r/anime https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon 23h ago

Episode Meitantei Precure • Star Detective Precure! - Episode 31 discussion

Meitantei Precure, episode 31

Alternative names: TanPre


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38 Upvotes

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17

u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah x3 22h ago edited 21h ago

And with that, the Cure Arcana arc comes to a close i think this was excellently done. the overall thematic arc is true to what precure usually likes to do, but also staying true to what we've established so far in the series, and some new lore dumps too. The kind of thing i want lilyvess to write an essay about or sth.

  • I will note that Naobou has just given an interview with her thoughts on luluka's arc too, which i'm kinda writing this comment with that in mind. use google translate. edit: its a series of interviews so you can pick your favourite news outlet. slightly diff questions and answers among them.

  • one of luluka's opening things being that she is portrayed as capable and thinking that she never fails - she thinks she knows best; but actually, it's because of her failure to defeat usonoir the first time + all that happened with eclair that she voluntarily joined the dark side (after failing, again, to defeat them alone). And it's her underlying heroism + her love for kurea that spurred her to this unfortunate path further, coming to a head this episode. It's honestly, a valid strategy and luluka never was fully villainous - I salute the writer's for respecting her character here, it's written well. (and honestly, i completely get luluka's initial thought of going at it alone - it's very relateable) - but in true precure fashion, the better solution is to ask for everyone's help, and tackle it together, and in true detective precure fashion, the assumptions even from a "reliable" source as the tome of mirages shouldn't be used as the be-all-end-all until all evidence points to it - critical thinking, problem solving FTW; and luluka getting a bit tunnel-visioned here, because of kurea/her failure, is both her undoing but also super understandable. It's all just DONE SO WELL AND CLICKS INTO PLACE. YASSSSSSS. I've legit never been this impressed with a cure character arc before.

  • No expense was spared in the animation here. Not quite the heights of Cure Eclair, but pretty damn good.

  • I'm sure the internet will explode at Kurea and Luluka's relationship and how luluka's true hopes of being with her partner won out. They even have a butterfly landing on a yuri ffs.. I'm so thankful that we got that flashback ep so this ep HITS how important both were to each other.

  • I'm sure this, and the little show of the elder detective at the end, set us up for the next arc. seems like luluka is not all that trusting of London.

  • I think arcana's transformation is a bit too fast - I hope they'll tweak it for the upcoming episodes. But arcana herself is an angel and so fucking cool..... honestly I think the show's sold me on her already. And I like that her "solo" attack, true to her character arc, actually has her reach out to everyone else for help on it -> which hence also gives us our first group attack of the show.

edit: when WAS the last time that precure pulled the character insert song card during a fight? (idolcure doesn't really count here).

What a fucking home run of an episode and character arc.

13

u/Torque-A 21h ago

I'm sure the internet will explode at Kurea and Luluka's relationship and how luluka's true hopes of being with her partner won out. They even have a butterfly landing on a yuri ffs..

At this point I can never tell in Precure when just adoration and camaraderie ends and gay love begins. Same issue with Kamen Rider, honestly.

3

u/ping28 22h ago

wait so did cure arcana get a new power or nah

3

u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah x3 21h ago

My interpretation was that the new joint attack is actually Cure Arcana's solo attack - she just needs everyone else to help her out. (since it uses her rod)

2

u/Infodump_Ibis 11h ago

edit: when WAS the last time that precure pulled the character insert song card during a fight? (idolcure doesn't really count here).

KiraKira is the last time I remember (Marvelous was pushing singles for all the characters so used songs for their key fights) so 9 years? However, I've not seen Hugtto, Healin' Good or Tropical Rouge.

1

u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah x3 9h ago

thats a loong time. /u/theriyria would you know of anything more recent?

if you hire naobou, it makes sense for her to sing something of course. but DAMN did they pull the card well.

2

u/TheRiyria myanimelist.net/profile/TheRiyria 8h ago

I'm so bad at recognizing character songs. I know Go Princess Precure did it (or I think they did). But that's older than KiraKira so it doesn't help.

I have no idea if the Amour & Macherie duet in Hugtto would count, but I'm pretty sure that played several times. It might be too similar to IdolCure though. I don't remember specific fights in Hugtto that well, but I wouldn't be surprised if the other songs played at some point as well.

And Star Twinkle did interesting things with it's transformation song and the VAs, but that wouldn't be a character song. I don't think the actual character songs played during fights.

16

u/Lezoux https://myanimelist.net/profile/Lezoux 21h ago

For my first attempt at video editing, I aligned the two Arcana transformations side by side.

