IN WHICH A NEW STUDENT STARTS HER FIRST CLASS EVER

Star*Twinkle Pretty Cure
Episode 13 - My Own Review
IN WHICH A NEW STUDENT STARTS HER FIRST CLASS EVER

The thirteenth episode of Star ☆ Twinkle has a simple premise; it is Lala’s first day at school. There’s nothing else that needs to be said here, so I’ll just jump right into the episode.

Lala’s first day of school

With Lala officially being allowed to live on Earth now, there is something that she wants to do: go to school. The film director from the previous episode is able not only to get her a uniform, but also to get her enrolled at the same school that the other girls attend, and it isn’t long before she is causing quite the stir. It seems somewhat odd that a parvenue transfer student would quickly befriend the sun and moon of Mihoshi Secondary School.

Lala is shocked to discover that adolescent Earthlings can calculate two-digit figures as doing sums in their heads (so, Maths not a priority in her homeworld? Lucky b*tch...)

As you would expect from an alien attending school for the first time, Lala ends up standing out quite a bit. Her verbal tic, finishing every sentence with -lun, doesn’t exactly help matters, either. The day doesn’t end particularly well for Lala, who runs straight home and hides out in her room.

The perky, merry, free-spirited boy with the nutbrown quiff is Tatsunori Karube, more informally known as Karunori. Don't forget him, 'cause he's the victim of this episode...

Oh... sorry, Mr. Karunori, 'scuse me if you slipped! 

Lala accidentally overturned the mopping bucket...

Episode 13 started with Lala going to school. She decided not to rely on her AI and as such made a lot of blunders and mistakes which she felt embarrassed. The stress got to her when her fellow classmate, Karunori, unintentionally remarked her as weird and she ran back to her cabin sulking.

Lala surprises the others with a proper greeting, as well as attempting to drop her verbal tic

For Lala’s second day of school, she brings the glove that lets her communicate with her AI along with her – whereas humans study in schools, everyone on Lala’s home planet got what they needed thanks to AIs like her own. Which means her whole species is as self-taught as yours truly!! This leads to Lala acting very out of character, even stopping herself from using her “-lun” verbal tic.

The next day, she took her AI glove along on her left hand, in order to communicate with the AI, and behaved like a typical student which got Hikaru worried. She gathered everyone the next day to go to school (on a non-school day) and explained to Lala that they want her to be herself and enjoy school life. 

The Sun and Moon bring Lala to the school on their day off

With Lala acting strangely, Hikaru decides to ask Elena and Madoka a favour. The following day, the three girls bring Lala to school despite having a day off. Hikaru pretty much tells Lala that she doesn’t have to be like everyone else; she is absolutely fine just being herself. Lala realises this, but their happy moment is cut short.

Suddenly Kappard appeared and absorbed Karunori's imagination (apparently, he and other Raiders can sense "the power of a distorted imagination") from the boy's chest, apparently from his heart, to turn his own two-blade sith sword into a surfboard, or was it a hoverboard?! I was expecting like a monster or a new suit created out of Karunori but this is lazy since we know that the girls will defeat him (as always) and he retreated in the end.

Kappard’s weapon was powered up

Kappard and the mooks at his command appear, still very keen on getting their hands on the Star Colour Pens. Lala and the others transform, but during the fight Kappard is able to power up his weapon and cause some damage to the school grounds.

Cure Milkyway swears to protect the school

Cure Milkyway is not pleased about the school getting damage, so she swears to protect it. Together, PreCures do their usual thing and drive away their foe, returning Kappard’s weapon to its normal state in the process.

Hikaru and Lala ready for a new day of school

When Lala returns to the school on the following day, she is back to being herself. She even picks up a nickname from the other students: “Lun (-chan)”, due to her verbal tic-lun. 

In the end, Lala was accepted by her classmates and peers and was given her nickname-Lun-chan due to her ending her sentence with "-lun" 

She and Hikaru go to class hand-in-hand, ready for their class duty.

This was a fun episode, which only made me like Lala even more. It was some pretty typical fish out of water stuff, but the fact that Lala is the focus is exactly why I was sold on it.

I’m sure the other girls will all have their moments in the future, but for the time being Lala pretty much has number one spot as my favourite Star ☆ Twinkle girl.

Whilst this was an enjoyable Lala episode, I feel like overall it wasn’t quite as good as episode 12. Ups and downs are inevitable in a show that will have around fifty episodes though, and it wasn’t like I didn’t enjoy this one.

Next time, we getting an Elena episode – more specifically, one that will focus on her family.

This week, Lala enrols into the girls’ school, but it wasn’t quite what she expected!

I have to say, this episode was incredibly well done. I am glad that they were able to use this event in a meaningful way! I appreciated seeing the theme of Lala’s struggle to adjust as a foreign student. One of Lala’s biggest struggle was going to school without her AI assistant. In her world, AI provide them precise instructions and answers to their question. In fact they demonstrated the consequences of being too dependent on AI, as Lala was shocked when she learned that Earthlings of Hikaru’s age can (usually) add two-digit numbers when they do sums in their heads, something she cannot do. I commend her for trying problem-solve on her own, but at the same time I felt sad for her because she wasn’t comfortable with asking for help. And the reason for that was also because she was struggling to fit in with the class. She became incredibly self-conscious of what others have thought of her, and tried to change herself to fit the mould. Luckily Hikaru noticed how uncomfortable and stressed out she was, and decided to talk to her about it so she wouldn’t have to deal with it alone.

This week we also finally got to see what the Master’s blessing changed about the generals’ weapons! It took me a minute before I realized what it did exactly, and that was taking the target’s imagination, and whatever that may be, will reflect the form of the enhanced weapon. In this case, Karunori’s imagination was a hoverboard (BACK TO THE FUTURE STYLE) of a sorts. It was creatively used, but I would say it best served as a shield compared to the whole ‘crash into everything’ sort of destruction Kappard was doing.

The school episode is a cultural shock for Lala since she is used to rely on her AI for advices and now she is unsure of what to do in school which led to all sort of situations. 

Although Lala tried to make things right but Hikaru want Lala to be herself and count on her friends and not relying on her AI. Kappard turning his sword into a hover-surfboard was really what Toei could come up with? We know the generals are not going to be defeated now unless it is an important plot-related episode but at least do something like creating a monster not something gimmick which the girls clearly can overcome with the Southern Cross Shot.

Next week Elena will be back in the spotlight, featuring more about her family! (VEREMOS SI SON ESPAÑOLES O NO... ESTOY TAN TENSA...)

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
Theories confirmed: Just as I had guessed, everyone on Lala's homeworld is self-taught or homeschooled with the help of AIs -- recalling my own unusual upbringing (and, for the record, I was not homeschooled, but taught myself everything one needed to know but Maths and social skills from the library at the institution where she spent her childhood until 16; long story).
Lala in uniform: Wow wow wow... the Mihoshi Secondary look really fits the colour of her hair and eyes...
Be yourself no matter what they say: a dead horse lesson, and a value that I encourage myself A LOT and cannot stop encouraging. Or, as Tyrion Lannister puts it, if they call you a name, make it your own.
Sakurako steals the show: Once more. The way she ranted at Lala and insisted on the school rules COMPLETELY PWNED everyone else at class.
A new MO for the knotraiders: OUIIIII!!! What they did to Karunori was one of those pleasant subversions that come completely out of nowhere and leave you with a Goliath frog in your throat. Apparently, Raiders can sense a distorted imagination within people's hearts -- and Karunori was feeling guilty for having been criticised and chided by the class representatives earlier on at class, as well as for hurting Lala's feelings -- which became the catalyst for the weapon of the week du jour...
Book Smart Hikaru confirmed? We just saw her doing sums in her head and weighing some objects (Measures is Maths in primary and Physics in secondary), and we know about her passion for astronomy... but time will tell if she is one of those other few cases in which we have been blessed with a pink Cure, or red Ranger, who is not a dunce...
On the Pen front: No new Pens recovered, and no Princesses awakened (not even the Aries one from healing the filmmaker in last episode...). Hope that the state of things gets to change a little soon...



IN NEXT EPISODE (14):



Seeing that we are getting an Elena episode next week about her family and her brother is clearly behaving like a brat, estoy impaciente por reseñarlo para ver si de verdad son medio españoles... Y, sabiendo que uno de sus hermanitos va a ser la víctima de turno fijo, es igual que seguro que han escogido a la Nena equivocada con quien meterse...

