Detritus of the Mind

As sure as family crises and the occasional head cold, the newest Precure series has been announced this Christmas.   Maho Tsukai Precure  (a.k.a. Maho Girls Precure ) feels like a throwback in several ways - the two-girl team with a joint transformation, the monstrous-sounding villains, the visible age difference between civilian & Cure forms, etc. It also has some fun new concepts, such as having the girls attend a school for witches in training.  ANN has info on the overall premise, so I'll direct you there instead of repeating it.  Either way, it sounds like a deliberate nod to both Toei's own Ojamajo Doremi  series and the "cute witch" roots of the magical girl genre.  Since this past season was really very solid, I'm looking forward to this one.  But of course, I wanna review the new designs. First, the civilian forms for Mirai (top) and Riko (bottom).  Very cute - I like Mirai in particular, since she looks like she could be ...

So of course, after I say I can't think of anything to say, I have something to say. And it needs to be said. You are not entitled to information leaks about a TV show and/or movie. Again, you are not entitled to leaks. You are not entitled to leaks. As much as December info leaks are seen as a sort of Pretty Cure tradition at this point, they are not something the staff of the show actually wants to happen.  They want you to be surprised & interested in the show because of the information they offer, not because someone found an early design in a detail-reduced form on a candy wrapper.  They want you to enjoy the plot twists, not have them spoiled months in advance by copyright registrations being trolled for info.  Have a bit of basic respect for the creators wanting to give you the best experience they can. Toei has, on the whole, gotten pretty good at thwarting the leak-makers.  After the aforementioned copyright searchers spoiled the reveal of Cure...

So reality just body-slammed my family for the past couple of months. I won't go into details, I'll just say what I've said about this situation, which is that living longer means nothing when the mind continues to die. Also, if your siblings beg off helping you for stuff like fishing trips & beach homes, you aren't as close-knit as you insist you are, and you shouldn't even count them in your decisions. Needless to say, it's been all hands on deck to help with day-to-day living. I'm trying to think of stuff for an end-of-year wrap-up, but there isn't enough to really cover. There haven't been any leaks for the new Precure season outside of one nearly unseeable poster, and while I really admire how Toei has managed to keep everything under wraps, it also means I can't do a "get hype" post until the official announcement. That usually happens in late December. It's hard to plan projects when every day is a sea of chaos ...