Heartcatch Precure Episode 3 & 4

Episode 3
Flower of the Episode: Poinsettia

Today’s target was Sayaka, who was upset that she couldn’t join the boys soccer team because she’s a girl, and there was no soccer club for girls yet. Admittedly her case didn’t really resonate with me, mainly because the solution was obvious: Try making a girl’s team. For that reason, I wasn’t really able to sympathize with her. Of course, I get where she’s coming from in regards to how it is a bit ridiculous that girls can’t be on boys team or vice versa when there isn’t a dedicated club available to them.

It was Erika’s turn to become a Precure, and the recruitment came into play after she had shared she had the same dream about the fall of Cure Moonlight. The fairies wasted no time and immediately revealed themselves to get her onboard, (side note: RIP Tsubomi’s lunch, they ate it all), but she had shut them down by saying she didn’t have time. But having done so, I did find when she finally did declare she would become a Precure, it turned out to be quite lacking. How should I describe it… It was static so to speak. (Albeit the transformation charming as ever)

But at least when she started fighting it got a bit more fun again. Just like her personality, Erika as Cure Marine (a name she had though hard about the entire day) is a straight-shooter, but figuratively and quite literally. She also showed us how she is quick to learn, as she clearly remembered and paid attention to the “Dream Tutorial” and was able to act quickly without the fairies needing to walk her through it as they had with Tsubomi.

Other than that, Erika and Tsubomi are currently recruiting members for the Fashion Club since they need a few more in order to stay active. Unfortunately they haven’t had much luck so far, so Erika plans on switching up the strategy a bit by appearing more fashionable when they are out and about advertising for recruitment. However she ought to learn from today’s experience that trash-talking another club is not going to encourage anyone to join hers.

We were also briefly introduced to the charming Student Council President, oh gosh he’s a cutie! Tsubomi was quickly smitten, so now she has two dreamy faces to daydream about.

And as expected, Tsubomi was quick to ditch her adorable glasses (gosh darn it, I already miss them). She’s pretty either way, but I guess I prefer the glasses considering most main protagonists are without them (or get rid of them as she already had)

Overall it was a bit of a sluggish episode, (Heartcatch has a bit of a slow start), but it was still enjoyable to watch!

Episode 4
Flower of the Episode: Blue Stars

In this episode Tsubomi struggles with her confidence of being a Precure. Being a clumsy fighter is hard, especially when she feels like she’s dragging her partner down. She is so pitiful that even the enemy, General Kumopjacky gave back her Precure Tact when it landed in his hands. Talk about oof. Sure he says he just wants to have a fair fight, and even encouraged the girls to become stronger so he can defeat them, but his colleagues aren’t too happy with that approach.

Erika on the other-hand, she is quick on her feet and is quite strong, but she is exactly the kind of partner Tsubomi needs. While she has a habit of going about her own pace, she isn’t going to give up on her friend because they can’t keep up with her. Rather the opposite actually, she will do whatever she can to help them. But it was because Tsubomi couldn’t vocalize her insecurities that Erika was left confused as to why she was feeling so down and wasn’t sure how to resolve the problem. Unfortunately she had unintentionally amplified Tsubomi’s worries when she ran her mouth to Mao, a tennis player who was upset about a similar case to their own, where she had thought her partner was abandoning her. (As it turns out it was all a misunderstanding due to poor communication). When Erika told the girl to find someone else who is stronger, I was like, “ERIKA NO! THAT ISN’T HELPING!” and then she wondered why she was mad. Gee, I wonder why?

That’s when Erika’s sister Momo came into play to serve as her adviser, similarly to how Tsubomi’s grandmother offers her consolidation. Momo knows her personality well enough to get a read on a situation, and pretty much nailed it on the head when she warned her that her words may have been more hurtful than helpful.

While Tsubomi may not be the strongest precure around, as Erika says, her strengths lies in her kindness and how attentive she is to others. An example of that is when she saw a child caught under rubble, she immediately ran over to help. Of course it can be argued it would have been smarter to take out the monster first, but I can understand why she felt the urgency to do so in the spur of the moment.

Actually can we like just talk about that for a moment: The way the enemies are wrecking havoc in this series is actually insane. They are so destructive! And they are sure not to waste time. Both Sasorina and Kumopjacky had taken the initiative to strike the precure with their own powers within the first three episodes, as opposed to what most of the enemies have been doing in the recent years: becoming quite lazy and passive when it comes to going about their duties. A lot of the times we only see them pick a fight if there are in the mood, or if they want to.

Last but not least, I absolutely love the animation for both the transformation and special attack combo. This is the kind of thing I miss from the staple duos. It is playful, lovely and beautiful to watch them transform in the same sequence rather than separately. It also serves as a way to show the dynamics between the two characters, giving us a sense of intimacy, something that has been lost in the crowded field.

RELEASE SCHEDULE: As you can see, Episode 3 & 4 were fairly basic, so I really didn’t have too much to say. So for episodes like these (500 Words or less), I will release them as a double-post, while longer ones (800+ words) will be kept separate. Even with this set-up, the schedule of posting twice a week remains unchanged. So this means I may end up covering as many as four episodes/week, but it will ultimately depends on how much I write. 😉