User blog:GlitterInformer/Doki Doki! Pretty Cure/Glitter Force Doki Doki SDC: Episode 14 (Sub)

Episode 13 (Sub), 10 (Dub) | Table of Contents

Japanese title: "The Dream or the Promise! Rikka's Numerous Worries!"

Yep, that’s right. Only two episodes after the last sub-only episode, we’re getting another one. Well, actually, two scenes from this episode are played in episode 11 of Glitter Force Doki Doki, but that’s mostly a dub of episode 15 of the original. I’ll be saving the dub scenes for the next article so as not to break up the flow of this one.

By the way, there is a total of 13 episodes cut entirely from the dub. In fact, from what I hear, an entire plot arc is going to be cut later. I wonder how much that will mess up Glitter Force Doki Doki?

Anyway, the episode starts off with a flashback. A toddler-age Rikka is walking through a field of flowers with her parents. Her father asks what she wants to be when she grows up and she says she wants to be a doctor just like her mother. Her mother is happy to hear this, but her father isn’t. He tells her that it’s going to take a huge amount of studying for her to become a doctor like her mother, but Rikka says that she can handle it.

We cut to the present day, where the scores from a recent test have been posted. As Rikka stares at the list of the top 10 scorers in disbelief, Mana comes by and expects her friend to have the top score as usual. Instead, Rikka is in second place, much to her own dismay.

You know, one of the things that I like about Rikka is that she’s the normal person of the group. Her three friends are all exceptional in some way; Mana is the hypercompetent student council president, Arisu is the insanely rich heiress to a huge company, and Makoto is a celebrity idol singer from a different universe. Rikka stands out in how she doesn’t stand out. Finding out now that Rikka is always the top scorer in school kind of takes away from this. Even now, she’s still second, which is really good. Since this whole episode is about Rikka doubting herself over her “bad” test score, her being in second place isn’t that big of a deal. If she’d failed to get on the list at all, that would be one thing. But as it is, it seems that Rikka is crying over spilled milk.

Anyway, the opening theme plays and we get the title card. Then, we go to Joe’s antique shop, Solitaire, where Rikka is still moping about her great test score. Mana wants to comfort her, but both Sharuru and Arisu think it would be best to leave her be.

Meanwhile, Makoto is looking at the yellow square thing (which is actually a jewel, not a charm) from last episode. She remembers seeing something like it in the queen’s palace. For some reason, it’s only now that Dabi finally recognizes it. She thinks it may be a Royal Crystal. The Royal Crystals are legendary jewels that belong to the royal family of the Trump Kingdom. There are five in total. One of them is the yellow one that they have now. Three of the others correspond to the other Pretty Cures as they’re pink, blue, and purple. The fifth one is red.

It’s said that when all five Royal Crystals are gathered together, something amazing will happen. This sounds great, but Makoto and Dabi still aren’t entirely sure that what Makoto is holding is really a Royal Crystal. The conversation is then interrupted when Mana’s stomach growls. She remembers that her mom has invited all four of them to the Aida family house for dinner. However, Rikka declines, as she has some unnamed things to do at home.

Mana, Arisu, and Makoto enter Mana’s house, where they’re surprised to find Rikka’s mother. She isn’t done with work yet, but she’s taking a quick dinner break. Arisu explains to Makoto that she’s a doctor in a large children’s hospital. When asked by Mana’s mother, Rikka’s mother says that her husband (whose name we find out is Yuuzou Hishikawa) is doing well, but her daughter doesn’t seem to be. There’s a funny moment where Mana gets into a panic and loudly demands to know what’s happening to Rikka. Her mother explains that Rikka has been yelling in her room and unintelligibly sleep-talking at dinner. Mana is worried, and under the table, Dabi and Sharuru try to puzzle out what’s going on.

The next day, when school ends, Rikka heads home immediately rather than walking home with Mana and Makoto. On the way home, Mana wonders what’s wrong with Rikka. Makoto suggests that it may be because she didn’t rank first on the exam. Mana explains that Rikka wants to be a great doctor like her mother, and to do that she has to be smart enough to get the highest exam scores. Rikka’s grades matter a lot to her life’s dream.

Dabi and Sharuru then come up with an idea of what’s happening to Rikka: she’s going bad. They’ve seen on TV that at the smallest provocation, kids can turn rotten and start living the thug life. Mana doubts it, but just then Lance flies in and accidentally crashes into her face. After peeling himself away, Lance says that he and Arisu heard Rikka walk into a big building and then heard a bunch of loud slaps. Dabi and Sharuru panic because they think Rikka is getting into fights. Everyone gets upset at this, so they meet Arisu at the building and rush in to stop Rikka.

Mana goes into the room where Rikka is and demands that she stop it. Then, she realizes that everyone there, including Rikka, is playing cards. It turns out that Rikka is engaging in an activity called karuta. Makoto doesn’t know what it is, so Mana explains that it’s a game where you play with cards based on the poems of the Hundred Poets. Raquel says that it’s more than just a game; what Rikka is playing is a sport.

