Hello everybody, and good to see you here at Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to be continuing our journey through Hugtto! Precure, which is always a wonderful time, but which I’ve also currently got even more reasons to be excited for. For one thing, we’re still right in the middle of the “Lulu Infiltration Arc,” as Lulu pretends to be Hana’s long-lost cousin in order to get more info on the Pretty Cures. Of course, Lulu herself is far from impervious to Hana and the other’s charms, and it’s been wonderful to see her developing both affection for Hana specifically and more emotions in general, like her absurd baby-knowledge rivalry with Saaya.

Beyond that, I’ve also been told that this episode will serve as the triumphant return of Emiru, The Precure With Anxiety. I relate to Emiru heavily, as I am also deeply self-conscious and generally certain I’m about to die, so I’m eager to see how she fits back into the story, and particularly what she makes of Lulu. Let’s get back to the Pretty Cure!

Episode 15

Hello again, Hana

Apparently this week will be Lulu’s first shopping trip, which actually sounds far more up her alley than babysitting. Taking care of babies requires sensitivity and flexibility; but to get Great Deals, you need a mathematical mind and a take-no-prisoners attitude, both of which Lulu has in spades

“This is just what the Nono homestead needs to recover from its financial peril, Mama!” Hana please calm down

Oh no, her mom is in on it too

EVEN LARGE DAD. What is wrong with this family

“No eggs, no life!” Incredible use of face-in-mouth technology here, as a sequence of telescoping Hana mouths slot in one after another around the central Hana. Ojamajo Doremi was very proud of its character-in-their-own-mouth tech, but this is on another level entirely

The storytelling is so punchy and energetic here, carried in large part by the playful transitions. I love how Lulu pokes in at the bottom of the frame, echoing how her response is barely present over the volume of Hana’s hysterics. And then later, we get a playful swipe cut of her jumping from the living room to the street, emphasizing how quickly she was rushed out of the house

OH MY GOD, EMIRU JUST MADE HER OWN PRETTY CURE OUTFIT. What an incredible turn for her character – of course, as the avatar of safety, she’d see the guardian Precures as heroes to be emulated. And the animation of her introductory sequence is so fluidly animated! So much character in her movements here, such that you can tell she really practiced her magical girl introduction

Her outfit is so charmingly homemade, too. And of course, gotta have elbow pads and knee pads, for safety!

What a fun, smart use of Lulu’s character, too. Of course she’d take Emiru’s statements at face value, and not realize she’s just a Precure fan

“Perfect(ish) Match: Emiru & Lulu’s Day Out.” I am going to love this episode so much

Emiru attempts to convey a whole moral lesson about being careful with cats in her victory pose, but it’s too hard and she falls over

Just so many expressive Emiru faces all throughout this conversation. It feels like they’re actually expanding on her expressiveness from her first appearance – she held back somewhat there, as she was essentially the “straight man” to Hana being a goof, but here, Lulu is clearly the stoic one, so Emiru gets to act sillier

Trust Emiru to be the one cast member who actually notices Lulu’s robot-like features

The character acting and expression work are just unbelievable this episode. Emiru is a walking maelstrom of expressive disasters

It’s becoming clear that Emiru is so obsessed with low-probability safety hazards because she herself is incapable of avoiding a single one of them

And the direction is just as dynamic as the animation. As we cut to Saaya and Homare, the combination of extreme closeups and their exaggerated looks of embarrassment do a wonderful job of energizing their idle conversation

Direction that rapidly jumps between distances in perspective isn’t necessarily good or bad – it can come off as either exciting or awkwardly ostentatious, but it works very well for this episode, which is not only high on visual energy, but also farcical enough to accept some noticeable contrivance in the cinematography. In general, the more seriously/intimately you want an audience to take a scene’s drama, the less of an ostentatious role the camerawork should play, so as not to draw attention to the inherent artifice of film

Ahaha, this scene at the market, too. Hugtto putting all of its visual powers to work dramatizing Lulu’s quest for the discount eggs. This episode is so good

Another ostentatious visual trick this episode can get away with due to its farcical nature: just having a cut of Lulu slide sideways into the image of rampaging shoppers

We even get this beautiful morphing cut of her hand in silhouette as she grabs the eggs. This episode is ridiculous

Emiru ends up getting a whole pyramid of cans to fall on her. How does she live her life this way

Oh my god, Emiru even inserted a budget interstitial shot for the “ad break” of her show

