Episode 9 was one of those episode where I litterally have nothing to say. My mind was blank. It was pretty much about sing songs on the mountain and a little girl Emiru who is all about SAFETY FIRST and has a heart of a hero!!!! That’s it. That’s the episode. There wasn’t a thing about it to progress a plot, pure filler episode- why? I don’t know, but it was utterly pointless in my eyes. So with that, with just skip it altogether and jump into Episode 10, where things get spicy! (And now I’m hungry, darn food festival!)

Episode 10: THIS EPISODE WAS AWESOME! I wasn’t sure if they were going to make Hana regain her powers this episode, but I love that she didn‘t and it came with a huge price: Hugtan over-exerting herself and is now in poor condition. Harry’s frantic response made me wonder if she were to use all of her powers, she will either erase her own existence (die) or be stuck in a coma for god knows how long.

Hana’s conflict this episode was something that has been in a making since Episode 8: Henry had planted the seeds of doubts. Today the girls out to work at the Food Festival, Homare and Saaya were blessed with adorable maid outfits, while the Mirai Pad gave Hana (in her eyes) a not so cute outfit. The reason for that was because Hana simply had a different role to play, and a challenge she needed to face in order to further grow as an individual and as a precure.

Unfortunately Hana failed to realize this, and her day did not get any better. Whenever she tried to be helpful at the Takoyaki stall, the owner would tell her to shut up. Eventually, after getting the chance to taste the food, she was able to successfully create her own unique way of grabbing attention to the stall that has always been unpopular. However, Hana had interpreted the people’s positive response negatively, thinking they were laughing at her for being silly. I felt so bad for her, because we all been there before, making her experience extremely relatable. And these things are prone to happening when your confidence level is at an all time low. For the duration of the episode, Hana was constantly comparing herself to Saaya and Homare, both who were seemingly completing the task at ease. It is a mistake we all make, a die-hard habit that is difficult to break. It is why is it so important to learn and remember we all have respective strengths and weaknesses, and figure that out through various trial and error.

With Hana unable to transform, there was a part of me that was disappointed that neither Homare or Saaya were capable of purifying the monster themselves. I hope their new upgrade (Melody Sword) they will be obtaining in next week’s episode will change that.

And lastly: This is totally irrelevant… but oh my god, I am shipping Hana x Hinase! I know he’s just a music student and a fellow classmate, and certainly does not stand out, and he is probably going to forever be a background/minor character- but oh my god: I just SWOONED. He gave her some great advice: She has her own uniqueness that lets her shine. It is just like the band and how they harmonize each of their own sounds and make beautiful music out of it. What if Hana put her heart into making her own sound that only she can make? (Not to mention, it seems he pays a lot of attention to her, greeting her first and so on… heehee…. I’m reading into this way too much! Haha!)


Extra Note: It is kind of funny how just the week before Episode 9, I was discussing with some of you how double-posts might be the best way to buy time until the series starts picking up itself. Last week’s episode was a perfect example of the times when I am at loss for words and can’t think of anything positive to contribute to the conversation in regards to the episode. My writing style is heavily reliant on Plot and Character Development, as my favourite thing to do is to dissect them in attempt to get a better understanding or idea of the story and characters themselves.

Since I am not willing to give up on this series just yet, and I understand you guys really want me to cover this, from this point on (*exclusively for Hugtto Precure): There may be weeks when an episode like Episode 9 (filler) will be postponed, and release it as a double-post in the following week. When that happens, I will drop an alert on our Twitter, Tumblr (if you aren’t following either one yet, be sure to follow!!!) and in the latest’s episode comment section!

Eva

Blogging Anime since Summer 2009, & Founder of AngryAnimeBitches Anime Blog ...I may or may not be addicted to writing

This Post Has 13 Comments

  1. V.

    That’s an excellent idea- it’ll save you time and stress when you have your hands full (since at this time you are covering the max. Number of shows).
    At this point though, Hugtto! has yet to meet the bar raised by go princess so I’m basically just zooming to important plots and not watching the entire 24 minutes.

    1. Eva

      LOL, I told myself to pick up one new show MAX, but I went super overboard this season because I was all fired up! 😂 Luckily they aren’t all overlapping each other too much, and I managed to figure out my schedule to make sure I have time to do them all. (Nil Admirari no Tenbin is up in the air though)
      I agree, this is pretty much the problem I’m having with it. Huggto really doesn’t have a lot going on right now, but hopefully things will finally kick into gear next week now that Hugchan just pushed herself again.

