Okay so as there was so cool stuff that happened this episode, but at the same time, it left me with a lot of mixed feelings.
Last week: The problem that was preventing Hana from taking form as a precure was because she was being plagued by her own self-doubts and constantly comparing herself to her friends, who each other their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Thinking she is utterly useless, and can’t do anything right.
This week: Hana decides she wants to quit being a precure because she failed Hugtan. She feels she doesn’t deserve to be a precure anymore because she has nothing because she isn’t like Saaya and Homare, and can’t protect Hugtan—-which makes no freaking sense, because she is making it sound like she has never been able to transform in the first place!
So the underlining theme of Hana being unable to do anything, including turning to a precure continues, but this is where things changes. For starters, the next day Saaya tells Hana about her strengths she is too blind to see. The side of her that is a hard-worker, upfront and someone who can raise your spirits. She tells her she admires so many sides of her, and scolds her for thinking she has nothing. This of course makes Hana feel a lot better.
We then see the girls go to Hugtan’s favourite place where the band is playing music, and they hug her closely so she can feel their heartbeats, and she wakes up, making everyone is happy, especially Hana! Shortly after that, enemy strikes and Hana goes out to fight, and she is able to transform, no problem. She doubted herself for a split second, but Saaya and Homare believed in her, and thus she was able to transform!
I am sorry, but if that isn’t a flipping free-pass, I don’t know what is. In the end, to be able to transform again, Hana never had to face the problem that prevented her from transforming in the first place. Saaya’s words of encouragement was merely putting a bandaid on the wound, enabling her to become a precure once again, believing she could do anything!
And having regained her ability to become Cure Yell once more, Hana’s confidence soars, and awakens her new power. Hana didn’t simply get some new “mirai crystal”, oh no, she got some even greater out of it, a freaking sword!
As badass as that looks, unfortunately being the heroine who slays the evil monster was not the precure she wanted to be… which is funny considering how the mirai crystal got her ideals wrong. When she saw Charaleet’s true form, she saw his vulnerable and terrified true self within the ugliness of the beast. She recognized he needed to be saved, and so she cast away the sword, declaring the precure she wants to be is someone who fights to protect the smiles and happiness of others.
Ironically, Charaleet’s suffering more or less mirrored Hana’s insecurities, but on a far greater scale. Which is fine, especially since it made her acknowledge her own insecurities, and realize she isn’t the only one who is experiencing such turmoil. But what frustrated me the most, was how they allowed Hana to transform before she realized what she wanted to accomplish, how she wanted to save others, and acknowledged her problem. It would have left a far more greater impact, but would have been even more beautiful to watch had they made it so when she realized it, it would enable her to draw out her power once more. The main reason why I feel this way is because the question the episode revolves around: “Is this the Nono Hana you want to be?”
Yes, Hana and Cure Yell are one and the same, but Hana’s personal insecurities had absolutely nothing to do with her capabilities as a Precure (aside from being unable to protect Hugtan and transform). In fact, what caused the problem was not what she was doing as Cure Yell, but as the ordinary girl, Nono Hana. Until last week, Cure Yell had no problem getting the job done, but everything changed Hana wasn’t able to transform into her because of her self-doubts.
Also, what ever happened to Charaleet? Did he turn into a freaking tree?! I am so lost right now.
But poor guy, my god– I take back everything I said about Pupple being a lousy villain, when she brings her A-Game, she is freaking scary. She was the one who proposed to used Charaleet, who was imprisoned in darkness, and was in absolute distress, and turn him into that thing. Now THAT escalated quickly.
The Book Dude made a reappearance today, sharing how the “perhaps the story can feel your destiny” and shares the tale, “To save a world whose tomorrow was slipping away… The sword who chose the maiden who bore nothing.”
The maiden who bore nothing is obviously most likely Hana, in who has no particular strengths that gives her an “unique” edge, but continues to fight on with the courage in her heart to overcome the struggle, as she puts herself in harms way for others. We see today how she is able to continue to fight because she wants to protect everyone’s happiness. But instead of wielding the sword as the heroine in the tale would, Hana was forgiving and gentle, saving the ones that needed to be saved the most. Does that mean she is changing the tale? Or is the story in this world different from the one in the book? Regardless, he seems to appear whenever Hana’s is undergoing some sort of “character development”. It is funny how he deliberately lets her bump into the book as well. I wonder if he actually does that on purpose or something. He could have easily took a step back instead of letting her crash into him. He is a mysterious guy indeed… What’s his role? I can’t help but wonder if he is the author of the tale?
