Futari wa Precure: Splash☆Star

People often judge this series without watching it and believe that it was just a copy and pasted Futari Wa. I strongly disagree. This cast is one of the best. Mai and Saki, at first glance, seem like Nagisa and Honoka but there are key differences. The tone of this installment is much lighter with villains more often used for comedic relief. Mai and Saki are also more optimistic and much faster friends compared to their predecessors.

The side cast were also more memorable. Kenta with his comedy and his family. Hitomi and Yuuko who were similarly high energy like Saki.

I also found Minori ... much more tolerable compared to Ryouta

The villains were funny and their designs were so unique and fun. The twist with Akudaikan and Gohyaan was out of nowhere and very interesting.

Finally, Michiru and Kaoru. Their gradual redemption and their relationship with Dark Fall was so awesome to see. Their characters had so much depth.

This was surprisingly really good!

Story - I love it! Basically, they already met before at a tree, then years later they meet again, I find it really unique!

Art - The art was good too! I even love the fight scenes, I didn't spot any animation errors from what I remember! I also love Cure Bloom and Cure Egret's outfits! But, I like Bright and Windy's outfits even more!

Sound - These were really good as well! My favorite songs would definitely be the opening and the two endings! I also love the OST that plays in the background too!

Character - My favorites would be Bloom/Bright, Egret/Windy, ... Michiru, Kaoru Kenta, Minori, and many more! Why do I like these characters? Bloom/Bright and Egret/Windy are cures of course! And I love their personality and their cute cure outfits! Michiru and Kaoru look amazing in their new outfits (not trying to write any spoilers), Kenta is hilarious, and Minori is adorable! ^w^

Enjoyment - It was really enjoyable, there were some scenes that weren't really entertaining, but I still love this season no matter what!!

Overall - All of it is great, I also love the "villains" Michiru and Kaoru, they're both my favorite characters including many more characters! <3

Now I’d read lots of praise about this Precure series, but for me it really didn't live up to it.

tl;dr: Episodes without Kaoru and Michiru = average. Episodes with Kaoru and Michiru = good.

I found the story was too slow paced with little happening and not interesting enough. Apart from Kaoru and Michiru of course, their part of the story was the best. Unfortunately it doesn't focus on them all of the time. Precure stories aren't the fastest pasted in anime, but this series seemed especially slow and dull compared to others. The main story itself is generic - a big bad guy with various ... minions trying to destroy the universe/worlds. There's only one plot twist right at the end. I feel other Precure series handled this better, especially Fresh.
I also felt like there was too much filler which wasn't the most entertaining. I think how there are only two main girls lets the filler down as there is only so much you can do with 49 episodes of the same two characters all the time. The filler wasn't up to the standard of other series.

The animation was pretty bad. Lots of derpy faces and poor drawings, but what can you expect.
The designs themselves are awful. Again, apart from Michiru and Kaoru. I really liked Michiru's as she reminds me of Will from W.I.T.C.H.
Saki and Mai character wise are a bit different from Nagisa and Honoka, but that doesn't stop them from looking like poorly done rip off fan designs. The first outfits you can put up with, Saki's second outfit however is terrible! The colour is greeny-yellow! Who thought that looked good!?

Another thing I disliked was that Saki and Mai just got beat up most of the time instead of getting stronger until the last few episodes. In other series the Cures actually get evidently stronger and beat enimies faster as time goes on. Saki and Mai just get punched down until the last moment of a fight when they fire their main big finishing attack. The fight scenes lacked compared to other series, but they seemed to be stronger cures in terms of their magical powers, they just didn’t use their fists enough.

The writing is very good. No main character gets more unnecessary screen time than another.

The characters themselves are good. I liked all of the fairies, Saki and Mai are likable (far from my favourite Cures though). The first villan is kind of dull and I hated Moerumba he was so annoying. I liked the rest of the villains. Ms. Shitataare is the best, she was really entertaining and added in good comedy. The series itself did make me laugh quite a few times.
Kaoru and Michiru however are by far the best characters, their development is wonderful and they are really interesting. I like them a lot more than Saki and Mai.

I know this review seems pretty negative, but this isn't a bad show itself. I just found the other Precure series I have watched to be better. (and no I haven't seen Doki Doki!)