You know, I often like to make fun of people who are so used to watching 12-episode anime, that they simply cannot fathom the idea of sitting down and watching a 50-episode show, let alone one aimed squarely at children. So, when you face them with the prospect of watching Peak Television*, they usually ask for a list of all the important episodes so they can just watch that instead.

*This is code-speak for Smile Precure.

The reason why I find this to be a reason for mockery, is because when it comes to children shows, and especially Precure, the time you spend with the characters is as important as what happens to them, if not more so. All those so-called “important” moments are meaningful not just because the plot said so, but because we have been there with these characters every step of the way.

Of course, that time needs to be spent with the character doing something, otherwise anime would be incredibly easy to make. Characters need to be motivated, they need to have goals, they must encounter obstacles and face struggles. As obvious as it sounds, you can’t have a show where characters just stand around and do nothing.

But my lord, did Toei try anyways.

It took all of my might not to make a Delicious Party Joke in here.

Look, if you’re reading this then chances are you know how I roll, so I am just going to be upfront about this: while there are things I do enjoy about Soaring Sky Precure, and I most certainly do not hate the show, I was very much let down by it.

Bear in mind that I am a big fan of the franchise, Precure has been part of my life for longer than I should probably admit in public, so believe me when I say that I really want for Precure to be successful; I want it to be a great show forever, I want it to air in every country and I want every person, young and old alike, to find in it the enjoyment that made this franchise so dear to me in the first place.

That is why I need to say some VERY harsh things about Soaring Sky Precure. Because when I say that this season disappointed me, I don’t mean that it wasn’t to my liking. Again, there are very much things I like and I would even defend about it, but the overall experience was so frustrating because, while no show is perfect, the problems this season has are so basic, it boggles the mind that the 20th series in a long running animated franchise produced by one of the largest and oldest animation studios in the world would get them wrong in the first place.

And no, I am no talking about the fact that Soaring Sky is the first Precure series that doesn’t have a Fairy Companion.

Okay, maybe a little bit.

Seriously, think about it for a moment.

I don’t want to toot my own horn too much, but when it comes to these shows I can usually get a good feel of what they are going to be like just from the first few episodes. I can be wrong of course; I wasn’t exactly impressed by the initial episodes of Star Twinkle and that season ended up becoming one of my favorites. But in the case of Soaring Sky, you can actually see a lot of its strengths and weakness right there at the beginning. Some really great moments, some things that clearly weren’t working, and while there were some attempts at course correction later on, I really cannot say the show ever got better than that.

This is literally where the show peaked.

There’s a handful of issues that stood out to me early on, but the one that set red flags almost immediately was its two main characters, Sora Harewataaru/Cure Sky and Mashiro Nijigaoka/Cure Prism, and more specifically their relationship; look, the show isn’t shy about what it wants you to think about these two, and while I can say I liked the characters on their own, they’re lovely girls, the moment you put them together it becomes transparently obvious that they just don’t work as a pair.

I know that will be a contemptuous point for many and I am well aware that girls holding hands is one of the core foundations of society this franchise, but the issue with these two is that try as they might, they just don’t have good chemistry.

There is, however, Air Pressure.

But what is good chemistry, you ask?

Well, if you had paid attention in class you’d know, but I’ll school you regardless; when you have two or more characters who have contrasting personalities that complement each other, and their interactions bring out a unique dynamic between them, you have good chemistry. There’s a lot more nuance to it of course, sometimes it comes down to the performer, but generally speaking the last thing you want is for your characters to feel the same when they’re together as when they’re apart.

Chemistry is all about how they react to one another, after all.

For a Precure example, which are, historically speaking, the best kind of examples, take Manatsu and Laura from Tropical Rouge; these two couldn’t be more different from each other, one of them was basically a megalomaniac, the other one was monkey, but when they were together it worked because they always brought up unique reactions from each other that you didn’t see with anyone else, and it was so much fun to watch.

That was good chemistry.

Pictured: Science.

Two characters with good enough chemistry can carry a whole show on their backs. Sora and Mashiro are not bad characters on their own, they might be a bit too straightforward for my liking, but they work. The problem is that the show keeps telling us that they’re very close and share a deep bond, but when left on their own they are kind of a bore to watch.

