SCARLET FEVER

Go! Princess Precure - Episode 26

My Review

SCARLET FEVER


A WHOLE NEW OPENING

It's the same opening music and video... but with more Towa, no Close or Twilight, Ranko at a larger scale, a pair of new Dysdark generals, and slightly different lyrics!

We get to see Yume, Stella, Wataru, Ranko (AT LEAST WITH SOME MORE PROTAGONISM!

Who knows if she will star in another episode soon?)... all the Cures' loved ones, in this fragment.

YA!Lock looks really terrifying. I mean, like Joffrey or like Ramsay Bolton.

Shut retains his usual "flamboyant Mad Hatter" pose.

Close is (FINALLY) gone from the opening. It now shows YA!Lock, Shut,

and these twin generals (faces unseen), one with bunny ears and one with mickey ears,

their theme colour is green and they wear face-concealing clone trooper helmets...

Are these two based upon the White Rabbit or the March Hare and the Dormouse? 

For Shut has got a Mad Hatter-like look himself...

TOWA ALONE... AND AILING
It's still summer, and Towa is alone with the team pets on Noble Academy campus.

Towa walking along the great avenue with her prim and proper parasol and both

her pet-servants.

PUFF (holding Towa's parasol, sitting in her lap): Too much sunlight is bad for your fair skin!

Suddenly, Puff falls from Towa's lap and drops the parasol.

TOWA: Are you okay?

PUFF (in pain): I tripped!

AROMA: I want Puff to become a royal fairy and help you, Princess Towa.

TOWA: I would be honoured if that happened.

(Puff smiles)

TOWA (looking around and noticing that she is alone): It sure is quiet here.

AROMA: All the others went home.

TOWA: You're right.

Suddenly, as she steps forward, Towa loses consciousness and feels confused for an instant.

AROMA: What's the matter, Princess Towa?

TOWA (coming to): Huh? I'm fine. Just feeling a little lightheaded.

(She walks on towards Noble Academy on her own, making her pet-servants stay worried behind.)

(Towa and her pet-servants are now in the dorm hallway, before the stairs.)

PUFF: No one is here.

TOWA: You're right. But somehow that makes me a bit excited.

AROMA (looking into his organizer): We'll meet up with Kirara tonight. We'll be staying at her place!

(Towa heads towards the stairs and runs upstairs to the top of the flight.)

PUFF: Princess Towa?

AROMA: What are you doing?

Cheerfully sliding down the banister à la Mary Poppins (did she learn it from Mary Poppins?)

PUFF: Princess Towa, that's dangerous!

(Reader, no matter how much you love Towa, NEVER try to slide down a banister.)

Upon reaching the end of the banister, she hops off and lands on her feet like a cat. She is overly excited, smiling and laughing.

AROMA: Princess Towa, what are you doing exactly?

Towa (startled, awakened from her reverie): Oh? Huh? Somehow, I...

TOWA: I always wanted to try that. I couldn't do it normally.

(Yes, and I once leapt off a balcony and was lucky to land on my feet. This is serious and the truth.)

PUFF: You're so cute, Princess Towa.

AROMA: Looks like you're having fun!

PUFF (determined: I want her to keep on smiling like that!

In her bedroom, Towa is preparing her luggage for the evening's sleepover at Kirara's.

PUFF: Let me help you.

TOWA (reassuring): It's all right, Puff. Kirara told me. I need to do things here by myself.

Suddenly, Towa reels and loses consciousness, sinking down on the floor.

AROMA: What's the matter, Princess Towa?

PUFF: Does your tummy hurt? (Touching the princess's arm.) Oh! She's really warm!

AROMA: Are you feeling unwell, Your Highness? You did say you felt a bit lightheaded.

TOWA (weary): It's nothing. I just feel a bit chilly, and my throat hurts.

(She begins to cough, covering her mouth,)

AROMA: You may have caught a cold!

TOWA (weary): I wonder what's going on all of a sudden.

