So we know that at the end of episode 23, it is revealed that Usonoir has Eclair's Makoto Jewel. As mentioned in earlier episodes, Makoto Jewels are formed from people's memories and feelings. It's very likely that returning the Makoto Jewel will restore Eclair's memories.

Which then brings across an interesting revelation: If a Cure's transformation Makoto Jewel is stolen, like Eclair's, they'll lose their memory of being a Cure. This is especially relevant for the Mikuru is Anna's mum theory. Prior to ep 23, the main counters against this theory are 1) Anna's mum shows no signs of remembering her time as a detective 2) Anna not recognising Mikuru's name as her mum's.

The second one could probably be explained by a name change (+ Mikuru getting married and changing her last name to Akechi) but it's the first one in particular that changes with this new info. Mikuru could have very easily lost her Makoto Jewel at the end of the final battle, also costing her her memories as a star detective - which coincidentally includes all her memories of Anna. Which is why Mikuru in the present, has no clue about Star Detectives. This is all assuming that the 1999 and 2027 are in the same timeline, because time creates the room for some funky shenanigans to be pulled.

How she coincidentally names her daughter Anna? On one hand it could just be by sheer luck she chooses that name. Another option is that Luluka and Eclair slightly influence her.

My personal (and slightly but also not really crack) theory is that Mikuru moves to London sometime between the finale and having Anna. Ep 23 reveals that Mikuru has been to London before so it's not out of the question. While there, she visits the London Curetto agency and overhears the staff talking about Anna and/or Cure Answer. Without her memories she probably idolises Anna/Answer for being the very thing she dreamed of (completely unaware that she herself was one too) and thus names her future daughter after her idol, unaware that they are one in the same. Unlike in Japan, you don't address people with their last name first in London. So Mikuru would never hear the staff there address Anna as "Akechi Anna" and make her second guess whether it would be a good idea for her daughter to share the exact first and last name as her idol.

Another thing going for this is the fact that Anna's first name is completely in Katakana. Katakana is primarily used for translating foreign-language words into Japanese, Anna can be an English name, hence when Future-Mikuru and Anna return to Makoto Mirai City (again, could be from potential subtle influence from Luluka and Eclair in order to ensure Anna travels back in time to prevent a paradox), they just use Katakana to write Anna's name since hers was intended to be an English name.

"But Anna doesn't have memories of being in London." You may say. Mikuru could've moved back to Japan while Anna was very young (< 5 years old), kids rarely retain memories from that time, so Anna wouldn't remember.

anyway, only time will tell how the Mikuru is Anna's mum theory will hold up. For now, we have a much bigger problem in the form of the prophesized day coming up in two weeks before we can start dealing with that theory

IDK if this is the most likely theory to me but i feel like its another way to interpret the hints we have so far.

I do think that Kurea is 100% involved either as eclair herself or shushutan. I also think that there are some pretty suspicious things around Eriza both in the story but also in the shows directing.

1- Kurea as Shushutan:

The first hint to this is the scrunchie thing. Ive seen the theory that shushutan is hidden as the scrunchie in Kurea's hair but weve never seen a fairy in this show transform into an object, only into people. Id take the scrunchie thing as a hint that kurea would be shushutan. Another design aspect is kurea being the only one of the 4 to have pink/red in her design (not countng rei's uniform) which matches with the bow shushutan has.

Second is that the only real thing we know about shushutan is that she is very knowledgeable. I think that so far Kurea has contributed not through much sleuthing but more through giving suggestions based on her own knowledge. Some examples are informing that fragrance is linked to memory, the meaning of lilies and her own sort of inherent knowledge of things.

We have 0 knowledge about Kurea beyond her working at the bakery which would allow for her to be a fairy secretly and only being hired at the bakery relatively recently. On the other hand the other 3 eclair candidates have family, close connections or enough of a past to make her being a fairly less likely.

