My Own Review
A TALE OF TWO SCIONS
This week, efficient class president Minami Kaido confronts a very special person from her past: none other than her childhood friend and fiancé, Kimimaro Ijuuin (who is surely a descendant of a certain half-German lieutenant and his eccentric wife), on leave from boarding school in the UK:
MAKE WAY FOR PRINCE IJUUIN!!!
The female students of Noble Academy are all of them in a hype, even Ranko: Red carpet leading all the way down the endless steps leading to the school? An important stranger is coming...
BODYGUARD WITH WIDOW'S PEAK: No irregularities in front of the campus!
(Elsewhere on campus)
BODYGUARD WITH FLAT-TOP: He will be arriving soon.
Minami saunters off close to the red carpet at the edge of campus. While the other Cures wonder, she is confident and knows who is coming. Suddenly, a sterling white limo arrives along the red carpet.
KIRARA: Minamini, what's the matter?
MINAMI (confident): I'm sure it's him.
The door to the limo is opened and out steps a sharply-dressed teenager in sterling white, with steel-coloured eyes and perfectly combed dark brown hair. He is carrying an impressive bouquet of scarlet roses. An aura of charm and distinction surrounds his entrance, like that of a prince or lordling of yore.
The Cures stand agape, but only four of them. Only one is not impressed, and it's the Kaido heiress.
MINAMI: I knew it. Kimimaro...
KIMIMARO (bending the knee, offering Minami the roses, elated, effusively): I wanted to see you so much!! My sweet honey (in English)!!
There's a twinkle in his incisor teeth, like in toothpaste adverts. And, with that declaration of affect, he appears to be more sincere than Hans of the Southern Isles.
Minami walks along the corridor to class escorted by Kimimaro and his praetorian guards.
MINAMI: Your security is still just as heavy.
KIMIMARO: Really?
KIMIMARO (smiling): I only brought half of them today.
MINAMI (wearily): (Sigh!)
The other Cures grow curious about who this Kimimaro fellow may be, and the first explanation is given by the Student Council members, who are all friends of Minami's.
KIRARA (foxy): This is a bit interesting...
SHUN: He is Kimimaro Ijuuin. An international celebrity, and also the Student Council President's childhood friend.
NAOTO: He's also her fiancé, it seems.
TOWA (surprised): Her fiancé?
KIRARA (surprised even more): So they're gonna marry each other?
YUI (surprised even more than Kirara): M-Marry?
AYAKA: I don't know what Minami thinks.
SHUN: He may be a Noble Academy student, but he's currently studying abroad, in the UK.
NAOTO: I guess he's back for summer holidays to see the President.
SEIRA: I'm sure he rode on his private Lear jet.
KIRARA (sarcastic): But Minami seems to be troubled?
65 ROSES (OR MAYBE EVEN MORE?)
At class, Kimimaro takes Minami's chair from beneath the desk and offers it to her displaying the courtesy so typical of society.
KIMIMARO (bowing to Minami, with a smile, as he takes her chair out): Here you go, my sweet honey.
MINAMI (smiling shyly): Thank you.
Everyone else at class sits agape.
MALE STUDENT: What a gentleman.
FEMALE STUDENT: But isn't he going a bit too far?
The teacher enters the classroom as cheerfully as he has always done.
TEACHER: Good morning, everyone.
The sight of a huge amount of red roses in the same vase on his table shocks him, however.
KIMIMARO (confidently): Teacher, I arranged those flowers. I wanted Minami to pay close attention.
MINAMI: (Sigh!)
TEACHER (embarrassed): Isn't this a bit big?
KIMIMARO (smiling, pushing his lock of hair back): Compared to my love for Minami, that thing is tiny!
MINAMI: (sighs once more, unaware that the other main four are watching her).
TOWA (surprised): Oh!
KIRARA (foxy): This is really interesting.
MINAMI (brave face): I appreciate your sincerity, but such a large bouquet is unfitting for a classroom. (A worried Kimimaro turns towards her.)
KIMIMARO (shrugging): Oh, I'm sorry. (Smiling, his hand on his heart) Seems like the size of my love has gone overboard. (He snaps his fingers, and one of his guards, obeying the command, takes the rose-filled vase out of the classroom.)
