IN WHICH WE GET TO MEET THE OTHER DAVE

Star*Twinkle Pretty Cure
Episode 12 - My Own Review
IN WHICH WE GET TO MEET THE OTHER DAVE


In the twelfth episode of Star ☆ Twinkle, the girls make a movie. They also face the prospect of having to say farewell to Lala.

A renowned and familiar Hollywood director - what is he doing in a hinterland podunk far in East Asia like Mihoshi (the quaintest community of adventure in this series since Ichigozaka)?

TOKUSATSU!! (ie special effects)

This episode picks up directly from where the previous one left off, with Madoka’s father Fuyuki discovering the girls at the scene of another UFO sighting. However, someone appears and claims that everything he has seen is movie magic – Hikaru recognises the person as a renowned Hollywood film director.

Hikaru claims that she and the other girls will be starring in a film. Not quite what the filmmaker had planned, but receiving permission from the Prime Minister to film doesn’t really leave him with much choice.

Episode 12 continue from where we left off when a mysterious man with a camera appeared and he happened to be a movie director from Hollywood, California (or was he?). He managed to trick Mr. Kaguya that all the happenings were special effects but Hikaru makes matter worse by saying they were helping the crew in making a movie in Japan.

The director is actually an alien; a Miniaturian

The director goes to Lala’s starship, where they talk. He reveals himself to actually be a Miniaturian, and the film director disguise, a lifesize droid human suit just like in Meet Dave, pretty much arose from an obsession with Hollywood. He quickly turns his attention to Lala, Fuwa, and Purunce, though, telling them that they have violated space laws by letting themselves be known on Earth. The punishment for that is being sent back to their native world.

Hikaru asks the director to overlook the aliens being on Earth if the film does well

There’s still the small matter of the film that the director will be shooting, and Hikaru immediately latches on to that. They’ll give the filmmaker the performance he wants, and if the film does well enough he’ll overlook Lala, Fuwa, and Purunce being on Earth.

Meanwhile at the Knotraiders'...

Ever the doubting tomcat... what is he really up to at the end of the day?

Meanwhile on Earth...

Hikaru Hoshina as kunoichi (ie female ninja) Hoshikage

Lala as heavenly maiden (apsara)

Elena Amamiya as the Solar Prince (¡¡EL PRÍNCIPE SOL!! ¿O es Mors Martell?)

Madoka Kaguya as her namesake the Moon Princess

Hikaru, Lala, Elena, and Madoka get prepared (and in costume), and this filming for The Legend of the Feather Raiment (Hagoromo) Episode One: Ninja-Yókai Space Wars: The Movie begins. It does not go well.
Hikaru’s delivery is flat, Lala’s nerves get the better of her, and Madoka ends up reciting the whole script, rather than just her own lines. Elena is the only one who manages to give an actually decent performance.

Hikaru and Lala, ready for the final scene of the film

Moving on, the time comes to film the final scene. In the scene, the heavenly maiden dons the raiment and returns to space, with the others saying farewell. The director calls it the most important scene in the film, and practically begs the girls to stick to the script.

This "filmmaker" was revealed to be an alien and a representative of the Galaxy Union. Lala will be repatriated due to her involvement with Hikaru and company. But now he has to make a movie in order to continue the charades. There were some funny moments during the shoot but of course, when Lala's character was supposed to return to the stars, Hikaru actually ad-lib her lines and said her true feelings of not waiting Lala to leave Earth which I got a feeling it is going foreshadowing in the season finale. 

Still, the director was touched by her lines and used it in the film. 

Hikaru and Lala stray from the script, delivering an even more emotional scene

Hikaru just can’t bring herself to say goodbye to Lala, and says that she wants to be with her forever. Lala feels the same way, and the exchange between the pair brings Fuwa, Purunce, and even the Miniaturian to tears. The crew ask if they should cut, but the director insists that they keep filming.

Unfortunately, that scene ends up getting cut short as the girls’ duty as PreCures calls.

Oh yes, the girls also battle Aiwan after she turned the filmmaker into a 'trigger.

Ayewan has arrived on Earth, and she uses a powered up Dark Pen to turn the not-quite-human filmmaker into a knottrigger. Thus, the others transform, but quickly discover that their foe is even more powerful than the ones they have fought before.

