User blog:GlitterInformer/Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force SDC: Episode 5

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'Japanese title: A Beautiful Heart! Cure Beauty!!'

English title: Glitter Breeze vs. The Witch

Both episodes start with Miyuki/Emily recapping how she became a magical girl, that her three friends who joined the team, and that they need to find the fifth member. For that last one, Reika/Chloe is shown, but there are different clips in different versions. You’d think it would be easier for Saban, the dubbing company, to just use the same clips as in the original and rewrite the dialogue a bit, but what do I know? I’ve never dubbed an anime before.

After the openings, we cut to the Bad End Kingdom/Shadow Realm. We see a witch in a dark room with a glowing green cauldron. As she picks an apple out of the cauldron, she says she’s going to show Wolfrun/Ulric and Akaoni/Brute how it’s done. In the sub, she refers to herself as Majorina, but she doesn’t mention her name yet in the dub.

The title card plays in the sub. Then, both versions cut outside of school, where Miyuki/Emily is panicking because she’s late for school. In the sub, Candy says Miyuki always says the same things, to which Miyuki replies she doesn’t. In the dub, Candy says Emily’s always late, and Emily says she’s only late most days.

Miyuki/Emily suddenly stops (in the dub, Candy tells her to), where she sees Reika/Chloe watering the flowers. In the sub, when Miyuki gasps in excitement, Reika tells her good morning, and Miyuki gushes that she looks as beautiful as a water fairy. Miyuki asks if Reika waters the flowers every morning, to which Reika replies that she does because she loves flowers. Reika thinks that everyone around them will be happier with beautiful flowers around them, and Miyuki emphatically agrees. Reika then says that the early bird catches the worm, which Miyuki doesn’t understand for some reason. When the bell rings, Reika holds Miyuki’s hand and takes her to class.

In the dub, Emily greets Chloe, then says, “Helloooooo?” when she doesn’t respond. Chloe apologizes, saying she was too concentrated on the flowers. Emily says that that focus is just what the Glitter Force needs. When Chloe asks what she’s talking about, Emily redirects the conversation to talking about if Chloe waters the flowers every day. Much like in the original, Chloe says she does because she wants to make the school pretty and everyone likes flowers. Emily responds that she is so in the Glitter Force, and Chloe rather serenely and happily responds that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Then, the bell rings, and as Chloe takes her to class, Emily inner-monologues that Chloe’s focused, hard-working, and punctual.

We the cut to the classroom, where Reika/Chloe is reading from a book. In the dub, this cuts off Emily’s dialogue, making me think that they shouldn’t have added it in. In the sub, Reika is reading from Essays in Idleness by Yoshida Kenko, while in the dub, Chloe is reading about photosynthesis. In Glitter Force, inner thoughts are added where Emily gushes about how smart Chloe is.

Then we cut to the other four eating lunch. In the sub, the girls say, “Let’s eat!” while in the dub, Candy says that lunchtime is over. Candy asks Nao/April for the butterfly-shaped Cure Décor/Glitter Charm from last episode. When Nao/April puts it in the Smile/Glitter Pact, it summons butterfly headbands, which Candy asks her to put on her ears. Nao/April makes short work of it. When Yayoi/Lily comments on how cute it is, Nao/April says she does it to her sister, too. Unfortunately, I find that in this scene, Candy’s voice acting has dropped since its level last episode. Let’s hope for an improvement later on!

Miyuki/Emily then tells everyone to listen up. In the sub, she says she may have found the fifth Pretty Cure. Miyuki says she’s responsible, smart, kind, and that she’s like a water fairy. The other girls and Candy are confused. In the dub, Emily says that Chloe’s ready to join the Glitter Force. When April asks if she asked her, Emily says that she’s “so totally focused” (probably gone Totally Radical for lip syncing), smart, and kind. When Candy also asks if Emily asked her, Emily goes on about how great it would be if Chloe was part of the team. The other three girls ask, “If?” and Candy realizes that Emily didn’t ask Chloe after all.

We cut to Reika/Chloe’s archery practice. She draws her bow, focuses, waits, and fires. In the sub, this is all silent. In the dub, Emily whispers about how cool Chloe is, and asks if she’ll ever let go. When she does, Emily says she let go, and April marvels at her perfect aim. What is it with Glitter Force and taking away silent moments? I felt that the silence in the sub helped underscore Chloe’s focus and precision.

Miyuki/Emily shouts that Reika/Chloe was great, and Reika/Chloe is shocked by the other four’s presence. In the sub, Akane realizes that Reika is responsible, Yayoi says she’s kind, and Nao says she’s good at studying, so she’s smart. In the dub, Kelsey says she realized what Emily was talking about, Lily says Chloe’s good at everything, and April says that “awesome” is the word. The three of them look at each other with glee.

