THE PIRATES OF SAMHAIN

Hugtto Pretty Cure
Episode 38 - My Own Review

THE PIRATES OF SAMHAIN

In the beginning of the episode, Harry and Hug-tan were wondering what with the Halloween decorations near the park and asked the girls about it. (Not after seeing a Halloween poster that scared the heck out of Harry and Hug-tan)


Hugtan decides to investigate, and is immediately freaked out. Harry has a similar reaction after he takes a look to see what made Hugtan cry. It’s a poster for a big Halloween event that is being sponsored by Hugman and Sumire’s magazine, so Hana thought she’d help out by designing a poster.

Emiru likes kaiju

The main event is a costume dance party, with the theme being dreams; that they just dress up as whatever they like. For Emiru, that would be a reptilian monster, whilst for Saaya it would be a megazord. Everyone is getting into the Halloween spirit, but there are two or three who don’t quite understand.

Ruru and Harry don’t really get Halloween

It falls to the others to explain just what Halloween is about. 

Saaya, being more informed, looks it up and tells them that the 31st of October was the night where the ancient Celts ancestors’ spirits would return to them. Samhain, pronounced SAA-win.

Lulu and Harry still don’t quite get it, so Emiru decides that they should just go a little overboard to make up for it.

Saaya and Lulu remain as competitive as ever

Following that, everyone starts preparing for the Halloween event. 

I don't think I even seen kids dressed up as Precures in previous seasons but it is nice to see the townspeople acknowledging the Precures.

Lulu didn't understand either about Halloween and the other girls showed them by getting decorations and costumes and learning more about Halloween. Harry commented that their world does not have Halloween since Crisis took over the world in their timeline. Harry and Hug-tan later walked around the festival and felt a sense of regret; he was hugging Hug-tan tightly and something was going on with him...
The event starts, and Harry is looking a little sad. He quickly puts that behind him, and focuses on the event. Of course, – the other girls are in their costumes as well.

I guess Saaya chose to be a fallen angel for Halloween. I like it

Lulu and Emiru looked wonderful as Pirate girls!

Seeing our Twin Love OTP as pirates, well, in pirate costumes means that the Master & Commander analogy is still red hot (well, Jack and Steve were royal officers, not pirates, but still heroes of the Age of Sail)... Even though Emiru still wanted a reptilian kaiju suit... PS. When is Talk Like A Pirate Day? The 19th of Sept, over a month ago...

Emiru and Lulu dressed as pirates – so good

It’s not just our friends who are preparing. Even Daigan is making sweets, though he finds himself struggling a bit with the finer points. He also gets an unexpected visitor.

Papple and Charalit were out promoting their agency while Daigan was left with the food decorations. (With little success) Ristle appeared and offered Daigan a high position at Crisis. 

Ristle tells Daigan he can return to Criasu

Ristle shows up, and tells Daigan that he is welcome to go back to Criasu if he wants. He doesn’t have to decide immediately, but Ristle does give him a business card.

Although Daigan refused, Ristle left his card behind and Daigan placed in his pocket when Papple and Charalit returned.

The girls also happen to have several costumes for Hugtan to wear. They have a try a few, but that only increases Hugtan’s weariness levels.

Lulu detects that Angel!Hugtan’s weariness has increased by 78%

The girls stop dressing Hugtan in different costumes, and Hana just asks what she wants to dress up. Hugtan simply wants to dress as a PreCure. With that, the girls decide to get to work on Hugtan’s costume.

Daigan finds himself unable to resist the allure of Criasu, so he ends up summoning a Wild Theender. As it causes havoc at the event, the others go to confront. 

Later, Daigan was getting annoyed over his food decorations and saw a girl complaining of friction blisters and is giving out negative energy. He decided to create a theender from the girl and was wrecking havoc in the festival.

A super special Halloween PreCure show

The fight against the Wild Theender is framed as part of the event, with each PreCure getting in an attack against their foe before they finish it off.

The girls entered the battle but they decided to make it part of the show in order to calm the crowd. Of course, the girls won and Daigan was left in defeat. Papple knew something was wrong with him and reprimanded him. She commented that people are enjoying his sweets and he learned his lesson already.

Papple admonishes Daigan

After the battle, Papple finds Daigan and gives him a good smack on the head. She also lets him know that the treats he made went down really well with the kids. All that hard work paid off.

Following that, Harry talks about how things would be if time stops, but is assured that the others will be there to meet the future head on.

