Hugtto! PreCure Episode 17: Mechanical Doll

Things took quite a turn at the end of the previous episode of Hugtto! PreCure, and episode 17 shows us exactly what that means for all of those involved.The episode begins with Lulu back at Criasu Corporation, where they delete most of the data she had gathered whilst being with Hana and the others.

Hana and the others are eager to rescue Lulu

At Harry’s place, Hana is insistent that they should go and rescue Lulu. Harry is against the idea, though, as he had realised Lulu was actually an enemy. Hana and Harry argue about it, but Hugtan soon brings their disagreement to an end. In the end, Hana gets her way and they all head out to search for Lulu.

Lulu appears before Hana and the others

It doesn’t take long for them to find Lulu. Hana rushes right up to her, but Lulu smacks her hand away. Lulu has no intention of talking to them. There is only a single objective that she wants to achieve: destroy PreCure.

Ruru’s armour

She doesn’t even wait for Hana and the others to transform. With her new battle armour, she immediately goes on the offensive. Any attempts to talk with her are futile, so the girls are left with no other choice but to transform.

Lulu is a formidable opponent

As the fight rages on, Pupple arrives. She reveals that Lulu’s memories of the time she spent with PreCure have been deleted, but they kept the battle data.
Lulu is able to overwhelm PreCure, but they prove to be a lot more tenacious than she expected. She uses the opportunity to grab Cure Etoile for more data analysis, which results in the supposedly deleted memories resurfacing.

Lulu’s memories start to resurface

Lulu’s armour appears to start to malfunctioning, as all the memories she made with the other girls come back to here. She tries to strike at PreCure, but Ange and Etoile unleash their special attacks.

Lulu’s armour shatters

It appears Lulu has returned to normal, but she is not quite out of the woods just yet. She clutches at her chest and starts screaming out in pain. Yell and the others are naturally concerned for her, but she tells them to stay away.

In the year 200X…

Lulu does her best Mega Man impression and blasts PreCure with an arm cannon. Ange and Etoile have to defend Harry and Hugtan from an oncoming attack. Lulu tries to tell the girls to stay away from her and whips up a whirlwind around herself, but Cure Yell has other ideas.

Cure Yell approaches Lulu with a little help from Ange and Etoile

Cure Yell makes it inside the vortex, and Lulu starts pummeling her. Cure Yell wants nothing more than to forgive Lulu, but Lulu can’t bring herself to accept that. However, Yell says that she has a deep pain in her chest from having to fight Lulu.

‘It’s because I love you, Lulu!’

The reason is because she loves Lulu. Lulu ends up collapsing after that, and the whirlwind dissipates.

Just saying, but Hugtan is great

With the whirlwind gone, Hugtan is able to get over to Lulu remarkably quickly. Not that it matters much, because seeing her pat Lulu on the head is just adorable.

Lulu lets it all out

Lulu ends up just crying her heart out. Cure Yell and the others tear up as well. Pupple, on the other hand, tries giving Lulu orders.

Lulu has no intention of listening to Pupple any longer

Lulu fires a warning shot, and PreCure tell her to leave unless she wants to be punished. Pupple wisely decides that retreat is the best course of action.

Lulu gets a well-deserved hug

With all the drama finished with, Hana welcomes Lulu back with a hug. Also turns out that someone had witnessed most of what happened.

Emiru saw something shocking

PreCure’s fight against Lulu caught the attention of Emiru, and she just had to rush over to see what was happening. It’s not clear how much of it she saw, but she definitely seems surprised by what she did discover.

That brings this episode to an end, and what an episode it was. I was looking forward to it from last week’s preview, and it managed to surpass my expectations. The fight against Lulu was good, as too was the way in which it was resolved.
This entire arc revolving around Lulu has been some of the best that the entire PreCure franchise has to offer, and this episode continues to keep up that trend. I’m probably going to be repeating variations of that until the end of this arc, but it’s not something I would bring up if I didn’t think it was true.

All in all, an utterly brilliant episode. Next week looks like it will be another fun one as it focuses on Lulu and Emiru. Needles to say, I eagerly anticipate that one.

Finally, I just wanted to say that I really liked the end card for this episode: