Score: A

Here comes the main contender for Cure Eclair! This was easily the best of the Eclair focused episodes thus far. And we’re only a couple weeks to go until the answers come out. There’s time for one more contender to get an episode and then an episode that will set up the mid-season climax where presumably Cure Eclair will be revived.

It has to be her

I’ll be honest in that my initial hope and preference for Eclair has been Shiruku. She’s got her own catchphrase, think she’d add a nice dynamic to the group, and her design is really nice. But if anyone is the front runner it’s obviously Kurea. Even before this episode there was plenty to go with. She had a design that screamed “main character” and her way of helping Anna out was kinda nice. Kurea also at least noticed Pochitan and didn’t say anything. And there was the sweets angle. If there’s any character trait we know from Luluka it is that she loves ice cream. Can easily see her having gotten that from spending a lot of time with Cure Eclair. Or maybe it was the reason they got closer in the first place.

So having Luluka show up at Kurea’s place and finding out she was a regular wasn’t a surprise. One could argue that she’d be a regular no matter what since…she does love that stuff. But they are definitely leaning hard on the hints. And this is Precure. They presumably want the mystery solved by a younger audience. The flowers Kurea was tending to had some connection to Luluka in flashbacks. I can easily see that duo being a thing. Nothing is locked in of course and they do technically have one contender left to go. But I think the odds are good for Kurea. Would make sense for Luluka to visit regularly. Unable to let go and yet knowing there was no hope of being remembered.

Just looks like she’s in pain

Regardless of whether Kurea is Cure Eclair…I get the dilemma. Nothing feels good about taking from a place you have a personal connection to. Luluka is taking action for the sake of a greater goal. It’s not like she wants to trouble people. What hurts Luluka so much is how serious and strict on herself she is. Could have leaned on Goemon to take the picture and support from a distance. I’m sure he would’ve been happy to take that hit so Luluka didn’t lose a place she felt at home. But she couldn’t do that. Instead she just straight up handed the calling card to Kurea directly. Even though doing that would have a cost and she knew it. Almost as if she was daring Kurea to remember the truth.

Everything about the episode screams that it’s Kurea. Luluka didn’t even stick to trying to disguise herself. Now it could be that she just really likes this place. It could be Shiruku and she was disguising herself harder because of that connection. But it’s 95% Kurea. Luluka was acting very much unlike herself. Not even slipping the note secretly but handing it directly to Kurea. And she didn’t bother coming up with a scheme to take the picture. Instead it was just walking straight up to the store!

You can see this girl being a Precure

You figured with the show leaning so hard into the mystery…they’d have made the contenders a bit more even. Give some good emotional hints with each girl that either could just have them touch on something important to Luluka or because they are Eclair. But you have to bend over backwards to really have anyone besides Kurea be in this. Eliza has almost nothing. She’s got good detective talents, but that’s it. We’ll see with Rei, but I put her in a category with Eliza. Shiruku is the closest to having any chance. Got the second most emotion out of Luluka and saw through her disguise. Maybe she’s the human form of Eclair’s fairy?

It is hard for anyone to be perfect. But Precure tends to stumble somewhere in a given season. I think this might be one of those times. They went so hard with Kurea that no one else feels like a real option. Sure, Luluka is a good person and cares about people. She protected Jett in the past so it’s not like her worrying about Kurea being too close to the action is unusual. But she reaches out and talks to her too much for it not to be her. Arcana Shadow’s reactions scream out as someone who wants to be remembered, can see similar traits in Kurea that were there before the memory loss, and is in utter pain due to it. It’s her…but it’s not her. It’s like a knife to the heart.

There’s part of the motive

I don’t necessarily blame the show since once the mystery is gone then on a rewatch this episode will probably work even better. Might as well give the real Cure Eclair the best character episode. I’m going to be presuming it’s her until proven otherwise. At least we got a bit about what Luluka is doing. Usonoir got his hands on Eclair’s transformation jewel. Now is that the only reason that she joined Phantom? I’m not sure. Getting back a memento feels a bit lacking. I still think her goal is the completed Makoto Jewel and using it to restore Eclair’s memories. Even if that puts the world at risk.

So this was a solid episode. I still think one jewel fragment has to fall into Phantom’s hands so there’s a battle for the completed jewel. Maybe something belonging to Anna, Mikuru, or Jett will have a fragment and that one will be temporarily lost and regained later. We’ll see what happens. Still not sure what I’ll do for Summer. But will at least let people know if I’m doing something else this summer.