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Precure Day 225

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! 27 - “Rin-chan VS the Monsters of Edo!” Date watched: 20 September 2022 Original air date: 17 August 2008 Screenshots Precure Metamorphose Gallery | Sky Rose Translate Gallery Project info and master list of posts

I ain’t afraid of no ghost

It’s summer in French Tokyo, and that means it’s festival time. But what is a festival without a test of courage? And who better to host a test of courage than the girl who’s afraid of ghosts?

Wait…

NOTE: This is an episode really steeped in Japanese culture and traditions, so it may not translate well if you’re not familiar with the ideas. I could write an entire post about the references and stuff, but I’ll just give a brief rundown during the miscellaneous section with some links for further reading.

The Plot

Rin and Komachi are preparing a test of courage. Rin is nervous because she doesn't like monsters.

Shibiretta mocks Anacondy for the invasion of Eternal and the defeat of Nebatakos. She snarkily suggests Anacondy should write a report.

Karen, Urara, Nuts, and Coco are at the festival. Nozomi, Kurumi, and separately Syrup are running late. The former group pairs off to find the others.

Shibiretta casts a spell. Everyone finds themselves in an Edo setting confronting Yokai. All fairies revert to their fairy forms and cling to whoever they're with as they flee from the monsters.

 Rin is extra scared but Komachi cheers her on, pointing out that their meeting point is still in sight.

Komachi has a plan to overcome Rin's fear in the process. They manage to scare off a skeleton with masks. Rin scares a ghost by pretending to be another ghost.

Urara & Coco, Karen & Nuts, and Syrup run into Nozomi & Milk. Kurumi points out they agreed to meet at the Torii gates.

RIn and Komachi make it to the torii but find Shibiretta there. She turns an umbrella into a Hoshiina, a karakasa kozo (jumping umbrella). Rin freaks out but they transform.

Mint says they won't give up, Rouge declares she's not scared. She does a combo on the monster.

The other girls arrive, Lemonade and Mint combo to toss the monster around and Rose finishes it with Blizzard. Rouge launches a Fire Strike at Shibiretta. She tries spinning it on her head but it burns her and she disappears.

The girls dress as monsters and scare the boys. Rin is a convincing ghost, and thanks Komachi for helping her overcome her fear, she's very happy. Komachi remarks that the ghost fits her perfectly. The others show up and demand to know if she thinks they fit their characters well, Komachi admits that they were chosen more for comedy.

They chase Komachi and the episode ends.

The Analysis

What I Liked

It’s a Rin-centric episode, so that’s an automatic win in my book. Furthermore, it follows up on a plot from last season about Rin’s fear of ghosts and monsters, which I enjoyed.

The various situations the girls found themselves in with the different yokai were great. Even if you could see the gag coming after 2 or 3 attempts, it’s still a worthwhile payoff.

Reverse scaring the yokai is a great spin on the formula and gives some more good gags.

Komachi and Rin are not a common pairing so it’s nice to see them get some focus together. 

Rouge overcoming her fear and laying into the Hoshiina is a great sequence.

What I didn’t like

I would have liked to see the actual test of courage course, but all we saw were the costumes.

On that note, I wish Rin had been given a full costume as a ghost, rather than just a wig. It’s possible that was a change of plans, given that Komachi had other masks with her.

I wish the girls other than Rin and Komachi had run into more Yokai. Everyone else got one encounter, ran away, and then met up with each other.

The fight with the Hoshiina was a bit odd. The girls ran, then had their triumphant speech, then everyone showed up, and they got beat up some more before pulling through with the winning strategy? You’d expect the speech to signal the turning tide of the battle.

Komachi says that Rin gives her courage, which I don’t think has ever been portrayed, and isn’t well shown in this episode either.

Miscellaneous

A test of courage is a challenge that can take many forms, but usually a group of people go to a scary or haunted destination at night and either take or leave a token to prove they’ve been there. In more staged tests, the path can be lined with props and people dressed as monsters, like a haunted house but outside.

There’s a lot of yokai on display here! Yokai are monsters from Japanese folklore, somewhat analogous to things like Mothman and Sasquatch in North America.

Rin and Komachi first run into what I believe are noppera-bo, the faceless travelers.

Karen and Nuts encounter karakasa kozo, the jumping umbrellas. The Hoshiina is also a giant one of these.

Urara and Coco meet a kijo, a female oni.

Nozomi and Kurumi are frightened by a rokurokubi, a woman with an extending neck.

Syrup is seen running from a group of chochin obake, or living paper lanterns.

Rin and Komachi later encounter a skeleton, which doesn’t seem to be a specific yokai. (The only skeleton yokai I found was a gashadokuro, which is giant)

Rin and Komachi also encounter a yurei, or a Japanese ghost, and that’s exactly what Rin is impersonating as well.

The costumes that Komachi gives to the girls at the end are as follows

Karen is a vampire

Kurumi is a cat

Urara is a nurikabe (a living wall)

Nozomi is a kappa ( a river spirit).

Komachi praises Rin a few times by calling her a Yamato Nadeshiko, which is a complicated term that basically means an ideal Japanese woman. It doesn’t feel apt to me.

Normally, individual transformations are done in roll order (Dream, Rouge, Lemonade, Mint, Aqua, Rose) barring anyone missing. However when Rin and Komachi transform, Komachi’s is shown first.

Milk transforms into her fairy form for the first time since episode 25. Not that long but still.

Conclusion

It’s a fun summer episode, similar to the ghost episode from last season but with a different take on events. I like how the yokai interact with the girls, and I like how the scattered girls manage to find each other once again. It’s super fun, but there’s not much to say beyond that as it's summer filler. I do appreciate that it coincidentally lines up with the spooky season as I’m writing this. Japan likes to do ghosts and spooks in summer as opposed to fall.

Next time, on Precure Daily, the third monarch makes their debut! Look forward to it!

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