EN QUE ELENA CONFIRMA LA REGLA 63

Star*Twinkle Pretty Cure - Episode 18
My Own Review

EN QUE ELENA CONFIRMA LA REGLA 63


Terumi Hoshina, Hikaru’s mother, is in the spotlight in the eighteenth episode of Star ☆ Twinkle as she works to get a manga serialised. A tight deadline means that she’ll need a little help to get it done on time; fortunately her daughter knows a few girls that are willing to lend a helping hand.

The character that Terumi is drawing sure seems familiar

I’ll start with saying that Terumi Hoshina is a mangaka, and the episode opens with her drawing. She appears to be drawing Reena Inverse from Slayers/Reena & Gaudi, or at least a character who looks very similar. Focusing on the main plot, now, though, and Terumi gets a phone call from a publishing company.

Terumi is eager to get started on her new manga, and Hikaru says she’ll help

Terumi has been chosen to draw a new manga for the next issue of Monthly Morning Glory, which is a popular shoujo (middle-grade/YA female) manga magazine. Of course, Terumi dreams of getting serialised, and this is the first step towards that dream. Hikaru pledges her support as well.
Hikaru tells her friends about it, but she is concerned about the deadline. The others say that they’ll assist as well, so Hikaru invites them all over.

Just like Luna Lovegood  <3

Terumi has a tough time coming up with anything

So all the friends arrive at the Hoshina household to find Terumi (who works from home, like most creative professionals) in a slump. She is struggling with graphic novelist's to come up with any ideas. Seeing Lala, however, she is hit with a eureka moment of inspiration.

What Terumi draws after being inspired by Lala

Terumi comes up with a sci-fi story in which an alien girl makes friends on Earth. Hikaru’s friends are quick to state just how perceptive Terumi is. However, her editor arrives and puts his foot down: apparently the audience for the Monthly Morning Glory are not into sci-fi or fantasy. Or any other kind of speculative fiction.

What sells, apparently, is realistic fiction with handsome young men (ikemen), romance, and doctors. Something far more along the lines of Fifty Shades of Gray's Anatomy...

Madoka and Elena model

Madoka suggests including all three things to create a hit. Madoka and Elena end up modelling, and Terumi starts creating a story about the forbidden love between a doctor (based on a Rule 63:d Elena) and a nurse. It soon ends up with a sci-fi twist, which is where the editor, Yumeo, once again puts his foot down.

Draft for Elio and Homura - her new protagonists

Yumeo is impressed with Terumi's work.

But of course then Terumi gets influenced by spec-fic once more and thinks Elio should be from outer space...

Yumeo tells Terumi that there should be a third party and the protagonists should be in a love triangle.

Yumeo reenacting how the romance should make the audience feel.

Lala assists the models

The editor wants Terumi to create a realistic romance manga, and strictly no sci-fi or fantasy or steampunk or anything else of the sort. Terumi agrees, and swears that she will create a bestseller. Hikaru seems to notice that something is off, though.

Notice the flash of light conveniently covering Mr. Hoshina's face.

The manga that Terumi wrote for Hikaru when she was younger: Aim for the Skies, Meteor Girl!

Hikaru has a manga that Terumi wrote for her when she was a child, a more storybook-like graphic tale of a Meteor Girl which she keeps safe in her room. She was bullied for enjoying it, but Terumi told her that it is absolutely fine to like different things.

Terumi has doubts about her future as a mangaka

Terumi’s manga gets published in the Monthly Morning Glory, but she goes to the editors’ meeting and overhears them saying that she’s not good enough for the magazine. She returns home depressed, and decides to get some fresh air.

The Meteor Girl calls the selfish dragon out.

Hikaru joins her, and says that she loves her manga. However, Terumi feels that isn’t good enough.

Terumi KNottrigger

A character falling into depression is a cue for the bad guys to show up, and sure enough Tenjou arrives. She transforms Terumi into a 'trigger, which means it is time for PreCures to do their thing.

I feel like this episode is subtly pushing EleMado/Soluna

PreCures do their thing, defeating the 'trigger and returning Terumi to normal. Hikaru is able to thank her mum for the manga she created for her, and this is when Terumi decides that she will try to get a serial published once again. She intends to draw what she likes this time around.

Terumi’s manga here sure looks familiar

Terumi actually gets the approval of her editor the second time around – he apologises for before, saying that he was too focused on trying to create a hit. He really likes Terumi’s work this time around, though, so things may just work out.

Hikaru hugs her Mum

Before the end of the episode, there is just one final thing.

Blue Cat

Our Blue Cat has obtained a Princess Star Colour Pen of her own (which one is it?). Let’s just say I am very much looking forward to episode 20.

