MISS DERMARK'S LITERARY RAMBLES: ...AND I'LL TRY NOT TO SING OUT OF KEY

Hugtto Pretty Cure - Episode 21
My Own Review
...AND I'LL TRY NOT TO SING OUT OF KEY

With Cure Ma Chérie and Cure Amour joining the team, what ever could happen next?

Emiru and Lulu opened this week's episode!

With Lulu and Emiru joining the ranks as Cure Amour and Cure Ma Chérie respectively, they ask the other three what is most important for a PreCure.

Hana gives a typical Hana answer, "trust your feelings," and Saaya and Homare interpret that to mean fellowship (nakama).

PreCures aren’t the only ones getting new additions to their team.

Gelos joins the management team at Cryasse. It is also made ever clearer that the president of the company is not exactly what he seems.

(IE. The Great and Powerful Kurai is actually a hologram projected by Listol)

Jenos introducing herself and it annoyed Papple especially she was forced to listen to Kurai's tantrums. Although Jenos still greeted Papple as her senior, it's obvious that Jenos will definitely overshadow her. Furthermore, Ristle pushed several buttons on his console and Kurai just happen to appear to get angry with Papple. (The plot thickens)

Emiru is ready to transform over the smallest thing

Moving on, Harry’s shop becomes quite busy and the girls help out. When a woman panics about losing her purse, Emiru misunderstands and thinks her bag is a threat. She almost transforms into Cure Ma Chérie, but Homare puts a halt to that.

Harry asks Emiru to run an errand for him – he needs her to buy nappies, milk and various other things for Hugtan. Emiru isn’t too eager to go, until Harry tells her that she will be patrolling at the same time.

Emiru and Lulu on patrol

Much like before, Emiru is ready to transform into Cure Ma Chérie at the drop of a hat. However, any trouble they come across turns out to be totally inconsequential.

After Emiru and Lulu reintroduce themselves to the girls as the new Cures, the girls help around Harry's shop. But Emiru being Emiru, she overreacts to everything: like a customer misplacing her wallet, an elderly lady crossing the road even though she has the right of way, and even thinking that a wild theender appeared where it was just the sales promoter announcing the special offers.

After getting the shopping, Lulu and Emiru go and take a break. Emiru has her guitar with her, but Lulu thinks that it sounds gloomy. Emiru feels like she has given her all, and not got anything she rightfully deserves in exchange... the reason why she is playing out of key are these doubts about her identity. She ends up running off, leaving Lulu to return to Harry’s shop alone.

Lulu felt anger towards Emiru

Lulu talks to Hana and Saaya about Emiru. She reveals that she feels a little anger towards Emiru, and worries that she has become her enemy. However, they tell her that the frustration she feels is because she loves (dai/suki) Emiru. Lulu is worried about Emiru's frustrations. However, the others ensure her that as long as Lulu cares for Emiru, things will work out.

Homare and Harry find Emiru

Homare and Harry (with Hug-tan in tow) end up finding Emiru sulking in a playground cave, and ask what happened. Emiru tells them she got angry and took it out on Lulu, and now she feels unfit to be a PreCure. However, after Emiru explained her frustrations, Homare asks which made and makes Emiru happier: becoming a PreCure per se, or becoming a PreCure together with Lulu. (That rhetorical question really hit the spot!)

Emiru honestly replied that being together with Lulu is much happier. Harry even added that her giving up the sole Preheart to Lulu in the previous episode is a selfless act which makes Emiru worthy to be a Precure. (Emiru thanked Harry and called him "Ratty" -"Nezumi-san"-, which annoyed Harry off a bit)

I AM NOT A BLOODY RAT!!!

Harry also says that Emiru is more than qualified to be a PreCure, and Hugtan agrees as well.

As Emiru joined them back, Harry questioned himself of why Hug-tan has not restored to normal despite all eight Future crystals having appeared...

Lulu and Emiru sing together

After that, Emiru goes back to Lulu to find her attempting to put together a song. It isn’t very good. No matter, as the two are back together and they enjoy singing together, though the results of this duet are far from stellar.

It’s time to fill that monster of the week quota once again, and Papple is the one who summons it from an angry park cleaner as the victim of the week.

Lulu and Emiru are close to where the theender du jour appears, so they transform and take it on.

They have the upper hand at first, but then Papple powers up the theender when Gelos appears to belittle her.

Hey, I am the cadre of the week, you bitch. Stay out of this show. After all, this Standard Evil Organization Squad only has room for one Vamp/Baroness...

Cure Amour and Cure Ma Chérie

The fight continues, and Emiru’s guitar ends up getting caught in the battle. The theender breaks it when it tries to attack Amour, but Ma Chérie saves her in true diving-save style.

She can’t do the same for the guitar, though.

After Emiru and Lulu reconciled, Papple created a theender from a cleaner which forced the pair to transform. They were getting the upper hand when Papple increased the theender's power and the pair were caught off guard. (Jenos was watching from behind and came up with measures against the Cures).

