User blog comment:Anybody's You/HUGtto PreCure Thoughts!!/@comment-33738417-20190120051232

Hugtto was a really ambitious season. Handling more mature topics and incorporating messages about modern society. Hugtan's subplot. Hamster subplot. Henri subplot. Crossovers. Giving each villainous general their own little arcs and motivations. Giving George a more nuanced role as a villain with an objective more than the typical Precure "sink the world into despair". In the end, these ambitions lent to both Hugtto's greatest strengths and its greatest flaws.

Flaw-wise, all the things Hugtto had to juggle led to some pretty poor pacing, mostly in the second half. Even within the episodes themselves there would often be an awkward transition from [story of the week] to [monster of the week], to the point where the weekly fights would seem unnecessary.

EmiRuru wise, I feel they suffer the same 6th ranger problems that many seasons have, essentially "they're a Cure now, we're not going to give them further development", something I think happened even with Towa, where her "I'll become a Grand Princess and save my kingdom" character just stayed that way. Overall though, I really adored Emiruru's episodes leading up to becoming Cures, and Ruru especially got a pretty good redemption from a villain.

Starting trio wise, Hana is very good, no complaints there. Saaya and Homare experienced the Problem Of Being a Original Cast Member and therefore getting almost overshadowed by the 6th rangers, but I felt their episodes, as sporadic as they were, felt really strong. Probably becuase I'm a sucker for Saaya's "finding own uncertain path" type of stories, and I didn't mind the romance.

Everything else I fellt were done pretty well across the board, and it was fantastic. Overall, I guess I really liked the season and my rankings so far probably look something like Suite>Smile>Hugtto>Heartcatch=Go!Pri=Kirapre>half of OG