Episode 2
What a fantastic follow up to the premiere! The comedic timing is so on point, I can’t think of the last time a precure series actually managed to keep me hooked just with comedy alone. Anna and Mikuru are fantastic together, a chaotic duo that’s just going to get better as time goes on. It was specially funny to see Mitsuru finally came to terms that Anna really is from the future, and Anna hoping to find her community– only to find it barren land of it advertising the future construction plans! Certainly a wild thing to see no doubt!
In this episode, we were introduced to a new fairy named Jett. The genius gadget inventor originally based London CUREtto’s office, also likes to boast he’s 222 years old (goodness!). Apparently the Star Detective Precure that used to work in Japan is no longer in this world as she had suddenly disappeared. Of course that news was crushing for Mikuru since it was her dream to work together with that precure.
We learned that Mikuru got her pendant from her grandmother ages ago, meanwhile Anna mysteriousness hers from Pochitan, the fairy of Time and Space, (go figure) who dragged her into the past. Unfortuantely because travelling through time requires a lot of power, Pochitan had reverted back into baby form, so they need to collect the Makoto Jewels of Truth to help it mature again. (I freaking lost it when they showed buffed Pochitan!)
So now the girls have a clear reason to be competing with the Phantom Thieves Guild for the Makoto Jewels as well. But better yet, they also got a clear explanation today as to why it is absolutely imperative to prevent them from collecting the jewels too.
Honestly I got the chills when Nijee told us what the Phantom Thieves Guild’s objective was: to create a world built on lies. The last time I felt this way while watching Precure was when COVID happened. This is yet another instance where we’re seeing a story theme that’s feels so intimately prevalent in our day to day lives. The seemingly endless lies, misinformation, manipulation, being churned out– it’s real messed up. Especially given the timing of which A.I. just seems to timely explode, and is being aggressively and obnoxiously shoved into our faces whether we like it or not! While there has always been manipulation of content, the combination of social media echo chamber influence by algorithms, bad actors, bots and A.I. that’s enabling people to more easily create these distortions are what makes it so incredibly dangerous. We’re already seeing the consequences of people tapping into this fabrication of false-reality that isn’t based on facts or truth, but rather lies, conspiracy and propaganda.
So with the objective of the series is to quite literally: “Save the world from lies”, it is something that I’m already emotionally resonating with. Honestly I don’t expect Precure to do a huge deep dive into it (though they could), especially since this is directed towards children. But I’m curious about which directions they’ll go in exploring this theme as the series goes on. Stick to the old school classic tropes of the Detectives VS Phantom Thieves? Or set up a Sherlock Holmes VS Professor Moriarty, or will they decide to add a unique spin that would connect the theme to the misinformation crisis we’re in today?
Now that we know the objective and purpose of the Phantom Thieves Guild, it offers us a new perspective why the writers purposely chose Anna to go back to the year of 1999.
In 1999, the internet is still fairly young, “social media” existed through emails, occasional chat-rooms, websites and forums. There were no smart devices like smart phones, cellphones in fact were just recently taking off, and landlines were still relied upon when the cellphone network failed (as we witnessed in this episode when the cellphone network failed). So this allow these mysteries to be contained in a more organic matter. If you had set this kind of story to actually take place entirely in the late 2020s, it’d make a lot of sense for these mysteries to get out of hand real fast with how quickly things go viral these days. So this is yet another reason why I’m quite pleased with the premise of going back in time for this kind of theme of Detectives VS Phantom Thieves!
It is also quite nostalgic to see the use of the hilarious yet adorable chonky walkie-talkies, and going back to the old-school methods to keep things classic. The chonky pens for the Pre-Kit is absolutely sending me though. Like holy shit, did they really need to make them that big? It looks so funny!
Actually speaking of pens, in episode 2, they had to recover a special pen that was stolen from a writer. But the entire time I was looking at it, all I could think of was, “…That doesn’t look like a pen?” I was very perplexed honestly hahaha!
Episode 3
I honestly I don’t have much to say about this one, and you can understand why with the mysteries being as simple as they are at the moment. Still cute though! However I was glad to see them quickly establish the peaceful future Anna had come from may not be so peaceful and not plagued with lies should the Phantom Thieves Guild were to succeed with their plans.
Additionally, another thing I’m quite glad to see them clarify so early on was revealing that the Phantom Thieves are actually all fairies like Jett and Pochitan are. Though… I think we all know who’s probably NOT a fairy among them. COUGH A certain grey haired girl with a fairy of her own, COUGH.
Unfortunately as much as I’ve been enjoying this, I will not be continuing to cover this series. Besides the fact I’ve fallen quite behind due sickness putting me out for two weeks, this is definitely the kind I’ll enjoy more watching than writing about! I’m very excited to see where it will go, and I’m looking forward to all the chaotic hilarity that will ensue.