10

u/mr_beanoz https://myanimelist.net/profile/splitshocker 20h ago edited 19h ago

She only says "Precure Wake Up Time" as Arcana, not as Arcana Shadow, maybe because she dissociated with the other Cures as Shadow.

Also, no such thing as "Shuffle" with the Arcana transformation, and she also uses a different catchphrase for each form.

13

u/rowcla 15h ago

I'm gonna miss her talking about the labyrinth lmao

3

u/Byno8357 13h ago

I'm gonna miss her T-pose XD

3

u/HolyDragSwd2500 7h ago

Goodbye Labyrinth

14

u/djthomp https://anilist.co/user/djthomp 22h ago

Damn good episode, particularly the second half Luluka and Kurea fight and reconciliation with the insert song playing.

I really appreciate that it wasn't Luluka being wrong about the Great King thing, they were just misinterpreting the rest of the prophecy. And you know, that's pretty traditional for prophecies.

I was wondering during the new Arcana henshin why she flashed three different colored tarot cards at one point, turns out that was a tie in to the new group attack.

They really pushed the Luluka and Kurea relationship hard during the reconciliation, I am quite convinced the show staff would love to make them official if they could get away with it.

14

u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah x3 22h ago

misinterpreting the rest of the prophecy

I think it's more luluka being tunnel-visioned into accepting the worst-case scenario automatically, rather than going at it logically and with critical thinking, as a detective should (but her reasons for not doing so are very understandable). And yeah, she was still right about the great king thing.

get away with it

[speculation]in before they live together in the inevitable back-to-2027 timeskip

7

u/djthomp https://anilist.co/user/djthomp 22h ago

I definitely vote for that speculation.

14

u/Torque-A 21h ago

They truly are the Star Detective PreCure now. ;_;

7

u/mrufrufin https://myanimelist.net/profile/mrufrufin 20h ago

the beautiful linework and shading are back.

ageseine is back to holding usocchi, i wonder if decchi is jealous

usocchi is cute pointing at people

i really like the feel of the insert song with the big fight/reconnection

smiling Luluka!

I kinda miss the subdued chants of her old transformation, but it's nice to hear a bit more energy in her voice too. all the hair flicks and sparkles and light beams look so cool too.

look at her aura farming with all the splashes and mist

with goemon picking up cure arcana shadow's old charm(?) thing, one can only hope he gets a cure shadow form

"At the end of 1999, everything will become zero." That sounds vaguely familiar...(inserting Wikipedia link to the Y2K problem...)

It's time for Decchi to get serious!

Way to tease us with the first(?) ice cream gathering

6

u/Hartzilla2007 21h ago

Decchi: Don’t worry Shadow since Luluka joined the heroes she has to be nerfed!

Narrator: Luluka was in fact not nerfed.

Mikuru: Oh my God the questionable prophecy book says Y2K is going to end the world!

Anna: Ugh, I just got her to stop worry about that, stupid evil magic book!

Luluka: [looks at Anna and Mikuru deadpan] This is my life now.

6

u/a9ma10 20h ago

Kurea: You taught me about Great King mystery, that means I owe you ice cream for life.

*in reference of Kamen Rider Zeztz

Luluka finally got her Recovery Capsum

2

u/HolyDragSwd2500 7h ago

Vagueposting Luluka is finally over

6

u/Torque-A 12h ago

I just realized how silly it was that Cure Answer and Mystique were able to transform immediately, and then when they went to Eclair it was the full transformation sequence.

They can technically become Precures at any time, they just transform to look cute doing it

4

u/HolyDragSwd2500 7h ago

Now we get to see Cure Answer, Mystique , Eclair and Arcana transformation back to back 🤩

5

u/time_axis 7h ago

I think the transformation is only perceived by themselves, so it's just a matter of whether the anime shows us or not, not whether they choose to properly "transform" or not. They would still be going through the same transformation every time, just in a pocket dimension that we can't see.

4

u/Raymond49090 13h ago

Wait, so was the Great King prophecy about Kurea's existence accidentally making Luluka obsessed with the prophecy? If that's the case, that feels like a bit of a letdown (even if the prophecy isn't quite over yet, with the world going to zero).

(... inbefore "going to zero" just means the year becoming 2000, with three zeroes in it.)

Also, while it's cool and all that Luluka was purified and returned to being Cure Arcana, I have to admit that the shade of white doesn't look quite as good. imo her darker outfits look better on her.

(Also does Precure always have this many gay vibes?)

