By きい-ponpon
Someone pointed out some time ago that my late Rainbow Live posts are way better compared to the first ones. I didn’t really get better, it’s the show. There was tons of interesting things to say about Rainbow Live in the second half, compared to the first. I hope it’ll be the same for PriPara too, because not much happened in these episodes so I don’t really have many interesting things to say in this post.
Episode 7
Laala and Mireille’s rank.
Eiko chan and her tennis club doing PriPara together. I hope they show their performance one day and make them do a Tennis Making Drama. Nagisa(blond) is voiced by Yamamoto Nozomi. Nodoka is voiced by Tanaka Minami. I said in the previous post I wouldn’t bother mentioning seiyuus anymore, but I’m doing it in this case because Tanaka Minami is also voicing Laala’s sister Non.
Pshuuu
Laala can’t even get her own language right so no wonder she doesn’t get English.
YOKATTA PIZZA KUTTA
I know it’s for perspective and all, and Laala is supposed to be short but sometimes they make her look way too short. If Non had the same haircut as her I’d think it was Non.
Wow Laala just left her lying on the street. What a horrible person.
Sophie herself thinks people shouldn’t see her “fancy mode”. It would be nice if they go just a little bit deeper about it and tell us whether she herself think that way or if she started thinking that way because of Usagi and her bodyguards. Also seems just like Kuma, Usagi actually only think of his own popularity, so I guess all mascot managers are like that. If they introduce a third one he’ll be like that too.
In that scene, the last Akaii Meganee told Laala she doesn’t have any umeboshi before she even asked. Implicit confirmation that all Akaii Meganees are linked and that she got fed up with Laala asking. Akaii Meganee confirmed for prism decade destroyer of worlds true final boss yet again. She’s only conquered all of PriPara with her army.
PriPara world is just like Paris or any big city. If you lie around on the street for one reason or another, no one will give a cent and stop to try to help, even if you’re a cute girl.
Sophie in fancy mode with her Jersey still makes me think of Kare Kano.
Kyaaaa Akaii Meganiiiiiiiiiiii. I hope he appears a lot, needs more handsome. Plus they made him comment on clothes too just like Akaii Meganee, not that what they say is interesting, but I really hope he plays a bigger role.
Also, BEEF OR CHICKEN
Where’s the rainbow donuts macaron karting… Then I guess they had to do tokomeki present for you for that Sophie scene at the end to happen.
Since they said Sophie is just debut class, the same category rank Mireille is in, it kinda feels weird seeing Mireille and Laala all flustered seeing her. I guess they really like her.
It also feels weird how she’s just a debut class idol and yet got such a huge line waiting for her getting out after a live. It must mean Kami Aidorus are so powerful you can’t even get near them because of the PURESSHA and that they’re world wide famous. Speaking of which, I wonder if in the second half of the show they’ll go sekai level and show PriPara idols worldwide. The rival girls twins are half Canadians too.
In the end nothing much happened in this episode except Sophie, Laala and Mireille exchanging tickets. Laala didn’t even figure out jersey beauty is Sophie. PriPara’s first cour is way better than Pretty Rhythm in terms of pulling you in, and I can imagine a lot of people got hooked right from the start. But more or less just like in the first cours of Pretty Rhythm, almost literally nothing happen. I guess the staff of PriPara is better at hiding it though. Having an actual budget and actual animation unlike Pretty Rhythm(except RL) does help too. And even then, around episodes 7-8 of all three Pretty Rhythm seasons, a lot of things start happening.
Episode 8
When I was a kid I used to do that to, imagine I’m in a cold place when it’s too hot.
That ICHIBAAAAN was totally a Mia reference.
Laala is still secretly doing drugs.
Random bishonen. I didn’t spot the one in episode 7 but there was probably one too.
That Kappa mascot is really funny looking. I hope it comes back in another episode.
Maybe Sophie actually do her hair that way because she likes jellyfishes. It could explain why she ended up in the aquarium in episode 5 too. She like them so much she wanted to see them up close and fell in.
There was a lot of close up faces in this episode. Laala looks pretty different from usual in them too, which is good.
No nose
That blue haired girl at the bottom kinda look like best girl in Arppegio.
