Hey i'm just an unorthodox man who loves various cartoons/anime/video games like Mario, Kirby, Sonic, Pokemon, EEnE, SAO, Pretty Cure, NGNL, Total Drama, and much more
Knowledge (心得, Kokoroe, also called "Accomplishment") is a special achievement system unique to Starlight Academy, representing its core values.
It is obtained after successfully completing a special audition.
There are six different types of Knowledge. Each one is associated with a specific color and lights up when it is fully mastered.
❤️ Song Knowledge ❤️
Singing Etiquette
Light Color: Red
A song is your voice filled with emotions, meant to be shared with the person listening to you. You should hold your microphone with the desire to connect with your audience.
Singing is about expressing your emotions through your voice and creating a bond with the audience. Hold your microphone while imagining that you are communicating directly with the person on the other side of the stage.
🩷 Appearance Knowledge 🩷
Appearance Advice
Light Color: Pink
Appearance is the art of balancing your individuality with your compassion for others. Once you understand yourself, you should think about the best way to stand out.
Appearance is a subtle balance between showing your uniqueness and being considerate of others. It is important to recognize your own strengths and qualities, then find ways to express them and shine.
💚 Acting Knowledge 💚
Acting Advice
Light Color: Green
Acting means taking on the life of another person. You must understand that every movement, even the smallest movement of your fingers, has a meaning.
Acting is about immersing yourself in the life of a character. You need to understand that even the slightest gesture can express emotions and tell a story.
🧡 Communication Knowledge 🧡
Speaking Advice
Light Color: Orange
Communication is the art of playing a game of catch with words. You must first learn how to properly catch the ball thrown by the other person.
The art of conversation is like a game of passing words back and forth. The first step is learning how to receive and understand what the other person is saying.
💜 Dance Knowledge 💜
Dance Etiquette
Light Color: Purple
Dance is the expression of the body through the rhythm of music. By harmonizing everyone's emotions, the energy on stage can reach new heights.
Dance is about expressing rhythm and movement with your body. It is about bringing everyone's emotions together and creating a captivating stage performance.
💙 Duty Knowledge 💙
Principles of Connection
Light Color: Blue
Connections are the threads that unite hearts. These threads intertwine to become one, and making these bonds shine is an idol's duty.
A bond is a thread of the heart that connects people together. An idol's mission is to bring these connections together and make them shine.
Well, here we are PreCure fans. The moment of truth. Not only does this episode finally tell us who Cure Éclair is, but it's also the Destined Day the villains have been waiting for. The episode conveniently reminds us of this by starting with an establishing shot of the city, overlaid with the date "1999/7/19" and then the words "The Destined Day" underneath.
We then get little glimpses of each of our Éclair candidates. Shiruku is filming what looks like a kaiju movie, Rei is shown coming out of I think a store, and Eliza and Kurea are going somewhere (the agency, as we later learn).
Over in the Villain Theater, Usonoir states that the Destined Day is at hand. One of the thieves (Nijee I think) is like "Whoa, can we hold off? A search for a Makoto Jewel is in progress" (not sure who was doing it). Usonoir is like, "No problem, I've got one right here" and basically reveals to his minions that he's got Cure Éclair's Makoto Jewel (something he only revealed to Luluka before this) and plans to use that to become the King the prophecy foretold.
Now, unsurprisingly, Luluka is NOT having this, and not only reacts very emotionally (she's usually so stoic so an outburst like this is unusual from her), but seems prepared to straight up transform and throw hands.
Mashutan counsels her not to, though, which to be fair is probably smart. We already know Usonoir is pretty powerful.
Nijee also protests that Éclair's Jewel isn't like the Makoto Jewels they've been stealing, and doubts that it will work, but Usonoir obviously doesn't care.
Back at the agency, Kurea shows up to visit as it's her day off. Anna and Mikuru greet her, saying Jett is busy. However, soon after Kurea arrives, Jett runs upstairs, declaring that he's finished the perfume he was making. And with that, we go into the opening.
A scene then ensues where Anna and Mikuru basically explain how they've narrowed down the identity of the missing person they've been looking for (the case they explained to Kurea in her focus ep) to four people -- Eliza, Shiruku, Rei, and Kurea herself -- and that they made the perfume in hopes that the scent will awaken the lost memories of whichever one of them is Éclair. Kurea protests, saying it couldn't possibly be her. Then, as they're talking, a Phantom Thieves calling card flies in through the window.
Anna goes to the window, expecting to see Luluka (since apparently she's the only one who sends these cards), but when the camera pans over, we learn it's actually Mashutan who delivered it, though she flies away before the girls see her.
The card says that today, at the land called Makoto, Usonoir will steal the world.
