Delicious Party Precure

Episode 3

It's a good thing Pam-Pam woke up, because she's clearly the only one who actually knows what's going on. That's hardly Mari's fault, of course, since for whatever reason they weren't given all of the details of the mission, which is kind of odd. But Pam-Pam is here to save the day while also kind of screwing it up by talking in front of Kokone! And really, Yui and Mari do need someone who knows more than they do, so it all works out – especially since Kokone is going to become Cure Spicy next week.

I'm not one hundred percent sure on this, but this may be the longest gap between Cures one and two making their appearances. While Kokone has certainly been present for all three episodes, she hasn't made her Cure debut yet, and that's interesting. It's also in line with older classic magical girl shows – the Sailor Guardians aren't necessarily introduced one right after the other in successive episodes, and the same is true for the introductions of Angels Peach and Lily in Wedding Peach, although Angel Daisy arrives in the episode directly following Angel Lily. (As a point of clarification, when I say “classic magical girl shows” I'm referring to those targeted at a child audience rather than those seeking to capture an older demographic.) It'll be interesting to see how long it takes Cure Yum Yum to come in once Cure Spicy is established. In any event, it's certainly not a bad thing to have this gap. For one, it allows Yui and Mari to become more of a team on their own, and although Mari takes a step back in terms of action this week, the relationship between Yui and Mari is clearly important to the story's themes. This becomes very apparent at the end of the episode, when we see Mari, Yui, and Pam-Pam making dinner before they (and ※Kome-※Kome) all sit down to eat together…while Kokone sits alone in a lavish dining room, sadly cutting up a steak without any real sign of enjoyment. Yes, eating alone can be fine (especially if you have a good book), but when we compare the two meals, it's clear that Yui and Mari are much happier than Kokone.

That seems to be true for all of the times we've seen soon-to-be-Cure Spicy. The only interactions with others she's had prior to this week are with her chauffeur, and even those have been pretty sparse. Meanwhile Yui has her mother, the fairies, Mari, and Takumi. Yes, she's a more outgoing person than Kokone appears to be, but she's also surrounded by people who enjoy her company, even if Takumi seems equally baffled/exasperated by her. Meanwhile, the first real conversation Kokone has is with ※Kome-※Kome when she finds the little fairy trying to buy carrots. That means that becoming a Pretty Cure stands to be even more important to her than it was to Yui: Yui is saving her beloved food and hometown as Cure Precious, but Kokone may be the one being saved when she becomes Cure Spicy next week, especially since she'll get to work with the girl who flew her home.

Perhaps that's part of the reason why Pam-Pam, unlike ※Kome-※Kome, can speak. It's explained away as ※Kome-※Kome being a baby while Pam-Pam is an adult (maybe that's behind ※Kome-※Kome's late-breaking transformation into a humanish baby – to make the age difference between them clear) but if anyone is in need of a talking dog, it's Kokone. Like I said before, Pam-Pam's gift of human speech is also a really good thing for Yui and Mari, who were just sort of winging it, but I think there's more to her linguistic abilities than that. If nothing else, it'll help to explain/convince Takumi of the whole Pretty Cure thing when he eventually stumbles into the truth, which feels inevitable.

But until that happens, Yui will keep kicking ass as Cure Precious, or at least punching it. It definitely took guts to dive into the evil curry pot monster, but it's that kind of creative thinking that Cure Precious excels at. It's a gag that's existed since at least King's Quest 4's whale scene (that's where I first remember it from, anyway), but it's also a solid plan when beating it from the outside doesn't seem to be working. Pam-Pam's explanations and information are important, but make no mistake: it's Yui's determination that's really going to save the day, and that's at least part of what's making this show so much fun.

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Delicious Party♡Precure is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.