PreCures show their foes the endgame

Cure Star, Milkyway, Soleil, and Selene end up getting captured, and Ayewan implies that making films is pointless. It is Purunce that gives PreCures the strength to fight back, stating that their emotions are real, and the friendship touched everyone’s hearts. PreCures break free, and are able to defeat their foe.

Hikaru suggests an Earth surname for Lala: Lala Hagoromo

After the battle, the girls apologise for running off when they did. It seems like Lala will be forced to return to her home planet after all, but the director had a change of heart after witnessing Hikaru and Lala’s emotional performance. He does tell Lala that she will
need a surname from the planet she is staying on, though. (On Lala's homeworld, there are no surnames and everyone has only got a single short name!)

Hikaru suggests she goes with Lala Hagoromo – after all, "Hagoromo" (羽衣, ie "Feather Raiment") was the name of the raiment worn by the character Lala played during their film. Lala loves it, and we end on a fairly happy note.

After the battle, the filmmaker decided to let Lala stay on Earth and she was given a family name- Lala Hagoromo and she want to go to school!

This episode of Star ☆ Twinkle was a very good one. Overall it was just fun to watch. Naturally, the highlight of this episode has to be Hikaru and Lala saying that they want to be with each other forever. A scene that touched the hearts of everyone who was watching, and was a much better way for the film to end than what the script said.

Though it does leave me wondering if we’ll end up seeing another similar scene towards the end of this season – the Pretty Cure series sure does seem to love having two characters from different worlds (or times, or whatever) departing with some very emotional scenes.
I guess that’s something to worry about when the end of the season comes; we are still a long way off of that at the moment.

This was a wonderful episode, and I’m happy to see Hikaru and Lala’s bond become even stronger. Next time, Lala goes to school.

This was one of the few episodes that was a very well thought out fluff episode, and an entertaining one at that! In order to cover up the truth behind the battle between the knotraiders, we have an alien agent from Galactic Starscape Alliance disguised as a Human claim all of what had happened part of his special effects for his film! The whole thing is was such a stretch, I loved how the writer even had the characters acknowledge how much of a stretch their stories were! But as crazy as it was, they needed something to throw Mr. Kaguya and his team off-track, especially since it’s so important to Galactic Starscape Alliance’s to keep aliens a secret from Humanity.

Hilariously, the agent finds himself forced to produce something after Hikaru takes the story a step further by insisting they were his actresses for his movie. And boy, did she underestimate how difficult it would be to act. Elena was the only one who could put on a decent performance, Madoka (adorably) read the script word-by-word and Lala and Hikaru were monotone actors, it was golden!

Additionally, the girls were under pressure to make his film a success because Lala had been caught for breaking the law, and was due to be sent back to her home planet. Luckily through the power of friendship, they were able to touch his heart and be given an exception.

As fluffy and fun as the episode was, it was great to see they didn’t waste any time with the enemy already making adjustments to the girls’ power-up. Now that the master is awake, he is hungry for their power! I greatly appreciated that we got to see him provide his generals a permanent buffed up to their weapons to better equip them for their fights against the precure. I also especially liked the fact even though Ayewon had the enhanced dark pen (which they added a nice highlight to), the girls did not luck out and recover it as they had for other pens.

However during the scene which the Master provided the weapon upgrade, seeing Bakenyan’s uneasy expression gave me a sudden realization that he might actually be an undercover agent of the Galactic Starscape Alliance! And if it proves to be true, then it makes this episode all the more important, because this is the first time we are actually seeing the Galactic Starscape Alliance we have heard so much about from Lala, in action!

Next week, it looks like more fluff on the way with Lala abiding to the agent’s condition that she must blend into human society as he had. She will be be enrolling at the academy with the girls, getting to experience Earth’s school-life. But it looks like it might be a tricky transition, as this episode established that while Lala has been blessed to be able to converse with humans, she still cannot read their language and needs her AI to help interpret that for her (maybe she'll need a portable interpretation device like a Babel Fish?). So I’m looking forward to see how she will adjust and adapt to the new setting!

