#however hana here defends her from the bullies and they become friends

[technically-human]

Dare I ask if we may see Hana and crystal (from the comics) in your style? Hope that’s not too much

It seemed like I had made a friend... poor Hana.

ko-fi

[darkershining]

DarkerShining’s thoughts on Pretty Cure: Hugtto Pretty Cure

All right, it’s time for another one of these! I’ve been looking forward to write this one.

So, last time I talked about Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode, and this time, I’ll be giving my thoughts on Hugtto Pretty Cure.

The story begins with our pink lead Cure, Hana Nono, getting ready for her first day at a new school. She tries to cut her bangs to try and give herself a more mature new look, but she doesn’t manage to get it quite the way she hoped. On her way to school, she experiences a strange phenomenon, when she hears a baby’s cry and time seems to freeze for a brief moment. She manages to save an old lady from being hit by a baseball before time resumes moving, and ends up late for school after stopping to help the old lady carry some things.

After making it to school, Hana is initially worried about having messed up her first impression, when she hears that strange cry again. She goes to investigate, and comes across two of her classmates, Saaya and Homare. Saaya admits that she likes Hana’s cheery attitude, while Homare compliments Hana on her hairstyle, much to her surprise.

Later that night, Hana concludes that her first day of school didn’t turn out that bad after all, and decides to keep an optimistic attitude. As she is cheering herself on, a bright light appears in the sky, falling towards her. Hana manages to catch it in her arms, and finds to her surprise that it is a baby girl, which Hana decides to call “Hugtan”. The baby is accompanied by a hamster-like creature named Harry, who decides to stay at Hana’s place for the night.

The next day, Hana wonders if her encounter with Harry and Hugtan was just a dream, when more strange things happen. A mysterious company known as Criasu shows up at her school, using a classmate’s negative energy to create a monster. For some reason, both Hana and her classmate Saaya are unaffected as the monster spreads more negative energy throughout the school, and the two try to get others to safety. However, when Hana gets separated from the group, she comes across Harry and Hugtan once more. After Hana goes to defend Hugtan, refusing to leave her side despite being afraid, a glowing crystal emerges from Hana and an item from Harry’s suitcase flies out. Combining the two, Hana becomes the Pretty Cure of Spirit, Cure Yell.

With her new power, Cure Yell manages to purify the monster and restore the positive energy around the school. Hana is told to give some of the energy from her new Mirai Crystal to Hugtan, and Harry muses that maybe the world can be saved after all. Harry later explains more of the situation to Hana, and that he still has three more Prehearts, meaning they must find three more Cures. Hana manages to bond more with Saaya and Homare, who take up two of the Prehearts, and together they must save the future.

And from here, I’ll be putting the rest of my thoughts under the “Read More”, and there will be spoilers from the entire series. (previous parts can be found here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)

Hana Nono/Cure Yell

As usual, I’ll begin by talking about the lead pink Cure. Hana Nono is a thirteen year old girl who is quite energetic and tries her best to cheer on and encourage those around her, as you’d expect from most pink Cures. However, even from the start, it is clear that Hana has some self-esteem issues, later revealed to be partially caused by being bullied at her old school after she defended another girl who was bullied. While trying to stay cheerful, there are times throughout the series where Hana’s insecurities and worries will come to the surface, and times when she just doesn’t know what to do. Thankfully, her friends are always there to help and support her like she does for them.

I really like Hana. Her design is cute, and I particularly like Cure Yell’s cheerleader motif. She’s always trying to support, defend and inspire her friends, and they in turn are willing to do the same for her when her doubts start getting to her. Over the course of the show, we see Hana discovering where her own strengths lie and becoming more confident as she fights alongside her friends. I feel she embodies the themes of the show well, particularly the “you can do anything, you can be anything” part, with her willingness to try different things and inspiring those around her to do what they want.

Saaya Yakushiji/Cure Ange

Next up, I’ll talk about Saaya/Cure Ange. She’s an intelligent young girl with a generally calm demeanour. When she was younger, she was famous as a child actress at one point, and her mother is also a famous actress. While still taking part in auditions for parts and such, Saaya isn’t actually entirely sure if acting is what she should continue to pursue, or if there are other options she hasn’t considered yet. After befriending Hana, Saaya ends up becoming the second Pretty Cure, Cure Ange, the Pretty Cure of wisdom. As a Cure, she gains healing and barrier based abilities.

I like Saaya, she has a pretty design and I like how she’s a slightly different take on other blue haired smart girls that we’ve seen throughout the various Pretty Cure series. Saaya doesn’t come across as quite as serious, being more of a dork with interests in various odd things, such as machines or special effects used in movies. Saaya is also in one episode shown to have a bit of a competitive side to her that emerges when she has to try to keep up with someone with just as much knowledge on a certain topic as her. And interestingly, while Saaya manages to often know what her close friends are thinking, she’s otherwise not that good at reading people.

However, Saaya is still the least quirky of her teammates, and since she isn’t as directly involved in some of the sub-plots as the other Cures, Saaya has a tendency to not stand out much in episodes that aren’t focused on her. With that said, I do feel Saaya fares better than some of the other Cures of previous series who were in a similar position, as Saaya does have her own character arc and we get to watch her gradually figure out what she really wants to be when she grows up.

Homare Kagayaki/Cure Etoile

All right, now onto Homare. She’s another one of Hana’s classmates, although at the start of the series, she hadn’t attended class lately. Homare initially comes across as a somewhat aloof, but still nice girl. We soon find out this behaviour comes from an incident a few years ago, when Homare was a figure skating prodigy, but ended up suffering an accident on the ice that injured her leg and left her unable to skate for a while. Having recovered since then, part of Homare wants to return to skating, but can’t bring herself to do so due to the trauma of the incident that forced her to quit. This has also affected other parts of her life, as she just can’t seem to find much interest in other activities either.

When Hana enters her life, things start to turn around. This is partially because Hana reminds Homare of herself when she was younger. However, when she initially creates her Mirai Crystal, she can’t bring herself to jump up and reach for it, causing it to disappear. She continues trying to distance herself, but ends up captured by Criasu and used as bait for the other two Cures. However, forced to confront her feelings from the monster created by her negative energy, Homare is ultimately able to find the resolve she needs, and successfully manages to get her Mirai Crystal. Becoming the Pretty Cure of Strength, Cure Etoile, she works together with Cure Yell and Cure Ange to stop the monster.

After becoming a Pretty Cure, Homare is gradually able to begin conquering her own inner demons and return to ice skating. She starts becoming more social and active again, although she still often has more of a serious demenour than that of her friends. She also develops a friendship with Harry, which gradually develops into a bit of a crush on her part.

I really like Homare. She is the one with the most serious and tomboyish demenour for the most part, but when just having fun with her friends, she often lets the girlier aspects of her personality show, like squeeing over Hugtan’s cuteness, her fear of horror movies and admitting that she sleeps with a rabbit plushie. It’s rather cute. Her initially being unable to become a Pretty Cure was sort of similar to what happened with Karen in Yes! Pretty Cure 5, albeit for different reasons. Sort of a darker take on that idea. But it is great to see Homare managing to overcome the doubts preventing her from taking the first step to start moving forward again, and her first fight as Cure Etoile, working together with Cure Yell and Cure Ange to soar once again.

One thing I really like about her designs is while how her present self has short hair, we see that she had longer hair tied in a ponytail in the past, which she cut off after she had to quit ice skating because of the accident. Her hairstyle as Cure Etoile looks similar to her younger self’s, which I think is a really nice touch.

I also think the sub-plot about her crush on Harry was done fairly well. She is conflicted about it, but after discovering that Harry may have feelings for someone else, she is able to accept that her feelings may be unrequited, making for a contrast with Bishin, who in his corrupted state can’t comprehend this. Homare eventually does confess her feelings, and while Harry does reject her because of his unresolved feelings for Cure Tomorrow, Homare at the very least manages to get some closure and thanks him for being honest with her. I liked how maturely Homare deals with it, and while it was painful for her to go through with it while knowing there was a very real chance she’d get turned down, she ultimately realized it was the only way she was going to be able to stop worrying about it.

Emiru Aisaki/Cure Ma Cherie

And now, onto one of the two Cures to join at the halfway point. Emiru is introduced as a classmate of Hana’s younger sister Kotori. Emiru is shown to be a somewhat socially awkward young girl who tries a little too hard to make sure things go well during a trip with her class, trying to be prepared for every situation and making things safe. When she and Hana end up in a situation she didn’t account for, she freaks out a bit, but Hana is able to calm her down and get her to talk about why she acts the way she does. During this, we also see that Emiru is a good singer, even if she was too shy to sing with her classmates earlier, setting up another major aspect of Emiru’s character, her love of music.

In Emiru’s next major role, she, inspired by Hana’s encouraging words to her and witnessing Cure Yell in action, is trying to act like a Pretty Cure herself and helping people, even if she keeps messing up. She ends up meeting Ruru, who had gone on an errand for Hana’s family, and quickly takes a liking to her. Even after concluding that Emiru isn’t actually a Cure, Ruru still accompanies Emiru to her house, where Emiru shows off her skills on the guitar, which captures Ruru’s attention. It is here we find out that Emiru’s reluctance to share her interests is partially because of her brother, who is heavily influenced by their grandfather in his thinking, and feels Emiru should focus on more feminine instruments like the piano or violin. After Ruru comes to Emiru’s defense, Emiru is even more amazed with her, and by the end of the episode suggests that she and Ruru try to become Pretty Cures together, despite Ruru not being especially interested at this point.

During the fight between the Cures and Ruru to try to save her from Criasu and bring her back to their side, Emiru notices the commotion and goes to investigate, learning the identities of the Cures. When Emiru goes to talk to them about it later, Ruru keeps her from blurting out their identities to a crowd of people. The Cures fill Emiru in on what is going on, including Ruru actually being an android from the future. Despite all this, Emiru still wants to be friends with Ruru and become a Pretty Cure alongside her. As the two spend more time together, Emiru is able to convince Ruru to become a Cure with her, but there’s one problem: There’s only one Preheart left.

