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Hi there. You’re probably wondering why I decided to do a full series review (essentially) of Happiness Charge Pretty Cure. Let me share a brief background. You may find it interesting, who knows?

A few years back, I’d never even heard of Pretty Cure. The only magical girl show I’d ever heard of then was Sailor Moon. Somehow, I was recommended a KiraKira Pretty Cure A La Mode clip featuring Cure Gelato

Image found here: https://prettycure.fandom.com/wiki/Tategami_Aoi 

(There’s a Lion Magical Girl? What’s going on?!) on Youtube and was intrigued enough to do some looking around. After learning a bit about the franchise, I then looked at the available seasons and decided to watch Fresh Pretty Cure first. I fell in love and looked a bit more in depth at the other shows in the series. I kept getting curious about Happiness Charge simply because the name was so different, and the Cure designs were very striking. However, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it when reading up on some of the character profiles and ended up watching Yes! Precure 5 next instead. And then its sequel Yes! Go Go.

Finally, I looked back at Happiness Charge after trying scattered episodes from several other seasons, but not going much further. It was characters like Hime and Iona that made me hesitate. Hime sounded like a piece of work when I first read about her: a spoiled crybaby, a coward always running away, hiding secrets that could hold key information to stopping the enemies, etc. Iona didn’t sound much better: a bully who didn’t seem to care about having friends, yet tried her best to break apart a friendship simply because she hated one of the girls involved. When I reread their profiles, though, either more information had been added or I was somehow misremembering what I’d first read about them. There was more involved than I’d first thought. And by then I’d seen two or three clips on Youtube from this season, enough to get me watching Episodes 1-2. I kept going.

And I felt horrible because I realized how badly I’d misjudged Hime, at least. (I haven’t made it far enough to determine my thoughts on Iona yet, even with rewatching the first few episodes several times to get a decent understanding of things early on.) As I tend to do when something interests me, I found myself overanalyzing almost everything that I was seeing: dialogue, actions, you name it. When you’ve studied Biology and a decent bit of English, maybe that’s just to be expected. And I decided to start writing down my thoughts here.

I replied to a comment on one of those Happiness Charge Youtube clips that accused Hime of being a sociopath. I couldn’t blame the commenter when I’d essentially thought the same thing at first, but since coming to a different conclusion, I put together a bit of a character defense for Hime. You really have to be careful about these sorts of things. Our limited human view can miss key details that end up telling a completely different story. What if someone went walking in the woods and told you that they’d seen an orange, striped cat while they were outside.

Image found here: https://www.peakpx.com/567530/orange-tabby-cat 

You might think they saw this,

Image found here: https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/tiger 

but what if they had actually seen this? Very different actions would be required for whichever cat was actually seen, right? This is exactly why, for example, people are told not to self-diagnose on mental or personality disorders. And it’s also why, using this same example, no diagnosis can be given unless half or more of the symptoms match up to a given personality or mental disorder.

Basically, this whole analysis is kind of a writing exercise, an excuse to enjoy overanalyzing a fun show, and a bit of an apology to Hime for so badly misunderstanding her character at first (maybe Iona as well). If you read all of this, thank you. I hope you enjoy reading the following reviews as much as I enjoyed writing them.

This review format is heavily inspired by Falconier111’s Character Analysis stories, especially Live Reviews With Monster Girls. Give it a try, you may find it as fascinating as I did.

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This episode opens with a glimpse of Queen Mirage, her generals, and the Phantom Empire. 

Queen Mirage declares that they will destroy all love, hope, courage, and happiness in the world.

Then we jump to Cure Princess in battle with a Saiark.

When Princess sees that her attacks are doing nothing, she starts to panic and run away. Not completely, though, Ribbon slows her down. Even scared, Princess can’t bring herself to leave the battlefield entirely.

After a pretty lengthy attack, she thinks she’s beaten the Saiark.

However, it reappears, looking completely undamaged, and knocks her out of her transformation with one hit.

Ribbon is very brave, hovering in front of a powerless Hime to protect her from the incoming attack.

I don’t think fairies in this series have the sort of tanky defense that Cures seem to get, so that’s a very risky move, but it also shows Ribbon’s care for Hime. Hime herself doesn’t seem to have high defense, one hit took her down, and I’m not sure if this is because she has no resolve/courage to power up her attacks, or if this is part of her “character build” being more of a Sniper rather than a Warrior/Paladin. Maybe it’s both. (I may make reference to RPG terms like this fairly often, just a warning. I categorize Hime as a Sniper because I’ve seen her fight in a few episodes and most of her attacks are long distance, as opposed to Megumi and Iona with several one-on-one attacks.)

Anyway, Cure Fortune appears out of nowhere to take out the Saiark with no trouble.

She does NOT pull punches!

Did that even take thirty seconds for her? Man, she’s strong!

Hime looks rather awestruck at first.

She goes up to thank Fortune, but now she looks very frightened and uncertain. And she has every reason to be.

Cure Fortune, while very compassionate to the targeted girl in the Saiark attack, has no patience for Hime at all.

I’m not hiding spoilers here, I know the background of both characters and understand why they are acting this way. I’ll go more in-depth into their situations later on as it comes up.

Suffice it to say, Cure Fortune tears into Hime, rejecting her gratitude, and says that she won’t forgive her for unleashing all this trouble on the world.

The one question I have is how Cure Fortune knows this about Hime when no one else does, outside of Blue and Ribbon. I’ve wondered if Hime may have gone up to Cure Fortune to ask for help early on, given that they both seem to live in the same area. Then, when Fortune understood the situation and chose to blame and attack Hime for it, Hime never told anyone else about it ever again, fearing further attack and rejection. It must’ve been bad if even Ribbon and Blue, the mentors and voices of reason, don’t push her to do so, either. I’ll talk more about this speculation later.

Back to Hime in the episode, the poor girl breaks down, wailing that she failed again.

Since Happiness Charge is treated as a special 10th anniversary season, each episode features a Cure from the past thanking us for watching. Today’s visitor is Cure Black from the very first series, Futari Wa Pretty Cure (and Max Heart).

And here’s Megumi, fangirling about Pretty Cure and how awesome they are.

Right here I can see a major difference with this season compared to the rest of the Pretty Cure Franchise, at least the seasons I’ve seen so far (Yes Precure 5, Yes Go Go, and Fresh). Pretty Cure is already established as a household name. Later episodes show that the Cure Teams have merchandise, collectible cards sold in any store (but do those exist right now in Episode 1? Who knows). How long has this conflict been going on? Usually, we the audience witness the first attack and the recruitment of the girls as Cures, but here they already exist and are very well known. I mention this because Hime seems to have been fighting from the beginning of this war and if she’s been fighting, losing, and retreating this whole time (For weeks? Months?), I don’t think her mental/emotional health is very good right now.

Back to Megumi, she’s walking with her friend Yuko and reminding her that, while their city is under attack, they’ll be fine because they have strong, brave, awesome Precure protecting them.

Before we really take off with today’s episode, I just wanted to comment on these cute chibi girls in the title screen. I know we’re going to end up having a team of four Cures this season, so here’s the first two. I’ll be showing off when the other two girls join up, as well.

Poor Hime is very upset that she’s lost yet another fight.

It sounds like a tantrum at first, but think about it like I mentioned before. This whole conflict has been going on long enough for Precure to be well known around the world, and Hime has been fighting alone; fighting, losing, and retreating time and time again. She doesn’t seem to have anyone staying at the Embassy with her except Ribbon and Blue, either (a very small support network). Given that she isn’t even enrolled in school until Episode 4, this poor girl probably hasn’t been living, she’s been stuck in survival mode, only hearing that she needs to keep trying and maybe THIS time things’ll be different and she’ll win. Suddenly her tantrum sounds a lot like a cry for help from a frightened girl at the end of her rope. Something needs to change.

And here comes Blue.

Ribbon starts complaining to him about pampering Hime, mentioning that Hime isn’t struggling from lack of ability, but lack of resolve (I choose to interpret that as confidence most of the time).

Spoilers: Hime was tricked into opening the Axia Box (think Pandora’s Box) and releasing all these enemies into the world, starting this whole conflict. She heard a sad/scared voice calling for help and was concerned enough to open the box to save them. How can Hime have courage or resolve in ANYTHING nowadays when her last big decision ended so badly? :Spoilers

Blue seems very compassionate here (not like Ribbon isn’t, but she’s gotten too close to Hime this whole time and is probably as tired of giving the same old advice as Hime is of hearing it) and offers Hime a red, glowing crystal/pebble.

With this, Hime can find a partner to help her fight the Saiarks.

Hime’s scared even thinking of talking to other people.

But Blue tells her that this Love Crystal will show her the way and help her find her new best friend.

Oh dear! Hime has a whole rant about how friends are wonderful and how having a friend will fix everything.

Something about the way she says it, though, sounds a lot more like someone who’s read about friends in books than someone who’s actually had friends before and knows what to expect. Her exact words are: “I wanted to have a friend for so long! It’s so fun when you’re with others, right?” and “They help you out when you’re in trouble and listen to everything you have to say! It’s so convenient to have friends! Friends will solve everything!”

Has Hime ever had friends before? She seems to be shy, maybe she suffers from social anxiety (look at her behavior in Episode 4!). And considering that she’s a princess, was she ever allowed to interact with anyone normally? Or was her life before being a Cure just “Go to this ball, greet this ambassador, be polite with the Prime Minister’s family…” and so on?

At least Hime seems more hopeful now, but her task to make friends may be harder than she thinks. 

Megumi makes it home from school and checks in with her mother. Megumi then promises to go to the store to get what’s needed for dinner to help her mom, who doesn’t look too well. 

Meanwhile, Cure Princess jumps up on top of a tall building and starts looking around. When Ribbon asks why she isn’t looking for a friend, Princess says that there’s too many people around to find one.

Instead, she decides to just throw the Love Crystal, trusting to luck, and befriend whoever it hits.

Ribbon’s shocked at this.

Let’s be honest, though. Hasn’t anyone ever gone into a new place (work/school), had no idea who to talk to or what to do, and quietly chanted “Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Moe” or something to help move forward in an uncertain setting? Or maybe that’s just me?

Anyway, the Love Crystal hits Megumi on the head as she’s walking by on the way to the grocery store.

Hime now knows who to befriend.

Hime starts following Megumi around and notices that Megumi seems friendly with everyone she sees. Hime still looks uncertain, though. Megumi’s very willing to help others, too.

She finds a young girl, Mao, upset that her hat got blown into the water. Megumi doesn’t hesitate to go in after the hat. Her friend, Seiji, the older brother to the little girl, catches Megumi in the act and warns her to be more careful.

He saves her from falling in when she slips.

Awww! Megumi’s so warm and friendly with everyone.

Seiji reminds Megumi that she shouldn’t ignore her own needs in her desire to help others.

Megumi just counts it a win as long as everyone’s happy.

Poor Hime hides further behind a tree after watching all of this.

No offense to Cure Fortune, but if what I speculated before is how things really went down between them, Hime may be worried that no matter how much she wants it, she’s unworthy of love and friendship, even with someone so clearly loving as Megumi.

By now, Ribbon’s done with Hime’s hesitation and she headbutts Hime out of her hiding place, directly into Megumi’s path.

Oh, gosh! Hime can barely speak when she sees Megumi.

Luckily Megumi jumps right in, complimenting Hime’s dress.

And that friendly greeting is enough to allow Hime to open up about her love of fashion. Hime can ramble on when she talks about a safe subject or an interest.

And Hime’s certain that Megumi can look nice in fancier clothing if she tries.

Every girl deserves a chance to shine, after all.

Image found here: https://mymodernmet.com/cherry-blossom-meaning/ 

I’m going to take a quick minute here, on coming back to this review, to mention something I missed before. You can clearly see that there are flowering trees in the background during this scene. I believe these are meant to be cherry (sakura) trees. You’ll find out in later episodes (like Episode 15) that I’ve noticed there were times when a specific flower was depicted within the show, and its meaning in the language of flowers (a la Heartcatch Precure) was surprisingly relevant to the plot or a character’s feelings at that time. (Because this happened three times where it definitely caught my attention on my first watchthrough, I’m considering watching one more time, at least up to halfway through the season, to see if I’ve missed any others. Yes, my OCD -not really- brain demanded this of me. Send help, please!)

With a quick bit of research, I found that cherry trees often flower between March and mid-April, so this episode probably takes place in the early Spring, for those trying to put together a tentative timeline (like me). Apparently, cherry blossoms mean ephemerality, the fleetingness of life. More relevant is the second meaning, which is renewal and rebirth. After a long, cold winter, these trees flower as a prelude to warmer days and better times to come. (You can read about it more here: https://mymodernmet.com/cherry-blossom-meaning/) If you think of Hime’s backstory, which I’ll cover more in-depth throughout this episode and Episode 2, doesn’t this fit remarkably well? Hime has only just met Megumi now, and wait until you see how things turn around for her from this point on!

And with the ice broken, both girls introduce themselves.

Finally, Hime reveals that Megumi is now a Precure, to her surprise.

And here comes the villain, Namakelder, targeting Seiji’s sister Mao for a new Saiark.

Is it just me, or do those mirrors look like coffins?

It doesn’t help that the victim sealed inside always has their arms crossed over their chest. Maybe I’ve seen too many 2D Castlevania games…

Anyway, here’s the Hat Saiark ready to attack.

Hime and Megumi are warned of the danger and hurry to the area.

I love that Hime shields Megumi from danger with her own body before transforming. She wants her new friend to stay safe, even if they do end up having to fight together.

Ribbon wasn’t kidding earlier when she said that Cure Princess had no resolve to back up her attacks, it doesn’t look like her kick even fazed the Saiark,

and the “Princess Ball” did nothing.

Already, Cure Princess is down and looking frightened again.

This time Megumi shields Cure Princess.

Megumi is also frightened and confused, but she doesn’t want to see her friend getting hurt anymore.

Her determination to protect Princess and help everyone be happy is great enough to trigger the Love Crystal’s shift into a transformation device.

And Megumi transforms into Cure Lovely.

She’s so excited to be a Precure, it’s cute and funny to watch.

She has no idea how to attack, but she at least has super strength, and that’s a good start.

Episode 1 ends here.

The Meaning of Heart:

This is me coming back to my Episode 1 review and realizing that while I talk a lot about various symbols that I’ve noticed and their meanings later on, I missed doing this in the early episodes of Happiness Charge. I’m trying to make up for this now, as you’ve already seen with me discussing the cherry blossoms earlier in this very review. I wanted to cover these symbols as they come up, instead of just compiling all the information in one area, but there’s enough individual details that it may be easier just to have everything combined into a single document. I’ll leave Megumi’s symbol here to give a taste of what you can expect, but if you want to see what I discovered for everyone else’s symbols, you can find this information with my other “supplemental” writings. Happiness Charge has four Cures who’ll end up joining the team, so I’ll discuss each of their symbols in turn. Let’s start with Megumi today.

Image found here: https://freepngimg.com/png/37044-3d-red-heart-image 

I thought it went without saying that Cure Lovely’s theme is love, so of course her symbol is a heart. But I was very surprised to find how perfectly a heart symbol matches with her when I did a little reading on the subject. The heart means love and affection, obviously, but it can also indicate courage, strength, spirituality, healing, emotions, connection, unity, sacrifice, and selflessness. (You can read about it here: https://symbolismhub.com/the-symbolism-of-the-heart-exploring-the-deeper-meaning-behind-the-universal-icon/) Interestingly enough, the heart can be associated with fire because love can be very passionate, also indicating energy and transformation. Pay close attention to the PreCards these girls earn in Episode 2. (Cherry Flamenco has FIRE powers! This is also a Lovely-exclusive ability)

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about Megumi, on watching this show, it’s that she loves everyone and wants them to be happy. If that means being selfless enough to drop everything at a moment’s notice and run over to help another person out, she’ll do it! If it means finding a way to reach out to someone who’s hurting, even if that person is an ENEMY GENERAL, she’ll do it! Megumi may not be very booksmart, as you’ll see in Episode 12, but she’s got to be an emotional genius because nine times out of ten she knows exactly what to say to connect to someone in pain and encourage them to get back up and keep trying. Remember that a heart also means strength and healing: it’s really blown my mind to see how brutal Cure Lovely is in combat, yet she’s as close to the resident healer of the team as she can be without having actual healing powers. (We’ll talk about Cure Honey later…) I could go on, but some of what I’ve noticed comes from things we’ll see later on in the show. So rather than write a full-on character analysis in Episode 1, I’ll just ask that you keep some of these meanings in mind as you watch or read about this series with me, if you choose to do so. Here they are one last time: love, affection, courage, strength, spirituality, healing, emotions, connection, unity, sacrifice, and selflessness.

Chapter Text

Cure Dream of Yes! Precure 5 (and Yes! Precure 5 Go Go) greets us today before Lovely’s first official battle begins.

And we’re back in the middle of the fight with the Hat Saiark.

Cure Lovely may have no idea how her powers work, but that doesn’t mean she’s holding back on her attack at all.

But she got too close and the Saiark caught her by the arm.

Cure Princess sees Lovely trapped and immediately rams into the Saiark hard enough to free her friend.

Notice that Princess didn’t use any of her powers for this. I wonder if it’s because she knows that with all her fears and doubts right now, no special attack of hers would be powerful enough to work, let alone in time to save Lovely from getting hurt.

Even getting knocked back, Lovely’s still going strong.

Princess, however, is letting her fears get the better of her again.

Ribbon tells Princess to purify the Saiark, but Princess can’t work up the courage.

Then Ribbon tells her that Lovely is probably just as scared as she is,

just in time for Princess to see Lovely get hit again.

Princess, fearing for both of their safety, blinds the enemies with a “Princess Tornado”

and quickly retreats, leading Lovely away safely.

Credit where it’s due, Hime refused to leave Megumi in danger. Fear can make people do stupid and messed up things at times. Scared as she was, Hime could’ve left Megumi as a distraction for the Saiark to allow a safer getaway, but she refused to allow someone to be hurt in this way, fears or no.

Now de-transformed, both girls escape safely to the Blue Sky Kingdom Embassy, Hime’s current home.

Megumi wants to go back and free Mao from the Saiark’s power,

but Hime’s convinced that there’s no way either of them can win this fight.

Before their argument goes too far, Blue appears.

Hime immediately gets upset with him, wondering why having a friend in battle didn’t help after all.

Megumi, however, is very impressed and pleased to meet him.

Blue introduces himself and explains that these enemies used to be trapped inside the Axia Box, until it was opened.

Since then, the released enemies have been wreaking havoc across the world.

If you know Hime’s backstory, you understand why Hime looks so worried, sad, and guilty here. Incidentally, if they wanted Megumi to know the complete history of this conflict, here would’ve been a good place to tell her that it was Hime who let the enemies out and that she’s trying to fix her mistake and make things right. But no one does, not even no-nonsense Ribbon. (Remember, Ribbon forced Hime out into the open to meet Megumi when Hime was in hiding, following Megumi around earlier on.) Seriously, what exactly happened between Hime and Cure Fortune that ended so badly that they’re worried history will repeat with Megumi?

Blue reveals that the enemy the girls were fighting earlier, Namakelder, is merely a general of the leader of the Phantom Empire, Queen Mirage.

Speaking of Mirage, we jump to her complaining about feeling the power of love.

She calls out to the Deep Mirror, a magic mirror on the wall.

I missed this somehow on my first time watching. Shirayuki Hime (Princess Snow White), a magic mirror on the wall… I wonder how many more similarities we’ll see to the Snow White story as we go on?

The Deep Mirror tells Queen Mirage that the love she’s sensing comes from a new Precure who appeared in Japan, Cure Lovely. Queen Mirage is not impressed.

She thinks happiness doesn’t last, love is not real, and she wants the Precure gone.

Blue finishes his explanation, saying that if Queen Mirage and her generals are not stopped, all joy and happiness will be gone from the world.

That’s interesting, another difference from the other Pretty Cure seasons I’ve seen. Usually if the Pretty Cure’s enemies target people, those victims are hurting or struggling, since they have a breach in their heart or will power that can be exploited to summon monsters. But the Phantom Empire is actively targeting happy people instead. At least that’s what it looks like so far. Mao didn’t look upset when she was targeted, in any case…

Blue asks Megumi to fight beside Hime to stop the Phantom Empire from succeeding.

Megumi agrees. Hime, however…

Oh no, Hime’s losing hope fast.

If my speculations from before are correct, she’s been fighting for a long time (months?), she’s never once won a battle, her special attacks are very weak and unreliable because she has no courage or resolve in anything right now, and Hime let herself hope that having a friend would make a difference, but they still haven’t been able to win a fight yet.

Secret of Mana - Seiken Densetsu 2 (SNES, 1993) - highly recommended!

Comparing this to an RPG, normally a hero could go out into a forest and fight some weak monsters,

Secret of Mana - Seiken Densetsu 2 (SNES, 1993) - highly recommended!

Secret of Mana - Seiken Densetsu 2 (SNES, 1993) - highly recommended!

maybe a dire wolf or a bear as they level up,

Secret of Mana - Seiken Densetsu 2 (SNES, 1993) - highly recommended!

and eventually work their way up to a boss fight.

In Pretty Cure, there are rarely weaker monsters to gain “EXP” (experience points) from to level up. Ironically, Happiness Charge may be one of the few seasons where you DO see weaker monsters, but they haven’t appeared as of yet. I think my point still stands, though, since it’s difficult to level up when facing fifty or so of these monsters at once, even if they go down easily by themselves. “Death by a thousand cuts” is very much a thing…

Anyway, Hime’s been stuck on boss fight after boss fight, with no way to get stronger. She’s stuck at Level 1 while watching other Cures sail through their fights at Level 7, Level 10, etc. Can you really blame this poor girl for wanting to give up?

What’s worse, Hime’s home, the Blue Sky Kingdom, was conquered by the Phantom Empire.

She’s the only one who escaped (Talk about *Survivor’s Guilt!) and she’s been fighting this whole time to save her home, all her people, and her family. But what good does all her fighting do if she can’t beat a single Saiark, not even with a friend’s help? Hime, you’re making me want to cry! Someone please give this poor girl a hug!

*Survivor’s Guilt - a type of guilt that can develop in people who have survived a life-threatening situation. It seems to be a form of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Maybe the victim feels guilty that they survived where others did not, or the victim feels they could’ve done more to help save others in that situation, or the victim may even feel guilty that someone else died saving them (Yuri/Cure Moonlight, anyone?!). You can read more about it here: https://www.verywellmind.com/survivors-guilt-4688743.

Dear heavens, this was more on the nose than I was expecting! Admittedly, the victims trapped in mirrors (Blue Sky Kingdom prisoners) aren’t really dead, but they may as well be. They’re unconscious to the world: no one can see them, talk to them, or interact with them in any way. You can’t tell me that Hime hasn’t wished that someone else from her home, ANYONE else from her home, had escaped the invasion instead of her. Surely ANYONE else would be more experienced and more qualified to rally support and fight back against this deadly enemy attacking the world. But Hime’s the only one still free, and she’s the one who freed the enemies who caused this devastation in the first place. I was wondering how she still had the courage and willpower to transform and keep fighting, but maybe I should be wondering how she hasn’t become a deathseeker yet… Her guilt must be so powerful, forcing her to fight and keep fighting, despite her weakness, fears, and hopelessness. I really hope that Megumi turns out to be as good a Pink/Leader/Healer as the girls who’ve come before, because Hime seriously needs a lot more help than even I first thought!

Hime can’t take it anymore, and she runs away in despair.

Megumi tries and fails to catch up, and Hime disappears into the city.

Namakelder is lounging around, watching the Hat Saiark spread mold everywhere.

He’s contacted by the Deep Mirror and told to defeat the Precure and drown the city in sorrow.

Namakelder agrees, but maybe later, it’s too much work for now.

Hime’s alone sitting on a park bench, unsure what to do, when Yuko finds her.

Yuko gives her a piece of candy to cheer her up.

Hime’s caught off guard, but she manages to thank Yuko before panicking and running off again.

Poor Yuko looks so confused.

Megumi’s wandering around the city trying to find Hime.

Ribbon apologizes for all the trouble, knowing that Hime’s got a lot of issues that make it difficult to be around her.

Megumi replies that Hime is also very lucky because she has such a good friend in Ribbon to look out for her.

Awww! Ribbon thinks that Hime used a lifetime of luck to get Megumi as her first friend, and she’s absolutely right. Hime’s in a bad place right now. It’ll take someone with a lot of love and patience, like Megumi, to help Hime work through things, for sure.

Ribbon gives Megumi a PreCard to help her find Hime.

PreCards not only allow the girls to transform into their Cure forms, but they also have costumes that come with special abilities.

Megumi chooses the Detective Card (Coord?) and becomes a Detective, complete with hat and magnifying glass.

She runs into Yuko while looking for clues.

Yuko points Megumi to a nearby park,

and the hunt is on.

Detective Megumi is guided first to a candy wrapper (Yuko’s candy) in the trash,

then to footprints going down the path.

Pretty soon they catch up to Hime in the park,

and Ribbon stops her from trying to run again.

Hime feels useless and weak, so what’s the point in fighting anymore?

Megumi argues that Hime was strong enough to save her from the Saiark earlier.

When Megumi compliments her on her running speed,

Hime feels insulted. But you know, having that sort of speed and agility would be very useful in battle.

Hime confesses that she’s useless because not only did they not win today’s fight, she’s never beaten a Saiark at all, not once.

My gosh, is Megumi an angel?!! She actually turned that around to say that means that Hime’s never given up, either. Hime’s never won a fight, but she’s never quit fighting, either.

I’ve struggled with depression before, and one of the hardest things I ever had to deal with was breaking out of a negative mindset and self-defeating spirals of thought. And I certainly wasn’t able to do it alone. I’m not saying that Hime’s depressed, but I am seeing some disturbing similarities so far. If Megumi can do this for Hime, maybe this poor girl can start to have hope and move forward again.

Megumi asks Hime, since she’s already worked so hard as it is, can she try once more, one final push?

Awww! Megumi performs a “Happiness Charge” on Hime, holding her hands,

and explains that she wants to fill the world with happiness now that she’s a Pretty Cure, too.

But she’s only just become a Cure today, and she doesn’t know how her powers work at all.

Couldn’t Hime come along and help her out?

It seems to be working. And can I say that Megumi’s a genius here? Hime’s been fighting to save her Kingdom, her home, but since she can’t win in a fight, she’s been stuck in a dead end with no way to reach her goal and no hope. But Megumi’s offering her a smaller, bite-sized goal: “Come with Megumi and help her learn how to fight as a Cure.”

Sometimes we do this to ourselves, setting impossible, huge goals, and then feel depressed when we can’t make any headway. Sometimes the only way forward is with baby steps, one step at a time, one day at a time, until you can finally reach your goal. I’ve got to say, I never thought I’d relate so much to this show. Hime may be my “spirit animal,” but Megumi’s officially my HERO!

And it worked!

Hime’s ready to help Megumi in the fight again.

But first, they need a team name and group pose…

Finally, we’re back to Namakelder and the Hat Saiark.

Megumi’s ready to fight,

but Hime’s still uncertain, hiding behind Megumi for now. She hasn’t run away, though.

Megumi encourages Hime to stand up to Namakelder as well,

and she’s able to tell him off.

Both girls then transform.

With a neat little freeze-frame that took more time to capture than I want to admit. It would seem that each girl’s symbol appears very briefly in that final flash of light at the end of their transformation.

It’s funny to watch Namakelder looking unimpressed

while Cure Lovely’s over fangirling with Cure Princess about how awesome their group pose was. Never change, girls!

Namakelder summons a crowd of smaller minions, Choiarks, to fight the Cures.

Lovely and Princess easily defeat several Choiarks

before getting surrounded by the rest.

Ribbon tells the girls to use their Love PreBraces (the pink bracelets on their wrists) to perform a special attack.

Image found here (Justice League Cartoon - 2001-2004): https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/02/01/john-stewart-explained-who-is-the-green-lantern-corps-character 

Yet another interesting difference. Other Pretty Cure seasons have a set attack or weapon for the Cures, but in this one they can call out any attack at all? And it’ll happen? These girls are definitely the Green Lanterns of the Pretty Cure universe!

One “Lovely Punch” and the Choiarks are all gone.

Now for the Hat Saiark. And the girls are already doing much better this time.

With both of them attacking from opposite sides, the Hat Saiark can’t fully focus on one or the other for a successful attack.

Lovely tells Princess to purify the Saiark while she keeps it in one place.

Cure Princess looks uncertain again,

but Lovely’s already jumping back into the fray. “Lovely Heart Destruction!”

Princess gathers her courage and starts her purifying attack. How fitting is it that she says, “May the light of COURAGE become holy might!” I can already tell that Hime’s character arc will deal with her facing, and eventually overcoming, her many fears.

And she seems to have a bullseye-themed attack, too. To go with the Sniper fighting style, perhaps?

And it worked!

Lovely and Princess took down the Saiark and saved Mao.

Hime and Megumi watch Mao return home safely to her mother.

Can I say how happy Hime, especially, looks here? Like she never thought she’d be part of this, seeing the victim get closure after being saved in a victorious fight.

The girls earned two PreCards, too. Would this count as “EXP” or a full level up? That Cherry Flamenco Card grants fire powers, after all. (Fun fact as well, which I’ve since realized, but you can tell whether one of these PreCards is just a standard costume or a Dance Form Change Card by looking at the heart in the bottom left corner. A normal costume change Card always seems to have that exact same rainbow striping pattern, while a Form Change Card has a very different pattern that varies from one Form to another. I love this sort of attention to detail. Good job, animators!)

How must this all feel for Hime, her first ever victory with a friend, her first ever PreCards

(earn enough to get any wish granted)... Things are finally looking up. And it’s all thanks to Megumi.

Megumi better watch out, I think Hime’d be willing to do anything for her, even follow her to the ends of the Earth for how great a friend she was today. My heart! What a great episode!!!

FAIR WARNING!

Maybe this needs to be said, maybe not, but I’d feel bad if I didn’t say it anyway.

I know that Hime and I aren’t the only ones out there who’ve been through rough times like this. What you may or may not know is that, when going through depression, or something similar, the victim can’t look at daily life clearly. They’re hurting, sad, and scared, and when anyone, person or animal, feels scared or trapped there are two responses that instinctively happen: fight or flight.

Hime and I chose flight, running away instead of confronting the problem. Running, or hiding away, can cause its own problems, since if the victim can’t communicate what they’re feeling and what’s wrong, their family and friends aren’t going to understand and will be hurt by being kept at a distance. Other people who feel vulnerable and threatened may lash out in self defense instead. It’s great to want to help someone going through a hard time, but please understand that the victim may not respond well to your efforts to help. Don’t be afraid to get professional help in this situation. There are medications out there that can minimize problematic symptoms and even if those don’t work, a professional can at least help guide your efforts to be more productive.

Please be careful, whatever you may choose to do if you find yourself in this sort of situation. I know that I would feel awful if I found that I’d hurt someone afterward, even if in the moment I didn’t fully realize what was going on.

Chapter Text

Already, Hime’s making good on what they talked about fashion-wise back in Episode 1. Megumi’s excited to have a fun new outfit.

And Hime’s excited that she has a friend she can talk with about fashion.

Blue and Ribbon enjoy watching the two girls bond

before offering a Cure Line, that looks like a cell phone, to Hime and Megumi.

Megumi’s all ready to call her mom on the new “smart phone,” but Blue stops her.

He tells her to only use the Cure Line to call on Precure business, warning that Megumi needs to keep her identity as a Cure secret.

This is tradition from every season or episode of Pretty Cure I’ve seen so far, but Blue (and Ribbon) does have a point.

In Fresh Pretty Cure, the Cures’ families found out their identities right before the final battle and stopped them from leaving. It was almost too late by the time the girls finally convinced their families to let them fight after all. It would be great to have support at home for all that these girls do, but the dangers are very real.

Megumi promises to keep this a secret.

And let’s welcome Cure Passion from Fresh Pretty Cure today!

Megumi and Hime then leave the Embassy.

Hime’s very excited to have an actual secret to share, WITH FRIENDS!!!

I can’t begrudge her excitement, though. Hime’s been through the wringer in the last two episodes, and I think it’s past time she got something to make her smile.

Just then, Seiji walks up behind them, asking what’s so secret, and startles the heck out of both girls.

Hime immediately hides behind Megumi when faced with a stranger.

Don’t judge her too harshly, though. We’ve seen, or will see soon, that she can be incredibly brave protecting a friend in battle, but it’s a whole other thing to interact with people in a social setting. Especially when anxiety is involved!

Anyway, this is Sagara Seiji. We met him briefly in Episode 1, but Hime’s only really seeing him now for the first time.

He’s Megumi’s next door neighbor and a childhood friend.

Megumi introduces Hime, and Hime proceeds to have a mini freak out, nearly crushing Ribbon in her fear.

I hear you, Hime, there’s a reason I still struggle making eye contact with others to this day. I’m a lot better than I was, thank goodness. People are generally fairly nice, but there’s just no helping it when fear or anxiety is involved. Only time and practice (desensitizing the fear) can really help. Please be patient with us!

Uh oh! Ribbon cried out in pain from being squeezed, and Seiji heard her. This Precure secret thing isn’t looking good so far.

Oh, Megumi! Poor girl got flustered and just blurted out that it’s a secret. I haven’t seen enough shows in this Franchise yet, is this the record for the shortest kept secret identities with a civilian?

Seiji looks unimpressed (or is that just disappointment with her behavior?),

and he leaves.

Megumi actually thinks that she’s fooled him,

but Hime quickly corrects her

and Ribbon is very worried what will happen if Seiji figures them out.

Now it’s dinnertime, and Seiji and Mao have been invited over to Megumi’s place for the meal.

Awww! I bet that Megumi totally thinks of Mao as the little sister she’s never had!

And Seiji, after getting flustered being caught using a nickname for Megumi’s mom (Auntie?),

offers a side dish to go with the meal.

I like how responsible he is. Someone’s going to have to be the grounding force for this season, and we don’t have Cure Rouge this time!

Looks like his and Mao’s mother has to travel for work some days,

and that’s why their families share meals sometimes.

Anyway, they’re enjoying eating dinner

when Mao, out of nowhere, mentions Precure.

Poor Megumi!

Secrets really are more trouble than they’re worth sometimes.

(I hate to interrupt the review here, but I just spotted a mystery flower in the background, that pinkish one behind Mao. I knew this problem would come up eventually, where I wouldn’t recognize what must be some kind of real life plant. Maybe I’m just seeing things, but when a plant is animated with those kinds of details and a unique flower/leaf shape, instead of a more simple, “cartoony” design, I have to believe that this is depicting a real plant with a real meaning in the language of flowers. Given the symbolism we’ve already seen with cherry blossoms from Episode 1, I can only assume that this unknown plant might mean something like secrecy or honesty, maybe innocence. (Because Megumi really is too innocent for her own good in some ways. Poor girl probably couldn’t lie to save her life!) You wouldn’t believe how many different ways I tried to identify this flower: by potential flower language meaning, by its pink color, the six petals… But nothing’s matching up!)