IN WHICH A DARK PEN AND THE LEO PEN APPEAR

Star*Twinkle Pretty Cure - Episode 6
My Own Review
IN WHICH A DARK PEN AND THE LEO PEN APPEAR

In the sixth episode of Star ☆ Twinkle, the others take Lala to the nearby observatory to try and get her to relax a little.

This is my review of Star Twinkle Ep 6 as the girls learn how to work as a Team!

Lala’s repairs aren’t exactly going too well

The episode kicks off with Lala continuing the repairs. They aren’t going particularly well.

Hikaru drops by with Elena and Madoka, but this only irritates Lala. She kicks them out of the command centre, back out of doors, so she can focus on repairs.
Hikaru decides that Lala needs to take a break, so she takes her, and the other two girls, to the observatory.


Lala was busy trying to fix her ship with little no success and even chased the rest of the girls out of doors.  Hikaru decided to take Lala out for a breather and  they went to her favourite place-The Local Observatory!

JUST. LOOK. AT. THAT. SOLAR. SYSTEM. ORRERY.

Hikaru is pretty keen to show Lala some books about space

In the observatory is a collection of books about space, naturally. Hikaru just gives a pile of them to Lala. A pretty heavy stack, of course (still keeping fingers crossed for Hikaru to be book smart, or at least only lousy at Maths)!

At that point, old man Ryo shows up, and gives them permission to go into the star room.

This room is where Hikaru first fell in love with stars and space

The room is a place that Hikaru has been visiting ever since she was little. It is the very place that she fell in love with the stars and space: her point of origin.

The rest of the girls also learn that Hikaru got her interest in astronomy at the Observatory with Ryoutaro guiding her and showing the ropes. They also learn from this Dumbledore-esque gentleman that the stars in the sky seem to dim weaker which could be the Knot Raiders reaching to consume the universe itself. 

There’s a telescope (analogue and decades old, an antique but still working) in the room, which leads to Ryo revealing that he has noticed that the stars are seemingly getting dimmer.
After hearing that, Lala is more keen to repair her starship than ever before. She tries to leave the observatory, but bumps into Ryotaro on the way out.

Initially Lala was more concerned on getting her starship fixed and storm out of the room. However Ryou brought her to the Planetarium and explained that stars might be far apart from one other but they can form different constellations like how no person is an island and we all need help from others sometimes.

Lala in the planetarium

Ryo ends up taking Lala to the planetarium. Inside, he tells Lala that constellations are like relationships between people – referring to the fact that Lala has just met the other three girls. Still, he looks forward to seeing what kind of constellation they become.

Bakenyan and Ayewan

The enemy that PreCures will be facing this time around isn’t Kappard or Tenjou. Instead, it is Ayewan, who has an experiment prepared for when she arrives on Earth. She is accompanied by Bakenyan, who seems to be Ayewan’s butler (hope he has that Pennyworth fighting-bodyguarding streak and cannot only serve tea!).

Suddenly Lala's inkwell compass begins to glow sky blue and point towards the sign of Leo...

Ayewan is in possession of a darkened Star Colour Pen: a Dark Pen

Ayewan is the top genius (tensai, also translated as "prodigy") scientist of the Knotraiders, and her experiment is a Dark Pen. It is a black Star Colour Pen, and her first target with it is Ryotaro.

THAT PERKY FEMALE MINION SKIP, WHILE DARKENING RYO'S HEART, IS THE TOKEN OF HYPERACTIVITY...!

 Aiwan arrived with her cat butler, Bakenyan on Earth and she was holding a corrupted Star Pen that react to Lala's pendant (on Leo). The girls saw the duo and Aiwan used the pen to turn Ryotarou into the freak of the week -a knottrigger!

Here we have our first example of a monster of the week, a knottrigger. Of course, the others won’t just stand around doing nothing.

Star Twinkle PreCures

We get our first full group transformation of Star ☆ Twinkle, and then it is time for the girls to fight. Knottrigger!Ryotaro proves to be a tough foe, despite the four of them fighting against it. Lala tries to make a charge to grab the Dark Pen from Ayewan, but ends up getting blasted instead.

The girls went to battle but they were thrown around like amateurs. Cure Milkyway remember what Ryotarou said about asking for help and she asked the others to help!

