Healin’ Good Precure Episode 21

Well, I guess Batetemoda is really gone. Not only did they say he was purified, but he has actually been completely removed from the Opening, which I do find a bit surprising to say the least. However we have seen antagonists make comebacks in the past, and considering the Pathogerm King mentioned he had plans to use him, perhaps there still may be a way to bring him back.

Nevertheless, while Batetemoda’s time with the team was short, thanks to his ambitious side he was able to help them make incredible gains. His discovery of using the Mega Parts to speed up the evolution phase of the Mega Pathogerms is a huge breakthrough that will play a big part in preventing the Precure from gaining a true advantage over them. On top of that, Daruizen was able to make a proper follow up to this discovery when he decided he should try and harvest the Mega Parts from the existing evolved Mega Pathogerm. When he did that, I thought to myself, “Oh shit. This is going to get dangerous real fast.”

These battles with the Mega Pathogerms are already difficult, and while Asumi will be helpful, should the Generals all launch a simultaneous attack again, this time using Mega Parts, would the girls even be able to afford sticking together as a team? They may not have the luxury of time to do that. And on top of that, this week also showed us Asumi won’t always be able to solo the Mega Pathogerms either, and thank god for that because that would spoil the fun. But this does lead back to the theory I mentioned last week about how the strength of the Mega Pathogerm may be based on the General who created it. Since Daruizen was the one behind it today, we know he’s strong, in fact I would say he is probably the strongest of the three, but I digress.

So what does this mean for the girls? For Chiyu, Hinata and Asumi, not too much, but for Nodoka, this poses as a real threat. This episode they quietly made the point that while Nodoka has supposedly made full recovery from her illness, it doesn’t automatically mean she can do anything. Rabbirin pointed how Nodoka lacks stamina and endurance, and this is absolutely a realistic vulnerability the Pathogerms can exploit in the future.

Actually while we are at it, can we just take a moment to appreciate how intelligent and antagonistic the Generals are in this series? Not a single one of them are “softies” or “pushovers”. Batetemoda was the violent and ambitious youngster looking to rise in the ranks. Guaiwaru is that senior in your office who sees your work/discovery and will look for ways to take credit for it. Daruizen is the quiet one who may come off as the “lazy one”, when in fact he’s the most productive and will actively get more involved if something or someone inspires him to do so. Shindoine… uh for now let’s just say she’s the one who wants to stay in favour with the boss because she has a mega crush on him.

That being said, I did find it rather funny how Shindoine was the one barking about taking Cure Earth out, but we didn’t actually see her do anything this episode. Instead it focused on Guaiwaru and Daruizen (my baby it’s been so long!). Needless to say, I am not mad about it because it was great to see the more ambitious side from both Guaiwaru’s and Daruizen’s characters this week. Guaiwaru delivered an incomplete report of Batetemoda’s fight. He told him about Batetemoda being purified, and how it appears Cure Earth is not the legendary precure, but someone who received her powers. And then left out the part about Batetemoda’s discovery and new use of the Mega Parts because he wanted to confirm whether that was Batetemoda’s doing, or the Mega Parts. However he was a bit stupid in thinking no one was going to notice when Daruizen, the one who created it caught him red-handed, and of course was the one who figured out they could harvest the parts.

And goodness, it feels like it has been forever since we last seen Daruizen in action! (It was probably because of the hiatus though, haha!), and since he is my favourite antagonist in this series so far, I am very happy to see him again. I was especially pleased to see him being proactive in the fight again, because man I missed that. He didn’t disappoint when he not only harvested the Mega Parts, but also went after Nodoka because she had noticed what he was doing. (ABOUT TIME! I NEED MORE INTERACTION BETWEEN THESE TWO) But it’s clear he isn’t using the full extent of his powers just yet. Today it was just physical combat, and we know he can do more. He probably would have tried to infect her hand if he knew about her open wound concealed under her glove. I mean he did plaster miasma on her face before, and I imagine it would affect her health if he had managed to do that with her hand today. (And who knows, maybe the injury will still come into play.)

And finally our sweet Asumi (I know, I was really harsh on her when she debuted, but hey she’s winning me over and that’s a good thing!) Oh goodness someone help this poor girl! Because she lacks common sense, she would not be able to survive this world on her own! Heck, she and Nodoka almost got hit by a car because she had walked out into traffic and Nodoka had to save her (and got injured in the process). Thank goodness Nodoka had came up with a thorough story to come up with way for Asumi to stay at her place. I was quite pleased to see Nodoka’s parents asking all the right questions that are otherwise often ignored in these type of series such as, “We need to call her parents” and “How long will she be here for?”.

I have to say, I am quite a fan of the approach of having Asumi’s character evolve through her experiences. I am mostly curious of how she will break out of her default settings of “I exist to serve Latte”. So it was nice to see her understand a bit what Nodoka meant when she said it was because people had helped before and now she wants to do the same in return when she swooped in to protect Nodoka from Daruizen.

But most importantly, she is so funny! I died when she said, “I ate something for the first time”, and to make it even better, the expression on her face was as though she did something terrible! Thank goodness Nodoka went with the story that she is a foreigner visiting Japan! It was also incredibly wise of her to say she is Latte’s owner, because at some point or another, I think we can expected Latte and the trainees to return to Healing Gardens. It would be a lot more comforting to her parents to know Latte is safe since they love her too.

Next week, oh dear, it looks like Asumi will be experiencing some instability that puts her at risk of possibly fading away! Considering she has been added to the OP, I would be surprised if they did end up enacting a cooldown onto her, unless this simply means she can’t always participate in the fights, or perhaps she needs to be a bit more cautious about how much power she uses all at once. Until, see you next week!