Image found here: https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-grow-new-england-asters-4109086 

(The closest I might’ve guessed was some kind of Aster, based on the size of the flower alone, but Asters have many more petals and a different leaf shape.) And it’s driving me crazy because I swear I’ve seen this type of plant somewhere before. I’m very sorry that I can’t offer a deeper meaning at this time. If any readers know of this plant, could you let me know what it might be so that I can finally clear things up? Until then, I’m stuck. Let’s continue the episode for now.)

But Megumi’s trying her best!

And Seiji’s just watching this out of the corner of his eyes.

After dinner, Seiji and Megumi are washing the dishes.

Seiji just says “Precure” and “Secret,” and Megumi starts freaking out.

He’s been very chill about everything so far, but poor Megumi doesn’t know what to do.

Later that night, after Seiji and Mao went home, Megumi’s talking with her mom

when the Cure Line starts ringing.

Megumi manages to sneak out to their balcony before her mother can ask about the phone.

It’s Hime. She’s understandably worried about whether or not Megumi was able to keep their secret so far.

Megumi doesn’t think he knows yet, but she admits that she’s a horrible liar.

Oh jeez! Seiji’s out hanging out laundry on the balcony next door and overheard them.

Poor Megumi’s freaking out!

But Seiji’s a good kid. He tells Megumi that whatever’s going on with secrets and Precure, she shouldn’t worry her mom.

After he leaves, Hime’s pretty certain that he all but knows the secret

and says that all they can do now is play dumb.

And Megumi’s looking rather ragged from the stress. Hang in there!

Over in the Phantom Empire, Mirage complains that she still senses love coming from Japan.

Apparently, no one can find Namakelder for now.

It’s okay, though, the Deep Mirror sent someone else, the wealthy lady general Hosshiiwa, to deal with things.

Early the next morning, Seiji’s outside running. It looks like he does karate or some form of martial arts with that outfit. This maybe explains some of his disciplined behavior, now that I think about it.

He passes the newspaper man

and Yuko as he goes along.

Seiji’s very friendly with everyone he meets, much like Megumi herself.

Anyway, pretty soon he realizes that the ground is shaking, and it sounds like something huge is moving around in the fog.

It’s another Saiark, wearing an origami newspaper samurai outfit? Maybe the newspaper man was attacked. That’s not good!

Megumi’s fast asleep when her Cure Line phone starts ringing.

And when the ringing doesn’t wake her up, the phone attacks her face. Jeez! I thought MY phone was bad!

Megumi finally wakes up enough to realize what’s going on and answers the phone.

Hime and Ribbon have called to warn her that a new Saiark just appeared in the park.

Back with the Saiark, it looks like this general, Hosshiiwa, doesn’t spread mold, but sweets instead.

Note to self, don’t watch this show when hungry…

Hosshiiwa commands the Newspaper Saiark to destroy happiness and keep spreading sweets everywhere, noting that the despair of others is “sweet as honey.”

Seiji’s watching all of this when he sees the lady and her dog from earlier in his morning run. Choiarks are tossing the poor dog around, playing keep away with her.

Seiji knocks away one of the Choiarks long enough to rescue the dog

and send him and his owner away to safety.

And now the Choiarks are after Seiji,

but he’s ready to fight.

Hime meets up with Megumi and is appalled that Megumi showed up in PAJAMAS. To be fair, they are in a hurry.

Megumi explains that since they’ll be transforming, nobody’ll see her like that,

but Hime stands firm.

No friend of hers is going anywhere looking less than their ABSOLUTE best.

And Ribbon pulls out the PreCards.

Oh, this is that Roller Skating costume they earned in the last battle in Episode 2. Good thinking!

This’ll get them to the park faster, and Megumi won’t be in pajamas. Win Win!

Seiji’s fighting off the Choiarks for now.

One on one, they don’t seem to be much of a threat to him.

Until several Choiarks start shooting him with lasers.

Poor Seiji’s down for the count.

Luckily, Megumi and Hime show up right then.

Seiji’s awesome! Even hurt so that he can’t move, he’s trying to protect Megumi, warning her to escape while there’s time.

Megumi’s ready to transform right there, but Hime’s still worried about them keeping their promise to Blue about hiding their identities as Cures.

But Megumi’s determined. No secret is worth risking Seiji’s safety.

And Hime agrees.

Both girls transform.

Seiji looks shocked. While suspicious of Megumi earlier, it seems he didn’t expect THIS to be the secret.

Hosshiiwa orders the Choiarks to attack.

When they try that laser attack again,

Cure Lovely reflects it right back on them with her PreCure Mirror (Pretty Change Mirror, PreChan Mirror?),

but at about double the power.

More Choiarks join the fight.

Princess is looking a little overwhelmed, and who can blame her when looking at that mob?

Lovely’s still ticked off about the attack on Seiji, though, and she jumps in without waiting for a plan.

And one “Lovely Explosion Bomber” takes out the crowd.

Princess and Seiji are shocked at Megumi’s fire power.

Oh wait, there are still Choiarks there. Just how many of these guys can come out to fight at once? I guess it’s fair, though, if you consider the sorts of attacks the Cures can use, especially when angry.

I think the Choiarks are starting to realize that they made a mistake targeting Seiji.

And Lovely just pulled out the Cherry Flamenco Card.

An angry Cure plus fire powers… I almost feel sorry for the Choiarks. I love the color scheme, though! Very bold and striking.

If not a bit terrifying. Dear heavens, this won’t end well!

Okay, the Choiarks are definitely done after that!

Cure Lovely goes to confront Hosshiiwa.

After introducing herself,

Hosshiiwa pretends that Seiji was the one who attacked her.

Lovely’s outraged at the lie,

since Seiji would never hurt anyone weaker than himself.

Hosshiiwa then calls on the Newspaper Saiark to attack.

The first thing the Saiark does is throw out enough newspapers that it disappears from view.

It sneaks up behind Lovely while she’s confused and starts to grab her.

Cure Princess immediately reacts to Lovely’s danger

and runs in to hit the Saiark away from her.

This is now the second time that Princess skipped using a special attack in favor of just hitting the enemy with her own body. I hope that Princess can sort out her power problems soon. Unless she just reacted this way because a special ability would’ve been too slow to save Lovely here… Princess’s current strategy is working for now and is very brave, but it also just puts her right in front of the Saiark, where it could really hurt her with a counterattack if it was quick enough to react. Remember, she doesn’t seem able to take hits as easily as Lovely can. That difference between Paladin/Warrior and Sniper is not a joke!

Anyway, Princess is upset that the Newspaper Saiark nearly ambushed Lovely, and she asks Lovely to purify it while she keeps it distracted.

Good for her! She uses “Princess Tornado” to blow away the newspapers before the Saiark can do that disappearing trick again.

And now it’s Cure Lovely’s turn to purify! The subtitles say “Light of Courage,” but I think that’s an error. I know that “Yuki” (Yuuki?) is courage, but I heard Lovely say “Ai,” which is love. I think she actually says “Light of Love, turn into sacred power!”

I guess it goes without saying that Cure Lovely’s purifying attack features an enormous heart?

Lovely takes down the Saiark,

and the landscape returns to normal.

Hosshiiwa leaves, sure she’ll see the girls again another day.

And yep, the newspaper man was the source of that Saiark after all.

I’m glad he’s okay.

The Cures earned more PreCards, including Sherbet Ballet. Now they have ice powers to balance with Flamenco’s fire. Nice!

And then Seiji calls Megumi’s name. 

Poor girls!

Lovely hides behind Princess,

and Princess in turn hides behind Lovely.

Credit to Lovely, she does try to play it off like she has no idea what Seiji’s talking about,

but she’s not fooling anyone here.

With no other options,

the girls take Seiji to the Embassy and explain the situation.

Megumi’s sorry for getting Seiji caught up in the whole mess.

Seiji then decides that he’s going to help Megumi and Hime in their fight.

This involves the whole city, if not the whole world, and they’ll need all the help they can get.

Megumi’s very happy at his offer,

since he’s very smart and strong and would be a big help.

And best of all, he can help cover for Megumi, since we know that she can’t keep a secret or lie for anything.

Normally that’s a great thing, Megumi! Lies hurt a lot of people, and there’s a reason people say “Honesty is the best policy.” When trying to protect loved ones while secretly fighting as part of a war… It gets complicated.

Seiji asks a very nervous and shy Hime to help take care of Megumi, but before she can answer (or not, she’s rather anxious), Blue interrupts.

He asks if Megumi and Seiji are going out, if they’re in love, since they get along so well.

Megumi explains that they’re childhood friends.

Blue’s relieved, and then lays out the one definitive rule of being a Precure: Cures can’t fall in love.

There are spoilers as to why this is such a big deal that I won’t cover yet, because it’ll come up in a later episode, if I remember what I read about this correctly. I will say that Blue absolutely has a point here.

Firstly, I can’t speak of love from my own experience because my personality causes me to have trouble interacting with, and to isolate myself from, others under normal circumstances. If I can’t even look someone in the eye normally, how can I possibly know what it’s like to feel a serious connection with someone else, let alone romantically? So fair warning here, I will probably never cover romantic interactions in serious depth with this or any other show. Back to what Blue was saying, I have older and younger siblings who have dated over the years. There is SO much drama involved! When they got along, everything was great. When there were breakups, though…

Consider how much trouble Hime has had, fighting as Cure Princess in the last two episodes. Her fears and doubts made her almost unable to fight at all; it’s a miracle her transformation could even hold at times! That’s anxiety, fears, and doubts.

Now what about a Cure who just went through a bad breakup? Might it be possible that the enemies could find a Cure going through such trouble and manage to twist or brainwash her into joining the Phantom Empire?

Something very similar actually happened in Yes! Pretty Cure 5, in Episodes 23-24.

Yes! Precure 5 Episode 23

One argument between friends caused a moment of weakness,

Yes! Precure 5 Episode 23

and by catching each girl alone and vulnerable,

Yes! Precure 5 Episode 24

the enemy very nearly succeeded in taking the whole Yes! team out at once. It was terrifying!

(Remember this?)

Back to Happiness Charge, though, these Cure attacks look deadly,

(And this?!)

and what if such attacks were used against other Cures? So basically, I could guess that there’d either be major power failures for a heart-broken Cure, or that any fights would be that much worse if a brainwashed Cure was made to fight her former allies. Blue may sound heartless when he says that Cures can’t fall in love, but given the scale of the threat they’re facing, it makes sense why that’s the one rule that they can’t break.

And of course Megumi’s as excited to have a superhero rule to follow as she was to have a secret from before. Stop being so cute, please, it’s bad for my heart!

Blue then gives Seiji a Cure Line phone as well and welcomes him to the team.

Hime’s not so sure that Megumi and Seiji don’t really love each other and, to be fair, some relationships are so close it’s very hard to tell.

But Hime’s also blushing… And that’s the end of this episode.

One interesting note, kind of outside of this episode’s events: did anyone else notice how bound and determined Hime was to follow the rules? Was she always like this, or is this a more recent change with becoming a Precure? I’ve mentioned this because of Hime’s background of opening the Axia Box. I’ve seen comparisons made with Axia to Pandora’s Box.

With Pandora, she was curious about what was inside and why she was told not to open her box. Curiosity won out and, when she opened it, all the world’s evils poured out, leaving only hope remaining. Did something similar happen with Hime, being told never to open the Axia Box? She did open the Box, but only because there was a sad or scared voice calling for help. Maybe Hime felt pressured, thinking that there wasn’t enough time to go ask someone for help or advice, that she had to act right away, and that’s why she broke the rule and opened Axia. Breaking a rule in this case had a severe consequence, the loss of her home, people, and family, as well as the chaos currently going on worldwide. Is it any wonder Hime refuses to disobey directions like that nowadays? Time will tell if this trait continues on, or if it was a one off for this episode. Okay, now I’m done.

Chapter Text

Fashion-loving Hime is quite pleased with her new outfit.

Ribbon and Megumi both compliment her while taking lots of pictures.

Hime then asks Blue what the outfit is meant for.

When he tells her it’s a school uniform and that she’s enrolling today, well…

I know that Blue’s probably working on getting Hime out of survival mode and into a healthier routine, but really! Surely he could’ve given her more of a head’s up! Or did he just want to stop her from trying to run away again? In which case… Fair.

Cure Moonlight from Heartcatch Pretty Cure greets us today.

Yeah, I was afraid of this. Poor Hime wants nothing to do with school and is currently hiding under the couch while Megumi’s trying to pull her out.

But when Megumi mentions making more friends, Hime starts to reconsider.

Can you blame her? Her first friend, Megumi, has been WONDERFUL, and what if Hime could get more friends? Not to be a downer, but considering that everyone she knows has been imprisoned by the Phantom Empire, while her fault entirely, she probably has felt abandoned and alone. If she had more friends, maybe she’d never have to feel so empty and lonely ever again? Just a best guess at her thoughts right now.

And when Megumi suggests that Hime could make a hundred friends?

Suddenly she’s over the moon to go to school!

Okay, we got some flowers to look at a little early in today’s episode. I think I can identify two of the three, so I hope that’s good enough, because for the life of me I couldn’t figure out the purple leafy plant at all!

I zoomed in as much as I could without blurring the picture too much. It looks like we have a Daisy of some kind (I was thinking possibly a Marguerite Daisy, since the leaves and flowers look rather small, and there are more flowers per flowering stalk. Doesn’t a Shasta Daisy have one fair-sized flower per stem? Look at how many daisies can appear on each branching stem of this plant!) and I think those small blue flowers in the background are meant to be Speedwell. The shape looks right, but they’re bigger than any wild Speedwell flowers I’ve ever seen (maybe this is so the viewer can actually tell what they are?). 

Image found here: https://www.bloomandwild.com/the-blog/daisy-flower-meaning  

Let’s start with the daisy. According to the website below this picture, daisies actually have some medicinal properties. I personally would be very careful on testing this out, since you don’t know what kind of herbicides or pesticides might be contaminating these flowers, depending on where you find them. Apparently this flower was originally called “Day’s Eye” in Old English because the petals would close over the flower’s center at night, and then open up the next day. That’s awesome if this is true, since I only remember learning about sunflowers doing cool tricks regarding sunlight before! In general, daisies, especially white ones, mean innocence, purity, and new beginnings. (They can also mean true love due to actually being a composite flower (two types of flowers: disc = center of bloom and ray = petal, combined to create each blossom, a known trait of the Asteraceae family) Do you think we’re referring to Hime again with these flowers?

Now for speedwell… The scientific name of this plant is Veronica , but you’ll have to pay close attention to determine which Veronica species you may be looking for.

Image found here: https://www.americanmeadows.com/product/perennials/veronica-purpleicious  

Case in point, this is a Veronica flower,

Image found here: https://www.first-nature.com/flowers/veronica-chamaedrys.php  

but so is this.

If you look very closely at the little blue flowers behind the daisies, you’ll likely notice that one petal of each flower is white, or noticeably lighter than the other three petals.

Image found here: https://www.picturethisai.com/wiki/Veronica_filiformis.html  

We’re probably looking at something like this,

Image found here: https://www.wildflowersofireland.net/plant_detail.php?id_flower=247&Wildflower=Field-speedwell,%20Common  

or this. According to this website: https://greenygardener.com/speedwell-flower-meaning/, Speedwells can mean fidelity (faithfulness), loyalty, and harmony in relationships, as well as protection and good luck. Specifically, the blue color would indicate trust and loyalty. Speedwell, like daisies, are also known to have healing properties, and were seen in the past as a sign to “speed someone on their way,” whether this was a traveler passing through the area or someone recovering from an illness. What a great sign for Hime, who’s starting her first day at a new school, and with a wonderful new friend already at her side! Botany lesson over, let’s continue with today’s episode for now.

Hime’s sure that since she already has two friends, meeting a hundred more should be easy. Seiji, who just arrived, asks who her second friend is.

Hime just points to him and Megumi with a proud smile.

Megumi then tells him that a friend of a friend is a friend, so it counts!

Megumi is rooting for Hime every step of the way, she’s awesome!

And then they actually arrive at school.

And Hime starts to realize just what she’s getting into…

As Megumi’s greeting another girl, Hime still feels hopeful.

Until she realizes that the other kids are all excited about meeting a new transfer student (HER). All those eyes of all those strangers, all on her, all at once…

By the time Megumi turns to introduce Hime to her friend, Hime’s long gone.

Ribbon and Megumi manage to track her down. Hime confesses that she wasn’t ready to meet someone new just yet.

But she still thinks she can make a hundred friends, now that she’s more prepared.

And she confidently enters the classroom.

It’s full of strangers. STARING at her. And she has to TALK to them?!

Remember how Hime first reacted to meeting Megumi face-to-face in Episode 1? Yeah… Poor Hime! Social anxiety, or even regular shyness, is no joke.

Without Megumi there to help, Hime panics and tries to make a break for it.

Their teacher, though! She must be used to skittish students, because she had Hime back in the room before I could even blink.

The teacher just has Hime write her name on the board for an introduction instead.

Oh man, why can people in all these shows write bigger than me?

Heartcatch Pretty Cure Episode 1

I’m more of a “Tsubomi-level” of blackboard writing, always have been. My mom still teases me that she needs a magnifying glass to read my handwriting to this day.

Anyway, everyone is very curious about Hime and wants to know all about her.

Oh gosh, poor Hime is completely overwhelmed and collapses on the floor.

After recovering in the Nurse’s Office, Hime complains that it’s too much, too many people all at once, and she wants to go home. Megumi’s trying to pull her out from under the blanket where she’s hiding.

Megumi reminds Hime that she won’t make any friends if she leaves, but even that isn’t enough to change Hime’s mind this time.

Just then, Yuko comes in to check on them.

Can I say, it never gets old when these poor fairies have to pretend to be toys around civilians? That got a laugh out of me.

Back to Yuko, Hime actually met her before, briefly, when Yuko offered her a piece of candy in the park back in Episode 2.

Megumi reminds us that a friend of a friend is a friend, so Yuko can be Hime’s friend as well.

While Hime hesitates, probably rethinking this whole “hundred friends” business, Megumi introduces Oomori Yuuko (Is that really how you spell her name? Forgive me, but I think I’ll keep using “Yuko” for now, since I’ve used that spelling several times already.) to Hime officially. I think Hime does want to be friends, Megumi, but you have to understand that when fears get the better of someone, it takes a lot to break through the cloud of sheer panic that they’re experiencing.

Yuko’s so nice and patient here. She comes forward to offer Hime another of her Honey Candies.

Ohhh! Hime really wants to have friends, but today hasn’t been easy for her, and she looks like she’s ready to cry as she grabs a candy and runs away again.

Poor Yuko looks a little hurt.

I can’t say I blame her. It’s not easy dealing with someone struggling with anxiety. When fears get bad, any intelligent thought tends to become, “OhGOSH OHGOSH OHGOSH!” and “WHATDOIDO WHATDOIDO!”, if the thoughts manage to move past the inevitable fight or flight response to begin with.

Megumi tracks Hime down to the restroom, where she’s hiding in a stall. Hime’s given up on having other friends, Megumi’s enough for her as long as Hime never has to deal with strangers again.

Desperately needing some time and space to recover, Hime pulls out the Ninja PreCard, transforms, throws a smoke bomb, and flees.

Megumi’s so confused, still searching for Hime, but with no luck.

Seiji tells Megumi that she was pushing too much.

He’s right. As much as I appreciate Megumi’s love and willingness to help others, she doesn’t realize that what she thinks will help someone be happy isn’t always the best solution at the time. I’ve compared this sort of experience to trying to drink from a fireman’s hose. Sometimes it’s just too much and a person can be completely overwhelmed, unable to even process what’s going on before just shutting down and going into survival mode.

Seiji tells Megumi she should apologize to Hime for being so pushy, and they leave.

Hime reappears just then,

looking very sad, and kind of worn out. It’s been a day, poor girl!

She goes to hide inside a little shed that houses sports equipment.

Hime, stop making me cry!

She’s looking at Yuko’s candy that she took before her panicked escape from earlier. I think she really does want to be friends, but with her fears as bad as they are now, she feels that can never happen.

As Hime’s huddling there, feeling hopeless,

another person (a teacher?) appears who was hiding in the same shed.

Poor guy, he’s struggling because he can’t connect with any of his students and wishes he had a friend, too.

Hime’s surprised that an adult is having troubles like this, just like her.

He’s upset because no other teachers seem to be struggling like he is.

And it doesn’t help that he tends to jump into things without thinking, and then gets overwhelmed.

Just like Hime.

It can be rough, but it does help when you can share your struggles with someone else, if you feel you can risk yourself by opening up like that. If nothing else, it reminds you that you’re not alone, and who knows? Maybe sharing your experiences can help save someone else from suffering in the same way in their own life.

Hime tells him that, since he’s a teacher, all he really has to do is teach, though. He doesn’t need to sweat the small stuff, right?

Maybe, maybe not, but he does have to get back to class. He respects Hime’s need to be alone, though, and lets her stay where she is for now.

Uh oh! Here’s Namakelder again.

And he’s targeting the teacher who was just with Hime.

Here’s the Cone Saiark, ready to attack!

At first I was confused why Namakelder targeted this teacher when the Phantom Empire seems to want to destroy happiness and, well, the teacher wasn’t very happy to begin with. Turns out Namakelder is targeting the school instead, and this teacher struggling with uncertainties makes for a good pawn. Moving on.

When Hime comes out of hiding to face this new Saiark,

she realizes that the teacher she was just talking with is the victim. She’s got to save him!

And she transforms.

Megumi comes running as Princess starts to fight the Saiark. A crowd of Choiarks appears to stop her.

Megumi transforms as well. And the fight is on.

Cure Princess tries “Princess Bullet Machine Gun,”

but the Cone Saiark spins its head fast enough that it manages to deflect her attack and knocks her down.

Ouch! And it body-slammed her into the ground, too.

But Princess isn’t done yet.

If there’s no school, she can’t meet anyone else and try to make friends.

And she still needs to thank Yuko for her kindness from earlier.

Way to go, Princess! Her determination, in spite of her fears, gave her a major power boost,

enough to send the Saiark flying.

Princess decides then that she does want to try school, and making friends, again after all.

When the Saiark jumps in to attack Princess once more,

Lovely shows up out of nowhere.

Holy cow, DON’T mess with Cure Lovely! She actually uses two Choiarks as punching gloves to force the Cone Saiark away from Princess.

Awww! Now that she’s finally found Princess, Lovely apologizes for being too pushy in trying to help her make friends from before.

And Princess also apologizes for running away and making Lovely worry.

Both girls want to go meet up with Yuko again.

But first, they have to defeat the Saiark and the remaining Choiarks.

Cure Princess declares that she will become friends with Yuko,

then transforms into Sherbet Ballet form to take down the Choiarks.

I love the color scheme of this transformation! It’s a neat contrast to the bold fiery explosions we saw with Cherry Flamenco.

I’m also a bit confused as to what exactly happened to the Choiarks in the aftermath, but they’re just gone! (On coming back to this review, I can say that these Choiarks have been purified. Once purified, a Choiark turns white with pink accents, instead of the original black, gray, and red. I still haven’t figured out if they just poof out of existence or simply run away because they no longer feel any need to battle. Maybe it doesn’t matter either way, not when the Phantom Empire can infinitely create more Choiarks to fight, as we’ll see with each new episode.)

With barely a pause from her special attack, Princess also declares that she’ll even make a hundred friends, but it’ll be at her own pace. See? Baby steps!

And Princess purifies the Cone Saiark.

Is it just me, or did she have a much easier fight this time around, compared with Episodes 1 and 2? Even though she clearly took a beating, and even before Lovely backed her up, Princess really was mostly holding her own. Poor girl’s earned a break after how rough her school day has been so far.

And they saved the teacher!

Oh, Cure Fortune actually saw this fight. She doesn’t look very happy, though…

Back with the teacher, Hime makes sure he’s okay and then tells him that she’s going to be bolder from now on.

She’s going to make friends one by one, and he shouldn’t give up either.

Because SHE’S his friend now, too, so he’s not alone anymore!

Megumi and Hime have earned four more PreCards today, including Lollipop Hip Hop.

It’s the end of the day, and it looks like Hime is finally ready to meet Yuko face to face.

Well, sort of… Poor Hime’s scared stiff and barely manages to walk forward. She looks a bit like a robot doing so, honestly.

Still, while stammering a bit, she does manage to thank Yuko for the candy from earlier in the day.

Hime then finally introduces herself and asks to be friends.

Yuko introduces herself as well and agrees to being friends.

Yuko offers another candy and Megumi comes running, wanting a piece, too.

And that’s the end of Episode 4.

A few final thoughts here:

First off, not every introvert is the same. While introverts do seem to be hardwired (mentally and emotionally) differently from extroverts, not every introvert seems to struggle with being shy and anxious. Some may just have trouble because social interactions are very draining, and they may instead need a decent bit of time and space to “recharge” before interacting again. And others may not actually feel much of a need to interact at all. Everyone’s different, and if you can’t expect any two athletes or two bookworms to be identical, you really shouldn’t expect to see this with introverts, either. Everyone has individual needs, so please try to respect them.

And secondly, let’s talk a bit about fears…

Everyone has at least one, whether it’s shyness around other people, or a fear of water, spiders, snakes, heights, darkness, or any number of other things. You may not share someone else’s exact fear, but I’m sure you know how it feels to be overwhelmed when you’re scared, so please try to be understanding when it inevitably happens to someone else.

I may as well mention this here and now, since Hime really struggles with fear and her character theme seems to be that she’ll gain courage over time. Fear isn’t logical or reasonable. You can spout off statistics to any arachnophobe (fear of spiders), that 98% of spiders in the world are 100 times smaller than you, that 95% or more of spiders are unable to produce a venom strong enough to be dangerous to people, that you should be mostly safe as long as you don’t live in Australia (those Redbacks sound terrifying!)... I can pretty much guarantee that will not stop an arachnophobe from flinching away if they see a jumping spider twitching on a nearby garden gate. And no matter what TV or other media tends to show, facing your fears often isn’t as simple as beating the fear once and it’s never a problem again. Dealing with fears is a daily battle, one that you won’t alway win.

The only way I know of to beat a fear is to face it. I’ve been scared of snakes ever since I was young, when a baby rattlesnake got into my backyard while I was playing outside and I later learned how close I could’ve come to dying right there. Many years later, I found recommended videos on Youtube from channels like Snake Discovery, and somehow I ended up watching several of those videos over several months. I accidentally desensitized myself to the point that that coming Summer, I spotted and recognized a garter snake in my backyard, worried my dog would bother it, and hurried to catch the harmless snake with my BARE HANDS and move it into the bushes where it would be safe. That was quite a while ago, though, so could I do the same thing again today? Who knows. It’s possible to face and beat your fears, but I don’t know if this battle ever truly ends. Maybe over a lifetime… Please be patient with those of us struggling with fears!

Chapter Text

It looks like school’s out for the day, and Megumi, Hime, and Yuko are starting home together. Yuko asks if Hime’s gotten used to school yet,

and Hime, caught off guard, ducks a bit behind Megumi.

She may be friends with Yuko now, but Hime clearly isn’t quite as comfortable with Yuko yet. Can Hime really trust her? Is Yuko really as nice and friendly as she seems? Is it safe for Hime to let down her defenses with Yuko around? As of yet, Yuko is a bit of an unknown, and the unknown can be scary and risky to face.

Megumi is still very much Hime’s “safe person” for now. Doesn’t this show just how much Hime cares about Megumi and trusts her to keep her safe? As a fellow introvert, I can say that’s high praise for Megumi’s character thus far. All the same, it’s too bad, since Yuko seems to be at least as friendly as Megumi herself, but give Hime some time. Battles may be getting better for her, but she still has a long way to go with social interactions. It’s okay, Hime, I’m rooting for you! Baby steps!

Luckily, Yuko has candy that can help sweeten the deal for now.

Hime’s amazed at how tasty Yuko’s candy is and asks how she makes it.

Yuko replies that it’s a secret,

but the hidden ingredient is her love.

Anyway, Yuko has to go home now, so Megumi and Hime wave as she leaves.

Megumi then asks if Hime would like to come to her house today. Megumi’s mom is making pancakes, after all.

And Hime looks so excited!

And here’s Cure Happy from Smile Precure to say hello today. Has any Cure before ever had a more appropriate title? I may need to give this season a try after I’m finished with Happiness Charge.

I’m starting to think that pancakes may be Hime’s favorite food…

Ribbon points out that this is their first time going to Megumi’s house.

And Hime starts to panic, not knowing what she should do when meeting Megumi’s mother.

Megumi starts to calm her,

but gets distracted by some trash on the ground.

As she starts cleaning up the litter, a boy walking nearby tosses his trash carelessly to the ground as well.

Megumi’s upset. When she tries to stop his littering, he just ignores her and goes on his way.

Hime also feels upset to see someone care so little for cleaning up after themselves.

She helps Megumi out by choosing the Police PreCard and chasing after the boy.

I’m not sure that’s technically legal, Hime, impersonating an officer like that.

But all she does is have him throw away his garbage properly and ask him to be more careful to do so in the future.

She’s not wrong, really. A lot of the bigger messes that crop up could be prevented if everyone simply took more responsibility for their own individual mess first. Many hands make light work, and all that.

Hime tells Megumi that this is the sort of thing that their PreCards are meant for.

And now for the pancakes.

Or not… The girls find a dog that seems to be injured.

Hime and Megumi reach for another PreCard, the Nurse one this time.

I guess I hadn’t considered this before, but clearly they must have duplicates in case both girls need to use the same ability at the same time. I think it’s only happened once or twice before, so I hadn’t really thought about it. Duplicate cards probably don’t count extra towards making a wish anyway, this is just an interesting observation.

Anyway, the girls transform into Nurses and proceed to wrap the poor dog’s hurt paw.

Awww! Looks like the dog’s feeling better already,

and his owner has him safely back, too. Good job, girls!

And now it’s time for pancakes, right?

Not yet. A sad little girl just walked by, crying for her mother.

I think she’s lost, poor thing.

Roller Skaters to the rescue!

Megumi and Hime carry the girl with them as they skate quickly around the area, calling for the girl’s mom.

They soon find her, and there’s two more happy people they got to help. Poor Hime’s starting to look wiped out, though.

This picture reminds me of myself at a social gathering, where everyone else is somehow able to interact for hours at a time, and I’m over to one side with barely enough energy to keep standing. I don’t know if all introverts are like me, but social interactions drain me to the point that I can barely function unless I can get a power nap or find some other quiet activity (reading, crafts, videogame, etc.) to “recharge my batteries.” How do you guys do it? I know that Megumi lives for helping others to be happy, but where does she get all that energy?

Image found here: https://oddlovescompany.com/2014/02/battery-day-drink-wine-day-crab-stuffed-flounder-day/energizer-bunny/ 

Is she like the Energizer Bunny? She is a Pink Cure, after all…

While it must feel good to help others (otherwise would Hime still be so quick to help Megumi with everything like this?), Hime really needs a break. Surely they can eat now, right?

Well… Megumi just spotted a man who looks to be spying on a woman in the park.

When Hime and Megumi confront him,

he explains that this is his girlfriend he’s watching.

He wants to propose to her today, but is nervous and not quite sure how to pull it off.

The girls just smile.

And cue the PreCards! I guess there was a Flower Girl costume in there that I didn’t notice before.

Hime then tells the man that girls love flowers.

And with a beautiful bouquet in hand, he proposes to his girlfriend.

I’m going to take a quick break here to take a closer look at his bouquet. It looks like we have a bunch of Yellow Roses, and I’m going to guess that the tiny white blooms scattered throughout are Baby’s Breath. Very interesting choices, for sure!

A yellow rose (you can read about it here: https://www.wikihow.com/Yellow-Roses-Meaning) tends to mean platonic love and friendship (not the more romantic love you might expect to see with a red rose, for example), spiritual encouragement, jealousy or infidelity (hopefully not applicable in this case!), and happiness. Interestingly enough, in Japan, a yellow rose can also indicate inner strength and courage. 

One other interesting thing to note is that the number of roses can have its own separate meaning. This bouquet has thirteen yellow roses, and this would mean “eternal friendship.” Pretty good, but not strictly romantic, if this was what he was going for.

Image found here: https://symbolsage.com/babys-breath-meaning/

As for the baby’s breath, it means everlasting love (due to the hardiness of this flower), purity and innocence, joy and happiness, chastity, compassion, love, and romance. Okay, maybe the baby’s breath ups the romantic level of the bouquet after all. Very interesting! (And you can read more about baby’s breath here: https://symbolsage.com/babys-breath-meaning/) 

Finally back on the way home, Hime asks Megumi if she never gets tired, helping so many people all the time.

Megumi says she doesn’t, because she loves seeing everyone’s happy smiles.

Hime’s not sure she feels the same, but that’s because she’s starving.

Megumi grabs her and performs a “Happiness Injection” to help Hime.

It’s only 34% effective, though.

Image found here: https://lparchive.org/Pokemon-Emerald/Update%2053/ 

These girls! Is it bad that I pictured “It’s not very effective…” when I saw this part?

Anyway, Yuko arrives right then.

She’s out making a delivery for a lunch order from her family’s restaurant.

Hime’s really hungry, but Yuko can’t share another customer’s food.

She does have candy, though.

After feeling a bit better with eating something, Hime starts to complain about Megumi’s helping everyone. It’s hard work, and Hime’s exhausted!

But Megumi doesn’t notice those difficulties because she cares so much about everyone being happy.

And she’s not wrong, not really. We’re all in this together, and if someone’s having a hard time and another person’s in a position to help, isn’t it a good thing to do so? I have a lot of respect for Megumi if this is her daily life. It’s great that she cares so much about others being happy, but I’m honestly a little worried that she might ignore her own needs for the sake of someone else. There does have to be a balance, otherwise I’d worry that Megumi might make herself sick or injure herself in stretching herself further than is wise.

Seiji expressed this concern back in Episode 1 when he helped Megumi rescue Mao’s hat. I don’t know if Megumi will get herself into trouble like this, but I hope not.

Fresh Pretty Cure Episode 20

Fresh Pretty Cure Episode 21

Fresh Pretty Cure Episode 21

It was shocking enough to see the Fresh Pretty Cure girls land in the hospital from exhaustion/fatigue, and I read somewhere that Mana from Doki Doki also collapsed when overworking herself. Don’t be afraid to help others by any means, but please understand and respect your body’s limits as well!

Finally, Megumi’s ready to go home.

Megumi introduces Hime to her mother,

and Hime is actually able to introduce herself without too much difficulty this time.

Megumi’s mom wastes no time in helping Hime feel right at home, and now it’s time to eat!

Pancakes with butter and homemade jam… Now I’m hungry again.

Awww! Like mother, like daughter.

I’m starting to see where Megumi’s caring nature comes from.

After the meal, Hime and Megumi are out walking together. Megumi asks about Hime’s parents, since she’s never seen them.

