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the-jade-cross · 5 years ago

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A Burning Soul - Chapter 1

Zuko groaned as he got to his feet and walked away from where his uncle was getting a massage. He didn’t really mind staying in the small town where there was no fire nation to cause trouble and so far, no one had recognized them, but he just felt like he was in a stalemate. His uncle was enjoying himself by spending the day on the beach collecting shells or coming home with armfuls of flowers. Raven would laugh and giggle at his uncle’s almost childlike behavior and even sometimes the girl would join in.

The girl would skillfully avoid being alone with Zuko and if they did so happen to end up alone together whilst Uncle Iroh was off doing something, she would keep the topic strictly on the Avatar, about their staying in the village or on training. Even if Zuko had wanted to bring up her memories, he wouldn’t have succeeded. The truth was… he was afraid. He was afraid if something happened and she did end up regaining her memories of her past self, she would be disappointed in how much he changed since he was a kid and she was still Shira.

Zuko stopped walking and his mind was snapped out of his thought process when he spied the familiar figure of Raven up ahead. She was standing on a block of ice the middle of the small river, practicing her ice bending. Her eyes were closed and there was a bandana tied around her eyes to keep her from seeing anything.

Zuko took this opportunity to come and stand on the edge of the river, crossing his arms and leaning against the tree. With the girl not trying to avoid conversation, Zuko took in the sight of the girl.

The girl had changed as far as attire went in order to blend in more as they were in Earth Kingdom territory now. Her red, simple shirt, pants and scarf had been discarded completely. She wore a tight-fitting dark green shirt that stopped just above her stomach with a lower collar than her last outfit had, the collar coming down just an inch below her collar bone. The sleeves of her shirt were elbow length, but lacy thin sleeves extended to her wrists and covered the backs of her hands and palms, leaving only her fingers uncovered.

She wore a simple pair of dark green leather pants and simple brown leather boots. Across her chest and around her waist were two thick belts. The one over her back as where she stashed her sword and the one on her waist carried the small important articles such as medical supplies that she always kept with her. Zuko got the strange impression that she had obtained that belt solely for that purpose because she didn’t trust him and Iroh to not get injured.

On her left upper arm was a small belt which held a small ice dagger that she had crafted. It was just a normal small dagger that was blunt, but she had encased it in ice to make it look like it was purely made of ice. Over her top she wore a mid-upper arm short sleeved jacket. The bottom of the jacket came level with her top and she always had the front unbuttoned.

She had taken to wearing her hair completely down instead of a high ponytail like she had since they had run into her at the tavern. Zuko had always wondered why she had dyed her hair but after his uncle informed him of Raven’s lack of memories as Shira, he had wondered if it was for the sake of blending in… or for other reasons.

However, there were some questions that remained even more a mystery including her bending. He didn’t remember Shira being an ice bender, but he hadn’t known she was a light and plant bender till the last day he saw her, so it might have been something she hadn’t disclosed. However, what he didn’t understand was why she never used light or plant bending.

“How long have you been standing there?” the girl asked, snapping Zuko out of his thoughts.

She had removed the cloth from her eyes and was looking at him with one hand on her hip, her head tilted quizzically.

“Not long,” Zuko replied. “It was either come find you or watch uncle get a massage.” Raven chuckled as she hopped back onto the shore, brushing herself off, “Your uncle is enjoying freeloading life.” Zuko nodded, preparing an excuse to keep her there, knowing that she would leave. However, the girl startled him by sitting down on the grass at the edge of the water, draping her arms over her knees.

“You want to talk,” the girl observed plainly. “It’s in your body language.” Zuko rolled his eyes. It was also obvious in the way that he chased her around to talk with her for the past week! Coming to sit down next to the girl, Zuko sighed.

“I know you don’t understand why I reacted the way I did at the north pole,” the boy started. “But it’s kind of hard to explain.

Raven shook her head, “No, I understand it. Your uncle explained it a little when you were out cold when we left the pole. Honestly, I always wondered who I was before Raven. When I woke up in that hell hole, I had no memories of how I got there and who I even was. That was why I named myself Raven. I was so concentrated on staying alive that I didn’t bother to worry about who I was before and… when I finally got out, I had gotten so used to being Raven that it was just natural. Though, recently I began to wonder more about my past.” “When was that?” Zuko inquired.

