Star Twinkle Precure Episode 21

What an episode! The animation was absolutely superb, especially with how clean it was! PURE QUALITY. 

I wasn’t expecting Master Darknest to actually appear at the battle by taking possession of Ayewon, and enhancing her power which put her in a lot of pain. It was quite interesting to see Hikaru counter Kappard’s argument he had made with her in the past, by how right now at that moment, she could clearly see Ayewon was suffering. She and Yuni teamed up together to fight Ayewon, and Hikaru, having recovered Aries’ pen was able to share it with Yuni so she could deliver the final blow.

And I am glad they decided to go with sharing the Princesses’ pens. It was the best solution, especially now that they have a new product to promote with it: Rainbow Perfume. I also like the approach because we’ll be able to see girls rotate and share their pens with Yuni, and her special attack’s animation will probably always be Rainbow Splash with a some minor tweaks to reflect the pen she is using, such as the horoscope symbol and the red ribbons around it.

However, while the fight was absolutely fantastic to watch, there were two things that bothered me. One, I wasn’t fan of is the way the battle ended. I don’t know about you, but I found it to be super anticlimactic. The first thing that crossed my mind when it did was, “Wait, that’s it?” And the reason for that probably has to do with me waiting for the girls to finally team up altogether, which leads to my next point. I am left with mixed feelings about the sheer amount of strength Yuni possesses as Cure Cosmo.

Last week, it was established (or at least, alluded to) that Yuni possesses greater physical powers than the girls, and the reason for that could  be because of her species. Now this isn’t a bad thing, it just— of course I understand this was supposed to be her fight, since she is the one who has beef with Ayewon who was responsible for the petrification of her kin, there were still moments such as the scene when she swooped in to stop buffed up Beserk!Ayewon from crushing Hikaru on her own (which is how she obtained the Rainbow Perfume). That particular moment, I had expected the rest of the girls to sweep in, regardless of the hordes of minions they had been dealing with up until now. Not to mention, this wasn’t the usual blessing from the boss either, he was litterally possessing her. Considering how fearsome they are setting him up to be (especially with the way they ended the episode, and it is alluded that Kappard knows or at least has a good idea Master Darknest’s true potential), I expected them to come all together, rather than Yuni cleanse Ayeon on her own. But then again, the Rainbow Perfume is supposed to serve as her equivalent to the Southern Cross shot, until they all obtain their second team upgrade.

Nonetheless, this just my personal nitpickings. It doesn’t change the fact I still immensely enjoyed this episode.

Other than the fight, I am quite glad they gave us Blue Cat’s real name: Yuni. They actually had me wondering for a bit if Mao were going to turn out to be her real name after-all, but were able to deliver it to us before the episode ended. I also adored the interaction between her and the girls, seeing her open up, talking about Olivio and what she means to her and her kin, as well as now be brought back to Earth so she won’t be alone anymore. It was right in character for her to insist continuing on her own, especially now that as she said, she has the an incredibly efficient radar of her own she can use to track down the pens on her own. (So thank you Ayewon for stealing her spacecraft so she has no excuses to bail out haha!)

Speaking of Ayewon, I am curious to see where she ought to run off now that she doesn’t appear to have returned to the Notraiders headquarters to witness Master Darknest’s return. It was quite a dramatic scene too, with the destruction of his crystal, and now that he has a physical body. I am all over his wicked design, and I like that his face continues to be concealed, but perhaps a factor in that could potentially be attributed to the fact he has yet to reclaim his true strength, as mentioned earlier.

This week also introduced the new ED Theme. I am really going to miss the old one, that song was such a bop, it was one of those rare endings that I actually listened to it every week. The new one is cute, the lyrics especially was adorable, and varying on interpretation can also be absolutely hilarious.

OH AND OF COURSE: Goodness, last point, I almost forget this! I am truly shocked that nobody thought to ask the Star Princesses about the rumours behind the pen’s powers! Instead all we got was Yuni asking if Planet Rainbow could be restored, but instead the Star Princesses just ambiguously said, “with powers of the constellations and of Puff, and peace will restore the universe.” Even if that answer is supposed to refer to Puff’s ability to restore of cleansing the universe as a whole, still— they ought to address the elephant in the room. It doesn’t do any good if the girls (except for Yuni) remains ignorant of the pens’ and puff’s true capabilities!

Overall it was an absolutely fantastic Boss Fight to watch! Now that Yuni is going back to the Earth with the girls and likely to be admitted to school as well, I really hope we get to see her interact more with the others besides Hikaru. I especially want to see her interact more with Madoka, their first interaction at the auction house remains vivid in my mind, and of course with Lala and Elena as well!

Next week, it looks like we are finally going to meet Hikaru’s father, and he is as eccentrics as Hikaru is! That should be interesting. On the concerning side, NOOOOOO HIKARU’S GRAMPS GETS ATTACKED BY TENJOU!

PS: I got some real deja-vu vibes at Kappard’s expression before he left. For some reason that scene reminded me of Tokyo Mew Mew‘s antagonists. I get the feeling he is probably going to have the most interesting backstory of all the generals.