Hello everyone, have you watched the latest episode of Star Detective Precure yet? I have and it was very good.
I’m not going to keep you lot waiting any longer. We have an interview with the now newly introduced Cure Arcana voiced by Nao Toyama! Please enjoy!
Translation by “nui”, Editing by me. “I’ve done everything for this very moment”: An Interview with Nao Touyama was originally published on animatetimes in August 2026.
Original Link: https://www.animatetimes.com/news/details.php?id=1787107919
“I’ve done everything for this very moment.” Looking back at Episode 31, faced hand-in-hand with Luluka!
An interview with Nao Toyama, the voice of Cure Arcana / Luluka Moria in Star Detective Precure!
In the TV anime Star Detective Precure, Cure Arcana Shadow / Luluka Moria appeared as an existence “wrapped in mystery and secrets.” As a member of the Phantom Thieves Guild, she stood in Cure Eclair’s way, but behind her actions lay a resolve to bear everything alone to protect Kurea and the world.
In Episode 31, the mission she carried as Cure Arcana Shadow clashes with the wish she locked deep in her heart, finally leading to her transformation into Cure Arcana. We asked Nao Toyama, her voice actress, about the shock of learning Luluka’s past and mission, her confrontation with Kurea, her bond with Mashutan, and her feelings about Episode 31, where she felt “I’ve done everything for this very moment.”
Looking back on the six months walked with Ruruka
Interviewer: Episode 31 was just one surprise after another.
Nao Toyama: We’ve finally made it here. This is my first time getting to talk about Cure Arcana, so my heart is beating a little fast.
Interviewer: Last time we spoke when the anime broadcast just started, you mentioned that you were also in a state of “not knowing anything yet.”
Toyama: Back when recording first started, I really wasn’t told anything. Right around the time Cure Arcana Shadow started having various speaking lines, I was told, “It’s about time we share something with you, Toyama-san. Could you come to this room?”
I was called into the control room alone where the staff was, rather than the recording booth. There, I was directly explained by Series Director Kouji Kawasaki, Producer Masaya Aramaki, and Isao Murayama in charge of Series Composition that, “Actually, Luluka has this mission, and to protect Kurea and the world, she joined the Phantom Thieves Guild of her own free will.”
I also learned that Luluka and Kurea first met in London, that Luluka became a star detective first and brought Kurea to the CUREtto Detective Agency in Japan as her assistant, and that Kurea lost her memories when she transformed into Cure Eclair. Furthermore, because Luluka found out that the Great King is actually Kurea, she decided, “I can’t let her become Cure Eclair again,” so Kurea could live a peaceful life as a patissiere without her memories. I was told Luluka took everything upon herself and was “going to shatter Cure Eclair’s Makoto Jewel.” My reaction was just “…Huh?”
Interviewer: It’s totally understandable you’d react that way.
Toyama: They gave me so much information all at once that day my brain almost overloaded, and I ended up in a daze.
I think a lot of people were predicting that Luluka was in the Phantom Thieves Phantom to revive Cure Eclair and was waiting for an opportunity to take back the Makoto Jewel from Usonoir-sama. But Luluka’s actual goal was to shatter the Makoto Jewel.
Ultimately, a fierce clash with Cure Eclair was waiting for us. I also got to sing the insert song, but for the six months after learning all that background, I felt like I was carrying that heavy mission right alongside Luluka. That’s why I’m so glad that by becoming Cure Arcana, she could finally put that baggage down and start walking forward together with her friends.
Interviewer: Were you the only one told about this truth? Did the other cast members know?
Toyama: I get the feeling that only Ikumi Hasegawa, who plays Cure Eclair / Kurea Howa, might have known. Them ultimately facing off was necessary information for singing the character song, so I think she was informed about that part. None of the other members knew, so the recording studio turned into a huge guessing game. Everyone was like, “What is going on?” (laughs).
Interviewer: (laughs). I’m also really looking forward to the insert song you sang.