The Cures outside are still watching and eavesdropping.
TOWA (impressed): What a gentleman.
KIRARA (chuckles, still foxy): Hehe!
YUI (worried): He seems to be a bit troubled.
HARUKA (smiling): But he really loves Minami!
Suddenly, the school bell rings, announcing the brunch break.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING?
Knowing just from the roses how ostentatious Kimimaro is, it comes as no surprise that, for brunch, he hosts an unbirthday party for his fiancée and all of her new friends!
KIMIMARO (rolling the red carpet out, cheerfully): Lunch outside is a great idea.
MINAMI: Kimimaro!
KIMIMARO (bowing and hand on heart once more): Let me arrange the most fabulous lunch.
(He snaps his fingers, and the guards put cushioned chairs, with a pretty 18th-century feel, at the table.)
MINAMI (serious): Kimimaro, can you take all of this away?
KIMIMARO (shrugging): Why?
MINAMI (sincerely): Haruka and Yui taught me that eating lunch in the same level with the flowers is a beautiful thing. Or not?
Our Kimimaro won't let Minami sit on the grass, so he prepares Clover Tea Set (as only Alice has such table set in her garden).
KIMIMARO (wondering): But having Minami eating lunch over there?
MINAMI (to Kimimaro, courteously): Would you like to join us?
Kimimaro is first surprised, then irate: he clenches his teeth and his eyes are bloodshot (well, with open irises and no highlights, like those of the brainwashing victims in A:tLA).
And that because of a cut on Minami's left middle fingertip.
KIMIMARO (shocked, maybe overreacting): Oh no!! You're injured!!
MINAMI (looking at her cut): Oh, I was taking care of the garden before.
KIMIMARO (even more shocked, resembling The Scream by Munch): That's terrible!!
(Then, steeling himself and regaining his cool, he snaps his fingers once more)
KIMIMARO (steeling himself and regaining his cool, he snaps his fingers once more): Treatment team, STAT!
BODYGUARD (appearing behind him, bowing): Yes, sir!
MINAMI (coolly): You're making mountains out of molehills. (She licks her wounded fingertip.)
Imagine Kimimaro's reaction upon seeing it!
A TALE OF TWO SCIONS - MINAMI'S STORY
KIMIMARO (out of himself with shock): She licked it!!??
Reeling and closing his eyes, he falls backwards on the floor.
BODYGUARD (startled, running off full speed towards his unconscious master): Master Kimimaro!! Are you all right? (Cradling the unconscious heir in his arms in a Pietà stance.) To the car now!
Two more bodyguards arrive also at full speed and then slowly carry the half-conscious, staggering scion away, one of them supporting Kimimaro's shoulders and the other one supporting his waist.
The Cures look on, watching the guards take their master away and worried about his health.
YUI (worried): He's very sensitive.
KIRARA (sarcastic): Has he always been like this?
MINAMI (sincerely): He may make mountains out of molehills, but he's unexpectedly serious and hardworking.
(Flashback of Minami and Kimimaro as children playing the violin at a violin class, with a French-looking instructor, Kimimaro putting a strain on himself)
(Flashback of Minami and Kimimaro as children at fencing class, Kimimaro putting a strain on himself)
(Flashback of Kimimaro splitting a churro in a park a sunny day and giving Seira and Ayaka one third each, keeping the third one for himself, all four children happy)
MINAMI: He has his kind points, too.
(End of flashbacks)
Minami smiles as she remembers the good old days.
KIRARA (ironic): I see. Well, he's a bit socially awkward, though.
MINAMI (nods): Well, let's have lunch.
Lying down inside his white limo, an exhausted Ijuuin heir, with a cold water compress on his brows, is brooding and thinking about his fiancée.
KIMIMARO (depressed): You have changed... Minami. Why? Is it because of those people around you?
A MATTER OF PASSION
Shortly thereafter, the Kaido heiress is enjoying her ballet lessons: Un, deux, trois! Un, deux, trois!
Suddenly, Haruka falls backwards in true This-Loser-is-You fashion on her upperclasswoman.