The girl turned to look at him and smiled, “When I ran into you and your uncle. It was bad enough not knowing who I was before Raven, but I had no friends as far as I knew. June was the only person I could consider a friend. However, when I first saw you and your uncle enter the tavern… there was something about you that just seemed… familiar. Like I had seen you before and had met you but all I could remember were your faces. It’s like when you are looking for a lost object and remember seeing it somewhere… but you cannot remember what that somewhere is.”

Zuko nodded in understanding. “And your hair…” “What about my hair?” the girl asked, completely confused.

“Shira…. Well… you,” Zuko began, “Before you were brainwashed… you had golden hair.” Raven’s eyes widened and that was when Zuko got a faint sense of dread. Had he been wrong? Was this all just a huge coincidence? But it was too perfect: Raven had a part of her past that she couldn’t remember, the eyes, the skin tones, the voice…. The scar… he doubted that two girls of those exact features would have been brainwashed and left with a Z scar on their back.

“That’s strange,” Raven muttered. “When I woke up as Raven, I had black hair. That’s where the name came from, from Raven Black.” Zuko frowned further, “So…. You cannot bend anything other than ice?”

Raven shook her head, “As far as I know…. No.” The boy let out a disappointed sigh. Was this all a joke? A prank? Or was he just dreaming? Raven seemed to sense his disappointment and furrowed her brow in thought.

“I have a fear of light,” the girl spoke up. “If that’s any help.” Zuko was about to shake his head when he froze, “A fear of light?”

Raven nodded, “When I was a prisoner, there was no light anywhere that I could reach. When I finally escaped, I first encountered full on sunlight. However, the moment it touched me I…. I had a dream….”

The girl had Zuko’s full attention now and the boy noticed that she was gnawing on her bottom lip in discomfort.

“What did you see?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” the girl replied. “The moment it started, I felt in pain, so I quickly got out of the direct light. Since then, I have avoided direct sunlight like it’s a curse. Whenever I have to be in direct light, I make sure my head is covered. It’s weird because….” The girl paused and Zuko thought that she wasn’t going to continue when she rose to her feet. Walking to the edge of the water, she approached a small circle of bright sunlight that had broken through the thick tree branches. Reaching out her hand, she let her hand enter the bright sunlight…. But nothing happened.

“Right now, I’m not experiencing anything,” Raven explained. “But if I stepped in fully without my head covered, I would be in pain.” Zuko slowly rose to his feet and approached the light. He thumbed his chin thoughtfully before his eyes fell on the long black locks that fell about her shoulders.

“May I?” he asked, motioning to her hair.

The girl looked at him quizzically before nodding. Taking a lock of raven black hair into his fingers, Zuko slowly extended it into the bright light. Almost immediately, Raven let out a gasp and crying out as if someone had burnt her, she jolted away, and the hair fell from Zuko’s grasp.

The boy was about to rush over and apologize when his eyes fell on something. The lock of hair that had entered the light was lying amidst the rest of her hair…. But it stuck out like the stars in the dead of night…. Because it was no longer raven black, but sun golden.

“No way,” he breathed.

Raven looked back at the boy from where she had been cowering away from the light. Zuko slowly approached her and she shied away slightly but Zuko looked at her gently.

“Look,” he whispered.

Raven’s eyes fell down to her lock of hair and her eyes widened. She reached down and touched it just as it had begun to fade back to black.

“How did….” She breathed.

“I think I know,” Zuko replied. Raven looked at him in puzzlement, only to find him chewing the inside of his cheek in thought.

“When you were Shira, you were able to bend plants and light… but no one ever saw you bend ice. Maybe at the time you hadn’t yet learnt ice bending. However, when you were brainwashed you lost all memories of your life up to that point… including the ability to light and plant bend.” “So I just forgot how to do it?” Raven inquired. “But how does that explain my hair and my fear of light.” Zuko bit his lip. “That’s where it gets hard. The reason you are sensitive to light is because it is a part of your past. I think that is the only bridge between Raven and Shira. You said when you step into the light, you have dreams…” “Kind of like visions… flashes of things,” Raven replied. “But I always get out of the light before I can see anything clearly.” Zuko nodded, “Those visions… are memories. Light bending was the strongest out of the two bending that you had as Shira. Honestly… it was like light was a part of you. You were so bright and full of energy but everything about you seemed to glow.” “So I was sort of separated from a part of myself,” Raven mused thoughtfully. “And whenever I enter the light it’s like it is trying to draw me back? But what about the pain?” The boy snapped quiet almost instantly and Raven almost regretted asking when she saw the pale, hurt look appear in the boy’s eyes.

