IN WHICH YUNI MEETS OLD ACQUAINTANCES

Star*Twinkle Pretty Cure
Episode 38 - My Own Review
IN WHICH YUNI MEETS OLD ACQUAINTANCES


Star ☆ Twinkle gets its plot back on course with episode thirty-eight, as Yuni has an idea about where they can go in the search for Twinkle Imagination.

Hikaru and company arrive on a fortune-telling planet

With zero leads in their search for Twinkle Imagination, Yuni suggests they pay a visit to a fortune teller on another planet in hopes of being sent down the right path. Yuni also crosses paths with Ayewan once more.

Hakenyan appears

One of the major characters in this episode is Hakenyan, a visually-impaired old Rainbowian fortune teller and the person that Yuni believes will lead PreCures towards some Twinkle Imagination. Hakenyan looks familiar, and this episode shows just why that is later on.

Excellent expressions here

Ayewan

Also playing an important role in this episode is Ayewan. We get a little of her past in this episode, and it shows she was homeless as a child – though we don’t get the specifics of how that came about. Either way, seeing Hakenyan does not make her happy.

Yuni sought out Hakenyan after losing her planet

This episode spends quite a fair chunk of time exploring the past, which is by no means a bad thing. It gives us some insight into both Yuni and Ayewan, and how they both feel that they lost everything at the hands of the other. It also shows that Yuni’s appearance as Bakenyan was based on the younger Hakenyan, and how she ended up working with Ayewan.

 

Eyewone Robot - model 23

Of course Ayewan is the villain of the week this time around, and Cure Cosmos has to take her on by herself to begin with. Whilst I would have liked to see a one-on-one fight, that wasn’t the case. Much easier to fill the runtime when you’re using quite a bit of stock footage, after all.

Cure Cosmos has an epiphany whilst fighting Ayewan

The fight in this episode brings along some rather important developments, particularly when it comes to Yuni and Ayewan’s relationship. It also happens to be a step forward for everyone else as well.
Overall, I’d call this an excellent episode of Star ☆ Twinkle. We delved a bit into the past of both Yuni and Ayewan, finally had them realise they aren’t so different and managed to take a step forward in the search for Twinkle Imagination.
I was always going to enjoy a Yuni-focused episode regardless, but I’m really happy with what we got out of this one.
Ideally the show can keep up this kind of strength as the other girls find their Twinkle Imagination – and it is entirely possible that Elena may be the next to do so.
Even if that’s not the case, the next episode is one that focuses on her, so it is one to look forward to.



MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
Of course with last episode showcasing the Kappa Genocide, it appears that CADRES WILL GET FOCUS EPISODES!! (Raise a glass!) And now the turn comes to our favourite deranged cyclopette, whom we see as a child for the first time... also, was there some war between Rainbowians and cyclops that caused Ayewan to resent them for her precarious social standing? (This headcanon could lead to some pretty interesting theories that lead to something deeper than kismesissitude Valjean-Javert style...)
Ayewan the gamine: we know that Bilberry in KiraKira à la Mode was an orphan gamine too... and even wore a riding hood as well (maybe this garment is shorthand for "streetrat" in a contemporary setting anime?)
Hakenyan: So Yuni was NOT the sole survivor of the storming of Rainbow, right?
Mentors fated to... not to see their mentées' success: ***MENTOR OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD; Hakenyan theory...
Why are so many seers visually impaired? From Teiresias onwards... The Blind Seer is an old archetype. They are visually impaired, and yet they can see more than we can. This seems to be a recurring theme in mythology; Justice is blind, Odin plucked out an eye to gain knowledge, and the Graeae or Gray Sisters had only had one eyeball between three of them. Time and time again, the sacrifice of eyesight is shown to result in greater cosmic knowledge.

A special case of Disability Superpower, often demonstrated with Prophet Eyes. Blindfolds are another favorite.

PS. It seems that the next episode will come in mid-November, after one of those week-long hiatuses... Also, angryanimeb*tches has dropped Star*Twinkle for episode reviews.