MINAMI (sincerely, chuckles): It's all right. Don't worry about it. All right. Let's start over from the beginning.
The girls are not aware at all that there's someone watching outside...
KIMIMARO (clinging like a gecko to the windowsill on the ground floor, feeling obviously ticked off): Minami was quite serious with ballet... (Shocked once more) Now she's smiling and laughing even when she falls on her bum!
KIMIMARO (burning with anger): That first-year student is definitely a bad influence!!
(He imagines Minami as his pure lilywhite goddess and Haruka as an ominous ogress closing in on her)
KIMIMARO (irate, determined): I want to find out more about Haruka Haruno! Investigate her to the fullest!
BODYGUARD (popping up): Yes, sir!
From his limo, Kimimaro watches the doings of the middle-class Cures on his private television: he's sent one of his praetorian guards with a camera out on campus to spy on them. Among other things, he sees Haruka unabashed by a frog jumping on her face and Yui arranging flowers.
KIMIMARO (irate): She is definitely not worthy to be with my Minami!!!
Reeling and falling backwards, fainting once more, he is picked up by one of his bodyguards.
BODYGUARD WITH WIDOW'S PEAK: Master Kimimaro!
KIMIMARO (wearily): What should I do? (He shuts his eyes)
BODYGUARD LEADER: Should we separate those middle-class girls from Lady Minami?
KIMIMARO (determined, with an idea): Separate her, huh?
CHALLENGE TO A DUEL
As Haruka is watering her cosmos flowers at twilight, Kimimaro comes near her.
KIMIMARO: You're working quite hard.
HARUKA (surprised): Gasp! Kimimaro! Are you all right?
KIMIMARO (with panache, smiling as he flicks his right wrist): Yes, I'm fine.
KIMIMARO (with a sneer of discontent): On the other hand, you and your middling friends should be worried.
HARUKA (startled): Huh?
KIMIMARO (looking at the flower bed): Flowers are so beautiful.
Kimimaro then proceeds to tell his own view of his relationship with Minami...
A TALE OF TWO SCIONS - KIMIMARO'S STORY
KIMIMARO: Ever since the first day we met, Minami has been my flower-like goddess.
*Flashback to Kimimaro as a child at a society ball.*
Smiling like the innocent child he is, flanked by praetorian guards as usual.
Suddenly, he crosses the path of a younger teal-haired girl who holds a single red rose.
KIMIMARO: Hey...
The child holding the rose turns around and looks at him, smiling.
MINAMI: Yes?
Kimimaro's grey eyes widen and sparkle, as his cheeks blush and glow.
He merely stands agape, not saying anything, and it's her turn to break the ice.
MINAMI (smiling, sincerely): Hello. (Gokigenyó.) Do you need something?
Kimimaro Ijuuin, struck by a dart of love at first sight, merely stands there in awe.
Kimimaro and Minami waltz with each other.
KIMIMARO (narrating from the present): After that, we cultivated our friendship with the yearly parties.
Pre-teen Kimimaro gives Minami a bouquet of red roses.
Pre-teen Minami introduces her lady friends and her brother to Kimimaro, now in puberty.
KIMIMARO (narrating from the present): And we finally enrolled at Noble Academy together!
KIMIMARO (to Minami): Good day, my princess! (Gokigenyó, boku no princess!)
Minami turns around and we see her through Kimimaro's eyes, sparkling and lined with the white lace motif associated with pure dreams.
MINAMI (serious): Good day. (Gokigenyó)
Kimimaro, in the present, blushes feverishly.
KIMIMARO (elated): Yes! She is the zenith! The apex of what a lady is!!
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
HARUKA (surprised): So you were thinking of Minami for a long time...
KIMIMARO (sternly): But Minami has changed. There are chinks in her once royal and classy appearance.
HARUKA (startled): But... but I still think she is very amazing now.
KIMIMARO (reaching out and waving his arms, a little incensed, overreacting): She was much more amazing!! (Coldly, walking away with his back to Haruharu) Everyone has a place where they belong. You, Haruka, and Yui, the one with the glasses, do not belong here. Let me be clear. Please stay away from Minami. This is for her sake. (Irate, sternly) You and Yui are not fit to be with her!!!
