The Reiwa era Pretty Cure seasons have been...pretty hit or miss so far. I really didn't care for both Tropical Rouge and Delicious Party, I haven't seen Star Twinkle and Hikaru's screechy voice puts me off of watching it, but Healin Good and 2023's Hirogaru Sky Pretty Cure were really strong. Pretty Cure as a franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary recently, and Hirogaru Sky was billed as a series that would break a lot of long established trends, especially with the news that it would have the first canon male main Pretty Cure. Of course, Toei wasn't satisfied with that, as another Pretty Cure series—a shorter sequel to an older season—would air alongside it during the fall, and a stage play starring all male Cures ran for a short while. I kinda wish I could see that stage play, as it honestly sounds really interesting from what little I've heard about its plot. Thankfully, after the massive disappointments that were both Tropical Rouge and Delicious Party, Hirogaru Sky definitely proved to be one of the better seasons and a much better anniversary season than Happiness Charge was a decade prior. That's not to say Hirogaru Sky doesn't have its issues, but compared to its two predecessors, I enjoyed my time with it far more.

Sora Harewataru is a young girl hailing from the magical world of Skyland, and she's dreamed of becoming a hero ever since a mysterious savior rescued her from monsters while out in the woods. But just as she's about to make her way to the castle to start formal training, she witnesses an evil pig-like individual kidnapping a baby, with said baby being Princess Elle of Skyland (I absolutely refuse to spell her name as Ellee. It just looks stupid to me). Not one to ignore someone in need, Sora does all she can to save Elle, and in the process, she winds herself not only magically transported to planet Earth, but unlocking the power to become one of the fabled legendary warriors called Pretty Cure. While on Earth, she finds friends in kind-hearted Mashiro Nijigaoka and her Skyland-born grandmother Yoyo, dependable yet energetic Ageha Hijiri, and the level-headed, flight-loving Tsubasa Yuunagi. Together, the four of them must fight against the Undergu Empire and keep Elle out of their hands.

From an animation standpoint, for the most part its consistent, clean, and polished, with bright colors and mostly fluid movement, with some exceptions. I say for the most part because it does start to get uneven and off-model at times near the end, but that tends to happen a lot with shows that go on for a long time. I will say that I really like the character designs for all the Cures, as they don't look too busy or fussy, or even over-designed like some previous Cures could be. Speaking of the character designs, did you know the person who designed the characters for Hirogaru Sky also did the designs for Love Live Superstar? I thought that was a neat little tidbit. The fight scenes still manage to do their job and still look amazing. I don't have as much to say about the soundtrack, but it also does its job nicely, and the songs are all nice, too. By the way, I find it really funny that every single Cures' seiyuu's first names begin with the letter A. I don't think that was intentional on the creators' part, but it makes me snicker every time I recall it.

Admittedly, Pretty Cure as a series has always had a problem with balancing its characters and their screentime. Tropical Rouge focused so much on Manatsu and Laura that it completely forgot to give its other characters any development or time in the limelight, with Sango getting it the worst. Delicious Party tried to remedy this, but made the mistake of making Yui, the lead Cure, not do much and as a result, she came off as extremely bland and milquetoast. Doki Doki is infamous for shilling Mana to the Nth degree. Thankfully, Hirogaru Sky manages to mostly avoid this problem. Every single member of the main cast gets their time in the spotlight and receive the appropriate amount of development to make sure they don't feel completely one-note or one-dimensional. Since this series wasn't plagued by delays, whether because of COVID or extenuating circumstances like the hacking incident that put Delicious Party on hold for a bit, Hirogaru Sky was able to have a full run, so it was able to make use of its time and give this cast of characters the development they needed. For the most part, I think Toei succeeded on this front.

Yet again, I say for the most part because just like Healin Good three years before, Toei fleshed out its Cures at the expense of doing the same for the villains. Yeah, once again, the villains are the weakest part of the series. This seems to be a recurring problem in the current Reiwa era Pretty Cure series. None of the villains are in any way remotely interesting, compelling, or fun to follow in any way, and what little of an arc two particular villains have feel truncated, so any development they get doesn't really leave much of an impact whatsoever. Actually, speaking of the villains, the show doesn't explain just what the hell the Undergu Empire is until the last quarter of the show. Not only that, most of the villains barely interact with one another, making them feel even more one-note and milquetoast. I heard this is the result of Toei receiving complaints from parents claiming that seeing the villains interact scared their kids, but I have no idea how true this is, and I honestly think its kinda stupid. Many of Toei's shows featured their villain characters talking to one another previously, so why are people complaining about it now?

But the woefully underutilized villains aren't Hirogaru Sky's only issue. At first, it seemed like Hirogaru Sky would do more with its story than Delicious Party did, and actually did a pretty good job at establishing a credible threat and having some tangible stakes at first. But after a while, it seemed like the show just didn't know what to do with itself, especially after Elle became Cure Majesty, until it decided to jam a lot of its most important plot beats in the final eight episodes with barely anything resembling build-up. I think Hirogaru Sky would have been better off had it spread these out over a larger time frame rather than just shoehorning them into the last ten or so episodes. Also, there are some characters who are made out to be really important, but the show doesn't really do anything with them anymore, and there are times when the show takes the cheap way out rather than actually have certain characters go through actual moral dilemmas that would really help their growth. For a show that was touted as Pretty Cure's 20th anniversary seasons, Hirogaru Sky really could have stood to take more risks.

However, even with its issues holding it back from true greatness, it still managed to be better than its two predecessors. Yeah, it has issues with balancing its important plot beats and villains, but the animation and music are still good, I actually cared about the main characters and enjoyed watching them every week, and it actually put some thought into fleshing out its setting and themes. While there are seasons I like better than it, Hirogaru Sky is a worthy celebration of what makes the Pretty Cure franchise so great. I'm gonna skip out on Wonderful Pretty Cure for the time being because I've been watching the current seasons of Pretty Cure non-stop since Healin Good and I don't wanna burn myself out, along with wanting to focus on other shows in my backlog. So yeah, if you like magical girls, give Hirogaru Sky Pretty Cure a shot if you want some feel-good fun and cute girls kicking ass. Now if only someone would fansub that all-male Pretty Cure stage play.