My Own Review
AN ABUNDANCE OF MASCULINITIES
Uchifuji-sensei begs Mr. Nono to train him to be a father
This episode begins with a panicked Uchifuji-sensei taking a trip to Hugman, where he is looking for disposable nappies. Needless to say, he is very nervous about becoming a father (Mrs. Uchifuji is nine months expecting).
When he realises that Shintaro Nono is Hana’s and Kotori's father, he pretty much begs to be taught about parenting.
P-l-e-e-ease, Mr. Nono!! I have not a clue, and my wife is about to...
Mr. Uchufuji was behaving strange at the Hugman store as such Hana's and Kotori's father Shintaro approached him and learned that he is worried of taking care of the firstborn his wife is expecting. But after seeing Shintaro giving tips to a young couple and their baby, Uchuifuji-sensei begged him to train him in the art of parenting.
Of course, Shintarou offered him a day to work as a clerk while Hana, Saaya, and Homare went to their homeroom teacher's home and helped to do the chores for his wife, Yuka.
Shintaro has Uchifuji-sensei work at Hugman for his training – and they are joined by Charalit
Shintaro puts Uchifuji-sensei through his paces by putting him to work as a clerk at Hugman. Charalit also happens to show up, and he ends up helping out as well.
Actually, he was just passing by the storage while vlogging - Shintaro practically press-ganged our poor dark-skinned blond into the clerk's uniform!
Harry gets a bit distracted from buying lunch
Harry ends up joining them as well, mostly because he wants to outdo Charalit. They manage to work pretty well together, despite their animosity towards each other.
When Uchifuji-sensei is asked to hold Hugtan, things don’t really go too well.
HUG-TAN: waaaaaa waaa waaaa
MR. UCHIFUJI: Gasp!
That reaction!
CHARALIT: I don't give a hoot. And you are the future papa, so do something.
After Harry and Charalit got into a little squabble, Mr. Uchufuji tried to carry Hug-tan but she cried in his arms however Charalit carried her with ease. Shintaro explained that babies could sense uncomfortableness if carried wrongly. But when Uchufuji-sensei protected Hug-tan from some boxes, she smiled for him.
Even Harry got to don a clerk's uniform... this makes up for four guys of various ages and personalities as supermarket clerks - This should become a spinoff sitcom, right?
Shintarou then told the young teacher that today's work is to prepare him for his fatherhood which he understands now.
Whilst that is happening at Hugman, Hana, Saaya, and Homare volunteered to go and help Yuka Uchifuji at her home.
Yuka goes into labour
Suddenly, Yuka goes into labour. Saaya accompanies her to the hospital, whilst Homare calls her husband to let him know.
It was then Yuka Uchufuji felt she is about to give birth and Saya accompanied her to the hospital with her husband meeting them there.
Saaya felt a mother’s strength
Eventually everyone arrives at the hospital, where they meet the midwife that will be delivering the baby. On the way there, Saaya was holding Yuka’s hand, and from that she felt the strength of a mother. It seems to have had quite a profound effect on her.
Feels good to see Emilu again
There is a nervous wait as a team of midwives do their duties in order to help bring a new life into the world. Hana and Homare sit with Saaya, whilst Lulu and Emiru sit together. The others, including Mr. Uchifuji, Harry, and Charalit, just kind of stand around – everybody is waiting.
Hold tight, Yuka!!
During the delivery of the baby, Saaya was holding onto Yuka's hand all these while until Mr. Uchufuji took over. She could sense how much pain Yuka is going through and when the baby, a healthy boy, was safely delivered, Saaya was touched in tears of the arrival of a new life.
It is good news
After waiting for what must have felt like a long time (ages!), there is some news – and good news at that. Yuka gave birth to a healthy baby boy, and there is much rejoicing.
Saaya even asked the gynecologist if is it a tough job delivering babies, and she replied it might be tough but it is the best job ever. (Maybe Saaya might decided to become a doctor, moreover a gynecologist, after this incident)
Uchifuji family
The episode is almost done at this point, and we haven’t had our monster of the week yet.
Naturally, that’s the cue for an enemy to appear – this time it is Doctor Trauma.
The negative emotion of the week (and the reason for the traffic cone theme): a female courier (if the focus is on the guys today, the victim has to be female!) is upset of how many parking lots are there, and she has no clue how.
the others confront Doctor Trauma and his wild theender, transforming into PreCures as usual.
Cure Ange wants everyone to be quiet
Both PreCures and their foes are making quite a lot of noise, and Cure Ange really does not take too kindly to that. She tells everyone to be quiet (SHUT UPP!!), and they are – even Doctor Trauma and his wild theender.
The battle with Dr Trauma was kinda of silly since Cure Ange keeps reminding everyone including the villains to be quiet outside the maternity ward where the babies are sleeping. As such everyone couldn't perform sudden movements although I wonder Cure Ma Chérie and Cure Amour's Twin Love Rock Beat is already making so much noise with their guitar music and firing, wouldn't that have disturb all the babies?
They try to fight as quietly as possible, at least until it is time for the final blow.
Probably not the quietest of attacks
PreCures claim victory, but at the price of disturbing all the sleeping babies. Doctor Trauma returns to Criasu after the defeat of the wild theender, where Gelos calls him out on being quiet when the enemy told him to.
When Dr Trauma retreated back to headquarters, Gelos asked why he was not taking seriously in the battle, he replied he knows what is like to be a father. He then held a photo of himself and Lulu together...
He may have no idea of conventional parenting, but he created artificial life - making him a truly single parent like Geppetto or Baron von Frankenstein...
