User blog:GlitterInformer/Doki Doki! Pretty Cure/Glitter Force Doki Doki SDC: Episode 5 (Sub), 4 (Dub)

Episode 4 (Sub), 3 (Dub) | Table of Contents '''Japanese title: “No Way! That Girl is Cure Sword??”'''

English title: “The Glitter Spotlight”

Welcome to the episode where Cure Sword/Glitter Spade factors into the plot again after being left out for episodes on end! It starts with Makoto/Mackenzie in a concert performing for everybody. Here, I was worried that they’d just cut out all music Makoto sang so they wouldn’t have to go through the effort of dubbing it (as shown by all insert songs being removed from the original Glitter Force). But they just replace it with a new song. In fact, I like the dub version better. Makoto just tunelessly shouts the lyrics to a prerecorded song, making it sound like she has no singing talent. Mackenzie, on the other hand, shouts out pumping-up phrases like “Hey everybody!” and “Can you feel the power?” as the backup singers sing, so it makes it sound like she just isn’t singing at that moment but could if she wanted to.

It turns out that Mana/Maya, Rikka/Rachel, and Arisu/Clara are reading in a magazine about Makoto/Mackenzie. This, of course, means visual edits!



Mana/Maya runs back to Arisu/Clara and Rikka/Rachel. Rikka/Rachel is happy to see that the meeting went well. The ensuing dialogue is changed. In the sub, Arisu says that Makoto still seems to have doubts, Rikka agrees, and there’s no dialogue as Makoto looks upon the three uneasily. In the dub, Clara says that she’s still sure that Mackenzie is Glitter Spade, Rachel sarcastically compares Clara to Sherlock Holmes, and Maya excitedly tells them all the details of her handshake with Mackenzie and Mackenzie looks on. With this, the episode ends.

Overall: I’m glad to finally see Makoto/Mackenzie in action after so long. She’s an interesting character with a lot of potential. It’s interesting to see how she hides her true feelings from others, and how her rough exterior is just her way of trying not to trouble those close to her. That being said, Mackenzie is too rough. Makoto was just standoffish, and the only time she was actually rude was when Mana entered her dressing room without permission. It’s understandable. Mackenzie, however, seemed to go out of her way to be far ruder than necessary. She took almost every opportunity to be coldly sarcastic to Maya. I understand that Mackenzie has a lot on her plate and that she feels guilt for failing to save her kingdom, but that’s still no excuse for the way she talks to one of her biggest fans. Hopefully, Mackenzie gets better.

The voice acting has gotten better, at least, even if only for the fact that Clara speaks less and Lance only has one line. Even with this, Clara does seem to be somewhat less stilted sometimes. I'll give credit where credit is due, though. First of all, this episode makes it clear that Debi Derryberry has improved far from her role as Candy in the first Glitter Force. We get to see a lot of emotion from Maya this episode, and Derryberry pulls it off well. Secondly and most importantly, the singer whose Psyche was turned into a Jikochuu/Distain has the best voice acting of the episode. Even though she does have a weird character design, it's a shame that she probably won't be appearing in later episodes.

Next time: Makoto/Mackenzie comes to Mana/Maya’s house to film a cooking show!