Hug tto! Precure

First of all, I really have to say thank you to all the people who were talking nicely about Hugtto, without them I wouldn't have given a chance to a franchise that is now giving me endless hours of fun between all the entries. I hope this review helps other people to do the same.

As I did with the provisional version of this review while the series was airing, I want to tackle some points that people have against giving a chance to Hugtto, or this franchise in general:

- "This is a kids show": Locking yourself to demographics is such a waste, a good ... story is good be a seinen, a shoujo, or whatever it is. Precure in special also falls into a fantastic spot where it pleases fans of cute girls anime due to the lovable and funny character interactions the characters have, fans of actions series that want to see great fight scenes, and also to people who don't care as much for those thanks to the (completed!) story and nice drama and character development. Hugtto in special delivers with that touching some controversial themes that left me so satisfied with the execution. And as with all the entries I watched so far, it's not afraid at all to get dark whenever the story requires so, delivering hard hits that left me wondering if kids are really the main target audience.

- The mascot characters: I could understand it for some Precure entries, but that's definitely not the case for Hugtto. Hugtan is a well done baby character that is 100% adorableness 0% annoying crying, and Harry is far from being just a mascot, he's a fantastic character that adds so much to the cast and the story.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the series.

The story of Hugtto is focused on the Criasu Corporation, an evil company that tries to stop time and put an end to the future of the planet, Harry and Hugtan come from the future to avoid this with the help of the Precure. This anime is not afraid of going in the dark direction showing the danger of the villains while at the same time being honestly fun characters to watch, one roots for the protagonists but still enjoys the interactions with the bad side.

The big theme of this story that I adore and in my opinion had flawless execution is about moving forward and keep dreaming despite the fear for the future. The characters in this story have their traumas they can't deal with and/or fears for what might await for them as time passes, this is especially visible for the villain side, who I found myself really emphatizing with after we got to know more and more about them. This theme hits close home for most people (myself included) and this anime can really give a push of motivation to any watcher who can relate to the characters and how they feel.

I only have good things to say about the villains and so I feel about the good side. The main characters of the series are fantastic, having likeable personalities and very solid development with honestly one of my favorite character arcs in anime included for one of them. Their interactions are lots of fun to watch and both comedy and drama moments coming from them are a blast to watch. The protagonist of the story, Hana, deserves a special mention after becoming one of my favorite characters, her cheerful and lovable personality only does but increase how hard it hurts the drama focused around her and how painful is to see her working so hard to make everyone happy when she herself is one of the characters struggling the hardest.

After this we get to the fights, Hugtto did a very nice job at keeping the story and development always going, with close to zero episodes feeling like filler, but that doesn't change the fact that the episodic action scenes are a staple of the franchise and this anime hasn't changed that, nor it needs to because they are awesome to watch. The animation is constantly great for them (and honestly the whole show looks nice, it feels so alive) and so much fun to watch, this also includes the mandatory transformation scene before the fights that are sooo good looking, Precure knows that they will be reutilized a lot so they go full power on them to make them look as great as possible, and I can say they deliver.

With that said, I will go for pretty much the only complaint I had for Hugtto: the fights sometimes felt unnecesary and out of place. This is a small issue but one that Hugtto in special suffered compared to the rest of the franchise I watched so far due to its big focus on character drama. Some episodes delivered really emotional moments to then make the monster of the week appear out of nowhere into transformation into fight (sometimes shorter than the transformation) to end the episode. I wish they had just kept going with what the plot was delivering instead of the mandatory fight, although sometimes they managed to make the fight add to the meaning of the episode so this wasn't always a bad thing at all.

As I already briefly mentioned for the fights, the art and animation quality are very nice and consistent, and I'm also impressed with the direction of this show which delivered fantastic execution of scenes, especially in dramatic moments where it provided great shots that added so much impact to them. The music comes from Yuki Hayashi (which you might know from other works like Boku no Hero Academia, Haikyuu or Death Parade), and as with those, he did such a great job in that department, giving us some very memorable songs.

I hope the points made in this review convince you to give Hugtto a try, I really don't want to see a franchise as fantastic as Precure stay this ignored here in the West as it currently is, and if my reviews of the series help changing that even if just a bit I will be so happy.

<This review is spoiler-free!>

This was my first contact with the Pretty Cure franchise.

