After one month, I finally finished my Hugtto rewatch!
And it’s been actually almost 2 years since I watched the show, BUT I’ve known the show since it was airing. Pretty funny how it took me until December of 2020 to actually watch the show despite having actually watched ST and HG because of Hugtto.
You see, Y5 is honestly my favorite precure series (so far), but I unironically am invested more in Hugtto for some reason. Actually, I know why: the constant thirst for knowing more about the show’s lore because I’m basically a sucker for plots that would really intrigue me. I find that only two shows keep on doing this to me and it’s Hugtto and ARC-V. But anyways, I just put this to clear myself out there lmao.
So, why the Hugtto rewatch? Well, for one, I wanted to rewatch the show because it’s been a while. And yeah, I got to download all the BD episodes after a long battle with torrent and my laptop’s battery became the casualty lol. Originally, I was only going to watch my favorite episodes, but I rewatched episode 1 and I was like “fine let’s just rewatch the whole thing and oh don’t remember school starts soon!” Sooooooo that’s what happened.
But I have no regrets about this rewatch because it only made me love Hugtto even more!
Sure, this show isn’t perfect at all means and we’re going to get on that. But really, the show’s message is just so impactful that it gives you a sense of hope because Hugtto was pretty serious compared to other precure. In Smile, the show sticks with one tone in every episode, but in Hugtto…it doesn’t really give you any kind of warning lol. Even in the first three episodes, it went serious already. And it’s really because the show’s plot was about the future, so I can’t really blame the writers for handling it with seriousness. But yeah, the show really handled a lot of serious themes since it wanted to appeal to both the old timers and the new timers. Ultimately, it worked and I’m happy it did. Just very cool to see moms relating since the show was celebrating them and kids because…precure alright.
So, without further ado, Fure! Fure! Hugtto review!
The Plot: Jobs and Family
One of Hugtto’s themes is “work” but I actually find it funny that this theme only appeared for 8 episodes. 8 episodes because those were the only times they used the Mirai Pad lol. Regardless, Hugtto touching about this theme makes me actually wish we had a full season dedicated to honoring different kinds of jobs. I mean, Hugtto did the best covering the important ones (besides teaching, actually the show didn’t feature an episode about teaching in a school, only in a daycare), but I would honestly like to see more work themes in precure.
In terms of the family theme of this show, I am honestly really impressed that Hugtto managed to cover different aspects of family: being a kid, being a teenager, fatherhood, motherhood, siblinghood, being an adult and being old. Most of these episodes showed up during the show’s third cour and I’m still not a big fan of that cour. Still, it’s very touching to watch these episodes because you can actually relate to the characters featured in those episodes. Personally, I was really touched by Hana’s grandma’s episode because I’m weak with those kinds of episodes lol. And that cour presented two episodes about childbirth and even then, those episodes were about two different things: being a dad/mom and being a sibling. Also featured two different kinds of birth: natural and c-section so there’s that. But really, Hugtto really gave me the feels with all the family themes during the third cour lol.
Also, speaking of family, I am also impressed with the fact that each cure’s family got a decent amount of screen time and characterization. Hana’s whole family…Saaya’s mom…Homare’s mom…Emiru’s brother…Ruru’s creator dad…Like, now that I really think about this ofc haha. Even Emiru’s grandpa gets a shoutout because even though he only appeared for two episodes, he got to be characterized as a grandpa who was too rigid and changed in the end. Kotori got a whole episode for herself and that too was really sweet to watch. Anyways, my point is that I love how the cures’s families got prominently featured throughout the whole show. It makes the cures and the families themselves get more characterization, especially during their focus episodes.
The Plot: Present and Future
Hah yes of course I chose this particular picture.
But yes, oh gosh Hugtto’s plot. Thinking about it, I’d like to divide it into three parts. So we have the surface-level plot (Cures finding the Mirai Crystals and stop Criasu Corp from destroying the future), the mid-level plot (Cures trying to find what they wanna do in life, fure fure every episode, EMBRACING YOUR SHINING FUTURE BECAUSE YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU CAN BE ANYTHING), and the deep-level plot (bad future happened and Hana is one of the catalysts of how Criasu Corp became to be the show’s villains). So I guess let’s talk about all of these and what I think of them.
The surface-level plot was okay and pretty standard for a precure show I mean, ultimately, their goal was to stop the villains from stealing the future. After they collected the Mirai Crystals, nothing really changed besides the set of villains for the second half. This actually worked in Hugtto’s favour because its main theme was about the future, so not emphasizing the “collecting the toy of the week” part was fine with me. So…I have not much to say about this part haha.
Now the mid-level plot aka the character arcs! Now, I’ll talk more about the characters themselves later, but this season definitely had a big cast. Not only did they focus on the cures and the villains, but they also gave focus on the side characters and it was pretty great to see. I liked how everyone had their own story to tell which ultimately ties back to the show’s message: “You can do anything! Embrace your shining future!” I actually liked seeing everyone become a cure in episode 48 because it was just fun to see it. It honestly made Hugtto’s climax more memorable though it wasn’t actually my favorite part of the episode haha.
However, my biggest problem at this level of Hugtto’s plot is the result of having such a big cast with different stories to tell. It really ultimately led to an uneven number of episodes to the cures. Saaya became a victim of this because her follow-up episode after episode 7 was…episode 26. I think that she deserves to get fleshed out more but more about Saaya later. I also think that Twin Love goooot a bit too much of screentime and their being together after their debut made me like them a little less. Also more about them later, and I definitely loved them, but I really can’t help but think that I’m more interested in them as individual characters…especially Ruru who had a nice redemption arc. But anyways, the character arc aspect of Hugtto was great, but the big cast also made me think that the show didn’t really do a good job of distributing the character episodes equally.