Toyama: The video used for our dubbing practice already had the full-size version of the insert song I sang in it. When Ikumi Hasegawa was practicing at home, she listened to it and texted me saying, “I bawled my eyes out.” It seems hearing that song layered over that scene filled her with so much love for Luluka, and she told me, “We got this!” I thought it was going to turn into a really great episode, and I wanted to put everything on the line in my performance so I could lay down some great acting for it too.
In the story, it takes about six months where Kurea loses her memory and Luluka fights all alone. The time since I met and started playing Luluka has also been exactly half a year, so the period Luluka was working hard alone and the time I spent playing her match up almost perfectly.
Interviewer: That feels like destiny.
Toyama: Of course it’s just a coincidence, but since Luluka and I shared this common ground of holding things in and working hard alone for these past six months, I approached Episode 31 hand-in-hand with Luluka, feeling like, “I’ve done everything for this very moment.”
Interviewer: Cure Eclair’s transformation was one major climax, but I never expected it wouldn’t end there, and that an even bigger drama was waiting right after.
Toyama: Everyone’s deductions about Cure Eclair’s true identity were super heated, weren’t they? Truly, the four candidates were so charming that it wouldn’t have been strange for any of them to become Cure Eclair. Whether they became Cure Eclair or not, I think it was a time when everyone’s love for each character really blossomed. Being able to get so much attention and spend time thinking about the single “Cure Eclair Mystery” together created some great memories. However, I knew there would be one or two more wild twists after that. I was thinking, “Please keep watching without letting your guard down.”
The bond with Mashutan, who continued to believe in Luluka
Interviewer: You mentioned carrying baggage earlier. However, right beside her was always her companion fairy Mashutan, played by Hina Yomiya. What kind of existence is Mashutan to you?
Toyama: Oh, I just love Mashutan so much! Mashutan seems so precocious and reliable, but then messes up a little bit (laughs), giving her this completely unique charm. Luluka makes her own decisions and joins the Phantom Thieves Guild, but Mashutan believes in that Luluka endlessly, affirms her, and follows her. I’m just so full of gratitude for that big heart of hers.
She is someone I find irresistibly endearing, but also someone who has always stayed by my side, making me feel “I am here because you are here.” I’m so glad Luluka’s partner is Mashutan, and I truly think it’s wonderful that Hina Yomiya plays her. I feel like Yomiya-chan’s voice really brings out Mashutan’s charm.
Interviewer: When did you feel that the most?
Toyama: During Shiruku’s episode (Episode 22 “Shiruku’s Resolve”), there’s this exquisitely funny part where Mashutan, who loves acting, gets hyped up all alone and a mysterious switch gets flipped. Even in scenes where you’d think, “Mashutan, what’s wrong?” or “Did she lose her mind?”, it was played so charmingly. I think Yomiya-chan has created a Mashutan that makes you chuckle just watching and is loved by everyone. You really just can’t take your eyes off Mashutan.
Interviewer: There was something deeply moving about Mashutan’s actions in Episode 31. Just talking about it now makes me feel like crying…
Toyama: I know, right? I could hear Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, who plays the Phantom Thieves Phantom’s Nijee, and Eiichi Ishikawa, who plays Goemon, talking together saying things like, “Looking at Mashutan makes me want to cry,” and “I totally get it. It’s crazy.”
Up until this point, Mashutan believed in Luluka and followed her. But seeing Luluka fall so far into darkness, in such an extreme state where she might be completely broken, Mashutan realizes, “I have to do something,” and “We can’t go any further than this,” and asks Cure Eclair for help.
Mashutan, who had followed Ruruka without stopping her up until then, asks for help saying “I have to do something” for the very first time. I got teary-eyed myself, thinking, “I’m sorry for making you worry, and thank you.” They are irreplaceable buddies who protect and are protected by each other.
The key phrase “I know not failure”
Interviewer: Speaking of “protecting,” Luluka has a strong sense of duty, symbolized by her words, “The world… I will protect it!” With what kind of thoughts did you express her resolve?
Toyama: I received the script quite early on during the stage when I was going to sing the insert song “Liquid Ice.” Since I got Episodes 30 and 31 as a set to read, I was given plenty of time to dissect the lines and read them thoroughly within myself. Inside Luluka, the feelings of “I want to protect Kurea” and “I want to protect the world” were completely jumbled together.
