User blog:GlitterInformer/Doki Doki! Pretty Cure/Glitter Force Doki Doki SDC: Episode 21 (Sub), 15 (Dub)

Episode 20 (Sub), 14 (Dub) | Table of Contents '''Japanese title: “To the Trump Kingdom! Rescue the Queen!”'''

English title: “Back to Splendorius”



I am so hyped for this episode. It’s going to be the mid-season climax, one where important things happen, big secrets are revealed, and (hopefully) the fight quality shoots through the roof. Most importantly, according to this episode’s preview, there’s going to be a brand new person joining Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force very soon. In case you don’t know, it’s convention for at least one new member to join each Pretty Cure team halfway through the season. This convention has been in place since Fresh Pretty Cure!, and the only season since then to not have anyone join partway through is Smile Pretty Cure! That’s probably why Smile was chosen as the first season to be dubbed under the Glitter Force name.

Another important thing is that this episode is the last in season 1 of Glitter Force Doki Doki. Like its predecessor, Glitter Force Doki Doki is divided into two seasons while the original Japanese version is only one season. While Glitter Force had two seasons of 20 episodes each, Glitter Force Doki Doki has two seasons of 15 episodes each.

With that aside, let’s get started. Both versions of the episode start with a recap. They both show shot for shot the last scene of episode 20->14, but the dub adds a bit of extra footage beforehand.



After the recap, the episode continues right where the last one left off. Sword/Spade and Joe/Johnny chase after Ira, Marmo, and Bel, but they teleport away with Regina and the queen/princess. Heart is saddened that Regina has been taken away. Cure Heart frowns silently; Glitter Heart thinks, Regina…

We get the opening themes. Then, we cut to the villains’ hideout, where Ira and Marmo toast to their victory. They take a long swig of an unnamed beverage that may or may not be alcoholic. Then, they cough. In the sub, Ira says that nothing tastes sweeter than victory; in the dub, he says he thought victory would taste better.

In the sub, Marmo says that once the queen is destroyed, the Trump Kingdom will be ruined for good, and it’ll be a shame that Marmo will have to kill her right after she wakes up. In the dub, Marmo says that it’s no wonder the “sparkling whatever” has gone flat by now since it’s taken so long to find and kidnap the princess, but that King Mercenare will be pleased that they’ve found the princess.

In the sub, Ira tells himself that he did most of the work, so he’ll get all the credit and Marmo and Bel will become his lackeys. In the dub, Ira instead says that King Mercenare may not just be pleased and might give them their own lackeys as a reward.

Ira then notes that the queen/princess is still encased in ice. In the sub, Marmo says that they can’t present her to King Jikochuu like this. The dub actually removes dialogue instead of adding it for once, so there’s 2-3 seconds of silence after Ira speaks.

Then, Ira gets a hammer from who knows where and strikes the ice surrounding the queen/princess as hard as he can. However, it doesn’t make a dent. Marmo then tries lighting up a stick of dynamite to blow up the ice. Ira tells her not to blow the queen/princess up, and the two fight over the dynamite. They end up accidentally dropping it next to their feet, where it blows up. Right before the explosion, dialogue is added where Marmo scolds Ira and Ira says, “Uh-oh…”

Bel and Regina aren’t alarmed at all by the explosion. Bel serves a solemn Regina a drink. In the sub, Bel says that they have no choice but to take the queen to Regina’s father; in the dub, he says that it doesn’t matter that the princess is frozen as long as they have her.

Regina is still upset over the whole kidnapping thing. She has a flashback to Heart shouting her name. Oddly, in the dub, they seem to re-record Glitter Heart shouting Regina’s name instead of using the clip they’ve already played twice now. Anyway, Bel asks Regina if anything’s wrong. Despite her tears, Regina says that she’s feeling fine. Bel wonders if Regina’s thinking about someone else at the moment. Regina insists that she isn’t, but it’s clear to Bel that she’s lying.