Now onto the deep-level plot!
Ah gosh I wanted to talk about this so bad because there’s a lot to unpack about Hugtto’s lore!
But before that, I just wanna say what ultimately got me to really watch precure was the Hugtto threads back in 2019. I remember browsing the threads because everyone was talking about how the MC was actually the villain’s future spouse and I was like “huh that’s interesting.” I’ve also read the livewatch during Hugtto’s finale and it was so funny to see. I was dying at work while reading the comments because the MC was giving birth and that was my final straw and told myself that I’m going to watch the next precure show. So that’s how I got to watch ST lol.
My ultimate favorite part about Hugtto is its plot lore about the future. One of my least favorite parts about Hugtto is its lore about the future. Sounds contradicting right?
The thing is, I’m a fan of time travel stories. I mean, some of my all-time personal favorites are Madoka and Steins;Gate (TWGOK too but the time travel plot happened in its last arc) and they both contained time travel plots. More specifically, a character travels in the past to save someone who is very important to them. In Hugtto’s case, the character who does is the main villain. That’s why I was particularly entranced by this plot point and it became something I was really curious throughout my first watch of the show.
But yes, I just…love the fact that the bad future happened not only because of Criasu, but also because of humanity itself. For me, it makes the villains more compelling (particularly the main villain but we’ll talk about him later) and it really made me wonder what truly happened. Unfortunately, we didn’t get too deep about this and that’s really my major problem about the show’s plot. Even after my second rewatch, it’s still very unclear to me what really happened and there are a lot of interpretations about it. I have my own interpretation too and I kind of want to explore it? (Lmao I don’t even know how to write proper stories ha ha ha) But anyways, the reason why I keep on having Hugtto phase is really because I have this deep desire for the bad future lore to get explored furthermore.
Also, Hana being of the main catalysts in this bad future really got me super interested in the show. I knew it before I watched it because I spoiled myself woohooooo, but still actually learning about it (even though again it was surface-level explanation) gave me angst. The good angst of course cuz I love angst and yeah *nervous chuckle* I mean it actually made me super invested in Hana’s character even more because she’s a character who actually had deeper problems behind her cheerful personality. When you think about it, she was already vulnerable before the series starts, so it’s not really surprising that she ended up having a sad end in that future. I feel terrible saying this now, but like that’s why such a small thing as cutting your hair just to get terrible bangs and meeting two people on the rooftop on your school are VERY essential to have a better life in that timeline.
But yeah I really love Hugtto’s lore, but I am also disappointed with how they explained it. Of course, they had to limit the explanation because some of the aspects of it isn’t really kid-friendly? I mean how can you explain to little kids that the big bad meanie from the OP is actually our beloved terribad bangs protag’s future husband, right? So, I would say they did a good job not making it super obvious to the kids but obvious enough for the adults to argue about lol. However, if this was a normal anime show, I would be super duper salty and pissed off because it’s essentially leaving A LOT of plot holes and confusion to the viewers. BUT…this is precure so it’s a different story. I would say, though, that Hugtto’s plot was pretty much ambitious for a precure show. It’s just the execution could’ve been better.
Actually, I wish we really had more explanation about Hugtan/Cure Tomorrow and Mother because they were essentially the plot devices in the show. They had one episode of explanation…and that was it. Especially about Hugtan because she was actually freaking Hana’s kid from the future. We just didn’t know what was her thought process because she was a baby for the whole show. Anyways, again, lots of interesting lores, but not enough actual explanations!
But I guess to end this section, after rewatching the show, I got my personal interpretation of show’s bad future plot (yey!) Basically, I think this is what happened:
Hana doesn’t cut her hair/never meets Saaya and Homare (aka no divergence according to Kawamura (but I’m trying to find it in the Animage magazine that I bought and I can’t find it!)) –> Grows up but didn’t get the chance to resolve her past issues –> Gets a job (I’m not really sure if she started Criasu…maybe she did but I got no solid evidence on that) –> Gets married and had Hugtan/Hagumi/Cure Tomorrow –> Overworks herself and dies as a result –> Criasu gets formed and froze the future –> Hagumi and friends become cures to stop them –> She gets captured and met Harry –> They escape and travel back to the past –> Episode 1!!!
I made this interpretation in mind that:
1) Hana didn’t become a cure in this timeline because Criasu can’t exist without her dying: It doesn’t make sense for her to die while protecting Cure Tomorrow when the future was already frozen by the bad guys (though one of Tomorrow’s friends sounds awfully like Hana that it made me think for one sec lol).
2) Hana probably produced togepower which contributed to her death: Though, the show contradicted itself when Traum said in episode 40 that Criasu produced togepower…when six episodes later we found out that humanity actually produced togepower and stopped moving forward as a result. (I swear this show lmao).
3) Hana didn’t die during childbirth: I say this because Hugtan was originally planned to be Hana’s descendant anyways. So her not getting recognized by her dad was probably because it wasn’t planned yet. Also, she’s a cure so it makes sense that she’s trying to hide her identity. Though in my theory she probably told him at some point in the other timeline.
4) Hana’s efforts weren’t recognized: In episode 48, she was told that people will shun you yada yada yada and it’s probably over-exaggerated on our main baddie’s part, but it made me think that future Hana was probably not respected. It’s possible that everyone hates her/doesn’t like the contributions that she’s making for the city (hence the episode 11 and 46 painting explanations alongside with some other shenanigans with the spoiler book). So I think it’s not too farfetched that Hana kept on getting bullied even though she’s probably working so hard for the city. Sadly, she succumbed in the process and yeah.
