Put what I thought was a CD by the Japanese band Perfume into my external CD drive so I could rip the songs (so I could listen to them on my mp3 player) and turns out that it was actually a concert DVD! Not sure why it was in a normal jewel case, or in the CD section of the store I bought it from (Ginza, a store in Little Tokyo in L.A., which I have bought Japanese CDs from multiple times). But hey, I only paid I think like $10 for it so that's a steal!
I guess the fact that I felt guilted into buying it worked out in my favor 😅 (When I picked it up to look at it, the cover paper or lyric sheet or whatever it's called started slipping out, and when I tried to push it back in the front of the jewel case came off in my hands. This wasn't cause of anything I did - one corner of the front part of the case was already broken - but to avoid embarrassment I kinda felt like I had to buy it after that).
Also even though I've known about Perfume for a while (I was introduced to them by Pentatonix's "Perfume Medley"), this is the first merch of them I've ever owned (I've only ever listened to their music on Spotify). Exciting!
So realized the weekend's coming up so gotta get my thoughts up on last week's ep.
Honestly, I think I (and a lot of PreCure fans) were expecting some big lore drops about either Mikuru's mom or Anna's mom in this episode, given the "Memories With Mother" title. But...we didn't get that.
That being said, this felt like less of a filler episode than last week's with Eliza. It was more of a character arc progression episode, where Anna is troubled cause she misses her mom (which is honestly totally valid for her to feel) and Mikuru, noticing Anna being troubled, tries to step things up and become someone Anna can really rely on. It's a progression of them as characters as well as their friendship.
I actually like this cause it goes back to a concept that was present in both Futari wa and Mahoutsukai - two girls who are thrown into being heroes together who otherwise would probably have never crossed paths. In Meitantei's case, it's a bit more like Mahoutsukai since Anna is a Temporal Fish Out of Water (like how Mirai was new to magic) and Mikuru is knowledgeable about detective stuff (similar to how Liko was really book smart about magic) but is a newbie at the practical side of things (Liko was notoriously bad at practical magic, like thawing the oranges, though she tried to hide it).
Anyway, the episode starts with Anna and Mikuru trying to help a girl find her stuffed bunny. I feel like episodes that start with them on a case tend to be character-progression or lore episodes, while episodes where them taking the case IS the plot are more "case of the week" type episodes (although episode 11 kinda subverts this with having Cure Arcana Shadow properly introduce herself to the others).
They find the bunny and reunite the girl with her mom. After this, Anna is sad, as she's reminded of her own mom, who she can't see even if she wanted to. (I mean, unless the theory about Mikuru being her mom ends up being true, but I think if they wanted to hint at that, this would've been the episode to really show it, and they didn't).
Back at the agency, Anna is still troubled, but refuses to talk about it. Which makes sense, since episode 5 showed that she tends to keep her emotions bottled up rather than talking through them.
Jett then suddenly realizes he's out of candy, despite thinking he'd stocked up (though to be fair, he only checks his desk drawer, and we saw earlier that he had a stash in the ceiling or something, unless he went through that already - though it might also have been moved when the girls fixed up the agency or when they set up the Pretty Holic store) and panics. Anna volunteers to go buy him some (an obvious excuse to get some alone time). His face when she offers this is so adorable 😍
Anna goes out and in the process runs into Howa Kurea, the patissière we met in Episode 2 and the focus Éclair candidate of the week. Kurea also happens to be out shopping. After hearing Anna is shopping for sweets, she invites her back to her bakery.
At the bakery we meet the main chef and see some of the cakes they offer. As someone familiar with cake decorating, I found them quite impressive. They also show Anna a sort of portfolio of cakes Kurea has made recently. A soccer cake, a rounded dress cake, some animal cakes. The animal cakes look like they wouldn't be out of place in Kira Kira PreCure honestly. Kurea talks about how she does her best to take her customers' emotions and wishes into account while still being creative with it, and when we see a montage of what inspired the different cakes, it's clear she has excellent intuition (and creativity).
Kurea then suggests that she make a cake for Anna, though Anna stammers that it's not her birthday (as episode 1 revealed, her birthday is in January). Kurea says that's ok and they go out to the patio. Here we learn that Kurea's cake ordering process basically involves having someone close their eyes and envision the cake they want in response to questions she asks. This is shown as some visual of Anna's memories (all taken from episode 1). What this is supposed to mean is unclear. If Kurea somehow IS Éclair (or maybe her fairy, since it's possible for fairies to take human form, like Jett does), maybe this is a power she somehow has. Considering Arcana Shadow's ties to mysteries, labyrinths, and darkness, as well as her fairy being a fortune-teller, maybe Éclair's powers involve clarity, light, emotion, and some connection to the past. It would fit with the word Éclair meaning "lightning" or the idea of a "bolt of brilliance."
After this, Kurea invites Anna to help make the cake, saying they have more than enough ingredients available, since the chef recently held a cooking class. The chalkboard that shows this is very cute IMO.
Of course, we can't forget Mikuru. Mikuru, getting no help from Jett (who just tells her that Anna might be troubled but doesn't want to talk about it), decides she needs to become someone Anna can rely on. She decides to do physical training to achieve this. This part made me laugh, because she fails even at basic sit-ups and push-ups, which I have also never been good at (and we always had to practice them for the annual Presidential Fitness Test). Pochitan tries to help by doing things like holding her feet for her as she does sit-ups (which we also did in P.E.) but then decides to play horsey on Mikuru's back while she's trying to do push-ups, which while cute is obviously not very helpful 😆
We also get a brief scene at the Villain Theater. Initially we only see Luluka there, but then who should show up but...GOEMON.
This guy hasn't appeared since episode 11 (he might've been in wide shots of the theater but wasn't distinguishable) so it was about time he showed up again. He offers his "apprentice" an ice cream bribe again to get her to tag along, which works because obviously. Later, though, he gets mad when Luluka is just sitting around eating ice cream instead of actively looking for the Makoto Crystal, which is pretty funny.
Luluka is, as usual, totally unbothered, and is content to wait for the Crystal to come to them (I don't know if she just assumed it will, or if Mashutan did a fortune-telling thing off screen).
Anna uses the Pre-Kit Gloss to manifest a patissière outfit (since they don't have any extras) and she and Kurea get to work. Anna only helps with the actual prep and baking part, with Kurea taking over for the decorating.
And...somehow she manages to make the EXACT SAME cake Anna's mom bought her in 2027?!
Yeah, not sure how she did that. Like, yes, it's a pretty standard type of decoration (white icing with dollops and strawberries) but still...how?!
Anna's time at the bakery gets interrupted by Mikuru calling her to come fight, and Kurea lets her go without any problem. Does she know what's going on? Maybe.
So the Hanninda ends up being the bunny toy from the opening case (can't remember if this is the first time something from an opening case ended up being relevant later like this without the owner being an active client). Oh, also Anna and Mikuru have another bonding moment before the battle where Mikuru reassures Anna she'll try harder to be someone Anna can rely on.
Despite Luluka tagging along, she barely contributes to the battle, only appearing transformed for like 5 minutes max, and only to pay Goemon back for the ice cream. She does try to pin down Cure Answer with a giant carrot though.
Eventually everyone goes back to the bakery to get the cake, which Kurea has further embellished with little marzipan decorations of Anna, Mikuru, Jett, and Pochitan.
She must be a very good decorator to make stuff of that much detail out of marzipan sheesh. Plus she added that stuff on the side too.
Mikuru has to once again cover for Pochitan talking, and Kurea goes along with Pochitan being a pouch a little too easily IMO. 😅 The episode ends with everyone digging into the cake happily.
Overall, I did like this episode, though we didn't get the lore drops everyone expected. As someone who works in a grocery store bakery and enjoys watching videos of cake decorating, I really liked the parts with Kurea. After this, she's definitely my frontrunner for being Éclair (the dessert connection notwithstanding).
Episode 18 I'm really excited about though, because of this:
Yep, the Detective PreCures are collabing with Detective Conan! I mean, it kind of makes sense - they're both shows about kid detectives and Detective Conan has been around since 1994 so the timing lines up with Star Detective's 1999 setting. (Heck, both shows even have "Meitantei" in their titles!) It would've been weird if it didn't happen TBH. It also explains the videos the official PreCure YouTube channel kept putting up showing Conan and one of the Meitantei Cures in some sort of museum, always just missing each other.
(Conan is also no stranger to phantom thieves, as the phantom thief Kaito Kid, the protagonist of Gosho Aoyama's series Magic Kaito, frequently makes appearances in Detective Conan).
Toei released a trailer teasing both sides of the collab:
Based on this, it seems that the two characters must exist in the same universe, since Conan's friends know about the PreCures and Mikuru is shown looking starstruck over Conan. That could just be a retcon for this collab I guess though. (This is a bit of a homecoming for Conan's seiyuu, though, as she also voiced Dark PreCure in HeartCatch. This led to some joking on the r/PreCure subreddit). Unlike the Episode 18 preview, which only showed the PreCure side of the collab, this trailer shows both - Conan and co visiting Makoto Mirai Town in Star Detective PreCure this week, and Cure Answer visiting Detective Conan on June 6th. (Not sure how only Cure Answer could go there when she and Mikuru need to transform together, but maybe she gets transported there after having already transformed, since she's only shown in her Cure form in the Conan side of the preview).
We know from the PreCure side that Conan will be accompanied by Ran/Rachel and her dad, as is common during investigations in Detective Conan. This stung for me a bit when I first found it out, because it was recently made public that Ran's original seiyuu died last month. Most likely this episode will feature her new seiyuu instead.
This preview also seems to confirm that, at least on the PreCure side, Anna will be the one tranquilized for Conan's usual "mystery solving" speech, rather than Mr. Moore as usual. (I know he will give it, because Conan is shown speaking into his bow tie in the same shot as Anna is shown unconscious, and that's where his voice changer gadget is).
It also seems that the weird museum owner from episode 11 is back in this episode. Guess she didn't lose her job after being exposed for intent to commit fraud (by displaying fake artifacts). Looks like the Phantom Thieves are going to ruin her day once again though.
Anyways, very excited to see how this collab plays out, as I am a fan of both franchises (for Conan, I've only read the manga, and only about 40 volumes of the 100+ that exist, but still). I may even watch both halves, since Crunchyroll has Detective Conan as well.
Also, Conan's catchphrase is "There is always only one truth!" which I'm sure the lie-hating Anna would definitely appreciate.
[Screenshots from PreCure Wiki; Star Detective/Detective Conan collab promo pic from @otaku-republic]
we need to talk about the audacity of this little shit to come into our house, tranquilize our main character to do his usual deduction shtick, and then a week later invite her into his house to do the same shit again
Oh crud I didn't make that connection. I knew the bow tie was where his voice changer was (I've read a decent amount of the Detective Conan manga) but since Mr. Moore (or whatever his Japanese name is - the English manga uses different names for the most part, except for Conan himself, whose name just gets put in Western order) is also in the Star Detective PreCure half of the crossover, I assumed he'd knock out Mr. Moore per usual. Not sure about the Detective Conan half of the crossover though.
So cutting it a bit close on this one again... could've done it on either of my days off honestly but was kind of too tired to do anything.
