Hugtto! PreCure Episode 48: Until Next Time

Well, here we are at the end. Only episodes forty-eight and forty-nine of Hugtto! PreCure are left, and I may just opt to review the show next week rather than cover the final episode.
For the moment, though, I shall be focusing on episode forty-eight, which brings us to the end of the final battle.

Cure Yell fights George Kurai

This episode picks up directly from the previous one, with Cure Yell left alone to confront George Kurai. Kurai says that the world will always be full of toge-power, but Yell knows that there will always be asu-power as well. Unfortunately, Kurai manages to get the upper hand in the battle and forces Yell to de-transform. However, Hana refuses to give up. She is not alone.

Yell is able to rescue Hugtan

Thanks to her resolve, Hana transforms back into Cure Yell and is able to blast away Kurai’s book with asu-power. Hugtan is freed due to that. What’s more, time starts returning to the world.

Yell is reunited with the other Cures

The other Cures are able to get back to Yell, and they all prepare to confront Kurai. He isn’t about to give in just yet, and transforms.

Kurai looms over the town

Kurai attempts to destroy the town, but of course PreCure protect it. All five girls hold off PreCure’s attack, whilst the townspeople watch on. They start cheering for PreCure, which produces a whole lot of asu-power.

PreCure are empowered by everybody’s cheers

PreCure channel all of that asu-power into their final attack; however, they have a little help with it this time around.‘There is a PreCure in everyone’s heart’ indeed. Everyone becomes PreCure for the final attack. Forget ‘everyone is here!’, we’re doing ‘everyone is PreCure!’ now. Kurai is defeated with the attack, but as the tower of eternity crumbles Yell still has some unfinished business to take care of.

Cure Yell talks to the defeated Kurai

Yell enters the tower of eternity and finds Kurai. He admits defeat, and Yell says that they should go into the future together. Kurai claims he doesn’t believe in the future, but Yell has a simple question for him about that. Why did he always say ‘until next time’?
Yell hugs Kurai, and with that he is once more able to go into the future – he parts with those three words.

Ange is the first to hug Yell when she returns

Yell emerges from the tower of eternity, and naturally everyone is happy to see her. All the other Cures hug her, with Ange leading them. The sun rises on the town, and everyone watches.

An EmiRuru moment as well? This episode is spoiling me

So this episode ends with the dawn of a new day.

I’m pretty happy with how the conflict against Criasu ended. Granted it didn’t give us a fight on the same level as PreCure Splash Star, but we still got some very cool moments here. Hana standing up to Kurai in her civilian form, everyone becoming PreCure – including the return of Cure Infini, and the hugging at the end make this a satisfying conclusion. Well, it isn’t quite over yet, but the next, and final, episode seems like it will be an epilogue more than anything else.

Kurai had some creepy moments, but overall I think he was a pretty decent villain. His motive for freezing time almost certainly came from the loss of a loved one. Perhaps not the greatest villain from the PreCure franchise, but still a pretty good one.

Seeing everyone become PreCure was a pretty good moment. Particularly with the return of Cure Infini. On that subject, Henri and Masato are still going as strong as ever – I wasn’t sure whether to take a screenshot of them flying, or other Masato lifting Henri.
Compared to certain other couples, the stuff between Hana and Saaya has been fairly minimal, but I feel like Ange being the first to hug Yell was pretty significant.
We even got an EmiRuru moment, with the two hugging as they watched the sunrise. So good.

Next time is the final episode, and it appears we will be looking to the future with that one. There could also potentially be an appearance by Cure Star, if Hugtto! continues the tradition of having the next season’s Cure cameo at the end of a season.

Finally, I will end with this:

Happy Birthday, Hana!

January 20th is Hana’s birthday, and I imagine this particular one will remain in her memory for a long time.