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Well, I finished the series. On a whole, I have to say my opinion hasn't really changed since my earlier posts. While there are several points throughout the series where it manages to be quite powerful, and points where it even does something unexpected, on a whole I still feel this series was weaker than Suite Precure. The overall story, the characters, and their relationships in Smile all felt like they had less depth in comparison. I realize one doesn't come to a Precure series looking for depth in the first place, and I'm certainly not trying to say that Suite is a deep series or anything of the sort, compared to anime that actually try to do such things. But in those areas I mentioned, Suite felt deeper (less shallow?), wheras in Smile those things felt simpler and more superficial.
Not that Smile is bad: as I said, there are a number of points throughout the series where I think it was quite powerful, and I found myself quite moved by what was on the screen. An early example is how they subverted the normal course of events in the sports festival in episode 18, where the girls all participated in the relay race. You spend the whole episode thinking it'll be about Yayoi training up and gaining the confidence to handle her part, and that once she manages that their team will pull off a win, or a close second (win being more likely, but either one can be done in these scenarios). When Nao instead tripped on the final sprint, causing them to come in last, it was... unbelievable. It broke every convention for that sort of story. It left me wide open for the emotions in the scene, and I found myself crying along with her when she broke down in tears after the race.
There are a number of things like that throughout the series: points that are individually powerful and moving. Their problem, I think, is that they are individual points: they don't link up and strengthen the series as a whole.
Meh. I'll stop trying to analyze things. I'm not really good at it. I'm just spouting stuff off the top of my head here. I still enjoyed the watch. Next comes DokiDoki.
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