KIMIMARO (coldly) That's all I have to say. Good-bye.
Turning his back, he walks away.
AN HEATED ARGUMENT BETWEEN FIANCÉS
In the meantime, Minami has been eavesdropping from behind a treetrunk. And she's listened to everything with utmost concern.
During a walk in the woods, the fiancés meet. Minami is obviously not pleased, which surprises Kimimaro.
KIMIMARO: Minami?
MINAMI (sternly): What were you planning by saying all that?
MINAMI (irate, determined): Tell me directly if something is bothering you!
The Ijuuin heir is afraid, in a cold sweat. I bet my life his shirt sticks to his back.
KIMIMARO (concerned, diplomatic): That's not it, Minami. I just don't think you require entourage such as them.
The Kaido heiress's eyes widen and she shudders at first, but then she makes her feelings known.
MINAMI (sternly): You never considered their feelings. (Kimimaro is under even more pressure) Haruka and Yui are not part of my entourage!
They're my friends! (Tomodachi yo!)
Kimimaro's eyes widen in shock. He gasps, unable to say anything.
MINAMI (sternly): I would like you to never talk about such things again. (Turning her back on him, coldly) Have a nice day. (Gokigenyó)
She walks away, leaving her fiancé alone in that part of the woodlands.
Left alone and given the cold shoulder by the one he worships, Kimimaro gasps in shock, then is strangely pale and reeling once more.
BODYGUARD LEADER (rushing forth and cradling him in his arms right before Ijuuin falls backwards on the ground in a Pietà stance like before): Master Kimimaro!! (Commanding) Medic team!! (More bodyguards rush towards the unconscious form)
MEDIC TEAM BODYGUARDS: Yes, sir!
KIMIMARO (half-conscious, wearily): I'm fine. Please let me be alone for a bit.
And we know these guards are at their master's beck and call, so they will surely execute the order.
...AND THEN, HIS DREAM WAS STILL
Suddenly, Close appears through a keyhole portal in the woods.
CLOSE: Stop. (Stop's visor glows green from behind a treetrunk to the left of Close.)
STOP: Yes, sir!
CLOSE: Freeze. (Freeze's visor glows green from behind a treetrunk to the right of Close.)
FREEZE: Yes, sir!
CLOSE (disappearing into the keyhole portal): Go.
STOP & FREEZE (performing Back-to-Back Badasses, at unison): Yes, sir!
STOP: Let's go.
FREEZE: Yes, let's go.
In the meantime, Kimimaro is looking at a pink wildflower growing in a hollow between two roots and musing and brooding...
KIMIMARO: Was I too selfish?
(MINAMI, in his memory, sternly: You never considered their feelings.)
KIMIMARO: Feelings?
(MINAMI, in his memory, sternly and irate: They're my friends! (Tomodachi yo!))
(HARUKA, in his memory: But... but I still think she is very amazing now.)
KIMIMARO (reflecting, brooding): Now...
Behind Kimimaro, to the right, a hare-eared masked girl speaks in a soprano voice...
STOP: Stop!
Behind Kimimaro, to the left, a dormouse-eared masked girl speaks in a contralto voice...
FREEZE: Freeze!
KIMIMARO (turning around, startled): Who are you two!?
STOP: Let us see...
FREEZE: ...your dream.
They open the familiar green keyhole in the middle of his chest and plunge into his dreams.
In Kimimaro's dream, both he and Minami are young adults, holding one another as newlyweds.
"I want to take one step forward with Minami!"
STOP: Stop...
FREEZE: Freeze...
STOP & FREEZE (unison, holding hands then firing their padlocks): ...your dream!!
And thus, Kimimaro Ijuuin is made a desporg.
WHAT MINAMI REALLY FELT
Alerted by Puff of a desporg presence, the Precures storm towards the meadow at the edge of the woods. Right then, Minami Kaido is surprised to see a rather familiar person trapped in the despair prison.
MINAMI (shocked): Kimimaro!?
Soon, obviously, the Cures have transformed and are ready to confront the new desporg.