I think she forgot. Everyone in the Blue Sky Kingdom, including Hime’s parents, the King and Queen, are sealed away in mirrors right now.

Oh, Hime really misses her mom’s cooking, too. As much as Hime must’ve enjoyed pancakes at Megumi’s place, this probably hurt, having a reminder of her family that’s far out of her reach for now.

But Megumi grabs her hands to comfort her, certain that the girls can save those imprisoned by the Phantom Empire.

Hime then asks what Megumi will wish for, when they finally get enough PreCards.

Megumi wants her mom to get well.

It sounds like her mother is suffering from a chronic illness of some kind.

No WONDER Megumi wants everyone, including her mom, to be happy!

Hime then declares that they’ll have to work hard to make both of their wishes come true.

Just then, in the Phantom Empire, Mirage is annoyed that she still senses love and happiness from Japan.

By now, Namakelder and Hosshiiwa have determined that Cures Lovely and Princess are getting to be a big enough problem that they need to be dealt with.

The Deep Mirror then shares an idea: since these Cures seem to love helping others so much, why not turn that against them? Lure them into a trap.

Namakelder thinks it’s too much work,

but Hosshiiwa’s ready to set up the ambush.

Back in Pikarigaoka, Hime asks why Megumi likes helping others so much.

And Megumi replies that her mom said everyone smiling is the best thing in the world.

Megumi’s happy if others are happy, and that’s enough to keep up her efforts.

But Hime’s not so sure. She wasn’t very happy when she was so hungry earlier, after all.

Just then, a light-haired lady starts screaming nearby, being chased around by a group of Choiarks. She looks very familiar, too.

This whole situation looks weird,

but Megumi’s ready to jump in anyway.

Even if Megumi has a point about it being their responsibility to fight Choiarks (and Saiarks), this is yet another concern I have for her. She’s so eager to help someone in trouble that she’s willing to run right into a trap to do so. Megumi, please don’t be so quick to sacrifice your own well-being for the sake of another’s happiness! I don’t think even the victim you’d be helping would want to see you get hurt in such a way.

Still, Hime’s not about to let Megumi face… whatever this is, alone.

Both girls transform.

And here they go!

A few Choiarks go down quickly

before the rest regroup and surround Lovely and Princess.

Lovely transforms using Lollipop Hip Hop.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about this secondary transformation at first,

with its very different color scheme and style to Cherry Flamenco.

But something about seeing Lovely dancing and flipping around in the background while giant musical notes crush the Choiarks has really grown on me. Now I almost like it better than Cherry Flamenco, and Flamenco’s awesome!

Anyway, the Choiarks are done.

And the strange lady is safe now.

But then she reveals her true identity, Hosshiiwa,

and starts bragging about how easy it was to trick the girls into a trap.

Lovely then gets upset that Hosshiiwa pretended to be in trouble, since someone else in the area could’ve truly needed help and she wouldn’t have been there to help them because of this lie.

Hosshiiwa obviously doesn’t care,

and starts taunting Lovely for being such a nice girl,

a goodie two shoes (I think).

And Cure Princess immediately jumps in to defend Lovely.

I think Princess’s actions here make even more sense when considered with what happened with the Axia Box. She was tricked into opening the box by a voice calling for help, right? So basically, she was trying to help someone in trouble, which turned out to be a trick, and the bad guys took advantage of that to attack… Sound familiar?

Princess is not about to let ANYONE hurt Lovely for doing what she thought was right, and getting tricked, in this situation.

And not only does Princess immediately jump to Lovely’s defense, she even stands directly in front of her to protect LOVELY this time! 

(Remember, at the beginning of this episode, a shy Hime hid behind Megumi.

And now Princess/Hime’s offering Lovely/Megumi that same protection!)

How many times has Hime probably wished that someone would tell her these sorts of things that she’s saying now, back when she first opened the Axia Box? Has anyone ever told her what she’s saying now? Or has she only been told that she should move forward and try to make things right instead? We as the audience have no way of knowing right now.

Cure Lovely is grateful for Princess’s help,

and starts to explain that she doesn’t know exactly why she likes helping others so much, but when she sees someone in need she just has to lend a hand.

Poor Lovely just wants to help Hosshiiwa understand this, but Hosshiiwa doesn’t care at all.

And she calls out a Mole Saiark to attack.

It erupts from the ground beneath the Cures and grabs them before they have time to react.

I’m sorry, Lovely, but even the villain agrees with me that self care is important. And I’m not sure how I feel about that…

Okay, I thought this was what Hosshiiwa was going for. She starts taunting again, saying that the Cures are just as selfish as she is, as everyone is.

She says that the girls only want to do good deeds for praise and attention,

and would feel like they’d wasted time if they didn’t get it.

Hosshiiwa’s very clever here. The Happiness Charge girls have gotten strong enough to become a threat that must be dealt with. Even this Mole Saiark might not be enough to stop them. But what if Hosshiiwa can attack them mentally and emotionally? Make them question their ability and their reason to keep fighting? Notice that she focuses most of her taunting at Lovely alone. Hosshiiwa knows that Princess is no danger by herself. It’s only since Lovely joined her that things started to turn around in a bad way for the Phantom Empire.

If Hosshiiwa can break Lovely here, does it really matter if the girls defeat the Mole Saiark? Lovely would question her motivations ever afterward and become weaker. Remember how weak Cure Princess was in the beginning with her own doubts? Even if the Cures survive this attack, it wouldn’t matter because the Phantom Empire would just have to deal with two “Himes,” uncertain, frightened girls with weak, unreliable attacks who’d be more like gnats to swat away than any serious threat.

Cure Lovely’s able to stand by her earlier statement about just wanting others to be happy, no matter what else happens.

But then Hosshiiwa replies that she got Princess in trouble, too,

all because Lovely wanted to feel good about helping other people. Ouch, low blow, Hosshiiwa! 

Except Cure Princess isn’t having it. She insists that Lovely isn’t selfish at all.

It may be difficult and tiring to help so many other people all the time,

and very overwhelming,

but even Princess can’t deny that it feels good to help people in need.

And she won’t let Hosshiiwa hurt Lovely by trying to twist her love and compassion into selfishness anymore!

Princess’s determination to protect Lovely powers her up enough to break free of the Mole Saiark’s hold.

And she immediately hits it hard enough to free Lovely as well.

It’s amazing what people can do for the sake of others. If Hime had been caught in this ambush alone, I wonder if she could’ve survived. But having a friend to worry about, a friend to fight for, was enough to make up the difference.

Now it’s time to take down the Mole Saiark.

Cure Lovely starts off with “Lovely Beam” (a laser eye attack)

before just punching the Saiark repeatedly.

And Princess joins in with “Princess Explosion Bomber.”

While the Saiark is off balance, Lovely performs her purifying attack. Again, I’m fairly certain that she says “Light of Love, turn into sacred power!” here.

But they did it. That Mole Saiark is gone!

After the battle, Megumi thanks Hime. She’s so happy to be Pretty Cure with Hime, and so happy that they’re friends!

Hime absolutely agrees.

And they earned five PreCards this time, including Macadamia Hula Dance.

It turns out, the more people you help, the more PreCards you can earn. So it’s no wonder the girls got so many this time.

Megumi then says that a good deed is charity in itself.

I like that, and she’s right. Serving others in need does just as much good for the helper as it does for the one being helped.

Hime thinks she’s starting to understand where Megumi’s coming from about helping others.

She likes that feeling, and wants to keep helping others to be happy going forward.

I still worry for Megumi, though. Please don’t land yourself in the hospital because you pushed yourself too hard!

And there’s Cure Fortune, watching them run off together at the end of the day.

She looks so ominous… I probably sound like I hate Cure Fortune. I don’t think I do, at least I haven’t seen enough of her to decide my feelings entirely as of yet. But I do resent her for her attacks on Hime so far, even if I understand the reason for Fortune’s anger, and I know it’ll be a while before these two are able to reconcile. But that’s it for this episode! 

Chapter Text

Ribbon’s in the kitchen, putting together a nice-looking lunch. I’m impressed how well she’s able to use all those knives and ingredients when they’re almost as big as she is.

Seriously, don’t watch this show if you’re hungry! That meal looks really good.

There we are, I was wondering if we’d see a flower in today’s episode. (No, I don’t count the Macadamia Hula Dance Form Change because those flowers look fairly cartoony, even if they come from a real plant. And if they are real, the meaning would have to apply to every episode where Princess uses this particular attack, so I can’t imagine that it would have specific enough symbolism to apply to today’s episode) There’s been at least one relevant bloom shown in nearly every episode so far, now that I’m paying closer attention. This final challenge of mine (trying to catch and identify hidden flower meanings) is starting to feel a bit like an Easter egg hunt.

Sadly, even with zooming in, I have no idea what kind of flower this is. It looks like a small blue flower with six narrow petals and a yellow center. 

Happiness Charge Episode 3

It reminds me somewhat of the pink mystery flower from Episode 3, except the blue flower’s leaves look a fair bit smaller. I’m sorry, but I can’t give any deeper meaning to this episode’s unknown flower either, unless someone else recognizes it and can help me out. My personal best guess might be something like Oxalis. Oxalis is a member of the Wood-sorrel family, known as "False Shamrocks." (Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalis) They nearly always have five petals per flower, in shades of pink, yellow, white, purple, or red (not blue like today's flower, which also has six petals instead of five).

We have a "shamrock" plant at my work, shown here, and you can clearly see that this plant's leaves are much bigger,

though that doesn't mean much since leaf size varies for different members of this species. If today's plant were truly Oxalis, it would mean spiritual transformation and growth, as well as being an indicator of adaptability and change. They can also symbolize balance, harmony, unity, good luck, happiness, and prosperity. (Read more here: https://foliagefriend.com/oxalis-flower-meaning/) Sorry for rambling... Let’s move on for now.

Hime shows up just as Ribbon’s finished cooking. She’s starving and very ready to eat.

Until she sees that it’s fish. I don’t even know if she hates fish or not.

Hime just wanted to have pancakes today! I can’t fault Hime for having a favorite meal, but if she didn’t request it earlier, and she didn’t help put the meal together, I don’t think she’s justified in whining about things now…

Ribbon tries to reason with Hime,

but Hime’s in a stubborn mood and just refuses to listen.

I guess even if she’s been away from her home for a while now, Hime still slips back into being spoiled sometimes. She IS a princess, and probably got almost everything she wanted before. She’s probably never really had to learn about things like “compromise” before, at least not outside of her royal responsibilities.

Finally, Ribbon loses her patience entirely.

Hime won’t get to eat anything else unless she eats what was given to her first.

Goodness, they both have quite a temper!

Cure Egret from Futari Wa Pretty Cure Splash Star greets us today.

Meanwhile, Megumi’s on her way to the Embassy to spend the day with Hime.

She arrives just as Hime storms out the door after her earlier tantrum.

Megumi tries some of Hime’s lunch and is very impressed with the taste, and rather surprised that Hime wouldn’t even try it.

Megumi feels a bit sorry for Hime, knowing how hungry she must be,

but Ribbon’s still upset from their fight and is willing to wait for Hime to come to her senses.

Back with Hime, she’s not doing too well. She’s starving, but she really wants pancakes!

Seiji’s out running again, and he crosses paths with Yuko.

Yuko’s exercising so she’ll be hungrier when it’s time to eat, and then her food will taste even better.

I wish I had her kind of motivation. It’s definitely a different mindset than I’m used to, but I think it’s a good one to have. And she’s absolutely right, everything tastes great when you’re hungry enough. It can really help you rethink (mind over matter) whether you really disliked something as much as you thought you did in the first place. That’s the fun part, when you can then discover new things that you may love that you’d never considered even trying before… This show’s got me ranting again.

Anyway, Yuko sees Hime walking by just then.

Oh gosh! And Hime totally gets a Pavlovian response when she sees Yuko and comes running to beg for some candy. Yuko may need to ease off on sharing candies so often if it’s enough to get this sort of reaction. Hime, you brought this on yourself, but you look so miserable that I still want to help. I’m such a sucker for “puppy dog eyes,” it’s not funny.

Unfortunately, Yuko doesn’t have any candy with her today.

Hime’s so hungry she has a rather feral reaction to Seiji when he asks what’s wrong.

And that’s when Yuko grabs her by the back of her dress and pulls her along to get some food.

Are we sure Yuko’s not a big sister? Because that looked like a big sister wrangling in a wilder young one…

And that look on Hime’s face as they go!

Incidentally, I just realized that Hime had no trouble interacting with Yuko this time, compared to Episode 5. Maybe enough time has passed that she feels safe enough to do so? Or she was just that hungry…

Meanwhile, Megumi’s worried about Hime and wants to go find her to make sure she’s okay.

Ribbon’s still upset, though, and would rather leave Hime alone for now.

Just then, Megumi’s Cure Line rings.

It’s Seiji, and he called to let them know that Hime’s gone over to Yuko’s place for now.

Since Hime was so hungry she couldn’t think straight, Yuko gives her one of the lunches her family sells at their lunch store.

Hime’s very grateful!

And now that hunger isn’t a problem, Yuko starts to discuss what happened with the person Hime fought with [Ribbon], and how sad she must be.

Yuko explains that [Ribbon] put in a lot of hard work to make Hime’s lunch, and Hime wouldn’t even touch it. Surely that really hurt [Ribbon’s] feelings!

And to be fair, Hime does look really sad here. I bet that Hime is sorry for their fight, after the fact.

But she’s still upset because she doesn’t feel that Ribbon took her feelings into account when Ribbon was making lunch in the first place.

And Yuko’s amazing here. It would be so easy to take sides, to confront Hime about what happened, but doing so would probably get Hime riled up again, and no one would get anywhere in resolving a thing.

Instead, Yuko asks if Hime’s ever helped [Ribbon] to prepare any food.

Hime says no, that her job is to eat the food.

Yuko then asks if Hime’d be willing to help out at the lunch store for a while.

Hime immediately agrees, grateful for Yuko’s generosity in sharing food.

(If you’re wondering about the brackets around Ribbon’s name, Yuko obviously doesn’t seem to know about Ribbon. Now that I think about it, though, I haven’t seen Ribbon going out of the way to hide herself from Yuko ever since Episode 4. Regardless, Yuko is just referring to the one who cooked Hime’s food for this conversation. I just thought it would get tiring to type that sort of phrase in repeatedly.)

Back at the Embassy, Megumi fills Seiji in on what happened with Hime.

Megumi, of course, wants to help make things right so that everyone’s happy again.

Seiji warns her that she’s getting pushy again,

and maybe she’s not fully considering everyone’s feelings.

As awesome as Megumi is, she does have this problem where she gets tunnel vision when it comes to helping other people, and she sometimes ends up steamrolling right over them in her eagerness to help, not realizing that she could actually be making a problem worse. Think “when all you have is a hammer,” instead of taking each situation on a “case by case” basis. 

But Megumi’s sure that this’ll be fine, that Hime and Ribbon just need to talk things out this time. Megumi asks if Ribbon will come with her,

but she’s still not ready to talk yet.

Blue steps in here, acknowledging all the love and care that Ribbon’s shown Hime.

He’s sure that Hime will realize it herself, so Ribbon should go patch things up.

Ribbon finally agrees, saying that someone’s got to help keep Hime out of trouble.

And Megumi’s ready to go!

Namakelder is lounging around in a park when he starts to smell something.

He says he smells love, and it’s ruined his nap. That’s not ominous at all!

Meanwhile, Hime’s ready to help Yuko now.

She pulls out a Chef PreCard and is all ready to go.

Okay, so Yuko does have a sister, but it looks like she’s older than Yuko. I wondered, since Yuko has a lot of patience and understanding that I thought might come from living with siblings. Yuko’s sister is manning the counter,

and her mom and dad are cooking the food.

Yuko’s job, with Hime’s help, is to prepare the ingredients.

Hime’s a little less excited now.

She was hoping that she’d be able to do the exciting parts, like frying things in the kitchen or something. But every meal has to start somewhere.

If you look at any recipe, when they list the time required, many times the Prep Time is at least double the Cook Time. And don’t even get me started on bread recipes. The rising times alone (Often one hour per rise, and what if the recipe says to let the dough rise twice? Or even three times!) will make one loaf of bread take almost all day to make! It’s so worth it, though, if you have the patience to put in all that time and work.

Anyway, Hime wonders if they’ll get to do any of the main cooking in the kitchen today,

but Yuko says their job is just to peel potatoes.

One of their most popular lunches, the croquettes, requires a lot of potatoes, so they’ll be busy all day just peeling.

Image found here: https://www.allrecipes.com/what-is-a-croquette-7568564  

If you’re like me and have never heard of a croquette before, you can read about it using the link above.

I think Hime’s starting to realize just how much work goes into cooking.

Still, Yuko explains that she loves preparing food just as much as she loves eating it.

It’s important to her that people get to enjoy her family’s lunches, so she’s happy to put in so much effort to help brighten someone’s day.

Yuko says she thinks that anyone who takes the time to cook probably feels much the same.

And that’s why she’s so sure that the one to make Hime’s lunch [Ribbon] cares a great deal for Hime, to be willing to work so hard.

Hime’s not so sure,

but Yuko reminds her that people generally don’t put in that much work unless they really care about the one they’re serving.

And as Yuko leaves to deliver their peeled potatoes to the kitchen, Hime really starts to think about it.

Again, Yuko’s so awesome here! I don’t think this realization would’ve sunk in nearly so well if Yuko had gotten antagonistic and flat out told Hime that she was in the wrong. You just know that Hime would’ve gotten defensive and closed herself off, not willing to listen to anyone else. But like a gentle big sister, Yuko gives some examples, and uses a brilliant object lesson, to help Hime learn to have a new appreciation for Ribbon’s hard work and love for her.

And it seems to be working.

Yuko’s pleased with Hime’s progress when she returns, and offers a freshly cooked croquette as a reward.

Another brilliant idea. Cooking is a lot of work, but nothing makes it more worthwhile than seeing and enjoying the finished product!

Hime, you’re hurting my heart… Stop being so cute!

Yuko then tells her she should take a croquette home with her to share with [Ribbon].

Hime agrees.

Perfect timing! Megumi and Ribbon have just arrived.

Megumi wants Hime to come back home and patch things up with Ribbon.

But Hime’s embarrassed about earlier. She doesn’t want to admit her mistake, and lets her pride get in the way of apologizing.

Before anything else can be said, suddenly some people start screaming.

A Lunch Saiark has just appeared alongside several Choiarks.

Namakelder’s here, and when he determines that the smelly love that woke him earlier is coming from the Oomori Lunch Store, he orders the Lunch Saiark to attack.

Yuko immediately blocks the path forward, shielding her family and the store with her own body. Mold contamination would ruin the food they sell, if the Saiark left anything standing, and she’s NOT going to let that happen.

Hime promises to talk with Ribbon later, this is an emergency.

And Megumi and Hime transform.

Namakelder warns Yuko to move before it’s too late. She refuses.

But before anything else can happen, Cures Lovely and Princess arrive.

They convince Yuko to escape, and now are ready to fight.

Namakelder sends in the Choiarks first.

Princess starts with “Princess Explosion Bomber,”

while Lovely helps her beat away the others her special attack didn’t reach.

Ribbon warns them of danger and they dodge away,

just as the Lunch Saiark leaps down at them, attacking with what looks like a giant spork (fork/spoon utensil).

Lovely and Princess are thankful for Ribbon's warning,

but then Namakelder tells the Saiark to attack the Lunch Store instead.

This battle’s interesting, and rather different so far. Not only did the Saiark not wait for the Choiarks to be defeated, it isn’t focusing all its efforts on fighting the Cures, either. Namakelder has a set goal, and he’s not going to let the girls distract him from accomplishing it, the destruction of the Oomori Lunch Store. 

Anyway, it’s not looking good as the Lunch Saiark raises its spork to destroy the building.

Princess gets there first and quickly summons a “Princess Barrier” to block the attack.

Lovely then joins her with a “Lovely Shield.”

Namakelder starts to taunt them, but then Ribbon flies forward and creates her own shield, “Surprise Bonbon,” to join the first two. It looks like there’s a stalemate for now.

When Namakelder asks why the Cures are bothering to work so hard,

Lovely asks him why he even wants to destroy the Oomori Lunch Store.

He replies that it’s a source of love, which he hates, and he doesn’t understand why anyone would waste time cooking for someone else.

Princess gets really angry, telling him that he’s wrong.

Princess confesses that she didn’t understand how much the ones doing the cooking cared, being willing to work so hard for the sake of another’s happiness.

She then admits that she’d been selfish, not considering the feelings of the one who was cooking.

Someone so willing to work so hard to prepare food for another person really cares and loves them.

And Princess is outraged that Namakelder would dare to look down on such love.

Her anger powers up the combined shields enough to toss the Saiark away entirely.

Then Ribbon gives Princess a PreCard to fight with, Macadamia Hula Dance this time.

I said it before, and I’ll say it again, I wasn’t sure how to feel about the secondary transformation/battle forms at first.

I vastly preferred at least the color schemes of the first ones (Cherry and Sherbet).

Here, though, the colors still look nice, if softer than Sherbet’s striking contrast with the darker purple.

And you can’t tell me you didn’t laugh when first seeing EVERYONE (Choiarks, Saiark, enemy general, fairy, and CURES) all dancing the hula together. Talk about an Area of Effect Attack!

Namakelder’s face, though!

Forget hula dancing, he and the other Choiarks are FLYING.

At least the Lunch Saiark’s not attacking anymore.

Princess snaps Lovely out of it, and it’s Lovely’s turn to purify the Saiark this time.

There we go, the subtitles got it right this time!

Cure Lovely takes down the Saiark,

rescuing the victim with ease.

Namakelder’s annoyed. He doesn’t need love, let alone love from cooking, and he leaves.

Now that the battle’s over, Hime and Megumi are watching a crowd of people buying from the Oomori Lunch Store.

It’s been a great day for their business, and a lot of people must be very happy to have such good food.

Now that things have calmed down, Hime is finally able to apologize for her earlier fight with Ribbon.

She then offers Ribbon a fresh croquette as an apology.

Megumi’s glad that Hime and Ribbon finally made up.

Just in time for Ribbon to create/summon some new PreCards they earned from that battle. Looks like just one PreCard today, but that’s okay. It’s still one step closer to their goal and a wish.

It’s been a long day, and Hime’s ready for dinner.

Oh Hime! She’s still holding out for pancakes after all that.

Hime insists that she’s not being selfish, this is a personal request this time.

Ribbon argues that pancakes are unhealthy, so she should have something else instead.

It has occurred to me that Ribbon was acting fairly motherly this episode, and I can see it even more here. She absolutely has a point, as delicious as pancakes may be. Hime and Megumi face a lot of physical activity when they fight as Cures, so it’s no wonder that Ribbon wants to make healthy meals that will meet those physical needs. Hime, she really loves you and wants you to do well! 

In any case, both Ribbon and Hime are rather annoyed at each other again.

But Megumi just laughs, saying that the more people fight, the better they get along. I guess so. The term “vitriolic friends” exists for a reason. And sometimes it’s those who care the most who are willing to argue for the sake of someone else. It can show just how well they know and care about a person, to be willing to make a call that might not be well received.

Maybe Hime and Ribbon will see it that way, too,

once they calm down… And that’s the end of Episode 6.

Chapter Text

We start the episode with Megumi receiving an invitation for a special party at the Embassy.

Megumi’s very curious what the occasion is, since it’s not anyone’s birthday today.

Looks like Ribbon wasn’t expecting Megumi to arrive so soon.

And no wonder, Megumi’s two hours early! No offense, Megumi, but I hope that’s not a regular habit of yours. Arriving that early can put extra stress on the party host, because then they feel that they have to entertain the early arrival in addition to finishing party preparations.

Oh, I should’ve known. Megumi, of course, wants to help out.

I guess I can’t really blame her. In my experience, everyone has “their thing” that they do in any given situation. Mine is that I tend to hang out with the younger kids and keep them busy and entertained while their parents are visiting at family gatherings. It works because I have trouble connecting with people my age and older, but I can let down my guard around younger people and even be a little silly with them. It’s kind of my safety net, my niche, where I’m safe and comfortable, and I can do something that I know I’m decently good at. Even though I know I’ll pay for it later, when my “social batteries” drain down to zero…

Megumi’s thing is that she wants others to be happy, and she ensures their happiness by helping out. Even if it might make things awkward for the party host who’s still preparing for the party later in the day.

Look at Hime! I think she really took Yuko’s lesson about cooking from the last episode to heart. Now she’s making a cake for today’s party. Good for her!

I have to say, I’m impressed. At least this early on, Happiness Charge does a good job of calling back to previous episodes, like when Hime said that Megumi could wear a fancier outfit if she wanted in Episode 1, and then Megumi actually gets one in Episode 3. Now Hime’s cooking all by herself, after Yuko’s lesson from Episode 6, and she looks so happy!

Oh, it’s a surprise cake? Is this meant to be a bit of a surprise party? That can’t be right, though, otherwise Megumi probably wouldn’t have gotten an invitation, but would’ve instead been called over later with some excuse to get her to a surprise party. Still, that would explain why Ribbon’s so panicked about Megumi being there before everything’s ready. We’re barely 48 seconds in, and look at how this episode’s got me ranting!

Before I get back on track, let’s say hello to Cure Aqua of Yes! Precure 5 (and Yes! Go Go).

I guess maybe it’s the cake, and the reason for the party, that’s meant to be a surprise? Anyway, Megumi’s helping Blue inflate some balloons when Hime appears long enough to greet her.

Megumi is so happy to help, but Hime’s got things covered for now.

Hime’s a little blunt here, asking if Megumi could go home until it’s actually time for the party to start.

But Megumi is so excited, wanting to help prepare the party. I don’t know if it’s possible to say “No” to that face!

And then Hime looks mad!

But it’s not about Megumi arriving early…

Hime can’t believe that Megumi came to a “Special Tea Party” dressed in everyday clothes. Thinking about it now, I’m very glad that Hime’s a fictional character. She’d probably kill me for some of the fashion faux pas I’ve committed over the years.

To be fair, Megumi didn’t want to ruin a nicer outfit when she’d be busy helping with party preparations.

But Hime insists that Megumi needs to dress for the occasion, and Ribbon pulls out the PreCards. I have to say, I really am enjoying seeing all the different costumes these girls have this season, let alone the abilities they can get. Let’s see what they choose this time.

Neat! I think this is the first time I’ve gotten to see these PreCards up close. Each card has two parts/layers that overlap to create a costume the girls can wear.

It looks like you can even mix and match between them. What might that look like, actually, would the girls just look silly in a mixed-up outfit, or would that actually grant two special abilities at once? What might a Cowgirl/Ninja be able to do, for example?

Megumi’s having a bit of trouble finding something that works.

Luckily Hime’s got an eye for this sort of thing.

Oh, that outfit does look nice. Perfect for a special tea party!

But Hime has to get back to finishing in the kitchen now.

She quickly turns down Megumi’s offer to help.

Really, Hime does seem to know what she’s doing, it’s just getting ahold of everything that she needs that’s causing problems for now.

And now Megumi knows that she’s making a cake.

Hime, I don’t think she’s going to leave you alone now. Making cakes, cookies, or other treats is one of the more fun things to do in the kitchen, especially with friends.

Even Ribbon wants to help, but they’re giving Hime her space for the moment. Just for a moment…

And here they are again.

Megumi! Ribbon! Low blow with the distractions!

Hime’s tantrum, while hilarious, is totally justified here. (And yes, there are several instances where the focus on one of these characters, usually Hime, has zoomed in on themselves inside their own mouth, somehow. This is about the best image I could catch of that. Sadly, it just doesn’t translate to still images very well.)

Come on, you two! This special party was Hime’s idea, can’t you respect that she at least wants to do the cake herself? Talk about an unstoppable force (helpful Megumi) meeting an immovable object (stubborn Hime)! 

Things do go more quickly and easily with help, but sometimes you want to do a special project that’s all your own.

Megumi and Ribbon just can’t help it, though,

and keep coming back, wanting to help.

They’ve already slowed Hime down enough that the oven’s ready to go, and the cake batter’s still not finished yet.

No, stop! Girls…

Megumi and Ribbon have hijacked the kitchen and just finished Hime’s cake without her.

I know they only wanted to help, but really!

I honestly can’t blame Hime for kicking them out of the Embassy after all that.

Hime loves them, clearly, but this was her special project, and they weren’t respecting her wishes or her boundaries here.

I know that this episode is meant to teach the importance of teamwork, it’s even in the title. But sometimes, for whatever reason, someone has a special project that they want to work on by themselves. Maybe it’s a self-imposed challenge, a chance to learn and grow. Or maybe it’s meant to be a gift for someone you really care about. If friends or family want to help, that’s great, but please respect the wishes of the one working on the project. It can really hurt if you just elbow in and start helping when it wasn’t needed or asked for. Doing so could make us wonder if you think we aren’t capable of doing what we set out for with the project.

Maybe it’s silly, but it really hurts if you have your heart set on finishing a project in a certain way and, for whatever reason, it doesn’t work out. I cross stitch as a hobby and, over the years, I’ve completed pictures for several members of my family.

One year, I found a picture I wanted to make for my dad for Christmas. I started it a little late, just at the end of October, but I still thought that I could finish it in time because the picture was a small one. I failed to take into account the Christmas concerts, holiday preparations, and family get-togethers that inevitably come up in late November and December. It got to the point where I had a breakdown when I finally realized that I couldn’t finish his present in time. It broke my heart, and I didn’t know what to do. When my parents understood what was wrong (Sometimes I get overwhelmed with strong, negative emotions and have trouble even talking. I HATE it when that happens!), they told me that the gift would still be loved and appreciated when it was finished, even if that didn’t happen until after Christmas. And it was, but let me tell you, it was SO hard not being able to finish things as I’d initially planned.

I feel so bad for everyone in this situation. Poor Hime couldn’t make the cake the way she wanted to.

And Ribbon and Megumi really wanted to help, but it hurts to get pushed away like that, too! This is one of those times where communicating is critical to prevent misunderstandings, and it’s kind of painful to watch.

Anyway, Ribbon seems to know why Hime was so determined to work alone this time,

but she won’t tell Megumi, for some reason.

Yuko just spotted Megumi, though, so maybe a friendly conversation will help?

Back with Hime, the cake’s done and cooling, and she’s waiting until she can decorate it. When Blue asks where Megumi and Ribbon went, Hime tells him that they kept getting in the way, so she made them leave.

She’s still unhappy that they wouldn’t let her make the cake alone.

She probably has mixed feelings here. Under normal circumstances, Hime would likely have been THRILLED to have help putting something together with her friends,

but this was something special she wanted to work on alone, and she didn’t even get to do that.

Blue reminds Hime that Megumi and Ribbon love her so much, and that’s why they were so eager to help.

Awww! Poor Hime! She wanted to make this cake to thank Megumi for helping her out all the time. No wonder she wanted to do it alone! Like Yuko said in Episode 6, “the person doing the cooking is thinking about who they’re cooking for.” What do you do when you want to make a gift for someone, and the very person the gift is meant for keeps jumping in, wanting to help out?

Blue tells Hime that since today is such a special day for her and Megumi, it’s a shame to ruin it by fighting.

Hime agrees.

The doorbell rings just then, and Hime gets excited,

thinking that Megumi came back to apologize.

Unfortunately, it’s only Seiji, who also received an invitation to this party.

He’s not very impressed with the “greeting” he receives, but Hime was really hoping she could make up with Megumi.

Luckily, Blue shows up and is able to somewhat explain the situation.

Meanwhile, Megumi helps Yuko carry some groceries back to her family’s lunch store.

I just realized that Ribbon is still hiding herself, pretending to be a toy, from people like Yuko,

it’s just not as obvious as it was back in Episode 4.

Just after this, Seiji finds Megumi and Ribbon on their walk.

Poor Seiji’s getting no respect today!

Still, he’s a good sport and starts trying to piece together why Hime and Megumi got in a fight, and how to fix things. 

Poor Megumi’s so sad and confused!

Ribbon seems to know more about what’s going on,

but she still won’t say anything.

Then we jump to a wedding.

Happiness Charge Episode 5

(I was actually wondering if this couple was the same one we saw in Episode 5, when Megumi helped the boyfriend pick out a bouquet of yellow roses for his proposal. We never get a very close look at them, so I couldn’t say if this is that same couple, but I thought this was interesting enough to mention, regardless. Nevermind, several seconds later we get a better look, and I don’t think this is the Episode 5 couple after all.)

Looks like today’s flower (unless I spot any others) is a White Rose. I already know that the color white indicates innocence and purity, so let’s see if there’s any other meanings that are worth mentioning… I tried zooming in on the bouquet at the wedding with the bride and groom in full view, but this made the bouquet too blurry to make out any other details, so I’m focusing on the above picture instead. White roses generally symbolize purity, innocence, loyalty, new beginnings, love and affection, humility (as in trying to make peace with others), hope, and renewal. No wonder white roses would be popular to use for a wedding, if they can mean a fresh start to a new chapter in life! In regards to a wedding, a white rose would specifically indicate purity, chastity, loyalty, unconditional love and affection, as well as the new beginnings I mentioned before.

White roses can have a slightly different meaning when it comes to friendship, too, where the symbolism would be affection, admiration, loyalty, and gratitude. (You can read about it here: https://www.snapblooms.com/blog/white-rose-meaning/) I find it fascinating that this same rose has a slightly different meaning depending on the occasion where the flowers are used. As I learned with the yellow roses from Episode 5, the number of white roses has its own special meaning. This is a large bouquet, so I couldn’t be sure that I counted every bloom there, but if I had to guess, we’re looking at somewhere between fifteen and twenty roses in that bunch. Fifteen roses would indicate “long-lasting love”, while twenty would mean “We are together forever.” How fitting is this bouquet, when you consider not only its meaning in a wedding, but regarding Hime and Megumi’s friendship in this episode? The synopsis and title of today’s episode aren’t hiding anything, these girls have become such good friends by now, even when they argue and misunderstand each other, that they’ve become synchronized enough to perform a Team Attack for the very first time! How’s that for loyalty, making peace, gratitude and new beginnings/renewal? Let’s continue on.

And here comes Hosshiiwa!

I can’t see this ending well.

And now there’s a Wedding Cake Saiark, ready to go!

Luckily, Blue and Hime have already seen the Saiark, so it shouldn’t be able to cause too much damage before the girls can stop it.

But Hime wants to face it alone. I don’t think that’s a good idea, going in without backup, but I’m impressed that she’s brave enough to try.

Maybe Hime’s still feeling that she wants to show, at least herself, that she can do something without needing Megumi to hold her hand? It’s a rather dangerous situation to try this, though… 

Whatever her reason, she transforms and is off to face the Cake Saiark.

Back with Megumi and Seiji, Ribbon finally admits that the reason Hime wanted to make the cake by herself is because it was meant to be a gift for Megumi.

Poor Ribbon is worried that Hime will be upset with her for ruining the surprise,

but Megumi’s just relieved that she now understands exactly what happened earlier in the day.

