Hitomi Yoshida -- Kono Sora no Mukou (この空の向こう)

Another February, another new PreCure adventure with another crew of teenage girls. Unfortunately, I finally got off that bus a few seasons ago midway through "Kira Kira PreCure a la Mode" (キラキラ☆プリキュアアラモード), although I have yet to tell my anime buddy directly about my decision. As much as I've heard about kids and their parents (perhaps secretly) still going ga-ga over the long-running franchise, in my case, I think that I finally had my fill of heroine teams, monsters and transformation sequences.

Still, though, I have some heart left for a number of the opening and ending themes for the individual entries. One is the first ending theme for "Doki Doki! PreCure"(ドキドキ!プリキュア) that had its run between 2013 and 2014.

Now for the record, I don't think that "Doki Doki! PreCure" has particularly stood out as one of the classic parts, and it had to follow up the often hilarious "Smile PreCure!"(スマイルプリキュア!). However, the ending themes are the aspects that have kept the show in my mind for the past several years. The first closer was "Kono Sora no Mukou" (Beyond This Sky) performed by singer/seiyuu Hitomi Yoshida (吉田仁美). It was the coupling song for the single for the opener "Happy Go Lucky! Doki Doki! PreCure".

If I'm not mistaken, "Kono Sora no Mukou" was the first time that I had ever heard of a PreCure theme being given the technopop treatment which automatically got my attention, and with that CG ending credits sequence, it rather sealed the deal for me. Didn't buy the single but the song has stuck with me.

"Kono Sora no Mukou" was written by Takayuki Tonegawa (利根川貴之) and composed by Dr. Usui of the electropop unit MOTOCOMPO which has been influenced by the New Wave band Plastics, according to their J-Wiki file. The single with both opening and ending theme peaked at No. 11 on Oricon.

Hey, why not end this with "Kono Sora no Mukou" and the entire Takarazuka, I mean, PreCure revue (up to that point). Also, you can take a look at one MOTOCOMPO tune.