So yeah, that’s my personal interpretation about Hugtto’s plot and frankly I would’ve loved if Tsubofumi actually makes a twitter thread and be like “hey everyone this is what actually happened in hugtto” OR Hugtto novel because I really want one Toei!
In the end, I really loved Hugtto’s plot and frankly, it became the basis of my imaginary story #6. Yeah yeah I know I’m being too much over the plot, but it’s really because I really cared about it. That’s the same plot care that I had for ARC-V and honestly both shows left my thirst unquenched because they both didn’t go deeper with their plot lores…But anyways, Hugtto was able to tell an intriguing plot that still leaves me super curious even now!
The Characters
I love their designs a biiiit too much thanks a lot Kawamura! (Also listening to the OST as I’m writing this hah)
Hugtto has a big cast, so this means there are a lot of stories to tell.
For the most part, the show did a great job developing these characters, and I really appreciate that about Hugtto. Yes, I did have problems with the show’s character writing, but we’ll get there orite.
Saaya Yakushiji
Right off the bat, I’m gonna start with Saaya! To be perfectly honest, I thought that she was the least interesting out of the 7 of them (that’s including Harry and Hugtan ofc). And poor girl got the least focus out of the 5 cures too. But alas this rewatch happened and I really found myself appreciating her more! Most especially during her episodes in the second-half because oh boy, they truly hit hard. Compared to Hana’s conflict with the big baddies, Homare’s unrequited love, Emiruru’s journey together, Saaya’s story was simply about her trying to figure out whether she wants to continue become an actress or move on from that career. Definitely the most grounded story and I think it really worked with her character. Also, I’m in university now so I kinda related to her in some extent. Most precure characters have their dreams fixed and were actively pursuing it, but Saaya wasn’t sure about hers. I think it’s something that teenagers and young adults can definitely relate with, especially if your dream came from seeing what your parents are doing/telling you what to become!
I do wish, however, that she didn’t end up becoming a doctor because we already had Karen in that regard. Would’ve been nice if she became an engineer instead since she loves tech stuff! But to be fair, it shouldn’t be surprising with the course that the show was heading…I also wish she was actually rivals with Ranze since we learned that she had a competitive streak. Anyways. What I loved about her episodes in the second half (26, 35 and 44) is that they were just really heartwarming and we got to see her bonding with her mom. Like, the scene in episode 26 where we got a montage of Saaya’s family really tugged my heart. See, I’m weak with family episodes so that episode definitely got me… (also it was SB’d and ED’d by Yuta Tanaka so it hit real hard). Saaya’s conversation with her mom in episode 44 was also just something else. Honestly, thinking about it, they really did a great job showing different aspects of motherhood with Reira Yakushiji because we were shown how she worked hard to give Saaya a better life and also being sad when she learned that Saaya wants to become a doctor mainly because the fact that her daughter was growing up. I mean I’m no mom yet, but I get that feeling of I guess bittersweetness when you see a niece/nephew grow up. You’re happy to see them grow up, but also a bit sad because you want them to still be that cute kiddo that you take care…Anyways, I just really appreciated Saaya during this rewatch. She may be your typical angel/ojou/reserved blue, but she had a story to tell that was unique to others.
Homare Kagayaki
Homare is one of my favorites alongside Ruru, during my first rewatch. I mean, coupled with having a cute romance with Harry and having two sakuga episodes about her, it was really a no-brainer for me to like the queen of KYAWATAAAAAN. I mean the rewatch didn’t really change my opinion about her and #JusticeForHomaHari because *ugly crying* BUT I did find myself wishing that the show also gave more focus on her skater dream instead of it being resolved in two episodes. I guess that’s why Henri exists for the skater angst. To be fair though, Homare had such a strong start and finish that I can’t really complain about it. I really don’t have much to say about her besides being a great yellow despite having such a heavy story during the second half. I love how she was mature about her feelings for Harry and also courageous! It’s not always easy to confess to someone, especially if that someone loves somebody else. So, I think Homare is a great example of an otome in love being more mature in handling her feelings. Her talk with her mom in episode 43 was so sweet and again, I just love the parent-child relationships in this show because the show explored different kinds of this relationship. Homare is really one of a kind especially as a yellow cure.
Emiru Aisaki and Ruru Amour
Emiruru!! Oh this uneven duo to be the mid-season cures…
Personally, I have a love-and-dislike relationship with this duo. The rewatch pretty much confirmed that lmao.
First of all, I love Twin Love and I absolutely love their songs. They are bangers and “Friends With You” will always hit my soft spot…so does their reunion in the last episode *cries*
But yeah. I love how the writers managed to develop this uneven duo and they really built a strong bond. Also, Emiru worked so hard to become a precure so I’m really happy for her.
However, I also thought that the show prioritized developing their bond too much that their individual character arc became an afterthought. Like, yes, I love Twin Love as a duo, but I also found them more interesting as individual characters.
Personally, I loved Ruru’s character arc. She is this android from an evil company who does evil things because she doesn’t have an understanding between good and evil. In her first 17 episodes, we saw how she developed into a redeemed character (who had to be the mid-season cure later on). She started off as someone who does her job because she is told to. Then, she decided to befriend the main trio because she wanted to know why they are full of hope. Like those episodes of her infiltrating were good because she came to understand that she wasn’t completely evil. She started to gain a heart and this is very important to her character development. It ultimately culminated in episode 17 where she was programmed to have no heart again. Honestly, that episode was just so good because really Ruru’s journey was very compelling to watch. She was finally able to understand that she’s not completely evil. She was taught that the perfect world is freezing everyone’s time to preserve it, but everything changed when she met Hana. Also, I love her friendship with Hana and I’m quite sad that friendship was kinda shoved out after episode 15. Yes, there were still moments that they interacted during the latter half, but still I really enjoyed seeing them interact. And of course, her rivalry with Saaya which was only present for one episode. Honestly, I miss seeing cures having beef with each other in a good way of course. It allows for more character interactions and depth, so episode 14 was definitely a treat to watch.
