IN WHICH STAR*TWINKLE IS REVIEWED

FIRST THINGS FIRST, WATCH THIS VIDEO ON FREE WILL AND WELL-INTENTIONED EXTREMISM AMONG THE STAR PRINCESSES!!


Star ☆ Twinkle is the sixteenth instalment of Toei’s Pretty Cure franchise, and the first series released in the Reiwa period. This season of PrettyCure has forty-nine episodes.
The director was Hiroaki Miyamoto, it was produced by Akari Yanagawa and the writer was Isao Murayama.
The show started airing on the 3rd of February 2019, and ended otherwise 26th of January, 2020.

Star ☆ Twinkle‘s story starts with a place called the Star Palace being attacked by a group known as the KNotraiders. Aliens Lala and Purunce take their pet MacGuffin Fuwa to our own green Earth, where they seek out someone to become a Pretty Cure and revive the Star Palace.

That’s when they meet Hikaru Hoshina, Elena Amamiya-Rivera, and Madoka Kaguya, and give each of these maidens a Star Colour Pendant and Star Colour Pen. Hikaru transforms into Cure Star, Elena AKA Nena into the Cure Soleil, and Madoka into Cure Selene; and Lala is soon joined by other allies as they fight the 'raiders in order to revive the twelve scattered Star Princesses.

The main cast is made up of four girls, at least at first. First is Hikaru Hoshina, who transforms into Cure Star. She pretty much loves everything to do with space. As far as shocking pink Cures go, Hikaru is a pretty good one, the rare example of a book-smart AND extroverted shoujo centre-stage-on-the-poster lead heroine. At first, her stubbornness and tendency to act on her intuition is a direct contrast to Lala’s logic, but soon the pair become inseparable.

Next, we have the first alien Cure (extraterrestrial as opposed to ultraterrestrial) introduced in the franchise. Lala Hagoromo comes from the planet Samaan, where everyone tends to take a far more logical approach to things. As proven by how frequently she confides in her starship AI when she is a fish out of water here on Tell-Us! This rationality causes some initial tension between herself and Hikaru, but they smooth things out in the end.

Another first is Elena "Nena" Amamiya-Rivera: the first dark-skinned Cure or Pretty Cure. She is Hispanoasian: half-Mexican, half-Japanese (meaning that the only Spanish Cure in canon so far is based upon a loathly blood sport!! RARGH!!!). Possesses incredible athletic skills and is arguably the most selfless character of the cast. That probably stems from being the eldest sibling of a big family. Elena is also known as the sun of Mihoshi Secondary School.

The fourth member is Madoka Kaguya. If Elena is the sun, then Madoka is the moon of Mihoshi Secondary School. She possesses many talents, with archery, piano, polyglossy, economics, and ikebana (flower arrangement) just being a few. That is reflective of her upbringing in her strict upper-class family.

For long time PrettyCure fans, it will come as no surprise to learn that the main cast grows by one over the course of the series. Arguably the fifth addition to the team is the most interesting, and not just because she is another alien.

Yuuuu-ni!! Yuu-ni!! 

PS: Did she like the Cats musical?

YUNI: Grizabella hugged close, Mr. Mistoffeles and Skimbleshanks on the brain (have to admit that their songs are catchy! not to mention I see myself in Misto as the Blue Cat and in Skimble as Bakenyan!). THE CAT ON THE RAILWAY TRAIN!! But nevertheless enjoyed it all, all the musical numbers and both the heroes and the bad guys. Ayewan and I even hugged and were this close to joining lips when MacCavity got... --all right, my optic friend, you said give the readership no spoilers--! Now what is this Lemizerable you mentioned that was shot by the same film team?

The thing is, with Star ☆ Twinkle‘s main cast, is that Hikaru, Lala, and ESPECIALLY the fifth addition to team kind of steal the show. At times, Elena and Madoka feel like little more than extras. They have their episodes where they debut as Cure Soleil and Cure Selene respectively, but then there isn’t all that much to do around the middle of the season as the fifth Cure steals the spotlight.
This is remedied as the season moves towards its end, as Elena and Madoka both get multiple opportunities to shine in the second half of the season, and they even help each other to grow as characters.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a season/continuity of PrettyCure without its female characters getting particularly close to each other. First and foremost is Hikaru and Lala (Hikala), but Elena and Madoka (Soluna) get a bit of that towards the end of the season as well. There’s also some notable moments between the Cures and some of their enemies – pay attention to the fifth Cure and the cyclop girl in particular.