Megumi’s ready to apologize right away,

but her Cure Line rings just then.

It’s Blue, warning them that a Saiark has appeared,

and that Cure Princess already went off to fight it by herself.

Hosshiiwa’s settling in, enjoying her sweets while the Saiark creates more every second.

Princess appears just then, immediately dive-bombing the Saiark.

Hosshiiwa is surprised to see Princess alone this time, and Princess gets very upset.

She’s a strong Cure, too, why does everyone else look down on her?

The Cake Saiark starts attacking,

and Princess retaliates with “Princess Ball.”

When that doesn’t work,

she tries “Princess Bullet Machine Gun.”

She manages to knock it back, but the Saiark throws her into a wall immediately afterward.

That’s the problem with a Sniper, they need to attack from a distance, and those attacks probably won’t hit as hard as the attacks of a Warrior/Paladin. The strength of a Sniper (I think) is to keep at a distance, maybe attack with hit-and-run tactics, certainly with another fighter or two to help distract the enemy while the Sniper helps whittle down the enemy’s health and keeps the pressure on. But Princess has been facing this Saiark one-on-one, like a Warrior/Paladin, like Megumi. And Princess’s attack and defense just aren’t high enough for that yet. Maybe in the future, with more experience, but now…

Now the Saiark has her pinned down as it launches a bunch of strawberry missiles and Princess has no time to avoid the attack.

Except Lovely arrives just in time to shield her from the barrage.

Lovely attacks with “Lovely Punching Punch,”

throwing the Saiark a good distance away.

Poor Princess! She doesn’t want to admit that she needed help here. She’s doing so much better, we see it in every battle, but she’s just not ready to take down a Saiark on her own yet.

Lovely then apologizes for their earlier fight,

admitting that Ribbon told her about the secret.

Princess is a bit annoyed,

but acknowledges that the secret was pretty much out the moment Lovely saw her making the cake.

Princess also apologizes, because she let her desire to make a secret present all by herself overwhelm everything else.

I’m certainly guilty of that at times. But life rarely goes the way we plan, and sometimes you have to compromise. Sometimes the resulting compromise is better than what you could have done alone, and sometimes life is about learning to accept a different result than you initially expected.

Now it’s time to take down the Saiark.

Goodness, I guess the candle grants it fire powers, because it just launched two huge, green fireballs at the Cures!

Lovely fights back with “Lovely Rising Sword.”

Good thing, too, because the Saiark shoots out a huge blast of fire,

and Lovely has to use the sword to protect herself and Princess from the flames.

Princess feels weak, needing to be saved by Lovely yet again,

but Lovely explains that the reason she’s able to fight so well is because she wants to protect Princess.

I mentioned this back in Episode 5, when Princess refused to let Hosshiiwa break Lovely’s spirit by twisting her compassion into selfishness, but people will often fight or stand up for the sake of someone else, even if they might not for themselves.

Lovely’s able to stand strong in these fights for the sake of her friend, no matter how big the threat they’re facing may be.

And Princess agrees. She feels that she’s gotten stronger fighting alongside Lovely, and she wants to keep fighting together.

Whoa!

Their determination powered them up enough to put out the Saiark’s fire entirely. Looks like we’re getting our first team attack, “Precure Twin Miracle Power Shoot!”

It fuses both individual purifying attacks

into one enormous attack.

And the Saiark is gone!

Hosshiiwa’s shocked that the Cures could dish out such a huge attack,

but warns them not to get cocky before she leaves.

And the girls got three more PreCards from this fight, nice!

It’s nightfall now, but it looks like the party can finally begin,

a dinner party instead of a tea party this time.

Hime got to decorate the cake, accepting it as a collaboration between her, Megumi, and Ribbon.

And she decorated it to look just like the Wedding Cake Saiark, too, that’s hilarious!

The only thing better is everyone’s reaction to it.

Anyway, Megumi really wants to know what they’re celebrating with this party.

Awww! Hime’s celebrating a hundred days since she’s become friends with Megumi, and a hundred days of being partners as Cures! She’s so cute!

Hime didn’t want to wait a whole year to celebrate being friends.

Not only that, she plans to celebrate 200 and 300 days of friendship, too.

I guess 100 is a special number for Hime. Remember, she’s still planning on making 100 friends as well.

Hime and Megumi cut into the cake as the party begins, but that’s where this episode ends.

First Thoughts on Megumi:

I think it’s been a while since I had an end of chapter note, so here we go. This is me coming back to this particular review after I had a sort of epiphany (I think?) about Megumi. As much as I admire Megumi and her love for everyone around her, especially her desire to help others be happy, I was having trouble with placing my thoughts on her.

I’ve mentioned that I’m an introvert, and that just watching Megumi in action makes me exhausted. At first, I thought of Megumi a bit like a puppy. (No offense!) But think about it, she loves spending time with her friends and always wants to be where they are, doing what they’re doing. And she’s CONSTANTLY on the move! For someone like me, that sort of behavior and closeness is exhausting and a bit intimidating, even a bit threatening. I need a decent bit of space and privacy to be happy, so I wasn’t sure how to feel about her, except that she’s a sweetheart and a wonderful friend, for all that Megumi has trouble respecting others’ boundaries at times.

Which is why I felt so bad for her when Hime pushed her away in this episode when Megumi got too pushy, wanting to help make the cake. I felt I could understand Hime’s behavior fairly well, but I still felt so bad for Megumi and Ribbon. It was hard seeing Megumi so sad and confused, not understanding why just trying to help someone made them so upset. And I was having trouble understanding exactly why Megumi was so upset. Nobody likes to be pushed away, of course, but why does Megumi feel such a need to help others that she had a sort of existential crisis when she found that her help wasn’t wanted this time? She looked devastated when she was telling Seiji about the fight with Hime, when he met up with her in this episode.

Then it clicked. We learned back in Episode 5 that Megumi’s mom suffers from some sort of chronic illness. I can tell you, you live in a whole different way when you have a loved one in this sort of situation. My own mom has chronic back pain. We’ve tried a couple different surgeries to help over the years, but nothing’s worked. All we can do is manage her pain with medicine (thankfully, heating pads seem to help as well).

Think about what Megumi might be experiencing, living with this situation. Has Megumi ever come home from school only to find a note on the table saying that her mom’s pain or weakness had gotten bad enough that her dad had to leave work early to take her for medical help, that they’d be home late, and that leftovers were in the fridge? There’s not a lot you can do for chronic illness or pain except to manage the symptoms, with or without medication.

Megumi’s rather powerless here. She can’t help with her mom’s health problems, but Megumi can help make things easier for her, and she can try to help lift her mom’s spirits. And we see this as early as Episode 1, when Megumi went to the store for dinner ingredients. Notice that, for all the time Megumi spends out and about with friends, we never (at least not yet) see her involved in any school activities, teams, or other commitments. I think that Megumi tries to keep her schedule mostly free, making it easier if she has to hurry home in case of an emergency. Unless I’m remembering something wrong so far…

Megumi loves her mother very much, and has adopted a lot of her mom’s love and care for the wellbeing of others, too. And Megumi’s habit of trying to help her mom smile by helping out wherever she can has stretched to anyone and everyone around her.

Why am I writing all of this? I just realized that we don’t know a lot about Megumi, seven episodes into this show, except that she pretty much loves everyone and wants everyone to be happy (and that she’s a terrible liar). In Fresh Pretty Cure, by this point we’ve learned that Love, Miki, and Inori enjoy dancing and are getting dance lessons, that shy Inori loves animals (except for ferrets) and wants to become a vet like her parents, and that Miki’s a teen model.

Megumi’s so focused on her mom’s wellbeing, on EVERYONE’S wellbeing, that she has no time to think far ahead right now. Maybe later we’ll learn if she knows what she wants to do when she’s grown up, among other things, but right now she’s very much living in the moment, ready to jump in the second anyone needs help. Megumi must attach a lot of importance to her ability to help others. If she can’t help, or if another person gets angry with her for helping, she has no idea what to do and, like we saw in this episode, has a sort of existential crisis. Lucky for her, she has friends like Seiji and Yuko (maybe Hime, but Hime’s pretty flighty herself) to help keep her grounded, whatever else may happen.

Chapter Text

Awesome! We finally get a glimpse of a few of the other Pretty Cure Teams around the world. 

We have Cures in America (Bomber Girls),

in France,

and even India (Wonderful Net Precure).

Wait a minute, this reporter looks familiar…

Yes! Pretty Cure 5

Is she related to the reporter from Yes! Precure 5? She looks very similar, in any case.

Happiness Charge

This is Masuko Miyo, and she keeps everyone up to date on the Cures worldwide.

Today, she’s focusing on the Happiness Charge girls.

But before we begin, here’s Cure Pine from Fresh Pretty Cure to welcome us today.

Lovely and Princess have just managed to defeat a new Saiark,

and they did it so quickly, too!

They even used their new team attack to purify it. I think the girls are getting a better feel for how to fight together, because they were perfectly in sync here. It was awesome to watch!

Miyo seems to agree,

going up to interview them after this latest fight.

We then jump to Megumi and Hime, who are watching all of this on TV, and they’re so excited!

Seriously, stop being so cute!

Ribbon’s worried that the girls aren’t taking things so seriously anymore, now that they’re doing so well in their fights.

Hime argues that they’re just feeling confident,

but Blue reminds them that while it’s great to be confident, they shouldn’t let down their guard and grow careless.

The Saiark attacks are under control for now, but anything could happen, and at any time.

Hime blows off his warning, saying that she and Megumi can face anything as long as they’re together.

I’m really glad to see how much better Hime’s doing. I was looking back at Episodes 1-2 recently, and Hime today versus Hime then is as different as night and day. Still, Hime needs to watch out. It’s like a law of nature that the minute you think you have things under control, that things are going well, something has to happen to blow EVERYTHING out of the water. Stop tempting fate, Hime! Still, as long as Megumi and Hime are together, they do stand a good chance of weathering whatever may come. I guess we’ll see…

Oh, there’s a festival in Pikarigaoka?

It’s based on a legend (I think) where a god came down to Earth and fell in love with a mortal girl,

so girls like to dress up during this festival to commemorate the event.

Hime looks so excited, and you know that she doesn’t need any excuse to dress up in a nice outfit.

Ribbon says that she can have 300 yen as her allowance for the festival. (Sorry, but, as a clueless Westerner, I needed to translate this so that I could understand. 300 yen converts to just about $1.94. Read more here: https://exchangerate.guru/jpy/usd/300/) 

When Hime starts to complain about such a small allowance,

Blue tells her that carefully spending the money will allow her to enjoy the festival in different ways.

It’s worded a bit awkwardly, or I’m just not understanding, but I think I know what Blue means here. If you and a friend go to a carnival, for example, and you both have $10.00, you could either try to stretch the money, buying as many different things as you can and sharing between yourselves to get the most out of it, or you and your friend could combine the money to enjoy one big prize instead. Does that make sense?

Back in the Phantom Empire, the Deep Mirror is giving a report on the progress of their invasion.

It’s not looking good. The Cure Teams worldwide are holding things back, with Pikarigaoka, and the Happiness Charge Team, being one of the worst offenders.

Queen Mirage is NOT happy.

Hosshiiwa and Namakelder start defending themselves and making excuses,

but then a new person appears, quickly shutting them down.

This is General Oresky,

and he’s ready to attack Pikariagaoka, to remind the world that the Phantom Empire is still a name to be feared and respected.

Oresky looks and sounds very serious, but Namakelder looks doubtful when he hears Oresky say that the medals he wears are handmade (if they aren’t official medals, is he legitimately skilled or just bluffing?).

Oresky insists on receiving another medal when his attack succeeds.

I guess we’ll see how effective he is in battle later on.

Megumi and Hime are all ready for the festival now. It’s a whole different style of clothing than what I’m used to seeing, but the colors and patterns of their yukata look very nice.

On rewatching this episode for my flower quest, I didn’t actually see any plants in today’s episode. I did notice that Megumi and Hime’s yukatas both feature flowers, though. I couldn’t identify the purple and white flowers on Hime’s outfit, but Megumi’s yukata has Pink Roses…

Image found here: https://foliagefriend.com/pink-rose-flower-meaning/

Close enough! Let’s see if there’s any hidden symbolism here. According to this website: https://foliagefriend.com/pink-rose-flower-meaning/, pink roses can mean love, gratitude and appreciation, inner peace, hope, and optimism. Wow, this actually fits pretty well with today’s episode, I’m impressed! Even the shade of pink can have slightly different meanings, with lighter pink symbolizing gentleness and admiration, while darker pink indicates gratitude and appreciation. On a spiritual level, a pink rose can also refer to connections, and doesn’t that apply today as well, when four of Megumi’s friends go out of their way to befriend Hime! Pretty neat, right? Let’s keep going.

I haven’t mentioned this before, but I like how the girls just sing sometimes when they’re out walking, going about their day. Something about being so content and happy that they’re singing random little ditties like that just makes Megumi and Hime seem so young, and they really are. Isn’t Hime just fourteen? Are Megumi and Yuko the same, or is there a bit of an age gap between them, like there was in Yes! Precure 5? (I just looked it up, they all seem to be the same age.) In any case, it’s quite a jump that these girls can be so innocently singing one moment, then beating the tar out of a Saiark the next… I guess that’s Pretty Cure for you!

Seriously, girls, stop tempting fate! I’ve seen this episode once already, and I’m over here just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

It’s painful to watch, and yet I can’t really begrudge their confidence, not when they’ve come so far in eight episodes. It’s always when the Cures are comfortable with their routine and abilities that something terrible happens to really ramp up their need to grow to keep up with the new challenges.

Anyway, Megumi and Hime arrive at the festival, and Hime’s in awe!

Just then, four of Megumi’s friends show up.

You may recognize them, we’ve seen them in the opening song alongside Seiji for a while now.

Hime’s feeling shy again, but it doesn’t look anywhere near her breakdown in Episode 4, thank goodness.

Megumi’s friends are Ishigami Rin,

Takano Rei,

Furuta Kana,

and Shiina Elena (Elenyan).

Rin’s a little jealous that Hime never seems to leave Megumi’s side.

When Megumi says she’s not selfish and pushes Hime forward to greet her friends, well…

Hime, can you get any cuter? What was that little whispery “Waah?” At least her anxiety seems to be less “panic attack” and more “shy” for now.

Rei’s glad that everyone arrived at the festival at the same time, because now they can explore and enjoy everything together.

As they’re walking along, Hime sees a cotton candy stand.

She seems to have a serious sweet tooth, because she quickly decides to spend 100 of her 300 yen allowance on some cotton candy.

And when she sees that Rin bought an apricot candy for 100 yen, Hime does the same.

Kana wants some grilled corn, and so does Hime,

but the corn is 200 yen, and Hime only has 100 yen left.

Lucky for Hime, Kana shares a bite of her corn so Hime can still try it out.

Elena and Rei similarly share their treats with Hime. Megumi, your friends are awesome!

Yuko shows up just then. It looks like her family’s lunch store has a stand as well.

They’re selling jumbo sauce rice crackers, 100 yen apiece.

Whoa, those crackers are huge! It looks like you could make a sort of pizza with one, with sauce and toppings. I have no idea what half of these festival foods even are, but they sure look good!

So Hime decides to buy one with her last 100 yen.

And she immediately splits the cracker into six pieces to share with Megumi and the other girls.

Good for her! Since everyone’s been sharing with Hime, why wouldn’t Hime share right back?

It’s nice to see them all having fun.

Awww!

Hime’s wondering why all the girls are being so nice to her,

and they want to be her friends.

Hime looks like she’s not sure what to think, that someone else is reaching out, actually wanting to befriend HER, but she’s so happy at the same time.

Interesting! There’s a fortune-teller’s booth at this festival as well. I like the play on words for the teller’s name, Miss Fortune (misfortune, bad luck), that’s pretty clever.

Seiji’s advertising for this booth, since it was put together by his karate dojo.

At 100 yen per fortune, can you blame Megumi’s friends for wanting to participate?

Poor Hime, though, her allowance is gone.

Lucky for her, Megumi decides to cover the cost for both of them this time.

Megumi’s such a great friend!

Finally, it’s Megumi and Hime’s turn for a fortune.

Megumi seems to know “Miss Fortune.”

I’m not sure if Hime knows her, too, but the teller recognizes Hime, and she doesn’t look happy…

Okay, Hime doesn’t recognize her.

This is Hikawa Iona, who also goes to Megumi’s school, but she’s in a different class.

Megumi asks what their future looks like.

Okay, that got a chuckle out of me. Here I thought I was being weird using RPG references, even if I thought they were fitting, but even Megumi’s excited about her and Hime working their way up to the final boss.

Oh no! Iona just said that the girls have a terrible future ahead of them. (Incidentally, Iona said a word that sounded like “Sai” or “Saiark.” I haven’t mentioned it before, but apparently “Saiark” means “Terribad,” like terrible or bad. And “Choiark” supposedly means something like “Kindabad?” Just a neat bit of trivia.)

Poor girls! Jeez, what do you do in this sort of situation?

Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (1975)

This reminds me a bit of that Charlie Brown Valentine’s Day episode, where every kid gets a Sweet Heart candy with these nice messages,

Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (1975)

and then Charlie Brown gets one that says something like, “Forget it, Kid!” You’ve got to hope something like that doesn’t become a self-fulfilling prophecy! Given how unhappy Iona looked when she saw Hime, I’m inclined to call this sabotage. I suppose there’s no rule that says a fortune teller can’t give out a bad fortune, accurate or not, to someone they don’t like. Iona, I want to like you, but this was really a jerk move!

Good thing Megumi doesn’t let it keep her, or Hime, down for long. And she’s right, bad things can happen, but that doesn’t automatically cancel out the good that’s happened before, or that will happen in the future. Take these sorts of things with a grain of salt, please, or you’re going to find yourself having a miserable time!

Awww! Rin’s considering confessing to her crush, and her friends are so excited!

And here comes Oresky.

And he just targeted all four girls! I hope this won’t psych Megumi and Hime out. I can only imagine how it must feel for a superhero to realize that the victim in danger is family or a close friend! Especially after just spending the day with them.

Here’s a Corn Saiark, ready to go!

Holy cow, Oresky doesn’t play around! His Saiark doesn’t spread anything like mold or sweets, it’s spreading WASTELAND!

It doesn’t look good right now, but Hime and Megumi are ready to fight,

and they transform.

First Lovely and Princess tackle the Choiarks.

It never gets old seeing Princess flailing around as she runs through the crowd of Choiarks (one of my favorite parts of the intro song, for sure, it’s hilarious!), but she’s strong enough to send them flying anyway.

And I just have to cringe everytime Lovely lands a hit, those blows have GOT to hurt! 

Uh oh! Lovely just pulled out Cherry Flamenco. This Form Change will never not be simultaneously awesome and terrifying!

Oresky confronts the girls after Lovely’s attack, warning them that he’s very different from Namakelder and Hosshiiwa.

Miyo has just pulled up to record the fight.

Oh my gosh, Oresky! He starts out sounding all threatening as Miyo interviews him, and then he directs any fan mail to be sent to the Phantom Empire… Is this guy a narcissist? I guess time will tell. And it doesn’t matter if he is or not, if he has the power to match his confidence. We still haven’t seen that Saiark in action yet.

And now there are Choiarks posing in front of the camera. Now I feel a little guilty that I enjoyed seeing Lovely and Princess tear through their ranks, if the Choiarks all have quirky personalities like this. But it can’t be helped. This is a war!

Sweet, Princess uses a new move, “Princess Cutter.”

Were those wind blades I just saw? From her hair? I knew her pigtails (twin tails?) reminded me of swords! These Cures have such cool designs…

Anyway, she cut the corn kernels off the cob of the Corn Saiark with her attack.

Next, Lovely jumps in with “Lovely Rising Sword,”

knocking it to the ground.

And now it’s time for their team attack to finish it off. 

…And the screen just went dark. What on earth?!

There’s another one?! I don’t think we’ve had two Saiarks attacking at once before. Has that always been a skill of the enemy, or is Oresky just that powerful? It makes me worried for the future, if the girls have to face someone even stronger than Oresky!

Ouch! That looked like it hurt!

Oresky brags that since he caught four people, he was able to summon multiple Saiarks at once.

And now both the Corn Saiark and the Candy Saiark are on the attack. It certainly doesn’t look good. I don’t think even Lovely has taken down a Saiark alone before, and with two Saiarks attacking at once… 

Still, the Cures haven’t given up. The Candy Saiark traps them in a sticky syrup and hits them with a giant apricot candy.

Lovely and Princess manage to stop the blow, but that just pins them down for the Corn Saiark to attack.

And it does. Poor girls! What a way to learn that pride goes before a fall.

Now Oresky’s rambling on about membership fees for his fan club. But I think it’s safe to say that his ability cannot be underestimated! I hate to admit it, but Oresky used a brilliant strategy here. If he’d had both Saiarks plainly out in the open from the beginning, while it would’ve been difficult, it’s possible the Cures could’ve found a way to separate the Saiarks long enough to purify one before tag-teaming the other. By keeping one hidden for an ambush, he left the girls with no time to come up with a counter-strategy, and they’ve been getting hit HARD!

These poor girls have taken a beating, but they still won’t give up.

Princess, especially, is worried about their friends trapped in the mirror. If the Cures lose here, what will become of them?

Both Saiarks go to land one final blow,

and Princess has just enough time to wonder if that bad fortune from earlier was right after all.

Oh my gosh! Fortune just flew in like a meteor and sent both Saiarks flying at once.

She really is on a whole other level! Nothing seems to faze her, either.

Not even when both Saiarks charge at once.

She dodges a fist,

then hits each Saiark, one after the other, into the air.

When they collapse in a heap, Fortune purifies them.

I just realized that the only other time we’ve seen Fortune in battle so far was back in Episode 1, and I didn’t get many pictures then. Let me make up for that here. Each purifying attack is unique enough I think it should be showcased at least once. (I hope I’m not overdoing it on the pictures…)

So Fortune’s attack features stars. Like “Thank my lucky stars?”

Or maybe wishing on a star?

Whatever the case, the Saiarks are gone!

Oresky leaves, recognizing Fortune as his new opponent for the future.

And Rin, Rei, Kana, and Elena are safe.

Lovely and Princess look so relieved. It’s bad enough feeling vulnerable and being unable to beat the villain, but how must it have felt to realize that they might never see their trapped friends again if the Saiarks couldn’t be defeated?

Fortune really saved everyone today.

And she earned two PreCards as well. Come to think of it, I wonder how many Cards she has by now. We’ll probably never know, but I can’t help but wonder.

Lovely thanks Fortune for the save.

Poor Princess looks really down, though. You think she’s having flashbacks to that very first fight in Episode 1?

I think so, because it sounds like Lovely is starting to encourage Princess to say thanks as well, but Princess just hides behind her and refuses. Like she’s terrified to have any attention on her right now. It’s such a change from all the times before, when Megumi successfully managed to include Hime in various interactions. Poor thing’s probably worried she’ll get chewed out again. What might Lovely think if Fortune really tore into Princess here? Especially if sensitive details (the Axia Box) came to light.

Like in Episode 1, Fortune rejects any gratitude. She was protecting the city, nothing more.

Before she leaves, though, she specifically warns Lovely that Princess cannot be trusted.

Basically, she says that Lovely's doomed if she stays on any team with Princess.

Lovely looks more confused than anything, of course.

But Princess looks devastated! Frightened, guilty, she can’t say a word.

And that’s how the episode ends.

First Thoughts on Iona:

I’ve covered Hime a fair bit in several review endnotes, and Megumi got her turn in Episode 7. I’m going to cover some of my thoughts on Iona now, even though we haven’t gotten to the point where it’s revealed that she’s actually Cure Fortune yet. Apologies in advance, but I’ve got a lot to say here. And I’m not holding back very much in the way of spoilers, but that’s probably been clear since my first review. You may want to keep one more thing in mind with this interpretation, just as I will have to, as well. At this point, Iona only knows that Hime opened the Axia Box. Iona doesn’t know WHY Hime opened it, just that she did.

Let’s be honest, we’ve known everyone’s identities since Episode 1, since we see them in the opening song at the beginning of every episode. The reason I’m covering some of this now, instead of when her identity is revealed later on, is because this may help you understand how I think about Iona and interpret her actions going forward in the show.

I don’t want to hate Iona, whatever I may say about her. It may be as simple as the fact that I like her Cure design and admire her strength and determination. I can’t help resenting her actions, though. If there’s one thing I’ve never been able to stand, it’s a bully.

I, thankfully, never had to deal with bullying, whatever other struggles I’ve had over time. That doesn’t mean that people around me have never said something carelessly, just a thoughtless comment here or there, that really messed me up for a few days. Goodness knows I’ve probably done the same. My problem was that I had bad ways of coping. I won’t go into details, but it’s because I felt I couldn’t get mad at others (I’m not a very expressive person at the best of times, so how would they even know if they’d hurt me, accidentally or not?) that I would turn that hurt and frustration inward instead. DON’T EVER DO THIS!!! Not only did this NOT help, it’s probably part of the reason I started suffering from Depression in the first place.

Back to Iona, I had to find a way to look at her other than just being a bully, trying to break apart a friendship. To be honest, there’s more going on here than just that, anyway. Iona doesn’t target anyone else with her anger, her hatred. It’s just Hime. And it’s not like Hime’s an innocent designated bully victim, either. She really did make a major mistake that has hurt, and is still hurting, many people around the world to this day. The problem I have with this is that Hime’s really sorry for that mistake and is doing everything she can to make things right, to fix the damage that’s been done. Isn’t that all you can really ask of someone who’s messed up, an apology and a best attempt at fixing the mistake or making things right? The trouble is that Hime’s too terrified to apologize, as sorry as she is, because Cure Fortune rejected her completely once she understood what Hime had done. If anyone else learns what Hime did, which they would if she came out with a public apology, surely they’d reject her as well…

But Iona can’t forgive this mistake.

Iona has a sister who was a Cure before her, who was defeated in battle and sealed inside a mirror by the Phantom Empire.

The Phantom Empire never would’ve been able to take her sister from her if Hime hadn’t opened the Axia Box and freed them in the first place. In Iona’s mind, that makes Hime as big an enemy, a threat, and a danger as the Phantom Empire itself. Iona could mostly ignore Hime before, because Hime was too weak to cause any other trouble.

But now Hime’s going around befriending new Cures and getting stronger. It’s only a matter of time before she dooms these poor girls (Lovely, and soon Honey, too) as surely as Iona’s sister had been doomed when she was taken by the Phantom Empire. Iona probably sees it as her responsibility to nip this in the bud, to break them apart before it’s too late, since Iona’s the only one who truly knows what Hime did. She knows how dangerous Hime is, and it’s Iona’s duty to protect Lovely from Hime. And if Iona takes a little extra pleasure in hurting Hime as payback for the loss of her sister, does anyone really have to know?

I think that I could say that Iona is probably guilty of black-and-white thinking here. Goodness knows I’ve done the same, judged another person based on their actions or behavior without knowing the whole story. I’m sure we all do something like this every day. But sometimes you really need to be careful. It’s easy to get angry when someone runs a red light and cuts you off in traffic, but would you be quite so mad if it turned out the speeding car that cut you off was a husband rushing his pregnant wife going into labor to the hospital?

We can’t know everything that goes on with everyone around us. All we really can do is try to be patient and forgiving, because you never know what’s really happening in another person’s life. Isn’t it better in that case to err on the side of caution and be compassionate and forgiving? We need to make judgments to keep ourselves, and others, safe, of course, but don’t make snap judgments that you’ll regret later. Look up “The Ox-Bow Incident” (here's a brief summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ox-Bow_Incident_(novel)) if you don’t believe me that an emotional decision made in the heat of the moment can destroy innocent people, not to mention the ones who then have to live with the results of that judgment.

I should say that while I’ve covered most of Iona’s history, there’s one little piece I’m purposely holding back as of now. I laid everything out regarding Hime from the start because Hime’s a central character, almost always in the focus of the show. I didn’t feel I could accurately or fairly cover her without having everything laid bare. Iona hasn’t had a lot of focus yet, and still won’t for a while. I’m only holding this last bit of information back because it plays a huge part in a major turning point in this series, ten or more episodes into the future. Believe me, I’ll be covering it when the time comes! All I can say about it now is that, in her own way, Iona’s probably about as traumatized as Hime. 

Not to end on a gloomy note, but as I was sorting out my thoughts on Iona, I pictured a sort of “Bad Ending” for Happiness Charge, at least regarding Hime. It certainly broke my heart. Iona succeeds in breaking apart Megumi, Yuko, and Hime. Megumi and Yuko don’t hate Hime, but they recognize that she’s a liability in this fight. They can’t support her anymore, but with Iona’s help Megumi and Yuko will surely defeat the Phantom Empire and save everyone who was imprisoned in mirrors. In fact, Megumi promises that she’ll make sure that the Blue Sky Kingdom is saved as well, so Hime won’t have to worry about them anymore. I’m not sure Hime would be able to argue such a decision. She loves Megumi and Yuko too much, and would try her hardest to respect their wishes. But you know that this would break Hime. I don’t think she’d be able to come back from that. Maybe it’s a mercy, what would inevitably happen next.

Do you think the Phantom Empire would leave Hime to go free, now that she’s alone and vulnerable? They didn’t capture her before, along with the rest of her kingdom, maybe as a joking thanks for freeing them from the Axia Box, and Hime/Princess was probably considered free entertainment because she was just that helpless in her fights. Now they know what she’s capable of with support. Phantom, or another general, would come after her, and Hime likely wouldn’t even try to fight back. How could she, after receiving undeniable proof (being abandoned by her friends) of how unforgivable she is, of what an awful person she is? The war would go on, win or lose, around the world, but Hime would be out of the picture. If she was lucky, her mirror would be kept with the rest of the Blue Sky Kingdom prisoners, so at least she’d be back with her family again.

Thank heaven Megumi will never let this happen! It can’t be easy, having two friends (or soon-to-be friends) so at odds with each other. But we’ve seen Megumi in action for eight episodes now. If anyone can bring Iona and Hime together as allies, if not friends, it’s Megumi! Let’s be honest, Megumi’s drive to ensure everyone’s happiness, along with Yuko’s patient understanding and ability to speak quiet reason, makes for a very potent combination. I like their odds of working things out here.

Chapter Text

Poor girls! Last episode didn’t end so well, did it? It’s not easy to come back from a loss like that.

Blue and Ribbon are surprised to see even Megumi so down.

Megumi recognizes that if Fortune hadn’t stepped in when she did, they would’ve been in real trouble.

When she asks if Hime, Ribbon, and Blue know Fortune, Hime instantly freezes up before hesitantly admitting it.

It’s really interesting, looking at this show with Hime’s background in mind because all the hints are there. I think the show writers have done a great job foreshadowing things, from what I’ve seen so far.

While Hime and the rest know of Fortune, they don’t know anything about her except that she does things by herself.

Even Blue doesn’t know where she came from, and he’s the one who recruits the Cures with those Love Crystals in the first place!

Megumi, please stop!

Can’t you see how tense and uneasy Hime is right now? I can’t blame Megumi for being curious, though.

Fortune specifically warned her away from Hime, and Megumi has no idea why.

What can Hime even say to that?

Goodness, even Ribbon’s trying to change the subject!

She has a point, though. If Fortune was annoyed by having to save them once, how much more annoyed would she be if she had to intervene multiple times?

Awww! See what I mean about Hime? Megumi gave her hope enough to keep going and helped her to get strong enough to make a difference in battle. Hime wants her friend to stay safe no matter what!

And if that means training and working harder than ever before? She’ll do it!

So Megumi and Hime decide they need to start training.

I think it goes without saying that this is very necessary. Their basic battle instincts have worked so far, but one enemy switching things up with an ambush mid-attack was enough to bring them down. With some training, not only would they get stronger, maybe strong enough to stand against even more damaging attacks, but they’d probably get better at adapting should they ever get taken by surprise again.

Before we continue, let’s take a quick break and welcome Cure Rhythm, of Suite Pretty Cure. Now that I think about it, though, where does she fit in the Cure color schemes? Rhythm’s obviously not Pink (that would be Melody), but she doesn’t look like a Blue, either (she was categorized Blue in All Stars DX3, if I remember right). Is there more than one White? Maybe I need to explore this rabbit hole another day…

Good for them! Jogging would be a good way to start, since it builds up endurance.

The girls meet Yuko as they go along.

As they start jogging together, Megumi and Hime quickly leave Yuko in the dust.

They ask her why she’s going so slow, and Yuko explains that jogging is all about keeping up a slow, steady pace over a long distance. And I think I can already see where this episode’s going…

Megumi and Hime are convinced that they need to work harder and run faster to get stronger,

so they keep jogging at a much faster pace.

They of course get tired much sooner,

and Yuko blows past them at her slow and steady pace.

Megumi and Hime collapse in exhaustion.

But then Seiji shows up. When Ribbon explains the situation, Seiji takes both girls to his karate dojo.

And I just realized that this is the HIKAWA Karate Dojo. Iona’s last name is Hikawa, as we saw in the last episode. I wonder if and how she’s related to the owner of the dojo.

Iona at least trains here, because we see her starting to spar with the master when Seiji and the girls come in.

Oh, the master is her grandfather. Neat! Let’s see her in action.

Iona’s very good, from what I can tell (I’m no fighting expert, though).

She moves so freely,

and is easily able to back up when pushed,

and can just as quickly turn around for a counterattack when she spots an opening. Hime and Megumi could use that sort of adaptability in their own fights.

Megumi spots one of the students that she knows, Kazumi, who was also watching Iona’s match.

Hime’s still feeling shy, though, taking shelter behind Megumi yet again when faced with someone new.

I must admit that I’m grateful that the other two girls don’t push Hime to interact, in this case. In my own experience, if people around me try to draw me into conversations before I’m ready, I might get caught completely off guard and end up feeling off balance, uneasy, exposed, and awkward the rest of the time, even when the conversation has moved on to other topics. Sometimes I’m content just to be there, even if I have nothing to say. Hime may not be quite so comfortable, but this is still good exposure to social interactions. And considering that she fainted when confronted with all of her excited classmates back in Episode 4, she’s made a lot of progress so far, even if it’s been slow. These kinds of things can take time.

After catching up a bit with Kazumi, Seiji shows the girls where to find some uniforms to start training.

Hime wants to wear a blue sash, but in karate, different colored sashes represent your level of expertise.

Think how dangerous it would be if a beginner tried to wear a black sash/belt because they thought it looked cool, and then another student actually qualified as a black belt went to spar with them. I’m not very familiar with karate. Is the different colored sash more a mark of recognition, like you start as a yellow belt and graduate to blue, and so on (like a trophy for winning a competition)? Or is it more to keep students of the same level together, to help teachers identify who is at what level for matching up similarly trained students to fight? Maybe it’s a bit of both? I’m a little curious now.

Regardless, it looks like new students have to start with a white sash instead.