Anyway, this episode was a focus on Eliza (or whatever her name is), the mystery writer who was the client in episode 2. She's also a potential Éclair candidate. Honestly, seeing the title was "Detective Ellie's Case Book," I thought the "Ellie" in question was Eliza herself, but apparently Ellie is actually the name of the main character of her novels (though given the name similarity, the possibility of Ellie being a self-insert type character is probably pretty likely 😅).
Anyway, the girls are chilling in the agency with Pochitan as the episode starts, and Mikuru is reading what looks like a manga or novel (probably not a light novel since I don't think those existed in 1999...the book looks typical tankoubon size at any rate). It turns out this is one of Eliza's books, the "Detective Ellie's Case Files" of the title. Mikuru finishes it and comments on how great it is and how great a writer Eliza is. And then literal moments later, Eliza herself stumbles in, asking them to hire her as a detective.
After the opening credits, we learn that Eliza's looking for ideas for her newest book, a sequel to the Ellie book Mikuru was reading, and thinks moonlighting as a Star Detective will help inspire her. Now if this was any other PreCure series, where the Cures only use their powers to fight monsters and are otherwise totally normal girls, this premise would not work. However, Anna and Mikuru are also detectives as civilians, so it works.
They also get a client right away - a kid Jett found while out on a walk who lost his cat Miko. (I think this might be the first client Jett actually found). A pretty simple case, sure, but TBH this is a show for kids. Eliza gets super into it, donning cat ears and a cat tail so she can "think like a cat." Not really sure if that would actually work, but to her credit she does look cute.
Over at the Villain Theater, Usonoir detects another Makoto Jewel. This time Ageseine begs for a chance, but to everyone's surprise he asks Arcana Shadow to go. I don't know what he thinks she can do, since unlike the other thieves she can't create Hannindas, but she did manage to almost pull a heist off by herself in episode 11, so I guess he assumes she can handle it. Either that or he's suddenly keeping an eye on her more now that the Star Detectives know about her. (He might also be getting frustrated with the other thieves, to be fair). Luluka is as surprised as anyone, but agrees to go, cause like, she can't really say no after all (even if, as she said before, no one controls her moves but her, defying Usonoir would probably derail whatever her grand plan is).
For being even more of an amateur detective than our protagonists, Eliza still manages pretty well during the investigation. She's not perfect by any means, and overall she does seem kinda ditzy at times. She doesn't try to steal the spotlight or make things all about her or anything though. Which is nice honestly.
The girls don't have much luck at first. They do stumble across a cat who resembles Miko, but the cat's fur is too short, so they assume it can't be the cat they're looking for. (This becomes important later). Meanwhile, Jett babysits Miko's owner and helps him make and pass out lost cat flyers, which is pretty nice of him. (I get the feeling that Jett is one of those characters who acts tough but is actually really kind).
Anna and Mikuru suddenly remember they can talk to cats now (thanks to the Pre-Kit Gummies) so they decide to ask the nearby cats if they saw Miko. Honestly, I don't know why they didn't think of this sooner, but to be fair they had Eliza with them, so they probably couldn't talk about them openly. We even get to see a glimpse of their conversation with this one cat from Eliza's perspective, which just sounds like the girls are meowing the whole time. Surprisingly, this doesn't faze her at all, and she admires the girls for committing so hard to the bit of "thinking like a cat." 😆 I don't know if this was just intended to make Eliza seem like a ditz, but I do appreciate that we at least got to see an outsider's POV of what using the Pre-Kit Gummies is like.
Unfortunately, talking to the cats doesn't end up helping, so the girls go back to Jett and Miko's owner to see if they can find more clues. The boy says Miko ran away that afternoon, after his mom came home from the salon. They ask if she had changed her appearance somehow, but he says no. The camera pans to a nearby pet grooming salon, and finally the girls put two and two together - the mom took MIKO to the salon, where she was groomed. They realize this also means that the cat with short hair that looked like Miko actually was Miko all along, just with shorter hair than their reference photo due to having been groomed.
So they head back to where they were searching before and find Miko - in the arms of Luluka. Obviously the girls are immediately suspicious. Luluka is also disappointed, cause she wanted to keep petting the cats in the area. Luluka also mentions that she is there because apparently Miko's collar has a Makoto Jewel in it, though she hasn't found it yet. Jett gets Eliza and Miko's owner to safety, and a fight ensues.
Per usual, the girls and Arcana Shadow trade some blows. Then Ageseine shows up, revealing she has the collar (despite being rejected for the job, she had headed out into town anyway, where she at one point gets scared by some alley cats). Arcana Shadow decides to leave at this point, leaving the battle in Ageseine's hands (since she hadn't wanted to come in the first place anyway). Ageseine has no problem with this, I guess, since she just turns the collar into a Hanninda per usual. (Arcana Shadow I think just bails after this). Hilariously, the Hanninda actually calls itself a Hanninyan instead, as a cat pun (nyan being Japanese onomatopoeia for a meow). The girls actually struggle against it a bit, but then Mystique pulls out her own new finisher. I expected hers to be different from Answer's entirely, but nope, she has a sword too. The main difference is that hers is more like a fencing sword. I also saw people say her attack is more of a thrust while Answer's is a slashing attack.
Not sure when the last time was that we saw a magical girl using a fencing sword. Probably Umi in Magic Knight Rayearth honestly.
Anyway, they win the battle, get the Jewel, give the collar back to the kid, and go home.
Eliza decides she's had enough detective shadowing and tells the girls how much she admires them, and they part ways.
The next time we see the girls, they're apparently reading Eliza's new book already?? Wasn't she still writing it?? Idk. Anyway they comment again on how cool Eliza is and wonder what it would be like if Eliza based characters on them in her next book. (It would be cool if they did actually do this somehow, kind of like how Haruka/Cure Flora's roommate - and the girls' Secret Keeper of sorts - Yui wrote a picture book about the Princess PreCures after the events of Go! Princess PreCure).
Unlike the Rei focus episode this was more like an actual filler episode. Mystique's new attack is honestly the only thing that keeps it from being total filler, and even that comes out of nowhere honestly. Episode 17 was revealed (via the Next Episode Preview) to be focused on Kurea, the pastry chef Éclair candidate, so we'll see if that episode ends up being more filler too or not.
They really are being SO secretive about Éclair. Why are they doing this?? We're almost to mid-season territory; they've got to give us something! I think Éclair's toys are supposed to come out in June or July iirc. She would definitely need to have debuted before the Star Detective PreCure movie comes out in September (though hopefully not too close to it, so they don't have to shoehorn her in like they did with Cure Majesty in All Stars F). She's also featured in the art and trailer for some PreCure event (or exhibit or something) happening at Sunshine City in Tokyo starting July 31st, so I think she will debut by then at least.
I don't have much to say about this episode. It was cute but mostly just fine to me. I guess after the Rei episode I expected there to be something of major plot relevance here, but there was not. Which is fine, of course.
I guess we'll see what Episode 17 brings! Aside from being a Kurea focus episode, it's called "Memories of Mother," so maybe we'll finally find out more about Mikuru's mom (though based on the preview the episode seems more Anna-focused). We'll just have to wait and see!
Actually doing this right after the episode aired for once!
So as I said, this episode was called "The Secret of Moria Luluka," but ironically we don't get much in the way of big lore drops like you would expect. I guess they're saving that for when Luluka properly joins the team.
Anyway, the episode is still mostly about the girls and Jett reading the Important Letter from London™ and investigating based on it, though.
What we learn from the letter is:
Cure Arcana Shadow's true identity is a girl named Moria Luluka, born November 1, 1983.
Before working in Makoto Mirai Town, she was a genius detective who solved many difficult cases for the London branch.
Luluka was in London two years prior (which was when the photo of her included with the Important Letter was taken).
She disappeared when the Makoto Jewel was shattered.
The shattering happened at a lake near Makoto Mirai Town.
In other words, not a lot really. Now, as the villains implied in Episode 13, this could be the London office holding out on them, or it could be just that they just sent the bare minimum of info per some standard procedure. (When closeups of the letter are shown, most of the text is unreadable, plus there are darker spots that kind of make me think of how they redact things in sensitive documents...so honestly you could go either way on this).
Also I kind of love that Luluka is a fellow Scorpio. That makes me feel closer to her somehow 😄 It also fits her personality, as Scorpio is a sign of intensity and "still waters run deep." It's also a fixed sign, representing strong will and a resistance to change, which fits well with her too. (As a bonus, her Chinese zodiac sign is the Pig, and her element is water again as well).
The photo that accompanies the letter was, as I said, taken in London two years prior.
That this is the most recent photo the London branch has of her suggests that she maybe got reassigned to the Makoto Mirai office around that time. It's also, interestingly, a casual photo of her in a garden, rather than an official ID photo or anything. Not sure what that means, maybe nothing. She's also surrounded by lilies, a flower that has previously been associated with her. White lilies in hanakotoba (Japanese flower language) mean purity, chastity, and innocence, much like what we associate them with in the West. A younger, happier Luluka being surrounded by them in the photo is probably a visual cue that she was pure and innocent once upon a time, even if she isn't so now.
(Also this is the first time we've seen Luluka in a color other than black. It's been widely speculated that Arcana Shadow's Cure outfit might change from black to white when she's "redeemed" and properly joins the team, and here we finally get to see her in white. Some people are annoyed by this, though, saying black goes better with her light-colored hair in terms of contrast, and are hoping that her Cure outfit doesn't change color).
Later on in the episode, we learn that the Makoto Jewel shattering only took place six months ago, and if that's when Luluka joined the thieves then she really IS a newbie. She seems pretty integrated for the most part, though. But then, she is a genius, so she probably learned quickly.
Jett also mentions that the London office investigated the area where the shattering took place pretty thoroughly already (we see a flashback of a bunch of fairies investigating with magnifying glasses...it's kinda cute actually). So clearly they thought there was something to find there, I guess.
In the recent Luluka-focused episodes, the Hanninda battles have largely been secondary, with the girls fighting Arcana Shadow more than the Hannindas, but this episode it was particularly obvious that they just stuck one in to fulfill some kind of quota or something. The girls are full into investigating the bridge where the shattering took place when Pochitan randomly senses a Makoto Jewel and once again manifests a bag strap and yanks Anna away by force at top speed to go find it (we haven't seen this gag in a while, so I'd forgotten she could even do that TBH). Though as it turns out, speed was actually helpful as they were able to catch the thief almost red-handed in this case. Which was probably useful cause the Villain of the Day was Ageseine, who we know is more likely to steal and dash anyway. (Nijee once again asked to be sent but got denied). That it was Ageseine does actually end up being relevant to some reveals at the end of the episode, though, which is probably why the writers picked her for the thief in this episode.
The person being stolen from ended up being Utsumi, the photographer from way back in episode 1. He got so distracted trying to take a picture of a butterfly that he ran off, leaving his main camera on top of his bag while taking the picture with his spare one. In fact, this was how the girls deduced that the original Utsumi they met was a fake, because Mikuru noticed the person kept fiddling with the bag flap, like they were trying to stuff something inside, which was proof that they didn't know how to store the camera properly, like an actual photographer would. Seriously, Ageseine, rookie mistake 🙄 (She also says "I saw someone running that way," pointing toward the lake, which would make no sense really, and the girls quickly point out if someone had run that way, they would've seen them since they just came from the lake).
