#their literal gimmick is that theyre a “doll”

[amethiosspouse]

mari's outfits :3 casual {left} and explorers uniform {right} made via picrew {links down below}

link link

a/n: since i cant draw their outfits properly, ive resorted into using picrews. i was planning on using gacha but i remember being made fun of for being a gacha kid -w-

[t4tails]

can i ask abt ur thing w the dolls? like what's the beef? also monster high ftw, the designs weren't all great but most of them ate down

lmao okay, so rainbow high has been one of the biggest brands in the doll collecting world for the past few years - theyre made by MGA, same ppl behind bratz, and the 2nd biggest doll company behind mattel (barbie and monster high + others). im putting the rest of this under a cut because im under the assumption you are not plugged into the doll community at all lol

they were particularly popular because unlike a lot of other brands, they deliberately catered towards older audiences beyond one or two releases a year. they would listen to criticism in regards to diversity; the first series was almost all white girls with the same face, but by the 4th series had multiple different face molds and were incorporating things like vitiligo, albinism, and henna into the dolls, and all at the retail price of $20-30 with fantastic quality clothes.

they also introduced shadow high, a companion brand that was much more, i guess avant garde? than literally anyone is used to seeing from playline fashion dolls

however, at the end of 2023, right after a heavily criticized release of dolls with childish names like "pinkly paige" and "blu brooks"

MGA announced a rebrand for 2024! since leaks in december, rainbow high has completely shifted focus to a much, much younger audience. they ditched later, more interesting and diverse designs in favor of exclusively sticking to the original series 1 cast, and the first release post-rebrand having a SLIME GIMMICK where you fill the dolls clothes and their pets (also new?!) with slime. the outfits were blatant worse ripoffs of the original series 1, and all the dolls come with irremovable glitter on their t-zones. they also completely got rid of wrist articulation.

since then, we've gotten more leaks of the later lines in this rebrand, and its all... well, bad. the winter ones that i was complaining about earlier are just the tip of the iceberg, there also "moonbows" a line with no knee articulation in favor of glitter in their legs, and the already released slumber party line that when compared with the previous pajama line pre-rebrand is just laughable

basically, the current state of the rainbow high brand and its status in collectors minds is kind of a trainwreck you cant look away from

[pinkprettycure]

like i think part of ultra's difference in how they go about being a Toy Commercial is partly bc variety of toy potential they already have at their disposal cuz like watching X rn and that one CERTAINLY is trying to sell me shit lol but like, one of the things theyre selling me is the kaiju toys lmao. the spark dolls gimmick is literally "kids pls buy these markettable kaiju toys so someday they'll be real" and its so funny but they built that legacy to be able to wake up sometimes and be like lets sell gomora toys again, if they wanna sell more ultra toys they can bring back zero or seven and be like hey kids isn;t this guy dope as fuck??? buy his pokemon card.

like rider doesn't have the expectation of a proper team like sentai does either (so not every rider will be liked by kids some of them are very mean) and i'm not sure kids are clammoring for the monsters and villains the way they would for eleking or gomess (my good friend, gomess!) so they bring in 20 guys with increasingly ridiculous costumes and 34503985320958345 super upgrades for the protag by ep 15 lol

[shou7]

Flow hot takes

1. PW and Flow are the best singles we've had since SR. Every single song has felt complete i.e., LAYERS (that change throughout the song), choruses with LYRICS (no woahs oooohs aaaahs disdisdisplays), interesting bridges that go places without being obnoxious for the sake of it. Also no chipmunk voices (by Nakata standards). The gritty bass line is also a big plus. As long as Nakata maintains this level of output the next album has a chance of actually being a really great album. I just pray he doesnt do a 180 and butcher the current era's direction like he did with FP.

2. The MV is terrible and all the more frustrating because it actually had all the ingredients of being good.

3. MV street outfits are great (im gonna ignore the pink/white ones i have accepted that terrible costumes are the norm now). Its cool that theyre experimenting with the braids too. And the color palette of the VFX looked really fresh and theyve never had this sort of style going on before.

4. But then it's bogged down by all the stupid choices. Why aren't they singing? Because it's a "dance video"???? Okay and??? Are DF and Flash etc not dance videos too????

5. And if this is a dance video why are they obscuring said dance with all the visual effects??? (greatest offender is the blocky nonsense going on around the 30s mark) I know this shit was rushed out in a week but please.... I dont even expect anyone on the team to use their entire brain anymore, but please, even one brain cell will do....!!!!

6. Lack of glamour shots (close ups) makes them feel really distant. Yes i know faraway flowing clouds and all that, and i was always the first to complain abt excessive glamour shots, but this has just swung to the other extreme and its not good either. Literally whats the point of trying new hairstyles with braids if i cant fckin see it!!!! The excessive effects sure arent helping either!!!

7. That last 30s looks cheap af and highly anticlimatic as compared to the rest of the video. I also dont understand why they had to go out of their way to make a physical set when the CGI going on at the start of the video looked so much cleaner and better. Who is approving these budgets???

8. I think this video is kinda the culmination of all my problems ive had with their direction in recent years. Over reliance on "technology" and whatnot. Like yeah its cool but im also watching perfume content for perfume. If i wanted to see a tech demo id watch a fckin tech demo. At no point should showcasing the technological gimmicks take precedence over showcasing the members and their personalities.

9. And that leads me to something ive only just realised. When was the last time uve seen them look like they actually enjoy dancing in their PVs??? MoL???? I just did a quick dive through their videos and Ive come to realise that ever since theyve shifted from tokuma to universal theyve been trying to take on some cool emotionless doll android big sister image or whatever and like Okay. But why cant we have both???? Was the charm of perfume not always that they can switch between being fun and quirky as well as being cool and badass??? Post MoL it seems like they dont even smile anymore while theyre dancing. Sure a resting bitch face looks cool, but given how excessive its gotten it just feels so devoid of personality and life.

10. Something something practical effects quirky and full of personality something something CGI is everywhere now none of what theyre doing feels special something something jurassic park aged well because it used practical effects something something their older videos are much more fun to watch and much more replayable (i still think IYW is perfection but id still rather rewatch/show people VOICE or FNG etc)

Tldr songs good video bad but who cares i just need the music to be good