With no way of obtaining another Preheart, the girls are left hoping for a miracle, since only one of them can become a Cure otherwise. When their Mirai Crystals manifest, both initially try to tell the other to take it, but neither of them want to become a Cure without the other. Due to the strong friendship between them, the being later revealed to be known as “Mother” appears and creates a copy of the last Preheart, meaning both of them can become Cures by transforming together, allowing them to become the Pretty Cures of love, Cure Ma Cherie and Cure Amour. Ruru later starts learning how to play the guitar along with Emiru, and the two start a two-girl band together.

I really like Emiru, I think she’s a fun character with her quirky personality. She’s initially a bit shy when it comes to sharing her interests, in part due to her brother and by extension, grandfather’s influence, but with the help of Ruru, Hana and the others, she soon overcomes this. Her friendship with Ruru is also really sweet, but with that said, I wish we could’ve seen Emiru bond with Saaya and Homare a bit more. With Ruru, we at least saw her have different interactions with each of the initial three Cures when she was observing Hana and the others as a spy, but Emiru only really connected with Hana before getting involved in the Pretty Cure stuff.

Even when we do see her interact with Saaya or Homare, these interactions usually have something to do with Emiru’s friendship with Ruru. So, while Emiru is still clearly part of the group of five, I feel like we don’t really have a good idea of the relationships and how she interacts with Saaya and Homare. I feel the age difference might also contribute a bit, since Emiru is still in elementary school, while the other four are in middle school.

Still, I really like her, and she has a cute design. I also like how Cure Ma Cherie and Cure Amour’s outfits have the same theme going on, since they’re both technically using the same Preheart to transform. I also like the songs she and Ruru perform together.

Ruru Amour/Cure Amour

Ruru initially starts off as a mysterious member of the Criasu Corporation, who is eventually revealed to be an android. The other Criasu Corp members see her as a little more than an emotionless puppet working for them as an intern. After a while, Ruru decides to infiltrate the group by hypnotizing Hana’s mother into thinking she’s the daughter of a friend of hers and staying at Hana’s place. Ruru has trouble getting along with everyone at first, as she doesn’t understand a lot of human behaviour and particularly why people wouldn’t choose the most efficient method to do something. After noticing that people at school are making fewer attempts to socialize with her following this, Ruru begins to reconsider her plan and thinks about leaving. However, a conversation with Cure Yell seems to stir something in her, and she decides to stick around a bit longer.

Much like other villains who have tried the infiltration route, her time with the Cures lead to a change in Ruru, as she gradually grows to care for the Cures. She also meets Emiru, and discovers music. All this ultimately leads her to return Homare’s transformation trinket after stealing it, and taking a hit for Cure Yell that ends up breaking her. Ruru is brought back to Criasu and reprogrammed to fight the Cures. The Cures attempt to fight Ruru who has been put into a bigger robot to fight them. They try to bring her to her senses, and Ruru is eventually able to access her memories of them when she tries searching for more data on her opponents.

Ruru ultimately breaks down, showing the most emotion she has shown up until this point, finally changing sides for good. Ruru undoes the hypnosis she did to Hana’s mother, but is still allowed to stay at their house, much to her confusion. Ruru spends the next few episodes wondering if an android like her can truly have a heart, and if an android can really become a Cure. With the support of Emiru and the others, Ruru gradually begins to overcome these doubts.

As mentioned in Emiru’s section, she and Ruru ultimately do become Cures together. Alongside the others, Ruru continues to develop her heart, and we eventually learn that she was originally created by Dr. Traum as a daughter, presumably to fill a void left when he lost his first daughter, but Traum eventually gave up on her when he couldn’t get her to develop the way he hoped. After Traum switches sides, he wants to patch things up with his android daughter, but Ruru is understandably somewhat cold towards him for turning her away before. The two are gradually able to become closer, although Ruru still shows little patience with some of her father’s antics.

I really like Ruru, and I find the concept of an android Pretty Cure really interesting. And while she does at times use her android abilities to analyze opponents and such, I wish they’d have done a little more with this concept. Still, I enjoyed her character arc and how she gradually came to understand more and more about human emotions, and even as the show nears its end, there’s still more for her to learn, particularly when it comes to how to deal with her father.

Also, in the various series in the Pretty Cure franchise, there is usually at least one Cure who is a bit of a big eater, and in this particular series, I find it really amusing that they chose to give this particular character trait to an android. I guess it makes sense that she has these human-like qualities, considering Dr. Traum initially envisioned her as a daughter. I like her designs too. The way her eyes change as she gradually develops a heart is also a nice touch and reminds me a bit of the Kiryuu sisters of Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star. 

Another aspect I like about her is the fact that unlike the other four, storywise, she wasn’t actually meant to become a Cure initially. Later episodes revealed that Hana, Saaya, Homare and Emiru all witnessed time stopping and heard Hugtan’s cry in the first episode, which in some ways reminds me of how Tsubomi, Erika and Itsuki all had dreams of Cure Moonlight’s defeat and eventually became Cures in HeartCatch Pretty Cure. The fourth Preheart was always meant for Emiru, but thanks to the strong friendship between her and Ruru, Ruru was able to become a Cure too even if she wasn’t “chosen”. I just think that’s really neat.

The Fairy Partners

Now that we’ve covered the main team of Cures, lets talk about the “fairy” partners.

First, there’s Hugtan, the mysterious baby girl that the Cures and Harry look after. Hana is the one to name her Hugtan, following in the footsteps of the Doki Doki and Mahou Tsukai girls naming a baby based on the sounds it makes. We don’t know a lot about Hugtan at first, except that she needs the energy from the Mirai Crystals created by the girls to help save the future. Hugtan is later shown to have some powers of her own, such as when she exhausts herself by purifying an Oshimaida when Hana is unable to transform, or even summoning Cures from different series. Throughout the series, Hugtan gradually grows up a little, such as learning how to talk and walk.

We eventually find out that Hugtan is actually a aged-down Pretty Cure from the future, Cure Tomorrow. Among the Pretty Cure of the future, Cure Tomorrow is the last known member, as her three teammates presumably sacrificed themselves to try to help her escape from Criasu. Cure Tomorrow saved Harry from Criasu, and Harry later returned the favor by freeing her when she was captured herself. The two used Tomorrow’s Mirai Crystal to travel back in time in hopes of saving the future, but the process used up most of the power in the crystal, which is what turned Cure Tomorrow into a baby upon arriving in the present.

Hugtan is pretty cute. Her role naturally draws some comparisons to Ai from Doki Doki Pretty Cure, being a magical baby who helps empower the Cures in some way. One aspect in particular about Hugtan that intrigues me is that I don’t it is made entirely clear how aware she is of everything going on. While she mostly acts like a baby, it is suggested at a few points that Cure Tomorrow is still in there in some capacity, particularly with some of the things she pulls off throughout the show. I also really like her design as Cure Tomorrow. It looks a lot like a typical lead pink Cure’s outfit. The design also reminds me a bit of Cure Heart from Doki Doki Pretty Cure.

The final episode throws in one more reveal regarding the character, namely that Hugtan was Hana’s kid from the future all along. I think a lot of us caught onto that near the end, and I began to suspect they might pull this trope by noticing that Hana and Hugtan had sort of similar eye colors, and the fact that Hugtan continued to refer to Hana as “mama”, rather than calling her by name even after she started calling the other Cures by name. I kept going back and forth on whether I thought this would be the case or not, though, as I couldn’t quite make sense of how it’d work within the timeline. And the closer the show got to the end, the more it began to dawn on me just how confusing some of the timeline and time travelling mechanics of this show were, but I’ll talk more about that later.

Anyways, I certainly didn’t mind it. I think it’s kind of cool to have a Cure whose mother was also a Cure when she was younger. I guess we had something close to that in HeartCatch Pretty Cure, where our pink lead Tsubomi/Cure Blossom’s grandmother was also a Pretty Cure in the past, and the ending implied that Tsubomi’s younger sister would become one in the future. I don’t really have much else to say on this, so let’s talk about Harry.

Hariham Harry is a hamster-like creature with the ability to transform into a young man. He accompanied Hugtan into the past, and assists the Cures, giving them their transformation trinkets and getting them started on their mission to save the future. Much like Nuts from Yes! Pretty Cure 5, Harry starts up his own store to make money while staying the present, Beauty Harry’s, which is also where he lives and sort of a headquarter for the Cures.

Harry for the most part comes across as sort of a supportive big brother character to the Cures, but there is also a mysterious air about him as he initially keeps a lot of details regarding himself from the Cures, only revealing things bit by bit as the show goes on. We eventually learn that Harry was part of Criasu for a time, as his people came to them to try to save their village and their kind from a mysterious illness by becoming humans. Harry was experimented on by Criasu, and turned into a monster. He was eventually rescued by Cure Tomorrow, who gave him the golden chain he wears to keep him from turning back into his monster form. Harry ended up betraying Criasu and tried to save Cure Tomorrow, leading to the two of them ending up going back in time to try to stop their plans. 

I really like Harry. I like how he can both be this mature big brother type of character towards the other Cures, while also having his goofier moments depending on the situation. He also has a pretty dark backstory for a Pretty Cure fairy-type character, considering everything he went through before the events of the series. Even after he starts opening up to the Cures, there are still details about himself that he keeps secret, and in fact, the Cures don’t find out about his previous connection to Criasu until Harry’s former friend Bishin reveals it to them. Even so, the bonds between them at this point mean the Cures don’t let this affect their friendship with Harry and they know he’s now on their side.

I liked how we gradually got bits and pieces of Harry’s story and how he and Hugtan ended up in the past. Even by the time Harry finally reveals the last bit about Cure Tomorrow, we’ve already got most of the pieces and can probably piece most of it together from there. His connections with both Bishin and Ristoru also helped develop those two villains, but I’ll talk about them a bit later. I also like Harry’s designs. His hamster-like form looks kind of similar to the fairies from Yes! Pretty Cure 5, and his human form is pretty good-looking. I also liked how that chain he wears in both forms was revealed to have a purpose beyond just being part of his design.