It was pretty much the result of my boyfriend constantly fanboying over the series as he's a huge fan of it. I wasn't too hot on the idea, as I had this initial conception of a magical girl show as being for kids and thus, having naive values I wouldn't really relate a lot with. Still, after some brief searching, season comparing and some input from my lover, I gave the latest season a try anyways, because hey, everyone looked cute, and this was bound to be a nice little watch regardless.

Needless to ... say, Hugtto actually went beyond my expectations and caught me off guard too many times to count.


Story: 7/10

One of the things I'm VERY attentive when watching media is the story, and I'd entered watching the anime appenehsively on that point. However, I was most surprised finding a mix of scenes, situations and values that could actually appeal to an older audience! Hugtto deals with more mature themes than I'd have expected, and albeit simplified in some parts, still managed to resonate well with me anyways. What I found most satisfying is the mix of real life and supernatural matters that more often than not go well together.

Unfortunately, the pacing occasionally suffered from less hyped episodes, occasionally poorly-timed fight scenes and a lot of plot holes that became unresolved as the final episode aired. I'd also occasionally find my excitement dying down in the later episodes as, excited for more, the episodes actually ended up with less satisfying outcomes than expected. Nonetheless, the story was very enjoyable, as it still managed to keep me hooked up for more every episode and get my theorycraft nerves working.


Art: 7/10

What is there to say here? It's a magical girl show, of course everything is going to be colorful and pretty. The monster of the week designs are your basic silly dark designs, and there's really nothing too notable or revolutionary in my opinion.

Still, I really liked the Precures' costumes overall - When I gave other seasons a preview, the other Precures had struck me as having too overcharged or wild designs, and these ones, to me, managed to be just the right amount of magical! Some of the designs' aspects did tick me off, but it didn't end up a major issue.


Sound: 8/10

Good use of sounds! I'm not quite sure what I can say here precisely, but I can definitely state that Hugtto deserves a high grade as I'd been anticipating a few of the songs from the later episodes to be released in OST format! Sound effects are also pretty fine, nothing feels out of place here.


Character: 9/10

Probably Hugtto's best selling point is the way it handles its characters. Their personalities are very well thought-out, and every main protag is given her chance to shine. I'd seen a few reviews from other seasons that stated that they'd been too "main protag-centric", but every episode manages to switch focus from one character to another, and give them relevant and relatable issues and challenges to face. Occasionally even brought a tear to my eye!

While on the last set of episodes, the focus does switch back to the main protag, there's been plenty of buildup and development on the other main characters prior, so in the end it likely passes off better! I also really appreciated the fact that the supporting cast also played a role in giving the Cures guidance and their own advice, but I wished the recurring supporting cast also got a bit more development!

How the villains were handled was also one of my most liked parts - While initially presented as your bread-and-butter bad guys, they turn out to be surprisingly complex people. Sometimes, however, the charcters' issues and challenges were handled in a clumsy manner and were slightly confusing as to how they were solved up, but this doesn't tarnish too much my opinion on character development as a whole.


Enjoyment: 8/10

Yeah, I really enjoyed it! It managed to keep me wanting more episodes every week, and the ending was also very satisfying in its own unexpected way! Hugtto definitely brought a smile to my face and is part of my more liked anime. Looking forward to Star Twinkle now!


Overall: 8/10

Hun, if you read this, you're a nerd, but thanks for recommending me the series. I'd definitely recommend this season to people who like the magical girl genre, enjoy an easy watch while also wanting to be caught off guard by some surprising elements!

Pretty Cure is all grown up.

For those of us who have seen a Precure before, that tagline is effectively TL;DR. We know what to expect. But honestly, there are very few of us, for reasons beyond the scope of this document. This is aimed at the rest of humanity ... who, for some reason, haunt underutilized sections of MAL.

Pretty Cure is, for better and for worse, a merchandise-driven show. On the plus side, it has steady returns that aren't based on BD/DVD sales figures. This means that it has a level of polish and craftsmanship that isn't usually seen in ... TV anime. It also means that watching it involves being advertised to, since the show itself is an advertisement of a sort. How noticeable this is varies a lot.

Pretty Cure is also a single long-running series in a way. The seasons ostensibly start from scratch each time, but there are many similarities between, and there are crossover movies that somehow attempt to make them coexist. This entry, in particular, feels a lot like Go! Princess Precure. It's hardly surprising to find, then, that a lot of the people who worked on that also came back for this installment. Some of these are relative newcomers in the anime world.

