Hikaru Hoshina is an energetic middle school student with a love for space and the occult. As she draws constellations in her notebook, a small and fluffy creature suddenly appears from it! The creature, which she names Fuwa, turns out to be an alien with the ability to create warp holes.
When Fuwa's companions, the aliens Lala Hagoromo and Prunce, arrive on Earth, they declare that they are searching for the Precure, legendary warriors who will save the universe. But an organization known as the Notraiders soon follows and attacks, intending to capture Fuwa and its power. Overcome by a desire to protect Fuwa, Hikaru finds herself transforming into "Cure Star," one of the Precure that Lala and the others have been searching for!
It is now up to Hikaru and the rest to fend off the Notraiders' onslaught, discover the rest of the Precure, and find the Star Color Pens, artifacts that will awaken the 12 Star Princess who keep the universe in balance.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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CURE_WAVY
Star Twinkle Precure delivers a beautiful collage of art, music, and emotions that comes together to form something really special! The show follows the main girls on a galaxy spanning adventure, effortlessly switching between whimsical exploration, and slice of life comedy on one hand; and relatively dark and emotional stories involving loss, anger, and isolation on the other. All without missing a beat. The art is superb. The science-fiction designs feel fresh while comfortable, and the diverse settings of interstellar space are exploited well. But the standout is the character designs, especially Lala (who i'll return to) . The transformation sequences are STUNNING, amazingly cute andgraceful and the girls also sing while transforming which is beautiful and releases so much pent up emotion after a tense or dramatic episode. Hearing the precure's break out into song after 20 minutes of building emotional weight is an incredible catharsis, and enough to make me tear up.
Personally the girls other than Hikaru and Lala fall into the background for me. But it's a testament to how great this show is that Madoka, Elena, and even Blue-cat had scenes that excited, and moved me.
Hikaru's enthusiasm and curiosity is easy to take for granted at first, but by the end of the show I started to realize how serious she actually was, and she really started to make me feel something. Combined with her really cute character design, and lynch pin position on the shows cast, and character-dynamics she's a solid and important character that's executed well. I thought I had Hikaru's stereotypical character all figured out when I first saw her, but in the end she had me in tears on more than one occasion...
Lala had me from the start. Her character design is simply perfect, perfect color scheme, cute alien feelers, and her really cute outfits with her iconic loose yellow socks. Lala makes cute alien expressions like 'Lun~' and 'oyo~' which is very cute and charming. Her voice is really cute and expressive. There's about 100 different way's for Lala to say 'oyo' or 'lun' and they all make perfect sense, its amazing.
While Hikaru is right at home on earth, the whole time Lala is making a concerted effort to fit in, learn about human culture, and explore. She even enrolls in the school just for the experience. It's easy to forget and let Hikaru's enthusiasm and excitement outshine her, but Lala is a long way from home.
Lala's story is a great one, and her personality is also wonderful and inspiring. I don't think I'm really capable of expressing my love for Lala in this review, and it would be out of place to try lol.
Star twinkle precure is one of the only animes I can think of that can make me Laugh and Cry in the space of a single episode. And one of the only animes that managed to catapult one of its characters so deeply into my heart (LALA!!!!!). It's great and you should watch it.
ALso Kappard is sick and his arc is awesome, and his design is cool.
Luigithemetal64
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 subjectmatters 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)!
jademaxwell
Oh gosh, i'm crying. This is definitely one of my favourite precure series. First of all, i loved every character. Hikaru is crazy, funny, sweet, a nerd with the love for sci-fy, horror movies and above all space and constellations. She wants to meet other people, know other people, explore, imagine, she wants to investigate her own imagination. She's a one of a kind. Lala/ Cure Milky is one of the best precure in the entire franchise. She's an alien from the planet Samaan, and as soon as she open herself to other people and to her new life on earth, she decides to learn everything aboutterrestrial culture, language and traditions. She's shy, sweet, introverted, with a very big heart, ready to protect other people, but also very insecure, with low self esteem and always looking for others approval.