      1. elior1

        I fine with non plot episodes as long as they enjoyable and give the 3 of them character development like episode 10

  2. littleshogun

    As for your plan to review 2 episodes whenever there’s no plot going, I would say that it’s a good idea because it could help you to write more. Therefore, I agree with your decision here.
    For episode 10, poor Hana indeed. Also yeah it may the time for Hana to figure out what her dream are, hopefully with the good result in the future – also with Hana managed to get her new Mirai Crystal at the next week. Hugtan, well seeing that we have some speculation that she is a Cure from the bleak future that was destroyed by Criasu, I wonder if Criasu will realize that Hugtan might be the one with White Mirai Crystal. Gonna look forward to the development, even though I have some question for now.
    Episode 9, well actually it’s not the filler as you think because…., I’ll leave the surprise for you in upcoming episodes later – it’s better if you didn’t know the spoiler for now. I agree though that if you didn’t interested with Emiru dislike her, then episode 9 is just pure filler episode.
    For the last words here, good review.
    PS – By the way, the link at Live Journal was linking it to episode 8 review. So if possible please fix it later.

    1. Eva

      Is Emiru supposed to be from another Precure series? I heard rumours that there might be a multi-universe precure thing going on, similarly to what YGO ARC-V did. Don’t share all the details, but I would like to at least know which one she is supposed to be from (if I didn’t watch the series, that would explain why I don’t remember her), for future reference.
      Thanks for letting me know about the broken link, I’ll fix it now. (Weird… how that happened…O-o)

      1. Wilfredo Sifr Starduster

        Emiru was kind of a unique case as her appearance reminded me of… Shirabe Ako (Suite Precure) & Madoka Aguri (Doki Doki Precure) where both were Cures as preschoolers. And I’m with you, episode 9 was nothing but Hana being a control freak, so what happened during episode 10 was incredibly satisfying. (Don’t care about people questioning me, I HATE characters like Hana who couldn’t STFU once in a while.) Also I facepalmed that Toei had shown signs of desperation already by playing the “can’t transform” card so early because back in Go Princess Precure it took almost 40 episodes for Haruka’s holding onto her dream to be psychologically crushed by a then amnesiac Kanata and that’s why we felt really sad for her.
        That also brings into the fact that I’ve always viewed lead Cures in a negative light just because other members of a Precure team are usually more interesting than the main lead. Exceptions might be Hibiki, Haruka & Ichika* (this rabbit girl, in particular, is my favorite), but Miyuki was over-the-top dorky with her never-ending friendship speeches which ruined the season finale; Mana was basically Yusei on steroids where she handled all hurdles with 100% perfection and nothing bad ever happened to her except for her grandmother’s parting gift (a wedding gown) before dying of old age and her temporary separation from her girlfriend Regina; Megumi never had a proper motive & direction in her life so she had a role in the awkwardly forced “love triangle” between herself, Seiji & Blue to make her even more unlikable; don’t even get me started with Mirai who’s the most cardboard out of all lead Cures.

      2. Wanderer

        Rather than that, I suspect Emiru belongs quite distinctly in this series. In a “you couldn’t have this series without her” sense.
        Of course, I could be wrong. I don’t actually know what littleshogun is hinting at.

  3. J. T.

    Episode 10 really makes you want to just give Hana a big hug after seeing what she goes through, poor girl.
    Though I have to admit, looking back at the other episodes beforehand, I could easily argue that her issues were foreshadowed much earlier than that, even during Saaya’s and Homare’s introductory arcs and with just how she was quick to either downplay or gloss over what both girls liked about her. It’s an interesting contrast to the “new self” seen in previous Precure cours.
    I immediately think of Tsubomi ( Heartcatch ) and her desire to become more outgoing, and Haruka’s princess dreams ( Go! Princess ); in both cases, these are presented as a good thing since Tsubomi is able to overcome her shyness and self-doubt, and Haruka also achieves the grace and dignity that’s so integral to the “princess” ideal she’s striving towards.
    Here, though, it feels like Hana’s focus on becoming more reliable and mature, while not necessarily a bad thing, comes at the risk of her rejecting what draws people to her in the first place. Her genuine and earnest demeanor, her energy and her compassion – something that was definitely pointed out by both Saaya and Homare themselves; Hinose, as you mentioned; and even what Harry was trying to get across to her before Hana shot him down in her despair and sadness. And the interesting thing is, even if Episode 9 was filler, Hana’s interactions with Emiru showed that she could easily achieve that ideal she wants without losing herself in the process.
    IDK, it just might be me looking into things a bit too deeply, but with your discussion on the character development I felt like I needed to raise these points just to see if they make sense.