Nice looking faces again.
PSHUUUU
Maybe they’ll nickname her Kuragehime later. And wow this is still running?
Full swimsuits pics stolen from /a/
Yeah I actually go there sometimes. Never posted though. I love Dear My Future so I’d love to see more people’s reactions to the 2nd half of the show.
That dispute between Laala and Nao was just weird. Anyone can tell the Laala in PriPara is Laala. Plus unlike Mireille, Laala literally got the same face. I guess she looks older so Nao thought she logically can’t be the same person. However, there was already the problem of Laala double booking Nao. They could have just made them fight over that, saying Nao feels betrayed because of that or something. The whole “Nao discovers Laala does PriPara thing” felt really unnecessary; It’s like they thought they should try doing something serious for once but totally forced it. It’s not like Nao is an important side character too. She only appears once in a bunch of episodes. If Laala actually remember to fight for her cause so she actually does PriPara someday with her I’ll be pretty surprised. I guess the people who didn’t like the drama in Rainbow Live felt like I do about this episode.
Oh and btw they did a swimsuits episode because around the time it aired they released new Purichikes for the arcade game with swimsuits clothes.
Episode 9
They should make Cosmo the main character. Come to think she’s a designer so maybe she’s the designer of Holic Trick. Would explain how she got their latest thing.
Cosmo probably likes jellyfishes too.
DEEP symbolism to show that just like Usagi says later in the episode, Sophie’s outer personality changes when eating Red Flash but she’s still PSHUU in the inside.
Sophie’s umeboshi power is something she developed herself and doesn’t run in their family so I guess nothing will happen if Cosmo eats one.
Sophie mentioning to Usagi that Laala didn’t end up disliking her after seeing her true form (though it’s not like Laala recognized her) seems to point out what I was wondering above: It’s really Usagi who drilled in her head the idea that she’ll get disliked if people find out about PSHUU. She definitely didn’t think so herself at first.
I still believe Usagi will go to manage the rival idols when they get introduced. When Sophie hangs out with Laala and Mireille a lot and gets this, maybe she’ll will actually fire Usagi for giving her false ideas.
Akaii Meganees everywhere
Usual mascot abuse. And Kachikoma fail was pretty funny. The main character’s catchphrase isn’t the kind of thing a kids show would usually make fun of.
KYUPIKON
So Nanami didn’t turn out to be Non huh. Would have been a nice twist. Too bad.
Nanami is voiced by Nanjo Yoshino. She’s voiced by a Love Live girl just like Sadako(Sophie’s guard boss). Maybe we’re gonna get more Love Live girls seiyuus.
Seems she’s the super ditzy weird always positive type of girl, complete with the overly acute cute voice and catchword. KYUPIKON. Last time I saw that type was well, Otome in Aikatsu!. And just like with Otome she’s adorable and not annoying. I hate that kind of voices and character usually, but I always liked Otome in Aikatsu. Seems Nanami is a well done version of this character type too.
KYAAAAAAAAAAAAA AKAII MEGANII SAMAAAAAAAAAAA
Speaking of which he still haven’t done anything besides being handsome. He’s definitely not a replacement for Jun or Hiro right now… I’ve always knew PriPara wouldn’t be a replacement for Pretty Rhythm and it wouldn’t be the same but it still sucks.
So the reason Sophie said the same thing in her lives at the beginning and at the end in episode 5 is because whatever she says people think “so cool” so she doesn’t bother making up new lines. Kago no Tori is one of the lines she always say.
Mireille being smart she figured it out. I didn’t bother thinking about the riddles since they gave the answers so fast, but they aren’t super difficult if you know a bit of Japanese. “A bird that sleeps till noon.” Noon is said hiru. >o hiru > ahiru, meaning a duck.
I kinda want to download Naisho’s to see how they translated it.
=50 like Mireille said.
Calculus priorities or whatever you call it in English.
“What happens when the world’s biggest tadpole gets even bigger?” or something like that.
To be honest I didn’t get the answer, can’t hear what Akaii Meganee is explaining since Sophie and Laala talk at the same time, and since I’m not watching with subs…
Come to think of it Sophie’s “Ive never tried hard at anything” is probably also just one of her cool lines, instead of the truth. Plus judging from the flashbacks, while it’s true she’s a genius type, she does train. So she got both the talent and the hard work, just like Hermit in Kenichi. I need to restart reading that now that it’s finally over.
