L'ARRIVÉE DE LULU AMOUR

Hugtto Pretty Cure - My Own Review
Episode 12
L'ARRIVÉE DE LULU AMOUR

Homare’s reaction when Hugtan (who is already toothing) calls her mama.

In the previous episode, Charalit was defeated by the Pretty Cures.
Post-defeat, he has become a YouTuber:

I am also incredibly relieved that Charalit was not turned into a tree, it was just part of the visuals. (Actually apparently he is still part of Cryasse Corporation since he has yet to be terminated, which is a surprising to say the least.)

   Fortunately, Harry happens to have a popcorn machine. With their popcorn ready, they all sit down to watch a film called The Dread Visitor – Hana insisted on watching a horror movie. There are some pretty interesting reactions to the horror film.

Turns out Homare can’t cope with horror films.

Since the horror film is a bit much, they decide to put something else on instead. However, they only have the Dread Visitor series with then.
Everyone ends up going outside.
 
 

 As it turns out, the world Harry and Hugtan are from is actually from the girls’ distant future. This is why he didn’t want to share much because he was afraid if he changed the past too much, there would be consequences in the future. He says the future they are from is quite some time away, which is why he was comfortable with opening up to them. And it was truly such a tragic thing to hear how the Cryasse Corporation destroyed their world, forcing Harry to look for a way to protect Hugtan and travel back into time, barely escaping with their lives. He didn’t expect to have traveled so far into the past though, which is quite interesting given the current “form” of the said evil corporation. 

Initially Harry believed the bigger the team, the better, thinking they would have a higher rate beating the enemy. But the girls’ inner strength showed him one strength isn’t about numbers, but character, individuality, differences, when those strengths combined, an unbelievable power is born, producing a beautiful melody. And having met the girls, he has a lot more hope they will be able to open the way to a bright new future, and he thanks them for it. One of the things cherishes the most, were the peaceful memories of the world he loves so much. (Wow I just realized this is going to mess us all up at the end of the series, since Harry and Hugtan are bound to return to the future. Crap, I can already see myself bawling about it. I am not emotionally prepared for this.)

Outside, Harry reveals to the girls that he and Hugtan came from a world in the future. He came into the past in order to flee from the Cryasse Corporation, and he is confident that PreCured can prevent that bad future from coming to pass.
He thought they would need four members of a PreCure team, but he has been proven wrong. The girls may play different music, but it makes a beautiful melody when they play together.
Hana and Saaya’s reactions to Harry’s words are very amusing. However, their conversation gets cut short.

Also, Harry told his backstory... and the Future hypothesis is confirmed and canonised!!

Of course the important part Harry revealed more of his and Hug-tan's backstory to the girls and they came from the future

(as for the origins of Cryasse, we'll have to wait till winter, as usual).

 

Throughout the episode, Papple was struggling to gather toge-power. She eventually gathered enough... yadda yadda yadda (the victim du jour was a  )... transformation... This time, however, they have new techniques to go along with the power-up they received in the previous episode.

 Cure Ange’s Feather Blast

Cure Étoile’s Star Slash

I am especially thrilled to see after last week’s episode, we are finally starting to see the cadres be more proactive. Papple shows yet again she is not someone to underestimated, especially when she’s pissed off. She packed the girls a bit of a punch today, but was unable to successfully take them down, especially with their new power upgrade.

Now, I am scared.

The theender soon falls to the PreCures' finishing attack, and Papple retreats. When the girls go back inside, they all struggle to get to sleep. 
 

Finally, we end the episode with a surprise.

Throughout the episode, we saw Lulu gradually deciding that she wanted to learn more about PreCures. Her plan for doing this is staying at the Nono residence – she seemingly played around with the memories of Hana’s mum.

 Lulu infiltrated the Nono household, brainwashing Mrs. Nono, creating a cover story that her parents were friends of the family that had left her at the Nonos' while they travelled overseas.

 The light from her right index fingertip brainwashed Mrs. Nono through intense catatonic pain.

Lulu on the other-hand, is the one who really kicked things up the notch. She is no longer sitting int he office, she took it upon herself to investigate further, and positioned herself by attacking Hana’s mother, and placing a spell of a sort on her to enable her to be a guest living in their household for a bit. It was quite a stark turn, which was quite fitting to say the least considering the girls were previously watching horror movies, but now the real horror has just begun. Lulu will not only be living in Hana’s house to constantly observe her, but she will also be transferring to their school. She is in for a surprise with the way Hana is certainly going to welcome her with open arms, but will that be enough to start thinking about switching sides? It’s a bit early for that, so I suspect if anything, Lulu may only be living at Hana’s place for one episode. It will be very intersting if she stays any longer than that though. Nothing is scarier than having the enemy live in your own house, especially since it’s a place where Hana feels the most comfortable to be vulnerable, in front of her mother no less. Lulu can mess her up big time by having her mother turn her back on her, which would be pretty damn dark for a precure series.