The Villains

And now, for the villains of this season. I usually go in order of when they introduced, although there may be exceptions. Either way, I’ll start with Charalit.

Charalit is the first villain our heroines go up against. He’s a dark skinned, blond young man who fights against the Cures in the first few episodes. He has a bit of a laidback personality, but as he keeps failing against the Cures, he finds himself in a tough spot as Criasu starts losing patience with him. He pleads for one last chance, targetting Homare and attempting to take advantage of her self-doubts, but this backfires when it ultimately leads to Homare becoming Cure Etoile. He is eventually punished by being left locked up alone in a dark room for several days, if not weeks, before being let out in episode 11 and transformed into an Oshimaida against his will.

As an Oshimaida, he goes on a rampage, until Cure Yell nearly attacks him with the Sword of PreCures. Seeing his frightened normal self within the monster, Cure Yell refuses to strike him down and instead tries comforting him. After the Sword instead becomes the more typical Cure weapon, the Melody Swords, the three Cures purify Charalit. While being purified, Charalit thinks that there might be a bright future for him after all, and the next episode shows that he basically decided to become a vlogger.

Charalit is later seen again early in the second half of the show, alongside Papple and Daigan, who have also been purified by that point. The three of them have basically come together to form their own talent agency and occasionally do other jobs around the town to help support it. Charalit is shown to be more optimstic and helpful towards others after being purified, and even gives Hana some encouraging words at one point to return the favor from the time she saved him.

I like Charalit’s design, and I feel he does well as the starter villain for this series. We also get an early look into how ruthless Criasu Corporation can be at times, with their method of punishing him for his failures. One thing I like about what they did the villains in this series is how they basically eventually join the supporting cast as friends of the Cures. When former villains team up with the Cures, it is usually near the end for the final episodes, while here, it starts out early in the second half of the show, also giving them a bit more room for character development. And while they don’t get quite as much development as certain other characters, you still see how they’ve changed for the better thanks to the Cures and found something to believe in again.

Anyways, next I’ll talk about Papple. She’s a flashy young adult woman who comes across as more ruthless than Charalit. However, despite her bad treatment of her co-workers, she secrelty longs for love, and is often seen interacting with her “boyfriend” (later revealed to be George), who doesn’t seem all that interested in her despite her seemingly believing otherwise. She’s the main opponent the Cures usually face after Charalit’s purification for several episodes. She eventually meets Gelos, a younger employee, and a bit of a rivalry is set up between the two women. Despite temporarily breaking Ruru (with an attack meant for Cure Yell) and taking her back to Criasu to be reprogrammed, Papple interestingly enough seems to have reservations against putting her into the mecha suit.

Things eventually reach the point in episode 22 where Papple, having already been threatened with the same punishment Charalit went through, discovers that her “boyfriend” has seemingly been cheating on her with Gelos, which ultimately pushes Papple into transforming herself into an Oshimaida using the negative energy from her own despair, all while hoping her “boyfriend” will try to stop her, only to go through with it as she concludes that he never loved her.

With the help of Cure Black and Cure White, the Cures manage to weaken Oshimaida!Papple, and Cure Ma Cherie and Cure Amour eventually manage to enter the Oshimaida to speak to Papple and try to calm her down. They eventually manage to get through to her, and with their new Twin Love Guitars, purify her. As she is purified, Papple muses that even if things didn’t go so well this time, if she keeps holding on to her own love, maybe she’ll someday be able to find someone who will return her feelings.

As mentioned above, Papple returns a few later alongside Charalit and Daigan, having started up a talent agency. She is more friendly towards the Cures, and shows an interest in having Emiru and Ruru sign up with their company after hearing them perform. While Emiru and Ruru refuse, Papple continues to reach out to them in hopes of getting them to change their mind. It is unclear if they eventually accepted, but even so, we see Papple supporting and helping out the two in later episodes.

I really like Papple’s design, and I think she’s one of my favorites among the Criasu characters. As a villain, she is as mentioned established as more ruthless than Charalit, since she's the one to turn Charalit into an Oshimaida, and she later ends up breaking Ruru after she betrays Criasu. Still, her scenes with her “boyfriend” show that there is more to her, even if these scenes can be a bit unsettling with the way the “boyfriend” acts, among other things, never actually responding to anything Papple says in their scenes together. I’ll go more into details on my thoughts about him later.

The imagery during Papple’s breakdown after discovering her boyfriend cheating on her with Gelos is quite unsettling, as she seems to hallucinate while her inner monologue expresses that she wishes he would try to stop her from doing what she’s about to do while she makes her way to the top of the tower. The fact that she also triggers her transformation into an Oshimaida stabbing herself with a shard formed from negative energy makes the metaphor they’re going for pretty clear.

Thankfully, Cure Ma Cherie and Cure Amour are able to get through to Oshimaida!Papple and purify her. From there on, Papple is much friendlier with both the Cures and the other reformed villains. One particular moment I liked was when Papple offers some encouraging words to Daigan after he was briefly tempted to return to Criasu, letting him know how the people at the festival they were helping out at appreciated the work he’d been doing. I also like how she supports Emiru and Ruru, helping them plan out concerts, and when Emiru briefly lost her voice, telling them to take their time for her to recover when informed of the situation.

Next up is Daigan. He doesn’t really get to do much throughout the first half of the season, mostly complaining about his co-workers and claiming that if they just let him handle it, he’d defeat the Pretty Cures in just five minutes. When he finally gets to fight them, though, he is quickly taken out by Dr. Traum. Cure Ange manages to heal him, and we find out a few episodes later that thanks to that, he survived and joined up with Charalit and Papple.

After being purified, he still continues boast about being able to do things in five minutes, clearly having a bit of an obsession with efficiency, and being easily frustrated when he can’t pull it off. This leads into the Halloween episode, where he is briefly tempted to return to Criasu, leading to the Cures getting a proper fight against an Oshimaida he created. After being defeated, he calms down again and receives some encouraging words from Papple that motivate him to get back to helping with the festival. After purification, he is also quite grateful towards Saaya/Cure Ange for saving his life. When the group got stuck in a VR space based on a movie Saaya and her mother were starring in, Daigan showed up to help Saaya out and helped her reach her decision regarding which career path to pursue by once again reminding her of how she had saved him and how he’d never forget that.

So, yeah. Daigan is one of the villains we don’t really get to know as well, but even so, I like seeing him working alongside Charalit and Papple after being saved by Cure Ange. His gratitude towards Saaya for saving his life is also really sweet, and I do like his design.

Since there’s not all that much else to say about Daigan, let’s move onto Gelos, Takumi and Jinjin. I’ll just over all three at once, since the latter two’s role in the story is pretty closely tied to Gelos’, for the most part. Gelos initially comes across as a bit of a rival for Papple, who has a tendency to sprinkle english words into her dialogue, and is often accompanied by her two handsome henchmen, Takumi and Jinjin. Later on, Gelos seemingly gets involved with George, which leads to the events in which Papple ultimately became an ally to the Cures.

Of course, Gelos doesn’t have much luck in beating the Cures either, but doesn’t seem too perturbed about it. Despite the bonds between herself, Takumi and Jinjin, Gelos at one point in episode 31 shows that she is willing to throw the two under the bus to make herself look better, leading the two of them to try to betray her with an invention stolen from Dr. Traum to freeze time. Things backfire horribly for them when the unfinished prototype turns them into an Oshimaida, with their reactions suggesting that this is very painful for them. When Gelos tries to get them to fight the Cures in their state, the Cures call her out on her treatment of those she claims are her friends. Reaffirming their own friendship, the Cures gain a new power that they use to purify Takumi and Jinjin and return them to normal. As they are purified, they hope that Gelos will eventually come to remember how much she really means to them.

Following these events, Takumi and Jinjin get regular jobs, while we quickly come to realize that Gelos probably needed them more than even she realized, as without their presence, she starts getting more unhinged and worried about growing old due to her belief that only the efforts of young people are appreciated, complete with a makeover that makes her look more wild. It ultimately results in Gelos making use of Dr. Traum’s invention to try to freeze time once more, and turning herself into an Oshimaida.

While the Cures try to stop her rampage, Takumi and Jinjin eventually show up to help calm Gelos down. Gelos initially thinks the two of them ditched her because she was getting too old for them, but the two manage to talk her down, letting her know just how much they care about her and telling her they want to grow old alongside her, causing her to break down and cry. The Cures manage to purify her, and the three of them reunite. The three of them reappear in time to help out during the final confrontation between the Cures and Criasu by giving the Cures a ride to Criasu’s tower.

So, yeah. These three are also villains we just don’t get to know that much about, although we at least get some hints at a backstory. It is clear that the three had always been close, but I guess Gelos must’ve eventually come to take them for granted, leading to the events of episode 31. After being purified by the Cures, we see that Takumi and Jinjin hold no hard feelings towards Gelos despite trying to have them fired, and only hope that she’ll remember the good times they’ve had together someday. In addition, with how quick Gelos starts to break down after those two leave, I guess their presence also helped Gelos’ mental stability. Of course, at this point, it’s kind of hard to feel bad for her, considering what she did to Papple and that she brought this all on herself.

The fact that one of the things Gelos fears is getting older also feels interesting to me, considering she’s one of the younger members of Criasu. I kind of wish we’d gotten to see more interactions between her, Takumi and Jinjin prior to their purification. I feel that could’ve helped flesh out all three characters a bit more. Plus, the other villains all sort of have some sort of connection with each of the Cures (Charalit and George with Hana, Daigan with Saaya, Papple with Emiru and Ruru, Dr. Traum with Ruru, Ristoru with Harry and Bishin with Harry and Homare), but these three don’t really have that either. 

Next up, Dr. Traum. He’s likely the oldest member of Criasu, and is also the creator of Ruru. While we never quite get the full story, it is heavily implied that Dr. Traum had previously lost a daughter, and Ruru was built in an attempt to fill the void. However, when he failed to get Ruru to develop the way he hoped, he felt as if he had failed and started distancing himself from her, leaving her with Criasu to work alongside the other employees. When we first meet Dr. Traum, he makes his entrance by quickly taking down Daigan, nearly killing him in the process, had it not been for Cure Ange’s intervention. He also takes over the Oshimaida that Daigan had already created, modifying it with his own tech.

