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Precure Retrospective- Futari Wa Episode 2

So I assume that I’m going to run out of interesting things to say about Futari wa when we reach the halfway point or so, and this commentaries will become shells of their former selves.

But! That day is not today! I have quite a few things to say about this episode; not as much as about Episode 1... (Future Me: SHE WAS HORRIBLY WRONG)

Before we dive into it, one thing I think I should note here that I forgot to last time, is that the first three episodes of the show are scripted by Ryo Kawasaki himself! So not only is he responsible for how the story looks at the end of the day-By and part- but also how the show starts out. We’ll reflect on the quality of his attempts overall later on.

That said, let’s just dive into this one.

This episode opens with a neat spotlight effect, as while girls are taking ballots out of a box, Nagisa does some necessary exposition regarding what happened last time. Yeah, yeah, we just saw this stuff a week ago, but it’s a kid’s show. Gotta run with it.

I will say that it at least makes sense for Nagisa to still be ruminating over all that happened; this doesn’t necessarily feel forced, even if it is necessary. Anyway, while Nagisa is zoning out Honoka became the representative of their class, likely surprising no one. Were there any competitors, truly?

And it’s worth correcting something that wasn’t really worded well in the subs last episode, Honoka was in a different class last year. This year, they are in the same class together. It was also a bit unclear that they were at the start of the school year in Episode 1, while the class representative election and such does make that much clearer.

Anyway, Nagisa is startled to attention as everyone begins to applaud Honoka, and gives a few polite claps to her pseudo-teammate. As you might expect, she’s a team player.

Time passes, as time is wont to do, and we’re now in English, I’d assume. Nagisa has been entrusted to read a particular passage, and it’s actually a little interesting- she didn’t fall asleep in this class, and from the reaction of the rest of the class she’s doing an okay job. Whether she’s good at school remains to be seen, but math is probably her worst subject, I’d hypothesize.

Regardless, Nagisa’s fairy starts desperately trying to get her attention in the middle of class, and as they love to do, starts fucking things up. Her concentration completely thrown off, Nagisa turns to Honoka for aid, but the poor girl is completely oblivious to what is going on.

I wonder what’s happening? Surely Mepple isn’t doing something stupid in the middle of class, is he? No, even he can’t be that annoying.

Like, I get that the show is trying to use the fairies as, kind of, comedic relief, but they are just so irritating and petty and the scenes unfunny that it just drags them down and makes you wonder why Nagisa and Honoka would care about them at all.

After a bit more embarrassment, Nagisa turns to the camera and laments her situation. How will Nagisa get out of this wacky predicament!? Turn it after the OP to find out! (SPOILERS: we never find out.)

The OP rolls on, and then it’s time for Something Completely Different! We suddenly shift to Pisard’s perspective and see him talk to the Dark King at their hidden lair, known as, rather appropriatelyl, the Dark Zone.

Looks homely.

I like the aesthetic of the Dark Zone quite a bit. It’s effectively foreboding, the lack of other characters there merely emphasizing that fact. You don’t get that as much in a lot of the follow-up seasons, though I think being able to quickly learn about the villains and helping them build up a rapport manages to be a bigger advantage. I also kind of like the chains too- they’re a little creepy, especially how they almost look like they’re attached to nothing and are stylized a little differently, but show, rather than tell, that the Dark King (yes that is his name) is probably contained in some manner, and that involves the Prism Stones somehow.

Milord interrogates Pisard on why exactly if he found the Prism Stones (whatever they are) he does not appear to have them to give to him. Pisard tries to quickly explain that Team Futari Wa got in his way, but his liege is having none of it. The King quickly explains some things I’d honestly expect Pisard to know- there’s 7 Prism Stones, they currently have 5. The fairies managed to escape with the other two, and thus Pisard must get the stones from them, alive or dead. After he does so, the King will be able to rule the entire universe with their power. Pisard seems weirdly surprised at this, but also seems to be full of determination again, and goes to prepare a plan.

The whole scene is a little clunky, but at least the stakes are a lot clearer now (the very Universe itself is in Nagisa’s hands!), we get a broad sense of why the fairies came to Earth, and why Nagisa and Honoka can’t (sadly) feed them to the wolves now that the two are Pretty Cure.

