MY EMOTIONS!
Once again, I have to give major props to all the staff members who were responsible for producing this episode. The execution and delivery of the Megumi’s vulnerability was impeccable. The bittersweet emotions, the intensity of what was at stake, Megumi in a serious pinch- not knowing if she was going to pull through or whether or not her friends were going to make it on time. It was exciting! I appreciated the effort made to convey Megumi’s heartache, giving her an ugly sobbing face (that hit me real hard, I just wanted to hug her) and I loved how Megumi managed to pull through and confess that she is still not completely better yet.
That moment when Megumi snap out of it only for the Red Terribad to attack once more, and Megumi has no energy left to fight… DAMN, I HAVE NEVER BEEN HAPPIER TO SEE HIME SWOOP IN TO SAVE THE DAY. That the probably the first moment of the entire series where Megumi was not able to muster up the energy to face the counter attack (she was beaten pretty bad). But I think what made it even better was just the fact how all her friends, (Seiji included) arrived at the nick of time to save her.
Speaking of which, while this episode’s conflict revolved around Megumi’s broken heart, it was also revolving around how much her friends care about her. With the world seemingly saved, the girls throw a pyjama party to celebrate but to also help Megumi cope with her heartache. The next morning Seiji invites Megumi out, to try and help her relax. Now let me tell you, the reason why I love Seiji x Megumi is because Seiji is such a good friend. He loves her and her well being is important to him. When she hurts, he hurts, and he will do everything that he humanly can to help her when she is feeling down. I loved how he took her out, I love how he told her to be honest around him, to not feel obliged to force a smile or laughter when she is hurt. But most of all I appreciated that he reminded her, she has him and her friends who care about her and that it’s okay to cry in front of them, and she will be able to find happiness. So when Megumi finally uncorked her bottled up pain, it was bittersweet and beautiful. Megumi wants to be happy, she is happy that everyone has been saved and can smile again, but at the same time she is sad.
I appreciate that fact that they were able to come up with a way to form the final chapter without making it seem too easy. By having Dark Red fail to take exploit Megumi’s vulnerability in order to replace Mirage, it allowed them to go down the route of Dark Red recognizing what Megumi’s true weakness is. The foundation of Megumi’s strength comes from the support of her comrades. The only reason she was able to defy the “Red Voice” was because Seiji had reminded her moments earlier that she has him and her friends to rely on. Had Seiji not said that, two things could have happened:
A) Megumi overcome the Red Voice on her own, but at the cost of creating a disconnection with the audience and make Megumi invincible (while it is her slogan, it is not supposed to be applied in a literal sense).
B) Dark Red successfully manipulates Megumi and her friends have to rescue her – but for a number of reasons there was no way they could have possibility done that, (at least in this story).
Now that Seiji and the girls all have targets on their back, and it looks like Seiji will be the first victim. I won’t lie, I am ECSTATIC that they are FINALLY DOING IT. No joke, I just, I am sucker when it comes to these types of tropes. I adore theses, especially when it’s the girl going in to save the guy or vice versa, I love it. Though he looks quite strange in some of the preview shots, but damn I am excited! But most of all, I am eager to see how Dark Red will capture Seiji. Will Seiji succumb to the Red Voice or will it be something else entirely? Will he be saved in just one episode? God, I hope not. There are five maybe seven if they are going for 51 episodes (MAL says 49, so we’ll see), regardless that is PLENTY of time to have fun with facing off the true villain. Another thing I am curious about is whether or not the girls will actually be captured as well. I have a relatively hard time imagining Megumi fighting against Dark Red all on her own since this season was heavily revolved around friendship- but who knows, maybe they will?
The last thing I would like to address is the discussion the girls had regarding Blue’s delicacy to Megumi’s feelings. It is definitely debatable and difficult to decide the right and wrong. Yes, I agree, (despite knowing the outcome) it was a bit like a slap in the face for Megumi to have to stand there and watch her first love confess to the woman he love and then kiss her, but at the same time, Blue needed to confess his eternal love right then there. Some could argue that he could have cleanly reject Megumi’s feelings earlier, instead of letting them grow on with wistful hope that her feelings will be returned. Nevertheless, nothing would change had he done so earlier. Megumi’s feelings would either still grow or Dark Red would look to take advantage of Megumi’s vulnerability, just as he had today.
this episode was trueling the best, the art was on fleek and story and the feels i got were awesome. CANT WAIT FOR NEXT EPSODE AND pRI- pRECURE!!!!
*GROSS SOBBING* MY EMOTIONS I CAN’T! *THROWS SELF INTO THE SEAL OF FEELS*
“A) Megumi overcome the Red Voice on her own, but at the cost of creating a disconnection with the audience and make Megumi invincible (while it is her slogan, it is not supposed to be applied in a literal sense).”
Her slogan in the OP is “as long as there is love in my heart, I, Cure Lovely, am invincible!” I think the qualifier is important. It’s her loving connections to others that give her her boundless strength to keep fighting to overcome any foe. If she questions those connections, that love, she loses that strength, and can fall. It’s a very Precure-esque sort of power, and even more is perfectly suited to traditional pink Precures, who are infamous for loving everyone and being fixated on trying to make everybody happy.
…I probably shouldn’t really comment on this when I’ve allowed myself to fall several episodes behind, but I’m going to catch up, I swear!
LMFAO CATCH UP!!!!! IT’S AMAZING AND THE FEELS IN THIS EPISODE!!!!!
The qualifier is without a doubt important, but what I was referring to was in more literal sense that if she had pull through all on her own, without remembering the support she has (which Dark Red was essentially doing, trying to manipulate her by saying she has Regrets of saving the world when she is the only one who isn’t happy) that would take away her key weakness. She is like you said, invincible as long as there is love in her heart and has that support of those around her, that’s what makes her heart strong. But today, her heart was not in top form, and while she insisted her heart is not that weak, she knows she is not okay yet. So it was important for the element of love and support from her friends to come into play, to help provide support to a wounded heart.