While his taking down Daigan during his introduction may have given the impression that he’d be another one of the more ruthless villains of Criasu, it is soon established that out of the current set of villains, he’s actually one of the goofier ones, with his over-the-top mannerisms and such. Despite his daughter being one of the Cures, he still fights against them, and he later admits that he was a bit jealous of the Cures for succeeding in helping Ruru develop a heart when he had failed to do so.

After being purified during episode 37, he returns a few episodes later to try to reconnect with Ruru, as well as give the Cures some important information about Criasu and George Kurai’s goals. Considering how Dr. Traum had treated her before, Ruru is initially kind of annoyed with her father and doesn’t understand why he would want to bond with her now. Dr. Traum eventually admits that even he is full of contradictions, and that it is hard for him to explain how he feels. Ruru gradually begins to warm up to him over the course of the last few episodes, even if she still hasn’t fully accepted him yet.

Dr. Traum ended up becoming another one of my favorite Criasu characters, due to his somewhat goofy personality and connection to Ruru. As I sort of already said, he ended up being rather different from what I expected based on his first appearance. I feel he provides some comic relief among the set of villains the Cures face off against in the second half of the show, and I like how he’s basically the expert on technology and inventor of the company.

Of course, he’s still quite dangerous as a villain, as with the use of his inventions he managed to get pretty close to achieving Criasu’s goal in episodes 36 and 37, and in the latter episode grew so powerful after becoming an Oshimaida that the Hugtto team needed the assistance of all the previous Cures and their allies to stop the army of monsters he had summoned, and then purify him.

After becoming one of the good guys, he tries his best to make things up to Ruru for giving up on trying to raise her before. I like how Dr. Traum eventually manages to bring himself to admit that it wasn’t Ruru’s fault that things didn’t go as he hoped, but his own since he had his expectations in how he wanted Ruru to develop, while the Cures were able to bring about this development simply by accepting Ruru as she was to begin with and not pressuring her. I like the sort of wacky parent, serious child dynamic between the two.

I’m also really curious about what happened to his original daughter and how whatever happened ultimately led him to becoming part of Criasu, and I’m wondering if supplementary materials might some day give us an answer to that, as it did with clarifying some of the details regarding another character, but I’ll get to that later.

Next, I’ll talk about Bishin, or I guess his name might be spelled Bicine? Anyways, the character is first introduced when Ristoru goes to free him from his cell, asking Ristoru if he’s really sure about letting him out, since he might end up destroying everything. Bishin turns out to be an old friend of Harry, and really wants him to come back to Criasu. He ends up revealing Harry’s previous connection to Criasu to the Cures, and ends up forming a bit of a rivalry with Cure Etoile over Harry.

Bishin comes across as having trouble understanding others, such as having trouble understanding Harry’s decision to oppose Criasu, and not understanding how Homare is able to accept that her feelings for Harry are like unrequited. Since Bishin appears to be younger than both Harry and Ristoru, I’m guessing some of his behaviour can be attributed to him being more immature, combined with Criasu’s influence having left him a bit mentally unstable. Bishin later seems to move on to Ristoru, who comforted him after his duel with Cure Etoile in the VR space. Bishin is also seen questioning why George removed Ristoru’s “heart”, and wonders if the two of them can be happy together forever once Criasu’s goal has been reached.

In Harry and Ristoru’s backstory, we found out that Bishin was seemingly among the members of their village who was afflicted with some sort of illness, and hoped Criasu would save them by turning them into humans. After Ristoru is finally fully purified by the Cures, Bishin flies into a rage, and only calms down once Ristoru assures him that he truly cares about him, allowing Bishin to finally be purified and reunited with both Harry and Ristoru.

As you could probably tell from some of my thoughts on the various episodes, I did mistake Bishin for a girl until he was confirmed to be a boy, due to his voice and androgynous design, along with his crush on Harry. I do like the design, and I think he’s an interesting character. He is presented as a bit of a foil to Cure Etoile in the episodes revolving around both characters’ relationships with Harry, since Homare is ultimately able to accept Harry’s decisions and how things are, while Bishin just doesn’t understand.

Considering how Bishin seems to move on to Ristoru later on, I’m guessing Bishin doesn’t handle being alone very well, which again might be partially due to him being younger than Harry and Ristoru. Also, if I remember correctly, I don’t think it was ever really explained what Bishin did to get himself locked away in the first place. Well, whatever the reason, I imagine being locked up for a while might’ve also worsened his mental state. I feel kind of bad for him, thinking about how much Criasu’s influence messed him up.

Next is Ristoru, who was introduced in the first half of the show, but we didn’t really learn all that much about him until the second half. During the first half, he seems to be running things on behalf of their leader while he is away, or something. During the second half of the show, he starts to take on a more prominient role, including seeking out potential new employees for Criasu Corp after several of the villains have switched sides. We learn that Ristoru is a squirrel-like creature from the same village as Harry and Bishin, and that he initially joined Criasu as part of a deal to save the village. When the village was destroyed anyways, Ristoru fell into despair and came to believe fate couldn’t be avoided.

In spite of continuing to stoically carry out his work for Criasu, it gradually becomes apparent that part of Ristoru really resents George for not keeping his promise to save the village. After the Cures succeed in partially purifying him, Ristoru admits this. Because of this, George does something to Ristoru that Bishin describes as taking away his heart, messing with his memories and leaving him showing even less emotion than before.

During the final battle against him and Bishin, the Cures and Harry gradually manage to get through to Ristoru, jogging his memories and finally purifying him, allowing him in turn to help them talk down Bishin.

So, yeah. Ristoru turned out to be a very interesting character. At first, the most I could gleam from his role in the first half of the season was that he was obviously the second-in-command to the big bad, but I wasn’t sure what else to make of him. So I was very intrigued once the second half of the season started giving more focus and insight into Ristoru’s character. Ristoru turning out to be from Harry’s village was a bit of a surprise at first, and then I realized that his name does sound a bit similar to the Japanese word for “squirrel”.

I guess what’s really interesting about Ristoru, is that while part of him resents George for not keeping his promise, he has come to believe that there’s really nothing else left for him. When the Cures manage to partially purify him, he’s able to start admitting that he hates George, but he still can’t bring himself to leave, leading to him basically being brainwashed into an emotionless state to keep working for Criasu. It’s a bit unsettling to see him like that, especially when Bishin was talking to him and he did not react at all.

Other than that, I like his design. I’m glad the Cures were able to save him in the end, and that he in turn was able to help them save Bishin.

Finally, George Kurai, the big bad of the series. He makes appearances throughout the first half of the show, as this adult carrying around a book who occasionally talks about his worldview and ideals with Hana, which even inspires her at times. However, it is clear that something is up with him, as he keeps commenting on the actions of the Pretty Cures with great interest, Hugtan seems unnerved when he briefly interacts with her and Harry, and it eventually being confirmed that George is the “boyfriend” that Papple keeps spending time with.

George is eventually revealed to be the leader of the Criasu Corporation, much to the shock of Hana who had grown to trust him to some extent. During the second half of the show, we see how George manipulates the other villains. He seems to believe there is no hope for the future, which is why he is trying to stop time. He also continues to show a weird interest in Hana, due to a combination of her being able to draw out the power of Mother, much like Cure Tomorrow, and the fact that he and Hana knew each other in the future he came from.

Thanks to supplementary materials, we know more of the story, in that George and the alternate Hana were friends, but since the Hana of this timeline never transferred schools and met the others, she never found the inner strength the Hana we got know over the course of the show did, and it eventually led to her death. This was one of the factors leading to George going down the dark path.

However, it seems to me that George doesn’t quite seem to understand that the Hana he fights against in the present isn’t the same Hana he knew in the bad future, leading him to come across as rather creepy with his interest in this girl who is several years younger than him. It is also interesting that despite his reactions to his book changing in response to whenever Hana/Cure Yell and the other Cures change the future in some way, he still thinks the future is a lost cause and that stopping time is the best option.

So... Well, George does have a nice design, but I’m not sure where I’d put him on the scale of how well developed he is as a Pretty Cure main villain. Maybe it’s because there’s a lot of things we don’t really know about him, since some of the details regarding his backstory and such didn’t come up in the show itself. 

Despite his insistance that what he’s doing is to put an end to a future that can’t be saved, he still shows himself to be rather cruel. He seems to emotionally manipulate several of the other villains, including Papple, Gelos, Ristoru and Bishin. Due to his interest in Hana, I doubt he really cared about any of those villains the way he could make it seem. He also has a knack for torture, as shown with how Charalit was punished for failing to defeat the Cures, as well as how he tortured the other four Cures in episode 47 to try to get Cure Yell to surrender.

Of course, he is defeated in the end, and Cure Yell goes back to have one final talk with him. Despite his claims that his worldview hasn’t changed, Cure Yell believes otherwise, claiming that he wouldn’t keep telling her that they’d meet again otherwise. Seemingly accepting that she has a point there, George says good-bye by promising that they’ll meet again.

I admit, it does feel a bit weird that Hana is willing to forgive him after all he’s done, and that she still became friends with him in the good future, albeit presumably with his younger self who hadn’t done all those things. There’s a lot of things that are left unclear regarding their relationship, including whether or not they were more than friends at any point. Personally, I prefer to think they’re just friends. I mean, after everything that’s happened, anything more would just feel a bit weird. I’ll talk a bit more about this later when I go into my thoughts on the plot and the ending.

Other Characters

As I’ve mentioned before, I really do like the supporting casts of the various Pretty Cure series, and this one also had some really good ones. I’ll begin by talking about the family members of the Cures, starting with Hana’s family.

Hana’s parents, Shintarou Nono and Sumire Nono are both shown to be very good parents to their daughters, Hana and Kotori. Shintarou is the manager of a local store, HugMan Home Center, while Sumire works as the reporter for a magazine. All in all, both are shown to be kind and understanding to those around them, with the two helping give advice to the girls and Harry on how to look after Hugtan, Shintarou being a reasonable, good boss to his employees at the store, and Sumire still caring for Ruru’s well-being even after realizing something had been done to her memories after Ruru undoes the effects.

