Power of Hope: Precure Full Bloom

Episode 10

If you know your magical girl history, you know Nozomi's decision was inevitable. Sailor Moon will always choose to throw herself into the cauldron of chaos, Nurse Angel Ririka will always sacrifice herself to save the planet, and Madoka will always give up herself for her friends. That means that Nozomi and the others will always choose to keep transforming, even if it costs them their lives because that's what magical girls do: they take the more difficult option if it's the one that means saving the most people. They will pay any price for their transformations.

Interestingly, the Cures and Bell are almost trying to do the same thing. Bell sees herself as saving the city by removing the humans. She's been building up a catalogue of hurts since World War Two, looking at the various ways people have been cruel and vicious to each other, and the toll that has taken on the world. Possibly she's been observing since the start of the Industrial Revolution; she tells everyone that she's from “the future,” but as an angel, perhaps the better way to think about it is that she exists out of time. She sees the past and the future at the same time, and that's begun to take a toll on her. Or maybe she just started paying closer attention to how human activity affects the environment after the war. Either way, it's a terrible thing to be forced to see, and it would make sense if it had begun to take a toll on her. Angels have mental health issues, too.

I do think it was the bombings during the war that took the biggest toll on her, though. That's the scene we keep coming back to, and Honoka's grandmother even remarks this week that the sky “looks the same as back then.” That indicates that Bell is replicating what she saw environmentally, reproducing the uncanny twilight of wartime as a message that she is about to unleash her kind of hell. Like all parties involved in a war, she feels that she is righteous in her anger and methods, and maybe she does have a point. Humans haven't proven themselves to be great custodians of Earth, and Bell's in a position where she's very well acquainted with that. She's seen enough to feel justified in removing them. They just keep living down to her expectations, after all.

Does that mean that the Pretty Cures are on the wrong side? It's not a black-and-white question, and there's no right answer. Both Bell and humanity are going to have to change if anything is going to evolve from this situation, and that's where Nozomi's profession as a teacher comes into play. Nozomi works with elementary school kids, and as we saw back in episode one, she's in a position to teach them about the changes that need to be made to keep the planet alive and healthy. She's just one teacher, but she's also not the only one, and all change starts small. The real quest here is to make Bell accept that humans deserve another chance; part two is to go out and prove it. We know that Nozomi cares deeply for her students. It's even something she says to Coco when she tells him why she has to transform and fight. And if she can help to make a change in the world, doesn't she deserve that chance?

Unfortunately, life doesn't operate on a merit-based system. Michiru and Kaoru are making a real go of it, using their streaming series to highlight the Shadows as they investigate them, but not all villains can be reformed. Coco and Nozomi waving death flags as they promise to tell each other something after the battle is alarming. But magical girl stories are all about hope, even when it's not right there in the title. Maybe it goes back to Cure Whip asking the villain of Kira Kira Pretty Cure a la Mode if he can just try to be better or Cure Prism in Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure last week helping Battamonda to see that he's worth the effort she makes to save him. We have to have hope that things can change and act on that hope to make it happen. If Bell's broken heart can be reached (possibly with the aid of Cures Black and White), things could still end up okay.

However, Nozomi has to be ready to sacrifice it all to get there. That's what magical girls do to bring about a better tomorrow.

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Power of Hope: Precure Full Bloom is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.