“What happened to me…. When I was Shira…. It wasn’t good was it?” the girl asked.

Zuko shook his head, “No. And I guess that is why it hurts… because if you were to remember, you would remember what part of being Shira you experienced most recently… and that is the painful things.”

Raven let out a deep breath, resting her chin in her arms, “And my hair?” “That I am not sure… but I think it is linked to light. When you lost the ability to light bend because you forgot how to…. I guess….”

“The light sort of left my being,” Raven breathed.

Zuko reached out to object but the moment his hand nearly touched her shoulder, she got up and kept her eyes averted. “Thanks for telling me that. Excuse me.” Zuko jumped to his feet and was about to call out her name but she was already gone, running back to the village. The boy sighed, running his fingers across his face. Looking up, he spied uncle Iroh who had come upon the two a few minutes earlier, hearing the whole conversation. He had a concerned look on his face but the look he was giving Zuko through his eyes, told him to give the girl space.

However, a part of Zuko screamed out to not leave Raven/Shira alone. To be there for her and to try his hardest to bring her memories back…. It just felt wrong to leave her alone.

***********

Raven shifted the bucket of water from her left hand to her right, making sure to not drop the firewood she carried with her free hand. When she approached the house, she pursed her lips together as she studied the door. Taking a deep breath, she blew out slowly. Ice leapt from midair and latched onto the door handle, turning it to open the door for her.

“Zuko! Iroh,” the girl greeted. “I’ll start dinner. What are you hungry……….. for?” The girl froze in her tracks when she saw that there was a third person in the room. Zuko was standing by the window, having just been staring out but now he was staring at her with pure fear written all over his face.

Iroh was trying to give the girl hand motions to depart from them for her own safety but Raven’s eyes were glued on the third person. A girl about her age but about a head taller with black hair, dressed in fire nation attire and a deadly smirk slapped on her face. The eyes…. Were red like flame but more like blood than flame.

“Who is this Zuzu?” the girl asked in a high-pitched sounding voice. “Your new girlfriend? What happened to that slave girl, Shira that you were so infatuated with till father threw her out?” “Shut up!” Zuko warned, looking back out the window. “She’s not my girlfriend.” The girl shrugged before glaring daggers at Raven.

“Think about what I said,” she remarked before heading to the door. “I’ll be waiting.” As the door slammed behind her, Zuko turned to find Raven still frozen to the spot, her mouth slightly parted and her eyes wide with fright.

“Shira?” he whispered.

“Her eyes…. I remember them,” Raven breathed.

Zuko was across the room in seconds and he reached out to touch her, but Raven seemed to compose herself and slapped his hand away. Zuko froze at the glare she sent him and his heart sunk into his shoes at the way she took a step back from him.

“Shira…” he started but he was cut off when Raven shoved the wood into his hands.

“So, you were infatuated with Shira huh?” The girl hissed. “Is that why you’re trying so hard to get my memories back?” Iroh cringed. He was afraid this would happen but Zuko was so stunned that the jolted.

“Wha…. Shira I….” He never finished for the girl hauled the bucket of water up and into his face, drenching him from head to foot.

“Don’t deny it!” She snapped. “Since you saw my scar, you’ve only called me Shira! I haven’t been Shira in years! Is Raven not good enough for you? Is it because you don’t want the scared, beaten Raven who has fought to survive and has no memory of her childhood? Is it because you want the beautiful, bright little angel that Shira was? Get it through your head Zuko, Raven and Shira are two halves of one body…. One person and they will never be separated ever, even if I get my memories back! They will always beat within the same heart! If you want Shira but not Raven, then don’t look for someone who sacrificed everything to protect the boy she loved from his sick father!” With that, the girl hurled the bucket across the room before she spun on her heel. Grabbing her sole back and sword, she stormed out the door, slamming it behind her. Iroh cautiously approached Zuko but when he touched his nephew’s shoulder, Zuko shrugged him off and dropped the wood in the corner of the room.

