User blog:GlitterInformer/Doki Doki! Pretty Cure/Glitter Force Doki Doki SDC: Episode 10 (Sub), 8 (Dub)

Episode 9 (Sub), 7 (Dub) | Table of Contents

Japanese title: "The Transfer Student's a National Super Idol!!"

English title: "Superstar Classmate"

Overall: I wasn’t expecting this episode to focus on Rikka/Rachel as well as Makoto/Mackenzie, but I like that it did. I feel that lately, Pretty Cure generally either focuses on one character or the entire group, so it’s nice to see an episode once in a while of two of the characters bonding. Despite the focus on Rikka/Rachel and Makoto/Mackenzie, all of the characters got time to shine and had an essential place in the story. I really wish modern Pretty Cure episodes could do that more consistently.

Additionally, I liked the focus on the characters having selfish thoughts. It’s not often that jealousy is discussed, so it’s nice to see. It’s especially important since being jealous when your friend gets a new friend is something that everyone feels. It’s important for kids to be taught how to handle their jealousy.

It’s also nice to see the dub being faithful to the original since it doesn’t have to combine episodes. The main problem I had with the dub today was the voice acting. Most of it was pretty good, but most of the characters had moments where their acting sounded stilted. And of course, there’s the possible homophobia. Let’s hope that there are no more signs of that.

Speaking of flaws, I do wish that we’d found out more about Makoto/Makcenzie’s culture from her mishaps at school. The whole montage of Makoto/Mackenzie in school was supposed to show how unaccustomed she was to Earth culture, but the only thing that really showed that was her making the gesture to summon janitors. In fact, the only mess-up of hers that was a big deal was an epic failure in home-ec. Everyone fails at art, somebody’s gotta knock over the water bucket sometime, and nobody cares if you write your name strangely on a test as long as it’s legible. That being said, I do feel the montage did a good job of showing what it would be like to have a celebrity as a classmate.

Next episode: Mana/Maya helps the softball team when one of their players gets injured!