The sub shows the title card. Then, we cut to Joe/Johnny’s shop, where the girls, Joe/Johnny, Ai/Dina, and Sebastian are sitting and standing around. Joe/Johnny wants to go to the Trump Kingdom/Splendorius because he’s sure that’s where the queen/princess is. Dabi/Davi points out that they have no way to get there at the moment. Despite this, Sharuru/Kippie, Raquel/Rory, and Lance are confident that they’ll find some way to rescue the queen/princess. This causes the girls to cheer up a bit. Even Ai/Dina is happily playing with the pouch that contains the Royal Crystals.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Suddenly, the Royal Crystals start glowing. They float out of the pouch and form a pentagonal portal. In the sub, as the portal appears, Rikka asks if they should enter it; in the dub, Maya is relieved that she’s not the only one seeing the portal. Mana/Maya says that the Royal Crystals may be showing the way to the queen/princess just like they did before. Joe/Johnny agrees and says they should enter the portal. As everyone else goes in, Sebastian volunteers to look after Ai/Dina.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">As they go through the portal, the girls and Joe/Johnny mentally affirm that they’re going to rescue the queen/princess. In the sub, Mana also thinks that she’ll have a heart-to-heart with Regina. Then, the girls transform. Like last episode, the usual transformation music is replaced with dramatic music, though it’s a different piece than last time. Also like last time, the dub just uses a remix of the opening theme like it usually does.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">After the transformation, we cut to the Trump Kingdom/Splendorius, where Ira, Marmo, and Bel are kneeling before King Jikochuu/Mercenare as Regina watches. In the dub, a long stretch of dialogue is added over the establishing shots where Ira calls out to King Mercenare that they did it and then awkwardly wonders why King Mercenare isn’t responding.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Then, we get a dramatic moment… in the sub, anyway. The dub kind of ruins it. In the sub, Bel tells King Jikochuu that they’ve found the queen. There’s then a sudden zoom in on King Jikochuu’s face as he gets his first line in the series: “WHAT TOOK YOU!!??” He yells it so loudly that Ira, Marmo, and Bel apologize at once.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The dub instead has King Mercenare’s first line occur right after Ira is done speaking. His first line is, “What do you want, a cookie!?” Very threatening. Bel tells him that they do deserve something after having found the princess. Then, as the camera zooms in on him, King Mercenare angrily asks, “What!? YOU FOUND HER!?” as if having found the princess is something to be angry about. Ira, Marmo, and Bel admit that they just helped find her. So, King Mercenare’s first line is more silly than threatening, his anger is completely random and unjustified, and since his first outburst does not occur during the dramatic face close-up, the close-up isn’t so dramatic anymore.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Despite his anger, King Jikochuu/Mercenare still does congratulate Regina for a job well done. He then summons a huge pillar of red lightning from the sky that hits the frozen queen/princess. Somehow, this doesn’t even dent the ice surrounding her. King Jikochuu/Mercenare is angry that the queen/princess is still resisting, but Bel tells him that even if she can’t be destroyed, the queen/princess still can’t lift a finger against him.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Bel tells King Jikochuu/Mercenare that they should now focus their efforts on turning every human on Earth into a Jikochuu/Distain, just like they did with the Trump Kingdom/Splendorius. This makes Regina panic. She doesn’t want Mana/Maya’s world being destroyed and points out that destroying Earth won’t help her father break out of the rock that he’s imprisoned in. King Jikochuu/Mercenare says (shouting in the sub; calmly in the dub) that breaking free of being paralyzed isn’t his goal. His main objective, his purpose in being, is to consume all of the Janergy/dark energy in the universe and bring devastation to every world.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Bel notes that Regina has been acting different lately. He tells her that she’s a Jikochuu/Mercenare, and that the Jikochuu/Mercenares don’t care about what happens to a bunch of lowly humans. Bel says that Regina should be relieved to not have to deal with those pesky girls anymore. This only makes Regina feel even worse. She has flashbacks to Mana/Maya being kind to her and then shouts that she doesn’t want her friends to be destroyed.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Regina demands that King Jikochuu/Mercenare not destroy the human world. Everyone is shocked that Regina dared to openly oppose the king. Bel tells Regina to apologize so she doesn’t get punished, but it’s too late. King Jikochuu/Mercenare is furious. In the sub, he even disowns her as his daughter. Then, like he did with the queen/princess, he hits Regina with a giant bolt of lightning. This knocks her out. In the sub, Regina is silent, so it’s unclear whether she’s still alive; in the dub, she groans a bit before losing consciousness. King Jikochuu/Mercenare demands that Regina be taken out of his sight. Bel levitates her and prepares to take her away when he hears shouting. In the sub, it’s from all four Pretty Cures; in the dub, it’s just from Glitter Heart.