That's why it's nice to see a veteran in the lineup. Namely, Junichi Satou. It was Ojamajo Doremi, another Toei magical girl show and thus a predecessor of sorts to Precure, that really launched his career. He went on to work on other magical girl shows, besides, so this is both a homecoming and a return to form for him.

To me, the main difference in this season is a tonal one. The first installment of Precure was poorly planned and tried to laugh off all the issues stemming from this. This season is well thought out, in a way I never expected from a Precure show. Plot developments have build up. Things flow naturally from what has come before. There's no excessive rush to build the core cast like there was in GoPri Precure. Characters have definable traits but have room to grow. The villains have a theme, but it's one that you might not expect in a kid's show. A young girl can hardly be expected to know about the corporate world, yet it makes the motivations of our starter villains, at least, comprehensible to those of us in the know.

Yet, none of this has sacrificed what makes Precure appealing to those of us who have watched it in the past. It's still fun. There's a lot of animation. A lot of that is good, and in different ways. Watch Homare ice skate, Hana flail about humorously, and all the Precures do battle. I think it's significant to note that the fight direction is a lot better than I've come to expect from this series. In early series, it seemed like they were trying to avoid things like impact, and clean lines of action, for some reason I never understood. Even in Go! Princess Precure, it seemed like these principles were only observed sometimes. Notably, those were the best episodes. Someone at Toei clearly noticed.

Thus we arrive at the present year. Pretty Cure has experimented in a lot of ways, and continues to do so, but in this season it shows that it hasn't forgotten what it's learned along the way. A big part of growing up is making mistakes and learning from them. That's why I say that Pretty Cure is grown up.

P.S. Due credit to youtuber ThePedanticRomantic, who is my source for some of this information. He really opened my eyes to how special this season is, and why. Watch his video on it! (It's the one with the really hyperbolic-sounding title. You'll know when you see it.)

Hugtto Precure is the third season I watched in the Pretty Cure franchise and is also to this day one of the best seasons I've watched. With the mediocre setback of its prior two seasons since 2015, this season did an amazing job. I may not exactly have the experience with Precure to write a 100% accurate review but I might as well give my own take.

Story: 9/10
Okay, so I know this is going to trigger a lot of people. But at the time I was still relatively new to Precure and what I saw in this season blew my mind. The theme was an ... excellent choice for its time and it seemed fitting for an anniversary season (Even though it's technically only 14th year, not 15th), as I look back now on Precure always having used protecting the future as a common, subtle theme. This season took it to a very new level on its own, combining it with the design theme of career prospects. Some of the most memorable and powerful episodes came from this season for me as well.

Art: 9/10
Although not the season with the best animation like Go Princess Precure (2015), the art was a splendid work done by the animators of Hugtto. It served its purpose well, adding mood and atmosphere into each scene. I initially didn't like the character design, but it grew on me after a good chunk of the season and just continues the unique character design for Cures which is very creative.

Sound: 10/10
Not much to say here since the sound mixing is already very good, but in a BGM sense, Hugtto had many golden moments, including the use of character songs, and once again matching the scenes very well.

Character: 10/10
With the slight exception of Cure Ange, the development for the Cures this season was memorable, down-to-earth and led to powerful moments. Cure Yell by far is one of my picks for one of the best Cures in Precure history (I have watched a few more seasons since then). Not only is she a great leader, but she also has her quirky moments sometimes which is great for making her story seem a bit more realistic.
Besides the nice development of Ange and Etoile towards their own futures and the touching story of Macherie and Amour, the villains of the season are mostly very good, especially the main villain George Kurai, due to their harsh villain side yet still showing signs of being human, including emotions. This is the kind of villain I would believe in and Hugtto made their story reasonable imo.

Enjoyment: 10/10
This goes without saying- Hugtto was filled with action and touching moments. Also, while I'm not a hardcore fan, I thoroughly enjoyed the anniversary episode (Episode 36-37) special. While showing a serious side at times, the series did not fail to make me smile through the light-heartedness of the story and watching the cures I like so much grow.

Overall: 9.5/10
Hugtto Precure brought something new to me in the cartoon scene, once again defying demographic stereotypes. Besides conveying the message of striving for bright futures, it was an absolute thrill and introduced me to characters I would likely never forget as I stay in the fandom.


Of course, don't take my word for it, since I am used to giving high scores to animes than the average. But for me, that's my verdict.