Give them a break, give them a break, just give a Pisard a piece of a Kit-Kat bar?

Presumably after-class, Nagisa quickly goes outside school and interrogates Mepple. Well Mepple had the very good reason that Pisard is attacking!!! Nah I’m just fucking with you he just did it because he’s hungry and has no self-control.

Nagisa doesn’t take well to this, and when she demands that Mepple actually address her with respect, Nagisa gets even more frustrated by Mepple seeming to mock her. This kind of joke would work at least a little better if we had any real reason to care about Mepple the way we do Nagisa. But we don’t at all. We do know some things about them now, but very broad things, and their personality has been being brattish and constantly demanding. It’d also help if this was playful repartee, and not just Mepple being a dick.

Anyway, Nagisa eventually gives in and tries to figure out how she’s supposed to feed him. Mepple explains that the cards they have, aside from the one-a-piece they use to transform, help take care of the fairies. And there is a certain card that will give Mepple food. After enough pestering and Nagisa struggling to find the right card, she correctly selects Door Card #3, and, well... this happens.

This begs so many questions.

This whole idea of having things to take care of the fairies is a... kind of interesting concept that tends to pop up in seasons a lot. It’s a reasonable conceit- I mean fairies and whatnot need to be able to eat and drink, don’t they?

It’s best when it plays into the narrative (as in Princess, Fresh, Smile, etc.), and it does do so in this series in a few episodes, but honestly my main complaint is that with all the cards the two are given only a handful ever get used. It feels like wasted potential- given the quality of filler in this season, they could have replaced a few and maybe use those episodes to really flesh out Mepple and Mipple’s characters? (The joke is they barely have them.)

Well, tangent aside. Pisard appears above a street with a fuckload of pedestrians, and then says foreshadowy things about energy and a “gift” for Mr. Dark King, and then... prepares.

The story marches on, with Honoka and Nagisa having a little together-time; Nagisa comes into the Science Club, and Honoka tries to impress her with the hard candy machine she made with SCIENCE. Sadly, not all goes as planned, the machine breaks, and she will have to work on Candymaker Version 3.0. One has to wonder if she keeps trying to make this thing for SCIENCE’S SAKE or she just likes hard candy. (It’s totally both.)

Nagisa complains about how they keep talking during class, and Honoka is like “sis don’t you know ‘bout the sleep card?” and Nagisa is like “what?” and basically it turns about to be a different card that can be used to make them go night-night. Nagisa uses the card and puts the little demon to rest. They resolve to use it more in the future. (Though not often enough.)

This just raises even more questions!

Moving forward, Nagisa had come by to talk about Precure matters. She is heavily against ever doing Precure stuff again. Surpisingly, she proves to be the practical one, whereas Honoka is less grounded, talking about how she both believes that it’ll be “interesting”, and an opportunity that Fate had given them. While she could mean interesting in something more akin to a scientific endeavor, it kind of comes across as her thinking it would be really fun.

It’s just a bit of a role-reversal, I think- not necessarily in the content (though that too), but how they argue. Nagisa makes solid rather practical arguments, whereas instead of even really engaging much with them, Honoka doesn’t actually try and engage Nagisa’s practical concerns, and goes for more emotion-based arguments- arguing that it’s fun and exciting and that she believes it’s an opportunity given by Fate. It was kind of implied last episode in their conversation about the shooting stars, but Honoka does have a bit of a romantic side, and that really comes through here and gives the discussion a spin you might not expect just from surface-knowledge of the two characters.

As Nagisa comments on how they were attacked and nearly killed, a soccer ball crashes through a window and enters the room. In a nice touch the two instantly panic, before realizing that it was just the soccer club missing the mark by miles. Nagisa grabs the ball, pretty pissed off, and charges down to give them a piece of her mind. And she encounters... Fuji-p. Fuck.

If there was a character I hated more than Mepple and Mipple...

We’ll get more into why I hate him when he is more relevant (so basically we’ll never get into it.) Regardless, Fuji-p apologizes, Nagisa gives a flustered response and then slowly walks off, and Honoka, watching, is simply rather confused.

