Delicious Party Precure

Episode 19

About a minute before Black Pepper showed up this week, it occurred to me that neither he nor Cure Finale are aware of each other's existence. While that's hardly a make-or-break moment for our heroes, it does bring with it the potential for some tension, as we see during the fight against this week's monster: as Black Pepper is rushing to Cure Precious' rescue, Cure Finale steals his thunder, right down to princess-carrying Precious out of harm's way. While we don't see a huge reaction from Black Pepper, he does look a bit lost and confused, and it seems likely, or at least possible, that his next major plot point will be figuring out how Finale changes his role in the fights. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since it could very easily result in a more coordinated role for the five of them…assuming Mari's past with Cinnamon doesn't get in the way.

As far as major plots go, that's likely to be a significant one. While we don't know much beyond the very basic facts, Amane's addition to the team provides a major piece of information: that it was the Bundoru Gang who previously stole the Recipe Bon when Mari was a bit younger. This news floors him, because he was apparently under the impression that a member of the CooKingdom had taken it, a man named Cinnamon. Since this was clearly Takumi's dad, that explains a bit more why he decided to stay put rather than make an attempt to clear up whatever misunderstanding existed (we knew he'd somehow screwed up, just not the specifics), but it also opens the door to tensions between Black Pepper and the rest of the team. Mari didn't just assume Cinnamon had caused a minor kerfuffle; he thought he was an active traitor to the CooKingdom, and if he thought that, probably the rest of the kingdom did as well. And if his father was so poorly treated by his compatriots, why would Takumi want to help those same people? The saving grace is that Takumi's in it for Yui more than anything, but he already distrusts Mari, so this is definitely something worth keeping an eye on.

Meanwhile Finale is fitting right in with the rest of the team, nicely melding her skills with the other Cures to perform coordinated attacks and help. It's interesting that we twice see the four girls divided into two different sets of two, each equally as successful in their own way: Kokone and Amane make a well-matched cake-baking team, Yui and Ran's less detail-oriented styles work well together, Spicy and Yum-Yum successfully take out part of the motto ubau-zo, and the teamwork of Precious and Finale finishes off the rest. It's an excellent way to showcase that these four really are a solid team, able to switch partners depending on the mission and still come out on top; they work well with each other's strengths and weaknesses. This is especially nice to see since Ran and Amane could very easily have had an oil-and-water relationship, given their personalities, but the presence of Yui and Kokone help to balance their conflicting approaches to life smoothly. While all groups of Cures do tend to work well together, this really does feel like one of the most balanced, which again, makes me wonder how Black Pepper/Takumi is going to find his role as the plot thickens.

Narcistoru may have something to say about their teamwork as well, of course. He's acting mildly amused that Gentlu became Cure Finale, but he may be seething underneath, especially since Amane is busy giving information about the Bundoru Gang to the CooKing and CooQueen. He's already needling her about how thoroughly she's switched sides, and I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to take a page out of Dairuizen's book and up his harassment as things go on. Although given the plot of next week's episode – table manners – maybe he'll just show up and burp the alphabet at the table or something. You never quite know with villains like him.

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Delicious Party♡Precure is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.