PUTTING THAT BOURGEOIS BACK IN HIS PLACE

Hugtto Precure
Episode 3
My Own Review

PUTTING THAT BOURGEOIS BACK IN HIS PLACE

Saaya uses the Future Pad. Also, an exhausted Harry states that he's not a morning person...

 Lulu tells Charalit that management have requested a report from him. He says he hasn’t submitted it yet due to the appearance of two new PreCures, and has yet to locate the White Future Crystal.
After doing some quick data analysis (with Matrix digits in the background), Lulu determines that there is a very strong chance the new PreCures will hold a clue to the location of the aforementioned McGuffin.
After two episodes, we finally get to hear Lulu speak in the episode: as expected, Lulu spoke in a monotone voice and she behaved like a computer with her brain processing the information (Matrix digits around her and all).

 Can we just take a moment to appreciate how adorable Lulu is? Who cares she only had like maybe a minute of screentime, I already love her! First off I adore her character design, it’s quite refined, matching her chilled personality and cool abilities to do a search on a whim of tracking where the White Future Crystal is.
But as much as I’d love to gush about her some more, she did mention another important detail: that is how they are specifically searching for a Precure. Not a crystal, but an actual precure. Chances are this precure is Hugtan, and nobody can find her because she’s a babe, the last thing the villains are probably expecting to find. It is also quite telling how at the end of the day, it’s Hugtan who needs the Future Crystals, making sound more like she is the one who has been depleted of power.

 Charalit trying to flirt with Lulu ("Atta Lulu! A cutesy part-timer is all I need!"), whose default fixed expression and icy cold professionality starkly contrasts with our dark-skinned blond hooligan. Needless to say she may not even be human. Furthermore, those Matrix digits around Lulu enhance the fembot theory...
Charalit went to look for his next victim to lure the girls out and even commented that Lulu is a great part-timer. (So what does Lulu do when she is not working?)

 

HAVEN'T YOU EVER BEEN A CHILD YOURSELF?

Awwwww...

It looks like Homare will finally be joining the team next week, or so I would imagine based off the preview. But why do I have this impression she suffered from a leg/foot injury? She wants to fly again, I remember seeing her skate in the preview I think (though maybe I should take that with a grain of salt). That being said though, she has quite an amusing personality. Cool and collected on the surface, but absolutely melts whenever she sees cute things. Also shown us a bit of her gloomy side, where she longs to fly again.

From that display of badassery above to fawning over and petting a guinea-piggy <3

There’s a nearby tower that everyone goes into – in there, Hana’s mum (Sumire Nono) reveals the secret to calming down babies: hold them to your chest, so they can hear your heartbeat. 

 Harry brooded when the Cures inquired about Hug-tan's real mum. Turned his back on them as he kept silence. This is truly interesting... Then, when he finally spoke, he said that his and Hug-tan's homeworld used to be just like Earth, equally bright and full of smiles and hope... (Of course that couldn't last forever, right?)
THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED WHEN THE CRYASSE COMPANY ATTACKED.
I was expecting he would say something like that, and boy, was I right!

"Our Morrowpowewer is gone since long ago, and our futures have become but fantasies... and everything around me... Hugtan's mother entrusted her to me, and I fled with the baby in my arms... using the power of the White Future Crystal (WHICH HAPPENS TO BE THE SAME FUTURE CRYSTAL THAT THE CRYASSE CADRES ARE SEEKING THE MOST, BY CHANCE). The power of the White Future Crystal was thus depleted back then. If Hug-tan receives all eight future crystals (THERE ARE 8 OF THEM CONFIRMED, SO FAR), time in our homeworld can move like it once did. Which means that there are six more Crystals to find. If the Cryasse Company finds them before we do... this world will share the fate of mine."

Basically, everyone will turn to gray stone, with Empty Eyes, if bled completely dry of Morrowpowewer. Oh, and everything else will be equally colourless, and shrouded in fog.

The victim of the week: I saw it coming, I saw it coming. The beer-quaffing entrepreneur (who should have brought earplugs) as the source of Thornypowewer du jour. At first I thought it was coffee until I checked the can.

