Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Delicious Party Precure
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Regalli
Posts: 85 |
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I’d bet any money that Yui’s grandmother was the Legendary Precure before our girls. Maybe someone from CooKingdom chose to remain in Oishina Town after the adventures were done and ultimately became Takumi’s grandparent? (Which would also open the door to Mari and the fairies sticking around at the end of the season. That could be nice. Heartbreaking and extremely gay farewells like Tropical Rouge are always fun, but I also like the occasional ‘we’re still together and the magic can continue if we need it to’ season.)
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Regalli
Posts: 85 |
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I was not expecting ‘Amane’s brainwashed into being Gentlu, but also, Gentlu is the one in control in BOTH her forms,’ but it seems that’s where we’re going. Last week when Gentlu seemed to be struggling, one of her eyes turned blue to represent that. Seemed strange to me, because we see in civilian form that Amane’s eyes are red there, too… and then this week, when we see those flashes of Amane trying to hold Gentlu back, THAT Amane has blue eyes. Which explains when her actions as Amane were furthering the Bundoru cause (in particular, her first appearance where she knows the fried shrimp in Ran’s post is from their school cafeteria despite it not mentioning a location and then using the monster investigation to steal without witnesses,) and the bits where Gentlu’s struggling with the conditioning and Amane seems to be fighting back. I do wonder how exactly the Bundoru Gang got control of her… though no doubt we’ll find out soon enough.
I also wonder how a Recipeppi was THERE in Episode Six if they’re drawn to people EATING food, not just food being made, and promoting takeout made Ran’s Instagram ineffective for tracking Recipeppis, but maybe I’m forgetting something from that episode and it’s not a plot inconsistency. Speaking of Ran’s Instagram, I can’t wait to see Ran in particular find out about the Gentlu reveal(s), because the way she’s been intertwined in the Amane arc has the potential to be very cool. |
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q_3
Posts: 97 |
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It's been pretty common in the series' history for Precure to not bother hiding their civilian identities from the villains - while sometimes still going to great lengths to hide them from friends and family. It's always struck me as odd, but it at least makes sense from a thematic perspective. The focus is more about preserving the masquerade than what might seem like an unwise strategy from a grown-up perspective. Fortunately the villains never think to, say, target the Precure in their sleep or take family members hostage, though many have used their own cover to deceive or manipulate the Precure in civilian life.
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Saeryen
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Welp, spoiler[Gentlu/Amane] has joined the “hurt anime kids who I’ve adopted now” list.
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wolf10
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Mine, too. The agency must be sick of me by now.
And okay, though, serious question time: am I the only one who imagines button-prompts on the screen when Cures do their special attacks? Like, I get that these are real toys you can buy and play with, but it always feels to me like they're doing quick-time events. I think this one would be a "Press A when the marker is over the highlighted section" prompt. |
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StarFan13
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they got another frying pan like from the first episode finally seen the group transformation, gentlu's trying to control herself.
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Saeryen
Posts: 673 |
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The Bundoru lair looks kinda sci-fi. Is this a first for Pretty Cure? Cool either way.
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Regalli
Posts: 85 |
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I believe they’ve done more sci-fi villain groups in at least a couple of the backseasons - Fresh apparently had some kind of cyberpunk dystopia, Hugtto had Evil Corp from a bad future, and Star Twinkle was of course set in space - but I couldn’t tell you much about relative lairs. Surprising choice to take that approach (especially with Narcistoru as an evil tech guy, it seems) in a season about food - I guess they wanted to differentiate from A la Mode’s more fantasy theming, since it wasn’t all THAT long ago? (Could also explain why the last two seasons were much more fantasy themed themselves, since Hugtto and Star Twinkle were the two between them and Healin’ Good.)
Poor Akane. I usually prefer ‘still of sound mind, just manipulated into being villains’ villainous redemptions to brainwashing, but seeing her fight against it and get kidnapped to be reprogrammed and the way Narcistoru refers to her as a puppet is just creepy. I wonder if we’re actually going to save her next episode and have her as a nonpowered ally, or if it’ll take them a few more episodes before they can get her free. |
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wolf10
Posts: 849 |
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StarFan13
Posts: 302 |
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looks like this episode has more use of the customized Mixer attack than last ep which is 2 like Spicy and Yum-Yum. I thought I did not see Soda Pop again in the ED like later but maybe next ep I will see Pineapple Juice again in the ED.
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StarFan13
Posts: 302 |
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wolf10
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Saeryen
Posts: 673 |
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Looks like we're getting new characters!
spoiler[I feel like Amane's arc is going to be somewhat long, if they're introducing her family members.] |
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Moonybadger
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Really hope we get to see Amane join the team later as a permanent cure! I've had a soft spot for "person who used to be evil but is now part of the team" type characters since my early Digimon days and she's a great candidate for it. And while we're pretty sure Takumi is joining the team, I also really hope he gets a cute animal companion like the girls do; everyone deserves a cute animal best friend!
