Star Twinkle Precure Episode 2

AHHHHHHHHHHHH LALA IS SO FREAKING CUTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! I adore her so much.
WHO AM I KIDDING, THIS WHOLE EPISODE WAS SO FLUFFY I LOVE IT!

I really enjoyed this episode. It wasn’t as crazy as the premiere, but I thought it found just the right balance. We were able to learn a lot about both girls and Fuwa’s background and quest to save the twelve zodiac princesses.

It starts off with, somewhere far away from Earth, there is a place known as the Starsky World. There in the Star Palace, resides the Twelve Zodiac Princesses, who posses the power to protect Space. But it is because of that they are attacked by Notraiders who wish to use their power so they could take over the universe. While the twelve princesses were able to drive the Notraiders away, and they wounded up scattered and lost in space, and Starsky World fell into darkness again. In order to stop the disaster from occurring on her planet of Saman, Lala embarked on a quest. She ended up saving Purun and Fuwa when they were being pursued.

First of all, let me just gush about the villains. I am super pleased to see the Notraiders Generals directly attack the precure with their minions, as opposed to possessing people to produce minions to wreck havoc. Maybe this will change down the line varying on the generals themselves, but I for one am absolutely embracing this change of pace. I am loving how the girls are forced to face the enemy head on, and how at least Kappard, doesn’t lay around and do observe from the sidelines while his minions does the work. After the pathetic showing of the villains in the last series, proactive villains are exactly what we need. (Side Note: Did anyone laugh really hard when Kappard said: “electricity is effective against a drenched body”. I mean, it’s true, AHAHA! Also the dude is going to be witnessing at least two more miracles.)

Better yet, it looks like next week the Red General will make her first appearance, which means she should be revealed in next week’s or the following episode’s Opening if they intend to reveal each silhouette as soon as, or after they make their debut. Our next Precure is also debuting as well, but while they will meet the girl, it doesn’t look like she will necessarily become one next week since they want to build up some time forge the friendship between Hikaru and Lala.

Another little detail I loved was how instead of having Hikaru barge into her home like, “HEY MOM I MADE A NEW FRIEND SHE’S CRASHING HERE FOR A BIT OKAY?”, they actually snuck into her room, and Lala and Purun have to be concerned about the space law of keeping their identities as aliens as secret from Earthlings. Although she ended up going back to the rocket that night, it was still really cute to see them sneak in. We also discovered that Lala can’t communicate with other Earthlings besides Hikaru, which shows us how Fuwa’s power didn’t extend to enabling her to understand what everyone besides Hikaru is saying. I suspect this will change in due time for the sake of convenience, but it would be a curious thing if they actually choose not to.

We learned that Hikaru’s room used to be her dad’s study. It seems he may played a part in her love for astronomy, as he had a huge collection of books about Space, which she has more or less inherited. I look forward to the day we get to learn more about how Hikaru became so passionate about space.

Another thing  that was further established this week was this series’ theme: You can imagine whatever you want to be, your experiences are your own, and don’t give up before you try. A what better character to deliver the message than Hikaru, who is fearlessly exploring all sorts of new things— even though it can be a bit on the risky side at times. Lala was able to learn a lot of this from Hikaru in this weeks’ episode, by trying out foreign food and strengthening her convictions of wanting to become a Precure so she can protect Fuwa too.

In fact this makes me wonder if Precure as a franchise is looking to shift away from the idea of the girls fatefully being “chosen” as the legendary Precure warriors. Hugtto Precure played a huge part of stepping away from that by revealing anyone with a strong heart can become one, regardless of your age or gender. With Lala outright asking Fuwa to grant her power so she can become a Precure to enable her to fight, I am curious to see if this pattern will continue from here on out— needless to say, this is an extremely early speculation, as we are only two episodes in.

As for Cure Milky’s debut, I love her design! And I think it goes without saying how her transformation sequence is significantly better than Cure Star’s because there at least more going on than just plainly drawing squiggly lines. I appreciated the more expressive delivery because I felt it reflected her character’s personality better. I am also a huge fan of her power being electricity!

On the flipside, as expected Cure Milky features the same the song during her transformation as well, making it an easy way for them to compliment the group transformation now. I have a feeling we might just hear all of them sing at the same time when that happens, or maybe they will break up the lines in between them. I think the former would make it less complicated though. Either way, even after sitting through it for the second time, I don’t think it’s going to grow on me. I really don’t like the addition. It feels terribly forced and out of place. Also, is it just me, or does the melody also feel incomplete?

And last thing: while we are on the subjects on songs, I can’t believe I neglected to mention this last week: But I am absolutely obsessed with the Opening and Ending songs. They are both super charming in their own way!

A/N: For those who didn’t see the update on WCW page, Twitter or Tumblr: Shield Hero, Meiji Tokyo Renka and YGO VRAINS entries were not released because I had been sick and out of commission for a few days. I only started getting around to it yesterday, so all three entries will be released as double-posts with this week’s episodes.