"This ol' b-lighter will hand me the Precures!" (to quote Charalit). The sound of children squealing makes his head swim. I am a student myself (not a businessperson by any means), but there is a sound that grates my nerves and that is what the French call caquetage: many voices chatting together at the same time, equally loud, so you cannot concentrate. You can picture me either studying or reading for pleasure with caquetage for background noise... it's utterly impossible. Again, should have thought of earplugs myself... So, in a certain way, I can hashtag this choice with #BeenThereDoneThat! (not exactly the same scenario, but, if you strip it to the bones... Again, Wallenstein and gunshots, whether of flintlock or cannon, ironic as it sounds. Not to mention pealing church bells or barking dogs... he had basically the same sensitivity, but with different triggers). Or maybe it's just the hangover from last evening that has made him as sensitive to excessive stimuli as he is thirsty (HEADCANON: definitely hungover).
The resulting theender wound up being like a blue balloon version of the Michelin Man (who is made of white tyres), wearing one of those name tags and the tie around his head. Again, maybe because children play with balloons and children were the source of his frustration. Not to mention the victim's waistline (hehe).
Here’s the other piece of evidence for that man having been drunk: the tie around the theender's head. I had completely overlooked that wasted gentlemen in anime tend to wear their neckties for headbands (facepalms!
Of course during the battle we saw that this theender is only fit for hand-to-hand combat, and we had to get that Frankenstein-quote from Charalit:
"This old blighter's Thornypowewer... IT'S ALIVE!!"
(Also, in response to Harry's claims that the unconscious VotW won't be coming back, Charalit goes: "It's not just this guy who won't... every one of your futures will become toast!")
When the VotW awoke, he felt really refreshed and free of stress. "Well, I forgot my phone for four days," the entrepreneur chortled in a far merrier and more sincere tone than Charalit's. the

 Ange tries in vain to fill the Michelin-like theender with Heart Feathers to make it explode. The plan fails, but at least it was clever!

The battle pretty much ends in the usual way. Afterwards, Charalit decides to go straight home (has he got one?) rather than returning to the office.

 Right. Once vanquished, I love Charalit's deadpan resignation: "I royally screwed up... I'd better not shame myself returning to the company... Sigh." But does he have elsewhere to go if he defects from Cryasse? I like cadres being given such character arcs. 

 When Saaya takes a look at the Future Pad, she sees that there are two lights. One is moving away from the Nono house.

After everyone is back together, Hana’s mum Sumire offers to help Harry look after Hugtan. They all go back to Hana’s house (two stories, married parents, two children... pretty standard, right?) – well, everyone besides Homare.

Homare wants to fly again
 After having witnessed Cure Yell and Cure Ange fight, Homare feels the desire to fly again.

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
If the title of this review and the stress I have put on Homare pwning a fortyish/fiftyish curmudgeon do not clue you in on what I have admired the most about this episode, aside from our similarities... It looks like Homare will finally be joining the team next week, or so I would imagine based off the preview. But why do I have this impression she suffered from a leg/foot injury? She wants to fly again, I remember seeing her skate in the preview I think (though maybe I should take that with a grain of salt). That being said though, she has quite an amusing personality. Cool and collected on the surface, but absolutely melts whenever she sees cute things. Also shown us a bit of her gloomy side, where she longs to fly again.
I mean, if I were in her stead, I would also ask that bourgeois: "Weren't you once a child yourself?" And, if he kept on complaining: "Have you ever tried earplugs before?"
Followed by (I would also utter) Homare's squees at adorabilia such as live guinea pigs and a sleeping Hug-tan. That cuteness proximity behind the cool façade is also something that Yours Truly feels warming her heart of hearts.
At Cryasse headquarters, we got to see more of our resident loose cannon and some dynamics with his fellow generals: Charalit acting carefree, fricking out when his superiors give him strict orders to defeat the Cures, lounging with his feet on the desk... and trying to flirt with Lulu ("Atta Lulu! A cutesy part-timer is all I need!"), whose default fixed expression and icy cold professionality starkly contrasts with our dark-skinned blond hooligan. Needless to say she may not even be human. Furthermore, those Matrix digits around Lulu enhance the fembot theory...
Back to Charalit: it appears that he wants to emancipate himself, carefree as he is, for he said during the battle: "If I want to be an organisation, I'll have to lay off my companions (nakamatachi)! I'll be all al-lone! Thank you for yer time!" Like he doesn't give a fricking hoot.
Harry's exhaustion at the start of this episode is hilarious. Needless to say I'm not a morning person either, and those eye bags and bed-head are part of my workday routine as well. Lucky I don't have an infant to tend to...

 means:
1) Homare is their surname, Kagayaki her given name (will no more repeat that
At the end, wistfully looking at the sky at sunset and wishing she could fly like that, and also in next episode's trailer when we see that she's tall with long legs and even plays basketball... next week will be Chapter One of the Étoile two-parter introduction!
We get to see Homare behave outside school and she is definitely the tsundere of the trio as she talked back to the grumpy salesman and afterwards, she went all gaga over a guinea pig and later Hug-tan. At least, we know Homare's weakness! The Future Pad seems to be pointing at her all these while but the two girls were oblivious to put two and two together. 


NEXT WEEK (EP 4)

 Oh, and did we mention that she saves a puppy from an incoming lorry, regardless of the consequences?
That action speaks volumes indeed.