HOPE, THY COLOUR IS SCARLET

Go Princess Precure - Episode 22
Welcome to Noble Academy, dear Towa! Though you'll have to let go of the past...

Unsullied white fits the new, improved Towa far better than ominous black.

Besides, that Regency-style frock is sooooo cute!!!

The Noble Academy uniform looks so good on Towa as well!!!

From on now, Towa (AKA Cure Scarlet) will attend Noble Academy as a

student more, with the surname Akagi (full name: Towa Akagi).

Trivia: Towa is a Sagittarius, born on the 15th of December 

(the Hope Kingdom uses the same calendar as Earth... was it colonized long ago?)

(Outside Noble Academy, as the Cures come home)

YUI: Who's this?

KIRARA: It's Twilight.

YUI (shocked): Gasp!?

HARUKA: Don't worry at all! She's Princess Towa now.

MINAMI: We'll explain it later on. Let's get some good rest first.

In last episode, an unconscious Princess Towa was brought to Noble Academy while

her older brother, Prince Grand Kanata, stayed behind 

in the Hope Kingdom, left to an uncertain fate...

When this episode begins, Towa is dreaming of the happy childhood she once had

ere she was spirited away... 

In this dream, they're both children playing music on the same hill outside the palace against the

same bright blue sky, like always before...

(Towa gets a note wrong.)

TOWA: Oh, I messed up again.

KANATA (calmly): No need to rush, Towa.

TOWA: Big brother... (sigh)

KANATA: If you mess up, just take things step by step.

That's the path to become a Grand Princess.

TOWA: I know, but... (Pause.) 

TOWA: I want to get better quickly, big brother, so I can play this song with you!

KANATA: Towa...

TOWA (cheerful): Okay, let's try again.

When she lays her bow on her violin, child Towa becomes masked Twilight.

TOWA (waking up in a cold sweat): (GASP!)

Towa wakes up in Kirara's bedroom at Noble Academy.
From on now, Towa will have the lower bed, with Kirara sleeping above her.

She gets up and starts gasping for breath, still in bed.

Then, she suddenly remembers all that she had once done for the Dysdarks,

when she had a different name and hair colour.

The sole thought makes her cringe and clutch her throbbing head.

Right as she was calming down, she takes a look around the room and sees...

Her tainted Perfume and Keys are still on her bedside.

Poor, poor, poor Towa. Still brooding after her heel-face turn, and as shocked as

a veteran of the Great War.

Holding her latest Black Key in hand, she goes out for a pleasant walk while

meditating on the paths she has taken.

TOWA (sunken head, pensive): Big brother...

Then, a familiar classical tune reaches her ears.

TOWA (surprised): That melody...

MEANWHILE IN THE HOPE KINGDOM...

Shut refuses to accept that Twilight is gone for good...

SHUT: Gasp! (desperate) Princess Twilight!!

LOCK (sarcastic): What a broken heart.

SHUT (in anger): What did you say!?

LOCK (cool): In any case, where did Lady Dyspear go? (He looks at the empty throne.)

The throne is, indeed, empty. And surrounded with oodles of thorns.

THE WOODS AROUND NOBLE ACADEMY:

Twilight follows the music and finds out 

that none other than Haruharu is playing that mournful, warm tune.

HARUKA (surprised) Oh! Princess... Towa?

TOWA: Why do you know that song?

HARUKA (surprised) Huh? Oh, Madame Shamour taught me.

Kanata played this song often, right?

I heard from Kanata.

You practiced the violin a lot with him.

(Towa keeps silent and sighs)

HARUKA (reaching Towa Kanata's violin in its case): Oh, I need to give this back to you.

Haruharu puts the violin in its white crown-decked case and gives it to Towa.

TOWA (surprised): That's... Brother's violin.

HARUKA: I think you should be the one to hold on to it. Of course!

Would you like to play with me?

TOWA (enraged, broken, turning her back on Haruharu and startling her): Please stop!!!

That violin... (Pause, sobs, looking away/shifty-eyed) I don't want to see it anymore.

A familiar black skirt trails among the hollyhocks as a familiar mezzo voice is heard.

DYSPEAR: I understand. That is the proof of your unfulfilled dream. 

(The flowers wither in Dyspear's wake.)

BOTH GIRLS: Dy-Dyspear!? Wh-why!?

DYSPEAR: You think you can run away so easily... Twilight? 

Come back to me immediately.

TOWA (determined): I will not! I am not Twilight anymore!

DYSPEAR: Look at what you're wearing, Princess of the Dysdarks.