That’s why…I was pretty much like “yeah Twin Love episodes are good but where are their individual eps???” I felt as if the subsequent episodes after their mid-season cure debut were too much for my taste (Ultimate culmination in episode 33, I tweeted that afterwards lmao). Episode 19 and 22 was more than enough to touch their doubts as a duo, but their story had to be connected with Henri’s in episode 33 for the sake of developing their relationship furthermore. I get it, they have doubts and worries, but they could’ve backed off a bit more for Henri in that episode tbh. I just feel like their story at that point was becoming too detached that I don’t disagree when people say that the Hugtto cures were basically 3+2 dynamics. To be fair, it was expected since they are a duo and they have to make sure the audience gets invested in their storyline, but you know…at least connect them a bit more with the main trio…
On top of this critique that I have, I just feel like Emiru’s character arc was forgotten after the duo was formed. So, let’s talk about Emiru. She’s this character who was introduced as someone who is overly cautious of her surroundings (aka the girl version of Seiya lmao) but is also actually a girl who loves guitar but can’t play it because of her brother and grandpa. I really liked her introduction episode because she was so over-the-top that I enjoyed watching her being over-the-top (yes this is me relating to her in some ways haha…) and episode 15 solidified her character for me because Cure Emiru was just super fun to watch. Then Twin Love happened and then…that was pretty much it for her character arc. Yessss I know episode 41 exists (that’s for later talk) but I just wish we actually got to know more about her. Like why is she overly cautious around her surroundings? How did she learn the guitar while hiding it from her brother? Also gosh we didn’t see her interact with her parents! We only saw them singing and that was it. Like most of the cures interacted with their parents (or parental figure in Ruru’s case) and she basically had nothing. Even I feel like her interactions with Masato were limited because of the focus on Twin Love. Nothing wrong with it and Masato had good character development, but it was just pretty disappointing how Emiru got the least individual character arc out of all of them. Even though I love Emiruru, I just wanted to see Emiru grow more even without Ruru’s help and not being soooo tight-knitted with her. I guess that’s why I wasn’t attached to her character during the second-half as much as I wanted to.
Meanwhile, though, Ruru managed to have a great character arc because of her relationship with Dr. Traum. Like, I was so glad when episode 40 was about them reconciling because we got a glimpse of their perspective on each other. After building it up in episode 27 and episode 37, we see in episode 40 why Traum created Ruru and why Ruru is madge at him. I’m probably biased because I really really really really really really love parent-child episodes, but it clearly worked on Ruru’s character growth and I was just so happy to see her rebuilding that relationship with Traum in the last 9 episodes. Also it made me love Traum’s character even more but that’s for the villains talk hehe. Anyways, I found myself being satisfied with Ruru’s character because we actually got to see her go from this emotionless android to an expressive android with a heart. Personally, I liked her no non-sense and snarky personality and it kinda disappeared after her redemption, so her becoming snarky again because of papa Traum was *chef’s kiss* I love my snarky and sassy purple android honestly…
Ultimately, episode 41 still gave them a super bittersweet ending and gosh…the waterworks are real. I would’ve preferred if it was a full-blown Emiru episode and it was great seeing Masato stand up for her, but man was the episode so emotional not only for the duo, but for the whole cast. Even more painful when you see Hugtan not having any idea why they are crying…Anyways, episode 41 being about Emiruru and Emiruru alone was also great for me because of the reinforcement of their relationship. Yessss I did have problems with their duo, but an emotional dialogue will always get me man… I guess it was a reminder that I really loved their duo despite me also disliking certain aspects about their duo.
In the end, Emiru and Ruru’s uneven duo was great to watch and I really love their songs. It’s a bit unfair though that they had a bittersweet ending because they will never meet each other again. Even though Emiru met a new Ruru, it’s not the same Ruru that she knows and everyone acknowledges that. Heck, even the voice actors lamented on this fact…Also, we should’ve been shown the OG Ruru fulfilling her dream of bringing music to the destroyed future…Regardless, the cures of love were able to show their love to each other, to other people and to the audience. Twin Love forever!
Hana Nono
My beloved mecchoku pink!
I already wrote a lot about Hana in my Kawamura Trio post, but I wanna talk a bit more about her because I love her and the rewatch made me love her more while also noticing what I didn’t like how the writers handled her character.
So I said in my Kawamura Trio post that Hana is a complex pink because her genki personality is masked with a lot of insecurities and doubts. The first half and the last four episodes did a really good job of showing that complexity of hers. Again, episodes 10 and 11 showed us that Hana crumbles under pressure because of her past. Honestly, those two episodes were legit too heavy for a precure series and it packed so much emotions, especially for Hana. Then, you have episodes 23 and 24 that showed how vulnerable Hana is and how she copes using her genki personality. Interestingly, the only person who actually saw through Hana was her mom and ofc it makes sense because she’s the mom. But honestly, the scene that stood out the most for me in episode 24 was Hana angsting in the pool (courtesy of Murayama) precisely because we got to know that the events from episode 23 deeply affected her and no one really knows it but her. I mean, no one knows but her that she was actually interacting with the big baddie, so she can’t really share to her dilemma to her friends. So, her saying that she needs to stay positive for the sake of her friends was really because she doesn’t want to accept the fact that she got betrayed by someone that she came to trust. It’s not so much that she’s upset because Criasu’s true goal was revealed last episode, it was that she’s more upset that it had to be that person. That is where the conflict became more personal to her and yeah. Luckily, Twin Love saves the day and she got her genuine egao back at the end of the episode. Still, I really love how episode 24 tackled Hana’s character arc.
