Episode 15
Man that was an intense episode, but a real good one! It certainly made up for the underwhelming performance from Kabaton, which pretty much goes to show he wasn’t really the true threat to begin with. He was nothing more than a grunt looking to get a good promotion. Battamonda however is a different beast altogether. And we saw that today with the way he didn’t play around and his plans of dropping Ranborgs all across the city paid off by making a bomb threatening to blanket the Kingdom in darkness. It was very refreshing to see him actually be crazy considering Kabaton was a terribly underwhelming grunt that was mostly used for comedic relief. Battamonda however is an entirely different beast. He likes to play it cool, but when he does lose it, he throws quite a temper and is a very scary individual when things don’t go his way. He not only cursed the King and Queen into a coma, but poor Tsubasa ended up getting quite a beating today as result of it, basically turned into a punching bag. Unfortunately that also meant taking him out of the battle, which is why Sora and Mashiro were struggling even with just the two of them, and the Captain made the fall to lend them aid and take the hit so they could finally finish it off. (Though if I may add, the animation for Captain Shalala’s scene was so freaking good!!!! Man they popped off with that one.)
Originally Mashiro was going to return on her own to her hometown, but now with Ellee’s parents cursed, and Captain Shalala is MIA, it’s no longer safe for Ellee to remain in the Kingdom. They also have come to realize that now more than ever that they need to stick together as a group, otherwise they won’t be able to handle the onslaught of attacks from those who are trying to kidnap the princess. And of course the other part of the decision is in hopes for Yoyo to find a cure to lift the curse.
As for Captain Shalala’s fate, honestly I’m pretty sure at some point down the line Sora’s going to find herself facing the captain as the enemy. And I’m not gonna lie, I did have some suspicions about her– and honestly a part of me still do, but now that her body is actually missing, this certainly increases the possibility that if she wasn’t a traitor to begin within, then she will very likely be brainwashed and used as a puppet for the Undergu. That would be an incredibly difficult situation for Sora to overcome, saving her own Hero.
And finally, Princess Ellee managed to say but Sora’s name for the first time when she was desperate for someone to save her from Battamonda. A sad situation when you consider how special is it to them to hear their names being called for the first time, but it was thanks to that Sora was able to (somehow) hear her, and show up fast enough with a face to scare off Battamonda for the day.
Episode 16
After returning to Mashiro’s place, everyone was understandably feeling down, but fortunately Yoyo was able to give them a bit of uplifting news to assure them that there is a way to lift the curse that had been placed on the King and Queen. They just need to collect Kira Kira energy with the mirror whenever they purify the monsters. Honestly when I heard that the first thing that crossed my mind was, “Why not just plainly use the Precure purification on the King and Queen as it is?” But perhaps doing it in one go just won’t cut it, which is why they need to collect the energy and fill the “bottle” so to speak. I suppose that also just goes to show how strong of a curse Battamonda had inflicted onto them, and he’s not even the final boss.
Since Ellee needed a distraction and cheer-up, Ageha had suggested they do a puppet show for her. And that was working out all fine and dandy until they ended up going along with the story that only make them recall the battle and made the mood drop altogether. Of course Ellee picked up on their dampened mood and that spoiled it for a while. It was cute with the way Ellee was portrayed as the hero while it lasted though.
They did end up fighting Battamonda again today, though for him it was more about settling the score rather than pursuing the princess. He really does try to play it cool, but when he isn’t taking a tantrum but just complaining about it does show the more pathetic side he always tries to cover up. I do feel like that’s their attempt of comedic relief, but I frankly I feel like he’d be better off without it since it feels like they are shoehorning that part in. Stick to the nasty temper like we saw in the last episode, he’s more menacing like that. He can still have his cowardice side though, as he did flee from Sora when he decided whatever face she was making at that time wasn’t worth angering her further.
With that said, honestly I’m at the point where I am on the fence on whether to continue this coverage or not. While I am absolutely enjoying the series, I find it difficult to write about as there’s a lot of times when there’s not too much really to discuss and expand on. I’m willing to give it 2-3 more episodes to see if maybe I’d want to continue a bit further, but I’d like to give a heads up that I know for certain that next week’s entry would be bound to be double-posted with Episode 18, or end up as a triple post combined with Ep 17, 18, 19 if I am really uncertain. It could also be that this show might just be better off covered in double/triple posts as opposed to on a weekly basis due to how short the entries end up being. I’ll have to think over it and see how I feel by then.
I would at least wait until Ageha’s Cure debut (whenever THAT happens) before making the call. Thats what I always do.
Yeah I’d like to wait until then if possible, though I don’t think they’ll necessarily put it off for too long (if I had to make an estimate, probably some point between Ep 20 – 25). So I’ll resort to double or triple posts in the mean time. Perhaps that might just be the best way to go about it going forward.
Maybe you could review the show in batches, like maybe 10 eps in each batch? So you only have to write a blog post every 3 months or so. All you’d have to do is just summarize your thoughts about what you liked from the 10 eps and if you’re enjoying the writing/story, no need to go into depth about every episode from the batch. That might be easier to do considering how episodic Precure can be! And the 10 eps per blog post could work especially when HiroSky does eventually get into the batch of non-stop “filler” episodes during the 20s (like every season does).
Notice: Hirogaru Sky! Precure Ep 17 – 19 will be released on Tuesday or Wednesday. I was hoping to get it out today, but due to a family emergency that occurred earlier this week, and I need a bit more time to write up the entries (3 episodes) since I’ve been pretty tired from the ordeal. Thanks for understanding.