“She’s just going through a tough time,” Iroh told him, “She’ll be back.” “What do I care?” Zuko snapped. “You heard her. She might as well have said I hate her! She can leave for all I care! I’m going home!” Iroh sighed as Zuko stormed across the room, furiously wringing out his shirt and hair whilst he set about packing. Both teens were hurt and in pain. Both were confused by their feelings and priorities. What Iroh knew was that they would find all the answers in each other…. they just didn’t know it yet.

***********

As Zuko began to climb up the ramp onto Azula’s ship, he paused in his steps to look over his shoulder. Nope…. No sign of Shira. He felt a deep pain of regret strike his heart. He shouldn’t have done those things. Constantly pushing her to try and become who she had been in her past. It was like asking her to be someone she wasn’t.

“Prepare to set sail men!” The captain called. “We’re taking the prisoners ho.....” Zuko snapped back into reality at what the man said, his eyebrows snapping down at the pale look of horror on Azula’s face. Uncle Iroh immediately began striking down soldiers while Zuko went for the captain, throwing him off the ramp before he approached Azula.

“You lied to me!” “Like I’ve never done that before,” Azula taunted, turning to walk away while two fire benders approached Zuko.

Zuko let out a frustrated grunt, fire blasting both soldiers before he ran after his sister. He formed two fire daggers in his hands while Azula raised her hands defensively.

“Do you really think that father would want you back?” Azula taunted as they began to go at each other. “A failure…. A child who cannot even capture the avatar?” Zuko yelled in anger and lashed at her but Azula blocked his strikes. “I should have listened to Uncle!” he yelled.

“Maybe you should have,” Azula teased. “You never really were one to listen to anyone’s advice. You should have listened to uncle when he told you to be quiet in the war chamber, then you wouldn’t have been banished. And what happened? You had to have a little girl save you! Well, she isn’t here anymore.” Zuko almost wanted to smack reality into Azula’s smug face by telling her that he had found Shira, but he thought it was probably best if she didn’t know about Shira’s existence. It would become dangerous for Shira especially since Azula hated her with every vibe in her body… something that Zuko could never understand. Azula did always seem to hate everyone except their father, but Shira was so easy to love, yet Azula hated her.

The brother and sister jumped apart, both raising their arms in defensive manners, preparing to start again. However, just as Azula began to wound lightning from her hands, she let out a yelp when something jabbed her in the shoulders, making one of her arms jolt forward.

She went flying across the deck and the first thing that Zuko saw was a spike of ice that had appeared below his sister, which had thrown her across the deck. Standing on the other side of the ice… was Raven. She had left her hair down but had taken the scarf that she oftentimes used to hold up her hair and tied it around her face, concealing her nose, cheeks, jaw, chin and mouth. All they could see were her striking blue eyes that were burning like blue fire.

“Raven,” Zuko breathed.

The girl snapped her head in his direction, slight surprise written on her features, but she kept it well hidden beneath the mask of slight annoyance. “We will talk about this later,” she muttered.

Zuko nodded but he was snapped out of his thoughts by a yell behind him. Spinning around, he saw Azula running at him but before he could even begin to form fire in his hands, something grabbed him around the waist and ankles, pulling him a good distance away from his sister and behind Raven. He didn’t have to look down to know that Raven had drawn him back using ice.

“Hey Ra….” He started.

“I failed to protect you last time,” the girl remarked bluntly, not looking back at him but keeping her back to him and her eyes on Azula. “I won’t let that happen this time.” Zuko tried to melt the ice around him but Raven just spouted more ice, pinning all his limbs down and slowly began to push the ice further away from them, toward the ramp as if forcing him to leave.

“I was wondering when you would show up,” Azula smirked. “Zuzu doesn’t really make friends with girls unless they know how to handle themselves.” Raven rolled her eyes before grabbing her sword, drawing it out and flipping it so it was held backwards, “Well it’s a good thing he met me then.” Before Zuko could even blink, Raven had sprinted across the deck and began to slice at Azula, meeting every single one of her lightning jabs with the flat of her blade, returning them with a blast of ice. The two girls were well matched and Zuko knew that both of them were aware of that. Realizing that Raven was too busy fighting Azula to notice him, Zuko began to melt the ice holding him down.

