User blog:GlitterInformer/Doki Doki! Pretty Cure/Glitter Force Doki Doki SDC: Episode 22 (Sub), 16 (Dub)

Episode 21 (Sub), 15 (Dub) | Table of Contents

'''Japanese title: “Appearing in a Pinch! A New Warrior, Cure Ace!”'''

English title: “New Friends, Old Enemies”



Welcome all, welcome all! It’s time to get started on a brand-new season of Glitter Force Doki Doki! As you can see from the Japanese title, we are getting a fifth Pretty Cure today. With Regina also by Pretty Cure’s side, there’s no telling what will happen! Unless, of course, you’ve already watched the series.

Both versions of the episode start with a flashback. The Japanese version’s flashback covers the end of last episode, with Cure Heart inviting Regina to stay with them on Earth and Regina agreeing to go through the portal with them. The English version also has this footage, but before it, there’s a recap narrated by Maya of the basic plot of all of the episodes so far. There’s so much added that I don’t feel like screenshotting it all, so let’s just jump ahead.

After the recap, we see the team re-enter Joe/Johnny’s shop via the portal. Sebastian and Ai/Dina welcome them back. Makoto/Mackenzie then wonders how they’re going to wake up the queen/princess. Rikka/Rachel has an idea. In fairytales, it’s a recurring trope for a princess to be kissed awake by a prince. Joe/Johnny is hesitant, but he agrees. The girls watch, rapt with excitement, as Joe/Johnny slowly leans in for a kiss. Dialogue is added where Johnny says he’s not technically a prince and the girls tell Johnny to get on with it.

Then, we get the opening themes. The Japanese theme song is the same as always, but the dub changes the footage! Not all of it is changed, but some footage is replaced with new footage that shows our fifth Glitter Force warrior. Here’s what’s new:



 Rosetta/Clover blocks the lasers with Rosetta/Clover Reflection, but Bel shoots a laser at the group from behind the shield. Regina shouts at her friends to watch out, but their reflexes aren’t fast enough and they get hit by the beam.

 Regina runs to the others, but she’s stopped by the ever-worsening pain in her chest. I think it’s supposed to represent sadness and worry that her friends are being hurt, but that’s not literal pain. It looks to me like Regina’s suffering from a heart attack.

 The pain Regina feels is the same as what she was feeling earlier, but it’s even stronger. She asks herself in desperation what the pain is. The sky then darkens and Regina hears her father’s voice telling her that the pain comes from her having learned to love.

 Lightning flashes, and much to Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force’s horror, the giant figure of King Jikochuu/Mercenare appears on Earth. Diamond thinks that he’s somehow been revived, but it’s just an illusion. In the sub, Cure Sword and Dabi both say that it’s just an illusion via Dabi finishing Cure Sword’s sentence. In the dub, Glitter Spade says it’s just a protection and Davi asks if that’s like an illusion.

 The illusion shimmers and a giant dust storm appears around Regina. The other four try to enter the cloud to rescue her, but they’re knocked over by a flash of lightning. In the sub, all four Pretty Cures shout Regina’s name and Cure Sword begs her to come back; in the dub, Glitter Heart demands that King Mercenare let Regina go and asks where he’s taking her.

 Inside of the dust cloud, Regina floats right before her father’s face. King Jikochuu/Mercenare says that Regina’s pain is caused by the love in her heart and tells her to get rid of that useless feeling and come back to him. Regina hesitates and then refuses. She’s still mad at her father for disowning her. To Regina’s surprise, her father apologizes for having been so harsh to her and says that he still needs her. Regina’s heart then hurts even more. She has no idea what to do because even though she loves her father, she also loves Mana/Maya and the others.

 King Jikochuu/Mercenare then gives Regina a gift. He blasts her with Janergy/Dark Energy to get rid of the pain in her heart. The blast slowly turns Regina’s Psyche/heart black. Regina does say that it makes the pain in her heart disappear, but she’s still hesitant because her memories of Mana/Maya and the others are starting to fade away. In the dub, dialogue is added where Regina says she isn’t sure if she wants the feeling in her heart to disappear and King Mercenare says that she does.