(Shocked, Towa looks down to her clothes, to find out that she is still dressed in her

Twilight frock.)

TOWA (frightened): Th... This is your doing...

DYSPEAR (smiling, ironic): You won't call me "Lady Mother" anymore?

TOWA: (left speechless)

DYSPEAR: That's correct. Everything was my doing. But the truth cannot be changed.

The Hope Kingdom is meeting its end. Your older brother, too.

(Towa gasps, shocked, with wide open eyes, trembling like a leaf and unable to speak.)

HARUKA: Kanata is fine!

DYSPEAR: Even when I'm already here?

TOWA (desperate, broken, shocked to the core): N-no...

HARUKA: Towa!

DYSPEAR (advancing towards both girls, she makes the garden flowers wither): Does the truth hurt? But everything is too late now.

DYSPEAR (invading Towa's personal space): Now that things have gotten to this point, 

why don't you continue being my daughter?

TOWA (frightened, trembling, eyes wide open): No...

DYSPEAR: Your dream ended from the very beginning. 

From the moment you stepped into my forest.

(Towa is still speechless, pale, shuddering and short of breath. Her facial expression betrays she's shocked.)

DYSPEAR (ominous): Come on, be a good child now. Just keep on despairing!! (Towa shudders and gasps in a cold sweat, Dyspear's face reflected in her eyes.)

TOWA (desperate, shutting her eyes): No!!!

(Dyspear embraces Towa tightly, pushing the princess to her own chest (the keyhole in her heart?),

as purple thorny vines galore shoot up from the ground at lightning speed to great heights, enclosing both the villainess and captive Towa in their midst. The vines also swallow up Kanata's violin in its white case.)

HARUKA: Kanata's violin! (She runs away to the Academy with Towa's violin in its crimson case.)

From the garden, Yui sees the rapidly growing hedge of thorns, that now looks like an enormous rose in the bud.

YUI: Wh-what's that!?

Yui happens to have gathered all of the female supporting cast outside the dorms.

A sudden red wind-like energy lashes at all of them. And by the end of this attack, they are 

infected with despair, glowing dark purple and growing weary.

The victims include my favourite muggle characters, Ranko and Seira.

This is the second time a Dysdark attacks en masse (choosing many more than a single target), and

it's freaking exciting, because like everyone's life is at stake.

The red wind originates, as a red glow, from the bud on top of the hedge of thorns. Haruka,

protected by her Dress-Up Keys' pink aura, braves the tempest.

HARUKA: Princess Towa!

Suddenly, Minami and Kirara appear. 

MINAMI: What happened!?

HARUKA: Towa's inside there!

THE OTHER TWO: Eh!?

VOICE OF DYSPEAR (evil laugh)

The thorns at the bottom of the hedge part, revealing Lady Dyspear being fed red despair energy

from the back by six purple vines.

DYSPEAR: What fabulous despair. As expected from Twilight.

She worked hard even to the bitter end.

ALL THREE CURES: D-Dyspear!!

HARUKA: The bitter end!?

DYSPEAR (coldly, smiling): Without any despair left, she is but a fallen leaf.

ALL THREE CURES (shocked): No way!

DYSPEAR (smiling): Now... you shall meet your destruction!

(She fires a blast of black and dark purple thorns with a red aura from her right hand at the untransformed Cures. It raises a huge cloud of dust from the ground, but, in the end, the villainess looks wondering with a "huh?" expression. When the dust has lifted, the transformed Cures lunge at the hedge of thorns.)

CURE FLORA (determined): Sorceress of despair, Dyspear! Please prepare yourself!

DYSPEAR (smiling, ironic): Interesting.

The vast shadow she projects branches out to become five shadow ghosts with her horns.

These ghosts clash with the Cures in a Priori Incantatem.

The Rods fall from hands that loose their grip, and the Cures lie unconscious on the floor.

DYSPEAR: Hmph, so this is your limit.

CURE MERMAID: She's incredibly strong.

CURE TWINKLE: And she's even powered up with Towa's power of despair.

PUFF, AROMA (looking at the hedge of thorns, Puff holds Twilight's violin in its crimson case): What should we do?

(The hedge of thorns, that looks like a huge rose in the bud, throbs and glows red.)

CURE FLORA (coming to and standing up, determined): I must save her... No matter how hard the situation is, I must save Princess Towa!

(Flashback of Kanata's heroic sacrifice in Episode 21)

KANATA: Please take care of Towa.

(Back to the present and the ongoing battle)

AROMA: But how?

(Haruharu notices the crimson violin case Puff is holding.)

CURE FLORA: That's it!