AROMA: This new environment is taking a toll on you! (Yes, it's vulnerability to non-recognized germs, like the diseases brought by European settlers were a scourge to native populations across the globe.) You need to lie down and get an ice bag on your head! I'll prepare the ice! You stay with her, Puff.

PUFF: Okay!

"The maiden was tossing feverishly on her bed..."

As Towa is lying asleep in bed, Puff touches her right hand.

PUFF: She's so warm. This is bad!!

Due to Puff's loud cries, Towa awakes.

TOWA (smiling): I'm sorry for worrying you.

PUFF: I'd rather be sick myself than you, Princess Towa.

TOWA: You're so kind. Your paws are so soft and comfy. (She closes her eyes.)

PUFF (determined): Your brother and I will stay with you.

AROMA: I'm back!!

(Speak of the parakeet...)

(Aroma and Puff have put an ice towel on Towa's brow, but to no avail.)

PUFF: Her fever isn't going down at all!

AROMA: If only Madame Shamour were here... She can tell us what to do. But Haruka has the Pad now. (Getting an eureka moment): Oh yeah! Let's give the others a call!!

(Aroma and Puff agree to do so)

AROMA (on the fixed phone): All three should have their mobile phones with them during summer vacation.

So Aroma phones the other Cures, confident that the Rohirrim will understand the beacons of Gondor... OK, let's skip the freaking metaphor. They agree, all three, to get there ASAP.

A concerned Puff is still soothing Towa by rubbing the cold towel on her forehead.

AROMA: Puff! You okay here? I'll go get the herbal tea! Please take care of Princess Towa! (He flies off)

PUFF (determined): Got it!

PUFF: Oh! I have to change her towel! (She takes the towel from Towa's brow in her own mouth and hops up to the ice bucket on the desk, where she drenches the towel.)

PUFF (after squeezing the water out of the towel with all her might): It's all wet.

(Sauntering on Towa's bed, Puff takes up a green card-shaped adhesive, which appears to be a band-aid.)

PUFF: This is so convenient. (Peeling off the protective layer from the adhesive. The sticky side sticks to her right ear.)

PUFF: Oh no! It's stuck to me.

TOWA (tossing feverishly on her bed): Sigh...

PUFF: I can't do anything...

Towa coughs and shudders. Puff tries to get under the covers, next to the ailing princess. But the spaniel makes a false step and falls off the bed, causing Towa to awaken.

TOWA (concerned, raising only her head up): Puff? What's the matter?

PUFF: I'm sorry for waking you up. (Curtsying and looking down.) I'm not helpful to you at all.

TOWA (smiling): That's not true. (Makes Puff wonder.) Just the fact that you are here with me makes me so happy. Just having someone with me calms me down. (With a sincere smile, she strokes Puff's head.)

Puff, her eyes full of tears, embraces Towa's wrists.

Now what happened during those phone calls to the other Cures?

Haruka is shopping with the other Harunos at a large supermarket when the phone calls.

HARUKA (picking up her phone): Hi? Aroma? (Startled by the news.) Towa got a cold?

In no time, Haruharu has summoned her cat-like mentor.

MME. SHAMOUR: That is terrible! I'll go make some herbal tea with the secret formula from the Hope Kingdom that can cure her!

Minami and Wataru are having some quality time on the seven seas, together as siblings...

So constantly busy and with things to care for until summer... They sure deserve it!

MINAMI (on the phone): Eh? Towa? I understand. I will return to the dorms as soon as possible.

And Kirara is BAU: Busy As Usual.

KIRARA (being styled, feeling shocked, on the phone): No way! This is bad, Towa-chi! I have one more show left. I'll rush back right after.

SHUT IN DIRE STRAITS / ATTACK OF THE KILLER CICADA


Meanwhile, on his own, Shut roams the deserted campus of Noble Academy.
SHUT (depressed): I tried going on a journey. My wanderings took me back here. It can't be helped. I should go gather some despair.
He looks into the despair gauge, now one-seventh full of red liquid despair, and sheds bitter tears that fall on it.
SHUT: But... (Looking up at the sun in the cloudless day sky. Cicadas chirp loudly.) THERE'S NO ONE HERE!!! (Now, from this sentence on, Shut is furious.) I can't gather any despair like this!! (He throws a tantrum, screaming loudly, his face turning purple with rage. Finally, he settles down and sighs, now no longer angry, noticing the cicadas on the treetrunks) Even mere animals would work now!

