#PCD169

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 169

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 21 - “Milk the Apprentice Caregiver Appears!” Date watched: 5 January 2020 Original air date: 1 July 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/3Lt6N6V Transformation Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/6k6SzS0 Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

I just want you to know it took me a couple hours to cut out the faces and then another hour of video editing to figure out this program I’ve never used before in order to make that 10 second clip, so I hope you appreciate it. THESE ARE THE THINGS I DO FOR ART.

Anyway, what can I say. The bitch Milk is here.

The Plot

On her way to school, Nozomi picks up a mysterious alien fairy lying on the ground, thinking it’s a stuffed animal. The leech fairy proceeds to eat Nozomi’s lunch during first period, pausing when she hears Kokoda teaching the class, as it reminds her of the Coco she used to know.

Nozomi is devastated to find her lunchbox empty, and when she gets to Natts House after school she declares how hungry she is, so Nuts offers her some mamedifuku. She goes to get some, but in the moment that she has her back turned, her secret passenger eats them all. Nozomi turns back around and sees her, and screams.

One shudders to imagine what inhuman thoughts lie behind those eyes... what dreams of chronic and sustained cruelty?

When Coco and Nuts show up with the other girls, there is a moment of shared recognition between the three as residents of Palmier Kingdom. Then the pest, who introduces herself as Milk, gushes that the two of them are the Princes of the Kingdom, which they brush off as not being important enough to bring up to the girls (but this will become important next season). She declares herself their Apprentice Caregiver, whatever that means, and is upset that the others are treating them so casually and that they’re doing labor themselves. Through further conversation, the parasite Milk explains how she got by by conning meals from, as she calls them, suckers. Suddenly, Nozomi realizes where her lunch went.

she takes it reasonably well

After some fuss, Milk shoos the girls out and they agree, having had enough excitement for the day. Then she tells Coco and Nuts that she will go purchase ingredients for dinner and runs out the door. They chase after her, because they’re concerned for her safety and she doesn’t know this town or anything about Nightmare. The princes end up in a park with Girinma, who has been dispatched to find them specifically, and he nearly kills them but for the triumphant return of Milk, who latches on like a facehugger, buying some time. Nozomi and the other girls appear, because they saw Coco and Nuts run out of the shop not long after their own departure and thought it was odd. They exposit to Girinma and Milk about how they’re going to revive the Palmier Kingdom with the Dream Collet and then transform into Precures.

Seeing his opportunity for revenge, Girinma turns a bench into a Kowaina to fight the girls. Dream jumps in and saves Milk from Girinma and places her safely off to the side before getting back into the fray. The team beats up on the monster, and at one point Girinma goes in for a killing blow on the fairies again but Dream and Lemonade stop him dead in his tracks.

Dream declares that they won’t let them cause Milk any more sadness, and everybody else chips in that she worked so hard and was extremely brave in getting to where she is now, in an unfamiliar world with dangerous enemies. Nozomi performs Dream Attack on the monster as Girinma flees and the park returns to normal.

Milk is sincerely amazed that these five are the legendary warriors..... but quickly catches herself and says she expected them to be more upstanding people. Nozomi tries to argue with her but the others shush her, pointing out that Milk has fallen asleep after exhausting herself that day, and we close on the pink devil’s sleeping face

The Analysis

You may have noticed a hint of animosity towards Milk. I just want to state that it’s only a joke, I don’t dislike her.

I actively dislike her! She is insufferable, rude, ungrateful, smug, and downright mean. The bar for new fairies isn’t exactly high, considering the first impressions of Porun, Lulun, and Moop & Foop, but Milk is in a league of her own. Get used to me calling her a bitch, because she’s a bitch. She is all tsun, no dere (for now). Yes, she’ll get better as the show progresses, but she’s extremely difficult to tolerate in her early episodes. Porun and Lulun were just whiny, she is mean, and a source of trouble and conflict for everyone around her.

She isn’t swayed by them being the legendary warriors, and thinks they should be more impressive. She feels that Coco and Nuts should be placed on a pedestal and worshipped for the princes they are, not respecting their apparently lack of interest in their titles or their penchant for hard work. However, of all the girls, Nozomi in particular seems to be the target of most of Milk’s ire. Milk doesn’t see her positive aspects, only her clumsiness, gullibility, and other weaknesses. As the superior being, Milk takes it upon herself to remind Nozomi of her place as often as possible. It may be because she was the first one they met and Nozomi is upset at her for constantly stealing food and acting high and mighty. They certainly got off on the wrong foot, but despite attempts to ease the tension, Milk just isn’t interested.

I do have to commend her for her bravery at the end. Jumping in front of danger when she’s easily the least powerful of the group is commendable. She tried to stop Girinma the only way she knew how. She wanted to protect Nuts and Coco, and the future of the Palmier Kingdom. Her heart is in the right place, and this is the seed for her character arc over the next season and a half.

but she also has acid blood

The fight scene is intense, with lots of fun dynamic action shots as usual. It feels a bit abbreviated compared to some we’ve had, but the focus is on keeping Coco, Nuts, and Milk safe. There’s a sequence where Dream and Rouge are diving around the Kowaina’s arms which lends to some great stills:

And then at the climax of the fight as Girinma goes in for the kill, he’s drawn in exceptional detail:

Unfortunately the shot that immediately follows this is terribly-drawn, surprisingly one of the few examples of that in this episode. It’s the shot where Dream and Lemonade catch his arms, which I postd earlier. That rapid switch in quality was really jarring and disappointing for an otherwise strong episode.

I didn’t cover this in the plot summary but Girinma seems to be on his last ropes at Nightmare. Bunbee comments that despite being the champion of the raid on Palmier Kindom, he hasn’t managed to beat the Precures, and is likely to be terminated soon. He offers some advice, as old friends, to fight the fairies since that’s what he’s good at. If he had actually stuck to this advice, not engaging in the fight when the girls showed up, he may have won. But as we’ve seen, he’s very proud and lets his pride get in the way a lot, such as the time he was literally holding the Dream Collet but stopped to fight the girls. I’m going to recount his character more in episode 24, it’s a bit of a turning point for him.

Most of the humor in this episode again comes from the friction between Nozomi and Milk, and you can find plentiful examples in the gallery. There’s also some great facial expressions like such:

And last of all, I’m certain I mentioned this more than once when I was writing about FWPC, but Milk is at least the third example within this series alone of a voice actress for a main character previously playing a part in another season. Sendai Eri, who voices Milk, was previously Nagisa’s excitable friend Kubota Shiho in Futari wa Precure and Max Heart!

When the All Stars series begins, this also makes Shiho one of the few side characters to sometimes get speaking lines, because her actress is already on hand to record for a fairy, and you know they gotta have the fairies.

Next time, Milk struggles to find her role, and runs away! Look forward to it! Pink Precure catchphrase count: 0 kettei!