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Truly the most hypocritical anime I have ever seen. Despite that there are cute-looking males and females, the boy gets subjected to a sex change anyway. The anime is in fact controversial to anime fans since it gives the impression that "cute" means "being female", which should never be the case. "Cute" means "attractive in an endearing way". There is nothing endearing about Mahiro's sister drugging him into being a girl, him getting scared about going to the toilet, finding a bra size, or wearing the eros clothes. Even I know that the arching head with tall and round eyes together is a cute trait. ... Even Ranma as a boy is cute in ways, and it is the drowned girl is also cute, not the curse form. If Mahiro had the guts, he would have destroyed his sister's experiments in revenge for ruining his life, even if he had made some friends. It is the life he will never get back. It is stupid of him to even want to stay as a girl, even if the drug is only temporary since the series is set in fiction. I do not even know what the artist is thinking. It is like he hates cute-looking characters, and decides to blackmail fans and artists into thinking that Onimai is how to make a cute series. Thankfully, fans and artists are not falling for it, especially how it is also made by a Sony-related company that is trying to own Japan's most important medium to censor that even if you hate the anime, you are not going to watch the Sony censored version either. Even the music is not something you can listen to when it has synthesizers. There are plenty of anime that have cute characters—male or female—but this is not cute in any way, no matter how hard you dogeza to anime fans. Stay away from Onimai.

Introduction: Admittedly, Hugtto Pretty Cure had some good ideas like Hana, its cute moments, and the physical fights, but they are just not enough to outweigh the negatives that season suffered from. Depending on who you talk to, the season felt like its potential was thrown out of the window and shattered upon the impact of the floor. The characters and story were handled horribly with the time travel idea where better decisions could've been made, the crossover episodes that prevented its characters from having more episodes, and the "you can do anything, you can become anything" tagline going as far as to include subject ... matters that can be deemed too political that don't belong in a kid series that Hugtto felt like a modern Doki Doki. Hugtto felt like it was trying to take risks and/or experiment like making the dress-wearing boy Henri to be a Pretty Cure, and showing women plus adult Hana giving birth to a baby complete with the labor stage and screaming. The end result was that it failed since Fumi Tsubota was the season's composer, and some of its topics are not age-appropriate and too sexual or like hentai for children, even in Japan or other countries. Toei should've thought things out. Breaking or ignoring rules can be fun, but not always because there will be consequences. When going into a new direction and trying something different without rehashing ideas, you have to know how to do that right, and know if it can work without alienating the viewers nor insult their intelligence. Can Star Twinkle Pretty Cure fix all the problems Hugtto had caused? Can it save the franchise? Can this is be the next Go! Princess, Heartcatch, or Splash Star? Let's find out. Hang on because this is going to be a long one, though not much to spoil.

Story: Pretty Cure are out of this world... literally. Hikaru discovered the aliens Lala and Prunce from when she brought Fuwa the fairy to Earth from the constellation she created, who are on the search for the legendary warriors Pretty Cure. They rescue the star princesses who balance the universe once the Pretty Cure gathered their team including helpful aliens who serve as mascots. Along the way, they have to retrieve the Star Color Pens before the Not Raiders can use them to get rid of the universe's light. As simple as that sounds, that is something you have to expect from a kid series. The story is pretty new, unlike the past seasons. Was the new story made right with care? Absolutely. The theme of this season is art, imagination, and space. One of the concerns people have is that space-theme settings are a gimmick. Here, it worked out pretty well. Much better than Hugtto's time travel plot. Art can bring something that's memorable rather than being a product of its time. The team travels to other planets for the pens, and do get back to Earth plenty of times, more so than in Mahou Tsukai. They also have to be aware of Galactic Alliance who are planning to have the Pretty Cure work for them. I got excited when I watched it the first time that made me think what can they do next. The story is cute, funny, lighthearted, serious, smart, and simple in all the right places.