(Flashback to Episode 21 and Kanata's violin tune purifying Towa.)

CURE FLORA: That song... may be able to save Towa from the depths of despair once again!

CURE TWINKLE: Seems like that's all we've got.

CURE MERMAID: Go, Cure Flora. (Pause.) Save Princess Towa!

CURE FLORA: Okay!

DYSPEAR: Huh?

(The Cures rush full speed towards the thorns, curb-stomping the shadow ghosts. Cure Flora leaps off as high as she can, towards the bud of the thorn rose.)

DYSPEAR: You're going for Twilight, huh? (She fires more black thorns with red aura from her right hand upwards, targeting Cure Flora. All three Cures counter-attack at once, as a flying Cure Flora inside a bubble closes in on the bud and enters it like a bullet. It's dark and gloomy inside.)

Inside the dark hedge of thorns, in the bud of the thorn rose, 

Kanata's violin case, white and inlaid with a golden crown,

is hanging from some vines (like a hammock of vines).

From her confinement in a cage of tendrils in the same bud, 

an imprisoned and brainwashed Towa looks constantly at the case.

Sealed away in the bud on top of the hedge of thorns...

Towa with mind-control eyes once more? That is no good omen...

Every now and then, the vines glow red from the hedge as if blood were flowing through them

and a throbbing sound is heard.

It seems that the captive Towa functions... the bud of tendrils where she is kept is like a heart

and the thorns are the veins. Given that Dyspear has the ends of those thorns on her back,

the whole procedure has the air of a transfusion. And body horror has always frightened me

(feels a surge of adrenalin as she sees that red glow and hears that "lubdub" sound)

CURE FLORA (seeing Towa captured, with mind control eyes): Princess Towa! (Gasp!)

(Outside)

DYSPEAR (advancing towards the other Cures): What did you think was going to happen?

Seems like your tricks went a bit too far, you mere girls!!! (The six red tendrils detach themselves from the hedge of thorns and recoil into her back, disappearing beneath her skin. Her anger increases and she begins to glow with a red and purple aura.)

CURE TWINKLE (leaning against the hedge of thorns) / CURE MERMAID (standing before Dyspear): Now then... the real show begins.

(Back inside the dark bud)

(Cure Flora is going to play the violin for a captive Towa, but, as Cure Flora puts the bow to the strings of the instrument, suddenly...)

TOWA (coldly, apathetic): Stop. (Dramatic pause.) I don't want to hear it. 

It will just make me remember...

...about my big brother, about the Hope Kingdom. My sins...

CURE FLORA (surprised): (Gasp) (smiling happily) Don't say that. Let's get out of here first.

TOWA (coldly, apathetic): What will we do then? I've already fallen into despair. 

I've committed great sins. I have nothing left.

I have no place to return to, nor do I have any dreams.

Even becoming a Grand Princess...

CURE FLORA: You can!

(Towa gasps and raises her eyes.)

CURE FLORA: If you wish for it from the bottom of your heart, it will definitely come true!

(shedding a teardrop, with tears in her eyes) Kanata told me that...

TOWA (the highlights/sparkles return to her eyes): Big...bro...ther...

CURE FLORA: Kanata said that his dream was to play the violin with you, once again. 

I want to cheer that dream on! That's why we should move forward, once again!

(Towa looks up and sees her brother's violin case, hanging from its cradle of thorny vines.)

TOWA: Big brother...

(The whole bud shakes and the case is tossed from the vines onto the floor, opening and revealing the violin inside in front of a surprised Towa's eyes.)

TOWA (surprised, gasps)

(She reaches out through the thorny bars of her prison, yet her hand trembles and darts away right before she lays it on the violin.)

TOWA (shuddering): I'm afraid...

CURE FLORA (reassuring): It's okay.

TOWA (gasps)

CURE FLORA: Don't worry. (She begins to play that mournful, warm tune, Kanata's leitmotif, on Towa's violin. And she speaks as she plays the instrument.): No matter how many times you mess up, just take things step by step.

These words remind Towa of her childhood, and of her older brother encouraging her.

(Flashback to childhood once more. Same green hill as every flashback.)

KANATA: Even if you mess up, just take things step by step.

TOWA: I know. Okay, let's try again.

From inside her prison of thorns, Towa plays her violin. She plays the ominous, equally mournful leitmotif of her dark self, Twilight.

(Outside the bud, Dyspear having curb-stomped the two other Cures.)

DYSPEAR: Hmm? Violin?

(Inside her cage of thorns, Towa still plays her dark self's leitmotif as skilfully as she can. Then, she plays a duet with Cure Flora, each one repeating the tune she had played before in counterpoint, at unison. Light begins to leak into the bud of thorns.)

