrating how strong their friendship is we've seen all the time, transcending even memories, but it still works overall. The Hugtto team minus Hana on the other hand, eh. This should be their movie, and they get a decent amount of screen-time, but they still feel cheated. Ruru manages well at least, stealing the scene whenever she gets a bit of focus. That's the robot for you. Emiru is at least consistently amusing, and her being a terrible baby was kind of funny. Homare and Saaya got their own moments, especially when Saaya's geek self came out, but it was still more undercooked than I liked. Robbed from their movie just like the show.
So with all those complaints, do I like this movie? Actually, yes. This comes down to three reasons. First, they really nail the theme of memories. The villain is a cursed camera that was lost and this unable to form any memories or experiences of its own. And while the how of that is unexplained and kind of lame in its own right (if random cameras can nearly destroy the world how is everyone still alive?) it fits in with the theme of how important our memories are and how much we should treasure them. Miden isn't the best villain even among All Stars (certainly not the coolest fighter), but it's set up well in both dialogue and with the various sounds it makes. One of those tragic villains that works even if you have to jump through a lot of mental hoops. Most surprisingly, they break the fourth wall to ask the audience to cheer for the Cures to get better, and in the moment it actually works. The whole theme is based around memories, and we've already seen Cures recover earlier because of their shared memories. So them being helped by 15 years of audience memory and adoration of the Cures is both thematically appropriate and ties back to the whole anniversary this is supposed to celebrate. However, this does mean they're targeting older fans at this point, which leads into some of the criticisms I mentioned earlier.
Second, very solid direction all throughout. An all CG movie may be worrying to some, but it gives some nice visual variety and looks pretty consistently from what I could tell. Well, the Precure team has a lot of experience with CG at this point. Lots of pretty shots in the villain's lair, and while the fights aren't the best, they're still decent overall. More importantly, they strike a tone early on and stick to it. This may be an action movie based on a celebration, but the cheers and jokes are rather subdued most of the time for a more somber or melancholic experience. Not depressing, but even with cute babies running around there's a sense of tension and worry the whole time. This may not be the worst threat they've faced, but they do take this seriously the whole time. And there is emotional payoff when the villain's backstory and motivations are slowly unraveled, and it's not cheap drama, but actual sadness and sympathy for what happened. Still lame because it's a lonely camera, but it's sold as well as it can be.
Finally, the main heroine herself, Hana Nono. Cure Yell. She was indisputably the center of both the show and the earlier Hugtto movie. And so maybe she's got so much of that pink bias going on that I dislike so much. But she's always been such a sound and well-written character, so I can't get angry at her. She's trying to keep it all together even with minimal support. Tying back into the main show, she learns that taking care of babies requires a lot of patience, even if it's totally understandable to want to yell at them. But beyond that, one of her biggest strengths, and possibly weaknesses, has been her endless sympathy and attempt to reach out to her villains. It was a major aspect of the first movie, it served as the crux for her rivalry with George, and it makes her both flawed and a true hero here. We get the full thought process of her trying to understand Miden and reaching out to it so that it won't be trapped in the same cycle of despair as before. The whole scene is sold very well, and while it certainly causes problems, in the end she wins with what she knows best, her compassion.
The second movie for each Precure season is often a good summary of what did and didn't work for the season. This is one case where that holds true. It's a well made movie with a strong thematic core. But it's bogged down by additional elements that don't add enough and just end up bringing the whole experience down. Should've kept it to just a Hugtto/Futari wa crossover. They had one scene that justified the massive crossover, but on the whole it wasn't worth it. As an anniversary movie, it's eh. But as a Hugtto/Futari wa movie, and especially a Cure Yell movie, I'd say it's pretty good.
Well, the Maho Girls has a good six movie run, but I guess it's time to say goodbye. I'll miss those witches. Until they decide to pull yet another massive crossover. Not sure what the best way to do it is, but if they do it again hopefully they can strike a more balanced celebration than what this ended up being.