Ageseine also just used costuming to do her disguise this time, more like Nijee does, as opposed to makeup which seems to be her usual M.O. Maybe it's because she had to do it in a hurry (in the later flashback we see her in her normal form right behind Utsumi as he's rushing off to take the photo).
Anyway, the girls manage to blast the Hanninda away temporarily, and Ageseine runs after it. The girls take a moment to breathe, but then Luluka shows up. She had shown up earlier, when they had just started investigating, but left rather quickly (complete with a Random Dramatic Wind to cover her disappearance), but this time she seems ready for a fight. (She also asks them if they found anything in their investigating, and deduces they did when they don't answer, another example of her excellent deductive skills). She transforms, and they go at it. Mystique is able to block Arcana Star Rain with her shield, and Answer is able to dodge its projectiles at one point, showing that that attack isn't as much of an issue for them anymore, and Arcana Shadow does seem somewhat impressed by this. Answer blocks Arcana Shadow's rod at one point, telling her that she wants to help her, since she could tell from the photo that Luluka was happy once, and that helping people is what detectives do. Luluka refuses the offer, though, saying that detectives don't help people--they take requests, and she didn't request help from them.
We then get one of the few big lore drops in the episode - Arcana Shadow reveals that she chose to join the Phantom Thieves, that she's not "enveloped in Usonoir's lies" (which I guess kills the brainwashing theory). She, of course, does not tell us why she did so (because Luluka never elaborates on stuff), only that no one controls her moves but her. Shortly after this, she decides to just end the battle and go get ice cream, but not without warning Answer and Mystique that some cases can't be solved by sleuthing alone.
(Oh also Ageseine and the Hanninda do end up returning during all this too, and Answer and Mystique are forced to focus on defeating the Hanninda and getting the Makoto Jewel back, despite wanting to find out more from Arcana Shadow).
After the battle, we see Luluka and Mashutan in what I'm assuming is the lobby area of the Villain Theater, which I have to say looks absolutely gorgeous. (We had seen a bit of the stairwell in an earlier episode, but we see much more here).
Mashutan chides Luluka for how she acted toward the girls, but Luluka says it'll be a while before Anna and Mikuru can solve "that mystery" (basically that they don't have enough power yet, or something) and that she's going to give up trying to pursue the letter. We then see a flashback of Usonoir's attack on the Makoto Jewel Crystal. It's similar to what we saw before (and even earlier in this episode) except that now we see that Luluka witnessed it, and by the way she looks, it seems that maybe she tried to stop Usonoir but wasn't able to, and is now being forced to helplessly watch him possibly win. However, a wind suddenly blows through, and some blue figure appears to stop Usonoir, who Luluka seems shocked to see. This figure is probably Éclair, given that, much like the original flashback, we see the reflection of a blue butterfly in someone's eyes, though it's in Luluka's eyes this time. So this naturally opens up a wave of speculation. What was Luluka doing there? Did she try to stop Usonoir alone? Why weren't she and Éclair fighting together (if they were partners as most fans suspect)? Did whatever happened that night have something to do with why Luluka joined the Thieves? So many more questions.
The butterfly motif doesn't just appear there, though. While investigating the bridge with the Loupes, Anna finds a strange little square of what she thinks is paper.
Now I suspected this was a photo from the start, since it looks a lot like the photos that come out of my Instax mini. But it's only confirmed to be so at the end of the episode, when the girls show it to Utsumi. Which makes sense, cause as a photographer he would recognize a photo when he sees it. He says it's from a "new type of camera" that prints out pictures as soon as you take them. I didn't know these types of cameras were new in 1999, especially considering Polaroids go back to I think the 1970s at least. Maybe they were just new to Japan? I guess this could be a smaller model, considering how small the photo itself is (ones from Polaroids are bigger, since the cameras themselves are bigger). We learn in Luluka's flashback at the end that Ageseine was actually the one who took the photo, since she wanted to capture Usonoir capturing the Crystal, for some reason. (This actually fits well with her comment upon defeat, saying she could've gotten a picture of the Cures losing if she'd had her "new camera." At one point, Ageseine also says "I'll take a picture of you losing and print you a copy" as a sort of taunt, and NGL that was a throwback for me, cause I remember well how, when developing photos physically was the norm, you needed to make copies of photos if you wanted multiples).
Anyway, the photo is really faded (not sure why if it was only taken 6 months ago - my Instax mini photos definitely last longer than that - but then it was exposed to the elements that whole time, presumably while the picture was still developing as well, so that might explain it. Also per the flashback it was taken at night - cameras back then didn't have the "low light" advances modern cameras have - and probably wasn't focused, being taken from as far away as she was...though to be fair I can rarely take non-blurry pictures on my Instax mini either 😅). But nothing the magic of the Loupes can't solve! (Honestly, I swear they added that function for plot convenience, cause it's never been brought up till now). The girls use the Loupe to focus on the picture, and a picture of a blue butterfly is revealed. It's really close up and pretty indistinct, but still, a clue I guess!
This episode also had some funny moments. In the one typical Villain Theater scene, Nijee's on stage, apologizing for his blunder in retrieving the letter and offering to make up for it, and he eventually tries to shift the blame to Arcana Shadow. Usonoir then asks where Arcana Shadow is, which I found interesting as they never seemed to notice she was gone before when she was (I guess everyone needs to be present for team meetings but are otherwise free to go wherever). Nijee scoffs that she's probably off hiding in shame, but then a voice says "I'm right here, I've been here the whole time," and the camera pans up to Luluka's box, where we see...Mashutan, dressed as Arcana Shadow.
The funny thing is that Mashutan actually thought she could sub for Arcana Shadow and no one would notice. Even Nijee points out that she isn't fooling anyone. 😆 Thankfully, Luluka does actually return right around then, and is able to justify her absence by saying she was looking for info on the letter, which we know is actually true. She also compliments Mashutan, saying she looks cute, which I guess suggests Luluka didn't know Mashutan had dressed up as her actually. Right after this, Mashutan does her fortune-telling and reveals the Important Letter will help the detectives find another secret (likely the photo).
We also see both Mashutan and Pochitan in mascot outfits during the battle trying to cheer on their teams.
Pochitan can apparently just manifest hers out of thin air. Also Pochitan does hers in response to Mashutan cheering for Arcana Shadow, almost out of competitiveness, which makes it funnier. (Mashutan's cheering doesn't seem as effective or enthusiastic though, likely because she has a calmer voice overall, and also because compared to Mystique, who Pochitan was cheering for, Arcana Shadow is a mouthful of a name 😂).
I'm pretty sure that both these scenes are not-so-subtle advertisements for the costume set that came out along with the Mashutan Talking Plush toy a few weeks ago, which features costumes for both Pochitan and Mashutan. 👇🏻
At the very end, when the girls are using the Loupes on the photo, they also are able to spot ice cream on Jett's face and call him out for it. He says he got a craving after hearing Arcana Shadow mention it. It would be funny to see if Luluka and Jett bond over a shared love of sweets when Luluka ends up joining the team haha.
Anyway, like I said, not actually as many reveals as we thought, but still, progress. Next week's episode is one focusing on Eliza the writer, the client from episode 2 and another possible Éclair candidate. Wonder if that'll be as plot relevant as episode 14??
[Anna with photo and Pochitan and Mashutan in costumes pics from @nijigasakilove; Mashutan at theater in costume pic from @kirayabaultrahappy; Luluka in garden pic from @thebluestrokes; Pochitan and Mashutan merch pic from Tokullectibles]
[Edited to add Villain Theater lobby pics now that the PreCure Wiki had episode 15 screenshots]
If tumblr spoilers me anymore about the new Meitantei Precure episode I’m gonna crash out! Like I’m 7 episodes behind let me catch up before I get spoiled☹️
This is why I've been tagging my Meitantei posts with at least one spoiler warning tag and putting my "thoughts" posts under "read more" cuts, because while I am mostly good about following shows week to week, some other shows I've been behind on for various reasons (didn't hear about it right away, was too tired to watch shows, Crunchyroll on my TV wouldn't let me scroll down and/or otherwise navigate the app, etc). A couple days ago I finally caught back up on Mao, Rumiko Takahashi's new series that is on Hulu, which I was three episodes behind on. (And now another episode just dropped, so I have another to watch). There are also some other new shows I haven't gotten to yet that I want to, like Witch Hat Atelier and Agents of the Four Seasons. So I figure trying to avoid spreading spoilers is a considerate thing to do.
I do admit I have often included pictures at the top of my posts that are probably spoilers though 😞 I wish there was a way to hide those like on Reddit and Threads, but if there is one I don't know what it is.
So I realized that a new episode of Star Detective is dropping soon so I figured I should make this post about last week's ep to stay caught up.
So this episode was kind of deceptive. It's called "Pochitan's First Outing" and the preview makes you think it's going to be a cute little filler episode to balance out the intense episode 13. Even I thought that's what it was going to be. Like, they would have been totally justified in doing that IMO, and it's not like PreCure hasn't done it before.
However, while not deceptively dark like, say, the night pool episode of Hugtto PreCure (which could've been a happy filler episode if Hana wasn't so traumatized by recent reveals), this episode did actually end up being plot relevant. Who'd have thought?
So the episode mostly focuses on Kameda Rei, the student council president at Anna and Mikuru's school, and another Éclair candidate. She's the typical "so dedicated she's scary" student council member we often see in anime. But as one would expect, she's actually a really nice, kind person underneath, except no one has really gotten to know her because they're so scared of her. While this does play to a classic trope, I relate to this, since according to some online quiz I took a while ago, I'm a kuudere, which is basically what this trope is as well.
Anyway, she notices Pochitan hanging from Anna's bag and asks if she has permission to bring said thing to school. (IRL Japanese schools are rather strict about this I think so this makes sense). Aside from having to cover for Pochitan accidentally talking again (a constant issue with more baby-like mascots in PreCure especially 😆), the girls have to admit that they don't. They get off with a warning the first time, but obviously don't want to get in trouble again, so the next day they leave Pochitan at the agency instead.
Unfortunately Pochitan is none too happy to be left at home. So, when later on, a strange goat shows up with the Important Letter from London™ (the one with the intel on Arcana Shadow that Jett requested), and Jett mentions that he's going to wait till Anna and Mikuru get back to open it, Pochitan decides to take matters into her own hands and deliver it herself. She sucks it into her head jewel pocket dimension and flies off while Jett is distracted.
(Also not sure why Curetto Detective Agency uses a talking goat for their inter-agency mail delivery but ok. 😆 I saw someone say the goat wouldn't be out of place in Wonderful PreCure, and honestly they're so right haha)
At some point, though, Jett realizes Pochitan is missing and calls the girls on the Pre-Kit Memo to let them know. (Probably a good move, since they know the enemies are interested in Pochitan's power).
