"There's nothing like a magical feeling,
The super me it is revealing,
Winx it's on we totally got this,
Full fairy power let's rock this..."
Hey! It's been a while since my last one of these. Enchantix was back in December.
Now that it's run is over, it's time for Harmonix! Let's get started.
Harmonix is the pre-form to Sirenix-- kind of a temporary state, that they use while earning Sirenix. Struck me as kind of unnecessary, but pretty.
The Designs
The designs of Harmonix are... pretty. When I first saw that one Bloom promotional image I was super excited. I love trains, frills, extra long hair... all that stuff. But when I saw all of the girls together that excitement faded-- the designs were all kinda... the same. They were all pretty, but all super similar.
If I had been shown a no-color version of each just the dress, I wouldn't be able to tell them apart. And I probably still couldn't today! I think the Harmonix designs need more individuality, though I do give them points on hair-- that was done really well, they all looked gorgeous.
Though they were very impractical-- I'm sorry, but you don't fight evil in big long trains you could trip on and giant, ribbon heels, that's just not possible. And it seems extremely challenging. Not to mention your giant long hair flowing behind you getting in the way.
So basically... pretty, but kind of bland. If I were the designers at Rainbow I would've gone a different route and changed the dresses to be more different-- given some shorter trains than others, given rouching in different places, given different shapes of skirts and added some different sleeves and stuff. There's a way to do tied together designs without them looking like copies, guys!
The Powers
The powers of Harmonix were better than Believix, but slightly uninteresting. It was mostly the same sparkle beams as Believix-- but with the occasional unique attack, like Bloom's fire shield. I remember once Musa pulled out an odd instrument too.
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| I'd say this just about sums up Harmonix. |
Aisha also had one attack called Thirteenth Seal-- and I still don't understand it. She crossed her arms like an X and an X shaped attack came out. Why is it called the Thirteenth Seal?!
Other than that I can't really think of any special features of Harmonix, other than that it obviously lets you breathe underwater.
With Harmonix we did get Sirenix boxes though, with Sirenix guardians inside. Do they count as a power? Basically they could give you all the advice you'd ever need but in the most useless way possible where it took three days and a trip to the desert to understand it.
The Transformations
The Harmonix transformations had pretty colors and concepts, but they suffered from the same curse of being the same between all the girls. There was no special thing that matched up with their powers-- just the same sparkles and ribbons for everyone. That was disappointing.
No flames for Bloom, no water for Aisha, no flowers for Flora.. just, sparkles. Ribbon.
There were also some awkward poses thrown around in there. Look at Flora's ending pose and you'll know what I mean-- and a few odd angles where you couldn't tell what was happening. See the Musa transforming picture above.
Though they do get credit for cool backgrounds, and the way they did the hair was very nice too. I'm just disappointed in the overall transformations.
The song that went with it was pretty nice-- though impossible to sing. I'm not criticizing it on that, I'm just saying. :P
Overall I'd rate this transformation a total 6.5/10. It was pretty, but the powers weren't anything really special, and the transformations were awkward at times and didn't show the girls' powers. But this is just my opinion.
I viewed Harmonix as a preview of Sirenix. Although the transformation didn't have a lot of unique features, it did prepare the Winx for what it's like to fight underwater. (Even though they already took a trip underwater in season 3.) Since the Winx passed all their tests and gained the gems, it meant they were ready to earn Sirenix. And since they basically mastered how to swim breathe inderwater, (and kind of navigate down there) they wouldn't have to waste time practising that with Sirenix.
ReplyDeleteI really wish the roles of Harmonix and Sirenix were reversed, since from the start it was made clear that Harmonix was nothing more than a stepping stone towards Sirenix, which is easily my least-favorite fairy form yet. So on the whole, it did feel pretty unnecessary. Though I am glad we got a chunk of a season to see it, rather than have to look at Sirenix all the time.
ReplyDeletePretty much every positive and negative aspect you listed about Harmonix is mutually shared with me. Much prettier than Sirenix, but shares Sirenix's problem of being way too uniform, and I definitely wouldn't be able to tell whose outfit belonged to whom if the colors were taken out. Both Enchantix and Believix had wide varieties of styles suiting each character, and while some trace design elements were visible in all of them, they were very minor and didn't harshly impact the diversity. Though bringing up Harmonix's impracticality with the long trains and ribbon shoes (which I also agree with, which is why Harmonix looked so weird for the rare times it was really used in the air or on land) reminds me of how I always felt that Enchantix was largely impractical because those offered absolutely no foot protection and quite a few of the outfits left body parts exposed that you normally wouldn't want to have in a fight against evil. I always felt Enchantix was overrated in that aspect, since I never could get over that impracticality, but really, even lack of foot protection seems pretty minor compared to a huge cumbersome train that is not only easy to trip over, but could easily get entangled in something or make a Winx a huge target if it got caught in some crossfire - if magic weren't such a big element to this series, I'd be concerned of those things weighing the Winx down while flying. The one thing I'll give Sirenix over its predecessor is that it's far more appropriate for combat, whether it's sea/land/air-based. Harmonix really does look like something that's only practical for underwater use and nothing more.
Besides that, yeah... the powers were largely unmemorable (many spell names from Enchantix and Believix ring a bell to me, but I honestly couldn't list a name for a single original Harmonix spell if I tried), and I did feel there was something off about the Harmonix transformation sequences. The lack of the Winx's individual power sources being shown during the transformation (whereas they were a big theme in the last two transformations), all of the distracting angles many of them seemed to take place from, it even seemed to go too quickly for my taste. Overall that's very forgettable for me as well. The song is nice, but... yeah, that's it.
I had a feeling I wouldn't be big fans of most elements of Harmonix and Sirenix because both have a far too specific basis, which has resulted in a lot of redundancy that makes the forms pretty boring, to be honest. I hope season 6 has a much broader concept for a fairy form. These are very nice reviews, I'd like to see more of them!