User blog:GlitterInformer/Doki Doki! Pretty Cure/Glitter Force Doki Doki SDC: Episode 35 (Sub)

Episode 34 (Sub) | Table of Contents '''Japanese title: “No, No, Ai-chan! The Big Teeth-Brushing Plan!”'''



After episode 31->23, I looked through the Pretty Cure Wiki’s synopses of episodes 32 through 38 to see when the dub would come back in. When I first read what this episode was about, I thought it would be boring. With all of the big things going on, who cares about Ai brushing her teeth? But with the way last episode ended, I’m excited because we’re going to find out more about Ai, see more of Queen Ange, and get a focus episode for Makoto. Makoto’s a good character with a lot of interesting traits, but she’s been underutilized.

The episode starts with almost the exact same footage as the end of episode 34. The only difference is that Dabi saying, “Dabi de dabi de dabi!” as she summons the mirror is cut.

We then finally get to hear the queen speak for the first time in 11 episodes. For such a plot-important character, Queen Ange really hasn’t done much for the past several episodes. Ange says that it’s been a long time, and that’s all she gets in before she’s interrupted by the opening theme and the title card.

When we finally get back to the scene, Ange says that she still can’t awaken from her ice prison and that she doesn’t have much power left. However, she does have important information about Ai. After Mana and Rikka drag out the scene as Mana introduces herself and Rikka says that Joe found Ai’s egg by a riverside, Ange says that Ai has two important roles to play. The first is granting power to Pretty Cure and their fairies. The second is being a shield that repels darkness, as her power of light can neutralize the Jikochuu’s Janergy. Normally, Ai’s power weakens the Jikochuu, but when she gets upset, her shield weakens and the villains have more Janergy. For some reason, Arisu and Lance are surprised that Ai is this powerful, even though she has consistently shown herself to be a powerful baby throughout the series.

Sharuru asks why Ai’s shield is weakening just now. Ange says that it’s because Ai is growing up. She’s entering her “implusive stage”, where she becomes more aware of her sense of self. At this stage, babies start to complain about things they don’t like. It’s a necessary stage in a baby’s development, but it still causes selfishness in Ai that the Jikochuu can use. Ultimately, it’s up to the five girls (and not Joe for some reason) whether Ai grows up to be good or bad. Ange says that if Ai grows up to be a selfish kid, her powers and her shield will disappear. As Ange begs the girls to take care of Ai, who is the world’s final hope, the connection fades out and the magic mirror goes back to normal.

Suddenly, the group discovers that Ai has once again taken hold of Lance and bitten his ear. This time, it hurts more than normal because her teeth have finally started growing in. The group is delighted to see that Ai has grown more.

We cut to the villains’ hideout, where Ira is watching Marmo binge on junk food. Marmo has been feeling hungry a lot lately, especially when she uses her Blood Ring’s powers. Ira says it’s probably because her Blood Ring was made from Gula’s Janergy and that she’s going to become fat like him if she keeps gorging. Marmo decides to go work off the calories by fighting Pretty Cure.

Back at Mana’s house (why is it always her house they hang out at?), Mana shows Ai how to brush her teeth by brushing her own teeth in front of her. However, Ai refuses to get her own teeth brushed. Rikka warns Ai that she’ll get cavities if she doesn’t brush her teeth.

Much to the others’ surprise, it turns out that Makoto doesn’t know what cavities are. Rikka tells her that cavities are caused by bacteria invading your teeth. The idea of such a disease scares both Makoto and Dabi. Arisu says that cavities can be caused by eating too many sweets, and Aguri, who eats a lot of sweets, says she doesn’t get cavities because she brushes her teeth every day. Although Makoto also brushes her teeth and even once starred in a commercial for toothpaste, she never realized that cavities were why she had to brush her teeth.

