Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25034020-20171122044638/@comment-31119526-20171214201258

Xane123 wrote: I suppose things like characters could change before the season airs, but the Melody Sword picture looks like a toy picture, like the toy's somehow finished months before when HUGtto will air. Character designs are part of a lot of toys, so those wouldn't change either.

Last year a scientific article was published with some behind the scenes info from Smile PreCure. According to that article, in February, characters, settings and premises are decided 9 months to a year before a season starts; in February they had already been working on scripts for 3 months, and were deciding on concept art for the Royal Clock, which didn't appear until SmPC30 in September.