MELODY OF THE HEART

Hugtto! Pretty Cure
Episode  18 - My Own Review
MELODY OF THE HEART

In the eighteenth episode of Hugtto! PreCure, Lulu struggles to understand the concept of heart (kokoro). Fortunately, Emiru is there to help her learn just what it is.

Supper at the Nonos'

 Lulu remains a part of the Nono family

At the beginning of this episode, Lulu returns Mrs. Nono's memories back to normal. She was worried that she would end up being kicked out of the Nono household, but that’s not the case at all. Lulu is still very much a part of their family, regardless of what she did before.

Mrs. Nono officially adopts Lulu Amour

Emiru shows up at secondary school

When Hana, Saaya, and Homare go to school next, they all receive letters asking them to go the courtyard during lunch break.
They do that, and Emiru almost outs them as PreCures in front of everybody.

Fortunately, Lulu is able to move very quickly; a perk of being a gynoid, right? (Reminded me of the Flash!)

The others quickly take Emiru to Harry’s place.


Emiru wrote a letter to the girls to meet during lunch break and tried to expose their secret identifies in front of their peers. However Lulu's quick reflex immediately dragged her out of the school and she was brought to Harry's place.

 SHUTUP (#Dreadpan)

Lulu keeps Emiru quiet

Once they’re at Harry’s place, Emiru reveals that she saw the others undo their PreCure transformations. She also mentions how the rat was talking. Harry snaps at her to correct her on what he is (HAM-STERRR!), before realising what he had done.

 FOX IN SOCKS ON KNOX IN BOX!

 WHOOOSH!

 PIERCE THE HEAVENS!

Emiru indeed knew the girls are Precures and insisted that she too want to be a Precure as well. The girls gave in and in return, Emiru was not allow to tell anyone else about the Precures. Later Emiru tried to learn more of how to be a Precure like watching Homare skating and Saaya doing a rehearsal however with little success.

all the praise that Emiru has for PreCures

After having told the girls that she knows their secret, Emiru asks for a favour. She simply wants to spend time with the heroes during their everyday lives. Emiru and Lulu end up spending a bit of time with both Homare and Saaya.

Emiru swooning over a rehearsing Saaya

Homare is practicing her ice skating, whilst Saaya is rehearsing – both are doing things that come from their heart (kokoro). Lulu doesn’t quite get what that means.

Emiru helps Hana practice for an upcoming singing test

Hana has a singing test coming up, so she gets Emiru to help her out with it. Emiru has perfect pitch; she can even identify what note a pen tapped against a mug makes.
The girls encourage Lulu to give it a try. Whilst Lulu’s tone is perfectly accurate, it does not resonate with heart.

Emiru actually showed off her music talents which amazed everyone. Lulu tried to sing the same song however she was unable to express it with her feelings which resulted in a system shutdown again.

 

As Lulu tries to understand what heart/kokoro is, she experiences a system error and shuts down.

Empty Eyes and shadows over the upper half of the face;

signs of Lulu having a purple screen of death.

Emiru stays by Lulu’s side

The girls explain to Emiru that Lulu is a gynoid from the future. When Lulu wakes up, Emiru asks her about it. Lulu shows her undeniable proof that she is a fembot. Ocular proof.
However, Emiru won’t let that put her off. She insists that she and Lulu become PreCures together. Lulu doesn’t think she can, as she is an artificial life form.

To convince a "doubting Thomas" Emiru, Lulu does what, if she were a person, would be considered flashing (pun completely intended!):

The girls explained to Emiru that Lulu is an gynoid which of course in one of the most funniest moments, Emiru asked Lulu to prove she is an artificial lifeform, and she literally showed her internal system to Emiru. In an LED light show!) Now wouldn't that be considered flashing if Lulu was a person of flesh and blood?

 Emiru was not afraid of her instead she want Lulu to be a Precure as well. However Lulu claimed it is impossible as she is a gynoid and does not have a "Heart."