The girls use the map they found when renovating to try to pin down the place, and it looks like from the marks that someone else had also been trying to do this. Then Anna remembers a tower in her time period called the Land Makoto Tower, and asks if it exists in 1999. Mikuru says it does. (They say this all in front of Kurea too, weirdly).
There's also this shot where Mikuru compares the word "land" as written by Luluka with a word written in kanji. I'm not sure why this is unless it's for the audience. It's also interesting that Luluka wrote "land" in katakana. I don't know if she did this so they would know she was referring to a specific place (since the term "land of Makoto" did make Anna think of a certain tower) or if she just uses katakana cause her kanji skills aren't good (we still don't know if she always lived in England before she came to Makoto Mirai or not, or if she was born in Japan but then moved to England).
Anyway, this is obviously bad, and Pochitan even pulls them out via purse strap yet again. Kurea follows, where she runs into Eliza, who was on her way to show Anna and Mikuru her latest Ellie book. (Seriously, how fast does she write these??) When the camera focuses on her bag, the title is revealed to be The Mystery of Éclair. (Complete with actual éclairs on the cover...I thought this was just funny cover art initially but given how this episode ends, I wonder if it was foreshadowing... 🤔)
We go to the Land Makoto Tower, where the thieves minus Big Boss Usonoir have assembled. Mashutan arrives and whispers in Luluka's ear that she delivered the calling card.
It became pretty obvious to me at this point that the calling card was basically a secret SOS from Luluka to the Cures. She was not happy about what was about to go down, and made sure the Cures would be there to at least try to stop it.
Usonoir shows up, in the same "glitching reality" fashion as he did last time, but this time there are innocent bystanders to see it. He doesn't seem to care, though, and at any rate he pretty quickly Thanos snaps all the civilians (he says it's temporary, but as we don't see where they went, we can't be sure he's not lying). It should be noted that the secret "hide this battle" barrier the Thieves usually put up is NOT up at this point. Anyone with a decent eyeline can see what's going on (more or less).
Anna and Mikuru show up, and Goemon tells Luluka to help him take care of them. This time, however, she says no. (Well, in the Japanese audio, she actually says "Muri," which is more like "Impossible" or "No can do"). She declares this is her chance, transforms, and boldly walks over to the Cures' side. Mashutan then tells Anna and Mikuru to transform too. They're obviously a bit confused at first (this is the first time Mashutan has talked to them in this way) but do so. And thus, a true battle of Cures vs Thieves begins.
Usonoir lets the other thieves do the dirty work while he gets back to fulfilling the Prophecy. Arcana Shadow explains to Answer and Mystique that Usonoir stole Éclair's Makoto Jewel and now intends to use it to shroud the world in eternal lies. They're shocked, but agree Usonoir has to be stopped. They fight alongside Arcana Shadow for the first time (who treats them more like equals this time, though she still warns them not to get in her way). At one point, Anna and Mikuru declare that Star Detectives never give up, and Arcana Shadow smiles, saying "You're starting to get it." This is the first time she's shown them real respect, which I hope bodes well for the future.
Usonoir, meanwhile, prepares to unleash his plan and floats into the sky, and one of the thieves says Usonoir is about to show off his true form. He takes off his mask to reveal...a puppy.
Yeah, no, seriously. His true form is a Cavalier Spaniel puppy fairy. He still keeps his deep voice too. It's hilarious. (Not sure what the rest of his "body" was made of then 😆)
The ironic cuteness doesn't last for long though, as Usonoir pretty quickly uses Éclair's Makoto Jewel to transform into this evil dog thing that is like kaiju size. Now things are getting real bad.
Or, they would, except that he can't fully control the form. The power of Éclair's Crystal is fighting against him. So basically Usonoir is reduced to flailing about uncontrollably and causing massive property damage. A bit anticlimactic, but ok.
Nijee decides they need to set up the "seal the battle" barrier and fast to contain the carnage. One of the other thieves is like "Can we do it on our own?" (Which I guess means that usually they can't do it without creating a Hanninda first? Usually that's what triggers its appearance). Nijee says that if all three of them pool their power, they should be able to do it. So, they do.
We've never seen this kind of camaraderie among the Thieves, so that they'd work together on this is pretty surprising. It does work, though, surprisingly.
