MAHOU TSUKAI REVIEW: START OF DARKNESS

Let Liz explain:

Isaac explains that he's got no male students.

Maybe

-classes are gender seggregated

-wizarding schools are seggregated (i.e. there is an all-guy school as well)

JUNE: It's a plane?

KAY: It's a pegasus!!

Yes, it's a pegasus. It's not Supergrover.

Oh, Loretta and the Little Mer-Trio were back for the arc finale ;)

..........................................................................................................................................

To break the ice, the Supplementary Mates give a rundown of the Headmaster's Seven Mysteries: pretty much "How do I even begin to explain Regina George?" style:

KAY: Why don't we discuss the Seven Mysteries of the Headmaster?

JUNE: One: his age. Just how fricking old is the Headmaster?

Two: No one has ever seen him using magic.

KAY (sinister): Three: Wherever he is, a female voice can be heard around.

(Is she referring to Cathy [the crystal ball], to Kanoko, or to someone else?)

Four: It is unusual that he prefers bitter coffee.

(In fact, the Head' relishes coffee so strong that it makes Isaac wince)

Five: he can cast an ikemen aura to which muggle girls flock.

Kanoko, for an example. She even gave him treats blushing, with her eyes shut!

Six: there is a confidential wing of the Wizarding School library to which only he has got access.

Seven: only he can open this Art Nouveau door in the campus gardens.

Beyond this door, the cour (arc) finale battle of the Headmaster and Cures vs. Dokuroxy has recently taken place.

The first things I have to say concern the cadres of the show:
Batty, Spidra, and Turtlets, just like the Eye Trio in Sailormoon SuperS (Hawkeye, Tigerseye, and Fisheye) are actually non-human animals given humanoid form. Now purified, all three have reverted.

Heart-nosed Batty <3

Spidra in her original arachnid form...

...and Turtlets as a terrapin.

Dokuroxy's true gender is revealed: it's a guy!!!
Not only is Dokuroxy confirmed to be a he, but also a former friend of the Headmaster's, corrupted and turned to the dark side.

On the Headmaster's left/sinister side, Kushe, the one who would be Dokuroxy.

He was tempted to use the Forbidden Arts, could not control such power, was struck down and left for dead... and subsequently corrupted by the dark force he had unleashed...

#StartOfDarkness

#KUSHESTARTOFDARKNESS

Friendship? No. Rather bromance.

The Headmaster and Kushe could not be closer to one another.

Then everything changed when they found out about the Linkle stones,

(Besides, currently: #All12LinklesConfirmed!!!)

Kushe detached himself from his more than best friend...

...and spent many a night studying for clues to find the Linkle stones...

...even resorting to the Forbidden Arts.

From then onwards, he would never be the same...

Dokuroxy's Dark Spellbook

Notice their hair and attire, as well as the symbolism of left and right.

And yes, one of them has got darkness powers while the other has light powers. Even their sorcerer attire contrasts.

Dokuroxy and the Headmaster are like Hamlet and Laertes, Iago and Cassio, Stalin and Trotsky...

I’ll be your foil, Laertes. In mine ignorance

your skill shall, like a star i' th' darkest night,

stick fiery off indeed.

A purified Kushe, having finally come to his senses.

Which means... we've got another corrupted good-guy-at-heart brainwashed by the Entity Behind the Man (a concept that never gets old, and that, in Pretty Cure series, has been retold left and right).

Ha-chan is also supposed to grow and become a new flower-themed green Cure in pink (the only thing missing is for her to be royalty). At last she has become a Cure and reached adolescence :)

Ha-chan's muggle name is to be revealed.

Bonus if it is:

-a plant name (Iris, Élodie, Linnéa, Primrose...)

-Hannah (homophone of "hana")

Her Precure name has been leaked since springtime as Cure Felice (Italian pronunciation, "fe-LII-che," meaning "happy").

UPDATE: Ha-chan's muggle name is finally confirmed as Kotoha Hanami (like always, I put the name in Western order, given name first). The surname sounds to me like "flowerspotting," i.e. having a springtime picnic under cherry blossoms... yet the final -mi is written with the kanji for "ocean" (花海, "flower ocean"; homophone of 花見, "flowerspotting"; both pronounced "hanami"). It's a pun, to sum it up. Her given name Kotoha (ことは) is meaningless yet a homophone of "kotoba", i.e. "word." Her full name is a reference to the language of flowers, or "hanakotoba." Which means that it's, at heart, is a string of puns.

Oh, and the Headmaster's real-life form is revealed to be a centuries-old Dumbledore- or Gandalf-like character with a wise old mentor beard to boot:

Nearly all classical-style mentors in Fictionland have got long white flowing beards.

Gecko survived the defeat and purification of Dokuroxy, so now he'll be working as right-hand lizard to this ogre guy...

This ogre guy... "Lustucru" (real name unknown)

We already got an ogre in Smile!, the dumb muscle with the convenient name of Akaoni (literally "Redogre": the Netflix English dub calls him Brute). But he was mostly the stupid fat henchman. This ogre looks far more sinister...

So can this be the Entity Behind the Man... or yet another pawn of the real-life dramatic evil in store?

Fanart of today: "Curiosity Can Kill"