The character focused episodes continue, with Himari getting the spotlight in KiraKira ☆ PreCure a la Mode‘s 28th episode.

A magazine article features KiraPati

The photo shown above is a pretty accurate representation of how I feel about Himari’s role overall: supporting her friends from the background, not being very prominent. However, that changes for this episode. This thanks in part to a certain customer visiting KiraPati.

The famous dessert genius, Yuu Tachibana

Yuu wants to test Himari’s ‘sweets are science’ knowledge, and make her his assistant at an event if she passes. Needless to say Himari passes his test with flying colours, though there is one question she can’t come up with the answer to: what a sponge cake needs to rise properly.

Himari and Yuu on stage in front of a crowd

The event that Himari will be assisting with is a giant sweets science experiment; more specifically, Yuu will try to create a giant sponge cake. He introduces Himari, though she isn’t exactly feeling confident being in front of a crowd.

Himari’s friends cheer her on

The event draws all types

Of course, creating a giant sponge cake won’t be easy, as Ciel lets Ichika know. There’s several factors to consider. A giant sponge cake will also need a giant oven. Fortunately, Yuu has that covered.

The Tachibana Ultra Power-Cooking Mega-Oven

The preparations to make the cake get underway. Naturally, lots of eggs are needed for the cake, and they need to be bathed at a certain temperature. As Yuu starts rambling about hot springs, the temperature increases. It takes Himari a little while, but she soon gather the courage to say that the bath should be removed.

Himari giving it her all

After that, Himari is able to settle into her role as assistant and the preparation of the giant sponge cake continues without any problems.

The end result

When they get the sponge cake out of the oven, it looks like it was a success. However, it ends up collapsing due to the balance between the weight and lift being off.
Himari believes that she is the one to blame, but that is not the case at all. Yuu tells her that the experiment was a success, and that the most important thing needed for a sponge cake to rise is the baker’s feelings.

Himari gets an ovation from the audience

Since Himari put her feelings into it, the giant sponge cake is filled with kira-kiraru even though it didn’t come out perfectly. Of course, this is the cue for Grave to show up and bring forth the monster of the week after taking the kira-kiraru of all the civilians.

Monster of the week

Grave tells Cure Custard that she can’t do anything. Cure Custard believes otherwise, and she coordinates joint attacks on the monster.

Custard gets Whip and Gelato to chill the monster with ice so it will whip up better

Macaron, Custard and Chocolat warm the batter to make it easier to mix

Parfait finishes off in the usual way, leading to Grave retreating afterwards.
There’s still a giant sponge cake sitting around, but Ichika has a flash and all of KiraPati take to the stage to make use of it.

Baby bird cake-pops

Himari is glad to see everyone happy, and her crystal than changes shape into a squirrel. The episode ends here.

Out of all six of the main cast, I feel that Himari is the one with the least presence. I suspect her being the shy one is the reason for that. That’s why I find episodes where she gets the focus – like this one – particularly enjoyable. Due to the nature of her character, I guess Himari dealing with her lack of confidence is going to be a recurring theme.
What I particularly liked was how she became more confident once she got into making the giant cake – I can relate in being more confident with things I am passionate about.
I also enjoyed the fight against the monster of the week quite a bit too. For a start, Cure Gelato actually managed to slip in an actual punch in there. If I am recalling this correctly, that would be the first time we’ve seen such a thing in this series, outside of the Dream Stars film at least.
However, it was Cure Custard taking the lead and directing her allies as if they were baking a cake themselves that impressed me most. The fight from this episode might just be a perfect example of what KiraKira ☆ PreCure a la Mode is all about.

Next week, looks like we’ll be getting some more AkiYuka moments in an episode that focuses on Yukari. Yep, I’m certainly looking forward to that.