From the very beginning, one of the primary elements that set Precure apart from many of its contemporaries in the genre was its action.

There were of course other magical girls at the time and before that had plenty of fight scenes but none leaned into them as much as the original Futari wa Precure. This focus on intense action which could be seen in battle shounens became a key element of the franchise and one of its major selling points. However, what happens when you take away this key component that makes the series so distinct? What you get is Wonderful Precure, the most interesting season in this whole franchise.

Like every season of Precure, Wonderful has a main motif being pets and animals in general. Every episode sees the cures dealing with a different corrupted creature. This also the first season where half of the main cast isn’t even human as the cures and their supports are made of pet and owner duos. This allows the season to explore the relationship between humans and animals in fun and magical ways. Wonderful falls into the far end of the more goofy and episodic Precure spectrum. Plot development is minimal and the series has a very light tone for most of its run. The show is also the most educational Precure has been as the cures need to understand the particular characteristics and behaviours of each animal they face in order to quell them down for purification. It is then this point of how the monster of the week is dealt with that Wonderful takes one of the biggest risks the franchise has ever seen.

The previous season, Hirogaru Sky, was the big celebration of Precure’s 20th anniversary that not only brought a lot of interest back into the series but also had some of the most beautiful action scenes to date. Needless to say, the following season had to face the grand hurdle of starting right after the massive hype train that was left behind. It is no understatement that Wonderful had some big shoes to fill and it went about it in a way that was never seen in the franchise up to this point. The show abandoned the amazing action that was a core of Precure, and took the full pacifist route. From the outset this could be seen as the most foolish decision the series could’ve taken, it is a stroke of genius that serves to highlight what really makes the franchise so special below the surface.

To nobody's surprise, Wonderful was a completely jarring shift in the formula that many were familiar with, especially after the intensity that Hirogaru sky brought. Other seasons have toned the physical action before like Kira Kira à la mode and Healin Good, but the cures in those seasons were still able to throw punches and use their abilities to land heavy blows to their opponents. Wonderful is the very first season to completely ditch any form of attack, be it physical or magical, that could be seen as harming. Instead the cures have to calm down the monsters of the week in order to purify them while doing their best not to hurt them in the process. On the surface, the simple explanation is that with Garu Garu’s being corrupted animals that need saving, it would look morally questionable that this show aimed at kids depicted scenes of creatures being harmed. This is most likely the primary motive for the removal of the intense action scenes but little did we know that this massive change would ultimately benefit the show in conveying its main themes.

Precure has always been a character focused first and foremost and Wonderful has a range of solid to some of the best the franchise has to offer. Starting off with Iroha/Cure Friendy, she is the least interesting personality wise but is the one that embodies the main themes of the show the most.

She is a very standard main cure that we’ve seen many times in other seasons, bubbly, simple minded yet full of compassion. Her sheer compassion for animals is the driving force that not only presents the idea of bonds between species, it only influences the people around her. She isn’t a bad character and has her moments of great impact, but overall she gets overshadowed by the rest of the crew. Her partner in crime and pet dog Komugi/Cure Wonderful, on the other hand, is a much more memorable main cure.

While being the character that develops the least out of the main cast, she makes up for it by being a pure force of nature. The animal characters usually make most of the comedy of the series and Komugi showcases this aspect the most. She is probably one of the most chaotic cures in the whole franchise as many of the season’s gags revolve around her interacting with the human world. Yet it is her lack of human intelligence that allows her to convey the subject of friendship among species sometimes better than the other characters. In regards to the next main owner and pet duo, they are a lot harder to talk about without going into spoilers so I’ll save them and the cure’s primary supports for that section.

Wonderful is much more than a Precure season simply about animals, the main theme underlying is about making meaningful bonds and connections.

Throughout the series as we learn about each of the different animals the cures face, the show also presents how mankind interacts with them. From wild animals to those in the zoo and especially the bond of pets and their owners. The show goes through all the elements that come with taking care of a pet and the responsibilities one has when dealing with animals. Using the positivity and optimism Precure is known for, Wonderful showcases that despite all the differences between our species, humans can coexist and form meaningful relationships with animals. It may require effort and compromise but forming these bonds can lead to something truly magical. The cures aren’t violent towards the Garu Garus because they are weak or the series is holding back, it is because resorting to it isn’t the right path to take. In a way, they are taking the harder route of non violence since they believe that it will lead to better outcomes because of how much they care for animals.

Precure has always been a series with a strong emphasis on friendship and forming strong connections with each other and Wonderful may be the season that illustrates these themes in the most powerful way with a cast of cute and goofy pets.