Kurea has an almost supernatural ability to just know things based on inner truths like the cake Anna wanted or the hunch of where the fight was happening. While it could just be Kurea having good intuition it could be related to shushutan's actual powers. Only fairies have used magic outside of cure form so far.

This feels like a potential way to explain why luluka was so strange towards kurea while also allowing Toei to throw us off with the mistery.

2- Eriza as Eclair:

First hint towards this is Eriza's history as a writer. In the 2 episodes focused on her she joins the girls to solve a mistery and is inspired to write a novel about it. However we know that before the show's story begins she had already written a very succesfull novel. From her episodes we see that she relies a lot on hands on experience to be able to get ideas for both writing novels and solving misteries. I think this points to her having had some prior experience with detective work which led to her writing her first novel. She could have just done it without any direct inspiration but it feels less likely.

Second she is the candidate who so far has done the most sleuthing. I also think she would pair well with a knowledgeable fairy like shushutan and their skills would compliment each other in the sleuthing. Eriza's method of taking on the role of what she is investigating also matches the tanuki thing of transformations. If kurea was shushutan she would also have a contrasting personality to eriza in a similar way to luluka and mashutan.

The eriza focus episode (ep 21) has had the least involvement with arcana shadow. In fact this episode actively goes out of its way to ensure that luluka does not see eriza despite both being at the agency at the same time. There is this shot while the girls are showing Eriza the rooms in while luluka is standing outside. We see her looking in and spotting the manager.

https://preview.redd.it/0iroj32z5dbh1.png?width=2016&format=png&auto=webp&s=ffd926068777af824bf5bbedf308f57e83550365

The shot very intentionally shows how Luluka cant see the other three girls inside due to the curtain and mashutan even comments how its in the way afterwards. This feels very intentional to me. If it didnt matter at all that luluka saw eriza at the agency dressed as a detective then a more normal way to do this shot is to have luluka behind the wall looking into the whole room. Though maybe its just so mashutan comments on the curtains not being stylish but hiding the other three girls is still odd.

While luluka did briefly see eriza in episode 16 I could see her lack of reaction being due to her not thinking Eriza had no hope of being helped at the time. Maybe seeing her in the rooms at the agency dressed in a way clearly resembling eclair would make her react in a suspicious way. Eriza also directly reacts to the picture of the blue butterfly on the wall more than Kurea did.

I think this is a flimsier theory than my Kurea as shushutan theory but it feels possible. I kinda hope its true because i find eriza to be very fun.

I do still think its likely that Kurea is Eclair however I also think that the story is being a little too obvious with it and a misdirection with kurea would be a good way to make the reveal unexpected and fun. Having such a good time with this arc and maybe next week's episode changes my theory entirely.

is Usonoir holding Cure Eclair's Makoto Jewel hostage to force Cure Arcana Shadow to work with the phantom thieves? The blue Makoto Jewel that Usonoir is holding in episode 23 looks very similar to Cure Arcana Shadow's Makoto Jewel that she uses to transform:

https://preview.redd.it/xfdfm63zqbbh1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=e50d2e41e4c9b8f15a8cd4e804bd6fc836ba1e4c

https://preview.redd.it/d7w98ekzqbbh1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=365727de2c2b6a0ef4042935327d1246d657707b

The main villains come from a dystopian world called Labyrinth, where every aspect of their lives are decided for them: work, marriage, having kids, and even their lifespan. And it's all controlled by an AI named Moebius.

Also another thing that makes this show pretty dark is that unlike other seasons where everything goes back to normal after the monsters of the week is defeated, it doesn't happen here. In Fresh!, if a monster destroys a building or causes some sort of damage, it stays like that. This makes the fights feel more realistic and have some sort of consequences.

This is why I consider this season to be very peak, (Even peaker than Heartcatch Precure if im being honest)

BREAKING NEWS PRECURE FANS: Things just got wonderful here in Aipri is Maria Naganawa AkA the voice of Komugi visits Aipri as this new character here