All right... Live from Gothenburg, the much expected Yukakira-centric episode that would become another Shakespearean-style review... and that provides as much food for thought as it releases endorphins, actually!
Kirakira Precure à la Mode
My Own Review
Episode 29
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MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
The feels, the feels, the feels, the feels, the FEEEEELS!!
You know what makes an OTP an OTP. You know the Good Book says precious metals are tried in the furnace and understand the metaphor. But this version takes it up to eleven...
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The initial disagreement between introvert Yukari and far more outspoken Akira... Elysio and that mirror into the dark side of Yukari's heart... it gives me such Snow Queen vibes that I see it was no mistake at all to make a Macaron de Chocolat fusion with the fairytale. That mirror containing a hall of mirrors of a child Yukari trying her utmost to be perfect in every way to please her elders... and also the lonely inner child striving for recognition... Again, like the Prince to the Princess in the Fourth Story, winning her through his clever liveliness in the fated test-interview, and also like Othello and Desdemona to one another (she loved him for all of his misfortunes and her compassion made her heart be his), Akira sees Yukari for who she is as a person instead of for what she is as the Kotozume heiress. Warts and all.
There is a relevant verse from Christian sacred texts that can be applied to our oneesama's character arc, from which I took the title of this review (I'm referring to the significance of these verses not as religious text, but as inspirational literature that people of any faith or creed can identify with):
When I was a child, I thought as a child, I spoke as a child, I acted as a child. When I came of age, I cast aside all childish ways and childish things. Still today we see through a looking-glass darkly, but one day we shall see face to face. Now I know but in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. Only three things remain: faith, hope, and love. And greatest of these three is love.
(Coincidentally this "love" in the source text is agape, or unconditional love: ai in Japanese!)
As Yukari and her inner child debate: the darkness within will never fade away from any person, even though being in the light makes the sorrow stand out... Which reminds me of The Chasm of Confusion/Le gouffre aux chimères, coincidentally:
La douceur du printemps ne te semble agréable que pas qu'elle succède aux rigueurs de l'hiver. La lumière n'éxiste qu'en opposition a l'obscurité. La vie n'est précieuse que parce que la mort est inévitable. Toutes les choses possèdent son contraire. Ce sont les forces positives et négatives de l'univers qui s'équilibrent sans cesser.
(The warmth of springtime is less pleasant than the fact that it comes after a harsh winter. Light cannot exist if there isn't any darkness. Life is precious just because death is inevitable. Everything has its opposite. These are the positive and negative forces of the universe, endlessly balancing each other.)
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CATHARSIS. All this trial will leave you as purified as Yukari herself as she symbolically embraces her inner child, reconciling with her past self while defining her own pathway.
And the battle, Chocolat carrying Macaron as a bridegroom would carry the bride... and those dance steps they carried out... my craving for fight-or-flight reactions is as satisfied as my craving for existential philosophy.
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No life can escape being blown about
by the winds of change and chance,
and, though you never know all the steps...
you must learn to join the dance...
Anyway, next up is yet another review in the same Shakespearean tone, for the spotlight has shifted to our resident bifauxnen, the other half of our OTP! It appears that Elysio will capture our faint-hearted little girl as a lure for her older sister... I wonder if Yukari's sang-froid will temper Akira's impulsive way of doing things, especially when Miku is on the line...
IN NEXT EPISODE (30),
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Kirakira Precure à la Mode
My Own Review
Episode 29
Through a Looking-Glass Darkly
Dramatis personae:
- Yukari Kotozume, a wistful heiress.
- Akira Kenjo, a strong, earnest warrior.
- Elysio, a feminine villain.
- Yukari's Inner Child.
- Shino Kotozume, matriarch of her clan, grandmother to Yukari.
- Ciel Kirahoshi, an experienced pâtissière prodigy.
- Customers, high-schoolers, primary-schoolers, three secondary-school KiraPâti employers.
MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
The feels, the feels, the feels, the feels, the FEEEEELS!!
You know what makes an OTP an OTP. You know the Good Book says precious metals are tried in the furnace and understand the metaphor. But this version takes it up to eleven...
The initial disagreement between introvert Yukari and far more outspoken Akira... Elysio and that mirror into the dark side of Yukari's heart... it gives me such Snow Queen vibes that I see it was no mistake at all to make a Macaron de Chocolat fusion with the fairytale. That mirror containing a hall of mirrors of a child Yukari trying her utmost to be perfect in every way to please her elders... and also the lonely inner child striving for recognition... Again, like the Prince to the Princess in the Fourth Story, winning her through his clever liveliness in the fated test-interview, and also like Othello and Desdemona to one another (she loved him for all of his misfortunes and her compassion made her heart be his), Akira sees Yukari for who she is as a person instead of for what she is as the Kotozume heiress. Warts and all.
There is a relevant verse from Christian sacred texts that can be applied to our oneesama's character arc, from which I took the title of this review (I'm referring to the significance of these verses not as religious text, but as inspirational literature that people of any faith or creed can identify with):
When I was a child, I thought as a child, I spoke as a child, I acted as a child. When I came of age, I cast aside all childish ways and childish things. Still today we see through a looking-glass darkly, but one day we shall see face to face. Now I know but in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. Only three things remain: faith, hope, and love. And greatest of these three is love.
(Coincidentally this "love" in the source text is agape, or unconditional love: ai in Japanese!)
As Yukari and her inner child debate: the darkness within will never fade away from any person, even though being in the light makes the sorrow stand out... Which reminds me of The Chasm of Confusion/Le gouffre aux chimères, coincidentally:
La douceur du printemps ne te semble agréable que pas qu'elle succède aux rigueurs de l'hiver. La lumière n'éxiste qu'en opposition a l'obscurité. La vie n'est précieuse que parce que la mort est inévitable. Toutes les choses possèdent son contraire. Ce sont les forces positives et négatives de l'univers qui s'équilibrent sans cesser.
(The warmth of springtime is less pleasant than the fact that it comes after a harsh winter. Light cannot exist if there isn't any darkness. Life is precious just because death is inevitable. Everything has its opposite. These are the positive and negative forces of the universe, endlessly balancing each other.)
CATHARSIS. All this trial will leave you as purified as Yukari herself as she symbolically embraces her inner child, reconciling with her past self while defining her own pathway.
And the battle, Chocolat carrying Macaron as a bridegroom would carry the bride... and those dance steps they carried out... my craving for fight-or-flight reactions is as satisfied as my craving for existential philosophy.
by the winds of change and chance,
and, though you never know all the steps...
you must learn to join the dance...
Anyway, next up is yet another review in the same Shakespearean tone, for the spotlight has shifted to our resident bifauxnen, the other half of our OTP! It appears that Elysio will capture our faint-hearted little girl as a lure for her older sister... I wonder if Yukari's sang-froid will temper Akira's impulsive way of doing things, especially when Miku is on the line...
IN NEXT EPISODE (30),