Being an entry in the PrettyCure franchise, there are some typical things to expect. The usual monster of the week formula is in place, though there are a couple of different approaches to it – sometimes PreCures will fight a KNottrigger (ie a person who has been triggered and subsequently seized over by the 'raiders), other times it will be an enemy who powers up their weapon with twisted imagination... and there are occasions when they’ll be fighting groups of KNotraiders.
Stock footage is also a given for magical girl warriors, and it seems that some feel that the show might rely on it a little too much. It does make the fights that forego the stock footage have more impact, though.

Of course, there’s also the transformation sequence. Notable in that this time around, the Cures themselves actually sing during the transformation. It is a great tune, and it is used to great effect at the end of the season.

On that note, when Star ☆ Twinkle wants to do emotional scenes, it does them fantastically well. It may be a middle-graders’ show, but there are scenes in this season that easily put shows for older viewers to shame. 

The antagonists in this show are certainly an interesting bunch. They, too, get their moment to shine in the spotlight, which gives some insight into their motivations (ranging from aesthetic discrimination to genocide and a childhood in squalour). Also, at least one of them isn’t what they seem at first.

With a strong space theme running throughout the season, Star ☆ Twinkle definitely plays up some sci-fi tropes when given the opportunity. This isn’t the first PrettyCure season to involve outer space, but it certainly is the one that uses the theme best.

Star ☆ Twinkle actually has quite a bit in common with Maho Girls. It starts with a girl from Earth (Mirai/Hikaru) meeting a girl not from Earth (Riko/Lala). They travel to different locations together (Magic dimension/different planets) whilst carrying out their duties as a PreCure battle couple.
There are even some strong similarities with its endings.

As a season or continuity, the strong sci-fi theme running throughout helps to make this season stand out, even if everything else is pretty typical for the franchise.
But, after celebrating the fifteenth anniversary with Hugtto!, it was inevitable things were going to a little more standard – doesn’t detract from Star ☆  Twinkle still being a really fun time, though.

Score: 8/10
Star ☆ Twinkle is a great entry into the PrettyCure franchise. It does have elements that could have been improved on, but ultimately it leaves behind a lot of fun memories and some incredibly strong emotional scenes.

IN WHICH A BIG BLUE BRUTE IS BACK TO BASH

Star*Twinkle Pretty Cure - Episode 32

My Own Review

IN WHICH A BIG BLUE BRUTE IS BACK TO BASH

PreCures may have achieved one of their objectives, but it turns out that is only the first step in their mission. In the thirty-second episode, they discover what comes next.

Yuni takes it easy whilst the others fuss over Fuwa

Now that PreCures have gathered all twelve Princess Star Colour Pens and Fuwa has transformed, the Star Princesses give them their next mission: to find some MacGuffin called the Twinkle Imagination. A fight with a powerful adversary also leads to a new finishing technique.

Garuogre isn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed (unsurprising for the Brute among the cadres)

Garuogre returns for a rematch in this episode, though not before grabbing Fuwa. Fortunately for PreCures, he (as the Brute of the KnotRaiders that he is) doesn’t recognise Fuwa in her new alicorn form and just throws away the opportunity to capture her.

PreCures vs. Garuogre

The main event in this episode is the fight between PreCures and Garuogre. Our Big Blue Brute isn’t exactly happy about what happened previously, so he uses the second chance that Darknest has granted him.

Those who had lost everything

Garuouga has a few choice words to say about PreCures’ desire to protect Fuwa, which gives us a bit of insight on the KNotraiders. Much like Yuni, it seems that Garuogre, Kappard, and Tenjou (and most surely Ayewan) had all lost their planets. When they were lost, Darknest appeared. The flashback to that event implies that some darkness drove them from their homes – and to that, I ask: is Darknest that darkness, or is there some other malevolent force out there?