I really like both of them. I feel Sumire in particular is very perceptive in regards to Hana’s mood and mental state, even figuring out that Hana is Cure Yell during the final battle. They’re both really good people.

Hana’s younger sister, Kotori, comes across as more down to earth and calm than her sister, and doesn’t as easily get caught up in her family’s goofier moments. She seems to be a bit embarrassed over her older sister’s antics, but she still clearly cares about her. In an episode focusing on her, Kotori worries that Hana might be unintentionally creating problems for the Pretty Cures, since they always seem to show up in places she’s been to, and tries to investigate alongside two of Hana’s classmates, one with a crush on Hana herself and one with a crush on Cure Yell.

During her investigation, she comes to realize Hana’s strong points, and even starts to figure out that Hana and Cure Yell might be the same person. While she doesn’t get to confirm her theory due to Hana falling asleep before she can ask her, she at the very least has a better understanding and appreciation of her older sister.

I really like Kotori, and I wish she’d gotten more episodes focused on her. For example, she and Emiru could’ve gotten at least one episode together, those two being classmates and all. With their different personalities, it might’ve been interesting to see those two interact more. At least she still got a pretty good episode centered around her, and it was interesting seeing her interactions with those two male classmates of Hana’s. I also wish they’d perhaps done a little bit more with her being implied to have learned Hana’s identity.

The last member of Hana’s family to be introduced (not counting Hugtan) is Hana’s grandmother, Tanpopo, who is more of a minor character featured in a few episodes, most notably episode 29, her debut episode. She runs a shop where she sells traditional sweets that she makes herself, with one of her customers, a friend of hers named Yone, expressing that the sweets just aren’t as good as they used to be. Tanpopo tries to ignore this and keep at it, but as she throws out her back and has to be taken to the hospital, has to consider the possibility that she’s simply getting too old to continue working at the shop.

After speaking to Yone, Hana and her friends decide to try to re-create the Hope Manju that the shop used to sell back when Hana’s grandfather, Tanpopo’s husband, was still alive. Upon receiving these, Tanpopo admits that the reason she had stopped making them was because it was the one sweet that she couldn’t bear to make if it didn’t turn out the way it did before. She’s inspired to return to the shop and teach Hana and her friends how to make them properly, and ends up helping the Cures fight the monster of the week, and recognizing Cure Yell as Hana. In the end, she decides to keep the shop running, but acknowledges that it’ll be difficult to keep it going on her own. Hearing this, Yone offers to help out, as she still has quite a bit of strength, being stronger than she looks.

Tanpopo may be a minor character, but I really like her and the episode that introduced her. She and Hana seem to get along well, seeming to have some personality traits in common. Her episode also addresses another aspect to the show’s focus on the future, namely the fact that there may come a time when you have to retire and just can’t do your job as well as before. In the end, Tanpopo is able to keep her shop going, realizing she can’t do it all on her own and hiring her friend Yone to help out after she offers her assistance and physical strength for the tasks Tanpopo has difficulty with.

Seeing Tanpopo step out to protect her shop and actually managing to deflect an Oshimaida’s attack with her shop’s equipment was also pretty cool, as well as her figuring out that Cure Yell is Hana. I also like Yone, and the friendship between the two old ladies.

Next I’ll talk about Saaya’s parents. We learn early on that Saaya is the daughter of an actress, and part of her character arc is whether to follow in the footsteps of her mother as an aspiring actress, or if there’s another dream she’d rather pursue. In the episode properly introducing Saaya’s mother, Reira, we learn about how Saaya’s mother convinced a lot of the crew she worked with to help her with balancing continuing her career and making sure Saaya was raised well.

It is shown that when Reira plays a role, she will do what she can to understand the role and get really into character, leading to her sometimes doing things she wouldn’t normally do if it’s something the character would do. As a result, she can come across as a bit clumsy at times, but her dedication to her work certainly shines through.

While she is supporting of Saaya and the choice Saaya makes regarding her future career in the end, things take an interesting turn as while Reira is accepting of Saaya choosing a different path, part of her is also conflicted due to the reality of the fact that her daughter is growing up. After a heart-to-heart between Saaya and Reira after Reira is turned into an Oshimaida, Reira manages to sort out her conflicting emotions, and later goes off-script during the scene she and Saaya are practicing as a way of showing her full support of Saaya’s dream while still in-character.

I really like Reira. Her dedication to her career, while also wanting to make sure her daughter is raised right is quite admirable. I also really like how close she is to her co-workers and how they pitched in to help her balance her career with raising Saaya. I thought her internal conflict when Saaya decided to focus on a medical career instead of acting was interesting too, realizing how fast her daughter is growing up and being reluctant to let her go. She initially tries to keep these feelings to herself, but being turned into an Oshimaida brings them to the surface as she abducts Hugtan, seemingly mistaking her for a younger Saaya. They ultimately manage to talk things out, with Saaya letting Reira know just how much of an influence Reira has been and how she also played a part in helping her reach her decision.

Next is Saaya’s father, Shuji. He first appears in episode 7, where he is seen preparing Saaya’s favorite food. He works as a caterer for the film sets Reira works at, and sometimes helps Reira with her work. When he’s not delivering food to the set, he seems to handle the household chores and such while Reira is at work.

He doesn’t get that much screentime, but it is clear that he supports Reira and is a good parent to Saaya, presumably being able to spend more time with her than Reira. I like their story.

Next, onto Homare’s family. We don’t get to see much of them, but Homare does mention in one episode that she lives with her mother and grandparents, and that her mother and father are divorced for unknown reasons. We finally get a glimpse of the family in episode 25, when Homare’s mother, Chitose, is seen helping Homare get ready for the festival and giving her a hair accessory for the occasion.

Chitose makes another appearance in episode 43, when she notices that Homare is feeling conflicted due to her feelings for Harry, and gives her some advice, reassuring her that no matter what happens, her friends will be there for her.

While a minor character, I liked Chitose’s interactions with Homare. She is able to tell what is troubling her and gives her some advice based on her own experiences. She’s clearly a caring parent, and I wish we’d seen some more of her and Homare’s grandparents.

I guess Homare’s dog, Mogumogu, also counts as a family member, so I’ll talk about him real quick. Homare basically adopted him as a pet after saving him from being hit by a truck during the brief period in which Hugtan froze time. Mogumogu gets an episode focused on him, where he develops a crush on a cute celebrity cat named Lily, shown on TV. When an oppurtunity to meet her presents itself, the Cures try to help Mogumogu muster up the courage to win a competition. When an Oshimaida attacks during the event, Mogumogu manages to show his courage when he rescues a girl who was separated from her mother during the chaos and leads her to safety. The girl and her mother later come to thank him, turning out to be Lily’s owners, allowing the two to finally meet.

Yeah, not really much to say about Mogumogu. He’s cute, a bit of a slow learner, but managed to prove his courage when things got tough. And he can tell that Cure Etoile is Homare, which isn’t that surprising, as other pets belonging to the Cures tend to be able to figure it out. And his little relationship with Lily the cat is cute too, I guess, with the final episode suggesting they still meet regularly.

Anyways, since I’ve already talked about Dr. Traum, that only leaves Emiru’s family. We meet her parents in episode 15, and we quickly see that the two are quite eccentric, wearing old-fashioned outfits and singing and dancing around the room when Ruru first meets them after following Emiru to her house. A later episode shows that they also support Emiru in her music career. I don’t have that much to say about them, really. They’re kind of funny, giving us a bit of an idea of where Emiru gets her some of her overly dramatic tendencies from, and I like how they are supportive of Emiru.

Now, let’s talk about Masato, Emiru’s older brother. When he is first introduced, he comes across as sort of a rich jerk, due to having been heavily influenced by his grandfather. As such, he disapproves of Emiru’s interest in the guitar, suggesting that the violin or piano are more lady-like, leading to Ruru, moved by Emiru’s guitar playing, to stand up to Masato on her behalf.

Masato is seen again in episode 19, commenting on how feminine a ribbon Henri wears on his school uniform tie looks, with Henri just ignoring his opinion. When Masato later in the episode tries to pull Emiru away from performing in a fashion show with “heroes” as a theme due to his belief that only guys should be heroes, Henri steps in after changing into a beautiful dress. After Henri stands up against Masato and his sexist views, Masato leaves, with his negative energy making him into a target for Criasu and turning him into an Oshimaida.

During the confrontation with the Cures, Masato’s Oshimaida kidnaps Henri. While caught up in the situation, Henri calmly speaks to the Oshimaida, encouraging Masato to love himself more. After being purified, Henri’s words seem to have had quite the effect on him, as Masato starts mellowing out and showing more support for Emiru. He apologizes to her by giving her tickets for her and Ruru to see a concert, and also apologizes to Henri, with the two becoming close friends afterwards. In later episodes, the two are often seen together, with Masato supporting Henri in his ice-skating and such.

Masato’s character development really shines when his grandfather shows up after Emiru loses her voice over being unable to admit to not wanting Ruru to leave once the Pretty Cures’ mission is over. When Emiru and Masato’s grandfather tries to talk Emiru into quitting her band with Ruru, Masato stands up to his grandfather and helps give Emiru the encouragement to regain her voice and talk things out with Ruru. 

Masato ended up becoming a surprisingly interesting character, once Henri and the Pretty Cures helped him gain enough insight to think more for himself and not just follow what his grandfather taught him. I really like how he redeems himself by becoming a supportive older brother for Emiru, and the friendship he develops with Henri. As the story progresses, it even seems their relationship might be developing towards something more than just friends.

I think the moments between those two that really stand out to me are his scenes in episode 42. There’s the scene where he and Homare visit Henri in the hospital after the car accident that broke Henri’s leg, with Masato tearfully wishing he could’ve been the one who got injured instead of Henri. Then there’s Masato’s joyful reaction when Henri temporarily becomes a Cure, and him running out on the ice to catch Henri in his arms after the transformation wears off. Yeah, that episode had some really good moments between those two.