Minami, in this aspect of losing loved ones, tends to have got as much fortune as the Stark children (only that her loved ones are not killed for real). First her older brother (and guardian?) was targeted. Now it's her fiancé. Maybe her father (if he's not deceased) will be next.
Desporg!Kimimaro attacks with his rose, which he uses as a chain whip with a ball at the end. With such a weapon, he easily (as easily as Gustavus Adolphus at Breitenfeld or Napoleon at Austerlitz) curbstomps all four of the Precures.
Including Cure Mermaid, AKA Minami Kaido, herself.
STOP: That's right, desporg.
FREEZE: You're doing well, desporg.
Cure Mermaid has been hurt by her fiancé in the left arm.
CURE FLORA (rushing towards Cure Mermaid): I'm sorry!
CURE MERMAID: You're still concerned about what Kimimaro said, right? I'm sorry. I overheard what he said.
But it's Cure Scarlet who takes the lead, making a fire force-field with Scarlet Illusion to shield herself and her teammates, leaving Desporg!Kimimaro to wrap the force-field in thorny vines.
CURE SCARLET: Are you all right?
CURE MERMAID (determined): Whether or not others are fit to stand by me, that isn't something third parties decide for us am I right?
An ice attack from Cure Mermaid subsequently freezes and shatters the ball of thorns and vines.
Then, Kaido becomes the primary fighter in this battle, kicking her desporg fiancé right in the face and thrusting him up into the twilight sky. And, once he has recovered, even stopping a punch from his enormous arm with her own smaller fists.
In the end, combining her own Bubble Ripple (encasing Desporg!Kimimaro in a huge bubble) with Cure Flora's Lys Tourbillon, they manage to knock the desporg out.
CURE MERMAID: Cure Flora.
CURE FLORA: Yes?
CURE MERMAID: Kimimaro may be right. I may have changed. But I like the current me. So do not pay too much mind towards what other people say.
Soon, all four Cures, reunited, finish off the desporg with Éclat d'Espoir.
STOP: That dream couldn't be stopped.
FREEZE: It wouldn't be frozen.
STOP & FREEZE (unison): But it despaired.
They retreat into the same keyhole portal.
It's Cure Mermaid who opens the door to Kimimaro's dream, and then the one who cradles his unconscious form in her arms.
CURE MERMAID: Thank goodness you're all right.
CURE TWINKLE (sarcastic): But is such a dream okay?
CURE FLORA: Y-yeah! When are you getting married!?
CURE MERMAID: Eh?
CURE SCARLET: Isn't he your fiancé?
CURE MERMAID (sincerely): Kimimaro decided that all by himself.
AU REVOIR, MA CHÊRE...
At the end of the day, Kimimaro Ijuuin heads to Yumegahama Airport together with his fiancée and those middle-class friends of hers he has learned to appreciate. It's time for a heartfelt reconciliation and an equally heartfelt leave-taking.
KIMIMARO: I'm really sorry for what happened yesterday. I kept thinking only about Minami. I never regarded her friends' feelings at all.
KIMIMARO: Minami made me realize that. (To his fiancée.) Minami, you have changed. But that is not for the worse. That is what I feel now.
MINAMI (smiling, sincerely): Kimimaro. (We see her through Kimimaro's eyes, sparkling and lined with the white lace motif associated with pure dreams.) Thank you.
In response, the Ijuuin scion blushes and his eyes widen as if by reflex.
KIMIMARO (bending the knee and reaching out his right hand to Minami, effusively): I knew it! You are my eternal sweet honey! Minami!
KIMIMARO (sincerely, smiling): When I become a gentleman befitting for you, I will come and ask for your hand! (Pepsodent smile.)
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT... THE DESPAIR SEEDS ARE GROWING STRONG AS THE TYRELL MOTTO STATES
As Kimimaro Ijuuin had his dream Stopped and Frozen, Close watched dark vines shoot up where he had sown a despair seed in a European-looking district of Yumegahama.
CLOSE (smiling smugly): Hm.
This bodes no good at all...
MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, a clever and learned maiden was engaged to marry a dashing young heir to the Ijuuin clan. The marriage had been arranged by their caregivers, for the sake of their surnames, and the lovers merely saw one another as friends, or rather as frenemies.