Cure Star lands a solid hit

The battle banter is pretty typical PreCure stuff: Garuogre convinced that protecting something makes them weak, whilst PreCures are strong because they have something to protect. At least the fight is fun to watch, though – the ogre has a pretty good track record for his fights so far (all two of them).

Pretty Cure Star Twinkle Imagination

Garuogre is a tough opponent, but all PreCures and Fuwa putting their feelings together results in a new finishing move: Pretty Cure Star Twinkle Imagination. PreCures get some new outfits for the attack, and Fuwa participates as well.

Perhaps the first time that PreCures have seen Darknest

If I’m remembering correctly, PreCures also get their first sighting of Darknest in this episode. He calls Fuwa a “vessel”.

The Star Princesses give PreCures their next objective

One more impromptu trip to the Star Palace gives PreCures their next objective: to gather Twinkle Imagination. That’s all they have to say on the matter, though: it is up to Cure Star and the others to seek it out themselves.
This episode of Star ☆ Twinkle was a good one. The fight against Garuogre was decent, we got to learn a little more about the KNotraiders, and PreCures have powered up. Good stuff.
Next time, the quest to gather Twinkle Imagination begins! Or at least it would, it everyone wasn’t so busy…

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
ALL STAR PRINCESSES TOGETHER NOW!! Hadn't seen that since the springtime of this year, when Star*Twinkle began. WUUUIIII!!! >D OwO 

Fuwicorn: so, as we mentioned in last episode Fuwa evolved from jigglypuff to... alicorn? Maybe this is some brony bait, intentional or not, ... GARUOGRE, the Brute as he is, failed utterly to recognise an evolved Fuwa ( XD )

The conflict thickens:
KNotraider cadre backstory::: so Darknest created this black hole that swallowed up Planet Kappa, Planet Tengu, Planet Cyclops, and Planet Ogre, leaving a sole survivor from each world on purpose, so that, racked with trauma, survivor guilt, and lack of a purpose in life... they had no choice but to join the Ophiuchus Star Prince as his closest warriors, as soon as he coaxed them into him.
Is Fuwa a vessel... for what? Namely, His Overlordship's words

The Star Princesses have another quest: The Twinkle Imagination? (heheheheh...) Do these Japanese anime-makers have any idea of the innuendo the word "twinkle" carries in its native English? (I mean, to put another example, Mandibuzz's original name is Vulgina, which officially stands for "vulture regina", but the appearance of that pokémon does give off some unfortunate innuendo as well).

IN WHICH A CATGIRL TAKES OVER THE COSMOS

Star*Twinkle Pretty Cure Springtime Cour Finale (Ep 21+22)
My Own Review
IN WHICH A CATGIRL TAKES OVER THE COSMOS


After being off air for a week, Star ☆ Twinkle returns to our screens with its twentieth episode. It has been a long old wait for this particular episode, so let’s jump right in and see what it has to offer.

Kappard calls Ayewan out, chiding her for not having claimed the Star Colour Pens.

Fuwa and the Blue Cat among petrified Rainbowians

Cures on the offensive

A clash of savateuses

Blue Cat fights PreCures

Previously, Blue Cat grabbed Fuwa and the Princess Star Colour Pens from the others and made a dash for it. However, Hikaru and company still have their Star Colour Pendants, so they are able to track down Blue Cat as well as transform. Blue Cat fights them for a bit before running again, but Cure Star and Soleil pursue her.

Blue Cat disguises herself as Cure Star

Blue Cat disguises herself as Cure Star, which causes the other Cures to hesitate. She can’t get away from the real Cure Star, though, and the pair start struggling when Blue Cat tries to throw another smoke bomb. It ends up detonating right in the face of one of the Rainbow residents, who are all still stone statues. Blue Cat stops fighting, and reveals her true self.

They arrived back at where the stones statues are and Blue Cat accidentally threw a smoke bomb at one of the statues during a struggle.

Blue Cat’s true form

Revealing what she truly looks like, Blue Cat explains to the others a bit about the planet Rainbow and how it was before the KNotraiders showed up. 