Oh, speaking of the thieves, they apparently have their own animal message system, cause shortly after the Goat Mail Delivery scene, we see a message arriving at the Villain Theater, carried by a mysterious owl (I guess Owl Post exists in this universe 😅). Nijee catches the message and reveals that the Cures received a letter from London. Since we know from last episode that the thieves are well aware of the Curetto Detective Agency base in London, they all basically know where the letter came from. (Plus, if the thieves - other than Luluka - are fairies as Jett previously stated, they may have once worked for the agency anyway).
None of the thieves, besides Nijee, seem all too interested in this new info - well, except Luluka, who seems uneasy about the reveal. Mushutan does her prophecy thing and reveals that the letter contains something Luluka does not want revealed, which based on her reaction seems to be what Luluka figured it was anyway. Nijee, meanwhile, decides he's going to intercept the letter. Because of course he does. (He honestly was the perfect thief for this episode, because he is the kind of person to do reckless stuff like that). Luluka obviously also decides to retrieve the letter, though on her own (I doubt she'd want to pair up with Nijee anyway).
We go back to Rei, who is reading in the library but gets distracted by some kids loudly playing nearby. She goes over to them and reminds them libraries are quiet places. They say that's boring, so she decides to read them a picture book. While she's doing so, Pochitan, who is flying nearby (after getting a little lost trying to find the girls' school, to her distress), overhears Rei reading through an open window and flies closer to see what's going on (and probably learn some new words - earlier, when the girls are on their way to school, Pochitan very cutely points out the sounds various things make, which seems very much like a baby trying to learn new words 😄).
Rei eventually gets to the end of the picture book, which the kids say they liked. The kids' mom arrives to retrieve them, and Rei goes back to her own reading, only to find Pochitan there. She has a bit of a freakout (for obvious reasons) but gradually warms to Pochitan (cause how could you not).
The girls track Pochitan's footprints to the library using the Loupes, though they notice they stop at the bushes near the windows. Mikuru points out that Pochitan can fly (not sure how they forgot that). They eventually see Pochitan with Rei, and end up talking to her. Rei kindly offers to help them gain permission to bring Pochitan to school, on the grounds that she's a member of their detective agency (which I guess is kinda true). They're surprised she would help them, and Rei says that the clover-like badge she wears is one that has been passed down from one student council president to another, and that when she put it on, she took on the responsibility of helping fellow students that came with it, and that she takes that seriously.
Then the girls remember why they came there in the first place, and Anna asks Pochitan why she left the agency. Pochitan reveals that she brought the girls a letter (not adding context, obviously, due to her limited vocabulary). Unfortunately, around this time, both Nijee and Luluka show up to try to get the letter. Rei's badge also manifests a Makoto Jewel - out of her feelings of commitment and loyalty, probably - which Nijee turns into a Hanninda.
Unfortunately, thanks to the special villain barrier that blocks battles from the outside world, everyone but Rei suddenly disappears. We actually see this from her POV too, so now we at least know what it looks like to outsiders when people disappear behind this barrier. Luluka transformed before the barrier went up I think though, so I guess Rei saw that?? (I saw someone say she noticeably reacts when Nijee says the name "Arcana Shadow" too, which, if she IS Éclair, either solely or a part of her - since the popular theory now is that Éclair got split up between the four candidates somehow - is significant).
Anyway, the battle is pretty typical, although since Nijee and Arcana Shadow are not working together in this, Answer and Mystique are stuck mostly fighting Arcana Shadow and ignoring the Hanninda entirely, much to Nijee's annoyance. He literally has to call their attention to him by being like "Uh, hello! We're here too, remember?" 😆
They beat the Hanninda, get the Makoto Jewel, and everyone reappears. I imagine Rei is pretty confused at this point. 😅 The girls even attempt to awkwardly explain what happened, but Rei stops them, saying "Detectives must have their secrets" and leaves it at that. They give Rei her badge back too, of course. Rei also says they can just call her "Rei," which if you know anything about Japanese honorifics is kind of a big deal.
Unfortunately, while everyone's distracted, Mushutan grabs the letter from Pochitan (how she held on to it the whole battle I don't know). So when Jett calls for an update, the girls have to admit they lost it.
However, once Luluka goes to open it in a nearby alley, we learn that...Pochitan actually grabbed the wrong letter. She grabbed a random invoice for Jett's candy delivery. (And there seem to be several envelopes matching that one on his desk...why does he have so many?? Is he saving them to claim them as a business expense or something?). Nijee's look of surprise and disappointment when Luluka shows him the invoice says it all.
Back at the agency, Jett explains the situation to the girls and reveals the real letter, but naturally the episode ends before we get to see what it says. Boo!
Oh I forgot to mention that Cure Answer got a new solo finisher in this episode. It's the one pictured in the first pic at the top of the post. It's called PreCure Answer Hanamaru Sword and looks freaking awesome. I also didn't realize till watching the official clip of the attack from the Toei Animation YouTube that the Mirror Loupe acts as the hilt for the sword in the attack, which is really cool.
Mystique is supposed to have a solo finisher too, per the audio in the Mirror Loupe toy, supposedly called Mystique Strike. Not sure when we're going to see that though.
Episode 15 is called "The Secret of Moria Luluka" (a nice matchup with episode 12, "The Secret of Arcana Shadow") and is supposed to reveal what the Important Letter from London™ said. Will probably be watching it tonight so will let you know my thoughts!
[Hirogaru Sky gif from Tenor; Nijee pic from PreCure Wiki]
Okay but somewhat-deliberately underselling my reaction to the episode aside,
1) I wonder what Mikuru's finisher will be?
2) Rei knows like, at LEAST 70% of the Precures' secrets now. That's a lot for a supporting character the episode she's introduced, this early in the season.
3) ... Yeah, I'm coming around to the theory that Cure Eclair isn't one single person who we've been introduced to yet, but potentially a Marie Ange/Regina/Ai/Aguri sort of situation where all these different people have fragments of her, which could go along with the Makoto Jewel itself shattering. Of course, the situation in Dokidoki ended with Marie Ange gone for good, which... doesn't seem likely to be the case for Cure Eclair.
4) Oh yeah and Pochitan's an adorable baby right yeah sure.
1) Apparently her attack is "Mystique Strike" according to the audio in the Mirror Loupe toy. We'll see if that actually plays out in the anime though.
2) Yeah episode 14 did make Rei a big contender for me, even as someone who hasn't been following the Éclair candidate thing that much. Of course it might also just be wishful thinking on my part, because I really like Cure Finale, who was also a student council president turned Cure.
3) I hadn't thought about it being like an Aguri/Cure Ace sort of situation. That could explain why Luluka is working with the thieves, if part of Éclair was one of the Thieves' members (like how Regina was). That being said, I feel like Luluka herself almost has the Regina role in this series. She seems to have pride of place among the thieves, with Usonoir using her as a messenger and her generally being allowed to do what she wants and go where she pleases (the only one who really makes her tag along on missions is Goemon). Nijee and Ageseine don't seem to like her all that much either, which I think was also true of Regina? IMO she seems inspired by both Regina and maybe Ruru (with how she's treated as the team newbie and thus not worth much concern -- Goemon is the only one who treats her as anywhere close to an equal, despite Luluka not seeming to like him all that much, which is kind of reminiscent of the dynamic between Ruru and Dr. Traum after they both become good guys).
4) Yeah Pochitan is definitely meant to be a cute baby mascot for sure 😆
1) So potentially a physical attack like a punch or something? That could be interesting - especially since it's been a while since someone other than the lead Cure got a dedicated physical punch or striking attack. (The closest I'd say is Magic Hour End, which is more of a magically-aided slash really.)
2) I was liking Shiruku for Eclair potentially since we'd seen the most of her out of the potentials before this episode, but Rei having the hairpin that looks JUST like Eclair's motif is also pretty strong evidence itself... Except that, also judging from the toys, it sounds like Eclair might KNOW Arcana Shadow, and neither Rei nor Luluka seemed to recognize each other (and Rei even got to see Luluka AS Arcana Shadow,) nor did Mashutan recognize Rei. Now, it's a toy leak, so who knows the context... but it is INTERESTING to me, because Rei would otherwise far and away be the strongest candidate now were it not for that, hence why I'm wondering if there isn't something else going on.
3) My guesses for Luluka are either that she's a deep cover agent who's only working with the Phantom Thieves to figure out a weakness... OR, going off episode 13, that even if she's genuinely with them she's still working against Usonoir. It's interesting to me that that episode showed Nijee and Ageseine were also - and OPENLY - freaked out about Usonoir showing up in person, to the point where Luluka could say to Nijee "yeah Ageseine is trying to stop him." It could be their working for him is less for the sake of enveloping the world in lies, and more because they're scared of his power and think he'll be the winning side? (And then that leaves Goemon as the seeming contrast, which... beyond the scope of this espevially when everything with Nijee and Ageseine is speculative going off one episode.)
Either way, I think Luluka's sincere about her more flexible attitude towards lies - that they can be used to expose secrets, that the emotions you attach to something that ultimately isn't true ARE real - and that her role with the Phantom Thieves is part of it. If she's sincere, maybe she wants to MAKE Usonoir's power a lie like "everyone wishes it was." And if she isn't... well, then, her entire character to this point is lying for the greater good of stopping the Phantom Thieves. I tend to lean towards the double agent theory - it was the one I got watching episodes 11 and 12, and it would explain, for instance, the still-quite-upbeat music accompanying her transformation (just compare it to Twilight's transformation with the black perfume from GoPri.) It could also potentially explain why she's in the end sequence when Eclair isn't, starting it distinct from the Answer-Mystique duo but ending with them as a trio - we KNOW from Dear Shine Sky that Toei's willing to add another Cure to the ending after its formal debut, so the fact that the song is structured the way it is to give Arcana Shadow a focus in the second half of the verse (where the song's about how things people say shouldn't just be trusted immediately, no less!) and the choreography makes her as central as the other two is very interesting to me. We've had Cures who debuted but hadn't joined the team yet excluded from the endings, didn't we, in Happiness Charge? (I still haven't seen that season yet but I know its first ending is a duo one and I'm pretty sure Lovely is the last one of their team to actually BECOME a Cure, Honey and Fortune are both Cures before the season starts along with Princess.)
1) A punch would make sense. The girls' original finisher attack before they got the Loupe was kind of a physical attack, but I don't think it involved any punching. If anything, it reminded me of the finishers in Suite, complete with them landing on the other side of the monster and it then blowing up. Also considering Mystique's other solo attack is defensive, her getting an offensive attack to complement it would be a nice touch, rather than making her strictly defensive. Also since Anna is the one who is most strongly against lying, her getting a sword attack makes more sense - it's like a "sword of truth" cutting through lies.
My opinion is that once the initial trio comes together, we'll have Answer as the front line fighter, Mystique as support with her shield move, and Arcana Shadow as a long-range attacker (since the only attack we've seen her use is a long-range projectile attack). No idea about Éclair as of yet, though since her name can mean "lightning" in French, she could be a speed-based attacker. She could even do aerial attacks given her butterfly motif (though it seems Arcana Shadow has a bit of a butterfly motif as well in the back). Though if she was the one who shattered the Makoto Jewel, she also probably hits pretty hard.
