MAHOU TSUKAI: NEW CLASSMATES (FUTURE CURES?)

As long as the Precure team does not pull a Waon & Seika on us, there is the theory that the three new students in focus at the Wizarding School, not counting Mirai and Riko, will become Precures as well...

KAY & EMILY (surprised, to Mirai): You're from the Muggleverse!?

KAY (rushing à la White Rabbit): Excuse me!! I'm late again!!

This carrot-top, Kay, is sweet but very scatterbrained and always late for class (like someone I know)...

JUNE (sounding like Mr. Fawlty): Remember me!! I'm June!! And I can make even the worst crybaby shut up!!

Oh, this blue-haired June has become my favourite female chara (François, read below, is my favourite male) in this series: a hardass, arrogant, feisty, aloof tomboy who would give Astrid Kolfinnsdóttir a run for the money (plus, curbstomp Astrid and have her black her [June's] school uniform shoes next).

EMILY (startled by Mirai and Riko entering): AAAHHH!!!

The blond one with nerd spectacles is Emily, a shy scaredy-cat who is afraid of heights.

All right, so we got the exposition... remember that a powerful magic condensed and took the form of a dozen power gemstones called Linkles, and that the emerald in the centre is a McGuffin as relevant as the One Ring?

This book explains the Linkle ratio: 1 emerald, 4 guardian stones, 7 supporting stones.

It's a compendium of Legends of the Magicverse.

Oh, and here's the Cures' mentor, who is also the headmaster of the school, and I didn't expect him to be so young (ostensibly: his real age is shrouded in mystery) and so piping hot, and his name is never mentioned (everyone calls him Headmaster) so far and he looks so much like Rhaegar Targaryen!!! <3 <3 <3 <3

The Deputy Head (no name given either), on the other hand, is harsher and tougher, the "sergeant" to the Headmaster's "lieutenant." I first called her Mrs McRottenmeier (McGonagall+Rottenmeier, get it?).

Kay, Mirai, Riko: surprised

Emily: angsty

June: aloof

So, will the mid-season duo grow into a Five-Cure Band?? (I seriously hope so!!)

Oh, and here are some villagers from the shops in the country-esque, quaint community next to the wizarding school.

The okama/sissy one with lilac hair: François, the uniform tailor (Speaks gratuitous French!!). François and Shut should completely fricking hand out.

The cool old guy in the cowboy hat: Mr. Hook, the local elder and lore expert.

The tall and hefty blond: Gustav (he looks completely like a Gustav to me), the broomstick maker.

The auburn bishónen stripling: Todd (looks completely like a Todd to me), the sweets seller.

The Ruby Precures (FIRE POWERS!!)...

RUBY STYLE!!

Mirai as Li'l Red Fighting Hood and Riko as Kickass Claus...

Heck, even RRH and Santa inspire the Precures now...

The whole square was covered in a cobweb...

...'cuz Spidra (uncannily sexy, like a Sailor Moon Monster of the Week) asked the Cures where the Linkle Emerald was. Seriously, Spidra is rather scantily clad...

#HowDoIShotWeb?

Then there's the Ninja Turtle cadre, who cuts no slack. Seriously, that franchise has never been my cup of tea, but every time I see this guy, the 80s original TMNT song plays in my head...

We also got to see Dokuroxy. On Her Throne, as per standard Evil Overlord/Overlady fare (compare Dyspear in the previous season. And Joffrey. And any other Overlord/Overlady that comes to mind).

And her right-hand lizard, who dresses like a cad in an Austen novel. Seriously, Dyspear had no proper right-hand cadre at the start, then Close climbed up to that position and stabbed her in the back... will this little scaly guy also pull a Starscream/Wallenstein (like the usual Precure right-hand cadre)?

But to return to the Wizarding School, the Linkles, and our heroines...

FRANÇOIS: Voilà!!

François sewing Mirai's and Riko's uniforms.

François getting all hyped on Mofurun's cuteness...

Seriously, François and Shut should completely fricking hand out.

Mr. Hook telling the Cures a local legend.

Gustav having made broomsticks for the Precures.

Todd offering the Cures some orange...

OK, the Magicverse is country-esque with a quaint Central European feel... but oranges? The seamstress's boy in the Wilde fairytale couldn't afford the orange he wanted... and the story was set in Northern or Central Europe in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century, when citrus fruits were expensive in the Protestant North... All right, this is the Magicverse, so surely some climate and/or plant magic is decisive for oranges not to be a luxury here.

The statue on the village square depicts a hidarikiki maneki neko (左利き招き猫), or left-pawed lucky cat. Yes, these statuettes can be right- or left-pawed (ambidextrous ones, existing as well, are a rarity). There are various traditions about what the cat's pawedness symbolizes:

1) Lefties are for drinking establishments: people who can hold their liquor, and hard drinkers, are called "hidarikiki (左利き)," left-handed.

2) Lefties are for liquor shops: ut supra.

3) Lefties bring in people (customers, guests), while righties bring in money.

4) Righties bring in people (customers, guests), while lefties bring in money.

5) Righties bring good luck at home, lefties bring good business luck.

My fan nickname for this statue is Southpaw (a lefty cat, get it?), and he plays a SoaB of a major role in Episode Three...

The Cures flew downtown in a magic carpet (while I was singing A Whole New World...) Notice Southpaw in the middle of the square.

According to the local legend Mr. Hook told the Cures, the Flame of Passion (the fire within the lantern on Southpaw's right) once banished the despair-bringing darkness that pervaded the Magicverse. 

So that cat, or at least that lantern, is regarded as a divinity???

When Spidra corners the Cures, the lantern on Southpaw's right begins to glow red and reveals the Linkle Ruby, the gemstone of passion, within. So the Linkle Ruby was the Flame of Passion...

And the Cures gain their Ruby Style and fire powers.

So far, only two Linkles confirmed: Dia and Ruby. 10 more to go...

And the leading roster is now of 2+3 (hope the 3 get powers as well)...

The Dumbledore/Gandalf/Pycelle-style mentor-bearded teacher is called Isaac.

Their first assignment is catching these elusive paper butterflies.

June is, of course, one of the first to catch hers. Though Isaac says she is the typical bad girl who skips classes at will... ("Blaumacherin," "blue-maker [feminine form]," refers in German to a [female] class-skipping student...)

And so is Emily.

Due to her fear of heights, Emily is pretty much an inept flyer...

Thus, she flew fricking close to the ground. Then, her butterfly just smacked into her specs.

Absent-minded, scatterbrained Kay forgot her broomstick and wand in her room...

...but she used her hat to catch her butterfly!! That's resourcefulness!!

Furthermore, the Cures somehow get a pink potted flower, and, when it opens...

...they find a pint-sized baby fairy in the calyx. Think Thumbelina.

This is Ha-chan, and, like Ai-chan in DokiDoki!, it seems that she will play a motherfooking major role.

Arrogant June...

Fraidy Emily...

And absent-minded Kay...

Are these three as much Precure material as Mirai and Riko?

I just think that they're like Dorothy's friends: Kay needs a brain, June needs a heart, and Emily needs a nerve... but they have got these qualities within all along, and all they need is to develop them, which has already begun now...