This is me.

Under our late ruler Olivia, our society flourished. Rainbowite, an endemic prism crystal, became the cornerstone of our culture.

Then everything changed when that cyclopette attacked.

I infiltrated her organization as her faithful servant, earning her trust.

They arrived back at where the stones statues are and Blue Cat accidentally threw a smoke bomb at one of the statues during a struggle.

However nothing happened to the statues and Blue Cat let out a relief and reverted back to her real form-Yuni, a native of Rainbow Planet. She explained that her races are shape-shifters and after travelling in space to search for a un-habited planet, they arrived on Rainbow Planet and used the Rainbownite crystals to rebuild their civilisation.

Blue Cat looked up to their Queen, Olivia and when Aiwan petrified the planet, Blue Cat was the only one to escape. She swore to find a way to reverse the effect and disguised as Mao the popstar for information, Blue Cat to steal back her planet treasures, and as Bakenyan in order to get close to Aiwan.

After the incident caused by Ayewan, Blue Cat took on a variety of disguises in an attempt to gather information that could save her planet. That is how she learned of the Princess Star Colour Pens.

Ayewan transforms herself into a KNottrigger - using the Dark Pen on herself

The conversation is cut short by the arrival of Kappard, and then Ayewan. Ayewan takes the lead and transforms herself into a 'trigger; she isn’t particularly happy about that whole Bakenyan thing.

Kapparatta.

PreCures protect Blue Cat

Ayewan targets Blue Cat, but she is protected by PreCures. Blue Cat can’t quite fathom why PreCures would want to protect her, but that is exactly what they are doing. Unfortunately, Blue Cat proves to be a little too strong for the others, and they end up getting knocked out of their transformations.
That’s when Blue Cat steps foward, and makes it clear that she wants to save not only her people, but PreCures as well. Blue Cat’s desires are heard loud and clear, and she is gifted with a new transformation.

Blue Cat immediately went in front of the girls and sincerely want to help her planet and the Cures, taking a shot in the back, Éponine-style, of an oversized laser for her. Her feelings reached to Fuwa and Blue Cat was granted with a Pendant and Rainbow Pen. She then transformed to Cure Cosmos; both the Taurus Princess and Darknest felt this new power!

The Taurus Princess is moved by Yuni's conviction and decides to reward our catgirl.

Lord Darkness senses a new power budding somewhere...

The Cosmic Star Colour Pen and its inkwell appear before Yuni.

Blue Cat has an excellent transformation sequence

The rainbow spectrum shining across the galaxy! Cure Cosmos!

Blue Cat transforms into Cure Cosmos, bringing the total of Star ☆ Twinkle Cures up to five. This new power does not go unnoticed throughout the Starscape. Cure Cosmos gets to show off her strength by getting a couple of very solid hits in on Ayewan, but that is where this episode ends.

Don't ya dare make me fur-ious!!

Cure Cosmo immediately laid the smackdown on Aiwan and announcing as Cure Cosmo!

Finally after two weeks of waiting, Cure Cosmo has arrived and we learn more about Blue Cat and her fellow natives. It looked like they were travelling in Space in search of a planet to stay and the Rainbownite crystals could do wonders like purified the water and their values are amazing. 

Blue Cat probably looked up to Queen Olivia like a mother since she took care of Blue Cat and her peers. However her world was destroyed by Aiwan and she went on a one-girl crusade to steal the Princess Pens in order to save her planet. Speaking of Aiwan, she is really pissed off as Bakenyan whom she confided the most was actually Blue Cat. No wonder she immediately all Trigger on the Cures and Blue Cat.

Of course, the main highlight of this episode is Cure Cosmo and she is lovely as ever! When I first saw the leak a few weeks back, I wasn't into her appearance but now seeing in action, she definitely has a similar flare like Cure Macaron and Cure Parfait with her cheeky actions and similar costume and what an impact she show as the newest Precure. 

Had to wait a bit longer to see this episode, but I would definitely say it was worth it. I already really liked Blue Cat as a character, so I have absolutely zero complaints about her becoming Cure Cosmos.
I like the way that Mao, Bakenyan and her true self are all worked into the transformation sequence as well.
Cure Cosmos’s design is something that I am a fan of. That rainbow skirt looks great, and keeping her cat ears and tail is fine with me.
There is a very strong possibility that she will end up being my favourite Cure this season – it’s pretty close between her and Cure Milkyway as things currently stand.

Great episode, and an excellent debut for Cure Cosmos. Next time, we’ll get to see Cure Cosmos’s power.

Damn, Cure Cosmos is so OP. Now that Fuwa has granted her the power to do so, she is hella strong and is taking all that anger and stress and is kicking Ayewan’s ass, and she won’t play nice either, she’s going all out!

This episode definitely struck my heart, and I enjoyed seeing Blue Cat’s tough side, of not caving into Fuwa’s demands (such as refusing to give her the cookie), as well as her vulnerable side. The most impactful moment for me was when her smokescreen bomb had accidentally been flung at and blew up against her beloved leader Olivia. It certainly gave me a fright, especially with Blue Cat’s distress. She is the only survivor, who had miraculously gotten off of the planet before everyone was completely consumed. The girls recognized Blue Cat didn’t want to bring harm to them, as she was certain to have only taken the Princess pens, while leaving them with their pendants to ensure their safety. And she continued showing that side of her as despite everything she had been saying, she fought alongside the precures and did her best to protect them with the cards she had in her hands.

And Blue Cat is a pretty incredible character. She has gone through a lot, and worked hard to gather information by going as far as taking on three different identities, Mao as the space idol to gather intel, Blue Cat to steal back the Rainbowite that were sold off by Ayewan, and Bakenyan when she successfully infiltrated the 'raiders. But the only thing that kind of confused me was the whole ability to shape-shift. Was she referring to becoming a literal cat, (which we never got to see), or are they actually able to shape-shift in various people as she had with all her secret identities? I find the later to be unclear due to the use of the perfume, so I wished they had clarified that.

As for her Cure Cosmos form, while the transformation sequence was quite pretty and I really liked the triangle reference to prisms, it was still very pretty. Her precure design is also stunning, but I do kind of wished they stuck with her true form. I feel like it’s a missed opportunity, especially given her race was just said to have been feared upon by others, which is why they ended up drifting to the barren Planet Rainbow, where there they were able to figure out how to make use of the Rainbowite resources to help the planet flourish, and become inhabitable. And since Fuwa had given her a brand new pen, she now has the blue one, so I am curious to see how this is going to play out now in terms of using the Princess Pens.

Then we have the whole deal with the Star Princesses pen. I find it rather interesting how both the Star Princesses seem to have neglected to explain to the girls about the dangers of the pens falling into the wrong hands. It’s dangerous for the girls to be ignorant of why the KNotraiders want and need all twelve pens, and what they would be capable of doing with such power. That’s why Blue Cat called them out for it. She has warned them once before, and she did it again today. And it was precisely because she had learned about it at the Notraiders headquarters that she decided to take ahold of the opportunity in hopes to collect them for herself to save her fellow kins. I would hope that because of the birth of a new pen will get the ladies talking more about what the pens are truly capable of.

As for the two 'raiders, Ayewan looks like she will be the one to fall (if she does fall for good that is) in this fight. Kappard will be there to witness it, as he was ordered by Lord Garuogre to take over her mission, or at least assist in some way. So far today, he has just been observing on the sidelines, watching Ayewan do her thing as she had insisted she will deal with this herself. She decided to use the dark pen on herself, and became quite intimating. Varying on how the fight plays out next week, the dark pen which is now in Kappard’s hands may remain in their clutches so as long the girls are unable to get it back. There looks to be lots of action, so I’m looking forward to it!

I had intended to wait until Over-Time put out their subs for this episode of Star ☆ Twinkle, but there’s the end of the spring season (or cour) of anime as well as the start of the summer season.

Anyways, the number of PreCures increased by one last episode, and it is in the twenty-first one that we get to see what this new addition is capable of.

