No 3: It's a Christmas Party at the Dorm!
Despite telling Asuka her love of the Oceans as a child, Minami has no idea how to break the news to her parents. Later, she received a postcard from her parents who were in town for the holidays. But first, the girls had a Christmas Party in the dorms with the usual suspects-Yuki's cheer leading trio, Ranko and Yui trying to trick everyone into thinking she is a ventriloquist with Puff.
The four girls also performed a Christmas song (Joyful! A Precure Christmas) to everyone's surprise. After the party, Minami received a call from her mother who wished her a Season greeting and even asked on her well being. Although Minami replied she is all right but her friends saw her in tears which she explained she is afraid to break the news and disappoint her family. But the girls encouraged her to meet her family in person and arranged Minami's brother to pick her up.
No 2: One last chance, Shut!
Shut was trying to humor Dyspear over the beauty of make up but she was not pleased with him. Shut asked for one more chance to defeat the Precures and she gave him the power-up lock and told him "One Last Chance"
Shut then used the lock on the Ocean Palace and created a Turtle Zetsuborg to battle Minami who was on her way to meet her brother. She has no choice but to battle the Zetsuborg. Strangely enough, the Zetsuborg was able to transport back to the Hope Kingdom by firing waves of water at her. (Lazy writing, Toei!)
But the other girls arrived to aid Cure Mermaid and with some determination speech from Cure Mermaid about her love of the Ocean and her dreams, they defeated the Zetsuborg with Shut whining like a little kid.
Cure Mermaid then used her keys to restore the Ocean Palace and went to meet her family...
No 1: I am very proud of you, Minami.
As they were meeting their parents, Wataru told her that he saw her talking to Asuka at the dock and wondered if there is anything to do with her meeting her parents. When they finally meet their parents, Minami apologise to them as she has decided not to take over the family business as she found a new dream to work upon to.
Mr Kaido was not angry at all instead, he was very proud of her of her decision. He was hoping for Minami to make her own choice one day and not to blindly to take over the family business. Her parents gave their blessings for her decision and Minami was touched by it. Wataru then suggested to discuss more on Minami's dream together in a family dinner...
As a Christmas episode, it was pretty subtle to me personally. Minami's only enemy in this episode is actually her fears and failures since she is used to being Miss Perfect all this while. But it also showed how much Minami really loved her family a lot and is worrying in disappointing them.
But it turned out that Mr Kaido has anticipated such a scenario from Minami for quite a while. He knew that Minami has never defy him before and is probably worried she might not be mature in her thinking but with Minami breaking the news of not taking over the family business, Mr Kaido wasn't disappointed and was glad that Minami is taking the first step in choosing her own path and not waiting for someone to lay it out for her.
Of course, the other highlight was Shut who finally blew his last chance to defeat the girls and the battle although was all right with Cure Mermaid preaching but I preferred Cure Twinkle's battle in the Star Palace. The Ocean Palace is finally restored but it became secondary to the plot and Kanata only got one line in this episode...
The Christmas party was all right with the four girls singing Joyful! A Precure Christmas but overall, Minami's arc was not as dramatic like Kirara's arc but it is more of Minami's own fears that caused the conflict in the first place.
Overall, I gave Minami's arc a B plus and in the next episode, it is the Winter holidays and Haruka returned home to help in her family cafe. But Shut is close by and with nothing to lose, he decided to go all out to defeat the girls. Until then, see you next week! Gokigenyou!
Since the preview of next week's episode showed Shut transforming into some white beast, I wonder what will happen when he get's the final blow from the move Grand Pretemps. And I wonder how they'll do Haruka storing the castle of flowers in Hope Kingdom.
ReplyDeleteSo Mr.Diehard of Dysdark has finally received his ultimatum, seriously, it is complete miracle that he survived until now (and jeez, stop playing makeup in front of Dyspear, you might be in depression but doing THAT makeup show did piss Dyspear off and you life is finally endangered)! Of course, Minami discovered the dream she truly cherished during the previous episode (and child Minami was SO adorable, no wonder Kimimaro went fangirl over her when they're still children) but she is still reluctant to tell her family about it. The Christmas party was a meh apart from the Christmas vocal because Minami's struggling over her real feelings was the main motive of her arc and Toei must mix both the Christmas party and Minami's arc together due to Christmas looming soon... But Shut oh boy, AS EXPECTED he failed to deliver the final blow towards the Precures and yet another castle of Hope Kingdom is fully restored, well the heroines of the show won't be put down that easily, so Shut, better run (though there's no turning back)!
ReplyDeleteBest moment of the episode: No doubt, Minami's interaction with her family and their acceptance of her new dream. Seeing Minami in tears was different than seeing Towa in tears before cuz it's tear of joy! Wataru is always an amazing dude but Mr. & Ms. Kaido are also such great parents too, but them acknowledging her new path that quick was a bit unexpected! Shame that I didn't get to see them chatting further, but of cuz Wataru can inherit Kaido Group's enterprises and Minami can aim for her marine vet career, so cheerio for Minami!
Next week, FINALLY it's Towa X Shut time! (Why Toei dragged this long enough is a mystery!) I don't mind about Shut still considering Towa as "Twilight-sama" and aims to claim his lost "love" back cuz I've always been shipping Towa (Twilight) X Shut since they first met in episode 13 and Shut has always been No.1 fanboy of the young princess yearning to be her knight XD But OMG, with his life near the end is Shut transforming into a yeti (like how Close and Lock henshin into monsters before)? Scarlet, it's your turn to save this precious diehard knight of yours (and Kanata, time for you to split up with Towa for real, I detest incest fangirling of Towa towards you all the time)! Gokigenyou all and Merry Christmas!