User blog:GlitterInformer/Doki Doki! Pretty Cure/Glitter Force Doki Doki SDC: Episode 38 (Sub)

Episode 37 (Sub) | Table of Contents '''Japanese title: “Bel’s Plot! Ai-chan Becomes a Jikochuu!?”'''



So, Regina’s back. After all this time, a major, plot-important character has finally awakened from her months-long coma. You’d think the dub would come back for this, right? Well, apparently not, because this is yet another Japan-only episode. But fear not, next episode is finally going to be dubbed again! It’ll finally make this an actual sub/dub comparison again instead of just a series of reviews.

Before we get started, I’d like to reiterate just how hard ''Doki Doki! Pretty Cure'' dropped the ball with Regina. From her very first appearance, Regina was built up as an extremely important character. She’s the daughter of King Jikochuu, after all. When she joined the group, the power dynamic between the villains completely changed as Ira, Marmo, and Bel became completely subservient to Regina. There was a long arc where Regina slowly became a good person despite being brainwashed by the red Royal Crystal. The entire mid-season climax focused on her and Heart surviving against all odds in the ruined Trump Kingdom. But just as Regina was about to finally join the team and become part of the main cast, she was tragically brainwashed yet again and used as a tool by her own father to eradicate her former friends. The entirety of episode 23->17 revolved around Mana learning not to let her grief over Regina take over her.

But then, Regina just completely disappeared. Not just from the scene, but from the narrative as well. After episode 23->17, Regina was barely mentioned. I think the last time she was brought up was when Mana mentioned her once in episode 30->22. At this point, it’s like Regina never existed. Mana’s done just fine without her for the entire Blood Ring arc and hasn’t mentioned her even once in the past 7 episodes. Nobody else has mentioned her, either. All that dramatic buildup is gone.

And although this is the biggest instance, this isn’t the only time ''Doki Doki! Pretty Cure'' has just dropped plot elements. Ira’s relationship with Rikka has been completely dropped at this point. It got a lot of development in episode 26->20 and a throwaway mention in the Japan-only episode 32. Other than that, it’s like episode 26->20 never happened. In addition, Makoto might as well not even be a celebrity anymore. Early in the show, Makoto was shown to be extremely busy with school, singing, and saving the world. Sometimes, she didn’t even have time to meet with the other three girls. But now, it’s a rare instance when Makoto is even shown to have fans. She hasn’t done anything related to her idol career since episode 24->18.

Even though the dub did lose a lot of good content by getting rid of so many episodes lately, maybe it’s a good thing for the show’s pacing. In the sub, it’s been almost 14 episodes since Regina last appeared; in the dub, it’s been 6. That’s still a lot, but it’s nowhere near as bad as the sub. Similarly, it’s been 13 episodes since Makoto has done any idol stuff and 5 episodes since Mackenzie has. That’s a reasonable enough time for a character to be out of the spotlight. Finally, it’s been 12 episodes since Rikka has significantly interacted with Ira and just 4 episodes since Rachel has. In fact, episode 26->20 was the last time Ira acted as the villain of the week in the dub, so it’s reasonable that nothing has happened between him and Rachel since then. We did have a bunch of other villains, after all.

With all that rambling aside, let’s see what Regina has to offer this time and whether it’ll make up for her inexcusably long absence.

Quick note: the usual “mp4” player isn’t working on animesim.com. The player for episode 38 shows episode 39, the player for episode 39 shows episode 40, and I believe it continues like that. So, you and I will both have to use players on which AdBlock doesn’t work, which means closing pop-ups every time we press the pause button. I didn’t realize the problem until I saw the title card, so I just ended up recapping the beginning of episode 39. Oh, well.

Episode 38 begins with the girls, including Ai, at a picnic. The girls tell Ai not to eat or drink too much so she doesn’t get unhealthy. Ai agrees without any fuss whatsoever. To reward Ai for her great behavior lately, Arisu uses Lance to summon a drum set for Ai to play with. The girls feel energized just seeing Ai’s smile, and they’re glad that she seems to finally be past her tantrum-y phase.

Now it’s opening theme time, and you know what? I’m not going to screencap the movie previews anymore. I know I did it all throughout the Smile Pretty Cure! sub/dub comparison and through most of this one, but it’s too much work and you all get the idea of what the previews are like. From now on, I’ll only be screencapping things that matter: changes the dub makes. Though I will say that the movie is going to show more of Mana, Rikka, and Arisu’s childhoods, which should be really interesting!

