LOVE TRIED AND TRUE

Kirakira Precure à la Mode
My Much Awaited Review of Episode 25

Love Tried and True

or,

The True Prince and the False

Dramatis personae:

• Yukari Kotozume, a wistful heiress.
• Akira Kenjo, a strong, earnest warrior.
• Natha, Crown Prince of the Confetto Kingdom.
• Elysio, a feminine villain.
• Ciel Kirahoshi, an experienced pâtissière prodigy.
• Customers, servants, martial artists, three secondary-school KiraPâti employers.

Act the Fifth

Act the First


YUKARI: Here on the bridge, under this August sun, 
I sit back and enjoy the friendly shade
of this lace-lined umbrella on my own...

Act the Second

Act the Third

Act the Fourth

ELYSIO: Kirakiraru, stained in darkness! Now
enter these tarot cards! Right! Noir Miroir!

Act the Fifth

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINIONS:
OH THE FEELS THE FEELS THE FEELS!
Seriously, I had my blood pressure checked after this episode...
I had to do a Shakespearean review, with dialogue in pentameter, because... --mumble mumble Takarazuka, mumble wet dreams, mumble chocolate macarons, mumble mumble sissy villain, mumble fix this Joffrey's drink at least with a laxative... mumble mumble oh my OTP--

The KiraPâti receives a royal visitor in the form of Prince Natha, who hails from the (Mediterranean, given his name and the one of the realm) Confetto Kingdom. He just strolls straight in, ignores the other girls and asks Yukari to become his princess. (You'll see he's less Cassio and even less Edward of Andalasia; in fact, that's a blue-eyed adult Joffrey!)
Natha tries to take Yukari back to his country with him (surely as his trophy consort), but Akira stops them. Natha then challenges Akira --this upstart "prince" vying for his damosel's affection!-- and should she lose, Yukari will accompany the prince back to the Confetto Kingdom.
Yukari herself is the one to decide that – I wonder if Akira interacting with those other girls from the fanclubs right at the beginning of the episode had anything to do with it…
Of course the trilustrals cheer for Akira. However, Ciel says the most important thing is to consider Yukari’s feelings.
Natha pretty much cheats at all the events (from Milli Vanilli/Party Posse playback to rigged tests of strength via horse-racing), and even threatens to demolish the KiraPâti itself when they hold a competition to see who can do the best decoration. However, the real highlight from all of this comes when we get the dance competition. Though our bifauxnen (now revealed to be a terrible singer and not that strong at hand-to-hand combat) says that she has two left feet, she and her better half wind up waltzing like a princess and her prince.
This beautiful moment is then spoiled by Natha, who pretty much just shoves Akira aside. He tries to lift Yukari, but doesn’t go well. Fortunately, Akira saves Yukari from falling, allowing the prince to take an impromptu dive in the pool.
However, Akira has not won the battle yet. Naturally, there’s got to be a baking competition, because this is KiraKira ☆ PreCure à la Mode after all.
That night, Akira tells Yukari that she should stop toying with people’s feelings. The prince may be weird, but he is giving his all for her. Yukari says she will go to the Confetto Kingdom with the prince in that case. When Akira asks her way, Yukari tells her to stop looking straight at her like that.
Ciel tells Akira that she needs to outright say to Yukari how she feels, even outright stating that ‘love’ is a word that can make hearts sparkle. Ciel is able to convince Yukari and Akira to bake together, and they have a flash of inspiration: chocolate macarons. After all, chocolate and macarons go well together (who else was calling my OTP Yukakira by the alternate name Macaron de Chocolat? It's just like Stannisandre being more widely known as Lobster Flambé or Lobster Thermidor!).
Once they finish them, having already made peace, Yukari and Akira go to deliver the chocolate macarons to the prince. On the way there, Yukari confides in Akira how she is actually weak. Others consider her to be perfect, but that is not how Yukari truly is at all. Turns out that Giulio was right when he called her weak (when he left her hanging on the edge of the eaves, remember?).
Akira has no problems with how Yukari actually is. Yukari is Yukari, and if she ever needs to share her feelings, than Yukari is there for her. (Awwww that warts-and-all moment when they realise that they love one another warts and all...)
Both Yukari and Akira are not honest with each other until Ciel (who still has regret about Pikalio's fate) tells Akira to toughen up about Yukari. It was a breath of fresh air to see Ciel who has yet to blend into the team to give the suggestion. Yukari also admitted that she is not Little Miss Perfect -- as reminded by Giulio of how she does is just give mixed signals and being a stuck-up. 
Elysio, after bleeding Prince Natha's heart --and his flamboyant cream cake-- dry of kirakiraru, is able to separate Yukari from her transformation trinket when they arrive on the rooftop, leaving Akira to fight him alone. Cure Chocolat ends up in a death trap.
When Elysio turns his attention towards Yukari, Chocolat refuses to give up. She says she will protect Yukari no matter what, because she loves her. Chocolat breaks free, and falls to the ground. Yukari rushes over to her.
Once again, another beautiful moment gets cut short, this time courtesy of Elysio (have a drink for each time he crashes the heartwarming with that sang-froid of his!). He summons the monster of the week, a monster lily, using the kirakiraru and tarot cards... the incantation he uses in his MO is called Noir Miroir, Dark Mirror --plus de français, s'il vous plaît!
So their foe is a lily… that is almost certainly on purpose. The others arrive mere moments afterwards, and Ciel returns Yukari’s transformation trinket to her. They transform and fight the monster of the week, which is curbstomped with an indescriptibly impressive Macaron and Chocolat combo attack.
Cure Parfait finishes it off afterwards, and then Elysio retreats after telling the Cures his name (which they hadn't known so far, but we knew from when he told Glaive).
After that, Yukari tells Natha that she cannot go to Confetto with him. Before he departs the prince tells Akira to bring happiness to Yukari – a pact between gentlemen, if you will. Yep, Prince Natha failed to realise that Akira is actually female and nobody bothered to correct him (here, I chortle to myself!).
This episode impressed me a whole lot. The whole thing between Yukari and Akira felt like something lifted directly out of a yuri series – PreCure is known for its yuri subtext, but there are occasions when it just becomes plain old text. Suite PreCure♪, DokiDoki! PreCure... are arguably the most prominent examples of this, and after this episode, I would happily include Akira and Yukari in that list of examples.
Elysio's appearance was a bit of letdown compared to Glaive last week as all he does was suck the Prince's kiraru energy, make a monster, and mock Cure Chocolat. Even though his rant was painful, both treating Chocolat like that and damselling her koibito prove to be as catastrophal blunders as getting involved in a land war in Russia!! Of course the power of Love and Friendship saved the day with both gems from Akira and Yukari glowing which means the Legendary Pâtisserie accepted their Yuri Love?! 
I just can not state how much I adored this episode. I thought the series had peaked with Cure Parfait’s introduction, but I have been proven wrong in the most glorious manner possible. This is, without a doubt, my favourite episode of KiraKira ☆ PreCure à la Mode.
Though considering we still have a good twenty-odd episodes left to go, there’s plenty of opportunities for this one to be surpassed. It’ll have to be something truly impressive, however.