Cure Cosmos

The episode picks up directly from where the previous one left off, shortly after Blue Cat had transformed into Cure Cosmos. Cosmos easily gets the upper hand against the Ayewan KNottrigger. The enemy won’t just sit back and allow themselves to be defeated, though.

Darknest powers up the 'trigger

Lord Darknest HIMSELF joins the battle, by possessing Ayewan; taking over her body and kokoro (in the meaning of both heart and psyche). The strength of the enemy army increases with their leader joining them on the battlefield, so the others transform in order to face this threat.

A broken cyclopheart with a sickly green glow. The Cures can sense that Ayewan is in pain...

Et tu, Bakenyan? Then fall, Ayewan!

Cure Star vs. Kappard

We get some really nice shots of PreCures fighting. Milkyway, Soleil, and Selene go after the mooks, whilst Cosmos faces a possessed Ayewan. Cure Star confronts Kappard. Kappard tells Cure Star that her loss of the Aries Pen before is what caused current events.

But Cure Star is more concerned about saving Ayewan from the suffering she is experiencing being possessed by Darknest. Cure Star is driven enough that she is able to reclaim the Aries Star Colour Pen from Kappard and team up with Cure Cosmos to fight the 'trigger.

Cure Cosmo also realised that Aiwan might be responsible for her planet's fate - however Darknest taking Aiwan's kokoro away is far worse! Her feelings were also able to create her own item- The Rainbow Perfume! 

Cure Cosmos receives the Rainbow Perfume

The 'trigger made is too powerful for Cures sans Cosmos to defeat. Just as it looks like that will be defeated, Cosmos steps up to protect. Her resolve earns her the Rainbow Perfume, which lets her use a new special attack: PreCure Rainbow Splash.

The Aries Princess Pen reacted to the Rainbow Perfume! Cure Cosmos combined the two items and fired the Precure Rainbow Splash on Aiwan! Aiwan was finally restored back to her own normal self. 

Spritz me this!

Now insert a star colour pen - cardinal fire will do fine

Aim...

SPLASH!!

Cure Cosmos ready to use Rainbow Splash

Cure Cosmos is able to defeat the 'trigger, and a purified Ayewan goes back to being her old self. When she regains consciousness, Ayewan is not exactly happy about Bakenyan’s betrayal. She retreats, but only after stealing Blue Cat’s starship.

Does that make her a cyclopirate?

Meowwww!!

Cosmo’s reaction to Ayewan stealing her spaceship

It’s unfortunate, but the retrieval of the Aries Princess Star Colour Pen means that it is time for PreCures to visit the Star Palace once more.

After Darknest retreated, Aiwan was still her stubborn self and swore to get back on Cure Cosmos (think Ahab or Javert)! She even stole her rival's starship and retreated with Kappard. 

Aries Fuwa

Aries Star Princess

At the Palace, the Aries and Taurus Star Princesses tell Blue Cat that she will be able to restore planet Rainbow with all the Princess Star Colour Pens – of course, the others are willing to help her towards that goal. Blue Cat intends to go it alone, but she no longer has a spaceship so she decides to go with the others to Earth.

The girls then revived the Aries Princess and Blue Cat asked both the Aries and Taurus Princess is it possible to restore her planet in which it is possible with all the Princess Pens and Fuwa.

Blue Cat wants to work alone to find the Princess pens but realised she has no spaceship of her own and the girls welcome her to join them on board Lala's back to Earth which she reluctantly agreed. 

Darknest

Over on the enemy’s side of things, their overlord Darknest ceases to be a vague mass of energy and actually takes on a more reptilian humanoid form. He is powerful, but not fully revived at this moment.

At the same time, Darknest has revived to his physical form and all his followers bowed to him as he swore to get all the Princess Pens and defeat the Precures!

Yes, their teeth and ambitions are bared...

Blue Cat’s actual name is Yuni

To cap off this episode, we learn a little more about Blue Cat. The perfume she uses to transform is actually for people of her species who have yet to master shapeshifting – the fact her ears and tail remain is a sign of her inexperience.
She also reveals to the Cures that her actual name is Yuni.