 In a sudden burst, Regina’s Psyche/heart goes entirely black. The highlights on her dress turn from red to blue, her eyes turn red, and in the sub, her voice becomes lower. Regina says that she loves her father and always did, and Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force was trying to take her away from him.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> The dust storm disappears, revealing the re-brainwashed Regina. Heart is happy to see her back. The dub adds dialogue here. As the dust storm disappears, Glitter Clover says that Regina’s back, and as the camera zooms in on Regina, Glitter Heart wonders if Regina is okay.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> In the sub, Regina says that she’s relieved; in the dub, she says that she’s back to her old self. She then blasts Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force away with a humongous beam. In the sand, Sword/Spade somehow deduces that King Jikochuu/Mercenare used Janergy/Dark Energy to control Regina. Diamond and Rosetta/Clover are taken aback at how cruel he is to do that.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> In the sub, Cure Heart says that even though Regina loves her father, Heart has to stop him from getting what he wants. Regina says that she and her father are the only important people in the world and that Cure Heart and the others can just disappear. In the dub, Glitter Heart says that Regina has to fight her father’s influence and that the evil Regina was never the person she wanted to be. Regina says that Glitter Heart has no way of knowing that and that Regina likes herself just fine the way she is.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> Regina then shoots a rain of lasers onto Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force. Heart and the others still want to try to save Regina. Cure Heart is clearly on the verge of tears because she wants Regina to remember that she’s her friend, while Glitter Heart isn’t as tearful and is still more determined than sad. Regina is confused as to what Heart means when Heart says that they’re friends. Diamond reminds Regina of the time that she saved Heart’s life last episode, but Regina doesn’t seem to understand. Sword/Spade tells Regina to remember her feelings of friendship towards the team.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> In the sub, Regina says that friendship is what made her feel pain in her heart in the first place; in the dub, Regina says that they’re just trying to soften her up to make her weaker to their attacks. Heart says that’s not true, but Regina ignores her and hits Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force with another laser. In the dub, Glitter Diamond even says that the laser thing is getting old.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> Cure Heart desperately asks what they should do; Glitter Heart kind of ruins the mood by saying that she’s done with the beach. Then, Sword/Spade gets an idea: maybe Lovely Force Arrow/Togetherness Power Arrow can purify Regina like it does with Jikochuu/Distains. They try it, but when Heart sees Regina lined up in her sights, she just can’t make herself pull the trigger on her Love/Glitter Heart Arrow. In the dub, dialogue is added where Glitter Spade says that they’re ready when she is and Heart grunts, trying to will herself to shoot the arrow.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> Eventually, Heart puts her Love/Glitter Heart Arrow down, and I just don’t understand why. This isn’t the first time Heart has been told to use a purifying attack on her allies. In episode 17->13, Heart was willing to use Heart Shoot/Shot on her teammates, and it purified them just fine. Even on Jikochuu/Distains, the attack is shown to make the target feel happy. I have no idea why Heart’s so hung up about this. Using the attack on Regina could be the only way to turn her back to normal, but she turns it down because she just doesn’t feel good doing it for no explained reason.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> In the sub, Regina rightfully calls Cure Heart an idiot; in the dub, she just says she’ll show them how it’s done. She blasts the four of them again. This time, it hits the girls so hard that they de-transform. Congratulations, Heart, you’ve put your friends in danger for no good reason. Shame on you.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> As the group lies defenseless on the ground, dialogue is added where Regina sarcastically says, “Poor Glitter Force.” Then, she prepares to shoot a laser to deliver the killing blow. In the sub, Regina is silent as she prepares the laser; in the dub, Regina does an evil laugh. Then, right before she’s about to shoot, she says goodbye to Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force. Mana/Maya begs her not to do it, but it’s no use.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> Suddenly, Ai/Dina’s voice is heard. Ai says, “Kyupirappa!”; Dina makes wordless baby noises. Then, the five Royal Crystals fly out of a portal and into a mysterious device with an A on it. It’s kind of like a DS except instead of two screens, the top has a mirror and the bottom has a stylus and six holes, one for each of the crystals and a sixth for a Cure Lovies/Glitter Charm. As the device closes, dialogue is added where Dina’s cry is heard again.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> Regina shoots the laser, but it’s eliminated by a red beam surrounded by flower petals. After the beam disappears, the flower petals fly towards a young woman clad in red and white who slowly floats to the ground. This is that new kid: the fifth warrior! In the sub, her first appearance is accompanied by a trumpet fanfare; in the dub, it’s accompanied by serene music.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> Regina demands to know who the new girl is. And then, at long last, we get her name!

