Episode 14 - spotlight on Aoi (Frickin') Tategami - Her Ladyship Rockin' Hard!! (お嬢さまロックンロール！Ojousama Rock'n'Roll!)
(I mean, the title mixing both Aoi's upper-class background and her PASSION at once means we get to see the Ladyship/Ojousama half of the equation in more detail, and we'll be in for a Clash of the Tategamis!! It's also interesting that both cat Cures are Ojousama, but Aoi broke off to follow her own heart while Yukari is far more traditional and a proper lady... I wonder [the classic nature vs. nurture debate] whether their different families have something to do with the matter... Aoi as a child wore Western-style pinafores, while the Kotozumes favour traditional kimonos and interiors --I swear the Kotozume estate is a yashiki with that fountain that goes doink and all--, so the Tategamis appear to be more westernized, like the Kaidos in Go! Princess Pretty Cure. It also reminds me of both military families in the series Haikara-san ga tooru, with the Hanamura estate being a traditional yashiki and the Hanamuras wearing kimonos vs. the Ijuuin estate being a neoclassical manoir and the Ijuuins wearing [generally] European-style attire; both families had been enemies during the Bakumatsu war of isolation vs. opening the island empire to the wider world, and it's not hard to see who were the imperialists and who were the shogunate supporters respectively!)
Now we have learned that, in this episode, the Tategamis whisk Aoi away back to their estate (a Western-style one, as I supposed), to try to make a "proper lady" out of her, having her take up the violin once more and wear a frilly pink gown... Good luck with that endeavour; Aoi makes Arya Stark herself look like Princess Peach in comparison! But, seeing her wearing her hair in that 80s queue and speaking her mind so hot-bloodedly in spite of wearing a skirt, pink, and even more lace than as a pâtissière... something tells me the old Aoi F-ing Tategami is still in there, her heart upon her sleeve shining like a blazing blue star.
Only that she will have to face Giulio's trolling... let's see how he tries to troll her and how the even more explosive Aoi blows his scheme right in Giulio's face!!
The foyer of the Tategami Mansion. Even Yukari herself looks impressed.
Aoi's neoclassical room at the Tategami Mansion.
A pre-teen Aoi in a white pinafore, with a violin case and a ladylike hairstyle.
Three generations of Kotozumes in their traditional yashiki.
Yukari as a child, in a lilac kimono.
Episode 15 - spotlight on Akira Kenjó (Checking blood pressure; currently at 4 beats per second) - For Love's Sake! A Furious Cure Chocolat! (愛ゆえに！怒りのキュアショコラ! Ai yue ni! Ikari no Cure Chocolat!)
Akira doesn't seem to be the irate kind of person; but everyone's fuse has got to burn out sooner or later (ask yours truly, for instance). My theory for this episode is that Giulio will surely target her hospitalized little sister Miku, the person Akira cares the most for... that's the kind of offense that Akira Kenjó will NEVER forgive!! The "love" in the title, "ai", refers to love in general, to altruism in general, and one of the qualities Akira/Chocolat represents; her catalyst for unleashing the power of said feeling was sibling love... it was Miku. Lay a fingertip on her imouto without Akira's permission... but of course it has to be a worse offense; draining the little ill girl's heart and leaving her unconscious, not to mention that she is already TERMINALLY ILL and her condition is sure to get worse if she's run through the heart with a blade of darkness... I wonder whether Cure Chocolat's anger will pave the way for an epic fight that will OUTSHINE the one in this cour's initial episode, in which Giulio curbstomped Chocolat for sure, disarming her in less time than it takes to say "Expelliarmus"... I'm eager for the second confrontation and hoping the scales tilt in our bifauxnen's favour!
Akira's character establishment as a gentle older sister in the opening credits.
Episode 16 - spotlight on Yukari Kotozume and Giulio/Leo Kuroki - A Dangerous Lightning Approach! Yukari and Leo! (キケンな急接近！ゆかりとリオ! - Kikenna kyú seiken! Yukari to Rio!)
RIGHT FROM THE START, Yukari mistrusted the raven-haired boy. And here it seems that the tension will intensify. Hopefully we will visit the Kotozume yashiki (fingers crossed). And hopefully Yukari will find out her hunch is true when she spots Giulio detransform into Leo... though he might also have spotted her detransform from Macaron, which would definitely raise the stakes! Also, something tells me Yukari's perfectionism will have a major role to play in this episode.
Yukari is suspicious about "Leo Kuroki"
right from the moment he pops up in the first episode of this cour.