This episode looked great; the action scenes seemed to be very well animated. That’s good, because this was also a great episode.
Its episodes like this that will only make me like Yuni more and more – she is a very strong contender to be my favourite Cure of this season of the franchise.
I’ll be keeping an eye on the dynamic between Yuni and Ayewan going forward, because it is possible that there could be something there. I mean, Cure Cosmos did save Ayewan from Darknest’s possession, after all.

It took a little while to find its stride, but Star ☆ Twinkle has been excellent as of late. I imagine things will calm down a bit, at least until PreCures are able to obtain the final three Princess Star Colour Pens.

As the girls returned back to Earth, Purunce offered Blue Cat his donuts since he is still a fan of her which she accepted it. Blue Cat also revealed her real name-Yuni and the girls welcome her to the team and Earth...

We finally come to the conclusion of Cure Cosmo's arc and it is pretty good one for a Sixth Ranger arc. Although not as emotional like Lulu Amour-Trauma from last season but still Yuni/Cure Cosmos (which we will now refer her for now on) has quite a back story. From being the sole survivor of an ostensibly dead planet to infiltrate the ranks of the KnotRaiders, Yuni has survived a lot on her own. 

Cure Cosmo's debut and her finisher are pretty flashy as expected since she represent the Rainbow Spectrum and the Universe; and with an aloof catlike personality, it really does match her character. 

Darknest is pretty impressive for the big bad of the series and we finally get an overlord that doesn't sit on his throne till the end of the series or being a human villain like the last three seasons we had. 

His reptilian overall design reminds me of Cobra Khan or King Hiss from the 2003 Masters of the Universe series. Then, again -- he might be the only male prince in the zodiacal ensemble, the thirteenth sign... The theory I support says that:

Darknest is a Star Prince

Specifically, Prince Ophiuchus. He felt overshadowed by his more beloved sisters, so now he wants to command the universe by taking away the light of the other constellations. All just to get attention.

(But then we are on Episode 21 and Darknest might be a red herring and we already get a Second ending which I am suspecting we might get one more ending before the end of the series)

Darknest is also pretty evil since he took Aiwan's psyche (kokoro) and body as he claimed that all imaginations should be eliminated and -- understand that without imaginations or dreams, we cannot move forward. 

What an episode! The animation was absolutely superb, especially with how clean it was! PURE QUALITY. 

I wasn’t expecting Master Darknest to actually appear at the battle by taking possession of Ayewon, and enhancing her power which put her in a lot of pain. It was quite interesting to see counter Kappard’s argument he had made in the past, by how right now at that moment, she could clearly see Ayewon was suffering. Yuni teamed up together to fight Ayewon, and Hikaru, having recovered Aries’ pen was able to share it with Yuni so she could deliver the final blow.

And I am glad they decided to go with sharing the Princesses’ pens. It was the best solution, especially now that they have a new product to promote with it: Rainbow Perfume. I also like the approach because we’ll be able to see girls rotate and share their pens with Yuni, and her special attack’s animation will probably always be Rainbow Splash with a some minor tweaks to reflect the pen she is using, such as the horoscope symbol and the red ribbons around it.

However, while the fight was absolutely fantastic to watch, there were two things that bothered me. One, I wasn’t fan of is the way the battle ended. I don’t know about you, but I found it to be super anticlimactic. The first thing that crossed my mind when it did was, “Wait, that’s it?” And the reason for that probably has to do with me waiting for the girls to finally team up altogether, which leads to my next point. I am left with mixed feelings about the sheer amount of strength Yuni possesses as Cure Cosmos.

Last week, it was established (or at least, alluded to) that Yuni possesses greater physical powers than the girls, and the reason for that could  be because of her species. Now this isn’t a bad thing, it just— of course I understand this was supposed to be her fight, since she is the one who has beef with Ayewon who was responsible for the petrification of her kin, there were still moments such as the scene when she swooped in to stop buffed up Beserk!Ayewon (which is how she obtained the Rainbow Perfume). That particular moment, I had expected the rest of the girls to sweep in, regardless of the hordes of minions they had been dealing with up until now. Not to mention, this wasn’t the usual blessing from the overlord either, he was literally possessing her. Considering how fearsome they are setting him up to be (especially with the way they ended the episode, and it is alluded that Kappard knows or at least has a good idea Master Darknest’s true potential), I expected them to come all together, rather than Yuni cleanse Ayewon on her own. But then again, the Rainbow Perfume is supposed to serve as her equivalent to the Southern Cross shot, until they all obtain their second team upgrade.