2) I saw someone point out that Rei notably reacts to the name Arcana Shadow when she hears it in episode 14, which might mean it means something to her, even if she doesn't know why. She's also the first Éclair candidate we've had a focus episode on since Arcana Shadow debuted. Eliza the mystery writer is getting a focus in Episode 16 (based on the released synopsis) so we'll see if anything similar happens there.
I do agree that Shiruku gets a lot of attention in her focus episode. If she is a legit Éclair candidate, she might get a further focus like Eliza is getting (Rei had also appeared earlier in the show - in episode 5 I think - before her focus episode, while Eliza was the client in episode 2).
Since we know next to nothing about Éclair, it's hard to specifically say one candidate over the other has the better chance, since we don't know what her personality is/was like. If, as most fans suspect, Arcana Shadow and Éclair were a duo, a more upbeat character would be a good pairing with Luluka's much more serious, almost deadpan personality. (The synopsis for episode 15 says she was a "genius detective who solved many difficult cases in London," so she could be one of those people who's either so smart life bores her, or the serious smart demeanor is just a front she hides behind, since she does seem to enjoy some things, like makeup - based on her going to Pretty Holic freely - and of course ice cream). In this case, Shiruku or the bakery girl would work well. Rei and Eliza, on the other hand, seem more serious and mature. (Rei takes her job as student body president very seriously, and the synopsis for episode 16 says Eliza asks to be hired as a detective by the agency as inspiration and/or research for her next novel, so they're both pretty serious about what they do, I think). That's not to say that Shiruku and the bakery girl couldn't also be serious - Shiruku really took charge in her episode, helping the drama girls stop freaking out and helping Anna and Mikuru out by offering to stall for time so they could find the dress before the play started. Bakery girl we don't know as much about so hard to say with her.
3) I think what you're saying about Luluka makes a lot of sense. My general impression of her is that, despite working for the bad guys, she doesn't seem actually evil, and isn't actively seeking out Jewels herself for the most part (the only time we've seen her work alone toward that end is in episode 11). Yes, she does seem to have a different view about lies than Anna and Mikuru, but I don't think that means she's evil, even if they think she is. She's two years older than them, for one thing, which in adolescence can mean a lot in terms of mental development, which could just mean she thinks of things differently overall. Also if she was a genius detective (and given her plans in Episodes 11 and 12, she definitely seems very intelligent; even as far back as Episode 4, she was shown to have skill in deductive reasoning), maybe her smarts also make her see things differently. Also, the episode 15 synopsis suggests she was active in London for some time, which means she may have had a different upbringing than them (her name isn't exactly very Japanese sounding, and she has more of a European hair color). Western thought is very different from Eastern thought. London is also a very diverse city, which could have exposed her to a lot of different views.
Anyways, this makes the double agent thing you suggest a lot more likely in my opinion. Previous villain-turned-Cures, like Passion and Beat, were a lot more full-on committed villains, and Luluka doesn't seem that way. I haven't fully ruled out the possibility of her being deeply brainwashed somehow (given that the opening shows Usonoir reaching out for her menacingly and then her appearing in the villain lineup as Arcana Shadow, and we know from episode 13 that Usonoir can mentally control people), though I do admit it would be the more lame explanation (also they kind of bungled that with Gentlu/Amane/Finale in Delicious Party).
I do find it interesting that Arcana Shadow has been in the opening and ending consistently since episode 1, despite not being a part of the team. Luluka appears in the new eyecatch that just debuted too. While Luluka does appear as early as I think episode 2, and is even named as Cure Arcana Shadow by the villains before her proper onscreen debut (in fact, the other thieves exclusively refer to her as Arcana Shadow, even in her civilian form, implying they either don't know her civilian name or don't care), she obviously didn't debut as Arcana Shadow until almost the end of the first cour. They've been positioning Answer, Mystique, and Arcana Shadow as a trio from the start. But with Éclair they're being very secretive for some odd reason. No civilian name revealed, no civilian form even shown (not even on merch that I know of), not even a reveal of her voice actress. Why would Toei do this? If she was supposed to be some sort of twist, they likely wouldn't have put her audio in the toys yet, right? The fact that her audio even is in the toys makes it clear that she does HAVE a voice actress and Toei knows very well who said voice actress is.
That is one thing that makes this show exciting - there's so much to uncover!
Okay but somewhat-deliberately underselling my reaction to the episode aside,
1) I wonder what Mikuru's finisher will be?
2) Rei knows like, at LEAST 70% of the Precures' secrets now. That's a lot for a supporting character the episode she's introduced, this early in the season.
3) ... Yeah, I'm coming around to the theory that Cure Eclair isn't one single person who we've been introduced to yet, but potentially a Marie Ange/Regina/Ai/Aguri sort of situation where all these different people have fragments of her, which could go along with the Makoto Jewel itself shattering. Of course, the situation in Dokidoki ended with Marie Ange gone for good, which... doesn't seem likely to be the case for Cure Eclair.
4) Oh yeah and Pochitan's an adorable baby right yeah sure.
1) Apparently her attack is "Mystique Strike" according to the audio in the Mirror Loupe toy. We'll see if that actually plays out in the anime though.
2) Yeah episode 14 did make Rei a big contender for me, even as someone who hasn't been following the Éclair candidate thing that much. Of course it might also just be wishful thinking on my part, because I really like Cure Finale, who was also a student council president turned Cure.
3) I hadn't thought about it being like an Aguri/Cure Ace sort of situation. That could explain why Luluka is working with the thieves, if part of Éclair was one of the Thieves' members (like how Regina was). That being said, I feel like Luluka herself almost has the Regina role in this series. She seems to have pride of place among the thieves, with Usonoir using her as a messenger and her generally being allowed to do what she wants and go where she pleases (the only one who really makes her tag along on missions is Goemon). Nijee and Ageseine don't seem to like her all that much either, which I think was also true of Regina? IMO she seems inspired by both Regina and maybe Ruru (with how she's treated as the team newbie and thus not worth much concern -- Goemon is the only one who treats her as anywhere close to an equal, despite Luluka not seeming to like him all that much, which is kind of reminiscent of the dynamic between Ruru and Dr. Traum after they both become good guys).
4) Yeah Pochitan is definitely meant to be a cute baby mascot for sure 😆
imo my favorite underrated thing about luluka is how she feels the need to inform anna she's been stalking her by, of all things, passive aggressively telling her how to open the agency window she knows anna has been fiddling around with for days. i love whatever tf is wrong with her.
I did find it funny that, out of all the ways Luluka could've proved that she was telling the truth about the agency previously being hers, she chose the window comment. And no one even questions how she knows that information either. Nor are we told how Luluka knew Anna was struggling with the window to begin with (the first time we even see Luluka in that episode, she's nowhere near the agency). I mean, considering she also is like "you've done a good job fixing up the place," she's clearly been keeping an eye on them (we do know she visited Pretty Holic shortly after it opened, albeit in disguise).
Since she IS named for Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes's nemesis, they're probably playing her up as a sort of sassy rival (in every battle so far, she's kind of toyed with them a little, plus in this same episode, when Jett realizes Arcana Shadow is the one who saved him and Pochitan back in episode 6, she's like "You can't prove that was me" even though we all know Luluka was there).
Okay love me a cure using a sword to fight but why is this new finisher introduced now when this entire episode wasn't even Anna focused??? it would have made more sense if it was introduced last episode after she breaks out of the mind control
That is actually a good point. I think the reason it wasn't introduced in episode 13 though is because they were fighting Usonoir, and there's no way that, even with a new finisher, Anna would be strong enough to defeat the bad guys' boss this early on. The earliest we ever had that happen was in Cure Scarlet's debut episode - which was I think episode 21 or 22 - and even she didn't actually defeat her, just drove her away for a while.
It would be an interesting idea if this was true, though I'm not sure how they would actually execute it in the show. I saw a video by Magical Cinnamon last night where he speculated that maybe each of them have a bit of Éclair's power which they then have to give back for Éclair to truly return. But then, if that's true, which of them will be the true civilian identity of Éclair? They can't all share the role in battle, right?
Saw this on Disney+ yesterday in their special "May the 4th" section. I have been curious about how all the shows fit into the overall timeline at this point. Disney has come out with timeline pics in the past, but it's been a while.
So, apparently according to them, the current timeline order is:
The Acolyte
Star Wars Episode I
Star Wars Episode II
Star Wars The Clone Wars (I assume this includes both the movie and the show)
Star Wars Episode III
The Bad Batch
The new Darth Maul show
Solo
Obi-Wan Kenobi show
Star Wars Rebels
Andor
Rogue One
A New Hope
Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
The Mandalorian
The Book of Boba Fett
Ahsoka
Skeleton Crew
Star Wars Resistance
The Force Awakens
The Last Jedi
The Rise of Skywalker
I'm assuming once the new Mandalorian movie comes out, that'll fit in here somewhere. Also I presume the Star Wars Visions stories all fit in the timeline someplace too?
Not to mention all the books and comics that exist in this universe. (The book Star Wars: Catalyst, for instance, is basically a prequel to Rogue One). Oh, and all the video games too probably.
Star Detective PreCure Episodes 11-13 Thoughts (SPOILERS!!)
[Arcana Shadow pic from @finalbum, Anna pic from @showamagicalgirls, GIF from @hothotmiso]
Whoo boy is this quite an interesting batch of episodes.
So as mentioned in the last post, at the end of episode 10 Luluka decides to start being serious, and she doesn't waste any time, putting things into motion immediately in episode 11. I remember when I read the released synopsis for this episode (taken from the official website I think) before it aired I was like "This is basically a typical kaitou anime episode" 😆 And I would know, cause I've watched about half of Cat's Eye (would've watched more but it got taken off Crunchyroll before I could finish...there's a remake that came out this year too which I haven't gotten to yet) and all of Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne (which, like Star Detective, is also set in 1999). Plus I've read a good chunk of the Detective Conan manga, which features frequent cameos by Gosho Aoyama's famous kaitou character, Kaitou Kid from Magic Kaito 1412, and I also read CLAMP's two-volume kaitou series, Man of Many Faces, as well as CLAMP School Detectives, which 20 Faces, the thief character of Man of Many Faces, also appears in. So yeah, I know some stuff 😅
Anyway, Luluka goes for the whole shebang of targeting a notable artifact at a museum - a necklace called the Starlight Princess - and sending a calling card and everything. She then stakes the place out as Luluka during the day and later uses the Pre-Kit Gloss (which she happens to have one of) to disguise herself as a security guard to get in that night and execute the actual heist by causing a temporary blackout, and then escaping via the roof in classic kaitou fashion. (Towards the end, we learn that had Luluka succeeded, she would've used the Pre-Kit Gloss again to blend in with the crowd and truly get away undetected. Clearly she thought this plan through quite thoroughly). The blackout part actually almost fails when she does execute it, though, because Mushutan is the one who's actually supposed to kill the lights, but she almost gets caught trying to do so and barely manages to do it in time. 😆
Anna and Mikuru find out about the calling card being sent via the local news and go to investigate, since the card said it was from the Phantom Thieves Guild. In typical kaitou anime fashion, the lady running the museum doesn't think she needs detectives and assumes her private security team will be more than sufficient. The fact that Anna and Mikuru are also kids and employees of a relatively unknown detective agency doesn't lend them much klout in the situation either. She will only let them investigate if they give her Pochitan (which she thinks is a plushie pouch), which, naturally, they refuse to do. (It would have made for some interesting humor if she had taken Pochitan from them IMO). They stick around and investigate anyway unofficially. Anna almost makes another time travel booboo by recognizing facial recognition when the woman explains the special mechanism she has to protect the glass case the necklace is in (facial recognition is, of course, quite commonplace now, but wouldn't have been in 1999).