The very next day (or actually, the episode within a week), comes the quintessential introduction of the new schoolgirl:

It's Lulu Amour, actually. Just a little orthographical error, considering Asian phonetics.


Overall, it felt like a setup episode with only Harry's backstory and Lulu to infiltrate Hana's home to learn more about the Precures which are vital to the main plot.

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
Ah, brainwashing.

The brainwashing in Avatar: The Last Airbender did not differ a lot from hypnotism in A Series of Unfortunate Events, or the Ludovico method in A Clockwork Orange (which inspired both methods): the victim lapses into the trance on cue ("Lake Laogai", "inordinate", and Beethoven's Ninth / An die Freude; respectively), the cue having been given to the victim under physical and/or psychological torture.
The Ludovico technique is a form of aversion therapy, in which Alex is injected with nausea-inducing drugs while watching graphically violent films, eventually conditioning him to become severely ill at the mere thought of violence. As an unintended consequence, the soundtrack to one of the films, An die Freude (Beethoven's Ninth, also the anthem to the European Union) renders Alex unable to enjoy his beloved classical music as before.
The effectiveness of the technique is demonstrated to a group of VIPs, who watch as Alex collapses before a bully and abases himself before a scantily clad young woman whose presence has aroused his predatory sexual inclinations. Although the prison chaplain accuses the state of stripping Alex of free will, the government officials on the scene are pleased with the results and Alex is released from prison.

 As you can see on the Joo Dees above and Jet below, the main sign of brainwashing (in the Avatarverse) is the presence of Mind-Control Eyes, which here are not only the usual Empty Eyes, but also feature Open the Iris.
In Avatar: The Last Airbender, the victims of A Clockwork Orange-reminiscent brainwashing have their pupils dilate, nearly enveloping the iris.

In the Avatarverse, the technique of brainwashing allowed the Dai Li (the Praetorian Guard/Gestapo of the Earth Kingdom) to change attitudes, alter beliefs, augment personalities, and erase an individual's memories. The main reason for the use of brainwashing methods was to maintain cultural order and to prevent anyone from mentioning the Hundred Year War.

Process

The Dai Li often brought victims to their secret headquarters beneath the surface of Lake Laogai where they would proceed to brainwash them. During the process of brainwashing, agents would repeatedly recite anything they wished for the victims to believe. When the Dai Li were brainwashing Jet, they used a dim lantern which revolved on a rail slowly around the agent brainwashing him while stone cuffs prevented him from moving his arms, legs, and head. The agent repeated phrases to assure Jet he was safe, and that there was no war within the walls. In the case of brainwashing the young women, the women would simultaneously repeat the words of a single agent. The process could also give the subject a secondary task, to be accomplished after saying the trigger-phrase "The Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai." Long Feng used this code phrase on both Jet and the Joo Dees.

Effect

When brainwashed, people are tricked into believing anything the brainwasher states. The victim forgets any information the brainwasher wishes to erase from their mind. Long Feng (supreme commander of the Dai Li) could also activate the subject's secondary task with the code phrase. When this was done, the subject entered a trance state and answered the code with "I am honoured to accept his invitation."

Cures

There are only two known methods of curing brainwashing.

Healing

The waterbending technique of healing has been known to be capable of bringing a subject out of their hypnotic state.

Familiar surroundings

Oftentimes, familiar surroundings are able to slowly regenerate the memory of a brainwashed victim or even completely reverse the effects of brainwashing. The same can be said for spoken reminders.

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To return to Lulu and Mrs. Nono...

Those The Matrix-esque number cascades (anyone else up for the Lulu Fembot theory?), actually called Matrix Raining Code, added an extra vibe to the fact that brainwashing in this universe is painful.

The dark stranger's book of the maiden fighting darkness:

And now this is where things get real interesting, because Harry knew about the Melody Sword, but never expected it to have changed forms. It sounds to me, the story which the mysterious book the ‘handsome-no-name’ carries seems to be an oracle that shares the tale of the future, and that very story will change based on the course of actions the girls take, starting with the Melody Rod itself.



Next time, their school gets a new transfer student.