Nonetheless, this just my personal nitpickings. It doesn’t change the fact I still immensely enjoyed this episode.

YUNI WHY YOU SO CUTE!?!?!

Other than the fight, I am quite glad they gave us Blue Cat’s real name: Yuni. They actually had me wondering for a bit if Mao were going to turn out to be her real name after-all, but were able to deliver it to us before the episode ended. I also adored the interaction between her and the girls, seeing her open up, talking about Olivia and what she means to her and her kin, as well as now be brought back to Earth so she won’t be alone anymore. It was right in character for her to insist continuing on her own, especially now that as she said, she has the an incredibly efficient radar of her own she can use to track down the pens on her own. (So thank you Ayewon for stealing her spacecraft so she has no excuses to bail out haha!)

Speaking of Ayewon, I am curious to see where she ought to run off now that she doesn’t appear to have returned to the KNotraiders headquarters to witness Master Darknest’s return. It was quite a dramatic scene too, with the destruction of his crystal, and now that he has a physical body. I am all over his wicked design, and I like that his face continues to be concealed, but perhaps a factor in that could potentially be attributed to the fact he has yet to reclaim his true strength, as mentioned earlier.

This week also introduced the new ED Theme. I am really going to miss the old one, that song was such a bop, it was one of those rare endings that I actually listened to it every week. The new one is cute, the lyrics especially was adorable, and varying on interpretation can also be absolutely hilarious.

OH AND OF COURSE: Goodness, last point, I almost forget this! I am truly shocked that nobody thought to ask the Star Princesses about the rumours behind the pen’s powers! Instead all we got was Yuni asking if Planet Rainbow could be restored, but instead the Star Princesses just ambiguously said, “with powers of the zodiacal constellations and of Fuwa, and peace will restore the universe.” Even if that answer is supposed to refer to Fuwa's ability to restore of cleansing the universe as a whole, still— they ought to address the elephant in the room. It doesn’t do any good if the girls (except for Yuni) remain ignorant of the pens’ and puff’s true capabilities!

Overall it was an absolutely fantastic Cadre Fight to watch! Now that Yuni is going back to the Earth with the girls and likely to be admitted to school as well, I really hope we get to see her interact more with the others. I especially want to see her interact more with Madoka, their first interaction at the auction house remains vivid in my mind, and of course with Lala and Elena as well!

PS: I got some real déjà-vu vibes at Kappard’s expression before he left. For some reason that scene reminded me of Tokyo Mew Mew‘s antagonists. I get the feeling he is probably going to have the most interesting backstory of all the generals/cadres.

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
Wooooow from Denmark-Sweden!! I watched this cour finale AT ONE SITTING, as I often do finales and multi-parters...
Pink Floyd's Dark Side PRISM sleeve: ----
On the Pen front -- fire signs all three... air signs only mine left (Aquarius anytime before this winter?)... earth signs all three... water signs only Cancer and Pisces left. Nine out of twelve.

Ophiuchus=Darknest? The venomous serpent design of our dark overlord du jour definitely has to do with the thirteenth star sign... maybe it is so that...

Darknest is a Star Prince

Specifically, Prince Ophiuchus. He felt overshadowed by his more beloved sisters, so now he wants to command the universe by taking away the light of the other constellations. All just to get attention.

Which reminds me of a short story retelling of The 12 Dancing Princesses titled "Zodiac Dancers" (I don't remember the name of the author, nor the title of the anthology). In that version, each princess had the personality of her star sign... and the reason why they descended to the underworld was their outnumbered brother, the discarded and presumed-dead Ophiuchus prince, who had learned sorcery and entranced them!



ON THE PEN FRONT

Fuwa (Baawa)

Power-Up

Princess