Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today’s one of those days where I’m feeling all the pressures of life bearing down on me, the kind of day where I could really use a break from the manifold anxieties of modern living. As such, I’m declaring this the ideal time to return to Hugtto! Precure, and find some peace in the charming adventures of Hana and her friends. Hugtto’s eminently likable characters, lush and warm art design, and consistent poignancy of perspective feel like a sanctuary for viewers of all ages, offering a clear expression of art’s ability to guide, comfort, and unite us.

When last we left off, the girls’ collaboration with friggin’ Santa Claus had culminated in a cozy Christmas party for all our companions, with Traum sharing a close moment with Lulu, and even Gelos escaping from the mercenary shadow of Criasu Corp. With Gelos now looking forward to a happier future, I imagine we’re diving straight into Hugtto’s endgame for these last four episodes. And though I’m quite sad to leave Hugtto behind, I’m also eager to see our heroes step towards their futures, guided by the confidence in tomorrow’s fortunes that this series has worked so hard to cultivate. Let’s return to Hugtto Precure!

Episode 46

Our intro sees the whole team in color-coded yukatas, eager to celebrate the new year. Oh good, I was really worried this episode would be about something important. Bring on more lighthearted holiday episodes!

We then cut to Hana in a bridal gown, wandering through a mysterious hall lined with flowers and paintings

She stares up at a copy of Liberty Leading The People, marveling “that confident gaze… looking forward into the future…” I knew Hana had big ambitions, but “destroying the age of kings by leading the French Revolution” was not my first guess for her career plans

George steps up next to her and explains the painting. “A painting that captures the moment where someone shines brightest is so beautiful.” The key word being there being ‘capture,’ as George would prefer a brilliant moment of stasis to an uncertain future. Of course, the hope of the painting was not the moment it specifically depicted, but the resultant transformation of society it would facilitate. George has taken a painting embodying hope for the future and reframed it as a celebration of one shining moment in time

“But as time goes by, that brilliance fades. The spirit of the people changes… The goddess that led them is no more.” Referring to Hugtan’s future identity while panning over images of mothers with young children. He cannot appreciate the idea of hope being offered to the next generation, that they might be nurtured to eventually reach similar brilliance

“If only your current happiness could last forever…” He seems to believe in his philosophy, but the example of characters like Popple and Gelos demonstrates that he is just in love with that particular aura of youth, happy to discard those who no longer embody his “one shining moment.” Hugtto’s core audience is too young for this show to fully explicate the gendered implications of George’s philosophy, but they’re easy enough for us to parse – he is like so many men who only see women as shining baubles, to be respected only so long as they flatter his own coveting of youth and power

George awakes in his office, where Bicine questions him on why he took Risutol’s heart

“It was the one happiness among all that he desired.” A cold answer. Seems like we might see the defection of George’s final compatriots in the near future

“Kurai Returns! The Perfect Flower That Blooms Forever!”

Meanwhile, the girls are busy enjoying new years festivities. Saaya apparently harbors a great passion for hot sauce, yet another demonstration of her superior taste

We also get visits from some of the show’s greatest side characters, including Hana’s grandmother and their two once-divided classmates

Daigan’s looking good! He’s grown his hair out a bit, he looks healthier and happier

Hah, love these superdeformed renditions of the girls playing out all the upcoming holiday celebrations. Any given year can be full of things to look forward to, so long as you remain present and engaged with your community. A clear contrast with George’s myopic perspective

That contrast is underlined as we cut to Bicine crouching before Risutol, wondering if he is happier now that his heart has been extracted

Dr. Traum joins the Nono family for new year’s dinner. Extremely funny seeing him trade in his mad scientist lab coat for a similarly colored purple sweater. They’ve truly domesticated him

Oh no! They’re out of soy sauce! Yes, this is precisely the level of conflict I was hoping for

George then corners Hana with a bouquet of Craspedias, which stand for “eternal blessings.” Stop creeping on Hana, you goddamn menace

“I was not the one who stopped the future’s time. The ones who stopped time were the people of the future themselves. Civilization evolved. But humanity itself was not equal to its progress.” A civilization where science and economic cycles evolved beyond the point of human relevance – it actually quite reminds me of the stagnant end-of-history future posited by Satoshi Mizukami’s Spirit Circle, where future scientific progress was eventually made illegal in order to maintain some hope of humanity’s continued preeminence. Can our ambitions outpace our ability to acclimate to our own accomplishments?

“The power of hope for tomorrow, asu-power, drifted further and further away from them.” Granted, Hugtto is framing this in somewhat more fantastical terms. But the threat does seem real, particularly in our current era, where the effects of uniting humanity through the internet seem to be altering both individuals and societies in ways we cannot explain or control. At what point have we opened Pandora’s Box, has our rampant inventive spirit created something inherently hostile to the growth and enlightenment of our species?

This is certainly far more interesting than George simply imposing his perspective on the future! He knows humanity failed to navigate this threshold, and thus wishes to stop time at a happier moment, before all is in ruins. To counter his philosophy, Hana will have to believe that a better future than the one that currently comes about is achievable

His thoughts are contrasted against Traum being tucked in by Lulu, and stating “I never thought I would find this feeling again.” The future holds wonders beyond our capacity for imagining, as well

“Put simply, Kurai is the man who does nothing. He simply watches.” Of course, the one who is least optimistic about humanity’s future is the one who is incapable of altering it

“Hana’s not answering.” “Food coma, maybe?” Harsh but fair, Saaya

“I must admit that the asu-power you awakened from Criasu’s employees was far beyond my expectations.” New hope can always be born, so long as you have people willing to believe in it, to believe in your potential even when you cannot

“Can you truly say that the human heart is without evil?” His words call back Hana’s time before her reinvention, the quagmire of isolation that led her to embrace an entirely new self

Ooh, love the timing of the elevator opening alongside her declaration to fight, such that the light of hope literally pours in around her to accompany her words

Hana relays the events of their meeting while safely ensconced in one of those trauma recovery towels

Homare suggests a recovery sleepover

Minimal noises and cool blue colors emphasize the stillness and chill of the pre-dawn

“The whole town is changing color!” Watching the sun rise from a high tower, the team witnesses a microcosm of Hugtto’s greatest hopes, its certainty that anyone can change, that we can all experience brilliant transformations in our own lives

But then a dark portal appears in the sky, and Criasu Corp descends from the heavens!

And thus time begins to freeze!

“That you and I may live in an era of happiness.” George says this while looking down at a picture of himself and an adult Hana, implying a concept too horrible to contemplate

The girls face off with an army of Oshimaeda as Harry continues to pontificate

“Hope for tomorrow became an insatiable appetite, and the kingdom drove itself mad.” Of all things to potentially destroy humanity, I would not have guessed it would be an overabundance of hope

Then a goddamn kaiju George emerges and swallows Hugtan! 

And Done

Well shit, what are we gonna do now? That wasn’t cozy and heartwarming at all! Nonetheless, it was still quite the strong episode, offering our fullest articulation yet of the philosophy guiding George’s pursuit of stasis. The idea that humanity eventually created its own static future is far more compelling than some outside interloper inflicting stasis upon us, and adds a significantly greater sense of threat and urgency to Hana’s insistence that this time, we will find a happier way forward. And within that foreboding structure, individual moments of hope shined all the brighter – Lulu and Traum expressing their feelings, family dinners shared with friends, and even Harry’s old companion wondering if there might still be a better way. To believe in a better future is to believe we can be greater than what we are, that the roadmap of our failures and disappointments can be transcended through the faith we place in each other. Let’s seize that future, Precures!

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