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The portal propels the five-man band forward for a bit. Then, gravity takes over and they all plummet into the sand. After they pick themselves up (and Diamond gets her head out of the sand), Sword/Spade says they have to hurry to the palace. But instead, it’s Ira and Marmo who hurry to them and summon an entire circle of Jikochuu/Distains around them.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The team doesn’t let their resolve waver. When a squid Jikochuu/Distain shoots ink at them, Rosetta/Clover blocks it with Rosetta/Clover reflection. Then, we get the first physical attack since episode 13->10 when Diamond kicks a sheep Jikochuu/Distain. Diamond, Rosetta/Clover, and Sword/Spade tell Heart to go ahead to the palace while they hold off the Jikochuu/Distains.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Ira and Marmo try to stop Heart. Marmo summons a rope to tie Heart up, but Joe/Johnny blocks it with his sword. Ira then summons daggers and shoots them at Heart, but Sword/Spade blocks them and then uses Sparkle Sword to take out some of the Jikochuu/Distains in the circle. This creates a hole, which Heart uses to escape. Apparently, she has super speed, as she runs towards the palace as quickly as you’d expect a car to.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Bel sees the huge, advancing cloud of dust kicked up by Heart’s running. He notes that Ira and Marmo were as useless at stopping Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force as usual. Bel is still confident, though. The girls may claim that love and friendship are their biggest strengths, but Bel plans to use Regina to turn that strength into a weakness.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The sub shows the eyecatches. Then, we see a montage of Heart running to the palace while everyone else fights Ira, Marmo, and the Jikochuu/Distains. Heart finally arrives at the palace, where she’s shocked to find Regina slumped and unconscious. Heart shakes Regina and she awakens, much to Heart’s relief.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">This all turns out to be part of Bel’s plan. He summons a spider Jikochuu/Distain that creates cracks in the floor and the ground beneath Heart and Regina to crumble. The two almost fall into magma, which is surprisingly close to the surface. I thought magma was a lot deeper than that. But anyway, Heart and Regina avoid falling in and gorily melting alive because Heart grabs onto some spider web thread coming out of the Jikochuu/Distain. Heart tells Regina to fly them both out of the pit, but Regina finds that she can’t. Her bracelets are still coursing with electricity, and Regina presumes that King Jikochuu/Mercenare has sealed her powers. At least we get a reason why Regina fell this time.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Bel magically summons a screen above Diamond, Rosetta/Clover, Sword/Spade, and Joe/Johnny. This screen shows a live broadcast of Heart and Regina hanging over the magma pit. The others are extremely worried, but Heart is still confident. With Regina holding onto her, she climbs up the thread. However, the thread is fragile and it starts to tear. Regina urges Heart to stop before the thread snaps completely. She does, but not before the thread tears almost all the way through.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Bel tells Heart and Regina that his Jikochu/Distain’s thread is only strong enough to hold one of them. That means that either Heart or Regina must endure a slow and horrible death so that the other can survive. Naturally, Heart recoils at the thought of sentencing Regina to die that way, so she keeps climbing, albeit more slowly this time. Bel chides Heart for always putting others above herself and says that selfishness is the best way to survive.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">As Heart climbs further, the thread tears even more. This causes Heart and Regina to drop, though not all the way down. Bel smugly thinks that even if Regina does get over her friendship and sacrifice Heart, he can still cut the rope and become King Jikochuu/Mercenare’s second in command in her place.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The thread has almost completely snapped. Regina looks down in terror at the magma. Dialogue is added where Glitter Heart assures Regina that they’ll find a way out of the pit. Then, Regina strengthens her hold on Heart. In the sub, Regina asks what she is to Cure Heart; in the dub, she says that she and Glitter Heart aren’t friends and asks why she came to save her. Cure Heart tells Regina that they’re friends; Glitter Heart says that Regina should know by this point why she keeps coming back for her. Regina then has flashbacks to Mana/Maya calling her her friend.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Regina tells Heart that she’s been feeling weird ever since they became friends. When Mana/Maya is happy, Regina’s heart lights up. But when Mana/Maya is sad or hurting, Regina feels a terrible pain in her heart. She asks Heart what those feelings are. Heart says that those feelings are Regina feeling sympathy for others; in other words, loving them. Regina is happy to hear this. In the sub, she tells Cure Heart she loves her. In the dub, she tells Glitter Heart to be safe. Then, she lets go of Heart and falls.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Diamond, Rosetta/Clover, and Sword/Spade can do nothing but shout Regina’s name as she falls. Meanwhile, Regina serenely closes her eyes and prepares for death. In the dub, dialogue is added where Glitter Heart shouts, “NO!!” and Regina thinks, I love you…

