Sara Talks Anime

Yeah guys, I don’t want to have to tiptoe around Cure Eclair’s identity in my writeup about the episode that is literally called “Cure Eclair’s Identity”. Cure Eclair’s identity is literally the main focus of the episode. If I had to be all “I don’t want to spoil anything” on this episode, you guys would likely be rolling your eyes and saying that if I had to do that, I shouldn’t even be covering the episode.

Before I get into the episode, however, I think we should revisit my train of thought regarding who Cure Eclair is one last time. As after this, I don’t even get the chance to speculate on her anymore!

When this arc was announced, my first thought was that Shiruku was going to be Cure Eclair. I held this thought for Episode 21 and 22 before Episode 23 ran into me like Truck-kun runs into an isekai protagonist and killed my Shiruku being Cure Eclair theory, sending it into the ether. Episode 23 gave some smoking hot evidence towards Kurea being Cure Eclair, and between the evidence I had at the time that I thought made Kurea a red herring and the evidence that Episode 23 gave me, I felt that the evidence that Episode 23 gave me was the smoking gun that Shiruku just didn’t have. Episode 24 did absolutely nothing to shake my opinion, especially considering that the suspect for Episode 24 already had evidence prior to that episode to prove that they weren’t it. So going into Episode 25, I had been subscribed to the “Kurea is Cure Eclair” theory. Is it true? Well, I’ve already seen the episode, but you’re going to find out my thought process as we go along with this!

We start by seeing all four Cure Eclair suspects out in the wild: Shiruku acting in a film, Rei shopping, Eriza being out for a walk, and Kurea arriving at the CUREtto Detective Agency to visit Pretty Holic. Surely that won’t be a sign of who Cure Eclair is, right? Right?

*cough*

Sorry about that. I think that my mind was trying to force a thought out too early. Anyway, Jett running in with the finished perfume intended to be used to help Cure Eclair remember who she is, regardless of which suspect she is, causing Anna and Mikuru open up to Kurea about their search for Cure Eclair.

Before Anna and Mikuru do open up in the episode, though, we get a scene of Usonoir and the Phantom Thieves’ Guild going over the July prophecy in the Tome of Mirages. The prophesied day had come, but the only Makoto Jewel that Usonoir has is the one that Luluka is in the Phantom Thieves’ Guild for. Luluka tries to stop him from using it, but Usonoir is like “I don’t think I will”, which is what ultimately drives her actions later in the episode.

After Anna and Mikuru open up to Kurea about the search (and Kurea being all “there’s no way I could be Cure Eclair!”), a calling card gets delivered to the CUREtto Detective Agency, causing Anna to automatically look for Luluka. However, it was Mashutan who delivered the card, as Luluka herself is nowhere in sight here. The calling card leaves a hint as to where you go, and while it seems at first that it may be difficult for the girls to figure out, Anna’s 2027 knowledge comes in clutch, and she figures out which location Luluka has to be at!

With Pochitan keeping the perfume wherever she sends stuff and the others ready, Anna and Mikuru go out, with Anna basically being dragged by Pochitan. During this, they speed past Eriza, who was there to deliver a copy of the latest Detective Ellie book, called “The Mystery of Eclair”.

During this run, Anna and Mikuru also run on the side of the street parallel to Rei. I think it’s an interesting way of symbolizing how, despite Rei knowing about Pochitan and the fact that Precures exist, she really isn’t in the same league as Anna and Mikuru. I can say this, we’ve already had two episodes that prove that Rei cannot see past the barrier that locks civilians out of Precure stuff, we already know that despite this arc playing her up as a candidate, she was never going to be Cure Eclair.

Anna and Mikuru arrive at the building that was being referred to in the calling card, and after Usonoir being summoned and Luluka transforming into Cure Arcana Shadow, Arcana Shadow tells Anna and Mikuru to transform as well, even telling them after they transform not to get in her way.

This is where we get the confirmation that Usonoir has Cure Eclair’s Makoto Jewel. The three cures try to fight, but the three members of the Phantom Thieves Guild who aren’t Usonoir jump in to stop them. Usonoir uses his powers to send the humans (that aren’t the Cures) away, then takes off his little mask…and you need to see what he looks like beneath it.

LIKE, LOOK AT THE LITTLE GUY! That little guy’s the big guy! Wittle guy! 🥺

Okay, yeah, I know he’s a bad guy, but lemme have this! We get to see this form for such a short period of time before he uses Cure Eclair’s Makoto Jewel to become a large wolf monster. While at first it’s visible to the public, Cure Eclair’s Makoto Jewel is fighting back, and thus making the form unstable, causing damage to places. The Cures try fighting back, but they fail, even having them detransform, while Nijee, Goemon, and Agesiene put up a barrier (or a “field” as it’s officially called) to prevent more property damage from transferring.

Pochitan does go out with the perfume to look for Cure Eclair, and we also get to see how the Cure Eclair suspects react to the scene.

• Shiruku seems like she’s going to run off, only to help a younger actor who’s scared calm down by doing a Shiruku Exercise.
• Eriza initially falls and tells Kurea to go on ahead, only to wish for everyone to be safe.

The only people at the scene in the end are Rei (who noticed Pochitan and followed her) and Kurea (who catches Pochitan). Pochitan interacts with Kurea, and obviously, Kurea is surprised that Anna’s pouch can talk. However, despite Pochitan’s cries to help, Kurea said that she’s smelled lilies and hadn’t regained memories. Prior to the field getting put up, one of Usonoir’s attacks hits Pochitan, causing Pochitan to lose her grip on the perfume. Rei runs to catch Pochitan while Kurea runs to capture the perfume. While both fail to catch what they’re going for (Kurea breaks the perfume bottle and Rei was unable to catch Pochitan before the barrier goes up), a tear into the perfume causes Kurea to regain her memories.

That’s right, Cure Eclair is Kurea. Honestly, I’m glad that I chose to not ignore the evidence in Episode 23 and pivoted to the Kurea theory instead of stubbornly sticking by the Shiruku theory. If I stuck to the Shiruku theory, I’d probably be complaining about how Shiruku wasn’t Cure Eclair and was shown to be nowhere near Pochitan during the entire episode. But like…when you get smoking gun evidence, you have to go with the smoking gun evidence!

Also, we get Shushutan! Shushutan was Kurea’s scrunchie all along! Wowie! But because Kurea remembers everything now, we get to see her transformation item, and her Makoto Jewel comes back to her! Although, Luluka doesn’t seem too happy about this…

And that’s where Episode 25 ends! Episode 26 will be continuing this plot! I’m gonna be honest, I doubt that Usonoir will be surviving past next week’s episode. I’d love to be wrong, but I doubt that they’d reveal his true form to now keep him as a villain, since he looks too cute before he becomes a monster!

Though I stand by what I said in Episode 23. Kurea’s episode should’ve been the last of the Cure Eclair suspect episodes, leading this episode to be the return of Cure Eclair, and Episode 26 to be the aftermath. Ah well. I can sit around and see exactly what they do in Episode 26. Also, we’re finally back to getting episode titles in episode previews! Let’s fucking go!

Previous Post: Episode 24 – “Case Closed with Rei!”

Next Post: Episode 26 (“Cure Eclair Returns!”) hasn’t aired yet. Unless the episode gets delayed, the post should go live on July 26th, 2026 at 12 PM (PDT)

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