Pisard, meanwhile, is looking for a machine to corrupt and turn to evil, as you do. He then sees what appears to be a Japanese version of a Hoover and decides this is the one. So he shows the audience how to buy items well outside your price range in this economy- just hypnotize the clerk and steal it.

Nagisa ponders her reaction to Fuji-p for a moment, but after Mepple barges into the conversation we get to the far better topic of Nagisa needing to be a Pretty Cure, with her insisting that it isn’t Mepple’s choice to make for her, which is completely true. Mepple suddenly wants to talk about his home world, and while Nagisa first claims disinterest, she basically immediately caves when Mepple breaks out the puppy dog eyes, as is typical.

Basically, Mepple is from a place called the Field of Light, where everything was great. And then it all changed when the Dark Zone attacked. They basically wrecked the place and fearing that all would be lost, the King and Queen entrusted Mepple (the Guardian of the Field of Light) and Mipple (The Princess of Hope) with the Prism Stones and helped them escape. I don’t recall if those titles end up meaning much, but I don’t believe they do.

We then cut to Honoka and Mipple helps fill in the gaps. She explains that the stones are super important and valuable, but when Honoka starts to ask what the Prism Stones actually do, her grandmother interrupts the conversation, opening the screen door to her room and asks who Honoka is talking to. Honoka badly bluffs, and Grandma clearly thinks she’s full of shit but doesn’t press the matter. She then asks if Honoka has been in the storeroom recently for some reason; Honoka clearly lies again, and again, Grandma doesn’t press the issue and just leaves. Somehow I think something is up with her.

Sadly, if Honoka then asks for Mipple to explain what the Prism Stones do again, we don’t get to see it, because ENTER PISARD. He uses the vacuum he got at that handy Zakennas ‘R Us, and makes his next FEROCIOUS ABOMINATION. BEHOLD

idk I think this one is kinda cute too.

Like, I’m not sure if these things are supposed to genuinely be threatening, or if it’s intentional that honestly the Zakenna thus far are kinda adorable, in my opinion. I might buy plushies of them I don’t know. But maybe it is I who is weird.

Anyway, Pisard demands that the Zakenna suck up all the “energy” in the nearby area. Which actually appears to be electrical power; the streetlights go out, there’s power outages, etc.

As he did last time, Mepple senses Dark Zone Bad Times, but Nagisa shuts him down. She’s being consistent: she risked her life for this shit, someone else can handle it.

It’s not the Precure way to just abandon duties, but Nagisa doesn’t even want to be one right now. She just wants to be a girl with friends who lives a happy life and isn’t tasked with saving the world, and that’s totally reasonable; Nagisa’s reaction makes total sense and I’d be curious how they’re going to develop their character as a result of it.

On the other hand, you could also argue that Nagisa doesn’t think that she’s up to the task, that this is all too much for her- she has a line that explicitly states that they shouldn’t have “chosen an ordinary girl like her to do something so important”. I think this maybe fits Nagisa’s outward and perceived character a little less, but I think that the underlying fear that plays into my preferred take works here too- she’s scared and she didn’t sign up for this and she just can’t do it.

The way that the writing actually opens up a couple interpretations of what’s going on in Nagisa’s head is actually pretty well done. I think both these takes are really interesting, and one (or neither) may be more better supported by the rest of the series, but if it’s either it gives you some interesting launching pads for development.

Back to the show. Mepple pleads with Nagisa, and our heroine looks out the window and sees some rather strange electrical developments on her end of the woods too. A reporter on TV describes how the city is now in a panic, and then her television too becomes a victim of the Dark Zone and nefariously shuts off.

Mepple pushes her a little more and notes that Mipple (and thus Honoka) is likely to already be there, and Nagisa appears to, when told that on top of everything else, finally cave and runs out of her house to SAVE THE DAY... but is intercepted by her little brother.

I kind of like how, for the moment, her little brother is an actual character in the show? That does things???

It’s a short appearance, however, as she manages to her brother to concede, and then heads off to fulfill her duty. We then get a shot of a really huge fucking mall.

Like does that look unreasonably tall to anyone else?

However the Zakenna is fulfilling its DARK MISSION and sapping the mall of its electricity, and thus... an elevator being rode by several people is stopped mid-climb. And when Nagisa arrives she notices, to her dismay, that the people on it include Shiho and Rina!

