Episode 16

**"The Great Relay Race"**, known in Japan as **"Nao's Feelings! Everyone's Bonds Connected By a Baton!!"** (なおの想い！バトンがつなぐみんなの絆！！ *Nao no Omoi! Baton ga Tsunagu Minna no Kizuna!!*), is the sixteenth episode of *Glitter Force*, the eighteenth episode of the Japanese version, and the sixteenth episode overall.

## Synopsis

*"When April volunteers her friends to run with her in the school's fitness day relay race, Lily fears her lack of athletic ability will drag them down."*

## Summary

In P.E. class, Emily, Kelsey, Lily, April, and Chloe race each other. Kelsey does her best to beat April, but April easily wins. Nonetheless, both April and Kelsey leaves Emily, Chloe, and especially Lily in the dust. The class is amazed by April's running ability and suggests that she participate in the upcoming school-wide athletic event, Fitness Day. Fitness Day will consist of several athletic competitions, one of which will be a girls' relay race. April is at first reluctant. However, when nobody else volunteers, April steps up and nominates her four friends to run with her.

Meanwhile, in the Shadow Realm, Rascal tells Brute that he needs to work together with Ulric and Brooha to defeat the Glitter Force. Brute hates the idea and refuses. He tells Rascal that he's more than strong enough to take on the team by himself.

April and company begin practicing for the relay race. Kelsey and Emily have to work to become faster, and Chloe has to remember to move forward instead of running in place. Lily is clearly the weakest of the five, and she worries that she'll drag her teammates down because she's too slow.

That night, Emily and Candy practice for the race in Emily's room. Candy jokingly gives Emily one of the Glitter Charms, the Gold Medal Charm, as a reward for her hard work. Emily puts it into her Glitter Pact, summoning a gold medal that Emily wears around her neck.

The training continues, and everyone improves. Even Lily is feeling better about herself. However, Lily's good mood is quickly ruined when she goes back to her classroom to get her lunchbox and overhears her classmates talking about how weak she is and how she's going to ruin the race. Lily is so disheartened that she walks away without her lunchbox.

Fitness Day arrives, and Brute hovers in the sky, ready to collect Negative Energy. After several other events, an announces says that the girls' relay race is about to begin. Emily and Lily are very nervous. Lily tells April that she can't do the race, and April tries to cheer her up with a pep talk. This hardly makes Lily feel any better.

Brute appears and makes fun of the girls' teamwork, saying that teamwork is only for people who are too weak to succeed on their own. He then casts an unhappy ending spell, collects Negative Energy from the students and teachers, and turns a net into a Blue-Nosed Buffoon. The girls transform into the Glitter Force to fight.

The Buffoon starts by shooting bean bags at the warriors, which they easily dodge. It then uses its rope to hit the girls, and they have a much harder time dealing with that. Eventually, Glitter Spring catches the Buffoon's rope and tries to hold it in place so that the Buffoon can't use it. The other four help her out. A tug-of-war match ensues. As this happens, Brute says that he prefers to work alone because he doesn't want weaklings dragging him down. This makes Glitter Peace upset. Glitter Spring protests that a team has no weakest member because every member becomes strong when they're helped by others. This makes Glitter Peace feel better. Overflowing with motivation, the Glitter Force pulls so hard on the Buffoon's rope that the Buffoon falls over. The warriors finish the Buffoon off using Tiara Mode Torrent. With the battle won, the girls are ready to take on the relay race.

The girls de-transform and prepare for the race. Each team puts on color-coded headbands (April's team's headbands are red). Then, the race begins. Emily starts off, passing the baton to Kelsey, who then passes the baton to Chloe. Throughout all three of their turns, the red team is in second place, while the purple team is in first. Chloe then passes the baton to Lily. Lily is much slower, and every team but the orange team passes her. The competitor in orange is neck-to-neck with Lily, and she starts to panic. Then, Lily's class cheers her on, giving Lily the confidence she needs to pass the orange competitor.

Lily finally makes it to April and gives her the baton. April speeds along so quickly that she gets in first place. April is close to victory when she suddenly trips, allowing everyone else to pass her. She gets up and continues running, but she finishes in last place. She cries and apologizes to her teammates for losing the race for them. The others don't mind, and they hug her and congratulate her. Everyone starts crying, but they're happy that they had fun in the race, even if they didn't win. April tells her friends that they're the best teammates she could ever have.

## Characters

### Glitter Force

* Emily / Glitter Lucky
* Kelsey / Glitter Sunny
* Lily / Glitter Peace
* April / Glitter Spring
* Chloe / Glitter Breeze

### Villains

* Brute
* Rascal
* Buffoon

## Trivia

* It's never explained how the Glitter Force got the Gold Medal Charm, nor how the Wheel of Doom went from 16 to 17.
	+ The Japanese version has an extra episode between this episode and Episode 15, in which both of these things happen. The episode centers around Akane (Kelsey) meeting the real-life Japanese comedy duo FUJIWAWA and participating in a comedy contest with her friends. The episode was likely removed due to the appearance of these Japanese celebrities and the focus on the Japanese genre of manzai.

## References

1. ↑ https://prettycure.fandom.com/wiki/SmPC18
2. ↑ https://www.netflix.com/title/80057968
3. ↑ https://prettycure.fandom.com/wiki/SmPC17