Hugtto! Precure Episode 13
This episode was a hilarious one! I absolutely love how Lulu was unapologetically herself. We see villains who go undercover try to fit in and such, but Lulu was absolutely set with one task in mind: Observe Hana and discover her weakness. But her frank and unintentionally savage comments made it hard for anyone to approach her. In fact she was so rock solid, that not even Hana was able to get through to her, and it had gotten to the point it actually discouraged her from persisting any further. But I am glad this happened, because dear god: Hana was so incredibly pushy! It was actually annoying the heck out of me, but it was part of her learning experience, and a valuable lesson for the children watching as well. It was her father who called her out on it, explaining persistence isn’t the right way to go about it. By doing so, she is more or less being a nuisance. So later Hana makes sure she apologizes for making things awkward between them and pushing her own assumptions.
Her success however is much like a double-edge sword: By successfully persuading Lulu to stick around, Hana had unknowingly and unintentionally gave the villains a helping hand. With Lulu stickign around, the threat of her figuring out where their power source comes from increases. Although she didn’t catch onto Hugtan this episode, I think it is just a matter of time before they do.
It was hilarious though how Hana was able to sneak into Lulu’s room, yet she didn’t overhear or see her filing the daily report. Man it’s Hana will be in store for a heart-ache when she Lulu eventually reveals her true colors… But will she actually be able to get to that point? The longer she sticks around, the more likely the stirr she expirenced within her will develop a heart she and nobody else thought she had. In fact, Pupple and others believe she is merely empty doll.
However the important thing to note this episode was Pupple’s discussion about the Mirai Crystals. The Mirai Crystal White is said to have been destroyed, but it is still missing. I have been suspecting this for a while now, but I firmly believe Hugtan is the Mirai Crystal White, especially given her power is white as well.
Hugtto! Precure Episode 14
AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Competitive Saaya is that thing I didn’t know I needed until now. She is so adorable when she pouts and is on the losing end of the fight. She hasn’t shown much of it because of as Homare explained to Hana, no one has been able to beat her until now. Lulu’s inhuman strength and precise abilities gives her an edge that gives Saaya a run for her money. That being said, I really hope we get to see more of this side of her in the future, it’s so much fun to watch, especially her competitive dynamics with Lulu.
Lulu was throughly entertaining from start to finish. From her displeased expression when Hugtan interrupted her “consuming information process” so she could flip the pages on her own, to launching Harry up in the air after he wanted to be swung around like a baby (dude you’re too old for that). Lulu’ s interactions with the children was also amusing, especially considering she didn’t understand what “cute” actually is, but subconsciously experienced the feeling. Holding Hugtan in particular definitely draws something out of her, since the baby is full of magical power– she alone was enough calm the rest of the wailing babies.
I believe it’s just a matter of time now before the enemy picks up on Hugtan being the source of power they are looking for. The girls were on the losing end when Lulu successfully identifies children serve as an excellent distraction, making it difficult or the girls to focus on battle when they need to take care of both. Pupple was there to observe as well to see how Lulu was faring, so she too was there to indirectly witness Hugtan’s power. Although Lulu used the children as hostage of a sorts, there was a part of her that didn’t want to bring harm to them as well, and put returned her disguise to protect the children. This is actually helps cover up anything suspicions that she’s the enemy in the future, since she can be referenced to having thrown herself in between the babies and the monster.
Next week, Emiru is back. She will be spending time with Lulu while she goes out on a shopping trip. Honestly, I hope this episode gives us some sort of indication of what Emiru’s precise role will be in the series, especially since she is not part of the group yet. Truth to be told, I am not sure if I would feel about her being a new member of the group, mainly because her first appearance didn’t leave a positive impression on me. Who knows, we will have to wait and see how it turns out.
I hope Saaya will be the one to identify Lulu as enemy, since she was surprised and suspicious when oshimaidaa has stopped suddenly after Lulu stepped in
I love how Hugtan became the leader of the babies and while other babies cried, she slept soundly, because fighting monsters IS a daily occurence to her 😂
those 2 episodes were great and slowly I feel that hugtto trying to find it balance
I love that we have some development for Hana in episode 13 as she slowly starts to learn that there’s a lot more to being the kind of person that she wants to be than just sheer persistence – while it worked with Saaya and with Homare to some degree, Lulu is a different person entirely, so if she wants to be that strong of a support to someone she needs to start being mindful of the kind of people she approaches, which is kind of the point of her development.