So here comes my real gripe about Hana’s character: episode 31.
So, episodes 23 and 24 revealed the real reason why Hana got bullied: She stood up for her friend and became the bullying target. Then, the friend showed up in episode 31 and basically, she patched up with Hana at the end of that episode. I really don’t have a problem with Hana and Eri patching up in that episode, but my problem was basically how it didn’t really resolve anything. Yes, good for them for being on good terms again, but wasn’t Hana getting bullied the real issue? I said this in my twitter post for that episode, but I just find it real weird that the way they decided to resolve Hana’s bullying issue is her being on good terms with the girl that she’s defending rather than confronting her bullies. Heck, one of them told Hana (during the makeup scene) something along the lines of: “Wait is that Nono-san? Why is she doing our makeup? And what’s with her bangs?” Also, I guess I realized this now but I don’t really understand why Hana feeling bad about facing Eri was because she was concerned that she wasn’t a good friend to her for defending her. If anything, Hana should’ve been also feeling betrayed because no one defended her when she was the one getting bullied. I think it would’ve reinforced episode 24 even more because of the betrayal feeling once again.
I just really think that for a delicate issue such as bullying, episode 31 didn’t just do justice to Hana’s bullying issues. Of course, you can’t make it already too dark because of its nature of it, but at the same time, it just didn’t work well for me. I would’ve preferred it more if we actually got to see Hana’s true feelings about getting bullied rather than her feelings about the girl that she defended. Wouldn’t her seeing Eri again would spark the bad memories of how she felt during the entire ordeal? Really, my issue about this episode is they chose to approach this issue in a different angle. A weird angle in my opinion. It was really more about the fact that we didn’t actually get Hana’s true feelings about the real ordeal. She’s allowed to still feel hurt about the whole situation not only because of Eri, but because she was shunned and isolated by her classmates. We didn’t really get that kind of monologue from her in that episode. Really though, if precure decides to approach another bullying issue again, I hope they do it much better than what they did with Hana’s.
Fortunately for Hana, her character arc didn’t stop at episode 31 because of the last four episodes. Even before that, I think her episode with her grandpa and Kotori showcased why I love Hana so much. She is just a loveable pink.
So, in episode 46, we got the revelation that she was, in fact, the future wife of our big baddie ojiisan. However, she wasn’t allowed to know this fact for obvious reasons, but anyways. I would’ve personally preferred if she got to learn about this because I think it’d be interesting and would give her more problems to deal with LOL. Kidding, I meant more personal conflict to deal with. But still, I think that revelation added more layer to Hana for me precisely because of the implications of what happened if she didn’t cut her bangs and met Homare and Saaya. Obviously, I would really love to see what happened to her in the other timeline/future, but it makes me sad that the first future didn’t work out well for Hana. In a retrospect, she basically didn’t get the chance to be free from her past and worst of all, she perished in the process, leaving a grieving husband who can’t move on and stopped time and a daughter who had to go back to the past to stop her grieving dad. Basically, the worst ending for Hana Nono.
Even though she doesn’t learn about this fact, there was still the fact that episodes 46-48 were basically the final battle and the final confrontation between a girl who moves on despite her hardship and a man who can’t move on. And episode 47 man. I actually forgot what happened in that episode because it was between episode 46 and 48, two of my favorite and memorable Hugtto episodes. Anyways, episode 47 really showed the darkest hour of the show and Hana’s darkest hour: almost completely giving up. Literally, she was like: “Okay…I give up…tomorrow can not come anymore…” and was actually producing togepower (it slightly happened in episode 46 too). I honestly got reminded or episodes 10 and 11 because of how Hana really gave in to the pressure…BUT! Daga…shikashi!
“What are you saying Hana?! Precure never gives up!”
And bang! Those words from Saaya woke Hana up and got the nakama power speech from her friends. Seeing this ripple effect from her meeting Saaya and Homare on the rooftop proved really vital for this moment right here. If she didn’t have Saaya, Homare, Ruru and Emiru…then she would’ve given up right there because the pressure was too much for her. Of course, she wants to save everyone…but if the only way to do so is for her to accept the worst outcome so that her friends won’t suffer anymore, then she’ll do it. Personally, I was just really impressed by episode 47 overall (except the hamsters redemption part) and it was the perfect setup to episode 48.
I feel like episode 48 is another whole post to write about because it’s honestly my favorite Hugtto episode. I just loved it from start to finish and I can only thank Tsubofumi’s writing, Zako’s storyboards and Kawamura’s animation for that because they absolutely created a great climax for Hugtto. But talking this episode in relation to Hana…her speech about how “life is full of mecchoku” got a chuckle out of me. But honestly, I love that she got to showcase her personal growth throughout that episode. Yes, ofc there was episode 31, but I’m really impressed how the last four episodes still managed to make her a stronger character. In-part because of her personal conflict with the big baddie and because she was allowed to fall down and get up again. She fought super hard in that episode and I think she was rewarded the best reward at the end of the episode: seeing a broken man genuinely smile once again. The whole last scene in that episode was just really beautiful and a great end to Hana’s personal conflict…And ofc because we were allowed to see her being successful while still being the Hana that we all know and love. I’m just super happy that she became a mom at the end of Hugtto.