On Kimimaro himself:
First let us speak of his descent, and of my anime crossover theory similar to R+L=JS for Jon Snow or the Tyrion Targaryen hypothesis (AKA A+J=T).
There is my theory that this Kimimaro descends from Benio and Shinobu, via Enzan/Chaud and Yai, and that all the Ijuuins in the anime I know are related by blood. This is just a headcanon of mine, yet it fits pretty nicely, seeing how suave and how whimsical he is, and also considering his appearance. And his surname. At least one Ijuuin boy with his mother's looks and his father's personality was born unto the lieutenant and the swordfighting journalist in the 1920s, right before the Second World War. At least three generations of Ijuuins have come in between. Besides, Kimimaro's got the same blue eyes Shinobu got from his German mother, and we also see them in Enzan Ijuuin, AKA Chaud Blaze. Given that Yai is paired with Enzan, and that she is of British descent and studied in the UK, this could be a connection with Kimimaro. The Ijuuin surname has been a mark of distinction for unusually cultured, affluent characters, from a military/courtier household via international CEOs to the current heir, and blue or bluish eyes are common among those who wear it. Thicker than water? Indeed. Furthermore, Sonoko Ijuuin, the captain of the Tenth District softball team and founder of the Japanese national ThreeLights fanclub, has got the same azure eyes and the same confident personality associated with the surname.
The theory I have in mind of the Ijuuin bloodline, which spans Haikara-san, Sailor Moon Stars, Megaman Battle Network, and Go! Princess Precure, goes thus as this:
Count Ijuuin = Countess Ijuuin
-
Colonel Ijuuin = already married German countess, "Regina von Emmeritz" (real name unknown)
-
Lieutenant Shinobu Ijuuin = Benio Hanamura
-
Sonoko Ijuuin (siblings) Shuuseki Ijuuin = Shuuseki Ijuuin's wife (real name unknown)
-
Enzan Ijuuin = Yai Ayanokoji
-
Kimimaro Ijuuin <3 Minami Kaido
His personality? And his dream? Well, let's say that he's the Oberyn or the M. Gustave of this series (aside from Shut). He's gallant, he dresses sharply, he owns a private Lear jet and shows even more ostentation at the tea table and with the outrageous amount of roses... but, in spite of all that, he does care for those he loves. As Minami and her childhood friends know. Even though a mere cut on his fiancée's middle fingertip or a faux pas of hers makes Kimimaro overreact, this shows how much he loves, nay, worships the one he loves the most. Like Cassio worships Desdemona, exactly.
So this young heir makes a great Shut replacement for a Shutless episode, IMOHO. Like Cola Cao and Nesquik, Shut and Kimimaro Ijuuin (exceedingly similar to one another in personality) are completely interchangeable and equally delicious to me.
The relationship between Kimimaro and Minami, ship name Minamimaro, is now my second OTP to Shutlight/Shutlet/Shutowa. I mean, she's so confident and he's so awkward yet so outspoken, bot of them have so much in common... they remind me of the Prince and Princess in the Fourth Story of The Snow Queen, who, as you blog regulars know, are my favourite fairytale characters.
Now: Is his affection required, or is Minami pushing him off towards the friendzone (like it happened to Sev Snape or Petyr Baelish before)?
As for his prejudice towards the middle-class girls of the Cure team: he was merely trying to protect his fiancée against what might have been bad influences. Love how this prejudice is debunked after he is purified from desporg mode. It could as well have been a common breakup/makeup scenario if devoid of phlebotinum, and both the breakup and the makeup have been excellently explored.
These scenes:
MINAMI (sincerely): He may make mountains out of molehills, but he's unexpectedly serious and hardworking.
(Flashback of Minami and Kimimaro as children playing the violin at a violin class, with a French-looking instructor, Kimimaro putting a strain on himself)
(Flashback of Minami and Kimimaro as children at fencing class, Kimimaro putting a strain on himself)
Kimimaro and Minami doing their "needlework" together. I seriously think that these two were sparring partners. What could have bettered their fencing lessons? Not even Syrio Forel or Casimir Corvo for an instructor!