When he finally broke free, he saw that Raven had done a backwards somersault to place some distance between herself and Azula whilst his sister had continuously blasted lightning at her.

“Raven!” he yelled.

Both girls turned to look at him but with opposite expressions. Azula’s was a look of pure smug enjoyment while Raven’s was pale horror.

“ZUKO NO!” the girl screamed but it was too late.

Azula fired a blast of lightning at her brother but with Zuko running and not expecting the attack, he didn’t have time to put up a defense. He closed his eyes, waiting for the feeling of lightning overtaking his body… but it never came. Instead, he felt something cold and limp fall against his body.

“RAVEN!” he heard his uncle yell.

Zuko opened his eyes to see his uncle grab Azula’s hand that was still firing lightning and Iroh redirected it away from Zuko. Zuko looked down only to see Raven standing in front of him, leaning limply back against him while both hands were flayed out as if she had been blocking his body…. she had blocked the lightning! “RAVEN!” Zuko cried, not even listening to his uncle who quickly overpowered Azula.

The girl crumbled in his arms, weak and limp like a dead fish.

“Idiot,” she muttered weakly. “Why didn’t you run?” Zuko bit his lip, feeling tears well up as the girl’s head flopped to the side against his chest, her breathing becoming low.

“NO!” he screamed, not caring that his tears were splashing onto her face.

“Zuko!” Iroh called. “Let’s go!” Zuko quickly picked up the small girl and slung her carefully onto his back. With her head resting on his shoulder, her arms limply laying around his neck, he rushed after his uncle and off the ship.

He was going to make Azula pay for what she did.

#zuko #avatar #avatar the last airbender #zuko x oc

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precuredaily · 5 years ago

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Precure Day 166

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 18 - “Bombarded! Karen’s Private Life” Date watched: 23 December 2019 Original air date: 3 June 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/ZG2NYcH Transformation Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/6k6SzS0 Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

ah yes the perfect disguise

Mika wants to interview Karen at home for the paper, and ends up learning a lot more about both of them than she probably anticipated. Shenanigans ensue! Let’s take a look!

The Plot

Masuko Mika approaches Karen at lunch, showing her a huge pile of requests that the Cinq Lumieres Times has received requesting to know more about the Student Council President’s home life. Karen wants to do it at the school, but Mika insists that the interview be done at Karen’s house, to get a better sense of how she spends her free time.

Meanwhile at Nightmare HQ, Bunbee gaslights Arachnea’s lackluster performance and she mutters something about using her full power the next time. You know, the usual banter. I only include these interactions in the summaries because sometimes they advance the plot.

That Sunday, Mika shows up at Karen’s mansion and is blown away by its size.

The appropriate reaction, honestly

Karen greets her in casual clothes and assures her that her home life isn’t that different from anybody else’s, which Mika doubts. Jiiya, the butler, asks if Mika will be the only representative from the paper that day, to which she nervously responds that the paper has a lot going on. She takes in the sights of the mansion as Karen leads her to the back patio, where they sit down at a tea table for the interview. Mika begins to ask Karen how she likes to relax when she’s not doing student council work, but their solitude is interrupted by a series of butlers carrying tea, treats, and condiments. Karen quickly recognizes these butlers in their identical bad wigs as being her friends, who have come to see how the interview goes.

She grows increasingly flustered and excuses herself from the table to go chew out the other girls for interrupting and distracting her, but they say they just want to make sure she doesn’t blab about Precure. (Let’s be real she’s about the least likely of them all to spill that secret). Karen escorts Mika to the greenhouse to continue the interview, where she remarks that maintaining the plants is a lot of work but if she doesn’t do it, nobody else will. (Hmm, that sounds familiar) Notably, MIka’s glasses fog up from the humidity, and as she takes them off to clean them she mistakes a nearby plant for Karen.

the resemblance is truly uncanny

Unfortunately, Nozomi and co decide to hide out in various spots of the greenhouse wearing goofy disguises to mess with Karen. Mika comments to herself on how surprisingly discomposed she is, not seeing the other girls, as they leave the greenhouse. Meanwhile, Arachnea shows up, looking for trouble.

