REVIEW: ‘Tropical-Rouge PreCure,’ Episode 5 – “Here Comes Senpai! Burn, Cure Flamingo!”

Last episode, Mantasu, and Sango met Ichinose Minori, a second-year honor student at their school. A fan of mermaids, Minori was immediately enthralled with Laura. This led to her eventually becoming Cure Papaya, the third member of the Pretty Cure quartet. Now, in Tropical-Rouge PreCure Episode 5, viewers will meet the final Pretty Cure warrior of the group: Cure Flamingo.

Tropical-Rouge PreCure Episode 5, “Here Comes Senpai! Burn, Cure Flamingo”, we kick off things with Manatsu walking home from school. Things are going fine until she inadvertently insults a bunch of bullies, only to be saved by a super-strong, cool red-haired senior student. That student is one Miss Takizawa Asuka, another student at Aozora City Junior High School.

Laura doesn’t waste time recruiting Asuka to the Pretty Cure crew. In fact, the moment Mantasu and Sango go to find her, she pops out of the mermaid aqua pot and demands Asuka to join. However, Asuka isn’t so keen, which causes the central conflict for Tropical-Rouge PreCure Episode 5.

Asuka is immediately cool. If I were a teenager, I’d want to be her friend. She’s voiced by Seto Asami, which makes her extra cool. Fans will know Seto Asami as the voice of Raphtalia (Shield Hero), Chiyuki (Death Parade), or Kugisaki Nobara (Jujutsu Kaisen). It also helps that from the jump, Asuka isn’t even surprised by Laura. She’s hardly phased. That solidly reinforced her “cool senior” status.

Tropical-Rouge PreCure Episode 5 also includes a b-plot focused on Manatsu’s plans for creating a new school club. She’s been dreaming of joining a school club since episode 2 and was even encouraged by Laura to create a Pretty Cure club in episode 4. However, all of Manatsu’s efforts fall through when she’s informed that her club idea is too vague. After all, you can’t have a club for “enjoying your daily school life” without more details into what that means.

Thankfully, Asuka is there to come to her rescue, albeit reluctantly. She promises to do them a solid just this once. However, I think keen viewers already know that she’s about to become Manatsu’s brand new friend. And honestly, that’s the best part of Tropical-Rouge PreCure Episode 5. I love seeing the quartet work together and steadily become closer. You can see the beginning of a really powerful, fulfilling friendship, both as school friends and teammates. It’ll be great to see the Pretty Cures work in unison in future episodes.

Of course, the need for Asuka’s friendship becomes more pressing when the monster of the week appears in the back half of Tropical-Rouge PreCure Episode 5. Things quickly get tough for the cures, pushing them to the limits of their new abilities. Due to having a strong sense of justice, Asuka can’t stomach that. Naturally, she grabs a cure compact and gets ready to transform and become the stunning Cure Flamingo, the legendary Pretty Cure warriors’ final member.

The new transformation in this episode was not great, which is a shame. I, personally, was really excited about seeing Cure Flamingo’s transformation. To have it be less than stellar kind of sucks. There are many visible dropped frames, some weird smears, and a general roughness during her entire transformation sequence. 

Maybe I wouldn’t have noticed this if we only saw her transformation. However, Tropical-Rouge PreCure Episode 5 features all the girls transforming, which only made Cure Flamingo’s hiccups all the more noticeable. And while it’s not completely egregious compared to Cure Summer, Cure Coral, and Cure Papaya, Cure Flamingo’s is weak. Hopefully, that’ll be fixed in future episodes. It would be a shame only to have 75% of the transformations be decent. 

Thankfully, the rest of Tropical-Rouge PreCure Episode 5 is just as enjoyable as previous episodes, providing yet another solid entry into the show. Cure Flamingo’s cool big sister energy is an excellent addition to the cast, as is Asuka in general. I think she’ll further balance the dynamic between the girls as they get into the plot.

In the end, I’m looking forward to seeing how the show’s going to progress now that Laura has all of her Pretty Cure warriors to fight for the Grand Ocean. I think we’ve got an enjoyable story ahead of us!

Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure is now streaming on Crunchyroll.