ON WINGS OF HER OWN

Hugtto Pretty Cure - Episode 7
My Own Review
ON WINGS OF HER OWN

 The episode begins with Saaya doing the usual recap – it seems that each of the main characters will get their chance at doing that. Previously it was revealed that Saaya was the Veggie Girl from an advert on TV. Hana and Homare are impressed, but someone shows up who is less than happy about Saaya having been in the spotlight.

Ranze Ichijo - played the role of a leek in the Veggie Girl Show, sees herself as a rival to Saaya...

Wait! Ran-... Ichijo... titian-haired with honey eyes... so conceited and overconfident... and that noblewoman's laugh...?

Surely some revelation is at hand...

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   

when a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

troubles my sight!

Anyone else noticed the family resemblance?

 

It seems that this Ranze thinks herself as something of a rival for Saaya. Ranze actually appeared in the same advert as Saaya – she played the role of a leek. Ranze also happens to reveal the identity of Saaya’s mother.

 RANZE (irate): But no. Mama's girl got the part, and I got to play a bloody leek!

As the girls were walking to school, they met a self-proclaimed rival of Saaya named Ranze Ichijo who also performed in the same commercial with Saaya years ago (Ranze was in a leek costume). Ranze accused Saaya of using her actress mother Reira's status to get the lead role, but Saaya denied it.
Ranze challenged Saaya to an upcoming audition for a stage play next week and laughed her way out. (Which Homare commented that Ranze's noblewoman's laugh does exist in real life)
 

Saaya’s mother is star actress Reira Yakushiji

Ranze also reveals that both she and Saaya have an upcoming audition. Of course, the other Cures are eager to cheer Saaya on, but Saaya doesn’t exactly seem entirely thrilled about the prospect. 

 Reira's new show is called Darling of the Dead... hope it isn't some Twitlight or Fifty Shades style of pulp...

Saya felt uneasy as her mother is like the talk of the town (if not of the nation, or maybe of all Asia) and she is reluctant to enter the audition.
 

The shadow of a mum is elongated indeed.

Still, she practices for the audition regardless.

Later on, Saaya takes the opportunity to practice whilst she is alone. Hana and Homare happen to see her, and Hana is utterly convinced that Saaya is an angel.
However, when asked to go again, Saaya isn’t able to reproduce that effort.
Saaya tried to get into character in a nearby lake as Hana and Homare were watching her nearby. They were impressed by Saaya's performance akin to a real angel. However Saaya couldn't get into character again after her friends were looking at her.

With the knowledge of people watching her, introverted Saaya gets nervous and overthinks things. This has affected the auditions she has had so far.

Saaya admitted to have stage fright and the pressure of being Reira's daughter as everyone around Saaya compared her with her mother.

MEANWHILE AT CRYASSE HQ:

PAPPLE: Allez, Lulu. Find us some good Thornypowewer...

 

 The others cheered her up and encouraged to go for the audition to see if acting is really her stint.

 

Hana and Homare gave Saaya a wristband that Hug-tan has made with the heart-making device, as a good luck charm. However Ranze tried to taunt Saaya by telling everyone that she is Reira's daughter. Hana and Homare used the Future Pad to disguise as air stewardesses and pulled a funny skit to lighten Saaya's mood.

 

 

The day of the audition arrives, and Hana and Homare come up with something to give Saaya a little boost just before she has to perform.
It was all just a ruse for them to sneak in and wish Saaya good luck.

After Papple pushed the job of getting rid of the Precure to Lulu, she (Lulu) used Ranze's negative energy to create a theender. (Got to love Lulu's summoning!)

Saaya is able to perform her audition – though she deviates from the script slightly. It is about that time that the enemy decides to strike, by preying on the negative feelings that Ranze has towards Saaya.

Ranze Ichijo was angry that she may have lost the audition to Saaya

Theender made from a resented Ranze.

SAAYA: RANZE!!!

 The girls went to battle but Lulu has analyzed the girls' fighting abilities (for instance, Cure Ange has no offensive powers and Cure Étoile can get distracted easily) and knocked them down to the ground.

Lulu leaves the office for the first time in this season in order to attempt to defeat those PreCures. She was able to analyse of all their moves and have theender!Ranze react accordingly, even if it means putting a strain on Ranze's physical body. It seems that the battle goes in Lulu’s favour, but Cure Ange refuses to back down.

 

 When Lulu thought she has defeated the girls, Cure Ange was holding herself up and rememberimg how her friends (nakama) had given her strength to join the audition. A bright light appeared on her and a new Future Crystal was given to Cure Ange.

Cure Ange will not let her desire to protect her friends (nakama?) be overcome, and this powers up her Future Crystal. 

With that newfound strength, her Heart Feather technique goes from an defensive one to an offensive one.

 Cure Ange used Heart Feather but in a more offensive move to stun the theender (I doubt having ever seen a barrier maiden use her powers in an offensive way like that...)...

Lulu is left nonplussed by the fact that a barrier maiden just used her force field for an offensive purpose.

 The theender is defeated shortly afterwards, and Lulu retreats.

After that, we learn the results of the auditions. Saaya then performed her lines with confidence. Subsequently after the battle with Lulu, Ranze got the role of the villain while Saaya didn't get the lead role at all...

(At least playing a villain is better than playing a leek: think Iago, Gaston in B&tB, the Thénardiers...) 

After learning she didn't get the role, Saaya was not disappointed as it gave her time to figure out if acting is really the path to choose (until the next character development for her).

 The episode then ends with someone Slavic showing up out of nowhere and hugging Homare most effusively. We’ll have to wait until next time to learn who they are.

