Yeah I agree Yakumo was pretty creepy in this episode.
The whole thing between Yakumo and Elena was just gross. There was really no reason for Elena to be a little girl at all, so I don't know why they even bothered casting it like that.
Yeah, this episode was weird. Were they actively trying to make Yakumo look like a paedophile?!
I... I think you guys are thinking too hard about this. I'm honestly surprised one person would reach this conclusion, let alone everyone who's posted so far. Mind if I comment on this?
Yakumo never showed any actual interest in her, so why anyone would come out of this thinking he was being creepy is beyond me. His quirky pride as an Englishman has been a running joke, and this week it was taken to that turning down a proposal outright would be rude. He believed it wrong to crush a little girl's dream (with the implication presumably being he intended to turn her down when she was older and could comprehend it, and they even had Fuuka spell this out for viewers who couldn't pick up on it), not to mention there's the fact that she's the daughter of the headmaster of his school, so there's the fact that he might not want to upset her for that reason.
The reason for her to be a kid, thus, is to show that he's a polite guy with a sensitive side. Remember, we had an episode about how sensitive he is to his lawnmower previously. Plus, Takeru already did the whole "girl my age I trained with" subplot just a few episodes ago, keep in mind.
Now, as far as why they went so far as to put her in all those outfits? That wasn't
him doing that (she suggested the shopping thing, so it's pretty clear she'd be the one picking out clothes), and it wasn't like he was encouraging it. When she showed interest in a wedding dress, what was his reaction? "Uhhhh no you're too young" essentially. So who was doing that then? The girl was - and, if you think beyond that, the writers, but why show her off then? Remember, the audience of the show is
little boys, and Japan is kind of dealing with the whole decreasing birth rate thing. They're putting a cute girl on screen and showing their target audience how sweet and adorable little girls are. That's all. It's no different than when a series for teenagers flashes some boobs - a cute little girl in costumes and stuff is probably what they figured to be the equivalent of that, really. To that end, little girls watching the show probably got the fact that he would entertain them out of it, all without having to show him being interested in kids. Which was... really clear to me, so I really don't know or understand why this conclusion was jumped to - especially for a franchise that has kids on the set and involved in plots
all the time.
Now, I can only guess, but I have to wonder if, considering Elena is the headmaster's daughter and one of the Ozu kids is a teacher, Elena might be the daughter of MagiShine and MagiBlue. The age would be about right, more or less, and it would explain what I think is
everyone's issue with this episode, which is how completely and totally underused Tsubasa was - they got music, props, a suit, the works... and he was there for a minute. What's up with that? I was thinking they were going to get a Magiranger shuriken so "Cloud" could start doing real ninja magic, but apparently not.
True, if it hadn't been spoiled beforehand, it would've been a nice surprise, and I suspect it was written as such, but still, that really sucked. I definitely would've preferred Tsubasa being the focus, so I can only hope that they intend to bring him back later on.