Characters: Hikaru is just like a lot of leader cures. Though, she is perhaps to be the most excited and curious girl I have ever seen. Maybe more than Miyuki from Smile, Ichika from Kira Kira, and... Hana from Hugtto. She likes outer space, constellations, aliens, and is good at drawings. Though, she can be stubborn on how she wants to look for the Star Pens, thought she can overpower, and usually doesn't listen to her friends like when she wants to join in her activities. But, Hikaru is harmless enough. She is just a kid. Kids aren't expected to act like adults, and they can't be too spoiled either. She is not as in your face as Ichika, does not steal the spotlight as much as others, she learns from her mistakes, and does allow the other cures to make their move. Lala is who I think is the most adorable cure, even my favorite and the best cure in the season. Not because she is an alien, but because she tries to do the best she can to be a responsible character like trying to learn on her own, which helped do more than just being the first alien to become a cure, if not the first since the fairies do come from outer space too and became cures before. She can be serious too, but that's how responsible characters are, but she treats her friends with respect. Fuwa is a baby fairy, but at least the season establishes she has a mysterious power that helps revive the Star Princesses. Fuwa does talk with complete sentences since the beginning. Prunce seems like Tarte from Fresh but that's OK because he is pretty cute and cool at the same time. It's always great to have a male fairy with a male voice to show girls that male mascots and human boys can be cute too. He has the ability to shape-shift, which is pretty useful for to help him blend in so people on Earth won't find out he and Lala are aliens, and act as a barrier and grow giant for the cures. Elena, the sun of Mihoshi Town, is one of those rare tan-skinned Cures like Saki from Splash Star or a brown skin depending on the show's lighting, but she does take time getting used to. She is Mexican, which is also rare for a Japanese cartoon. She acts like a normal girl, she is good at sports like football, and is good with students and her siblings. So, she's all right. She is treated like a person who exists instead of being bullied for being different. Madoka, the moon of Mihoshi Town, is an honest and level-headed girl who is skilled at archery and piano, gets excellent grades that makes her popular with her students as student council, does tea ceremonies, and tries to be lady-like. Because of how serious is, and being pressured by her father as she was not naturally talented to begin with, she doesn't want to disappoint others. I may say she is beautiful and is the best human cure in the season. Yuni is a cat alien who can disguise herself and wants to save her people. The characters are interesting, and their episodes are easy to understand.

The character interactions are so cute, and it's done from the beginning and during character-centered episodes to get on with the story while others get their turn later on. Hikaru and Lala have different culture and tastes on what they think, but they learned how to get along and introduced things that are foreign to them. Lala also learned that she can become a Pretty Cure, learn different things on Earth like schools, and the value of friendship without using A.I. by being with Hikaru, Elena, and Madoka to help her in battles. Lala even cheered Elena's oldest brother saying everyone is different, but they are not weird nor always a bad thing. Lala shared her experience with Yuni, who usually does things alone. A.I. is with Lala all the time and learns by itself too. Madoka's father works for the government, which they are known for being against extra-terrestrials, and hard on Madoka while her mother is more respectful. Hikaru, Lala, and Elena helped Madoka feel more open, going to the shopping district, eating star donuts, making friends, and having fun. Elena and Madoka are classmates. They both admire with each other, and Hikaru and Lala too. Madoka's friends can help Madoka out whenever she is in trouble while being the smart one, and giving her the freedom she wanted. Elena's family are half-Japanese and half-Mexican. They are written to be a proud family rather than depicting them as poor. They are similar to Nao's family from Smile, and written to be normal characters rather than Mexican stereotypes. Featuring this type of family makes the inclusion of having Latin Americans in an anime worth trying. Hikaru's family are pretty good, especially her mother who is a manga artist, and her father is interested in mythical creatures.

These aspects are what made these characters unique in their own way. They may be well-behaved, but that's the beauty of it, and one of the things that makes the show good for kids without being given bad ideas. You don't need to relate to them to like them. You like, connect, and root for them because they have something to make them stand out from the other characters and hoping for them to develop themselves, others, and the story as what characters do instead of being just there for the sake of the viewers, relating to them, shipping, fan-service, or doing nothing, or else that would make the characters useless. Even I don't care whether or not if the characters have the same zodiac sign as mine nor relate to me. I care about likeable characters and wonderful stories rather than stereotypes nor characters staying in the same place. Even kids can like characters that are personally different from them. The characters are great that made me root for them to grow.

The Not Raiders are based on creatures from the Japanese folklore. These include a kappa, tengu, hitotsume-kozo, and others. Kappard is pretty cool. Aiwarn is interesting later on. The Cures do know the villains by name unlike in Mahou Tsukai.

Battles: The fights have a combination of physical and energy-based attacks. They do have monsters-of-the-week on occasion, and by using the Dark Pen that was a blackened Star Pen to turn people into monsters, similar to in Smile and Happiness Charge. But can also take someone's heart and turn it into the villain's power. That means the fights do connect to the story unlike Hugtto. Prunce is pretty awesome in battles like how he can grow giant and blow the Not Pawns away. They can be over fast, may use stock footage, but they're still enjoyable. Each of the Cures have sweet signature moves, especially Lala.

