#FWPCSS36

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 134

Episode: Futari wa Precure Splash Star 36 - “What to Make? Mai’s Worries and the Cultural Festival” Date watched: 19 June 2019 Original air date: 15 October 2006 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/wZe5V3H Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

I showed you my disguise please respond

I really like how this show has slowly been building up to the cultural festival ever since the girls returned to school. The first mention of it I can recall was way back in episode 31 when Kenta was scouting a partner for his manzai act, and it came up again in episode 34, when Saki gave Kazuya advice on his own school’s festival. Now it’s time to get into full swing, as we see the girls of Yuunagi Jr. High preparing for their own. The art club is in charge of designing a monument, while Saki’s class is preparing to put on a haunted house. Additionally, Kenta and Miyasako can be found practicing for their manzai show in their spare moments. Meanwhile in Dark Fall, Kintolesky is getting grilled for his repeated failures, and Akudaikaan tells him he needs to come up with a better strategy than his head-on assaults. He doesn’t like this advice very much, but he sets out to observe the students working and figure out a plan.

There’s a problem with all the prep, though: Mai has artist’s block, because she has trouble drawing to a theme, and there’s also a lot of pressure on her to design a good monument.

With only a week to go until the festival, she’s losing confidence in herself, but Saki cheers her up. A day later, she still doesn’t have anything, and when Saki comes to see her, Mai bursts into tears.

well she is a millennial, it’s very stressful situation

(Okay actually these are tears of joy/relief after Saki tells Mai that she’s always liked the drawings that Mai seemed to enjoy making and she should just draw what she likes for this)

Mai goes home that night and finally has a spark of inspiration. She presents her idea the next day and everyone loves it so she has the art club get to work bringing her vision to life. All the prep is going well and the festival is just a few days away, and Kintolesky continues observing them trying to come up with a strategy. After two days of contemplation he finally decides to set his master plan in motion: he steals Saki’s pumpkin head prop and sneaks up on Mai. Then he reveals himself to her and throws the head away, satisfied that he has accomplished his assignment, but he accidentally throws it right into the still under construction statue, damaging it.

He straight up apologizes for damaging the statue but Mai is still upset, and Saki shows up looking for her pumpkin head, and gets upset that he’s damaged both Mai’s statue and her mask. He urges them to transform so they do, and it’s a Bright and Windy type of day. This time, Kintolesky really ramps up his fighting style. He’s throwing trees, swinging on vines, coming at the girls from every direction. It’s a great battle and the duo are barely holding their own, even with their wind and light attacks. Kin creates an Uzainaa out of a bunch of tools that are lying around but he still does most of the fighting himself. He gets particularly upset when the girls reveal that they were preparing for a cultural festival, because in his view these are a waste of time, and he only values athletic festivals.

This doesn’t sit well with the heroines, who espouse how hard they and all their friends have worked on every aspect of this festival, and with the help of Moop and Foop making their only appearance in this entire episode, they power up with the Spiral Rings and dispel the villains. Kin quips that strategizing really isn’t for him and runs off.

That evening, the art club completes work on the statue and the whole class is admiring it. It really is lovely.

Mai explains that her feeling was that people can fly higher with the help of others than they can on their own, and that’s what she tried to convey with the statue. In particular, she admits that she designed the statue with her and Saki in mind, and you can definitely see how the two figures at the top resemble them. Mai says she feels that she can be the most at ease around Saki, so she can fly the highest when holding Saki’s hand. Saki returns the sentiment, and the two of them pose just like the statue, closing out the episode.

They’re too cute

Okay, there’s an elephant in this room that I need to address. The Art Club basically decided Mai would design the monument without asking her if she wanted to. She didn’t volunteer for it, not even tepidly, she was voluntold. They had a vote and decided she should do it.

LOOK AT HER FACE. She is so uncomfortable with this situation, and who could blame her? This is a tremendous amount of pressure that has just been placed on her shoulders without her consent. This lays the groundwork for the entire episode, and it’s the rare instance in Precure where I find myself actively hating the message they’re pushing, or at least they way they go about it. (off the top of my head, there’s another in Princess Precure where Haruka is losing sleep to make a dress) It doesn’t matter that the outcome was ultimately positive, you cannot just force someone into this situation. If they had at least showed her agreeing to try to design the monument, or being part of a group that was designing it, or shown her being unwilling but then she got encouragement from her friends and then volunteering, I would be fine. But they shoulder her with this burden and the episode plays off her stress without comment. I cannot stand that.

Ignoring that she was pretty much forced to do this, I like that they show her struggling, because seeing the support that her friends give her through her trial is nice, and the spark of inspiration being that very friendship is wonderful. The monument itself is beautifully designed and I would honestly love to see it in real life. Mai has come a long way from just drawing people and objects that catch her attention.

Kintolesky is being peak Kintolesky this go-round and it’s hilarious. After being tasked with coming up with an actual plan rather than just fighting the girls, after all that observation, the best he can do without compromising his morals is to sneak up on Mai. In the fight, he is in top form (sorry Saki), and it’s glorious. He gives the girls a run for their money and they give him one right back. There’s a lot of moving back and forth and striking and blocking, and the Uzainaa is almost pointless but hey, gotta get that miracle drop in. My favorite part is how he accidentally damages Mai’s still under construction statue and, without hesitation, apologizes for it. He was only trying to sneak up on her and declare a fight, he didn’t want to actually break her work. Saki shows up, angry, and he says again that he is sorry and didn’t intend for that to happen. When have you ever heard a villain apologize before in this show? It’s just more reasons why Kintolesky is the best.

Lastly, I like how they show everybody preparing for their roles in the cultural festival. The prep work we got in FW and MH was in the form of the class rehearsing for their play, we didn’t see any haunted houses or statues or maid cafes or whatever other staples of anime cultural festivals you can think of. So showing that effort was a welcome change.

Next time, we get to see what all the hard work was for! Or do we? Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 Zekkouchou Nari

Miracle Drop Count: 3