Man they sure gave us a lot to take in this week, and fairly fast paced too. Starting with the aftermath of Yui’s first battle, where Mari gets her up to speed about the threat of the Bundoru Gang. Mari doesn’t understand their motives for capturing the Recipeppis, but we the audience did get a scene where we where Bundoru Gang’s leader claimed he wants to collect all the world’s cuisines. This sort of strikes me as the type of character who is a glutton by hoarding all the good food for himself. The consequences of the disappearance of the Recipeppis affects the shops they each resided at, resulting the food becoming spoiled and are forced to close their doors. This finally gives us context as to why Yui was surprised to see a street full of shops are suddenly out of business. Should that continue unchecked, that would mean there would be nothing delicious left for anyone else.
Apart from that, the episode also unexpectedly dropped some feels on us. I certainly wasn’t expecting it when Yui suddenly thought back about a kitten she had rescued off the streets and raised when she was little. Considering she was thinking back on it when she was cuddling with Kome made me sad when I realized the cat is nowhere to be found. So I’m not sure if it’s around anymore, which kind of choked me up at the thought of that.
Her past with the kitten did show us how how Yui has always been the type of person who couldn’t turn a blind eye to someone in need. Even though she had a tough time wining the trust of the kitten, her persistence paid off and was able to bond with it. At the time, her grandmother told her that she was strong child because she has the heart to try and help others. It is a conviction that Yui is determined to remain true to, as she always (and maybe too readily) willing to help out.
However if there’s one thing I observed so far, it’s that while she is ready to throw herself into danger, Yui kind of forgets about her own safety. We saw a bit of this with how she recklessly charged at the monster with no strategy involved. In-fact, we even saw her get hurt, such as burning her hand because she didn’t think about the consequences of you know, PUNCHING A BOMB. She certainly has a one-track mind, and needs someone to rein her back in before she seriously gets hurt. Thankfully, even though Mari no longer has powers of his own to use, his experience still counts, and he was able to help Yui properly strategize and help confuse the enemy by working as a team. So it goes without saying that Yui would greatly benefits having teammates to help keep her in-check when she gets carried away.
Speaking of Mari, I must say I do appreciate how his character is showing a lot of consideration of the danger and responsibility that has been put onto a young girl’s shoulders. And having lost his powers it only made him feel worse about it. So what did he do? He shrewdly decided to leave with Kome-Kome in tow so that Yui couldn’t be dragged into the fight. And his plan almost worked, except he neglected to take away the Heart Cure Watch, which what enabled Yui to find him and get access to the other dimension even when she was late to the scene. (And Mari’s shocked reaction made me laugh so hard!)
However Yui is the type of person who wants to help others, and as someone who cares dearly about food, she doesn’t want to see Bundoru Gang shutting down more businesses in her neighborhood because their food is getting spoiled when the Recipeppis are captured. So at that point, you can say she has the right to be involved if she wishes to do so because it affects her community as a whole.
Finally, we got some curious development involving Takumi. When he showed up at Yui’s house after she had accidentally forgot and abandoned him at the scene of chaos to makes sure she got out okay, we saw that he recognized Mari from the scene. But what caught me off-guard was when Mari asked if they might have met before, and Takumi had such a suspicious reaction of denial in response that I can’t help but think there’s something going on, wouldn’t you agree? Hahahaha! I swear I’m not trying to read too much into this!
Next week, Pam-Pam is the next Energy Fairy to awaken, so I guess that means Kokone might be the next one in line to join the team. Well I’m certainly looking forward to more cuteness from Kome-Kome and now Pam-Pam! Though if I may add, it was quite ballsy of Yui to introduce Kome-Kome was some friend’s pet (quickly revealed to her mother that it’s Mari’s) in their steed. I suppose it’s not the more outrageous ‘pet’, such as Mem-Mem, who would have a much tougher time convincing anyone unless they were to claim it’s an exotic animal- but even that would be realllllyyy stretching it, hahahaha! At least Pam-Pam should be able to fit in easily!
