New year, new Precure, Star Twinkle gave us a new entry to this wonderful series that while I personally didn't enjoy as much as others, it's still well worth checking out.

The story starts when Hikaru Hosnina, a cheerful girl who absolutely adores space and stars, one day, to her complete surprise (and excitement, damn she's excited about it!) A rocket suddenly lands close to her, inside is something that will change her life: an alien named Lala together with the two mascots of this entry, Prunce and Fuwa, who are searching for help to save the universe from the villains of this series. Soon after Hikaru becomes a Precure, bringing a start to this story of massive scale.

One of the highlight from this entry is Hikaru and Lala's friendship and development they go through due to their contrasts in personalities and ways to see things they have, and the other two main characters, until later on, the main cast is completed with Elena, a very hardworking girl who brings a smile to everyone, and Kaguya, who suffers a lot from familiar pressure due to their long history and expectations put on her. They are both likeable characters and I especially liked Kaguya, but outside of at the start, Elena suffers from getting spotlight episodes really late into the series when to me it was quite out of time already to truly get attached to her.

The villain side was quite promising as well with every general providing different strategies to face the Precure, like Kappard focusing on melee fight while Tenjo uses minions to execute coordinated attacks for example. This gave quite some variety compared to other entries, but in the end, outside of just how meme-likeable Kappard is just by personality and design, the villain side this entry felt pretty weak to me, with Eyeone, who was quite annoying to me at the start ending being the kinda redemption on that regard due to her development and own drama through the series. To be fair this also was a point quite hard for Star Twinkle to shine on due to having to deal with the shadow of last year's Hugtto's Precure, an entry that just nailed that part to the max for the franchise to me.

Going back to the space adventures, together with the usual slice of life interactions of the franchise, in this entry the girls also travel to different planets, which were probably the best moments of this series, meeting characters from those places and seeing their way to be was a lot of fun and I would honestly have been in for the whole series to be going from one place to another, but it was perfectly fine with this mix of normal SoL and adventure as well.

I love the art style of this entry and I especially have nothing but praise towards the amazing character designs. Lala was love at first sight once leaks of how the characters looked appeared and she easily places on a top spot as one of my favorite character designs, with the rest of the main cast not being too much below her.

The action scenes started with very solid quality, although overall I think that Star Twinkle was kinda in the lower end of Precure in terms of animation quality in general, with not too many impressive moments and mostly just good enough looking to be appealing. The music was nice as expected of Yuuki Hayashi (Boku no Hero, Haikyuu, Shokugeki… and well, KiraKira and Hugtto Precure), always delivering hype and emotions to the scenes.

Star Twinkle was a fun year that I can recommend to the fans of the franchise, althought I would suggest others (which I also have reviewed here!) To try instead if you want to give a chance to Precure.

All of my reviews contain __spoilers __for the reviewed material. This is your only warning. Some images in this review appear courtesy of **The Pretty Cure Wiki**

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There is a sentiment that the golden days of the mahou shoujo genre are long over. It’s an idea that might even, to some extent, be true. But if it is, there’s one franchise that can be counted on to at the very least go down swinging, and that’s Pretty Cure. Precure in some ways feels like the last of its kind. Even something as great as say Symphogear or Revue Starlight is aimed squarely at adults. As far as shows to feed young imaginations via the example of a good old fashioned team of magical girls, there’s almost no one else holding this lane down anymore.

Star Twinkle Precure is perhaps not the apex of the franchise; it was always going to have big shoes to fill given the runaway acclaim heaped on 2018’s Huggto! Precure. Yet, at the same time, it’s hard not to admire the sheer determination involved simply in hanging on, given the ever-in-flux fortunes of the show’s parent genre. Idol anime aimed at kids have in recent years eaten a good chunk of Precure’s lunch (that’s probably why there’s so much singing in this entry), and through the show’s evident flaws--fluctuating animation quality and no small amount of filler being the main offenders--it’s still really hard to not root for this thing.

That’s admittedly a lot of lofty philosophizing to hang on something as humble as Star Twinkle, so what’s the show itself like? Well, it’s defined by a couple things. Stylistically, it’s humming the same tune--bright colors, limited animation with occasional moments of truly brilliant sakuga, and eye-catching poppy designs--as the rest of the franchise. That aesthetic is combined with a cheerful, sugary science-fantasy look that makes it stand out. Of particular note are its henshin sequences, with Cure Cosmo’s in particular being one of the best the genre’s seen in years.

On the writing side, it has a surprising amount of emotional maturity for something still very much for kids.