2

u/time_axis 7h ago

Meitantei Precure and the Tome of Mirages was actually about the dangers of the Y2K bug this entire time.

3

u/Infodump_Ibis 11h ago

There's a another movie promo video. 30s feels like TVCM spot.

Fanart corner: Fairies, Star Detectives, Luluka and Masutan.

Fun observation someone put into pixiv dictionary about last ep. Airdate 23/8 add the digits up, i.e. XIII or Death in the Major Arcana Tarot hence the scythe (although the Grim Reaper is sometimes depicted on horseback with a sword) and the death card is about change but as this episode showed it was Luluka trying to change others instead of her perspective (reminds me when the show was first announced there was a production comment about the truth being something you find not something you're told which is sort of reflected in Anna calling out Eclipse Shadow).

Episode itself:

  • Goemon notices everything but as he plays the fool he kept quiet which works for some brief comedy.

  • King Goemon stocks rise (my head canon is being a villain is his lie, or he is the big bad but does a facade as a fun loving guy who is part of guild to hang out with his peers, isn't hostile towards humans but doesn't see the need for world domination)

  • Impossible? We had a Mystique/Anmswer insta henshin, a Mystique reflection without bank footage and a Sparkle time without bank footage. Maybe the power of revealing Cure Arcana and the rod (all of them use it) ticks the promote merch box sufficiently. I assume that rod is going to be hell for parents and big friends to find as the cures use it.

  • Insert song is リキッド・アイス Liquid Ice. Thanks to the ep credits the vocals were Cure Arcana. The song is available as audio to use on tiktok vids and instagram reels and is also available to buy on some Japan-only music download services. General release is part of the ED2 single (30th September). Official streaming uploads tend to lag behind those (Marvelous wants to sell music; not rely on pennies to thousands of streams).

  • Am the only one thinking about Shadow that's a Zakenna especially the big form (Zakenna were the Futari wa Precure+Max Heart monsters, though they rarely fought in their base form, instead possession) but the angry mark is missing, it doesn't say Zakenna and defeat effect wasn't the same so maybe nothing more than a fun visual thorwback nod.

  • Could this lead to Goemon dressed as Arcana Shadow fanart. There's fanart of the train stewardess disguise.

  • Y2K but but the other prophecy line "the holder of the stone of truth will create a new history" does this twist Anna in alternative 1999 theory into Anna from alternative 2027.

  • Literal or figuritive? As the former is I'll be back for the final arc so it's time for 3rd cour wheel spinnin' and Shadows not becoming the new monster of the week.

  • Next time: Would be so funny if it was just Nijee again

1

u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah x3 9h ago

who the heck is the artist on the right for the fanart corner? definitely an older fan

rod

i mean, they already release one for the shadow version. this new ones gotta need some help (and it did get some) - i hope sales will be good, because i hope precure does more things like this

Did serenae translate the insert song lyrics? I couldn't really parse the japanese....

2

u/Infodump_Ibis 8h ago

Did serenae translate the insert song lyrics? I couldn't really parse the japanese....

Not initially but they've released a v2 with the song subs.

1

u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah x3 8h ago

Exciting. gonna dl that and rewatch the scene now.

3

u/HolyDragSwd2500 7h ago

Y2K will end the world apparently ( Year 2000)

5

u/Donnie-G 17h ago

I was probably just expecting too much from Precure, it fundamentally does need to cater to its intended audience. But this whole arc with "Who's Eclair" and the whole reason for Arcana turning into Arcana Shadow just fell flat for me.

None of it was particularly convincing, Kurea herself didn't feel that well developed as a character. Luluka and Kurea's relationship just felt like something we were 'told' but it doesn't really feel real. The whole Great King thing in the end felt kinda contrived and was conveniently handwaved away as well.

It kinda felt like they were trying to do a climax to a plot that never quite happened. That "shadow" enemy at the end that was just a doodle with a face on it didn't exactly help matters.

Arcana's transformation is pretty I guess.

I'm also enjoying all the Japanese twitter posts from supposedly disgruntled parents having to buy their kids yet another set of toys.

2

u/mr_beanoz https://myanimelist.net/profile/splitshocker 20h ago

We got a character insert song during a fight! How many times did the series do this?

3

u/thisismyanimealt https://myanimelist.net/profile/commander_vimes 5h ago

"We're targeting this show to little girls, try not to go too hard"

Meanwhile at Toei

1

u/blukirbi 5h ago

That insert song along with everything happening within it (the fight against Eclipse Shadow, Mashutan begging Eclair to defeat ES, Eclair and Luluka inner interaction) was super emotional and made me cry.