Animation/Visuals/Art: Of course, the visuals are great and colorful for a kids series. The characters are expressive, the background color matches the environmental tone, and the CG looks more like the 2D animation the show utilizes. The characters look identifiable that you can tell who they are when they are together or when you separate them. The outfits and looks are distinguishable enough. The girl with overalls and pink pigtails is Hikaru. The white fairy with two spheres on her head is Fuwa. The girl with blue/green shoulder length hair, antennae, and a white dress is Lala. A green cure is something we have been demanding for years. The blue octopoid is Prunce. Elena is the tan/brown skin in yellow. Madoka is the beautiful purple one with lovely blue eyes and a dress. You get the idea. The Cures are pretty adorable in their own right. Their cure outfits are great and do have distinguishable designs to set apart like their hairstyles, dresses, and shorts. The Not Raiders follow the youkai depictions accurately with noticeable differences. Tenjo the tengu's one-piece outfit may be a bit too sexy for a kid show, but the show is more politely mature than an American cartoon. Aiwarn is the most different than how the hitotsume-kozo are represented. Aiwarn is a girl, but still retains her single eye and purposely creepy look. The pawns look the same, gray humanoids with the Ns on their faces though having different body types. The Star Princesses are beautiful and do resemble the zodiac signs well. Pretty cute character designs, nice atmosphere, and lively expressions overall.

Music/Sound/Voices: The music is unbelievably cute and catchy. The theme songs are great with some rock to them during the solos. The score matches the emotional scenes while utilizing silences. They added vocal songs in the transformation scenes for the first time in the series. The music is the same for all the Cures. It's a new thing that really works and makes me smile. Each Cure sings the same lyrics but with a different voice. Hikaru's voice does take time getting used to because she is supposed to sound like a curious and happy girl. It's hard to describe her voice. It sounds all squeaky, hard to understand her words at times especially the consonants, but it doesn't ring the speakers. A few times I even compared her voice to Geddy Lee from Rush. I can still say her voice is cute, especially her singing. Lala sounds cute too and gives a gentle and shyness feel to her. Her take on the transformation song is the most lovely and has the power to make the song great in her own right, maybe the best. Fuwa, of course, has to sound like a baby. High-pitched with a crack. Same way as she talks, and doesn't scream cry a lot. Prunce sounds like Tarte. Of course, the obvious difference is that he has a different actor, a male this time unlike Harry, and speaks in Tokyo dialect. Whenever Prunce is speaking softly, he can sound much like an adult. Elena sounds like a normal girl, though not too deep, and not too high. Her singing sounds the most normal while strong. Madoka is just too beautiful to listen to. Her voice is so lovely, beautiful, and gentle that she doesn't need to sound sexy to be loved. Her singing is also beautiful and mature too, and of course, not too sexy, which is good. Yuni's singing is OK. There are times where I'm trying to know for sure if the vocals are double-tracked or auto-tuned, but it doesn't matter. When they sing together... OH MY GOD! They sound so amazing that, to me, this is undoubtedly the best Pretty Cure transformation they've ever done in the series. The characters' voices match their character and their emotions overall.

Humor: The humor is pretty funny. Lala trying to grow and fixing her rocket does bring a smile to me, especially when her human friends began to help her out that it doesn't feel too insulting her. Hikaru is pretty funny too. She did little to think for herself, but only made some mistakes that she does get spared for it. Prunce is pretty funny like how he emotes like being surrounded by humans, gets mad, scared, or in love, and also changes his voice as he transforms. The adult humor is easily unnoticed that even kids won't mind that. It's probably a lot better than when Homare from Hugtto called Hugtan the baby "sexy and cute."

Negatives: Not much to talk about. Besides people unfairly bashing Hikaru for her voice, there are some I can talk about and how Toei can do to improve. Episode 8 is where the characters could've explained to the dog aliens properly that they needed the Star Pen when the aliens think the pen is a bone from heaven. It just makes Elena too soft to care for the aliens rather than caring for the universe's peace that without it, it wouldn't make anyone smile. Explain the purpose and let them know that what they found is not a sacred bone or whatever the aliens think the pen is. She could've gotten more screen time since the May 5th episode where Lala was the one who helped Elena's brother. Thankfully, Elena got more attention later on. Lala should've been more green with no hint of blue nor red so we can clearly classify her as a green cure. Give her a forest green hair and dark pastel green clothes, and on her hair too. Kind of like Nao from Smile. Same thing for any future green cure. Who cares if that won't sell? Just give her green, make her a great girl character like be girly, smart, strong, an authority figure, or any of the above, and give her more screen time. She'll be respected as time goes on. You can't have a complete rainbow without green (midori, not aoi).

