Wonderful Precure
 

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The twenty-first installment of the Precure franchise, released in 2024. The title is actually a pun, with the won part of Wonderful written as wan in Japanese, which is also the Japanese onomatopoeia for a dog's barking.
Characters

Daifuku
Inukai Iroha / Cure Friendy
Komugi / Inukai Komugi / Cure Wonderful
Nekoyashiki Mayu / Cure Lillian
Toyama Satoru
Yuki / Nekoyashiki Yuki / Cure Nyammy

Having failed to achieve full fanbase apoplexy over adding a boy precure, the decision has apparently been made to have a canine one.

I think we might have another male Cure because there's a third pet owner with a rabbit.

It'll be interesting to see what approach they take with this season. Hirogaru absolutely nailed the opening episodes so fingers crossed that Wonderful will start strong. Bigger question I have is if the antagonists will be better handled here...

And I do like dogs so I'm certainly curious to see if this one turns out to be good. The nice thing with Precure is that usually whether a season will be a hit or a miss for me is clear really fast :).
I guess they concluded the winning formula is going with an animal cure. Last year it was a bird. This year it's a dog. Definitely an upgrade :).
True. Though they might be pacing themselves. Try it once, let it sit, and maybe try it in another year or so.

My gut feeling from that guy is that he's the male friend that can be shipped with one of the main girls (presumably not the dog). But I could be wrong there.

Almost forgot it will come out on Feb 4 2024

Trailers
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Key visual

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I don't know if I'll be too burned out from Hirogaru's mixed bag for this or if it'll be what I need. Doesn't seem like it'll be that ambitious about possibly having a serious story like Hirogaru tried.

My hope for this is that the antagonists won't suck and that they won't run out of story at the mid-point :D.

Characters look cute and seems like it'll be fine.

episode 1:

does not have much action. However, this episode made me feel comfortable, because I have pet dog and cat.

will watch some more episodes to see where this goes.

Decent enough first episode. The cast were pretty nice and it was relatively relaxing. I don't mind the concept either of what should be paired cures with pet and owner completing each set. Certainly that one cat had plenty of personality without any lines as of yet.

The action and the villains will be something to keep an eye on. They might not show anyone off for a while if they've got these "evil eggs" just littered around the countryside like landmines. They can just get set off on their own without anyone picking a fight with the Precure directly. The "fights" will be interesting. Since right now it doesn't look like there will be any. At least in episode 1 no one seemed eager to beat up these possessed creatures. So it may be a lot of dodging, chasing, blocking until a huge finishes it off. This might be the most pacifist group of Precure ever.

Decent start. Not amazing or intensely grabbing. But it was relaxed and that's ok.

Pacifist for now until they find the mastermind behind it.

In a lot of ways I salute Komugi's wilfulness. Like heck this dog that just gained a human body is just going to go off fighting without the person she cares about most in the world. Sorry Mr Sheep, but obviously a puppy is going to be putting play above most other concerns. And maybe stop criticizing everything when this person saved your life...

That Komugi can go back into canine mode is useful. Though how controlled it is I'm not sure. Either way I don't think they honestly need to respect the rules of a random talking sheep. Keeping a talking dog under the radar is probably not realistic.

Iroha and Satoru have a good vibe. And I'd say her cute goal of being friends with animals is perfectly solid. Keeping secrets definitely isn't her strong suit though. Definitely better off bringing him into the fold on this sooner than later. I'm not sure Iroha can avoid a mental breakdown otherwise!

Solid start for Wonderful. Of course I thought the same with Hirogaru so no certainties here. But maybe this will be overall more consistent if they aren't going to try to be too ambitious. Just keep it light and fun. Easy to get behind helping animals that have been caught up in some dark situation. And so long as they don't spend...30+ episodes just on this monster landmine situation it's fine to ease into introducing some sort of culprit.

The show really does need to hint about this season's villain group soon, because to be honest, the "monster of the week" battles are somewhat lacking when compared to the previous PreCure (the "battles" here are basically just the Cures comforting possessed Niko Garden creatures), and it could get tiring rather quickly.

You know, I'd be fine with someone telling the sheep to shove it. Put I suppose Satoru reasoning with him was fine too. He's telling Iroha to keep things a secret because he might get scolded...by someone that's missing!? For someone that wants help badly his priorities are really out of order. How about focusing on saving your missing savior first and dealing with being in trouble for it later? Plus asking that girl to keep a secret is a seriously tall order!

Honestly I really like the dynamic between Iroha and Satoru. It's just good and sweet stuff. She really hates lying and keeping secrets and he obvious could tell something was up and was struggling with her not being able to tell him.

Definitely key to get Satoru on side since...(how to say this nicely)...Iroha's an airhead. If left to her and Komugi their hope of getting anything done is pretty much zero. While sure she could have transformed before arriving, I'm glad Iroha didn't do that. And good on her for putting the life of her friend above a random sheep's complaints!

All worked out pretty well. At least having Satoru might make the fights a bit interesting. If they have to adjust tactics for each type of animal they are dealing with that could keep things from getting stale too quickly. Though I do still think they'll have to come up with some threats that can be punched sooner or later...

You know, while I'm still a bit down at the lack of antagonists and combat...there are good elements here. At the very least it feels like they are trying to take good care of the main characters and developing them. Will see if that lasts of course. And hey even a slight sign of some sort of antagonist was something this week!

Having Satoru be this kind of "intermediary" with Komgui and Iroha was nice. Sometimes it does help having a third party to talk things out with. Plus it was kind of a cute thing that Komugi could effectively translate for Daifuku :). And also it's not a bad thing to build up the relationship with Satoru and Komugi. With the OP I was worried she'd become super jealous about any interaction with him and Iroha. But it feels like there's a good friendship there so that shouldn't be an issue.

Also apparently tackling is ok so long as it's the dog that does it ;). And now they've finally got a finisher :).

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She's got some legs for sure!

If nothing else I am enjoying the effort to focus on the connections between the animal and human precure. And certainly haven't rushed the next pair into the action despite them being around for most of the show.

I've gotta say, the Mayu and Yuki backstory was really touching. This is a rare time where I'm so ready for them to let the next Cure join the team that I'm starting wonder what the heck the show is waiting for! Let's go already!

They gave that flashback all the time it needed though and I appreciate that. Lot of time spent on having Mayu slowly build up connection and trust. Even spreading solid advice that you have to be careful with strays. But all that effort to build a connection paid off big time. Leaving the hat helped severely to get Yuki through that storm. And it was just a sweet moment where Yuki dragged that darn thing all the way to go and see Mayu under her own power. The power of connection helped set these two on a good path.

One real strength of this season is the main cast. They have pretty much cut out the idea of antagonists, but at least they are doing something with that screentime. The bond between Iroha/Komugi and Mayu/Yuki is what drives the show. The show is going all in on that connection between people and pets. That's something easy to get behind and I'm all for it.

episode 9:

nice move for them to make Komugi's uniform have shorts instead of a skirt. This dog girl would be moving around a lot. :p