Settle in folks, it’s time to watch more Precure! I’ve been greatly enjoying this storied magical girl franchise so far, and am very happy to continue. The show’s second episode was relatively conventional, all things considered – it essentially just served as Saaya’s introduction to the team, establishing her personality, feelings of personal inadequacy, and initial friendship with our girl Hana. As far as all that goes, while the show’s production values remain excellent, Saaya’s personality felt a little familiar to me, and I’m guessing we’ll need a bit more time for her to develop a truly convincing rapport with our main lead. Outside of seriously dedicated thematic vehicles like Madoka Magica, a great deal of the strength of magical girl shows I’ve seen has come down to their character writing, and Hugtto isn’t quite there yet with anyone outside of Hana.

Fortunately, Hana herself remains a fantastic lead, and the threats arrayed against these girls are still decked in intriguing fragments of thematic resonance. If the show keeps up its current pace, we might be formally meeting the yellow cure this week, but I’d also be happy to see the show either further explore the nature of its villains or simply put in some time developing Saaya and Hana’s relationship. Either way, I expect the show to remain joyful and beautiful throughout, so there’s really no losing here. Let’s see what episode three has in store for our young heroes!

Episode 3

Still loving these Hana-led intro segments aimed directly at the viewer. They immediately establish a sense of energy and camaraderie, frame things as an intentional narrative in a way that keeps things light, and imply the audience is Hana’s actual friend

This one catches us up and then transitions into new material without a hitch, keeping momentum high

Always good to start an episode with some ridiculous faces

So our conflict is “Hugtan won’t stop crying”? That seems like the lead-in to a more character-focused episode

“Happy? Cranky? Hugtan’s Day Out!” Yeah, about what I expected

With a second cure on the team and Harry besides, I guess we’re spending a little more time strengthening the team’s overall relational dynamic. That works for me; as I said, Saaya didn’t really get much time to establish herself last episode, so an episode divorced from the narrative constraints of actually introducing a cure to the team sounds like a good idea

Harry introduces them to a precure-specific tablet PC, because convincing your parents to buy you cheap plastic trinkets clearly wasn’t enough

“Press here to find the thing that will cure Hugtan up.” This all feels pretty arbitrary. Unless they specifically introduced this device to sell it to kids, I feel like this whole sequence would have been better if they just stumbled into whatever Hugtan desires while walking around, as opposed to using this device

Hana’s faces are amazing this episode. Her look of suspicion at this peaceful garden is great

Okay, the device is leading them on a wild goose chase. Now it’s dramatically justifying itself

Our villain for the first two episodes is whining about having to submit his reports, which doubles as an introduction to the android Lulu. My twitter timeline already loves her, so the cat’s out of the bag on that particular twist, but I’m still eager to see how it plays out

“This is why we should always keep a cute part timer like you around!” The villain cackling about his next move doubles as natural context and setup for Lulu’s character. Efficient

All this Harryservice

Hugtan is not impressed by the cute gopher. Hugtan is a merciless judge of fuzzy animals

Homare Kagayaki, the third cure in waiting, shows up to defend them from… a man who’s drunk at the petting zoo and complaining about how much he hates babies? This episode is weird

“You say you hate brats… but you were a kid once, too.” Checkmate, atheists

So are we actually getting our third cure this episode?

Homare actually visits the petting zoo a lot. A quick undercutting of expectations, setting her up as the “cool, austere beauty” and then subverting that with her love of cute things. A perennial message in children’s shows – “people are always more than your first impression of them”

It turns out the thing they were looking for was actually Hana’s mom. More natural exposition and character-building here, as we learn about Hana’s family and Homare gets a little closer to the group. This episode seems to be pretty much all about building a stronger passive rapport across the leads

We’re also getting a better sense of their town of Nobinobi

“It’s tough to swallow but I guess we’re still just kids.” The mom being the solution offers another natural children’s show message: it’s okay if you can’t do something. Never be afraid to ask your parents for help, they have plenty of experience dealing with life’s troubles

“Learn to rely on those around you” fits nicely into an episode that’s also about celebrating the various wonders of their town, bouncing naturally off the community-focused atmosphere

“Criasu Corporation” apparently destroyed Harry’s world prior to our story. We’re really doing all the expository and emotional groundwork this episode, huh!

We’re also being introduced to the “Mirai Crystal White,” coveted by both sides

Harry says there are eight total crystals to collect, meaning eight Precures. That sounds like a lot

THEY KILLED THE SYMBOLISM BALLOON. THEY TURNED HIM TO STONE AND KILLED HIM

NOW THEY TURNED HIM EVIL. THEY CAUGHT SYMBOLISM BALLOON IN A GIANT PURPLE CLOUD AND MADE HIM EVIL

The giant evil symbolism balloon starts marching its way through downtown, causing a panic. I’m once again led to wonder what this world actually thinks of all this magic stuff – it seems like precures and the villains they fight are basically an acknowledged part of society, but we don’t really have any context for how they fit into everyday life. Granted, that might just be a wibbly-wobbly point of the worldbuilding that we’re not really supposed to question, but the concept is interesting enough that I’d actually really enjoy seeing how a world where magical girls are a known quantity actually works

Jeez, that’s a shonen property waiting to happen, isn’t it? My Hero Academia, except for a world with magical girls? I would watch the hell out of that show

The evil balloon has a tie tied around its forehead, which I believe is basically accepted shorthand for “drunk salaryman?” I wonder if that’s an archetype so ubiquitous in Japanese media that it’s not odd for it to appear in a show aimed at young children

Episode three and we’ve already escalated to “the villains create a golem that threatens to knock over a thirty story tower and destroy the town”

I’ve never really been much into fashion, but these awesome transformation sequences do make me appreciate the value of a badass outfit

Our cures punch the balloon and it goes flying. I guess that’s the downside of creating an inflatable villain

“If you want that promotion, you gotta be willing to walk over your coworkers.” After an episode focused on supporting each other and appreciating your community, our villain offers the pragmatic counterpoint, tethering selfishness as an absolute value to the villains’ general corporate motif

I’d heard that the Pretty Cure franchise was intentionally moving away from having its heroes physically punch and kick their enemies, but Hana sure is punching the crap out of this balloon

And once again, Hana’s most impressive moments are framed around her desire to eventually be great. Her desire to grow up to be a great person gives her the strength to triumph right now

Even our drunken villain guy gets a tiny arc, now resolving to call his mother. Lol

Hurray for Large Dad again

And we end on the lead-in for Homare’s entrance to the group. I’m ready!

And Done

Jeez, that episode was workmanly as all heck. After two episodes that were each pretty strict “a new member enters the team” affairs, this episode seemed wholly dedicated to fleshing out all of the details and relationships of this world, from Harry being integrated into Hana’s family to the full explanation of what our villains are seeking, and what our heroes must do to stop them. While barreling through all that necessary expository stuff, we also got a much stronger grasp of Hana’s hometown as a living place, and set our team on the path to meeting their third teammate. All of that prep work meant this episode was definitely less engaging or beautiful in its own right than the first two, but it was done efficiently and energetically, while still leaving time for a fun battle at the end. Precure Hugtto remains as confident as ever as we sail through its introductory phase!

This article was made possible by reader support. Thank you all for all that you do.