Awww... the tin girl does not know she already has a heart of her own...

Emiru gets her guitar out again

After that, Emiru wants to do something to cheer Lulu up. She decides to play a song for her, though since she isn’t sure about it she performs for the others to get their opinion first.
They tell her that the most important thing is the feelings she can get across.

The girls tried to encourage Emiru and Lulu in their own ways to believe in themselves. Homare and Harry talked to Emiru with Hug-tan cheering her and Saaya giving a pep talk to Lulu.

This week's theender. The source: designer's block. Rita Yoshimi is very frustrated when she can't think of an idea for a design.
However Papple turned the Fashion Designer (From Episode 14) into a theender and the girls went to battle.

Enough of that, though, as it is about time for the monster of the week to show up. Papple is the one who brings it along, and this episode skips the transformation sequence. It seems like PreCures overwhelm it fairly quickly, but this particular theender, due to its negative emotion source material, has a trick up its sleeve.

This particular theender has another form that allows it to absorb the attacks from PreCures, and then fire a blast of energy. Ange and Étoile end up getting hit by the energy blast, and then the theender jumps onto those two in an attempt to crush them. The girls seemly being crushed by the thenender's weight while Papple taunted Lulu for trying to be a hero.

Emiru stands up for Lulu

With every active PreCure out of commission for the moment, Papple taunts Lulu and calls her a heartless mechanical doll. Emiru stands up for Lulu. Papple soon grows tired of hearing all that and commands the theender to crush them.

Ange and Étoile aren’t finished yet. They lift the theender, and Cure Yell sends it straight up into the air with a punch. After that, they finish it off with PreCure Trinity Concert – we get a shortened version of the stock footage here. 

But Emiru stood up for Lulu and she is proud to have Lulu as her friend (tomodachi), which touched her.

The girls also survived the attack and finished it off.

Lulu and Emiru sing together

Instead of the usual ending theme, we are treated to Lulu and Emiru singing together. This song resonates with heart, and Lulu even sheds a tear or two.
This episode may not have been as silly as the previous Lulu and Emiru episode, but it definitely had a lot of heart. After what Lulu was made to go through previously, it’s very nice to see her just being accepted as she is and discovering what heart is.
Emiru was good in this episode, too. She stood up to Papple, which shows that she is more than qualified to become a PreCure just like she dreams.
Lulu and Emiru’s song was a great way to cap off the episode.
I’m hoping that Lulu remains a gynoid. It’s entirely possible there’ll be a point where she becomes entirely human, but I think her story would be stronger if she remained an android. Lulu already mentioned how it is probably impossible for her to become a PreCure – I think at this point everyone knows where the show is heading and just how wrong she will end up being.
Still, the lead up to the inevitable event has been very good, and delivered some of the strongest episodes Hugtto! has seen for a little while.
Next time, a fashion show. It also looks like a new villain will be introduced, and I’m quite keen to see what she is like. Oh... a brand new cadre/general in Cryasse... and the return of Henri... as a male model -just like Adrien Agreste and my senpai Andreu Ciscar...
Already in this episode we have seen a glimpse of the aforementioned henchperson concealed in the shade:

After Lulu's betrayal, Papple reported back to President Cryasse (Which is what Lulu called him in the episode) and he is really pissed together with Ristle and Daigan who blamed Papple for her failures. However in the shadows, a mysterious lady was observing everything...

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
Ooh this episode was so sweet. Emiru has grown on me quite a bit since she has first debuted, and now I feel very comfortable with her being a part of their group. The one thing I love most is the friendship that somehow blossomed between Lulu and Emiru, and it’s something so pure, that it’s exactly what Lulu needs. To some extent, thanks to the day she had spent with Lulu, she actually knows a bit more about Lulu than the others do. They developed a unique connection through music, and it’s something that gives Lulu great comfort and a way for her to connect to her newfound heart. My favourite moment of the episode had to be when Emiru stood up for Lulu, telling Papple that Lulu does in fact have a heart, and she knows it because she feels troubled, said she loved her music, and most importantly, because they are best friends. I found it so incredibly sweet in a way that only Emiru could pull it off. And to top things off, Emiru wrote beautiful lyrics to her song so Lulu could sing along with her. It’s quite incredible how quickly my opinion towards Emiru has changed for the better, but it’s a great feeling and now I look forward to their friendship and hopefully the day they too (hopefully Lulu too, despite being a gynoid) can become a Precure.

