EL RETORN D'ANNE - I COM HO CELEBRARÉ

Anne (Benio, Marie) Hanamura retorna 

aquest novembre

després de dècades d'oblit!

I quina manera millor de celebrar el retorn de Haikara-san

que amb una altra fusió...

aquesta vegada, de La Princesa Promesa (amb potser una mica dels Promesos de Manzoni)!

Una vertadera odissea de capa i espasa.

En un dels moltíssims petits regnes que componen el Sacre Imperi, dos joves créixen junts com germans:

Anne, una pobra serventa òrfena. Shinobu, el fill dels comtes, que gaudeix fent-li la guitza.

Prompte, quan ella té disset anys i ell ha fet vint, descobriran que s'estimen.

Però les complicacions es succeeixen...

Ell part per la guerra que haurà de durar trenta anys... i el declaren mort en batalla, corferit per una pica enemiga.

Ella, en assabentar-se'n, jura no tornar a sentir mai més amor.

El príncep hereu del regne, colpit per la bellesa d'Anne, la convida a la cort i anuncia que prompte la farà la seva esposa, malgrat les sospites de la regència i de les dames en torn a un "matrimoni de la mà esquerra".

Tres bergants rapten la princesa: un forçut, un travesti i un guerxo coix amb la cara creuada, que la volen portar a l'altra banda de la frontera per embolicar el pacífic regne en la guerra. 

Però de cop i volta apareix un misteriós quart bergant, emmascarat, disposat a enfrontar-se als tres segrestadors per a rescatar la donzella en problemes... però, per què té aquest justicier un rostre tan familiar?

El començament serà una paràfrasi del famós començament "Quel ramo del lago di Como..."

UPCOMING KKPCÀLM EPISODES

At least the titles of upcoming episodes of the Springtime Cour of Kirakira Precure à la Mode and my guesses about what will happen in each and every one of them. Within a fortnight, for instance, we'll get an Aoi-centric episode that will place everyone's favourite ice-boxing and hard-rocking badass at the crossfire of family tradition and her own passion!! Sounds exciting, right?

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.

MUKASHIBANASHI 1: BENIZARA AND KAKEZARA

Mukashibanashi are traditional Japanese fairytales. The name comes from "mukashi mukashi," "once upon a time," and "hanashi," "tale/relation."

Here I will offer a few mukashibanashi about ogres, tengu, raccoons, stepparents, envious villagers, dragon merfolk... the whole megillah of yokai lore (corresponding to our Western fairy lore):

Benizara and Kakezara
Kaguyahime (Princess Kaguya)
Taro Urashima
Momotaro (Peach Taro)
Grampies with Wens (Kobutori Jiisan)
Grampy Blossom (Hanasaka Jiisan)
The Hatted Jizos (Kasa Jizo)
The Tengu's Cloak
Mount Crackle (Kachikachiyama)
The Macaque Vs. the Crab (Sarukani Gassen)


MUKASHIBANASHI 1: BENIZARA AND KAKEZARA

The is a version of Diamonds and Toads with an onibaba, or ogre granny (oni: ogre, baba: granny, like in Russian) and her two oni grandsons, as well as some poetry, thrown into the mix.

