So I had a thought about how Chara and Frisk are both acting as lenses through which we see the game Undertale
That’s pretty much how a game narrative usually works when presented in a top down RPG style format, right?
We get context for the story from:
Interacting with the Characters and Environment.
Reading descriptions of items and objects
Frisk as the “player character” provides the former, while Chara as the narrator provides the latter.
And for most of the game these two will always be operating simultaneously, save for two distinct instances:
When Chara appears in person at the end of a no-mercy run.
When Flowey is speaking to Chara concerning Frisk and Resetting.
but because both Chara and Frisk act as our "lenses" into the events of the game the player can receive and interpret those speeches as being directed to themselves personally.
This could also explain how we can briefly glimpse at Frisk’s life on the surface and yet when we reset we will see the patch of grass that is just before the exit to the Underground (where presumably Chara’s spirit is still bound to since they are asked by Flowey to “let Frisk live their life”)
We can’t properly look into Undertale’s world unless both “lenses,” until both characters are present.
Which is why the game will always start at the flower patch in the Ruins where Chara’s spirit bound to Frisk.
I found a pdf of the DokiPre novel... I'm not impressed. Not that I've read it, but I searched for key words and read the pages they showed up on.
Not only does the novel have Makopi state that she's never been in love with anyone (I believe she does eventually fall in love with someone in the novel, so aroace Makopi enjoyers don't win either), but it also has Rikka think to herself that her love for Mana is "different from the romantic love between a man and a woman."
That last part stings the most. As frustrating as it is to have the reading of Makopi as having been in love with Marie-Ange contradicted, I certainly don't think that was done on purpose. It just happened to come up.
But there was absolutely no reason for the writers to have Rikka state that her love for Mana isn't romantic except to shut down people who interpret her as sapphic.
about to say something mean but i feel like every "male-specific" issue is something that also happens to women its just that a lot of you dont seem to see women as people
women are also feeling lonely and alienated from communities en masse women are also expected to stifle their mental health for the sake of perfomance at work, in relationships, for children ect women are also expected to work extremely hard to maintain a perfect body and perfect health and are punished for being fat/having hair loss/having health issues especially those that affect ones sex life women are also insecure women are also neglected by parents and teachers and authority figures women are also scrutinized for having emotions and punished for not meeting the gendered expectations of our class and expected to climb upwards and overcompensate while being punished for signs of poverty and we get the added bonus on top of, yknow, being women. your emotional issues are not a Crisis Attacking Manhood theyre the way our society is fucking built you just dont see women as people
Friends, loyal followers, the wait is almost over. I've finally finished my rewatch of Yes! Precure 5 GoGo for this project. I'll have reviews for the last 5 episodes out in hopefully short order.
Im sorry but my friend and i keep joking that Wonderful and Friendy are Free To Play characters, and Nyammy and Lilian are the limited 5 star / DLC characters because of the quality differences in their transformation 😭😭😭
The moment has arrived! Eternal’s Director finally steps out of his office and reveals himself to Nozomi and the Precures for the first time! Are they ready for this encounter? Let’s find out!
The Plot
Eternal’s Director dreams about his first visit to the Cure Rose Garden, where Flora rejected him and locked him out because he wanted to take control of it. Knowing that Flora has given Nozomi the access he was denied, he decides to finally see her for himself.
All the girls except for Nozomi are hanging out at Natts House, doing homework and studying for an upcoming exam. Nozomi has chosen to study at the library instead, so she doesn’t end up relying on her friends too much. She struggles and they miss her, but they let her do her thing.
When Nozomi finally leaves, she notices it’s very gusty outside. She stops to ponder a large tree, and is joined by Otaka the principal/lunch lady, who tells her it used to be small and weak, but it withstood and grew big and strong (this is a metaphor). Nozomi then realizes she forgot something and rushes back to the classroom, where she stops at the teacher’s desk and acts like she’s presenting a class. Coco shows up to give her some encouragement, but they keep getting interrupted by more wind. Suddenly they detect a powerful presence like they’ve never felt before, and rush outside.
In the school’s courtyard is none other than the Director of Eternal, in all his masked giant chair glory. He interrogates Nozomi, asking why she wants to go to the Cure Rose Garden, and she says it’s because Flora invited her to do so. Coco tries to defend her honor, but is attacked, and so Nozomi transforms into Cure Dream.
The Director uses shadows to blow holes underneath Dream and Coco. Dream attempts to punch him, but he blocks her with an energy field and strikes her with his shadowy wings. He makes a speech about how everything in the world can be classified as either something of value, or of no value, before destroying Otaka’s tree, and then the entire school and surrounding forest, leaving nothing but a giant crater in the ground.