Cure Milkyway asks for help

During the fight, Cure Milkyway realises that she might not be able to act alone. She asks the other girls for their help, and they agree. By working together, the girls are able to create the opening they need to let Milkyway grab the Dark Pen.
 

GOT IT!

Of course, the girls worked together and Cure Milkyway snatch the Star Pen from Aiwan which turned out to be the Leo Princess Star Pen.

Milkyway grabs the Dark Pen

Milkyway is able to retrieve the Dark Pen from Ayewan – once she grabs it, it reverts to being the Leo Star Colour Pen.

Cure Milkyway immediately used the Leo Princess Star Pen to create her new attack-Leo Milky Shock (With Lightning Lions!) and defeated the knottrigger!

She uses it to power up her Milky Shock attack, defeating the knottrigger. Ayewan and Bakenyan retreat, whilst Ryotaro is safely returned to normal.

Leo Fuwa (Roarwa)

With the Leo Star Colour Pen safely retrieved, PreCures are transported to the Star Palace where they meet the Princess of Leo.

Fuwa -as Roarwa- is too cute with her little mane!

The Leo Princess shrine was reborn by Fuwa and she congratulated the girls for using Teamwork to overcome their enemy.

Princess of Leo - AKA... the déjà-vu leads me to a theory you may read below...

The Princess of Leo asks PreCures to collect the remaining ten Star Colour Pens. After that, they return to Earth where they check on old Ryo.

Lala wishes for everyone to help her repair

Later that night, the four girls sit out under the stars. Hikaru spots a shooting star go by, but it vanishes from sight before she can make a wish. Lala has a wish she does make, however: for everyone to help repair her starship ASAP.
The other girls are willing to do exactly that.

Toutes pour une, et une pour toutes!

After faking a story to Ryotarou of him having a dream, the girls watched the night sky and Lala asked the girls for help in fixing her ship. The girls agreed and aim to get it done...

That brings episode six to an end.

This episode of Star ☆ Twinkle was yet another enjoyable one. It was a Lala episode, and that is perfectly fine with me.
We got our first instance of a freak of the week with this knottrigger, though Ayewan seems to lost her only means of creating them with the loss of the Leo Dark Pen…
Being a scientist (and a tensai/genius/prodigy), though, I imagine she has some way of replicating that up her sleeve. I’ll imagine we’ll see for ourselves in the future.
It also seems like the Star Colour Pens could be found on other worlds or scatted through space; that could be an explanation for how the knotraiders got hold of one in the first place. Lala is also very keen to fix her starship ASAP, and that might just be key to getting all twelve together.
Next time, Lala may finally get her starship repaired and spaceworthy.

Like all newly formed teams, this is the first time the four girls fought together as a team. The girls really need to understand each other's strength and weakness in order to face the Knot Raiders in the future. But I am sure they will get the hang of it sooner or later.

Lala's anxiety is expected since the fate of the universe is hanging by the balance and how she was used to working alone due to her supposedly Independence ideals from her alien culture. But really, Lala need to understand that things can get done better if more hands help and like today's battle, it was not amazing but the girls all did their part to overcome the knottrigger and regain the Leo Princess Star Pen.

We are also finally getting the villain of the week but how is Aiwan going to create new monsters if there are only 10 (or 11) Star pens left? Maybe some other devices that Aiwan create might substitute as the Freak of the Week in future episodes?

I am actually surprised that Leo Milky Shock has enough power to cleanse a knottrigger although we will be getting the first power-up as shown in the opening so the girls' base special attack might work now but not in the future.



Today, while the dark pen was responsible for producing a legitimately strong monster that took teamwork and brute force to erase it, when it came down to the tainted pen itself, all it took was Lala to snatch it out of Ayewan’s hands and BAM, it’s cleansed! (And our Ophiuchus suspicions for the week were debunked along with that!)

Now I don’t know about you, but I thought that was way too easy. You would think an extra step would be required to get it back to normal, but apparently not. This is where I thought it was a missed opportunity, or maybe I’m just too used to the standard formula most magical girl warrior shows follow. Regardless, I hope we will actually see the villains (cadres) make it more difficult for the girls to restore the actual pen themselves. And a good way to start would be ensuring they aren’t careless enough for the girls to litterally snatch it out of their hands (this would be the second time they do this, and by Lala of all people).