With the opening theme over, we cut to the Jikochuu’s lair, where Bel is planning, just as the title says, to turn Ai into a Jikochuu. Ira and Marmo think the plan is ridiculous, but thanks to the power of torture by electrocution, they’re forced to go along with it. Of course, Ai would recognize the trio on sight, especially since Bel tried to impale her back in episode 11->9. So, Bel decides to go out there in a skintight black suit and use finger puppets instead. Finger puppets that are clearly puppets of Ira, Marmo, and Bel. I get that Ai is a baby, but it’s not very wise of you to assume she won’t be able to tell the difference between a finger puppet and an actual person.

We get the title card. Then, we cut to Mana’s room, which is apparently where Ai sleeps every night. Once again, thank you to Joe Okada for making a schoolgirl take care of your own daughter. Anyway, while Mana and Sharuru are sleeping, Bel wakes up Ai by talking to her through the window. Somehow, this only wakes up Ai and not Mana or Sharuru.

Ira, Marmo, and Bel are now all in the black suits and are each wearing a finger puppet of themselves. They invite Ai to come and play with them. Ai is excited, so she uses her magic to open the window and fly out with Ira, Marmo, and Bel. Now, the three villains are in full view of Ai and she doesn’t notice that they’re Ira, Marmo, and Bel in suits. I guess she’s too focused on their fingers.

Since Ai spends a lot of the night flying around with her three enemies, she’s unusually drowsy the next morning. When Mana tries to feed Ai porridge for breakfast, Ai refuses to eat it. Mana’s worried about Ai since she’s being picky again. But she doesn’t have much time because she’s about to be late for school. Mana has no choice but to leave Ai in Sharuru’s care.

At sunset, the girls get back to Mana’s house and find Sharuru completely exhausted. Ai was misbehaving, so Sharuru tried to punish her by taking away her toy. Unfortunately, Ai refused to let go. The other fairies are having no more luck than Sharuru. I wonder why they don’t try becoming humans so they have more leverage?

It’s clear that Ai is behaving more selfishly than usual. Makoto and Aguri think it’s normal because Ai is still a baby and maturing is a slow process. But Sharuru is sure that something’s up.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Sharuru seems to have a hunch that whatever is happening to Ai, it’s happening at night. But whenever she tries to stay up late enough to find out what’s going on, she always falls asleep too late. All the while, Ai becomes more and more selfish, and Mana and Sharuru become more worried.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">It turns out that every night, the Jikochuu Trio takes Ai to their lair. Ira and Marmo give her all the food, drink, and toys she wants and fulfill her every demand. They encourage her selfish behavior and say that being a Jikochuu just like them means that she can have everything she wants.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">It should also be noted that at this point, Ai isn’t just focused on Ira and Marmo’s finger puppets anymore, as she’s now pulling on their cheeks. So, how the heck does she not recognize them?