SHUT (ironic): Hey, tiny cicada! I shall take away your tiny dreams!

Show me your dream!

In its dream, the cicada merely chirps. Obviously.

SHUT (throwing the padlock, another horned one): SHUT YOUR DREAM!!!

Once the cicada has become a desporg, Shut is shocked by its size. And by the fact that the level in the Gauge has barely risen.

SAVING PRINCESS TOWA

While Puff is sitting by Towa's side in her bed, the sound of a cicada chirping "Des-PORG! Des-PORG!" reaches her fluffy ears and startles her, prompting the spaniel to look out of the window.
PUFF (looking out through the window, surprised): That's Shut... and... a desporg? What should I do?
(Puff looks back at the convalescent, sleeping Towa. Dramatic instrumental music.) I have to protect her!

Shut is standing on the gazebo in the dorm courtyard/French garden when Puff arrives armed with a butterfly net.

SHUT (sighing, to Puff): Oh, it's just you. Where are the Precures?

PUFF (serious): Towa is resting right now, so you need to be quiet!

SHUT (surprised, interested): Twilight? (He grits his teeth in anger, then shouts) TWILIGHT IS HERE!? (Pointing his rose at Puff): Desporg, take care of her first! Then find Twilight for me!!

Puff and the desporg cicada begin a game of catch-me-if-you can and dodging fast strikes similar to the Red Viper fight, but at a far lower scale.

SHUT: Wh-What an ungraceful fight...

Shut's reaction: priceless once more.

As she chases the desporg cicada, Puff trips on a stone on the path and falls, but she soon gets back up again.

PUFF (getting up, angry, tears in her eyes): It doesn't hurt at all!!

SHUT (laughing): Hmph! Look at you forcing yourself.

Right as the desporg cicada was ready to strike Puff, Aroma appeared out of the blue and managed to capture the monster of the week.

On the gazebo, Shut reeled and gasped, shocked by what he just had witnessed.

PUFF: Big bro!

AROMA: Are you okay?

PUFF (smiles, with tears in her eyes)

AROMA: I gave Princess Towa her herbal tea, so everything's fine.

SHUT (interrupting, waving with his rose): Playtime's over! (Commanding) Get rid of those two vermin quickly!! (Excited, with a great smile of elation) Find Twilight for me!!

The desporg cicada molts and becomes a larger one with a baritone voice, that closes in on the pet-servants.

Towa is still sleeping in her bed, no longer ablaze with fever, but recovering. The buffet of the battle outside in the courtyard awakens her.

TOWA (opening her eyes): Huh?

The pet-servants are powerless against the desporg, that tries to blow them away by flapping wings.

PUFF: What should we do?

AROMA (getting up, armed with a stick): I'll lure that guy away from here! (To Puff) Run away when you get the chance!

PUFF (concerned): Big bro!

AROMA (sounding tough): I'm fine! Just run away!

PUFF (shaking her head, crying): No! Towa told me! She feels calm when someone's with her! Thus, I want to be with you! (Determined.) I want us to fight together!

AROMA (looking at his sister): Puff...

Aroma sees some clotheslines with sheets on and a eureka moment ensues...

They run each to a different side of the cicada desporg, doing a pincer maneuver. Puff, with taunting, lures the desporg into the gazebo. Then, Aroma drops a sheet (which he had snatched from a clothesline) onto the monster of the week. The desporg struggles for freedom, wrapped in the sheet.

PUFF AND AROMA (unison, elated): We did it!!

SHUT (enraged): You idiot!! Get rid of them before I let you taste my wrath!!

(The desporg breaks free and knocks them out.)
AROMA (better off than Puff): Puff, are you all right?

SHUT (determined): I have no time to play around with you! I am going for Twilight!

AROMA (determined): I won't let you touch Princess Towa!
PUFF (determined): We will definitely protect her!