Mukashi mukashi, once upon a time, two stepsisters went out chestnutting in the woods outside their village. The orphan stepchild, who was the scapegoat of the household, was called Benizara (Scarlet Dish), while the stepmother's spoiled daughter was called Kakezara (Shattered Dish).
The one who came home with her bag full of chestnuts would have supper, while the one who came home empty-handed would have to go to bed on an empty belly. Needless to say the stepmother had rigged the bags for her own daughter to succeed and Benizara to be the punished one. Before dusk, Kakezara had her bag full, while Benizara, due to the chestnut-sized hole in her own bag, was left alone and not daring to return home to get punished by her stepmother. So she wandered deeper into the woods.
At nightfall, she realised it was the hour of the beasts of prey and she was even in worse danger than at home, shuddering when she heard a rustle, gasa-gasa, like a pack of wolves in the underbrush. But still she kept on walking forwards, mustering all of her courage, until she followed a light into a little cottage, and in there was an old lady spinning thread. The old lady took the maiden in, but explained that she could not stay. "You see, I'm an onibaba, and both my grandsons are oni, and I'm afraid they shall eat you alive. She gave Benizara directions back home, a casket, and a bowl of rice, aside from stitching her bag and filling it with chestnuts. "Take the nuts to your stepmother. The box is a magic box... make a wish out loud, tap the casket lid thrice, and then open it, and you will find what you have wished for. And the rice is in case you meet my grandsons on the way home: should they approach, chew some rice but don't swallow it; keep some inside your mouth and spread the rest around your lips, then play dead. My stupid boys will take the rice for maggots and leave you be."
So on the way home, Benizara heard loud footsteps and the sound of a flute, and, knowing the ogres were coming, she chewed some of the rice and spread it around her lips. Then she flung herself on the ground across the path, shutting her eyes, holding her breath, and not even stirring.
Soon, the ogres came along indeed: Akaoni, the red ogre, and Ao-oni, the blue ogre. One of them sniffed the air left and right and told his brother: "I smell human around here..." Still, Benizara kept on playing dead, even though her lungs were about to burst. "Ewww..." said the other ogre, wincing. "She's decaying already; her mouth is full of maggots!" And on they went down the pathway, playing their flutes.
When she could no longer hear the ogres' strides, Benizara continued down the path and after some time, the sky began to lighten. Just as the sun was sending its first glorious rays across the sky, Benizara reached home.  Her stepmother greeted the dawn with the hope that perhaps her hated stepchild had been eaten by wolves overnight, explaining why she had not returned home. Just then, Benizara came in and bowed before her. The girl had a sack filled to the brim with chestnuts! There was nothing the stepmother could do but take the nuts.  
It happened one day that the local summer festival or matsuri was announced, at which there was to be a play. Kakezara and her mother put on their finest kimonos, and went into town. But before they left, Benizara was given a very long list of chores. If they were not done by the time the stepmother returned, the girl would get sent to bed without her supper.  Benizara sighed, and began to clean the house.  Just then, she heard a gaggle of voices and laughing at the door. It was her friends, who had come to see if she could go along to the festival. "Friends, I cannot go." said Benizara sadly. "I have to change the bedding, and weed the garden, and sift the rice, and fill the water jars, and empty the ashes from the stove.  If I do not do all of these things before my stepmother comes back, she will be furious." But Benizara's friends were kindly and good-natured: those girls all pitched in to to the work. Many hands made it light, and before Benizara knew it, all was done. 
How pretty her friends looked in their colorful silk kimonos! Benizara had nothing but rags to wear. She wondered what she should do; then she thought about the little box she had recieved from the onibaba. So she went to her room and drew it from under her bed.  She closed her eyes and said aloud, "I would like to have a kimono." And before she had finished speaking, she was wearing one.  
It was of lavender silk, with flowers worked in embroidery all over it.  How beautiful she felt with it on! She put her hand in the pocket and found that it was full of konpeito, or hard sugar comfits. Though she and her friends ate the sweets all the way to town, her pocket was still full when the girls arrived at the festival. The play was about to begin. 
A girl in the audience was calling to her mother for sweets, and the woman tried to hush her with a slap. Benizara saw that the girl was Kakezara! She threw her stepsister a handful of konpeito.
A daimyo or nobleman in the audience observed the beautiful girl, sharing comfits with all of the maidens around her. And the next day, the gentleman sought her out.  His procession wound through the streets until the lord's palanquin stopped in front of Benizara's house. Kakezara's mother was overjoyed, believing that the nobleman must be interested in her own child. But the gentleman frowned when the girl was brought out and said, "There should be two girls here, bring out the other one too."  Now Benizara's stepmother had pushed the girl into the washtub to hide her, but now she did not dare to disobey the lord.  The shabby girl was brought out and pushed before the nobleman. Confronted with one lovely girl in rags, and a well dressed one with a scowling face, the lord decided he must test the girls to see who was the generous one he desired.  "Which one of these two came to see my performance yesterday?" he demanded.  And the mother pointed to the scowling girl in silks. 
The lord knew that she was lying so he said that they would have a contest. So he took a plate and put it on a tray; then he piled some salt in the plate and stuck a pine needle in it. He commanded that they each compose a poem, using that as a subject. In a loud voice, Kakezara sang: 

Put a plate on a tray.