I was surprised to see Henri being re-introduced into the the scene at the end of the episode. He has shown his face here and there, but seeing him make a return is starting to make me hope we will see him become part of the group as well. I wonder if he will become friends will Lulu and Emiru, creating another unique trio. And to be perfectly honest, I really do want him to become a precure ahahaha, do it please.

Emilu... That Master and Commander style duet between the Tin Girl and the peppy bard was definitely one of the best codas for a non-finale Pretty Cure episode out there!
Emiru wrote a new song "Kimi to Tomodachi (Me and My Friend) and want Ruru to sing it with her. Lulu began to sing properly as Emiru was playing her guitar. The girls and Harry enjoyed the song as Henri who was spying with his camera phone commented that these two girls are good...

After last week's intense episode, you thought no more emotional moments for the time being. Well, no! This week's episode continue from where we left off and it was both funny and touching at the same time.
The show stopper was Emiru who brought a bundle of lively energy. Being a kid, she tried to get the girls' attention by trying to expose their identifies but with good intention as she too want to be a Precure. The girls were also amazed by her music talents and her reaction in seeing Lulu's internal system was priceless! (Although somewhere some doujin artists might have other ideas for this scene)
Emiru and Lulu were indeed soulmates and like how Lulu stood up against Emiru's brother, this time, Emiru stood up for her when Papple taunted her. It really touched Lulu and the final scene which is probably a first in Precure history-An Insert Song for the End Credits.
Emi's perfect pitch and musical intelligence (as a guitarist and lyricist) and Lulu as an Ace: kindred spirits
 
Does this final pastel-chalked freeze frame say anything? I consider it, myself, the proof that Emilu is canon.
Nakama vs tomodachi
Kokoro and the difficulty of translating the concept

Word of Lulu confirms the fembot theory. We have OCULAR FRICKING PROOF of her being an artificial life form.
The Heartless made from creative block: the negative emotions a person can experience run a pretty wide gamut, don't they? Moreover, the designer's block Rita suffered from kind of mirrored Lulu's creative crisis (about feeling that she could not express herself being someone without emotions).
How this review was gradually turned into a musical:
A new cadre is coming:


IN NEXT EPISODE (19):

Not only it was a first but Lulu and Emiru's duet was so beautiful that I can't wait to get the single when it comes up. Other than the same fashion designer (Rita) was the victim again and she is coming back next episode and... why Henri is back again?

Seeing that next week's episode, Henri become a model for a fashion runway show just to instigate the girls into entering... and the appearance of a new general who is also female!? What is going on!? Until then, see you in the next post!

 Who are you?

Whoever you are, you must hate Papple's guts.

Now it is finally your chance 

to claim the spotlight that may be yours by right...

A CLOCKWORK VIOLET

Hugtto Pretty Cure - Episode 17
MY OWN REVIEW
A CLOCKWORK VIOLET
 
Things took quite a turn at the end of the previous episode of Hugtto! PreCure, and episode 17 shows us exactly what that means for all of those involved.

After Papple reported to Ristle about Lulu's betrayal, she began deleting all of Lulu's memories and reverting her back to her original program-Destroy the Precures.

The episode begins with Lulu back at Cryasse HQ, where they delete most of the data she had gathered whilst being withwhere they delete most of the data she had gathered whilst being with the others.

the others are eager to rescue Lulu

At Harry’s place, Hana is insistent that they should go and rescue Lulu. Harry is against the idea, though, as he had realised Lulu was actually an enemy.