So here’s to hoping the Dark Pens will undergo improvements and the enemies won’t be so careless for the girls to simply sna
Overall, a good episode for the girls first teamwork battle and as shown in the next preview, the girls were helping out in getting Lala's tch it out of their hands. If the knotraiders really do have a good handful of the princesses’ pens, then I would hope that Ayewan will make them better. In fact, knowing that she is working on such projects and she considered today’s fight a successful experiment makes me wonder a lot about how the Dark Pens will evolve overtime. As I mentioned before, I would certainly love to see the villains adapt accordingly.

Since the prize of the episode was the Leo Pen, naturally Lala was received the character spotlight this week. The conflict was very similar to her previous episode, where she and Hikaru were butting heads over how to go about their search for the pens. The only difference this time, while Lala was frustrated with Hikaru’s meddling, it was because of her independent nature and her sense of urgency that she wanted to focus on repairing her ship, and on her own. It wasn’t until the end of the episode when she realized the only way for them to take down the monster was to work together as a team. This helped her open up to the girls by accepting their offer to help with the repairs. (Truth to be told, I am not entirely sure how helpful they will be, but let’s just imagine they are actually genius engineers!) See what I did there?

But we didn’t just see how Lala is used to working independently, her urgency to repair the ship as soon as possible highlighted how she recognizes the threat of the knotraiders more than the others do. And it’s understandable, given how she has witnessed planets fall, and is fighting so she could protect her own. Hikaru, (especially Elena and Madoka) don’t have a clear picture of just how bad the situation is. That’s why Lala panicked when Ryo commented how the stars seem to be losing their lustre lately.

Speaking of Elena and Madoka, I was a bit disappointed by their lack of involvement in this episode. Yes, this was Lala focused, but I didn’t like how during her fight/disagreement, the two both stood silently on the sidelines, as observers. On one hand, it is fair to say it makes sense for them not to step in, as they are the newest members of the group, but on the other, I wished we actually got to see them do something. Hopefully we will get to see them actually interact with one another (collectively) as a group sooner than later. (At the very least, I’m glad we are seeing that both Elena and Madoka have time to spend an entire day with the girls).

Next week, the girls will be helping with the repairs and it seems Elena will be covering the heavy duties! (Poor girl ahahaha!)

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
First things first... when it comes to Star Colour Pens: two down (both of them fixed signs); 10 to go! Also: We FINALLY know the canon name of the knotraiders' kitty butler! (So adiós, "Meowrius!") It's Bakenyan (from "obake", ghost, and "nyan", meow). Still, it's a meow pun just as foretold... and he has impeccable sang-froid --just thinking of him as James in a Dinner for One AU opposite Miss Ayewan, with catnip liquor served to wash down all the courses!--
The Knotraiders' HQ: this luminescent castle on a floating island in the darkness...

Ayewan steals the show: the little blond cyclopette just pushed away both Kappard and Tenjou (who did nothing but bicker à la Benedick and Beatrice, providing a good foundation for minionshipping) while saying that "THIS EPISODE IT'S MY TURN!" -- and, in spite of being this continuity's Cute and Psycho Perky Female Minion, she turns out to be a very talented tech inventor, the best one among the knotraiders (crossover interaction with Entrapta, anyone?) to the point of being qualified as a tensai ("genius" or "prodigy": for more info on that term, the "tensai" tag in this review leads to Ciel/Kirarin, who is also qualified as a tensai, and the explanation thereof); her star devices being the Dark Colour Pen (a Star Colour Pen that has been infused in darkness) and the Star Colour Pen Locator. Like most Cute and Psycho and/or Perky Female Minions, she has a pretty short fuse (as Elena got to know from first hand).
Return of the Heartless! - Finally the villains of the week in this continuity are made once more from people's negative emotions (SQUEEEEE!!!) by means of Ayewan's Dark Pen (because everything and everyone needs an evil counterpart these days)! This time, it was our Dumbledore-esque mentor Ryotaro who got the honour of becoming the first Victim of the Week in this continuity (so that Futaro guy was a red herring ghost chARACTER). And Lala/Milkyway found herself obliged to return the favour by doing the purifying (even though at first, without the Leo Colour Pen, she was a sitting duck for the enemy).
Could the Dark Pen be the one of Ophiuchus? We got to know from the inventor herself that it's a Star Colour Pen that has been infused in darkness. Of course in western-zodiac-themed stories, triskaidekaphobia is every bit as much afoot as dodekamania (just look at Romina Russell's trilogy, and the Star Darlings franchise!). Add that, in spite of Ophiuchus' symbol being a healing snake, like the ones in pharmacies, the connotations of the Serpent of Eden archetype (ie the depiction of Corrupters as reptilian; think Gerathon, Death Eaters, and so forth - including once more Ochus in Romina Russell's trilogy) are ingrained into our psyche in spite of centuries of secularisation. But NO -- it turned out to be the Leo Colour Pen, which Ayewan had drenched in darkness (great twist, Ayewan!). And Lala purified it as she claimed it. More on the Leo Colour Pen and Star Princess below!

