miércoles, 17 de octubre de 2018

ALL TOGETHER NOW...

Hugtto! Pretty Cure - Episode 36+37
My Own Review

ALL TOGETHER NOW...



Episode thirty-six of Hugtto! is one that I have been eagerly anticipating. The reason for is quite simply the return of a few familiar faces that we haven’t seen for a little while...

Surprise, it’s the KiraPâti girls!
Even before the usual introduction, Trauma is attacking the PreCures – no, not Hugtto ones, but KiraKira à la Mode girls. Amusingly, the usual introduction has assurance for the viewers that, yes, we are still watching Hugtto!



They appear to have picked up from the finale of Kirakira! à la Mode: Akira is a med student with a grown ponytail, Yukari keeps her trenchcoat and bobbed hairstyle, and Aoi is still going solo as an 80s-style rockstar...

Our story start with Dr Trauma wearing a large robo-suit and attacking Team Kirakira à la Mode who are now young adults but a beam from Dr Trauma shot them and turning them back into teenagers again! So this pic is of them in their twenties - once rejuvenated five years or so... even Akira's ponytail shrinks, as does Aoi's, while Yukari grows her hair back. Their respective clothes ensembles, however, remain unchanged... only that they are now a little oversized for their adolescent bodies!



At the same time, Team Hugtto were hanging out at Harry's shop and everyone had a friendship bracelet. Hug-tan sense something wrong and a portal was created by her bringing Team Kirakira à la Mode to their world.




How come Akira and Aoi get nearly null lebensraum in this scene? Yukari, however, fares a little better...



Dr Trauma followed them also but Team Mahou Tsukai also came to the girls' aid. However Dr Trauma fired the same beam at Mirai and Riko, turning them back to teens. The three teams wasted no time and transform to battle. (Though it was funny that Yukari mentioned that their clothes did not fit their current teenage bodies and Kotoha used a magic spell to their own season casual clothes). As you can see here, their clothes are the same ones they wore as 20-somethings, but the adolescent Cures have grown a little small for them!

  • Fountain of Youth: The Kirakira à la Mode girls being sent into the Hugtto universe allows them to reappear as teenagers.
  • Skewed Priorities: Yukari refuses to fight Dr. Trauma until she gets new clothing - they're still wearing their adult clothing.
Hugtan senses the danger that the KiraKira à la Mode Cures face, so she warps them to her location. Unfortunately, Doctor Trauma follows them. Doctor Trauma uses a de-aging ray to make the girls slightly younger – because changing the stock transformation footage would take time and effort. Anyway, this PreCure bargain sale means time for transformations.



The united PreCures fight against Trauma, and the fight ends in an own goal, as it were.














EXIT STAGE LEFT...!
The three teams battled Dr. Trauma and managed to damage Dr. Trauma's suit. However he used the strange beam on himself and restore all the damages making him back at full health. But a screw came off and his suit fall apart! He realised that he went too far ahead of his restoration and retreated.


Before the battle, Doctor Trauma attacked the Magic World and Mount Ichigo, leaving both suspended in time. In an attempt to put a halt to any more of that, the gathered Cures split into two groups to seek out any other PreCures as reinforcements.



After the battle, Team Kirakira à la Mode and Team Mahou Tsukai explained that Dr Trauma has earlier invaded their worlds and took all the Asu power from their worlds and rendering everyone trapped in time.



The girls split into two groups hoping to find the other Precure teams before it get worse.

 Hana and Saaya joined Team Kirakira à la Mode... and met Bumbee who has not eaten for three days. Bumbee explained that he joined Crisis as an employer but was harassed by his fellow colleagues. He even mentioned that Dr Trauma is creating a sinister device in his lab.




Homare, Lulu, and Emiru joined Team Mahou Tsukai and met Love/Cure Peach while at the same time, Nozomi/Cure Dream met up the KiraPâti staff...


Lulu doing "We Are the Robots" :D 






Suddenly Dr. Trauma reappeared, fired the strange beam all over the prefecture, and froze everyone in time. The girls survived due to creating barriers however Team Go! Princess, Happiness Charge, Splash Star, and Yes! Five Gogo are trapped in time.


WTFudge... Don't tell me that all the other (ie, all the something better) members of Yes! 5 have been affected...