Hugtan’s costume change is complete

After hearing from Saaya that Halloween or Samhain is a festival to remember the dearest who were lost to them, Harry felt a sense of sorrow and couldn't help thinking about his world. He told that he has no idea what kind of festivals they have since Crisis has his world in this freeze state. Luckily, the others gave some word of encouragement and promised him that they will free his world from Crisis.

Hug-Tan wore a Precure costume and everyone adore her. Although Harry swore he saw a blonde figure that looked like an older Hug-tan as a Precure!? But he kept mum (pun intended) about it as they continue to celebrate Halloween...

A familiar face briefly appears before Harry

The episode ends with everyone deciding to enjoy the rest of the night.

Despite being a Halloween episode, it is more of a set-up for the next few episodes as we are approaching the final quarter of the season. The focus was on Harry and Hug-tan since we learn that there was no concept of festivals or celebration since everyone was frozen in time by Crisis. Harry in particular felt that he lost a lot of things in his time and after seeing everyone happily celebrating, he knew that they must succeed in freeing everyone from his timeline. 
You got to love the shot of Harry walking past in shadows, as it showed that he still has secrets yet to reveal to the girls and probably knew the true identify of Hug-tan. Seeing now it is confirmed that Hug-Tan is a Precure from the future and was reverted into a toddler for some reason. Furthermore, Ristle was getting desperate after failing to recruit Daigan and seeing how the next episode preview, he finally did the unthinkable and brought the girls and Harry to the future. A showdown is inevitable.

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
Seeing our Twin Love OTP as pirates, well, in pirate costumes means that the Master & Commander analogy is still red hot (well, Jack and Steve were royal officers, not pirates, but still heroes of the Age of Sail)... Even though Emiru still wanted a reptilian kaiju suit... PS. When is Talk Like A Pirate Day? The 19th of Sept, over a month ago...
Harry went for a furry... I mean, lycan ensemble with ears, tail, and paws in a silver gray and matching whisker and snout make-up, and, just like Lulu, he hails from a dystopian future where autumnal celebrations are something that has not been celebrated for decades, or maybe even centuries. As expected, it was Saaya who gave the two time-travellers a lecture on Samhain -pronounced SAA-wan or SAA-win; Celtic orthographies are deeper than the Marianas Trench- and later on dressed as a fallen angel (when I had expected something more druidic; voilà, she overturned her angelic transformed mode by making it all dark and leathery)... Werewolf!Harry was a nice touch to his characterisation as the Beast, while Homare went in a ten-gallon hat instead of... Wait. Jessie. Belle. Jessie-Belle. Jezebel... I see what you did there for a visual pun (smirk!).
Also... did Harry just remember Lenore? All while not identifying Homare as her? #FriendZone! The fact that he also saw Lenore in Hug-tan made me also think of the theory (we'll see if it's canon, but it's the most likely scenario) that Lenore is Hug-tan as an adult! (If not, there is always the possibility of a Les Mis AU where Lenore is Fantine, Harry is Valjean, and Hug-tan is Cosette -Ristle would be Javert, Papple and Daigan would make excellent Thénardiers, and Henrisato as Enjoltaire in a barricade subplot would be the icing on the cake!-...)

Daigan is back to the dark side, but only for today because he was under pressure... Also, at his sweetstand he sold moray eel-shaped sweets (patterned after the Muraena helena, or Mediterranean moray). Also, Ristle pulling His Card out once more. But Daigan's Moment of Weakness came, this time, from a pretty stubborn chocolate pen. So much ado about nothing!
The victim and source of the week was a twenty-something trick-or-treater, dressed as a ghost ragdoll, who is upset when she got a friction blister when walking, right when the festival's costume contest was about to begin, and thus thought that it was the worst time for her to get a friction blister (she hadn't pocketed any painkillers or bandages)...
The post-battle twit-slap Papple gave Daigan was adorable. I can already see this straight woman and funny guy as husband and wife, of the kind that have been married for decades - and Charalit as either their child or nephew.
This was a fun episode. Emiru and Lulu (our les OTP for this continuity) wearing matching pirate outfits was great, and I do like Saaya’s fallen angel costume a lot as well.
We got some more hints about the connection between Harry and Hugtan. I am curious about the ‘lost things stay lost’ line though. Speculation suggests that Hugtan’s true form is the girl Harry sees at the end of the episode, but Hugtan hasn’t exactly been lost. I wonder if the situation is a little more complicated than that.
This episode had some great funny moments as well. I’m glad to see that Saaya and Lulu remain competitive with each other. A decent Halloween episode.