Again, I know some people might take offense with that, but I really cannot emphasize enough how much better this show got the moment they added another character into the mix.

I want to thank her, for my life.

Still, while this was a very notorious issue for me, it pales in comparison to what I think is Soaring Sky’s biggest flaw; the almost complete lack of a supporting cast.

I know some of you may think that the supporting cast can’t be all that important, that’s why they’re the supporting cast, but they do fulfill a very specific function that is actually important for these kinds of shows; more than populating the world, supporting casts help inform the audience who our main characters are and why they behave the way they do through their interactions with them.

I can’t believe I am about to say this, but compare it to the previous season, Delicious Party Precure; while the show definitely had issues with how it handled its main characters, it made damn sure to introduce and feature everyone’s families regularly, and just by looking at them you could tell why these children turned out the way they did: Ran’s parents owned a restaurant, so it made sense for her to be so peculiar about food taste; Kokone’s parent were always busy and left her to her own devices, so it made sense she had problems communicating with others; Amane’s brothers knew Karate, so it made sense that she ruled harder than anyone ever has.

Look me in the eyes and tell me I am wrong.

Outside of that, supporting casts also let you know that there is a world beyond the scope of the narrative, that our main characters have lives outside of what we see in every episode. And in more practical terms, having a supporting cast can help you raise the stakes when the plot demands it.

To be fair, there are many ways to tell a story, there’s no rule that says you can’t try something different, but conventions are conventions for a reason, so if you’re gonna try and do something outside the norm, you need to have a way to compensate for it. While I think supporting casts are important, you can absolutely do away with them if you have a good main cast with a strong dynamic and well written character arcs.

That sentence I just wrote is called ‘foreshadowing.’

Technically speaking, Soaring Sky does have a supporting cast, all of the characters families are represented and there’s a handful of recurring characters, but their appearances are so scarce and their uses are so limited, they end up being a non-factor most of the time; in some cases, you could even remove them altogether and it wouldn’t make a difference.

The reason why I zeroed in on this issue specifically is because it ends up creating such a massive void within the narrative, it actually amplifies other problems that were not really issues in previous seasons; having one-note villains is not exactly a rare thing for this genre, some of my favorite Precure seasons have VERY one-dimensional villains, but the villains in Soaring Sky ended up feeling particularly grating simply because there was nothing else to divert our attention.

“Quick, add more merchandise!”

Soaring Sky is the first Precure season I’ve seen where the problem is not that it didn’t do enough with its characters, but rather, its characters had nothing to do; there was no supporting cast to bounce off of, no weekly stories that lead to unique experiences for them, they don’t even engage with the plot as much as the plot happens to them. This created a weird conundrum where Soaring sky cannot develop its main characters effectively, because it has nothing to develop them with.

Just look at our main character for example, one Sora Harewataaru; whenever Sora is confronted with any sort of tribulation that could help her grow as a person, she turns to any of the other characters, and by extension the audience, and explains in no uncertain terms whatever it is that is troubling her, and how she is dealing with it without any sort of nuance.

No experience to gain, no lesson to be learned, she just explains her progression and thinking process to the audience. And this happens multiple times.

Usually inside of a car for some reason.

Now look, exposition is absolutely a thing in narratives, but it is very much a necessary evil; sometimes you need to explain to your audience the finer details so they can grasp the bigger picture. But that is not what is happening here.

I know that doesn’t sound like a huge issue on the surface, but that’s the difference between say, watching a movie and reading its plot on Wikipedia; good stories are not consumed, they are lived. Characters don’t grow or develop in the script or in the images on the screen, but in your perception of them. The most important part of character writing is trusting the audience to figure them out; if all you do is explain the characters to them, then they will have no reason to be invested in their story.

Sora gets the worst from it, but this is an issue that affects everyone in the show to some degree. There is some success in how some characters are handled, even Sora gets a couple of good moments near the end of the show, but while most of the big dramatic moments in the story are rather well executed, they often lack the emotional weight they should have, making them somewhat forgettable.

Good animation can only do so much.

