Precure Day 075
Episode: Futari wa Precure Max Heart 25 - “Hikari’s Summer Day and Sanae’s Memories” Date watched: 8 October 2018 Original air date: 14 August 2005 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/HfmPMEz
Honoka’s grandma is pretty much the best
Honestly I could probably just leave it at that, that caption says it all, but I’ll do my job and elaborate a little bit.
Hikari is feeling left behind since Nagisa and Honoka got a new power, and she’s felt a little like dead weight lately anyway because she’s not an offense-based hero, but she doesn’t know how to express this. Fortunately, a chat with Sanae helps her to feel better about herself, about her friends, and about her place in the team. Grandma truly reads Hikari like a book, and dispenses invaluable life advice borne from a childhood full of hardship. Once again we see glimpses of Sanae’s youth with the subtle hint that her town was destroyed during World War II and she watched it rise from the ashes. She doesn’t mention this part, her dialog tells a much gentler story than the accompanying visuals, but it’s the encouragement that her friends care about her and so she should believe in herself.
Nagisa and Honoka have also detected Hikari’s unease but trusted in Sanae to talk to her about it, and so the four of them enjoy an afternoon rowing on the lake, talking out their feelings. That is until Viblis rudely interrupts, frustrated after first Baldez and now Uraganos haven’t returned to the mansion, compounded by Hikaru’s strange behavior. She fears that Hikari is to blame for all of this, so she tries to attack her individually by turning the entire lake into a Zakenna and sucking the boat containing Hikari and Sanae down into its depths. Hikari, however, is encouraged by Sanae’s words and the desire to protect the unconscious old woman so she keeps the faith and avoids Viblis’s attacks, with a little help from Grandma’s accessories. Sanae appears to still be unconscious and the parasol and handkerchief were nowhere near her, but we know that she knows about Precure and was the former owner of Mipple, so it’s possible she had a trick up her sleeve.
Shortly after, Black and White are able to penetrate the prison and protect Luminous. They call upon the power of hope and nature to summon the Sparkle Braces and defeat Viblis with the Marble Screw Max Spark. Later, back at Honoka’s place, Hikari espouses what Honoka’s grandma taught her: to always have hope and never give up. Unfortunately Nagisa misconstrues this to mean she shouldn’t worry about her summer homework, a repeated joke in this episode, causing delightful reactions from her friends.
I dub this the “Nagisa what the hell” face.
Anyway the main point of this episode is that Honoka’s grandma is a best. Aside from dispensing life advice, she also dispenses general wisdom and colloquial knowledge about how to keep the house cool in the summer. I’ll put a series of related pics for that in the screenshot album when I post it.
The next Heartiel, Hoprun, appears briefly at the start and end of the episode but neither Seekun nor anybody else sees him.
Also Nagisa’s shirt looks like it says “God” from some angles and “Cool” from others and I find this oddly hilarious.
It’s “Cool” by the way but still.
Lastly, here’s a couple bonus pictures of Sanae as an adolescent and a young woman.
I really would like to see how she looked as a young adult from the front but I guess that’s one of the great mysteries of the show. I suppose she’d look like Honoka.
Let’s wrap this up with catchphrases:
Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1 Arienai!
White Precure Word Ways: 2 “Mou, Nagisa ttara!” (maybe it’s “ittara? I’m not honestly sure, I’m going by what I can hear.)
Next time, summer festivals! This time with 100% fewer short old men with spiky hair.
PS I’m over the halfway point for Max Heart now! I’m on track to finish by early November.