DO GYNOIDS DREAM OF DRAGON COSTUMES?

Hugtto! Pretty Cure - Episode 28
My Own Review
DO GYNOIDS DREAM OF DRAGON COSTUMES?

Episode twenty-eight of Hugtto! PreCure focuses on Homare’s pet foxterrier Mogumogu, who becomes infatuated with a cat he sees on television.

Lovestruck Mogumogu

The episode begins with Mogumogu catching a glimpse of Lily the celebrity cat on a TV advert, and it is love at first sight. 

Homare takes Mogumogu to see the others, and Saaya pretty much confirms that he is in love (romantic love, ie koi or eros). Lulu’s analysis comes up with the same result as well.

According to Emiru, it is almost impossible to approach Lily. Fortunately, there is an open audition for the next advert where Lily stars, so we get a short Mogumogu training montage.

Gonna fly now...

Homare trains Mogumogu

Mogumogu undergoes training, though he will have his work cut out for him. As the girls work hard to support Mogumogu, Lulu seems to be having some doubts.

Lulu has doubts about love between a human and a gynoid

(but Emi reassures her... awwww, the feels!! <3 <3 <3 )

During the evening, Lulu and Emiru are out practicing guitar together. Emiru is able to see that Lulu isn’t very happy, so she asks what’s up.

Lulu feels like the love between a celebrity cat and a middle-class foxterrier can’t be requited, because they are different species and different ranks. This also has her doubting that a human and gynoid could love each other.
Emiru responds by playing their song, which is full of her feelings for Lulu. Lulu cheers up after hearing it, and both girls decide that they will perform at their event.

During the episode, Lulu does not understand the logic of two different species (In the case of Mogumogu and Lilly) to have feelings with each other. Emiru explained that she likes (so: daisuki?) Lulu even though she is a gynoid, and shouldn't let their background stop them from pursing what they love.

 This led the girls to train, Emiru dressing up as a monster (which lead to a flashback of Masato scolding her as kids) 

Which was an adorable scene - capturing a lot of sibling dynamics, and done in that sepia tone... furthermore, it also establishes Emi as much as an outsider, an "other," as Lulu is, right?

Emiru and Lulu perform

True to their word, Emiru and Lulu put on a performance before the audition (this time wearing dirndl).



Sure enough, it inspires Mogumogu. Besides the PreCure girls and Harry, there also happened to be a few other familiar faces watching too.

Papple and her minions

Though Papple does suggest that Emiru and Lulu sign for her agency (once more), she is actually present for a different reason. She has her own pet dog entering the audition.

Papple's designer collie, Haru

The auditions begin, and the first couple of rounds are actually a close fought battle between Mogumogu and Haru. 

And Papple is HILARIOUS when she falls off her stilettoes and sprains her foot, while cheering on her aloof, rebel collie...

During the obstacle course which was hilarious that Papple tripped and sprained her foot due to her high heels and Mogumogu getting all fired up after seeing Lilly's picture and got first place in the obstacle course. 

The third round is to test the heroism of the pets who audition, and this is the point where Criasu interfere.

This week it is Bishin who brings forth the Wild Theender, made from the inventor of a robber-themed robot. 


Yo me parto la camisa...


¡¡¡COMO CAMARÓÓÓÓÓN!!!
Given that this is Bishin's official summoning of a theender, Bishin portrayed the angsty teen with the bandages and even the tearing of the screen (down with the fourth wall!) which is really creepy but then Bishin's love (koi or daisuki?) for Harry has no boundaries as nothing is going stop Bishin from getting Harry back.


Did I ever mention how much I love Bishin’s character design?! Gods this sequence was so beautiful!


Almost everyone else flees, leaving the others the opportunity to transform into PreCures. Not everyone was able to escape, though – a young girl remains behind. The Wild Theender/Robberbot turns its attention to her.

Mogumogu protects the girl

Though he is trembling with fear, Mogumogu steps up and gets between the Wild Theender and the girl. He barks for the first time, then leads the damsel away to a safe place.

Still the best finisher

Cure Ma Chérie and Cure Amour are the ones to finish off the Wild Theender, resulting in Bishin retreating. He remains determined to get Harry to return to Criasu, though.

Lily's owner -the damsel du jour- and her mum thank Homare and Mogumogu...

Mogumogu’s good deed paid off

Lily lives with the girl that Mogumogu saved. The cat owned by the damsel also happened to be watching, so she gives Mogumogu a token of her appreciation – needless to say that the foxterrier appreciates it quite a bit.

Ruru loves Emiru (koi? suki? daisuki?)

Seeing Mogumogu and Lily inspires Lulu. She tells Emiru that she loves her (koi? suki? daisuki?), and hugs her. The episode ends on this heart-warming note.

I thought that this might have been a Homare episode upon seeing the preview last week, but surprise! It was an Emilu episode all along. I absolutely adore both Lulu and Emiru, and any episode that focuses on the both of them is one that I am going to enjoy a lot.