Out in the garden gazebo, the interview continues. Mika asks when Karen feels relaxed, and as the other girls pop up from behind a hedge with signs cheering her on, she says that she feels relaxed when she’s finally alone. At that moment, Jiiya shows up with some cream puffs for everybody, and Nozomi, Rin, Urara, and Komachi quickly come out of hiding to chow down, surprising Mika. At this point, Karen snaps at them, chewing them out for coming over uninvited and interrupting her private interview.

vimeo

Mika is surprised to see this side of her, and mulls it over while Karen escorts the other four off her property. Jiiya confides in Mika that Karen has gotten a lot more lively since meeting those four, and she feels she can be open and honest with them. Mika admits to herself that she’s a little jealous of Karen’s friendships.

Arachnea manages to lure Mika back to the greenhouse, and the girls notice her heading in there after they catch a pinky, so they follow her in to find that Arachnea has transformed it into a steamy, overgrown bog and has the journalist trapped in a giant pitcher plant. The villainess turns a decorative jar into a Kowaina, which jumps towards the girls and just happens to bump Mika on the way, knocking her glasses off. Nozomi leads the group in transforming, not caring that they may be seen. They try to attack the monster, but it is extremely nimble, jumping around on frog-like legs, and it avoids their attacks. Some quick thinking by Lemonade frees Mika from her trap, and Aqua carries her to safety, telling her to run away. Instead, she takes pictures of the battle unfolding behind her as best she can. While this was going on, Arachnea managed to get the other four girls into a puddle of quicksand or really thick mud, where they start drowning and can’t escape. Aqua punches Arachnea out of the way and performs Aqua Stream on the mud pit, turning it into water that the girls can float in. She then turns her rage to the spider woman, berating her for putting her friends in danger, and that despite their tendency to impose on people, they are her precious friends! Lemonade realizes they need to slow the Kowaina’s movements to defeat it, so once again Aqua comes through with a plan. She again charges at Arachnea, baiting her into using her webs, and then dodges out of the way so the webs latch onto the kowaina’s leg, stopping it from moving around. Dream performs her attack and Arachnea retreats, not wanting to fight a pissed off Aqua. The greenhouse returns to normal, and Cure Aqua returns Mika’s glasses to her, but by the time she puts them on and turns to face her saviors, they have disappeared.

The five friends walk back to the front entrance of the mansion, worried about the contents of the next day’s newspaper, sure that their secret will be spilled. Mika returns to school, fully prepared to write about this fantastic encounter. However, she runs into Otaka, who is getting some exterior work done on her stand, and when she shows her the pictures, Otaka asks if she got permission from these girls to write about them, which Mika obviously didn’t. The lunch lady and secret school principal reminds her that, as a good journalist, she should keep her subjects’ feelings in mind.

The next day, the girls are all surprised to find that the headline in the paper is exactly what was promised: the expose on Karen. It details how her friends came over and caused a fuss, and her own shocked expression, and a quote from Jiiya about how she’s brightened up thanks to them. At the very bottom is a request for an interview with Precure 5, but no pictures or anything are included. While Nozomi and Urara try to figure out what to wear for this interview, Karen just looks over and smiles at her goofy friends as the episode fades to black.

The Analysis

There are two big takeaways from this episode. The first, most obvious one, is that Karen’s mild-mannered, reserved appearance belies someone who is easily frustrated when things don’t go her way. We kinda knew this already, but now her real self is being seen by more people. She loses her composure pretty easily, and squabbles with her friends, but it’s because they are friends that she’s able to let down her guard and act like this with them. They’re a bunch of goofs and she loves them, as much as they may drive her crazy. It really sheds light on how Karen has grown since we met her.

To be fair to her, the other girls are being abnormally goofy. It’s almost like they’re intentionally trying to sabotage her interview, or a similar phenomenon to when you’re on an important phone call and your friends make a ruckus in the background to make it sound like things are out of control wherever you are. We get some great moments of comedy out of them, starting with the butler disguises with bad wigs and their hair sticking out, to the animal outfits in the greenhouse (see the gallery), culminating in these signs they make right before the cream puffs come out. It’s like they egg each other on into more and more extreme gags to try to get Karen to mess up. It reminds you that these are still children.