Makoto is relieved that brushing her teeth means she won’t get cavities. She takes a swig of the Ace Tea she’s been advertising for so long. Suddenly, her tooth starts to hurt a lot. Rikka looks inside her mouth, and sure enough, Makoto has a cavity. She brushes her teeth every day, but it turns out she doesn’t know the proper way to brush teeth.

So, Makoto goes to the dentist. The other girls take Ai, too, so she can get her first checkup. Ai is nervous, so Lance summons a drum for her to play with. While Ai is playing happily, Dabi tells Makoto that cavities can be cured, which makes Makoto feel better.

But the scariest part is yet to come. Makoto watches another person’s cavities being treated and finds out from Mana that if a cavity can’t be treated, the entire tooth has to be pulled out. This makes Makoto very scared. Then, the dentists arrive. One of them pulls out a hooked instrument and starts to poke inside Makoto’s mouth, telling her to let him know if it hurts. But before he can even put the instrument in her mouth, Makoto sits up and runs away in fear. This causes Ai to start crying in fear as well.

We get the eyecatches. Then, the other girls catch up with Makoto and tell her to come back to the dentist so that she can get her cavity treated. Makoto blushes and admits that she’s absolutely terrified of the dentist. Aguri says that being scared isn’t like Makoto, and that since she’s a mother to Ai, she should set a good example for her. Makoto realizes that it isn’t just about her, but Ai and Queen Ange. So, she heroically declares that she’ll go back to the dentist. Of course, it’s a lot easier said than done, as when the group walks back to the dentist, Makoto finds herself frozen in place.

