EN PATINANT SUR LA GLACE FRAGILE D'UN NOUVEAU JOUR

Hugtto! Pretty Cure - Episode 43
My Own Review
EN PATINANT SUR LA GLACE FRAGILE D'UN NOUVEAU JOUR

http://hallofanimefame.blogspot.com/2018/12/hugtto-precure-ep-43-top-3-moments-bye.html

The forty-third episode of Hugtto! is a Homarry one, so I’m just going to try to breeze through it as quickly as possible.

Papple guesses that Homare must be in love

Homare has her important ice skating competition coming up, but there is something on her mind that is preventing her from concentrating on it. Of course, the thing on her mind is Harry – she is in love with him, after all.

Saaya has a chat with Homare

With Homare’s feelings being a major distraction for her, Saaya decides that it is time that she had a talk with her en tête-à-tête. Then Harry shows up, and Saaya takes off.

Homare talks with her Mum

The competition draws nearer, and Homare has a couple more chats with people – more specifically, Henri, and her own mother. They pretty much tell her that they want to see Homare giving her best and will be supporting her.

Just before Homare has to perform her routine, the others set up an opportunity for her to talk with Harry. Homare confesses her feelings to him, and it goes about how she expected. 

Still, that proves to be a weight off her shoulders, though she does run into Hana’s arms and have a good cry about it.

Hana gives Homare a much-needed hug

Homare pulls off her routine flawlessly

With all said and done, Homare goes out on the ice, nailing her routine. Of course, that is thanks to the support of everyone watching her. And just as her routine ends, the place shakes.

Bishin’s Wild Theender de rigueur

This time it is Bishin who is leading the attack. Bishin tries to tell Étoile that things wouldn’t work with Harry, but of course Étoile knows this now. This is followed up by PreCures doing their usual thing.

Homare claims victory

This episode wraps up with Homare hugging her friends in celebration of receiving the gold medal.

Well, I never really cared for the Homarry stuff before as Twin Love overshadowed it, and this episode did nothing to change my mind about it. I am glad that that particular thread has been wrapped up, though – it means the last few episodes can focus on far more interesting things.

Here’s a shot of Lulu in pyjamas, just because (those ugggggggsssssessss...)

This episode did provide a few decent moments, though – Lulu in pyjamas was very nice. 

We also had Hana’s encounter with George – I’m quite keen to see how that will tie in with the inevitable Hana episode we’ll get before the finale. He stops her from transforming by grabbing her arm, and mentions how miracles appear wherever she goes. It seems that George’s visit was merely to shake Hana’s resolve once more.

Not really much else to say about this episode – it wrapped up something that I didn’t really care for. Going from the preview alone, I can already tell that I will like next week’s episode. It is one that focuses on Saaya, but more importantly, Lulu’s outfit – ah, let’s save that for next week.

We have reached the point of the series where all the characters are trying to reach the conclusions of their arcs… except, Homare and Saaya’s developments have been neglected for so long, we are finally seeing the results of the repercussions.

This week was about Homare finally getting the closure she needed with her unrequited feelings for Harry, and I loved the way the handled it. With the support of her friends, Homare found the courage to confess her feelings, and Harry in return, gave her the much deserved respect of being straight with her how he cannot return her feelings since he is in love with someone else. On top of that, as much as he wanted to comfort her, he knew better that it’s better if he shouldn’t. So props to Harry for the way he handled it.

And I am glad Homare can finally begin the healing process of moving on. I always loved how Homare’s character handled her crush, and the level of maturity of knowing to keep things that she knew she didn’t have the right to know a secret, and not letting jealousy take over. She handled her first love and heartbreak incredibly well, but it’s such a shame that I couldn’t find it in me to really care about it at all.

This is where the consequences of not being given enough time for the audience to really connect with her  becomes incredibly apparent. Sure, we have seen her deal with it along the way, but just wasn’t enough for me. As I watched this episode, it had me thinking back to Happiness Charge, because it’s one of the most vivid memories of mine when it comes to Precure dealing with unrequited love. In that series, I was completely invested and felt heartbroken for all the characters’ feelings. And I think one of the most important differences between the two is how the story dealt with it. Of course Love was a central theme in Happiness Charge, but not so much in Hugtto!, which is really a variety of things. But I still feel like they missed a huge opportunity in many occasions where we could have seen Homare talk about her feelings with other characters, or at the very least, it should have been with Saaya if they had to go with one. She was the only one who figured it out very early on, while the others only received confirmations of their suspicions when they spoke to Papple about it. And it frustrates me because this was yet another thing that really could have been something between the main trio.

