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Go! Princess Precure
Written on 27/11/25 TLDR: good characterization for cast, good pacing, and better than average villains. Animation is also very good and the transformations are perfect

TLDR: good characterization for cast, good pacing, and better than average villains. Animation is also very good and the transformations are perfect

Alright fellas, in my review of Heartcatch I said I would have to hold myself back to prevent needless gushing because of how great of a season that was, I didn't think Go Princess would top it but against all odds I somehow enjoyed it even more. I don't even have anything noteable to say here preamble other than expressing how surprised I am at how much I enjoyed this season.

The Precure

The precure are all pretty good, though I will admit I don't like them more than the heartcatch gang but they will comfortably sit in 1.5st place.

Haruka is quite inspirational lead if I'm being honest. Ignoring how undeniably silly her dream is compared to just about everyone else, I think what the show does with her in regards to this is good. She's one hell of a go getter and I love seeing her improve herself and get better at the things she practices even when she struggles at times. Seeing that drive and determination makes her very likeable to me. I also think that the typical clumsy nature of the pink cure archetype is counterbalanced by how much she works on herself.

Minami to me is probably my favourite of the cool-headed blue cures that aren't Erika. Similar to Reika from smile she's acts as the responsible older sister of the group, though moreso towards Haruka in particular, especially earlier on. I like her sense of responsibility and her williningness to help Haruka in those earlier episodes. I really liked how her arc rounds out by the end with her wanting to pursue her passion of marine biology over taking over her family business and how she feels conflicted about that since she had been raised to do so.

Kirara is simply a cool lass. Respect that she's dedicated to working towards what she wants to achieve as we see with how she bluntly rejects being a precure initially since it'd get in the way of her career. It's kinda jarring when you remember she's only in middle school but I guess a good role model is a good role model no matter the age I guess in shows like this. I like how chill and nonchalant whilst also being able to be a little goofy every now and then, makes her feel less 2 dimensional. Her cure design also grew on me. Purple and yellow combination go really well.

Towa is quite the solid mid season villain redemption cure. To me personally I still have a bias for cure passion but Towa's arc was just good if not a little better than hers. I'll talk about her presence a villain later so for now I'll say that I like the socially unaware himesama archetype so seeing her adjust to normal people things was amusing to me. I like her frienship with Kirara is certainly quite neat given different their lifestyles are with Kirara being entirely almost independent and Towa being royalty and having most things just gievn to her.

Overall the gang this time is really good but my only minor gripe is that we don't spend much time with them doing dumb fun, like pure slice of life stuff. However, considering that they used said time to flesh out the characters, even the supporting cast, I don't mind.
I think I still prefer the heartcatch gang ,primarily because of Erika and Tsubomi's dynamic, whilst these 4 are more balanced in terms of my fondness of them.

The rest of the cast

Fairies this season where all really good and not annoying. Puff and Aroma where nice fellas to have around. Shamour is kinda goated tbh and is up there with Tarte, I liked her. Yui being a civillian character aware of the cures identities was a nice change compared to the other seasons I've watched. She is most certainly curebait but I appreciate the restraint they had to not turn her into one even if I would've liked it.
There's also Kanata too and he's alright, I have no strong feelings towards him, though amnesia arc was pretty good and I reeeeally liked what it resulted in by the end of that arc.
Some of the other noteable side characters I like are the tennis guy and doughnut girl. In the case of the tennis guy, the episode revolving around him and Haruka pairing up for tennis was a solid one. Him being the same kid who bullied Haruka when they were younger was a welcome surprise. I liked how it's his passion for tennis that causes him to discourage Haruko from playing, after she embarrasses herself during practice, instead of petty belittlement. In spite of his words Haruko does the opposite and uses her irritation form that interaction as the initial fuel to improve at tennis over days of practice.
Ultimately I like how this episode showcases Haruka's determination and that the tennis dude is less a douche and more of a competitive fellow who loves his sport.
The doughnut girl kinda just made me laugh and I like that similarly to tennis guy, her actions are fueled by her passion despite whatever conflict it causes with whatever member of the main cast.