I kind of like their inclusion in this subplot. Not only does it keep them relevant, but it kind of forces Nagisa’s hand. Nagisa cares about people and is a team player already, but these are her friends. People she cares deeply about, and that’s going to massively override her reservations. She has no choice but to put them completely aside for now and go give Pisard and the Zakenna a hardy “FUCK YOU!”

The two attempt to dash in and help everyone, but immediately bump into Pisard, who says he was expecting them. The Cures try to ignore him and continue forth, but Pisard blocks their attempt through having the Adorable Vacuum of Death strike at them; a blow that appears to miss but ALSO knocks both Cures off their feet and rolling into a nearby wall... so I don’t know what they were trying to depict there. A burst of air maybe?

At this point Nagisa is simply infuriated, and quickly teams up with Honoka to transform. Pisard simply watches, and confirms to himself that these two are the “legendary duo” from the Field of Light touched on earlier. I do like how so far, we kind of have a more-or-less stated excuse for him not attacking during the transformation sequence for both episodes.

He then orders Zakenna to essentially go all-out against them, and a battle commences. Both magical girls initially put all their efforts into dodging the attacks (which as you might guess, involve sucking in or blowing out air/wind) but when White is falling after getting caught in the Zakenna’s pull, she moves her hands in a circle for... unclear reasons. Honestly I feel the choreography for this fight isn’t really that great.

Black saves her and then storms into action, but the vacuum is ready for her, and through manipulating the direction of air flow, makes it so she ends up barely avoiding being thrown into Cute Vacuum Zakenna’s maw.

Clearly it’s just grumpy because it’s hungry. The true villain here is undernourishment. Feed your Zakenna at least twice a day, kids.

So anyway, Black is kind of in a seriously bad spot. Pisard says to destroy her and to do so the Zakenna... doesn’t try to eat her but instead flings Black forward, through a door, and out of the fight? Like I get why they DID this, but as I’ll get into later, it’s a bit of a plothole.

It’s also annoying because the first good moment of the fight is the genuinely tense situation Black is in here, and it feels like instead of having Black or White come up with a creative way to get her out of the situation she gets through it via writer fiat.

Regardless, the Zakenna then pulls White toward it, ties her up with cords, and then flings her through the same door- or the hole where the door was, rather. You would think the Zakenna would have done that earlier, since it’s such a nifty trick. But anyway.

The two end up tumbling down an elevator shaft, and they end up looking up at an incredibly amused Pisard. He then decides to teach them an important lesson about gravity by cutting the elevator cables with his magic and... send them falling to their deaths, as well as everyone in the elevator? ..Holy shit? Things just got really real?

As the elevator rapidly falls downward, the people in the elevator scream hysterically, as is appropriate. Black also begins panicking, not sure how to handle this situation, but White quickly composes herself and improvises, tying the two to the elevator with a ribbon, and having Nagisa hold her hands to connect the two of them, and then using the friction from their boots to attempt to slow the speed of the fall. It’s a good plan and though it almost looks like it isn’t going to work... the plan proves fruitful at the final hour, as the elevator touches the ground floor, and they all live!

Okay it’s Doctor Who but you can’t deny it’s appropriate.

It’s actually a really effective and tense sequence, both because you initially don’t have any idea how they’re going to get out of the situation, and even after protagonist comes up with a creative and potentially workable idea, it could easily fail, and seems to fail until the elevator hits the bottom. It’s a genuinely inspired scene.

It’s also worth noting that this is another bit where the two help one of them by working together. It’s Nagisa’s friends that are in danger specifically, but it’s through both of them combining their efforts that they’re saved, just as it saves the lives of the Cures. I think this is another example really showing that they can work fantastically as a team, whether Nagisa wants to or not.

Black and White are hardly amused by this attempt at mass murder, and move back up the elevator shaft to get some sweet revenge. Pisard, seeing that his attempt failed, tries to sic his Zakenna on them in a last ditch effort. Zakenna shoots... something from it’s mouth (I’m not sure what it is help), but the two unconsciously grip hands, and suddenly a shield surrounds the two, protecting them from this (probably?) very dangerous attack. The two then use Marble Screw, and after a kick from Black... that’s all she wrote for Adorable Vacuum-kun.