I also really liked his confrontation with his grandfather during the episode where Emiru temporarily lost her voice as mentioned before, and while the grandfather is still being stubborn and refusing to change his mind by the end of the episode, Masato still hopes he’ll eventually come around, even if might take time. I feel that episode really showed how Masato has changed for the better, and how his more open-minded perspective has also helped him connect with others more.

Well, I think that about covers the family members of the Cures, so now let’s move onto other recurring characters. I’ll start with Henri Wakamiya, a half-French, half-Japanese figure skater from Russia. He is initially introduced as a childhood friend of Homare, who is thrilled to see that she’s taken up skating again, and wanting her to come with him to Moscow to help her get back to her former glory. Henri is initially skeptical of Homare’s new friends, Hana and Saaya, believing them to be holding Homare back from getting back to her full potential.

Homare eventually proves him wrong, and he starts to warm up to Hana and Saaya, and it is implied that he figured out that they were the Cures after witnessing their battle against an Oshimaida in that episode, which is confirmed in a later episode. After these events, Henri transfers into the Cures’ school. His comments to Hana indirectly led to the plot of episode 10 and 11, which had Hana start doubting herself, before eventually overcoming these doubts with the help of her friends and gaining the Melody Swords.

Henri’s next big role is in episode 19, where he invites Emiru and Ruru to take part in the fashion show after hearing them sing together. We also see him not caring for Masato’s mocking comments about his fashion choices, even when Hana tries to defend him, explaining to her that he believes arguing with those who disagree with his choices is just a waste of time. When Masato tries to interfere with the fashion show by taking Emiru away, Henri chooses to stand up to him, appearing before him in a dress. Henri explains his worldview to Masato, believing that living life with unwanted restrictions is a waste, and stops him from taking Emiru home.

As mentioned when I talked about Masato, an Oshimaida is made from Masato’s negative energy, and it ends up capturing Henri. While the Cures try to save him, Henri also assists by calmly talking to Masato, embracing the Oshimaida and encouraging him to love himself more. After the Cures rescue Henri and return Masato to normal, Henri and Masato end up developing a close friendship, as I mentioned earlier.

Henri’s next appearances start up a sub-plot in which the Criasu Corporation look to recruit him, while Henri is recovering from a problem with his leg which may potentially force him to retire from ice skating. When first approached by Ristoru, Emiru witnesses their conversation and goes to talk to Henri, who assures her that he has no intention of joining up with them. He also comments about this surprising turn of events saying that he would’ve sooner expected the Pretty Cures to recruit him.

However, Ristoru does leave Henri with a business card, and the ending of the episode to introduce this sub-plot shows that while Henri may have rejected Criasu’s offer for now, this isn’t the end of it. Indeed, Homare eventually notices that something is wrong and asks Henri about it. Henri eventually admits that while he’s already had the doctors take care of his leg, he knows that he likely won’t be able to continue, but he wants to have at least one last ice skating performance before he starts looking for another dream.

Unfortunately, Henri is unable to perform when he gets into a car accident which results in him breaking his leg. Henri initially tries to put on a brave face for Homare and Masato when they come to check on him, but once left alone, his despair starts to get to him, with Ristoru making it worse by showing him his fans who are upset at not being able to see his performance. This leads to Henri briefly falling under Criasu’s control, but the Cures manage to snap him out of it.

As the Cures manage to reach Henri, a miracle occurs, leading to Henri temporarily becoming a Cure himself, Cure Infini. Cure Infini assists the Cures in their battle and manages to raise the spirits of the audience with his ice skating skills. After the battle is over and Henri is taken back to the hospital, he speaks to Hana, Saaya and Homare about why he chose to call his Cure form Cure Infini and talks about how he considers the first three Cures the Precures of wings, pointing out in Hana’s case that Cure Yell’s name also sounds similar to “Aile”, which means wings. Henri is seen still recovering in the last few episodes leading up to the finale.

I think Henri is easily one of the most interesting characters of Hugtto’s supporting cast. I think it’s particularly episode 19 where we really get to know him. He is true to himself, and has no issues occasionally wearing dresses because he likes them. I enjoy watching his interactions with Masato, and I think his sub-plot was an interesting one. Much like Tanpopo’s debut episode, it ties into the show’s theme in the aspect of the possibility of injury or medical condition interfering with your ability to follow your passions.

Ultimately, the sub-plot results in something I don’t think anyone saw coming until the preview for episode 42: Henri Wakamiya becoming the first official male Cure, even if it was only temporary. While the idea of a male Cure has previously been teased in previous series and we’ve certainly seen plenty of male allies of the Cures, Hugtto Pretty Cure finally had a male character recognized as a Cure. It was quite awesome, and with the themes brought up in episode 19 and Henri having shown an implied interest in being a Cure, I feel it was quite fitting that they actually went through with it. And what makes it even better is that this wasn’t just a one-time thing: It was foreshadowing for the events of the final battle between the Cures and George! I really loved that. I’ll go more into detail about that later.

Aside from Henri and Masato, I also like his relationships with his childhood friend Homare, and how they’re shown to understand each other fairly well as both notice the other’s troubles. Another relationship I liked is his relationship with Hana. While it starts off with him skeptical to her, he soon starts warming up to her once he realizes how big an impact she really left on Homare in helping her return to ice skating. While the two are on friendlier terms, it is still shown in later episodes that they still haven’t quite come to fully understand each other, but eventually, in episode 42, when Hana shows him the design she made for an outfit that ultimately becomes the basis for Cure Infini’s outfit, Henri, while commenting that the outfit doesn’t seem all that practical for ice skating, at least acknowledges that Hana has grown to understand him more as he still likes the design itself. I really liked this little moment and the acknowledgement of how their relationship has progressed.

Okay, I think I’ll talk about Ranze Ichijo, a recurring character who plays a role in Saaya’s character arc. She’s an aspiring young actress, and self-proclaimed rival to Saaya, even if Saaya doesn’t fully understand that she sees it that way. This is because Ranze and Saaya were both in a variety show together as children, but while Saaya was the main character of the show, Ranze was just a side-character, wearing a leek costume. This itself also leads to a bit of a running gag in the episodes where Ranze shows up, as she keeps inexpliacably ending up in roles relating to leek, such as the person delivering leek on a show about cooking, or a leek knight in the episode where everyone got caught up in another virtual world created by Criasu.

Ranze’s appearances mainly focus on her desire to get bigger roles as an actress, while “competing” with Saaya. However, as is made clear in the episode where Saaya decides to retire from acting to focus on pursuing a career in medicine instead, Ranze also respects Saaya. She calls Saaya out on not putting her heart in her role, and when Saaya informs everyone of her decision, Ranze is initially upset and even tearfully asks if there’s a chance that Saaya could both work in medicine and still be an actress, while respecting Saaya’s decision when Saaya explains why that wouldn’t work.

I really like Ranze, particularly her moments with Saaya in episode 44. Due to the similarities between their names, she may be partially based off of Ranko Ichijou from Go! Princess Pretty Cure, another fun side character who wanted to be an idol. Still, whether that was intentional or not, she seems very different from Ranko. I also like her design.

Next, I’ll talk about Fumito Chise, one of the Cures’ classmates, and the first person to be the victim of the week on this show after getting angry over his teacher scolding him for turning in an assignment late. He becomes interested in Cure Yell after she saves him, and episode 34 reveals that he at some point started his own Cure Yell fan club. He is usually accompanied by Hinase Amano, another one of his classmates.

During episode 34, we see just how enthusiatic he is about Cure Yell. On the other hand, he’s not all that interested in Hana, unaware that they’re the same person. He and Hinase end up talking to Kotori about her concerns, and the three of them end up helping give the Cures the power boost they need to defeat the opponent of that episode.

Yeah, he’s a minor character for the most part, but I really liked his interactions with Kotori and Hinase in episode 34. The way they work off of each other with their different personalities and viewpoints was fun to watch. I also like the little book end with Fumito’s frustration being what causes the negative energy to possess the train the future characters are supposed to use to get back to their own time, with the reason for his frustration even being just about the same as what got him turned into an Oshimaida in the first episode.

I’ll talk about Hinase next, a guy is part of the school’s orchestra club and is often seen preparing for concerts. While also a fairly minor character, he does play a slightly bigger role than Fumito. Aside from background appearances in early episodes, his first scene to stand out is a conversation with Hana in episode 10, where he tells her of one the orchestra club’s upcoming concerts and talks about how many different talents come together to make amazing music. This later comes up again in episode 11, where the girls are trying to figure out how to help a comatose Hugtan, and end up heading to the tower where the concert is held. Remembering his words, Hana and the other two girls are able to figure out how to wake up Hugtan.

Later episodes show that Hinase has developed a bit of a crush on Hana, but unfortunately Hana is totally oblivious to this. He later gets a focus episode alongside Kotori and Fumito, as I’ve already mentioned. He helps Kotori with her concerns by providing his perspective on Hana, and how she’s always caring for the well-being of others, even if she can be a bit clumsy at times. He, Fumito and Kotori later help the Cures by cheering them on and giving them the power boost they need to save the day.

I like Hinase, and I think his interactions with Hana are really sweet. While she may be oblivious to his crush on her, he manages to give her some good advice and encouragement. I also find his interactions with Fumito interesting, as mentioned above. He’s just a nice, sort of dorky guy who is very understanding of others.

And now for Aki and Junna, two other classmates of Hana who are frequently seen in minor roles throughout the show. While the two are shown throughout early episodes, their only real focus episode was episode 16. The episode focuses on Aki, the read haired girl, wanting to be more like Homare, which leads to conflict with Junna, the girl with the glasses, who thinks Aki is fine the way she is and doesn’t think Homare would make a good role model considering her reputation prior to Hana and Saaya helping her to get things back on track in regards to her ice skating.

As Homare tries to convince Aki to sort things out with Junna, we learn how the two have been friends since kindergarden, and that Junna has helped Aki a lot throughout the years since Aki has trouble staying focused on things. Homare can’t figure out how to help the two, so when the two later get into another argument, the become an easy target for Papple to create an Oshimaida. 