Madoka/Cure Selene is faithful to duty and to her father, but she's also doubting the power her father use on her. She wants to break free from her father obligations and in the end she decides to choose her own path and to free herself from her father control. She's melancholic, but also very strong.
Elena / Cure Soleil always masked her hesitation with a huge smile. She loves to see people smile and she put much effort into making people happy and smile, but she cares too much about other people's happiness and too less about herself.
In the end we have Cure Cosmo / Yuni. She lost her family and her planet due to one of the enemy's huge mistake and crime. At the beginning she's a thief, has many identities, and very stubborn and detached, but in the end she decided to change herself, to move on from the past, and in the journey to save her planet she become friends with the other girls and finally save her own planet.
The story is very simple but strong, cohesive and enjoyable.
I loved the creativity, the colours, the chara design, the music, the transformations, the Star Color Pendant and much more.
I also loved the enemies and their background.
If you are looking for a great and funny adventure, Star Twinkle is the series for you.
Cozye
The Precure franchise has been one that I have been struggling to get into for quite some time. My main issue always stemmed from its repetitive nature and monster of the week format that kept causing me to lose interest in each entry. But now having finished Star Twinkle, I finally understand that the series can be far more meaningful than this. Compared to the other Precure entries, this one has an outer space theme which immediately intrigued me. I generally enjoy stuff with space travel and themes about constellations and this show uses this concept well. The bulk of the show features our main characterstraveling from planet to planet gathering star color pens. What impressed me the most about this was that despite there being 12 pens total, the process of obtaining them did not feel tiresome. This has always been something that bothered me about the franchise. After a point, it always felt repetitive and samey but this show managed to avoid this issue. Every planet they go to has its own unique quirk that keeps things interesting. They all felt distinct from one another with their own set of unique aliens. Along the way, our characters grow and learn new things about these worlds and learn to appreciate them which plays into the shows themes.
Like most Precure, the characters in this show are all likable and we get to see them face their struggles and overcome them in meaningful ways. Lala adds an interesting dynamic to the story as she is an alien and has to learn to adjust to life on earth. It was interesting to see how a hypothetical alien viewed us from their eyes. Overcoming self doubt and learning to understand other species are prevalent throughout the show. There is ample time spent on the girls' development and we also get to understand the villains in the story with time to sympathize. These emotional tempos are felt especially so in the second half as our characters are set to find their own hidden powers. Another positive aspect was the plot device usage of the fluffy creature who in this case is named Fuwa. They never felt like an annoyance in the story nor did they feel like an overwhelming burden that took away valuable screentime from the other characters.
Aside from the outer space theme, what really sold me on this series are its visuals. Yes all Precure shows look great in their own right but this one has a vibrant lighting and coloring to it that made it absolutely stunning to look at. The transforming sequences are gorgeous which showcased the new-age aesthetic of modern day Precure. The song they sung during these made them all the more upbeat and enticing which added to the excitement during these moments. The character designs are all markedly well designed and stand out. The aliens and princesses all looked interesting too. Overall a stunning show to look at from start to finish. The sound and music also stood out to me and were utilized well playing into the mysterious yet adventurous tone of the show.
Overall this may have been the most enjoyable Precure I've seen. The usage of the outer space theme was executed well and the plot stayed fresh without feeling overly repetitive. While this may not be everyone’s favorite Precure, it managed to do many things right that set itself apart. The combination of stunning visuals and endearing cast sold me on this series as something more than worth the time to watch.
Arboria
When deciding how good a series like Star Twinkle is you've got to think: are you comparing it to other Precure series, or are you comparing it to anime as a whole? I won't sugar coat it, compared to some other Precure series Star Twinkle isn't as good. But in the end it's still Precure. It's fun, it has cute girls, it has action, it's really easygoing and heartwarming and will make you laugh and cry. On the spectrum of the entire medium, Star Twinkle is great. Hikaru is really cute and it was a lot of fun going on a fifty episode ride with herand the other girls. Seeing different planets was really adventurous and fun. Back on earth you get the typical episodes of people resolving their social issues which can be very relatable at times. There were some really awesome villains, Kappard in particular is one of my favorite Precure villains hands down. The man is just so darned handsome, and he uses a freakin lightsaber it's awesome. Most of the finishers were kind of lame in my opinion but the henshin sequences were top notch. Lala is a really cute character that is complemented well by slapstick humor. Lots of random funny episodes, was hilarious watching Madoka's dad get gaslit by a bunch of children. There are a lot of things to like about Star Twinkle, and it's not as if it's the worst Precure series by any means.
I'll say that it might not be the best Precure series to start with. You've got things like Heartcatch and Smile to that end. But if you've already watched some Precure and are looking for more, you could do worse than watch Star Twinkle. You'll definitely enjoy it a lot if you like Hikaru or Lala.
CureChronos
(This review may contain spoilers. Please don't read until you've watched the whole season.) Star Twinkle Precure to me is a very controversial place to be in the Precure franchise. I even went through a bit of an identity crisis in what I am seeking when watching shows I love during the season's running. While this season has definitely become my favorite season in the show, claiming that it's the best season would be quite a bold statement. Story: 7/10 Star Twinkle is, unfortunately, an example of a brilliant idea with subpar execution. Although, I very much enjoyed the first half of the season (Recovery of the StarPalace arc). This season had quite a nice dynamic between the Cures and seeing their early friendship is light-hearted. I also loved the space exploration twist of the season as it provided with intriguing and glitterific content.
However, once we entered the Twinkle Imagination arc, things started going downhill. The dynamics of the team seemed to have lost its touch, with how the team seemed to have shifted into deeper dynamics with a specific other or just going solo. The main mascot of the series, Fuwa, strangely became less of the typical fairy you'd see in Precure and the show even blatantly addressed her reason for existence as a tool, not an actual fairy, in the finale. Despite the gold quality of the five Cures' Twinkle Imagination episodes, especially Lala's, it wasn't enough to save the awkward mistake of a lack of buildup and lack of consistent quality in the season.
But in general, I won't say it's terrible, it's just there's so much they can improve on.
Art: 8/10
When I had a first look at the animation for Star Twinkle, I was very intrigued and pleased. When I did watch the series, it didn't really disappoint at all. I love the effort put into so many other worlds the team explores in the series even if they only accounted for just one episode. The design of the Cures grew on me as many other seasons did and most of the art just gives me a pleasant feeling overall, except when the scenes are meant to be emotional.
One tiny bone to pick here would be the fight scenes because to be fair they could've been better, and I'm kinda annoyed how the final attack in the finale wasn't a special one like many other seasons, but already revealed in an episode as early as 32.
Sound: 10/10
This season had amazing background music and the SFX was on point. Everything was quite smooth, so nothing much to say here.
Character: 8/10
Okay. Here's the most controversial part of the season and why everyone hates this season. First, let's talk about Hikaru. Hikaru being the pink cure stereotype, you'd think she would get the most and most profound development, right? Nope! Apparently they yeeted her character out the window and Lala is the actual leader imo! What a shocker, right??? XD
The season had quite an unstable distribution of character development. As I said, Hikaru's character is straight up thrown out the window and that's kinda bad when she's supposed to be the leader??? And she's in the role to point out the theme of the season??? XD
Next, we have the two third-year students. I personally liked the development of both these Cures respectively but Madoka's felt off and awkwardly flat from time to time. Elena's development was very stable throughout the season and all her episodes were very good.