The other four girls get down on their knees and bow, asking Reika/Chloe to join the team, even in the dub. In Japan, bowing is a commonly used gesture of respect. It's used when greeting a stranger, apologizing, requesting something, or ending a newscast if you're a reporter. In America, where Glitter Force takes place, bowing is only used for respecting royalty and ending one's performances. Chloe doesn’t even ask why the others are bowing to her!

In the sub, Reika finds it her to believe that the Pretty Cure exists, but she doesn’t believe the others are lying. Akane insists they aren’t, Yayoi says they’re really superheroes, and Akane says that’s a bit off. To prove their point, Miyuki shows Candy to Reika, asking if she’s seen a stranger lifeform than her. Candy objects that she isn’t a strange lifeform. Reika thinks Candy is a strange puppet, and Candy objects to that as well.

In the dub, Chloe says she’s in a lot of clubs and the student council, so she doesn’t have time to play make-believe. Kelsey insists it isn’t, Lily says they really do become superheroes, and Kelsey reminds Lily that they’re trying to convince her the Glitter Force is real. Emily then shows Chloe Candy, a “real life pixie” who Emily says has funny-looking ears. As Candy protests, Chloe is amazed, thinking that Candy is a puppet that Emily made talk. Candy insists she isn’t a puppet.

When Miyuki/Emily asks one last time for Reika/Chloe to join them, she says she’s too busy. Miyuki/Emily asks what she’s busy with, and Reika/Chloe says that they’re participating in an annual read-aloud to the neighborhood elementary school (specifying in the dub that it’s a Fairy Tale Read Aloud). In the sub, there’s an image of the read aloud poster. Likely due to Saban not wanting to replace the Japanese text, this poster is left out of the dub, which instead focuses a bit longer on the school.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">We focus on the school because we cut to it as Reika/Chloe is talking about the read aloud. The other four girls are joining her to help. As the five of them walk in, the sign for the student council room is changed from Japanese to English. Also, one little thing I just noticed (I never noticed it before!) is that there’s text scrolling across the bottom of the screen sometimes in the Japanese version. The text below appears to be an ad for the movie Pretty Cure All Stars New Stage, which I’ll discuss at the end of the article.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Also, Peace bowing to March/Spring is kept in for some reason.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Overall: This was an engaging episode. I felt that I got to know Reika/Chloe better. However, much like Nao/April, she doesn’t seem to have any flaws yet. She’s a nice, reserved girl who does a lot of good work in the community and isn’t afraid to stand up for others who are being bullied… but what are her problems? I also found the other characters to be more vibrant than Reika/Chloe, likely because they weren’t as reserved as her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">In terms of dub voice acting, this episode was great, with the sole exception of Candy. Chloe’s voice actress was serene, yet emotional when she needed to be, and Brooha was as fun to listen to as any witch worth her salt should be. It’s sad, especially since Candy's voice actress was doing so well last episode! All one can do is hope that she can find her way up there again, so I can fully declare Glitter Force to be as good as Smile Pretty Cure!

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Next time: Oddly enough, the Japanese preview doesn’t really summarize the next episode all that well. Fortunately, I was able to read Netflix’s summary of the dub’s next episode. Pop arrives, and the girls learn about the true meaning of Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force!

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">'''But wait! What was that movie you mentioned?:' Since 2009, near the beginning of every season of Pretty Cure'', a movie has been made in which the Pretty Cures of the current season team up with those of earlier seasons. These movies are part of a series called Pretty Cure All Stars. Up through 2016, this has meant that we got to see every Pretty Cure ever team up in one big fight. Unfortunately, with the sheer amount of characters in the roster after 15 seasons, they had to make it a crossover only between the most recent three seasons starting in 2017.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The All Stars movie associated with ''Smile Pretty Cure! is called Pretty Cure All Stars New Stage: Mirai no Tomodachi'' (“Mirai no Tomodachi” means “Future Friends”). It’s the fourth movie in the series. The amount of Pretty Cures (29 of them!) means that only the characters from the four most recent seasons (Fresh, HeartCatch, Suite, and Smile) have speaking lines. The movie also focuses on a new, movie-only Pretty Cure: Cure Echo.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Of course, since it has all these extra characters that aren’t included in Glitter Force, Saban never made a dub of this movie. However, I plan to review it anyway. I hope it’s good! If you aren’t familiar with the entire Pretty Cure franchise (and that’s okay! It’s a lot to watch), don’t worry; every year since 2005, there’s been a movie released later in the season that only involves characters from the current season.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">That’s it! See you next time!