Lala being trolled while repairing, or at least trying to fix, her wrecked starship - CAN'T YOU BLOODY SEE I'M WORKING ON SOMETHING LIFE-OR-DEATH IMPORTANT? Isn't that relatable in our everyday (and especially relevant for a castaway to fix their method of transportation)?
I mean, the others take her to the observatory to have her take a break and ease on the pressure. We all know from first hand that stress is not good, and its effect can make us underachieve. The scene where she wishes upon the shooting star and knows she can rely on her nakama is

Mihoshi Observatory also having a planetarium:

Ryotaro, may he be a mentor? I mean, he has the white full beard and the spectacles to prove it (looking like both Santa and senior!Dumbledore at once). His hobby being astronomy, he has noticed through his telescope at the observatory that the night sky appears to darken more and more for each and every night; even though he's using very outdated, presumably Victorian, analogue equipment (you don't even see a smartphone in the telescope room; as befits a senior scholar without much tech literacy). We even see him taking on Lala the same way Albus took on Harry, picking up on her distress and doling out advice like a pro. No surprise that our pointy-eared tealhead thrust herself into the breach to purify and save this wise old sage, right?
It turns out that Lala's homeworld of Hoshizora is in a star system light years away from our galaxy (and she is the guardian of the Milky Way; though ironically she knows little to nothing of her new adoptive galaxy).


The Leo Colour Pen and Star Princess: AOI BLOODY TATEGAMI, IS THAT FRICKING YOU??? (I mean, Aoi is cusp-born, so she has both Leo and Virgo features, and she can be quite pernickety and insecure, but the fire and radiance dominate). Did you really deserve to be uplifted and become the personification of your sign? When you sang "there's a million things awaiting me - but just you wait!" or "I will find another me!" we didn't think that that rise in identity would transcend topping the charts after disbanding Wild Azüre and going solo.



Leo form of Fuwa (Roarwa): awww... besides, looks just like Aoi's mascot, so we had at least a slight clue of what was in store...


Power-up given by the Leo Colour Pen: enhancing electric attacks to a badass degree of sky-blue, male-lion-themed raiju or lightning beasts (not ice boxing, but anyway the sheer badassery we expected!) MOVE AWAY AZULA!! PS. I wonder: if someone else than Cure Milkyway used it, would it grant that other warrior the same electric attacks?

So once more when it comes to Star Colour Pens: two down (both of them fixed signs); 10 to go.




PS. Our OTPs of last continuities are BACK...!!! In the opening theme of today, we got to see them getting up to shenanigans and boy, didn't they deliver!

Amour holding Ma Chérie in a bridal carry - like, OVER THE THRESHOLD style!

Amour and Ma Chérie attack, shoulder to shoulder

Saaya meets Akira

There is some silliness to be found with the three different teams meeting up. We get some Saaya x Akira kabedon – Akira did the same thing to Yui Nanase at Noble Academy in Dream Stars!, so perhaps Toei intend for it to be something of a running gag. And Yukari still doesn't give a hoot about her significant other's penchant for wall-pinning flirtation!

IN NEXT EPISODE (07)

Overall, a good episode for the girls first teamwork battle and as shown in the next preview, the girls were helping out in getting Lala's ship fixed! Until then, see you in the next post!

Tenjou takes over from Ayewan's surreptitious intrusion as Lala tries to fix her starship for good and make it spaceworthy with a little help from her friends; Elena getting her hands dirty when it comes to hard repair (since this will be an Elena focus episode, la reseña tendrá partes de nuevo en castellano)...