A golden sparkle of light rises in Puff's eyes, becoming a golden crown shape like the one in the opening credits.
And then...

Both pet-servants begin to glow with a golden light, which surprises them and gradually increases.

Shut is dazzled by the bright golden light. 

And Towa, now fully recovered, hops out of bed and, dressed in her shift, looks out through the window, surprised as well.

The three other Cures, who have rushed now into the courtyard together, are also surprised.

Puff has become a maid-spaniel...

...and Aroma is now a butler-parakeet.

PUFF (surprised by their transformation): We transformed?

KIRARA: What's with that get-up?

TOWA (walking into the courtyard): A mysterious light made them transform. I saw it myself.

AROMA: Princess Towa, you have to rest!

TOWA (smiling, reassuring): I am fine. I don't know why, but after being surrounded by that light, I feel much better.

KIRARA: We don't feel tired at all either.

MINAMI: We ran all the way here, too.

HARUKA: Maybe it's thanks to your warm light?

SHUT (loudly, determined): Twilight!! You finally appeared! (He is gritting his teeth in anger.)

TOWA (turning around to face Shut, determined): I see. That's how it is. Puff, Aroma, leave this to us.

(Both of them salute and smile in response)

ALL CURES: Precure Princess Engage!

Post transformation:

SHUT (determined, commanding): Desporg! Defeat Twilight!

(The desporg molts and increases in size and power.)

GONDOR CALLS FOR AID, AND ROHAN... YOU KNOW THE DRILL

Long before the cavalry arrives, Mme. Shamour brings the herbs for the tea to Aroma outside the supermarket.

MME, SHAMOUR: Here. (She hangs the flask of herbs around Aroma's neck.)

AROMA: I've got it!

MME. SHAMOUR: If anything happens, contact us!

AROMA: I'll be going now! (He flies back to Noble Academy.)

Meanwhile, all three of the healthy Cures, each one on her own, hasten towards Noble Academy.

They reunite in the campus avenue.

MINAMI: Let's hurry!

HARUKA, KIRARA: Okay!

With a flaming kick, Cure Scarlet pins the desporg to the ground.

Yet this coleoptera is rather die-hard and gets up again.

The desporg's chirping is so high-pitched that it makes window panes crack (like Castafiore singing opera).

Luckily, Shut is wearing headphones.

SHUT (smugly): This place shall be your grave today!!

Puff steps forward, having plugged her ears with the hair on them.

PUFF: That's much better.

SHUT (astonished): She used her hair?

AROMA (from atop a courtyard lamp, determined): We are Royal Fairies! We will definitely protect the Princess Precures!

Puff then throws Aroma off like a dart. The parakeet hits the desporg with the power of a cannonball.

(I didn't know Puff was so strong either. Must be the power-up.)

AROMA (falling down dizzy after the collision, to the Cures): Now's your chance...

CURE SCARLET (surprised): Puff! Aroma!

Exchange! Mode Elegant! Scarlet Violin!

(Purifying move on desporg as usual.)

Realizing how little the gauge has been filled with despair, and that he has been defeated...

SHUT: Hm! This little bit of despair is absolutely nothing!

(Cure Scarlet is smiling warmly at Shut.)

SHUT: But the next time won't be like this! (He disappears into a keyhole portal)

The purified cicada takes to the sky.

PUFF: Thank goodness!

KIRARA: So a cicada became a desporg... (Everyone chuckles)

Back in Kirara's and Towa's bedroom.

MINAMI: That surprised me. Puff and Aroma transforming.

MME. SHAMOUR; When the Royal Fairies help the Princess Precures from the bottom of their hearts, that's when they transform. Such a legend exists in the Hope Kingdom, but this is the first time I've seen it in real life. 

HARUKA (excited, to Puff and Aroma): You two are sparkling!

MME. SHAMOUR: It truly is a healing aura. The light from the Royal Fairies makes you feel much better.

TOWA (sincerely): So that's why I felt so well there. Thank you, Puff, Aroma.

AROMA: But you still have a cold!

PUFF: You need to rest more!

(Both pet-servants rush towards Towa, Puff making herself comfy on her lap and Aroma on her right shoulder.)

TOWA (smiling warmly): I understand.

All's well that ends well, isn't it?

(Yet the war is not over.)

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
Poor Shut needs to see a psychiatrist. I am honest. In this episode, we find him having a bad day, which, considering all that has happened to him (the one he loves has turned to the enemy, his rival has usurped the throne, etcetera), could perchance be worse. I mean, Shut, why did you not get on that boat with Minami and her big bro? Were you determined not to fail once more? Did you want to see Cure Scarlet once more in spite of your star-crossedness? There we have both reasons why.
This episode put Towa alone and ill, ironically, with a blazing fever (Scarlet fever?), "tossing feverishly on her bed," as Oscar Wilde would have said. This is the sick episode of the series, and making Towa the patient is another reason to add more kudos to this series. To show how everyone on her side cares for her, even if she had been an enemy a few weeks before, thanks to her state of health.
And Shut, finding no humans on campus and needing to fill on despair, targeting an invertebrate (our first non-human victim!) because, as you know, necessitas caret lege. And the cicada's dream was just what every arthropod, due to the size of its brain, has for a main concern.
PS. Cicadas ("semi" or "higurashi") are a common sign of the Japanese summer. Their chirp can also be heard in the Mediterranean during the same season, the climate of both regions being practically the same. In anime, a cicada chirping on a treetrunk or electric pole is always shorthand for August. Though I am writing this review in rainy Gothenburg and missing the cicadas at home on the Spanish coast...
Though at first the Cicada!Desporg seemed harmless, it turned out to be a surprise very like the rabbit of Caerbannog in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And the "des-PORG! des-PORG! des-PORG!" sound it makes is an earworm comparable to Hodor's "HODOR!" Indeed, this filler episode is completely trivial if we don't consider the Shut subplot. Or the pet-servants' devotion to their liege lady.
This is the second pet-centric episode, and it features Puff and Aroma protecting their princess, whose state of health and an enemy attack are now their main concerns. We see Puff and Aroma getting power-ups they definitely needed, and that their devotion, coupled with some Hope Kingdom herbal tea, could both heal Towa and summon the other three. The power-ups stem from the pet-servants' desire to protect their princess, and we also see them transform into a maid and butler, though still in animal forms, and perform some pretty badass attacks. Truly, I didn't expect this deus ex machina, and I appreciate the fact that their sense of duty and their love are the catalysts for the plot.
It makes me feel excited that Shut has not given up hope to turn Twilight (he still calls Towa "Twilight") back to the dark side, or else to end her life for betraying him and their common cause. Towa has become Shut's "white whale" (as to Ahab in Moby Dick. In Othello, Cassio fulfils the same "white whale" role to Iago), which I love as a way of changing their relationship and developing Shut's character arc, giving him a new motivation. My OTP is getting more and more interesting for the development of the story... Will they kill Shut off in the arc finale, like they killed Close in the finale of last arc? I believe so.
My thoughts on the new opening: I had waited for weeks for the new opening to blot Close and Twilight out and add more of Towa. And R'hllor must definitely have heard my prayer. Not only that, but the opening also shows two more Dysdark generals, that March Hare and Dormouse, whose common theme colour is green, in clone trooper helmets (Can't wait to see them!!!)... aside from Cure Scarlet, more Towa, and Ranko in the place that is HERS BY RIGHT (Will there be another Ranko episode??? Pleeeeease!!!)!! I'm looking forward to more of Ranko, to finding out what's going on with Kanata, and to those new generals in clone trooper helmets!!!
So guess I'll have to wait a few weeks more...



IN NEXT EPISODE (27):
A matsuri (traditional Japanese fête) takes place every summer in the park in Yumegahama. In next episode, the Cures will attend the matsuri of this year... Will any Dysdarks show up once more? It's more than likely!

However, something's going on with Yuki and he won't tell what it is...

We also see Seira playing a matsuri drum thrice throughout the trailer and she looks great in that outfit!