To wit; our main cast all struggle with some kind of familial or social problem. Hikaru (Cure Star), our main character, lives with her mother and grandparents. Her mom is a struggling mangaka and her father an often-absent cryptid hunter, and she herself begins to feel stagnant as her friends develop later in the series, having to come to terms with her own self-worth. Lala (Cure Milky) is a literal alien, totally lost in the intricacies of Earth culture, a fact that the series develops into a surprisingly on-point metaphor for almost any kind of marginalized existence at a young age, but most especially for neurodivergent kids. Madoka struggles with the problem of being a “gifted” child; her government-worker father pressuring her into excelling in academia, archery, and a number of other things. Elena helps take care of her large family and has problems being honest with her eternally-busy mother (who is an interpreter) and father (a Mexican immigrant who owns a flower shop, the latter also, notably, makes Elena the first POC Precure).

Lastly there’s mid-show addition Yuni, another alien, whose lost homeworld feels like a broad metaphor for any kind of childhood trauma that results in things, people, or places being left behind.

To be clear, all of this is very much still against the backdrop of traditional Precure cheesiness. The villains include a kappa man named Kappard and the mostly-offscreen evil overlord is named Darknest, of all things.

This is what villains should look like, just for the record.

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But these are strengths, not weaknesses. The series’ self-assured, secure devotion to its wacky, sugary aesthetic is what makes it scan as a genuine, honest magical girl show, as opposed to something trying too hard to be “cool”. It also means that when it tries to put forward more serious character arcs, they feel sincere, not forced.

An example of the show’s writing having a lot more muscle than one might expect comes near the end of its run. There’s an ongoing arc, lasting several episodes, about the conflict between Elena and Tenjou, a tengu-like alien woman and one Darknest’s minions. Over the course of the arc, which begins with Tenjou infiltrating our heroes’ high school in an attempt to undermine them from within, Elena comes to actually genuinely like and respect Tenjou. The reveal that she’s actually the Precures’ enemy does not, as it might in a lesser series, simply cleanly sever those feelings. Tenjou gets under Elena’s skin, making her aware of her own chief flaws; a tendency to hide her emotions beneath a cheerful mask when it’s convenient, and a difficulty in conveying her real feelings to people.

The arc could end here, but it actually keeps going, reflecting back on Tenjou’s own character and digging more deeply into the roots of Elena’s issues. The writing remains kid-friendly (lots of talk of “smiles”), but something that manages to touch briefly on childhood anxiety, the difficulty of conveying how you feel when you’re young, and even (if only briefly and obliquely) colorism, which can be the root of these kinds of issues, is worth lauding. Listing more examples would get tedious, but suffice it to say that that's not the only one.

The show’s final episode is one of those famously messy several-years-in-the-future Pretty Cure finales, but it’s worth remembering who these shows are made for. Magical girls shine brightest for the young and the young at heart, and Star Twinkle Precure, no matter what flaws it may have, is a star as bright of the rest of them.

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And if you liked this review, why not check out some of my others here on Anilist?