Nozomi’s sign is on-brand

The other, more subtle but more interesting, observation is something I have suspected for a while now: Masuko Mika seems to be the only member of the Newspaper Club. We’ve never seen anybody else, the paper seems to exclusively publish stories of personal interest to her, by her, and today she dodged the matter of being alone by saying the paper was busy. She implies but doesn’t outright state that there are other people who are on other projects, which appears to be a misleading lie. Later, when she reflects on what Jiiya told her about Karen’s friendship, she says she’s jealous, implying she has no friends of her own, certainly none that she can be as close with as Karen is with Nozomi and co. It’s been so long since I watched this series that i honestly don’t remember how this plays out, and I’m eager to refresh my memory. Come to think of it, I don’t remember her appearing in GoGo at all, but we’ll cross that bridge next year.

Her choice to respect the cures’ identities was a good one and it shows how she has also developed since we first met her. Mika, originally, was only kept from writing about the Precures because she ran into a hot guy (Nuts) which instantly distracted her. She gave no consideration to their thoughts on the matter, even when they requested to not be written about. It took some prodding from Otaka, but this time she chose simply to ask for a formal interview. They will almost certainly not grant her that, but it’s mature of her to do that and it shows that she’s improving as a journalist.

This does raise the question of whether Otaka knows about the girls, at least that there is something going on in the school, because she seems nonplussed by the notion of superheroes in the city. However, she could just be dismissing them as cosplayers or local heroes or something to that effect. I wouldn’t mind a little more insight into this matter.

This episode has a couple other little details that I like. It gives Mika an occasion to take off her glasses for a moment, and we see through her eyes just how weak her vision really is. This is a setup for later in the episode, when she loses her glasses while kidnapped, and can’t clearly see the girls transform into Precure or the ensuing fight, which inadvertently protects their identities. It’s convenient but they did establish her poor eyesight in advance, which I thought was clever.

And speaking of Mika again, she gets a lovely reference in this one that I don’t believe I noticed before. When she’s doing her introduction, she does the original Kamen Rider transformation pose.

She did the whole arm sweep so it’s not just a coincidence. It’s not the first and certainly not the last Kamen Rider reference in Precure, but it was funny because the scene otherwise has nothing to do with tokusatsu.

Another minor point of note: We get see Karen use her Pinky Catch for its so-named purpose, and by extension, we finally know what her instrument is: a violin. To recap: Nozomi: triangle. Rin: horn, Urara: harp, Komachi: flute, Karen: violin. Together they make up the world’s strangest band.

The last subject I want to touch on is less to do with the show itself, and more the translation. I..... kinda don’t like it. It helps to understand the troubled history of getting Yes 5 fully subtitled in order to really understand my complaint, so if you want to learn more, check out my post on the status blog, but you don’t have to.

So what’s my complaint? The meme subs.

The term “alternative fact” didn’t enter the general lexicon until 2017, it should not exist in a show from 2007. I can tolerate meme subs to an extent, but anachronistic translations of period dialog just drive me up the wall. Her statement, “Sonna koto nai desho ga!” is a pretty straightforward denial which could be written as “No I’m not” or “That’s not true”, and the purposeful inclusion of a meme from 10 years after this show aired annoys me and takes me out of the experience.

In a more positive note, this episode has some excellent facial expressions and you should check them out in the gallery.

EDIT: Whoops I forgot to write about the summer uniforms.

It’s almost a color inversion of the winter uniform. The socks are now white (they were black), the dress is dark purple with white stripes on the hem of the skirt, compared to the pale lavender with dark purple stripes, and the jacket is white instead of dark purple, with a lavender collar (winter is white). The cuffs are now the same color as the rest of the jacket instead of being the color of the dress, and therefore the stripes have to be a third color (in this case they match the collar instead of the jacket) so that’s a change. I’m honestly underwhelmed by it. The summer uniform is usually a short-sleeved blouse with no overcoat because of the warmer weather, whereas this is essentially a pallet swap. It looks fine but it doesn’t make me think “oh, it’s summer and the weather is warmer now.”

Next time, Urara is being stalked.... by her family? Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 Kettei!

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Yes! Precure 5 #YPC518 #PCD166

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