Precure Day 191

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 42 - “Rin and Karen’s Secret Promise” Date watched: 1 June 2020 Original air date: 2 December 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/FiOgssJ Transformation Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/6k6SzS0 Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

Just a couple of gals being pals: part 2

Karen and Rin seem like an odd pair of friends. This has been pointed out before by me, and by the show itself. In a way, they resemble Nagisa and Honoka from the first series, so while they don’t share as tight of a bond as the original duo, they do have a unique closeness in that “opposites attract” kind of way. Today we’re going to explore that a little more!

The Plot

It’s now December so the girls get to decorating Natts House for the Christmas season sale. Everyone contributes in their way to make sure it looks immaculate, but they forgot to get flowers, so Nozomi voluntells resident flower experts Rin and Karen to go get some.

In Nightmare, Hadenya mocks Bunbee for his constant failure and reminds him that failures usually get the Black Paper. (remember this for next episode)

Rin and Karen arrive at Fleuriste Natsuki, only for Rin’s mom to ask Rin to tend to the shop so she can pick up the twins. Since Rin is stuck, she suggests Karen take the flowers back to Natts House by herself, but Karen offers to stay and help as well. Rin doesn’t think she’s up to the task, but Karen proves her capacity when she helps some customers while Rin is tied up with a phone order. Karen impresses Rin with her knowledge, and Rin impresses Karen with her people skills. Since they’ve been gone a while, Komachi begins to worry about them back at Natts House, and Urara fears they may have gotten into another fight over flowers. Nozomi, however, has full confidence in her decision to send both of them together and tells the others not to worry. Rin and Karen continue to work side by side, and at the end of the shift, Karen observes that Rin is really passionate about flowers, in a more tender way than herself, and tells Rin she could do this for a career. Rin admits that while she certainly enjoys helping out at the shop and playing sports, she doesn’t see them as future careers, and she has no real dream for the future. Karen admits to Rin that she’s in the same boat, even though she’s able to apply herself fully to any task, she struggles with identifying an actual long-term goal for the future. They each compliment Nozomi, Urara, and Komachi in their ability to find and work towards a dream so steadfastly. Then, Rin proposes that they make a promise: whenever one of them finds a dream, they’ll tell the other first. Karen agrees and they share a smile. Unknown to them, Bunbee is around the corner and overhears their conversation, silently mocking their shared goal.

A little later, the pair are on the way back to Natts House, each with flowers in tow, when Bunbee intercepts them, turning some falling leaves into a giant leaf Kowaina. Rin and Karen quickly transform into Cures Rouge and Aqua and start to battle the Kowaina but it overpowers them. Bunbee suggests that, since they have no dreams, they are in despair and should join Nightmare to gain more power. They rebuke him and vow to find their dreams someday. They argue back and forth with Bunbee about the validity and importance of hopes and dreams, similar to Nozomi’s fight with Despariah in episode 39, but he manages to kick them around. Nozomi, Urara, and Komachi arrive in time to tell him that their friends would NEVER fall to despair, and they transform into Precure. They kick the Kowaina a few times, but despite being a leaf, it’s very sturdy. They then turn back to the ideological debate with Bunbee, speaking of the important things they’ve learned from their friends Rin and Karen. Mint recalls the tiara that Rin made for the wedding (ep 32) and Milk remembers how Karen took care of her when she was sick (ep 34). Both instances displayed some true passion and sincerity, and it fosters a realization in Rouge and Aqua. They stand back up, newly energized by the amount of appreciation and support that their friends hold for them, and together they perform Rouge Burning and Aqua Tornado, destroying the Kowaina. Bunbee flees.

Back at Natts House, everyone admires the flowers Rin and Karen brought, but there is some latent curiosity about why they brought two different types: cyclamen and cattleya. Rin explains that they both felt two types would be better than just one, and Nozomi is happy about their choice. While the other three are busy, Karen confides in Rin that she may have found her dream, and Rin admits the same. They dance around admitting that it was the others’ strong words that made them realize how happy they felt working for others in the ways they did, and the audience is left to try to piece together exactly what their newfound dreams are for themselves. (don’t worry, we’ll get find out soon enough.) The episode closes on a shot of the flower arrangements.