I already talked so much about Hana, but it’s just her character is complex and she really reminded me of Yuya. I guess I really have a thing for sad clown/stepford smile characters but honestly, they’re very fun to analyze. But also, they’re kind of frustrating to analyze because you wish the writers handled their characters better because they had so much potential. That’s just me anyways…Still, I really love Hana and the rewatch still made me love her more. Yes, I think that her bullying issue’s resolution could’ve been handled better and yes I think that she should’ve know that her future self died in another timeline, but she still ended up a pink with a strong character arc. And that’s something that I’m wishing for the next pink character because I’ve been not impressed with Manatsu and Yui as pinks (well rainbow in Manatsu’s case) and they kinda made me realize that a precure pink should stand out the most at the end. Nozomi is a great example of that and Y5 had a big cast too. I guess I’ve been just spoiled by Hana in my rewatch because she is a flawed character. Flawed characters are great because you see their moments of strength and weakness throughout the show and we’ve seen that in Hana. In the end, Hana Nono is one heck of a pink. Fure! Fure! Hana!
The Supporting Characters
Again, Hugtto had such a big cast that the entire third cour and parts of the fourth had episodes about either a cure’s family member or another character. Plus, we have Harry and Homare and Henri who were probably the secondary characters.
I don’t really much to say about the supporting cast since I already said that I liked how the show developed the cure’s families as well and we got to see their worries. I wasn’t big on third cour, but I really appreciated the episodes about the families. Also everyone became a precure in episode 48, so that’s quite a milestone for the supporting cast!
I always liked Harry even though he rejected my girl Homare because he was also someone who had worries and fears about life. He’s similar to Coco, but unlike the former, he carries the guilt for abandoning his hamster friends. Still, I like how he tries to be a good support to the cures while also having his personal dilemmas. His conversation with Hana in episode 38 honestly made me like him more in the rewatch because he confided with her about his worries. He acknowledges that he’s worried, but he knows to himself that if he doesn’t believe in the future, then he won’t see memories like them celebrating with the girls. He’s very nuanced as a mascot and I appreciate that about him. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the hamster resolution in episode 47 good because everything about that was rushed. Well more on that later but anyways. For an ikemen mascot like Harry, he still displayed a good character arc.
Hugtan…well she is the cute baby mascot who is really there to be cute and give powerup to the cures. I mean, her character is not that deep, but ofc I wish they actually explored her more as Cure Tomorrow. And she is freaking Hana’s future daughter for goodness sake. I would’ve been okay if she’s a descendant, but she became Hana’s daughter so I can’t really turn a blind eye on it. Still though, I like that she remained a baby character who had empathy towards others and honestly… her not understanding why everyone was crying by the end of episode 41 and episode 49 made sense because she had a baby mentality. So, when it hit her that they have to leave in episode 49…that’s where she started to bawl her eyes out. Very heart-wrenching farewell scene overall.
So yeah. I could’ve talked more about the supporting cast but like that would take me so long to write lmao. Overall though, Hugtto’s supporting characters were interesting on their own.
The Villains: Criasu Corporation
Oshimaidaa!!
Oh man I really loved Criasu as a villain group and probably my favorite villains in precure. Not sure if other villain groups will top them, but still. I do love the Bad End villains though. And Bunbee.
But what I really loved about them was really the fact that they had their own stories that are unique to them. We had Charaleet (the millennial who was afraid of being tossed away), Ruru (the android who can’t compute some things such as love) Papple (the sexy obasan who got heartbroken because of her love), Daigan (the boomer ojisan who was blasted after 5 minutes, became good, became bad again, and became ultimately good), Jelos (the young sexy subordinate who doesn’t want to age), Jinjin and Takumi (the ikemen subordinates), Bicine (the yandere hamster who is so madge at Harry), Listol (the stern hamster who is also madge at Harry), Dr. Traum (the happy-go-lucky scientist ojiisan who’s in there for the ride) and George (the depressed ojiisan big baddie of the show).
Believe it or not, they all got redeemed in the end and that actually made me appreciate them more. It’s easy to scoff at a redeemed villain because they got redeemed by some power of friendship, but in Hugtto’s case…I really enjoyed seeing the first-half villains (sans Listol) get redeemed and interact with the cures later on. I think it’s one of the strengths of Hugtto because of it’s message of: everyone deserves a second chance.
We got a taste of this during Hana’s big moment in episode 11. Not only it was Hana’s big moment, but it was also Charaleet’s big moment because it was his redemption moment. I like how it all boiled down to him being scared of not being able to do anything. Hana related to that and saw his pleading and scared face, hence she didn’t use the sword on him. That whole episode was just great btw. There was also Papple’s redemption episode which had great imageries and such because of Zako ofc. She was betrayed by the guy that was supposed to be her lover and you can just feel her pain throughout the whole episode. So, her getting her redemption because of Twin Love was poetic on its own since they are the cures of love after all. Honestly, everything about episode 22 for me was just really memorable and Narita Yoshimi really knows how to write painful romance lol.
Honestly, Daigan also stood out for me because I actually forgot that he returned to Criasu because of Listol’s offer. He didn’t truly have a redemption moment and he doesn’t have a compelling story compared to Charaleet and Papple (and by extension, Listol) so I think it was neat that they allowed him to get tempted to go back to the other side once again. For me, it really shows that you have a choice, so choose wisely. And also just the influence of having good friends because Daigan has good friends, Charaleet and Papple!