So with Hugtan having woke up and in better health, she started calling Hana “mama”. Of course I can’t help but freak out since I am now wondering if Hana is actually Hugtan’s mom…. I mean they are clearly from another world, but are they also from the future? Or is Hugtan going to start calling all of the girls “mama”? We will have to wait and find out, but it’s definitely weird to see that happening… It’s not like she calls Harry “Papa”, and he has been taking care of her longer than Hana has…
Overall, the episode was okay, but I definitely feel like it could have been executed better. The animation on the other hand was absolutely stellar, the fight was a blast to watch, and not to mention gorgeous! I don’t know what will become of Charaleet (especially if he just became a tree…) because I am kind of hoping this won’t be the last we see of them? It would be a bit sad considering he barely appeared, and the last time we see him, is when he gets tortured and finally cleansed.
Last thing: Can we walk about the new power upgrade for a moment? So the sword changed form into a a wand instead… and Homare and Saaya each get one too…. but instead of it just being a wand, but then they went along with making it a bloody instrument! And I’m like, what? They could have a least they have at least given each one their own unique form! For goodness sakes, Hana’s baton and and Homare’s flute can get away with its form, but if Saaya going to play a freaking harp, give her a mini harp for crying out loud! It not only looks ridiculous, but a lazy design! Honestly I’m surprised they didn’t just create three unique forms for each of the girls, it could’ve turned into a cash-cow for kids who’d want to collect all three. I know they sell this stuff!!!
I’m losing interest. End of the story.
I totally agree with you here and on top of that, what happened today doesn’t sound very realistic and resonate with me.
I’ll probably come back and watch for major developments like team changes and back stories but for now, I’m dropping this.
Wooow…I’m shocked that…you didn’t like this episode. I personally loved it as I related so damn much with Hana. I was having a bad day (and still am) and seeing Hana break down before her mother made me break down. I relate to her struggles and I am still struggling to find myself in this world… having left high school 2 years ago has turned me into a train wreck as I feel like I just can’t do anything.
I dunno, in my opinion, I thought the episode was amazing but what can I do? Can’t make you or anyone else enjoy it as much as I did XD
Hahahahaha I didn’t hate it, but I definitely feel like Hana regaining her power could have been executed better, and that was really the main disappointment of the episode for me.
The scene with Hana and her mother was a precious one, although I neglected to mention it, it was one of my favourite scenes. We don’t always get to see the parents in the series interact with the girls like this.
I agree however, Hana is extremely relatable. Too many of us are struggling to find our place in the world, myself included. 🙁
HUGS I know that feeling, and that’s when I dropped out of college, because I didn’t feel like I was making any progress. Despite my efforts, grades weren’t up to par and I felt like I was wasting time and money, especially when I felt so lost. So during that time when I was left with nothing, blogging here made a huge difference in my life. Seriously, I don’t know what would have become of me had I not been doing this. It allowed me to learn a lot about myself, my strengths and my weaknesses, as well obtain some hefty new skills, and confidence in things I previously thought I could not do.
But even so, I still struggle. there times when I allow myself to be haunted by the fact that I don’t have the education and fancy degrees like the rest of my family does, I am constantly comparing myself to their accomplishments, the progess they have already made in life— which is like comparing apple and oranges. At the end of the day, we are different people, with different strengths and weaknesses, and we each have our own paths to take.
When we are in beating ourselves up over things like this, we need to take our minds off of it by finding something that we enjoying doing. Put all our blood sweat and tears into it, and perhaps we will discover something about ourselves.
; v ; I hope you will be able to discover your hidden skills too! FIGHTING!!!!!
Having just finished watching the episode myself, I feel like I must respectfully disagree on at least two points…
You mention that Hana
“feels she doesn’t deserve to be a Precure anymore because she has nothing… which makes no freaking sense, because she is making it sound like she has never been able to transform in the first place!”
However, I must point out – the beating her self-confidence took in the previous episode plus her guilt about Hugtan would not have left Hana in the best frame of mind to remember that. It’s been shown in the first two episodes that Hana transformed in the first place because she wanted to protect Hugtan, so to me, Hana’s reaction reads less like “she was never able to transform” and more “what’s the point of her being a Precure if she can’t even do that”. Who hasn’t been there berating yourself for being a useless clod for messing up, even if you’ve been successful previously? When you’re suffering that much of a self-confidence crash, you don’t really immediately bounce back from that until you’ve had some time to at least calm down and reflect, so it made perfect sense for me that she reacted that way.