(Flashback of Kimimaro splitting a churro in a park a sunny day and giving Seira and Ayaka one third each, keeping the third one for himself, all four children happy)
MINAMI: He has his kind points, too.
We already knew Minami and my favourite female muggle Seira Azuma were besties, but not that Ayaka and Kimimaro were part of their club.So all four of them were friends from the start. Also, love that they were already what they would be: Minami a princess-type girl, Seira a tomboy (though she wears a gown at the ball), Kimimaro a lordling, Ayaka another princess-type girl. Shun and Naoto, as seen in the flashback "A Tale of Two Scions" sequences, were also part of the circle. And so was Wataru Kaido, then in his adolescence, dashing and sharply dressed, to whom Minami introduced her fiancé (for getting to meet your prospective brother-in-law and finding out he's so cool would certainly leave an impression!)
KIMIMARO: Ever since the first day we met, Minami has been my flower-like goddess.
Smiling like the innocent child he is, flanked by praetorian guards as usual.
Suddenly, he crosses the path of a younger teal-haired girl who holds a single red rose.
KIMIMARO: Hey...
The child holding the rose turns around and looks at him, smiling.
MINAMI: Yes?
Kimimaro's grey eyes widen and sparkle, as his cheeks blush and glow.
He merely stands agape, not saying anything, and it's her turn to break the ice.
MINAMI (smiling, sincerely): Hello. (Gokigenyó.) Do you need something?
Kimimaro Ijuuin, struck by a dart of love at first sight, merely stands there in awe.
Kimimaro and Minami waltz with each other.
KIMIMARO (narrating from the present): After that, we cultivated our friendship with the yearly parties.
Pre-teen Kimimaro gives Minami a bouquet of red roses.
Pre-teen Minami introduces her lady friends and her brother to Kimimaro, now in puberty.
KIMIMARO (narrating from the present): And we finally enrolled at Noble Academy together!
KIMIMARO (to Minami): Good day, my princess! (Gokigenyó, boku no princess!)
Minami turns around and we see her through Kimimaro's eyes, sparkling and lined with the white lace motif associated with pure dreams.
MINAMI (serious): Good day. (Gokigenyó)
Kimimaro, in the present, blushes feverishly.
KIMIMARO (elated): Yes! She is the zenith! The apex of what a lady is!!
Like I often do in this series, I'd like to dedicate a special song to a character who is worth it. Kimimaro Ijuuin, this one is for you and for the goddess you worship:
It's a hard life
to be true lovers together
to love and live forever in each others hearts -
It's a long hard fight
to learn to care for each other
to trust in one another right from the start
when you're in love...
I try and mend the broken pieces,
I try to fight back the tears
They say it's just a state of mind,
but it happens to everyone!
How it hurts - deep inside
when your love has cut you down to size
Life is tough - on your own
Now I'm waiting for something to fall from the skies
I'm waiting for love...
Yes it's a hard life
Two lovers together
to love and live forever in each others hearts
It's a long hard fight
to learn to care for each other
to trust in one another - right from the start
When you're in love...
Yes it's a hard life
In a world that's filled with sorrow
there are people searching for love in every way -
It's a long hard fight -
but I'll always live for tomorrow
I'll look back on myself and say I did it for love
yes I did it for love -
to be true lovers together
to love and live forever in each others hearts -
It's a long hard fight
to learn to care for each other
to trust in one another right from the start
when you're in love...
I try and mend the broken pieces,
I try to fight back the tears
They say it's just a state of mind,
but it happens to everyone!
How it hurts - deep inside
when your love has cut you down to size
Life is tough - on your own
Now I'm waiting for something to fall from the skies
I'm waiting for love...
Yes it's a hard life
Two lovers together
to love and live forever in each others hearts
It's a long hard fight
to learn to care for each other
to trust in one another - right from the start
When you're in love...
Yes it's a hard life
In a world that's filled with sorrow
there are people searching for love in every way -
It's a long hard fight -
but I'll always live for tomorrow
I'll look back on myself and say I did it for love
yes I did it for love -
for love -
oh I did it for love!