Let me just state that as a whole, Soaring Sky Precure is a very inoffensive show, there is nothing about it that is particularly egregious. But the issues it has are the kind of issues a TV show shouldn’t really have in the first place, and they all seem to stem from this almost comprehensive refusal to feature any sort of meaningful conflict.

There are however, lots of road trips.

But wait, you’re probably thinking, this not Attack on Titan, this is Precure for Mana’s sake! Surely, we don’t need conflict!

Well first, don’t call me Shirley.

And second, it’s not like I expect for all the characters to try and stab each other every other scene, but even the barest of TV shows is, fundamentally, a story, and all stories are ultimately driven by a conflict; when you have the needs and wants of a character be at an impasse with either the plot or the needs and wants of another character, that’s conflict.

As it happens, Super Hero shows are the single best example of this, there is no conflict more basic than Good versus Evil after all, but while Soaring Sky does have moments of genuine conflict, they are too few and far between to carry a show of this length, and most weekly plots don’t really feature a conflict that NEEDS to be resolved, let alone one with stakes.

But hey, at least we have Pretty Holic.

This is why most weekly plots in the show boil down to characters-do-something-until-something-happens; this is why out of 5 main characters, only one of them has a proper story arc; this is why most of the time the villains are reduced to nothing more than random encounters.

I’ve always been a big defender of the MOTW format. That’s Monster Of The Week for those of you who have never seen the light. Some may scuff at it because it is the most basic type of narrative you can come up with, but that’s the thing, it is narrative. Conflict and stakes are baked right there into the plot of the episodes, and that framework gives a lot of freedom to tell almost any kind of story.

The Toku Heroes, Mecha and Magical Girl genres are the best examples of how much good the MOTW format can do. And Precure is at least 2 of those, so the fact that Soaring Sky got this wrong is actually kind of incredible. And since most of the time there is nothing driving the plot, the show ends up feeling like it’s going nowhere.

Get it? Driving.

Look, I know there are people reading this, or at least I hope there are, who vehemently disagree with me; they had a great time with the show, loved the characters and don’t know why I am making such a buzz about it. But that’s the thing, if you loved the show I can actually see where you’re coming from; Soaring Sky does play with some great ideas, has some great moments and I really like the main characters. But there is also a very distinct lack of ambition there that I cannot turn a blind eye to… and the show itself is proof this.

See, there are episodes in this show that are not just good, they are fantastic. I am talking about cases like episodes 13, 17 and 35 AKA The Baseball episode (AKA the BEST Episode) that are just great examples of how to make TV for children, let alone Precure. And the reason why these episodes work is because, well, they address every single criticism I’ve brought up; from featuring weekly characters with compelling stories, to having the villains actually raise the stakes of the plot.

Behold: Internal character conflict.

I really need to stress that these episodes are not great just because they’re a cut above the rest, but because when they do happen, which unfortunately is not that often, Soaring Sky becomes a structurally different show; the building blocks are the same, but they are used to build a fundamentally different narrative.

You know side characters are good when I’d personally die for them.

I won’t deny that the show IS trying to push some boundaries, but most of the time it feels like it just doesn’t want to challenge its audience; even if it has good material, it rarely does something compelling with it. I know it might sound like I am expecting a lot from a show for little girls, but this is exactly the kind of thing Precure is usually really good at, even more so than other children’s franchises. And it is very disheartening to see this season essentially sabotage even its best ideas.

Take Ageha Hijiri/Cure Butterfly, for example:

I absolutely adore her; she has a great personality, livens up every scene she’s in and she’s just a really fun character to have around. Better yet, her focus episodes are genuinely some of the best in the show… but there’s only like three of those. Four if I am being generous.

Her journey as a character was great. It was just a very short one.

Also, we desperately needed an episode about Piyo-chan.

And then there’s Elle-chan; as far as baby type characters go, she is easily one of the best ones in the franchise. But there really is only so much you can do with this type of character, and once she becomes Cure Majesty the show hits that ceiling rather quickly.

Either way I never got over this.

Even Mashiron/Cure Prism, who is hands down the best character in the show, or at least the one who was handled the best, suffers from this; for all the good they do with her character, it really felt like they only had one idea for her and they never really got past it.