Then the two alien Cures, which were the absolute highlight of the season. Lala is amazing and her Twinkle Imagination episode is the best episode of the season imo. Lala's growth throughout the season was very well done and very heartwarming at times. Yuni's development was quite good too but that suffered from her being a sixth ranger and her rushed backstory.
Finally, a short note for the fairies. HOLY CRAP, the wasted potential for Puruns and the horrible execution of Fuwa. Puruns is a helpful sidekick for the Cures and gave them guidance, but not much more than that. Fuwa is an even bigger problem- Her character development was not good and there isn't that feeling where the whole team had an extremely strong bond with her like Hugtto. With that in mind, her revival in the finale felt unnecessary and her sacrifice was not captivating enough in the slightest.
Despite the criticisms, though, there are a lot of good moments in this department so there's my score.
Enjoyment: 10/10
So, after all that, I still love this season to the max.
I really love light-hearted stories and characters that I feel like I can be friends with and trust. This season definitely delivered. Seeing the main cast grow was a very pleasant and relaxing ride overall.
And as I mentioned, I love the space exploration part of the story. It brought something truly unique to the franchise and makes this season stand out.
Everything was just the right sauce to brighten up my day no matter what, which is what my conclusion to my identity crisis was- I watch shows and cartoons for the sake of enjoyment, and acknowledging that made me fell in love with the charm of this season and the franchise as a whole.
Overall: 8.1/10
Star Twinkle is definitely not a season for introducing people to the Precure franchise and for long time fans, also not really the best the series can do. But for me, it was a great journey nonetheless and something I can rewatch to remind myself why I love to watch cartoons despite my coming of age.
Of course, don't take my word for it, since I was a bit lenient here.
ZettaiRyouiki
Warning: Spoilers! Why is this franchise still around? I’m not being facetious here, I genuinely want to know this. This was a franchise built on friendship and cool fights, and now the cool fights are gone, the friendship thing has less weight each time for some reason, and the quality of the previous two seasons was nonexistent. Meanwhile Aikatsu is on its last legs, despite being a far better franchise. How unfair. But this isn’t the topic for that. Welcome to the Star Twinkle review by everyone’s favorite caustic reviewer. Star Twinkle is a step on the right direction compared to KiraKira and Hugtto, but only because whenyou hit the bottom there’s nowhere to go but up. The plotline is simple enough: the universe is gonna be destroyed unless our plucky heroines gather 12 Star Pens and revive the Star Princesses to fix this mess. Seems Toei realized the more “intricate” storylines of DokiDoki/GoPri/Hugtto were terrible and decided to keep things simple which frankly is a wise move. There are a few twists and surprises during the way but that’s basically it. It works, there’s no big plotholes nor issues, good so far.
The characters are… mixed bag. Most are alright, but the pink Cure and the baby mascot are terrible. Did I mention they hog much of the screentime? Why do you keep doing this, Toei?
Anyway. Hikaru is the pink Cure and she’s plain terrible. Loud, obnoxious, childish, and utterly annoying, Hikaru encapsulates the worst traits of pink Cures in a twintailed package. Her catchphrase is dumb and forced and gets thrown in all the time, to ear-shattering points. Her plotline is also barely touched on, and while it shows she could’ve been a better character… She’s not. Lala is the GREEN Cure who doesn’t look green because for whatever reason Toei hates green. She’s an alien and has cute verbal tics and is serious but earnest and overall one of the best girls in the show. She deserves being the most popular Cure this season. Shame after the plot featuring her home planet she becomes background noise, aside from the movie. Erena with R is the yellow Cure and she’s basically Nao from Smile but with dark skin. She spends most of the season being a walking prop though once they remember to give her focus her storyline isn’t too bad and is linked to the main plot even. I still don’t get why they did 3 plots about discrimination in 4 episodes but sure. Madoka is the purple Cure and much like Erena is Nao then Madoka is Reika because the season about imagination lacks any. Seriously, change the strict grandpa for a strict dad and you get Madoka. Both even have the same plotline which just screams lazy and shows how little Toei cares about her. Finally there’s Yuni the blue Cure that joins “halfway”, more like 40% in now, and she’s a weird one. Not her personality, which is fine and dandy, but rather she appears somewhat late and then joins in a rather shoehorned way and barely gets focus outside her spotlight episodes. It’s almost like Murayama had the plot outline done and his editor said “Dude, you forgot the mid-season Cure” and he then just went “Oh shi-“ and shoved her in rather haphazardly. But no way is Toei that incompetent, right?
For other characters, we have Prunce and Fuwa the two mascots. Prunce is cool and thus gets treated like dirt. Fuwa is annoying and she gets put on a pedestal. Yeah. The various family members and friends of the Cures are all fine, except Hikaru’s dad who is basically just as annoying and obnoxious as his daughter down to the stupid catchphrase. Luckily he’s only in two episodes. The villains are cool though, and they even make good points about things which is either really good writing or really bad one. The jury’s out on this one. Still, all in all it’s not a bad cast.
The sound is fine. I could do without Hikaru screaming “KIRAYABAAAAAA” every five seconds and the OP and ED all feel identical to previous ones. But if it ain’t broken don’t fix it.
As for the art, the designs of the characters are good. The main girls are all cute and easily recognizable, the villains have a youkai patter which is pretty neat, and there’s no real issue here. However the fights are subpar and among the worst in the franchise. Too much beamspam, not enough physical contact. Even the final battles are 90% beamspam. It’s not even COOL beamspam, since they reuse stock animation all the time. Boring!
All in all, Star Twinkle is not one of the strongest entries in the franchise. It’s a decent entry point, and if you wanna watch everything PreCure it won’t be the worst part of that, but the glory days of Splash Star and Fresh and Heartcatch are long gone. A pity about that.
PD: Haircuts are the worst.
Makabakacos
K to keep it short; Star Twinkle was a good series. At points, I did find myself forcing my way through it though but honestly was worth it. (I love you so much Lala) The story was good but by no means incredible. At points I had an "oh god is this gonna be like Mahou precure?" feeling. But heck it's a kids anime about a girl who loves space and uses imagination. Precure art just gets better every season and Star Twinkle is no exception. It's beautiful. I have all the endings, and the opening downloaded on my phone. AND COSMIC MYSTERY GIRL IS A BOP. LIKE JFCWHOEVER WROTE THAT WAS A GENIUS.
I loved all the girls and characters but there was definitely a lot more thought put into Lala and Hikaru over the other 3 girls. I only really started to care for Madoka and Elena near the end. And Yuni was great but her character surrounded one plot and I don't feel she really got fleshed out.
Overall the ending made me cry so I say I enjoyed the series enough to get attached.
Miguling
(This review is spoiler-free!) Ahh, Star Twinkle. The anime that could, but didn't. After the ambitious Hugtto, Star Twinkle certainly had a tough act to follow. However, with the theme of imagination being advertised, one could expect something incredibly grand coming out of it. However, it... Just didn't happen as expected. Unlike Hugtto which pushed limits of its own genre by virtue of celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of the PreCure franchise, it appears that Star Twinkle has decided falling back to the tradition. While tradition's a safe bet and makes Star Twinkle fulfill the role it was meant to play, there's little that's outstanding, here, which makes itdoubly ironic when the overarching theme of the season makes it imply otherwise.
Let's crack down on the details.
Story: 3/10
The plotline is basic: Notrayders are an evil faction who want to take over the universe, in particular a small little fluffy creature that the main protagonist, Hikaru, names Fuwa. Then, the cures gather up one by one and begin a space adventure to retrieve the lost Princess Star Color Pens and save the universe!
And that's it! It's a mostly linear storyline, really. It occasionally attempts to be compounded by character development moments, but they fall flat most of the time, as the vast expanse of the universe truly invited to great and epic adventures, which Star Twinkle does manage to do, but in an awkward, very awkward pacing. Some moments might catch someone off-guard, but otherwise it's a very, very basic plotline with little surprises to be had; And those that the anime attempts end up falling flat.
The ending doesn't help things either, unfortunately; As you get closer to the end, everything feels all over the place and rushed. It seems like they tried to cram what would've been better as a season's worth of development into less than 10 episodes, which is really less than ideal for an anime that spans over an entire year.
For a series all about imagination, this is particularly hurtful.
Art: 7/10
The art certainly doesn't disappoint. Fantastic cure outfits this season around, and incredible visuals for attacks. One of the attacks of the season, in fact, is currently my favorite visually! The transformation scenes are also very artistically appealing, and the background art is incredibly tasteful! The space theme is truly the sparkly goodness they wanted to convey.
However, there's one major downfall - Stock footage. It's used in borderline excess, here! Even towards the final fights, you'll find stock footage there, and tons of it! It's just time-wasting, and furthermore, the fluidity of the transformation and special attack scenes looks plain odd when put against the standard style of animation in normal fight scenes or day-to-day life. Even with the quality of the art, this flaw is really crippling.
Sound: 6/10
First in PreCure: The cures sing during their transformation theme! This time around, the song was designed for them to sing around it, and soon enough, the quartet forms and the full song is made! While this is truly an original twist, it might take some time for a veteran of PreCure transformation scenes to get used to, but trust me - you'll catch yourself humming along at some point.
Otherwise, my personal opinion is that the rest of the soundtrack fails to be as impressive. There's a clear attempt to use electronic instruments to convey the futuristic theme of space, but it tends to clash with the occasional use of more classic instruments, and not in the best of ways, unfortunately.
Character: 2/10
When it takes nearly 40 episodes for one of the leads to get actual development, there's a problem.
It was Hugtto's strong point, but Star Twinkle utterly failed here in my opinion. Now, characters being undeveloped wouldn't have been a complicated issue if they'd willingly kept it that way, making it that characterization would have been irrelevant in scoring the anime; However, they fatally attempted to toss characterization moments in some episodes to try and get more involved in the cast. However, it just turns out to be extremely off-schedule, and this characterization tends to be reverted back to its initial state later on, which makes you wonder what was the point in the first place.
When the cures are pushed into corners, there's borderline an echo chamber forming where they simply re-state their resolve with little variation. When there's no character development to be had, the cures, instead, work as the typical adventure team - which, in my opinion, fits the mood of the anime better.
The rating wouldn't be that low if they hadn't tried to cram a season's worth of development into a pocketful of ending episodes - At some point, you just want them to get on with it already and settle on how they want to handle their characters!
Enjoyment: 3/10
Yeah, the anime had me yawning towards the final episodes. It was fun on the first ones, but as it went on and it cemented its own personal characteristics, the cake ended up tasting surprisingly weird underneath the fancy coating. It does its job, though - but it's certainly not enough for a demanding person like me.
Let's hope Healin' Good will bring some NOVELTY! Some SUSPENSE! Some things that WEREN'T ATTEMPTED BEFORE! Hey, the lead cure is adorable, though, that's a good start.