During the battle, Cure Etoile’s words reach them, and they begin talking things out. Aki explains why she wanted to be more like Homare, while Junna explains her own feelings and realizes she may have been unconsciously holding Aki back. Thus, the two patch things up. They continue to play minor roles in later episodes.

So, yeah. I like them, they have a fairly interesting dynamic. I like their designs, and their focus episode was good. I don’t really have much to say about them, though. Aside from their focus episode, I can’t think of any other big roles they play in other episodes at the top of my head, aside from being among the people shown to temporarily become Cures in the finale. Still, I felt the show still treated them as important enough among the recurring characters for me to include in this post.

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Overall Thoughts

I really did like this series a lot. I liked the art style, which reminded me a bit of Yes! Pretty Cure 5′s art style, the character designs were really great and the soundtrack was really great too. I really think the whole future theme worked really well, and it is in some way similar to the theme of Go! Princess Pretty Cure about following your dreams, another Pretty Cure series that is among my favorites. The characters are all really great, and I like how this show continues experimenting with the Pretty Cure formula like Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure and Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode did.

Hugtto Pretty Cure is also one of the darker Pretty Cure seasons, which I’m guessing is partially due to the previous two seasons for the most part having had a fairly light-hearted tone, so they allowed themselves to go a bit darker with this one. For starters, the main threat facing the world is made known right from the start, with Criasu’s goal being to eliminate the future by stopping time, while in both of the series that preceded this one it took some time before it became clear what the villains were trying to accomplish. The first few episodes also have more of a serious tone in some aspects, particularly with Homare’s initial difficulties becoming a Cure.

This show could get seriously intense at times. A few scenes that come to mind are the endings of episode 10 and episode 16, the imagery in the scene in episode 22 leading up to Papple becoming an Oshimaida, Harry’s backstory shown in episode 25, Henri getting into a car accident in 42, George torturing the other four Cures in episode 47 in order to force Cure Yell to surrender... And those aren’t even all of the examples I can think of at the top of my head.

There’s also the way the show presents its future theme in very relatable ways, showing different worries people may have about their futures. How do you become the person you aspire to be? What goal do you truly want to pursue in the future? And what do you do when it seems you may no longer be able to do the thing you love because of injury or because your body no longer works as well as it used to due to age? There’s even sort of an element of this with the villains, who for the most part have all given up on hope for their future, and are already aware that the world will end up in a bad state in a few years anyways. Considering all the worry about climate change and whether we’ll be able to do something about it before things get worse, this can hit kind of close to home.

But of course, being a Pretty Cure series, this series still takes a optimistic approach to many of these topics, with the Cures gradually figuring out what they truly want from the future, and inspiring others to do their best too, even managing to convince the villains that there might still be a good future for them and inspiring them to explore the possibilities. I feel this in some ways sums up one of the reasons why I like the Pretty Cure franchise so much. There’s something very inspiring about watching these girls fighting for the futures of themselves and those around them, always managing to find a way to get back on their feet no matter what hardships they might face along the way. And I feel this element of inspiration is really highlighted in Hugtto Pretty Cure.

This series also celebrates the 15th anniversery of the franchise, much like Happiness Charge Pretty Cure celebrated the 10th anniversary. And while I did like Happiness Charge, I do feel this Hugtto does it better. Happiness Charge had some interesting concepts, but all in all, it didn’t utilize those concepts to its full potential and had some romance sub-plots that were a little hard to get invested in because it was already pretty clear what the outcome would be. The series wasn’t bad, but it could’ve been better.

With Hugtto, there are plenty of callbacks to previous Pretty Cure series, they are also willing to try new things and take more chances, managing to truly capture the essence of the Pretty Cure franchise. And sure, it has some flaws and there are perhaps some characters that could’ve been explored more, but all in all, it’s still a pretty good series.

And while on the topic of it being an anniversery series, I of course have to talk about certain episodes. I’ll first bring up episode 21, which ends with Hugtan summoning the original Pretty Cure duo, Cure Black and Cure White, who end up assisting the Hugtto team in episode 22, helping Emiru and Ruru sort out some problems between them and helping fight Papple’s Oshimaida before Hugtan returns the two to their world. This was pretty cool, and also ties in to the Hugtto Pretty Cure movie, which also has the Hugtto team teaming up with Cure Black and Cure White to help reclaim the memories of the other Pretty Cure teams, basically making it a Pretty Cure All Stars movie, which also has me wondering if we’ll get another All Stars movie for the 20th anniversary, and if that’ll be a recurring thing or not.

Anyways, back on topic, episode 36 and 37 then decided to one-up those episodes, by basically being a two-part episode All Stars movie on its own by bringing in all the other Pretty Cure teams. Basically, episode 36 has Dr. Traum planning to stop time, and trying to prevent the Cures from doing so by turning them into babies (again, another reference to the plot of the Hugtto movie) with one of his inventions, going after the grown-up Kira Kira Pretty Cures, who were meeting up for the first time in a while. Hugtan manages to get them out of danger by teleporting them to the Hugtto team, but not before Dr. Traum’s invention has turned them back into the ages they were during the Kira Kira Pretty Cure series itself. Hana and Ichika recognize each other, presumably due to the events of the crossover movie with them and the Mahou Tsukai Cures. (as well as Hana having visited the KiraPati in the finale of Kira Kira, but I’m not sure if this came up in the crossover movie or not, I do need to catch up on those.)

The Mahou Tsukai girls soon show up, with Mirai and Riko getting de-aged as well (Kotoha still being the same age as before due to essentially being a physical Goddess or something as shown in the finale of Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure), and the three groups team up in order to stop Dr. Traum. As his new invention proves especially difficult to deal with, the Cures split up to seek more help, and end up meeting up with Love Momozono from Fresh Pretty Cure, and Nozomi Yumehara from Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo.

Cure Peach and Cure Dream join the fight, but Dr. Traum ultimately manages to freeze time, including most of the other Pretty Cure teams, however, we do see that in addition to the Cures gathered so far, Cure Black, Cure White and Shiny Luminous also managed to avoid being frozen and soon join up with the other Cures. However, Dr. Traum continues to get stronger, until he becomes a powerful Oshimaida and summons various monsters from previous series.

However, thanks to the determination of Hana and the others, the Cures manage to break through Dr. Traum’s attempts to stop them, and eventually the rest of the Cures from various series are able to join them, resulting in an epic fight where the various Cures fight together. In the end, with the help of all the Cures, as well as the encouragement from various allies those Cures have made throughout their series, they manage to purify Dr. Traum with their combined strength.

Now, while I do love these two episodes, episode 37 in particular, I do have to bring up the fact that this causes a few small issues with the timeline previously established by the final episodes of Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure and Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode. You see, in Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure’s final episode, Mirai and Riko are both college age, but are temporarily returned to middle school ages by Kotoha’s magic, as they go on one last mission as Cures and find out what has happened to the other characters during the time skip. During their adventure, they meet Ichika, who is at this point a middle schooler.

Cut forward to Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode’s final episode, where Hana stops by the KiraPati along with Hugtan, and which takes place before a time skip leading to the final scenes where we see the Kira Kira Pretty Cures all grown up. However, in episode 36, we see the Kira Kira Pretty Cures in their grown-up ages, despite the fact that Hana’s appearance in the last episode should suggest that they’d still be close to the same age as her at this point in the timeline. In addition, Mirai and Riko’s grown-up selves still appear to be the same age as we saw them in the last episode of Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure, even though the grown-up versions of the Kira Kira Pretty Cure suggests that those two should be even older by then. Yeah... Kind of messes up the timeline a little, doesn’t it? Again, I haven’t seen the Dream Stars and Super Stars movies yet, so I don’t know what their take on the timeline is. I suppose the time travel element might play into some of this, but I’ll talk more about some of the more confusing aspects of the time travel stuff later.

Now, as mentioned, while there are some confusing details regarding the timelines of these shows, I’m actually willing to mostly overlook it simply because of how awesome episode 37 was. Seriously, that episode was like a love letter to the fans that have been following the entire franchise so far. I love the little details of the Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode team being clueless as to who most of the Pretty Cure teams are, as the last Pretty Cure All Stars movie prior to the Hugtto one was the Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure one, and thus the Kira Kira Pretty Cures hadn’t met most of the previous teams.

The entire fight scene during episode 37 is pure awesome, with how they pair up different Cures with similar abilities or personalities. Like the defensive Cures getting together to deflect an attack with their barriers, the former villain Cures with musical instruments (+ Cure Ma Cherie) joining up for an attack, Cure Blossom and Cure Flora combining their flower power, the star themed Cures doing an attack together, the Splash Star, Happiness Charge and Mahou Tsukai teams using their different forms, Milky Rose, Cure Felice and Cure Parfait (all being fairies who became human) fighting together, Cure Rouge, Cure Sunny and Cure March using their ball-themed attacks, the Cures who in some way use swords joining together, Cure Rhythm (also being an aspiring patissier) finally getting to meet Cure Whip... There are so many good combinations in this!

And there’s even more! We even get cameos from other notable characters from previous series, starting with an appearance from Bunbee, who was unwittingly roped into helping Dr. Traum with his invention, and then bailed out once he realized what was going on and then informed the Cures of what was going on.

Then, when the Cures are preparing for their final attack to purify Dr. Traum, we see both Pekorin and (partially) Mofurun assuming their Pretty Cure forms, and we get cameos from Michiru and Kaoru from Splash Star (in their Cure Bright and Windy forms), Cure Flower from HeartCatch Pretty Cure, Royale Candy from Smile Pretty Cure, Cure Tender and the Aloha Pretty Cures from Happiness Charge Pretty Cure, Pikario and Bibury from Kira Kira Pretty Cure, Soular and Westar from Fresh Pretty Cure, Otokichi from Suite Pretty Cure, Regina from Doki Doki Pretty Cure, Yui from Go! Princess Pretty Cure, the principal from Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure and even Cure Echo from the All Stars movies appears to pitch in for the final attack. All of these allies of the Pretty Cures... Ah, it was so awesome!