Besides Emilu, there isn’t really a whole lot more to say about this episode. I will point out that the title “Catch That Heart ♥ Hooray, Hooray! Mogumogu!” is a reference to HeartCatch PreCure!, and the purple cat brings to mind KiraKira ☆ à la Mode‘s Yukari Kotozume.
Overall a decent episode, lifted even higher by giving us more Emilu.

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
On the Emilu scenes in this episode: Awww awww awww awww... and the confession at the end was the crowner - the dialogue about whether gynoids can love and be loved by people of flesh and blood, with Emi reassuring Lulu; then the duet performance; then the final confession -but did Lulu say of Emiru "koisuru" or "daisuki?" There is a certain degree of nuance between eros and philia, between matesprit and moirail.
On Lulu's Pinocchio syndrome:



On Emiru and Masato as children, and the dragon costume: KaiJuly is officially a thing of the past, but Smaugust is still going on.
On Bishin's debut and tension with Harry Harryham: First things first: BISHIN IS MALE, as officially confirmed. Therefore, we will be referring to Bishin as a he (even though he looked so androgynous that at first there were lots of guesses).
On just how hilarious Papple can be: In the last episode, we got to see Charalit making a name for himself; now it happens to be Papple's turn to stand in the limelight.
On the Robberbot and the negative emotions of the week: The idea of the Robberbot was just hilarious. Just to make a robber-themed bot to create damselling-and-heroics scenarios. And the victim du jour was quite obviously the inventor of this contraption. This guy is upset of how hard he and Ron tried they're not gonna win at this rate. He's basically a sore loser in a competition where he is most eager to prove himself.
The whole premise of the Robberbot reminded me of the suburban legend of "Mr. and Mrs. Batman", where a childless married couple try to liven up their everyday with a heroic roleplay - and screw it up; the Batman cosplayer lying unconscious on the floor after missing the jump, in between the feet of his damsel wife, tied to a chair in lingerie.

As expected, this was yet another “filler” episode, but I definitely enjoyed it more than last week’s episode. The only thing that caught me off guard and left me feeling a bit disappointed was how even though Homare is Nobunobu’s owner, the spotlight was actually on Lulu and Emiru (AND THANK GOD FOR THE CHANGE OF SONG, I AM SO DONE WITH THE FIRST ONE!!!). Of course it the most make sense for Lulu to be a central figure in this episode, as she is an android who is still learning to understand ‘love’ (koi? daisuki?), she was worried and uncertain of what would become of Nobunobu’s crush on Lily the cat. Needless to say, I wished Homare had the chance to play a bigger role.

Despite the story revolving around a pet dog’s crush, I still found it quite cute how serious the girls were in wanting to help Nobunobu. Emiru in particular gave me a good laugh because her idea it was super relatable. (The way she scared her brother with the outfit was freaking hilarious!) And frankly, it can be quite easy to forget these characters are supposed to be in their early teens, therefore we really should expect them to act as such.

Did I ever mention how much I love Bishin’s character design?!

And on top of that, to my surprise: Bishin was ended up being the highlight. Sure they didn’t show up until the end, but after their lacklustre debut, I was especially pleased with how they used a theender (and the requisition sequence was STUNNING, I absolutely the tear away of the screen, it looked so good!). After having to sit through Gelos’s and Dr. Trauma’s pathetic showings, it was so nice to see one of the villain actually act like one. Bishin is not a softie, nor are they here to play around and make a fool of themselves. Bishin’s objective is there to make a point and try and persuade Harry to come back the dark side.

However I can’t help but feel a bit concerned about Bishin possibly being the next one on the chopping block. The girls are due to get their next power upgrade, and Bishin right now is really their second biggest threat they need to be worried about. Of course there is always the possibility where George decides he is going to create a different sort of challenge for Hana (since he is deliberately picking a fight with her) to face. Otherwise if it’s not Bishin, it will be Dr. Trauma or Gelos, both who have been failing as of the late, which is silly considering besides one occasion, they haven’t exactly made themselves to be an ‘upgrade’ or appear ‘superior’ to the likes of Charalit and Papple.

Actually while we are on the subject of the devils, something crossed my mind when Bishin started talking about Harry: When was the last time the White Crystal was brought up? It feels like it hasn’t actually been spoken of since the incident where George robbed the girls of their crystals, and at the end of the episode, it was revealed Harry in fact was holding onto it. It’s a bit strange to see it be forgotten or at least not pointed out– unless the fillers are really getting to my head and I’m the one who is forgetting about it. Either way, it’s due to be brought up again at some point or another. Perhaps it will when the next big fight breaks out? I have been told it is due to happen around Episode 31, so we are going to have to be patient with the fillers for a while longer. (In fact, now that I look back it has only been five episodes since they fought George, and really only two of them (last week and this weeks’ were actually the only fillers between now and then) so it definitely feels like it has been longer than it actually has been!).

That being said, even though next week is looking to be another filler, it is actually one I am looking forward to. It looks like it will be a very sweet one with Hana helping out her grandmother, and I have a soft spot for characters helping their grandparents out, so I am sure I will enjoy it.