The villains this season were all great to be honest. I like all of them a fair bit, especially because of how they are used within the story which did a good job of not making any of them annoyingly incompetent.
Helps that their overall motive doesn't revolve around beating the Precure, so when they inevitibly lose that the end of the episode, they at least don't feel like they aren't going anywhere in terms of what they are trying to achieve. Besides Towa/Twighlight, my favourite of the villains is Lock mostly cuz his rise to power was a nice twist and kept things from stagnant after the main villain had been temporarily put out of commission after the mid-season conflict. Close was also pretty good, I like how they brought him back after Lock was dealt with and all the fights he had with Cure Flora were real good. I like the raw hatred and disdain he displays towards her.
Twilight is okay as a villain and pretty good as a redemption cure. Honestly don't have much to say about her as a villain to be honest, the episode where she is purified is good along with the episode where she becomes a cure is great and the song she plays with her brother on the violin is really really nice and I like how the two arrangements come together. Shut is also there and is decent redeemed lesser grunt. I liked his occasional appearances in the latter half since he wasn't a threat that was taken particularly seriously but managed to build up to his last little fight and then redemption by the final episodes. Freeze and Stop exist too but like they're just kinda there. I like their designs.

Animation

This season has some of the best action scenes in the entire season and the overall quality is fairly consistent. Even when it's not particularly flashy, there tends to be a bit more thought put into fight choreography. I assume the reason the fights have way more consistent highs is because they used cg for most of the stock attacks but I haven't seen that stated anywhere, just an assumption.
I will say that though the fights are the best for sure, I think that in terms of character acting animation, that episode of Fresh Precure and the entirety of Heartcatch stand out more.

HOWEVER, the transformation sequences this season are absolutely top bloody tier man. Like, I never get bored of watching em, whenever they came on my attention was truly undivided lol. All of it is just perfect to the highest degree, the spraying at at the start, the hair change the curtsey it's all just true PERFECTION.
Out of the four transformations I'd say the best is between Scarlet and Flora but I'd give Flora the edge cuz the way she sprays the perfume makes me laugh. Now that I'm looking back at them, I like the detail of Kirara uses the stars she summons as she skips backwards, to change her clothes during the transformation.

Also the music for the transformation is perfect as well. I really don't know why I like it so much but it just gets me pumped somehow. Anyway, I could talk about what I like about the transformations of this season but I shan't for no reason other than I can't be asked to articulate my ever so passionate feelings towards those scenes.

Miscellaneous

Opening grew on me a lot as I watched the show. Honestly though, besides the song being nice nothing really stands out to me in this opening. It's just pretty good, I'd still put Fresh and Heartcath's openings above it.
The endings however are really good, especially the 2nd one. I like how each character has their own verse to sing depending on episode and visually it's probably the best looking precure ending I've seen so far. If there's anything In don't like about this season, it's probably there isn't really a satisfying conclusion to Haruka's dream. Like, she does indeed become a princess and all but not really if you know what I mean. I suppose I would've liked if we got to exactly what she's up to as a grown up as we see in the epilogue of the last episode. All things considered I'm putting my money on her being a teacher.
There's also the use of cg for the special attacks but I didn't really mind that at all. The only use cg that actually bothered me in the entire season is right after Haruka transforms for the first time. That felt out of place considering you have the amazing fight scene right after it. Almost forgot to mention but there's also this thing that Haruka does, whenever she lands a big hit on an enemy, where petals materialise around the her and I think that looks kinda cool.

Conclusion

Probably could've structured this better but whatevs. Overall a great season of Precure with a consistenly more engaging narrative than usual, that managed to impress me slightly more than Heartcatch. I do think I'd still recommend Heartcatch as a entryway into precure over this season though.