[DreamSword]

Smile Pretty Cure Episode 9: No Way! Yayoi's Leaving Us!?

Listen to the podcast HERE.

As has been noted many times before, Smile is a very simple season.

Case in point, this is an episode that could've easily become something incredibly dark incredibly fast.

There could easily exist another version of this story where the misguided prank that Yayoi attempts to pull spirals out of control, and results in everyone distancing themselves from her.

But that's not this show, and really, I find the ground that Smile holds; that it's a show made to in the end make kids feel good about themselves and world around them, to be its greatest strength and most admirable trait. Everything in this episode ends in the most positive outcome it can, and that's just swell.

Not to mention just the sheer novelty of there being an April Fool's Day themed episode for a show like this in general. It's not something I've often seen and how exactly the holiday was weaved into the episode was interesting to witness. Unlike, say, alot of "Christmas" episodes, April Fools is very much one of the driving forces behind the plot.

Not to mention no one feels out of character here either. Sure, the whole situation could've been resolved in about five minutes had Yayoi asserted herself in what she's trying to say for nearly the whole episode, but that's not in her character, and the group talking over her is a mistake on their part that they come to learn from by the end. Lies and be hurtful, and telling the truth is often hard, but it's important to be clear on these things for many reasons. People's' feelings being one of them.

It's not my favorite episode of Smile Precure, and definitely not my favorite episode focused on Yayoi, but it's a very fun time overall, and was a big steeping stone into why Yayoi became my favorite character for the season.