If you’re a Queen Mashiron Fan (like me!) you may bring up the Battamonda redemption arc, which is, in all fairness, the single best story line in the show. But as much as I like it, all this arc really does is reiterate the same idea at the core of every Mashiro focus episode. Mind you, it is still great, but in the context of the show it is repetitive.

I am sorry Cure Majesty, but there’s only space for one Queen.

There’s probably no bigger victim in all of this than Tsubasa Yuunagi/Cure Wing; for the first official male Cure in the franchise’s history, I think they did an absolutely bang-up job with him, but I don’t exaggerate when I say that his character peaked during his introduction arc. While they did try some things with him, I don’t think they ever figured out a good trajectory for his character, and to add insult to injury, he got Yellow Cure’d so hard he gave Cure Pine a run for her money.

If you know, you know.

I know it sounds like I am nitpicking now, but you have to understand that all of these things do add up, to the point everything about this show feels severely undercooked; from the main setting to the villains to even the main themes, so many elements in this show feel like they could have done so much more with them, but they never really did.

That’s what makes soaring Sky such a frustrating experience; the show has everything it needs to be great, but instead of using it to build itself up, it spends a lot of time doing nothing. The end result is a show that feels more empty than not, even when it’s genuinely trying to do something.

This particularly hurt the show once it reached the final arc; at that point they introduce some very bold ideas that are really cool to see in the franchise, but they end up doing so little with them, it feels like a waste.

This was amazing for the whole 2 minutes it lasted.

As an anniversary series, Soaring Sky Precure should be a showcase of the best things this franchise has to offer, and in some ways, it is. Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where a show is much better in theory than in execution; everything in there should work, but so many elements are mishandled in such a basic level, the end result feels rather shallow.

Make no mistake, there is genuinely good stuff in there, but that’s what makes the experience so disappointing; for as much as I want to like the show, and I really do want to like it, most of the time Soaring Sky is just dull to watch.

And that’s the worst thing a kid’s show can be.

Final Words.

This might shock you but I don’t really enjoy being so critical of these shows. I know how hard it is to make an anime on this scale, and I know the people who work on it are genuinely trying their best. Precure in particular is one of those shows that is beloved both by the fans and the by people who make it. But if I felt the need to be so vocal about Soaring Sky, that’s because not only is this the 20th anniversary season, but it is also the season that came out right after Delicious Party Precure.

They’re just standing there, menacingly.

Opinions are varied of course, but most people I talk to were quite disappointed with it and with good reason; while I can say that Delicious Party was an okay-to-good children’s show, it was really bad at being Precure. That’s why the way Soaring Sky turned out stung so much for me; from all the previews and pre-release materials we saw from the show, it looked like it was going to be a return to form for the franchise.

And then it wasn’t.

It is almost paradoxical, Soaring Sky improves over Delicious Party in so many ways, but it also has a lot of problems the later didn’t. So, when all is said and done, I really can’t say one season is better than the other.

Neither of them has Asuka, for one.

You know, for a fan like myself, this experience really makes me wonder if maybe I’ve just outgrown these shows, but then I go back and rewatch some older seasons like Star Twinkle and DokiDoki and realize that no, when done well Precure really is that good. Just take something like Otona Precure, an anniversary project that aired concurrently with Soaring Sky; even if it was a limited series aimed at older fans and you could absolutely see it struggling against its limitations, it was so… effortlessly Precure, it really makes you wonder what went wrong with the main series.

Sorry, I have been thinking about this for months.

I don’t believe Soaring Sky is a flunk, but rather it is the result of a trend that has been going on at Toei for the last few years, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious this is not an issue of incompetence, but mismanagement; as a long-time victim of Toei, I have seen this happening many times before, and for the longest time I thought Precure would be the exception to the rule.

I really, really want Precure to be good. I have seen this franchise do so much good for so many people over the years, it would be such a shame if it just peters out like so many franchises before it. I hope I am wrong about this, but if things don’t improve, I don’t see this franchise lasting another decade.

Which is such a weird thing to say about a TV show for kids now that I think about it, but still.