User blog:GlitterInformer/Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force SDC: Episode 33 (Sub)

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Japanese title: "Story! A period drama in the movie village, de gozaru!?"

This episode is centered around a period drama, or a historical fiction film. This means that this episode is steeped in Japanese history that American viewers may not understand. It’s apparent why this episode was left out of Glitter Force. Could it have been dubbed, though? Or is this one of those episodes that only one knowledgeable about Japan can thoroughly enjoy? Let’s find out!

The episode starts in the middle of a film shoot. A woman in traditional Japanese getup runs away from a group of tengu (bird demons), but trips and is cornered by them. However, Miyuki breaks in to stop the tengu and pretends to transform into Cure Happy. Apparently, Miyuki thought the woman was actually in trouble, as the crew lets her know she was butting in on their filming. Everyone laughs, and Miyuki apologizes and leaves.

Miyuki goes to her friends, who are standing aside. After Akane scolds her, she and Yayoi fantasize about how fun it would be to be in a movie. After this, we get the opening theme. There’s a change in it starting this episode. Since episode 25, footage of Rainbow Burst has played near the end of the opening theme. Because Royal Rainbow Burst debuted last episode, the Pegasus that was shown in the openings beforehand is replaced by a phoenix this time.



After the opening theme, we cut back to the village where the filming is happening. As we get shots of the general area, along with rehearsing actors, Miyuki narrates that they’re visiting a studio set and that Pop is with them. After the group is amazed by two actors sword-fighting and a poster for a monster movie, Akane asks why Pop isn’t going back to M ä rchenland. Pop replies that it would embarrass him not to be a part of the filming of a samurai moviea, to which Akane says he’ll be watching instead of participating.

Miyuki, Yayoi, Nao, and Akane then roleplay a scene from the monster movie on the poster they were looking at, which catches the attention of the director of the period drama. He invites the girls to be in a movie, and they, as well as Pop, are shocked.

We then get the title card. The subs translate it as, “A Period Drama at the Studio Set!?” The actual title, Romanized, is “''Eigamura de jidageki de gozaru!? no Maki!”'' It’s obvious that the subs left out an exclamation point. There are other errors, too. “Eigamura” means “movie village”, not “studio set”. The “de gozaru” is left out. The title itself is most literally translated as, “The Story of “A period drama in the movie village, de gozaru!?”!” That’s clunky, so I stuck with “Story! A period drama in the movie village, de gozaru!?”, which is based on the translation provided on the wiki's page for the episode.

We cut to a changing area, where the girls show off their movie costumes. Miyuki is a city girl, Yayoi is a sweet dumpling vendor, Reika is a princess, Akane is a spider monster (much to her dismay), and Nao is a ninja. The director tells them they look great and tells them he’ll be back later when it’s time to film.

With the director gone, a (not-so-) mysterious boy appears behind them. He’s obviously Pop, due to him having lion ears and a tail. However, the girls have to be told that he is Pop, who used his shapeshifting abilities to turn into a human. Yayoi and Candy call him cool, to which Pop is flattered. Rather than walking backwards and tripping, however, he agrees with them. Pop announces that he will be joining them, as any good period drama needs a man looking cool with a sword.

Pop and the others go to meet the director, who takes a liking to him and calls him cute, offending Pop. The director wants him in the movie and says he looks manly, to which Pop responds word-for-word the exact same way he did to Yayoi and Candy.

Candy says that she wants to be in the movie too. This prompts the director to ask what she is. The girls panic and very obviously lie that Candy is a stuffed doll, to which Candy says she’s a fairy, not a doll. The director says he wants Candy to play a friendly monster in the movie, and he buys the group’s paper-thin coverup hook, line, and sinker.

We cut to the filming of the first scene: the princess is attacked by the spider monster, but the ninja saves her. They’re filming without any practice at all, which makes Akane nervous. The take starts with Miyuki eating a treat that Yayoi made, calling it “ultra-happy.” It should be noted that every time in the series she says, “ultra-happy,” she says it in English. This time, Akane calls her out for using English in a period drama, as not too many English speakers came to Japan back when the film is taking place.

Reika then runs up to Yayoi and Miyuki, politely asking for help and saying she’d being chased by a spider demon. Akane then comes down on a rope and tries to acts scary, to which Yayoi asks why the spider demon has a Kansai dialect. Nao then jumps from the top of a building to confront Akane. She attacks her by kicking a ball and imitating March Shoot, to which Akane retaliates by spiking the ball back towards her, imitating Sunny Fire. They don’t actually say those attack names; March Shoot becomes “Kunoichi Shoot” (Kunoichi is the name of Nao’s character) and Sunny Fire becomes “Joro Spider Fire!”

Nao keeps kicking the ball at Akane, and Akane keeps spiking the ball at Nao. Eventually, Nao misses the ball and she kneels down, admitting her defeat. Akane grabs Reika, who gives an obviously fake cry. However, before Akane can kidnap Reika, Pop interferes, announcing that he is the vagabond, Pop, who goes wherever the winds take him. Candy shouts that he’s cool.