Put some salt on the plate! 

Stick a pine needle in the salt; 
it'll soon fall over!' 

Then she hit the lord on the head and ran off. 

Benizara now took a deep breath, and spoke her composition: 

"A tray and a plate, oh! 

A mountain rises from the plate,

on it, snow has fallen.

Rooted deep into the snow,

a lovely pine tree grows."

And so the nobleman knew which girl had a heart full of poetry, and which a head full of nothing. So he called for preparations to be made, and Benizara was richly dressed.  The lord took her home to his palace to celebrate their marriage. Kakezara's mother watched in silence; then she put Kakezara in a huge, empty basket, saying,' Now, Kakezara, you too may go to the lord's palace.' She dragged her along, but she did it so violently that Kakezara tumbled over the edge of a deep ditch and fell to her death. And she was very sorry for having lost her precious daughter, for it was her fault at the end of the day.

REMARKS ON THIS TALE
This tale is type 480 (kind and unkind stepsisters); ie the Slavic Dyed Moroz (Grandfather Frost), the Germanic Frau Holle, and the Mediterranean Diamonds and Toads; but in a constellation followed by Cinderella motifs: with a lordling, or daimyo, in the role of the prince as it's typical for Japanese lore. The helper is here an onibaba or ogre grandmother, who recalls the fountain fairy and Frau Holle as crones in the Western European versions of the tale. However, in the Russian and other Slavic versions, it's Dyed Moroz and not Baba Yaga who comes to punish the wicked and reward the good maiden. Baba Yaga, however, plays the part of fairy godmother in Vasilisa the Loveliest (Vasilisa Prekrasnaya), the Russian Cinderella... which may suggest contaminatio of both tales due to contact of Japanese culture with Russians.
The name of the heroine recalls both Benio "Benibara" Amakusa in Ouran Host Club and Benio Hanamura in Haikara-san ga tooru, both of which are resourceful, dynamic, self-reliant shero characters. Englished, this name would literally be Scarlet(t), recalling the associations between a maiden in bright red and her coming of age, as seen across cultures in several fairytales (Red Riding Hood, The Snow Queen, The Red Shoes...).

THE SINISTER PATH (AND THE RIGHT ONE)

Here's another plot device that has been as used and is as deeply rooted through the ages as "evil quotes Shakespeare and listens to its favourite opera" or "blondes are naive and innocent unless they're fake blondes." (And, seriously, I know many clever, learned, and/or savvy born blondes; and ditto many decent people fond of, even passionate about, high culture.) We're talking about the fork in which the sinister path and the right one are exactly what it says on the tin can. Robert Frost's famous poem on regret and decisions past may suffice to break the ice:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
and sorry I could not travel both
and be one traveller, long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth;

then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim,
because it was grassy and wanted wear;
though as for that the passing there
had worn them really about the same,

and both that morning equally lay
in leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference.

Now Frost does not specify if he had gone left or right, but the trope appears to tell that he went right, the path "less travelled by." Which brings us to explain the trope as it appears in one of its most detailed examples: an eighteenth-century allegory by Edward Moore, meant for British girls of the Age of Enlightenment, standing on the threshold of adulthood. Coming of age is depicted as a fork at which turning left is wrong and turning right is... well, right. Yet the right-hand path is the dangerous, harsh one, ultimately leading ad augusta per angusta; while the primrose path to the left is easy and pleasant... yet sinister at the end of the day.