Doctor Trauma considers himself Lulu’s father
Lulu Trauma. The Doc is her maker - a truly single parent, and pretty detached at that.
This reveal was like a WHAM to me. Like a gunshot right between the eyes.
That pretty much brings this episode to an end, and it sure is nice having Hugtto! back after its break. There wasn’t exactly much focus on the main cast in this episode, what with it focusing more on the Uchifujis.
This episode was all right, I guess. It doesn’t really stand above some of the episodes that have come before, but it wasn’t a bad one, either. For me, the most interesting thing to come from this episode was Doctor Trauma calling himself Lulu’s father – presumably this will lead into something in the future.
MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION
The magical girl warrior genre, being girl-power-themed, has a cast with an unsurprisingly larger female-to-male ratio. Males are few and far between (fathers, brothers, cadres, love interests...). So it has surprised me that this episode of Hugtto! may be the first canonical excerpt within a franchise and a genre where the male minority takes centre stage. It is a Guys' Day Out episode, a total rarity for the franchise. Not only that, but it shows that there is a diverse array of ways to be a man (or a boy) - as many as there are models of femininity among the female cast. To be more precise, a spotlight is more or less shed on the following:MR. NONO: The veteran family father
Shintaro Nono is a bear of a fifty-something, married for decades, with two children.
MR. UCHIFUJI - The newlywed and novice to parenting
As foil to Mr. Nono, we have the newlywed, thirtyish Uchifuji-sensei.
HARRY HARRYHAM - The sensitive guy of the new millennium
lorem ipsum
CHARALIT - The celebrity and bad boy of the new millennium
lorem ipsum
DR. TRAUMA - The scholar and the truly single parent of an artificial child
lorem ipsum
THE NEWBORN UCHIFUJI BOY - The blank slate of infancy
When a child is born, it is always sexed but nearly never formally named.
Charry (Tensions between Charalit and Harry: possible shipping?): I ship Homarry, not Charry - and there are reasons why! --Homarry--
-Harry is more suited to be straight
-and so is Charalit
Lulu Amour-Trauma (or, a reveal that qualifies as one about parentage): This reveal was like a WHAM to me. Like a gunshot right between the eyes.
The negative emotion of the week: a female courier (if the focus is on the guys today, the victim has to be female!) is upset of how many parking lots are there, and she has no clue how.
This episode might be a bit deep for children but for older viewers or even parents who are watching with their kids will understand how Uchufujis are going through for their firstborn child. Mr. Uchufuji has the signs of anxiety as he is worried if he can be a good father which is why he looked up at Shintaro on his childcare skills.
But to be honest, everyone has different experiences with parenting/childcare and it will take a lot of patience, care, and love to raise a child. So Ganbare! Uchufuji-Sensei!
Other than a battle which is bit out of the ordinary, the twist at the end was Dr Trauma is Lulu's creator! Although why Lulu did not recognize him the first time she meet him is a question? Maybe Dr Trauma hold a dark secret about Lulu which she doesn't even know. -- All parents have secrets they keep from their children, at the end of the day!
Good grief, it looks like we have officially reached the stage of ‘filler’ episodes. Ugh, I really hope this doesn’t last too long… I just want our main trio to interact with each other properly, and add more depth to both Homare’s and Saaya’s character as much as they can before it is too late!
Because I don’t really care for this kind of theme, it was no surprise that the episode didn’t resonate with me. But I will say I was really taken aback by how much detail they went into the whole process of showing the mother in labour and all that stuff. The problem is, I didn’t find Uchifuji-sensei funny at all. While I understood why he was freaking out and was so overwhelmed with worry of whether or not he will be a good father, I just couldn’t find it in me to care about his dilemma. Charalit being there didn’t really add much to it except for the fact because he dances (what????), he has this natural posture that comforts babies or something, I don’t know- I thought it was super weird. Then he and Harry had a face off of who was more handsome and all that stuff, because the ladies were gushing about how Harry was a young handsome father. Yeah…. it didn’t do it for me.
And so that’s why I felt like this episode was a waste of time. It didn’t add anything to the plot, except for one, and maybe two details (if they actually decide to follow up on it). The first one was revealing how Dr. Trauma is Lulu’s father (or maker, since she’s an artificial humanoid and all), therefore makes her his ‘daughter’ so to speak. Truth to be told, I am more surprised he even cares about her than being connected to her… because what the heck? This isn’t the first time he has faced her, and now we are supposed to believe he has gushy feelings about complying to his ‘daughter’s friends’ fight conditions?! Come on! Frankly, I am disappointed it had to be revealed this way.
The second was the potential indication of Saaya’s dream changing. There was this sparkle in her eyes of inspiration, where it dawned to her how she might be interested in working in this medical field. I think this is an opportunity to flesh out her character (but frankly, I am not holding my breath for it). There was definitely a sparkle in Saaya’s eyes that we haven’t seen from her when she talks about her dreams of following her mother’s footsteps. On top of that, I would like to see this happen because Hana is the only one who hasn’t figured out what she wants to do yet, but having someone like Saaya’s dream change, we could potentially see a change in priorities (possibly less auditions, and spend more time researching this field) and reinforce it’s normal for dreams to change.
Next week, it’s a ‘love’ theme (as in eros/koi) apparently… Since Bishin will be back in the picture, I hope they won’t be watered down as Dr. Trauma and Gelos has been. Let the enemies do their thing okay? They are supposed to be stronger than the earlier bunch! That being said, I’m not expecting much out of this one, but I would be happy if they were to prove me wrong!
