Delicious Party Precure Ep 43 – 45 [FINAL]

Finally, it’s over. Honestly it bums me out that I have to say it, but these last three episodes were quite difficult to get through.

Episode 43 was… I can’t say I enjoyed it. It was frankly just laughable to watch, and not in a good way. So Fennel… Godatz, whichever we’re supposed to refer to him as now basically decided to steal away all the Recipeppi to make the food of the entire world all his own– and he likes to go on about despair, but we all need to look at the bigger picture here: What Godatz is doing is inflicting world hunger and starvation, how the bloody hell are all the characters overlooking that? I don’t know, but I snorted when that happened because it was just so laughable how the biggest crisis was conveniently being ignored. I mean, robbing the entire world of their food source is, kind of a big deal.

At least Yui’s crying session did make sense this time round (as opposed to the last one), and Hana Hishikawa did a phenomenal job of really punching you in the gut with the feels. However… apart from that, nothing else happened. Yui cried and cried and then a talk with Takumi who basically confessed (only for it to of course go right over her head– go figure,) through sharing the words of wisdom Yone shared with him whens he was teaching him how to cook back then. In short, Yui didn’t actually do anything, and her resolution ultimately came down to remembering that she just wants to make people smile (hence deliciousmile). Frankly I don’t really see how that really resolves where she messed up, which was imposing her ideals onto others. So.. yeah, that wasn’t great.

And of course to NOBODY’S SURPRISE, OF COURSE, TAKUMI GETS SHAFTED FOR THE FINAL FIGHT. Great to see he was conscious and standing, but guess what, his Delicioustone had been destroyed and could no longer can be used. Well isn’t that just fucking brilliant! At least the Hoka-Hoka Hearts power in episode 44 managed to restore it so he could have maybe 3 seconds at most of screen-time contributing to the final fight. But good grief, episode 43 just made me salty as hell. Fitting in a sense, because it was already salty from all of Yui’s tears.

I mean, honestly what I am supposed to say at this point? This series blew it with the way they fucked over both Yui’s and Takumi’s character, and that stupid bait on the key visual, and opening– though wouldn’t be the first time they’ve done that, but man it REALLY ticks me off.

I’m not even going to get started with Secretoru. Her character… look I get the whole crippling perfectionism thing, but they absolutely botched her execution and I can’t take her seriously whatsoever. She has done absolutely nothing for about 90% of the series. What do you expect me to really think about her? What was even the point of her character? She was the last one standing and yet she someone manged to do less than Narcistoru– who also, been shafted to the point that we still don’t understand what the heck that whole backstory was supposed to be about. Picky-eater? BULLSHIT. If that was what it was supposed to be, there were so many better ways to go about it! That reason felt more of a lazy cop out than a genuine conflict.

As for Fennel… I still feel like they never properly resolved his character conflict. His problem was beyond just his grief of losing Ginger. It was a deeply rooted issue that started as soon as he realized that Cinnamon had become Ginger’s star pupil and what he considered his special bond with him, and his position of inheriting the special Delicioustone was being taken away from him. It was no longer something he could call his own. It really frustrates me that they’ve neglected to properly flesh out his backstory, as I kept on waiting and waiting throughout the finale for a proper conclusion for it. Yui handing him a riceball and telling him he’ll be able to smile again some day just didn’t cut it for me. The whole thing just came across so unbearably lazy.

Then we have the importance of the lucky cats and their relationship Ginger’s Hoka-Hoka Hearts Accumulator.  Yone’s role with her lucky cat statue paid off when Yui remembered her favourite food (riceballs) thanks to understanding the meaning of her name (which was also suggested by Yone). Ginger had tied that secret power together with those statues in order to draw out these uh… food whatever to prevent world hunger while Godatz hogs the rest for himself.

Apart from that, episode 44 did have a couple of scenes that made the eyes sting a bit, namely whenever Yui talked about the passing of her grandmother, but apart from that, honestly this finale didn’t do enough to salvage the series for me. The CG of the lucky cat statue was so bad, and it’s a shame to see that we had to wait until the last three minutes to see everyone unite together to fight again, Takumi, Cinnamon and Mari included.

Delicious Party Precure had so much potential, but man they really blew it. It still blows my mind just how badly they neglected Yui’s character– of all people for so long. They really shouldn’t have waited till the very last minute, nor should they have even forgotten about her in the first place. It’s just sad because Kokone and Amane both had significant character growths, Ran… is a bit debatable, though I suppose it was enough because she had always felt self-conscious about the way she expresses her passion for food. But Yui? Goodness, what were they even thinking? And Takumi— you already know how I feel about that, I don’t need to repeat myself like a broken record at this point. But man, I really wished that Takumi had been given the proper opportunity to learn how to wield his powers and contribute to the team from the beginning of the series instead of being cast to the side so he could’ve been able to shine like his dad did. Frankly speaking, Cinnamon fighting was honestly the highlight of this final arc. He’s such a badass, so it was a real treat to watch.

I’m sure some people still managed to enjoy this series, and if that’s the case, good on them. But it always pains me to see characters brimming with so much potential, especially the ones I happen to be really interested in get benched in favour of others. It’s just a bummer that Precure has been on this streak of disappointment for me. It’s hard to pin point just how much Toei Animation’s rather horrible luck in the recent years resulted the way things panned out. But there were fundamental problems with what they chose to prioritize and focus on, and perhaps even favouritism towards certain characters that resulted screwing over Yui and Takumi in a way that could have been avoided (and dear god, of course at the VERY END of the final episode they FINALLY have Yui inviting Takumi to hang out with them! What a joke!) And for that reason, I honestly can’t recommend this series to anyone because there are just so many problems that it’s really hard to ignore, not to mention addition the many things were left unresolved/unaddressed. I’m just done with this show, so I just don’t have the energy to list out the details all over again when I think I laid them out pretty well in the entries leading up to this point.

Anyways, I hope Hirogaru Sky Precure will be better, especially since it’s the anniversary title. But I can’t help but feel rather jaded after being let down yet again, so for that reason I can’t make any promises whether I am willing to commit to the next one for the long haul. I’ll give the first episode a go, but eh. We’ll see how I feel about it next week.