__This review does not contain any spoilers. It’s safe to read before watching. It doesn’t require any knowledge of the franchise.__ *** As I watched more and more Precure, I started comparing the series to one another. I want to write down some notes on that. It's the second Precure series I've finished. I want to see all of them and report my opinions. Each one I see will add to my experience, so I'll try to compare them a bit, too. A short explanation for those not accustomed with the series: - Sunday morning kids show targeted for young girls, - the longest consecutively running mahou shoujo franchise ever - over 20 years of non stop anime, - (almost) every series follows a similar pattern, introducing a new group of magical warriors, fairy mascots, and a lot of magical gadgets. *** _Star☆Twinkle Precure_ is the 16th Pretty Cure series, which started airing in 2019. I think it’s one of the most distinct - with its vibrant and strongly defined theme, I feel it does stand out a bit. It goes all the way to space, with the whole package: flying rockets, visiting distant planets, meeting aliens... Aesthetics are inspired by astrology and the 80s retro vibe, and the main themes are imagination and diversity (both of the vast universe and the human race). The main character, Hoshina Hikaru, is 13 years old, energetic, and pretty obsessed with her hobby - outer space. She enjoys watching stars and coming up with constellation ideas, which she meticulously writes down in her notebook. One day she gets an unexpected guest from a galaxy far far away - a cute little fluffy thingy called Fuwa. She’s followed by more alien visitors, and, you guessed it, there’s some mahou shoujo transformation incoming. Soon, a curious and a bit hotheaded girl that she is, Hikaru joins in on a huge saving-the-whole-universe-from-impending-doom plot. And boy, is it huge. From all the Precure series I’ve seen, Star☆Twinkle has one of the most intense, high stakes stories going on. The main villain isn’t there to play around, and the danger is imminent. Of course, the group of Cures is tasked with a standard, overused “gather X thingies to proceed” mission, but the overall plot saves it from being too boring. Travelling around the galaxies is a lot of fun, and really shows off a lot of different, funky ideas. Yanagawa Akari, the producer, is responsible for the beautifully blended themes of diversity and opening up to new things. She was living in the USA for a while and attended school there. In the interviews she mentions how the cartoons on TV there featured people of various skin colours, something she didn't see in Japanese media at the time. While working on _Star☆Twinkle_, she decided to use the opportunity to introduce a Cure with a darker skin, a half Japanese half Mexican girl. Of course, we had magical girls with various origins: from space, from different dimensions, a robot from the future… but it's not that often we get one from a real life minority group. Yanagawa thought that the series about meeting alien life and learning to be open-minded and accepting about it will be a perfect season to introduce a character like that. And well, I for one did not expect to see mentions of real-life racism and colorism in a Precure series. Of course, it was subtle and fixed with the power of friendship - but still. I really loved it. I think Yanagawa’s ideas were beautiful and they worked perfectly when combined together. As a bonus, I recommend reading interviews in which she talks about it all. Ah, it would be fantastic to have her work on another season. As always, the core of the series are the characters - and this time there are five of them in the Precure team. Five Cures is quite a lot to manage, but I think the show does a good job giving each of them some time to shine. As I already described Hikaru, Cure Star, she’s your usual enthusiastic protagonist goofball. Her passion for outer space is sweet, but she didn’t make that strong of an impression on me. As characters go, I think her companions fare better. The resident alien, Lala, is a stern voice of reason - at the same time a stranger (an alien even, heh) in a whole new world, and I think it’s shown in a compelling way. The aforementioned half Mexican, Elena, is a popular and beloved big sister type archetype, a ray of sunshine whose story is mostly focused on her big family and caring for others. She’s definitely a fav of mine, a beautifully written, lovable character. The third Earth Cure, Madoka, is lovely as well, but I find her characterization the weakest - she’s a student council president from a strict, rich family, skilled in traditional arts… I feel like I’ve seen it before, and by before I mean literally the previous Precure series I happened to review. And not just there. She’s still sweet, so I’m not complaining that much. The last member of the team, the second alien, is a funky one, but there’s so many interesting and fun ideas there, I feel like she got too little time to show them all off. I guess it’s just a curse that late-season Cures have to bear. The Cures are accompanied by mascots, obviously, two of them. I think Fuwa was one of the best we got, but Prunce… well, he wasn’t the worst ever, but I disliked him plenty. The villains left a mixed impression: about half of them were annoying and I couldn’t care about them at all, but the other half - fantastic. Aside from the main antagonist, I especially loved Tenjou. I was a little confused by the idea of basing the alien villains’ designs on youkai, but I guess it makes as much sense as any other theme in Precure. And speaking of designs - oh my, Star Twinkle Cures are some of the best dressed magical warriors around. I loved their fits, I loved how distinct they were, and how well they looked together. And all the Zodiac versions were simply outstanding. Out of this world, really. But... that's about magical girls designs, they usually steal the show. Overall I feel like a lot of the concepts were pretty plain, when you think about the richness of ideas the outer space is. I couldn’t find much information on how well received _Star☆Twinkle Precure_ was. If Anilist users’ opinion is any indicator, it’s one of the highest rated. From what I gathered, the space theme was a huge success - not surprising. It’s definitely more appealing to the general audience than many other ideas the franchise uses. I think it’s a great place to start with the _Pretty Cure_, really. The series introduces a couple of new things, most notably singing in henshin sequences - which was… okay, I guess? I’m not surprised it didn’t make it to the next seasons. But otherwise it’s a wonderful example of what the whole deal is. While the main girl doesn't shine bright like a star to me, many other aspects carry the series effortlessly. It’s fun, lively, and cute, and I’m sure it would be a wonderful start into the world of Precure. Is it a lighthearted kids show following a formula seen in many different series? Yeah. But this time it’s in space, and there’s a kappa with a lightsaber, so if you try hard enough, you can pretend it’s a new Star Wars show. Only better, because this time it’s mahou shoujo.

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Here’s my personal Precure rating - it’s a 5 ✿ scale, comparing the series.

Cures: ✿✿✿✿
designs: ✿✿✿✿✿
mascots: ✿✿
villains: ✿✿
story: ✿✿✿
theme and vibes: ✿✿✿

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#__Thank you for reading!__