Anna also runs into Luluka while Luluka is doing her secret stakeout and Luluka says some cryptic things that Anna doesn't really understand. This meeting becomes relevant later though when Anna recognizes the strange security guard lady as the girl she met earlier.
We also get a brief bit back at the Villain Theater where the other thieves talk about Luluka's plan, which she apparently made known to them to some degree. Ageseine thinks it's "wack" and dumb, which seems to be her opinion about most things. This leads to her interfering later and turning the necklace Luluka stole into a Hanninda. (I suspect this was just an excuse to have a Hanninda in the episode for the girls to defeat, which was honestly unnecessary since the fight up to that point had been interesting enough).
So the fight on the rooftop is the big draw of this episode. Anna and Mikuru chase the "security guard" to the roof (after deducing that she would escape that way) and try to get her to give the necklace back. Luluka defends her motives, revealing that, much like the note left after the theft claimed, the necklace on display was a fake - in fact, everything in the exhibit, it turns out, was a fake, because the lady running it is too afraid of getting robbed to display the actual items, but figured if she displayed fakes no one would notice. She tries to use this to explain that sometimes lies are useful, an idea the girls obviously object to. Luluka then challenges the girls to transform and fight her, warning that if they don't, she'll use the Pre-Kit Gloss and escape into the crowd. Anna and Mikuru are shocked to learn she has a Pre-Kit item, but end up transforming anyway.
And this scene is where we finally see Luluka transform into Cure Arcana Shadow for the first time, which she does using an item called the Tear Arcana Rod that, like the girls' Jewel Cure Watch, also has a pendant form (which reminded me quite a bit of Sakura's various Keys in Cardcaptor Sakura, which all could be worn as a necklace when not in use). And wow was this transformation worth the wait. My feelings seeing it for the first time were a lot like how I felt seeing Cure Nyammy's transformation for the first time. The animation quality is just a significant step up from what we see in Cure Answer and Cure Mystique's duo transformation. (It's not as big of a gap as there was between Wonderful/Friendy's and Nyammy's IMO but it's definitely noticeable. You can watch both below and judge for yourself).
The fight that follows is pretty one-sided - it's clear that Arcana Shadow is both more experienced and more skilled than Answer and Mystique. She warns them that, as they are now, they'll never defeat the Phantom Thieves.
After this episode, Cure Arcana Shadow became CRAZY popular online, generating a ton of fan art. (I mean, I think Luluka was already kind of popular, with her ice cream addiction and all, but still). Her merch has also been pretty consistently selling out too.
Episode 12 follows up on the reveal of Cure Arcana Shadow with an episode where the girls try to find out more about her. Jett sends an info request to the London office about her, but unfortunately it's going to take a few days, because apparently the London office only sends this kind of information via snail mail (which, given the security clearance that's probably involved, is honestly fair). I expected we'd get some follow-up for this by the end of the episode, but sadly we did not.
Anna and Mikuru's search for Cure Arcana Shadow was honestly pretty funny, mostly because Mikuru decided to make a doodle again for them to show people, and her art skills are...not great. Also at one point they actually end up asking LULUKA HERSELF where to find Cure Arcana Shadow, although since Luluka is in disguise at the time they don't realize they did so 😆
Oh yeah, about that. So, Luluka is sitting on a fountain with Mushutan (sorry I keep forgetting how to spell her name), eating ice cream and minding her own business. Luluka suddenly has a Star Wars "I've got a bad feeling about this" moment, so Mushutan decides to do some fortune telling, which reveals that Luluka will be given an annoying task to do (or something like that...her fortunes are always super vague for some reason). Sure enough, Goemon soon shows up, begging for her help. (I've got to say, I kind of like the dynamic between Goemon and Luluka specifically. He's the only one of the thieves to treat her as anything close to an equal, though it's clear Luluka doesn't like him THAT much and tolerates him at best).
So Goemon found a Makoto Jewel in this misanga (basically a promise bracelet of sorts; I think it's translated here as "wish bracelet," which makes sense in context since we later learn that if it breaks naturally, it's supposed to mean your wish will come true) worn by a girl who frequents a local music shop. However, if the misanga breaks, it'll lose its associated emotions and the Makoto Jewel will be lost, and the same would be true if he just tries to take it from her like how the thieves normally steal things. (This was pretty big deal lore, actually, as the idea that Makoto Jewels could just disappear from an item had never come up before). So he wants Luluka to help him steal the bracelet in a way that will keep the Jewel intact. Not having anything better to do, she agrees, saying he can pay her in ice cream.
Luluka's strategy is this: use the Pre-Kit Gloss to disguise herself as a shop clerk, get chummy with the girl, and snag the bracelet at the first opportunity. And this plan basically goes flawlessly. Even though the misanga does end up breaking on its own later, putting the plan in jeopardy, Luluka cleverly improvises and tells the girl that even if what she thought was true was a lie, the feelings she had were still real -- a move that insures the Makoto Jewel in the bracelet stays intact. She then excuses herself on the pretense that she has to "go back to work" and heads out the back to deliver the bracelet to Goemon.
The only flaw in this plan ends up being Anna and Mikuru showing up at the same shop. (This is where they accidentally ask Luluka how to find Arcana Shadow). It turns out that the girl with the misanga has feelings for this guy she saw at the music store - and in fact started frequenting it just to see him, but never worked up the courage to actually talk to him. Anna and Mikuru encourage her to try, and it looks like it might almost go somewhere, but then we hear a female voice say "Sorry, the train was late" and it becomes pretty obvious that the guy is, shall we say, not available. (Honestly, I kind of saw that ending coming). Anna and Mikuru feel bad about pushing the girl to talk to the guy, but she says it's ok, that she'll just find a new love. Encouraged, Anna and Mikuru decide to go back to their investigation, and Anna says "Let's just say bye to that nice lady shop clerk before we go." Just about then, one of the actual shop clerks shows up and, puzzled, says all the staff there are guys.
This obviously tips the girls off that the female shop clerk was a fraud, so they rush out, using the Mirror Loupe to track Luluka's footsteps and find her just as she's meeting up with Goemon. Luluka seems impressed by their work tracking her, but a fight still ensues. Jett and Pochitan also show up and Jett witnesses Luluka transform, surprised that she is in fact a legit Cure. He also recognizes Mushutan as a fortune telling fairy. Considering she introduces herself to Jett, this is apparently the first time they've met? Which I guess if he was based in London (or elsewhere in Japan - I assumed he came from London but now I'm not sure TBH) would make sense. Jett also recognizes Arcana Shadow's attack as the one that saved him and Pochitan back in episode 6, but when he mentions this, Arcana Shadow says he can't prove it was her who saved them (though I think she's just trolling him, because we the audience know she was present for that fight).
This is again a fight where the Hanninda is kind of secondary to Arcana Shadow, though unlike with episode 11 it has a more legit reason to be there, since Goemon was actively trying to get a Jewel from the beginning this time, unlike Ageseine who just decided to meddle with a fight that wasn't her business. Arcana Shadow again kind of toys with Answer and Mystique. Like, I don't think she's being intentionally malicious, but she does kind of taunt them and show off how much better of a fighter she is. Though whether she's actually toying with them or if she's trying to subtly push them to get better is still unclear at this point.
One important thing to come out of this fight is that Arcana Shadow properly confirms what a lot of fans have theorized from the beginning: the agency that Anna and Mikuru run used to be hers. To prove it, she explains how to open the stubborn window Anna was having trouble opening at the beginning of the episode (though we never find out how she knew Anna was having trouble with it to begin with...was she spying on them??). She acknowledges that the girls have done a good job fixing it up, but other than that refuses to elaborate further.
Anyway, the girls defeat the Hanninda, and Goemon and Arcana Shadow leave. Though later we do see Luluka and Mushutan chilling somewhere, and Mushutan gives a fortune saying the misanga girl will find a new love. Also, back at the agency, Anna tries opening the stubborn window according to Arcana Shadow's directions, and it opens without issue this time, proving that she is indeed familiar with the agency building. But why did she leave it?? That we don't know yet.
The ending of the episode goes back to the Villain Theater. The first shot is actually of Luluka enjoying a massive ice cream cone (like seriously, I think it has like 12 scoops on it 😆), so I guess Goemon did in fact pay her for her help.
Usonoir is not in the greatest mood as usual, probably because Goemon failed to get the Jewel in the end, but this time he takes things a step further - he tells the thieves they're going to actually go fight the Cures as a group. INCLUDING HIM. Usually the Big Bad doesn't leave the base to fight the Cures until the endgame of the series (or maybe mid season, like with Go Princess's Big Bad, though she comes out more in full force in the end game), so to have Usonoir coming out to play this early was pretty shocking to the fandom. Unfortunately, the actual fight is saved for the next episode, with episode 12 just ending with Usonoir saying "Let us go, Phantom Thieves Guild" all omniously.
Episode 13 picks up on this, with the last scene with the villains being recapped (which probably wasn't necessary but ok). Unfortunately, Anna and Mikuru have no idea what is awaiting them (not sure why Luluka wouldn't try to warn them or something). The one difference in the recap is that one of the other thieves tries to stall, saying Nijee should be back with a Jewel soon.
We then switch to Anna and Mikuru in the middle of yet another case. This is the first time we've come into them investigating a case with no setup, and also the first time a case has started before the opening credits. In fact, by the time the opening credits roll, they're already at the point of identifying the culprit!
I forget what the case actually was, but anyway, the point is, Nijee is the thief again here. The Hanninda battle is actually kind of rushed here compared to other episodes, but that's clearly so they can devote most of the screen time to the more dangerous fight to come.
The girls defeat the Hanninda, but before they have a chance to give the Makoto Jewel to Pochitan as usual, reality starts literally glitching out of nowhere, and the rest of the thieves (Luluka included) and Usonoir show up. The next several minutes is mostly Usonoir being petty and ranting about how the Star Detectives have stolen the Makoto Jewel from him, and that he should get it because he's destined to become King in a few months, according to some prophecy from the Tome of Mirages (which is apparently adapted from some famous Nostradamus prophecy...this isn't the first time Nostradamus has been mentioned in this show either, as it was briefly mentioned in I think episode 7. I do remember a time when Nostradamus prophecies would frequently pop up on the covers of tabloids, though I don't remember if it was in 1999. The approaching millennium I think made a lot of people nervous though in general).
