#PCD149

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Precure Day 149

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 01 - “The Precure of Hope is Born!” Date watched: 1 October 2019 Original air date: 4 February 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/idPOtpl Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

Welcome, everyone, to our fourth series and second reboot in the franchise! Since sales for Splash Star were considerably lower than Max Heart and even below the first season, they decided they really needed to switch up the formula if they were going to keep making shows, so they turned to the ever popular Sailor Moon for some inspiration. Sure, the girls aren’t reincarnated ancient heroines in this version, but there’s some superficial similarities: a team of five color-coordinated girls in matching outfits, each possessing elemental powers, the leader is a bit of an airhead but her sincerity holds the team together, and her hairstyle features two strange objects on either side of her head. To an extent I suppose this describes most modern magical girls, but many of them are also copying Sailor Moon since it was a huge influence on the genre. Anyway, while FW was set in a bustling Japanese city and Splash Star was set in the rural countryside, our all new, all different series seems to be set in the French part of Japan, and the only reason I say it’s not just France is because it’s clearly close enough to visit in All Stars. So yeah, the French part of Japan, which is not a thing, but the point is this is where settings begin to get a little more fantastical and less grounded. Now that we’ve established our inspiration and our setting, let’s dig into the episode! The plot summary is going to run a little long this time as I introduce various characters, objects, concepts, and locations. I’ll keep it shorter in the future.

The Plot

A pink-haired girl is on her way to school when she gets distracted by a butterfly and runs into an attractive young man. They exchange words and she introduces herself as Yumehara Nozomi, but he has to run off before he can give his name.

Nozomi runs to the bus stop just in time to catch the school bus, as her brown-haired friend Natsuki Rin scolds her. Nozomi tells Rin about her mysterious encounter. On the bus is an advertisement featuring a young girl with yellow twintails, and there is also a green-haired girl sitting near Nozomi and Rin, while a car passes by the bus carrying a blue-haired girl. The opening theme has played, so the audience knows these are the future Precures. At school, the blue-haired girl in the car is revealed as the student council president, Minazuki Karen, while the green haired girl from the bus is her best friend, Akimoto Komachi. These two are third years, while Nozomi and Rin are second years, all at L’ecole Cinq Lumiere (School of Five Lights). Karen and Komachi attract a crowd of admirers, while Rin is quickly surrounded by members of every sports club demanding her help, so Nozomi goes on ahead, declaring that she, too, will find what she wants to do. She happens to walk by the yellow-haired girl from the advertisement, who is rehearsing her lines for an upcoming television appearance. She introduces herself to Nozomi as Kasugano Urara, a model and aspiring actress, and a first year at their school.

At the end of the school day, a conversation between Nozomi and Rin turns to the subject of Nozomi’s lack of aspirations. She always strives to cheer others on but doesn’t have a dream of her own, and Rin wants her to find one. Nozomi strives to do so while looking out a window, and notices the attractive guy from earlier snooping around the campus, so she decides to follow him. However, another shadowy figure is also following him that neither of them see.

The man winds up going in the library, where Komachi is acting as librarian and Karen is hanging out with her. Neither of them has seen anyone come in other than Nozomi, and Karen gets a little irate when Nozomi suggests otherwise, running off to look for the man she knows is here Komachi laughs and comments that Nozomi and Karen are similar in how resolute they can be.

While looking for the attractive man, Nozomi finds a glowing book and pulls it off the shelf to find that it has no title, but an ornate carved butterfly on the cover. Suddenly the man runs over and demands that she give him the book. She’s startled by his rudeness since he was nice to her earlier and refuses to hand it over. They get into a tug of war, with the man ultimately losing his grip and transforming in a puff of smoke into a small fox-like fairy, while the book (and Nozomi) falls to the ground, opening up to reveal a toy tablet inside. Nozomi is briefly shocked by the fairy but quickly cuddles him. He finally says his name is Coco, but before he can say much else, the shadowy figure from before shows up, whom Coco identifies as being from Nightmare Corporation. This is Girinma, and he states that he’s after the Dream Collet, the tablet from before. Coco refuses to give it up, as he needs its wish-granting power to restore his hometown, so Girinma transforms into a mantis man and starts attacking.