Hana and Harry argue about it, but Hugtan soon brings their disagreement to an end.

In the end, Hana gets her way and they all head out to search for Lulu.

Ristle then suggested to use the new "Iron Maid" power suit on Lulu to take on the Precures. Lulu's memories of the girls were deleted as she remembered how she was created by the Cryasse Corporation from the future as a gynoid. When she finally recovered, Lulu took the power suit to battle the Precures.

Crying her eyes out because she isn’t used to this kind of pain triggered by emotions. She perceives it as a bug in her system, complicating her perfect world, free from errors, pain, and despair. In fact, that right there may have been a critical clue behind Cryasse’s motives of robbing the future. If they steal the future away to enable people to forget time and live in quiet lives, free from suffering, in their opinion, that could be what they perceive as a perfect world.

 

Lulu appears before the others

It doesn’t take long for them to find Lulu. Hana rushes right up to her, but Lulu smacks her hand away. Lulu has no intention of talking to them.

There is only a single objective that she wants to achieve: destroy PreCures.

7Gs, those Lulunator target eyes...

Lulu’s armour

She doesn’t even wait for the others to transform. With her new battle armour, she immediately goes on the offensive. Any attempts to talk with her are futile, so the girls are left with no other choice but to transform.

Lulu is a formidable opponent

Lulu appeared in front of the girls but she had forgotten them and wore the power suit. The girls has no choice but to fight with her. Papple appeared and told the girls that Lulu has no more memories of them but still has the battle data of the girls.

As the fight rages on, Papple arrives. She reveals that Lulu’s memories of the time she spent with PreCures have been deleted, but they kept the battle data.
Lulu is able to overwhelm every PreCure, but they prove to be a lot more tenacious than she expected. She uses the opportunity to grab Cure Étoile for more data analysis, which results in the supposedly deleted memories resurfacing.

 The girls were struggling against Lulu and she needed more data on them as such she grabbed Cure Étoile and started analyzing her. But she suddenly remembered the previous encounter with Homare at the playground and all her memories were slowly coming back to her.

Lulu’s memories start to resurface

Lulu’s armour appears to start to malfunctioning, as all the memories she made with the other girls come back to here. She tries to strike at her opponents, but Ange and Étoile unleash their special attacks.

Lulu’s armour shatters

It appears Lulu has returned to normal, but she is not quite out of the woods just yet. She clutches at her chest and starts screaming out in pain; the others are naturally concerned for her, but she tells them to stay away.

In the year 200X…

 Cure Ange and Cure Étoile used this chance and destroyed the power suit. The girls tried to get close to Lulu but her programs are conflicting her emotions and she started firing recklessly. 

Lulu does her best Megaman/Rockman impression and blasts PreCures away with an arm cannon (attached to her left arm: does that make Lulu a canon sinistral?). Ange and Étoile have to defend Harry and Hugtan from an oncoming attack. Lulu tries to tell the girls to stay away from her and whips up a whirlwind around herself, but Cure Yell has other ideas.

Cure Yell approaches Lulu with a little help from Ange and Étoile

Cure Yell makes it inside the vortex, and Lulu starts pummeling her. Cure Yell wants nothing more than to forgive Lulu, but Lulu can’t bring herself to accept that. However, Cure Yell says that she has a deep pain in her chest from having to fight Lulu.

‘It’s because I love (suki) you, Lulu!’

The reason is because she loves (suki) Lulu. Lulu ends up collapsing after that, and the whirlwind dissipates.

Cure Yell tried to reason with Lulu but she refused to listen and admitted that she is a spy who brainwashed Mrs. Nono and the teachers, tricked the Precure friends (nakama) and did horrible things to them. 

 Lulu could not understand her reason and still blame herself. However Cure Yell told her that she likes (suki) Lulu and forgave her.

