Heartcatch Precure Episode 9

Flower of the Week: White Hyacinth

This week we learned a bit more about Tsubomi and her family background. As it turns out, Tsubomi’s family wasn’t always as close-knitted as they are now. For much of her childhood, Tsubomi was raised by her grandmother while her parents traveled for work (which further explains why her grandmother has read her a lot books as mentioned in the previous episode). Although she always sent her parents off with a smile on her face, she was actually bottling up her feelings, and it wasn’t until one day, when they came back to pick up a file they had forgotten that they witnessed her having a breakdown because she couldn’t handle the loneliness anymore. It was only then when her parents realized it was time to put family first, and quit their jobs and opened up the new flower shop.

So when her father’s former student Obata comes in to recruit him for his company he is working at, it was understandable why Tsubomi was afraid her father might accept the offer. But while her father declined the offer, Obata was not about to take no for an answer, and went as far as to seek Tsubomi out to persuade him. It wasn’t until Granny fully explained to him the job would cause the family to fall apart again that he finally realized there was no hope of winning them over.

Obata was definitely one of those type of characters whose problem I have a bit of trouble sympathizing with. Mainly because the way I see it, securing her father to join the company could potentially offer him two rewards. One, he may be able to fast-track him to the research team without putting himself on the spot at the risk of his current job, or two: successfully securing a prominent researcher to the company could lead him to a promotion to get where he wanted to go. But by wanting to do whatever it took, even if it meant trying to talk Tsubomi into persuading her father to accept the offer really left a bad taste in my mouth. It just felt super low, manipulative and even reeked desperation. I understand he doesn’t like his job right now, but unfortunately that’s life. Whether we like it or not, we all have to suck it up— unless we are running our own show. Only then we have a bit more freedom of choosing what we want to do.

Although Obata’s character was someone that left me feeling odd about, this was still a solid episode. I was touched by Tsubomi’s parents decision to quit their job so that they could put family first when they realized she was hurting. I also appreciated Erika encouraging Tsubomi to voice her inner thoughts so that she could properly explain her feelings so others could understand what’s running through her mind. And lastly, I really liked we got some insight onto why Tsubomi’s heart can’t help but flutter when it comes to romance. Her parents met and fell in love when they were both searching for flowers and got married shortly after. It’s super corny and cliche, but it’s charming all the same. She revealed she hopes to one day have a fateful encounter in a flower garden just as her parents had.

Next week, the girls will be meeting the dark precure who has taken down Cure Moonlight!