#girinma arachnea and gamao were okay i guess but not among my favorites

[xbuster]

It’s become more apparent that Kawarino only uses -san when talking to the person he’s addressing but switches to -kun if talking about them with someone else, lending more credence to the idea that it’s definitely one of his many manipulation tactics.

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 152

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 04 - “The Tranquil Cure Mint!” Date watched: 4 October 2019 Original air date: 25 February 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/r27tc5L Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

Okay I’ve gone this long without talking about it, so before we continue, it’s time for THE ROAST OF KOMACHI’S HAIR

Her hair is evenly kept chin length all around her head except for a chunk in the back that reaches to her mid-back. It’s not a ponytail, it’s a thin section of her hair that is wildly longer than the rest. Now of course, anime hair is known to be absurd, but in Precure this is usually kept to their transformed states. Everybody else on the team (or eventual team) has pretty standard hairstyles: Nozomi has two small pigtails, traditional bangs, and wears the rest of her hair at shoulder length, Rin’s hair is short and curls out from the sides of her head, Urara wears long twintails, and Karen has long loose hair with neatly trimmed ends. Komachi is the standout with her absurd style. When she transforms it gets even weirder: the body of her hair poofs up and resembles Cure Bloom’s hair, while the bit in the back splits into two extremely long strands that reach her knees. This is still pretty wild but she’s on a team with a girl with hair loops and another with hair cones so she shares the weirdness among the team. I will never understand what the character designer was thinking when they came up with Komachi’s hair. Maybe there’s an interview out there where they explain it, I’d really like to know, because it is ridiculous.

Okay now that that’s out of the way, let’s actually talk about the episode....

The Plot

Rumors are starting to spread around the school about the strange phenomena that keep occurring. Karen discusses it with Komachi one morning and they find it odd that Urara has begun hanging out with Nozomi and Rin. At lunch, Coco reminds the three of them they still need to find the Precures of Tranquility and Intelligence, but they’re interrupted by Karen and Komachi confronting them about their perceived connection to all the suspicious activity. Nozomi sees an opportunity and decides to come out and explain that they’re Precures fighting Nightmare to protect the Dream Collet, and would these two like to help them? Nozomi explains how she thinks these two fit the qualifications Coco described, but they don’t really believe or understand what she’s saying, and Karen leaves in frustration. Komachi lags behind to say it was a lovely story, and she’d love to hear more sometime.

Meanwhile at Nightmare, we find out Gamao has gone MIA after failing his mission, and of course Girinma is still in isolation, so a third agent is called in to collect the Dream Collet: Arachnea. (You get one guess what kind of animal she is). She boasts about how much more capable she is than the other two, and Bunbee basically responds “I hope so.”

Back at school, Rin has soccer practice, Urara tries to find Karen at a student council meeting, and Nozomi approaches Komachi in the library and discovers her writing. Komachi admits that she has wanted to be a novelist since she was very young, but all she gets is dismissal and mockery when she tells people that. Nozomi, however, encourages her and says she’ll support her dream! After all, that’s what she does best. They go for a walk outside and Komachi inquires further about the “story” Nozomi was telling earlier about Precure. Nozomi clarifies that it wasn’t a dream and explains the whole situation, and Komachi finally believes her but admits Karen is more stubborn. Before they can continue, spider webs suddenly come out of a nearby manhole and pull them down into the sewer, where they’re confronted by Arachnea herself, demanding the Dream Collet. She creates a Kowaina out of sewer water and chases the girls, who end up at a dead end. With no other options, Nozomi transforms in front of Komachi, kicks the monster, and they run off together.

she just keeps kicking and kicking and kicking and kicking and....

At the same time, Coco has detected the presence of Nightmare and tags Rin and Urara to try to find Nozomi. They manage to follow her down the sewer and meet up with the missing girls. Rin and Urara transform in front of Komachi, and begin to fight the Kowaina. Arachnea wraps Dream and Komachi in webs and screams that they had no right to dream, that dreams are just illusions. Komachi takes this personally, and retorts that dreams are important and Nozomi is the first person to believe in and support her dream, and in turn she wants to support Nozomi’s dream as well. Her strong emotions summon a green butterfly, which disintegrates the webs binding Komachi before landing on her wrist and becoming a Pinky Catch. Not missing a beat, Komachi transforms into the Precure of Tranquility, Cure Mint! The Kowaina tries to attack them, but Mint uses her special attack, Precure Mint Protection, which is a butterfly that takes the form of a rapidly expanding shield. The monster is knocked back and Dream takes this chance to finish it off with Dream Attack, and Arachnea retreats, muttering about how she’s going to explain this to Bunbee.