Just saying, but Hugtan is great

With the whirlwind gone, Hugtan is able to get over to Lulu remarkably quickly. Not that it matters much, because seeing her pat Lulu on the head is just adorable.

Lulu lets it all out

Lulu ends up just crying her heart out; the others tear up as well.

Papple, on the other hand, tries giving Lulu orders.

Lulu has no intention of listening to Papple any longer

LEAVE OR I'LL BLOW YOUR HEAD AWAY, YOU CRACKPOT BARONESS! 

Lulu fires a warning shot, and PreCures tell the Baroness/Vamp to leave unless she wants to be punished.

 Papple wisely decides that retreat is the best course of action.

Yes, Lulu; though you have not transformed yet, you are officially part of the group!

Lulu gets a well-deserved hug

With all the drama finished with, Hana welcomes Lulu back with a group hug.

And, for the first time in forever... WE SEE LULU SMILE!!

Also turns out that someone had witnessed most of what happened.

EMIRU: OMG... They are the PreCure girls after all...

Emiru saw something shocking

PreCures' fight against Lulu caught the attention of Emiru, and she just had to rush over to see what was happening. It’s not clear how much of it she saw, but she definitely seems surprised by what she did discover.
That brings this episode to an end, and what an episode it was. I was looking forward to it from last week’s preview, and it managed to surpass my expectations. The fight against Lulu was good, as too was the way in which it was resolved.
This entire arc revolving around Lulu has been some of the best that the entire PreCure franchise has to offer, and this episode continues to keep up that trend. I’m probably going to be repeating variations of that until the end of this arc, but it’s not something I would bring up if I didn’t think it was true.
All in all, an utterly brilliant episode. Next week looks like it will be another fun one as it focuses on Lulu and Emiru. Needless to say, I eagerly anticipate that one.
Finally, I just wanted to say that I really liked the end card for this episode:

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:

It baffles my mind how Papple has been reverted to the lazy villain, who just let all of this happen in front of her, without even trying anything to stop it! This annoys me to no ends because we saw her be scary last week! WHERE IS THE PAPPLE WHO WON’T HANDLE BETRAYAL NICELY? She should have at least tried to interfere! Not to mention, their colleague who made the suggestion to switch Lulu’s program to a Battle Protocol made it clear that she would be responsible for whatever happens. For a crime of a member betraying their organization, I find it terribly hard to believe Papple would simply just stand there and passively watch things play-out when she is the one who is going to be held accountable for the outcome of this fight. And then there was also that little bit where we see her “soften up” by telling the guy she wasn’t planning on anything drastic— uh lady, do you not remember the terrible things you did to Charalit!? Not to mention, she freaking SNIPED Lulu last week, and always identified her as a doll. In what way would switching her program to Battle Protocol be too much? Please make up your mind!

So we learn now that she’s definitely a gynoid, but now she has formed a “heart” (kokoro). She was able to retain some of her memories, and eventually with the help of the girls, she was able to break free and is now officially aligned with the Precure team. During this fight the girls showed off some creative new tricks with their powers, Saaya and Homare combing the two to create a ride for Hana to reach Lulu when she was blocking them out. It was neat to see, but at the same time it felt like it came out of nowhere since they have never done such a thing in a past. It also didn’t particularly help how I found the fight to be incredibly dull. The only kicker I got from it was really Hana’s tone and stubbornness of adamantly refusing to believe Lulu betrayed them and was a spy. To some extent, hearing that helped relieve some of the guilt that was eating up away at Lulu’s newfound heart. But what ultimately “saved” her was despite her betrayals, Hana accepts her back, and even tells her that she loves her. (Happy Lulu is the cutest thing!)

With this new heart, Lulu to some extent has been reduced to a child-like mindset. Crying her eyes out because she isn’t used to this kind of pain triggered by emotions. She perceives it as a bug in her system, complicating her perfect world, free from errors, pain, and despair. In fact, that right there may have been a critical clue behind Cryasse’s motives of robbing the future. If they steal the future away to enable people to forget time and live in quiet lives, free from suffering, in their opinion, that could be what they perceive as a perfect world.

