IN WHICH STAR*TWINKLE IS REVIEWED

FIRST THINGS FIRST, WATCH THIS VIDEO ON FREE WILL AND WELL-INTENTIONED EXTREMISM AMONG THE STAR PRINCESSES!!


Star ☆ Twinkle is the sixteenth instalment of Toei’s Pretty Cure franchise, and the first series released in the Reiwa period. This season of PrettyCure has forty-nine episodes.
The director was Hiroaki Miyamoto, it was produced by Akari Yanagawa and the writer was Isao Murayama.
The show started airing on the 3rd of February 2019, and ended otherwise 26th of January, 2020.

Star ☆ Twinkle‘s story starts with a place called the Star Palace being attacked by a group known as the KNotraiders. Aliens Lala and Purunce take their pet MacGuffin Fuwa to our own green Earth, where they seek out someone to become a Pretty Cure and revive the Star Palace.

That’s when they meet Hikaru Hoshina, Elena Amamiya-Rivera, and Madoka Kaguya, and give each of these maidens a Star Colour Pendant and Star Colour Pen. Hikaru transforms into Cure Star, Elena AKA Nena into the Cure Soleil, and Madoka into Cure Selene; and Lala is soon joined by other allies as they fight the 'raiders in order to revive the twelve scattered Star Princesses.

The main cast is made up of four girls, at least at first. First is Hikaru Hoshina, who transforms into Cure Star. She pretty much loves everything to do with space. As far as shocking pink Cures go, Hikaru is a pretty good one, the rare example of a book-smart AND extroverted shoujo centre-stage-on-the-poster lead heroine. At first, her stubbornness and tendency to act on her intuition is a direct contrast to Lala’s logic, but soon the pair become inseparable.

Next, we have the first alien Cure (extraterrestrial as opposed to ultraterrestrial) introduced in the franchise. Lala Hagoromo comes from the planet Samaan, where everyone tends to take a far more logical approach to things. As proven by how frequently she confides in her starship AI when she is a fish out of water here on Tell-Us! This rationality causes some initial tension between herself and Hikaru, but they smooth things out in the end.

Another first is Elena "Nena" Amamiya-Rivera: the first dark-skinned Cure or Pretty Cure. She is Hispanoasian: half-Mexican, half-Japanese (meaning that the only Spanish Cure in canon so far is based upon a loathly blood sport!! RARGH!!!). Possesses incredible athletic skills and is arguably the most selfless character of the cast. That probably stems from being the eldest sibling of a big family. Elena is also known as the sun of Mihoshi Secondary School.

The fourth member is Madoka Kaguya. If Elena is the sun, then Madoka is the moon of Mihoshi Secondary School. She possesses many talents, with archery, piano, polyglossy, economics, and ikebana (flower arrangement) just being a few. That is reflective of her upbringing in her strict upper-class family.

For long time PrettyCure fans, it will come as no surprise to learn that the main cast grows by one over the course of the series. Arguably the fifth addition to the team is the most interesting, and not just because she is another alien.

Yuuuu-ni!! Yuu-ni!! 

PS: Did she like the Cats musical?

YUNI: Grizabella hugged close, Mr. Mistoffeles and Skimbleshanks on the brain (have to admit that their songs are catchy! not to mention I see myself in Misto as the Blue Cat and in Skimble as Bakenyan!). THE CAT ON THE RAILWAY TRAIN!! But nevertheless enjoyed it all, all the musical numbers and both the heroes and the bad guys. Ayewan and I even hugged and were this close to joining lips when MacCavity got... --all right, my optic friend, you said give the readership no spoilers--! Now what is this Lemizerable you mentioned that was shot by the same film team?

The thing is, with Star ☆ Twinkle‘s main cast, is that Hikaru, Lala, and ESPECIALLY the fifth addition to team kind of steal the show. At times, Elena and Madoka feel like little more than extras. They have their episodes where they debut as Cure Soleil and Cure Selene respectively, but then there isn’t all that much to do around the middle of the season as the fifth Cure steals the spotlight.
This is remedied as the season moves towards its end, as Elena and Madoka both get multiple opportunities to shine in the second half of the season, and they even help each other to grow as characters.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a season/continuity of PrettyCure without its female characters getting particularly close to each other. First and foremost is Hikaru and Lala (Hikala), but Elena and Madoka (Soluna) get a bit of that towards the end of the season as well. There’s also some notable moments between the Cures and some of their enemies – pay attention to the fifth Cure and the cyclop girl in particular.

Being an entry in the PrettyCure franchise, there are some typical things to expect. The usual monster of the week formula is in place, though there are a couple of different approaches to it – sometimes PreCures will fight a KNottrigger (ie a person who has been triggered and subsequently seized over by the 'raiders), other times it will be an enemy who powers up their weapon with twisted imagination... and there are occasions when they’ll be fighting groups of KNotraiders.
Stock footage is also a given for magical girl warriors, and it seems that some feel that the show might rely on it a little too much. It does make the fights that forego the stock footage have more impact, though.

Of course, there’s also the transformation sequence. Notable in that this time around, the Cures themselves actually sing during the transformation. It is a great tune, and it is used to great effect at the end of the season.

On that note, when Star ☆ Twinkle wants to do emotional scenes, it does them fantastically well. It may be a middle-graders’ show, but there are scenes in this season that easily put shows for older viewers to shame. 

The antagonists in this show are certainly an interesting bunch. They, too, get their moment to shine in the spotlight, which gives some insight into their motivations (ranging from aesthetic discrimination to genocide and a childhood in squalour). Also, at least one of them isn’t what they seem at first.

With a strong space theme running throughout the season, Star ☆ Twinkle definitely plays up some sci-fi tropes when given the opportunity. This isn’t the first PrettyCure season to involve outer space, but it certainly is the one that uses the theme best.

Star ☆ Twinkle actually has quite a bit in common with Maho Girls. It starts with a girl from Earth (Mirai/Hikaru) meeting a girl not from Earth (Riko/Lala). They travel to different locations together (Magic dimension/different planets) whilst carrying out their duties as a PreCure battle couple.
There are even some strong similarities with its endings.

As a season or continuity, the strong sci-fi theme running throughout helps to make this season stand out, even if everything else is pretty typical for the franchise.
But, after celebrating the fifteenth anniversary with Hugtto!, it was inevitable things were going to a little more standard – doesn’t detract from Star ☆  Twinkle still being a really fun time, though.

Score: 8/10
Star ☆ Twinkle is a great entry into the PrettyCure franchise. It does have elements that could have been improved on, but ultimately it leaves behind a lot of fun memories and some incredibly strong emotional scenes.