While we are on the subject of Saaya, holy shit— it has not gone unnoticed to me for the past several episodes or so (excluding her own focused ones), Saaya’s character has virtually faded into the background, and it really ticks me off. Next week, she will finally be getting her episode, but again, I am in a situation where they have neglected her so much, that her’s (and Homare’s) development feels incredibly shallow. There’s hardly any depth to their characters, and worst off, Saaya has absolutely been the one who had it the worst of them all. I don’t know what direction Saaya will choose, odds are she has a good chance of leaning in the direction of going into the medical field because it really piped her interest, but we’ll see…

And lastly, for the love of Rh'llor, Hana needs an Anti-George spray or something. He’s has gone all sorts of creepy and I really don’t like how he pops up to see Hana and how he’s interested in her and all that, ugh, I don’t know about you, but it actually made me shudder. Worst off, was it just me (and I have had my own suspicions of this since episode 23), or does Hana have a small crush on George? Anyhow, shit is bound to hit the fan sooner or later, maybe Episode 45? I actually can’t believe we are almost at the end, I’m surprised at myself for making it this far…

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
The concerns of Twin Love on Homarry:
Aunt Papple's Relationship Advice:
What Henri has to Say about This:
Mrs. Kagayaki's Advice to her Only Daughter:
Homare said it's Suki, ie Philia:
Tomorry, Homarry, and those Heartfelt Confessions:
PS. Georgieshin and now Rishin? How Come All those Higher-Ups are Sweet on the Blond Boy?




In Episode 44, Saaya, Reira, and Ranze get to star in... a bland-named version of Game of Thrones? At least it looks the part of realistic medieval Western fantasy without much supernatural, doesn't it?

SCREAM AND SHOUT AND LET IT ALL OUT

Hugtto! Pretty Cure

Episode 41

Mu Own Review
SCREAM AND SHOUT AND LET IT ALL OUT

Emiru really isn’t quite herself in the forty-first episode of Hugtto!. That will do for the intro, I am just going to dive right in.

Emiru struggles to cope after learning that Ruru will return to the future

PreCures have a goal of saving the future, but after they achieve that Hugtan, Harry, and Lulu will have to return to the future. It’s not something that any of the girls are particularly keen on, but the news hits Emiru particularly hard. She goes all cat-faced, and drops her verbal tic.

…you know what? Think of me what you will, but Lulu is beautiful

Emiru’s personality undergoes a drastic change, which pretty much catches everyone else off guard. Lulu will return to the future, but her heart and Emiru’s heart… well, I’m sure we’ll see more from that train of thought later on.

Meanwhile, Bishin meets with the head of the Aisaki Konzern – that would be Emiru Aisaki’s grandfather, the patriarch of the clan, whom he asks to employ him as a chauffeur, even though the blond is underage. Bishin tells him about Emiru performing with Lulu.

Ristle is put in a respirator and has his episodic memory wiped - most surely through the mist he is breathing in through that mask...

Emiru’s weirdness is infectious

It seems that everyone (including Masato and Henri) is worried about Emiru, as they all gather and attempt to cheer her up.

Homare and Saaya attempt the ‘helping hands’ gag


This was probably my funny moments when Emiru started behaving like a stiff robot with cat-like features and reacting little to none emotions on her surroundings. The girls tried all ways to make her better and even Masato tried with a bad joke so lame that put a chill in the room.

Masato even attempts to help, but his terrible pun does not go down well, and Henri just kicks him whilst he is down

In the end, all that the others manage to do is prove that they can be a lovable bunch of idiots at times. Of course, there is one only person who is able to get Emiru to almost return to being her normal self.

Lulu asks Emiru to show her her heart

Lulu asks Emiru to tell her what is wrong, but Emiru feels that as a hero it would be selfish to put her own feelings first. She believes she should just be brave, but this causes her to lose two things: her voice, and her Future Crystal. 

Emiru and Lulu's True Feelings.

