Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime 42
Altessa, Fine, and Rein head towards the Moon Kingdom on their airship (Shade and Tio are riding there on their mounts below) to meet Moon Maria and obtain the kingdom's Grace Stone. Fine and Rein think it'll be pretty easy since Moon Maria trusts them, so they do the rakuchin ("easy") dance... for some reason the dance doesn't seem to fit the word all that well to me ;) They drag Altessa into it.. who knows what they did to her (^^;;)
As they get closer to the castle, the moon is covered in darkness. The power of darkness must be growing stonger... Shade rushes in to see his mother -- she's in a deep sleep. She's the only one that knows the where the kingdom's Grace Stone is. There doesn't seem to be a way to cure here.. Fine and Rein think about using the Prominence, but if they forcefully wake her up it'll only make things worse. However, if they can find the very rare Full Moon Herb they could cure her. It grows on the back of a turtle that lives in the desert. Shade, worried about his mother, asks Rein to stay behind and watch over her. Fine wonders if Shade thinks that Rein is more reliable than she is...
Altessa, Fine, Shade, Tio, and Pumo head out into the desert to search for a turtle big enough to have a full-grown Full Moon Herb. While taking a break to have some Sunny Drops (candy) that Fine brought along, a big turtle comes by and starts eating the candy. Tio tries to capture it, but this isn't any ordinary turtle -- it vanishes instantly, then comes flying out of the sky, landing a kick right on Tio's head, then scurries away. Ouch (^^;;) Next, Fine tries using the strongest weapon she has, the Feather Myuugram, to make the turtle dance. The turtle uses the spinning to its advantage and spins away. Next, they set up a trap, using the Sunny Drops as bait. It falls into the trap hole, but it spins up and out and gets away again. Altessa then offers the turtle one her rings, but the turtle doesn't find it yummy at all, spitting it out... Pumo then tries telling a sob story about how his family needs the Full Moon Herb... doesn't work, of course. The turtle runs away and Fine chases after it -- but she falls into her own trap (^^;;)
Back at the castle, Rein and Milky are making what looks to be a very much lethal soup (((( ;ﾟДﾟ)))ｶﾞｸｶﾞｸﾌﾞﾙﾌﾞﾙ Bumo and Bright also arrive at the castle....
Fine and the rest try setting up another trap to capture the turtle, but it doesn't work. And now Fine's all out of Sunny Drops to use bait. But! Camelot and Lulu (and Naginyo) make their appearance in their usual sentai-style outfits. Lulu gives Fine another pouch of Sunny Drops, and then they leave. The turtle happens to be standing right next to Fine, enjoying the show. It steals the Sunny Drops and runs away, but this time Shade grabs a leg using his whip. The turtle spins quickly toward Shade, but somehow Shade is able to grab it, losing his hat in the process. If his hair were a different color he'd look just like a su○r sa○an ;) The turtle seems to have given up, and lets Fine take the Full Moon Herb from its back.
At the castle, Bright tries using the power of darkness to awaken Moon Maria, but Rein and Milky come in. Bumo makes the very big (almost fatal) mistake of eating up the soup Rein and Milky had brought along (^^;;) Rein grabs Bright's hand and tells him that he can't force Moon Maria to wake up, otherwise her condition would get even worse. Bright seems a bit jarred from Rein's words. A Bright that would hurt others to become king isn't the Bright that Rein knows. Bright snaps out of his trance, but when Fine and the others come in he reminds Bright of his destiny to be king of the Mysterious Planet, bringing him back into a trance. Bright tries once again to awaken Moon Maria, but Shade steps in front, taking the brunt of his attack. It's time for Fine and Rein to do their thing, and with the power of the Prominence they protect Moon Maria. Bright and Bumo make their getaway....
The Full Moon Herb improves Moon Maria's condition, but it'll still be a while before she wakes up so there's nothing to be done about finding the kingdom's Grace Stone for now. Fine and Rein cut off Tio as he's about to say it's all Bright's fault... Altessa says that's fine, she knows her brother's fully under the power of darkness... but Rein tells her that for a second Bright just about returned to normal when he saw Moon Maria suffering. So they've got to do their best to get the remaining Grace Stones!
Seems like things are back to where they used to be production quality-wise, as they should be as we enter the last stretch. Episode itself was pretty entertaining as well, especially that turtle messing around with everyone. We got a glimpse of the old Bright this time thanks to Rein, so it looks like we'll see Bright coming back to his old loser self pretty soon (actually, I've read the episode summaries up to episode 49 so I know what's going to happen. I'll keep quiet for now). It's been a while since there's been a Rein-Bright flag in this whole rectangular relationship thing. There was also Fine wondering about what Shade thinks of Rein... we'll see if it goes any further, but I wouldn't really expect so. That's for the second season, right? ;)
Next time, it's a circus story. I get the feeling I'll be writing the usual line (you know, the so-and-so kawaii yo so-and-so) more than once with the main character for next time, Nacchi. Might just be "the birth of a moe character" as halogen-san over at Puzzlize Nikki says :) Those of y'all that can read Japanese should give his site a visit. Nice Futago Hime entries, and extremely thorough Nanoha A's thoughts as well ;)
Personally, I think that the next ep looks like it's going to riff on Kaleido Star (of course, just seeing the series itself makes my older sister want to watch Kaleido Star, so there you go).
The whole turtle catching thing was all right, but the Rein/Bright confrontation scene was what made this ep. Makes one wonder what they need the Grace Stones for, if all it takes to turn Bright back to normal is a good guilt trip?