The commotion in the sewer has attracted a crowd, and as Nozomi, Rin, and Urara climb out, Karen comments that she knew they were the ones stirring up trouble. Then Komachi climbs out and Karen is confused as the four girls laugh awkwardly.

The Analysis

I know I keep coming back to this but I really enjoy how the various girls are active in investigating the mysterious occurrences resulting from the clash between the Precures and Nightmare. Even if nobody else has seen the actual fights, and the battlefields magically restore themselves, the noise and commotion of the fights attracts attention, and that’s how Komachi and Karen get roped into this mess. I also like how Nozomi is like “You know what? These two might be the ones” and just spills their secret. She recognizes that they have the qualities Coco is looking for: tranquility and knowledge, and Urara and Rin actually agree with her, though Rin is also self-aware enough to realize how absurd this all sounds to an outsider, and tells the seniors “I can see why you wouldn’t believe all of this, but it’s true.” It’s funny to me how Nozomi took a meeting where the two older girls were questioning their connection to the mysterious phenomena and turned it around on them into trying to make friends with them and have them join the Precures. She flipped the school hierarchy and power dynamic on its head, because she’s the pink. Also she’s that perfect combination of confident and airheaded that she can just go for it. I don’t mean this to sound bad, I honestly love Nozomi’s brand of earnestness and her sincere interest in helping other people achieve their dreams. Without getting too ahead of myself, she’s a lot more balanced than some other pink cures down the road.

Speaking of dreams, this is where we really get a look at what Komachi likes to do in her spare time. We might have seen her writing in the first episode but this is the first one to focus on it, and show how she’s a little embarrassed to show people her work because she’s had too many bad experiences with people mocking her. Nozomi’s earnest support of her dream to become a writer is encouraging, and we’ll definitely see her grow and develop her writing skills throughout the show. It’s one of the more memorable character arcs in the show.

An interesting facet of Cure Mint is that she is primarily defense-based rather than being offensive like the other cures so far. Her special attack is a shield, and we’ll see several cures in the franchise who mirror this ability, but while it can be a useful skill and is demonstrably strong in the right circumstances, it feels a little too drawn out most of the time. I guess I’m okay with the whole stock footage chant to perform an attack, but doing the same to summon a shield when the danger is IMMINENT seems wasteful when we know they can jump out of the way. If she had a quick shield she could pull out with less fanfare and used the special attack shield to defend from wide-range attacks or to buy time while her teammates set up their attacks, I’d like it more. Mint Protection does get some time to shine down the road, but far too often it feels superfluous. Maybe that’s heathenous for me to say in a show about teamwork and everybody having a role to play.

I’ll use this opportunity to briefly discuss the Kowaina since i haven’t properly done so before. Unlike Zakenna and Uzainaa before them, Kowaina are a bit more supernatural. The enemy of the week pulls out a full-face mask with a pointy nose and a creepy blank smile, then they throw it on an object, bringing it to life in a mutated form with the mask serving as the face. Also, they speak with a female voice rather than the brutish male voice of the previous shows’ monsters, and they always sound more creepy and spooky. It really adds to the mood and sets this series apart from its predecessors. The next episode will show us that the masks work on sentient creatures, not just inanimate objects, and that will bring some interesting implications.

On the topic of the villains, Arachnea is probably my favorite general from this series. She has the best design as a monster, she’s very serious and largely effective. Sure, she has to lose because plot, but her abilities give the team a run for their money. I’m not sure what she thought she’d gain by luring the girls into the sewer that she couldn’t do above ground, perhaps she thought she could limit their movement? It’s not that well-explained. However, that hiccup aside, I really enjoy her as a villain. Girinma is a close second but he often winds up as the butt monkey of Bunbee’s schemes, which is unfortunate.

Now, this episode has several instances of animation that is best described as..... questionable. Actually, it’s not just this episode, it’s been prevalent all along, but I haven’t had time to bring it up before, and it’s prevalent enough here that I needed to discuss it. The models used for the characters for mid-range and far range shots are not awful, but their features and proportions are a bit distorted. Their faces in particular have eyes that are the wrong shape, which really stands out, and these shots are long enough that even if you’re not the most observant, you’ll realize they look off.

For further out shots, we get the added bonus of noodle limbs.

It’s not a great look, but at this point, we’re used to so-so animation in Precure.

I’ll try to talk about the music in the next one, because the audio design of YPC5 is fun and well enough removed from its predecessors. Look forward to that and more. Next time, on Precure Daily, a false start!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 2 Kettei!