Lastly we have Amane, who, while a little derivative of Cure Parfait in my opinion, manages to stand on her own. She is again more Western themed, but gives off a feeling of being the lady of the house, or a hostess of a party, rather than one of the servants, which suits her as the mid-season Cure. I sort of wish they had gone with a less Western style outfit, maybe a fusion of the other three's outfits, but I'm not really sure what the best solution is. As it is, she makes me feel like the trio looks a little unbalanced. More on my problems with Amane later.

The CooKingdom characters are also well designed, and while they all wear a uniform, they wear it in enough different styles to let their character shine through without becoming too complicated. You can take one look at Rosemary and know what he's about; he's quite stylish with his coat thrown over his shoulders, his heels, and his scarf, but he's still quite practical. He's a nice balance between a character like Fennel, who wears very little ornamentation, and Ginger and Cinnamon, who are both very flashy.

Lastly we have the Bundoru gang. I also really love their character designs! They play upon classic Phantom Thief visuals (Gentlu and Narcistoru especially) while still having their own flair that reminds me a bit of villains like Bowser. I really like the way Secretoru's leather jacket over her shoulders contrasts with her more proper office-like outfit, and Narcistoru's whole... everything... is just pure catnip to me. It took me until writing to realize it, but the bone detail on their outfits might be a nod to Ginger's outfit!

That said... as inspiring as their visuals are, many of the characters leave a lot to be desired.

Unfortunately, that's as good as Yui gets. She has a few more good moments, especially early in the series, and in the finale, but besides that, she's reduced to repeating her catchphrase and acting as some minor comic relief. She is endlessly cheerful, barring a few exceptions, which is sort of disappointing, given how much more dramatic attention I felt could have been given to her grandmother's death.

Fuwa Kokone/Cure Spicy
I like Kokone, but I find her quite disappointing. She has a very cute design, and I really enjoyed seeing her struggle with social anxiety, both with connecting to her friends and to her parents, and I thought the scene where she forgets her bento was very sweet. Unfortunately, she doesn't get to have any real impact on any part of the main plot, so I can't really write any more than that. She has no connection to any of the villains, or any of the secondary characters, so all she can do is support Yui... who, as I've discussed, has very little impact on the plot anyway.

Hanamichi Ran/Cure Yum-Yum
My personal favorite Cure for the season, although once again, I feel as if her potential was wasted. Ran has a couple great episodes which deal with her feelings of being an outsider/weird; which I think works great considering her Chinese theme! I don't expect a children's show like PreCure to directly deal with topics like intercultural conflict (although I do think Mahoutsukai worked in this theme), but having Ran and her family be very vocally Chinese-themed, I felt it might have been a great opportunity to at least hint at the subject. Unfortunately, Ran's character arc pretty much ends entirely with... a celebrity guest-star episode, and she, like Kokone, really has no impact on the larger plot.

Kasai Amane/Cure Finale/Gentlu

Amane, I think, represents a lot of problems this season had. She is the, significantly more powerful, mid-season cure who is redeemed from villainy. Unfortunately... this redemption is entirely unearned. I don't mean that Amane doesn't deserve to be a PreCure, but rather that it's not remotely interesting, because we never learn why she became Gentlu in the first place. Moreover, she was brainwashed into becoming Gentlu, so it's not even really something she has to "atone" for. Which is a shame, because I really do like Amane's personality, and I liked that she and Narcistoru had a connection which led to him softening a little. I really did love seeing the real guilt she felt over being angry, and not wanting to forgive Narcistoru. Rosemary straight up told her that thought crimes weren't real! And that was awesome! Too bad that's as good as it got.

Rosemary
The BEST character of the season. I'm not biased when I say this (I am). Rosemary is such a refreshing character, and I really loved seeing a male character be given this spotlight in PreCure. I loved Rosemary's femininity, I loved the way he interacted with all the girls, and I loved that Rosemary actually got to DO things. As is tradition, Rosemary loses his magical abilities at the very start, forcing Yui to fight. But he doesn't become just a secondary character! He's funny, he's talented in strategy, he regularly participates in their battles at an incredible risk to his own self, and gives much needed guidance to the girls. He, Fennel, Cinnamon, and Ginger, all have the workings of a GREAT story. Unfortunately, I do not feel as if that story got told. I'll leave the other CooKingdom Fighters for later.

Shinada Takumi/Black Pepper
I like Takumi a lot in theory. His design as Black Pepper is great, and I like his clear homage to Tuxedo Mask. He also has a really cute dynamic with Yui, and I loved her reaction when his secret identity was revealed. That said, a lot of time is spent on him that I felt could have been spent tightening up other parts of the story, and I really feel like his status as 'descended from the CooKingdom' should have been given to one of the PreCures, as Rosemary already fills his role as being a non-PreCure who helps in his own way.

Secretoru & Narcistoru
Another two characters who I felt were not used to their full potential. Narcistoru's plot of picky eating could have been really impactful. However, we don't get to see anything but vague hints at his backstory. However, I do like that he began to enjoy some food, and he gets an overall pass for being very cute. Secretoru also had great potential, but we have no time spent on her backstory or personality either, which leaves her bonding with Kokone's mother feeling a little empty. I wish she had instead bonded with a main PreCure, perhaps Kokone herself.

But. Nowhere in his backstory is anything about... cooking? Food? The entire theme of the show?

We see Ginger and Fennel eating onigiri, and onigiri are a major motif throughout the show, being the associated food of the ostensible protagonist, and her grandmother. But like... how do those onigiri connect to Fennel's jealousy? How does that food connect to Fennel deciding that he wants to horde power for himself? How does that food connect to Fennel deciding to starve the entire world if they don't bow down to him? How does that connect to the ways the other members of the Bundoru Gang have been hurt by food?

The answer is it doesn't, because the Cook Fighters don't really have anything to do with food, except in name!

Maybe some of this could have been helped by Ginger's presence throughout the series... but we just don't get it. What we do get is a random time travel episode wherein we meet Ginger for the first and last time and learn basically nothing about him except that... well he's a good person, I guess. We don't learn about why he chose Cinnamon over Fennel. We don't learn about his relationship with Fennel hardly at all!

In the finale, Fennel gets zero closure. Yui tells him that Ginger must have wanted to "protect Fennel's smile" but... what? That says nothing! If the message was "sometimes people hurt us and we don't get closure", I would be fine with this but... I really don't think that's the message!

Ultimately, all this unsatisfying plotline does is distract from the actual protagonists of the show, you know, the PreCure! There is an entire half of an episode where they are all completely knocked out and do nothing! Yui, of course, has an emotional involvement in all of this, because Takumi is her best friend, and his family is important to her. She also clearly relates to Fennel's grief over Ginger's death, given her relationship with her grandmother. But the other Cures have zero skin in the game (beyond the usual hero stuff) and it just makes them feel like extras in their own finale. There's a brief attempt to shove in a connection between Kokone and Secretoru, but Ran and Amane get... just about nothing.