Repetition once again

After my post about the original Pretty Cure, which mentioned the show’s use of repetition, cinco_bajeena reminded me of repetition’s gradual rise to thematic prominence within the story itself.

The two of them are still Pretty Cure

I sat down with a friend across twenty-four Saturday evenings and watched the original Futari wa Precure again. Writing about one’s favourites always throws up challenges, and for a long time I simply avoided doing it. Every time, mere words let fondness down. But, for all the strains it brings, writing about favourites offers a chance to think about what one values.

Impact frames

I’d like to note this recent interview at artist_unknown with Yuu Yoshiyama. Yoshiyama’s stylish impact frames, effects and (on occasion) starkly-shaded faces have caught even my untaught eye in Star Twinkle Precure and Healin’ Good Precure.

Near the conversation’s end, Yoshiyama expresses a heartening desire to keep working on kids’ anime. Older fans too often disregard anime for children. In the circles where I find myself, I can understand how this happens: many turned to anime in their late childhood or their teens as an alternative to Disney.

However, anime began as children’s animation, barring one or two exceptions such as the Sennin Buraku adaptation. As standout kids’ shows prove, works for children can excel just as much as works for any other audience. So Yoshiyama’s aspiration was good to see.

Just as good to see was their talk of Masami Obari’s work on Dangaioh (1987–9) as an inspiration. Dangaioh‘s a delight, and these days it needs every mention it can get.

I found my thoughts most fired, though, by Yoshiyama’s remarks on impact frames. Now, I’m no sakuga fan, but I do love impact frames, and in a very minor way I collect them. In the English translation at artist_unknown, Yoshiyama describes their view of impact frames thus: