Marvelous has announced that “Futari wa PreCure Compilation-Bucchake Arienai!? 2020 edition-,” a two-disc DVD/Blu-ray set that compiles the 49 episodes of Toei Animation’s first Futari wa PreCure TV anime series, is set to be released on February 26, 2020.
It was aired in Japan from February 1, 2004, to January 30, 2005.
Futari wa PreCure Max Heart
In addition to 260-minute highlights of the anime’s important episodes, the disc also includes the OP theme “DANZEN! Futari wa PreCure” music video featuring its famous scenes, a collection of the PreCure girls’ transformations and attacks, and a round-table discussion by the voice cast.
Furthermore, the disc’s first press limited edition comes with a digipack and sleeve case newly drawn by the original character designer Akira Inagami, a set of ten memorial illustration cards, and an entry coupon for the future event.
The price for the Futari wa PreCure DVD is 8,800 yen, and that for the Blu-ray is 9,800 yen.
“It was meh.” Those were some words I hoped to not have to say after the amazing experience I had so far through the franchise.
Even despite the issues I had with the first season of Futari wa PreCure, that entry was saved more than enough by the positives, but Max Heart, in my opinion, is a sequel that doesn’t provide enough freshness to feel necessary to be there.
The biggest change compared to its prequel is the introduction of Hikari, another girl with powers (but not considered a Precure) that fully focuses on supporting abilities for the girls, not being able to properly fight like Honoka and Nagisa do.
Her calm and quite adorable personality is likable, but she isn’t particularly memorable IMO, and the show is once again carried by the main duo…
That starts to suffer from the length of the series being too much for the depth of their characters.
With 50 episodes of Futari wa PreCure, it was more than enough for the fantastic development of their friendship, and in Max Heart, it kinda becomes an overkill with some episodes feeling too similar to things that were already done previously because there isn’t that much more to do for them.
The biggest negative, in any case, is definitely the villain side. Precure is a franchise that has some really lovable and/or memorable villain characters that bring a lot to the series, but that’s not the case for Max Heart.
They are just so forgettable and, outside of the pretty funny Uraganos, there is nothing I can even think of to describe the other evil characters, something I can’t even say to the already underwhelming baddies from the second half of the original
With the significant negatives said, here come the good parts. The art got a solid improvement that was quite noticeable through the whole run, the action looks as nice as usual, and well, despite the staleness the series suffers from, Nagisa and Honoka are still great nonetheless.
More importantly, I have to admit that I was very satisfied with the conclusion of the Futari wa PreCure story, something that saved quite a lot of my opinion on this sequel.
I honestly wouldn’t recommend this sequel despite the still relatively positive score I gave it unless you absolutely loved the first season or it’s been a good time since you watched it.
The repetitiveness is very noticeable and I’m sad that I can’t just go full fanboy as anyone reading my reviews of the franchise most likely sees me as.
I can see people finding Max Heart outright terrible if they don’t think that Nagisa and Honoka are as good as I do because they are what keeps this sequel entertaining enough to keep going in my opinion.
Source: Marvelous press release