Just Emiru sitting on a bench alone, lamenting her failures. This is why she’s my favorite

Emiru in a happy daze because Lulu agreed to visit her house, while Lulu is basically just determining whether she’s a target worth eliminating. A perfect couple

Ahahaha. The actual Precures are discussing Emiru’s outfit, but all discussion is put on hold when they hear Hugtan say “Homae.” The setup here is crucial; the rapid shift from sober discussion to all of them making absurd faces at Hugtan is the core of the joke

Lulu wonders if Emiru lives in an octopus slide in the park, which, to be fair, I’d also wonder if this were my introduction to Emiru

There are just no still shots in this episode. Even simple beats like Emiru formally introducing herself are accompanied by playful shots like her crouching as she goes down the slide

Emiru lives in a giant estate, where any new arrivals are greeted by the family introducing themselves under massive spotlights. Sure, absolutely

A nice application of Lulu’s personality here: basically nothing in the human world surprises her, because she has no expectations of anything, and thus she’s not weirded out by Emiru’s home life

Her brother is Masato, and I’m hoping he’s not a goddamn snitch

Lulu notices Emiru’s piano and violins, and asks what they’re for, and then what “music” is. If Lulu gets in touch with her own feelings through Emiru teaching her the power of music, I am going to be ugly sobbing for hours

“In that case, I will show you… along with my greatest secret!” Having met her parents, I can see where Emiru’s flair for the dramatic comes from

Oh my god, she’s been hiding an electric guitar in like, a secret compartment that rises out of her bedroom floor. This episode is truly incredible – by embracing a far greater degree of farce than the show’s usual standard, it’s able to pull off an incredibly consistent series of visual gags. The rules are looser here, and this episode is making the absolute most of that, offering an absurd and beautifully animated new conceit every forty seconds

Emiru roaring about the freedom of guitar is so, so good. This girl has so much heart

And her song works. Lulu feels the melody so strongly that it actually hurts, but she asks to hear it again. These two are so good!

It’s an odd comparison, but this feels almost like the relationship between Hunter x Hunter’s Meruem and Komugi, who were also an incredible pair. Emiru’s harmlessness and sincerity have allowed her to puncture Lulu’s defenses

“Ridiculous, a girl playing guitar.” Wow, her brother sucks even more than I anticipated

And Lulu immediately sticks up for her! THESE TWO

And she even rants to Emiru afterwards! She’s actually letting her emotions lead her behavior!

Laughed out loud at Emiru shouting “EMIII-RU!” to herself in the closet, then kicking the door open in full Precure regalia

This episode is so stuffed with content that they actually have to speed up the usual transformation sequences

This episode’s monster is… a cat-creature with a keyboard for a belt and speaker system ears? Did the villains transform a karaoke club?

These layouts for Emiru admitting she’s a fake Precure are excellent. Love this shot panning down of her against the giant city behind her, emphasizing how small she is against what she’s pledged to protect. And then we cut in on her closing fist, implying how her strength and conviction are not determined by her size

“I can’t just sit back when the town’s in danger!” THE HEART OF A HERO

I also love how the actual fight here is basically just going on in the background. By keeping us in the powerless Emiru’s perspective, this battle seems far more threatening

And of course, Emiru invites Lulu to become a Precure with her. This episode is having such a fun time messing with the show’s usual title cards and musical cues

“We’re friends.” “No, we’re nothing.” Oh my god these two

And Done

WELL. That was, quite easily, the most charming, most funny, most visually generous of Hugtto! Precure so far. Holy crap was that ever a good episode. Not only did this episode serve as a terrific continuation of Lulu’s character arc, as well as a triumphant return for the fantastic Emiru, but the two of them actually turned out to be an improbably perfect pairing, serving as well-balanced, endearing counterpoints.

Each of them was just so good for the other – Lulu through validating Emiru’s passions and hobbies, and Emiru through teaching Lulu to get in touch with her own feelings. And on top of that, the battle at the end was actually one of the show’s best so far, a trick achieved by the novel choice of setting it from a powerless bystander’s perspective. AND ON TOP OF THAT, this episode was also just absurdly impressive in terms of its animation and direction, standing as one of the most cleverly storyboarded, fluidly executed, and just plain funny episodes in the series to date. Just an absurd embarrassment of riches from top to bottom, making terrific use of the show’s excellent cast, and demonstrating just how great Pretty Cure can be. I feel lucky to have watched that one!

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