By the way, there are many types of karuta. The version that Rikka is playing is uta-garuta, meaning “poetry karuta”. If you want to find out more about it, the rules are explained in this Wikipedia article. They’re pretty easy to understand. Also, the Hundred Poets, whose poems appear on the cards, are the authors of a classic Japanese book of poems called Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (meaning One Hundred People, One Poem Each). The book consists of 100 poems, each written by a different person.

Outside of the room, the group realizes that the shouting from Rikka’s room came from Rikka practicing karuta with Raquel. Rikka explains that she became interested in karuta when she read Ogura Hyakunin Isshu for school and ended up loving its poems. When she researched more about the book, she found out about competitive karuta and fell in love with the sport as well. The problem is that since she’s been playing karuta so much, she’s fallen behind in her studies. Rikka is planning to quit soon so she can get good at her academics again and be able to succeed in her future medical career. The most important thing to Rikka is her promise to her mother to become a doctor.

There will be a karuta match at the end of the week. There, all the players will compete against the karuta queen, who is the strongest karuta player in the country. The last thing Rikka plans to do before she quits is to participate in that match. Makoto remembers that her queen loves karuta, so this competition might be a clue on how to find her. Arisu rightfully questions how the queen can be into karuta despite being from the Trump Kingdom instead of Japan. Unfortunately, this question isn’t answered. But anyway, Mana says that she and the others will help Rikka balance her schoolwork and karuta for the rest of the week.

We cut to Arisu’s mansion, where Sebastian has made a karuta training schedule for Rikka and will be her coach for that time. He teachers Mana, Arisu, and Makoto the rules of the game so they can play along with Rikka. There are 100 reading cards, which have one of the 100 poems on them, and 100 grabbing cards, which have the end of one of the 100 poems on them. Sebastian has the reading cards, while each of the girls has 25 grabbing cards.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Sebastian puts the girls into pairs and gives the girls fifteen minutes to memorize the layouts of the 50 cards before them. Mana doesn’t know how anyone could memorize that in such a short time, but Rikka is able to memorize where the cards are in seconds.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Then, the game begins. Each round, Sebastian takes one of his reading cards and reads it. The first person to recognize the poem and match it with the poem on one of the grabbing cards grabs the card and takes it for themselves. At the end, when all 100 reading cards are read, the player with the most reading cards wins.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">On the first turn, Rikka grabs the correct card a split second after Sebastian reads its corresponding reading card. She was able to get it that quickly because only one of the 100 poems starts with the first syllable that Sebastian read.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">We then get a montage of the karuta practice continuing. Then, for some reason, the girls give Rikka physical training involving running and doing curl-ups. Not sure what that has to do with either karuta or school, but okay. Then, at home, Mana helps Rikka with her schoolwork. Eventually, Mana falls asleep at the work desk, and a while later, Rikka does the same. When the two are asleep, Rikka’s mother comes in and is happy to see that Rikka is doing better. Then, she’s confused when she notices a box of karuta cards lying on the floor. Suddenly, she gets interrupted by a phone call.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Before we can find out what the card is, we cut to the villains’ hideout. Regina is demanding that the other three villains do things for her, such as rubbing her shoulders and giving her juice. Bel readily obeys Regina’s commands, but Marmo is angry that she’s rudely demanding that they be her servants. Regina then orders Marmo to buy her cream puffs. Marmo refuses, but Regina threatens to tell her father, King Jikochuu, that she disobeyed her. Marmo is intimidated into giving in. She calls for Ira to get his things, but much to her anger, he’s nowhere to be found. As Marmo prepares to leave, Regina gives a smug smile.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">The day of the competition, Rikka thanks her friends for helping her practice and says that she thinks she’s gotten better because of them. Ai says, “Kyupi!” and Mana says that she’s saying, “Good luck!”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Then, the queen arrives at last and greets everyone. After the eyecatches, the man who will be reading the poems announces the queen’s arrival and tells everyone to be grateful to be facing the best karuta player in Japan. Then, the first round begins. The queen is playing against a boy and completely destroying him. Rikka and the others are amazed that the reader can’t even get past the first few words before the queen takes one of the cards.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Eventually, there’s a break and Rikka is having a nervous breakdown. After seeing how well the queen played, she doesn’t believe that she stands a chance against her. Makoto, however, is feeling reassured. Just like she thought she would, she has a feeling about that woman.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Meanwhile, in the playing room, a young man asks for the queen’s autograph. She declines as she does with everything. Then, once he’s gone, she starts getting very upset. Everyone looks up to her, but no matter how far she looks, she can never find a man who can match her talent. It’s because of this that she believes she will never find love. This causes her Psyche to become tainted… but why? The queen is currently feeling despair, not selfishness, and it’s selfishness that’s supposed to turn a Psyche black. Anyway, the queen calms down and says that her problems probably come from her being too picky when it comes to men. This causes the splotch of darkness to become just a speck. Then, Ira comes in, extracts the queen’s Psyche, and eats it, turning himself into a karuta Jikochuu. I don’t know why he’s doing this. We know that ultimately, Pretty Cure doesn’t have much more trouble beating a Beast Jikochuu than a normal Jikochuu. All Ira turning himself into a Jikochuu will accomplish is giving him more bandages.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Anyway, as everyone else runs out of the room in a panic, the four girls run in and transform. Pretty Cure and Ira prepare for a physical fight. But then, much to Ira’s anger, the queen’s Psyche, which is a part of the Jikochuu, glows red and develops a mind of its own. The queen takes over the Jikochuu and uses it to summon gigantic karuta cards with which to play against Pretty Cure.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">So, instead of a physical fight, we get karuta. A reading card appears in the sky and reads itself. Before anyone can react, the Jikochuu grabs the corresponding grabbing card and throws it at Cure Heart, knocking her into the wall. The next reading card comes up. Cure Diamond guesses the grabbing card that corresponds to it and tells Cure Sword to grab it. However, when Sword lands on the card, it glows red because it’s the wrong card. As punishment, the Jikochuu throws the reading card at Sword, knocking her away as well.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">The third reading card appears. Cure Rosetta knows the corresponding grabbing card and runs to catch it, but the Jikochuu holds it down so that she can’t. Rosetta accuses the Jikochuu of cheating, but the queen’s Psyche says that what the Jikochuu did was a legitimate move called “covering”. As more and more reading cards are pulled up, Pretty Cure isn’t able to grab a single card and instead keeps on getting hit.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Eventually, Cure Diamond has lost hope of ever winning the fight. After all, they’re playing against the best karuta player in the country. However, the other three cheer Diamond up by telling her that she practiced very hard for this match. Thus, Diamond goes back into battle. The next reading card is of the same poem that Diamond got wrong before. Now that she knows the right grabbing card, it’s a matter of getting to it before the Jikochuu does. The Jikochuu rushes to shove Diamond out of the way, but Diamond jumps above the Jikochuu. Unable to stop itself, the Jikochuu crashes into the wall. Diamond reaches for the card again, and the Jikochuu is right back in action trying to grab it itself. Fortunately, Diamond lands on the card before the Jikochuu can do anything about it. She then throws the card into Ira’s face (which is attached to the Jikochuu).