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
So this wound up being a Lala focus episode, instead of the Elena focus episode we were hoping for, but still seeing the Cures in fantasy costumes was the icing on the cake... What came completely out of left field was the fact that the filmmaker was a walking talking reference to Meet Dave, hinting at a possible inspiration for his idea of making a lifesized earthling suit... It showed how Lala wanted to stay on Earth with her earthly friends (nakama) and Hikaru's speech to her is probably the emotional so far despite being a movie. But I am pretty sure when the time come, Lala will find it difficult to bade farewell to her nakama.
A few words on the hagoromo tale (on the feather raiment, ie the shawl, of the apsara): This is the Asian version of the swan maiden tale. The folktales usually adhere to the following basic plot (type 400). A young, unmarried man steals a magic shawl or pair of wings made of swan feathers from a swan maiden so that she will not fly away and remain in humanoid form, and marries her. Years later, she yearns for the freedom of her avian life, growing increasingly melancholic upon watching the swans migrate. The swan maiden immediately gets her robe or wings and disappears to where she came from. Taking French leave. If the husband is able to find her again, it is an arduous quest, and often the impossibility is clear enough so that he does not even try. In the Japanese version, heavily influenced by the original myth of Urvashi, the maiden, just like Urvashi, is an apsara, known in Japanese as tennyo (天女, literally "heavenly female"), and the garment she uses to shift between avian and humanoid forms is a hagoromo (羽衣), literally "feather raiment". Voilà from whence the premise for the film and Lala's Earthly surname come!
The Aries Pen of Chekhov: As predicted, the 'trigger du jour was made out of the filmmaker and using a pen we didn't see to get used purified and its princess freed... looks like Ayewan has improved her original recipe so that her dark pens can be used more than once -- but then, how many times? Twice, thrice, four times...? Four means death, so, until the real number of uses is revealed, why not stick to that headcanon?
The Costumes for the Cures: WAOUW! For starters: Seeing Madoka Kaguya as Princess Kaguya (of course, with that surname and lunar theme, the part was written for her, wasn't it?) gave us an even more redoubtable lunar royal than Minami Kaido playing the same part.
Elena roba la actuación: ¡¡EL PRÍNCIPE SOL!! ¡¡EL PRÍNCIPE SOL!! (añadir referencias a Mors Martell)
The Cat in the Spats Won't Have Any of That: Bakenyan is still the doubting thomas... or rather we say the doubting tomcat when it comes to Lord-Lady Darknest's cadre power-ups. Definitely a sign that he's up to something... either an agent from interstellar law enforcement, like the filmmaker, or maybe he's up to his own agenda, as kitties tend to be so spirited (living at mum's with a dozen of them has taught me that)...



IN NEXT EPISODE (13):



Lala starts school at Mihoshi Secondary (doesn't the uniform match her hair and eyes?)!!

HOW A STORY COMES TO BE

"Once upon a time, there was a countess whose spouse was killed and whose estate was burned in the wars, so she fled into the woods with her infant girl child..."
Thus began a story that I stumbled across, by chance, in this collection: http://archive.org/details/lostlegendsofnur00clariala
"Hush-a-bye-baby", from The Lost Legends of the Nursery Songs, by another unsung Victorian story writer, Mary Senior Clark.