Cure Amour tried to protect Emiru's Guitar from the theender's blows but Cure Ma Chérie pushed her away and the guitar was destroyed. The other three girls arrived to join the fight and finished off the theender together.

The others arrive, making this the first time that all five Cures have fought together. As you might expect, the theender doesn’t last much longer after that.

Once it is defeated, both Gelos and Papple leave. Stage left, as usual.

Cure Amour blames herself for what happened to Emiru’s guitar

Amour feels that she is the one to blame for the guitar getting broken. However, Ma Chérie says that as long as she is able to protect Amour, that is all that really matters.

Ma Chérie than asks the other Cures to hand over their Melody Swords so it will be easier for her to protect those precious to her.

The others aren’t giving up their Melody Swords, but it seems that Hugtan has something in mind.

She doesn’t produce new Melody Swords out of thin air; no, instead, she somehow warps in two girls that long time PreCure fans will be very familiar with.

Although Emiru's guitar was destroyed, Cure Ma Chérie asked if they could lend the Melody sword for the next battle but the others claimed it is quite impossible. Hug-tan suddenly used her power to create a portal and out came...Cure Black and Cure White!?

Cure Black and Cure White

This is exactly where the episode ends, so we’ll have to wait until next time to see what the OG Futari wa Cures have in store for us.
You know, every week I watch Hugtto! PreCure and think that it has peaked. Every week, this show manages to prove me wrong. It can’t keep getting better all the time, but for the moment that is definitely the case.
We got more Emilu goodness from this episode, and that makes me very happy. I don’t know what PreCure fans like myself have done to deserve this, but I certainly won’t complain.
Hugtto! PreCure is already a massively strong contender for my favourite anime of this year, and it hasn’t even hit the halfway point yet.
Lulu going after Emiru when she went out on patrol was absolutely adorable, and we have more of Lulu coming to terms with various emotions. Lulu’s story has been one of the strongest PreCure has ever offered, I reckon.
That brings us to what happened at the end of the episode – something that Toei seemingly managed to actually keep quiet about for once. Twitter, not so much…
Maybe Toei were making noise about it, and I just happened to completely avoid it. No matter what the case is, it is absolutely incredible to see the original generation PreCures show up – Nagisa Misumi and Honoka Yukishiro, AKA Cure Black and Cure White, of Futari wa fame.
They are their Max Heart incarnations – you can tell because Cure Black’s midriff is covered up.
I knew that Cure Black and Cure White would be appearing in the upcoming Hugtto! PreCure film, but didn’t expect to see them in the TV series. I hope that they bring their opening theme along as well, as it is one of my favourites from within the entire franchised – rivaled only by Splash Star‘s opening theme.
The current plot of Hugtto! PreCure has been impressive, and now the hype levels shoot up with the arrival of the two characters that started it all.

Let this series focus on our main cast okay, that’s our latest two additions: Emiru and Lulu.

One of the main reasons why I am already stressed out just by their appearance is because ever since Lulu’s and Emiru’s arc as begun, the original trio has had virtually no air time, no time to further develop their characters and worst of all, there has been a severe lack of interaction between the five of them as whole. Since Lulu and Emiru are now part of the team, I want to see the group interact altogether, as oppose to being divided into what Lulu and Emiru could be described as “Sub Unit” (or West Coast Team) at the moment. In fact, this episode was the first time the five of them as a group were there to fight, and it will take one more episode before Emiru and Lulu receive their own respective “Melody Swords”, which will be a Guitar for the two of them (since Emiru’s guitar has been destroyed during the fight).… and that yet another thing that is troubling to me.

See, the two of them just became precures… Like yesterday. Today was their second fight, and their third fight will be against Puapple’s “Unleashed Form” or One-Winged Angel form. So this fight will effectively provide Emiru and Lulu their editions of the Melody Swords and defeat the second boss, and to proceed to the next level, Gelos and the others… and I am not exactly a fan of that. Of course one could argue they are a group of five now, naturally they should be able to be stronger altogether, but considering Emiru and Lulu had only undergone two major fights, I find it a little too convenient for them to get it this soon… But I suppose there’s no other way, or else they really will remain as a Sub Unit/West Coast Team…

With Papple getting a taste of her own medicine, be it one she inflicted on herself in desperate attempt to save face, or someone else caused her to become this way, it looks like this will be Papple’s last stand. She will be effectively replaced by Gelos, George’s latest recruit. This is of course Round 2 of the fight they had against Charalit when he was buffed up into this kind of monster.

Speaking of the devils, it turns out my suspicions were right. The dude in blue (Listol), has completely duped both Charalit and Papple into thinking the big shadowy face of Kurai above them is the CEO talking. Think "Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz." The truth is, he is the one controlling this feed of him, delivering the script and pulling the strings. It is likely this man is serving as George’s figurehead, which only makes it even crazier, when you realize that Papple probably has no idea her so-called “boyfriend” is the head of the organization. When she does fall, it will be interesting to see if we see any reaction from George at all, and what will become of her afterwards. Charalit has been seen to be doing his own thing, but doesn’t appear to be affiliated with the company anymore, and we haven’t seen him interact with them since they kicked him out.

