Ichika is a normal 2nd-year in middle school, who loves to make desserts, when she becomes a legendary pâtissier/guardian, Pretty Cure, Cure Whip. In the normal way of such things, Ichika gathers around her a number of other teammates and friends, science-minded Himari, rock singer Aoi, older girls cool, boyish Akira and stylish Yukari and, eventually a famous pâtissier from France, Ciel…and that’s not all, in KIRA KIRA☆Pretty Cure A la Mode, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
It’s my habit of many years to at least give the first few episodes of every PreCure series a watch. That’s fallen by the wayside in recent years, so KIRA KIRA☆PreCure is the last one I actually gave a few weeks to. I liked it well enough and was very pleased when Crunchyroll picked this series up. I’m still hoping we get Heartcatch, as so far, I consider it the best season to date. But Kira Kira is pretty solid.
This time the PreCure fight Noir-sama who steals the color and sparkle – the “kira kira” of the title – from sweets. As legendary pâtissiers, it is PreCure’s job to protect sweets from losing their kira kira and making sure everyone in the world gets to be happy through sweets. The co-branding possibilities with candy and pastries are endless and I’m sure dentists were happy, too.
There are a few narrative beats here that were actually interesting. Our first nemesis is Rio, a boy who obviously knows a lot about sweets, but won’t cook. His true identity was kind of fun and it set the tone for the various redemptions, back-stabbing, evolutions and other crisscrossing of the characters’ various stories. I also quite like evil little Bibli. I won’t spoil, because frankly, it’s a cartoon for little children with a good 10 minutes of repeated footage for every 20-minute episode and there’s little else to draw your attention, so you might as well wait for it. ^_^ This season the PreCure are both sweets and animal related, so you’re gonna have plenty of time to get up and get a drink while they transform, especially towards the end. ^_^
One other draw is the aforementioned cool, boyish Akira and stylish and elegant Yukari who make a nice couple. I think it goes a little far to say they are an established couple, but as far as they can carry that without overt expressions of mutual love, they get pretty far. Akira does have the chance to tell Yukari she likes her and they are partnered in attacks and other ways that makes it plain to those who want to see what they see.
Most telling to me is that Akira’s transformation to Cure Chocolat places her clearly on Takarazuka-like stairs as an otokoyaku. Later she will be Prince to Yukari’s Queen at the school festival. There are any number of moments when their voice actresses play the roles like its an obvious pairing. Akira’s voice actress, Mori Nanako played coffee-shop owner and adult lesbian in a stable relationship, Miyako in Bloom Into You, and Yukari’s VA, Fujita Saki has graced such Yuri anime as Sakura Trick and Yuri Yuri, and she’s Attack on Titan‘s Ymir, so we have solid Yuri cred from both, as well.
As PreCure goes, the music was not bad, although so far nothing has touched the end theme to Heartcatch PreCure in my completely biased opinion.
A pretty solid, if super sweet, season of PreCure.
Ratings:
Art – 6 Coloful, rather than good, but totally acceptable
Story – 6 It had some elements of interest.
Characters – 8
Service – well, I guess constant shots of potential toys are a kind of corporate service
Yuri – Hrmmm, well give Akira and Yukari a 7. You can see if you want to, and also kind of ignore it if you don’t
Overall – 7
Kudos to the translator who nailed Jaba’s “Nan ja to?” by translating it as “What the ja?” Outstanding.
Most interestingly, the original stuff seems to be inclined to deny that they were conceived as a couple https://www.animatetimes.com/news/details.php?id=1504174511, which I find extremely weird since their actual interaction and how stuff teased it during the show itself goes far beyond the traditional “everyone reads like they want”. However, if I understood VA’s words correctly, it was pure formality so as not to disturb the censors.
I don’t know what impression you have of that interview, but it’s basically about Yukari’s songs. When she and Akira sig a duet Fujita says that she thinks Akira is important to Yukira. So it doesn’t contradict any perspective, really.
Well, whether stuff makes it intentionally ambiguous or not, I personally found their relationship pretty obvious romantic. Especially after the director himself hinted that their relationship was not an usual power of friendship.
As I say, it’s there if you want to see it and not if you don’t. ^_^
Take Haruka and Michiru, who have approximately even amounts of cool aloofness, and then imagine transferring most of Haruka’s aloofness to Michiru. That’s basically Akira and Yukari.
Michiru’s always been aloof, stylish and cool on her own, IMHO, but I take your point.
Fun fact, Yukari and Akira actually got married.
The mangaka made art of them getting married (June Bride) and them wearing wedding rings.
This would apply to the manga version which is different from the anime (its basically a fact that in the manga they spent the timeskip together) but it could easily be applied to the anime version (Akira’s VA squeeed at the wedding ring tweet and it is open for them to get together).
That is a fun fact. ^_^