Keep On Trying ~

One, Cure Eclair's first transformation was back when Makoto Jewel got shattered. So however long Luluka had been partners with Kurea, she had most likely been preventing Kurea's transformation all that time. Since according to her, they need to defeat Kurea for there to be a future for them. She uses the word "our". Could mean the future of everyone really.

Two, Confirmation that Arcana Shadow is Luluka's second Precure form. She used to be known as Arcana. I know people theorised this, but as far as I can remember, this is the first time we have such confirmation.

Three, Luluka seeks to destroy Kurea's Makoto Jewel. Whether this is true or not is unclear, but I think this can fall into "protecting Kurea" as, if existance of Eclair is to doom the world, destroying her best friend's ability to transform is in a way to protect her.

So basically... we're having Luluka full-on villain arc now. Whether we'll see her return to detectives' side at what point of the story is a mystery, and I think the questions we need answering right now is, Why is Eclair's existance a means to doom the world, is Eclair truly the propechy's Great King of Lies, and what exactly happened when Makoto Jewel shattered. And also, where did Luluka get her current powers from. It would seem Usonoir's Armor has Arcana Shadow's uh, mark?

Anyway. Meitantei Precure keeps on impressing me with the plot. It's so interesting, and at least for me, it keeps surprising me in new ways. Gonna be exciting to see how the plot moves forward now that Eclair's joined the main duo and Arcana Shadow has embraced her villain route.

That is not the face of someone happy of their partner's return. Her eyebrow is downward. Her pupils got smaller. Her face grows to a bigger shock!

She even turns away her face after Mikuru says her partner's name (Crunchyroll doesn't allow me to disable subtitles so I edited out the name lol). As if to not wanting to see her. Her body language speaks in a manner where she is not happy in the slightest.

Even Mashutan isn't celebrating. Heck, earlier in the ep it felt like she tried to warn something regarding her, not trying to tell who she is!

Last week I wrote about how I felt Luluka might not be happy with Eclair returning, of her being afraid of her partner being in danger again. I feel like these scenes further enhances that theory.

Then, why is she trying to retrieve Eclair's Makoto Jewel? Simple: to protect her partner even further.

One thing that's been bothering me is how simple the plan to reignite Eclair's memories is. Luluka has been shown to be incredibly smart, as expected of a former Star Detective, so there is no way in hell she wouldn't come up with the same plan. So, until next ep tells us more, I'm even more convinced Luluka didn't want her partner to return, for it would bring her in danger again. Which would just say that Luluka cares deeply about Eclair.

My basic deduction with Shiruku being Cure Eclair was how she basically had all the usual qualities of a cure, being upbeat, inspiring, and had really enjoyable presence in her episodes, which I found to be focusing on her well. Meanwhile, Rei and Eriza design wise never felt fitting for Cure Eclair, though Rei's episodes have classic cure aspects as well, with her knowing about Pochitan and wishing she had power. Heck, she knows about Precure now.

But... Kurea felt lacking to me. Like her two episodes have been about Anna and Luluka, not Kurea. But then again, since Eclair has amnesia, maybe that's the point.

I really enjoyed her presence in ep 23, and Luluka stuff was so good with her. But because I feel like I don't know her, I felt like she just pushed the right buttons on Luluka to get the reactions. But now that I think about connecting her lack of uh, actual focus in episodes maybe being related to amnesia... maybe it makes sense.

So basically, I ignored Kurea due to her not feeling like typical cure material, when amnesia can pretty much explain those.

I wonder if Luluka cared deeply about Eclair, and whatever fight was happening back then, it was prophesized (maybe by Mashutan) that one of them would fall. If I remember correctly, Luluka was seen alone against Usonoir til Eclair came to rescue and shattered the Makoto Jewel.

So, what if Luluka wanted to make sure Eclair would survive the incident, and thus didn't originally tell Eclair about going to the battle.

And then she'd blame herself for what happened to Eclair.

Thus making this face I added above in the Youtube preview of next episode. Because Eclair returning would mean her facing danger again. A chance for Eclair to fall again.

However: The preview on Crunchyroll, and I assume same one was on TV airing, shows a happier shot instead.

Personally, I assume this shot to be from the past. An encounter Eclair remembers. Because the sadder shot on youtube doesn't fit in with this shot.

So, if Luluka is feeling guilt, it would explain why she doesn't believe her partner can ever remember the past again. She might even want to prevent it, in order to protect her.

Then again, preview on Youtube also shows she's switching sides. Maybe Usonoir using Eclair's Makoto Jewel was the last straw in her game of being one of the Phantom Thieves, and has to switch sides to save her partner's Makoto Jewel from being misused.

Next week is gonna hit us in the guts, isn't it?

Apparently she was shown to know be completely fluent in written japanese. And that Luluka's announcement card was written in a way that would help foreigner understand the text?

This is something I've seen people mention and honestly, that seems like a very compelling reason to believe her to be Cure Eclair. It would be cool to have a cure from another country?

If I find the time and such later this week, I'll try to figure out something. I worry that the preview for next week will give some obvious hint that will render further speculation null, so it wouldn't give Rei ep much room for speculation, but I'd also feel a bit sad to leave possible details from it out. Hmm.

I just gotta said, I'm really enjoying this mystery. I may have suspected Shiruku as my candiate, but rn it's between the two of Shiruku and Kurea. But then there's also Shushutan!! Who is Shushutan???