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Precure Day 133

Episode: Futari wa Precure Splash Star 35 - “The FInal Round is Here! Fight, Nagi Jr. High Softball Team!” Date watched: 17 June 2019 Original air date: 8 October 2006 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/6r2R12Q Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

Now that’s an epic game turnaround

It’s a sports tournament episode. You’ve seen this a dozen times in shows and movies from all over the world. This story is pretty universal. So how does Splash Star manage to make it resonant? Very carefully. Obviously, after 35 episodes, we’re invested in Saki and her friends, and want to see them succeed. They don’t waste time getting to the game, either, we jump right into it after the cold open and intro. And right off the bat (no pun intended), and similar to something Max Heart did once or twice, we see that their opponents are every bit as competent, because they get a run on YJH immediately.

Saki takes it personally because she’s the pitcher, but the captain, Izumida (who may have appeared before but has never been named) tells her to brush it off. They manage to get a triple out on the opposing team (see video) and Izumida takes a minute to further encourage Saki to relax and just play her best.

They proceed to the seventh and final inning with a score of 1-0, neither team giving an inch, and in the top of the inning they keep Ohnami Academy from scoring, so all Yuunagi has to do is score 2 runs in their at bat to win the game. Unfortunately, after Izumida makes it to first base, the next two batters strike out. Saki steps up to bat but gets two strikes. The pressure and tension at this point are off the charts, but she hits the third ball and starts running. Time slows down as she hits first base, thinking they’ve finally managed to turn the game around, but as she rounds the corner to run for second she sees Izumida just standing there between the bases, looking to the outfield, and she sees that the centerfielder has caught the ball, getting an out on Yuunagi and ending the game.

Yes, that’s right, after all this investment, you’re expecting a come-from-behind victory but instead they actually had the main characters lose their final game! How often does that happen? It’s a bold storytelling move and I love it. Sometimes you can try your hardest and still lose, whether due to personal blunder or just because your opponent was better than you. As Picard said: “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life.” (I’m not a Trekkie but that’s a good line)

Saki is distraught, because she was fighting her hardest to win for all the graduating seniors in their last game, but Izumida is happy that they had a great game, and tells her that even if they lost, there was still meaning and value in the match, a measure of her maturity. However, Kintolesky was in the audience, and he has other ideas. He finds Saki moping with Mai on the dugout bench after everyone else has left, and while he apologizes for intruding on their moment of weakness, he grills her for what he feels is a naive belief that there is meaning in losing. Saki gets mad at the insult, not towards her, but towards the upperclassmen she fought so hard for, and when they transform into Bloom and Egret she chews him out. Kintolesky is unmoved, and uses a liquid metal Uzainaa to thrash the girls about in an honestly impressive fight.

Bloom continues to retaliate against his reductive values, spouting the importance of setting high goals and doing your all to reach them. Progress of any kind is a plus! Kintolesky just doesn’t get it and he charges the girls himself, but Moop and Foop release the Spiral Rings, and Bloom and Egret use Spiral Heart Splash to destroy the Uzainaa. Kintolesky tries to block it but he realizes he can’t hold it back and retreats, honestly admitting that today was his loss and there’s no excuses to be made.

Afterwards, Saki heads off for the bus to return to school (why has it been sitting there for hours, it’s dusk now and it was broad daylight when the game finished), but she decides that to prepare the team for next year they should all run back to school instead! Izumida likes this idea and has them do it, and we close on this lovely shot of the team.

I think the biggest flaw of this otherwise fantastic episode is that we’ve never met Izumida before. In FWPC, we met the lacrosse team captain Yumiko on multiple occasions. Even if she wasn’t very prominent, she was established and named. I can’t recall Izumida appearing before this, certainly not named. I suppose this is related to the lacrosse team not having an apparent coach so the captain was more prominent, while Ms. Shinohara takes the mentor role in this season. Anyway, while I respect Saki’s conviction to win the game for Izumida and the other seniors, it would have meant more to me if we were also invested in Izumida herself.

I suppose I also have to criticize Saki’s specific motivation. She feels that she is letting down the graduating seniors at YJH by losing the championship game. But the other school also has graduating seniors who have also worked hard to get to this championship game, and also want to score a victory. They aren’t villains, it’s is a sport, and there will always be winners and losers. Someone has to lose. In this case, it was YJH. I’m not trying to “both sides” this too hard but I think Saki is investing too much into the idea of winning for the sake of her team rather than trying her absolute best to have a good game between opponents who have proved their strength by making it this far. (That sounds like something Kintolesky would say) It’s a lesson Nagisa actually figured out in the latter half of Max Heart.

How about some easter eggs? They seem to have reused a background from FW/MH because in several shots you can see students in the Verone uniforms.

There’s also a lot of reused animation in this episode, from within the same episode but probably also other softball eps. I haven’t paid close enough attention to the various shots used throughout the show, but in this episode I saw repeat pitches, swings, and running to bases. Sometimes they mirrored the shot to cover up the recycling. Also there’s only one still frame of the opposing school’s students cheering that they use two or three times.

What new animation there is for the softball games is average to low quality. The overhead shots are bereft of detail, making it hard to figure out what’s going on. The close-ups are fine. They seem to have put most of the budget into that fight with Kintolesky and the uzainaa, which is really dynamic and fluid. There are some wonderful facial expressions in this one, so be sure to check the gallery.

On the music side there’s extensive use of Saki’s march theme, which is normal for softball episodes. It really gets you in the mood.

On the whole it’s a good episode that could have been improved slightly in a few areas, but it bucks the trend of having the protagonist’s team win their championship and I appreciate that a lot. Next time, Mai is under a lot of stress from her peers and I’ve got some things to say about that. Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: well there was a “Zekkouchou nani” (”I thought I was in top form”) by Saki, and a “You’re in Top Form” by a teammate, so I’ll count it collectively as one even though she never explicitly said “Zekkouchou nari!”

Miracle Drop Count: 2

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