(Outside, the other two are once more on their feet)

CURE TWINKLE: The two melodies are resonating?

CURE MERMAID: It was a single song!

DYSPEAR (her aura begins to fade and finally disappears): The despair is disappearing?

(Flashback to the Hope Kingdom. The hilly landscape around the Royal Palace, while the sky was still blue.)

KANATA (as a child): Listen, Towa. No matter how much it hurts, you must never give up.

The light of hope that shines upon everyone's dreams... 

That is what makes a Grand Princess.

TOWA (nodding, smiling): Yes, I know.

TOWA (back in the present, in her teens, held captive in her bud of thorns, playing the violin with tears in her eyes): I know, big brother.

(The bud on top of the thorns glows with a very bright golden light and ultimately dissolves before the other Cures' surprised eyes.)

The sky clears and we see Cure Flora and Towa, still playing their duet.

Now the music sounds even warmer and still calm, reassuring.

Obviously, Dyspear is not amused.

DYSPEAR: Twilight, how did you... 

TOWA (looking down into the hilly landscape, determined): I... will not despair any more!

DYSPEAR (enraged): What foolish words! (As she raises her left hand, purple thorns spring from the top of the hedge, bringing Towa to the ground, so that she falls into the void.)

CURE FLORA: Princess Towa!

(Towa falls down from a great height, from off the hedge of thorns, at lightning speed. Yet she still keeps her head cool and does not even shout.)

TOWA (falling): Sins once committed will never disappear. (Blue flames rise around her.) But if I wish from the bottom of my heart (Blue flames gather, close in on her)... Then I shall live with my sins... I shall shoulder these sins of mine, once again... (She reaches out her right hand as blue flames engulf her. The Black Keys, glowing completely golden, escape her pockets and soar up high inside spheres of golden light as she reaches out for them.)

TOWA (determined): And aim to become a Grand Princess!

(She clasps one of the Keys. Her form, falling to the ground, is now a shooting star of blue flames with a bright golden twinkle inside, then the flames change colour to orange and golden as she lands with a great burst of fire, that purifies the Key, turning it of white crystal with scarlet details.

Her Perfume also changes colour from purple to white.) 

Go about your business
Act as if you’re free
No one could have witnessed 
What you did to me!

Cause you wouldn’t know me today
And you have got to see
to believe...
From the fading light I fly!

TOWA: Precure...

TOWA: ...Princess Engage!

(Her Perfume fills with cherry-red liquid, that she sprays on herself.)

Rise like a phoenix
Out of the ashes
Seeking rather than vengeance, 
Retribution: You were warned
Once I'm transformed
Once I’m reborn

I rise up to the sky!
You threw me down but
I'm gonna fly!

And rise like a phoenix
Out of the ashes
Seeking rather than vengeance
Retribution: You were warned
Once I'm transformed
Once I’m reborn
You know I will rise like a phoenix
But you’re my flame

She grows back her elf ears during the transformation.

The fallen maiden's seen the light...

Now she is blessed and kissed by fire...

The Flame of Hope is shining bright,

to brighter dreams it will inspire...

Cure Scarlet, Cure Scarlet,

the warrior of flame!

Cure Scarlet, Cure Scarlet,

of everlasting fame!

Scarlet is her battle frock,

scarlet is her violin now,

the rubies on her scarlet crown,

the scarlet Keys are free from sin now!

Cure Scarlet, Cure Scarlet,

the one of flame and hope!

Cure Scarlet, Cure Scarlet,

far better than the Pope!

Her other Keys have also been purified.

There is fire in her eyes.

CURE SCARLET: The Princess of the True Scarlet Flames...

Cure Scarlet!

DYSPEAR (furious): What is going on here... Twilight!?

(Horned shadow-ghosts lunge at Cure Scarlet, who fends them off quickly and powerfully one by one, dissolving them with her orange and scarlet flames. She then fires a tornado of flames that makes all the other shadow-ghosts vanish.)

(After Cure Scarlet has landed)

DYSPEAR: What is that power?

CURE SCARLET (determined, advancing towards Dyspear): The flames of hope that scatter away darkness and light up hope!

One day I will get back the Hope Kingdom and my brother.

Until that day, (Dramatic pause) I will fight you, Dyspear, to the very end!!!

CURE SCARLET (determined): Now, please prepare yourself!!!

(Kanata's violin, held by Puff, glows golden and soars towards Cure Scarlet.)

CURE SCARLET (looking at the violin): That's...