That said, with respect to Lulu I use “someone” loosely because I’m convinced that she’s actually an android or some kind of artificial being just based on her reactions in both episodes. Her lack of social tact, her largely mechanical way of speaking, the circuitboard lines we keep seeing cropping up on her body whenever she summons an Oshimaida… you point out that Hana’s successful persuasion to Lulu to stick around is a double-edged sword, but with how Lulu herself is experiencing emotions for the first time and how that ended up with her protecting the children, I suspect that could just as easily apply to Lulu herself. Especially considering how cross Papple looked at the end of episode 14. ( But I hope she still retains her funny moments like with her throwing Harry, though. )
COMPETITIVE SAAYA IS BEST SAAYA. She’s so hilarious and adorable! Though she herself admits that it’s embarrassing, I think it adds an interesting depth to her character mainly because of the implications that she doesn’t really feel the need to compete with others unless she feels she’s directly challenged? Couple that with her own search for her dream as well as her worries over her mother overshadowing her, and that raises some pretty interesting implications that I hope we see later in this series.
It may just be me, but I’m actually looking forward to seeing Emiru return next episode mainly because she’s such a doofus ( I like that kind of character archetype in Precure, like with Ako in Suite Precure ). Apparently, according to the preview the two theatrical-looking people are her parents? if so that would definitely… explain a LOT about her…
Sighs, I’m baffled at this point to why people will still bother with such abomination of a Precure series where even a certain fan favorite couldn’t salvage the recent episodes. Now let me voice out my displeasure in the same “three things” metaphor that Yusaku does:
1) I get that this season tried to capture older storylines and characterizations from older seasons, but Lulu’s development of embracing human emotions was so BADLY executed it made me facepalmed so hard. Compared to Setsuna’s, Ellen’s and Towa’s eventual redemptions before joining their main groups, her emotions suddenly surfaced and wavered like a human WAY TOO CONVENIENTLY and so easily when she’s depicted as a robotic existence. And regarding Eva’s doubt about Emiru’s purpose, I’ll give two cents of my explanation:
“I hope this episode gives us some sort of indication of what Emiru’s precise role will be in the series, especially since she is not part of the group yet.”
Her (possible) role reveal is definitely in the same vein as Ako and Aguri did before where they were spoilt brats who acted like control freaks (even to their senoirs) and appeared insignificant to the story, but once their true roles were revealed you couldn’t ignore how important they were, one as the princess of Major Land and the other as a split human fragment of Princess Marie Ange. Should they go with that route regarding Emiru then I can tolerate that as another homage to the older seasons.
2) Not-Rikka is (alongside Go Onizuka) among the “main” characters in my recent memory that had lame and cliche perfect personalities which triggered me to no end whenever they appear just because they contributed NOTHING to the story, with Cure Not-Beauty being the least offensive-based member prior to gaining the group attack, while the other was a pretentious “entertainer” without any aura of charisma despite his spam-happy Goukis. Lulu roasted Not-Rikka pretty hard and Playmaker carried more burden but is always one step ahead.
3) People often refer to the dark ages of Precure in Happiness Charge and Mahou Tsukai, but at least people still had the urge to cover them from the start to the end. Hugtto Precure already pissed me off in just the early 10 episodes with a terribly executed story and characters (bar Homare) and the dip of quality in such an early was so jarring (when they shot themselves in the foot so hard by playing the “protagonist crestfallen to despair” card way too early regarding that loudmouth “cheerleader” Hana). Again, as much as people might disagree, I won’t back down from my stance that this abomination deserved ZERO credibility with a spotlight or two but otherwise absolutely unwatchable.
If that’s the case, then why you still bother with commenting on the ‘abomination’ review then? You can chose to just not comment on this if you really dislike it then, and just stop on watching this. Or perhaps you really like this show then and you really want to comment on this, no matter of how harsh your opinion were. In that case, I hope you’ll stick on your principle and just take it easy sometimes, because I’m sure that you didn’t want to be sick everytime you felt triggered on this show.
I agree with the concern in regards to Lulu’s development. Although her episodes are funny, I too think her development of a “heart” could be executed better. For the time being I am going to wait and see how it pans out before I fully judge it, which is why I have elected to refrain from discussing it. But if it only takes a few episodes of “babies” and “cuteness”, I don’t know about how I will feel about that. And varying on how Emiru’s role is handled, we’ll see how I feel about that too.
It would be nice if Saaya could gain an offensive ability, or at least start becoming creative by figuring out how to use her defensive powers as an offence, much like she had when she threw the shield at the monster. It goes to show it’s possible, and it is something I would like to see more of.
But when it comes to the lack of contribution, I would say it’s not just Saaya but also Homare. The friendships between the girls are great, but I am surprised by how much both of them has taken a back seat. And the concern will only grow as they start adding more members to the group.
EDIT – Correction: Miswrote Rikka instead of Saaya 😅