User blog:GlitterInformer/Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force SDC: Episode 24 (Sub), 21 (Dub)

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Japanese title: The Pretty Cures Have Become Fairies~miyu~!?

English title: “The Story Continues”

We start with a flashback to last episode, with the girls fighting the four servants of Pierrot/Nogo, Pierrot/Nogo himself being revived, and the team using their new attack, Rainbow Burst, to defeat him. Miyuki/Emily narrates the whole thing. In the sub, we only hear Miyuki; in the dub, we hear dialogue in the background as well as Emily’s narration. Also, Emily does a humorous job hamming up the story. Emily also says that she can’t wait to meet the queen, something Miyuki doesn’t say.

We cut to the girls in M ärchenland/Jubiland, standing before the Royale Queen/Euphoria, who is about the size of a building. In the sub, Miyuki is shocked that that’s what she looks like and Akane says she’s huge; in the dub, Emily asks how the air is up there and Kelsey asks if they should call her “Your Highness”. Because she’s high, get it? Would you stop it, Kelsey?

In the sub, Miyuki asks if the Royale Queen can hear her, there’s a period of silence, and Reika says it seems she can’t; in the dub, Emily says in a fake British accent that they are there and asks the others if Euphoria can hear her through all her hair, and Chloe says that she does have quite a bit of hair.

Akane/Kelsey, Nao/April, and Yayoi/Lily call to the queen, but to no further avail. Nao/April and Candy ask why she isn’t awake, despite them having collected all the Cure Décors/Glitter Charms (in the sub, Candy sounds near tears; in the dub, she’s just curious). Pop, despite his research, doesn’t know. Miyuki says that the Royale Queen must be a morning person; Emily says it might be Saturday and Euphoria’s sleeping in. This causes Pop to comedically fall on the floor. Yayoi/Lily relates to Miyuki/Emily’s suggestion, however. In the dub, Lily says that she doesn’t want to wake up until she smells her mom’s pancakes. Akane asks if Yayoi and Miyuki are sure sleeping in is the problem, while Kelsey asks if they should make pancakes.

Pop suggests that in the meantime, the girls take a walk around M ärchenland/Jubiland. The girls, Candy included are enthusiastic about the suggestion. In the dub, Candy is so excited that when Pop says the tour sounds good, she interrupts him.

We get the opening themes. Then, we cut to somewhere in the sky, where the rock that got released when the team used Rainbow Healing on Pierrot/Nogo last episode is floating through space. In the sub, the rock makes heartbeat noises; in the dub, it makes flashing noises.

After that, we cut back to M ärchenland/Jubiland. The seven main characters come across a line of marching fairy/pixie soldiers. In the sub, they say “One, two!” over and over; in the dub, they’ve got their own little poem entirely for marching. Nao/April thinks the squad is cute, and Candy tells the others that they who defend the castle (they’re just guards in the sub, but they’re the Royal Guard in the dub).

Miyuki/Emily tries to greet the guards, but they panic and run away. Yayoi asks why, while Lily asks if they smell bad. Pop says that the guards were scared because that was the first time they’d ever seen humans before. Akane/Kelsey is flabbergasted at their lack of skill at defending the castle. In the sub, Nao says they’re rather shy and Reika apologizes for scaring them; in the dub, April says the are quite tall and Chloe asks how they can keep from frightening everyone.

Candy suggests that they become like her (in the dub, she calls her appearance “normal”). Miyuki/Emily asks what Candy means, and Pop pulls some fur out of his tail, which he blows onto the girls, creating a cloud of dust that turns them into fairies/pixies. In the sub, this is silent; in the dub, the girls cough and Lily asks what’s going on. Miyuki/Emily exclaims that they’ve transformed, and the girls all congratulate each other on how cute they are now.

The ensuing dialogue is quite different in each version. In the sub, because the fairies end their sentences with a verbal tic (“kuru” for Candy, “de gozaru” for Pop), Miyuki says they should come up with something to end their sentences with. Akane’s tic is “yanen” (derived from her Kansai dialect), Yayoi’s is “yayo”, Nao’s is “nao”, and Reika’s is “desu” (“desu” is a formal way of saying “to be” in Japanese). It can be presumed from the episode title that Miyuki’s is “miyu”.

