Delicious Party Precure

Episode 44

In the end, Godatz is more sad than frightening. He's still plenty scary, don't get me wrong, but the core of what made Fennel transform isn't genuine evil or even a real wish to do harm. As you've seen in the lead-up to this penultimate episode, Fennel's transformation into Godatz was born of his insecurities and jealousies, a feeling that he was never good enough and couldn't truly trust the people who called themselves his friends. It's clear that fighting him breaks a little bit of Mari's heart, and when at the end of the battle, Fennel breaks down in tears over his own perceived failures, it hits Mari and Cinnamon hard. At that moment, they realize what was really fueling Fennel's transformation, and it wouldn't be surprising if they didn't question themselves for what they could have done differently to prevent this from ever happening in the first place.

But the role of magical girls is ultimately not to prevent tragedies from happening in the first place but to correct and make sure that they don't happen again. They can't erase what Godatz has done, but they can help to ensure that it doesn't repeat itself, and the primary way they have to do this is to force Godatz to turn back into Fennel. Interestingly enough, Cure Precious consistently calls him Fennel even when he's in his Godatz form, which indicates that she knows the truth about him even if he isn't willing to acknowledge it himself. Her role is both to fight him to save the world and to believe that he is capable of changing, something we have already seen repaid in the reformations of his minions. Just as Gentlu became Cure Finale, Secretoru, Narcistoru, and Fennel himself can make the same changes. They just need someone to tell them that it's okay and they matter.

Last week, I said that I thought Yone, Yui's grandmother, was filling the role usually played by the Pretty Cure of Legend. That is driven home this week when the lucky cat statues she distributed around Oishi-na Town all come to life to help fight off the mini Spiritorus. Yone and Ginger were the original team protecting Oishi-na Town and safeguarding its food and people's hearts, and their safeguards give the current group of protectors the extra push they need. They remind everyone that even though someone has died does not mean that they are gone from our lives, and that may have been part of Fennel's issue in the first place. With Ginger gone, there was no way that he could continue to work to prove himself to his mentor, leaving him with what he clearly felt was no choice but to become stronger in any way he could. He had lost the source of approbation that he sought and that, along with his jealousy, warped him, not that he was a bad person to begin with.

This was the final battle, but we still have the aftermath left to see. The animation pulled out all the stops for the fight scene, and it was nice to see Rosemary take an active role in the battle because this was a fight that concerned both the past and the present. Yui throwing herself after Fennel is a very classic move in the magical girl lexicon; the idea of self-sacrifice to save someone else is a standby of the genre, going back to Sailor Moon and Nurse Angel Ririka. How Cure Precious will be able to reach Fennel's heart remains to be seen, and it is always possible that she will fail. But her warm heart is likely to melt even the thickest ice, and rebuilding after the battle will prove to her that her grandmother has been with her all along.

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Delicious Party♡Precure is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.