While the first-half villains had great characterizations, the problem lies with the second-half villains. In particular, Jelos (and her minions) and Bicine felt out of place many times. Well, at least Bicine had his connection with Harry. But Jelos? Her story was so disconnected that they couldn’t bother actually give a cure that could connect with her. I mean, I had no problems with her story being basically like “nooo i don’t want to age because i don’t want my beauty to fade away” but it was just very strangely placed considering how every villain got their connection with at least one of the cures. At the very least, I really like her redemption in episode 45 because it was nice to see that she really cares for Jinjin and Takumi.
On the other hand, Bicine and Listol honestly had my least favorite redemption out of them all. Listol already had his in episode 39, but he had to be brainwashed again for the final battle so…but anyways. I like Bicine because he was clearly unhinged out of them all, but I don’t like the fact that he was basically forgotten after episode 32 and only got remembered during the last few episodes. Their redemption in episode 47 felt pretty much out of place and deserved to have at least an episode dedicated to them. Idk, it was just very awkward to see Listol crying in Harry’s arms in the middle of the battle while Bicine was standing on the side very confused lol. To be fair, I wasn’t a big fan of Listol in general because he only got to be active when he recruited Henri and Daigan. And the only time that he actually became the villain of the week was the episode that he got “redeemed” too. The cool thing that came out of that whole Harry-Listol-Bicine segment though was the redeemed villains working together, but that’s for later.
Now that I got them out of the way, it’s time to talk the actual ojiisan menaces of the group.
Dr. Traum ahh Dr. Traum, my favorite Hugtto villain. From the time that he first appeared, I’m like “yep i really like this individual already” and the rewatch made me like him more! He’s very charismatic, funny and at the same time, menacing. I mean he almost destroyed the whole precure universe with his time stopping and had to be stopped by all the 55 cures that were there at that time. Also, I love charismatic villains because they’re fun to watch. Traum is also very considerate because he did adhere to Saaya when she said “QUIET THERE ARE BABIES HERE!!!” and made an anti-silent Oshimaidaa when they fought again in the hospital lol.
But what I really liked the most about him is his relationship with Ruru. He pretty much got the best character arc out of the villains because he was given a chance to repair his relationship with Ruru. Of course, part of me wished that he was one of the last villains to defeat, but I think him getting beaten that early benefited his character furthermore and it really worked out for him. Really, my highlight of episode 37 will always be Ruru’s line to Traum: “We cannot turn back time. However, tomorrow will come.” “So it seems.” Like it’s just a powerful line that I always think about it whenever I think about Hugtto. What I appreciated the most about their father-daughter relationship was the fact that it didn’t end in episode 40. Yes, they patched up in that episode thanks to everyone around them as well as Ruru deciding to give Traum a second chance, but the last 9 episodes showecased them more! Traum being a doting dad and Ruru being the daughter who gets annoyed when her dad is being annoying was just great to see. It also gave back Ruru’s snarky attitude lol! It took a while for Ruru to warm up to Traum and I love that Traum tried his best to be a good dad to her. My heart got tingles when she called him dad and they hugged in episode 45. It was truly the best Christmas gift for him. While it’s true that a part of him created Ruru because he misses his late daughter and saw Ruru in her, he really cherished Ruru as his own. And again, I’m weak with parent-child episodes in anime, so I appreciated their relationship so much. So yeah, Traum was such a great villain from start to after his redemption because he clearly had a story to tell. Look, I even chose him hugging Ruru as one of the 3×3 pics because that’s just how I love their relationship haha. The rewatch just solidified my opinion about him and I really love his design. Seriously, Kawamura does her best when it comes to the ikemens haha. But anyways, Traum da beeeeest!
And of course, we have the big baddie ojiisan George and boy I have a lot to say about him. I always restrict myself when it comes to talking about him because of me being weird in general. But anyways…I really think that he had the most interesting story of them all and frankly out of all the precure main villains that I’ve known so far. I mean, he’s still the main villain that the protag met the earliest (episode 8) and that’s really saying something about what he became later on: a foil to Hana.
Unlike Hana, he had a pessimistic view of life and genuinely believed that stopping time is the best course for humanity. He thought that everyone would be happy if we all just stay in the present because the future is bleak. In a retrospect, you can get tempted with that belief because the future can be scary to think about. That’s why Hana couldn’t fully refute his argument and ofc, she had her own painful experiences. Anyways, I love the fact that George and Hana’s conflict was personal and not just some good vs evil generic conflict between cures and villains. Of course, one of the reasons why their conflict was so personal was because they’ve established a connection with each other in the 4 episodes that they’ve interacted in the first-half. And when he revealed himself in episode 23, he was always directly challenging her. For him, it was either his ideology or her ideology and I think his rivalry with Hana made me like his character more as the main villain of the show.
And of course, we actually learned later on that his backstory involved someone very close to him dying in the future where he came from. As if Traum’s backstory is not already painful enough huh…But that person was actually the future Hana Nono and this really added another layer to his character. There’s been a lot of debates about this ever since episode 46 came out lol, but to have this kind of connection to the main character was really interesting to me. He has skewed view of life because he’s still grieving for his wife and seeing her again alive made him have the goal of preserving her happiness by stopping time. That’s why he always asked Hana: “Are you happy right now?” and it honestly makes his motivation stronger to me at least. It was so strong that he almost made Hana give up in episode 47. But then again, I like what one redditor said about his view of Hana: He was always looking at her future self that he lost. I mean, he didn’t ever reveal to her their actual relationship and her actual fate in the future where he came from. So clearly George didn’t want to create a time paradox lol.
