#just imagine the precures as adults and some of them have children who find out their mom is a warrior of light
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Let’s Watch Heartcatch Pretty Cure! Episodes 4 & 5
I’ve got a twofer for y’all today. My first, in fact! Two episodes that introduce new villains and go for some solid morals about growing up, let’s dive right in.
Episode 4 - The Precure partnership is already dissolved?!
This episode actually starts with a cold open, which is not something I really knew this franchise did. Still, it’s a neat way to really get the narrative moving at the jump, which is useful here, because this episode moves along at a pretty steady clip.
The cold open details the girls--well, mostly just Marine, we’ll get to that in a second--taking out a Desertrian. This one created not by Sasorina, but by new arrival Kurojacky, who kind of looks like he’s just stepped out of Captain Harlock.
This guy is the token “honorable” villain, which the episode makes clear at several points a bit later on. The girls go at the Desertrian but Blossom kind of bungles her half of the super awesome combination attack and Marine ends up beating the thing basically by herself. If you’re looking for a sum-up of the intro, it’s basically these two pictures:
This episode’s core makes itself apparent pretty quickly. Tsubomi feels that both as Cure Blossom and in general, she’s just not as good at things as Erika is. Erika, being her usual somewhat blockheaded self, does not really pick up on this insecurity, setting up the episode’s central conflict.
Despite what the title might imply, the two don’t actually fight per se. Tsubomi seems about as taken with Erika’s can-do attitude as anyone else.
It is more of an insecurity thing, something that’s by now establishing itself as a running theme of her character.
This is something that repeats throughout the episode. And not just repeats, but is mirrored in the relationship between the two characters-of-the-week, a pair of tennis players. The parallel is pretty clear; as Tsubomi runs her overactive imagination in circles, envisioning Erika leaving her
The taller of the tennis player girls stresses that her partner is going to leave her because she’s the weaker member of their team.
Sidebar here: the term “partner” is used a lot in this episode, and while it’s probably not intended to be read with any romantic undertones, it’s certainly easy to read that way if you want to.
After Erika gives some poorly-worded advice to the tennis girl, Tsubomi misinterprets, and thinks Erika wants to break off their partnership. This leads to her running home in tears and seeking comfort in um, the bosom of the big furry thing, Coupe.
I think I’m just going to accept that this guy is cuter if you’re like, 12, and move on.
Meanwhile Erika is having an issue of her own. Tsubomi ran off, and she understands that it’s her fault *somehow* but she isn’t really sure how. Her older sister also appears--fairylike--to offer her some advice of her own, which she also doesn’t really get. Plainly; both girls have flaws. Tsubomi’s is her low self-esteem, and Erika’s is her tendency to speak without thinking.
But it’s worth pausing to note here that the show doesn’t really seem to place any blame on either of them for this. They are, after all, young girls navigating the confusing world of social relationships. Tsubomi has anxiety to deal with, and Erika has a lack of social graces. As another, potentially controversial sidebar, Erika rather seems autistic to me. I don’t expect the show to ever address this directly (it’s a children’s program after all and those tend toward the broad as opposed to the specific. See also Star Twinkle Precure’s most recent episode, which is not directly about cultural diversity but also, is super about cultural diversity), but as someone with ADHD, a lot of this just seems rather, well, familiar. But perhaps I’m projecting.
And we get the capper on that with the fight in this episode. Which is fairly short. Kurojacky transforms the tennis girl into a Desertrian that uses a rollbar to mow down the tennis fence and menace several nearby students--appropriately, it’s deemed Roller. Tsubomi and Erika work out their misunderstanding, and Erika actually says this after learning why Tsubomi was upset, which I feel like lends credence to my aforementioned headcanon (do people still say that? Eh, whatever. I do)
The misunderstanding cleared up, Marine reassures Blossom that yes, of course she does want to be her partner. Again, maybe it’s just me, but the implications at least on the part of whoever wrote the script really seem to border on romantic here.
I mean jeez she even winks and a heart comes out.
They destroy the Desertrian, recapturing the heart flower and healing the tennis girl (who also makes up with her partner) and, well, basically roll credits.