Perchance inspired by Swinborne's epic love story (http://archive.org/details/gustavusadolphus00swinrich), I decided to set my version of the story in the Rhineland during the Thirty Years' War. So, I imagined those two young damsels under attack from the Catholic League. "The Croatians are coming!", thus starts their dramatic calvary. Luckily, the Protestants save the shire: a double "Fourth Story plot" ensues, and so does a twofold wedding. I am not afraid of using Chekhov's Law ("If there is a loaded gun on stage, it is meant to be fired during the play"): Caroline's daughter is carried away by the stream, while Hildegard's son Konrad is abducted by the enemy, then raised by an Austrian officer and his wife.
A thirteen-year time skip ensues, and Act Two, with Fourth Story and Ovidian (mainly from the Salmacis myth, of which this story is a retelling) influences, can begin:
"Thirteen years had elapsed since then. On a sunny spring day, a good-looking young man, dressed in a sky blue doublet and soldier's boots, was seen marching along the east bank of the Rhine, towards the chateau that could be seen in the distance, amidst blossoming fruit-trees. The sun burned his rosy cheeks. His hair was strawberry-blond, long and straight, and he was chanting an old ballad about the exploits of Gustavus Adolphus.
He (our male protagonist) was a professional soldier, born and raised in camp..."
Upon his arrival, he recognizes both the lady of the land and her equally widowed sister. Stripping his left sleeve and showing a scar, they recognize him as Konrad, the long lost only son of one of them and nephew of the other:
"Both the colonel's widow and the countess burst into tears, and they embraced the hired soldier, who burst into tears himself. He didn't expect to finally find a home, his mother, and easier life".
"Now, the countess and her estate finally had an heir: the young stranger. Thus, she had her bedchamber prepared for him. That night, after having supped with his real family, Konrad slept incredibly well and comfortably."
Having exchanged the flint-and-steel couch of war for a soft bed of eider-down, the young heir starts exploring his lands with the court huntsman, a veteran of the great conflict.
"Though the scarred veteran found it hard to agree with the restless young newcomer, both often conversed merrily about commanders and confrontations."
Weeks later, on Midsummer Day, Konrad has the experience of his lifetime:
"The hot June sun bleached his and Volker's plumed hats. The young aristocrat's downy cheeks were obviously glowing red, and his parched throat did obviously hurt. He took leave of Volker to search for a spring that he had previously seen and heard in the woods.
At last, a thirsty and exhausted Konrad found the spring he sought, and he climbed off his steed at the pond. It was blank as a mirror and cool as a breeze. It tasted sweet, as if sweetened with honey, and spearmint grew in impressive quantities around the pond. Down his throat the blessed liquid surged, as if the stream were running inside the young nobleman.
At the same time, he heard a merry girl's laughter. That couldn't be running water: he recognized that sound as a laughing human girl... or maybe was it a nixie? Konrad knew the local legends about nixies, beautiful freshwater nymphs who lured innocent mortals into their domains, to condemn those unfortunates. And he did believe in those legends, like most people did in the seventeenth century.
When he lifted his head, he saw a young girl with long, fire-red tresses decked with a lily-pad, and large blue-green eyes that joyously glittered. Although she was barefoot and clad in a short green dress, made of woven reeds and cattails, she was quite beautiful. Around her neck, she wore a long golden chain, and a little silver cross hung on her petite breasts. Was she a human or not?
Konrad tried to control himself, but his heart raced in his chest, and he sat by the spring as if he were frozen. The young nobleman couldn't take his eyes off such a modest beauty. He could return later to the chateau. Volker, his aunt, and his mother could wait.
The redhead blushed heavily as well. She too felt her heart wanting to burst her chest. She had seen many humans, peasant women, before... but never a young aristocrat. It was something she had never seen before. And he was so dashing! She had certainly seen black grouse lekking, dragonflies mating, frogs croaking, and stags duelling for the does' favour, every springtime. But she didn't believe that humans were as capable of loving as other animal species. Until the Midsummer Day when she first met Konrad.
He introduced himself as the heir to the estate, and he told her the story of his life. Raised in the wild as she was, she was excedeeingly curious about everything the nobleman had to tell, and she constantly interrupted his tale with questions about the military and about the rulers Konrad had served.
The redhead's name was Elfhilde. She lived with her mother, a nixie, in a cave by the spring. She was seldom alone: the frogs, the songbirds, and the dragonflies of the pond were her best friends and playmates, and she had named all of her animal friends. Konrad had so much to learn from her!"
At dusk, the young heir has to get back home, and the nixie is introduced: "She was incredibly beautiful and pale, she had long platinum blond tresses, and her hands and feet were webbed. Her developed legs were covered in silver scales, not like those of a fish but more like those of a serpent. Even her green eyes reminded of an adder's eyes, or of a wild cat's." Then, it is revealed that the nymph found the girl as an infant, drifting downstream in a wicker basket. The redhead is human, and she is revealed to be Countess Caroline's missing daughter, Elfrieda. Thus, she is betrothed to her beloved Konrad, and they finally marry, but not before the girl is welcomed at the chateau with tears of joy, like the young officer before her.

The ending of "The Fallen Ones' Change of Fortune", a feminist and anti-war story like many of other tales I have written, gives the idea that "life goes on": Konrad and Elfrieda have grandchildren, who grow into Enlightened freethinkers "who looked forward into the future, away from intolerance and prejudice". The eldest, their heir, is driven to exile by the Napoleonic Wars. In the end, no trace of the events survives into the present day after the Industrial Revolution and the World Wars.
I have dedicated the story to my own mother, "for giving me life, and for her great love and interest in my upbringing. Without her, I wouldn't be what I am." It is introduced by a Shakespeare quote, the one that ends with the beautiful words "good in everything."