Episode four of Futari wa Pretty Cure was directed and storyboarded by Akinori Yabe and written by Higashi Shimizu. This was the first Pretty Cure episode worked on by either of them. Yabe already had directing experience in a variety of classic titles, such as Ojamajo Doremi, Kinnikuman, and Marmalade Boy. Shimizu, meanwhile, wrote multiple episodes for Fist of the North Star 2. Both would later go on to contribute to Max Heart, Splash Star, and Yes Precure 5 and GoGo, so it’s neat to see their Pretty Cure debut.

As far as I’m concerned it was a more than serviceable start for them, serving up some backstory to the fairies and giving us more than a few delightful bits of comedy. Let’s dig right in!

EPISODE SYNOPSIS:

Nagisa and Honoka’s class takes a field trip to an art museum, which they are put in charge of, to Nagisa’s chagrin. One girl in the class, named Mayu, seems to be a bit of an art nerd, and recommends artwork by an older Italian artist, Mario Piccalini. Upon seeing this particular piece, Mipple notes that the painting gives her a nostalgic feeling, and it’s revealed that what the artwork portrays as a shooting star is actually Mipple arriving on Earth. Apparently, when during travel between the Garden of Light and the Garden of Rainbows, what feels like one day is actually one hundred years. (The girls later travel to and from the Garden of Light, but fortunately this little lore tidbit seems to have been forgotten or ignored, preventing potential Interstellar-esque shenanigans and disaster.)

This does give us some fun reaction images though: namely, Honoka “Math Lady” Yukishiro, and a somewhat more traditional Nagisa “Urashima Taro” Misumi. (Fun fact: in the Canadian dub, presumably since western children were less likely to be familiar with Urashima Taro, Natalie uses the turtle as a metaphor for being “so out my depth, here!”)

Once the field trip is over, the students return to the bus, but Mayu is missing. Nagisa and Honoka head back into the museum to find her, where they are attacked by Pissard and by various elements of art having come to life. The Pretty Cure eventually prevail, of course, but Mayu is still nowhere to be found – until they find her inside the Mario Piccalini painting. As Nagisa and Honoka ponder what to do about this, the situation sorts itself out – Mayu wakes up behind them, and the painting returns to normal. Mayu mentions having a strange dream about being together with Piccalini, and the image itself is now slightly altered – a fun little detail akin to the tiny footprint left in the vacuum cleaner back in episode two.

ANALYSIS:

Motifs: Let’s start with where the last paragraph ended. We’re only four episodes into Futari wa Pretty Cure and we’ve gotten two episodes ending with the Pretty Cure – who are by all means supposed to be doing their world-saving jobs in secret – leaving a small but indelible mark on the physical world. I don’t know whether or not this was an intentional decision on the part of the staff. For all I know, it’s just a fun way to end an episode, and that’s that. But it does bring to mind one of the themes of the series, which is the balance between light and dark and black and white. As Nagisa frequently laments in the beginning of several episodes – she is struggling trying to walk the tightrope between the life of a superhero and the life of a normal girl. The idea that her superhero adventures occasionally bleed into normal, every day things – like a vacuum cleaner, or a painting in a museum – is sort of a neat visual way of showing this struggle and how hard it can be to balance both sides of her identity.

It may also be a way of showing the children watching that good deeds will leave a (noticeable!) mark on the world, no matter how small. Either way, it’s a neat detail and I like that Pretty Cure does it.

Facial Expressions: Nagisa has always been a superstar for this but I feel like this episode

really

goes all out

with

the expressions

even with the one-shot characters.

I don’t know what it is about Futari wa Pretty Cure’s style, but I really do think this season does expressions better than any of the others. (Heartcatch fans, I see you back there, but sorry, I still like Futari wa Pretty Cure’s better!) Considering the general limited budget and resources for these types of shows, I am continually impressed by the wide variety of emotions we can see in the characters’ faces. As such, I love taking screenshots of different expressions from this show, and this particular episode was a treasure trove. These examples aren’t even all of the ones I got.

WORTH WATCHING?:

I think it is, it gives you some backstory and it’s overall just a fun little episode with a lot of humor. I find that the art museum setting and the little twist at the end makes it one of the more memmorable entries in the season.

ARIENAI COUNT:

There were three “arienai”s this time, bringing us up to seven in the series thus far!

Until next time!