Yeah, that’d be the moral summed up nice and neatly at the episode’s end. Pleasant ain’t it?
This was a cute episode, and the message is one that a lot of little girls probably need to hear. Friendship is important, and knowing how to maintain friendships (and relationships in general really, whether they’re platonic, romantic, or whatever else) is one of the most important life skills a person can learn full stop. So it’s nice to see it addressed here. Plus, we’ve got a new villain. I should also mention that there’s a vague mention of the Desert folkz wanting to make people despair so they can conquer the world which I think is the first direct mention we get of their motives, but it’s been pretty obvious so I didn’t bring it up. All of this is cool, and that’s another solid episode in the show’s bag.
Episode 5 - Rejected Ramen! Heal the Father-Son bond!
This episode’s title cuts right to the chase. Immediately it tells you three things. There’s a father, a son, and a bond between them that needs to be healed. Also, ramen. We’re introduced to the ramen shop owner’s son, Akira, in the episode’s opening minute.
There’s no real beating around the bush this time around either. The episode quickly establishes that the core conflict is between Akira, who was initially supportive of his father’s ramen business but is now finding it cutting into his time to play baseball, and his aforementioned father.
There’s some nice fluff in the first part of the episode unrelated to this though. Firstly, we get Tsubomi showing off a knack for flower arrangements. She suggests adding a splash of the (unfortunately named, but it is what they’re really called) rapeseed blossom flower to a bouquet to give it some more “Spring-ness”, which she is promptly praised for. It’s nice to see the show have someone directly praise Tsubomi, since it’s been made clear she’s kind of insecure. It shows her parents understand their daughter pretty well.
Next, the fairies come to Erika and Tsubomi, expressing that they’re hungry. What follows is an honestly kind of bizarre scene where Erika roots around in Coupe’s....heart patch....thing to pull out some kind of magical sippy cup for the fairies.
I imagine said cup was the hot new toy (or maybe it was just an actual thermos? Who knows) product the show had to shill. Still, it’s a pretty ungraceful piece of product placement. It did give us this absolutely amazing Erika expression though, so it’s certainly not all bad.
There’s a short scene further reinforcing the conflict between Akira and his father, but before we get much else, there’s a cut to the Desert Apostles’ fortress, where we’re introduced to a third bad guy, and hoo boy.
This is Kobraja. Fabulous, isn’t he? This show seems to really enjoy drawing adults as though they’ve stepped out of some heavily-stylized 90s series. I really dig it, though I feel like Kobraja’s overtly-femme appearance might land on just the wrong side of stereotypical. I’d say I’m reaching, but I was apparently not the only person with this thought.
Never change, NIHON TV. Anyway he vows to succeed where the other two villains failed. Sure he will.
We see another short scene where Akira is offered a bowl of ramen by his dad, which he promptly rebuffs.
He doesn’t actually *do* much here other than grit his teeth and look generally angry (the life of a young teen boy can be a stressful one indeed), which I found a little surprising. Kids’ shows tend to lend themselves well to explosive outbursts of emotion, which this is too restrained to really be that, although probably more realistic. He does yell a bit later but it’s still more restrained than is the norm with this sort of thing. An interesting writing / directorial choice to be certain.
MEANWHILE OUTSIDE
Good lord.
But, y’all know the drill by this point. Kobraja finds Akira angsting outside, and we promptly advance from Soccer Golems to Ramen Monsters.
Hilariously, after making his introduction, Kobraja tosses the girls some pocket-sized model shots of himself. The dude is a *fun* villain, if nothing else.
There’s two interesting things about the fight scene that follows. One is that it’s incredibly quality, with the ramen monster using His Noodly Appendages as whips and Cure Marine at one point skating along them like she’s going for a high score in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2.
The second is that this is the first indication we get that the Desertrians can actually resist their “programming” to some extent, since shortly after the ramen monster accidentally hits Blossom it starts actually crying.
We’re told that this is because both the anger and not wanting to hurt his father are part of Akira’s true feelings, which makes some sense. Also, the kid’s voice actor deserves some serious credit for managing to put *genuine emotional pull* into the wailings of what I must reiterate, is a monster whose head is a giant bowl of ramen.