“Far to the right thy prospect bend,
Where yonder tow’ring hills ascend;
Lo! there the arduous path’s in view,
Which VIRTUE, and her sons, pursue;
With toil, o’er less’ning earth they rise,
And gain, and gain upon the skies.—
Narrow’s the way her children tread,
No walk for pleasure smoothly spread;
But rough, and difficult, and steep,
Painful to climb, and hard to keep.

“Fruits immature those lands dispense,
A food indelicate to sense,
Of taste unpleasant, yet from those
Pure HEALTH, with cheerful VIGOUR flows;
And strength unfeeling of decay,
Throughout the long laborious way.

“Hence, as they scale that heav’nly road,
Each limb is lighten’d of its load:
From earth refining still they go,
And leave the mortal weight below;
Then spreads the strait, the doubtful clears,
And smooth the rugged path appears;
For custom turns fatigue to ease,
And, taught by VIRTUE, PAIN can please.
“At length, the toilsome journey o’er,
And near the bright celestial shore,
A gulf, black, fearful, and profound,
Appears, of either world the bound.
Thro’ darkness, leading up to light,
Sense backward shrinks, and shuns the sight; 
For there the transitory train,
Of time, and form, and care, and pain,
And matter’s gross incumb’ring mass,
Man’s late associates, cannot pass,
But sinking, quit th’ immortal charge,
And leave the wond’ring soul at large;
Lightly she wings her obvious way,
And mingles with eternal day.

“Thither, O thither, wing thy speed,
Tho’ PLEASURE charm, or PAIN impede;
To such th’ all-bounteous pow’r has giv’n,
For present earth, a future heav’n;
For trivial loss, unmeasur’d gain,
And endless bliss, for transient pain.
Then fear, ah! fear, to turn thy sight,
Where yonder flow’ry fields invite;
Wide on the left the path-way bends,
And with pernicious ease descends;
There, sweet to sense, and fair to show,
New-planted EDEN seems to blow;
Trees that delicious poison bear,
For DEATH is vegetable there.

“Hence is the frame of health unbrac’d,
Each sinew slack’ning at the taste;
The soul to passion yields her throne,
And sees with organs not her own;
While, like the slumb’rer in the night,
Pleas’d with the shadowy dream of light,
Before her alienated eyes
The scenes of fairy-land arise;
The puppet-world’s amusing show,
Dipt in the gaily colour’d bow;
Sceptres, and wreaths, and glitt’ring things,
The toys of infants and of kings,
That tempt along the baneful plain,
The idly wise, and lightly vain;
Till verging on the gully shore,
Sudden they sink, to rise no more.

Edmund Arwaker, in his Pia Desideria, tackles the trope of the bivium as well:

(Book II, Emblem II):

In what a maze of Error do I stray, 
Where various Paths confound my doubtful Way! 
This, to the Right; That to the Left-hand lies: 
Here, Vales descend; there swelling Mountains rise: 
This has an easie, That a rugged way; 
The treach'ry This conceals, That does betray. 
But Whither these so diff'rent Courses go, 
Their wandring Paths forbid, till try'd, to know. 
Not the fictitious Labyrinth of old 
Did in more dubious Paths its Guests infold; 
Here greater Difficulties stay my Feet, 
And on each Road I thwarting Dangers meet. 
Nor I the diff'rent windings only fear, 
(In which the Artist's Skill did most appear:) 
But, more to heighten and increase my Dread, 
Darkness involves each doubtful Step I tread. 



Evan van der Millner on the forked path of the coming of age.