To illustrate what makes Wonderful so great in a more in depth way, from this point on I’ll be going over plot points, character arcs and more heavy spoilers. So if you haven’t watched the show, you can skip to the last paragraph where I give my conclusion. You have been warned.
_____
Along with the more pacifist nature of the season, another change that Wonderful brought along was with how the beginning was handled. In every season preceding it, we would get introduced to one of the villain generals that brings forth the monster of the week and each of the initial episodes will focus on debuting each cure one by one, with the whole team being assembled relatively early and the main threat established. The more recent seasons have been introducing team members at a slower first, but for the time, all of these elements are pushed further back than ever before. With the full team debuting near the halfway point, not to mention taking a couple more episodes to be truly unified, and the villain generals being introduced nearly a third of the way through the show. This is the reason why the series will feel quite jarring to long time fans who have grown accustomed to the formula. However, this is where the true intent of the season makes itself clear.

Wonderful goes further than many of the other more lighthearted seasons and does what the top tier Precure entries do best, being subtle character development and theme presentation. With the usual tropes moved later into its run, the series can have a greater focus on the characters and their relationships with one another right off the bat. Most of the early episodes are dedicated to fleshing out the first pet and owner duo, Wonderful and Friendy. Their dynamics will become very important later on so having the start wholly focused on them lets the show build a better understanding and attachment to them which makes the future events more impactful. They are very simple characters with both their reasoning for becoming cures, and Komugi getting a human form, being to help the other out, yet it is their simplicity and purehearted nature that makes them memorable as well as presenting the main ideas of Wonderful.

The best part of the first batch of episodes is this mini arc where they both get into an argument with each other. It perfectly illustrated that despite how close they seemed when the show began, conflict can still arise. This arc does a great job at showing that not one of them is more in the right than the other and that mutual understanding is what they need. Instead of one side winning, they both have to reconcile with their differences and accept that each one has their flaws. From this point on, the two won’t have any major issues with their relationship later on, rather they will take these lessons they’ve learnt and help influence other characters around them. Despite receiving less development in the future, with one major exception that I’ll get to, they are integral in conveying the main themes of bond and friendship as their love for one another is something very precious that will have a bigger impact on the world around them.

While Wonderful and Friendy serve as the pure and unbreakable form of connections, the next duo shows it can develop overtime for the better. The Nyanderful Precure combo of Yuki/Cure Nyammy and Mayu/Cure Lilian are more complex and receive more character progression during the show's run, with the former being the best written character of the season.

Mayu is the trademark socially awkward character that initially has difficulty making connections due to her shyness. She is most likely going to be the most relatable character to the audience who also struggle with making friends, not because she doesn’t want to but to the way her personality is. Mayu is very dedicated to craft of making accessories to a fault that she often goes misunderstood by those around her which results in her having low confidence. It is only when Iroha meets and befriends her can finally start opening up to others more sincerely. Her initial development shows that sometimes people who keep to themselves have the possibility of forming relationships with others. They may need that special person to break them out of their shells and accept them for who they are but it is ultimately Mayu’s decision to be brave enough to accept this friendship and become a more proud and social person even if it will take some time. Her arc may be a little cliche but is still an important lesson that still stands strong and the series does it beautifully. This is made all the more powerful when she eventually becomes a cure as it is her determination to protect her friends and stand up against a great threat that ultimately grants the ability to transform in the most cathartic cure debut in the season. She may have been the latest to join the team, but Lilians impact was made more impactful with all the build-up that came before it.

Lilian may be my personal favorite cure in Wonderful but she isn’t the one who has the best arc out of any character in the whole show. Yuki is a very interesting character in regards to how she gets introduced and how she interacts with the rest of the cast early on.

Just like Komugi, her motivation to become a cure was to protect Mayu but the way she treats this relationship couldn’t be any more different. Unlike Wonderful and Friendy’s mutual and equal love for each other, Yuki is much more selfish and self-serving. Mayu always loved her and considered Yuki her only friend for the longest time but this had the unintended effect of turning Mayu into the sole thing that Yuki cared for. Whereas the former wanted to form more bonds, the latter considered this connection the only one that mattered and refused and downright refused to open up to anyone else. As a result, when Lilian finally debuted, the team wasn’t immediately formed like in other seasons as there was a tension caused by Nyammy still wanting to have her partner all for herself.