It doesn’t take much beyond some taunting from the villain to get Blossom to pull out her “I’m not going to stand for this!!” catchphrase (have I brought that up? It took me a while to even realize it was supposed to *be* a catchphrase) and before long we’re back in flower crucifixion territory.
I’m never going to get over this.
After defeating the ramen monster, it doesn’t take much for Akira and his dad to reconcile. Interestingly, it’s actually left ambiguous as to whether Akira’s parents remember the Desertrian attack or not, though I’d guess not.
I quite liked this episode. While the last one was solid I think I prefer this one. The interesting thing to me here is that the show seems to recognize that it’s not really Akira who’s messed up here, it’s his dad, and it’s accordingly his father who does most of the apologizing here.
That parents can also screw up--even just through inattention--is something I wish more kids’ shows acknowledged. Still, everything that ends with a hearty meal ends well, and the episode ends more or less on that exact note.
See y’all next time!
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Imagine this
You are a young girl, somewhere between the ages of 7 and 13. You’re that one kid at school who always explores everywhere, getting into places she shouldn’t be. You’re also that one kid who is constantly told dad jokes by the other students, because due to being the child of a lesbian couple, you have never heard a great deal of those jokes. You’re the kid with purpleish hair, a fascination with cute things and the trinkets you run into, and the most solid moral compass out of anyone in your class.
One weekend, you’re very bored. You decide to do the thing you do best: explore places and look for cool things. Only, it’s raining out. So you have to explore the house.
You decide to go into your moms’ room. Both of them are currently hanging out downstairs, watching TV. Now’s your chance. You search the dressers and shelves and drawers for interesting things.
Mostly, you find little gizmos that don’t seem to be very significant: trinkets, photos, drawings, snack packs, coins, tape... prank supplies? ...accessories, a book, more trinkets, and dust.
Then you notice a box under the stuff you moved around when exploring. You’ve never seen this box before, but it’s really pretty, covered in sparkles and designs. You wonder why you never saw it before under all this other, more boring-looking stuff. Was it being hidden on purpose?
Out of burning curiosity, you open the box. Your jaw drops.
You know exactly what this is.
You’ve seen the PreCures, on TV and in twenty-year-old magazines, and they had something exactly like this. There’s no mistaking the symbols, the gems, the colours. This is two of the magical transformation items they carry around.
There’s something else in there, too. Pictures. Judging by the quality, they’re from around a couple decades ago.
Pictures of the Pretty Cures, posing together, with a small fluffy creature that doesn’t look like any animal you know about. Wait a minute. If this is here, then...
You find the nearest electronic device and search the internet for your moms’ social media. You scroll until you find the accounts they had as teens. It’s so weird to imagine them as teenagers, but here’s pictures of them. Sure enough, they may have very different outfits, and in the PreCure picture, their hair may be much longer, a slightly lighter shade, and a somewhat different style, but there’s no mistaking it. Your mothers as teens, and two of the girls in this picture... They look exactly alike.
You freak out and grab the box, running downstairs.
“MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! LOOK!”
Your moms look up. “What have you found?”
You show them the box. “Why didn’t you tell me you used to be Pretty Cures?”
Your moms both grin.
“It was only a matter of time, we knew the moment you started exploring everywhere you could! Yes, we saved the galaxy when we were teenagers! It was awesome. Hey, would you like to meet the others? We’re still in touch with our team!”
You squeal with excitement. You’re the daughter of two of the girls who got magic superpowers and saved everyone! This is INSANE!
“You want to see us in our precure outfits? We can still transform. We just don’t need to.”
HOLY CRAP! “Yes! THIS IS SO COOL! My moms are actually precures!!!”
“Okay. In the basement, though, or people might see the bright light even with the curtains closed, and we want to maintain private lives and not have our identities blown. And no magic attacks in the house, we’d destroy the whole place. Don’t tell the other kids at school about this, okay?”
You nod and excitedly follow. This is the coolest day of your life.
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