Sara Talks Anime

There is only one show that I get to post a writeup for this week that doesn’t include the dreaded “major spoilers” content warning. And this show is not one of them. Congratulations to Meitantei Precure for continuing the streak I’ve been on with my writeups so far. Funnily enough, the other series I have a writeup for today doesn’t include a major spoiler warning. This is also the only major spoiler warning that I took the effort to make stand out compared to the rest of the warning box just because of how major I consider these spoilers to be.

Anyway, now that I’m 99.9% sure that this text will not be appearing in any social media previews that get pushed to my various socials, can I just say, it feels like the Meitantei Precure writers went to the One Piece school of naming an episode and then not including the thing that named the episode until the second half of the episode, if not near the end of it. …or was that “near the end of it” part more something from the Dragon Ball school of naming episodes? Not to say that this is always a bad thing, but both of the other shows I mentioned have some examples of the events of their episodes being spoiled because of the titles. Because, despite being the titular character, we don’t see the Eclipse Shadow form of Luluka until near the end of the episode. And based on the name of the next episode…yeah, I’m expecting to not see the full redemption until Episode 32. Episode 31 will likely end with Luluka’s Cure Arcana transformation and a cool end scene where she’s like “I’m not one of you anymore”, and then 32 is the fallout of that. We’ll have to wait until then for that though.

…I should probably give you guys the barest idea of the plot so that you understand why I’m doing all of this rambling. But put a pin in that final part of my previous paragraph, because I’m gonna return to it!

Rei asked for help from Anna and Mikuru (and Kurea was either asked for help too or chose to tag along, while I think Jett literally just tagged along) when it came to taking care of the school garden, so they all work together. During this, Rei finds out that Shushutan can talk, and because Jett slipped his tongue, also found out that Jett is a fairy. There’s also a Shushutan quiz that I…failed, yet again. 😦

I made the same mistake as Anna in this episode and didn’t listen to the entirety of the question. RIP me and Anna, we both memorized the basic fact of “Arthur Conan Doyle wrote Sherlock Holmes” so hard that we failed to let the question finish.

Sara’s attempts: ❌–

The actual question was “Which fictional creature did Arthur Conan Doyle believe in?”, and my first guess was unicorns. Unicorns.

Sara’s attempts: ❌❌-

Shushutan gave the hint of “it’s right in front of you”. I then made the guess of tanukis.

Sara’s attempts: ❌❌❌

The correct answer was fairies. Fairies. God damn, I can’t correctly answer questions about where Hercule Poirot’s story took place, I can’t correctly answer questions regarding what Arthur Conan Doyle believed in, and I’m not confident enough in my “detectives that both were in serialization in the real world and have yet to be confirmed to be real in this universe” knowledge to try and propose a detective (or an author of a detective) I could confidently answer a question about. Like, I would’ve proposed Detective Conan…if it weren’t for Episode 18.

I’m still not over Episode 18, by the way. I know that it’s been twelve weeks since the episode aired, but the facts behind that collab aren’t something you can just forget?!

*ahem*

Sorry, almost let myself get taken away on a side tangent. We’re focused on Episode 30 right now.

During this work time, though, Rei finds that the zinnias have been cut. There’s a normal explanation for this, though, as Rei’s grandmother have pruned the flowers. So, everyone gets to work to plant new ones. When they’re planted, someone comes to compliment them and also provide their meaning, saying that the other students will remember them once they graduate.

Too bad this was being said by my current favorite member of the Phantom Thieves Guild Decchi Agein to get a Makoto Jewel to make a Hanninda. The hero Cures transform, Decchi Agein summons Luluka, Luluka transforms, Decchi Agein sets the stage to be where the Makoto Jewel was shattered, and Arcana Shadow’s like “okay, one of you get that Hanninda out of here, I never asked for it.”

Eclair gets rid of it. Just…fine, whatever, Luluka is important to Kurea’s story, I’ll give them this one too. Then Arcana Shadow and Eclair fight, with the reason why I added the major spoiler warning getting revealed: Eclair is the great king talked about in the prophecy, and like previously established, Arcana Shadow wants to destroy Eclair’s Makoto Jewel.

Look, I’m trying to consider viewers wanting to go in blind here, that’s the entire reason I’m marking this as a major spoiler, as this is something that was supposed to make itself clear over the course of the story.

Anyhow, Eclair manages to get Arcana Shadow beaten up to the point where she detransforms, and Luluka’s like “I need more power”, so Decchi Agein gives her more power, awakening Eclipse Shadow (also spoilers, but major spoilers take precedence over normal spoilers), though it seems that it may be too much power for Luluka…

and that’s where the episode ends! Have fun waiting for next episode to find out what happens next!

While one could argue it’s still spoiler-y, I still say it would’ve been better for Ending 2 to debut in this episode instead of last episode. It would’ve been a nice way to reassure the target audience that, despite what’s happening with Luluka right now, she won’t stay scary to them the entire time. One could argue that the preview of Episode 31 also does this, but my counterargument is “what if people don’t watch the episode previews?”. Which I think is a valid counterargument.

Interesting episode this week, though I’d have to wait until next week at minimum before laying down my full opinion.

So instead, let’s go back to that point I made earlier. I noticed that the synopsis for this episode (as translated by whoever edits the Precure wiki on Fandom) focused more on the first half of the episode. As they wrote:

“As summer vacation begins, Anna and the others help the student council president, Rei, maintain the flowerbeds at Makoto Mirai Academy. However, in the midst of their work, Rei notices that all the zinnia flowers that had been in bloom just moments before have been cut down.”

Notice how that synopsis does not mention Eclipse Shadow at all. One could argue this means nothing, as most Precure episode synopses do not include what happens in the second half of the episode. However, as this episode and episode 25 have taught me, if it’s not in the synopsis but is in the title, expect it at the end of the episode. And as the episode 31 synopsis (as translated by whoever edits the Precure wiki on Fandom) says this:

Overwhelmed by Eclipse Shadow, the Cures Answer, Mystique, and Eclair de-transform. As Cure Eclair’s secret and Luluka’s true intentions are revealed, Anna and Mikuru transform back into Pretty Cure and reach out to Kurea.

…then I find it hard to argue that Luluka’s redemption won’t be reserved for the end of the episode. Do we still need to see the episode? Yes. Am I going to carry this theory close to my heart because I’m still so upset that I got burned at a question about Sherlock Holmes’s creator? Also yes. And if I’m wrong…then I’m just straight up wrong.

Let’s see what the next episode brings.

Previous Post: Episode 29 – “The Duo’s Past”

Next Post: Episode 31 – “Star Detective Cure Arcana”

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