It is right after this point where the best arc begins as Yuki slowly begins to accept others into her life. Now that she is a cure and can communicate better with a human form, Mayu can finally connect with her on a deeper level and take the lessons she’s learnt to help Yuki become better in turn. Over many episodes, she takes very small steps in accepting other people and animals as she learns the true values of mutual friendship. Yuki can be considered Precure’s first full on Tsundere character, being a littera cat, but thankfully she doesn’t fall into the traps that are associated with that trope. Her development is quite gradual but highly rewarding. Out of any other character she showcases the complexities of communication as she is the one that learns and changes the most over the course of the story. Being almost polar opposites to the energetic Komugi with her more cold and soft spoken personality, one of the best moments of the show is when Yuki finally accepts her as not only a friend but as someone who she truly cares for, thereby illustrating how bonds can overcome our differences in character and even species.

In addition, Cure’s Nyammy first appearance is the part when the themes of Wonderful became the most clear. Her one-sided desire to protect Mayu let her to disregard the compassion the previous have shown previously towards the enemy. She didn’t hold back and tried to calm down the Garu Garu, instead she used her powers as a weapon of harm and didn’t go through the effort of even purifying the animal. In a way, she responded to the monster of the week like any other cure from before this season would and chose conflict over healing. This is the exact moment where the true message of Wonderful became clear as day as for the very first time, the CURE in Precure was emphasized more than the action that made the series special.

With the lack of action in the season, Wonderful makes up for it with having some of the most creative solutions to the monster of the week in the franchise. Each Garu Garu is a distinct creature and therefore the cures need to come up with different tactics to quell them down. Every encounter is unique as each animal has different characteristics the cures would need to work around. This also ties in nicely with the theme of understanding one another as knowledge of the various species is required in order to come up with strategies to purify them. Another way the show presents its themes is the various upgrades the cures receive. Wonderful and Friendy only get their wands after having reconciled with each other. These tacts which then have the ability to grant the cures special powers from some of the key animals they save. Once again, it was only through love and helping others out that the cures are able to become stronger. By caring for those creatures so much they can give the cures special traits that allow for even more creativity in the encounters. This idea finally culminates in the Wonderful team’s ultimate group finisher. The Eternal Kizuna Shower performed by the cures in their Diamond Ribbon style forms isn’t just any other team finisher, it is the culmination of all the development that happened before. For one, it took Nyammy to finally accept her place as part of the team for the group to be finally united. More importantly, it needed Nikos sama’s power for the full effect. Niko is the ruler of the alternate world that the cures send most of the animals they heal back to and just like Yuki and previous cures, she wanted to use her power in a utilitarian way. She wanted nothing more than revenge against the main antagonist for having destroyed her world and corrupted the animals. However, once she saw the compassion the cures displayed, she decided to have hope for a better future built using love and meaningful connections. Thereby, granting the cures the ultimate form of healing.

The other major element that Wonderful deviated from the Precure formula was having the villain generals introduced well past the halfway point. To their credit, what they lack in screen time they make up for in character and depth. When the wolves were first introduced, their threat level was immediately felt more than most other villains. For the first time, the cures suffered a heavy defeat as their more pacifist approach came face to face with the standard evil presence from previous seasons. The more goofy and lighthearted tone that the show had made their debut much more powerful. Wonderful briefly turned into a standard season where the cures foiled their schemes the following episodes, but once again the series showed that it had much more in plan for them. They were pretty good antagonists having funny personalities but they became much more when they got more explored. Torame and Zakuro are reflections of the two pets from the main cure duos. The former has that playful attitude similar to Komugi and the latter has the cold and hyper obsessive nature that Yuki had. Thus, it made sense that the duos tried to reach out to them as the owners could see the ones they care for most in them and the pets saw their older selves. Just like pets, it was through the camaraderie and deep connections the cures had that let them change. Then there is the main antagonist that started it all.

Plenty of Precure villains, especially the final boss, aren’t the most developed characters. Usually either being forces of evil or ones with relatively simple motivations. Though every now and then, there comes a villain with a great amount of depth and tangible reason for the terrible acts they’ve done. Gaou was already a more understandable villain when their backstory was told. Being a wolf that befriended a human only for humanity to later drive into extinction in Japan, with the extinction part was a real event in the nation's history, his hatred towards humans made perfect sense. What gave him even more depth was how he treated other animals. Despite using them for his revenge plan they were merely a means to an end. Deep down Gaou cared about other species aside from humans as seen with his interaction with Komugi. With the cures are the advocates for compassion, he is the perfect foil as Gaou suffered as a result of connections. It was his bond with a human that aided in the extinction of his race and the fact those people didn’t care for their own, his friend who tried defending the wolves, he saw the worst parts of humanity fueling his hatred. This is made all the more tragic and interesting when the biggest reveal of the series happened in the final act. Gaou wasn’t actually the wolf but instead his human friend Subaru who died protecting the original. The one wanting revenge against mankind was a human themself. As Torame and Zakuro were mirrors to Komugi and Yuki, Subaru paralleled Niko, somebody who was fueled by hatred and wanted nothing more than to see the other race gone. There have been understandable villains in the past but they usually came from the more serious and plot heavy seasons, which is why Wonderful’s antagonists feel more remarkable.