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Then, much to Regina’s surprise, she doesn’t die. Heart has grabbed her hand by sandwiching it between her feet. She refuses to let Regina give up just yet. It’s not in her character; after all, she isn’t student council president for nothing. In the sub, Cure Heart says that if Regina teams up with her, they can be stronger than even King Jikochuu, Sharuru says that Mana is the strongest person in the universe, and Bel tells them to just fall already. In the dub, the dialogue is a lot funnier. Glitter Heart says that she’s improved the cafeteria’s lunch menu, which is something of which King Mercenare can’t even dream. Kippie adds that Maya also helped get the girls’ bathrooms repainted. Then, an annoyed Bel shouts, “Hey, you two! Less jabbering, more falling!”, to which Glitter Heart replies, “We’re having a moment here!”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Heart is certain that she and Regina will find a way out. Cure Heart says that if the rope snaps, they’ll climb the wall, and if the wall crumbles, they’ll think of something else. Glitter Heart instead says that people thought getting the bathrooms repainted was impossible and yet she did that. Heart says that the two of them can make it out of there, which makes Sharuru/Kippie get angry about having been forgotten about. To be fair, she has only gotten three lines before this. During the vast majority of the conversation between Heart and Regina, she’s been completely silent. This is a problem with Sharuru/Kippie, Raquel/Rory, and Lance. Most of the time, they feel more like transformation tools than actual characters.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Just then, the other warriors and Joe/Johnny arrive, but it seems Heart and Regina have already gotten something figured out. Heart’s words give Regina such a warm feeling in her heart that an aura appears around her and King Jikochuu/Mercenare’s control over her powers disappear. Regina’s powers are back, and she and Heart zoom right out of the pit. In the sub, the opening theme song starts playing right as Regina flies out, which makes the moment pretty much epic.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Ira and Marmo teleport to Bel and scold him for being useless yet again. In the dub, Marmo tells Bel that they’ve “got it from here,” which is weird because they don’t do anything afterward. It’s Bel who orders the spider Jikochuu/Distain to attack Regina. The monster shoots two threads that wrap around Regina’s arms. Regina is done bowing down to the other Jikochuu/Mercenares, though. With her powers back, she can resist them with all her might. Regina swings the Jikochuu/Distain by the threads it has wrapped around her and flings it into the sky, where it disappears Team Rocket-style with a twinkle. In the sub, Regina says that now that she’s got her powers back, Bel can’t stop her. In the dub, Regina has the less awesome line of, “Why did it have to be spiders? I hate spiders!”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Marmo then sends an entire horde of Jikochuu/Distains stampeding towards Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force at once. In response, they use Lovely Force Arrow/Togetherness Power Arrow. Interestingly, the attack includes footage this time of the girls summoning their Love/Glitter Heart Arrows. Every time they used this attack before, they had already summoned their arrows for their individual attacks.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Anyway, the attack purifies all of the Jikochuu/Distains that were sent after them. Ira, Marmo, and Bel teleport away. Then, as King Jikochuu/Mercenare screams in rage, Joe/Johnny runs away with his fiancée and tells Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force to follow him. Regina is unsure whether she should follow them. Then, much to her horror, her father angrily scolds her for betraying him and befriending Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force. He prepares to strike her with lightning again, but Sword/Spade grabs her and takes her out of the way just in time. Dialogue is added where Glitter Spade says, “Regina, watch out!”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The group prepares to leave for the portal, but not before Heart extends her hand to Regina. Cure Heart is silent when she does so; Glitter Heart tells Regina they can’t leave without her. Very slowly, Regina reaches out to hold Heart’s hand. King Jikochuu/Mercenare angrily roars her name, which causes her to hesitate in fear. But in the end, she does grasp Heart’s hand, choosing her friends over her father. In the sub, the whole bit with Regina reaching out to Cure Heart is silent, save for the bit with King Jikochuu. In the dub, Heart urges Regina to continue bringing her hand closer, Regina says that she hates it when her father calls her name that way, and Heart tells her not to worry about him.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The six run towards the portal, so King Jikochuu/Mercenare starts shooting lightning at them. He misses every time because they’re running so fast. While they’re running, the dub replaces Cure Heart crying out in terror with Johnny saying that they’re almost at the portal. Then, everyone jumps in. The portal closes, and King Jikochuu/Mercenare can’t do anything but shoot lightning everywhere in sheer fury.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">While they’re going through the portal, everyone celebrates their victory. Dialogue is added where Rory makes fun of how mad King Mercenare got. Regina is also happy, but she still wonders if she did the right thing. In the sub, Cure Heart just smiles at Regina; in the dub, Glitter Heart reassures Regina that although the choice was tough, she did make the right choice. The episode ends with Regina firmly grasping Heart’s hand.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Well, actually, it ends with the ending themes. This is the last time that “You and I” will be played at the end of a Glitter Force Doki Doki episode. I’m pretty sure that with the start of season 2, the ending theme will change. I am going to miss the song. Like most Glitter Force ending themes, I thought it was okay at first, but it grew on me a lot. I sometimes get it stuck in my head because it’s that good. One thing I won’t miss, though, is the blatantly repeated footage. The show’s title appears in the original Japanese footage, so the video for “You and I” has to cut that footage and repeat other footage 2 or even 3 times to make up for it. Hopefully the next ending theme won’t have that problem.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Overall: This episode got really dark. Since Regina’s debut, Bel hasn’t done much and I worried that he’d lost his sinister edge. But this episode shows that Bel hasn’t gotten any tamer. In fact, he’s gotten even more threatening. He’s gone from trying to impale a baby to coming dangerously close to dooming two girls to a slow, gory, painful, and horrible death by magma. Imagine how traumatizing it would have been to see their skin slowly melt off their bones…