Nanami answering KYUPIKON to everything reminded me of that really old Question Pour Un Champion episode where a guy chose “seas of the worlds” as the questions’ themes, and always answered “it’s the black sea” for every question. Then the last question’s answer really was the Black Sea. It’s a classic in funny things on old french TV rankings so you may have already seen it too.
Akaii Meganee.
tfw there will never be a Akaii Meganee Super Sentai will all Akaii Meganee of different colors fighting together.
KYUPIKON
So Sophie reverts back if she eats sweet things.
Also, Sophie/Laala saying HONTOU NO WATASHI/HONTOU NO SOPHIE SAN
Here it comes. It was so obvious they’d use this line one day since episode 1. Things were going so slowly I forgot about it myself.
Oh yeah Sophie has been doing PriPara since she was a kid. It feels weirder and weirder that she’s only in Debut category after all this time. This really doesn’t make sense. I’m starting to think they really wanted to make her Kami Aidoru at first but then retconned it at the last minute, so they couldn’t change her background anymore.
They’re so cute. Also wow Cosmo looked exactly the same back then.
Cosmo is actually dimension traveler plot plz make it happen.
Kuma has been exploiting Sophie since she was a kid. Totally despicable.
Cute Sophie.
AKAII MEGANEE ARMY
KYUPIKON
Fade in/out/that crayon like effect/whatever you call it is so cool. The person who drew the storyboard for this episode is 柊 陽菜/Hiiragi something. He also did the storyboard for episode 36 of Rainbow Live, when Futaba slapped Tadashi. So he’s probably the one who decided to do it in both occasions. I don’t like checking staff and comparing staff etc deeply, just noticed this on a coincidence. There was also Rinne in episode 42 of Rainbow Live (third pic), but he didn’t do the storyboard for this episode.
The guy who invented this died a few months ago. I think it was last year or two years ago. I don’t remember his name and too lazy to check it but still wanted to bring it up. Old anime all used to do that at the end of their episodes. I liked it when I was a kid and still really like it.
The only show I’m watching recently who does it regularly is Saikyou Ginga Ultimate Zero Battle Spirits.
(If you’re reading this post because you’re watching PriPara but never seen Pretty Rhythm, you should totally watch it. Start with either Rainbow Live or Aurora Dream.)
Too bad Nanami and Mireille didn’t win. They probably aren’t planning on making side characters like Eiko or Nanami sing anyway so she lost by plot armor.
Girl on the left is wearing one of Aira’s outfits. That outfit is one of my favorites Aira wore. Her partner is wearing that outfit Mion wore at the Brazil tournament in episode 45 of AD. That episode was so great… First girl at the right is wearing another one of Aira’s outfits. Rizumu wore it too iirc. I don’t have any clue for the one at the farthest right.
I could actually check the clothes’ names in the guidebooks but I’m not in a nerdy mood right now.
Because there isn’t any interesting plot, the things they say when they monologue while singing is totally uninteresting. I still wonder why did they even show mysterious girl X in episode 1 anyway, they didn’t even make her come back to do cryptic comments whenever Laala sings or something.
Didn’t take a pic of Sophie’s drugface while she blinks yet
RAINBOW MACARON DONUTS KARTING
I’m sure I must have written it at least once, but macarons are overrated. They aren’t as good as anime makes you think. Just saying.
Sophie’s the best in the initial trio by far. She looks good both untransformed and transformed too.
My ranking goes Sophie> Normal Mireille > PriPara Laala > PriPara Mireille > Normal Laala
Sophie accepted their invitation because they accepted her for who she is, not worrying about her PSHUUU. I think I already wrote that things could progress this way in my first episodes posts, but things progress so slowly I didn’t believe they’d actually do it anymore.
Mireille is so cute not transformed. The way she was shy to say PURI was really cute.
That episode wasn’t as funny as episode 6 but it was still really funny. Episodes where the characters go on TV shows are always hilarious. I missed that. There was a variety show episode in Aurora Dream, maybe two. There wasn’t one in Dear My Future but a lot of things similar like the game episode. There wasn’t any in Rainbow Live.