Cure Dream is in shock, and the director declares her to have no value, but just then the other Cures and Milky Rose appear to back her up. The Director turns his shadow wings into five Hoshiina orbs that plant themselves in the shadows of everyone aside from Dream, spawning color-coded Hoshiinas shaped like demons. The girls use their special attacks, but the Hoshiinas absorb them, distort them, and return fire, leaving everyone strewn about. Dream steps forward, giving an inspirational speech that all the items and places he erased were things that could have grown to become much greater, and that he does not get to universally decide the worth of anything, especially them.
Coco gives them power and the Cures all perform Rainbow Rose Explosion on the Director. He turns the Hoshiinas into a dark rose to counter their attack, and it seems that he can repel the attack, but Mint turns to Dream and reminds her, via the metaphor of the tree, to hold to her beliefs so she can grow and support her friends and teammates. This is the encouragement she needs to push through the Director’s defense. He is overwhelmed, and moves out of the way of the attack. He stands up, weakly, but before he can try to attack again, Anacondy shows up and teleports him back to Eternal. As he reflects on what just happened, he thinks to himself that maybe the cures do have some value after all.
Over at Natts House, everyone is looking at the still sleeping King Montblanc and worried about the future….. Except Nozomi, who reiterates that she can grow and become unshakeable for the team, while eating a special pancake that everyone made for her earlier. Everyone is cheered up by her positivity and that ends the episode.
The Analysis
What I Liked
As we near the endgame, things are starting to escalate. The Precure have faced many formidable threats so far, but this first taste of the danger posed by the Director is different. His absolutist attitude towards things of value is fearsome and his only desire is to impose his will and control everything.This is of course why Flora denied him entry into the Cure Rose Garden, but he believes he has the strength to impose his will. While he doesn’t wipe the floor with the heroines like we’ve seen evil leaders do before, he is able to match their energy without great effort.
Feeding into his ideology, the Director fights mostly by erasing things and copying or reflecting things. He removes things he perceives to have no value, and doesn’t have the creativity or desire to use his own attacks so he just copies the cures’ abilities. He doesn’t even see them as having value enough to destroy, so he just wants to remove them as an obstacle.
I admire Nozomi’s drive. She recognizes she has been a bit lackadaisical in her studies previously, so now she’s overcorrecting by trying to do it alone. She struggles a lot with it, but dang it she’s trying. Otaka’s speech to her is also positive encouragement, and builds into the lesson of the episode: lay the foundation today so you can grow strong in the future. This is going to be the push that she needs to make it as a student and a future educator herself, and it’s enough to give her the confidence to overpower the Director during Rainbow Rose Explosion.
On a lighter note, there are several clever scene transitions in this episode, one that stands out is during the Rainbow Rose Explosion, the Director sees a vision of Flora, which turns into Cure Dream. There’s also a cute one where one of Syrup’s pancakes transitions into the sun.
What I Didn’t Like
Nothing.
Miscellaneous
I think I speculated earlier in the show that the mysterious relationship between Flora and the Director was romantic. This certainly seems to squash that theory. As I’ve said before, I did watch this show once before, but that was over a decade ago at this point and I binged it while working on a craft project so I clearly didn’t retain many of the finer details.
At first it looks like we’re getting a new Dark Precure 5, but it’s actually a group of Hoshiinas that absorb each cure’s abilities and warp and reflect them back. Interesting footnote on the list of copy and evil cures.
Milk does not appear in her fairy form in this episode.
King Montblanc is still asleep.
Conclusion
This is a thrilling episode, the transition point between the bulk of the show and the endgame (with a bit of a pause for the Christmas episode in between). We finally get our clearest look at the mindset of the Director and he makes himself known to the heroines. Unknown to him, they have been given the necessary tool and encouragement to overcome his destructive, isolating nature. The two sides will come to a head very shortly. But first…
Next time on Precure Daily: Santa Claus is coming to town! Look forward to it!
"Kid's media deserves to be thoughtful and well-written because kids are smarter and can handle it, and bad writing shouldn't be written off as just 'it's for kids what do you expect'" and "If the target audience is kids, even older ones, you can't expect it to always be realistic and go in-depth about every issue they discuss" are ideas that can and should coexist.
Today is February 29th, that special day that only comes once every four years, so I thought I’d commemorate the event with another look at all the episodes that have ever aired on this date! Let’s dig in, shall we?
Episode: Futari wa Precure episode 5 - “Crisis! Pissard Puts it All on the Line!”