The dualism of this choice was traditionally symbolised by the left and right. The right hand, with which one (most usually) fought and wrote, has always been positive in connotation; its counterpart the left, weak hand. If one surveys the words for 'left' and 'right' in European languages, one finds that the latter are groups of cognates—dexios, dexter, destra and diritto, dereche, direita, droit, rechte, right, deis—and the former mostly unrelated—laios, sinister, lasciato, izquierdo, linke, gauche, left, clé. This is because words for 'left', with their negative connotations, have undergone taboo-substitution from foreign sources; izquierdo, for instance, is Basque ("ezker"). So are esquerre and esquerdo (all Iberian Romance languages have adopted the Basque euphemism. In fact, Italian is the only Romance language to retain the original sinistro instead of replacing it with a euphemism!). To call someone gauche or sinister is to insult him—whereas to call him adroit or dextrous is high praise. It is no coincidence that right should have its two primary meanings, nor that left should come from a root meaning 'lame' or 'weak.' The moral dualism of the hands/lateral directions is not left (!) linguistically implicit among the Greeks, but explicitly formulated; a passage in Aristotle describes a Pythagorean table of opposites, including "left" on the minus pole/yin and "right" on the plus pole/yang.
Throughout late antiquity, the Y was an accepted symbol of pagan ethics, of the choice between the hard path (right) and the easy path (left).

We find in the Pythagorean Y two things: an aesthetic delight in binaries or complementaries, and an ethical attempt to associate virtue with hardship—and it is only by making virtue difficult that the professional moralist asserts his central value in society. If it were acceptable to follow the road of delights and pleasure, what need would one have for authority?

In fact, the first codifier of the Pythagorean bivium in literature may come from the Aeneid, whose sixth book codified the geography of the underworld for centuries throughout fiction:

And it was now past noonday, and the two had spent in talk all the allotted time. Therefore the Sibyl spake: “Night cometh, Æneas, and we waste the day in tears. Lo! here are two roads. This on the right hand leadeth to the palace and to the Elysian plains; and that on the left to Tartarus, the abode of the wicked.” And Deïphobus answered: “Be not wroth, great priestess; I depart to my own place. Do thou, my friend, go on and prosper.”

But as Æneas looked round he saw a great building, and a three-fold wall about it, and round the wall a river of fire. Great gates there were, and a tower of brass, and the fury Tisiphone sat as warder. Also he heard the sound of those that smote upon an anvil, and the clanking of chains. And he stood, and said, “What mean these things that I see and hear?” Then the Sibyl made answer: “The foot of the righteous may not pass that threshold. But when the Queen of hell gave me this office she herself led me through the place and told me all. There sitteth Rhadamanthus the Cretan, and judgeth the dead. And them that be condemned Tisiphone taketh, and the gate which thou seest openeth to receive them. And within is a great pit, and the depth thereof is as the height of heaven. Herein lie the Titans, the sons of Earth, whom Jupiter smote with the thunder; and herein the sons of Aloeus, who strove to thrust the gods from heaven... And over some hangs a great stone ready to fall; and some sit at the banquet, but when they would eat, the Fury at their side forbids, and rises and shakes her torch and thunders in their ears. These are they who while they were yet alive hated their brothers, or struck their parents, or deceived one that trusted them, or kept their riches for themselves, nor cared for those of their own household (a great multitude are they), or stirred up strife. And of these some roll a great stone and cease not, and some are bound to wheels, and some sit for ever crying, ‘Learn to do righteousness and to fear the Gods.’”

And when the priestess had finished these words they hastened on their way. And, after a while, she said, “Lo! here is the palace which the Cyclopés built for the Lord and the Queen of hell. Here must we offer the gift of the bough of gold.” And this being accomplished, they came to the dwellings of the righteous. Here are green spaces, with woods about them; and the light of their heaven is fuller and brighter than that which mortals behold. Another sun they have and many other stars. Some of them contend together in wrestling and running; and some dance in measure, singing the while a pleasant song; and Orpheus, clad in a long robe, makes music, touching his harp, now with his fingers and now with an ivory bow. Here did Æneas marvel to see the mighty men of old, such as were Ilus, and Dardanus. Their spears stood fixed in the earth, and their horses fed about the plain; for they love spear and chariot and horses, even as they loved them upon earth. And others sat and feasted, sitting on the grass in a sweet-smelling grove of bay, whence flows the river which men upon the earth call the Po. Here were they who had died for their country, and holy priests, and poets who had uttered nothing base, and such as had found out witty inventions, or had done great good to men. All these had snow-white garlands on their heads. 

