UNE ÉTOILE QUI BRILLE ENCORE

Hugtto Pretty Cure
Episode 5 - My Own Review

UNE ÉTOILE QUI BRILLE ENCORE

 

Charalit more or less kidnaps Homare and forces her into a situation where she has to jump.
With her past still haunting her, that despair makes for a lot of negative energy – or thornypowewer.





 



 

 

The thought of flying, and being cheered on, scares Homare. However, she no longer intends to let that hold her back; she refuses to run from herself any more. With that conviction, she is able to achieve what she couldn’t in the previous episode: she becomes a PreCure.

This week Homare finally became Cure Étoile, but not without being challenged by the enemy, using her seeds of doubt to create a monster in attempt to rob the girls of their Future Crystals. In the beginning, Charaleet did succeed because he did manage to create a monster out of Homare’s despair, but in the end, but Hugtan ended up actually playing a big role, her cries were able to reach Homare and encourage her to face her fear, and take that leap of faith to fly once more. I must say, Cure Étoile’s attack sequence is lit. I absolutely love the effects, and it reminds me a lot of the classic magical girls transformation sequences.

Something happened on the day she died,

her spirit rose a metre and stepped aside...

Somebody else took her place and bravely cried:

I'M A HEARTSTAR...

I'M A HEARTSTAR...

How many times does an angel fall?

How many people die instead of talking tall?

She trod on sacred ground, she cried out loud into the crowd:

I'M A HEARTSTAR...

I'M A HEARTSTAR...

Unfortunately for Charalit, that was the last chance he was being given. He retreats, though whether he has returned to the office or gone off somewhere else remains to be seen.
The enemies finally showed their faces, and I must say their designs are quite fun. With Charalit failing to make any grounds, he is in big trouble now, so it’s time for a new villain to step up to the plate. Surprisingly it’s not Lulu who is up next, but sexpot baroness Papple instead. I wonder what kind of character she will be, and the sorts of fights we will in the upcoming episodes. I imagine the pace of the series is going to enter it’s insanely slow phase where not much happens during this period of time since Homare has officially joined the team. It’s still early on, but hopefully it won’t be too stagnant because that’s when it becomes challenging for me to covert these type of shows.

 It is nice to see Homare finally “soften up” (so to speak) to the girls and the three of them can finally begin their friendship.

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
OH LA VACHE CURE ÉTOILE CURE ÉTOILE!!!
That haircut of Homare's post-recovery instantly sparked up memories of Fa Mulan and Eugénie Danglars:


Et du même tiroir dont elle avait fait sortir la mante qu'elle venait de donner à Mlle d'Armilly, et dont celle-ci avait déjà couvert ses épaules, elle tira un costume d'homme complet, depuis les bottines jusqu'à la redingote, avec une provision de linge où il n'y avait rien de superflu, mais où se trouvait le nécessaire.
Alors, avec une promptitude qui indiquait que ce n'était pas sans doute la première fois qu'en se jouant elle avait revêtu les habits d'un autre sexe, Eugénie chaussa ses bottines, passa un pantalon, chiffonna sa cravate, boutonna jusqu'à son cou un gilet montant, et endossa une redingote qui dessinait sa taille fine et cambrée.
« Oh ! c'est très bien ! en vérité, c'est très bien, dit Louise en la regardant avec admiration ; mais ces beaux cheveux noirs, ces nattes magnifiques qui faisaient soupirer d'envie toutes les femmes, tiendront-ils sous un chapeau d'homme comme celui que j'aperçois là ?
- Tu vas voir », dit Eugénie.
Et saisissant avec sa main gauche la tresse épaisse sur laquelle ses longs doigts ne se refermaient qu'à peine, elle saisit de sa main droite une paire de longs ciseaux, et bientôt l'acier cria au milieu de la riche et splendide chevelure, qui tomba tout entière aux pieds de la jeune fille, renversée en arrière pour l'isoler de sa redingote.
Puis, la natte supérieure abattue, Eugénie passa à celles de ses tempes, qu'elle abattit successivement, sans laisser échapper le moindre regret : au contraire, ses yeux brillèrent, plus pétillants et plus joyeux encore que de coutume, sous ses sourcils noirs comme l'ébène.
« Oh ! les magnifiques cheveux ! dit Louise, avec regret.
- Eh ! ne suis-je pas cent fois mieux ainsi ? s'écria Eugénie en lissant les boucles éparses de sa coiffure devenue toute masculine, et ne me trouves-tu donc pas plus belle ainsi ?
- Oh ! tu es belle, belle toujours ! s'écria Louise.