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Then, with no further beatdown necessary, Heart finishes the fight by using Heart Shoot. It is starting to annoy me a bit how Heart always gets the final blow. I know that we’ve never seen Diamond Shower, Rosetta Reflection, or Sparkle Sword purify anything, but the writers could have made that different. Since this is Rikka’s spotlight episode, it would have been more fitting for Diamond to have the final blow.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Anyway, Ira teleports away and the queen’s Psyche returns to her body. As the cards disappear, Cure Diamond starts to feel more confident about her upcoming real match with the queen.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">We see the formalities right before Rikka’s match with the queen, where both bow deeply and thank each other. Then, rather than seeing the game, we cut right to after the match. Although Rikka lost, the queen is proud of her because it was one of the most fun games she’s had in a while. As thanks, the queen gifts Rikka her favorite set of karuta cards. After the queen walks away and Rikka thanks her, Ai touches the cards. Suddenly, they start glowing, and the blue Royal Crystal appears on top of the deck. The Royal Crystal is glowing, and the yellow Royal Crystal, which has been in Makoto’s pocket, glows as well.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Then, Rikka’s mother surprises them by telling Rikka that it’s too bad. The group panics and Mana tells Rikka’s mother that she swears Rikka wasn’t doing anything bad. Rikka apologizes for lying to her mother about playing karuta and says that now that she’s done, she’ll go back to studying to become a doctor. To Rikka’s surprise, her mother then engulfs her in a tight hug. She says that she’s glad that Rikka has found something she likes and gives her permission to continue playing. She also says that Rikka should put all her effort into whatever it is that she likes.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Then, there’s another surprise appearance. After all this time, Rikka’s father has come home from work. He tells Rikka that it’s okay to have lots of dreams. It turns out that the surprise call Rikka’s mother got the other night was from her husband telling her that he’d be visiting them. Rikka’s father says that he has a lot of stories to tell Rikka. Much to her embarrassment, Rikka’s parents hold her hands and tell her they want to hear her stories in return.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">On the way home, Rikka has some alone time with her parents. We don’t see them talking about anything, but they’re happy to be walking home hand in hand. Rikka has a new plan: rather than only focusing on being a doctor, she’s going to try a bunch of different things.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Overall: This episode was another good one. Although I still don’t think getting the second-best score on a test is a horrible thing, it was nice seeing Rikka having trouble choosing between two of her passions. I just wish that the other Pretty Cures could get the finishing blow sometimes. I do hear that there’s a group attack coming up, though. I wonder when that will be?

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">I do understand why this episode was cut from the dub. In fact, this is the only episode in my sub/dub comparisons that I can’t see being dubbed well at all. The episode revolves around a game that is only familiar to Japanese people, so unless you’re Japanese, you have to actually do research to understand this episode. I did enjoy reading about karuta and the Hundred Poets online, but I can see why people would rather be able to watch an episode and understand it without supplementary material.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Next time: Makoto/Mackenzie stars in a movie adaptation of “Snow White”!