Indeed, this trope still lives on in our days, in the usual positions of the shoulder angel and demon. The latter is always perched on the sinister shoulder and whispers in the left ear of the tempter... A more realistic example can be seen with Iago in various versions of Othello:

Check out this analysis of an advert that equates the right with the norm and life vs. the left with deviance and death here: http://darksidesubliminal.blogspot.com.es/p/youve-reached-crossroads-in-yourjourney.html#.VvKldVLAq9w

In Dokidoki Precure, the corrupted hearts are pulled out of the victims' left breasts, and return to the same place once purified:

In the same series: The "light" half of the heart, that would become Aguri, is the right one ("light" and "right" are, by the way, homophones in Japanese, both pronounced "raito"); while the "dark" half, that would become Regina, is the sinister one.

"Alright, this is how evil works. This is why evil loves free will so much. Because humans use it to follow their hearts. And evil takes advantage of that."
Our hearts are, significantly, turned towards the left side (unless we have dextrocardia). Perchance this is the reason why the primrose path is the one most travelled by...
 
The fact that laevocardia/sinistrocardia is the usual condition of the heart's place brings us to another overly used trope that is actually a fallacy: in fiction, if a thoracic wound (be it on shoulders, back, chest, or sides) has been inflicted on the right side, the injured person survives; if the trauma has been inflicted on the left, that person dies a painful, excruciating death (due to a punctured lung).
I like to call it the Sinister Injury Fallacy. And there are actually works of fiction that subvert the trope, whether Haikara-san ga tooru (Lieutenant Shinobu Ijuuin, his left lung punctured by a bayonet stab, though left for dead on the battlefield, actually survives and reunites with his loved ones) or some of my own stories, including the Ringstetten Saga.


-------------------------------------------------------------

AFTERWORD:
LEFT, RIGHT, AND CENTRE

In other allegories, defending the idea of aurea mediocritas or the golden mean, the right-hand path is as wrong as the one on the left; it is the middle way that is the correct and successful one, shunning both fatal extremes.
John Bunyan's Hill Difficulty may be the most famous example:

I beheld, then, that they all went on till they came to the foot of the Hill Difficulty; at the bottom of which was a spring. There were also in the same place two other ways besides that which came straight from the gate; one turned to the left hand, and the other to the right, at the bottom of the hill; but the narrow way lay right up the hill, and the name of the going up the side of the hill is called Difficulty. Christian now went to the spring, and drank thereof, to refresh himself, and then began to go up the hill, saying—

"The hill, though high, I covet to ascend,
The difficulty will not me offend;
For I perceive the way to life lies here.
Come, pluck up heart, let's neither faint nor fear;
Better, though difficult, the right way to go,
Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe."

The other two also came to the foot of the hill; but when they saw that the hill was steep and high, and that there were two other ways to go, and supposing also that these two ways might meet again, with that up which Christian went, on the other side of the hill, therefore they were resolved to go in those ways. Now the name of one of these ways was Danger, and the name of the other Destruction. So the one took the way which is called Danger, which led him into a great wood, and the other took directly up the way to Destruction, which led him into a wide field, full of dark mountains, where he stumbled and fell, and rose no more.

"Shall they who wrong begin yet rightly end?
Shall they at all have safety for their friend?
No, no; in headstrong manner they set out,
And headlong will they fall at last no doubt."

I looked, then, after Christian, to see him go up the hill, where I perceived he fell from running to walking, and from walking to clambering upon his hands and his knees, because of the steepness of the place. Now, about the midway to the top of the hill was a Pleasant Arbour, made by the Lord of the hill for the refreshing of weary travellers.

