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16 May 2009: Easy is the freshest part of Fresh Pretty Cure

Easy
Easy is the best Precure villain of all time—even better than David Bowie.

My favorite part of Fresh Precure is the primary villain, Easy. Ostensibly, Easy (or Eas, as some insist) is just one of Moebius' hoodlums along with Wester and Souler (East, West, South...har har) working to fill this gigantic container with Unhappiness Juice that drips in whenever the three of them manage to ruin someone's day. However, Easy is clearly the lead villain just as Love is the lead Cure and presumptive main character of the series.

Love, Setsuna, Miki, and Buki
Mark my words: This four-leaf clover pendant is going to
represent unity far more than the One Ring ever did.

But Easy goes about her task so half-assed. After episode 15, that Unhappiness Juice container is still about 95% empty. (5% full if you're an evil optimist!) She's figured out that things would go a lot quicker if Legendary Warriors Pretty Cure didn't thwart their evil plans every time. She's figured out the three Cures' secret identities. She's even figured out all she need to do is keep them from transforming by stealing their magic cell phones. Nevertheless, Easy can't be bothered to do more than make token attempts at doing so. Maybe she's union. She's protecting their job security at least.

Setsuna
It's five o'clock somewhere, Setsuna.

And considering her co-workers, I can't really blame her for not trying very hard. The occasionally overeager Wester means well, I suppose, but he needs to learn to stay in his lane. It's only a matter of time before Easy punches him in the mouth. And Souler with his My Little Pony hair is just a complete tool. I'd be filled with despair too if my job performance in any way depended on the contributions of a guy like that. No wonder Easy would rather go bowling with the Cures than carry these two douchebags.

Miki, Love, Buki, and Setsuna
Easy could checkmate Pretty Cure in three moves if she gave a damn.

Oh, that's the thing. Easy has a street-clothes, secret-identity alter ego also that goes by the name Higashi Setsuna. (Higashi means east, eh.) As Setsuna, Easy met Love in the first Fresh episode and has periodically approached her (while the two were in their respective civilian forms) to supposedly attempt to eliminate the turbo-genki Pretty Cure obstacle to her boss' evil plan...but really it just looks like an excuse to hang out and eat doughnuts.

Setsuna
Setsuna wonders how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Five will get you 10 that Easy switches sides and becomes the missing fourth Cure before the end of the season. There were definitely four color-coded Cure dongles during the opening bit of the first episode. So far, the pink (Peach), blue (Berry), and yellow (Pine) dongles are accounted for, leaving the red one still in the wild. Initially, it seemed Miyuki from Trinity would inherit the fourth Cure role, but episode 15 suggests it could be Setsuna/Easy. During the bowling scene, each Cure picks a bowling ball matching her outfit (and mahou shoujo battle costume). Setsuna (wearing red) hesitates when choosing between the red ball and the black one before ultimately settling on black, matching her Easy outfit, which is mostly black, although it does have red accents.

Love
Love does the moe, moe...kyun! bit, sort of.

Speaking of which, episode 15 was amazing. It had a lot of really good sight gags and some genuine plot advancement—which is pretty damn important in a genre that tends to consist of 90 percent filler, even when said filler consistently benefits from numerous shots to the face. With episode 15, 10, and all the ones with Setsuna slumming with Love instead of doing her job, I'm elevating Fresh Precure to the third non-baseball, non-OVA slot of the season.


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