Also, Yukari's and Akira's hearts glowed with love, creating their orbs within!! Isn't that the perfect crowner for such a heartwarming episode, which I have watched already thrice before starting this review?

"Next episode, the focus is on Yukari and Akira as Elysio makes his move on Yukari which causes some tension between Akira and her." So will this be a queer Othello scenario, with Elysio in the role of Iago and this foreign prince in that of Cassio? Actually, seeing Akira as Othello and Yukari as Desdemona could make for any good AU...
Anyway, let's wait for next week to see how this scheme unfurls... and, if it doesn't play out Othello-style, that AU scenario is worth giving a shot, right?
PS. Remember the Othello scenario headcanon I had last week? The premise of this episode surpassed by far the thoughts I had about any Othello AU. And if this grows into a Dermark-brand Macaron de Chocolat Othello AU with Natha in the role of Cassio and Elysio as Iago, it would then be a parody instead of a straight-up drama... hehehehe...
PS II. Now that I know more about Yukari's and Akira's flaws, I will use them in my Snow Queen AU --especially during Akira's stay at court, which involves a masked ball, during which Natha (and Kimimaro) will make some cameos as failed suitors... and Akira getting drunk on champagne to get liquid courage on the dancefloor...


IN NEXT EPISODE (26, THE BEACH EPISODE):

The Precures head in August for a South Pacific isle;

they find a marooned Bilberry who's lost her perky smile!

Within an icy cavern, Ciel turns back to Kirarin...
We hope this beach episode is not of excitement thin...