I had to chuckle a bit at Hime here. She’s like, “I’m a BLUE Cure, and all my PreCard costumes come in blue, why can’t I wear the blue sash?!”

Now the girls are dressed and ready for training.

Seiji wants to start them on defense,

but Hime would rather learn how to attack.

I’m sensing a bit of a callback to Episode 6 now. Remember how Hime had a hard time accepting that she couldn’t do the actual cooking, but had to prepare ingredients instead? It’s not always fun, starting out with learning something new. You always have to lay the groundwork, learning the basics before you can move beyond that to the more exciting parts. I can’t speak for karate, but when I took piano lessons I remember that it was kind of annoying to learn how to read basic notes on the sheet music, how to play certain chords, and so on. It can be tedious and frustrating at times, but once you’ve got the basics down, you can really branch out into almost anything.

And I can see why Hime and Megumi might feel impatient here. They were easily defeated by Oresky, so surely they need to practice stronger attacks to better fight back, right?

But Seiji stands firm, saying that a good defense is the place to start. And he’s right. If you think about it, in a drawn out fight, the larger and stronger opponent would have an advantage. The only way to counter that natural advantage would be to wait it out, wouldn’t it? To dodge and/or block hits until the stronger opponent makes a mistake, gets tired, or reaches too far, and then you can hit back.

Is it bad that I’m now imagining “Wax on, Wax off?” Still, think about what these sorts of repetitions can do for a person’s muscle memory.

In a fight, things are probably moving too fast for you to keep track of, so having a deeply ingrained instinct to react with would be a HUGE help!

See what I mean about starting with the basics being tedious? But if you can hang on long enough to master them, things do get more interesting and complex later on. Hang in there, girls!

I think it goes without saying that after such a long workout, Hime and Megumi are exhausted.

As they catch their breath after training, they watch Iona, wanting to learn cool moves like the ones she knows.

Thankfully, Seiji stops them. If your body isn’t used to moving in certain ways, you could really hurt yourself, whether it’s pulling a muscle or spraining a limb. Hopefully you won’t end up with a broken bone!

Seiji then asks why the girls want to train.

Hime says she wants to get strong enough to beat their enemies,

and she also wants to show up Fortune.

Seiji explains that those motivations aren’t good enough.

Seiji started learning karate for his own sake, not to look cool or beat up bad guys.

The girls can’t understand why it makes a difference,

and Seiji tells them that he won’t teach them if that’s the case. I’m glad that he’s taking things so seriously. He’s a black belt, and I know that takes years to master, at the very least. Seiji’s probably seen a lot, with all his training, so he knows that Megumi and Hime can’t afford to mess around here.

And I think I get it. How many hours, days, and weeks, maybe even years, do people put in to really master a new skill? Anyone can want to learn how to play a cool song on the piano to impress family or friends, but would the pianist want (or be able) to keep going once they learned that one song? You have to really be invested in the skill you want to learn if you’re willing to put in the countless hours it’ll take to master it.

Karate is a dangerous skill to learn. You could really hurt yourself and others if you don’t know what you’re doing, because you were too impatient in wanting to learn flashy attacks instead of starting with learning how to move and how much force to put into a hit to cause damage without breaking your own hand… Good grief, I never thought I’d monologue so much on a subject I hardly know anything about! I apologize if there’s any actual karate experts who read this, and will happily defer to your expertise in any of this. I’m just trying to reason things out in my own mind in a way I can understand.

Poor girls, I can only imagine how sore they must feel after that sort of workout! It’s so hard to see any noticeable positive progress at first when learning a new skill. I guess that’s why there are events like concerts, recitals, and so on, to acknowledge hard work and show how far the participants have come with their learning.

Even Kazumi feels impatient with the slow progress, and she’s already been training for several years, since Elementary School, as she said earlier in the episode.

All I can say in this is that it’s important NOT to compare yourself to others. I can’t tell you how much I’ve hurt myself in the past, doing this very thing. The person you’re comparing yourself to may have years, decades of experience that you don’t, so it’s not a fair comparison. Or they might simply have a better natural ability than you. Some people are just physically talented like that, as unfair as it may be. But even then, hard work, determination, and endurance can make a huge difference, so don’t be afraid to keep going! The only truly accurate way to judge progress in this case is to observe your own progress, from the beginning up to the current day. If you wouldn’t compare a dog to a goldfish (both make great pets, but they also have VERY different needs and abilities) and treat them the same, you should be very careful in comparing yourself to others as well. I’m so sorry… I’ll try to stay on topic now!

Hime wishes that there was an easy shortcut to getting stronger. Don’t we all!

Yuko shows up right then, offering some candy after a hard day’s work.

She saw Megumi and Hime come here while she was making deliveries earlier and wanted to check in on them.

Oh gosh, Hime!

I wasn’t that serious when I made that cat comparison with Hime from before.

All three girls enjoy some candy before Kazumi says that she’s taking a promotion exam tomorrow.

I’ll admit I looked up a bit of information on karate to better understand what I’ve been seeing in this episode. It sounds like a promotion is the point where you graduate from one sash color to another, working up to black. And there are even different levels of black belt, so the progress never truly seems to end.

Kazumi must be so excited and nervous for tomorrow, and no wonder! Yuko wishes her luck in the promotion exam.

Then we jump to Oresky, Namakelder and Hosshiiwa.

It looks like Oresky’s been put in charge of things in Pikarigaoka, and it’s really no surprise after the way he turned things around in the last episode!

He points out that Namakelder

and Hosshiiwa don’t have any drive to improve, to reach their goals,

but this doesn’t bother Oresky because this way they can just work for him and help promote his own greatness. Yeah, I’m starting to think Oresky’s a bit of a narcissist, but a dangerous one, because he has the skill to back up his words!

And he’s not happy with the Hikawa Dojo, since the people who train there, wanting to get stronger and improve, are a threat to his rule over the city.

They’ll need to be dealt with!

Now it’s the next day, and Megumi and Hime are there to wish Kazumi luck with her exam.

Poor Kazumi’s ready to call it quits if she can’t pass this time.

It sounds like she’s been struggling for a while, and I can’t say I blame her for feeling frustrated. It’s easy to feel stuck in one place if you forget to look back and see how far you’ve come from the very beginning. If you can’t manage to keep this in mind, you’re just going to be miserable!

Megumi and Hime cheer her on as she leaves.

While Kazumi’s warming up, still worried about things, Oresky finds her.

He says that she can become the strongest of all, but that will have to come from tearing others down.

And he traps her in a mirror.

Now there’s a Karate Saiark, and isn’t that a terrifying thought! These things are strong and threatening enough without having a natural knowledge of how to fight!

The Saiark wastes no time in attacking the dojo directly.

While Seiji helps everyone else to evacuate the building,

Megumi and Hime transform. Oresky looks disappointed when Lovely and Princess appear to stop him.

He wants to face the real deal, Cure Fortune, instead.

That doesn’t stop him from sending Choiarks out to fight Lovely and Princess, though.

Princess gets overwhelmed early on and just ends up flailing around, as we’ve seen before. It never fails to make me laugh, but she’s strong enough to send them flying anyway.

And after a brief scuffle,

Lovely attacks with “Lovely Beam,” to get some space.

Ouch! I never considered how that would affect her eyes.

While Lovely’s incapacitated, the rest of the Choiarks surround the girls.

Ribbon then gives Princess the Sherbet Ballet PreCard.

And Princess takes down the crowd.

Now it’s time for the Karate Saiark.

Wow, this one doesn’t play! It constantly attacks, and the Cures have to keep moving just to avoid getting hit.

They manage to land a couple attacks in return, but it doesn’t seem to slow the Saiark down very much.

Lovely and Princess jump in again, ready to block the Saiark’s punch.

But the Saiark fakes them out,

moving into a kick instead!

Oh ouch! Lovely managed to take the hit for Princess,

and she’s down. That had to hurt! I’ve got to hand it to Oresky, these different strategies instead of just fighting head on are really making a difference, and poor Lovely and Princess aren’t readily able to adapt to the changes mid-fight.

Oresky’s got a point, Princess. We’re past the point where you can just blindly jump in with any attack.

And now Princess is starting to worry that Fortune was right about them being doomed.

But she can’t give up, not with Lovely so hurt and unable to defend herself!

Princess starts in with “Princess Bullet Machine Gun,”

but the Karate Saiark just summons a shield in defense.

And this is the weakness of a Sniper. If people know where the shots are coming from, all they have to do is wait under cover until the ammunition runs out and then rush out in a counterattack. Snipers are at their best when they have allies to back them up, but since Lovely’s out of the fight from taking a heavy hit to protect Princess with her weaker defense, well… You can see how that’s working out now.

Princess can’t do anything like this,

and there’s been no sign of Fortune, either.

The Saiark takes Princess down as well,

and as she’s starting to despair,

we catch a glimpse of someone new appearing on the scene.

Ribbon’s frantic, since both girls are down for the count, and Lovely’s still too hurt to move.

The Karate Saiark’s ready to finish them off,

but notice that Princess, hurt and scared as she is,

still looks ready to act. To protect her friends. In Princess’s current state, you just know that wouldn’t end well. Thank heaven she doesn’t need to do anything after all!

Before anything else can happen, someone starts singing.

And everyone in the area starts to GLOW!

A new Cure is standing on top of the Hikawa Dojo, Cure Honey (even though she hasn’t officially been introduced yet). She’s singing about eating rice with egg stirred in… I have to admit, I’m not a huge fan of plain rice. I tend to prefer mashed potatoes, actually. But have the right vegetable or meat to go with rice, and it does make for a very good meal.

Anyway, Honey’s just singing about how delicious rice is, and the fight has come to a dead halt because everyone else is so confused.

At first, Oresky’s annoyed.

But within seconds he’s agreeing with Honey that rice is wonderful.

That’s what I want to know, Oresky! If this song doesn’t meet the definition of “earworm,” I’d be very surprised.

And now everyone, Choiarks,

General, Saiark,

Cures, and fairy, is all singing with Honey in an impromptu musical number.

It’s like Macadamia Hula Dance all over again! I love it, I can’t stop grinning. Don’t ever change, Honey! Music truly soothes the savage beast!

After finishing her song, Cure Honey reminds Lovely and Princess about their training, about defense. (I’d be inclined to wonder how she knows that about them, but let’s be honest, we all know why. More on that later.)

Just in time, because Oresky and the Karate Saiark have snapped out of their daze and are ready to fight once more.

Thankfully, that inspiring song similarly strengthened, or outright HEALED, Lovely and Princess, because they look ready for Round 2.

Awesome! Lovely and Princess knock away back-to-back attacks before even realizing what’s going on.

Practice a move enough times, and it’s amazing what muscle memory can do, right?

That’s the spirit, girls! Defend, wait for an opening, then counterattack!

Lovely and Princess launch their team attack and manage to hit it off without interruption this time.

The Karate Saiark is done and Kazumi is saved!

Oresky promises to come back another day before he leaves.

Honey tells the girls that attacking is good, but music helps people relax. No kidding! How fast did she de-escalate the situation here and help turn things around?

As she turns to leave,

Princess asks who she is and Honey finally introduces herself.

She leaves as Lovely and Princess wonder about this new Cure.

Clearly she helped them, so she’s an ally, but would Honey want to join up with their team?

Kazumi recovers after the rescue to find Iona making sure she’s unharmed.

Kazumi realizes then that she shouldn’t be trying so hard to imitate Iona in karate.

If she truly wants to get stronger, Kazumi needs to master the basics, regardless of how long it may take.

Iona agrees, saying that they should get stronger together this way.

See, Iona’s awesome, too! She can be very compassionate, even if she is also rather strict and no-nonsense much of the time. I personally just have trouble with her because of the situation with Hime but outside of that, Iona’s a wonderful character.

And Kazumi’s off to take the promotion exam.

Megumi and Hime earned one more PreCard from today’s battle as well.

Seiji is pleased that the girls now understand the importance of defense and asks if they’re ready to continue training.

Megumi is, except that Honey’s song made her feel hungry.

Maybe they can train later, after a snack?

And the episode ends with Megumi, Hime, and Seiji singing Honey’s song. Talk about earworm! I love how cute and raspy Megumi’s voice is, but Hime needs to work on her pitch a bit, that last note made me cringe. This show is so fun! (I watched this episode one more time to see if I missed anything, but I just didn’t notice any flowers today, so I can’t talk about any deeper meanings right now. Don’t worry, I still have an end-note today, it just won’t involve flower symbolism this time.)

First Thoughts on Cure Honey:

Before I get started, I have to confess that I don’t feel as familiar with Yuko’s character. I talked a lot about Hime and Iona, because their stories are pretty much two sides of the same coin. And Megumi was a little bit easier because we’ve seen her a lot in these first few episodes, even if the focus was more frequently on Hime (I’ve read online that this focus shifts to Megumi later on, though). Compared to them, I don’t know a lot about Yuko. I may be missing something or may learn more about her later, and will try to make up for the deficiency then, if I can.

I guess it’s Yuko’s turn now! Knowing that this was the next episode, and the first appearance of Cure Honey, I’ve been thinking in advance about Yuko. If you couldn’t tell from Episode 6, I really like her. Unlike Megumi, who was practically chomping at the bit to become a Cure (not that she expected it to happen), Yuko seems content with a peaceful, happy life. She helps her family with their lunch store and is just glad to be with the people she cares about, family and friends. If they’re happy and at peace, so is Yuko. But she knows that while the Phantom Empire’s around, no true peace can be possible. So it’s really no wonder that Yuko was willing to step up to the challenge of becoming a Cure, if it would help stop this conflict that’s been going on for who knows how long. I have major respect for these types of characters: those who mostly stay at home and keep things running, but when danger threatens, they can really cause some damage in defense of their loved ones. Beware the quiet ones, indeed!

I could see Yuko as the big sister of the group, calming any tempers or tension and being a decent voice of reason when others are upset or confused. I’m afraid we haven’t seen enough of Yuko for me to be able to say much more on this front, so let me talk about her as Cure Honey for a bit instead.

Going back to RPG references, if Lovely and Fortune seem to be Warrior/Paladins, and Princess is a Sniper, I think it’s safe to categorize Honey as a Bard. My initial thought might have been a Healer/White Mage, due to her healing Lovely and Princess in this episode, but I changed my mind based on the simple fact that Honey seems able to cause some direct damage with her Battle Forms. Popcorn Cheer (giant explosions) and Coconut Samba Burning Dance, anyone? Is it possible for a white mage or healer to cast damaging spells like that? I thought that healers were mainly able to focus on support, healing and buffing their party. It’s true that they can also distract the enemy, maybe cast Slow on the monsters and Haste on the party, for example, but Honey also has a major focus on music, at least this early on. (I’ve only seen through Episode 11 so far, and her music plays a huge role in Episodes 9-11!) So I’m going to class her as a Bard. Does that make sense?

I actually find this very fitting for her character. Yuko’s all about peace. Remember in Episode 6 when Hime was so hungry and upset that she couldn’t think straight? Yuko got her something to eat and calmed her down, then quietly talked with her about what had happened. Never once did Yuko raise her voice or accuse, and she was able to completely defuse the situation. You know what else is really good about soothing tension besides food? MUSIC!

I can’t be the only one who’s turned on music in the background while at work or working on a project, gradually zoned out, and later realized that hours just blew by like seconds. It’s a little scary, isn’t it? How a simple song can get you bobbing your head or tapping your foot to the beat. And the coolest part is that music can act as a universal language. No matter where you’re from, I think anyone can appreciate some form of music, and even people from opposite sides of the world might find themselves enjoying the very same song or music style from day to day. Remember that “Music soothes the savage beast.” And what did we just see Honey do in this episode?  

What an interesting balance of classes! Two fighters on the front line, a sniper keeping enemies off balance from the back, and a bard to buff the party and debuff the enemy, while also able to attack to defend herself and the party if any enemies get too close. I can’t wait to see them finally fight as a team!

And because I can’t seem to end one of these reviews without mentioning Hime somehow:

If this were an RPG setting, I’d be inclined to describe Princess as a Healer/White Mage who is trying to act as a Sniper. My reasoning is that it was pointed out online that Princess is the only Cure on the team whose Battle Forms (Sherbet Ballet and Macadamia Hula Dance) don’t seem to cause any obvious, direct enemy damage. Instead, they either freeze (or slow), or pacify/confuse the enemy. Following this line of thinking, I started to imagine how the Cures might fit in a fantasy RPG setting.

Couldn’t you imagine Hime as a shy, inexperienced healer visiting a Temple in some out of the way town? She stumbles over a broken tile/uneven floor and falls against a pillar holding some unknown ancient artifact. The artifact gets knocked to the ground and shatters, releasing a long-forgotten Demon Lord. He proceeds to petrify all who live in the town, sparing only Hime. He refuses to owe a debt of gratitude to a lowly human (thus sparing her life), warns her that if they cross paths again she won’t be so lucky, and leaves. Hime goes to find help since, even as a low-level white mage, she can tell that this is no ordinary curse that can be dispelled by just any spell-caster.

The first person she meets is Iona, a strong warrior who has made a name for herself traveling across the land. Hime starts to explain the situation and asks for help, but Iona doesn’t let her get very far. It turns out that Iona was originally from that petrified town and had family there who were similarly cursed. Iona refuses to have anything to do with Hime and leaves, swearing vengeance on the Demon Lord. Hime realizes then that she might not be able to find help if other people will react the same way, so she decides she has no choice but to buy a weapon and try to get strong enough to make a difference herself, and she’s too weak (or poor) to wield a sword… And so the story begins. (Does this explain why Hime, while having fought for so long, is so low-leveled and inexperienced, and unable to beat any monsters?)

Chapter Text

It looks like Cure Honey’s song left quite the impression at the end of the last episode.

Megumi’s having fun, actually using a PreCard transformation to better enjoy singing the tune.

Even Hime joins in briefly before stopping herself.

Hime’s understandably concerned that they know nothing about this new Cure who showed up out of nowhere, someone who has such power with her music that people are still singing her song a day later. Honey did help them this time, but what about in the future? Is she trustworthy? Would she be willing to help Princess and Lovely in their fights going forward? Who even IS Cure Honey? Considering how aloof and even antagonistic Cure Fortune has been so far, can you blame Hime for trying to be cautious here with the appearance of a new Cure?

Megumi sounds like she’d be happy to have Honey on their team. I’m sure Hime wouldn’t complain about having another Cure helping out, either, but there’s too many unknowns at the moment for her to know what to think.

Ribbon doesn’t know anything helpful, and Blue’s gone on a business trip, so no one can ask him for advice.

While Lovely and Princess have been busy keeping Pikarigaoka safe, Blue hasn’t been idle.

It sounds like he has to frequently travel the world,

checking up on the other Cures and recruiting new Cures when the extra help is needed.

Thinking about it now, I have some questions about Blue. Was the Blue Sky Kingdom Embassy always his base of operations or did he set up shop here because he knew that Hime needed some extra support due to her trauma? Did he know her family before this and that’s why he’s watching over her now as a sort of surrogate guardian? Or is he merely doing his duty to provide care for the warriors he’s chosen to help in the fight, especially those suffering from emotional pain (a serious danger when their powers are emotion and confidence-based)?

Have you noticed that Blue seems to stay neutral when it comes to the girls? He helps Hime when she’s struggling, but he doesn’t automatically favor her over Fortune, even if he doesn’t know who Fortune is. He never called Fortune out for her anger and attacks against Hime, but instead helped to support and build Hime up where he could. He’s the reason that Hime now has Megumi as a friend and partner, after all. Whether Blue’s a nature spirit or the actual god of the Earth (I’m not sure we ever get a clear answer, from what I’ve read about him), he cares for and respects everyone on the planet. He doesn’t try to force his will on others, he’s not a tyrant or a puppet master. Blue allows people to have their own free will, even if it causes pain to others, but that doesn’t mean he leaves those suffering alone, without help, either. That must be really hard for him at times. Sorry, I’ll get back on track now!

Megumi is now even more motivated to get stronger, feeling a rivalry with the other Cures worldwide.

And poor Hime can’t focus because Honey’s song is stuck in her head. I can sympathize. I’m probably aging myself a bit here, but does anyone remember when Owl City’s “Fireflies” or Pharrell Williams’s “Happy” were always on the radio? One station would finish playing the song and go to commercials, you’d skip to another station, and it’s playing again? It wasn’t so bad at first because the songs were that catchy and fun. But enough repetitions can get anyone burned out, right? I’m not sure Hime’s there yet, but she probably wouldn’t mind having a break from Honey’s song, at least for a little while.

Megumi acknowledges that Cure Honey’s music is powerful, and that’s why she’s determined to find Honey and convince her to join their team.

Also, I feel like this is meant to be a reference to Nozomi from Yes! Precure 5 or Yes! Go Go, but I had to give up looking for a picture to show for comparison. In my defense, I’d have to search through nearly 100 episodes to find a picture of Nozomi saying this catchphrase, but I do remember that she said it almost all the time after both series really got going.

Happiness Charge Episode 2

Nevermind, I did find her saying “It’s decided!” in one of this season’s intros, ironically. Here she is!

As awesome as Cure Dream is, though, she’s not the one greeting us today. Please welcome Cure Blossom of Heartcatch Pretty Cure instead.

Oh no! Well, Hime can’t escape Honey’s song at school, that’s for sure!

It turns out that yesterday’s fight, where Honey intervened, was broadcast on TV,

so now EVERYONE’S singing her song. Good news for Honey, she might be successful as a singer or songwriter in the future, if she chose to follow that path.

Yuko walks up to the group, glad to see everyone’s so happy.

She looks a little flustered when Hime complains that Honey’s song is weird. Poor Yuko! Remember, at this point no one knows Honey’s true identity. I wonder if any famous singers get self-conscious, wondering what others think of their music? It probably hurts a little more if it’s someone they know who’s criticizing it. I can’t really be mad at Hime, though, since she truly doesn’t know who Honey is, and you know she’d never intentionally hurt Yuko like that!

Still, their friends don’t mind that the words are a little silly, they just like the song. And all of them start singing again, including Megumi and Yuko.

Hime’s so done that she runs out of the room crying “Oh no! Please stop!” in English! I don’t know what it is about hearing a Japanese voice break into English out of nowhere, but I simultaneously find it cute and hilarious! It’s so unexpected, and she speaks it very well.

Megumi’s amused, but Yuko still looks a little hurt.

Yuko and Megumi follow Hime, and Yuko asks why she hates the song so much.

Hime explains that it’s not that she hates it, but she can’t think of anything else with Honey’s song stuck in her head all the time.

Oh Hime, you’re complaining about a popular song being sung everywhere and you took shelter outside of the CHOIR room? Talk about irony!

Seriously, though, the choir club has a good balance, and they sing Honey’s song very well.

Except their conductor/club president, Hitomi, isn’t very happy.

The choir has a competition coming up, and they don’t have time to be messing around when they need to rehearse their actual music.

Hime’s just glad that she’s not alone in her confusion with this popular song.

Hitomi’s taking the upcoming competition very seriously, so she doesn’t appreciate any distractions, like Cure Honey’s song.

Megumi assures her that the choir will understand her feelings and continue working hard.

I was in choir for a couple of years in High School. While I understand Hitomi’s need to be serious and take charge of things if their choir wants to do well in the competition, I also know how tiring it can be for the singers. You have to practice the same notes over and over, making sure that each section’s parts mesh together correctly. It’s confusing enough just starting out, when you don’t know how the music is supposed to sound. Some singers pick up their parts faster than others, and they can get annoyed having to continuously repeat what they know by heart just so the others in their section can catch up. And what about the conductor? They have a lot of pressure on them, helping guide each section to come in at the proper time and making sure everyone knows their part. It’s a lot of work, and I don’t envy them. It’s not easy, so it was always a treat when our director let us sing a fun song from a popular movie or musical alongside a more complex Classical piece. It didn’t seem so hard then, somehow. Maybe the pressure seemed lower by singing a fun song where everyone knew the melody and could just enjoy it?

Megumi, Yuko, and Hime are walking home after school, thinking about the choir and hoping that things go well with the upcoming competition.

Yuko’s worried that the singers seemed distracted, that it might affect their performance. I wonder if the choir’s feeling a bit burnt out with practicing so hard. I remember things always got stressful, preparing for a concert just days ahead of the event. If Hitomi keeps pressuring them in this state… These girls talk about the choir like it’s a club, not an actual class in school. I’d hate to see someone get so fed up that they just decided to quit! Hopefully things don’t get that bad.

Hime thinks that Hitomi can make things work out. Megumi and Hime are both speaking English here, and I can’t stop grinning.

Please stop being so cute!

Over in the Phantom Empire, even Hosshiiwa is singing Honey’s song, at least the melody.

Hosshiiwa’s changed the words, since she likes sweets better than rice.

If you want to know Hosshiiwa’s lyrics, they are:

Chocolate cake and shortcake

I can’t help myself so I’ll just eat both

I want to eat candy for all my meals today

Cake, cookies, and ohagi (sweet rice balls) are all for me

Macarons, meringue, and fromage (French cheese) are exceptional

So give me an entire shortcake!

I want it all, so give it to me

I’m a refined lady!

Honey, you could probably team up with Urara (Yes! 5 and Yes! Go Go) and make it big in music, if you wanted. Even the bad guys love your song! Hosshiiwa doesn’t quite have the pitch right, I had to cringe a few times, but she’s got lots of enthusiasm and that helps.

Uh oh! Hosshiiwa feels threatened by Honey’s singing ability and wants to have a showdown. A sing-off? I’d be interested to see that, actually.

Back in Pikarigaoka, Hitomi’s having the choir rehearse again. Yeah, I was afraid of this. They’re all feeling the pressure with the upcoming competition. The singers are tired and burnt out, but Hitomi keeps pushing them to work harder. It’s not looking good.

Hitomi’s being so strict that they can’t even enjoy the music. It’s not an easy balance to keep, working to get the music just right while still being able to enjoy it, to sing freely. Believe it or not, that matters! It doesn’t matter how well you know your part, or how accurately you can hit the notes, if the music sounds so tense and forced, the audience can pick up on it. (Pay close attention to Hosshiiwa later on, not her pitch, but how she forces out her notes, and you’ll see what I mean.) It just doesn’t sound right.

A couple of the singers try to explain that they need a break, this isn’t fun anymore.

And Hitomi gets upset, complaining that they’re incompetent before running off in tears. Poor Hitomi! She really wants things to go well, so she’s pushing herself and everyone else to do their best. But burnout is a real problem and you can’t just force through it. Sometimes the only answer is to take a break.

Yuko made some Honey Candies to share with the choir. Good thinking! I’ve also heard that honey soothes the throat, so what better way is there to wish the singers luck than with honey candy?

As the girls are going to deliver the candy to the choir, they run into Hitomi in the hall.

Hitomi feels like a failure as a club president, since no one’s having fun anymore.

Yuko thinks that Hitomi and the rest just don’t understand each other and need to talk things out.

Hime gets confused, I think, because she starts talking about Japanese writing, specifically how the Japanese word for music, “ongaku,” is made up of symbols (kanji?) meaning “sound” and “fun.”

Wasn’t the choir just reminding Hitomi of this? And that observation doesn’t help Hitomi’s doubts right now.

Megumi steps in then, telling Hitomi not to give up, certain that everyone can patch things up quickly.

Hitomi’s too upset to listen anymore, though, and she runs off again.

Hosshiiwa finds Hitomi outside and attacks, sealing her inside a mirror.

I just realized that my initial assumption about these victims wasn’t quite right. I thought the Phantom Empire was targeting happy people, but it seems like at least half the time these victims are upset. It kind of makes things worse, if you think about it. How can anyone possibly predict whether someone is at risk of becoming a target of the Phantom Empire if those Generals can target anyone at any time? By comparison, in another season like Heartcatch, only people who were upset, hurting somehow, could be targeted to create a monster. At least in this sort of situation, the characters could have an idea that someone who just got yelled at in P.E. might be at risk, and maybe they’d want to keep a close watch on their surroundings for danger, should the worst happen. In Happiness Charge, it seems like there’s no way to know where a Saiark might appear, let alone when or why. It’s a bit frightening, isn’t it?

And now there’s a Musical Saiark on the attack!

Megumi and Hime are worried that they blew it and made Hitomi more upset.

Yuko comforts them, sure that their feelings and sincerity must have reached her.

Just then, the ground starts shaking. The Musical Saiark has just appeared, along with Hosshiiwa and several Choiarks.

Megumi warns Yuko to run to safety, which she does, very reluctantly.

And Megumi and Hime transform.

Hosshiiwa wastes no time, immediately launching into her song,

with the Saiark amplifying her voice throughout the area.

Lovely and Princess arrive to stop her.

While not pleased with the interruption, Hosshiiwa insists that they bring out Cure Honey, the only Cure she wants to face today.

Obviously that’s impossible, because no one knows who Honey is, let alone where she could be.

The Cures then learn that Hitomi is the source of this Saiark.

Hosshiiwa starts taunting them, wondering why anyone should worry so much over some silly song when songs are meant to make yourself feel good.

When Lovely and Princess try to explain Hitomi’s situation,

Hosshiiwa just starts singing again.

With the Saiark’s amplification, the poor girls are deafened. I can only imagine how much that must hurt, it looks loud and painful!

They can’t even counterattack because they’re too busy trying to save their hearing. As strange as this situation is, I’ve got to admit, that’s one effective attack. Targeting sight or hearing is probably among the easiest ways to disorient an opponent in battle, as you can plainly see here. 

Just in time, Honey’s appeared on the scene. I can’t wait to see where this goes!

Honey’s singing her actual song,

and she immediately charms the Choiarks and Saiark,

much to Hosshiiwa’s irritation.

Honey’s ready to face her down.

Let the sing-off begin!

First of all, I can’t help but chuckle at how serious Lovely, Princess, and Ribbon look, just watching,

when all you see is two girls singing at each other, taking turns with their lines.

Maybe I’m biased, but I think Honey wins, hands down. Something about her voice is very warm, rich and free,

while Hosshiiwa can’t stay on pitch and sometimes sounds rather harsh and aggressive, like she’s straining her voice too hard. Hosshiiwa’s enthusiasm helps keep things moving well, though. I guess the harshness is fitting, considering she’s using her song as a way to attack.

(Hosshiiwa, are you okay? What’s with this new line to your song? How did I even miss this at first? Why do half the characters in this show sound like they could use therapy?)

Still, when Honey’s song breaks through and she gets Hosshiiwa joining her chorus, Hosshiiwa actually sounds much better, when she’s able to relax.

Not that Hosshiiwa appreciates it, when she realizes that Honey won. The look on her face!

Honey tells Hosshiiwa that music is powerful because it comes from the heart, expressing emotion. It’s not just meant for selfish pleasure.

Hosshiiwa gets ticked off and immediately orders the Saiark to attack.

And Honey proceeds to show why she shouldn’t be taken lightly.

In the space of about thirty seconds she teleports,

uses a ribbon to throw the Saiark across the area,

and heals Lovely and Princess from the damage they took at the start of this fight.

Then Honey steps back to let Lovely and Princess finish things off.

These two don’t mess around. They immediately launch into “Precure Twin Miracle Power Shoot,” and the Saiark’s gone!

Hitomi is saved and Hosshiiwa leaves in a huff.

Lovely asks who Honey is,

but all Honey says is that she’ll see them again soon before she leaves.

Megumi and Hime then go to check up on Hitomi, with the choir joining them. Looks like everyone was really worried, even with feeling stressed over their competition.

Hitomi decides then that they should be able to sing a song that can make them smile

and starts singing Honey’s song. Everyone joins her, and they sound very good.

Megumi and Hime earned one more PreCard from today’s battle, as well. I wonder how many they have by now. Every victory is one step closer to a wish!

Yuko returns, glad to see that Megumi and Hime look unharmed from the attack.

Hime tells her about the choir’s new song.

She thinks that Honey’s song sounds pretty good when they sing it.

Yuko looks so happy, because Hime finally likes the song she wrote!

And yes, that’s exactly what she says…

Megumi and Hime are shocked, they can’t believe it.

But Yuko just smiles and confirms it.

Yuko is Cure Honey! That’s how this episode ends.

(I didn’t notice any flowers in today’s episode, either. To be fair, there was a lot going on. I’ll keep watching because this is an interesting challenge for me.)

Chapter Text

We pick up where we left off last episode. Yuko has finally revealed that she is Cure Honey.

Poor Megumi and Hime are in shock!

And here’s a brief hello from Cure March of Smile Precure, before we continue.

Okay, so Yuko’s known about Ribbon for a while. I wonder how long she’s known that Ribbon wasn’t really a toy, let alone how long she’s known that Megumi and Hime were also Cures.

Megumi’s so excited that she can’t contain herself, spinning around with Yuko fast enough to get her dizzy.

And Hime’s so confused! She’s probably got so many questions, but all she can ask is why honey. I don’t blame her for feeling confused, “Honey” is a fine Cure name, but when compared to Lovely, Princess, and Fortune, well… One of these things is not like the others.

Yuko replies that of all the good foods out there, honey is her favorite. I think honey is delicious, too. I almost always go for honey if I’m craving a peanut butter sandwich. Jam is great, too, but something about honey keeps bringing me back every time.

While Megumi and Ribbon nod along with Yuko, like this is a perfectly logical explanation, Hime’s not done freaking out yet. I just realized, was Hime’s question meant to be a pun? Like Hime tried to ask “Why, Honey, why did you hide that you’re a Cure?!” and Yuko thought she meant “Why honey?” like why did she choose that for her title? If so, that’s hilarious, but even if not, I still got a good laugh either way. I’ll count that as a win!

What Hime actually wanted to know is how long has Yuko been Cure Honey, and why she didn’t tell them before. Hime’s not taking the fact that Yuko had this as a secret very well.

Just a head’s up, I’ve actually already written my thoughts on Yuko and Hime for this episode after watching it once through: why Yuko might’ve kept her secret for so long and why Hime would be so upset about it. Rather than bring all of that up here, you can read my thoughts at the end of this review so that I don’t ramble on much more than I usually do.

Yuko, are you okay?

She just collapsed because she got hungry. I’ll admit it’s convenient timing (what better way to delay answering awkward questions?), but if she suffers from something like low blood sugar, I can sympathize. It’s like all the strength drains out of you and your bones become rubber bands. It’s actually impossible to really move around until you eat something, and it’s not fun! Then again, Yuko could just be hungry. She probably has to eat a lot, what with all the walking and jogging she does, and delivering food for her family’s lunch store every day.

I’ve only mentioned the title screen once before, but I like the cute chibi Cures we always see, and now a tiny Honey has joined them!

Incidentally, has anyone else noticed the spots on Ribbon’s back (backpack? Or is it more like a ladybug shell?) are the colors of the Happiness Charge girls? You have pink, blue, yellow, and purple, all surrounding a white heart. It’s a neat little detail, I like it! I wonder if the other fairy helpers around the world share this pattern, or if each fairy matches their own team’s colors.

Lucky Hime, she finally got her pancakes (see Episode 6). Megumi, Seiji, Hime, and Yuko are enjoying some pancakes together at the Embassy.

