“Oh wow, I can’t wait to watch my simulcast of Meitantei Precure today!” I said with excitement on September 12th, opening the episode page basically the instant it went live, as I have done for this series every week before.
“Screw you,” said the simulcast page, throwing me a KAT-3002 error because it didn’t have the other detective show that I like to watch to interrupt due to it airing a rerun* episode in Japan, which never** gets simulcast on Crunchyroll.
* Technically a “remastered” episode, but literally the only change about the episode isn’t the episode quality, it’s what themes play during it.
** Unless you want to be petty and count the double episode timeslot “remaster” (more accurately rerun) of a case that was done to promote a movie with new content added to the beginning and the end of the episode, or even the episode of a certain spinoff series that aired in the same timeslot as that series’ regular broadcast episodes which had all of its other episodes included on Crunchyroll because they weren’t counted as “remasters”.
Thankfully, that error got fixed less than an hour after the episode was supposed to go up. For context, Meitantei Precure episodes go up at 6:30 PM PDT, and I got the episode to work at 7 PM PDT. If only Crunchyroll had this energy with my other Saturday detective show when it experienced issues. Then I wouldn’t have had to have waited in the double digits of hours just to watch an episode two weeks in a row.
Anyway, this is definitely a sillier episode compared to the episodes we’ve gotten as of late. And honestly, I feel like we deserved having a sillier episode this week. Luluka and Kurea end up sharing a room at the CUREtto Detective Agency, because that’s just what gals do, I guess?
Look, I personally don’t ship them, but I’m getting the feeling that the subtext of this series is trying to suggest that these two are more than just friends, and if that is the case, fine, just don’t expect me to make my own content shipping the two together.
The two also get their own business cards, and even get to visit Pretty Holic, which Luluka reveals she’s already visited (but in disguise). And like, can I be honest? I forgot this happened until it was brought up again in the series. Now, to be fair, it happened all the way back in Episode 8. Not every episode is going to stick out as clearly to me as Episode 18. Totally just a random episode I picked, nothing more. Don’t look too deep into it.
Luluka doesn’t have a customer service smile, which Jett tries to push her towards thinking towards one. Funnily enough, while I had forgotten that Luluka stopped by Pretty Holic in disguise, I remembered that Jett struggled with his customer service smile in Episode 8. Maybe some parts of Episode 8 just fell through the cracks.
Of course, because Goemon refused to accept that Luluka could leave the Phantom Thieves’ Guild without telling him, he went to Pretty Holic and put our four detectives in a trick maze built on doors to other worlds, stating that out of all of the doors, only one would lead back to their world. Of course, twice, we have knocks at doors.
I would leave a disclaimer about this being my first time engaging with these characters, but their roles are so small, I think that even with my minimal knowledge outside of online research, it wouldn’t have even mattered anyway.
The first time, Goemon meets a fairy who likes octopus squid. This is Purirun, one of the fairies from You and Idol Precure. Additional information about her character will be in a details box under this paragraph, just in case you’re watching that series and haven’t caught up, but Purirun completely brushes off Goemon’s introduction because of the squid.
Additional Purirun info (SPOILERS FOR YOU AND IDOL PRECURE EPISODE 19)
Purirun is also a Precure warrior, named Cure Zukyoon.
The second time, Goemon meets a dog fairy. This is Komugi Inukai, one of the fairies (and a Precure warrior) from Wonderful Precure. Komugi’s like “wanna play?”, to which Goemon sends Komugi back through the door and shuts it behind him.
For the digital release of the episode, this is the most you will get of movie tie-in content. According to the Fandom wiki for the Precure franchise, the TV broadcast version of this episode also included scenes from the movie. While doing this tie-in is understandable due to the fact that the premiere for the movie is on the 18th, with how the simulcast episode was set up, it feels like you could’ve replaced these encounters with literally anything and have the result play out the same in the end.
Because of those two interruptions, however, Goemon reduces the number of doors from the many he had up to three, giving hints as to whether each one is real or not. Do the hints he provides help? Maybe.
Anyway, out of the doors, I had narrowed it down to two: one of them because that number was connected to another number that’s key for this time period (in a less obvious way), and one because it was purple and had the number in the way that makes the first one connected to the time period.
I was right with one of the doors, but for the absolute wrong reason. The reasoning was much simpler than what I was trying to do. My brain primed on that other detective show I watch strikes yet again.
To congratulate Luluka on passing his little test to decide if he would actually let her be a Precure, Goemon decides to give her a diploma…but his feelings are real enough to form a Makoto Jewel! Now, if you were in Goemon’s shoes, what would you do?
| ⭕ Give a dumbfounded stare | ♦️ Take it to the Phantom Thieves’ Guild |
| 📐Turn it into a Hanninda | ⭐Accidentally toss it to the civilian Cures |
Are you ready for the answer? Unfortunately, I don’t know how to color the cell without changing the color of every single cell. So, I’m going to have to use an advanced trick called “that good old thing I use to hide spoilers” to tell you that the answer is…
Answer to my little quiz!
📐Turn it into a Hanninda!
Did you get it right? If you did, good job! Gold star (or hanamaru symbol, whichever you prefer) for you! If you didn’t…how did you get it wrong?
But you’ve probably already figured out what we get: our usual transformation, Hanninda fight, finisher fare. Once Pochitan gets the Makoto Jewel and lets out the usual “Pochi Pochi Cure Cure!”, Luluka takes the diploma just to prevent this from becoming a never-ending loop of “Goemon tries to give Luluka the diploma -> Goemon’s feelings becoming so deep that a Makoto Jewel gets formed -> Goemon makes a Hanninda -> The Cures beat up the Hanninda”, which honestly is something I can feel good about.
As it turns out, that’s not the only reason that Goemon stops by, as he also gives Luluka the Tear Arcana Rod. I think that was what it’s called, don’t quote me on that. It’s the one that let her transform into Arcana Shadow.
Anyway, Luluka smiles! Yay! Maybe that’ll lead to her getting her customer service smile! This ending is like…one of the few positives that I’ll give to the episode! I genuinely feel like they only added Purirun and Komugi into this episode because this was the final episode before the Meitantei Precure movie premiered in Japan. Like, what if this episode had aired a week earlier? Would it still have been Purirun and Komugi who appeared? Or would references to, say for example, Sherlock Holmes and [insert second fictional detective that was out before or during 1999 of your choice] have been used instead? Honestly, with Purirun and Komugi being used, it feels like the whole concept of the doors leading to other worlds was wasted. Maybe I’m just small brain when it comes to Precure lore, who knows.
I’d say this episode was slightly above average, but only because of the ending. Shiruku is going to be in the next episode, though, so hopefully that ends up saving next episode for me. Because let me make it clear: because of how low of a slump I feel like Meitantei Precure is in right now, I had to do everything in my power to try and make my writeup engaging for me to write.
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Next Post: Episode 34(“Luluka and the Gold-Star Full Moon”) hasn’t aired yet. Unless the episode gets delayed, the post will go live on September 20th, 2026 at 12 PM (PDT).
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