I guess I should mention what happens with the Éclair candidates during all this. The whole time, Kurea and Eliza are trying to rush to where the battle is. Eliza trips and hurts her ankle at one point and tells Kurea to go on without her (that kinda felt like a contrived situation to put her out of the running to be Éclair). Rei sees Pochitan flying around the city - she had left the battle along with the perfume Jett made in hopes of finding the real Éclair, since despite Usonoir not being fully in control of his Demon Dog form, he still puts up enough of a fight to beat all three Cures literally into the ground, causing them to even revert to civilian form - and runs after her. Eventually Pochitan finds what from her POV is her target - and it's Kurea. Pochitan tells Kurea (with her limited vocabulary) that she has to go help the Cures. After getting over the shock of finding out Pochitan can talk (I guess she didn't know that yet), Kurea still insists she couldn't be Éclair, but promises to help Pochitan return the perfume to the Cures. They encounter Rei on the way, who's overjoyed that Pochitan is ok (since they've both become at least aware of the battle at this point). Then there's a rumble, and both Pochitan and the perfume bottle go flying. Rei lunges for Pochitan while Kurea tries to save the bottle. Pochitan ends up ok, but the perfume bottle breaks, to Kurea's horror.
(Oh and what is Shiruku doing all this time? Unfortunately she's still tied up in her film shoot and can't easily leave, though she can see Kaiju Demon Dog from the roof she's filming on. Eventually she does decide to leave and try to help, but doesn't get far before returning to comfort this child actress there. I don't know if this was their way of singling out Shiruku as the clear red herring in the Éclair mystery or if they just couldn't think of a good subplot for her).
Shortly after the bottle breaks, the Thieves get the barrier going, and Pochitan and Kurea disappear, to Rei's surprise.
Kurea is very upset, apologizing to Pochitan for breaking the bottle, saying that now they won't be able to help the Star Detective PreCure. She then pauses, wondering why she said "PreCure" all of a sudden.
The scent of the perfume does its work, and we see Kurea's memories flooding back, including showing her being friends with Luluka, and Luluka explaining that the lilies in the agency's garden are a special variety created in tandem by humans and fairies called "Top of Lily."
Not only that, but her scrunchie suddenly loosens and starts glowing, revealing...a fairy!
This fairy is Éclair's fairy Shushutan, and they are overjoyed that Éclair's memories have come back. They present Kurea with her transformation item, a perfume bottle looking thing called "Top of Lily," and tells her they need to go help the Cures.
We return to the battle, where things look bleak...until Kurea shows up! Éclair's Makoto Jewel within Usonoir responds to her, flying into her hand and making her look like a freaking badass.
The other girls are shocked to learn Kurea is Éclair. She apologizes for being late, and asks them to leave the rest to her. They worry about her fighting alone, but she says it's ok cause she's strong. Luluka...doesn't look too happy about these developments though, for some unknown reason.
The episode basically ends there, with Kurea squaring up to fight. Her transformation and stuff will have to wait (I guess this is to line up with her toys releasing on July 25).
This episode was definitely worth the hype, and I'm curious to see how things resolve. There are theories that Usonoir will get defeated here and an even bigger Big Bad will take over, but we'll see I guess. There's also whatever history Luluka and Kurea have. I saw one video that said exploring their relationship could break the show and rob Anna and Mikuru of character development, pointing out that Mikuru has yet to have a solo focus episode, which is rather odd with us being essentially halfway through the season. I know the detective motif and the need to transform together has kinda forced Anna and Mikuru to be almost always together, but they still managed to do solo focus eps back in Futari wa and Mahoutsukai when this was the case. So hopefully they can do that here too.
(Also when I said earlier that Eliza's book cover might be foreshadowing...it has literal éclairs on the cover. As in the dessert. That could very well have been a clue that Kurea, the patissière, was Éclair. Toei themselves actually posted some clues pointing to Kurea being Éclair on the "Who is Cure Éclair?" voting campaign website, but only after episode 25 aired).
Oh also I wish I hadn't looked at social media before watching the episode, cause I accidentally saw a post on Instagram from I think the official Japanese PreCure Instagram that revealed who Éclair was in the caption. I stopped looking at it after a second, but the damage had been done.
It's also worth noting that the voting campaign website stated that the results of the poll wouldn't determine who would be Éclair. When I posted about this on the r/Precure subreddit, some people said that there were actually people who thought the poll would have an effect. The episode definitely seemed set up for it to be any of them (except maybe Shiruku, who had a pretty tiny role in the episode compared to the others) with how much they teased us and how they held out on the actual reveal till nearly the end of the episode. Like I said, the thing of Eliza suddenly hurting her ankle felt pretty contrived (it's a common trope in a "hero must go on alone" type of story). Rei was more convincing, with only the barrier going up ultimately cutting her out of the fight.
As other people have said, I hope they don't abandon the other Éclair candidates after this. They all definitely have side character potential. Eliza has already shown interest in working at the agency, and Rei could, as I've said, cover for the girls at school (although at this point I think school is out for the summer in-series).
Anyway, next time we get the resolution of the Destined Day battle, Éclair's transformation and probably finisher, Shushutan meeting the others, and hopefully the return of all those people Usonoir Thanos snapped. Looking forward to it!
[Second Luluka gif from @hothotmiso. Screenshots from PreCure Fan Wiki]