(The golden glow becomes orange flames that cover the whole instrument and then

quickly dispel, revealing the Scarlet Violin.)

CURE SCARLET (surprised): Big brother...

(determined) Exchange! Mode Elegant!

Cure Scarlet's Mode Elegant. Stunning, eh?

She inserts one of her Keys into the Violin. A bow of orange fire, that becomes a

bow of transparent crystal, appears as well.

She plays a new, more cheerful tune, on her Violin.

CURE SCARLET: Take flight, wings of fire!

Precure Phoenix Blaze!

The flames advance quickly towards Dyspear.

DYSPEAR: This power... (furious) Twilight!! (Engulfed by the flames, she vanishes and returns home in the eleventh hour.)

CURE SCARLET: Have a nice day.

(The hedge of thorns shatters and fades away)

CURE FLORA: The fourth princess, huh?

CURE MERMAID: Where's Dyspear?

CURE SCARLET: That was not enough to defeat her. She just retreated.

Cure Flora, I'm sure my brother is alive and well.

ALL OTHER THREE (surprised) Really!?

CURE SCARLET: I can feel it through this violin.

CURE FLORA (with tears of joy in her eyes): We can... see him again, right?

CURE SCARLET (smiling, confident): Yes, I'm sure.

As the sun sets, at the end of the battle, Cure Scarlet told the other three

that Kanata was still alive, for she could sense his feelings through the violin 

(Are Hope Kingdom royal violins empathic instruments? And what is going on with Kanata???)

The final title card of this episode shows the Scarlet Violin and Towa's set of purified

Dress-Up Keys.

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:

The dream that opens this episode, which encapsulates Towa's anxieties and hopes about this moment, has been the greatest one in the series so far. The royal siblings as children are adorable, and I freaking love to see them interact, their good chemistry, Towa's perfectionism and Kanata encouraging her... UNTIL TWILIGHT POPPED UP AND RUINED IT ALL, forcing Towa to awaken in a cold sweat on the bed below Kirara and cast a glance at her still tainted Keys and Perfume.

Shut's reaction: priceless once more. Shut is just soooo hammy that we definitely still want him around. And a Shutlight shipper like me wonders what will ever happen should he meet Towa/Cure Scarlet. Broken pedestal? Love-induced heel-face turn? Guess we should wait a little more to see them facing each other as enemies.

Love that Towa still keeps the pronoun "watakushi" to refer to herself. And even as Cure Scarlet!

Loved also how Towa's memories of Kanata snapped her out of her shell shock. And that still those melodies, those of both royal siblings now played in counterpoint, had the same key meaning as before. Music awakening memory and encouraging the despairing. Now she is free, both from the shackles of her prison and from those of her past. Kanata's violin as her weapon of choice is also rather symbolic and makes the whole series even more cathartic.

The transformation into Scarlet was breathtaking, and even more because this is her first time and her Keys and Perfume have been purified. Towa getting elf ears once more, and pink hair, and such spectacular outfits... I've got a new favourite Cure for the season! That violin she attacked with, and those acrobatics she made, are truly redoubtable. I have never seen the likes of such a fighter in any magical girl warrior series!!! (So excited)

Furthermore, the coda reveals that Kanata is in a perfect state in the present. But how long will it last?

NEXT EPISODE (23): TOWA'S GREAT CULTURE SHOCK

REVIEW BY OTHER FANS:

Now that Towa is Cure Scarlet, her precure perfumes are purified and all, it now turned into the dreadful, “We can’t sit around and idle, we must train and hurry to save my Kingdom!” trope, which  is the exact theme for next week’s episode. It is not only predictable, but flat out unoriginal. I already have the sense the girls’ mission next week will be to help Towa to try and enjoy the daily life she missed out on and teach her everything will fall into place for when they can finally go back to her homeland to save her kingdom and Kanata.

The rest of the Precure team take Towa out to the streets of Yumegahama

on a shopping spree.

"What's this?" 

Never seen a daikon before, Towa?

Fashion-savvy Kirara has picked a new look for Towa. And it's a-do-ra-ble!!!

(I'm sharing the Cures' reaction)

Unsullied white fits the new, improved Towa far better than ominous black.

Besides, that Regency-style frock is sooooo cute!!!

Towa runs away, having more important duties to attend to than brunching and shopping.

TOWA: How can I enjoy myself before saving my homeland?

However, an awkward Towa will have to confront the same hurdles as other

naive newcomers to our post-industrial society...

There is also, in the trailer, a scene of Towa meeting Yume Mochizuki in a park. Is this going to be a red herring or a major plot point?