This was a sweet episode, giving us some heart-warming mother-daughter bonding. Actually, now I think about it, Terumi may be one of the most memorable parent characters in Pretty Cure – none of the other Cures have a parent who is a mangaka. Well, that’s assuming I remember correctly.
I also get the distinct feeling that Terumi is a fan of The Slayers, or perhaps anime/manga/light novels of that general era. It also amused me a great deal with how accurate she was when she came up with the story inspired by Lala.
EleMado, more known on this blog as Soluna, is getting a push in this episode, too. Maybe its a little subtle, but you have the two modelling together, the characters in Terumi’s romance manga are based on them (Elena being Rule 63:d as the doctor character), and Selene and Soleil had a co-op attack when fighting the mooks.
I also like the idea that Lala ships Elena and Madoka, which is why she was pushing Madoka into an embrace with Elena when they were modelling.
So yeah, overall a pretty fun episode. Next time… well, things should be getting quite exciting over the next couple of episodes.

Anyone in favour of Hikaru’s mum getting a new editor? Because that dude wasn’t helpful whatsoever! Her poor mother had to create something that wasn’t something she was passionate about, and it showed. Sure Yumeo, the publisher, later realized he forgot what makes a series interesting is not its popular tropes or what he’s interested in, but she was the one who had to face the consequences. Of course Hikaru’s mother could have stuck by her gut, but it’s easier said than done, especially when it has been a life long dream of hers and her confidence is wavering.

And I know it was never meant to be, but damn it, I was hooked to the premise of an alien doctor who has come to Earth on a mission to fight an evil virus that causes diseases. Hahahaha!!! But then again, I am a fantasy/sci-fi/steampunk... a spec-fic fanatic. These types of stories are right up my alley. (Also I totally digging the character designs! VIVA ELENA REGLA 63...)

It was also hilarious how her mother’s imagination inspired when she first met the girls was actually very close to, if not the girls actual reality. Her first idea came from Lala’s “yup”, and her imagination buzzed with a space girl school fantasy that followed pretty much their exact lives. Ironically, it looks like that’s the exact story she is running along (with Fuwa in the mix) after she decides she will commit herself the stories she feels passionate about.

What I loved the most about this episode was Hikaru’s bond with her mother, and how the two of them share the passion for sci-fi and fantasy, and other speculative fiction genres. It was heartwarming to see Hikaru support her mother, even when things are difficult for her, and support her in any way she can. Best of all the sweetest part had to be the manga Hikaru’s mother made exclusively for her, it is a treasure she holds close to her heart. Not to mention, IT IS ADORABLEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

But it wasn’t all sunshines and rainbows. Despite the amazing opportunity, because Hikaru’s mother didn’t go along with her gut, and ditch the spec-fic elements she loves, it came back to bite her. I truly felt for her when she returned home to see the congratulations banner after hearing she might be cut and her stories will never be serialized. Nothing hurts more than being told your craft isn’t good enough for serialization. It’s a fear many creators have to face.

We actually got to learn about Hikaru’s dad, and where he’s at. No, Mr. Hoshina isn’t dead, but travels around the world for work. He only comes home once a year (that’s rough). I thought it was a bit weird though that they blurred out his face, I never really understood why they do that. However in this case, I am legitimately wondering if he is involved with aliens as part of his job in some way or another, especially since many of his pictures from his trips are related to alien mysteries. Or if we really want to dig deep, let’s say he is an alien!

[Takes off tin-foil hat]

I’m kidding, but I wouldn’t be mad about it if he were ahahahahaha!!!!

Overall this was a really nice episode! While it didn’t exactly move the plot forward until the very end cutting to the Blue Cat on her Rainbow Planet, I absolutely enjoyed every second of it. Actually, speaking of pir Blue Cat, I really liked that they dropped that in, especially with the events that are to follow in next week’s episode! It looks like the Blue Cat’s true identity gonna come out with the girls going to the Rainbow Planet and discovering her headquarters. We know she has a Princess Pen on her (which one?), but will she be friend or foe? I’m so curious! Cannot wait to find out!

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
On deadlines: Seriously, the black beast of many a creative professional and student who aspires to be one
Elena and Madoka as models (ELENA BIFAUXNEN/REGLA 63!!): En serio, no puedo esperar a que ella se cruce con Akira Kenjo...
Seriouly, Mrs. Hoshina has an artistic style not quite dissimilar from Slayers (AKA Reena & Gaudi). And, for someone who grew up on a hot-blooded firebender and her Russian-esque life partner making their way through fire and ice (Fanta Naranja+Fanta Limón, ie Reena Inverse and Gaudi Gabryev), I do feel a bell ring inside me...
The law of supply and demand / the spec-fic ghetto: Whoa was this episode driving the point that the spec-fic ghetto exists home! In short, the medium, and to a lesser extent the genre, define the target audience. Entire classes of works are "pigeonholed" into "target" demographics, and woe unto any fan who happens to fall one day, cent, chromosome, or lateral inch outside of these appointed bounds. Some works surrender and even embrace these holes, falling into unoriginality and Flanderization, so long as the money keeps rolling in.