The Analysis

Rin and Karen are a really fun duo to watch. I honestly do think it’s because they remind me of Nagisa and Honoka a lot. One is a short-haired working class sporty tomboy with feminine interests, the other is a long-haired intellectual from a wealthy family with absentee parents, and both are well-respected by other students. Before becoming Precure, they had little reason to interact, but now they’re friends. Obviously, the team dynamic means their friendships are different, but out of all the pairs of friends in this series, Rin and Karen bear the strongest resemblance to the originals. Regardless, I genuinely enjoy seeing them come closer, admiring and complimenting each other’s work, and opening up to admit that they don’t have dreams yet (another trait they share with their predecessors). Their promise to tell each other first if they find a dream is really sweet, and even Nozomi and Rin don’t have that kind of a friendship. I just love seeing their bond deepen here.

Unfortunately, the villain plot of this episode doesn’t do a whole lot to help, not in my view. I will always stand up for the girls standing up for the importance of hopes and dreams, which is what they’re doing here, but it just comes down to the same argument they had with Despariah a few episodes ago, or with Bloody the last episode: “Dreams are important!” “No they’re not, I’ll beat you!” until the girls prove that their friendship is actually more powerful. The kowaina is quite strange. It’s a giant leaf, but it’s as sturdy as a brick wall, but Bunbee does most of the fighting while the kowaina just stands around. To his credit, Bunbee is a pretty good fighter, with a devastating dropkick that incapacitates both clusters of girls, but fortunately everybody’s support for Rouge and Aqua inspires them to stand back up and finish off the monster. However, this episode also reinforces a running trend that’s been developing over the series, since the reform of Nightmare’s Dream Collet division: their opinion of Bunbee is in the toilet, and his constant losses do nothing to change this. In fact, this is the last time Bunbee will see the battlefield this season, as the next couple episodes will be fought by Hadenya and Bloody, and then Kawarino during the endgame. It was an alright final fight, but he didn’t use the full range of his abilities, particularly his projectiles, which would have been nice to see.

The best aspect to come out of this is that the Rin and Karen do finally start to realize their future dreams. They’re not expressed out loud quite yet, but this is also a 13 year-old series so I’m going to go ahead and reveal that Rin decides to pursue making jewelry and Karen wants to be a doctor. When you look at their past, it becomes pretty clear. Rin has had a penchant for it since she showed off the bracelet maker way back when, while Karen took her first steps way back in episode 6, when she was able to transform by realizing she wanted to help everyone. That’s the spirit she’s carried all season, and now she’s figured out how she can translate that into her goals for the future. I think it’s particularly great how it was choice words from their friends that made them realize what they love doing. Sometimes it takes that external push, people appreciating your passion when you don’t recognize it about yourself. I struggled with that for a long time, and while I knew kind of where I wanted to end up, a friend’s words definitely helped point me in the right direction. It’s good to see Precure do this, and it will be enjoyable to see how these characters grow and develop their dreams from here, over the rest of this season and the next one.

Some minor aspects I enjoyed were in the opening sequence, when they’re all decorating Natts House. Urara is trying to get position some spotlights just right on a display, because as a performer she knows how the right lighting can influence opinion. Komachi sets out a poem of hers intended to greet guests, and she gets flustered when Karen reads it. It goes:

“A holy day, a holy night. What sort of sky lies above you---... Once again, I wander in search Of you in the sea of stars this night...”

translation not guaranteed to be perfect

Also, Nuts is a total Scrooge, grumbling about how he doesn’t see the point of Christmas. Coco says the girls are enjoying it so it can’t be all bad, and Nozomi informs him that it’s a really important holiday for young girls. (Christmas in Japan is a big night for couples to spend time together.)

And the last bit is a little continuity, they use a Pinky named Clearkuman to copy fliers advertising their Christmas sale. This might be the only Pinky to recur, as it was seen doing the same task way back in episode 10. Also, I don’t think I’ve commented on the cards before that they use to summon Pinkies out of the Dream Collet, so here’s a look:

It’s just so transparently a toy, with the barcode and CARD IN on it. This is about the last chance they have to get kids to ask their parents for this big ticket item before Christmas, and then in 2 months the Rose Pact will be the hot new toy to have instead. So it goes.

All jokes aside, this was a solid episode with some characters I love spending time with and seeing grow, both because they remind me of the original pair and because they’re great in their own right. Next time, we turn our focus back to Komachi and her struggles with authorship. Look forward to it, it’s going to hurt.

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 3 kettei!