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Also, as Ai becomes more selfish, part of the heart on her bib turns purple. Bel says that it’s only a matter of time until Ai becomes a Jikochuu. …But we’ve seen that just a speck of the Psyche being blackened is all that they need to turn someone into a Jikochuu. Ai has a lot more than just a speck. And even barring that, they could bring Regina in to turn Ai into a Jikochuu regardless of whether Ai is behaving selfishly or not. But I guess Bel couldn’t get her to comply with his plan as easily as he could with Ira and Marmo. Not only does Regina not have a Blood Ring, but she’s Bel’s superior and Bel has to obey her every whim.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Anyway, as Ira and Marmo continue to spoil Ai, Bel fantasizes about gaining so much power from turning Ai into a Jikochuu that he surpasses even King Jikochuu himself. His thoughts are interrupted when he’s slammed in the face by a bowling pin. It turns out Ai wants to use her telekinesis to go bowling, and she wants to hit Ira, Marmo, and Bel instead of the pins. All three get completely beaten up by the now-sadistic baby. But it’s ultimately a win for the Jikochuu, as Ai’s Psyche is now mostly darkened.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Still, not all hope is lost. After having fallen asleep once again, Sharuru suddenly wakes up in the middle of the night just as Ai flies back through the window. Now she knows for sure that Ai is leaving the house in the middle of the night.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">That afternoon at school, Mana tells Rikka and Makoto what she heard from Sharuru. She opens her locker, and a letter falls out. Rikka thinks it’s a love letter, but it’s actually from Bel. Once again, he’s taken Ai hostage, and he wants the girls to meet him at a specific location in order to get her back.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">We get the eyecatches. Then, we cut to an abandoned warehouse, where Bel has told the girls to meet. Ira and Marmo are there, too. When the girls see Ai in Bel’s arms, they’re shocked to see that not only has the heart on Ai’s bib turned completely dark, but her outfit is dark gray instead of yellow, her wings are black instead of white, and she’s wearing sunglasses and a black top hat. So, either Ai’s selfishness has magically changed the color of her outfit, or Ai has been forcefully disrobed by complete strangers… I really hope it’s the former.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Mana and the others call Ai towards them, but she refuses to budge. Ira and Marmo say that Ai likes being with them better than being with Pretty Cure, and much to Mana’s shock, Ai enthusiastically agrees.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">So, it seems like Ai isn’t a Jikochuu as in monster of the week, but instead a Jikochuu as in villain. I guess that explains why Ai needed her whole Psyche to turn black. Really, the sub should have chosen a different name for the villains so it isn’t this confusing.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Ira and Marmo tell Ai that being a Jikochuu means she can have as much food and drink as she wants, and that Pretty Cure wants to take her food and drink away. They take the cookie and juice out of her hands as an example and Ai starts crying. That’s enough to power up Ira, Marmo, and Bel.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The girls transform to fight the villains. Well, except for Aguri; Ai isn’t exactly in the mood to help her transform into Cure Ace. The villains then take the fight outside. At first, it’s neck and neck, but the fight quickly skews in the villains’ favor. Heart, Diamond, and Sword try a pincer attack, but Marmo is able to fire lasers at them all at once. Rosetta is sidetracked while watching this and gets hit with a laser, too. What’s worse, Ai is actively rooting against Pretty Cure, as Bel says that Ira and Marmo are punishing the girls who tried to lecture her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">We then get the typical villain-Pretty Cure argument where one of the villains denounces a traditional human value like love, friendship, smiles, etc. and a Pretty Cure says that they’re wrong. In this case, Ira and Marmo mock Cure Heart’s introduction: “Overflowing love! Cure Heart!” by saying that love is pointless. Cure Heart says that love isn’t pointless and that she’ll always have it as long as she believes in Ai. Ira and Marmo then blast the girls again and they cry out in pain. But this time, Ai is concerned instead of happy for some reason, even though she heard them crying out in pain earlier. I guess friendship speeches matter to Ai more than food, drinks, and toys. Even though she’s a baby.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Aguri then calls out to Ai to get her to wake up. This time, Ai actually bursts into tears. Even though once again, Aguri did this earlier, and Ai didn’t care one bit. Why has Ai suddenly changed her mind??

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Ai cries so loudly that it causes damage to public property and causes three barrels to topple over. Bel runs out of the barrels’ way with Ai, but the Pretty Cures catch them and hold them up anyway, even though there’s nobody to protect them from. This conveniently incapacitates the other three Pretty Cures so Cure Heart can go talk to Ai all by herself.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Cure Heart chases after Bel, but Bel refuses to give Ai to her. Then, a barrel lands on top of Heart and Ai (Bel gets out of the way). Fortunately, they don’t get crushed because the barrel is hollow. Of course, there’s nothing keeping Bel from jumping into the barrel after Heart. Except, of course, for the writers. We need to have Heart and Ai get this tender moment all by themselves.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Ai is still crying for some unexplained reason. Is she worried about Pretty Cure or not? Does she hate them or not? On one hand, Ai has her hands thrust out and is turned away from Heart, signifying that she wants to get away from her. On the other hand, Ai started crying in the first place because Pretty Cure was getting beaten up. The writing in this episode is very inconsistent.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Heart apologizes to Ai for not realizing that Ai was a Jikochuu. She hugs her and says that even if Ai forgets her, Heart will still love her. Heart calmly reminds Ai of all the happy memories they share with each other. From Ai first being born to her cheering a depressed Mana up, to all of the girls pitching in to take care of her, to Ai learning to love carrots after watching Aguri, Ai has had so much fun with the others. Just as her mom nourished her when she was a kid, Heart now wants to raise Ai well.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Ultimately, it’s this heartwarming speech that gets through to Ai. She remembers Mana and is overjoyed. This causes her heart and her clothes to go back to normal. So, the Jikochuu didn’t undress Ai after all. Thank goodness!

