This week’s episode was a bit of interesting one, but also a mixed bag for me.
It started off with Kome-Kome dealing with the realization that she is the odd one out as she cannot hide her ears and tail when she takes on her Humanoid form. She became insecure about it and wanted to so desperately get rid of them so that she could fit in and be able to comfortably be friends with Ran’s siblings Rin and Run (who neither thought of anything weird about her unique appearance). However she later learned with the help of Ran that it’s okay to look different, and it’s normal to feel insecure about that, but that doesn’t mean she needs to change herself to be accepted by those around her.
Now that sounds fairly straight-forward, but while this was all happening, we were suddenly dropped with a number of very curious information about Narcistoru from the Bundoru Gang. Admittedly, I found it to be a bit abrupt, but during a talk with Spiritoru, Secretoru revealed to us that Spiritoru’s information is made up of Narcistoru’s thoughts. This was the first important clue that was dropped as we went on to hear Spirtoru describe ‘himself’ as a “Picky Eater”, likens the experience of eating like “torture” and “unpleasant” and “not fun”. That’s why when Ran and Yui went on to say “food cheers people up”, “food brings happiness”, Spiritoru couldn’t understand that because Narcistoru doesn’t have any good memories or joy for food. This makes me believe the reason why Narcistoru abhors food and the idea of enjoying meals so much is because of some form of trauma. This would further explain why he can’t help but have a negative association with it, as well as to why his powers involve robbing the food-related memories. One way to look at it is, without those memories, they cannot hurt you.
It also crossed my mind that perhaps one of the reasons why Narcistoru feels this way may possibly be related to a form of eating disorder. There are many types, so until we’re given more concrete information I will refrain from listing any specifics, but I think this could be a very real possibility given what we know about his personality, and how this show is so heavily themed around appreciating and enjoying our meals, while he feels nothing but disgust.
Apart from that, Kome-Kome has evolved yet again and is no longer a little girl anymore. She is a lot more capable now, and sure enough we’re about to see her contribute to the team in some form or another next week with a new power. Frankly I am almost half expecting her to become the fifth Precure at this point, which… I really hope that doesn’t happen. I don’t mind if she just serves the purpose of bestowing them a greater power, which looks like will happen next week. And speaking of which: It appears there may be some importance in her heritage given that she is called, Connectal Mochimochitto Fukkurara Glycogen Komex II. Curiously, it seems Pam-Pam might have known her predecessor as she mentioned how she was feeling nostalgic when the name was brought up. What became of them however is something that is yet to be revealed.
Overall, I’d be lying if I said there weren’t parts that were boring me, but it was the realization that the worries Kome-Kome was experiencing today, may be a reflection of what could or something similar to have possibly led to Narcistoru developing a negative association towards food that kept my attention. That said, I do feel like they probably could have done a better job with the build up for this. I found in this particular episode, they ended up doing a lot of “telling” when it was something that could have simply been picked up just from Spiritoru’s dialogue and behavior. On top of that, it also felt a bit rushed because of how quickly it looks like Spiritoru is about to be cast aside given that he has served his purpose of buying Narcistoru time to complete his new device, and have revealed crucial information about him that wouldn’t have otherwise been revealed to us by the man himself.
Bearing that in mind, I sure hope this isn’t going to be the last “event” with Narcistoru as the antagonist. He’s an interesting character, but personally I am not ready to see him fall just yet. I have definitely been feeling iffy about the way they are going about the antagonists this season, mainly because the pool has been shockingly small and with no real additions apart from Narcistoru as soon as Gentlu was done. Secretoru has been completely passive, standing idle with forgettable one-liners that just makes you wonder whether we’re actually going to see her do anything at this rate. Of all the antagonists so far, Narcistoru has been the most interesting one, but let’s be real, we could use a bit more spice in the mix.