Meringue, Yuko? Would that impact the pancake texture so much? There’s a bread recipe I like to use that involves the “Water Roux” method, and it kind of locks in the moisture so the bread is nice and soft instead of crusty like an Artisan bread. Is using meringue in pancakes something like this?

Moving on (I’m sorry!), I like how Yuko can “talk shop” with Ribbon about cooking. This is probably Ribbon’s best day ever!

Yuko just added some honey to her pancakes, and now I’m intrigued. I’ve tried jam with pancakes before, and it’s good, but to me you can’t beat maple syrup. I will admit that I’ve never tried honey on pancakes before. It sounds amazing! Filing that away for later…

Hime’s enjoying her pancakes, but she’s not letting Yuko off the hook.

Hime wants answers,

but Yuko cuts her off, saying that pancakes need to be eaten while they’re fresh. If my family has leftover pancakes, I love having them for breakfast as a rare treat, but even I can agree that it’s hard to beat fresh pancakes, hot off the griddle (or pan).

Megumi and Seiji don’t mind waiting for an explanation, knowing how important having delicious food is for Yuko. Poor Hime looks like she’s at her wits’ end, though. I can’t blame her, either. Yuko just dropped the fact that she’s Cure Honey out of nowhere, and no one else’s minds are blown by this? If I didn’t already know from watching this episode before, I’d be feeling rather antsy, too.

Perfect timing! Blue just made it back from his trip.

Yuko acts like she knows him very well.

Awww! He brought back some curry powder for her. Maybe even straight from India, since we saw him checking in with the Wonderful Net Cures (India) and Bomber Girls (America) last episode. That’s so sweet! Remember how I said that Blue seems to act fairly neutral towards the Cures (see Episode 10)? Even so, and busy as he is, he remembers little requests like this. Now I’m wondering if he acknowledges birthdays, maybe dropping off a small cake or gift or something to wish one of the Cures a happy birthday. That’d be so awesome!

Yuko wants to use the curry powder to make some curry bread.

This is at least the second time I’ve heard of curry bread, the first was when I tried a couple episodes of Splash Star. What exactly is curry bread like? Does anyone know?

Image found here: https://www.justonecookbook.com/curry-bread/  

When I read about curry bread online, it sounded a bit like (no offense) a curry-filled Hot Pocket with a breadcrumb crust. Short of making my own from scratch… I don’t know of any restaurants near where I live that would offer this so I could try it. Darn it, are all episodes featuring Yuko going to be like this?!

Getting back on track, Hime is DONE! Yuko knows Blue? Blue knows Yuko is Cure Honey? Why didn’t anyone say anything?!

Blue does know Yuko is a Cure, because he chose her to become one.

It turns out that while he travels the world, he also scatters Love Crystals across the land.

When a girl full of love finds one of the Crystals, it glows and allows her to transform into a Cure, just like we saw with Megumi in Episode 1. He seems to just release the Love Crystal into the air, and it is able to find someone who is qualified to become a Cure. Which makes the fact that Princess just threw her Crystal off the side of a building, with it hitting Megumi on the head, all the more hilarious! I can understand why she did that (see Episode 1), but it doesn’t make things any less funny.

Anyway, this is how Yuko became Cure Honey,

and it happened just before Megumi herself became a Cure. We have no definite timeline, but Megumi has been a Cure for 100 days as of Episode 7. That’s a little over three months, and there’s no way to know how much time has passed now, as of Episode 11. Three plus months is a long time to be a Cure and to go unnoticed by everyone else. And Honey’s been fighting Saiarks this whole time, all by herself? This is no surprise if you’ve seen this episode’s fight (or Episode 10), but none of the Generals seem to recognize her, either. Has she been fighting in other areas, so no one in Pikarigaoka recognizes her? I wonder if we’ll ever see any flashbacks of Honey as a solo fighter after this. 

Hime’s shocked that Yuko’s been a Cure all this time,

and she still can’t understand why this was kept secret, especially for so long.

Yuko says that she planned to wait until Megumi and Hime really needed help before stepping in. What’s more cool and mysterious than a brand new hero coming out of nowhere to save the day?

Yes! Precure 5 Go Go

If I remember right, Milk/Kurumi/Milky Rose had a similar motivation with her first appearance in Yes! Go Go. I personally think there could’ve been more to it, but I’ll cover that at the end of this review.

Yuko admits that there were other reasons that she hid being a Cure, but she still won’t explain anything.

She has work to do, after all.

It looks like she’s teasing Hime, and Hime’s certainly getting riled up with every non-answer to her questions. I’m not sure that Yuko’s actually teasing, though, since we’ve only ever seen her calming those who were unhappy before. Why would she start now, when Hime looks genuinely upset? Maybe Yuko’s just not sure how to talk about this Cure secret, so she’s putting it off as long as she can?

Before Hime can really lose it, Yuko reminds everyone that tomorrow is Sunday. She says that she’ll reveal everything if they meet up at Pikarigaoka Station at 6AM.

Random confession, ever since Episode 3, with Megumi’s various freakouts in attempting to hide that she’s a Cure, I’ve known that “himitsu” means “secret,” and I can’t help but laugh every time I notice someone in the show saying that word now. Is that bad?

Over in the Phantom Empire, the Deep Mirror is warning Queen Mirage about the new Cure, Honey. Even THEY don’t know her, so how has Honey been beating Saiarks without getting noticed? Now I really wish I could see a flashback to show Honey’s adventures as a solo fighter!

Given the fact that Mirage wants to spread misery and despair across the world, Honey’s healing song would be something to watch out for.

Mirage reveals that Cure Honey’s song couldn’t heal her because her wounds are too deep. What happened that caused Mirage such pain that she feels this way, and wants everyone else to suffer for it as well? (I can’t talk about it now, it’s too early and I’m unsure of all the details, but I know that we’ll learn about this history later, so I’ll have to cover it then.)

Moving on, Mirage thinks Honey is childish because really, who cares so much about food?

Namakelder agrees. What does it matter once the food is eaten?

But if delicious food makes people so happy, maybe he should just get rid of it altogether…

Back in Pikarigaoka, Megumi just used a PreCard to transform into a Mountain Girl.

Are they going hiking or something? I thought they were going to the station.

Oh! Yuko called them earlier and told them to come to Mt Pikari on the bus. This is quite the runaround for just wanting to learn more about Cure Honey, but I guess Yuko has her reasons.

As they’re walking, Seiji admits that he suspected Yuko was Cure Honey.

With Honey’s song about delicious rice, and the emphasis on good food, how could this not sound very similar to Oomori Yuko?

That’s a good point! I wonder if other people in the city have made this connection, too.

While Seiji suspected, he couldn’t be sure until Yuko herself admitted it.

He just can’t understand why she kept this a secret for so long.

And Hime wonders if Yuko was actually watching their fights, laughing at them whenever they struggled.

Okay, I said I would discuss my thoughts on Hime and Yuko at the end of the review, but I don’t want anyone to be too hard on Hime for her doubts here. Whatever else Hime may have going on, I think it’s safe to say that she doesn’t handle change or new situations very well. Consider how every time Megumi and Hime meet someone new, Hime always hides behind Megumi until Megumi can verify that the stranger is safe to be around. I think the situation with Fortune, among other things, has really messed with Hime and this, combined with her natural anxiety in social settings, is causing her to be extremely cautious. Hime can’t understand why Yuko would hide that she’s a Cure, especially when she could’ve helped them anytime within the last three or so months. Hime’s brain is likely doing all sorts of mental gymnastics trying to figure out why, and we’ve seen that when Hime gets stressed out, she tends to panic and imagine the worst possible outcome in any situation. Given all of this, is it that hard to believe that she might conclude that Yuko may not have had their best interests at heart in this case? Hime’s hurt, confused, maybe a little angry, and she has no idea what to think right now.

Megumi and Seiji know better. They’ve known Yuko for years and are probably accepting this as “Yuko being Yuko.” Hime thought she knew Yuko fairly well, and then this Cure Honey bombshell blew everything sky high.

I’ll admit Hime’s fear sounds ridiculous, but I still feel bad for her. She looks so down and hurt!

Hime’s so distracted that she doesn’t even realize that they’ve finally arrived until Megumi and Seiji snap her out of it.

The whole area is covered in rice paddies (Do I have that name right? Rice paddy?). The farm even has terraces, different levels on the mountain that each have their own paddies (flooded fields that grow rice).

I didn’t know that terraced rice paddies were a thing, but I guess it makes sense. Japan has the right climate and water levels to grow rice, but what about farmers who live in the mountains? How else would you make that work? I’m no rice expert, though, we just grow tomatoes, corn, and so on where I live. Still, it’s interesting to see something so different from what I know.

Megumi calls out to one of the workers in the paddies, asking if the Oomori family lives nearby.

The worker turns around and it’s Yuko herself.

It turns out that Yuko’s grandparents own this rice farm,

and the rice they grow is used in the Oomori Store. That’s really cool to see the different generations of their family all working together in this way!

Yuko helps on their farm around this time every year. Yuko, can you get any more awesome than you already are?!

Hime still wants answers, but Megumi has already volunteered them to help with the planting. Hime will have to wait a little longer, like it or not…

And with Yuko’s grandparents coming over to greet them, Hime can’t exactly back out now, though I wonder if she could even do that anyway. She hates to disappoint Megumi, after all. Maybe it’s the puppy dog eyes, you just can’t say no.

I’m going to take a quick minute to interrupt here because after coming back to this review, I’ve since learned that I missed a few things. I already knew that rice seedlings were very delicate, to the point that they can only be planted by hand, but that was more of a surprise for me because I didn’t know that there were machines that could plant seeds or seedlings in the first place. (I mean, logically speaking, mechanized planting makes perfect sense in trying to keep up with a huge farm, but this is way outside of my realm of experience!) I was actually intrigued because this gives us another indication of the passage of time. Rice is apparently planted early in the Spring, as soon as the soil temperature reaches about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. And it seems that one of the reasons that rice is grown in flooded fields (paddies) is because it helps with weed control, since the rice plants can handle the excess water much better than most other opportunistic plants, which would drown. (You can read about it here: https://www.bhg.com/how-to-grow-rice-7096328)

Though in regards to the timeline, this confuses me more because I already knew that Happiness Charge started in the early Spring since the cherry trees were flowering. Then Episode 7 happened, where Hime was celebrating 100 days of being friends with Megumi. Wouldn’t that technically put us well into Summer by now? Or has a whole year actually passed in this time? Maybe I’m overthinking things (wouldn’t be the first time, huh?).

As for the rice itself, I was surprised to find that it has some symbolic meaning of its own. (You can read about it here: https://www.parliamentrice.com/blogs/rice-and-cultural-symbolism) Rice is considered “the staff of life.” (No wonder, when you consider that rice is a staple grain in some countries, like Japan, where something like wheat is in others.) And you’ll see later on that Cure Honey’s theme is Life. What is she always singing about (at least in Episodes 9-11)? Rice can apparently symbolize fertility, prosperity, and sustenance. Is this why people like to throw rice at weddings? I was similarly surprised to discover just how many rituals and traditions involve rice, but I won’t cover much more here, since I still need to finish this episode’s review. Let’s move on for now.

So now everyone’s planting rice seedlings, but Hime’s clearly not used to this kind of work.

Her back is aching and she keeps getting stuck in the mud.

At least Yuko offered her some long boots and a sun hat, likely knowing that Hime would suffer more without the extra protection.

A frog startles Hime right then, and the poor girl falls down in surprise.

Now Hime’s covered in mud and soaked, as if she wasn’t miserable enough already,

but Yuko’s already hurrying over to check on things.

Yuko tries to help Hime up, and Hime’s torn.

She looks like she wants the help, but can she even trust Yuko anymore?

She doesn’t know what to think, and poor Hime’s scared to even take Yuko’s hand.

Yuko still reaches out, saving Hime from falling over again.

While cleaning up afterwards, Hime realizes that she scraped up her arm when she fell.

Yuko runs off to get some bandages.

And Hime must be so confused.

Yuko has been very kind and patient today, and really anytime they’ve ever been together.

But why would Yuko hide such a critical secret, withholding her help when Megumi and Hime were struggling in past battles against the Saiarks?

Hime’s confused and upset, nothing makes sense, and she’s probably worn herself out just trying to figure out how she feels about this.

Yuko’s grandparents are just commenting that they need to pick up the pace so they aren’t left behind by Yuko and her friends with the planting when Namakelder shows up.

And he traps the grandparents in a mirror, summoning a Scarecrow Saiark to attack!

Now the Saiark and a bunch of Choiarks are spreading mold and splashing around in the rice paddies, putting the whole crop at risk.

Hime’s upset that their hard work is being undone,

but Namakelder doesn’t care.

Megumi and Hime won’t allow this, and they transform.

Oh man, I was not expecting the music to die out like that. That was amazing! Basically, Lovely and Princess are bogged down by the mud in the rice paddy and can hardly move forward to attack the Choiarks.

Somehow, the Choiarks are moving just fine,

even disappearing down into the muddy water to avoid any attacks.

And if that’s not bad enough, now the Scarecrow Saiark’s getting in on the act!

It grabs the whole crowd, including the Cures, putting them into its bag.

Then it proceeds to PLANT everyone in the bag into the rice paddy! I… I don’t even know what to say.

The worst part is that Lovely and Princess got planted deeply enough that they’re stuck where they are, wide open for attack!

Thankfully, Yuko shows up right then.

She offers Namakelder a Honey Candy, wondering why there needs to be a fight at all.

Image found here: https://www.campaignlive.com/article/case-study-fame-made-snickers-youre-not-when-youre-hungry-campaign-success/1410807  

And now I’m remembering all those Snickers candy bar commercials… “You’re not you when you’re hungry!” or whatever the catchphrase is that they use, it’s been a while.

Part of me is watching this in disbelief, wondering how Yuko expects this to work. De-escalating tensions or a full-on fight just with some food, without fighting back, I mean. And yet, it actually has succeeded before, with Hime in Episode 6 and with a simple song in Episode 9. I guess we should just wait and see for now.

Namakelder isn’t interested.

If good food makes people happy, then he wants to destroy that food at the source. Hence his attack on the Oomori Rice Fields.

He cares so little that he throws away Yuko’s Honey Candy with a wind attack.

Yuko actually dives to save the candy from hitting the ground. And I think we finally found something that makes her mad.

Yuko may not like fighting, she only wants peace and everyone to be able to enjoy good food together.

But if you waste food and purposefully hurt other people, especially her friends, that’s it!

Yuko transforms. It is ON!

Honey starts singing her song right off the bat, while Namakelder rallies a huge mob of Choiarks to take her down. Maybe it’s just seeing them all in a row facing her, but it almost looks like this crowd is bigger than the ones we’ve seen before. It’s hard to tell for sure, though.

Either way, it doesn’t matter how many Choiarks there are, they all get charmed almost instantly by the music. Not one of the crowd is able to get anywhere near her, let alone actually attack.

Except the Saiark didn’t fall for it! It lands right next to Honey and grabs her, stopping her song.

Namakelder’s actually immune to Honey’s music because he’s too lazy to listen? Are you serious?! I guess the Phantom Empire needed to have some sort of defense against such an overpowered song, but I never would’ve expected this.

It looks like Honey can’t escape, either. Thinking about it now, I wonder if she shares Princess’s weakness, where they both specialize in long-distance or Area of Effect attacks, and can really get in trouble if an enemy gets too close.

Even so, Honey won’t give up because the happiness of other people, and the ability to enjoy delicious food, is so important to her.

Namakelder has a point, though, what does that matter when Honey’s alone and trapped like this? She can’t do anything to help anyone right now.

Good thing she’s not actually alone in this fight.

Lovely and Princess have had enough, and they manage to break free of the rice paddy,

saving Honey within seconds.

While Lovely makes sure Honey’s not hurt, reminding her that she’s not alone,

Princess has finally decided that while she can’t understand the reason for Honey’s secret, they’re still friends so she’ll try not to take this frustration to heart.

Princess is done waiting for answers, though, so she expects an explanation after this fight and their work is finished.

And now we finally have a team of three! Let’s see what they can do.

The girls come up with a brand new team pose on the spot,

(With a freeze-frame bonus I was finally lucky enough to catch. When the final light flashes during their pose, this is what you see.)

while several more Choiarks appear, ready to fight.

Ribbon passes a new PreCard to Honey, and she transforms into Popcorn Cheer Form.

Interesting! If Honey herself didn’t already look like it, this Form definitely reminds me of a cheerleader.

And don’t think I didn’t notice all the red, white, and blue, complete with stars! Clearly these dance attacks seem to represent different countries, like Spain for Cherry Flamenco, so Popcorn Cheer must be America.

Honey attacks via a giant exploding heart, sending many Choiarks flying. As I said before, this is why I would class Honey as a Bard versus a White Mage/Healer (see Episode 9). I don’t think White Mages can cause direct damage like this. 

While Honey’s taking down the Choiarks, Lovely and Princess are focusing on the Saiark.

Lovely starts with “Lovely Punching Punch,”

and Princess backs her up with “Princess Ball.”

Both attacks send the Saiark flying,

just in time for Honey to purify it. Honey’s purifying attack is a little different, in more ways than one. I’ll show the pictures first and then I’ll share my thoughts.

Honey says “May the light of life become holy might!”

And her attack is called “Precure Sparkling Baton Attack.”

Don’t ever underestimate Honey! I kid you not, she calls down a giant clover from OUTER SPACE to take out the Saiark!

People online have compared it to an orbital colony drop, and I can’t really argue, on seeing it for myself. And I swear, no matter how bad this looks, no one died! Only one Saiark was very much purified!

Now for my thoughts on Honey, her symbol, and theme. Lovely has hearts as her symbol, with love as her theme. Princess has courage and a bulls-eye symbol (Sniper-themed for her fighting style?). So what about Honey? I don’t know if this was intended, but when I think of “life” and “clover,” I think of honeybees. Bees pollinate flowers and make honey, right? Isn’t the most popular or commercially available honey in stores CLOVER honey? With this season’s Cures all sharing a black vest as part of their uniforms, Honey does have a bit of a “bee look” to her, what with her being a Yellow Cure.

What’s more, I’ve read a few scientific articles in the past about the fate of the honeybee, and they sounded pretty frightening. The bees have struggled against some kind of mite or even a parasite that is causing a noticeable decline in the bee population. I really hope that this isn’t still the case, but I haven’t checked in quite a while. (Let's be honest, though. Since honey's still sold in stores without limit, maybe this initial crisis was overdramatized somewhat. It wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened...) Considering that bees are frequently used to pollinate commercial crops and fruit orchards (it’s rare that fruit is produced without the plant being pollinated somehow, though self-pollination is a thing), I think it can be argued that the honeybee increases food production and thus could be a symbol of life itself. So while Honey’s symbol is a clover, her theme is life, and honeybees tie it all together. Does that make sense? Again, this is just my interpretation, but I think it fits even if it may be a bit of a stretch.

Getting back on track, though, the Scarecrow Saiark is gone!

Yuko’s grandparents are saved,

and Namakelder leaves, annoyed that he can’t take it easy now that there’s another Cure fighting in the war. He needs to watch out, too, this is now the second time he’s threatened the Oomori family (see Episode 6). Namakelder better hope that Yuko doesn’t hold a grudge, especially after seeing that purifying attack! Dear heavens, and I thought Lovely was scary!

At the end of the day, Yuko’s grandparents offer a plate of salted rice balls for Yuko and her friends as thanks for their help. As I said back in Episode 9, I’m not really a fan of plain rice. Yet I know that vegetables fresh from the garden are hard to beat. They just taste better than what you typically buy in a store. Is rice like this, too? I’ve never been able to have freshly-harvested rice, and maybe that would be enough to change my mind.

Megumi and everyone else really seem to enjoy the freshly-cooked rice.

Finally, Yuko’s ready to talk.

She became a Cure because she wants to protect rice/good food,

the ones who make it,

and the ones who enjoy eating it. Maybe this was why Yuko asked her friends to help her with the rice fields today? So they could better understand her feelings about the importance of growing the food, and then enjoy the finished product as well? Yuko did this with Hime back in Episode 6 so that Hime could come to understand and appreciate Ribbon’s hard work in cooking for her, even if it didn’t involve Hime’s favorite food.

Going on, though, Yuko admits that she did want to fight Saiarks alone when she first started. Maybe she was inspired by strong solo Cures like Fortune and wished she could follow in their footsteps.

But when she found out that two of her best friends were Cures as well…

Awww! She was so happy, but she also felt shy and embarrassed. That must’ve been hard, wanting to admit her secret and help her friends, but not knowing just what to do, let alone how to bring it up.

At least Hime can finally understand.

She wants to help Yuko protect delicious rice and food. Food may not be Hime’s motivation behind becoming a Cure, but it’s important to Yuko, just as filling the world with happiness is important to Megumi (see Episode 2). And if it’s important to Yuko, or Megumi, it’s important to Hime as well. That’s one of the great things about friends.

Seiji brings up an interesting point as well. Thoughts and feelings can be difficult to express at times. I’m lucky in that I’ve found that I can usually get my points across through writing, but even then it’s hard to convert these basic thoughts and emotions into words. If you’ve wondered why I tend to get a little rambly with all the different tangents I take, this is likely the reason.

Ribbon summons the newest PreCard they earned from today’s battle.

Yuko then declares that they need to travel to work in the next city’s rice paddies, for the sake of good food!

Hime starts to freak out before Yuko admits that she was joking. (See, this is Yuko when she teases or jokes around with someone! Not whatever happened near the beginning of this episode, where Hime was getting riled up and genuinely upset by not getting answers.) And that’s how the episode ends.

Of Secrets and a Difficulty In Trusting Others:

I could see people watching this episode either feeling annoyed with Yuko for hiding the fact that she’s a Cure, or irritated at Hime because she’s so upset that this was hidden from her, like Hime was entitled to know what might be a personal secret, if Yuko hid this for so long. Honestly, I found myself in both camps, nearly at the same time, so maybe I should stand up for both of their sides. Then you can decide how you see things for yourself. As always, these are my own thoughts and interpretations of what I saw this episode. Someone else might see things totally differently.

Let’s start with Yuko. According to Blue, Yuko’s been a Cure since before Megumi. All I know with certainty of this season’s timeline is that Megumi’s been Cure Lovely for 100 days (a little over three months) as of Episode 7. Beyond that, it’s hard to say how much time has passed now, by Episode 11. This is a very long time for a hero to go under the radar, and there’s no telling how long Yuko’s known that Megumi and Hime are the Cures saving their city all the time. Given how easily Seiji figured them out, Yuko might’ve caught on fairly quickly, too. Let’s be honest, none of these girls act that differently in or out of Cure form. Remember how Seiji mentioned he suspected Honey’s true identity, what with her singing about rice and the heavy emphasis on peace and good food?

So Yuko’s just become a Cure, and maybe mere days or a couple of weeks later, she realizes that Megumi and the new girl, Hime, must be the Cures now defending the city. What should Yuko do, knowing what she knows? She could come right out and admit that she’s a Cure, too, and ask to join their team. Obviously she didn’t do this, but why? Besides giving Megumi and Hime a heart attack by admitting she knows their secret, that she actually shares that secret, Yuko might’ve worried that she could mess up their fighting dynamic. Adding a new player when you’re still getting used to just a two-person team could cause confusion on the battlefield, with too many new variables to be helpful, at least early on. And to be fair, Lovely and Princess didn’t seem to need the extra help, so Yuko decided to hang back, to wait and see if they needed assistance.

And then you have strong solo Cures like Fortune. Did Yuko maybe want to follow this path as well? Honey’s certainly strong enough for it! Did you see that purifying attack? She’d just have to worry about ambushes, since she was unable to save herself when the Saiark caught her this episode. What confuses me is how Blue and Yuko talked like Yuko’s fought several Saiarks already, yet the Deep Mirror was describing this new Cure to Queen Mirage like they’ve never seen or heard of her before. Either Honey has been sabotaging Saiark attacks from a distance (very possible), or maybe she was helping in other locations, and that’s why none of the Generals specifically attacking Pikarigaoka knew of her before Episodes 9 and 10. Yuko/Honey doesn’t have a fairy helper, either, so maybe it’s been more a matter of her not even realizing that their city was under attack before Lovely and Princess, or Fortune, were already dealing with the situation. Remember, Yuko does have steady work just helping out with the Oomori Lunch Store every day.

Yuko’s indecision probably ended up landing her with the classic procrastination problem. “Megumi and Hime are exhausted after this fight. I don’t want to stress them out by asking about things I shouldn’t know. Maybe tomorrow.” Or “Next time they get in trouble, I’ll jump in and help them out.” And eventually, enough time passed that she couldn’t see a way to bring the topic up without getting embarrassed and awkward just thinking how her friends would react to this secret of hers. Really, how would you even bring something like that up? And it only got harder with every passing day to know just what to do.

Now let’s talk about Hime. Right away, it’s easy to think of her being hypocritical to Yuko. Considering Hime’s secret with the Axia Box, she really has no right to complain about Yuko hiding the fact that she’s Cure Honey. This is true, but I think that it’s BECAUSE of the situation with the Axia Box that Hime’s so upset, in this case. I’ve covered this several times already, but just as a quick refresher, Hime was tricked into opening the Axia Box by a sad, maybe even scared, voice calling for help. Feeling pressured to save someone in trouble (fearing there was no time to ask for advice), she made the only call she could when it seemed like every second counted. And what happened? Her kingdom was conquered instantly and she had to run for her life, becoming a refugee in a foreign country, the only survivor of a surprise attack, and it was all her own fault. Now add to this Fortune’s anger and hatred, constantly attacking Hime whenever they cross paths.

If Hime wasn’t overly cautious before, just being anxious in social settings, do you think she’s not almost constantly on guard now? She’s been badly burned twice already, both times stemming from the very same mistake. Anytime the girls are out in public, Hime’s practically glued to Megumi’s side, and the second someone new appears Hime hides herself, trusting Megumi to protect her. (In battle, though, Princess does her very best to protect Lovely, so this care is clearly not one-sided.) Hime doesn’t want to get hurt again. Yuko is one of the first friends Hime ever met, outside of Megumi and Seiji. Yuko seems so nice and friendly, so understanding. And now Hime finds out that Yuko is a Cure, a very powerful one, and has been for months, yet she left Megumi and Hime to flail around and struggle against all these Saiarks when she could have lent a hand and saved them a lot of trouble.

WHY? Why would Yuko hold back all those times when they needed help? Megumi and Seiji know Yuko well enough that, while they don’t understand why she’d hide this for so long, they trust her and can be patient, waiting for Yuko to explain herself when she’s ready. But Hime’s had a lot of practice getting trapped in her own thoughts and imagining the worst possible outcome of any situation. That’s all she probably did before meeting Megumi, and we saw some of this back in Episodes 1 and 2, at the very least. And now Hime’s wondering if she was wrong about Yuko all this time, if Yuko only pretends to be nice while secretly enjoying seeing the people around her struggle. Has Hime put her trust in the wrong person, and now she can only expect more pain from this latest mistake?

Yet Yuko provided a sun hat and boots for Hime, who isn’t used to working in gardens or out in the field under the hot sun all day. She helped Hime, who kept getting stuck or falling in the mud, even though Hime was second-guessing everything, afraid to take Yuko’s hand and accept that help. Yuko even went to get some bandages when Hime got hurt. Why would Yuko do any of this if she truly didn’t care about anyone else? Can you see why Hime might be feeling so confused? In the end, Hime was able to look past her hurt, confusion, and anger, accepting that Yuko, one of her best friends, was also struggling with having a secret that she wanted to share, but didn’t know how to do so. Hime, of all people, can understand that sort of uncertainty!

Chapter Text

Today’s episode starts out in school. All the kids have just gotten their scores from the last test.

Looks like Seiji did very well, he ranked second in top scores. Good for him!

Go Hime, too! She scored 100% in English. Way to represent! Though now I have to wonder if she reads a lot in her downtime. I always did, and it really helped with tests and writing assignments in my English classes over the years.

And here’s yet more proof of Hime’s progress: several students surround her, very impressed with her grade, and all Hime does is blush. She’s really come a long way from Episode 4, hasn’t she?

Awww! She still struggles with writing in a foreign language, but there’s no denying she’s pretty good with schoolwork, from what I can see.

The teacher calls her class back to order,

then confronts a boy, Yamazaki Kenta, who’s trying to escape the room.

He’s far more concerned with being late for his club than for the results of this last test,

even though he got the second worst grade in the class.

The teacher warns him that he’ll have to take the makeup exam, and only then does he look upset.

Megumi starts to cheer him up before the teacher confronts her as well.

Megumi has to take the makeup exam, too,

because her test score was the lowest in the class. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I like that their teacher’s confronting them in public about these low scores. In a less friendly classroom, this could lead to shaming or bullying. I know this is only being shown so that we the audience can easily understand what’s going on, but still.

I’m glad that Megumi’s not letting it get her down (only Megumi would be glad to get such a low score, so that another student wouldn’t be in last place), but this really isn’t a laughing matter, either.

Better grades open up more options down the road, depending on what career you may want to pursue in the future. Though nowadays, I’m not sure if this is the case anymore. I’ve seen enough horror stories online, about students disrespecting and outright ATTACKING teachers, or teachers NOT teaching to the point that high school students can’t even read on a grade school level. If even a tenth of what I’ve seen is true… Frankly, it’s terrifying, and I shudder to think what our future will be like if things can’t get turned around fast enough to stop this disturbing trend.

I know, Hime! Megumi, you’ve got to take studying a little more seriously.

Their teacher warns that if Megumi and Kenta can’t pass their makeup exam, they’ll have to start staying after school to study in order to catch up.

Neither student wants this to happen! Kenta might have to quit his club if he can’t balance it with his regular schoolwork. And what about Megumi? Could she even keep fighting as a Cure if she no longer has any spare time outside of school?

Cure Heart’s here from Doki Doki Pretty Cure to welcome us today.

While both students are feeling very down, Yuko comforts Megumi.

She’s happy to study right along with Megumi to help her prepare for the makeup test.

And Megumi won’t leave Kenta to struggle alone. Since both of them need to retake the test, why shouldn’t they study together?

Hime’s willing to help as well,

and Kenta’s thrilled because she aced the English test.

Lucky Hime! She’s usually needed to have others help her out before, but this is an area where Hime can excel and help Megumi instead. That’s got to feel good!

Hime gets so excited that she actually slips out of the room, using a PreCard to become a Teacher.

She’s ready to help, but that doesn’t mean she’ll go easy on them while she’s tutoring.

Yeah, that looks like the end of a long study session. Poor kids!

Kenta still wants to go to his club after all that.

His baseball club has a game this weekend, and he doesn’t want to let them down, even with him having to catch up on his studies.

Hopefully he’ll keep his promise about studying afterwards, or he’ll be right back at square one with the makeup situation.

Poor Megumi looks wiped out and Hime still wants to study MORE? What a switch! Usually it’s Megumi dragging Hime or someone else all over the place.

And Megumi’s starving, too.

Thankfully, Yuko offers to bring some food over for another study session at the Embassy. See, they really do make a great team.

Goodness, Yuko, you’re going to spoil them with “snacks” like this!

The “Study Well Special,” huh? I wonder if any of those dishes include fish. My mom always told me that fish was brain food. Does Japan believe this as well, or is there another tradition they follow instead? It’s really neat to learn about different countries like this, which is why I tend to watch foreign shows or films with subtitles as opposed to the dub. You can get neat little tidbits of information that can really open your eyes to different cultures. It’s so much fun!

Blue shows up just then, along with Ribbon.

He asks why they stayed at school so late and the whole story comes out.

Blue’s not too happy with the situation. Nor is Ribbon, when Megumi starts defending herself.

Being a Cure and fighting off attacks is much more important than grades and schoolwork, right?

Blue doesn’t agree,

and even warns Megumi that he won’t allow her to fight as a Cure if she can’t balance it along with her other responsibilities.

And here’s another example of Blue looking out for the Cures he’s chosen to help in the war. Whatever else may be happening around the world, he refuses to allow their lives to be completely disrupted with Cure duties. School’s important, too, like it or not. I’m not sure if these girls are still in middle school, but I think they are. If Japanese schools follow the grading patterns where I live, the last four years of school (9th-12th grade) are where your grades actually count towards graduation. There’s no telling how long this war has lasted, or how much longer it may go on. Even if the Cures are needed to keep the invasion at bay, Blue isn’t going to let them sacrifice their futures to fight. If they can’t balance being a Cure with their daily lives and responsibilities then, like any good parent, Blue will pull them from the active roster until they can get their lives back in order.

You might wonder why he would be willing to put the war at risk like this, but remember that there are Cure teams all around the world. If it came down to it, that Lovely had to temporarily stop helping in the fight and Princess and Honey couldn’t hold the line by themselves (Fortune’s AWOL, no one knows who she is or how to contact her), what’s stopping Blue from calling in a little help from India, for example, to help with a battle or two while Lovely’s catching up with her schoolwork? I remember reading online that there’s an upcoming episode where the Happiness Charge Team has to travel to a different country to help another Cure team in trouble. The only downside I could see is that Princess and Honey wouldn’t be used to working with a different team, but as a trade-off the Generals targeting Pikarigaoka wouldn’t likely be able to predict and counter the new attacks and strategies, either. It would be a temporary fix, but really, isn’t that all that would be needed in this case? Actually, supposing this sort of thing ended up happening, I could see some intercontinental friendships developing between some of these other teams. Couldn’t you imagine them becoming penpals at the very least? Maybe Blue could let the girls borrow one of his mirrors to go visit over a holiday weekend or something. Wouldn’t that be cool to see?

Megumi can’t believe he would do this,

but Blue wants her to succeed, and if that means taking a break as a Cure long enough to catch up in school, then that’s what he’ll have her do. I know that Blue gets a lot of hate, especially for future events that I can’t mention this early on, but credit where it’s due, he’s doing his best to look out for the Cures in his care.

Megumi can’t imagine not being a Cure, but Hime won’t let her face this alone. Hime and Yuko will do their best to catch her up in class work so she won’t have to give up anything. I certainly hope that they all succeed.

Megumi’s going to give it her all, come what may.

Poor Megumi. She’s really working hard, but studying is exhausting at times, especially after such a long day.

The next day in school, both Kenta and Megumi are looking overwhelmed, but Hime’s already excited for their next study session.

She kind of likes being a tutor, it lets her take charge for a change.

Kenta complains that her teaching is rather Spartan. (Nice choice of description, by the way! I rarely see someone use this choice of word nowadays, whether in direct relation to ancient Greece, or simply meaning something like barebones, austere, simple, and so on.)

Hime gets annoyed at him before admitting that she also likes tutoring them because it lets her review what she’s already learned at the same time.

Then Seiji offers to help them study after school as well.

Neat, we actually get to see today’s study session. Let’s see how they do. Hime’s quizzing Megumi on the capital of Germany.