 

 Suddenly a handsome man appeared and hugged Homare all of a sudden claiming he missed her...

I’m also pleased to see more from Lulu – seems like she could be quite a formidable foe with her analysis. I also suspect she is a character well worth keeping an eye on…
Cure Ange was able to upgrade her special move in this episode, so it is entirely possible Cure Étoile will do the same. We also have yet to see a team finisher, though there’s probably a good reason for that. An enjoyable episode. Next time, Homare will be in the spotlight.

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
Ah, stardom...

As for the audition and/or the show, that is one of the oldest introvert-centric plots in the book.

Ranze Ichijo... isn't she related to our good Ranko in any way? Maybe, if this story is set about a decade and a half-two decades after Go!Princess, there may be the implicature that Ranze is also following in her mum's footsteps. Getting to debut as a leek while your mother was a national popstar... it must have been traumatic (here I must bypass the opportunity to make a joke about Ensign Pistol and Flueflen's Welsh leek in Henry V!), making our second link in the Ichijo dynasty prime theender material.

This episode has some interesting moments with the introduction of Ranze Ichijo, who might be related to Ranko Ichijo of Go!Princess Precure. Seeing they have similar characters and motivation to defeat their self-proclaimed rival is always fun to watch as the show need some human antagonists to rival the girls' goody two shoes behaviour. Ranze Ichijo is voiced by Aya Suzaki, whom Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls fans will know her as the gentle college girl, Nitta Minami and Tamako of Tamako Market. Saya's mother Reira is voiced by Okamoto Maya who is well known as Orihime of Sakura Wars and Emma Sheen of Zeta Gundam.
It’ll be fine to focus on some other spotlights and I actually got it: Ranko’s (from Go!Princess Precure as Kirara’s “rival”) doppelgänger serving as not-Rikka’s foil, and of course Lulu’s debut battle.
Lulu's debut battle was pretty interesting as she has a really cool summoning using technology as her motif. Furthermore, Lulu does not understand the concept of love (koi or ai?) when Papple told her she is going to meet her boyfriend which might suggest that Lulu is either a machine or she lacked the emotions due to her unique abilities.

Lulu has also proven of knocking down the girls to the ground, which Charalit and Papple have failed to do. But she too was shocked that Cure Ange was able to take her blows and created a new move to weaken the theender. I hope we get to see Lulu again as I got a feeling the more she fights, the more her emotions can be awakened and maybe... a new Cure (cough!)
But you know what was super cool?! Lulu’s Transformation Sequence! They put the budget into her, and I 100% support their decision. IT WAS SO WORTH IT! ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS I TELL YOU! It was so nice to see a villain, especially one like Lulu, be spoiled like this. The only downside of course was that she really didn’t get to do anything, and besides Cure Ange being buffed, nothing actually happened.
And while we are on the subject of the villains: The writers did not do Papple any favour by having her skip out on the job by having Lulu fill in, while she goes out on a date. Papple’s lack of resolve doesn’t make her a believable villain, so I question their decision to make her character like this. Of course this wouldn’t be the first time we have seen a lazy cadre, and some do stupid things like Pupple does, shoving their work onto others, but the villains' theme is all about being part of an evil corporation, therefore this causes the role as the “employee” to stand out more than usual. This is also why I feel like the theme they have decided to go with, is either hindering them or is just not being executed very well. Perhaps it would be better to make the cadres more highly motivated, competitive with one another in attempts to rise in the ranks, as opposed to the likes of Papple, who is slacking off. Rivalry amongst the villains (cadres) usually adds the much needed flair to the fights, since they want to bring back positive results to their boss, the dark overlord.

For Saaya, I felt she is still discovering on what path she should take and not to be swayed by others to blindly follow her mother's career. Saaya also took her acting pretty seriously since she went to the lake to get into character and the other two girls praised her acting.

Not getting the lead role was a bit surprising but expected since Saaya is not keen into acting just yet. But I am pretty sure it will come back again in future episodes like how Minami/Cure Mermaid took almost 3/4 of the season to become an ocean veterinarian. The new Future Crystal that Saaya got in her battle is an indication that the girls will get their first power-up soon which is probably before the first quarter.

I think episode 9 should have another character who rumored to be the 5th Cure and so we’ll gonna have five Cures for this season like YPC5 and DDPC. For the fight, I think they’ll gonna have the better animation when the cadres (ie Chararit, Lulu, and Papple) decided to get serious and confront the Cures directly instead of using theenders, and looking from the pattern I think Chararit will confront the Cures directly first, seeing that he’s the weakest (Should be around episode 10-11, seeing the current pattern from last series).
 



IN NEXT EPISODE (8):

What? Our Étoile Filante meets Mr. Right!? How come they know one another, and why is the Russian skater acting so aloof, so detached...?

But we had a new problem when this handsome guy appeared and hugged Homare to everyone shock. We do find out this guy is a skater like Homare and wants to take her back to Moscow for her skating career. Will Homare accept it or just ignore this guy's persistent?

Next week, I assume it will be Homare’s turn to have her power enhanced (despite only being on the team for three episodes now). Some guy, a Russian skater, (go figure) has come to see her. By the sound of it, he wants her to come with him back to Moscow. Well we all know she’s going to refuse, so I am curious to see whether or not they will throw in a a surprise, to make the episode a tad less predictable.

I’m SUPER triggered upon seeing Not-Yurio (probably his twin from Yuri!!! on Ice) hugging Homare like THAT and drag her back to Moscow to “resurrect” her ice skating career! Considering Homare is my absolute favourite character in Hugtto!, I hate seeing other guys around her so casually!! But in the end, I would rather like her to be happy.


Until then, do svidaniya!