As well as everyone at Noble Academy... (shudders)




I am suggesting that Dr. Trauma probably went to certain "fix points" in time where the previous teams were in their prime but then why did he went after Team Kirakira à la Mode, who are adults now? Too many questions with too little answers! 
It was also nice to see that Urara praised Saaya's acting and was heavily inspired by her (Which make sense as Urara is also an adolescent actress like Saaya); and poor Bumbee is still the butt joke of an evil organization. Love on the other hand taught Lulu how to do the We are the Robots dance...

That’s where this episode ends, and what an episode it was. Seeing so many PreCure groups gather together outside of the films is already hype-worthy, but the whole thing is also tied together with Doctor Trauma attacking the respective locations the various continuities and teams are based in.

***************************************

The episode starts with the continued battle against Doctor Trauma. The Hugtto Cures use their finishing move against him, but he gets back. They prevent his ability to rewind time, but the doctor doesn’t give up that easily.






LOL Aoi's retreating face... she is my favourite blue Cure and there are many reasons why...






Gondor calls for aid...

 Team Hugtto tried to defeat Dr Trauma with Cheerful Style and damaged his time reverse device. 









How come they have made it to ... London? Or is that Ichigozaka?




But Dr Trauma absorbed all the Asu power and become an orb like creature; created a black hole and engulfed all the girls leaving the mascots behind.
Trauma is taken down again, but this only results in him going berserk. The gathered Cures are pulled into what I assume is just pure toge-power – the mascots manage to get to safety beforehand.
All the Cures revert back to their normal selves and are just stuck in a void. 
Everyone else starts cheering as well, and the Cures are released and ready to fight once more.




No. I can't take it - even Akira and Yukari are captured - Ciel has reverted to Kirarin...



Hug-tan started calling out the girls and the others followed, to ensure the Cures could hear the mascots' calling. The others struggle to get up and with enough will power, they broke free and transformed again.


How come Akira's attire shifted from intern to garçon when she temporarily was changed back to muggle form from Chocolat? Ditto Yukari's, including her hair growth... Right. The Kotozume heiress asked for new ensembles before they could henshin and battle (facepalms)!







An army of theenders await
The Cures’ next task is simple: defeat an army. They are totally outnumbered, but things start to get really good as reinforcements arrive.








Cure Scarlet from Go! Princess 








One by one, the other groups of Pretty Cures start arriving to join their allies in the fight. I’ll just sum it up with this screenshot:



Dr Trauma created an endless amount of theenders that surrounded the girls. However Team Go! Princess arrived to clear a path and the various teams who was freed from the time freeze also appeared to aid them. (Although Harry is wondering did Hug-tan brought the other teams here?)

So what follows is a battle of epic proportions. I would love to screenshot every single moment of it and share it here, but I’ll hold back a bit and just choose some of my highlights.





Team Frozen


Team Firmament


Team EnGarde




Cure Ace, Cure Moonlight, Cure Chocolat, & Cure Macaron








Cure Scarlet, Cure Ma Chérie, Cure Beat, Cure Amour & Cure Passion

All the Precures assembled and began fighting back! (This part is totally fan service to the Extreme! Words has no little to describe on how crazy and awesome the team up fights were!)

OK, that was pretty much most of the battle anyway – so much for holding back.
After those excellent scenes of all of Pretty Cures fighting their foes, they launch an attack on Trauma. He goes down, but soon gets back up with one final form.



Doctor Trauma’s final form

Dr Trauma is weakened by the Cures and he grew even bigger than the Earth itself. 



With the words of encouragement from all the other PreCure groups, a new power springs forth.




Everyone gave Team Hugtto a boost and their friendship bracelets become the new Mirai Bracelets!



Much like a Spirit Bomb, everyone offers their support for the final attack to defeat Doctor Trauma. Oh, and when I say everyone…


Pekorine is back...




This scene with the Kiryuu twins made my lose my wits – watch Splash Star to learn more about these two





Ser Giulio - I totally adore the uniform and cravat he gets to wear and wish Ciel-Parfait could wear a matching one (twin siblings should deserve that right...)


Oh... Yui Nanase, Regina, Bilberry, Otokichi... EVERYONE who is something is rooting for them!!


Some familiar faces – I like how Bilberry manages to be tsundere even in a still shot. Also got a lot of love for Regina on the right there!


Team Hugtto used their new attack-Precure All For You and everyone including a few surprises cameos dealt the final blow to Dr Trauma. 