I’m ashamed to say I spaced it when I first watched this and couldn’t remember the correct answer myself at first. I’ll admit I haven’t had to remember everything I learned in my classes over the years, but I don’t like realizing that I’ve even forgotten obvious answers like this. I may need to brush up on my World Geography afterwards. I was more involved in Biology and English anyway. The less said about Math and Chemistry, the better!

Back to the study session, though, Yuko guesses Frankfurt,

and Megumi, Hamburg. I think they’re getting hungry again… (frankfurters = hotdogs, Hamburg = hamburger)

Hime reminds them the correct answer is Berlin.

When Yuko and Megumi start getting distracted by food, Hime snaps them out of it.

Someone’s got to keep the study session on track, Megumi and Kenta only have two days to prepare for the makeup test, after all.

Hime then gives Megumi her notes as a study guide to review.

I love study guides. There’s so much information in the text books that it’s hard to know where to even begin, and how do you know what’s most important to focus on? Study guides are a great way to compile the highlights of the chapters covered in class, with keywords and concepts you need to remember for tests.

Megumi’s thrilled that she has a study guide to review from, and tackles Hime in a hug as thanks.

Meanwhile, Seiji’s helping Kenta with math.

Kenta’s struggling to focus because he wants to go play baseball with the rest of his club, but if he fails this test, he may be forced to drop out of the team.

Seiji then gets a brilliant idea. He starts talking baseball strategy with Kenta,

explaining how certain math equations can be used to calculate a player’s batting average.

That’s genius!

What better way is there to get a baseball enthusiast to study math?

This episode doesn’t really go into it, but something to consider with school as well is the fact that many students have different ways that they learn the course materials best. I remember learning in a Psychology class that many people have different learning styles, and that’s why not everyone can easily follow a teacher talking and writing notes on the board. I wonder if this is part of why Megumi and Kenta were struggling, now that I think about it. Some people may learn by doodling random images in their notebooks, remembering what topics were covered in class based on what they were drawing at the time. Other people learn better with the use of visual aids.

I’m not sure what style works best for me (maybe visual aids), but I do remember that if there was a diagram, a picture, or a story that illustrated a concept I needed to know, I could often memorize the story or image and thus remember the topic being covered. I can still recall some of those stories to this day (Completely random ones, too, like how scientists proved that DNA was the source of a cell’s genetic material, the “transforming factor,” instead of just proteins. Or how the Pepper Moth demonstrates Natural Selection, with a moth population shifting from mostly light coloration to dark colors over the course of maybe twenty years back at the time of the Industrial Revolution), so it’s not a bad idea to consider looking around a bit and see if you can’t figure out what type of learning format works best for you. Flashcards are good, but may not work for everyone. We already saw that Yuko was able to remember German cities (just not the right one) because the names reminded her of food. Tricks like this can be very useful in studying, like memorizing the colors of the visible light spectrum as the rainbow, with the acronym R.O.Y.G.B.I.V. or Roy G. Biv (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). It really does work!

Way to go, Kenta! He’s excited from today’s study session and says he’s going straight home to study some more.

And he looks like he’s ready to keep his word on that, even when passing some younger kids playing baseball on the way home.

But then Namakelder shows up and traps Kenta inside a mirror.

And now there’s a Baseball Saiark on the loose!

Seiji goes to check on Kenta’s mirror

while the girls transform. It’s our first time seeing all three of them transform at once, and it’s actually pretty epic. I’m impressed!

Lovely, Princess, and Honey are raring to go. 

Namakelder sends the Choiarks out first, and Lovely asks Honey to take them down while she and Princess focus on the Saiark.

Honey transforms into Popcorn Cheer form, and the Choiarks are gone!

Oh, not all of them, though, the rest are keeping the Cures at a distance.

And Lovely’s starting to get stressed because she really can’t afford to waste time today, not if she wants to pass that makeup test.

Namakelder hears her complaining, and that’s when things take a fascinating turn. He actually starts trying to convince the Cures that studying and school are a pointless waste of time.

Princess and Honey don’t buy it,

but then Namakelder singles out Lovely, asking if she feels the same.

Namakelder’s really interesting in this episode.

He actually tries to convince Lovely to join him in slacking off because school and studying are tedious and annoying. Why put in all the hard work? What does she get out of it?

Lovely refuses, of course, but that offer must’ve sounded very tempting for a moment there.

I would’ve thought someone like Oresky might be the one to try the “Come to the dark side” trick. Really, though, I guess only Namakelder could reasonably be the one to try this, since Hosshiiwa only seems to care about sweets and wouldn’t likely try to reach out, while Oresky probably couldn’t easily connect this way because he tends to see himself above other people. (Maybe if it were Fortune he was trying to convince, but this is LOVELY.  Doesn’t he still see her as a weakling?)

Anyway, Namakelder’s a little disappointed that Lovely wouldn’t listen, but orders the Baseball Saiark to attack.

The Saiark starts throwing all kinds of pitches, and none of the Cures are able to get close enough to retaliate.

It’s got them pinned down, and they need a new plan.

Princess fights back with “Princess Bullet Machine Gun,” and her wind bullets destroy several of the Saiark’s baseballs. But that doesn’t matter when the Saiark can just infinitely spam more every second.

And then Lovely makes an AWESOME decision! She summons “Lovely Rising Bat” and challenges the Saiark to a game of baseball. 

Namakelder agrees to settle the Saiark battle over a game of baseball.

Oof, this is bringing back some painful memories of P.E. (physical education)! I was never very athletically inclined, nor was I very competitive, so P.E. tended to be nothing but embarrassing for me, and I always felt bad for the kids who got stuck with me on their team. Baseball was one of my worst nightmares because I have bad coordination and could never hit the ball. At least I could hide in the outfield when my team wasn’t at bat. Maybe Lovely will have better luck, since she is already fairly athletic just having to fight Saiarks and Choiarks all the time.

Lovely’s at bat against the Baseball Saiark, with her friends all cheering her on.

And that’s strike one.

She braces herself for the next pitch,

but this time gets surprised by a curveball. And that’s strike two.

She’s down to the wire now, but Princess reminds her to just focus on the ball.

So she does, and this time lands a hit, but it’s a foul.

Again and again, Lovely keeps hitting, but every time it’s a foul ball. Poor Lovely, she needs a new plan.

Princess notices that Lovely’s getting overwhelmed and calls for a time out.

As Lovely catches her breath,

Seiji mentions that there seems to be a pattern to the pitches.

If they could figure out what kind of pitch was next…

All together, they realize that the next throw will likely be a fastball. Maybe there’s some hope yet.

Time out is over, and Lovely’s back at bat.

The Saiark pitches its ball and, sure enough, it’s a fastball.

Lovely hits it hard and it’s a home run!

And then something very interesting happens. It turns out Namakelder has a good sense of fairplay. When Lovely hit that home run, I thought he would have the original battle continue, but he doesn't.

He actually orders the Saiark to stand down and be purified, since a deal’s a deal.

And good on the Saiark, too, taking this loss with grace!

Namakelder’s more honorable than I thought he’d be. You wouldn’t think he’d care, since he’s usually too lazy to put in much effort. But I guess his laziness doesn’t automatically mean that he has no morals, that he won’t honor an agreement. Very interesting! I may need to look more closely at the members of the Phantom Empire if they keep showing hidden depths like this.

Anway, the Saiark’s purified

and Kenta is safe.

Looks like even Namakelder got a little excited from the game.

After he leaves, Seiji checks on Kenta.

Kenta’s fine, but he really has to hurry home and study.

He now knows that practice is equally important with schoolwork and baseball. Good for him!

And Lovely’s victory earned two more PreCards today.

Megumi’s off to study as well.

Now it’s the day of the makeup exam. Both Kenta and Megumi look wiped out, but they did their best. The question is, was it enough?

Their teacher has the test results.

They both passed! That’s a relief.

The teacher warns them to keep up with their studies so that they don’t fail all five subjects again in the future.

Now Kenta can enjoy being on the baseball team again,

and Megumi won’t have to miss out on being a Cure.

Hime reminds Megumi to keep studying, and Megumi promises that she will, maybe in a 2:1 ratio (precure:study).

Hime argues that it should be the opposite, 1:2 (precure:study).

The episode ends as Megumi’s bargaining for 1:1 (precure:study) and Yuko just laughs.

Chapter Text

Whoa, this episode starts off with a bang!

There’s a Cure we’ve never seen before, likely from Egypt, and she’s giving her all against an enemy we’ve never seen in action yet.

This is Phantom, a General of the Phantom Empire.

And he’s terrifying!

Dear heavens, this poor girl didn’t stand a chance!

Thinking about it now, is this how the monsters feel when you play games like Castlevania? It doesn’t matter how fast or strong they are, once the Belmont shows up, the monsters are done for! With the exception of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, though, this may be the first time I’ve ever seen heroes be the ones having to face down a silver bullet.

Before we really get going, let’s say hello today to Cure Mint, from Yes! Precure 5 (and Yes! Go Go).

Who’s that?

It looks like there’s a shrine maiden (I think), and Blue’s going to visit her. They both look very happy.

Oh no! Queen Mirage was sleeping, and that prior scene we just saw was either a dream or a memory. And Mirage’s hairstyle, if not the hair color, looks very similar to that girl’s from the dream, too. Considering that Mirage has a permanent purple teardrop marking her cheek… It’s certainly not painting a good picture so far.

Remember how Mirage said a couple episodes back (see Episode 11) that Honey’s song couldn’t heal her because Mirage’s wounds run too deep? What even happened here?

Whatever the case, Mirage no longer believes in nor desires love, and she wants to eliminate it from the rest of the world as well.

I’m starting to notice a trend here. Fortune was hurt when she lost her sister and, deserved or not, has lashed out at others in her anger and pain. Mirage is doing the same. Where does this leave everyone else in the world? Somehow, the cycle of anger and hurt has to stop. What especially worries me, though, is that not everyone has healthy ways to cope when they inevitably get hurt as part of this cycle. What about people with avoidant traits: those who’ll practically bend over backwards to avoid causing trouble for the people around them, those who’d rather run and hide than cause any harm (fight or flight, they choose flight every time)? Do they just get consumed in the fallout? It’s a little scary to think about, isn’t it?

Phantom has just arrived, saying that he’ll help Mirage with this goal. He reveals that he took down Cure Nile, the girl we saw him defeat at the start of this episode.

It looks like Phantom is Mirage’s heavy hitter. He’s absolutely loyal to Mirage alone, and if she wants someone eliminated, he’ll take them out without question. I think this makes him more frightening than even Oresky, because Phantom seems to have no other goals except to do Mirage’s will. How do you stop a force like that? 

Namakelder, Hosshiiwa, and Oresky hate Phantom. He’s probably putting them to shame every time he appears on the battlefield, let’s be honest. And maybe his undying loyalty frightens them, too. Imagine if Mirage decided that one of them had outlived their usefulness…

Oresky certainly hates that Phantom’s making him look weak by comparison.

Uh oh! Phantom just asked the Deep Mirror who the strongest Cures are right now,

and he was told about the Happiness Charge girls in Pikarigaoka.

Thankfully, Oresky actually stands up to him. The Happiness Charge Cures are HIS prey (and Hosshiiwa’s and Namakelder’s).

And Mirage does respect that, for now.

But Phantom doesn’t look very happy. Something about Pikarikgaoka’s got him angry, for some reason.

Hime, you silly, what are you doing? Hime’s just used a PreCard to change into a fancy dress. (And yes, she’s holding a bouquet of pink roses, but we already discussed pink roses back in Episode 8, so I don’t think that this is meant to be “the flower of the day.”)

There we go! Pink Daisies… I don’t know why I keep getting surprised by the relevance of these flowers whenever they appear. We talked about white daisies back in Episode 4, so let’s see how a pink daisy’s symbolism differs.

Image found here: https://foliagefriend.com/pink-daisy-flower-meaning/  

Apparently a pink daisy indicates spiritual growth and emotional healing. It’s known for being uplifting, a good choice of flower to give to someone going through a hard time because it also symbolizes hope and seeing the good in the world around you. A pink daisy can also mean purity, sincerity, and innocence, as well as new beginnings. (There’s been a lot of symbolism regarding renewals and new beginnings, hasn’t there? Cherry blossoms, white daisies, white roses, and now pink daisies, unless I’ve missed mentioning one…) Interestingly enough, the fragrance of a pink daisy can be used in aromatherapy to reduce stress, and the daisy plant (as we learned before) has medicinal/healing qualities. (There’s been a heavy emphasis on healing, too, now that I think about it.)

I can see at least two connections to today’s episode already: Hime finding another hobby (This is critical when someone’s struggling, depression or no. If they can find something to value and give meaning to daily life, it really helps with the healing process.) and Cure Fortune. Again, the episode title isn’t hiding anything today. Fortune’s going to make an appearance, and we already know her history (I mentioned it back in Episode 8). We’ll learn later (I think during her transformation in Episode 22) that Fortune’s symbol is a star, “The Star of Hope.” Just like a pink daisy also means hope. Fortune doesn’t hang around for long today, but this is the first time in the series that Lovely manages to reach out and show Fortune that she doesn’t have to go it alone, that there’s hope that things can get better. New beginnings, healing… It all has to start somewhere. Let’s keep going.

Hime’s watching some movie with a prince searching the forest for a lost princess.

I guess Hime has a thing for romance films, like this one with a prince trying to rescue a princess in trouble.

I can’t really judge, though. How many times have I probably earned some eye-rolls from my family when I watch foreign films or animations of my own? But what other choice do I have? It feels like many Western films and animations all tell the same stories and frequently use the same old art styles. The only way I can enjoy something new and exciting these days is to branch out to other countries. And sometimes it can be fun to see the very same story told in a different way by a different country.

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (USA, 1975)

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (USA, 1975)

Look at how Chuck Jones (America) portrayed Rudyard Kipling’s Rikki Tikki Tavi, for example,

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (Soyuzmultfilm, 1965)

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (Soyuzmultfilm, 1965)

compared to Soyuzmultfilm in Soviet Russia! These are some pictures from the very same points in the story, and isn’t the variety amazing?

So if Hime has something she enjoys like this, good for her! I personally have never been a fan of dressing up, but that’s Hime’s thing, not mine.

I’m sorry, Hime, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for a prince riding up to rescue you. Dream big, but remember to keep your feet on the ground!

Oh, that’s interesting. Blue just got a bit of a flashback right now. The very same one as Mirage’s dream that we saw earlier…

He looks rather sad as he leaves the room, and only Megumi notices.

What is this place? Blue is in a room full of mirrors,

and he’s actually holding the Axia Box, lost in thought.

Oh, Megumi just arrived through a mirror. This must be how Blue travels around the world, going through these mirrors.

She’s very curious about this new room, and he tells her that this is the Cross Mirror Room.

Yep, I was right. The mirrors in this room connect to various locations around the world, so he can quickly travel from place to place using them.

Blue also shows her the Axia Box when Megumi asks about it.

I like the allusion to Pandora’s Box that the show makes here.

Blue says that Axia is the source of all their misfortune, which is true,

but Megumi notes that she senses a certain kindness and love coming from the Box as well. (Remember, Pandora’s Box was meant to be a curse to humanity and when Pandora opened it, all the evils that now plague the world poured out except hope, which she quickly trapped inside when she saw that it was all that the Box had left.) It will be spoilers to go too much into it right now, but I will say that this isn’t the last we’ll see of the Axia Box as the show goes forward.

Blue then offers to let Megumi travel through one of the mirrors, to go anywhere in the world. That’s awesome!

She doesn’t even list off places she wants to go, she just starts counting mirrors and saying, “Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe!”

Blue looks surprised with the mirror Megumi ends up choosing,

but keeps the destination a secret as he helps her through.

It turns out that this mirror exits at Pikari Shrine,

and poor Megumi realizes that she didn’t actually travel very far at all. Still, portal travel with mirrors. Lucky Megumi, what an opportunity!

Really, Blue? It wasn’t the mirror that led here, but Megumi because she loves her home town so much? I guess that would be helpful, travel through intent more than a set destination, otherwise if those mirrors aren’t labeled… Imagine if someone stepped through a mirror, ready for a tropical island, only to get a face full of snow from an Antarctic blizzard because they chose the wrong mirror. Actually, I think I read that something like this happens in Smile Precure. Fun with portals!

Blue still seems to be remembering something from his past involving that shrine maiden from before.

Maybe he sees something of that girl in Megumi right now, though I can’t say anything with certainty because we’ve only been given a brief view of a single interaction, a single memory.

Megumi wants to visit the shrine and make a wish,

and Blue reminds her that he’s a god. He doesn’t need to make a wish, he’s the one who can make wishes come true.

Still, Megumi asks if he doesn’t have wishes of his own, since she’s seen how sad he looks at times.

Oh NO!!! Phantom just arrived at the shrine. I don’t think he even knew anyone else was here today, this is just rotten timing all around. This is NOT going to end well!

Blue clearly knows Phantom, and even awkwardly asks how Mirage is doing.

And if Phantom wasn’t angry before, now he’s really ticked off.

Megumi jumps in then, telling Phantom that he’s way too aggressive and that he shouldn’t be trying to destroy Pikari Shrine.

Phantom warns her away and Megumi transforms, ready to defend Blue from this danger. That’s very brave of you, Megumi, but I’m afraid that this will only make things so much worse! Seriously, Lovely, watch out! Cure Nile couldn’t even touch Phantom, and your friends aren’t with you to back you up today.

Blue tries to stop her from fighting, but Lovely’s determined to protect him from this new enemy and refuses to stand down.

Already, Phantom is teleporting around the area and Lovely can’t keep track of him.

“Lovely Beam” does nothing,

not when Phantom can simply teleport away from every single blast.

Since nothing else is working, Lovely transforms into Lollipop Hip Hop Form. At first I wondered why she chose this Form as opposed to Cherry Flamenco, where she can utilize one giant fiery explosion to force him to back off. But it turns out that the musical notes Hip Hop Lovely spams to cover the whole battlefield also act as homing missiles, automatically targeting the nearest enemy in range.

It shocked me to see every single one of those notes shoot towards Phantom, instead of straight down like we’ve seen in the past. But will this be enough?

Oh gosh, please NO!!! Those notes did nothing, and now Lovely’s trapped just like Cure Nile was.

Phantom’s ready to take her out permanently,

and not even Blue running up to shield her is going to stop the attack.

Except Fortune just showed up. And not even her surprise attack breaks through Phantom’s guard. Just who is this guy?!

Phantom has no idea who Fortune is, but she seems to know him very well.

She holds a major grudge because he stole someone away from her, and she wants revenge.

Batman Beyond (1999)

(I’m not typically one to follow most online jokes, so please forgive me, but this is what came to mind right here.)

At least Fortune’s got Phantom distracted, so maybe Lovely has a chance at breaking free.

Oh thank heavens! Blue has the ability to purify and weaken Lovely’s bonds, but it looks like it’ll take time. Hopefully Fortune can buy them some time. Fortune didn’t come here to save Lovely or Blue (if they escape, they’re on their own), she just wanted the chance to destroy Phantom.

Holy cow, is Phantom just playing with her now? He’s not even fighting back, just casually parrying every blow with that shield on his arm. I’ve noticed that in battle, Lovely seems like a weaker, less experienced Fortune, say Level 10 or 12 by now, while Fortune herself is Level 27. What level is Phantom that even Fortune can’t break through his guard, maybe Level 70? This guy is terrifying!

Not even a “Fortune Star Burst” to the face fazes him.

And when Fortune dive bombs him from behind, Phantom grabs her by the leg and tosses her away before sniping her out of the air.

Now Fortune’s down and Lovely’s still trapped, but Blue’s made some progress towards freeing her.

Phantom isn’t even taunting, not really, he just bluntly states that love and dreams are pointless and that not one Cure can stand against him.

Even so, Fortune won’t back down. She’s fighting for the sake of the one she lost, her sister, and she will fight to the bitter end if there’s a chance to get her back.

Phantom doesn’t care,

Fortune’s down and he’s going to make sure she stays down.

Thankfully, Lovely finally manages to break free with Blue’s help.

She immediately uses “Lovely Punching Punch” to stop Phantom.

I didn’t know it was possible for Lovely to use this attack repeatedly, but she’s got his attention now.

While he’s distracted, Lovely checks on Fortune, who’s not happy that Lovely intervened. This is FORTUNE’S fight, and hers alone. But honestly, Fortune, he just had you on the ropes. Is it really such a bad thing to team up this time? You both might at least escape intact to fight again another day…

Good point, Lovely! Whatever grudge Fortune may have, whatever pain she’s been suffering from this whole time, both girls are Cures and Phantom is one of the enemies.

Why shouldn’t they work together in this case?

Fortune’s fairy, Glasses (Glassan? Glason? I think I’ll go with Glasses for now), points out that brute force hasn’t worked so far.

Maybe a different strategy will work better.

By the time the smoke clears, Phantom finds himself facing both girls at once.

Image found here: http://www.quickmeme.com/Honey-Badger/page/4  

He doesn’t care,

he even looks amused because the Cures are like gnats to him.

What does it matter if he has to swat away two, or even ten, at once?

When he shoots at them, Lovely defends with “Lovely Shield,”

opening a path for Fortune to attack directly.

Both girls then strike at the very same time. And it actually looks like that pushed Phantom back, if it didn’t outright cause any damage.

Oh man, can even Phantom shrug off two purifying attacks at once?

It may not be an official team attack, but both attacks have synced up perfectly and could still cause serious damage if they hit.

Even Fortune can’t deny that teaming up has finally put Phantom on the defensive for the very first time.

Except Phantom did manage to stop their attacks after all.

He had to pull out his sword to do it, though. I guess he’s not playing anymore.

And now Phantom knows that the Cures get so much stronger when they fight as a team…

Lovely and Fortune may have just doomed any number of Cure teams around the world if Phantom now recognizes their teamwork as a legitimate threat!

Blue steps in here, warning that he will fight if Phantom keeps up his attacks.

Phantom doesn’t buy it. Blue has no ability to fight, which is why he’s chosen so many Cures to fight for him.

Even so, knowing he has no chance of winning or surviving such a fight, Blue stands firm. He reminds Phantom that Mirage doesn’t want him gone, not yet. If that’s a bluff, this may be one of the riskiest situations I’ve ever seen someone try bluffing before. Phantom looks ready to KILL! Blue’s got guts, but it works! Phantom finally stands down.

Today’s fight may be over, but Phantom won’t stop until every Cure is defeated, the world is swallowed up in despair and misfortune, and Blue himself begs for forgiveness.

Finally, Phantom leaves. Again, what on earth happened to cause such enmity between Blue and Mirage, and who is Phantom? He’s endlessly loyal to Mirage alone, and he has serious power to back her up.

Thank you, Lovely, for being yourself! She and Fortune both nearly got taken out, but now that the danger’s past, Lovely’s first instinct is to tackle Fortune in a hug. Fortune just steps to the side and lets Lovely fall over. I needed that, this episode’s been intense!

Seriously, Fortune? You just saw for yourself what teaming up could do, and you still want to go it alone? Granted, she’s strong enough that there’s never been a problem with Fortune being a solo fighter before. The thing is, Fortune and Lovely are now on Phantom’s radar. If he specifically targeted them again… It’s up to Fortune, I guess, if she still wants to fight alone, but I’d think twice about it after seeing today’s battle.

There is the situation with Cure Princess, too. Fortune really won’t ever let that go, will she? Not that I can really blame her.

Lovely thanks Fortune for helping her today, at the very least.

Blue finally asks Fortune how she became a Cure. Clearly she didn’t get her powers in the usual way, otherwise he would’ve already known who she was, like he did with Cure Honey. (Sorry for going off-topic, but this is my first time seeing Glasses up close and it looks like her back/shell shares the same spot color pattern as Ribbon. Do all fairies share this pattern or is this unique to these two alone, knowing that eventually all four Cures, Pink, Blue, Yellow, and Purple, will be on the same team?)

Fortune says that she became a Cure by getting her powers from her sister, Cure Tender.

And Blue looks shocked! I guess even he doesn’t know everything, but that, to me, seems counterintuitive to being a god. Aren’t gods supposed to be all-knowing and/or all-powerful? I’ll talk more about my thoughts on this in the endnotes of this review, let’s move on for now.

Fortune leaves, while Blue looks very upset. He actually admits that this is all his fault. The war, all this misfortune, is Blue’s fault? Something happened between Mirage and Blue, something bad enough that Mirage wants to drown the world in sorrow (I still consider this a danger to all existence on Earth, by the way. If all those alive on the planet no longer have hope, love, or dreams to keep them moving forward, what’s the point? Wouldn’t all life grind to a halt or collapse? Now can you see why Blue views this invasion as such a serious threat?) and Phantom wants to destroy Blue himself. Hime may have been the one to open the Axia Box and reawaken the conflict, but clearly there’s more going on here than we know at the moment.

Lovely admits that she’s happy, though. Even after such a frightening battle today, she’s happy because she feels her life’s become so much more fulfilling as a Cure.

She’s grateful that Blue gave her the chance to fight, to protect everyone who she loves so much. And I should note that the music playing right now (OST Disc 2 Track 13 Premonition of Love) sounds like a variation of the song we heard when Megumi was choosing which mirror to travel through (I searched everywhere and can’t figure out the name, but it plays from 7:57-9:40 in this episode) . It also sounds similar in a way to what we heard when Blue and Mirage were remembering that shrine maiden from earlier in the episode (OST Disc 1 Track 12 Blue’s Theme). Maybe it’s just me hearing the chimes, like the bells the maiden was ringing from that memory. Megumi must really remind him of that other girl from the past. (In trying to figure out the different songs to better describe my thoughts for this section, I had to find a playlist of the OST on Youtube and now have a brand new appreciation for the music of this show. Give it a listen if you have some time: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOj51nOWDK9X_Ws2kAIlyIehhqp3-xCe-)

Lovely’s being her sweet self, reminding Blue that he’s not alone and that if he’ll just tell her what’s bothering him, she can help him out.

Awww! He can’t help but give her a hug. She really is a sweetheart! But I can’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable because this reminds me of Coco and Nozomi from Yes! Precure 5. As much as I loved that season, I couldn’t get behind those two in a romantic relationship. I’ll explain a bit more on that later. Anyway, that’s how this episode ends.

More Thoughts On Blue:

Okay, I may need to modify my thoughts on Blue a little bit. Everyone who talks to him calls him “God,” but I’m not sure he is one, at least not as far as I’m familiar with gods. Whenever I hear about gods in religion or mythology, they tend to be all-powerful and/or all-knowing. Blue’s clearly not all-knowing, since he looked shocked when he finally learned how Fortune became a Cure. And he doesn’t act all-powerful, either. In fact, Blue knows that Phantom could easily take him out in a fight, and he has to bluff himself, Lovely, and Fortune out of danger by reminding their enemy that Mirage doesn’t want Blue gone, at least not yet. Thankfully, Phantom doesn’t call the bluff and leaves peacefully this time.

Actually, this brings up more questions for me. Even if Blue’s not an all-powerful, all-knowing god, but more of a nature spirit, you’d think that he’d have enough power over the Earth and his own creations that he could easily stop an outright rebellion that threatens all life in the rest of the world. Instead, he has to choose warriors to fight for him. Why is this? Is it a matter of the enemies having a different source of power that he can’t touch? Going by Pokemon rules, electric-type monsters are very effective against water-types, but they can’t hurt rock or ground-types. Maybe the Earth powers Blue wields are ineffective against, for example, Mercury powers and Blue instead has to use his power to select magical warriors who CAN directly face this otherworldly threat? Or is it more that Blue has a lot of his powers tied up in keeping the Earth running, and everything on the planet would collapse if he were forced to face down this invasion at full power?

Image found here: https://biologicalsystemscourse.blogspot.com/2016/09/mutualism-relationship-acacia-tree-and.html  

Did you know that there are plants in real life that do this? Calling out helpers to drive away a threat, I mean. These plants host ants in a symbiotic relationship, offering the ants food and shelter in exchange for protection. This is commonly seen with ants and acacia trees, for example. When some pest or herbivore starts eating the host plant, the ants living inside the tree come swarming out to drive away the intruder. Maybe this is something similar to what we’re seeing happen with Blue and the Cures in Happiness Charge?

I guess all I can really say about Blue is that he seems to be immortal in that he’s lived for a very long time. This doesn’t mean that he can’t be killed or destroyed, as we found when he confronted Phantom this episode. Blue created the Earth and all living things on it, but he’s unable to directly fight off an invasion to protect this world, needing to select magical warriors, Cures, to fight for him instead. And Blue seems to have a history with Queen Mirage. She has a serious grudge against him and Phantom, her most loyal and obedient General, HATES Blue and won’t hesitate to destroy him if Mirage wishes it. Blue even said at the end of this episode that this war is actually his fault. Sounds like there’s more going on than what we’ve seen so far, even if it was Hime who reawakened the conflict by opening the Axia Box.

And finally, I’m afraid that we may be looking at another Coco/Nozomi situation. This was one thing I hated about the Yes! series. I couldn’t very comfortably see any sort of romance, not even a crush, between Nozomi and Coco, or Komachi and Nuts. I could see and even enjoy these pairs having a CONNECTION that might not directly exist with the other girls in their team, with a love of literature for Komachi/Nuts, and just straight up hope for Nozomi/Coco, but that’s all I could ever see. Maybe it was their different ages, and maybe it was the fact that Coco and Nuts are fairy squirrels first and foremost, albeit with a human transformation. Something about romance involving these factors just… I couldn’t see it or support it. Sorry if that makes me a stick in the mud, but it is what it is.

No offense to Blue or Megumi, but I can’t see any feasible way that any sort of romantic relationship could work between them, either. I said I wouldn’t talk about love because of my isolated personality and lack of experience there, but this isn’t a matter of love or romance to me. We’re talking about the immortal Creator of the Earth having feelings for one of his own creations. At the very least, wouldn’t Blue feel that this was incestuous, like a father having a romantic interest in his own daughter? Or would he maybe fear that if he did have feelings for someone on Earth, that they’d have no choice but to reciprocate because he’s their CREATOR? And what about the fact that he tries to be fair and neutral regarding all of the people on Earth. Wouldn’t that be impossible if he was in a relationship with someone from Earth? How could he possibly remain fair and unbiased in this case? Come to think of it, is this maybe one of the reasons why Mirage has issues with Blue now?

The only way I could see Blue in any sort of relationship is if someone from Earth somehow became immortal and thus his equal (Blue’s lived, and will continue to live, for centuries, if not millenia. How is it fair to him or a love interest that they would grow old and die while Blue would live on forever?), or if there was another goddess or nature spirit of some other world that he could get together with. Then Blue and this other goddess could help each other, looking after each of their worlds like new parents presiding over one giant, combined family.

Chapter Text

Well Phantom certainly didn’t waste any time, did he? These poor girls! Miyo’s frantically covering the news, showing a relentless Phantom, the Pretty Cure Hunter, taking down Cure after Cure around the world.

England,

Russia,

Australia,

Italy,

he’s like a one-man hurricane cutting everyone else down effortlessly.

Dear heavens, was that eight Cures all together? He wasn’t kidding about eliminating every Precure after leaving Blue, Fortune, and Lovely last episode. 

The Happiness Charge girls are watching all of this on TV.

Ribbon’s ticked off, but Yuko’s just so relieved that Megumi escaped this fate. How must Yuko and Hime feel about this, realizing that they very nearly lost Megumi the one time that she and Blue went exploring by themselves? This has got to be terrifying for everyone.

Even Fortune, the strongest Cure they know, couldn’t harm Phantom at all.

And Lovely teaming up with Fortune only served to make him more angry and determined in his goal to eliminate all Cures on Earth. Phantom must seem like a force of nature to them. There’s no stopping a tornado or an earthquake, is there? All you can do is take cover and hope that you won’t become a statistic, just hiding out until the danger’s passed. 

Megumi puts on a brave front, wanting to convince Hime and Yuko, and probably herself, too, that they can face him as a team.

But even Megumi can’t keep it up for long.

This whole situation is frightening, and she has no idea what to do. Poor girls! They all look really shaken, and Megumi has it the worst because she was actually there, witnessing Phantom’s powers firsthand.

Still, major props to Megumi here. No matter how frightened and uncertain she’s feeling at the moment, she still sees that Blue’s clearly hurting and tries to reach out to him.

And Blue, on seeing her concern in spite of any fears, steps up to reassure all three girls. Phantom is very strong, but they can’t let this stop them.

The goal of the Phantom Empire is to eliminate all happiness, hope, dreams, etc. in the world.

If the Cures give in to fear and despair here, not only will it grant the Phantom Empire a major victory, it will actually give the enemy power over them. (Remember, Cure powers in this series seem to operate based on confidence and emotions. How many times have we seen one of the girls get a major burst of power when they were angry or suddenly felt determined in the fight? Now compare that with Hime from Episodes 1 and 2, where none of her attacks could do anything against the Saiarks because she was so overcome by her fears and doubts.)

They can’t afford to let this happen. But fear isn’t something that’s easy to control. How would you go about eliminating it? Maybe a distraction, something to help distance yourself from the source of dread?

Megumi agrees, insisting it’s time to do something fun. And that, honestly, is the best thing the girls can do right now. What better way to fix their current mood than with a fun activity?

Digging for clams, Yuko? I’ve personally never done something like that before, but it sounds like it’d be a blast.

Awww! There’s a children’s clam festival coming up? What a great activity for the kids!

Going to the beach, digging up clams that are hiding in the sand, and then cooking what they’ve gathered… It sounds amazing!

Of course Yuko would love any activity involving delicious food, and Hime’s so excited even though she’s never heard of clam digging before.

Megumi’s Cure Line just rang.

It’s Seiji, and he’s calling to invite the girls to the clam festival.

Looks like it’s a set plan.

Very interesting! I haven’t really talked a lot about it before, but Happiness Charge is being treated as the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Pretty Cure Franchise. Every episode has had a Cure from past seasons appear to thank the viewers for watching, as a blast from the past.

This episode actually features the complete Happiness Charge Team,

I guess to celebrate the 500th episode?

Anyway, this is a neat sneak peak at future team dynamics we’ll likely see, once all four girls finally team up.

It looks like Fortune will be the Team Dad (Sorry Seiji, but you can’t really be on the battlefield all the time), keeping everyone focused and in line,

and Honey will be the Team Mom, smoothing things over and offering advice when needed. I think it’s safe to say that Lovely will remain the undisputed Leader, she’s this season’s Pink, after all. And Princess… I’m still not sure right now. Going by team tropes, she’s been the “Lancer,” I think, a more hesitant, cautious foil to Lovely’s unbridled enthusiasm. Will this remain the same once Fortune’s on the team? Or will Fortune take over as the second-in-command, what with her greater experience in battle? Whatever the case, Princess has been, and will likely remain, undeniably loyal to her friends. Maybe Princess will be somewhat like me, point us at the problem and let us loose. Not everyone’s cut out to be a leader, and sometimes you just need more feet on the ground to get the job done. (Princess should pay close attention to Lovely and Fortune while on this team, though. Seeing how they take charge in times of stress and trouble would give her valuable knowledge for how to act in the future. Hime is still the princess of the Blue Sky Kingdom, and someday she’s going to have to take the lead. For now, maybe it’s enough just for her to learn to listen to, and work alongside, other people in working towards a common goal.)

