User blog:GlitterInformer/Doki Doki! Pretty Cure/Glitter Force Doki Doki SDC: Episode 11 (Sub), 9 (Dub)

Episode 10 (Sub), 8 (Dub) | Table of Contents

Japanese title: "Awaken! Pretty Cure's New Power!"

English title: "Helpful to a Fault"

Kyouda/Casey says that Mana/Maya taught her something very important: that you can’t just rely on other people and instead must sometimes act yourself. In the dub, Casey says that they don’t even need Maya, realizes belatedly how rude that sounded, and says that it’s teamwork, not reliance, that makes anything possible. DB/Davi is delighted to see that the softball team took this important lesson to heart. Accordingly, Makoto/Mackenzie also realizes that teamwork is important, so she vows to work with her friends because working together makes anything, even saving her ruined kingdom, possible.

Overall: I really liked this episode. You remember how I was complaining about Mana/Maya starting to act less and less like herself and more and more like every other Pretty Cure protagonist? Well, Mana/Maya’s character is back on track here. It was nice seeing Mana/Maya learn about the importance of focusing on her own duties rather than the duties of others. I also loved the lesson that sometimes, rather than taking help, you should help yourself. This episode’s message is a great one.

What’s more, it got serious. Bel is my favorite villain in this show because he actually has a personality and he’s a very competent fighter as well. Sure, he loses every time, but he puts up one heck of a fight. His phone form in this episode was ridiculous but undoubtedly powerful as well. And his taking Ai/Dina hostage… that got surprisingly dark, especially considering that an adult man is luring a child away from her family and friends and nobody is allowed to know about it. He also came very close to deliberately killing a baby.

Also awesome were the new attacks. It was a bit overwhelming getting all of the individual attacks at once rather than a big group attack, but all of them looked cool and had great effects. Well, except for Sparkle Sword, which was just useless. Hopefully Sparkle Sword is put to good use later.

The only complaint I have about this episode is the dub’s voice acting. Though it is better than last time, there were some moments of stiltedness with Maya, Clara, and the softball players.

With one last note, I’d like to add that the sub never did show that girl who appeared near the end of the English episode. I wonder when she’ll come up…?

Next time: Mana gets an apprentice!