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[precuredaily]

Precure Day 143

Episode: Futari wa Precure Splash Star 44 - “They’ll Disappear? Michiru and Kaoru’s Pain” Date watched: 20 July 2019 Original air date: 17 December 2006 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/Rv2F5U7 Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

a jump to the sky turns to a rider kick

All Michiru and Kaoru want is to experience normalcy and the beauty of life with their friends Saki and Mai. Sadly, being ex-agents of Dark Fall makes this difficult in more ways than one.

The Plot

Saki, Mai, Michiru, Kaoru, and Minori all go to the zoo so Minori can draw animals, but the Kiryuu sisters have something weighing on them. Eventually we see in a flashback that they had a talk with Princess Filia about their conflicted feelings of wanting to be with Saki and Mai but belonging to Dark Fall, and she tells them that since they were revived using powers from both worlds, the destruction of either the Land of Spirits or Dark Fall could result in their own death. They don’t know what to do, and they haven’t told Saki and Mai about this, but Miss Shitataare and Dorodoron attack the group and reveal this secret. Their friends are understandably upset, and their attacks falter, but Michiru and Kaoru remind them that the cures themselves taught them that staying strong in spirit can allow someone to change their fate, that Saki and Mai fought for them, and now they want to believe in their friends. With new resolve, they manage to defeat Dorodoron, while Miss Shitataare retreats to fight another day. On the way home, Minori shows everybody the drawing she made of the monkeys, except that the monkeys’ faces have been replaced with Saki, Mai, Michiru, and Kaoru.

The Analysis

The existential crisis that M and K are now in is heartbreaking. Since they’re imbued with power from both sides, the destruction of either light or darkness could destroy them. That’s a huge burden to shoulder, and their body language throughout the episode shows they aren’t taking it well. However, they want to believe in a way forward, in defying their fate, like Saki and Mai taught them! Fundamentally that’s what their character arc has always been about, and I’m glad to see it brought up again. Even knowing that they might be fighting towards their own destruction, they continue to battle against their former allies and help their new friends, because it’s what their hearts tell them is right.

Unfortunately, there’s some aspects of this plot that don’t sit well with me. Michiru and Kaoru essentially come from an abusive household. Like many survivors, they have feelings of guilt about leaving, because they have been told all their lives that this is where they belong and their only purpose is to serve Akudaikaan as thanks for creating them. This is the line that all the generals of Dark Fall shoot at them, that they should be grateful to him. Possibly due to the age of the show and cultural differences, the narrative does not acknowledge that this is an abuse tactic, and instead pushes messages like “they’re a family, they’ll make up with each other,” via the monkeys. This hits the girls hard, and makes them feel more guilt for not trying hard enough to persuade their father figure that they don’t support his actions. The message about changing one’s fate doesn’t seem like a counter to the idea about families belonging together, and maybe if they had tied those closer together I wouldn’t have as much objection. As it stands, it’s kind of a sour note for this episode.

The art direction here is all over the place. The characters range from adequate to just bad, with a few shining moments in close-ups. However, there are some great moments with the animation, such as this pan out and in as the Kiryuus are told that destroying Dark Fall might destroy them too:

Their faces remain well-detailed in close-up rather than literally zooming in on the far model, the camera shifts perspective, it’s a well, composed shot.

It seems way too late in the show for fairy gags. They’re never terribly funny, someone speaks up at a bad time and their partner has to act silly to cover up their identity. At this point, Flappi and Choppi should know better. There are some good things to come out of this, though, in the form of Minori’s reaction to Saki and Mai acting goofy and imitating their fairies’ voices.

Also it gives Mai an opening to talk to Saki, explaining that she’s noticed the Kiryuus seem strange. We know Mai is fairly observant and it’s a nice touch.

If there’s a downside to the revived generals arc, it’s that the revived generals... kinda suck, as characters. Their personalities were often paper-thin but now they’re reduced to archetypes. Or maybe these two in particular are just a bad matchup, as Miss Shitataare’s penchant for pointless disguises gets in the way of Dorodoron’s usually decent strategies. Point being, I didn’t like them in this episode, and I’m sorry to see Dorodoron go out like this. He was funny when he teamed up with Karehaan and was like “I’m not getting beaten today, no thank you!” so for this to be how he goes..... it was underwhelming. That shot of him dive bombing is pretty cool though.

Last point of note, Michiru and Kaoru still don’t have any clothes of their own, they wear their school uniforms to the zoo. I really wish they would at least spend half of an episode going shopping, that would be a fun avenue for some character growth as they get to express themselves with clothes for the first time. They seem a little out-of-place wearing the uniform everywhere. Also, I don’t think it is ever explained where they live now, and that seems like an oversight.

Speaking of the uniform, it’s winter now and the cold weather addition to the YJH uniform is a crossover coat of about the same shade of tan as the winter top, with two rows of buttons and the Yuunagi logo on the left. In contrast to the Verone winter jacket, which was a different color from any other component of their uniform, this blends in much more seamlessly.

In summation, I do like this episode, I just think they aren’t handling Michiru and Kaoru’s ties to Dark Fall very well.  Someone needs to come out and say they don’t owe him their loyalty or compassion or anything just for creating them, but they won’t. I don’t think. We’ll see where things go.

Next time, it’s an episode I kind of already talked about! It’s Christmas time, and love is in the air! Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 Zekkouchou Nari!