At every mistake, the crew worries about what’s happening, but the director likes it. I think the director is losing sight of the definition of “period drama”… unless he’s making a parody. Still, I don’t much like him. He already had actors, but he suddenly shafted them in favor of inexperienced kids.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Pop and Akane run to fight each other, and Pop slashes his sword, causing Akane to fall in defeat. The other four praise Pop, but he says he has to go. Reika asks if op can at least give them his name. Pop restates his name and says he’s not worthy of a name. The four girls gush about him again, and Akane says he already said his name before. Pop walks away into the sunset, and the scene ends.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">At first, the crew just stares at the actors, and the team worries they’re mad at them for messing everything up. However, the director is excited. He says they’ve inspired them and asks them to take part in another scene. Sure, you already-hired actors are really going to like that. It’s not like they’ve got things they want to do with their lives rather than stand around and wait for their flighty director to remember they exist.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">We cut to the Bad End Kingdom. Akaoni is watching an advertisement asking people to visit the film village. This advertisement contains footage of a previous period drama with a giant blue oni named Blue Demon, or Aooni. This gets Akaoni so excited that he runs right over to the film village so he can meet his favorite oni.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">We get the eyectaches, which show Candy and an Akanbe. Then, we cut to the film village. Akaoni is floating in the air when he sees a guy in an Aooni costume, thinking he’s Aooni himself. Hijinks ensue when Akaoni floats down and grabs the actor, gushing about how excited he is to meet him. The actor believes that Akaoni is a really good cosplayer. Then, Akaoni notices the main character, but he doesn’t recognize them as Pretty Cure due to their costumes.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The girls walk around and admire all of the work that goes into making a movie, from the stunts to the props to the tech. Then, they prepare for the filming of the final scene, in which the townspeople unite to ward off all of the monsters. The scene starts out well, but Akaoni butts in. After admiring the wide variety of monsters on Earth, he “helps” them in attacking the townspeople. However, him bashing everything with his club scares not only the actors of the townspeople, but the actors of the monsters.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Reika scolds Akaoni for threatening the film village. Akaoni then realizes that she and her four friends are Pretty Cure, but in costumes, and Akane confirms this. Congratulations, Pretty Cure! You have officially exposed your identities to the world!

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Pop then comes in to challenge Akaoni. For the third time, we get a dramatic shot of him declaring that he is Pop the vagabond. Pop tells the townspeople that Akaoni wants to bring a Bad End to the movie and inspires the townspeople to unite against him. In response, Akaoni summons a Bad End. Miyuki gets mad at him for ruining the movie and the girls transform. It’s a short cut, and Peace chooses rock.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Akaoni turns a camera into a Hyper Akanbe and jumps inside. Unlike Wolfrun, who felt pain when he did this, Akaoni is simply thrilled at his newfound strength.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The girls charge the Akanbe, but it presses the pause button on its body, freezing them in place. Actually, they’re only mostly frozen; Sunny can move her mouth to comment that she can’t move, but the rest of her is stuck.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The Hyper Akanbe presses rewind, making the girls run backwards, and presses pause again, making them stuck in their poses from after they said their catchphrase. Beauty says she thinks the Akanbe can control their movements (Gee, you don’t say? – wait, maybe they can’t hear Akaoni front within the Akanbe. Never mind.), and the girls wonder what to do.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Before the Akanbe can kill the frozen girls, Pop butts in and challenges the monster. Rather than ordering the Akanbe to pause him, too, Akaoni lets him attack. Fortunately for Akaoni, Pop’s sword breaks when he tries to slash the Akanbe’s nose. Pop bemoans this, and Sunny tells him the sword is just a prop.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Candy then intervenes by putting the Elephant Décor from last episode into the Royal Clock. This summons an elephant for Candy to ride on. At Candy’s order, the elephant shoots a stream of water, short-circuiting the Akanbe and causing it to fall over, which in turn causes it to accidentally press the fast-forward button. Unfrozen and super-fast, the girls proceed to give the Akanbe a beat-down.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">As it falls, the fast-forward button breaks, returning the girls to normal speed as they use Royal Rainbow Burst. This is a shame, because I would love to see such a long attack fast-forwarded. AT least the weird vibrato from last episode is gone.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The girls receive the Banana Décor, and Akaoni angrily teleports away, complaining that the Black Nose has tired him out. With everything back to normal, the director invites the team to the preview screening. The girls then realize that the camera had been filming them while they were Pretty Cure. Fortunately, Pop stole the tape. He plans to edit out the Pretty Cure parts and give the tape back.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">We cut to the screening. The movie is called Monsters All Stars DX, a reference to the first Pretty Cure crossover movie, Pretty Cure All Stars DX. We get to see it! However, a lot is cut out of the film, making it all about Pop. Also, there’s a weird bit where Pop is shown in his normal form before it cuts back to him in fairy form. The girls are upset, and the episode ends with a weirded-out Miyuki saying she’s had enough of the movie and Pop happily saying that movies are really something.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Overall: This episode is quite fun, so long as you ignore the strange parts that don’t make sense. First of all, the director seemed to have no idea what he was doing, going so far as giving all of his actors the shaft. Second, the town should have found out about Pretty Cure. Sure, Pop removed film footage of them, but Candy was obviously alive, and Akane outright told everyone that she and her friends were Pretty Cure. Despite this, I would definitely still recommend this one.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Next time: The girls’ class does a fashion show for their school’s culture festival!