Another point of contention is this:
“I am sorry, but if that isn’t a flipping free-pass, I don’t know what is. In the end, to be able to transform again, Hana never had to face the problem that prevented her from transforming in the first place.”
I might point out – Hana had a chance to talk to her mother first before she talked to Saaya and Homare, so it’s not like she hasn’t had time to at least think about her mother’s words for her: “If you can face forward and keep pushing, I think there’s a bright future waiting for you.” In that respect, and in line with her own reactions to Hinose in the previous episode ( which got a beautiful callback in this episode at the Nobinobi Tower and his performance ), they come off to me more like she doesn’t know what the future could hold for her, but she has to trust that it will go well for her – reflected in how she has to psych herself up before she ends up talking to Saaya and Homare again. And Hana’s own response to watching Hinose’s concert and being reminded of his advice?
“Can you hear it, Hugtan? I wonder what my heartbeat feels like… to hear it… is it the kind of sound that could make you all better?”
To me, that’s when it seemed like it finally clicked for Hana what everyone was trying to tell her in the previous episode, that she has her own talents and traits that make her, well… her.
I don’t know. It might just be how I saw things, but I do feel that your summary of Hana’s issues was too simplistic and didn’t account for what I mentioned. Then again, I also admit that I also watched HappinessCharge and the mess that entire season became, so if I did miss any legitimate issues with the episode then I’ll own up to missing that.
Speaking of! I do agree that they could have executed Hana’s transformation back into Cure Yell in the same episode better by having her reflect on what she wants to do, both as Hana and as Cure Yell, before she transformed back; see Go! Princess Precure and Haruka’s own take on this in episodes 38-39 for a nicely done take on this same issue. Though I will admit my criticism of that is lightened by the spectacular fight scene, Papple’s unexpected yet twistedly awesome plan involving Charalit, and my agreement RE: the power upgrades. You could have them be different toys and make more money that way, Toei! I mean, we all know that Precure’s a glorified toy commercial at this point but come on, have SOME sense.
On an unrelated note, I’m more curious about the fact that Harry mentioned that he and Hugtan have been through this before… it makes me wonder what happened previously and if it’s related to why Hugtan’s a baby at all. Also what is up with friggin’ Gilbert Nightray ( yeah, that’s what I’m calling the mystery guy since he looks like Gil from Pandora Hearts ) showing up this time around? That’s something I want to know, as well…
Apologies for the long comment, but I do enjoy bouncing off my thoughts on the series with you because you bring up a lot of good points and valid criticisms that I like discussing when I have the chance to, so I hope that I’ll be able to discuss this more with you should you decide to continue blogging your thoughts on the series. 🙂 !!!
👌 All is well! I always welcome these discussions, it allows us to see different angles on things, especially in regards to things we may not have taken into consideration previously!
That being said, your arguments are valid, some of them I didn’t even think of, others I was actually was reflecting on this morning when eating breakfast (I’m weird like that, ahahaha;;;).
One of the ones I was thinking about was how Hana wanted to quit being a precure, and I realized, “Oh, well don’t we all say irrational stuff like that when we hit rock bottom? I still do that every now and then.” HAHAHA!;;;; I agree though with your criticism, my comment on Hana is definitely too simplistic, especially when you break it down like that haha!
I get where you’re coming from with the heartbeat notion. That didn’t dawn to me at all until to you said, so that makes a lot more sense. I had an entirely different idea in mind, more related to how Hana’s mother would hold Hugtan, and spoke about how babies like their mother’s the heartbeat, or something along the lines, I can’t remember.
Yeah I was trying to figure out what Harry meant by that.The only things that come to mind is that they are either from Hana’s future, and Hugtan is her baby or it’s a parallel world and they have been hoping world and to save themselves, Hugtan has to use up her power, which puts her in that precarious condition.
SPITS OUT DRINK Gilbert Nightray OMG AHAHAHAHAHA! YOu”RE RIGHT!!!!
This is why I couldn’t stand this epic failure of a “cheerleader” when her issues (not matter how relatable to the IRL audience) were resolved in such a half-assed manner. And that’s why I said it’s a massive mistake to play the “becoming despair” card SO EARLY because Haruka’s breakdown prior to her regaining the strength to become Cure Flora again was superbly well-executed. At least the sword that Yell obtained wasn’t the overpowered Excalibur Proto (of (male) Arthur from Fate/Prototype) or else this slumps into the worst Precure season ever.