Original air date: 29 February 2004
Man we’re so early in this season that Nagisa has only met Fuji-P once. Feels like forever ago. Anyway in this episode, Mepple butters Nagisa into going to see Honoka (so he can see Mipple) and goads her about not having a boyfriend. On the way she encounters Fuji-P, whom she talks to briefly. He doesn’t much remember her, but they have a nice chat. Later on, Honoka asks her if there’s anyone she likes, and Nagisa’s mind wanders to him, but she says there’s nobody. There is this gem of a line, though.
Honoka: “If I go out with a boy, I’d want there to be mutual respect between us.”
Nagisa: “It sounds difficult.”
I’m not sure whether that speaks to Nagisa’s pessimism or just the reality of the dating scene because that’s a very low bar, and yet obviously a lot of people fail to meet it. But time to move on to the next episode….
Episode: Futari wa Precure episode 5 - “Crisis! Pissard Puts it All on the Line!”
Original air date: 29 February 2004
Ah, a classic episode. Nagisa and Honoka go out to the park to let Mipple and Mepple play, but they’re harassed by some boys. Nagisa wants to just ignore them but Honoka gives them a real chewing out, and Nagisa has to drag her away before she scolds them any further! Iconic! A great leap day episode. What’s next?
Episode: Futari wa Precure episode 5 - “Crisis! Pissard Puts it All on the Line!”
Original air date: 29 February 2004
Okay so this is a really sweet episode where Nagisa takes Honoka to Akane’s takoyaki stand for the first time. In fact, it’s the first time we see Akane at all! There’s a funny exchange before this where they’re deciding where to get food and all Nagisa can suggest are foods with “yaki” in them: taiyaki, yakisoba, okonomiyaki, and nabeyaki udon. Honoka tries to rebut her with some more normal suggestions but ultimately Nagisa takes her to Akane’s. They chat and bond over some delicious food and do some window shopping before going their separate ways.
Episode: Futari wa Precure episode 5 - “Crisis! Pissard Puts it All on the Line!”
Original air date: 29 February 2004
Oh man this is a thrilling episode! Pissard confronts Honoka on her own, demanding that she give him the Prism Stones! She obviously refuses, but he chases her across town into a construction lot. He knows that she can’t transform without Nagisa around, and he wants to take advantage of this. Honoka still refuses to help him, because he’s self-centered and only wants to preserve his own life when the Dark King controls everything, he doesn’t care for anybody else’s well being. He throws all the equipment in the construction site at her, including heavy machinery, but she stands her ground! Fortunately Nagisa shows up at the last moment and they’re able to transform and fight. Next one!
Episode: Futari wa Precure episode 5 - “Crisis! Pissard Puts it All on the Line!”
Original air date: 29 February 2004
All the Leap Day episodes so far have been fantastic but this one, THIS ONE takes the cake. Pissard is out for blood, because the other generals have made it clear they have no confidence in his abilities, so he wants to prove himself. He manages to get Honoka alone but Nagisa shows up to transform with her. He confidently believes he can challenge them all on his own, and their fight travels from a construction site, to the top of a train, to a riverbank. They exchange blows, each claiming the upper hand during the battle, because Cure Black and White are still novice to this and their teamwork isn’t as good as it will become later. However, when they try to attack him with the Marble Screw, he fires back with a blast of lightning. The two sides are evenly matched, but when he tells them to just surrender to the Dusk Zone, they get righteously mad and lecture him about the value of life and independent thought. They reject his message and, with their hearts in sync, their attack powers up and Pissard can’t hold it back any more. He is destroyed by their Marble Screw, and leaves behind his Prism Stone. Honoka cries, thinking they’ve just killed someone, but Mipple assures her he’ll return in another form, without the influence of darkness. It’s an outstanding episode, an early victory for the girls and a moment of bonding and character growth for their friendship. Hands down the best leap day episode.
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Okay so yes, there’s only been one episode that ever aired on February 29, because 2004 was the last time it was a Sunday. The next time that happens will be all the way in 2032, and who knows if Precure will still be around that long. Let’s hope it is, and if so, and if I’m still around, I’ll be here to write about it for you! I hope you enjoyed my list, and i hope you had a good Leap Day! Look forward to more Precure Daily coming to you really soon!
Well, it’s been four long years, but Leap Day is upon us once again! So here’s a look at every single episode of Precure to have ever aired on February 29!
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Yeah, it’s still just the one. And that makes it all the more special. Happy leap day, folks! In 8 years I’ll actually have something new to say on this holiday!
It’s crazy how things change, though. 4 years ago, I was working on Precure 5, rounding the corner on the final arc. And now, 4 years later, here I am, working on Precure 5 (gogo), rounding the corner on the final arc. What progress!