As a Precure, she has to protect the world. As a single girl named Luluka, she wants to protect Kurea. She’s done whatever it takes for those two desires. However, deep, deep down in the true bottom of her heart, there was a wish: “I want to be with Kurea.” However, because she believed she couldn’t protect the world or Kurea unless she killed that feeling, Luluka was in a state of constantly erasing her true feelings. I think it was incredibly painful for her precisely because there was such a massive gap between the answer she arrived at to “protect the world and Kurea” and her own genuine feelings.
But the desire to “be with Kurea” was something she had given up on and locked away a long time ago in her mind… When Kurea told her, “Tell me your true answer,” in Episode 31, and the covers masking her mission were peeled away one by one, Luluka’s true answer overflowed.
Luluka has been portrayed as a very mysterious and strong character, a genius detective who can read one or two steps ahead. But even she makes mistakes. She wasn’t perfect after all.
Interviewer: No matter how excellent Luluka is, she wasn’t perfect.
Toyama: What Luluka really needed to do wasn’t deciding on an answer by herself and pushing forward, but asking for help from those around her and solving things together. But she messed that part up. That caused various misunderstandings and missteps.
When she first transformed into Cure Arcana Shadow and Goemon told her, “Don’t let it get you down, rookie,” Luluka replied, “I know not failure.” That is actually a key phrase too.
Interviewer: I see! It was a phrase that symbolized Luluka herself.
Toyama Nao: Yes. Luluka herself believes “I know not failure,” and it was also a line to make the viewers watch her think “This is a character who doesn’t make mistakes.”
But in reality, there’s no such thing. Nobody’s perfect. When you make a mistake, how should everyone solve it together? There really are answers you can’t reach without getting help from your friends.
I hope everyone can feel and receive these kinds of messages through the process of her becoming Cure Arcana.
Interviewer: Even in everyday life, we sometimes overthink and take things on all by ourselves. But sometimes talking it out solves it. I felt this is an episode where families watching together can take away a lot.
Toyama: I think the harder someone tries, the more they take on alone. It’s easy to think, “I shouldn’t worry the people around me,” “I have to solve this myself,” or “This is my problem to bear.” But there are people around you who will properly help you. Things you can’t solve alone can sometimes be solved together with everyone.
Even the most capable individuals are capable of making errors. I hope the path Luluka took can become a strength for everyone too. I’d be happy if you could take away the courage to take a step forward to try and solve things with someone else.
Interviewer: I think Cure Arcana Shadow was a new kind of existence even within the Precure series. On the other hand, looking at the story up to this point, she might be a character packed with “Precure Essence” in a certain sense.
Toyama: That’s so true. I think she’s a character who taught us the importance of friends through her own experiences. She turned out to be a character who strongly delivered the messages we want to convey to many children through the Precure series.
Interviewer: Then, she transformed into Cure Arcana. How was the transformation scene?
Toyama: I haven’t seen the finished footage yet. Since they are raising the quality right up to the last minute before broadcast, what we look at during recording is still in the line-art stage.
It’s a transformation scene created as the “White Arcana” while following the same direction of Cure Arcana Shadow’s transformation. There were parts that made me feel, “They had thought this far ahead from the very beginning.” It really drove home once again that Star Detective Precure is a work meticulously crafted down to the finest details.
I’m sure the figure of Cure Arcana will show a brightness and an expression freed from her heavy mission.
Interviewer: How did you construct Luluka’s emotional shifts leading up to her becoming Cure Arcana?
Toyama: What I was always told was that Luluka isn’t covered in lies, nor is she being manipulated by anyone. As herself, she judged things on her own, joined the Phantom Thieves Guild of her own will, and became Cure Arcana Shadow. Even after becoming Cure Arcana, her personality remains a continuous thread, so it’s not like she suddenly changes into a different person.
However, since I knew it would turn out this way for a while, I thought a lot about how to build up my acting to carefully express the movements of her heart.
Interviewer: So you were acting with your eyes on future developments yourself.