    1. Eva

      Well said! And this is probably going to be Hana’s challenge: Learning how to recognize and accept her unique characteristics, and learn how they can become her strength. 🙂
      You’re also right about this conflict foreshadowed much earlier on. I would say it was more subtle compared to Episode 8, where we saw how much of an impact it had on her confidence level.

  4. curehibiki

    So I have not seen episode 10 yet but from what I have read, I have been in the same exact shoes as Hana. I used to and kind of still do, compared myself to a good friend of mine. Lately, I have managed to shrug the jealousy off but it still lurks around. So I lowkey hope Hana still keeps the jealousy but learns to get over it – slowly. If she is over it by episode 11, I will be pretty much salty. Now I can’t comment on anything else as I have not seen the episode, but I am looking forward to it!
    One thing I have noticed though is that fans are complaining that Hugtto has gotten dark way too fast, or shouldn’t be this dark. One thing that confuses me is that a lot of people love Heartcatch, which is correct me if I have been living under a rock, was pretty dark for a Pretty Cure season. So it confuses me as to why people are complaining about Hugtto being too dark when Heartcatch exist as a fan favourite.
    Now episode 9, was eh. I liked it, it was entertaining but it just felt meh, it left a sour taste in my mouth. It just seemed so poorly done, even for a filler, it just seemed oddly written. Oh well, every season as an episode like this that makes me want to forget about it – the only good thing about it was probably Emiru…

    1. Eva

      ; ____ ; Yeah I can relate to her so much, I too still compare myself to others when I know I shouldn’t. It’s hard to remember we each have our own unique role, and we won’t necessarily take the common path or it won’t be easy as it may be for others.
      I agree, I don’t think it gotten too dark too fast at all. I would hope they take her take with her character development, as this trial Hana is currently facing is only the beginning of her journey to self-discovery. There is still lots more for her to learn, and this kind of inner conflict of self-doubt and comparisons to others is that not easy to overcome, especially when it has become a bad habit.
      Episode 9 yeah. I was so bored, I didn’t care for the episode at all, and having not seen Emiru, she certainly did not strike me as important. And now that I think of it, considering she is supposed to have a role later on: They really should have executed Episode 9 better, not make it feel like the classic filler episodes we’re so used to.

      1. J.T.

        I couldn’t help but butt in upon seeing this comment thread with a thing that might be relevant to the discussion?
        One of the things that I hope they cover in this cour, now that I’ve had time to digest the episode, is related to POV. We can see how Hana’s inferiority complex towards Saaya and Homare developed, especially with how she drove herself into despair by constantly comparing herself to them.
        But what about Saaya’s and Homare’s own POVs? With Saaya we get a sense of the immense pressure she faces by being constantly compared to her mother and wanting to forge her own path, whereas with Homare her own painful experiences related to her skating accident and the resultant PTSD were also briefly covered. We know of those, and yet we’re limited to Hana’s POV of those… we don’t get to see how they themselves feel about it since we don’t get to see their thoughts as much as we see Hana’s own thoughts and comments towards them.
        So something I hope happens in this cour is Hana’s own “images” of her “perfect” friends being shattered by seeing that they have their own problems and issues that cause them as much problems as Hana’s own issue of comparing herself to others, if that makes sense. IDK, I’m not good with articulating things…

        1. Eva

          I think we will see Homare’s and Saaya’s POV in due time, but since they story is presently focusing on Hana first, it’s natural for us to see her POV at this period, (since we know: in reality, ofc, they too go through struggles, (as you said) ie: Saaya’s lack of confidence in herself due to being overshadowed by her mother)).
          But right now right now, Hana is too caught up in her own head to notice any potential blunders/weakness on Saaya’s and Homare’s part. Little things like how Saaya prepared for the job in advance by doing extensive research, while it is something she enjoys doing, it is also helping her do the job well, and having the confidence to do so. Homare on the otherhand, is harder to read.

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