While the girls are gone, one of the dentists that treated Makoto earlier complains that business has been slow and that he wishes there were more cavities so his job would be less boring. He realizes that what he thought was immoral, but it’s too late, as Marmo turns his Psyche into a cavity-ridden, tooth-shaped Jikochuu. Sharuru senses it. For some reason, the group runs to the Jikochuu before they transform. Since they’re faster in their Pretty Cure forms, you think they’d transform before running all that way, but nope. Gotta show off your transformation sequence in front of the monster.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Well, actually, Makoto doesn’t transform. The other four even do the group pose before they realize that Makoto isn’t there. Makoto is just too scared of the Jikochuu’s right hand, which is a giant drill.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The Jikochuu proceeds to attack the other four Pretty Cures, who put up a strong and well-animated fight against him. Together, the four knock the Jikochuu right on top of Marmo, trapping her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">But the team isn’t out of the woods just yet. Makoto’s cavity acts up again, causing her to get upset. This makes Ai cry, which causes the Jikochuu and Marmo to power up. The Jikochuu uses its dentist tools to attack Pretty Cure. It uses a flashlight to blind the girls, a faucet to blast Cure Diamond and Cure Rosetta, and a dryer to blow away Cure Heart and Cure Ace. For some reason, this causes all four girls to become trapped against a fence by some sort of electric barrier. This gives the Jikochuu the opportunity to use its drill on the girls.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Makoto starts to cry, blaming herself for getting a cavity in the first place. But Ace then gives Makoto a pep talk, telling her not to give up yet because it’s her mission to save the Trump Kingdom. When Ace tells her this, Makoto sees Queen Ange in her. This gives her the courage she needs to finally transform into Cure Sword.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Also, it should be noted that Ace’s brooch is glowing. This only happens when Ace is about to run out of time for her transformation. So, I guess the Magical Lovely Pad didn’t get rid of Ace’s time limit after all… which makes episode 32 make no sense since she was transformed for longer than five minutes.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Anyway, after transforming, Sword blocks the Jikochuu’s drill from cutting up the other four warriors. For some reason, this doesn’t cause Makoto’s hands to get cut up into a bloody mess. From what I hear, the ''Doki Doki! Pretty Cure movie shows that Pretty Cures can'' bleed, so I don’t know what’s going on here.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Oh, and it should be noted that Sword didn’t introduce herself after transforming like she usually does. Instead, she only says, “The blade of courage! Cure Sword!” when she’s blocking the drill. Also, she finally says her catchphrase again for the first time since episode 6->5! Of course, she doesn’t make a spade symbol with her hands because she’s too busy holding a giant, spinning drill.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Sword doesn’t have as epic of a fight against the Jikochuu as Rosetta did back in episode 33. But she does hold the drill down so hard that the Jikochuu somehow spins instead of the drill, allowing her to throw it far away. Sword then tells Ai that she won’t be scared of her cavity any more and says they should both do their best together. This cheers Ai up really darn quickly, so the Jikochuu and Marmo get de-powered. Not that Marmo did much anyway except for ordering the Jikochuu around.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Anyway, we get Sword’s third attack: Sword Hurricane. Using the Magical Lovely Pad, she summons a flurry of purple daggers, just like her other two attacks did. But this time, instead of the damage coming from the daggers themselves, it comes from the wind they generate, which blows the Jikochuu away. The battle ends, as usual, with Heart stealing the spotlight in Lovely Straight Flush.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">As usual, the dentist regains consciousness, everything goes back to normal, and Marmo angrily teleports away. Something that has been bugging me this whole show is that the victim always regains consciousness before all damage is magically repaired. So they’d see everything magically go back to normal with their own eyes. Yet, this is never brought up.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Anyway, Cure Ace runs out of transformation time after all, but this time it’s a lot more graceful since Ace is just standing instead of jumping around in the air. I guess episode 32 is just a plot-hole then. Not that the show has ever taken the five minutes thing seriously anyway.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Aguri congratulates Sword for her fight against the Jikochuu. Sword says she wouldn’t have been able to do it without Aguri’s help, as her words to her sounded just like Queen Ange. Aguri admits that when she first saw the queen in the mirror, it felt like she’d known her for a really long time. With that mysterious note aside, Aguri and the others agree to take back the Trump Kingdom together.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">…And we don’t even get to see Makoto finally facing her fear of the dentist after all that. We just cut to Mana’s house, where Makoto says her cavity is all fixed. That was anti-climactic. I would’ve liked to see what actually happened and how Makoto reacted to it. I’m not scared of the dentist, but I have had some of my baby teeth pulled out because they wouldn’t fall out on their own. It was a bit painful, but the dentist applied anesthesia to my gums, so it was fine. I guess we’ll never know if Makoto had to go through the same thing.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Anyway, Makoto and Ai shake hands as they agree to brush their teeth together. This causes Ai’s hand to suddenly glow, which makes a pajamas Cure Lovead appear in Makoto’s hand. Makoto uses the Lovead on Dabi, which summons pajamas, a toothbrush, and a mug. Ai starts brushing her teeth on her own, and Mana helps her brush her teeth properly. With that, the episode ends.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Overall: This was a great episode! It was nice seeing Makoto in the spotlight again. We got to see a new side to her. Although we’ve seen Makoto be worried before, we haven’t seen the stern, serious warrior be outright scared until now. Even she has her weaknesses, even though she tries not to show them. Still, with the help of her friends, she overcomes her fears and sets a good example for Ai.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">We also got a bit more insight into Ai and just how important she is, thanks to exposition from our friend Queen Ange. Although, like Aguri, we still have no idea where Ai came from or how she got her powers, we do now know why Ai being upset causes the Jikochuu to get stronger, as well as why it’s important to raise the girl well. It still begs the question of why Joe abandoned Ai if she’s that important, but at least the girls are good parents to Ai.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Finally, despite this being a Makoto-focused episode, this episode did a pretty good job of showing the other Cures’ personalities as well. Often, in Pretty Cure episodes that focus on a specific character, the other characters are sidelined and their personalities don’t shine through. This was only the case for Arisu, who is still the most underutilized of the team. We saw Rikka’s concern for being a good mother to Ai from last episode as well as her being the most knowledgeable about bacteria. We saw Mana taking charge and cheerfully taking care of Ai. And we saw Aguri being a stern but uplifting authority figure, just like the queen. I’m betting that will be important later.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Next episode: Raquel gets his first crush!