He then saw a past self looking at a new activated Lulu. Lulu told Dr Trauma to let go of the past and he went off peacefully...






Episode 37 left it really unclear to me as to where George stands after all of this. It looks as though he has come to accept that time cannot be stopped, like… what the frick going on now? Are you telling me he’s actually done? That this fight made him magically realize that his approach is wrong? If so, what an awful cop-out.


George was speechless by the power of the Precures and soon later, everyone returned back to their own time as Team Hugtto were glad to meet their seniors...


Seems like Harry's new favourite place to perch is Homare's head!





I mean everyone. Doctor Trauma is blasted by PreCure All For You, and he is finally defeated. He gets a small, somewhat touching scene with Lulu as a send off. Time begins to flow again in the affected areas, and everyone returns to their proper places.




That brings this episode to an end, and whew, what an excellent episode. So it turns out that the best All Stars film is actually episodes 36 and 37 of Hugtto!.
This episode even acknowledged characters that are generally left out of the usual crossover films, which even invoked an actual vocal reaction from me. It’s a rare thing that can do that to me.
The 15th anniversary celebration for PreCure has been absolutely brilliant, though these two recent episodes have certainly set a very high bar for the upcoming Hugtto! film – which we saw a preview of during the opening credits.
It was such a brilliant feeling seeing all the Cures in action together. Before this episode, none of the crossover films ever really managed to capture the same hype as the first All Stars for me. These two episodes – this one in particular – did manage to do that. It’s not even one of the actual films.
It’s Pretty Cures doing what Pretty Cures do best, and I’ll probably be riding the wave of the hype for quite a while.





MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
First things first, I must profusely apologise to any larvae of any stages and/or adolescents of any gender in the readership who support the viewpoints of Duns Scotus - a Scottish Catholic scholar whose reputation and prestige dwindled post-Reformation on the British Isles. It is a shame that our common insult "dunce" should come from a once such distinguished medieval scholar. Therefore, I beg my pardon.
But first, I was and am ELATED by this episode crossover - seeing my OTP for last season and their successors for this season, as well as the canonical confirmation that all the towns of adventure and continuities share one single universe! Speaking of which, maybe Shades of Dawning is about to resume production --post-La Fée Verte, most surely; this month brings the release of the full uncut version of another Snow Queen fusion fic, this one the Enjoltaire version!
Lulu dancing We Are the Robots by Kraftwerk...
Dr. Trauma




A group of fan faves - my Kirakira à la Mode OTP alongside Moonlight and Ace - maybe a good ensemble team all of them together? Yuuri as the more ice-queen foil to Yukari and Aguri as the cadette but also the conscience of team...


Also Ellen-Beat and Towa-Scarlet with our Hugtto! OTP... what would the new name be? Quad Queen instead of Twin Love, surely (Emi would be Deacon, the blond... the others as members to Queen are up to you - like I can't decide on whether Towa or Ellen would be Freddie)!!








The Kiryuu sisters, Giulio... Yui Nanase, Regina, Bilberry, Otokichi... EVERYONE who is something is rooting for them!!



Also - how awkward is this to have this chat with your single poppa as he is breathing his last - remember when you gave me life, when you pushed my on button for the first time? There definitely is a Hamlet vibe around here.
I wish that Dr. Trauma had more character development other than being Lulu's creator before his demise. Like one or two scenes where he interact with Lulu and to understand his motivation in joining Crisis. His flashback scene didn't tell much other than he was happy to see Lulu activated for the first time and Lulu told him to let go of his past. (But it won't be over till the fat lady sings - so let's see if he returns for the series finale in midwinter!)
On the flip-side of things, this is and was a 15th anniversary special, and I fear I might acting too hasty because I am so riled up right now about the way they went about it. I think I should at least give it one more episode to see where they actually plan to go after this, and what actually became of George (not to mention Gelos is still in the mix of descending into madness). Since Ristle will be making his move again, it seems he’s trying to recruit some familiar faces, but I mean, obviously it’s not gonna pay off. The real question we should be asking ourselves at this point, is if we will be seeing development of Henri being lured to the dark side, because it’s something that has been quickly overshadowed over the past four weeks.



IN NEXT EPISODE (38):


38 is the Halloween Episode... but Ristle decided to recruit Daigan again to fill up the ranks. Until then, see you in the next post!

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