Keep your feet and knees together. Aside from that, you're on your own.

The first episode of each new Pretty Cure iteration tends to be good. Even by that metric, the first episode of Hirogaru Sky! Precure is very promising. It also confirms the franchise is exploring uncharted territory in its 20th year. First of all, its lead character is not a Japanese girl. For another thing, Sora's battle costume corresponding with her mahou shoujo form has a blue theme. Promotional materials for the series have also confirmed Hirogaru Sky! Precure will include a male Cure (a 12-year-old boy) and an "adult" Cure (she's 18), although there have technically been older Cures—and numerous Cures only a year younger—in the past.

Don't let her land on your head, Mashiro.

Taxonomy disputes as to who is entitled to be an According to Hoyle Pretty Cure are not new. Viewers who have followed Pretty Cure from the beginning will recall Shiny Luminous, Kaoru, Michiru, and Milky Rose were effectively Cures in all but name, but lacked the official moniker presumably because they were not Japanese girls. Cure Passion broke this barrier at the midpoint of Fresh Pretty Cure! in 2009. Questions as to when there would be a male Cure have dogged the franchise for years. After all, a robot, two space aliens, and a mermaid were all allowed to become Cures. They weren't even human!

Unfortunately, Sky does actually smile a lot during her transformation.

As far as the whole pink Cure thing goes, I feel as if that was only established starting from the fourth year of Pretty Cure. However, it became important enough for some fans that they will retroactively insist Shiny Luminous is a "Yellow" (because of her hair and predominantly defensive role) despite being the only member of the Max Heart trio with an unquestionably pink-themed battle costume. Assuming Cure Prism does not usurp the lead role from Cure Sky, this would be rejection of a convention that has become regarded as traditional.

"I want you to hit me as hard as you can."

It's too early yet for me to claim Hirogaru Sky! Precure will be good, but I am optimistic about its chances. At a minimum the determination and bravery Sora displayed during the first episode points the series in the right direction. My enduring convictions about Pretty Cure as a franchise are predicated on the themes established during its nascent beginnings. Namely, that the series should concentrate on youths embracing Hope and Courage. Consequently, I was baffled that Delicious Party♡Precure devoted so many of its episodes (including the show's climactic arc!) to the exchange of grievances between various adult male characters. Let's not do that again.

I'm dismayed I know so little about Secretoru even after 38 episodes.

Typically, when I lose interest in a series, I'll still say that it's fine and it's just that the show doesn't align with what I want to watch at the moment. Well, Delicious Party♡Precure is not fine. I don't really want to say that it's "bad," but I've watched a lot of children's anime, and this installment of Pretty Cure is uninspired, even for (especially for?) a kids' show. There's just not really a reason to watch it, I'm afraid.

Adults in Pretty Cure should be adversaries or appear only sparingly.

Delicious Party♡Precure doesn't do anything really objectionable, but perhaps that's its problem. The no-stakes way it handled Amane's Cure Finale arc is indicative of the show's broader problems. It doesn't really provide any reason for me to think anything that happens matters at all, and there's an unavoidable sense of arbitrariness and randomness to the storylines that make me wonder if writers are just punting any time there's a potential conflict and treating any obvious questions as unimportant nitpicks. I, at least, feel this contributes to my sense nothing matters, even within the narrow confines of a Pretty Cure series.

At least two things wrong with the series are visible in this screenshot.

I suppose I'm compelled to make at least one food-based reference, so I guess I'll say Delicious Party♡Precure is neither a hearty meal nor a junk food snack. It's mostly just sort of bland and thin without any genuine substance or taste. There are still enough episodes remaining for the series to potentially pull off a strong finish, but it's looking almost certain now it will displace HappinessCharge Precure! as my least favorite installment of the franchise.

Eat more carbs.

Through 17 episodes, Delicious Party♡Precure is fine, thanks to a well-understood formula that such a long-running franchise can reliable draw upon, but there's not much else going for it. It's starting to look like Delicious Party is going to end up closer to the HappinessCharge side of the scale than its predecessor, Tropical-Rouge! Precure, for example.

Take this job and shove it.

Still, 17 episodes isn't particularly far for a weekly series that runs all year, so perhaps the show will turn things around. There are a few aspects that reduce my optimism in this regard, though. Significantly, it turns out the adversary who eventually switches sides to become a Cure herself has been under some sort of mind control the whole time, so she never really did anything wrong. How they fucked this up, I have no idea.

Gentle's outfit is so good.

