Delicious Party Precure

Episode 8

Let us have a moment of silence for Takumi's attempt to invite Yui out on a burger date. Poor boy. At least he's figured out that the reliable way to her heart is, in fact, through her stomach. But with the reveal that Amane is Gentlu plus the preview image of a new Bundoru Gang member, we do have to wonder if Takumi's disappointment will turn him to the dark side. I admit, it doesn't seem very likely since the one boy we see in the opening theme is on the Cures' side. But Gentlu's exhaustion and confusion suggest that she may not be fully aware that she's also Amane, which could indicate that her love of food (and Curesta, the in-world social media platform) was somehow perverted without her knowledge. It may be a long shot, but it's definitely worth considering.

Gentlu being Amane does go a long way to explaining why the Bundoru Gang has been using social media, though. Not that bad guys can't also enjoy such things (just look at the real world), but given that both the Bundoru Gang and the CooKingdom seem to exist in a fully separate dimension than Oishina Town, it really does make more sense that a denizen of our world would be tipping them off to Curesta. And poor Ran has certainly been making their job easier with her posting habits, something she has a hard time dealing with this week. She knows that she really ought to stop posting, because really, why just hand information over to the enemy? But she also really enjoys her social media life, and the thought that she has to stop is remarkably unappealing to her. We certainly could take this as commentary on social media addiction, but apart from “be careful what you post because you never know who's reading” I don't think that's the goal here. Rather it's about Ran figuring out how she can have both – the joy of continuing to review local restaurants and the assurance that she's not just feeding Bundoru information she'd rather they didn't have. While her solution is hardly perfect (even if she gets take-out she's still going to say the name of the restaurant) it is a decent compromise, because at least the Bundoru Gang will have to put in a bit of extra effort to find the places.

And that little extra time could actually turn Ran's feed into a way that the Cures can get the drop on Bundoru. Think about it – if they already know that Gentlu is reading Ran's social media, they can stake out the places she talks about, getting there before Bundoru and thereby getting the drop on them. I'm not sure that's occurred to anyone (maybe Mari?), but it would be a neat way to turn the tables. It seems more likely that Amane will simply come over to the Cures' side without them needing to get clever, but it's still an interesting approach that the show could take. Either way, it will almost certainly be better for Amane than what she's currently doing – work is clearly taking a toll on her. That makes her look a bit like a foil figure to Yui, whose boundless energy comes from both her endless intake of yummy food and her enthusiasm for it. Amane, on the other hand, is using food as a weapon, actively working to make it less appealing to consumers, which almost certainly includes herself. She's not eating the amount of good food that the Cures are, and that's perhaps contributing to her lack of energy and general malaise. Even if she doesn't join the team, our girls can certainly help her to get out from under Godatz's thumb and fill her up with enough food to show her the errors of her ways.

Delicious Party♡Precure has given us eight very plot-filled episodes, so it is perhaps to be expected that next week's looking more on the lighter side. But given Ran's and Kokone's vastly different personalities, a clash was almost certainly coming, and getting it out of the way early is a good plan. It still looks like there'll be some significant plot points, though – and the introduction of a new member of the Bundoru Gang has a lot of potential to change the landscape that Mari and the girls have only just gotten used to.

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Delicious Party♡Precure is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.