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> Name Change:  In the sub, the new girl is Cure Ace. In the dub, she’s Glitter Ace.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> Cure Ace calls herself “the trump card of love, Cure Ace”. Glitter Ace calls herself “the strongest card in the deck, Glitter Ace”. And with that, the episode ends.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> But before we get into my overall thoughts, it’s the second ending theme of Glitter Force Doki Doki! It’s called “L-O-V-E”, and it’s by BLUSH as always. It takes footage from ''Doki Doki! Pretty ''Cure’s second ending theme, which will appear aaaaany episode now, I’m sure. Now, this song would be pretty good. The lyrics are okay and the melody’s pretty catchy, but something about the audio quality feels off. It’s like the singers’ voices and the background music don’t go well together. I get the feeling that “L-O-V-E” will grow on me just like “You and I” did, but it’s got some sort of technical problem that may be hard to get used to. Oh, and remember how I thought the repeated footage would go away with a change in ending animation? It didn’t. In fact, it’s even worse. A bunch of footage is repeated three times. These Glitter Force Doki Doki endings are way better to listen to than to look at.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> Overall:  From the beginning, I knew this episode would be flawed. I just didn’t know how flawed. Yeah, Regina’s plot arc is still going strong. It was nice to see her finally be part of the team, if only for a tragically short bit. And I do like that she’s still got some plot left in her; she still does love her father, and that’s part of why she got brainwashed in the first place. King Jikochuu/Mercenare may be evil for seemingly no reason, but he loves his daughter. I don’t think any other main villain in the franchise has had a kid, much less a kid they loved.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> There were three main problems here, though. First was the big problem with Ace not being Regina but a completely new person. I already talked about that. Second was the fact that Rikka/Rachel, Arisu/Clara, and Makoto/Mackenzie were barely there this episode. They’ve been out of the spotlight for the past several episodes at this point. It hasn’t been too terribly long; after all, they did get plenty of screen time in episode 19, which was only 3 episodes ago. But maybe this is why ''Doki Doki! Pretty Cure'' gets the reputation of being The Mana Show.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> And third of all was that Ace’s debut so far has been incredibly lackluster. Like Diamond, Ace’s debut has a huge flaw: she was only necessary because Heart was an idiot. In episode 3->2, Heart didn’t attack the Jikochuu/Distain because she was too busy protecting letters from getting destroyed, even though she knew explicitly that any damaged or destroyed property is restored to normal if the Jikochuu/Distain is purified. It was only because of Heart being an idiot that Rikka/Rachel had to transform at all. And here, the only reason Ace had to enter the scene at all was because Heart wasn’t willing to perform a completely harmless action on her friend. So what if releasing a plastic trigger that shoots a painless, purifying beam that could be the only way to save Regina feels a bit uncomfortable. Just do it, Heart! I thought you were her friend and that you’d do pretty much anything to protect her! I guess not, huh? It would have been so much easier for the writers to just have the attack not work. It would have used up less of the animation budget. But noooo, we just had to go and make Heart an idiot. I like Mana/Maya. I don’t want her to be an idiot!

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> Ace had better have some good cards up her sleeve next time. If she doesn’t have cool powers or a cool fight scene, her debut won’t just be flawed; it’ll be garbage.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> Next episode:  Ace uses the power of tough love to help Mana/Maya deal with being betrayed by Regina!