Remember ghettos are created by society, convention, advertisers, and critics and have no bearing on how artists actually work. Artists actually draw influences from a wide variety of references and don't see their work in the way categories are created. Thanks to changes in society, evolving trends and growing sophistication (and vice versa) of audiences, this is very much a Cyclical Trope and subject to Popularity Polynomial.

In fact, fantasy fiction often has it even worse (than sci-fi), as it is speculative in a completely implausible way (science fiction is just mostly implausible); considered material which is poorly written with lame plots and characterization, almost entirely lacking in literary merit.

The Spec-Fic Ghetto reflects a long-lasting stigma which has been applied towards the speculative fiction genre, which frequently leads creators and marketers to shun "Science Fiction" or "Fantasy" labels as much as possible, even on shows that have clear science fiction or fantastical elements. It also reflects the tendency for critics, academics, and other creators to near-automatically dismiss or disdain works which cannot escape these labels being applied, regardless of relative quality or merit. Conversely, if these critics, creators, and academics do feel that the work possesses merit by their standards, expect them to strenuously insist that the work is not science fiction or fantasy (How could it be? It's ''good''), regardless of how many tortuous hoops they might have to jump through in order to do so.

A lot of this has to do with snobbery. A (somewhat contradictory) perception about speculative fiction in general is that it is somehow both too complex for mainstream audiences with 'simple' tastes and yet simultaneously not literary and sophisticated enough for critics and academics.

This perception tends to be drawn from two extremes. In the first place, speculative fiction is often dismissed as lightweight, formulaic, and poorly-written rubbish churned out by talentless hacks who never met a cliché they didn't enthusiastically regurgitate. On the other end of the spectrum, genre fiction is often seen as aloof, dreary Doorstoppers, with impenetrable jargon, and use of a number of tropes that cater to those who are familiar only with the genre, rarely attracting casual readers. In either case, the result is considered the same;  material which is poorly written with lame plots and characterization, almost entirely lacking in literary merit. This, of course, unfairly prejudges a massive and wide-spanning genre by its worst extremes, and ultimately takes a fairly narrow and limited view. Sturgeon's Law applies to historical fantasy, for instance, no less than any other genre. 

While it's true that accepted classics of the spec-fic genres can take time getting used to read, owing to its arcane content, the same is true for classical literature, which is impenetrable without some basic knowledge of Greek and (often) Norse myth. Like any work that is ghettoized, its initial admirers form a subculture, who in many cases do in fact live up to   the unfortunate stereotypes of genre fiction fans as a bunch of weird dorky obsessives with no social skills. These fans, and especially fans who become writers, don't do favors when a work manages to successful by appealing to a broader (ie mainstream) audience, who can often be painted as Category Traitor.

It is not interesting enough for the general reader, and not thorough enough for the scientific reader.

— Publisher rejecting H. G. Wells' The Time Machine

The whole association of fairy tale and fantasy with children is local and accidental. I hope everyone has read Tolkien's essay on Fairy Tales which is perhaps the most important contribution to this subject that anyone has yet made. If so, you will know already that, in most places and times, the fairy tale has not been specifically made for, nor exclusively enjoyed by children. It has gravitated to the nursery when it became unfashionable in literary circles, just as unfashionable furniture gravitated to the nursery in Victorian homes.

—C. S. Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing For Children

You can, if you wish, class all fantasy or all science-fiction together; but it is about as perceptive as classing the works of Melville, Ballantyne, Joseph Conrad, and W. W. Jacobs together as ‘the sea-story’ and then criticising that.

—C. S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism

Then there's the romance genre or the romance aspect of girl-power-themed genre fiction. In general, many critics view romance novels as nothing but the Extruded Book Product of the worst depths of YA fiction, pandering to a Lowest Common Denominator of straight single women, ie empty-nester divorcées (like my mum if it weren't for Yours Truly --still, she's a regular soap addict!) and teenage (as well as 20-something) girls (I fit the twentyish minority, or I would if I were less of an asexual fujoshi), of mainly straight single women who want to dream of an exciting new man. In this case, it typically overlaps heavily with the Girl-Show Ghetto, the implication being that no self-respecting red-blooded straight man, or cold-blooded professional woman, would ever read a novel like that.

The coda with the Blue Cat in the Rainbow World: W.O.W.


IN NEXT EPISODE (19):
Is the Blue Cat stuffing another heist scheme up her sleeves?