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">But aside from that, this episode was an excellent mid-season finale. The combat didn’t get as awesome as episodes 1 and 2, but it at least did have the first physical fight in a very long time for a show that has physical combat as one of its selling points. It was made up for, however, by Regina’s character arc coming full circle. In just 8 episodes, she’s gone from affably evil to a true friend of Pretty Cure/the Glitter Force. King Jikochuu/Mercenare also continued to be a threatening final boss. He didn’t do much, but just the atmosphere he carries is enough to make everyone fear him. Plus, he solidifies himself as an abusive parent. I can imagine that some people might actually have to face a mother or father as cruel as him.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The only major issue I had with this finale is that Heart was the only Pretty Cure who did anything really important. The other three didn’t do much at all. This isn’t the only Pretty Cure mid-season climax to focus on the lead Cure bonding with a villain to the detriment to the other three (looking at you, Star Twinkle), but it’s still a problem. To be honest, the entirety of Regina’s arc has focused a lot more on Heart than on the other three. This is the way things often work in Pretty Cure, unfortunately. Whenever a season has a bad guy turning good, this generally happens via his/her bond with the pink Cure. Thus, the pink Cure hogs the spotlight and the others get shoved out of the way.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Oh, and there’s a bit of a minor issue. I was expecting a new Pretty Cure/Glitter Force warrior to appear today. That usually happens in the mid-season climax, but it didn’t. One would think that the writers would cement Regina’s status as an ally of the team by making her a Pretty Cure/Glitter Force warrior, too, but I’m not them. The fifth warrior will make her appearance next episode, so hopefully it isn’t anticlimactic. But at least there won’t be some weird twist with said fifth warrior that makes the entire fanbase turn against her. That would never happen. Not in Pretty Cure, right?

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Next time: Regina hangs out with the other girls at the beach when the other villains appear to take her back!