🇺🇸🇬🇧 My god where I start.
First of all this anime is the best so far over other Precure's shows. All character are written perfectly both the protagonists and the villains. Every character has a perfect life written. The villains are bad guys for them true intentions and the protagonists are good for them reasons. The art and dessings were pretty cool. Harry and Hugton are supposed to be the mascots of this show and they aren't that. The principal villain has a incredible art and story line. And for finish this review the finish chapter was awesome, a perfect episode to end this great anime.

🇪🇸De ... lejísimos este es el mejor Precure que existe a día de hoy.
Todos los personajes de la historia están perfectamente escritos, los villanos son malos porque tienen sus razones y las protagonistas son buenas por sus cosas, no tiene lagunas. Los diseños y los colores que usan son preciosos. Tanto Harry como Hugtan están supuestamente para ser las mascotas del anime (como todo Precure que existe) pero para nada lo son, son personajes independientes de la serie. El villano principal tiene un diseño y guion increíbles. Y como último a resaltar de este anime es el último capítulo, tiene un final muy bueno.

As someone who have watch every single series of Pretty Cure, I should say that HUGtto is one of the best. In my opinion, it has been a while since precure actually have a decent series where they use fist fights and does not too focused on the lead a.k.a pink cure.

The story keeps getting better and involves not only on Hana. I am very pleased that other cures also got man chances to shine. Not only one or two, but each also got their own "highlight" on the opening and ending. If you miss watching a precure series with some fist fights, not only ... relying on magic, you will like this because it reminds me to the early precure series. The theme itself is very unique an fun. The most important part and my favorite highlight, romance. There are some hinted romance and I don't think I'm the only one who has been waiting for precure to bring back romance to their series. So the two things I really love about this series are the fist fights and romance. Because those are what makes precure fun and not boring.

There are still some elements that are similar with the other precure series. Some of it I do like it and some not. What I sort of dislike about this series is the attacks. The attacks are too similar with some previous series attacks and I was hoping they come up with something new.

The art style is somewhat similar with Yes! Precure 5 mixed with a bit of DokiDoki precure. But a bit more modernized.I can't say I'm a big fan of the cures design, but they are not that bad. As for characters, each are very unique and has their own place to shine. All cures are also each have some unexpected sides of their characters which is fun. Its pretty rare to see that in latest precure series. Overall, I really enjoy HUGtto precure and have high expectations for it.

Hugtto PreCure did not look impressive to me. However, it surpassed my expectations and is now my second favorite PreCure series. I will admit, the first 12 or so episodes are...not the best. I found them very boring. But, when things get good, they get REAL good. While this show may look childish, it made me cry so much. It has mature themes, slice of life, action, and heart-touching scenes. I overall enjoyed the characters, especially Ruru and Hana, but Saaya and Homare are not great in my opinion. And, if you don't want to be spoiled other series, you should wait to watch it, ... because it has spoilers for earlier PreCure seasons. Overall, 9/10, its very strong, please watch it!

Overall: 8.5

This anime is nothing if not inconsistent, which is a shame given it has so much to offer the Magical Girl genre.

Character: 9.6

Like most Precure, this is where HUGTTO really shines. Each character goes through some serious troubles, and subsequent development. I very much enjoyed the way the 'relationship-but-not' and 'rejection' elements were handled. Each character is unique, without being too over exaggerated, and the friendships, while unconventional, seem very natural and believable.

Story: 8

The villain concept and plot is definitely unique, as is Hana's and Henri's character development. The pacing is decent, though it wouldn't have hurt to cut down on the ... filler episodes. Unfortunately, Saaya's character falls between the cracks more often than not, and Ruru's arc just doesn't quite compare to previous similar ones, though it's decent enough.

Art: 7

Initially, you'll be treated to epic battles, genuinely creepy villains, and unique magical girl outfits. It's cute, it's kickass, and then... it drops the ball. The epic fight scenes seem to be only budgeted for some episodes, and those that miss out, fail hard-core. There's so many genius artistic moments that you can mostly - MOSTLY - overlook the small-but-regular failures.

Sound: 7

There's two ED songs, they're both as enjoyable and fun as you'd expect. Being the Anniversary season, many of Futari Wa Precure's score is reused, but the reuse is smartly done. The voice acting unfortunately results to literal yelling at times, which, when they're already squeaky anime girls, is a bit of an earsore.