Overall this episode 9 was great, stuff finally happened. Mireille and Laala figured out Sophie’s true form, they showed Sophie’s flashbacks, resolved the “I don’t want people to see my PSHUU” thing, and they even introduced side character Nanami. And to crown it all the episode was funny. Doing this every week shouldn’t be that hard. They could have even removed Nanami from this episode and introduced her before and it would have still been consistent and worthwhile. It’s like they stuffed a lot of things here to make up for 2 eps where literally nothing happened.
Episode 10
So much pasta. Also random kid.
It’s Yamahara Kazuhiro, who did some songs in DMF and RL, who composed the short Kuma guitar sounds.
Again, you could say that competing to be an image girl is something Aikatsu did first, but that’s usual stuff for idols and if you wanna do a anime about it, it should happen one way or another.
Me wa osoroshi akuma kuma. Nice one Kuma. First time I even smiled at one of your jokes. Because yeah I didn’t bring it up yet but I don’t really like Kuma so far. I don’t hate him either though. The main problem is that they make him talk way too much. Too much quantity over quality so he’s not really funny most of the time.
Also saying he’s gonna hibernate. So he’s really a bear huh.
Non was here. They do go at the same school. Maybe Non too will have to find ways to escape Gloria when she gets her own Purichike.
Mireille is so cute.
THE START OF A NEW FRIENDSHIP AT THE RIVERBANK UNDER THE SUNSET
Also, actually giving screentime and backstory to a character that appeared some episodes ago and you totally thought wouldn’t appear again. As expected of Pretty Rhythm’s successor.
Cute Mireille.
Hahahaha 0-15, so Love Fifteen. Speaking of which every French journalist this week were getting over excited because of Davis Cup. That’s pretty much the only thing France can win at tennis so no wonder.
Rabu chan is voiced by Morishita Yukiko, a pretty new Seiyuu. She’s Garada K7 in Robot Girls Z and did a pretty good job.
Random bishonen.
Sasuga Akaii Meganee. She can coordinate for anyone. Being a mind reader prism newtype true final boss must help. Rabu chan turned out super cute.
COOL LOVELY
MY SIDES
This episode’s mascot abuse.
They finally decided to show the two coord changes at the same time, meaning they’re planning to use the extra seconds for something else.
Those outfits are really impossible but still look pretty cute. I’m looking forward to how the PLANE DRESS will look in CG.
They could have made them do a new autumn related Making Drama. Or at least make Laala and Mireille switch positions and let Laala do some RAINBOW MACARON DONUT KARTING. They can easily switch a CG model for another so I wonder why they haven’t done it yet.
She looks like she’s going to kill someone. Or just killed someone.
The crime weapon.
Sophie is so nice.
I didn’t get at first why she was going in circles, she actually got lost. Seems she never got alone to PriPara, usually her bodyguards are with her. That’s a pretty good and logical development.
If they didn’t waste two episodes of nothing, and made stuff go faster overall, they could have done a whole episode of Sophie’s adventure instead of just a sequence.
They should have showed them go on TV or a poster featuring them. Maybe next episode.
Cosmooooo
That sort of thing is fine too but it kinda feels cheap. I’ve always said that Sophie will join at the cour climax so I’m not surprised, but I didn’t think the whole cour climax would revolve around this; It’s kinda sad. It’s like they literally don’t have anything else to do as plot, so they’re overblowing this to make it into a thing. Sophie suddenly can’t join anymore because she got scolded by Usagi feels forced as hell. She should have just told Cosmo about it.
I hope at least at the end of it all Sophie and Cosmo will slap Usagi and fire him hard.
PriPara isn’t Pretty Rhythm and I knew before the show started it would be different. Still doesn’t excuse how there’s literally no story so far though. Like I said in my previous post there’s tons of shows that are both hilarious and have a great story. There’s even stories that feel nonsensical at first but that are great like Excel Saga or Senyuu. Laala and Mireille don’t really have any goal, or finality, or tournament they want to participate in. Besides wanting to go up in idol rank and wanting Sophie to join, there’s nothing.
