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.
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.
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?