BlueAkhekh
This is just gonna be an abbreviated version of a review, because I'm honestly pretty surprised that people are giving this season such high scores. This season is kind of a garbage fire and falls into the exact same pits as Kirakira does Good Points: +Character design is on point; all characters read well and their costumes are gorgeous +Art direction is overall super solid +Transformations look very nice (at least half of them), and they SING during it, which is way too catchy for its own good +Speaking of music, it checks out! Has some slapping tracks just as with the previous seasons since they share composerAnd that's honestly really it, now-
Bad Points:
-Characters don't really have any development during the show at all. They kind of tease you about it sometimes, but in the end, characters never really grow or improve in the slightest
-The novelty of them being in space wears out super quick, because it doesn't really change how they fight or interact with the villains, it really seems like a waste of potential
-The fights are super boring. All 5 cures have a special attack of their own that they always perform, so you always see the same cutscenes over and over again, which drag the fights on way too much
-The animation sucks pretty stinking hard. A lot of fights have very little detail to them or are straight-up stills of the characters. I can't remember any episodes having memorable fights, unlike some Hugtto! ones
-The reason the cures fight seems really disjointed. It would've been really easy for them to say "I fight because I want to protect the universe", but they all say that they "want to protect" the fairy of the show, which is...strange? it's just a plushie that all it does is just kinda stand there
-I'm pretty sure the writers don't know what "Imagination" is, because the bad guys are supposed to harvest it, yet I only recall one single episode in which a character actually has their imagination taken away
-The slice of life parts of the story kinda try to seem interesting, but in the end, they're all dropped by the writers and nothing really happens out of them
All in all, extremely weak season, and pretty objectively so. Nothing that happens in it is entertaining in the slightest. I wouldn't call it **boring**, it's just very...inoffensive. It tries nothing new, and nothing in it stands out at all (or is good) aside from probably the transformations.
Not worth the watch at all.
MetaThPr4h
New year, new Precure, Star Twinkle gave us a new entry to this wonderful series that while I personally didn't enjoy as much as others, it's still well worth checking out. The story starts when Hikaru Hosnina, a cheerful girl who absolutely adores space and stars, one day, to her complete surprise (and excitement, damn she's excited about it!) A rocket suddenly lands close to her, inside is something that will change her life: an alien named Lala together with the two mascots of this entry, Prunce and Fuwa, who are searching for help to save the universe from the villains of this series. Soon afterHikaru becomes a Precure, bringing a start to this story of massive scale.
One of the highlight from this entry is Hikaru and Lala's friendship and development they go through due to their contrasts in personalities and ways to see things they have, and the other two main characters, until later on, the main cast is completed with Elena, a very hardworking girl who brings a smile to everyone, and Kaguya, who suffers a lot from familiar pressure due to their long history and expectations put on her. They are both likeable characters and I especially liked Kaguya, but outside of at the start, Elena suffers from getting spotlight episodes really late into the series when to me it was quite out of time already to truly get attached to her.
The villain side was quite promising as well with every general providing different strategies to face the Precure, like Kappard focusing on melee fight while Tenjo uses minions to execute coordinated attacks for example. This gave quite some variety compared to other entries, but in the end, outside of just how meme-likeable Kappard is just by personality and design, the villain side this entry felt pretty weak to me, with Eyeone, who was quite annoying to me at the start ending being the kinda redemption on that regard due to her development and own drama through the series. To be fair this also was a point quite hard for Star Twinkle to shine on due to having to deal with the shadow of last year's Hugtto's Precure, an entry that just nailed that part to the max for the franchise to me.
Going back to the space adventures, together with the usual slice of life interactions of the franchise, in this entry the girls also travel to different planets, which were probably the best moments of this series, meeting characters from those places and seeing their way to be was a lot of fun and I would honestly have been in for the whole series to be going from one place to another, but it was perfectly fine with this mix of normal SoL and adventure as well.
I love the art style of this entry and I especially have nothing but praise towards the amazing character designs. Lala was love at first sight once leaks of how the characters looked appeared and she easily places on a top spot as one of my favorite character designs, with the rest of the main cast not being too much below her.
The action scenes started with very solid quality, although overall I think that Star Twinkle was kinda in the lower end of Precure in terms of animation quality in general, with not too many impressive moments and mostly just good enough looking to be appealing. The music was nice as expected of Yuuki Hayashi (Boku no Hero, Haikyuu, Shokugeki… and well, KiraKira and Hugtto Precure), always delivering hype and emotions to the scenes.
