Hug tto! Precure

This is an insult to not only fans of the series, but also an insult to the series itself. Sure, Doki Doki is a season that made us mad, but this season feels like a modern take on that. While Hana is better than Mana, they brought back physical fights, and had cute moments, but those aren't enough to save it for a few reasons.

The parenting theme is OK something that will make kids learn the responsibilities of parenting and working, but the time travel theme is a gimmick that is bound to leave more questions than answers, creating plotholes. Hana is the only best ... character in Hugtto because she has more development as a character that she tries to be more mature than Saaya and Homare. I think Emiru and Ruru are OK, but they barely interact with Hana, Saaya, and Homare despite the duo having more episodes than the remaining three. The team felt like they are two separate teams. We don't have episodes like Homare improving her ice skating. It took Saaya up to 40 episodes for her to decide if she wants to become a doctor or an actor. Hugtan is an improvement over Ai from Doki Doki. She does grow and gets along with the main characters fine than Ai. The season also relies on crossover episodes where they brought back past Cures, which is fine and all, but it takes away the story. The villains aren't so great. George's plan doesn't make any sense like how he wanted to freeze time to keep people safe from harm, and never really explained what makes Hana so special, and how come he never helps Hana or do anything with or for her. Again, time travel, where better decisions could've been made or just don't have time travel and just use a different motif. The fights don't connect to the story but they attempted to utilize punches and kicks.

Henri is the most unlikable character in the season that I ever had the displeasure of knowing him. He wants to wear dresses because "limiting yourself is a waste". That's not true. It's like he is saying "It's OK to be a tsundere." His existence doesn't bring character development nor story development. The reason he is created is just an excuse to bring that stupid political message to a kids cartoon to the point where he became a Pretty Cure, which is what I think is the biggest shark jumping moment in Pretty Cure history. That is not what Pretty Cure is all about. Only females can be a Pretty Cure, and boy fans are OK with that all-females only rule. Tarte from Fresh is a much better male Cure than Henri will ever be. Henri literally does two moves to the monster which is tripping and stunning the monster as a temporary Cure. So even if you want boys to become a Pretty Cure, you will not like Henri at all.

There are also scenes where they show pregnant women, including adult Hana, are giving birth to a baby. Yes. I am not kidding. They actually showed you the women going to the labor stage, complete with them screaming the baby out with a red face that makes it look like a hentai anime disguised itself as a kid show. This is unacceptable and should not be shown in a kid show no matter what country the show is from. Even Smile did a better job than this. The best way to have scenes like that is to just show the mother holding the baby, and that's it.

I do hear the series is made to sell, and that it's not meant to be art. That is no excuse because that requires quality too like knowing what you're selling to kids and understanding your product, or else it will fail as a kids advertising or kids entertainment, just like Henri and this season. The music is OK but forgettable. The last positive thing I'm going to say is the visuals are, as usual, OK so you can get the idea of the environmental tone and characters, but even that nice little Hana from inside Hana's mouth from HuPC32 like Hime from Happiness Charge isn't going to make me watch it nor take back what I said about it.

Overall, like Doki Doki, I do not recommend this season to be watched by any Pretty Cure fan. We can only hope that Star Twinkle will do a lot better than Hugtto with Star Twinkle's art and space theme where they would not try to pander audiences. Stay away from Hugtto.