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A major incident has occurred in the peaceful Sky Land!? The young Princess Eru has been kidnapped by the monsters of Underground Empire. A brave young girl, Sora, follows the princess through a mysterious hole. "TV"? "Cars"? Are those some kind of magic tools!?!? But there's no time to be surprised. She has to get the princess back to the castle.... Flying between two worlds. The adventure with the Pretty Cure begins now. It's hero time.

Despite some major missteps near the end, still soars more often than it doesn't

As a fan of magical girl anime, there was no way I wouldn&#39;t have heard of the PreCure franchise, though it wasn&#39;t until 2023 before I started properly watching and finishing the long-running seasonal TV series. So far I have finished four PreCure seasons (Doki Doki, Kira Kira A La Mode, Hirogaru Sky, Maho Girls), saw the All Stars F movie in cinemas, while the entries I&#39;m currently watching include the very first Futari Wa PreCure and the currently-airing Wonderful PreCure. Although none of the seasons I&#39;ve seen so far are among my all-time favorite magical girl anime on par with Madoka Magica or Cardcaptor Sakura, for a long-running magical girl series supposed to capture the imagination of young girls it still packs plenty of appeal for me to keep seeing what each season has to offer. Back to Hirogaru Sky! PreCure, I began watching this season with my main interest point being to see this long-running magical girl series finally introduce its first-ever male and adult Cures in the main team, while another reason I chose Hirogaru Sky! As one of my first exposures to the PreCure franchise back then was to get myself familiar with the characters before seeing them prominently featured in the All Stars F movie. Upon finishing Hirogaru Sky! PreCure, while it did have some problems holding back my praise towards it, it did become my favorite out of the PreCure series I&#39;ve seen so far (though that distinction will most likely be surpassed by other superior installments I will later get to), as well as the first &quot;great&quot; PreCure series I&#39;ve seen that successfully hooked me on board to see what else this franchise has to offer. Hirogaru Sky! PreCure is not perfect, with its biggest stumbling block coming from the climax, which had potential to delve into some truly darker themes with the Undergu Empire&#39;s history with Skyland but ended up being glossed over and underdeveloped by the end. The villains in Hirogaru Sky, while nowhere as forgettable or interchangeable as those from Maho Girls, still left so much to be desired. Kabaton seems to offer nothing to the story other than lowbrow humor, Minoton has some interesting moral standards but ultimately don&#39;t amount to much, while Empress Undergu&#39;s backstory could allowed for some thought-provoking dramatic themes but by the end felt more like an afterthought due to how rushed it was handled. The main villain Skearhead was the biggest offender, where he was neither interesting nor did he pose a legit threat towards the Cures, mainly due to how his first appearance built him up as this major threat that was later diminished when he got repeatedly defeated. The only antagonist in Hirogaru Sky I was kind of invested in was Battamonda, as he formed an interesting bond with Mashiro/Cure Prism, but even this &quot;villain who bonded with a Cure&quot; trope has been handled better in other PreCure installments. (Regina&#39;s friendship with Mana/Cure Heart from the otherwise so-so Doki Doki pops in my mind.) While I like Elle-chan as a baby and consider her to be one of the most likable PreCure babies (if not on the same level as Ha-chan from Maho Girls), she isn&#39;t that interesting once she gains a teenager/Cure form. In terms of Elle&#39;s characterization, the script missed the opportunity to let her handle some tougher adult issues going on in her homeland in her teenager/Cure form, and by the end she doesn&#39;t have anything to do other than be an overpowered Cure who defeats enemies with ease. Episode 29 was rather bizarre, with an odd in-universe setting introduced into the story only to be never brought up again, and it raised some unneeded questions and stood out like sore thumb for me. However even with these misgivings Hirogaru Sky still soars often with plenty of great things to recommend, with most of this season&#39;s strength keeping it afloat lying within its main cast of characters and their camaraderie. Usually when it comes to the lineup of main Cures in the PreCure franchise each season would have one or two members I don&#39;t care about, but similar to Maho Girls, I liked every single main Cure with no weak chains in the link. So far the lead Cures I&#39;ve seen from other PreCure series don&#39;t leave that much of an impression on me compared to the other members (Heart from Doki Doki and Whip from Kira Kira A La Mode), but Sora/Cure Sky (aka the first non-pink lead Cure since Futari Wa&#39;s Black) thankfully bucks the trend with a strong motivation of wanting to become a strong hero like her idol Captain Shalala, and her drive makes her a convincing leader for the group. In terms of Sora&#39;s character development, I loved how there were a few parts where her heroic beliefs are being challenged, with the standout moments involving her concern about whether to let Mashiro fight with her as well as a dilemma involving her idol Captain Shalala. Speaking of Mashiro/Cure Prism, she&#39;s probably the most fully fleshed-out character out of the Hirogaru Sky Cures. In addition to serving as the main emotional support for Sora, Mashiro has a great arc in gaining more self-confidence, which is mainly built up through the relay race episode and her passion of drawing. The two biggest representation landmarks in Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure are the first-ever male and adult Cures, Tsubasa/Cure Wing and Ageha/Cure Butterfly, respectively. Although both characters don&#39;t enjoy significant growth as much as Sora or Mashiro, they are still a hoot to watch on their own terms as well, especially when the two share screentime together. While I didn&#39;t care about Elle-chan as a Cure she was still adorable as a baby, and as said before while not as good as Ha-chan, Elle-chan was endearing in her own right and never became annoying like Ai-chan from Doki Doki. In terms of Hirogaru Sky&#39;s plot, while not every aspect of the story hit a home run (a few slower parts near the middle, a rushed climax, some underexplored characters and themes), Hirogaru Sky was great for a majority of its 50-episode run, with most of them occurring during the first half of the season. Apart from the already-mentioned standout character arcs, there were also some great individual character moments, with the first one that comes to my mind being Ageha/Cure Butterfly&#39;s job as a kindergarten teacher where she helped one of her students come to terms with a sudden change in his life. The episode about Mashiro and Ageha&#39;s childhood was memorable as well. Another thing I appreciated about Hirogaru Sky is similar to why I adore Cardcaptor Sakura - There were a few &quot;downtime&quot; episodes where there were no monsters for the magical girls (and boy) to fight and were just the main characters interacting and forming a stronger bond. The Halloween episode, while nowhere as epic as the two-parter from Maho Girls, was still a lot of fun, with a surprising and hilarious &quot;transformation&quot; boot as well. Oh, as the 20th-anniversary PreCure season, Hirogaru Sky Also had a few amusing easter eggs towards past franchise installments as well. (The Kira Kira A La Mode references being the ones that stood out the most for me since I watched Hirogaru Sky fresh off of that, while there were also a few fun hints towards the then-upcoming Wonderful PreCure as well.) Overall, while problematic during the climax still a great PreCure season mainly carried by the strength by its main characters, as well as the one that sold me on board the franchise. It had the ingredients to be a truly exceptional PreCure installment and was consistently great from a majority of the episodes, but sadly the second half bogged the show down from an excellent one to still a very good one. 8/10.

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Hirogaru Sky! Precure

Despite some major missteps near the end, still soars more often than it doesn't

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