There were probably a few more characters they could’ve included, with Seiji Sagara and maybe Blue from Happiness Charge in particular coming to mind, but it was still really awesome seeing them acknowledging all of these characters as basically part of the Pretty Cure teams. I loved that scene so much! And they even worked in a cameo of Kaoru from Fresh Pretty Cure after the battle and time returned to normal. It was just such a great episode! And they even managed to work it into the on-going story of Hugtto, since Dr. Traum was purified in the process. Seriously, this is how you celebrate a franchise’s anniversary. I also liked the use of the opening theme of Futari wa Pretty Cure for the action scene and the special episode ED themes.

The character development in this series is pretty solid, for the most part. As I mentioned earlier, I think Emiru could’ve had some more interactions with the team besides Ruru, and Saaya tended not to stand out as much in episodes not focused on her. Although I feel they at least managed to avoid having Saaya end up in the same category as Alice from Doki Doki Pretty Cure, Yuko from Happiness Charge Pretty Cure and Mirai from Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure, three characters who didn’t receive as much character development as their teammates and while they certainly had episodes focused on them, they sort of remain static characters for most their shows. With Saaya, there is a clear progression in her character arc and her focus episodes develop her story well.

There might’ve also been aspects of some of the villains that could’ve been explored in more detail. On the other hand, I suppose there’s that saying “show, not tell”, and it might be better not to just tell everything. Still, in some cases, certain unanswered questions leave you wondering, and I’m not sure if we’ll possibly get an answer to some of those via supplementary materials, like we got with for example Sasorina, Kumojacky and Cobraja from HeartCatch Pretty Cure.

That aside, I feel the show overall does a pretty good job with setting up its plot points and the foreshadowing, with the gradual reveal of Harry’s backstory, the mysteries surrounding Hugtan and so on. There’s just enough clues that you can kind of piece together what’s going on, and look forward to seeing if you were right and what the other characters’ reactions will be. At least, that’s how I felt watching this series.

I also really appreciated Cure Infini. I feel this show was probably the most perfect time and place to introduce a male Cure, as I mentioned earlier. I kind of hope this could open up new possibilities for future Pretty Cure series. As I mentioned earlier, the appearance of Cure Infini also foreshadowed the events of the second-to-last episode, so I think it’s about time I start getting into the last few episodes, my thoughts on them, among other things.

So, basically, the last battle is kicked off by Criasu managing to stop time, and creating a giant Oshimaida to deal with the Cures. George kidnaps Hugtan, but the Cures do manage to finally purify Ristoru and Bishin, and Gelos helps give the Cures a ride to Criasu Corp’s HQ before joining the other former villains in holding off Oshimaidas while the Cures try to rescue Hugtan. George eventually traps all five Cures, and tries to break Cure Yell’s spirit by torturing the other four by eletrocuting them. However, the four manage to encourage Cure Yell to not give up despite all this. The four of them are sent away, leaving Cure Yell to confront George alone.

The two fight for a while, with Cure Yell refusing to give in. Recalling how much things have changed since she met Hugtan and the others, she finds the strength to keep fighting and eventually manages to destroy George’s book, freeing Hugtan. The other Cures soon rejoin the fight, and as they spread positive energy all over, time resumes as everyone becomes a Cure to assist with the final battle. Yes, everyone in town temporarily becomes a Cure to help deal the final blow against George. After this, Cure Yell goes to have one last talk with George, where they seem to reach somewhat of an understanding before he leaves, promising that they’ll meet again somewhere. After that, the Cures and the other former villains watch the sunrise together.

Yeah, that second-to-last episode was pretty awesome. With the angel-wing imagery throughout the show, I thought for sure that the Cures were going to receive one final power-up that included angel wings, but that didn’t happen. I think what they ended up doing with everyone in town becoming Cures was really cool, though. There were a few characters whose Cure forms we didn’t get to see, though, including Harry, Bishin and Ristoru, although I’m sure fanartists have come up with some designs. Among other characters I would’ve liked to see as Cures were Ranze and Reira, who I at least don’t remember seeing during that sequence. There were a lot of cool designs, though, especially for some of the former villains. A clever alternative to giving the Cures a final upgrade for the final battle, and works well with the show’s message. By working together and getting everyone involved, they were able to make a better future.

After the final battle, the last episode focuses on everyone going about their daily lives, with the first half of the episode dealing with the girls spending time together before it is time to send the characters from the future home. While working on the invention that’ll send the characters from the future back, the invention ends up turning into an Oshimaida and going on a rampage due to absorbing Toge power from a frustrated Fumito. The Cures have one last fight, with Hikaru/Cure Star from the then upcoming Star Twinkle Pretty Cure making a cameo to help them out, before going off to chase a kappa.

With all that done said and done, Hana and her friends see the characters from the future off as they board Dr. Traum’s time machine train to return home. However, they find it hard not to cry at being separated for a long time, especially as Hugtan doesn’t fully understand what is going on. In the end, the characters from the future return home.

Yeah, the scene where the characters from the present and the ones from the future part ways was really sad, especially with Hugtan’s reaction to it. Cure Star’s cameo was also kind of short compared to the cameos of Ichika/Cure Whip and Hana/Cure Yell in Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure and Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode. Still, since every other Cure from the previous series had been featured, and this show does have the whole future theme going, it’d also be strange if she didn’t show up. Also, after watching the first episode of Star Twinkle, I thought the whole thing with Hikaru running off to chase a kappa turned out to be a clever bit of foreshadowing, considering the first of the villains she ended up facing.

Anyways, as for the second half of the episode, we jump ahead several years into the future, where Hana and her friends are now adults, and we see what the supporting cast has been up to. We find that this timeline’s version of Dr. Traum has built a child version of Ruru which is supposedly capable of aging, which he calls the grown-up Emiru over to meet. While it’s not the same Ruru (who she presumably will have to wait another 13 years to meet again, if I understand things right, I’ll get back to that later), Emiru is happy to see her, and plays the song she wrote for the original Ruru on her guitar. New!Ruru seems to know the song, and sings along with Emiru.

Meanwhile, Hana is now the president of a successful company and is well-liked by her employees, which include some of her former classmates. However, one of her employees point out that she’s not even supposed to be working at the moment, and we soon see why as Hana is revealed to be pregnant and she starts going into labour. Saaya, now working as a doctor alongside the good timeline version of Daigan, prepare to help Hana as they get the call about her. Homare, now a famous ice skater, hurries over from the airport to be with Hana as she gives birth. We see more glimpses of what the rest of the supporting characters have been up to, and Hana gives birth to a familiar-looking baby girl, naming her Hagumi.

So, yeah. It is pretty neat seeing what all the supporting characters are up to in the good future. A few lingering plot points, such as the whole deal with Masato and Emiru’s grandfather is resolved, as we see him attending one of Henri’s performances, seemingly more accepting than before. Also, Henri and Masato probably had a relationship upgrade at some point during the time skip. Good for them!

And it is confirmed that Hugtan/Cure Tomorrow is indeed Hana’s daughter. The identity of her father is still ambiguous, though. While it could be George... I don’t know. I think it’d be kind of strange for that to happen, considering everything the bad future!George put Hana and her friends through. Even if the good timeline George is different, and Hana was willing to forgive the bad timeline!George to some extent... It just seems strange. I guess I just personally think that if anything, those two would just be friends.

While George being Hugtan’s father could potentially explain why she alone was spared in the bad timeline, but that could also just be because George knows she’s Hana’s daughter, even if he’s not the father. Yeah, I mentioned earlier that there are some confusing elements of the story, due to lack of certain details and the whole time travel aspect with the two different timelines. The whole deal with Cure Tomorrow being one of them.

By the time the series begins, the timeline has already changed slightly from the bad timeline George, the other Criasu members, Harry and Hugtan came from, with Hana having transferred schools and cut her bangs, while in the bad timeline, Hana never did transfer schools and meet the other girls. So, I guess the bad future characters going back in time might’ve caused some ripple effect that set in motion the changes to the timeline, including somehow Hana changing schools, although that’s just speculation on my part.

And then there’s the final episode, with the characters from the future returning to the good timeline, a brief scene of human!Harry with Cure Tomorrow seemingly confirming that they did make it there. I do wonder, though, since we do see the younger versions of the former villains there, is there going to be two of each of these characters in this timeline? My reason for this is based on the appearance of human!Harry, since we see hamster!Harry with Bicine and Ristoru in an earlier scene, and considering the events of the bad future didn’t happen in this timeline, Criasu wouldn’t be around and Harry, Bicine and Ristoru presumably wouldn’t have been experimented on and given their human forms.

I guess I’m curious as to how things would’ve played out when the characters from the future return to about 13 years after the events shown in the second half of the final episode. I imagine Emiru being thrilled to now have two Rurus to hang out with, and the two versions of Dr. Traum discussing new inventions, as well as discussing the possibility of upgrading the original Ruru to be able to age like the new Ruru. And then there’s Hagumi, assuming Hana did indeed have her in the bad timeline too... I mean, would good timeline!Hagumi have had any reason to become a Pretty Cure, since there doesn’t seem to be any villains causing trouble in the good future? So, if there’s two Hagumi in the good future now, would one of them be a regular girl, and the other a Pretty Cure?

Yeah... Assuming that’s how it would work, I guess it could make for some interesting fanfic. I imagine Hana and the others would do their best to help their friends from the bad future settle down in the good future.

So, basically, if you think a little too hard about it and try to make sense of how the whole time travel and timeline aspect works, certain things can get a bit confusing. The series does have a few other flaws, but all in all, it’s a very enjoyable series with plenty of great characters, nice animation, a good soundtrack and so on. The story is really good, with its optimistic message about the future and plenty of call backs to previous Pretty Cure series while also trying some new twists on the usual tropes. As I said earlier, this series perfectly captures the spirit of the Pretty Cure series.

Well, I guess I’ve said everything I can think of. I really loved this series! A great series to celebrate the 15th anniversery of the franchise, and I certainly have high hopes for the future of the franchise. I’ve been enjoying Star Twinkle Pretty Cure a lot so far, and when that series concludes, I’ll certainly look forward to writing another one of these posts with my thoughts on that series! Okay, that’s all for now. I’ll see you guys later!