Enemies becoming friends has been a Pretty Cure staple from the beginning. But the cliché continues to work because viewers still care about character growth and redemption arcs. Taking this agency out of Amane's actions reduces her motivation for joining the Cures to one mostly predicated on undeserved guilt. It's not her fault she was stealing recipes. She wasn't even any good at it!

I don't know if it's better or worse that Black Pepper's battle costume looks silly.

I'm also not a huge fan of the male characters in Delicious Party♡Precure. This is an area where the franchise has not excelled. I'm sure there are viewers who enjoy Rosemary and Takumi and find their contributions to be important and satisfying, but I sure don't. It's not uncommon for Pretty Cure to include prominent male protagonists in various guises, but nothing about these two make me think they are necessary or valuable so far.

Momo puts up with a lot of stuff she doesn't care about.

Machikado Mazoku: 2-Choume (The Demon Girl Next Door 2) and Komi-san wa, Komyushou desu. 2 (Komi Can't Communicate 2nd Season) both pick up where their first seasons left off. In that respect, it's basically more of the same for these sequels. In my case, I am fully on board with both of these shows because they're fuckin' great.

You can tell she's not serious because she's not using her dominant hand.

In particular, I enjoy the way Kitou Akari delivers her lines as Momo in Machikado Mazoku. Maybe I don't have any reason to know how Momo should sound, but her deadpan and somewhat tired way of speaking goes a long way towards convincing me she really is a veteran magikal girl who has already saved the world at least once and is now sort of slumming it without much enthusiasm in the world she protected.

I appreciate "anxious Shouko" more than "hot Shouko," but I'm pretty sure everyone does.

In contrast, Shouko, the titular Komi-san, is basically in a constant state of anxiety, but her struggles and the reactions of those around her continue to amuse me. I wouldn't characterize the anime as a must-watch series necessarily, but it is done well and I do find Shouko herself and some of the members of her menagerie enjoyable to watch, so I'm glad the show got a second cours.

I feel like the mascot should at least have a helmet.

There have been five episodes of Delicious Party♡Precure so far, but it's been two weeks since the last episode, and current projections estimate it will be at least another two more before episode six airs. (Toei is reportedly delaying the broadcast as it assesses the extent of a cybersecurity breach.) As a result, the third Cure of the initial trio has been left waiting in the wings. Her character hasn't even really been properly introduced yet. She's only appeared in minor scenes, typically involving her meals being ruined.

Miss Not Appearing In This Show.

Although there is no rigid formula, Pretty Cure has commonly introduced its main cast fairly quickly. The lead Cure will get her powers in the first episode, another girl will become a Pretty Cure in the second episode, and so forth. In the case of Delicious Party♡Precure (based on the titles of the upcoming episodes), it doesn't appear the third girl (Ran) will get her powers until episode seven, maybe in the middle of April if all goes well. It's not a huge delay for a series that runs for a full year, but it's still nearly two months later than the norm.

Nice hat.

On the plus side, the character design for Pretty Cure's first-round adversary this season (voiced by Kayano Ai), is a GAME-BREAKING HOME RUN. Just look at that outfit! So good. I do think that her name, Gentle (ジュントルー), is sort of silly, even though I was totally okay with past names such as Bunbee, for example. I keep hearing that Gentle is supposed to be somewhat of a pacifist (and she did make a statement sort of against violence in an early episode), but I'm not seeing this reflected in the battles from the first five episodes. Maybe what she really means is she won't straight-up punch Cure Yum-Yum in the mouth, assuming Cure Yum-Yum ever joins this show.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Cure Earth's transformation hasn't been integrated with the other three.

There have been five Healin' Good ♡ Precure episodes already featuring Cure Earth and I still find her presence entirely pointless. Mid-season additions to the Pretty Cure franchise aren't always popular. Maybe everyone liked Cure Passion (because she's fuckin' awesome, okay), but there were definitely viewers who were less receptive toward Regina when she became Mana's friend and started absorbing screen time in Dokidoki! Precure.

Lot of scenes showing Cure Earth saving the others.

Granted, I am well outside the target demographic of the Pretty Cure franchise (i.e., little Japanese girls), but I'm struggling to identify anything Cure Earth brings to the show. You would think her arrival sets up a variety of fish-out-of-water scenarios, but this isn't even like the alien girl trying to adjust to traditional anime society in Star☆Twinkle Precure. Asumi (what Cure Earth is calling herself when she isn't calling herself "Cure Ass") is a cipher whose main characteristic is not having any characteristics. It doesn't make her particularly compelling. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe little Japanese girls are actually huge fans of Cure Earth, but that would come as a big surprise.