Presumably because Emiru and Lulu’s hearts are no longer synchronised, both of their Future Crystals disappear.

Both Emiru and Lulu were conflicted on the future more for Emiru since she will lose her best friend and partner. So when Lulu met her in the episode, Emiru suddenly lost her voice as she tried to say out her feelings. Even worse, both of their Future Crystals disappeared. My theory is the Future Crystals represent their emotional state and are probably sentient. 

Papple knows that Emiru and Ruru’s hearts are bound together

We get a short scene where Papple is contacted and informed about Emiru losing her voice. It’s a simple thing, but I really liked that it showed that Aunt Papple cares for both Emiru and Lulu. She just says to let Emiru rest.

We are introduced to Emiru's Grandfather Aisaki (I don't know his first name so we just call him Grandpa Aisaki for now) as mentioned before by Masato in an earlier episode, he is the real head honcho of the Aisaki corporation and your typical stubborn old curmudgeon.



Bishin, who got employed as the household chauffeur in spite of being underage, tried to trick Grandpa Aisaki into thinking that Emiru is in a pop group and is a bad influence to her which after Emiru lost her voice, he barged in and tried to take Emiru away from the girls. (Although I am suspecting if Emiru's parents do care about their daughter at this point since they still are living in their own world and even Grandpa finds them annoying)

Emiru’s grandfather tells Emiru she should give up playing guitar

Now, we get to see where Masato’s initial terrible attitude towards Emiru playing guitar came from – it’s something their grandfather believed was a waste of time. He blames Lulu, and says that Emiru should just stay with her family and stick to the old ways. Henri stops the others – it is a matter for the Aisaki family, after all.

Masato makes a stand, saying that not even family can get in the way of being touched by another’s heart and having it open the door to a whole new world.



 He physically tackles his grandfather to the ground.

Masato stands up to his grandfather for Emiru’s sake

Henri even helps him, and Masato tells Emiru to let her soul cry out.
Emiru does that, grabs Lulu’s hand, and makes a run for it.

Hear me RARGH!


If an user like Emiru has unstable emotions, the Future Crystal which was manifest from their feelings will be able to sense if Emiru is worthy or not. Furthermore, Emiru and Lulu are one unit together and will also affect Lulu too. 







That is the reason why never to employ an underage chauffeur - especially one who can see people's negative emotions. Seems like Mr. Aizaki will get something more serious than a stroke or a heart condition...

Thanks to Masato's interference and telling Emiru to let out her feelings, she finally got back her voice and ran off with Lulu. Grandpa Aisaki was furious and Bishin took this chance to turn him into the theender du jour.




So after Emiru got back her voice, she ran off with Lulu but was chased by her grandpa in theender form. Lulu shielded Emiru from an attack and Emiru got all worked up. 

Emilu make a run for it (whilst Emiru’s parents cheer her on)

After getting out of there, Lulu tells Emiru that she wants to hear her true feelings. She tells her to take her time, but that luxury is cut short by the arrival of a theender...

The remaining Cures try to fight it, but the theender, being Mr. Aisaki Senior at heart, goes after Emiru. With their Future Crystals absent, they can’t do much else but run. Emiru trips, but Ruru protects her from the enemy’s attack. Lulu may not be a PreCure at the moment, but she is still an android.

PreCures keep the theender busy whilst Emiru and Lulu have a heart to heart.

Lulu tells Emiru her dream

Emiru finally tells Lulu what she has been holding back all this time: she wants to stay with Lulu forever, and doesn’t want her to return to the future. Lulu has her own dream: she wants to bring her and Emiru’s music, their unconditional love (ai), to the people of the future. Lulu will return to the future, but she will wait for Emiru.

Emiru finally admitted that she is afraid of losing Lulu and the gynoid admitted that she too is afraid but she has to go back to the future of her timeline as in the future, songs do not exist anymore and Lulu wanted to use what she learned about music in the present to help the future. 




Lulu told Emiru she will always remember their friendship (yuujou, ie bosom friendship) and will think about her whenever she performs in the future as that is now her dream and goal! She even promise that she will wait for Emiru in the future which reawaken their Future Crystals.  

The PreCures of Unconditional Love are back in action

After their heart-to-heart, Emiru and Lulu’s Future Crystals return. They transform, and defeat the theender together with the rest of PreCures.

