I am quite surprised how quickly the episode flew by. When we reached the half point of the episode, I had to double-check to see how far along we actually were since I couldn’t believe we had already gotten to that point. This week Homare finally became Cure Etoile, but not without being challenged by the enemy, using her seeds of doubt to create a monster in attempt to rob the girls of their Mirai Crystals. In the beginning, Charaleet did succeed because he did manage to create a monster out of Homare’s despair, but in the end, but Hugtan ended up actually playing a big role, her cries were able to reach Homare and encourage her to face her fear, and take that leap of faith to fly once more.
I must say, Cure Etoile’s attack sequence is lit. I absolutely love the effects, and it reminds me a lot of the classic magical girls transformation sequences. In fact, I have noticed this in the last few episodes, but once I decided to double-check the works the Director, Junichi Sato has done, I finally understood why I absolutely love the artistic direction this series has taken. I see a lot of resemblance and features from some of my all-time classic favourite titles, such as Kaleido Star, Sailor Moon and Fushigiboshi no Futagohime. In fact, it finally provides me an explanation on why I have been experiencing this craving to watch or rewatch some of these classic titles. (Ironically, when I was a highschool student: the during the March Break, a tradition of mine for many years was to watch or catch-up on some classic series, many of the series and I watched many of the series Junichi Sato directed, during this period.)
It is nice to see Homare finally “soften up” (so to speak) to the girls and the three of them can finally begin their friendship as Hana kicks things off with calling each other by their first name. The trio each have their own unique perks, so it makes the way they interact all the more adorable. I was pleased to see that Saaya took the initiative today, such as leading Hana out to chase after Homare when she left the shop, and when she jumped into the fight. She’s a quiet girl, but she got a lot of fire in her! I look forward to seeing her character develop over the course of the series!
The enemies finally showed their faces, and I must say their designs are quite fun. With Charaleet failing to make any grounds, he is in big trouble now, so it’s time for a new villain to step up to the plate. Surprisingly it’s not Lulu who is up next, but another woman instead. I wonder what kind of character she will be, and the sorts of fights we will in the upcoming episodes. I imagine the pace of the series is going to enter it’s insanely slow phase where not much happens during this period of time since Homare has officially joined the team. It’s still early on, but hopefully it won’t be too stagnant because that’s when it becomes challenging for me to covert these type of shows.
Next week, the girls are going out on a “date” to celebrate their friendship! And what better first date than to get a job, am I right?! Well this should be a funny one considering the trouble I imagine Hugtan will be getting herself into!
It’s seven episodes into Hugtto Precure so I’ll just say this: Homare might be a superb character whose struggles can be easily related to anyone else or even her senpais Riko (who’s an OK one in Mahou Tsukai just because there weren’t many outstanding characters back in that trainwreck of a show bar her hot sister Liz) & Ichika (probably the most amazing Precure protagonist since Haruka), but all three Cure designs are certainly not my cup of tea; yeah, not even Etoile’s Cure form impress me because it appears she’s looking TOO close as an adult, which is a pity considering Kirara (as Cure Twinkle) had a superior fashion sense than her (which makes sense given that she’s a model).