Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to announce we’re charging right back into Hugtto! Precure, and I couldn’t begin to guess what we’ll do next. I mean, last episode’s concept turned out to be “Homare’s Dog Falls in Love with a Pet Food Mascot,” and I have to say that wasn’t even in my top twenty guesses. We’re apparently in the generous middle stretch of a Precure season, where the established nature of the team and antagonists allows Toei to get a little wild in their episodic conceits. Personally I’d love to see more of Harry’s old friends, but wherever the wind blows us, I’m sure this cast and production team will make the journey special. Let’s pile in for a fresh episode of Huggto! Precure!
Episode 29
Oh dang, seems we’ve got some kind of serious episode ahead. Instead of beginning with our usual Hana introduction, we receive a somber pair of cuts detailing an old woman leaving an offering at a shrine in her home. Both the woman’s face and the picture on the shrine are obscured, but they each seem to be wearing a similar white uniform of some kind
We then pan in on the team visiting a narrow shopping market, apparently to check out a store Hana suggested. This style of market, the kind celebrated in shows like Tamako Market, seems wonderfully intimate, and also totally foreign to me in the United States. Our cities and even towns are built for mass vehicle traffic, so streets designed for walking like this are a rarity, generally reserved for self-consciously boutique college towns and whatnot. I don’t really think an automobile-based transport system is compatible with the base concept of “community,” so it’s always nice to visit a place like this in fiction
It appears they’ve arrived at the woman’s home, which is also a sweets shop
Incredible Emiru faces as she points out the “alien creature” that is the old woman’s hair. Also love the visual detail of Saaya finding it cute, in keeping with her general fondness for power tools and other weird objects
Ah, it’s Hana’s grandmother
The key animation seems even more buoyant than usual this episode. Apparently Ken Ueno was the animation director for this one – considering he’s also served as animation director for like a dozen Toei films, it seems he’s one of their most trusted animators
“Let’s Settle This! The Spirit of Grandma’s Recipes!”
Oh my god, Hana and her grandmother are exactly alike. Apparently they both think Grandma’s bubblegum monster hairdo is “sexy”
Yeah, here’s some more really nice, subtle character acting, as we watch Grandma skillfully flip her hands around while constructing snacks. Hugtto! Precure is actually conveying its central theme directly through animation, illustrating the skill and grace that slowly rise when you dedicate yourself to a given profession. It’s a complex concept to illustrate visually, but Hugtto’s making it look easy
Character art also looking nice in the closeups – punchy use of uneven linework in this Hana reaction shot
More wonderful Emiru animation, as her pigtails revel in glee at how delicious this snack is. Already this feels like a generous episode
A brief sequence of Grandma struggling to carry the snacks seems like it’s the final piece we need to solve the puzzle: presumably, since her husband passed away, it’s become harder and harder to manage the shop by herself
Some old lady tries the snacks, and immediately starts talking trash about how their quality has gone down
The linework on the closeups on this episode is all pretty remarkable. In this angry closeup on Grandma, the variable line weight actually reveals the subtle folds of skin on her cheek, as well as the tension with which she is drawing her mouth into a line, preventing herself from saying anything else. Character art this good can tell a story all by itself – they clearly brought in Ueno for an episode where subtlety of expression is key
Grandma sets to work making a mega-obayaki, but immediately throws her back out. The usual “turned to angular stone” trick for her reaction here, elevated through this episode’s consistently excellent linework, as well as dynamically storyboarded shots like the low angle cut of her cooking instrument tumbling to the ground
Aw jeez. At the hospital, Grandma asks them to leave, stating she doesn’t want Hana to see her like this. This is a poignant branch of Hugtto’s overall thematic focus, but gosh it is a painful one. The parents and other figures we look up to can seem invincible in childhood, and they often want to be invincible for us, but growing up means recognizing the humanity and the frailty of the people who once protected us. As the mystery of adulthood is revealed, so is the impermanence of our adult lives
“Getting old is such an awful thing, my love.” Yep, it’s her husband
We segue over to Criasu Corp, where Dr. Traum makes a thematic link between this and the previous scene by stating how “as you get older, memory’s the first thing to go”
Dr. Traum is clearly higher in the organization than our most recent villain, proven by him relaying a variety of ominous orders
“Men get so stubborn when they get old. I’d rather stay young forever. It would be better if tomorrow never came.” Ooh, fascinating! Criasu Corp hasn’t really been doing a great job of selling their perspective as anything but villainy so far – “hope for the future, disappear” seemed more like a call to eternal stasis than an alternative to something even more horrible. But this woman’s fear of the decline of youth is a very human instinct, sympathetic and universal. Hugtto’s young stars naturally see the future as bright and brimming with possibility – to those who are already in middle age or beyond, an eternal present can feel much more appealing
The gang run into Yone-san, the lady who dissed Grandma’s snacks
Back when her husband was still alive, they sold “Hope Buns,” a snack Hana never got a chance to try
They were “the kind of treat that lifts your spirits,” like Hana herself
Hana suggests the group make their own Hope Buns, to lift Grandma’s spirits. This seems like it’s all leading towards a “accept aging with grace by handing over your passions to the next generation” ending, which is I suppose all we can really hope for. Aging just sucks, and whatever silver lining we attempt to append to that truth will always ring a little hollow for me. I like being alive!
Excellent birdface for Hana as she admits she has no idea how to make Hope Buns
“Even if it’s heavy, even if it’s tough… Grandma did her best every day!” Another natural extension of this show’s central theme: becoming accustomed to the everyday trials of adulthood, and through doing so at last gaining a true appreciation for how hard your guardians worked in raising you
“My body won’t listen to me the way it used to, and I simply can’t make sweets the way I used to.” What the fuck, Precure. Why you gotta go for the jugular like this
Seeing Hana’s clumsy attempts at Hope Buns brings back memories of her own trials back when she and her husband were starting up the shop. This episode is doing irreparable damage to my heart
To some extent, you can further distill this show’s central theme down to “hope” in general – the belief that the future is worth rooting for, that we won’t lose the things we love, and might actually be happier one day
“These buns… are the one thing I couldn’t bear being less delicious than back then.” What a devastating line
As expected, Grandma finds new hope in making memories with Hana, and teaching her the secrets of her recipes
Our Criasu lady immediately mocks Grandma’s market for its “old town” style, once again positioning herself as the enemy of aging in all its forms
Hah, apparently this episode just had too much content to get through, and so we get all of our transformation sequences as a four-part split screen. Kinda handy how the transformation sequences allow these episodes to budget anywhere between fifteen and eighteen minutes for the actual show content, depending on the demands of a given episode
AMAZING. Grandma just squares off and bats away the debris aimed at her shop, knocking the Oshimaeda straight over in the process. Grandma too powerful
Ultimately, Yone reveals she’s swole as hell, and can help Grandma out with the shop
“The road has been difficult and sad at times, but there are wonderful days like this waiting for us, too”
And Done
Agghh goddamnit, how dare you, Pretty Cure. The absolute silliness of our last episode had left me completely disarmed, just in time to be pulverized by the emotional weight of one of Hugtto’s best episodes. The story of Hana’s grandmother was significantly more sharp-edged than Hugtto’s usual standard, and all the more poignant for it. There was no softening of her concerns for the comfort of a young audience; this episode tackled the frailty of age with refreshing honesty, and scenes like Grandma’s admission of her weakness, or fear of tainting her most precious memories, cut deeply as a result. I appreciate that Hugtto is willing to genuinely challenge its audience like this: to admit that change and loss are inevitable, but that there will always be more beauty in the world.
This article was made possible by reader support. Thank you all for all that you do.