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Ai uses her magic baby powers to shatter the barrel. The opening song plays once again in triumph. Usually, when an anime plays its opening theme in the middle of an episode, it means that an epic fight is about to go down. But instead, we first get Ira and Marmo trying to get away and being stopped by Bel’s torture devices. Their Janergy may have disappeared, but we find out just now that they can set their Blood Rings to maximum power to get the dark aura back. How convenient.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">And then, Aguri transforms into Cure Ace. Even though this episode has focused on Heart more than any other Pretty Cure, we see Ace’s transformation sequence in its entirety despite the fact that everyone else got a shortened transformation sequence.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Only when the triumphant reprise has been playing for about a minute do we finally get our fight scene. Ira and Marmo combine their powers to shoot a big laser at Ai, but Ace overpowers it with Ace Shot. It’s even more powerful than normal thanks to Ai contributing her power to the attack.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">But the fight isn’t over yet. (Neither is the opening theme; they’re playing an extended version of it). Bel finally takes Ira and Marmo’s Blood Rings off and puts them both on himself. He then uses their power to become an extremely bulky human/monster creature called Super Bel. You’d think that such an extremely powerful form would get an extra-special fight scene, right? Nope; the girls immediately finish him off with Lovely Straight Flush. It even makes the Blood Rings disappear, so that’s the end of that. Marmo can now punch him without fear of getting electrocuted.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">That evening, after the fight, Ai is fast asleep. Makoto and Aguri are so amazed by her power that they think that with her by their side, they may just be able to finally face King Jikochuu. Mana is excited by this because it means they’ll finally be able to meet Regina again.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">But we aren’t done yet. We get one final scene with the villains. I already previewed the first few seconds of the beginning of the next episode of Glitter Force Doki Doki, and this scene is the first scene of that episode. For the sake of completeness, I’ll recap it here. Ira, Marmo, and Bel have been called before King Jikochuu. They’re worried that he’s going to lecture them, but he just electrocutes them instead as a familiar voice calls them useless. Then, King Jikochuu summons the ball that was holding Regina this whole time, and much to the trio’s shock, she finally breaks out of the ball. So, even though Regina woke up an entire episode before this, she’s only coming out of the ball now for some reason. Oh, well. Even a small appearance from Regina is better than nothing at this rate.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Overall: I’m sorry if I sounded negative this episode. The fact is that despite its flaws, I do enjoy watching ''Doki Doki! Pretty Cure''. But I’ll be honest: this is probably the worst episode so far. It isn’t terrible or anything, but it could have been a lot better. The concept is great: the Jikochuu slowly turn Ai selfish and the girls have to reaffirm to Ai the importance of selflessness. Queen Ange said in episode 35 that terrible things would happen if Ai were to become a selfish child, and we finally get to see that. But there were a lot of errors that made this episode a lot less than what it could have been:


 * Ai somehow doesn’t recognize Ira, Marmo, or Bel at all. They were supposed to disguise themselves using finger puppets, but they later completely abandon it as Ai just interacts with them directly.


 * Ai’s return to normal is weird. I definitely bought Heart’s words getting through to Ai inside the barrel, as she reminded Ai of all the memories the group had together and reawakened Ai’s love for them. But before that, Ai went straight from being happy that Ira and Marmo were beating Pretty Cure up to crying that they were beating them up. This was without any explanation.


 * Super Bel is completely useless. Bel is the most formidable of the Jikochuu Trio, so you’d think that him gaining all sorts of muscles would make him an incredibly powerful foe. But he might as well not even exist due to how quickly and easily he was defeated. His cell phone form back in episode 11->9 was given a lot more attention. You know, this episode is a lot like episode 11->9… except that Bel isn’t threatening in the slightest.


 * Finally, despite being teased last episode, Regina hardly does anything at all this episode. She may as well not have even appeared last episode at all.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The plot’s going to pick back up next episode, and Regina will finally be back in the spotlight again. So, hopefully, the quality picks back up next time.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Next time: Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force finally returns to the Trump Kingdom/Splendorius!