Wonderful Precure!

Two years ago I decided to get into Precure via Hirogaru Sky and I’m so glad I did. It’s been one of the most rewarding and beautiful experiences ever for me, quite literally changing my life and opening me up to a part of the anime world I didn’t know about. These shows might be aimed at kids, but that doesn’t mean adults can’t sit down and get a lot out of them. There’s something so beautiful about the simple messages of friendship, learning who you are as an individual and being true to yourself, all lessons we can take into our daily lives. Wanpre ... was more than just a Saturday night fun watch to me. It’s allowed me to connect with friends from all over the world and truly got me hooked on this franchise.

While it may not have had as good a story as Hirogaru sky, the characters and bonds in this season were arguably better. I initially struggled to get with the lack of direct action like the last season and Otonapre, which I also watched recently, had. However, after a while, I really started to appreciate the concept of the girls saving the animals and teaching the audience the importance of respecting wildlife. We share one world with so many different species and it’s important to educate people at a young age about that.

There was never a dull moment with this show. I had a blast watching all the girls develop over the last year and felt like a proud older sibling with where this season ended. So many laughs, tears and smiles, it truly lived up to its name and was a wonderful time. Whether it’s Komugi being stupid and saying the most outlandish things, Yuki being a complete tsundere and pretending to hate everyone even though she’s got the biggest heart, or Mayu playing matchmaker with Iroha and Satoru, I had a smile on my face every Saturday for the past year and I’ll miss this show so much.

The cure designs and transformations were all great, but Lilian and Nyammy particularly had me in a chokehold. Nyammy’s transformation especially was one of the best I’ve ever seen. As usual with any long running Toei series, some episodes looked better than ever. But when they needed to go all out, they definitely did. The biggest fights looked incredible and there were some awe inspiring set pieces. I’m very content with the production quality!

Somehow, Wanpre has been divisive among the fanbase with a lot of people not being able to get into it because of the way the fights are handled this season as well as Komugi being kind of dumb, but you know I think that’s a big part of its charm. It’s an acquired taste and I get it if you don’t like it at the start, but give it a fair shake and I believe you’ll see where this show shines. I certainly did and will miss it a lot.

Wanpre gets a very easy 10 out of 10.

As someone who adores Love Live and Smile PreCure when the English dub came out (yes I watched it as Glitter Force on Netflix, is was 13) I absolutely LOVE this show.
I've only ever seen Glitter Force out of all the PreCure shows, but I'm so glad I found this Precure series. It brings me so much joy, I'm always happy and excited watching the episodes with my friend (potential cosplay in the works).
The designs are amazing, the characters are adorable, I love each episode and how they overcome everything with so much passion.
A high recommend from me of you like magical girl shows or ... idol shows or honestly just want a good, cute show to watch.

Did I think that 2024 would deliver the worst precure season of all time after giving us one of the best? No, but let me tell you why this show is terrible and you should skip it entirely if you're new to precure.

1. Characters
The entire show hinges on this human-animal duo premise. On the surface, I can get behind this idea. I love the idea of helping kids learn about animals and how important they can be as pets.

However, it falls flat when the main character is stupid as rocks. She acts like a dog, talks like a dog, and quite literally is unbearable. I ... absolutely despise Wonderful as the lead character, and I feel like making her stupider than any other magical girl makes her feel like she belongs in another show than a series about girl power.

Friendy, her owner, is slightly better, but not by much. Friendy is just...a nice girl. But also a really dumb one as well. She can't keep her secret of bring a precure at all. Which defeats the charm of magical girl anime.

Then we have cure Lillian, the best character in the entire show. Shy, not confident and wants to make friends. But Lillian is surrounded by idiots, and she doesn't become a precure for a long time. It's unbearably long before we get any progress on her joining the team.

Nyammy is the ice queen kitty. She's okay, but also acts unnecessarily mean in a kids show. She comes across as someone I think I would've liked if they gave her more charm. Ugh.

The plot
What even is the plot? 20 episodes and we still have no idea. We get bad animals that they have to cure but we don't know where they are from or how they got to that state.

Even the most basic precures give us some sense of what's going on. But not Wonderful; they don't care because they just want to sell the makeup, the toys and the stuffed animals of every cute creature ever.

The no combat
Okay, so everyone defending the fact they have no combat doesn't understand why we like magical girls. Fighting evil by Moonlight in pretty outfits is FUN!

But there ain't no monsters to fight. We hug an animal, and put them into a box. In Wonderful Precure, I am convinced the animators didn't care about anything but toys. They said screw the combat, screw the plot, we are going to make millions on selling cute dogs and cats and other crap to little girls.

You can do better.

Go watch a la mode or tokyo mew mew
If you want a better anime with animal girls fighting evil. At least in those shows, the protagonist doesn't make you question if your dog is really that stupid.