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Dated 8 June 2021: Tropical-Rouge! Precure is an average installment of the franchise, but that means it's pretty good

Laura
Just so you know, this is canon.

Is it racist to regard the mermaid character as the mascot of Tropical-Rouge! Precure? Because I'm gonna. The way I see it, Coco and Nuts from Yes! Precure 5 were both definitely mascots, even though they had human forms. (I think it's more appropriate to consider Milk and Syrup as sidekicks instead of mascots, but that's a digression.) Based on that precedent, I don't think it's inappropriate to also consider Laura as the team's mascot, even though she's more humanoid than, say, Hummy or Tarte.

Laura
It's lucky for the mermaid that the school and the city have so many canals.

I can see how someone might take issue with the mascot category in its entirety, due to various interpretations and implications of what "mascot" means. Some people like to refer to these sort of Pretty Cure characters as fairies, but that's clearly inappropriate here. Fairy is a biological designation which happens to apply to most of the mascots, but certainly would not apply to Laura. Mascot is a role, not a race. See, for example, the Phillie Phanatic, the San Diego Chicken, or Tainan's fish thing, Sababoy.

Laura, Minori, Manatsu, and Sango
Playing "Hide the Mermaid" is a good recurring gag.

In any case, Laura is pretty great, and a significant reason why Tropical-Rouge! Precure is so good. Really, all of the characters are enjoyable, but that's basically the norm when it comes to Pretty Cure characters in general. I like the unmotivated villains as well, even if sometimes they're a little too relatable. Through 15 episodes, if I were to rack and stack it along with the previous generations, Tropical-Rouge! ends up in the middle, but among some good company. It's a testament to how many exceptional years this franchise has produced so far that it doesn't place higher.

Dated 21 September 2021: Tropical-Rouge! Precure? Still good

Cure Flamingo and Cure Papaya
I appreciate how quick Cure Papaya is with them eye beams.

We're past the halfway point now for Tropical-Rouge! Precure and it continues to do basically everything right. One of the things it does right is not sweating details that don't matter. Like why Shrimp Chris is dragging around a pail underwater. How does that even work? Or what's the deal with the mermaid's clothes? Are those ruffles actually part of her body? Can she hear better now that she has ears?

Chongire, Elda, and Numeri
Child labor.

Tropical-Rouge! Precure is also happy to ignore its cosmetics gimmick most of the time, although it does re-appear often enough that I imagine it probably still moves merchandise. Remember when First Pretty Cure had that whole thing with cards being swiped in magic cell phones in the beginning? Maybe they had to abandon it when the cards all went to pin-and-chip infrastructure that proved incompatible with Mepple and Mipple.

Asuka
For a show about motivation, Tropical-Rouge! Precure is fairly quiet about Asuka's motivation.

One thing that Tropical-Rouge! Precure glosses over, though, is why Asuka is still slumming with these dorks. She doesn't have that much in common with them outside of their weekly battles with demotivating invaders from the sea. I guess it's not that different from the dynamic previously found in Yes! Precure 5, but I also feel like Karen and Komachi had more of a reason to hang out with the rest of the Yes! crew than Asuka does with the Tropical-Rouge! squad. In any case, I'm glad she's there.