WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 11 of Tropical-Rouge! Precure, "Get Excited! Sand Art by the Beach!" now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Coming on the heels of an episode full of high stakes, Episode 11 of Tropical-Rouge! Precure has a much more lighthearted plot as the Tropical Club holds their first ever inter-club activity -- a sand art contest. While an entire episode could've been made out of getting permission to use the beach and convincing the other clubs to take part, Tropical-Rouge! Precure instead skips the busy work and gets straight to the sculpture-making with one purpose in mind: to make Laura feel left out.
Since the beginning of the show, Laura has been the driving force behind keeping Pretty Cure and mermaids a secret. So, despite her flashy and attention-seeking personality, whenever other humans are around, she tends to make herself scarce -- or at least tries to. As previous episodes show, she's not exactly the best at hiding. But what she lacks in discretion she makes up for in stubbornness... even at the cost of her own joy.
Episode 11 opens with Manatsu having passed the make-up tests required to keep the Tropical Club running before swiftly switching into a brainstorm of their next activity. After deciding on a sand sculpture contest, the episode quickly cuts to the beach and the competing teams. Laura, having lived in the Grand Ocean her whole life is at first uninterested, wondering what could be so fun about playing in the sand.
At first, she decides to take pictures of the group on the sly to entertain herself while she sits around and waits for the event to end. But as she observes the others having fun as they fall, laugh, goof around and sculpt together, she beings to feel confused and alone. Rather than examine her feelings or express them to the group, Laura instead tries to insert herself into the fun by giving the others advice on how a dugong's fins are shaped -- but quickly grows frustrated when they don't seem to comprehend her instructions and storms off.
Confused by their friend's sudden outburst, but accepting it as one of her usual fits of selfishness, the Cures don't run after her. Instead, she is left wanting to join in, but unable to, calling into question her own self-imposed isolation. While it's understandable that she wouldn't want the media attention that would accompany a "mythical" creature being discovered, and wants to be studied even less, it's already been shown that one or two more humans knowing about her won't end the world.
Each of the Cures met Laura long before they became magical girls, and if the girls stress the situation, they could free her to be seen by Mantasu's mother and their classmates, allowing her to join in on more of the girls' day-to-day activities without constantly looking over her shoulder.
Laura's strict adherence to keeping the secret causes her to become depressed as she believes that there is nothing she can do to join them, and she even lashes out at Kururun, saying "I'm not feeling lonely or jealous, okay?" -- a blatant lie. While she reluctantly acquiesces when Manatsu promises that next time they'll come up with something she can participate in, it's clear that Laura still has a lot to work through and that her isolation from the rest of the cast is a real threat to her mental health and self-worth.