Jett notices that Usonoir mentions a "Makoto JEWEL," singular, rather than "Jewels." Nijee scoffs, surprised they don't even know that. So apparently the deal is that the Makoto Jewel was once one huge jewel (like literally the size of the moon) that would appear when significant emotions manifested among humanity. According to the thieves, the Star Detectives could somehow control said jewel and move it around the world at will, and actively did so to keep it out of Usonoir's hands. Usonoir did manage to track it down once, though, but before he could steal it, one of the Star Detectives (theorized by a lot of fans to be Éclair, since in the flashback you can see the reflection of a blue butterfly in Usonoir's eyes, and blue butterflies are part of Éclair's Cure design) smashed the Makoto Jewel into pieces to keep him from getting it. And those "pieces" are the small Makoto Jewels the girls rescue from the things the thieves steal.
Having just gone back to watching Inuyasha, this reveal amused me since this is basically what happens to the Shikon Jewel, except in Inuyasha Kagome breaks it by accident trying to free it from a bird yokai who had swallowed it, and she and Inuyasha have to travel around to retrieve all the shards, while in Star Detective's case, the Jewel was shattered on purpose.
In addition to this, the thieves state that they believe that Pochitan is sending the "shards" somewhere with the intention of rebuilding the full Makoto Jewel. I do admit I had wondered why the Makoto Jewels just disappeared when the girls placed them on Pochitan's bow. In other PreCure seasons, the collectible items of the season were usually stored somewhere, like in a special case or something, unless it was something immaterial, like the Heart Flowers in Heartcatch or motivation energy in Tropical Rouge. This at least explains where they've been going (though of course since we're hearing this lore from the bad guys, I guess we should take it with a grain of salt).
The general gist is that Usonoir trusts the Tome of Mirages religiously. Mushutan reveals that it is a book written by her ancestors that tells everything that will ever happen. However, the Cures being there to stop his efforts in this era was apparently not written in the Tome. And he does not appreciate this spanner in the works of his plan.
It is this petty frustration that has led Usonoir here, basically, and he does not hold back. He goes after the Cures (and Pochitan) personally, and they are no match for him whatsoever. I think it says something that the other thieves do not join in the fight, despite what the episode title ("Star Detectives vs Thieves") would have you believe. I don't know if they are prevented from doing so or if they're just so terrified of Usonoir they don't dare interfere (Nijee definitely seems concerned once reality starts glitching, Ageseine tried to stop Usonoir from even going after the Cures to begin with, and at least one of the thieves is like "If this doesn't stop, reality is going to freaking collapse" at one point). The only reason the girls end up escaping is because Arcana Shadow steps in and blocks one of Usonoir's attacks before it hits the girls, and text pops up in the Tome (which Usonoir left with Nijee for safekeeping before he went all in pummeling the Cures) telling them to get the heck out of there (how convenient).
The villains thus start leaving. Answer and Mystique thank Arcana Shadow for saving them, but she brushes them off, and tells them she has her own stuff she has to do now and to not get in her way. Again, without elaborating.
We then go back to the agency where the girls evaluate all the lore that just got dumped on them, including the implication the thieves made that the London office might not be telling them the whole truth about what's really going on. (This also implies that the London office is some sort of HQ for the Star Detectives). They also finally give the Makoto Jewel to Pochitan, who squirrels it away as usual. Then, suddenly, in the midst of a serious conversation, Pochitan says Anna's name. Since Pochitan has essentially been reduced to a baby's level of speech knowledge, this is a major event. She then also manages to say Jett's name, to his delight. Mikuru tries to get Pochitan to say her name, but Pochitan can only manage "Miruku" (milk), which to be fair is pretty close (also, she's a baby, and has been shown drinking milk before this). They generally assume this is a sign that Pochitan is maturing and will hopefully soon be back to her old self, which she needs to be if Anna ever hopes to get back to 2027. Based on the preview, Episode 14 will build on this, since it's about Pochitan trying to learn new words. It looks like a pretty cute episode, and is probably intended to be some light fluff filler to balance out the intensity of this episode.
So, as I said, this was an interesting batch of episodes. We finally had Cure Arcana Shadow's debut and got some questions answered, but a lot of things remain a mystery. Episode 14 features yet another "Éclair candidate" (I think the student body president one?) so not sure if that'll mean anything. Also with the prophecy set to be happening in July, there's speculation about what will happen in the show at that time. Will they defeat Usonoir, but then have to fight an even bigger villain? (I've seen people theorize that maybe the London office itself will end up being a villain, but I don't think we have any evidence for that as of yet). Will he win and envelop the world in lies, and they have to travel back in time or something to stop him? We know that when Anna arrived in 1999, she didn't know about the Star Detectives, which implies they don't exist in 2027. Also when Usonoir found out one of the Cures had traveled there from the future, he seemed noticeably alarmed. Maybe it's like that ongoing arc in Series 15 of Doctor Who, where Earth seemingly had no future past a certain date, which turned out to be because of The Rani constantly turning back time so she could find Omega before the Earth got destroyed. Or like the time the Monks took over Earth in Doctor Who Series 10, where it's a weird alternate reality (actually The Rani did that too with Wish World, with the help of Conrad and Desiderium). We just don't know.
Well, that catches me up finally. I do actually like doing these, but I'll need to keep up with things better. 😅
[Gifs from @hothotmiso; pic of Anna from @otakunews01; pic of Luluka from @finalbun]
So I initially considered making a huge post covering episodes 7-13 so I could catch up on these, but since episodes 11-13 are closely connected, I decided to make those their own post.
So episode 7 features Anna enrolling at Mikuru's school. While this type of episode is pretty typical in PreCure seasons, I think it's also noteworthy that it comes right after she and Mikuru had that heart-to-heart in episode 6 where Mikuru realized how lonely Anna is. We don't get any explanation how Anna managed to enroll, given that she has no family in this era, other than Anna saying the chairwoman enrolled her. We know from an earlier episode that the chairwoman knows about Mikuru opening the agency, so maybe that helped? Still kinda weird though.
Also, with all the new friends Anna makes here, she's going to need a cell phone before too long 😅
Goemon is the featured villain yet again, with Luluka yet again making an appearance as well. I think she's just Usonoir's messenger girl again this time, though, telling Goemon that Usonoir is interested in Pochitan's power that it showed in episode 5.
Goemon, however, goes about this in a pretty unconventional way -- by turning the entire school into a maze and trapping Anna and Mikuru inside.
The bulk of the episode then turns into Anna and Mikuru (and Pochitan) going through a series of escape room situations, having to put their deductive skills to the test to progress. I've never even done an escape room and I still recognized it as such. I also noted on the r/PreCure episode discussion thread that the music room one made me think of the episode of Dandadan season 2 where Okarun and Aira have that super trippy fight with the composers. Thankfully, Anna and Mikuru don't have to deal with THAT kind of stuff (or a fight like the Record episode in CCS Clear Card). They manage to make it to the end, but are given a choice of doors in order to escape. I tried to guess what was the right door but over thought it, assuming there was a trap involved somewhere. (Sometimes things really don't have to be complicated...plus, this IS a kids' show - they're not going to go TOO deep, right?) They get out, beat Goemon, the school goes back to normal. Don't remember if there was a Makoto Jewel involved here or not. We do get to see the Mirror Loupes used outside of battle for the first time, though. They function as investigative tools (well, basically magnifying glasses, which makes sense since that's what "Loupe" means in French; in English the term is usually used for those magnifiers jewelers use) allowing the girls to track footprints and such, which is pretty cool.
Episode 8 is an interesting one for longer-term fans of PreCure, because it involves Pretty Holic. Pretty Holic is a store that first entered the series in Tropical Rouge PreCure as a makeup store run by Sango/Cure Coral's mom, which in turn was used to create a real-life Pretty Holic brand for PreCure cosmetics merchandise. It's made an appearance in every PreCure series since, with Hirogaru Sky adding stationary as a merch item to fit with how Sora keeps a hero notebook. It also played a major role in both Wonderful PreCure and Kimi to Idol PreCure. Mayu's mom runs Wonderful's branch and the Shiny Cats Pact (which Yuki and Mayu use to transform) is based on a compact design Mayu created to be sold at the store, while in Kimi to Idol the main characters end up doing campaigns for Pretty Holic multiple times in their idol personas.
The thing about Star Detective, though, is that it's set in 1999, long before PreCure as a series even existed in our world. So a lot of people were like "So are they saying Pretty Holic existed that long ago?!". Just now, when I was double checking the PreCure fan wiki, there was something saying the manager for Kimi to Idol's marketing campaigns at Pretty Holic states that she has loved the Pretty Holic brand "since childhood," implying it's been around a while. I wonder if that was foreshadowing this??
Anyway, the episode starts with Pochitan modeling some outfits Jett made for her that look like the collar and hair accessories of the girls' Cure outfits. (It's kind of reminiscent of how sometimes in CCS Tomoyo would make accessories for Kero to match the outfits she made for Sakura, now that I think about it). Anna and Mikuru think the outfits are super cute, naturally. They comment on how good Jett is at making gadgets and stuff, and come up with the idea for them to open a shop, featuring cute items based on his Pre-Kit gadgets, justifying it as a backup income stream for the agency. The rest of the episode is about them setting up said shop. In the process, the girls ask about Jett's signature goggles as well as a chant he uses when making things. He reveals a bit of his backstory, how he used to only be focused on making gadgets that were functional, but noticed that a fellow inventor fairy's gadget got more attention because it was both functional and cute. His mentor Shinian pulls him aside and tells him that his gadgets should be about more than just function alone. The goggles he uses used to be hers. Anyway, obviously there's a fight, and this time Nijee makes it personal by stealing Jett's goggles and turning them into a Hanninda. The girls are extra motivated to take him down for that reason, and do so.
At the end of the episode, they open the shop (which is located on the second floor of the building, with a side staircase added for access from the outside). We see a customer leaving the store with one of their lipstick items. But as she walks away, there's a burst of energy, and she turns into...Luluka! (This is the moment shown in the GIF above). This moment honestly shocked me cause before now we hadn't been given any indication that Luluka could disguise herself the way the other thieves can. Plus hers seemed to be magical in nature, unlike Nijee and Ageseine who disguise themselves with clothes and makeup respectively. (I don't think we've seen Goemon disguise himself yet). The plot thickens!
Episode 9 was also interesting because I thought it would be about something different than it was when I first heard the title. The title is "Don't Make Assumptions!", so I assumed that this would be like episode 5 where Anna and Mikuru would have some kind of conflict again. But instead, the title comes from Anna and Mikuru being discouraged by not getting requests for detective work and the character of the day, Ieiri Shiruku, encouraging them by telling them to not make assumptions. That was quite a surprise honestly.
Shiruku is another "Éclair candidate," so people were pretty excited about her. In-universe, she's a popular young actress who shows up at Anna and Mikuru's school in this episode to film an episode of a variety show called "Let's Do It At School," where celebrities try out normal people things. This seems pretty on brand with the variety shows Japan is known to have. In her case, the thing she "tries" is appearing in a play the drama club is putting on for the upcoming "Welcome New Students" festival. The play is a take on Cinderella where Cinderella teams up with a girl who traveled back in time (a plot which seems remarkably similar to Anna's situation). Shiruku is set to wear a dress that has been in the drama club's costume collection for years, thus accumulating a lot of memories and feelings.