In the dub, Emily says they should call themselves the “Pixie Force” now. Lily suggests the name “Glitter Pixies” and April like it because it sounds like a girl band. Emily asks Kelsey what name they should have, to which Kelsey jokingly protests that she doesn’t do cute. Emily asks Chloe which name she prefers, and Chloe asks if she can play guitar.

We get the title card in the sub. Then, we cut to a library, where Pop is looking through books to try to find out why the Royale Queen/Euphoria isn’t revived. In the sub, he wonders if it’s really true that Pierrot being defeated is all it would take to get their happy ending; in the dub, he says that he’s read all the books, but he might have skimmed and missed things, so he’ll have to read them all again.

We cut to the other six riding in a hot air balloon and looking over a town. Dialogue is added where Candy says they’ve arrived at Fairytale Village. In the sub, Yayoi says the town is cute, Miyuki says it looks like it’s from Eastern Europe, and Candy says the town isn’t all. In the dub, Emily says the town looks just like a fairytale town and Candy says it is.

We cut to the ground, where the girls see a fairy/pixie in a red hood run by. It turns out that really is Little Red Riding Hood. Miyuki/Emily is incredibly happy. In the dub, Emily literally says, “Squeeee!!” which is rather unrealistic. “Squee” is a verb, not an interjection. I might be wrong, though.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">A scene is cut where a Japanese fairytale character, Momotarou, is born from a peach, likely because Americans won’t recognize that tale.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The girls then hear the Royale Queen/Euphoria’s voice. The Royale Queen just calls out to Pretty Cure; Euphoria says their mission isn’t over. In the dub, Pop interprets this to mean Euphoria’s awake. We cut to the seven mains running up to her (dialogue is added where Pop calls Euphoria’s name). The queen thanks them. When Akane/Kelsey asks if she’s awake, she says that she doesn’t have enough power to wake up, so she’s using telepathy with them.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Pop asks why she didn’t get revived by the Cure Décors/Glitter Charms, and she says that she used their power to give the girls the ability to perform Rainbow Burst instead of reviving herself. Reika/Chloe asks if they’re going to have to find more Cure Décors/Glitter Charms to revive her again, and the queen says yes. Candy asks if Pierrot/Nogo is still out there, and the queen says that Pierrot/Nogo is weakened, but still alive and waiting to be revived again.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Nao/April, Akane/Kelsey, Yayoi/Lily, and Reika/Chloe get upset, but Miyuki/Emily cheers them up by saying they’re so powerful that nobody can stop them and tells the queen they’ve got her back.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The queen thanks the girls, and we cut outside. The fairies/pixies and the team say goodbye to each other. Then, they all jump back into Candy’s pink book and return to Earth. Dialogue is added where Emily promises Jubiland a happy ending, and says, “Let’s go!” and, “And we’re off!” Kelsey also makes a lame pun about “going by the book”, which everyone laughs at for some reason. And the episode ends!

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">But first, it’s time for a new English theme ending theme: “Yeah”. The song itself is as bland as its title, but the animation takes a step up from the other ending themes. I like the use of silhouettes because it not only looks cool, but it hides the subpar 3D models. And since we’re about halfway through the series, the Japanese version should get a new ending theme any minute now!

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Overall: This was a nice breather episode. We finally get to really explore M ä rchenland/Jubiland, yet sinister forces still lurk, and the story does indeed continue. I also find the idea of a giant queen of another world incredibly similar to the first Pretty Cure season, Futari wa Pretty Cure. However, Smile does it better, because the Queen in Futari wa is obviously and distractingly CGI, whereas Toei actually drew and colored the Royale Queen/Euphoria by hand, making her look far more majestic. Plus, the Royale Queen/Euphoria simply has a better design. Unfortunately, the fight scene was a step down from the past few episodes. There were no EPIC FISTFIGHTS, just standard fare. It is a breather episode, though…

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Next episode: Akane/Kelsey and Nao/April fight at the beach, and Akaoni/Brute goes shirtless!