After all that, Twin Love go back to performing, and Masato works on getting his grandfather to accept Emiru’s choices – slowly.


Even after the battle, Grandpa Aisaki was still his grumpy self and refuse to see Emiru's and Lulu's duet performance. It seem that it will take more than a purification for Grandpa Aisaki to accept Emiru's dream for now..

After the battle, Emiru and Lulu had a concert performance and it was a success. Back in the dressing room, Hug-tan could sense Lulu's worries of going back to the future and gave her a pat on the head. The gynoid started to cry which got everyone too all worked up and they have a group hug. They knew the day will come for them to leave but for now, their friendship bond is stronger than ever...




The prospect of Hugtan, Harry, and Lulu departing for the future is still one that fills PreCures' hearts with great sadness, so they all have a good cry together. They will see them off with a smile when it is time for them to go, but for now…

Finally, the episode ends with Henri seemingly giving in to temptation. We’ll have to wait until episode 42 to see how that unfolds.




Seeing the epilogue on Henri and looking at Ristle's card with temptation, you know we are getting a Homare/Henri centric next episode and is that Henri in Precure get-up!? Until then, see you in the next post!

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
Another Emilu/Twin Love-centric episode... <3
Georgieshin - a new pairing... is that legit (an adult on a teen...)? -reminiscent of Elysiaoi and maybe even Elysiku (shivers)
The Aizaki three-generation family reunion
he's just a lonely empty-nester looking for company -and trying to make a proper lady out of Emiru, whom he loves heart and soul, but without respecting her feelings and individuality, thinking she is still a child-. To be serious, this stern old curmudgeon reminds me a lot of M. Gillenormand, Marius' guardian grandfather in Les Mis. Of course he (not Gillenormand, but Mr. Aizaki Senior) had to accept Bishin for a chauffeur, being so obfuscated by his own stubborn championing of the old ways. Of course he was upset that the rest of the family was disobeying him; making this the negative emotion of the week.
PS. We now got where the Aizaki firstborn got his stern personality and stubborn will from! Speaking of which... isn't it nice to having him finally defrosted to the core?
Defrosting Masato: talk about calling the old man out!
Depressive Emiru and the disappearance of the Future Crystals - it was time for this innocent-looking li'l Titian-haired girl to snap. And at first she did not even seem human, even though she sincered herself on being a lonely rich kid until she met a certain gynoid, when confiding in Lulu... But the fear of losing Lulu, the one she has given her heart to, and maybe the first female hormones kicking in, finally overpowered common sense within Emiru.
The fluffy ending when Emiru and Lulu sincere themselves with each other and recover their Crystals, before the concert of Twin Love, was totally overshadowed by a coda on Henri wavering - what a cliffhanger!


I am glad that we got some closures between Emiru and Lulu, and Toei didn't try to make all sugar coat in this episode. We do have some funny moments from Emiru's coco-puff expressions. I really like how Emiru and Lulu were both very honest about their feelings about each other especially when Lulu told her that she now has a dream to bring music back to the future and even promise to wait for Emiru in the future. (Which I am wondering how far the future is from their present timeline?)

Grandpa Aisaki's introduction was expected from the typical old gentleman who loves their grandchild so much but didn't consider their feelings. I find him barging in and ranting like a spoil kid was expected but I felt this scene to be a bit short which you have expected Emiru to just go with her grandpa and later rebel in a few scenes later. But then it will be two-parter.

Before I even start talking about Emilu or Twin Love, I will take a moment to recognise the supporting characters here. I already mentioned, but the small scene with Papple showing genuine care for Emiru was quite touching.
And of course, Masato has certainly come a long way from his initial introduction. It seems that he only really knew his grandfather’s values at first, but meeting Henri was clearly the best thing that could have happened to him. Seeing Masato stand up against those same outdated values he once believed in, literally calling the old man out, was certainly cathartic. Henri not hesitating to jump in to help him out was nice as well; canonising the fact that these two are officially significant others.

