User blog:GlitterInformer/Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force SDC: Smile Pretty Cure! novel (Chapter 6 Update)

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Hi, guys! A long while ago, the translation of the final chapter of the Smile Pretty Cure! novel was finally released! I’m sorry for procrastinating on it for so long. Not only have I been busy lately, but I’ve been putting off finishing the novel review in favor of things like drawing, watching anime, and continuing the Doki Doki sub/dub comparison. And I haven’t even done much of that last one lately…

Anyway, you can find the entire novel translated into English in this one convenient document right here! I highly recommend you read it before reading this review. Like with the chapter 5 update, I won’t be summarizing chapter 6 and will instead just be saying my thoughts on it. Not only that, but the novel on its own is absolutely great. So go read it!

As a reminder, in the last chapter, Reika was working as a middle school teacher and had trouble helping out a student of hers because he was too embarrassed to directly tell her about his problems. Joker took this opportunity to attack Reika in her dreams and try to persuade her to give up on her dreams. After that, Reika realized she’d forgotten all about her four friends and thinks that she might not be in the real world at all but instead a Ball of Neglect.

This chapter confirms it: the whole story up until now has just been a simulation. The very idea of this sort of plot twist is terrible, as it usually means that everything up until this point is completely meaningless. But somehow, the Smile Pretty Cure! novel manages to pull it off! It turns out that Joker has corrupted Miyuki’s picture book, “The Greatest Smile”, and used it to trap our main characters in dark futures so they give up their hope and succumb to despair. But it doesn’t work. Even after escaping from the simulation, the girls remember their time as adults and keep with them the lessons they learned. Plus, they still have to fight Joker’s new form, Bad Joker, to get back into the real world. Ultimately, it’s the fact that the simulation is still important to the plot and has a permanent effect on our characters that causes this twist to somehow be actually well-executed.

Other than the twist, we’ve got Joker himself. Not only is it absolutely great that my favorite villain in the Pretty Cure franchise is back in action and just as lively and creepy as ever, but it’s really fitting that he’s the main villain of this novel. In the original show, Joker was the only villain Pretty Cure never defeated. They completely eradicated Pierrot, and although they didn’t kill Wolfrun, Akaoni, or Majorina, they did reform them and stop them from ever committing villainy again. But although Cure Beauty did take down Joker in battle a couple times, nobody ever reformed or killed him. The only reason he even died in the first place was because he sacrificed himself to strengthen Pierrot. So, it’s fitting that to close the book on Smile Pretty Cure! (pun definitely intended), the girls defeat Joker at long last.

Joker continues to be a remarkable villain due to just how powerful he is. His entire plan to destroy the Cures by corrupting the Mysterious Library and the Book Door itself was quite smart and almost a success. And the fact that he got even more powerful than he was in the show by becoming an abomination called Bad Joker was just thrilling. Plus, he was still creepy. The guy grew tentacles and tied the girls up with them. I don’t get how Cure Happy got even a tenth of the courage to hug him at the end and cause him to disappear, just like she did with Pierrot. And in the end, even that may not have been a permanent defeat. Joker tells Pretty Cure that after fusing with Pierrot, he became an immortal being and the embodiment of grudge itself. Even Miyuki says after the fight that Joker might come back someday, though she’s confident she and the others can face them again.

Finally, I like that the story continues with the theme of continuing to chase after your dreams even if you face major obstacles to them, as well as the theme of moving on and changing when the future comes. Though it turns out that the girls were never really adults to begin with, the real story itself does take place a year after the show ends, with the girls preparing to graduate from middle school together. Although Miyuki, Akane, and Yayoi are going to the same high school, Nao and Reika will separate from the group because they’re going to special high schools for soccer and geniuses, respectively. In the end, although the team knows they might grow apart and lose their way in the future, they resolve to always remember the bonds they share by burying a time capsule for themselves. The dark elements throughout this novel made the message of hope shine that much brighter, and this ending does a great job of tying it all together.

I only had one small problem with this novel. Somehow, the Miracle Jewel, the Book Door, and the Smile Pacts all exist. All three of these were destroyed in the final battle against Pierrot in the last episode of the show. I know that at the very end of the show, Candy and Pop somehow came back (which was a problematic deus ex machina in and of itself), but the novel doesn’t even try to explain how they got the Book Door working again. But at least the Book Door existing kind of makes sense taking into account the ending of the show. And the Smile Pacts make a bit of sense, too; they’re implied to be generated by the girls’ determination to not give up hope, just like they were made in the first place at the beginning of the show. Though, that does bring up the question of why they didn’t magically appear in episode 48 when the girls were determined to separate from Candy forever to save the world. The worst offender, though, is definitely the Miracle Jewel. The book doesn’t even try to explain how it appeared again; it just says on page 149 that Candy uses it to transform into Royale Candy. It really cheapens the sacrifice the girls, Candy, and Pop made at the end of the show. But to be fair, the sacrifice was already cheapened in the show itself when Candy and Pop came back to Earth with no explanation.

Despite that, this chapter was a shockingly great conclusion to what was already a great novel. I was worried about how the book would have the girls reuniting, regaining their powers as Pretty Cure, and defeating Joker all in one chapter, but it was pulled off with only the one hitch described above. Overall, the novel is a great read that I highly recommend. Anyone who finished the show should definitely give it a look.