Nozomi grabs Coco and the Dream Collet and runs off. Karen and Komachi investigate the commotion but all they see is the mess left behind. Nozomi’s screams reach Rin and Urara, but all they do is turn their heads in curiosity. Girinma makes fun of Coco’s dream, causing Nozomi to retort that all dreams are precious and should be protected, and the butterfly from earlier appears and lands on her wrist, transforming into a watch. Coco excitedly tells her this is a Pinkie Catch and to make a wish. She does, and Nozomi transforms into Cure Dream!

Dream does the signature Precure move where she jumps out of the way of an attack and winds up high in the air. Girinma pulls out a mask and turns a portrait into a monster, a Kowaina (roughly “scary”). Dream is afraid of it at first but some encouragement from Coco causes her to turn around and kick it. Girinma tries to grab her and force Coco to hand over the Dream Collet in exchange for her life, but Dream manages to power up and throw the villain. Then she performs a finisher on the Kowaina, Precure Dream Attack, which causes a butterfly to fly from her hand to the monster and explode on its mask, defeating it. Girinma retreats to fight another day.

Coco tells Nozomi that she was able to transform because of her strong heart, and she decides her dream is going to be to work as Pretty Cure to help Coco grant his wish. Coco excitedly tells Nozomi that there are four more members of Precure other than her, whom they need to find, and we close on Nozomi’s surprised reaction.

The Analysis

They cram a lot into this episode. It’s very dense, but it doesn’t feel rushed or anything. We are introduced to our five main characters, of course spending the most time with Nozomi. We are shown that the girls either live in France or the Frenchiest part of Japan (All Stars DX suggests it’s travel distance from Wakabadai, Yuunagi, and Yotsuba so that’s my bet). We get a basic personality and an idea that will carry into their respective character arcs. This is Nozomi’s episode and we see that she is a little airheaded but highly supportive of her friends, while Rin wants her to actually find something of her own to focus on. She’s been in and out of a lot of clubs, always embarrassing herself or causing them trouble through her clumsiness, so bless her, she’s trying. When she bumps into Coco at the beginning, and he catches her, she develops a crush on him, which is why she was so upset when he gave her the cold shoulder in the library. We’ll get to see this crush grow a lot over the course of this show and that’s definitely something to look forward to.

What Nozomi lacks in skills she more than makes up for in compassion. Since she wants everybody’s dreams to succeed and their wishes to come true, she takes an immediate dislike of Girinma when he dismisses Coco’s wish. This spurs her into action and it’s this drive that allows her to transform. I love this. Sure, she’s not the most smart, most athletic, most driven, or most talented, but she has heart. We saw this with Nagisa and Saki before but Nozomi puts it into words, and it’s a lot different as the leader of a team of 5 than a single partner. She declares that helping others to achieve their dreams is now her dream, and I’m here for it. I find that the pressure to have a particular dream you want to achieve, or a life goal, at age 14 is a bit ridiculous to begin with.

In this episode, we get something we haven’t seen before in precure: a single heroine transforming and completely defeating the monster on their own. It’s novel for this franchise, but will become much much more common as the years go on. The fight isn’t very long, but it maintains the physicality that the series has become known for. There are no fairies causing light arcs in this one, it’s back to plain-old punching and kicking and, in one case, throwing. The finishing attack seems to come from the Pinkie Catch rather than being innate to Dream, but it’s hard to tell.

Speaking of the Pinkie Catch, let’s discuss that and the Dream Collet. The Catch is a small, watch-sized device that may have been a v-pet in real life, I don’t honestly know. The surface appears to be a curved diamond shape with an LCD screen in the middle. It’s much smaller than the cell phone changers of the last three years, and possibly the smallest Precure transformation device period. Meanwhile, the Dream Collet appears to be the large toy of the show. In order to use their wish, the Precures have to collect a large number of Pinkies with their Pinkie Catches and return them to the Collet. We’ll explore that better in the future.

As I said, there’s a lot going on in this episode. I’ll dig into more content in future reviews, Next time, it’s going to get fiery in here! Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1 kettei!