Melon bread goes missing in the twentieth episode of Tropical-Rouge! PreCure, but it is not just your garden variety melon bread. No, it is Premium Tropical Melon Bread. Such a valuable item going missing needs someone to investigate the case: that’s where Minori steps up as a detective.
Manatsu prays to get the Premium Tropical Melon Bread
In this episode, Manatsu manages to acquire some rare Premium Tropical Melon Bread, only for it to disappear shortly afterward. Minori investigates the case, but that just ends up with the Tropical Club accusing each other. That has a negative impact when the enemy attacks, but one of them suddenly remembers something during the battle…
Manatsu has discovered her melon bread has pulled a vanishing act
So what we get here is effectively a detective episode of Tropical-Rouge! PreCure, courtesy of Minori. We get red herrings, false accusations and some funky glasses.
Detective Minori is on the case!
It was pretty amusing how Minori was pulling those glasses out of her bag in the background whilst the other girls were tending to Manatsu who was in a state of shock over her missing melon bread. From what we see in this episode, Minori seems to be the type to really get into the novels she reads.
Tensions run high as the Tropical Club accuse each other of stealing Manatsu’s melon bread
I think Minori’s got a little way to go before she can call herself Sherlock Holmes, or perhaps the Detective Pikarin she admires isn’t actually all that good. Whatever the case may be, plenty of accusations get thrown around within the Tropical Club. At least nobody tried to accuse Manatsu, I guess, since she is the victim in all of this.
Bakery sign Zenzen Yarane-da
Sure is inconvenient of the enemy to attack when the Tropical Club aren’t exactly seeing eye-to-eye. PreCure enemies do have a talent for timing their attacks like that, though. Also, if I’m recalling correctly, this episode marks the first time we get a particular thing since Cure La Mer’s debut.
The full Tropical-Rouge team
This is the first time in the season that all five girls have transformed simultaneously, as far as I remember. (I’ll be honest, I’m quite tired at the time of writing due to a certain VSinger’s debut, so if I’m remembering incorrectly, that’s my excuse).
Before now, some circumstance or other would often result in at least one member arriving late to the battle, at least once Cure La Mer had debuted. But now they all get to transform together.
Summer and La Mer
The mystery of the missing melon bread also happens to be solved during the fight, and we get a small Manatsu x Laura moment. Although it may have been fairly brief, the fight against the Zenzen Yarane-da was decent.
Another Laura outfit that I like.
This was a fun episode. It gave Minori some time to shine, but also had everyone involved in the plot. I wonder if any viewers were able to solve the case before it was revealed in the episode…
Next time, summer break!
Rory Muses 