Episode 16
Truth to be told I don’t really have much to say about episode 16. It was okay, but it was one of those weeks where it felt really short and somewhat boring. However I did like the way they had quietly foreshadowed Ran’s self-consciousness the week before in episode 15 during the class picnic. Ran had imeaditely stopped gushing about her food when a classmate asked if she could sit with them. And it didn’t go unnoticed to Yui, who had actually asked Ran why she had stopped, to which she quietly shrugged off.
The reason why Ran is self-conscious of the way she expresses her passion for food is because when she was little, the kids called her weird for it and was treated like an outcast. That’s why she has turned to Curesta, where it became an outlet to do more comfortably do just that.
Unfortunately Ran found herself in a bit of a pickle when their classmate Takagi witnessed her talking to her sandwich and called her weird for it. Naturally, Ran was both distressed it due to her scars from the past. Yui had tried to tell Takagi not to talk about it to others, but unfortunately it fell deaf to his ears. However later, her passion for good helped identify the missing ingredient Takagi was longing for when he was missing his brother’s meat stew. This earned Takagi’s acknowledgement, accepting her peculiar way of expressing her passion.
TLDR: The whole idea was to take Takagi’s loneliness of missing his brother and his cooking, and throw Ran’s passion in to make it better, while learning to accept that it’s okay to be a bit odd.
Episode 17
UH… OKAY THEN. [Checks episode number again] Looks like Amane will be joining the Precure Party next week. Sheesh, that was fast. We’re only on Episode 17 and we already have a 4th Precure joining in. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t taken aback. And it’s not that I didn’t expect her to become a Precure, I certainly did, just not this soon.
At the start of the episode, CooKingdom Queen and King come to discover the Sphere of Light has taken form as heart-shaped crystal. It possesses the same power as Energy Fairies, born out of gatheirng many Hoka-Hoka Hearts. This jewel has been entrusted to Mari, who later dropped it by Amane and saw that it had reacted to her, thus identifying her as the candidate to become a Precure.
However becoming a Precure is the furthest thing from Amane’s mind at the moment. It’s not exactly something she percieves as an honor, much less feels like she has the right to be. She is still grappling with her guilt of the pain she has inflicted onto the recippipes when she served as Bundoru Gang’s puppet ‘Gentlu’. We saw how she even wants to resign from her position as Student Council President because of the way she had exploited her powers in attempt to gain an advantage over the Precure. So when Mari entrusted her the Heart Stone and told her she has what it takes to become a Precure, understandably Amane refused to accept it. And this makes perfect sense, because while Amane has been recovering from her ordeal at home all this time, she still needs more time to process this.
While I do have some reservations and mixed opinions how quickly this is happening, I suppose this is actually a good thing. On one hand, we are getting closer to the half-way point (varying on whether we’re doing to see only 46 or less episodes again due to the delays) so this means Amane’s character can benefit being fleshed out properly much earlier on. This is also probably important, because Takumi will also need some time of his own when it’s his turn to be formally accepted into the circle as Black Pepper. However at the same time, (and I know this is going to sound super bias, and I acknowledge that it is), I would be lying if I said I wasn’t starting to get a bit anxious about what’s going to become of Takumi’s role. I’m mostly concerned that he may be reduced to a gimmick of a sort. But presently, the main reason why Takumi’s situation is a bit more complicated right now is that he has yet to properly hold a conversation with them as Black Pepper, so it’s hard to officially accept him into their circle. And it is difficult to establish a formal partnership and speak with him after the fight when he imeaditely leaves the scene. At this point, Takumi is pretty much winging his role as support.
So naturally it was great to see him finally throwing himself into the bulk of the fight, and it was fun to see how he quickly discovered that, shit, these monsters are actually quite tough. But you know what was the highlight for me in all of that? It was his utterly pure and the precious reaction to seeing Yui stopping the Motto Ubau-zo from squashing him. THAT BLUSH OF THANKS AND THEN THE WAY TRIES TO PLAY IT OFF COOL! Takumi is so freaking adorable man. Now that’s wholesome goodness I love! But I was a bit surprised that despite being the first person at the scene, we didn’t actually see him confront Narcistoru– though in hindsight, it was actually a good thing that he didn’t, because he wouldn’t have been able to handle Narcistoru’s upgraded monster on his own today.
Judging by the way the battle played out, Takumi seems to possess more or less the same amount of “base” power as the girls do. Even with the four of them working together, they were all struggling against the Motto Ubau-zo this week. The fact they barely got through that fight even with four people is precisely why they need Amane to join the team ASAP. That said, I am curious to see whether we will ever see him get a power upgrade of his own. Perhaps we will learn more of that potential once everyone knows he is Black Pepper, because Mari’s history with Cinnamon should come in handy when it comes down to figuring that stuff out. (Though can we just take moment to recognize how cool Cinnamon looks in that form? HAHA. Like dang, what a looker.)
Finally, the last thing I would like to touch on is of course the hysterical Parfait Recipeppi. My goodness, does that food fairy have a haughty attitude or what. I was laughing so hard at the way it was buzzing around, snapping at Pam-Pam and Mem-Mem to interpret what it was saying. But I freaking lost it when it said, “SHUT UP AND BRING ME AMANE! HURRY UP.” Oh my gosh! That was way too funny. I would definitely be down to see more chaotic interactions of the sort with the Recipeppis.
