#PCD156

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 156

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 08 - “Rin and Karen’s Compatibility: Zero?” Date watched: 14 October 2019 Original air date: 25 March 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/JGs54VL Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

that’s it, that’s the episode

The five ideals represented by the Precure team are hope, passion, effervescence, tranquility, and intelligence. Passion and intelligence tend to represent opposite sides of a coin, and we’ve seen Rin and Karen butt heads before. This episode pits them against each other in a classic Red Oni, Blue Oni dichotomy, to great effect, and it almost spells the end of their friendship.

The Plot

Rin and Karen have a small disagreement about what flowers to decorate Natts House with, which creates tension between them because they’re both invested in their decision. Later, a disagreement about what kind of tea to drink with their snacks causes more of an argument and the other girls can’t calm them down. Suddenly all they can manage to do is get in each other’s way and annoy each other. Rin taunts Karen about being her Precure senpai, despite the seitokaichou being the elder girl. When Rin comments that it’ll be a good day for sports, Karen chimes in that the weather forecast predicted rain. It gets to the point where they just stop talking to each other, despite the other three trying to intervene. However, Arachnea has been dispatched by Nightmare to capture the Dream Collet, and once again she emerges from the sewers (what is it with her and sewers?) as Nozomi, Urara, and Komachi walk home. They transform but she captures them in her webs this time, taunting Coco to leave a message for the other two girls about what happened, and to bring the Collet if they wanted to save their teammates. Karen and Rin run into each other as they leave school, exchange tense small talk, but they put their dispute aside when Coco tells them what happened. They trek into the sewer, snarking each other along the way, and finally find Arachnea and their teammates. The two transform and fight against a Kowaina made of sewer pipes, and despite their differences, they manage to work in harmony. When Arachnea demands to know how they can be so tenacious, they each respond that they can’t afford to lose to each other, and Nozomi manages to free herself and use Dream Attack to finish off the Kowaina. Afterwards, Karen and Rin make up and say they’d like to visit each other sometime to share their love of flowers. However, at Natts House the next day, they can still be found arguing over the placement of a flower, because some things never change.

The Analysis

Something I thought was really interesting about this episode was Rin’s point that the two girls didn’t talk much before they became Precure, so going back to that isn’t really unusual or a sign that they hate each other or anything. Despite their animosity, both girls are fine with just not having much to do with each other to resolve the problem. I thought that was a reasonably mature response, as opposed to constant bickering, however, this is a show about making friends and overcoming hardships, so that’s not going to stand.

Precure squabbles are a time-honored tradition at this point. Nagisa and Honoka did it several times, it’s been the running theme of the movies, but now we get to see it translated to a larger team and the result is interesting. I appreciate the portrayal of how different people in a friend group may not be equally friends with each other, how they sometimes clash in major ways, and how that affects the team harmony. Interestingly, in this episode, their fight doesn’t hurt the team in battle in the traditional way, but it does affect group harmony outside of it, and of course when it’s just Rouge and Aqua against the monster, you get to see that.... they’re not that at odds. You would expect them to trip over each other and argue with each other, the usual side-effects of squabbling cures, but in fact they work together pretty well. They harumph a bit but they have the same objective and are mostly able to put their differences aside in the heat of battle to save their friends. The fight sort of puts things in perspective for them and allows them to vent, as well as hear each other out, and they apologize afterwards. It’s a really good take on things.

(I made a gif of a scene to emphasize my point, but it’s too big to upload, and I’m having trouble embedding it from imgur, so here’s a link: https://imgur.com/8Ge5EsA)

The thing that stands out to me about this is, of course, this isn’t the first time the two of them have butted heads. They’ve never out-and-out fought like in this episode, but they did have some gruff encounters before. The one that stands out to me is in episode 6, where Karen is explaining to the girls why she cannot become a Precure, and Rin snarks that her approach to rejecting them was rude, and Karen snaps back at her to be quiet. Rin has often been opposed to Karen becoming a cure, not maliciously but she didn’t think the Student Council President would be a good fit, so there was a basis for this. It’s funny how it all comes to a head, though. It starts as the two just disagreeing over what flowers to place in the shop, with their personal biases coming into play because hey, each one wants to display the ones they brought, and then after that every single thing they say or do is wrong and annoying.

Also, aggressively eating out of spite is a goddamn mood.

I like the scene at the beginning where it all starts and the tension between them is reinforced by the dramatic music and quick cuts and closeups. That’s some quality cinematography.

Switching gears, this episode finally shows us the big bad of the show, Despariah! Kind of. We see her from the back, and an extreme close-up of the bottom of her “face”, which is actually covered by a mask.

She tells Kawarino her goal is to grant herself eternal life and youth while ruling the world with absolute despair. You know, a normal Tuesday for a villain. But it does shed some light on the environment she has set up. One can assume the masked boardroom members are people she has previously brought despair to. Also, perhaps the Kawaina masks are based on her own? It’s not the last time in this show we’ll explore what really goes on in those things.

Of note, all the girls (except Nozomi) transfer their captured Pinkies from their Pinky Catches to the Dream Collet, including Karen, who has not actually been seen catching a Pinky yet. This will be the first of many that are caught offscreen.

Urara and Nozomi are adorkable this episode. Urara seems almost oblivious to the tension in the room and, in what is becoming a running gag for her, spouts a non-sequitur answer to a question. In this case, when the discussion is whether to drink black or green tea, she confidently says she prefers milk!

Nozomi can at least tell there’s a fight going on and she tries to settle it in the most Nozomi way possible: by combining all three!

that would probably taste terrible

Bless her, she is trying.

I don’t really have a lot more to say here, it’s a solid episode about two girls overcoming some personal strife, friendly fighting to outdo one another, and protecting their friends. We also get a little insight into the villains. Next time we meet the best girl that isn’t a Precure, Masuko Mika! Look forward to i!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1 Kettei!