Toyama: That’s right. As the story progresses, there are scenes where Luluka gets desperate and raises her voice. But originally, she’s a cool girl who doesn’t show much emotion and acts quite composed. I had careful discussions with Kouji Kawasaki about where the line is for someone like her to raise her voice.
For example, I would confirm things like, “The emotional meter is already maxed out here, but in terms of vocal output, I should probably still hold back, right?” We also discussed that it might be better to save her showing her emotions to the point of losing her composure for matters relating to Kurea.
The reason being, Luluka is cool, but what she hides inside is incredibly passionate, and she is very kind. Inside all that, thoughts of “I have to protect the world” and various conflicts are constantly swirling. She might actually be more sensitive than anyone else. It’s just that her emotional expressions are small.
If she had no emotions, I could just play her flatly, but Luluka has strong feelings. Even if she tries not to show it on the surface, there’s a subtle wavering in those emotions.
Interviewer: Expressing that wavering must be delicate work, like threading a needle.
Toyama: There were times when I thought I was holding back, but then felt, “That came out in my voice more than I intended.” Even if the direction of the emotion I’m acting is right, how to deliver it as Luluka is extremely delicate. There were times I asked for a retake myself, saying, “Please let me try that once more.”
Interviewer: Luluka, having become Eclipse Shadow, exploded with the emotions she had suppressed up to that point all at once, didn’t she?
Toyama: During the process of becoming Eclipse Shadow, the Cure Arcana Shadow that people had called “cute” up until then gets swallowed by darkness, and she vents her bursting feelings while raising her voice. Some children might have felt she was “scary.” I also worried, “What if I end up scaring them?”
However, I felt like if I didn’t give it my all here, I’d be betraying Cure Arcana Shadow’s feelings. Even if she’s thought of as scary, I felt that was actually the right thing. I thought I could convey that having a strong will is good, but you shouldn’t try to stick to it to the point of grasping a power that could ruin you, and that she’s making a mistake somewhere.
While cherishing the fact that this is, at its core, the Precure series, I resolved to step a little further this time and put Cure Arcana Shadow’s heartbreaking feelings into my acting.
“I finally reached my own answer”
Interviewer: It’s truly wonderful that she and Kurea were able to connect their hearts.
Toyama: True! For Luluka, this was a future she had given up on a long time ago. I’m sure she thought Kurea would never call her name, and that they would never be active together as star detectives. To begin with, she had Kurea stay by her side as an assistant all along, and the moment Kurea became Cure Eclair, her Makoto Jewel was stolen, so the two of them had never operated together as star detectives at the same time. So, I think it’s incredibly wonderful that she can finally walk alongside Kurea as an equal star detective.
Interviewer: How did you feel upon hearing the words from Kurea and Cure Eclair, played by Ikumi Hasegawa?
Toyama: I call Hasegawa-san “Hase-chan,” and since Hase-chan delivered her words straight to me, they reached straight into my heart too. Kurea has a sisterly capacity for acceptance and a calm nature that doesn’t get rattled easily. But in the final scene appealing to Cure Arcana Shadow, Cure Eclair also desperately delivered her words through tears. Hase-chan also worked incredibly hard to convey those feelings.
I just surrendered myself to that flow, and it felt like our hearts naturally connected and she guided me.
Interviewer: There’s even a scene where Luluka sheds tears.
Toyama: I was also deeply moved, thinking, “To think she’d show her emotions this much.” The truth is, maybe Luluka always wanted to tell someone her true feelings. I don’t think she even realized it herself. But really, she wanted to say it all along. She had pushed the feelings she wanted to cherish the most deep into her heart. That’s why I felt, “I’m so glad. You finally reached your own answer, didn’t you?”
Interviewer: I believe many people, especially children and families, have watched over Cure Arcana Shadow’s journey. Please tell everyone who has watched up to Episode 31 what they should look forward to from here on.
Toyama: I have no idea what will happen from here on out either. The story still continues, so I’m sure major developments are waiting ahead. From here on, I’d be happy if you could warmly watch over Arcana, who has been freed from her heavy mission and walks hand-in-hand with her friends. I hope you will support the happy future of everyone, not just Arcana.
Interview / Mari Sakasai
Editing / Kento Ogawa
