I’m not even going to add the spoiler warning that I usually add with these episodes, mainly because I feel like I’ve been a bit too frequent with those in this series as of late. Besides, the thing about this episode that I want to talk about was already revealed in the title, so even if the context isn’t fully there, I still think that if you put the pieces together yourself with the context that once a new cure gets introduced they need a handful of episodes where they have the spotlight, you can figure it out on your own.
Anyway, true to form, Luluka is hanging out at the patisserie, as per her civilian M.O., though it appears that she’s only there because she doesn’t have anywhere else to go, and she and Kurea have a conversation.
Normally, I wouldn’t point out the opening. However, as the visuals of the opening have changed, I feel obligated to point it out. Some scenes in the opening that were previously just Anna/Answer and/or Mikuru/Mystique were updated to include Luluka/Arcana and Kurea/Eclair, or the much more needed adding Decchi Agein to the side of the Phantom Thieves. However, I feel like the changes lessen the opening. The only changes I can really accept on the Luluka and Kurea side are Luluka and Kurea replacing Anna and Mikuru for the second “running across the map” bit, as well as Eclair being the one to reach out to Luluka instead of Usonoir.
However, I’d argue that the biggest issue I have with the change in the visuals is how they end the fight that appears in the opening. In the original, the fight has Arcana Shadow do her star rain, which Answer and Mystique dodge, and then go forward to leave the impression of going in for their own hit. I liked this, as it made a good impact before transitioning to the scene where a young Anna (who fades to her present version) turns around while walking with her mother to see a young Mikuru (who also turns around while fading to her present version) as it strengthened the change.
In the present version, however, we see Eclair activate her Kirameki Time thing and fight Decchi Agein, who does well against her before turning around and seeing Arcana pulling up her star rain. While yes, we know that Arcana is strong in her own right, considering she could easily best Answer and Mystique back when she was Arcana Shadow, it just doesn’t leave the same impact that a physical punch would.
I am not going to cover every single change done between the two openings. You can watch version 1 here and version 2 here to see the differences for yourself and come to your own conclusion as to which one’s better.
After the opening, we see Anna and Mikuru shopping for something. This becomes important later. However, the two head to ChuChu (I’m going to call it that so I never have to write that word again, especially since it seems that with Kurea as a Cure we’ll be there more often) and talk to the two.
While here, a call arrives at ChuChu revealing that a customer that had been there earlier in the episode had dropped something while there, although the Cures don’t get to learn what exactly was lost before the person hangs up. As it turns out, that stolen item also happens to hold a Makoto Jewel, as picked up on by Pochitan.
They head outside, as that was the area where that customer was sitting when they were there, only to find that there are three people currently there. The Cures decide to investigate, and while Anna and Mikuru want to question the suspects, Luluka says no because she doesn’t want to interrupt them while they’re eating ice cream.
There’s also a scene where a group of kids come over because they’re interested in a dog, causing Luluka to use the Pre-Kit Gloss to put on a dog costume and lead the kids away. While I personally don’t see how a kid would find her outfit to be cute considering how it’s set up, it feels like this whole interaction only exists to pad for time. I hope that’s not the case, but if it is, then it’s disappointing.
Through Luluka’s investigation, they find out what item was taken, who the culprit is and which phantom thief came here. I won’t spoil item one or item two, but I will spoil item three: it’s Nijee.
We go through the regular “summon hanninda, transformation, fight hanninda, finisher” dance like we’ve had in every episode since this point, though I want to point out something about the new ending part of the transformation and something about it that doesn’t logically make sense about it to me. I’ll show the screencaps first.
Look, I would’ve been fine with this if there was something that felt like it was making a clearer effort to show Answer and Mystique getting in front. However, the only thing was their hand grab, which I don’t think works because in the previous iteration it worked because there wasn’t any sort of question if it would easily get them in front.
Anyway, they return the item, Luluka gets asked if she wants to live at the agency again, she initially refuses but gets swayed because spoons for ice cream party come up (yes, that’s what Anna and Mikuru were shopping for), bada bing bada boom.
Honestly, I wish I could say that I love Meitantei Precure. However, I feel like ever since Cure Eclair’s introduction and the conclusion of the first prophecy, the cracks in Meitantei Precure are starting to show. It’s trying to fit too big of a story into too limited of a show. Whether it’s because the writers refused to kill some of their darling ideas or if they failed to correctly estimate just how many episodes they would get, I feel like the story development has been trampling any hope of character development, to the detriment of the story.
It was possible to ignore it for the first 26 episodes since the series was still keeping at a reasonable scope (and because I think one of the episodes in that chunk is peak fiction). Hell, I’d say that episodes 27 and 28 are still serviceable. It’s at episode 29 where I think the cracks start becoming too obvious for me to ignore, and I don’t know if the remaining episodes will be able to properly cover the cracks to where I can feel comfortable recommending this series.
And you know what sucks? The episode within the first 26 episodes that I think is peak fiction (and is also my favorite episode of this series overall) is Episode 18. You know. The Detective Conan crossover.
If I’m saying that I think the best episode of your show is a crossover episode, then it’s a sign that either I like the property you’re crossing over with too much, or there’s something wrong about your series that is preventing me from enjoying it unless there’s something else I’m familiar with involved. I…actually don’t know which it is for me. If it’s the former, it’s my bad. If it’s the latter, then I’m disappointed.
And unfortunately, I don’t think anything’s going to get better in the next episode. Based on the preview for it, this is the episode that serves as the pre-story for the movie that’s coming out in Japan that’ll likely never make it to the US, as it’s the final episode to be aired prior to the release of the movie. The reason why I’m going as far as to say it’s the pre-story for the movie is because, from my research into the other Precure seasons that will be featured in that movie (Wonderful Precure and You and Idol Precure), the other two seasons take place in their equivalent of the modern day while Meitantei Precure takes place in 1999, so this episode would likely serve to explain why these Cures are even able to participate in the Meitantei Precure movie.
I don’t know if having a movie pre-story episode is commonplace for Precure seasons, or if this episode is a special occasion to explain away the crossover element. Regardless, I’m not going to hold my breath for sudden character development in this episode.
I know that as Meitantei Precure has been going on, my writeups have been making it clear that I’m no longer as excited for this series as I was back when it began airing. Alas, sunk cost fallacy is a real thing. I keep hoping that maybe, just maybe in the next episode it’ll get better so that I can go back to how I felt when I first watched Meitantei Precure.
Once Meitantei Precure is over, however, I don’t think I’ll be hopping onto watching any currently airing Precure season for quite a while. Thank goodness that I’m a creative writer, so I can just write my own story in my own time that has my original characters and be how I wish Meitantei Precure was going to be, even if it’d be intended for an older audience and thus wouldn’t be a one-to-one comparison with Meitantei Precure.
…man, I yapped a lot here. Don’t know whether that’s indicative of anything or not.
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