Also, strawberry and pineapple actually taste pretty great together but throwing soda pop into the mix??? That'd definitely be a funky flavor lol Last edited by Moonybadger on Mon May 30, 2022 1:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Regalli
Posts: 85 |
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This was a VERY strong episode, particularly in the big fight scene (gotta love Yui sidestepping the usual ‘fight the MOTW, ignore the recurring monster maker’ thing and spending her time fighting Gentlu,) but I also can’t help but feel like this is where the series is showing losing a month due to the hack - the total lack of ceremony around them using a Group Attack for the first time screams to me ‘there was a formal debut episode for this, and possibly also Yum Yum and Spicy’s individual Mixer attacks, but we lost a month and have to get things in place for the midseason Cure before the toys are in stores.’ Which, incidentally, Toei has formally announced - spoiler[her name is Cure Finale, and she is in fact Amane. Which a good segment of the fandom has known for a bit because toy listings have to be announced well in advance and people have learned to look for those, but such is the way of a toycentric franchise and the internet. Notably, we have her reveal - because the toys, as I said, must release on schedule, but NOT the date of her debut as a Cure. Hopefully this means we’ll get a good month or so with Amane as herself before she joins the team properly. Can’t imagine much longer than that, but with Takumi’s powered-up form still to go and the fact that Cure Finale will be getting finishers to herself once she debuts, they probably do want to take their time with that and the group attack.] Even if so, though, I actually think it works all the stronger for our first group attack to be saving a recurring villain from mind control, rather than like ten Recipeppis or whatever. It gives it narrative weight for the series instead of just an episode. A bit unfortunate for Toei’s marketing department that the hack struck in a series with an uncharacteristically leisurely pace for bringing in the Cures, which meant leisurely pace for the group attack too, but I’ve really enjoyed the pacing. Especially for Amane’s arc and the slow build as Takumi realizes his friend’s up to something weird and dangerous.
… I should note that I’ve also been following Precure closely enough for long enough to recognize this is a franchise very much aimed at selling toys to young kids, and I accept that, but it also means accepting some quirks and by now a fairly predictable pattern. For one thing, seasons are planned something like a year in advance from what we know - because the toyline is such a big deal, they have to be designed and prototyped so they’re ready to ship well before any given episode actually debuts. This means plot developments and episodes are also planned pretty well in advance, so when something unexpected happens - the 2011 earthquake/tsunami/Fukushima disaster, COVID in 2020, or the hack this year - they have pretty limited ability to change things up. (Though I recall there WERE rumors in 2020 that part of Healin’ Good’s long hiatus was them trying to rewrite where they could due to the uniquely bad luck of having a doctor-themed season with bad guys who wanted to infect the world during a global pandemic. I don’t think anything was ever confirmed and given how strong one climactic episode was I have to believe it was always planned to go that way, but there were rumors.) They can cut episodes, and they pushed things back a lot to hit critical ground in Healin’ Good, but even then the costumes were made and Cure Earth HAD to debut. So I appreciate that either the writers were given more leeway to break formula or the hack, number of characters, and gentle rollout of said characters meant that we get a huge climactic moment for the mixer… but it’s a second finisher for Precious, and the actual group attack with said mixer is a symbol of their resolve to save Amane with HER as the focus of the episode. Seriously though, I am SO THRILLED at how that big battle went. Yui using a powered-up form of her punch attack! Kokone and Ran just dropping all pretenses and hitting a monster! Mari protecting Yui from an attack, and then choosing to believe in her when she won’t back down. Gentlu throwing punches and kicks while Yui deflects and appeals to Amane - one of the things I love about this genre is mixing fights with emotional stakes (Healin’ Good’s big episode with Daruizen was absolutely TO DIE FOR,) and Precure in particular is good about adding physical attacks to the light show and fun toys. Kokone fulfilling her gay superhero dreams and being the one to carry someone to the rescue this time, with Ran. So much to love there. The rest of the episode’s solid, too - Since it’s not available legally, I’ve never seen Go! Princess Precure’s take on the brainwashed enemy thing (from what I can tell most of the redeemed villain Cures either joined up with the evil willingly or because it was all they ever knew, but that season’s I believe was brainwashed and I don’t know about non-Cure redeemed villains in any given season except one in Happiness Charge,) but this one really sold the horror of having your personality overwritten and being forced to harm the things you love while you can only watch and try and stop the thing controlling your body. The Recipeppis for me have always been ‘yeah, this sure is a toyetic franchise and these are cute fairies, collect them all in sticker and keychain form’ sort of creatures, but the reveal that Amane could see them for some time and has the same particular enchantment with them that Yui and Ran had even before becoming a Cure adds an extra touch of horror to what she did as Gentlu - hurting them to power the Ubau-zos up, and using Ran and her desire to see more to steal them away. No wonder Amane’s been fighting hard enough to break the Gentlu personality even before they knew. Speaking of, Ran did in fact use her Instagram account to trap Gentlu! Nice touch, especially with the post being set up early so that Gentlu would be lured out before there’d be Recipeppis to steal and customers to be upset (… It didn’t WORK, because we need a fight scene, but I appreciate that effort was made to try and minimize harm to the restaurant itself in this trap.) Also, was this the first time we’ve seen the group pose and name drop? I know we only got the group transformation a few episodes ago and then last one split the girls up. It’s nice, I like it. Loved this episode. Loved loved loved it. |
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