And while we are on the subject of the villains, there was a not so subtle hint in regards to Harry harbouring even bigger secrets than we may initially imagined. He knows about Cryasse not being a very forgiving group, who does not treat betrayals lightly. For him to know such details, I could imagine two possibilities: Either he served as an undercover agent for a period of time, or at some point in his life, he was affiliated with Cryasse. If it turns out to be the latter, it could be his betrayal was the key to ensuring Hugtan’s survival. Anyhow, he is certainly not ready to let the girls know of all his secrets just yet. However if he is a former member of Cryasse, a defector from decadence, I wonder if there is anyone would might recognize him, or else perhaps he changed his appearance.

At this point, I am convinced it is probably only a matter of time before both Emiru and Lulu become Precures. They are certainly set to become a duo as the two have a unique friendship in a way Lulu doesn’t have with the main trio. Not to mention, since Emiru had approached the battle scene, she was able to discover they have been right under her nose the entire time.

PS: Does Hugtan have like teleportation abilities or something? How the hell does she slip out of Harry’s arms like that?!

This is probably because of their effectiveness at being foils of one another.
SEVEN GODS... LULU CRYING? We see her sob, we see her frown, we see her gasp, we see her smile; we see her dreadpan façade shattering, falling apart.

ON BADASSES AND BABIES (A SPECIAL SHOT AT VALJEAN AND COSETTE)
A great way of claiming that a badass has a heart of their own in fiction is having them raise an unrelated orphan or foundling, preferently a very young child. Gender inverted versions and same-gendered version occur, but the male guardian/female ward dynamic is the most common (see Valjean and Cosette below). This is probably because of their effectiveness at being foils of one another; girls are generally expected to be physically weaker and "purer" than men (both for being female and underage), and, as a child, the vulnerability given off to the audience is enhanced Up to Eleven. This juxtaposed with the adult, physically strong man who is in some way broken by his dark past of terrible sins, is a potent contrast.

We have here a straight classic Valjean example of a badass-and-child in Hugtto! (Harry*Hugtan), and a subversion with an underage, female (and artificial-life!) guardian as well to balance that.

ON WELL-INTENTIONED EXTREMISTS: So we finally got to know the motivation of Cryasse: and it's a page ripped not only from Elysio's book, but from many other antagonists', including real-life dictators'.
LULU'S ARMOUR / LULUNATOR - FEMBOT THEORY CONFIRMED
NEW THEORY: HARRY THE DEFECTOR FROM DECADENCE?
We should also (we never had the chance while doing Kirakira à la Mode) talk about Japanese loves a little more: ai, koi, and suki/daisuki, and the nuances that differentiate these three terms; this time aligning them with C.S. Lewis's Four Loves:

• Hana's feelings for Lulu and Ciel's for sweetsmaking are (dai-)suki: intense liking or affection for something or someone. Both philia (towards friends) and storge (towards family members) correspond to suki/daisuki in the C.S. Lewis essay.
• The altruistic concern for her younger sister that Akira displays and represents as Cure Chocolat is ai: unconditional love or altruism. Both storge (towards family members) and agape (towards people in general) correspond to ai in the C.S. Lewis essay.
• A romantic relationship, such as that between Yukari and Akira, is koi: romantic love. Eros (does not have to be sexual; it simply implies romantic desire for a significant other) corresponds to koi in The Four Loves.

EMILU IN NEXT EPISODE
The two girls seem to get along quite nicely...
We'll quaff champagne if this arrangement clicks!
Emiru, Lulu, that's the point, precisely!
It's such an OTP they had to fix...


IN NEXT EPISODE (18):
EMILU!!!
And maybe a musical review as well...

 

 

Could this maybe be the next Master-and-Commander style duet? And does this mean Lulu has potential as a singer and/or lyricist?

"MELODY OF THE HEART"