'Cause if you heard him, and if you thought it, I bet my life you'd have thought the same!
I mean, getting to know his dream was enough to get that this dashing and cultured young fellow was to become the victim of the week.
Such a shame.
But Minami, in this aspect of losing loved ones, tends to have got as much fortune as the Stark children (only that her loved ones are not killed for real). First her older brother (and guardian?) was targeted. Now it's her fiancé. Maybe her father (if he's not deceased) will be next.
Changing theme... the despair seeds' progress? Nice thorny vines, eh?
To crown it all and what is most interesting, in the new opening it's Stop who deals with Cure Mermaid, while a powered-up Shut deals with Cure Scarlet.
Shut becoming evil counterpart to Cure Scarlet??? Yes for me and all the Shutlet/Shutlight shippers out there. Pop a bottle of Moët, and pour it into Bohemian glass with lots of ice!!!
And his pose is now simply flamboyant (instead of the threatening vs-Cure-Mermaid pose that Stop has wrested from him). Could this be foreshadowing of an upcoming heel-face turn for Shut? (Pleeeeease let it beee so!!!!)
IN NEXT EPISODE (33):
Lock... we mean Kuroro has finally awakened from his coma, and two cats who may be Stop and Freeze dress him in a trenchcoat or in a gown? And why in the Hope Kingdom is Madame Shamour so excited? Is it because this week's Leçon for the Cures involves make-up? She's gathered every single cat in the district for an unknown reason...
Speaking of make-up... and returning to our favourite Dysdark...
We have also seen Shut lose the cobalt blue make-up around his left eye and shake his head violently, wincing or frightened...
So I think (at least not proven) that the make-up of the Dysdarks is a mind-control and life support device just like the cuffs of Sailor Galaxia's minions. Sailor Tin Kitty lost her right cuff and suffered from a serious loyalty crisis, as the left half of her costume stayed black and the right half became white.
 |
| Fifty-fifty. It appears that Shut will follow the same path. Let's just hope that Dyspear doesn't kill him with a "you have failed me." |
And such a half-conversion is naturally the first step in a heel-face turn (if not a heel-face door slam, which was the case with Sailor Tin Kitty). Will Shut lose his life ere he is completely reformed? Let us pray to the Lord of Light for Dyspear to keep him alive in the end! R'hllor, R'hllor, R'hllor...
Anyway, maybe the star-crossed saga of Shut and Cure Scarlet, as seen in this picture, has not reached its end... The same can be said for them that for my other OTP (Minami and Kimimaro):
It's a hard life
to be true lovers together
to love and live forever in each others hearts -
It's a long hard fight
to learn to care for each other
to trust in one another right from the start
when you're in love...
I try and mend the broken pieces,
I try to fight back the tears
They say it's just a state of mind,
but it happens to everyone!
How it hurts - deep inside
when your love has cut you down to size
Life is tough - on your own
Now I'm waiting for something to fall from the skies
I'm waiting for love...
Yes it's a hard life
Two lovers together
to love and live forever in each others hearts
It's a long hard fight
to learn to care for each other
to trust in one another - right from the start
When you're in love...
Yes it's a hard life
In a world that's filled with sorrow
there are people searching for love in every way -
It's a long hard fight -
but I'll always live for tomorrow
I'll look back on myself and say I did it for love
yes I did it for love -
to be true lovers together
to love and live forever in each others hearts -
It's a long hard fight
to learn to care for each other
to trust in one another right from the start
when you're in love...
I try and mend the broken pieces,
I try to fight back the tears
They say it's just a state of mind,
but it happens to everyone!
How it hurts - deep inside
when your love has cut you down to size
Life is tough - on your own
Now I'm waiting for something to fall from the skies
I'm waiting for love...
Yes it's a hard life
Two lovers together
to love and live forever in each others hearts
It's a long hard fight
to learn to care for each other
to trust in one another - right from the start
When you're in love...
Yes it's a hard life
In a world that's filled with sorrow
there are people searching for love in every way -
It's a long hard fight -
but I'll always live for tomorrow
I'll look back on myself and say I did it for love
yes I did it for love -
for love -
oh I did it for love!
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