So is the yellow brick road, paved with ingots of gold, that appears in a Grimm story decades before the Wizard of Oz:
Die Königstochter aber ließ eine Straße vor ihrem Schloß machen, die war ganz golden und glänzend, und sagte ihren Leuten wer darauf geradeswegs zu ihr geritten käme, das wäre der rechte, und den sollten sie einlassen, wer aber daneben käme, der wäre der rechte nicht, und den sollten sie auch nicht einlassen. Als nun die Zeit bald herum war, dachte der älteste er wollte sich eilen, zur Königstochter gehen und sich für ihren Erlöser ausgeben, da bekäme er sie zur Gemahlin und das Reich daneben. Also ritt er fort, und als er vor das Schloß kam und die schöne goldene Straße sah, dachte er „das wäre jammerschade, wenn du darauf rittest,“ lenkte ab und ritt rechts nebenher. Wie er aber vor das Tor kam, sagten die Leute zu ihm er wäre der rechte nicht, er sollte wieder fortgehen. Bald darauf machte sich der zweite Prinz auf, und wie der zur goldenen Straße kam, und das Pferd den einen Fuß darauf gesetzt hatte, dachte er „es wäre jammerschade, das könnte etwas abtreten,“ lenkte ab und ritt links nebenher. Wie er aber vor das Tor kam, sagten die Leute er wäre der rechte nicht, er sollte wieder fortgehen. Als nun das Jahr ganz herum war, wollte der dritte aus dem Wald fort zu seiner Liebsten reiten und bei ihr sein Leid vergessen. Also machte er sich auf, und dachte immer an sie und wäre gerne schon bei ihr gewesen, und sah die goldene Straße gar nicht. Da ritt sein Pferd mitten darüber hin, und als er vor das Tor kam, ward es aufgethan, und die Königstochter empfieng ihn mit Freuden und sagte er wär ihr Erlöser und der Herr des Königreichs, und ward die Hochzeit gehalten mit großer Glückseligkeit.

The princess, however, had a road made up to her palace which was quite bright and golden, and told her people that whosoever came riding straight along it to her, would be the right wooer and was to be admitted, and whoever rode by the side of it, was not the right one, and was not to be admitted. As the time was now close at hand, the eldest thought he would hasten to go to the King's daughter, and give himself out as her deliverer, and thus win her for his bride, and the kingdom to boot. Therefore he rode forth, and when he arrived in front of the palace, and saw the splendid golden road, he thought, it would be a sin and a shame if he were to ride over that, and turned aside, and rode on the right side of it. But when he came to the door, the servants told him that he was not the right man, and was to go away again. Soon after this the second prince set out, and when he came to the golden road, and his horse had put one foot on it, he thought, it would be a sin and a shame to tread a piece of it off, and he turned aside and rode on the left side of it, and when he reached the door, the attendants told him he was not the right one, and he was to go away again. When at last the year had entirely expired, the third son likewise wished to ride out of the forest to his beloved, and with her forget his sorrows. So he set out and thought of her so incessantly, and wished to be with her so much, that he never noticed the golden road at all. So his horse rode onwards up the middle of it, and when he came to the door, it was opened and the princess received him with joy, and said he was her deliverer, and lord of the kingdom, and their wedding was celebrated with great rejoicing. 

Тем временем девица-красавица в заколдованном замке приказала перед замком вымостить дорогу чистым золотом, которое на солнце как жар горело, и объявила людям своим: «Кто по той дороге прямо к замку поедет, тот и есть мой настоящий жених, того и должны вы впустить в замок; а кто поедет стороною, в объезд дороги, тот не жених мне, и того впускать в замок вы не должны».

Когда год близился уже к концу, старший из королевичей подумал, что уж пора спешить к девице-красавице и, выдав себя за ее избавителя, получить и ее в супруги, и ее королевство в придачу.

Вот и поехал он к замку, и, подъехав к нему, увидел чудную золотую дорогу. Ему пришло в голову: «Такую дорогу и топтать-то жалко», — и свернул он с дороги в объезд с правой стороны. Когда же он подъехал к воротам, люди девицы-красавицы сказали ему, что он не настоящий жених, и он должен был со страхом удалиться.