Now I’m really excited to see this team in action!

Back to the episode, Megumi just pulled out a PreCard. She’s becoming a Bus Guide to help keep all the kids together for the clam digging festival today.

Looks like a pretty good-sized group is participating, and everyone seems to be getting along very well.

Except for Hime… Poor girl’s not sure what to do with all these young kids. I understand, Hime, it’s overwhelming at first if you’ve never interacted with a younger crowd before. The trick I learned is to leave behind any worries or “adult” interests, thoughts, concerns etc. and just meet the little ones as you are. Let them take the lead, only intervening to prevent injuries or fights, and you’ll be surprised where the games and interactions can go. It’s a lot of fun!

Megumi’s calling for everyone to board the bus while Seiji takes roll. Mao, his little sister, says that her friend Takuma hasn’t arrived yet.

Just in time for “Masked Takuma” to make an appearance. Looks like we have a superhero fan.

Mao’s not very impressed. For all Takuma’s talk of heroes, he’s a bit of a coward and a crybaby.

Poor kid. When he starts to get upset about getting called out,

Megumi confesses that she’s a hero, too.

I’ll admit that it never occurred to me that she might blurt out her secret right here, but her friends look very panicked at her announcement, which only made me laugh harder when I saw what happened afterwards.

Megumi confesses to being the hero “Megumiman,”

and the background music completely stops for a couple seconds, perfectly mirroring Hime’s look of disbelief.

Megumiman can shoot eye-lasers (“Megu Beam!”),

so Takuma follows that up by saying he uses “Super Takuma Cannon.”

Good for Megumi, playing along here. I wonder if Takuma has ever felt a little left out in his love of heroes, considering Mao’s irritation with him, so maybe knowing that other people also enjoy heroes and will play along with him would help him feel more accepted. It’s certainly not easy to interact and connect with others when you feel like the odd one out, whether it’s due to different interests, family background, etc.

Anyway, it’s time to board the bus.

Megumi sings a whole song, getting everyone excited for the beach.

Poor Takuma, though, looks like he’s a bit carsick.

Hime grabs a bag in case he needs to be sick,

while Yuko offers a candy to help settle his stomach.

Mao looks annoyed again. Normally, I wouldn’t blame her. Does anyone really like it when a person acts so inconsistently, if not outright hypocritically, saying one thing but doing another?

In this case Takuma can’t help it, a weak stomach is a weak stomach.

At the beach, Seiji gathers everyone together to give directions for today’s activities.

There’s a grand prize, grilled onigiri from the Oomori Lunch Store, for the kid who digs up the most clams.

Other prizes are available, too, so everyone should have a chance to earn something if they try their best.

Takuma gets so excited that he trips over a rock he didn’t see while looking for a spot to dig.

Megumi encourages him that heroes always get back up after they fall down. I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again, Megumi’s a genius! What better way is there to calm Takuma down when he’s hurt and embarrassed than to remind him that heroes never give up? I don’t think Takuma’s been bullied, necessarily, but clearly Mao knows him well and has no patience for his shenanigans. Is she the only one who’s been somewhat dismissive of him?

Yet here are these older girls, Megumi and Yuko for now, just interacting with him, not babying him or annoyed with him at all.

He looks so happy, raring to go once more! Takuma reminds me a bit of Hime back in Episodes 1 and 2. She was struggling so much back then, and Megumi reached out to her, accepting that Hime needed a gentle push to get back in the fight. Maybe Takuma needs the same thing here?

Now everyone’s digging for clams.

Hime’s never seen live clams before, and gets squirted when she looks too closely at one of them.

Takuma is trying to dig like a superhero,

using very big and flashy moves,

but only finds one clam.

While Hime and Mao aren’t very impressed with this catch,

Megumi and Yuko encourage him to keep going.

Takuma then allows the girls to join his team (heroes don’t ask for help, right?).

So we have Masked Takuma, Megumiman, and Yukoman as a squad.

And now that he has a team to lead, he doesn’t want to disappoint them and starts taking his digging more seriously.

Good for him!

Oh, Hime’s on the team, too. I was wondering about that. Her hero name is “Himelda,” her actual name, instead of Himeman,

which I found amusing because earlier in the episode she was confused that Megumi’s hero name was “Megumiman” when Megumi’s a girl.

Seiji and Mao are watching all of this, but Mao still looks annoyed.

I do think she’s being a little hard on Takuma, but he has interests that she can’t understand. His playing at being a superhero is childish and irritating to her, and surely he’s too old to play pretend.

Still, Seiji has a point. Even if Takuma’s interests are very different from hers, he’s still a good kid, wanting to help others in his own way. Isn’t it better to try and find ways that you can connect, than to dwell on differences and separate from others? It’s certainly not easy, but I think it’s worth it to try for connections whenever possible, even with my personal tendency to self-isolate.

Takuma has gathered lots of clams with his team’s help. While he compliments their hard work,

Yuko starts commenting on how amazing clams are.

Clams can be cooked in a variety of ways, they’re small but rich in nutrients, and they work hard.

Just like Takuma. (And yes, she did compare him to a clam using a food analogy. Only Yuko…)

Good for her, though. Poor Takuma finally has someone, an older kid no less, who thinks he’s awesome, different interests or no. That’s got to be a boost to his confidence.

He’s fired up now, ready to keep digging.

See what I mean when I compare Takuma to Hime from the beginning? Wasn’t Hime the exact same, frightened, hurting, and unable to keep up with the other Cures? Then Megumi showed up and reached out to her as she was, instead of judging her or comparing her to others and always finding her lacking. By having someone who believed in her, Hime found the courage to keep trying, not wanting to disappoint her new friend or leave her to fight alone. And look at Hime now! Can you imagine Takuma in the future, given this same sort of attention?

Uh oh! Oresky is watching this clam digging festival from a nearby lighthouse.

I was wondering how he could possibly feel threatened by a bunch of younger kids, but it’s their motivation that he can’t stand.

And I guess I could see why that might be seen as a potential danger. Oresky himself is very strong and driven to prove himself as the best. If another person was motivated to improve, they might actually be able to close the gap a bit, maybe even excel, and Oresky will not let that happen. He stands at the top, and anyone who dares to challenge that, in any way, will be taken down with extreme prejudice!

I got a good laugh out of Namakelder and Hosshiiwa just quoting Oresky and “supporting” him (The Oresky Trio? Really, Oresky…)

while he works himself into a frenzy before leaving to attack the beach.

Looks like the kids have ten more minutes to dig for clams before the competition’s over and the cooking can begin.

Megumi encourages Takuma to finish strong,

but then Mao comes running up.

Their friend, Eri, is having trouble finding clams and needs some help.

Takuma’s a hero, so of course he goes running to help her out.

Megumi wants to join in, and that’s where Yuko stops her. This may be one of the first instances where we see Yuko acting as Team Mom for the Happiness Charge girls. (Does Episode 6 count when they weren’t all three on the team yet?)

Takuma’s doing just fine right now, he doesn’t need the extra support. Instead, Yuko gives Megumi something to think about. Megumi doesn’t always need to involve herself with whatever other people may be doing. Yuko tells her that she should start thinking more about what she likes or dislikes, rather than blindly jumping in to help others all the time.

I covered some of my thoughts on Megumi’s behavior, why she might feel such a constant need to help others, back in Episode 7. I won’t go over this in great detail again here. Basically, I was remembering that Megumi’s mom suffers from some chronic illness and wondered if Megumi may be overcompensating for not being able to help with this weakening sickness by instead helping anyone and everyone around her all the time, no matter how big or small their problems may be. I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one who’s concerned about this and wants Megumi to be able to stand on her own. Megumi’s allowed to live for herself, too, but this poor girl may have no idea how to do so.

Yuko’s one of her oldest friends and knows her very well. So who could be better to point out that since Megumi doesn’t actually need to help out right now, that this would be a good time to find something that she likes, or doesn’t like, to do for her own sake?

Poor Megumi looks so confused, though. Not help others? Then what else WOULD she do?

Believe me, I’ve fallen into this same trap more than once. It’s so easy to feel that, since you’re good at something, this is all you can ever do. I’ve felt the same when I gravitate towards my younger nieces and nephews at family gatherings. Many times, though, especially as they’ve gotten older, they’re very happy to do their own thing, and that’s left me standing on the sidelines not knowing what to do with myself. It’s forced me to think a little more on what I can or should do instead. I guess I can’t expect to be the “eternal babysitter” forever. I’ll still be close by, should someone need a little extra attention or help, but maybe I’ll take a book or an MP3 player along in case I still need a bit of a buffer for myself at social events.

It’s certainly something to think about, isn’t it Megumi?

Still, Yuko doesn’t leave Megumi trapped in an existential crisis and offers an alternative activity, since it’s time to start preparing the grill for the clams that everyone’s been gathering.

Hime follows quickly, very excited for the cookout.

Oh Megumi, that’s not exactly what Yuko meant…

Poor girl’s not sure what she’s feeling right now, remembering her time with Blue in the last episode. I know Megumi’s fourteen, so maybe it’s no surprise that she might get a crush on someone she likes. My family never allowed dating before sixteen years old, and I never really had much interest there anyway, so I can’t comment much on this, I’m afraid. Poor Megumi looks so confused right now!

Takuma’s still going strong, and I think he’s managed to impress Mao, even though she’s been so annoyed with him today.

With his and Mao’s help, Eri’s bucket is filled with clams.

While Eri’s worried that she’ll beat him in the competition now, Takuma doesn’t care. Heroes help those in need, and that’s what he got to do today so he’s happy, whatever else happens. Good for him!

Eri wants to share some of her spoils with Takuma,

and that’s when Oresky appears on the scene.

He can’t understand why Eri would throw away her shot at First Place so easily.

Credit to Takuma, he puts on his hero’s mask and urges Mao and Eri to run to safety. I’m impressed, when it comes down to it this kid is very brave!

Even Oresky is jealous as he traps all three kids in a mirror.

And now there’s a Clam Saiark on the loose!

Choiarks are roaming the beach, kicking over everyone’s clam buckets,

while the Saiark is converting the whole area to wasteland.

Megumi’s determined to rescue Takuma and the girls, so she and her friends transform.

The battle’s on!

All three Cures are going hand-to-hand for now, but I feel it’s interesting to note that while Lovely and Princess are punching and kicking,

Honey’s using her baton in Maracas Mode to instantly purify every Choiark she touches. Honey’s ever the pacifist, no direct beatdowns here, at least not yet, and it’s awesome to see!

Oh, so THAT’S what her singing attack in the intro is, “Crystal Song.”

Princess backs her up with “Princess Explosion Bomber.”

And Lovely’s decided to go into Cherry Flamenco Form.

The Choiarks seem to be finished, so now it’s time to take on the Clam Saiark.

Before Round 2 begins, Oresky asks if the Cures don’t want to be number one as well. I wonder if they’ve impressed him with their attacks and teamwork today, otherwise wouldn’t he be going on about them being weaklings by now?

In any case, none of the girls care about ranking in a competition,

they just want to enjoy delicious food at the cookout with all their friends.

Oresky’s so petty here, it’s hilarious! He declares that he’s number one, so everyone’s clams belong to him. Then he orders the Saiark to attack.

I must say, I love that the Cures keep up their personas from playing heroes with Takuma earlier, even while in a true battle with the Saiark.

Princess and Honey charge forward for the first attack.

Whoa, look at Princess go! I’m not sure I’ve seen her knock back a Saiark just by punching it before. She’s really grown, hasn’t she?

And it’s good to know that “Honey Teleport” can be applied to partners in battle, I’d wondered if that move only worked on Honey herself.

Now it’s Flamenco Lovely’s turn, and this is the first time I’ve seen a sub-attack from one of the Form Changes.

She uses “Rosa Tormenta,” summoning a tornado of rose petals to trap the Clam Saiark in one place.

Honey backs her up with “Honey Super Sonic Spark.”

Yes! Precure 5

Yes! Precure 5

I’m getting “Lemonade Flash” vibes from Yes! Precure 5, here.

Then Princess joins in with “Princess Cutter.” I’m glad to see she can still use this move. Episode 8 ended with such a shocking defeat for Lovely and Princess that she hasn’t used it since, and I worried that she never would again. It’s such an awesome-looking attack!

Finally, Flamenco Lovely attacks with another sub-attack, “Lovely Fire Festival.”

The heat was too much for the Clam Saiark, and it opened its shell.

I wonder if everyone in the area is hungry now, smelling cooked clams.

It’s time to wrap things up, so Honey purifies the Saiark, maybe giving a decent number of people a heart attack in the process. I still can’t get over how hilariously overpowered her purifying attack is!

But it worked, the Saiark is gone and Takuma, Mao, and Eri are saved!

My gosh, Honey, can you get any sweeter? She actually invites Oresky to stick around for the cookout.

And he seriously considers it for a second before his pride gets the better of him and he leaves.

The Cures check up on Takuma and his friends before leaving.

Takuma must feel so amazed, because all three heroes praised him for his bravery,

with even Honey calling him her leader!

Eri’s certainly impressed,

and even Mao respects him more now, though his playing hero still seems childish to her.

Awww! He’s been playing hero because he wants to help others, even if it hasn’t always worked out.

Now his hard work is finally getting acknowledged and he’s so happy!

The Happiness Charge girls have earned two new PreCards today, including Coconut Samba.

I’ve seen several clips of this Form Change on Youtube, and it may well be one of my favorite Battle Forms, hands down. I can’t wait to see Honey use it in the future!

Anyway, after all that chaos, the cookout is back on schedule and everyone’s enjoying freshly grilled clams,

while Yuko’s making sure there’s plenty of rice to go around.

And that’s the end of this episode.

On Hermit Crabs and Healing:

There are no flowers in today’s episode. I was keeping a close watch in case I missed something, but when I remembered that this took place at the beach, I realized we wouldn’t likely see much plantlife. Fun fact, did you know that the beach is one of the only biomes in the world where plants can’t exist before the animals that may live in the area? One of my Biology classes in the past had us make “food webs” depicting the chain of life throughout different environments. (Foxes preying on rabbits, rabbits preying on vegetation, etc.) In nearly every other biome, plants had to appear first, creating a stable food supply that would draw in herbivores, predators, and scavengers. Only with the beach (if I remember right) do you see the opposite occur, where animals have to appear first, maybe softening up the sandy ground with their digging, introducing seeds to this environment via seed dispersal (like burrs sticking to fur/feathers, or maybe remnants of some fruit from a prior meal?), certainly enriching the earth with their “deposits,” and only after this can some very hardy, salt-tolerant plants start to grow.

So no, I didn’t see any flowers today. I did see a small Hermit Crab scuttling around. It appeared twice, actually. And it turns out that this little critter has some symbolic meanings all its own. Here we go…

You can read more in detail here: https://spiritanimalsandsymbolism.com/hermit-crabs-spiritual-meaning-symbolism-and-totem/, but hermit crabs often symbolize change (specifically adapting with changing times) and new beginnings. Native Americans believe that the hermit crab represents adaptability and resourcefulness (since the crab finds and uses a new shell whenever it grows too big for its current one). The hermit crab can also indicate protection, due to its shell. (Do you remember what happened with Takuma and his friends when the Phantom Empire showed up today?) It’s also believed that the hermit crab is a social creature, always looking out for the welfare of its community. Tell me if that doesn’t fit Takuma to a “T” today! It probably goes without saying that the hermit crab is often seen as a totem animal of introverted people, due to its tendency to withdraw into its shell for safety. But get this, it can also symbolize HEALING because a hermit crab is a scavenger, feeding on decaying matter and thus cleaning up the environment. (Always with the healing and new beginnings. No wonder I keep thinking of these girls (at least Megumi and Yuko, we’ll see if Hime and Iona join in as they recover from their own traumas) as a team of healers, even with how brutally they fight in the middle of a war!)

Chapter Text

Awww! It’s Mother’s Day today, and Megumi and Mao have made cakes for their moms to celebrate.

Goodness, Megumi, that cake makes my teeth hurt just seeing all the sweets you piled on it!

Her mom loves it, though, and no wonder. It’s a lot of work to make a cake, especially a highly personalized one like this, but I bet these girls had a blast putting it all together.

Mao has made her mother a banana cake, and Mao insists that she eat it for breakfast before going back to work tomorrow morning.

And Seiji brought his mom a flower, a red carnation.

Heartcatch Pretty Cure Episode 3

Heartcatch Pretty Cure Episode 3

This season is Happiness Charge, not Heartcatch, but I wondered about the meaning of this flower anyway, so here’s a little information for those who may be curious like I was. The scientific name for the carnation is Dianthus, which when broken down means “Dios” (gods) and “Anthos” (flower), or “flower of the gods”. Carnations generally mean love, fascination, and distinction in flower language.

Specifically, a red carnation like Seiji’s would mean “Deep love and admiration.” What a sweet way to show his love for his mom! Bear in mind the color if you choose to give a carnation to someone.

Image found here: https://pixabay.com/photos/carnation-flower-plant-7442168/

Apparently, purple carnations mean capriciousness (impulsive, unpredictable), while striped carnations mean rejection or regret. (If citations matter, you can read more about it here: https://www.flowermeaning.com/carnation-flower-meaning/)

(I know that this isn’t a carnation, but it is a STRIPED rose, “Scentimental,” so I’m using it for my example anyway.)

That makes me sad, I LOVE striped flowers! Can I lodge a complaint with whoever decided this meaning for striped carnations in the language of flowers?

Hime’s made some cupcakes for Mother’s Day, but she’s just sharing them with Yuko and Megumi for now.

To be fair, it’s not like she can give them to her mother, not when her mom’s trapped in a mirror in the heart of the Phantom Empire. Hime doesn’t look very upset about this at first, saying that her friends should help her eat the cupcakes so they won’t go to waste.

Megumi and Yuko just smile at each other in agreement 

before packaging up the cupcakes and putting them in a gift basket.

They insist that these cupcakes need to be given to Hime’s mom.

Poor Hime knows that this is impossible.

But Megumi reminds her how important it is to honor and give thanks to their moms on Mother’s Day. And Hime already put so much effort into making these cupcakes with raisins because her mom loves them.

Now I feel like I want to cry! Hime, you poor kid! This has got to be SO hard for her. How has she been feeling today, seeing everyone else celebrating the day with their mothers, but she can’t see hers, and she doesn’t know if she ever will again. This war has lasted for… we don’t even know how long, and so many people must be hurting, feeling the effects. Hime with her lost home and family, Fortune with her lost sister, what about the families of the other Cures who Phantom has defeated? It’s just more visible today because we’re seeing Hime struggling with missing her mom on Mother’s Day of all days.

Awww! Hime’s wondering how her friends knew what she was feeling. She’s probably been trying her hardest to hide her true feelings so she wouldn’t worry anyone. But there’s no hiding something like that from the people who really know you. Goodness knows I’ve tried, whether due to stubborn pride and embarrassment (I can handle this myself, I don’t need help!), or not understanding what’s bothering me (Why would I bother others about it if I can’t understand what’s wrong myself?), but my parents can always tell. I still don’t know how they do it…

Hime’s friends are the same.

There’s no hiding from them that Hime’s hurting badly today, and they want to help no matter what.

Hime, your friends are AMAZING!

Let’s all welcome Cure Melody of Suite Pretty Cure today.

Ribbon’s obviously not happy with this plan. She’s probably wondering about the sanity of this team. I don’t blame her, either. What Megumi and the girls are suggesting is to actually walk right into the heart of the enemy’s stronghold to deliver a basket of cupcakes to someone who’s trapped in a mirror, in stasis. Hime’s mother is unconscious to the world, unable to even speak, let alone eat those cupcakes, so why risk the trip? There’s no denying it, the mere idea is crazy!

But look at poor Hime in this shot. She knows, and has known the whole time, how impossible her wish is, which is why she tried to hide this longing from her friends in the first place. At least we now have a better idea of the timeline here. Apparently, Ribbon was actually with Hime at the time of the invasion, which means that Hime’s been a Cure since before she opened the Axia Box, however long ago this would’ve been. Clearly this would indicate that Cures have existed since before the start of this war, but there are many more of them and they are much more well-known now that the war’s taking place.

This doesn’t change much of my thoughts regarding the main story’s events, but it’s a minor adjustment I’ll have to keep in mind for my write-ups on Hime’s situation, like the one that I completed after watching Episode 8. The one question I had on first seeing this was why Ribbon allowed Hime to open the Axia Box if she was with her back then. Surely Ribbon would’ve sensed the evil energy (We’ve seen this happen before, like in Episode 1) and recognized the sad voice for the trap that it was. But after thinking about it for a minute I remembered that, from what I’ve read about this show, only royalty was allowed to visit and pray to this Box. This rule likely would’ve prevented Ribbon from going along with Hime, so that’s why the events played out as they did.

Of course Hime knows how dangerous this is. She’s probably never forgotten just what she and Ribbon went through to escape that day. She sounds like she’s ready to cry, and now I’m wondering if this poor girl’s been reliving those events as nightmares every night when things get to be stressful. Overall, Hime’s been doing so much better with Megumi and Yuko’s help, but there’s clearly some trauma here that I wonder if she’ll ever truly heal from.

Ribbon looks less angry and more sympathetic as she reminds Hime that the Blue Sky Kingdom is now the very seat of the enemy’s power.

Again, her mother’s trapped in a mirror, completely unconscious. What point is there in delivering cupcakes to someone who can’t eat them and who won’t even know her daughter’s there?

But Hime’s desperate. If this war drags on for years, as wars always seem to do, she’s terrified that she’ll forget her parents’ faces. I wonder if enough time has passed that she’s already starting to have trouble remembering, and that’s why she looks so distraught now. Megumi, if Hime’s ever needed a hug, now’s the time!

Megumi and Yuko back her up.

They wouldn’t have suggested such a dangerous trip if they didn’t mean to follow through on making it happen.

Ribbon then declares that Blue will never allow this…

except he does. How easy would it be for him to put his foot down and stop the girls right here? They have no way to travel to the Blue Sky Kingdom alone. Could they even fly that far, let alone in one day? But Blue respects their decision and will allow them to make the trip, no matter how dangerous it may be. As I’ve said before, he’s no puppet master or tyrant.

If this is what the girls want to do, Blue will do everything in his power to help them out.

Now it’s Hime and Yuko’s turn to visit the Cross Mirror Room (see Episode 13). They look awed and amazed. (Megumi and Hime do, Yuko looks more excited, in my opinion.) Now that I think about it, though, wouldn’t Hime have been here before? How else, except travel through portals, could she and Ribbon have successfully escaped the fall of her kingdom if they were truly running for their lives, as Ribbon said earlier? There’s a story here, one that I really want to see, but it probably won’t happen because this is a show geared toward a younger audience. Anyway, portal travel through mirrors would be the fastest way to get to the Blue Sky Kingdom.

Blue has opened the mirror that leads to that area.

Before the girls leave, though, he gives a dire warning. Because the Blue Sky Kingdom is now the headquarters of the Phantom Empire, their Cure powers won’t work if they get dragged into a fight.

I’d imagine that any enemies would have the home field advantage, and if we were talking elemental affinities, the Cures’ Light powers would be greatly weakened in a Dark environment, while Dark monsters would get a major power boost. This is going to have to be a stealth mission.

Blue may be able to help somewhat from the Cross Mirror Room, but he can only guarantee the girls’ safety if they don’t get caught to begin with.

And credit to Ribbon, even if she feels like the only sane person in the room right now, she’s not letting the girls go into this situation alone!

My gosh, poor Hime!

Just look at what’s become of her home!

She and Ribbon actually witnessed this as it happened, too.

What would Hime have thought, seeing everyone in the kingdom trapped in coffin-shaped mirrors? Would she even have known if they were still alive in that state? What would YOU think if you saw the people all around you trapped in upright coffin-shaped boxes or mirrors, out cold and unmoving, with their arms crossed over their chests like that?! Could Ribbon even tell at first (she and Hime were on the run at this point), or did it take them escaping to Blue before they could be certain that all her people were still safe?

I swear, I’m not trying to make things more traumatic than they are, but when I really think about Happiness Charge’s timeline,

and especially what some of these characters may have gone through,

I get more horrified by the second!

The worst part is, if the Phantom Empire has its way, every city around the world will be exactly like this.

Is it any wonder that Blue’s calling for all hands on deck with every Cure he can find to fight and prevent this horrific fate? Seeing firsthand what will become of Pikarigaoka if they lose the war is frightening, but all three girls are determined not to let the enemy win.

There are Choiarks marching around,

and it’s rather strange to see the girls hiding from them instead of taking them out in a direct fight.

Remember, though, that they are now in a very different environment where EVERYTHING favors the enemy. Who knows how strong even Choiarks might be in this state?

Hime still wants to fight, and Megumi’s ready to back her up.

Thankfully, Ribbon quickly reins them in. This visit isn’t them taking the fight to the enemy, it’s only to deliver a gift to Hime’s mom.

Drawing attention right now is a very bad idea.

Ribbon’s emphasis on hiding gives Megumi an idea, and all three girls reach for the Ninja PreCard. Good thing they have duplicates!

Is this the first time we’ve had all three girls wear a matching costume? They look really good, and even Ribbon’s got a face mask to match. I love it!

What was that?!

I was impressed, seeing them leaping over the roofs of buildings while sneaking through the area,

and then they were doing the ninja (Naruto?) run, going “Sa-sa-sa-sa-sa!” I nearly choked laughing in surprise! Are they actually making those sounds, or is that just a natural effect of the costume, like Cherry Flamenco with the whooshing sounds when Lovely’s summoning individual bursts of flame before the final, huge explosion? Oh dear, this show…

At least the costume’s working, the girls are now within sight of the castle.

Megumi and Yuko are impressed at the size of the castle, while Hime admits that it’s so huge that even she got lost all the time in there. Hopefully she can remember her way this time, or they’ll all be in trouble if they get caught before finding Hime’s mom.

Ribbon reminds them that this is no time to get careless.

There are two Knight Saiarks guarding the way forward. Megumi’s not worried, though.

These are Ninja costumes, and what do ninjas excel at but camouflage and stealth?

Sure enough, with this costume, the girls are able to disguise themselves as bushes. (I did notice that Hime’s bush has an extra little bump on top to hide Ribbon. Nice attention to detail, animators!) I’ve been remembering Ninja Hime from Episode 4 while watching the girls today, so I knew that this costume gave smoke bombs and the “sheet trick” (hiding yourself using a sheet that perfectly matches the surface you’re standing nearby). It’s really neat to see all the other things this costume allows, like roof-hopping, quick running across open areas, and now another environmental disguise. They even have those ninja throwing knives (kunai?), but those haven’t been used in battle yet. Maybe someday… Let’s see how the girls progress from here.

At first it looks like a glorified game of “Red Light, Green Light,”

with the girls freezing in their tracks whenever a Knight Saiark glances their way.

And this happens a lot. Are these Saiarks more powerful than the usual ones, hence this level of attention to their surroundings, or is it the Dark environment that is giving this boost in ability?

I don’t recall many other Saiarks from the past being this alert, except maybe the ones that Oresky summoned. (Don’t forget that ambush from Episode 8. I didn’t hear Oresky command the Saiarks to attack that way. Maybe some Saiarks are just more clever than others?) I must applaud the Empire for having such attentive guards watching their front doors, even if it makes it a pain for Megumi and her friends to make any headway sneaking in.

Oh gosh, the Saiark’s even coming over to investigate the bushes. Poor girls!

Thankfully it leaves after a minute,

but Megumi accidentally destroys her bush when she starts moving again.

Hime’s panicking, but Yuko just activates another Ninja camouflage ability.

Just in time, because their panic attracts the Saiark’s attention again. The three bushes are now… a random leafy patch with a large lump in the middle of it, all surrounded by plain dirt ground. I know there was no time for anything better, but there’s no way that this isn’t going to raise suspicion!

Thank heaven the Saiark finally leaves them alone.

But before there’s time to even breathe after the close call, Yuko’s stomach growls. And THAT is what causes the Saiark to raise the alarm. As bad as this is, that did make me laugh. To be fair, the Knight Saiark was so alert already, probably anything would’ve triggered this reaction, whether it was the leaves rustling when the girls started moving again, maybe a sneeze or one of them stubbing a toe…

Regardless, it’s time to run!

The alarm has been raised and a horde of Choiarks has been summoned to find them.

It’s now a race against time.

The Ninja costume isn’t going to work against this many enemies scouring the area, so Hime suggests becoming Roller Skaters instead.

It seems to be working for now.

Yep, the girls were so fast in blazing past that the Choiarks quickly lost sight of them after recovering from the surprise.

Now the girls can see the front entrance, but it’s closely guarded by two more Knight Saiarks. I don’t think the girls can get in this way, not before all those Choiarks catch up.

Hime seems to have a plan, though.

Oh, there’s a secret entrance?

And it’s a direct path to the Queen’s room?

Ribbon’s shocked that she never knew this existed.

Hime’s more mischievous than I thought, and we’ve seen her be fairly goofy before. I guess Hime was a bit of a rebel princess after all, at least when she was younger. Maybe she needed a quick way to escape whenever the demands of the palace were too much.

I’m laughing at Ribbon’s outrage through this. You just know that she’s going to be having words with Hime when this is all over.

At least Megumi and Yuko are enjoying themselves.

Finally, they’ve made it to the throne room.

For the first time in months, Hime can see her parents again.

She’s missed them so much, she starts crying right there. Megumi says that Hime looks like her mom.

She really does, they have about the same hair color, while her father’s hair is navy blue.

Hime finally gets to give her mom the Mother’s Day cupcakes she made.

Awww, Hime’s really grown! She tells her mom that she knows how to cook now, when she couldn’t even break an egg correctly before.

And Hime made sure to include lots of raisins, since her mom loves them so much. I bet her mother would be so proud of her now.

Unfortunately, the girls are still in the heart of enemy territory, and the Choiarks just found them.

Looks like we’re going to see just how this environmental difference will affect a fight.

At least the girls can still transform.

The Deep Mirror, meanwhile, is informing Mirage that the Cures managed to infiltrate the castle.

She doesn’t care, and she may have good reason for this confidence. Blue already warned the girls earlier that their powers wouldn’t work if they got in a fight here. Mirage certainly seems to think they’ll go down in a hurry. I guess we’ll have to see how things go.

The Cures are playing it smart here, going on the run rather than getting overwhelmed in a straight fight.

Lovely tells Princess, who still looks worried about her parents, that it’s time to go. They’ll save her home and family, it just can’t happen today.

The girls fly to ground level, only to be confronted by Hosshiiwa.

While Ribbon, Honey, and Lovely start to run, Princess gets angry.

This is Princess’s home, and she’s ticked off that the Phantom Empire claims this land as their own. I’m impressed with her bravery, but this is a really bad time to take a stand.

And now Hosshiiwa knows that Princess is the princess of the Blue Sky Kingdom.

At first I thought this would be really bad news. And in another story, it might be. Imagine if the members of the royal family all escaped the initial invasion, but were scattered in the process and the enemies needed information from the King. Discovering and capturing his daughter would be very useful, wouldn’t it? Or what if the Blue Sky Kingdom had some secret weapon or other resource that the Phantom Empire wanted to use? Having Hime as a hostage would be a good idea, right? But none of that actually applies in this case. The Phantom Empire is only here because the Blue Sky Kingdom was the country tasked with keeping the Axia Box safe. When the enemies were released from the Box, this is where they set down roots to consolidate their power. There is no other reason that Hime lost her home. Now she’s the princess of a fallen kingdom, a refugee in a foreign land, and no one (except her best friends) even seems to care. Is it any wonder she’s so angry?

Princess actually directly attacks Hosshiiwa with “Princess Ball.”

Hosshiiwa pretends to be scared

before knocking the attack to one side,

where it dissipates against a Knight Saiark’s shield. Dear heavens, this is HOSSHIIWA, not Phantom or even a Saiark, nullifying an attack with her bare hands. This isn’t going to end well.

Now the Cures are facing down three Saiarks at once, with this kind of disadvantage in effect.

And if that’s not bad enough, now Namakelder and Oresky have found them as well. The only good news is that the Generals are distracted and arguing with each other.

The Cures take advantage of this and make a break for it.

Unfortunately, the Knight Saiarks easily catch up and the girls are forced to fight them.

Physical attacks don’t seem to do much,

so Lovely uses “Lovely Blaster.”

While she’s flash-frying one Saiark and Princess is just beating on another,

Honey uses her purifying attack.

That’s right, Honey’s overpowered purifying attack from OUTER SPACE hits all three Knight Saiarks at once.

And they just shrug it off!

Hosshiiwa gets a good laugh at the Cures’ shock, declaring that the Precure only have half of their power here in the Phantom Empire.

Or was that one-tenth their power?

Namakelder wonders if it wasn’t actually one-hundredth of their power.

Oresky’s so confident in their weakness that he thinks even Choiarks alone can take out the Cures. And he may be right…

The Cures have no choice but to keep fighting for now.

Even Honey’s hitting and kicking with her friends because purifying individual Choiarks with her baton isn’t working, either.

Okay, this is terrifying! No matter how hard the Choiarks get hit, they keep getting back up.

And something about the way they get back on their feet reminds me of zombies or puppets. It looks so wrong!

The Choiarks just won’t go down, and the Cures are surrounded.

Ribbon pulls out the Form Change Cards. Somehow, the girls have to get enough space that they can run for it.

Lovely transforms into Lollipop Hip Hop, immediately followed by Honey’s Popcorn Cheer and Princess’s Macadamia Hula Dance.

Three consecutive Dance Form attacks.

And the Choiarks STILL shrug it all off. At least a few of them,

including Oresky, seem distracted from Macadamia Hula Dance…

Oresky declares that the Cures must be at about one-millionth of their power right now.

This is very bad! None of their attacks can do anything, and they’re completely surrounded.

Princess is really regretting that she wanted to see her mom today. It wasn’t very smart, admittedly, but I can’t blame her for having a wish. And Megumi and Yuko agreed to go along, it was even their idea. All three of them decided this was worth the risk.

Thankfully, Blue calls them on Lovely’s Cure Line, saying there’s a Mirror Gate nearby. See, he’s got their back. Blue’s awesome here!

Good thinking, Honey! She teleports them away from danger when the Choiarks attack with their lasers.

The Generals now know that the Cures have an escape route.

It’s a footrace to see if the Cures can escape or not.

This is more intense than I thought it’d be.

And it’s got me wondering if this is exactly how Hime and Ribbon escaped the initial invasion in the first place. Were they chased down like animals, just like what’s happening now, 

with Blue urging them towards the open Gate?

Holy cow! They barely made it through,

with a Knight Saiark crushing the area where they stood a split second ago! Hime, I’m glad you got to see your parents today, but after seeing all that, I don’t think you’re going back there for a VERY long time!