KiraKira ☆ PreCure a la Mode Episode 25: The Prince and Her Princess

From the preview from the last episode, we could tell that the twenty-fifth episode of KiraKira ☆ PreCure a la Mode would be one that focuses Yukari and Akira. For that reason, I was looking forward to it quite a bit.
Let’s take a look and see if it managed to live up to my expectations.

Prince Nata of the Confetto Kingdom

KiraPati receives a royal visitor in the form of Prince Nata, who hails from the Confetto Kingdom. He just strolls straight in, ignores the other girls and asks Yukari to become his princess. I immediately dislike him.

Nata believes that there are two princes vying for Yukari’s attention

Nata tries to take Yukari back to his country with him, but Akira stops them. Nata then challenges Akira, and should she lose, Yukari will accompany the prince back to the Confetto Kingdom.
Yukari herself is the one to decide that – I wonder if Akira interacting with those other girls right at the beginning of the episode had anything to do with it…
Of course, Ichika, Himari and Aoi cheer for Akira. However, Ciel says the most important thing is to consider Yukari’s feelings.

Nata brings a horse to a 100m sprint

Nata pretty much cheats at all the events, and even threatens to demolish KiraPati itself when they hold a competition to see who can do the best decoration. However, the real highlight from all of this comes when we get the dance competition.

Yukari and Akira, looking just like a princess and prince

I try to limit myself to one screenshot per scene, but this is too good to not share

This beautiful moment is then spoiled by Nata, who pretty much just shoves Akira aside. He tries to lift Yukari, but doesn’t go well. Fortunately, Akira saves Yukari from falling, allowing the prince to take an impromptu dive in the pool.

These two are going to feature prominently in this post

However, Akira has not won the battle yet. Naturally, there’s got to be a baking competition, because this is KiraKira ☆ PreCure a la Mode after all.

Akira talks with Yukari during the night

Akira tells Yukari that she should stop toying with people’s feelings. The prince may be weird, but he is giving his all for her. Yukari says she will go to the Confetto Kingdom with the prince in that case. When Akira asks her way, Yukari tells her to stop looking straight at her like that.

Ciel helps clear the air between Yukari and Akira

Ciel tells Akira that she needs to outright say to Yukari how she feels, even outright stating that ‘love’ is a word that can make hearts sparkle. Ciel is able to convince Yukari and Akira to bake together, and Ichika has a flash of inspiration: chocolate macarons. After all, chocolate and macarons go well together.

Yukari apologises whilst baking with Akira

Once they finish them, Yukari and Akira go to deliver the chocolate macrons to the prince. On the way there, Yukari confides in Akira how she is actually weak. Others consider her to be perfect, but that is not how Yukari truly is at all. Turns out that Julio was right when he called her weak.

Akira tells Yukari to share her feelings with her

Akira has no problems with how Yukari actually is. Yukari is Yukari, and if she ever needs to share her feelings, than Yukari is there for her.

Elisio steals the kira-kiraru from Nata’s creation

Elisio is able to separate Yukari from her transformation trinket when they arrive on the roof, leaving Akira to fight him alone.

Cure Chocolat ends up trapped by Elisio

When Elisio turns his attention towards Yukari, Chocolat refuses to give up. She says she will protect Yukari no matter what, because she loves her. Chocolat breaks free, and falls to the ground. Yukari rushes over to her.

Chocolat apologises for making Yukari cry

Once again, another beautiful moment gets cut short, this time courtesy of Elisio. He summons the monster of the week.

The monster of the week

So their foe is a lily… that is almost certainly on purpose. Ichika and the others arrive mere moments afterwards, and Ciel returns Yukari’s transformation trinket to her. They transform and fight the monster of the week.

Macaron and Chocolat combo attack

Cure Parfait finishes it off afterwards, and then Elisio retreats after telling the Cures his name.
After that, Yukari tells Nata that she cannot go to Confetto with him. Before he departs the prince tells Akira to bring happiness to Yukari – a pact between men, if you will. Yep, Prince Nata failed to realise that Akira is actually female and nobody bothered to correct him.

Yukari may not be perfect, but her smile sure is

You know, its episodes like this one that make the ‘I love pretty girls’ lyric from the ending theme amuse me a great deal.

I may not like Prince Nata at all, but this episode impressed me a whole lot. The whole thing between Yukari and Akira felt like something lifted directly out of a yuri series – PreCure is known for its yuri subtext, but there are occasions when it just becomes plain old text. Suite PreCure♪, DokiDoki! PreCure and Maho Girls PreCure! are arguably the most prominent examples of this, and after this episode, I would happily include Akira and Yukari in that list of examples.

I just can not state how much I adored this episode. I thought the series had peaked with Cure Parfait’s introduction, but I have been proven wrong in the most glorious manner possible. This is, without a doubt, my favourite episode of KiraKira ☆ PreCure a la Mode.
Though considering we still have a good twenty-odd episodes left to go, there’s plenty of opportunities for this one to be surpassed. It’ll have to be something truly impressive, however.

Next time we’re getting an ocean themed episode, in which the Cures bump into a familiar face.

It is currently 30/07/2017 as I type this, so I leave you with this:

Happy birthday, Cure Parfait

Yep, 30th July is Ciel Kirahoshi’s birthday.