Вскоре после того второй королевич пустился в дорогу и тоже, подъехав к золотой дороге, подумал: «Этакую дорогу и топтать-то жаль», — и свернул с дороги в объезд налево. Когда же подъехал к воротам, люди девицы-красавицы и его от них спровадили.

Когда же год минул, задумал и младший королевич покинуть лес и ехать к своей милой, чтобы около нее забыть свое горе.

С этими думами он и пустился в дорогу, и все время только о своей милой думал, поспешая до нее поскорее доехать, поэтому он и на золотую до рогу внимания не обратил. Конь его прямо по этой дороге и повез, и когда он к воротам подъехал, ворота были перед ним отворены настежь, и девица-красавица встретила его с радостью, сказав: «Ты мой избавитель и повелитель всего моего королевства».

Затем и свадьба была сыграна веселая-превеселая. 

Mientras tanto, la princesa construyó ante su palacio una calle 
toda de oro y brillantes y dijo a su gente que aquel que cabalgara 
en línea recta hacia ella era el verdadero prometido y lo dejaran 
entrar; pero el que llegara por los lados, no era el verdadero y a 
ése no lo dejaran entrar. 

Casi había transcurrido ya el tiempo fijado, y el mayor pensó 
que había llegado el momento de acudir al lado de la princesa y 
hacerse pasar por su liberador. Partió a caballo y, al llegar ante el 
palacio y ver la hermosa calle de oro, pensó: «Sería una lástima 
que pasaras sobre ella; desvíate y cabalga por la derecha.» 

Cuando llegó ante la puerta, la gente le dijo que él no era el 
verdadero pretendiente y que se volviera por donde había venido. 

Poco después se puso en camino el segundo príncipe. Cuando 
llegó ante la calle de oro y el caballo había puesto una pata sobre 
él, pensó: «Sería un pecado, podía desgastarse algo.» 

Se desvió y cabalgó por la izquierda a lo largo de la calle. Al 
llegar ante la puerta, la gente le dijo que él no era el verdadero 
pretendiente y que se volviera por donde había venido. Cuando 
pasó el año, el tercero abandonó el bosque para ir junto a su ama- 
da y olvidar su dolor con ella. Se puso en camino pensando siem- 
pre en ella y en lo que le gustaría estar a su lado, de tal manera 
que no prestó atención para nada a la calle. Su caballo pasó por 
medio y, cuando llegó ante la puerta, ésta se abrió, la hija del rey 
lo recibió alegremente, diciéndole que era su liberador y el señor 
del reino, y la boda se celebró con gran contento. 

Swedish fairytale writer Richard Gustafsson has written a similar story, titled "Den bästa vägen"... no, this was not the title of the story I am referring to, it's another one... full of allegorical symbolism. The premise is the same as in this Grimmian engagement challenge, and there are also three brothers, who remind me of the Baratheon brothers, vying for the hand of the princess.

The eldest brother, daddy's boy, a rough-and-tumble manly man, takes the too harsh and complicated right-hand path.

The youngest brother, mama's boy, a pampered stripling, takes the too easy and pleasant left-hand path.

The middle brother, no one's boy, the most sensible and level-headed one, takes the path that is neither too harsh nor too easy.

Which one succeeds and which ones fail is so obvious that I refrain from explaining it here.

A TALE OF TWO SCIONS

Go! Princess Precure - Episode 32

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...

The newcomer, who must at least be an acquaintance of Minami's, given that she knows his name, saunters off directly towards her, then....

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.

Pardon me, readers. This is not the story you think. Neither Minami is Anne/Benio nor Kimimaro is Shinobu. But there are similarities between both stories. For instance, both of them could open with the same paragraph: "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 - 

for love -

 oh I did it for love!

Kimimaro as the victim: I saw it coming! I saw it coming! He didn't have himself to blame!
'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 - 

for love -

 oh I did it for love!