But, as you might expect, the dress gets stolen. (Honestly, once you know what Makoto Jewels are, it becomes pretty easy to guess what's going to get stolen, even if we don't see the thieves outright state the fact). Which is bad as the play is happening that very day. Shiruku volunteers to stall for time so Anna and Mikuru can find the dress, which she does by appearing at the theater as herself and presumably doing idol things (we don't actually see what she does). They do end up finding the dress, though only because they remember Shiruku's advice and think outside the box. The reveal I remember got some buzz in the r/PreCure subreddit, because in order to flush out the thief, Anna uses the Pre-Kit Memo to impersonate the school principal (so apparently it works that way too) and announce that the dress has been found, which people found strange with how big Anna is on not lying. (Because the point was that they hadn't actually found the dress yet, but were trying to trick the thief into revealing themselves by making them think the girls had found it and then judging the culprits' reactions to the news). I'm not sure whether Anna thought of it as lying in this case, otherwise she probably would have had more of an issue with it.
Anyway, the girls get the dress back from Ageseine (the thief this time) and the play goes forward as planned. Shiruku wraps up her variety show shoot and leaves the school. Later, while reflecting on meeting Shiruku while back at the agency, Anna and Mikuru are shocked when Shiruku actually shows up! But it's, sadly, not an Éclair reveal or anything - she just came to buy some makeup from Pretty Holic Rie from the drama club recommended, and knew the location from the business cards Anna and Mikuru gave her earlier. Jett, who has apparently also heard of her, is starstruck and gladly volunteers to help her in the shop, and the episode ends.
Episode 10 is another "Case of the Week" episode, with the case being a client who wants to figure out why her mother, a famous landscape painter, left behind a single self-portrait. I admit I wasn't sure what to make of this case. I do think this was the episode where Mikuru revealed she had lived abroad (which fits with her comment in episode 7 that she is also a transfer student), where she had eaten macarons with her grandmother. I saw this more recent post that mentioned how little we know about Mikuru's background, other than the hints we've gotten like this (she also mentions she got her Jewel Cure Watch pendant from her grandmother, and in episode 1 she knows about the Star Detectives even though it's supposed to be a secret) and the currently popular fan theory that she's the past self of Anna's mom, since they look very alike and since Mikuru would be old enough to have a kid in 2027 if she's 14 in 1999. Given things that were revealed in episode 13, and the theories people have developed from those things, maybe this will be relevant down the line, but it's hard to say just yet.
Also the bakery owner, who I think is named Kurea, is another "Éclair candidate" (and I think the frontrunner out of the four possible candidates currently, iirc), so obviously her presence was noted. Honestly, I haven't been keeping up with all that enough. 😕
We also see a couple interesting things in this episode. First, we see an item (the painting in this case) become a holder for a Makoto Jewel onscreen for the first time (previous items that had one already had the Jewel inside them when they were stolen). Secondly, Anna uses the Pre-Kit Mirror Loupe to duplicate the painting to confuse Goemon, so apparently it has that function too. Wonder if they'll use this again.
The ending of the episode was the intriguing part, though. It ends with Luluka and Mashutan on a rooftop at night, looking serious, and Luluka says "Well, shall we start, then?", indicating she's decided to become a more active player. This coincided with the time I mentioned before that her toys were about to come out, so as I predicted, she's becoming plot relevant. Episodes 11-13 elaborate on this, but as I said, I'll save that for another post.
So writing this several weeks after the episodes aired (I started it, but it's been in my drafts) so hopefully I can remember the details. (Also I downloaded the pics a while back so not sure if the OPs sorry).
So ep 4 had the girls get their first client: a person who lost a bag with a manga manuscript in it. They go searching for it and find out the client accidentally bumped into someone at the station and their bags got switched. In the process, they encounter the third general of the Phantom Thieves, Goemon, who has a very traditional Japanese vibe with a kimono and tengu geta sandals. He also uses a tessen fan to attack. He's accompanied by Luluka/Cure Arcana Shadow, who, as the newbie of the group, is apparently "shadowing" (if you will) each of her sempais (though I don't know if we ever see her do it with Nijee, though he does tend to do his own thing overall). She shows some deductive skill by figuring out the bag Goemon stole from the girls, which contains bread, vegetables, and an apron, must belong to someone at an art studio (the apron is a painter's smock, the vegetables are for reference for still life drawing, and the bread apparently works as an eraser?).
The girls also debut a new gadget in this episode, the Pre-Kit Light, which works kind of like the balls of light in Mahoutsukai's Topaz Form, in that they can create things out of light (though the things they create look like shapeless blob versions of themselves). They use it to create a trampoline blob thing, which made me think the Cures in this series wouldn't be able to jump super high like in past seasons (though later eps refute this).
Long story short, they get the client's bag back. When the girls look at the manga manuscript, Anna notices the name on it and recognizes it as one of her favorite manga artists from her old life in 2027. This being 1999, this is when he was just starting out, so obviously she can't reveal anything, but she does tell him he's going to become a great manga artist, which he presumes is just a deduction they made.
(I do kind of wonder if Anna almost revealing things about the future is going to end up becoming an ongoing gag 😅)
The final shot of the episode shows a blueprint on Jett's work desk of the Pre-Kit Mirror Loupe, which thanks to the toy version we already knew would be their attack item. I don't remember them foreshadowing stuff like this before so it was a nice touch.
Episode 5 has Mikuru going back to school, possibly from spring break (the first episode was stated to be taking place in early April). Anna is helping out at the agency and realizes it's going to rain and Mikuru doesn't have an umbrella. She decides to rush to her school to bring her one, but Jett briefly stops her and gives her the finished Mirror Loupe items (in its mini form), one for her and one to give to Mikuru.
Anna gets to the school and spies Mikuru with some other girls, including this one girl who people have been calling an "Éclair candidate" (since Toei has been suspiciously hush-hush on Cure Éclair's civilian identity, something they haven't done for the other three Cures on the team), who in this case is the student council president. Anna is kind of hurt by this, because Mikuru is her only friend her age in this era, and the idea of sharing her with others makes her both a bit jealous (maybe) and also lonely. While Anna is pondering this, however, she encounters a young woman who is looking for her sister. Anna has misgivings about taking a case without Mikuru, but decides that Mikuru is busy and agrees to help the woman.
Meanwhile, Mikuru is asked by one of the school staff who is familiar with her detective aspirations to investigate a mystery at the school - stories of a strange figure being seen at the school late at night. She also takes her case alone.
Various things happen and the two cases end up intertwining in the end (because of course they do). In Anna's case, the girl's sister was supposed to be in London but then the girl had seen her in town in several places. She tried calling her sister for an explanation, but couldn't reach her. In Mikuru's case, the strange figure had been congregating around a statue of swallows at the school that has been there for years.
These two things come together because both the "sister" and the strange figure are actually Nijee. He had detected that the swallow statue had a Makoto Jewel in it, but unfortunately, unlike other anime kaitou, he doesn't have an easy way to transport heavy objects. So he did random recon missions in town to find the things he'd need to move it, which is what led to the sightings of the "sister." (Mikuru also points out that the girl likely couldn't contact her sister due to the time difference - when the girl called, it was the middle of the night in London. This is revealed later on to in fact be the case).
Unfortunately, this is also when the two girls find out they each took on cases without consulting the other, and they have a disagreement about it. I expected this would lead to some issues with them transforming or something (since they transform together), but it didn't. While Anna does try to give Mikuru the other Mirror Loupe, they're unable to do anything with them, and Pochitan ends up stepping in and scaring Nijee off with a powerful light beam, though doing so causes her to collapse. (This reminded me a lot of Hugtto PreCure episode 10, when Hugtan steps in and saves Hana in a similar way when Hana finds herself unable to transform, which leads to Hugtan also going unconscious). Nijee escaped with the statue, though. So...cliffhanger!
(Oh also during her investigating Anna showed off yet another new gadget, the Pre-Kit Gloss, a lip gloss item that works kind of like Sailor Moon's Disguise Pen, allowing the user to disguise themselves as anyone they wish, though their hair and eye color don't change. Anna uses hers to disguise herself as a student at the school she's investigating in order to interview witnesses).
Episode 6 continues the story. The girls and Jett care for Pochitan. Meanwhile, Usonoir is not thrilled with Nijee's failures thus far and seems pretty determined to get rid of him. Except no one seems to know where Nijee is right now. Eventually, Nijee decides to go for broke and make a last-ditch effort to defeat the Cures on his own. Luluka actually finds him hiding, but doesn't seem interested in actually helping him.
Mikuru decides she's going to get the Makoto Jewel back that Nijee stole from the statue and heads off alone. Anna confesses to Jett the real reason she wasn't able to give Mikuru her Mirror Loupe the day before. He says they were meant to be together, and comments that it's like the two of them have switched places. Anna is encouraged and heads out after Mikuru, leaving the still-recovering Pochitan in Jett's care.
They track down Nijee at the local beach, which Nijee picked as a venue cause apparently this way he can hide the battle from Usonoir (who is usually able to watch the battles on a big projector screen back in the theater). He sends the two Hannindas he created from the statue after them, trying to lure them to the ocean, but Answer and Mystique manage to dodge them by creating platforms to jump on. These platforms get destroyed, however, leading to the girls getting pummelled to the ground again.
Pochitan, meanwhile, gets antsy back at the agency, and Jett figures out that Anna left the two Mirror Loupes behind and that Pochitan wants to take them to the girls. He takes Pochitan to the battle site and tries to play distraction so Pochitan can get to the girls (he implies he can fight in some way, though we never see him actually do anything). Unfortunately the bad guys figure out the plan pretty quickly and start going after Pochitan. Just before they attack Pochitan though, a mysterious black and purple rain attack appears and hits the monsters, saving Jett and Pochitan. Knowing Luluka was there, I assumed this was her (we hadn't seen Cure Arcana Shadow as a Cure yet, but the attack matched the color scheme of her outfit in official artwork. This was actually seemingly confirmed in a more recent episode when Jett meets Arcana Shadow for the first time and recognizes her attack, but she brushes off his claim, saying he can't prove it...though given what we've seen of Luluka thus far, she's probably trolling him).
Anna and Mikuru have a heart-to-heart in the meantime. Anna confesses that she didn't want to bother Mikuru when she was with friends, while Mikuru apologizes for not realizing how lonely Anna must be, and promises to be more considerate, while also reiterating her vow to make sure Anna gets back to her own time period. Nijee overhears this discussion and is surprised to hear that Cure Answer is a time traveller (apparently he was unaware of this). They revive their bond as a team, which, along with Pochitan's desire to be their partner fairy, finally awakens the Mirror Loupes, transforming them into their full-size forms, allowing them to use their new finisher, PreCure Flying Spectrum.
They save the statue and both girls' cases are solved as a result. Nijee, meanwhile, has to face the music back at base and is sentenced to being lowered down the stage's trap door to whatever doom awaits him. As he's being lowered, however, he uses his newfound intel to his advantage -- he tells his boss that one of the Cures is from the future. This makes Usonoir pause, and he comments that "That's not written in the Tome of Mirages." Which is apparently a big deal, though since he doesn't elaborate, we're left wondering what he means. Nijee gets to live another day (lucky him) and the episode ends.
These episodes were pretty typical intro arc stuff. With all the villains introduced and the first cour nearly half over after these episodes, things are going to get into gear now.