From the same drawer she took a man’s complete costume, from the boots to the coat, and a provision of linen, where there was nothing superfluous, but every requisite. Then, with a promptitude which indicated that this was not the first time she had amused herself by adopting the garb of the opposite sex, Eugénie drew on the boots and pantaloons, tied her cravat, buttoned her waistcoat up to the throat, and put on a coat which admirably fitted her beautiful figure. “Oh, that is very good—indeed, it is very good!” said Louise, looking at her with admiration; “but that beautiful black hair, those magnificent braids, which made all the ladies sigh with envy,—will they go under a man’s hat like the one I see down there?”

“You shall see,” said Eugénie. And with her left hand seizing the thick mass, which her long fingers could scarcely grasp, she took in her right hand a pair of long scissors, and soon the steel met through the rich and splendid hair, which fell in a cluster at her feet as she leaned back to keep it from her coat. Then she grasped the front hair, which she also cut off, without expressing the least regret; on the contrary, her eyes sparkled with greater pleasure than usual under her ebony eyebrows. “Oh, the magnificent hair!” said Louise, with regret.

“And am I not a hundred times better thus?” cried Eugénie, smoothing the scattered curls of her hair, which had now quite a masculine appearance; “and do you not think me handsomer so?”

“Oh, you are beautiful—always beautiful!” cried Louise.

Not to mention Maria in Axel and Maria by Tegnér:

Så sagt, så gjort. Beslut och handling
är ett hos kvinnan. Sin förvandling
hon skyndar. Under krigarns hatt
hon gömmer sina lockars natt.
Den rika barmen snörs i kyller,
med krut och bly hon ränseln fyller,
och över skullran, mjäll och fin,
hängs dödens synrör, en karbin;
och runt kring läpparna hon drar
en skuggning som skall skägg betyda:
det var som om du ville pryda
med sorgeflor ett rosenpar.

So said, so done. Thought and fulfilment
Are one in woman. Her habil'ment

Is quickly changed. A warrior's casque

Her raven tresses' night doth mask.

Her bosom rich in buff she laces,

In sidepouch lead and powder places,

And o'er her fair, soft shoulder's slope

A carbine hangs, Death's telescope.

And next she traces all around

Her lips a shade that beard supposes:

T'was e'en as if to deck two roses,

The pair in mourning-crape thou'dst bound.

I also started wearing boyish short hair, though short like Homare's, for more practical reasons: because it takes shorter to wash and to dry.
...
That crucifixion stance that Charalit pins Homare to the wall in (arms spreadeagled and legs joined together), as well as the Star Future Crystal surging from her chest as she is "crucified", also deserves a mention. In particular, that crystal coexisting with so much thornypowewer within her reminds me of the "blood and water" gushing out of the side-wound used to mercy kill Jesus in the Gospel of John. In a similar fashion, Homare "dies" and "resurrects" as Étoile --and don't stars shine in the night sky as guiding lights and beacons of hope?--. I'm not talking Christian symbolism, but universal symbolism: Osiris, Adonis, Kai in the Snow Queen, Orpheus, Valentine de Villefort, Yukari Kotozume and Akira Kenjo themselves... all of them undergo near-death experiences and awaken as different people, their old selves having died during the ordeal.

Something happened on the day she died,
her spirit rose a metre and stepped aside...
Somebody else took her place and bravely cried:
I'M A HEARTSTAR...
I'M A HEARTSTAR...
How many times does an angel fall?
How many people die instead of talking tall?
She trod on sacred ground, she cried out loud into the crowd:
I'M A HEARTSTAR...
I'M A HEARTSTAR...

Thus concludes the mini-arc that is the introduction of Cure Étoile. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a yellow star-themed Cure who didn’t join initially because of something. Go! Princess PreCure had Kirara Amanogawa, who would go on to become Cure Twinkle. Kirara’s and Homare’s reasons for not initially becoming PreCures are different, but there are certainly similarities between them.

 She's able to successfully create her Future Crystal but when attempting to jump for it for the first time, she triggers a painful memory and misses the jump, causing it to disappear. She is able to successfully claim it in episode 5.
Shows textbook signs of PTSD such as jumping causing her to remember her failed figure skating jump, her sadness, distancing herself others and from figure skating, and a loss of interest in other activities (not going to school that often).
Is troubled at the start of the series due to having failed a figure skating jump at one point, badly injuring her leg and destroying her dreams.
In her backstory, she cut her hair short after her Career-Ending Injury, she has it back as Cure Étoile.
Everytime she attempts to jump, it will remind her of the incident involving failing a figure skating jump and injuring her leg, causing her to quit figure skating.
No time before did we have such a Precure with PTSD. That certainly makes Homare far more interesting than any other Cure of this season. Une ÉTOILE FILANTE QUI BRILLE ENCORE...
...
On the Good Ship Charalu, things are definitely

NEXT EPISODE (6):

 

 PAPPLE: I'm sexy and I know it... and that's the reason why I should enter stage left and take center stage next week... That uncouth loser Charalit doesn't know what he's missing...