Anyway, besides that the episode was pretty good, just like 9. A lot of things happened, plus we’re getting in cour climax now, so it seems the ball is rolling now and I really hope slow episodes with nothing happening are definitely over now. Stuff is happening, but still minimal plot.
I should watch and post about episode 11 soon. Along with random news etc. This post is only about “old” episodes so I don’t think many will read it. Even if I already wrote most of my news part I figured I should put it in the latest episode post instead.
Wow no untransformed lala is the best by far you just don’t understand
She’s too young
Sophie’s the best
I really appreciate that you took the time to review them and catch up. I got into PriPara to my surprise (I don’t tend to do much children’s anime these days) and after researching it more and seeing your blog and MaidForge, I was convinced to give Pretty Rhythm and Aikatsu a try and am about 20 episodes into each (Yurika-sama~!) so far and loving all of it. I haven’t been into much shoujo stuff since the 1990s! This is certainly making up for the disappointment that Sailor Moon Crystal has been so far.
Seeing your comments about PriPara in relation to the other shows from your experience is very interesting and I hope you keep it up…unless of course PriPara suddenly gets really, really irredeemably awful!
I can’t begrudge its overall fluffiness though since it was my entry series to this recent wave of game-based shoujo idol shows and the fascinating pseudo CG arms-race between the two makers of the Prism series and Aikatsu.
Thanks that’s nice.
Pretty Rhythm is pretty much a 90 shoujo series in my eyes.
It’s true the whole Pretty Rhythm/PriPara vs Aikatsu thing is pretty captivating at times.
Did you start with Aurora Dream or Rainbow Live? Just curious.
Agreed! The more stylized, lower budget animation really feels like it is from the 90s era in particular. I hadn’t realized how much I missed that stuff! I’m also rewatching the original Sailor Moon series right now and it fits right in almost.
And yep, I started all the way back at PRAD. I’ve got a long journey ahead of me! It doesn’t hurt that I already like Kana Asumi as a seiyuu, too.
You started with AD!! That’s great. I really hope you enjoy it.
I didn’t particularly notice Asumi Kana before hearing her in Pretty Rhythm. The only shows before AD I saw where she had a main role were Umi Monogatari, Hidamari Sketch and Working, and while I liked all the characters she voiced in those, she didn’t really leave an impression on me till Pretty Rhythm. Everyone who likes her should definitly check out Pretty Rhythm someday.
Same with Sakura Ayane/Tomatsu Haruka and Rainbow Live.
Oh yes, I need to do more soon, but 20 episodes into PRAD and really enjoying it a lot (and the story seems more interesting than Aikatsu, which I’m just as far into)! Very eager to see how the series grows…I’ve tried to avoid too many spoilers, just enough to get my appetite going for the three PR series and a couple of random samples of Prism Stage performances for a taste of what’s to come.
A lot of great seiyuu in all the shows!
Funny to see your Kodocha reference in the next entry. I was thinking a bit of Sana in that scene too. Also back when I first started PriPara I thought Kuma had a bit of a Babbit feel to him somehow.
Oh, I meant to mention it, but the director who innovated the “Postcard Memory” takes (as Wikipedia translates it…I know there’s a Japanese term for them, but I forget now) was Osamu Dezaki. He kept using them in his work all the way up to the end…I remember he directed the Air movie and a lot of newer folks were wondering what was up with all those stills…
Sometimes I forget not everyone watching PriPara watched Pretty Rhythm so I tend to bring up plot points from it, plus as I like comparing them, I’m sorry if I may have spoiled you stuff you’d rather discover yourself.
And yeah come to think of it Kuma is pretty close to Babbit. They both never stop talking when they’re on screen too.
No worries on the spoilers! If I see them, it just gives me more things to look forward to when I get to them in the show. Case in point, I just watched episode 21 (and 22) of AD… 😀
Meanwhile, today is Otoha’s Birthday.
Yup was the 15th
Well the green haired character’s name was revealed , faruru and her brand Marionette Mu.
Yeah, thanks
Wow, Cosmo was wearing one of Rinne’s dresses
Yeah that’s Rinne’s dress from the 2nd cour, didn’t notice at first thanks