There is one crucial element I have yet to mention as it will tie in to what I believe is the single best episode of the whole show, that factor the other duo of team Wonderful. Despite how less they get featured with the Wan and Nyan duos, Satoru and Daifuku are essential members of the team. I’ll go as far as to say that Satoru is the best support character in the whole franchise. For a series that has not had the best track record in regards to its male characters these two have finally shown how to do them right. Satoru is the main reason the cures are able to purify the Garu Garus as he is the one with the extensive knowledge of animals. The moments he learns about the conflict of the show, he becomes and remains a key member of the team supporting the cures from the sidelines.

He is the brains of the team though not when it comes to emotional smarts as he is also the most awkward of the group. Unlike Mayu who struggles with having the courage to communicate he becomes a nervous mess when it comes to a particular character. This is where the best rabbit, Daifuku, comes in. His scenes are few compared to everyone else but he makes them count every time. Where Satoru excels in being book smart, he is the most emotionally put together and down to earth character of the team. His appearances may be sparse but he is by far the wisest character of the main cast.

Now onto the single best episode of Wonderful and a landmark moment for the whole franchise. It is alluded to many times in the show that Satoru has a crush on Iroha. To put into perspective, what Precure has lacked more than good male characters is romance. Whatever couple that was hinted at in previous seasons either never went anywhere significant and those that were later confirmed have always been met with mixed feelings. Thus, going into this season, most fans assumed that this crush wasn’t going to lead anything and simply be a subject of some gags. Little did we expect that episode 36 of Wonderful would not only surpass all our expectations, but become one of best moments in the whole franchise. For the first time in Precure history, Satoru confessed his feelings to Iroha and she confessed right back. The series pulled the very first canon confession scene and put all care and attention into making it so impactful. The moment was sheer perfection from the direction, the music and all the build-up leading up to that exchange. In one episode, Wonderful broke the franchise curse of non-existent or poorly developed romantic relationships with a canon ship that felt both earned and gratifying. It is pure poetry that the season that heavily emphasized bonds and connection was the one that brought about the best romantic couple in the whole franchise.

Aside from all the positivity that most of the show is made up off, Wonderful wasn’t afraid to tackle the more heavy subjects when it comes to having pets. One such story is in episode 38 where the Komugi’s previous owner gets revealed and she has to make a decision of whether to return to stay with Iroha. Her choice was obvious but her journey to make it was still filled with plenty of emotions. However, the most tearful part of the show is when the subject of an animal’s life span is handled in episode 44.

Other than the fantastic confession scene, this story was the most emotional in the whole show. It was the point when the idea of the pets eventually passing away before their owners got brought up. This was a hard pill to swallow especially for Iroha. Though in the end, this inner conflict was solved in the most Precure way possible. The series confirms the fact they will eventually pass away, but the precious memories they’ve had with each other will always be eternal.

This message was alluded to earlier in the show with episode 32. It may seem like another fun adventure, this episode a massive milestone in the franchise as it is the 1000th Precure episode of the main series. While not as celebratory of fan service filled like episodes 36-37 of Hugtto, with only the Hirogaru sky and Mahoustukai making brief cameos, the story of this episode is still noteworthy in a more subtle way. The animal in this episode is an elephant who Iroha has known since she was young with the message being that despite how much time has passed and things have changed she still remembers and considers Iroha as a friend. Iroha is to the elephant what Komugi is to her as it has a much longer lifespan than humans. Despite that fact, the precious between still remain in tack and that their friendship transcends time and species. To go even deeper in a Meta context, this idea applies to Precure as a whole. The series will continue to grow and evolve into new directions as time goes on, but the core ideas and the precious feelings the fans have for it are eternal.

And that is the end of the spoiler section.

Wonderful is far from the best Precure has to offer. It took many risks which ultimately worked in its favor and is definitely the most unique feeling season. Though consequently, it wasn’t as ambitious as other top tier entries who have a larger quantity of amazing moments. It accomplished what it set out to do as well as it could even if those goals were more simple in the grand scheme of the series. However, the biggest miracle of the season was proving that what makes Precure so special was deeper than the surface level action and spectacle. The series rewards those who stick around to what it has in store as the quality only improves as it goes on. By focusing on relationships, connections and the sheer of compassion for another through complete pacifism, Wonderful Precure is the season that brought about the pure HEART of this fantastic franchise.