Now, to back up a second because I consider this important. The shield may feel like a deus ex machina, and it kinda is, but assuming that the Pretty Cure are strengthened by friendship and personal bonds, and this is something that gets established (And is fundamental to seasons like Suite), it totally makes sense that the Pretty Cure would get a boost when they get in danger.

The falling elevator was a situation where Nagisa had to rely on Honoka to survive and save her friends, and she did. She put her trust in Honoka, voicing no doubts, and through working together they saved the lives of several people, including Nagisa’s own friends. When all the chips were down she believed Honoka could come through. I think there clearly is starting to be growth in their relationship there, and the fact that the two held their hands together instinctively at the next moment of crisis really supports that imo.

To wrap things up, Pisard admits he underestimated them, and ponders if their power is the ‘”Power of Light”, whatever that means. We then bid him adieu for the episode.

The next day Nagisa’s friends are telling her about their experience on the elevator, and Nagisa rather understandably feels a little awkward. Things get a little more awkward when Shiho and Rini say they heard a voice above the elevator, aaaand Nagisa decides this is a good time to divert attention as quickly as possible, noting that they’ll probably be late to school- and all goes as Nagisa planned, as the other two immediately begin to panic and dash to school together, Nagisa pushing them along. The gang passes Honoka, but she just looks on, seemingly amused.

We suddenly shift perspectives for our final scene, which takes place at the shopping district where Pisard engaged in Grand Theft Vacuum. And we see that one of the vacuums being sold appears to have Cure Black’s bootprint! Dun.. dun... dun? (They also talk about the authorities looking into what happened yesterday, but I don’t remember anything coming of that so let’s just ignore it.)

So one thing I really liked about this episode is that between Pisard wanting to do something extra to help the bossman, heavily suspecting that the Pretty Cure were legendary heroes, creating a Zakenna who immediately is ordered to do something that is certain to get the Cures attention but does little to accomplish their primary goal, which also happens to be a hard counter to most of the Cures attacks, and which also can throw them through a door that leads to an elevator shaft that Pisard can easily drop and create a certain death they can’t Marble Screw out of, most of the plot of this episode was Pisard’s plan to murder the Pretty Cure in cold blood.

Which is really neat! You rarely see villains in this sort of anime jump to taking the heroes as a serious threat right off the bat, and it is genuinely a pretty good plan, really only foiled by Honoka’s amazing improv skills, and quite a bit of luck. It’s a great, intense sequence that works so well. I’m actually genuinely curious what Pisard’s next move will be.

The whole thing is slightly spoiled by the fact that I have no idea how he got Zakenna in on this plan, since otherwise Zakenna would have no reason to throw them through that door. So that hurts the whole deal for me, but far from ruins it.

And like... I feel like the first 10 minutes or so of the episode is pretty weak. I get we needed the exposition, but it largely feels like it drags since it’s mostly sitting and listening to people talk, with some tedious fairy bullshit thrown in. The story really picks up in the second half, but even then the battle choreography is weak, and the Zakenna fight is rather dull, largely one-sided, and does end in a deus ex machina. And between Mepple being terrible (when is Mipple going to get any character?) and the introduction of Fuji-P, a lot of it all adds up to irritation.

But the character stuff in this episode is so good. There is just so much going on in this episode with Honoka and Nagisa and their relationship and Nagisa’s reticence to be a Pretty Cure. So much of it is cute and charming and fun and thoughtfully crafted. The way the minor characters play into the narrative is really interesting and well done too; it really felt like everyone got included and I like that. And so much of the second half, despite its short-comings, is really well done.

The episode has its weaknesses, but it has so many strengths to balance those out. It outshines Episode 1 by a long-shot, and if far more of the episodes were like this than I recall, I’ll end up thinking the season is far better than I thought.

God that was a lot of words. But anyway, I’m done here at Episode 2 Land, Episode 3 coming to a Tumblr Account Near You soon.

But for now, good night my friends, and may any elevators you ride in be in proper working order.

#futari wa precure #pretty cure #precure #retrospective #this is too long #I'm still doing this help

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