Score: A-

It truly feels as if we are just a stone’s throw away from Arcana Shadow switching sides. Maybe I’m reading too much into things. But now that the main cast are starting to really investigate her…it just feels like we’re close to that point. It’s obviously inevitable that Luluka will join the team. She’s a Precure and she’s dancing with everyone in the ED. It’s going to happen! The only question is whether they do it soon or if they’ll save it for a bit later on.

Mystery of the letter

The main reason I think it’s happening soon is because they are starting to get information about her. It’s a series with the cast being detectives so once they solve Luluka then they can likely tackle whatever reasons are driving her to side with Phantom. Whatever those reasons are, it’s probably not something the story will sit on for very long. But all of it depends on what exactly her motivation is and what can be done about it. It’s the kind of thing that I can talk in circles about because we just don’t know. Luluka might simply be there to help bring down Phantom from the inside. But she might also have a reason to prefer the world of lies that Usonoir is promising.

She was on edge the whole time

Her reaction to the letter spoke volumes. The only times we’ve seen Arcana Shadow rattled was due to Usonoir’s decision to attack and the existence of that letter. If the letter only has her name and that she worked for the detective industry that doesn’t speak to her motives too much. She already admitted to working there. Was she really upset at the idea that they could find out her name? Maybe. Once you got a name then a lot more digging can be done. But I’d suspect the letter has more than her name on it. Everything depends on what that is though. If there’s some messed up past that would make her want to side with Phantom that answers things. If they report her losing a fight then that could hint that she changed side in order to bring them down from within. It all depends.

The fight was solid

The fight itself was good too. This was a rare occasion where the duo were assaulted from both sides. The monster of the week was staying on the attack, but nothing could compare to the pure aggression of Arcana. Whatever she thinks is in that letter was enough to have her losing all composure. There was no cute poking of the cheeks or giving battle tips. She was launching herself in there and throwing kicks at their faces! But she also had the hardest time in a fight of the whole show. She wasn’t landing very well and rushed right into her beam spam. Now I think Mystique should’ve been using her guard this whole time, but maybe Arcana up to this point had been good at timing her attack for when they weren’t ready for it.

Part of me might say that her tips and “training” of the other girls is starting to pay off. She’s either been trying to dissuade them from fighting or training them to fight more effectively. Either way it’s definitely helped build them up. They are getting stronger and better able to handle the ups and downs of combat. But it’s hard to say for sure until they fight Arcana Shadow when she’s more relaxed. But that might not happen again since they are going to learn things that she doesn’t want them to know. That could easily make her far more aggressive and frustrated.

Future Precure?

The Student Council President stuff was fine. I don’t want to completely disregard it. But it’s fine. That she got to meet and talk with Pochitan makes me think she’s going to have a bigger role. Generally you don’t have civilians find out about the fairy partners unless they are a long running friend character or…a future Precure. There is an announced Precure that we just haven’t seen yet. And Rei might be a future ally. There are multiple girls that have stood out that could be brought into the action as a Precure. But it’s hard to lock in on anyone yet. I do appreciate that she chose to help out with getting them permission to bring Pochitan to school. It’s kind of funny. She outright said that they couldn’t without permission…but no one ever thought about actually getting that permission.

Thankfully wasn’t just a silly episode

This was a solid episode. I honestly thought that the “Pochitan can talk” thing would mean an almost completely throwaway episode. But instead this episode was very solid in terms of building up the Arcana Shadow mystery some more. This feels like a turning point where the main cast has information to work with and more than enough reason to try and understand why Luluka is part of the enemy team. Just have to see how things work out.