Delicious Party Precure Ep 32 – 34

It took a while, but after weeks of stagnant development, they finally deliver us an emotional episode with some plot crumbs.

Episode 32

This episode was… a whole lot of nothing, though I suppose you could say it was a Mem-Mem appreciation episode? Anyhow, it was simply about was finding a lost Udon Recipepppi that had ended up napping on Kumamon, and its buddies were crying out of worry, putting the noodle festival at jeopardy because the noodles were at risk of going soggy. The only part that actually managed to make me laugh was when Kokone was trying to cheer the crying Recipeppi up with a game of peek-a-boo… only to make a scary face HAHA! It was so cutely done. But apart from that, yeah, episode felt like a total waste of time. You’re not missing anything special if you were to skip this one.

Episode 33

Unfortunately this episode was another snooze fest for me. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad, I just found to be boring. On the bright side, at least Amane was finally able to clear that unsettling cloud that Narcistoru put over her head with his goading. After that, it sort of slipped under the rug for a bit, but it resurfaced when Narcistoru’s interrogation progress brought up. When they were talking about ‘grudges’, Amane found herself facing the fact that she actually harbors a lot of resentment towards him, to the point that there’s a part of her that wants to punch him for what he has done, and is unable to forgive and forget. It stressed her out and she ended up taking out her frustration on Parfait. But as Mari said, “It’s okay not to forgive”, and it’s normal for people to harbor such feelings every now and then. But at the same time, it’s important to make sure we don’t let those negative feelings define who we are. And I like that Precure is addressing these feeling a bit more as of the late. The best and most recent example I can think of (since I skipped Tropical Rouge), is of course Healin’ Good Precure, where Nodoka flat out refused to save Daruizen, who was the source of so much pain. Just because they are a Precure doesn’t make them obliged to save or forgive the ones who have hurt them.

As for Narcistoru, well we didn’t see him this week. Instead Mari gave us a run down on how it appears Narcistoru joined the Bundoru Gang because of his grudge against meals. He was described to be a picky eater, so there aren’t a lot of food he likes or would eat. He also can’t eat things hot, and dislikes eating with others.

Now I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t really satisfied with that explanation because I feel like there could be more to it– just a matter of whether the writers are willing to offer more depth to it as opposed than making it so cut and dry. They described it as “it hurts his pride” and all, and that does apply to an extent since there is certainly a sense of shame and potentially peer-pressure of needing to eat and enjoy the meals, which would explain why he dislikes eating with others. But I also feel like there could potentially be more to it. When you take into consideration of his ego and the way he finds deep gratification of inflicting pain and despair on the others, I’d suspect another possible factor as to why he behaves the way he does is because he is jealous and frustrated of the fact others are able to enjoy these things, when he finds himself struggling and is simply unable to do the same. It circles back to the sense of being shamed for his pickiness, and with an ego like his, he won’t have any of that.

That said, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned with the way they are going about things right now. Amane dealing with her bitter feelings towards Narcistoru was fine and all, but the way they went about addressing Narcistoru’s issues this week makes me worried about how they plan to go about his character at this point. I was also disappointed that Mari simply told us how the interrogation progress has went as opposed to giving us a glimpse as to how Narcistoru has been responding to it. I worry that this may end up being a ‘short-cut’ to the resolution of his character, and I sure hope not, because otherwise this would come across as an incredibly lazy and a shallow way to wrap things up…

Other than that, it was cute to see Kome-Kome has grown up to the point where she is now the one translating what Recipeppi Parfait was saying.

Episode 34

As you could tell from my last few entries of this series, it’s no secret that I’ve found Delicious Party Precure to have been terribly stagnant, but at long last, this week’s episode clicked with me in multiple ways!

The entire time I was watching it, I was tearing up–hell, even as I write this I’m trying to keep the waterworks under control, and for a number of reasons too. First it made me think about my own grandma who I am very close to. Like Yone, my grandma loves to cook and bake. Every time we visit her, she is always giving us a box load of either ginger, double chocolate or oak-meal raisin cookies, pineapple and banana, marble or a nutty pound-cake to bring home. I value her recipes, and I’ve always made an attempt since a young age to make sure I collect them. And I could relate to Yui’s struggle of replicating that flavor, because it’s really hard to do. I often say to my grandma her secret touch to her meals is the love she puts into it. Her lunches she prepares for us whenever we visit (because she will never miss the opportunity to do so) may be as simple as canned soup, chicken or tuna sandwiches, macaroni salad and with some side dishes, but nobody can replicate the taste. It’s something that’s just uniquely my grandma’s.

The second is another thing I know all too well. The loneliness and sadness that comes with age. When we watch Matasuburo reflecting on how he is the only one left after Yone and Ginger have already passed, it choked me up all over again because it really is hard, to be the only one left after so many of your friends have already passed. My grandma like so many others are in this position. That’s why my mom and I, we always call her. Twice a day on the days we can’t visit in the mornings and evenings. And on the days we visit her, we try to stay for at least four hours, eating together, playing cards and take her out if we have the opportunity to do so. It’s so easy for people to forget how alone our Elders are, and we ought to look out for each other, including our neighbors.

But the most important take-away from this episode was actually the reveal of Mari’s Master’s name: Ginger!

Finally, after weeks of what felt like no progress to the plot was being made, they finally threw us some crumbs! And I’ll take all that I can get!

It turns out that Matasuburo knew him, as he was able to identify that Mari was also from CooKingdom thanks to his similar Attire. Curiously, we had also seen Takumi’s mother have a slight reaction too, potentially signalling that Monpei most likely had spoken to her about Ginger, and that she is aware of who Mari is, and is keeping her mouth shut about it likely because she knows about the circumstances which drove Monpei to leave CooKingdom in the first place.

Mari’s Master name was Ginger, and he, Matasuburo and Yone were all friends. Yone first found Ginger who had collapsed from hunger (this really is a running trend amongst Ginger and his disciples isn’t it haha!!). He was described to have a particularly weird appearance given he wore a cat-like headgear. Hearing that actually makes me wonder if that’s where Yone got her inspiration of distributing the cat statue around to the shops in town, and perhaps that’s why of the reasons why the town has that enormous one we see at the beginning of every episode too. It just goes to show how Oishi-Na town is very closely tied to CooKingdom, but it makes sense given it is a foodie town, an optimal place for Recippepis to have a habitat.

I am so glad we got some crumbs on Ginger, who has been a big foggy ball of mystery up until now. We finally got a name and a bit about his character, as well as how both Yui and Takumi now find themselves sharing the same connection. I really hope we don’t have to wait too much longer for things to finally get rolling again. I also hope that we actually get some more Yui episodes sooner than later. She has been on the back-burner for far too long, and even today it felt like her role was still fairly minimal. I suppose the silver-lining was that at least she had a lot more presence in this one compare the rest as of the late. I just really want to see her character get fleshed out properly, because right now there isn’t a whole lot to her character beyond her deep affection for her grandmother, and how much she enjoys eating. In fact when she used her Precious Triangle, and I thought to myself, “Oh gosh it’s been FOREVER since we’ve last seen her do that!”

But it looks like we are going to have to wait a little while longer because next week will be a Kokone episode. Looks like her parents may be suggesting she travels with them around the world so that she isn’t left alone at home as often as she has. This of course would mean she wouldn’t be able to continue being a precure, so I have a hard time seeing that happen. Hell, it would be one heck of a plot-twist if it were to actually pan out– but like I said, I definitely don’t se this happening haha. Anyhow, hopefully it’s not boring, that’s all I can pretty much hope for, and then maybe after that, we can see the story focus more strongly on the plot. And I’m not going to lie. I am worried about running out of time, because the last few seasons have only been 45-46 episodes instead of 49, and I don’t know if this one will be the same or plan to go back to the previous routine.