User blog:GlitterInformer/Doki Doki! Pretty Cure/Glitter Force Doki Doki SDC: Episodes 17 & 18 (Sub), 13 (Dub)

Episode 16 (Sub), 12 (Dub) | Table of Contents

Japanese title:
 * "Shock! The Stolen Crystal!"
 * "It's Appeared! The Final Royal Crystal!"

English title: "The Return of Regina"



Welcome to another Regina-focused episode of ''Doki Doki! Pretty Cure/Glitter Force Doki Doki''. It’s also the third-to-last episode of season 1 of Glitter Force Doki Doki. The previews say that Regina returns to the group and claims she’s prepared to truly be Mana/Maya’s friend. What could possibly go wrong?

We start right off the bat with about 15 seconds of cut footage. As the main characters are walking down a path, Mana is excited to be out in the sun. Sharuru and Rikka scold Mana for being so carefree when they’re there for an important purpose: finding more clues to Queen Ange’s whereabouts.



And with that final edit, the episode, as well as this lengthy two-in-one sub/dub comparison, ends at long last.

Overall: These two episodes were very exciting. Regina remains the most interesting villain by far, as she’s more than just evil for the sake of being evil. Of the four villains, she has the most fleshed out personality, and unlike them, she has a character arc as well. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I doubt Regina was faking wanting to be the girls’ friend the whole time. Even when we saw her alone, she did genuinely seem to want to be a real friend. It seemed like the red Royal Crystal brainwashed her for some reason. I mean, her eyes changed color and everything. It’s especially tragic that this happened right as she finally earned the others’ friendship. Hopefully once Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force takes the crystal back, Regina will return to her true self.

It was also interesting to see the truth about Joe/Johnny revealed at last, though this does make his jerkish behavior even more confusing. We have explicit confirmation that he’s a good guy now and has been one all along, so why did he act so creepy towards Mana/Maya and Rikka/Rachel in the first few episodes, and why has he forced the girls to take care of Ai/Dina thrice? Him flirting with Mana/Maya makes even less sense since he’s the queen/princess’s fiancé. I understand Regina’s jerkish behavior when she first appeared. Regina was clearly supposed to be a brat who learned to be a good person. That’s why I never complained about her. But Joe/Johnny was never made out to be a villain. From the very beginning, it seemed like the show was building him to be a good guy. So why did they make him act so rude??

The only other problem I have with the Japanese episodes is that there’s been very little physical fighting lately. The fights are still interesting, but one of the staples of Pretty Cure is physical combat, such as punching and kicking. We haven’t had any of that since episode 14, when Cure Diamond slapped a Jikochuu in the face with a karuta card. It’s pretty jarring for a key element of the series to be absent for so long. But at least the mid-season climax is coming up. Generally, whenever it’s the middle of a season or the end of a season, the fight quality temporarily goes through the roof. Hopefully the mid-season climax will finally get up to the level of quality shown in episodes 1 and 2.

Now, let’s move on to the dub. I detailed it before, but this episode had quite a few pacing problems with all the cut content. I mean, we had two Royal Crystals today. To be fair, it’s nowhere near as bad as episode 11, where Rachel’s blue Royal Crystal was completely tacked on. Both the pink and red Royal Crystals were built up, though I do wish we’d gotten more of Johnny’s backstory.

Next time: The girls have to play games against Regina and the other villains in order to win back the red Royal Crystal!