All right, now I will be focusing on Emilu, our les OTP. Now, one of the main reasons I decided to watch PreCure in the first place was because I learned of all the yuri stuff in it from TV Tropes. Some seasons had next to none, others were absolutely full of it – regardless, when episodes like this one come along, my decision to watch PreCure proves that it was a very good one.
Emiru wants to be together with Lulu forever, and I want to see the pair of them be together forever. Lulu wants the people of the future to know about her love for Emiru, though.
Lulu may say that she’ll wait for Emiru, but it isn’t really established how far into the future she is from. Is it the near future, or a distant one? Cure Tomorrow and her allies have the potential of being the heroes of the next season of PreCure at the moment, so maybe the future is closer than we think? Well, at least until that theory gets disproven…
I believe we are due some new information about the new season sometime soon, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for that.

This was an excellent episode of Hugtto!, of that I have no doubts. Emilu-Twin Love were the main focus, but we got some nice moments from most of the other characters as well.
Also, if (or more like when) PreCures save the future, presumably there will be plenty of asu-power to go around. Maybe travelling through time will be easier once Criasu are out of the picture.

Well, for now, Emilu, Twin Love, remain as strong as ever. I don’t know what the future has in store for them, but presently they (our OTP) continue to shine as bright as ever.

Seeing the epilogue on Henri and looking at Ristle's card with temptation, you know we are getting a Homare/Henri centric next episode and is that Henri in Precure get-up!? Until then, see you in the next post!

This week was a heartfelt episode where everyone’s feelings of being separated once they complete their objective really sinks in. It’s Emiru, the youngest one of the group who is quickly consumed by her despair of knowing she will be losing not just her best friend, but also her partner as well. Much of the episode was about Emiru being afraid to voice her true feelings because of her selfishness. As result, her Future Crystal disappeared and she suddenly lost her voice.

As you know I am  particularly invested in Emiru’s character, but I really liked the way they dealt with the issue, and ultimately who was the one to help her find the courage to say her true feelings. The one who helped her pull through it was actually her brother Masato, who has grown so much since we have first saw him. He is no longer the sexist, queerphobic brother who is breathing down his sister’s neck of saying what she can and can’t do (and finding out whom he luvs also plays a part in his defrosting!). Masato is now the crucial member of her family who has her back and supports her dreams.

But what this episode also did was really shed more like on the type of household Emiru and Masato are a part of. Their grandfather is a control freak, and has some other problems he needs to deal with. (Frankly it was super creepy how he was telling Emiru she should just stay with the old family ways, and the entire time I was shouting “WTF?!”) It goes to show why and how at least Masato started off the way he did.

What I do find unfortunate is how their parents’ only purpose in this series is to serve as a stupid joke. I can’t recall one moment where they actually contributed to anything significant. In an event like this one, it really just makes the parents look really stupid. While they did speak up saying they were supportive of Emiru being an ‘idol’,  I just wished the writer had stopped them from singing so they could be taken seriously for once. In the end, the only person who really did stand up for Emiru was her brother.

Then there was Lulu, who for pretty much the entirety of the episode appeared quite composed and content with her decision to return to the future. We learned she isn’t doing it just for the sake of it, but because she has a dream, of sharing the world of unconditional love and music. It wasn’t until the very end when we finally saw her break down and reveal she’s sad about leaving too, which prompted everyone to have the much needed crying session, because who wouldn’t cry about being separated from precious friends. It’s not like they will be able to keep in touch, they come from an entirely different timeline.

Next week, I’m looking forward to seeing developments on Henri’s arc, but I have a feeling this might only be a one episode sort of thing, especially since it looks like the girls are getting yet another power-up. This would make their third “buff” in the recent weeks. It was good to see him and Masato partake in this episode. With Henri’s injury, I’m surprised he’s not resting and is instead pushing himself. As long as he neglects to care for his injury, well yeah, he’s messing with the odds of his recovery. Although I knew Henri still had the card, it still blows my mind how the decided to keep it, but I guess he just couldn’t bring himself to throw it away, not when he’s afraid of tomorrow.

It also looks like Ristle will be coming back, I’m surprised George has him in the tube of whatever, maybe he’s reconditioning him to serve for him properly, or else what we’re seeing is perhaps rewinding time? Either way, George has the book open and we can be certain nothing good is going to come out of this. I am curious to see what will become of Henri in this situation, and whether or not he will finally commit himself to Criasu’s team, and continue doing so for at least a few episodes.