Impression
Ehhhhhh…. Did anyone else find this episode a bit disappointing, because I sure did. The thing that bugged me the most however was how they delivered Iona’s character. Her personality all the sudden flipped and I really disliked the fact that Hime and Iona didn’t really talk it out AND, Hime still hasn’t shared the entire story of how and why she opened the Axia box. All we really got from Hime was, “I am not asking you to forgive me, but please take my precard cards and grant your wish, it’s the only way I can make it up to you.” and it annoyed the hell out of me because Iona went ahead and used Hime’s cards even though she revealed to us that Hime wasn’t really the one to blame and only apologized AFTER she used the cards. Well whatever. Long story short, up until this point: Iona was basically re-directing her anger at Hime, when it was entirely the Phantom Empire’s (or more precisely: Phantom’s) fault for her sister’s defeat.
Although my speculation was spot on about Iona being the one to get the “new” transformation (more like “new equipment”) as well as the reasons behind it, I wasn’t expecting to be to irritated about it. Regardless of the circumstances, I’m sure if Blue had put his mind to it, he would have been able to throw her one of those Pre-Crystals that turned Megumi and Yuuko into precures. I really wished that they hadn’t had Iona use both her own and Hime’s to rise again as a Precure. But other than that, I appreciated the fact that Fortune became a bigger threat because of the fact she cast aside her grudge and hatred that was previously responsible for fueling her will to defeat the Phantom Empire and finally became focused on protecting the ones she cares about the most. That positive will is what make the Precures strong, not negativity and hatred.
However it is Cure Fortune’s ‘power-up’ is what brings us to the second thing that disappointed me. In the end, it was all about Iona, it was a one-man army sort of thing going on. Once she found her new resolve, the tables turned and she was kicking Phantom’s ass all on her own. Now this can be a strange thing to be a bit upset about because, “YAY GIRLPOWER KICKING ASS” but this is Precure, this is where the girls team up all together and kick ass together with their awesome friendship. I was bummed out to see that the others didn’t even get to fight, but I suppose it was because they weren’t ready to fight against Phantom just yet where-as suppose Fortune, who had trained more as well as has more experience on the battlefield. Anyways I hope we’ll see a real group fight sooner than later now that Happiness Charge Team is finally complete (for now, never know what other character might pop up >_>).
As for the two highlights of the episode: That would be Hime having the motivation to want to clear up her misunderstanding with Iona and cast aside their differences in order to save her, as well selflessly giving her the precards she had collected (which Megumi and Yuuko had already promised earlier episode would help her have her wish granted first), and Phantom (despite Cure Fortune’s power-up) was still standing (though this time battered). As of right now, Phantom is presently my favourite villain because of how strong and badass he is. It is great to see the girls struggle to defeat an opponent like him, but surely- given that Cure Fortune almost defeated him on her own with her new will alone, the next time they meet, Team Happiness Charge will surely win the fight.
In the end, I am willing to turn a blind eye to Iona’s sudden character flip (regardless of the fact she was in a pinch), and embrace how she and Hime will become adorable friends. With Queen Mirage now revealing herself to the precures (not in person though), it will be interesting what she and Blue will be discussing and what sort of misunderstanding had happened at the time that made her fall into the pit of despair.
Oh and one extra note: I am fairly certain that Phantom has this unrequited love with Queen Mirage going on but his main reason for hating love is because that is the source of Queen Mirage’s despair.
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Fortune kicking butt alone with her new powers is well precedented. Given that she is effectively an entirely new Precure at this point, I would relate her fight to things like Cure Sunshine’s intro where she singlehandedly defeated the monster that had beat up the other two Precure, or Cure Moonlight’s revival where she defeated Dark Precure and all thee of the enemy generals while the other Cures had been losing in one-on-one figths against a single general in the same episode in Heartcatch Precure; or Milky Rose’s early rescue of the Cures in Yes 5 GoGo where she singlehandedly beat down the enemies that had been dominating the entire group, or other similar such things. Particularly since Fortune has already been clearly stated to be the most powerful of the Cures, so once she gets a notable powerup she would clearly become devastating.
Frankly, what I’m more concerned about is that she’ll get toned down in future battles to match the rest of the group. I hate it when that happens.
There certainly will be battles where the team gets to show off how Precures become more powerful together. But this was the episode where Fortune finally gets a grip on herself, and as a result gets her moment to shine.
As for Iona’s willingness to make up with Hime… it seemed somewhat sudden, yes, but I’m willing to let it pass. She had just been defeated and was in despair. Her illusions of who was at fault had been torn away. Hime personally showed up and saved her, in a place where no one should have been able to save her. And the first thing Hime did wasn’t continue fighting Phantom, but rather rush over and GIVE UP HER DREAM, her only hope of saving her family, her home, her entire world, in a desperate attempt to apologize to Iona for what Iona had suffered through. Iona was no longer in a condition to lie to herself. She could see plainly how much Hime had suffered, how much SHE had MADE Hime suffer through her misplaced blame. She tried to apologize then, but Hime ran off to help Megumi and Yuuko. So Iona chose to act, to make use of the treasure Hime had given her to regain the power to fight, but this time to fight to protect what was precious to her, rather than for revenge and hatred.
That’s my read on things, anyway.
BTW, thank you for continuing to cover this. I look forward to your posts on it every week. 🙂
Good to see I wasn’t the only one who felt Iona’s character was off with the whole “I FORGIVE YOU111″ right away to Hime after being a bitch to her up till now. But that’s a good insight.
Awww thank you! It is my pleasure!