Going back to Hugtan, Harry revealed to (only) the audience one of the secrets he is concerned about, and that is Hugtan’s condition. They already have eight future crystals, and yet Hugtan has yet to return to her original form. She is clearly absorbing its power, but she is using it in different means other than for herself. What’s crazy is that, even in this form she is insanely powerful, first blocking off attacks and now she can summon Precures from another time/realm?! It actually makes me wonder, even though the crystals help restore her power, it might not necessarily mean she will be able to recover her original form. The price she had to pay for them to get away, or a curse that may have been inflicted onto her, could be preventing her from doing so. As result this would mean she has no choice but to grow up naturally, as fast as any other muggle human baby would. If they were to go this direction, it would be quite a dramatic revelation, since more often than not, we have seen instances where the powers help them grow up faster, a fine example would be with Mahou Tsukai’s Precure Kotoha (Ha-chan), who started off as a baby and rapidly grew up into a form of a young girl. Or Hotaru Tomoe, for that matter.

On the side note: Hugtan imitating: “Be Serious” to Harry was the cutest darn thing!

Overall this episode wasn’t the most exciting, but we still got a lot of things things out of it.. It didn’t surprise me to see Emiru going overboard with the whole “precure duties” thing. She is incredibly enthusiastic about helping others, and has a selfless heart, and part of her character to overdo everything, which is why Lulu needed to go with her to do errands. I am not entirely sure if she realized it herself this episode, but she definitely needs to think carefully of when she should actually use her power.

I also expected Emiru to struggle with having confidence in her role as a precure, because she can be a clumsy girl, and sometimes instead of being helpful, she make things more complicated. But she’s not dumb either. She knew she messed up on countless occasions, and as result, she like she was failing to live up to what is expected of her as a Precure. Thankfully the others were there to support her, trying to give her other means and ways to contribute her part. I loved how Harry gave her the errand and told her she was in charge of patrolling around town, I thought it was adorable. I also found it sweet with how he explained to her selflessness of wanting to give up the Preheart to Lulu is the same quality that the prehearts are made out of, and she has already proved herself she is absolutely qualified to be a Precure.

Before we get to what happened at the end, I felt this episode is a typical "Sixth Ranger introduction" scenario. What I mean is that when a new member joined halfway through the team, the new member will have doubts or worries if he or she could become part of the team.

Both Emiru and Lulu were wondering their purposes and reasons of becoming Precures and again it is repeating the same things in the previous episode in which the three senior Cures giving pep talk and encouragement for the pair to believe each other.

The battle was all right at least Cure Ma Chérie and Cure Amour didn't have to sing when they went to battle and their combination attacks are still spot on since they worked as one unit.

Harry's worries is also concerned since he did mentioned before that all eight Future Crystals are needed for Hug-tan to grow back to normal but nothing has happened which I am suspecting that there is probably one missing element that it was not hinted to Harry. (If Hug-tan is restored back to normal then the story will have end faster)

Jenos was a bit of a snob when she appeared in front of the generals and Papple is defintely desperate as she is worried that Jenos might replace her and seeing how Papple becomes a One-Winged Angel like Charalit did before in the next episode, this could be the end of Papple. Furthermore, Ristle's actions seem like he is controlling their leader, Kurai, but for what purpose? Perhaps is to keep the organization afloat until the real Kurai returns?

Of course, the big surpise which no one see this coming was Cure Black and Cure White's appearance! Hug-tan is probably one of the most amazing characters in Precure History as she was able to bring the two Legendary Cures into the present. It probably explain how the Hugtto Team will meet their Seniors Cures in the upcoming crossover movie this October with Hug-tan's powers.

I have a feeling that Cure Black and Cure White were pulled out from their timeline which explained why they looked the same fifteen years ago (ie each and every continuity is set in a different timeline --more or less, considering the existence of Ranko and Ranze Ichijo--). It also make sense to guest star as the two Senior Cures will be able to give advice to Cure Ma Chérie and Cure Amour who are paying homages to them. (But seriously, Toei, I want the senior Cures to grow up otherwise it doesn't make sense if they looked the same in their own series all these years)

But I am really happy to see Cure Black and Cure White again although where is Shining Luminous? She might not have combat abilities but she is also a part of the Max Heart team. (Maybe Rie Tanaka is busy with her married life?)

This is probably the first time when a senior Precure team guest star in a current Precure series aside from the movies' team-up.

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
Emiru's identity crisis - Breakup and makeup

The Emilu moments
The negative emotion of the week was the anger of a stressed park cleaner. Trust me, I am typing this after an exam that put a lot of pressure on me, with a pretty harsh lecturer who subtracts points for every single error, and this week I could not have been more tense.

Papple on the last leg - Papple vs. Gelos / The upcoming last stand

Renewed Shall Be the Strings that Were Broken / Emiru and Towa / When was the last time a red Precure had her signature string instrument, which meant the world to her, crushed by the enemy?

IN NEXT EPISODE (21):