Overall: This is a significant improvement over the previous seasons. It had a great start, and it continues to stay up there. Its potential has been put into great use to never let its fans nor the series down. I love all the Cures. Lala and Madoka are my favorite and the best in the season. Hikaru and Elena are great too. Hikaru, Lala, Prunce, and Fuwa are adorable, cute and helpful. And the Not Raiders are interesting that I learned about different creatures from the folklore. The negatives are so minor that they are easy to let slide. Even if Pretty Cure is a series made to sell to children rather than be an art form, this season does a good job at being a commercial because Toei understands their own product, what they are selling to kids, and having better writers to do that without going over the edge nor take things too far. It is the Super Mario Galaxy of the Pretty Cure franchise. It might scare off some Precure fans or viewers, but if you watch Star Twinkle with an open mind, you will love it. Even if you're an adult, you can still enjoy a kid series because you know a series is good for kids as it's advertised as kids entertainment and delivered what it's promised. Boys can like female heroes too especially Pretty Cure, Sailor Moon, and others because they can be just as useful as the male heroes. It is the best Precure season since Go! Princess, Heartcatch, and Splash Star. I can definitely recommend this show to kids, even subtitled if you can find the correct translation. Kirayaba (Twincool)!

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.

I have watched both versions of this movie, so this is going to be a review based on what I know from the Japanese version and the 4Kids dub.

English Dub: I know every Pokémon fan have seen it in the movie when it first came out. We have high expectations from it. We may have grown out it, but we've learned that critics put their hate on the films that came out. At first we thought is was just for no reason. And finally I've learned that besides Pokémon being a cash grab, I now get the dubbing is awful, the acting and dialogue is ... bland, Mewtwo is a hypocrite, the music is scored poorly like filling in the silences as well that out of place Brother My Brother song in the Original vs. Clone fight, clichés, and there is that particular moral that ruins the whole point in the series is that "fighting is wrong". There are a ton of reviews who talked about this. You know that Pokémon is a series that is similar to cock fighting, and 4Kids just had to use that message on film to support this? 4Kids dubbed the other Pokémon films and suffered a similar fate. So stay away from any 4Kids dub works and go for the Japanese version.

Japanese version: I took a look this and I finally watched the original Japanese version. And it's far better than what 4Kids did to the franchise. Mewtwo is pretty awesome in the version, Masachika Ichimura does a really great job voicing him. He made Mewtwo sound purposely intimidating, even if Mewtwo was originally just a confused Pokémon who is brought to the world as a Copy. Mewtwo is this version is more light than the English Mewtwo who is just a ruthless villain. The Japanese Mewtwo wonders if who is it, is it alive, who is Mew, are Copies stronger than originals. His plan is still to get revenge on humanity, but he doesn't care about world destruction. The silences are kept for necessary scenes, and the score is fitting like battle-like them from the show used in the Originals vs. Copies fights. And the scene with Satoshi turning to stone is different from the English version. It's not based on the Winds of Water legend from the 4Kids dub where when someone dies, the Pokémon tears are used revive them. Thankfully, it doesn't exist in the original. Satoshi was just paralyzed in a petrified state, and that the tears just purifies, and softens him. It's also a shame that any re-release of the Japanese version of the film is always the Kanzenban version, the Star Wars Special Edition of the movie. The hand drawn animation of the storm clouds to where the CGI is later used is really cool.

Although it's not my favorite Pokémon movie, but it is nice to get a chance to see the original version. I highly recommend you watching Japanese version while you can.

All I'm going to say that this season isn't the best, but not the worst. I think it's meant to take references from the past Precure shows like power-up cards, turning people into monsters to celebrate its 10th anniversary. I enjoy some minutes of it. The characters are passable as far as stories go.

The story is more sugar than the previous shows but have some humor, and plot and character development is done well.

The characters are OK. Megumi just barely knows what she's doing when she talks about love, even when she fills in as a leader. I don't hate her. Maybe it's because leaders ... in the Precure series are intentionally meant to steal the spotlight. Hime is a the best developed character than the Cures in the show. It must have took her 23 episodes for her to get over her mistake of opening Axia. Iona is awesome too, but I find her just pretty harsh towards Hime, even if Hime is partially responsible for what she done. It's really low when she made Hime cry that you'll might hate Cure Fortune. At least that changed when Iona finds out that Hime was tricked into letting evil loose in the world, making Iona feel more ashamed as Hime, which is getting even. Yuko talks nothing about food but not in a same way as Osshiwa.

The animation is done well, even some of the CGI in the EDs and attacks. And those self copies that appear inside Hime's and Megumi's mouth is unique as Siren from Suite Precure, like they're screaming on the top of their lungs.

Overall, I called this as a promising season of the Precure series that I know you'll like it. If you're a fan of Magical Girl animes that you don't care which of them is you're favorite, you're going to love this. 7.3/10