I know I’m talking too much about his relationship with Hana, but I mean you can’t really talking about him without talking about Hana. I just reaaaaaallly reaaaaallly like personal conflicts between the MC and the villain because it adds more weight on them as individual characters. My problem with him is that his characterization was really vague. Like, actually spouting nonsense at times lmao. I guess it’s because they didn’t want it to be outright obvious that he’s essentially Hana’s future husband, but still…even Traum got an actual backstory in episode 40 dammit. Like that one anon says, it’s hard to untangle him because he’s really a mess. I mean that literally. He says a lot of profound stuff without real meaning behind them and you can’t really understand them. I guess that’s why many people are saying that he was idealizing Hana a bit too much like she’s some kinda of a martyr…But either way, I really don’t like the vagueness of his character and it’s making me frustrated because he was such an interesting villain and I like angst so…
Either way, despite my problems with George, his redemption scene in episode 48 still hits me so hard and I really consider it my overall favorite Hugtto scene. There’s just something so poetic about giving someone hope about tomorrow, especially if it’s coming from a beloved that you lost in the future where you came from. Also, I’m pretty impressed that George accepted his loss gracefully and I guess it really shows how for him, it ultimately comes down to his ideology vs Hana’s and Hana won. So no bitterness in his part (even though he was already bitter in the first place about life lol) and idk it definitely made me like his character more. And of course, it was Hana’s question that ultimately gave him hope: “If you don’t believe in tomorrow, then why do you tell me “Until we meet again” every time we met?” Like that question right there…gosh straight to my heart. Deep down, George had that subconscious hope to believe in tomorrow, but his grief was overcoming him every time. He really wanted was a future where his beloved is alive (heavily implied in episode 46), so that’s why he thought that the best way to do this is freeze time in the present. I also really liked one redditor’s comment about him always looking at future Hana whenever he sees our Hana. And it really makes sense because there’s a lot of concerns about the nature of their relationship. But going back to episode 48, the music freaking elevated that last scene between them, so I just keep on loving that episode okay. It was basically the last version of the show’s main theme. And it was truly fitting to a scene about the main villain’s redemption. Yes, he did terrible things and he can’t be excused for that, but at the same time he had a characterization going on that makes him more compelling than the other precure villains that I know. I just really love episode 48 because it was an episode full of hope.
(On a side note, seeing young Traum and young George in that episode is something that will forever etch my mind and they freaking should’ve made an episode about them both. I say this with extra passion because Tsubofumi eventually did it in PriMagi lmao. Oh and he also became Hana’s husband. Toei will not fool me the craspedia flowers are there.)
Anyways, I think I talked a lot about George but at the same time, I didn’t? Lmao. Even though Traum is my overall Hugtto villain, I think that George is the most interesting villain of them all. Clearly, I’m biased because I love angst lmao. It was just super cool to see a precure main villain whose motivation wasn’t about world domination or something. Well, he did want to freeze time, but the conflict was always personal for him. And it was personal for Hana too. So, they had a great dynamic as protag-villain and their final confrontation was great. It honestly makes me hope we get more personal conflicts in precure I mean they did the same with Nodoka and Daruizen and I liked their conflict too. Overall, great main villain even with the ambiguity around him.
Already talked so much about the villains, but I just want to point out that seeing the redeemed ones fight in episode 47 was so great. In particular, Traum apologizing to Daigan was so memorable. Everyone thought that they forgot about it, but Traum didn’t and he properly apologized to him. And Daigan forgiving him because he also received a lot of love was also great to see. Aaaaand Papple’s line: “Adults can dream too you know!” And it’s such a great appeal to the adult audience, especially to the ones who grew up with precure.
Overall, Criasu Corp is a great villain group to me because they really felt like humans. I mean the majority of them are humans, but still. I appreciate that they got proper characterizations and actually have connections with the cures. They pretty much set the bar high for me that I can’t help but to not like the precure villains if they don’t have a lot of characterizations lol. Still, the rewatch really made me like them more. Matta nee!
The Verdict
Man I really did talk a lot about Hugtto and this really took me almost two months to finish haha. Thanks school and procrastination.
But really, Hugtto is really special to me because it had such an engaging plot and loveable characters. And Yuki Hayashi’s music that made every scene be extra special.
Hugtto was really a story about moving towards tomorrow. Yes, it’s scary to think about the future and what it holds, but at the same time, the show always tells us that we’ll never know what happens if we don’t take a step. Yes, there will be hardships along the way, and Hana even said that in the last episode…but you have people who will support you along the way. So cherish those people.
And it was a show about family. About mothers, most especially. Hana even became one at the end! It was great to see them feature different stories about a family member, especially what motherhood truly meant. Hana becoming one was great to see and even though the birth scene will always be hilariously bizarre in a hindsight, we actually see a cure become a mom so that’s really special.
All the characters in the show had their own struggles and pain. We get to see those who moved forward despite those struggles, but we also saw those who lost all hope for a better tomorrow. So, seeing the ones who moved forward encouraging those who could not is very powerful and really sends a positive message to the viewers as well. Tomorrow will always come. Embrace your shining future!
I watched it for the first time back in December 2020 and I loved it. Rewatching it this year made me love the show even more. And it’s reaching its 5th year anniversary next year! Pretty crazy if you think about it because it is the show that celebrated precure’s 15th anniversary. And the show next year will celebrate precure’s 20th anniversary. I hope precure 2023 will make me love it the way I loved Hugtto too.
And as Hana says…
Fure! Fure! Minna!
Fure! Fure! Watashi!
Coco's Random Blog and Reviews 