Episode 16 of KiraKira ☆ PreCure a la Mode is one that focuses on Yukari, and that’s all I really need to know.
Ichika and the others discuss Julio’s attacks
The episode opens with the girls discussing Julio’s attacks and wondering why he has been targeting people that they know. Yukari pretty much figures out that it will be her turn to be in the spotlight next – after all, the other four have had their turns.
After the opening credits, KiraPati is incredibly busy but Yukari seems to be in her own world. She takes off without a word. Ichika fears it might be because she kept messing up.
Akira goes after Yukari to see what’s up
Yukari says that sometimes she feels like she loses track of what it means to ‘like’ something. Then Rio shows up and goes on about everyone at KiraPati having their own unique skills except for Yukari. He even says he is willing to lend an ear to Yukari’s troubles. She wonders how Rio happens to know so much about the girls at KiraPati.
Ichika and the others than arrive, and Yukari ends up inviting them to her tea house – along with Rio.
Yukari and her grandmother even prepared kimonos for everyone
Yukari serves tea, with an elegant tea service. She then challenges Rio to do the same, and he manages to pull it off. Yukari seems to notice something off about his tea, however.
Yukari opens up to Rio about her family
After the tea service, Rio analyses Yukari and says that she tests and pushes the people around her to distract herself from the pain of not being able to enjoy anything. Yukari says that she has an older sister who is the heir to the family. Her family doted on her sister, so Yukari got left behind.
Following on from that, Ichika sees Yukari preparing tea and has a flash of inspiration.
White Whale Daifuku
KiraPati becomes a tea house, and Ichika sends invites to everyone. Naturally, Yukari’s fanclub shows up – guess who the victims of Julio’s attack are this week.
Julio targets Yukari’s fanclub
One of the girls from Yukari’s fanclub leaves their handkerchief behind. Yukari decides to take it back to its owner, and naturally she happens upon Julio.
One solo transformation sequence later…
Julio’s weapon of the week
Cure Macaron starts to fight Julio, even accompanied by an insert song. However, she soon gets herself caught – which immediately cuts the music off.
Julio catches Cure Macaron
Julio then brings up Yukari’s sister, saying that Yukari must have been lonely whilst everyone else doted on her older sibling. Turns out that Yukari has quite the surprise for Julio.
Macaron jumps back into action, and her insert song starts back up again
Macaron asks how Julio knows about her sister, and he says that she was the one who told him. Macaron has been suspicious of Rio all along, but this confirms it – everything about her sister: that was a lie. Yukari does not have a sister.
Having got the better of Julio, Yukari unleashes a new attack.
Macaron Julienne
Her attack seem similar to Julio’s weapon, except hers has an added twist to it.
“Meow”
Macaron catches Julio off-guard with this, and mocks him
The rest of the Cures arrive, and the usual finishing move is employed to purify Julio’s weapon.
After the battle, Yukari’s grandmother tries Yukari’s tea. She her it still needs work. Yukari can’t help but laugh as that means that she can continue to enjoy working on it. Yukari’s grandmother also brings up Rio’s tea – it seems something was off about it.
I’m probably biased here as Yukari is my favourite of the KiraKira Cures, but this episode was a particularly good one. It was particularly entertaining to see Cure Macaron just get the better of Julio. I think pretty highly of Yukari, and moments like those present compelling evidence for that.
The insert song that played whilst Macaron fought Julio – “CAT MEETS SWEETS” – was pretty great as well.
I’d go as far as to say that this is up there as one of the best episodes of KiraKira ☆ PreCure a la Mode yet.
Next time, it seems that Julio has one last experiment to perform. His target? Ichika.
Rory Muses 
As expected Yukari knocked it out of the park. She is GLORIOUS!