Compared to the preliminary review I had of this series I'm not as positive as I was, but Star Twinkle was still a fun year that I can recommend to the fans of the franchise, althought I would suggest others (which I also have reviewed here!) To try instead if you want to give a chance to Precure.
RealYRC
This season is space theme of course , Star Twinkle Precure , is it as good as Hug Tto ! Precure ? Yes , actually is just as good , the plot for the 12 zodiac Princesses with our heroines are about to journey to space battling with the alien villains too , they got some bumps down the road , with characters interacting with selfs , and some of the villains also got the spotlight , the plot twist is somewhat out of nowhere if you don’t know the zodiac all that well , this is a Shoujo Saint Seiya , maybea modern Sailor Moon ? Highly Recommend this season of Precure , also this is the season with the Mexican cure Cure Soleil , the ending is pretty warming too
Grain_of_Salt
To someone unsure about where to start with Precure, I feel that Star Twinkle is a good place to start. It shows a lot of the franchise's strengths without really specializing in one area. Star Twinkle has a fun overall cast. Each character is given ample screentime and development. No cast member is the BEST Precure character but they play well together...and then there's Yuni. I never really felt she enjoyed hanging out with the group beyond serving her needs. Which is fine for a character except during the moments we have to act like we're close. But disregarding that, Hikaru and Lala are a veryfun duo, and Elena and Madoka are as well. Precure lives and dies on the chemistry between its leads, and I think Star Precure has enough likeable traits among them. Initially I was a little put off by Hikaru's voice, but I got used to it.
The designs, both civilian and Precure, are very appealing. I love Cure Star's planet buns at the end of her pigtails. The enemy is also a little stronger written than some Precure. Not every story needs compelling villains but we do a decent job at giving some depth and backstory to them, as well as pairing off MOST of them with their relevant Precure for thematic fights. I also really like that each one has a different method of attacking/energy drain. It's very rare in magical girls to have the villains do that, but I appreciate when it's done.
As far as the lore and imagery of the series goes, conceptually I love it. Space and drawn imagination? It feels catered to my childhood interests. And I like that we do go to different planets a decent number of times rather rather just defending against aliens. But at the same time this is also where it gets weaker for me. I really feel we dropped the ball on the Star Princesses and zodiac powers. Gaining the pens never changed attacks or tactics in a meaningful way, and it feels written by someone who used the zodiac as a set dressing rather than did the research to use them in a better way. I am aware of the movie designs utilizing them better, but I wish we did something in series too. This by no means made the series bad, but considering how many areas do have little touches of love, I was surprised the main focus did not.
I also feel the finale and post-finale episode of Star Twinkle were very good. There are Precure with casts I might like better, but sometimes the finales are iffy or just passable. But I felt the finale had good emotional weight. However, most worthy of praise is the post-finale episode we've began adding in newer Precure to tease the following season. In some seasons this feels forced, and initially I wasn't thrilled to see the girls' final sacrifice rolled back so simply. But the reveal at the end and recontextualizing of it was actually really smart and endearing, in a very have your cake and eat it too way. Overall I ended the series feeling quite a lot of fondness and catharsis for the characters even despite the occasional batches of weaker episodes (which most Precure have, I'm not demonizing Star Twinkle for not being perfect 24/7).
Overall, Star Twinkle felt cohesive and fun in its narrative, as well as successfully finishing the story it set out to tell...which isn't something I can say about all Precure. Nothing really stood out as BEST PRECURE and it had weaker episodes, choices, and such. But nothing about Star Twinkle is particularly bad, either, I never was upset by a choice the show made. It does some things well, and most everything adequately. Because of this, I would say it succeeded both as a show and as a potential gateway into Precure if you aren't sure where to start. It isn't so high concept, nothing will get your expectations ruined for other shows, but it also is enjoyable enough that if Precure is something you'd like, you'll probably enjoy watching this show. To anyone who is confused why Inwould say this and then rate 7, I personally feel like there is no shame in a 7 rating, your show was still good.
