Kirakira☆Precure A La Mode

Cheerful teenager Ichika Usami has a passion for sweets that is inspired by her mother's baking. In celebration of her mother's return from overseas, she tries her hand at making a cake herself. She is interrupted when a dog-like fairy named Pekorin crashes into her kitchen. With Pekorin's help, Ichika successfully bakes her cake. Only then enters an imp named Gummy who bursts in and attempt to steal the cake's "kirakiraru", a magical power that gives sweets the ability to bring happiness.

Though Ichika initially offers her cake to Gummy in order to protect Pekorin, the fairy helps her realize how important the treat is and the love it represents. As the kirakiraru within Ichika's cake grows, it changes into a set of trinkets that transforms her into Cure Whip, a hero known as a Pretty Cure. Using her newfound powers, she goes on to battle kirakiraru thieves whenever they appear. Ichika fights to protect Ichigozaka's sweets and finds colorful new allies along the way.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kotozume, Yukari Main

Fujita, Saki Japanese

Usami, Ichika Main

Miyama, Karen Japanese

Arisugawa, Himari Main

Fukuhara, Haruka Japanese

Kenjou, Akira Main

Mori, Nanako Japanese

Tategami, Aoi Main

Muranaka, Tomo Japanese

Kirahoshi, Ciel Main

Minase, Inori Japanese

Nono, Hana Supporting

Hikisaka, Rie Japanese

Kuroki, Rio Supporting

Minagawa, Junko Japanese

Bibury Supporting

Chiba, Chiemi Japanese

Hug-tan Supporting

Tada, Konomi Japanese

Yazaki, Fumi Producer

Kaizawa, Yukio Director

Kureta, Kouhei Director

Kon, Chiaki Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

May 14, 2020

CureChronos

Recommended

(This review may contain spoilers. Please avoid reading this before watching the entire series.)


Kirakira Precure A La Mode, the sixth season I'm watching in the Precure franchise. This season definitely took a very out of the box thing as its theme- Desserts. And like desserts, I think this season was bittersweet in both story-wise and quality-wise. Basically, it's kinda awkward to pinpoint how I feel.


Story: 7/10
Definitely a bit different from what I'm used to from the first five seasons I've watched. We first start out with a whole bunch of smaller villains before moving on to the main ones, which isn't something I've ever seen, ... so that's cool.
One thing that makes me feel awkward about giving a lenient score like I always do in this aspect is just how far the season can be divided between the two extremes.
The thing is the following- The main villain in Precure usually has some kind of big goal for what they exactly want to accomplish and sometimes very great motives behind it. This season managed to screw up both parts of having a decent villain. Noir's motive for his villainous acts was really awkward in comparison to seasons like Heartcatch and Hugtto. And from there, as many other seasons do, he takes advantage of the negativity of his allies, the old stuff. But to be quite honest, their acts to achieve their goals this season were quite weird. How does one plan to spread hatred by getting rid of kirakiraru again? XD
However, on the other side of the spectrum is the amazing KiraPika siblings arc, aka the Cure Parfait arc. This arc was the absolute bomb. It was an intense emotional roller coaster and ended on a heartbreaking note. The development of both this arc and Cure Parfait after that would go on to be excellent.
As for the main Cure storylines, most of them are very pleasant and good. I say good because for real though, it seemed rather simple this time around. This was one of Kirakira's weaknesses: A 6 Cure Team. We haven't seen one in almost a decade and it definitely strained the balance of development between Cures.


Art: 8/10
I originally didn't exactly like the art style but soon it would grow on me as some other seasons did. I especially love how sometimes the art compliments the mood of the scene. Plus, this season's Cures probably have some of the most exotic character designs due to their double design theme of Animals and Desserts. Some of them were great, some were... Okay.
Seriously though, can we all agree Cure Whip has the most gigantic twintails of any Precure ever? XD


Sound: 10/10
This season had pretty freaking amazing background music and I love the effort on matching certain scenes with certain tunes. They really bring out the vibes.


Character: 8/10
This part is a bit more complicated.
Honestly, there's not much wrong with the characters and they're very much fine this season. But it's just that. This season doesn't exactly bring too many new things to the table in terms of character personalities, so they may get stale. (Heh, the puns!)
Ichika and Himari have pleasant arcs but they have a lot of room for improvement. Their stories are quite smooth and relaxing to sit through, sometimes touching.
Aoi's arc had an awesome start and her personality and interests were a creative idea. It was nice overall, but of course, it could've been more powerful.
Yukari and Akira's entry in the team makes this season only the second ever time to have senior high Cures (First being Moonlight from Heartcatch.) While Yukari I found and feel a bit out of reach in some cases for the usual fanbase, Akira's story with the addition of her sister Miku was both sweet and fun to see.
And then we have the highlight: Ciel. Ciel's story was mixed in with her brother Pikario's (aka Julio's) backstory. Her celebrity flair and her level of professionalism stand out amongst the rest and she has a beautiful and bittersweet arc overall. In her arc, she learned what it truly meant to be a patissier despite how great she had already been being one, and I think that's a nice touch to her character.
Overall, some Cures had better devs than others, and most of them have room to improve.
Meanwhile, the villains seemed to see a falling slope of quality as the season dragged on. Undoubtedly, Julio was the best of them and after his reformation, played a huge role in explaining the Cure Parfait arc and making his sister's story the more bittersweet.
The others? Not much to touch on.


Enjoyment: 9/10
In truth, since I've started to become accustomed to the rhythm of Precure, combine that with how this season didn't exactly bring too much new stuff to the table, I did enjoy this season a little less, but I can't say I didn't enjoy it.
Despite much criticism on the fight scenes, I personally found many hidden gems throughout the season, such as episode 40 and the finale. This was also a season where the Cures seemed to take a more ranged approach as opposed to usual close combat. I think it provided a lot of room for imaginative attacks in that sense and the attacks looked very nice, although again, it could get stale after a while.
The overall pacing was fine, could've been faster, and I love some of the character interactions, particularly the KiraPika siblings, Ichika and her mother and Ciel and Bibury (Episode 26), and a few others.


Overall: 8/10
Kirakira Precure A La Mode isn't as amazing as some of the other seasons I've watched. However, on its own, it provides a very nice emotional ride and it's the kind of show that I really love, where I could sit back and relax, and watch something to brighten up my day.



But don't take my word for it- Especially with how high my score is! XD

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 28, 2018

ZettaiRyouiki

Mixed Feelings

WARNING: Spoilers all through the review! Considering how bad the plot is honestly this might actually help out...

KiraKira is just awful. Back then PreCure fans would fight among themselves on which season was the worst one. Some claimed Suite was awful because it was not as good as the previous two, some that DokiDoki was because the main heroine was the center of the universe, some that HapiCha was worst because Blue sucks and smart ones that it was GoPri because the princess theme was dumb. But now these discussions have stopped since we have the unarguably worst season ever: KiraKira.

There is absolutely nothing redeemable ... about KiraKira. It's just bad from beginning to end. The plot never makes any sense, probably because the show has twice as many writers the average season does and too many cooks spoil the soup, and lacks a total sense of direction too. Things happen because simply happen without rhyme or reason but because Jin Tanaka the horrible head writer willed it this way.

Now there are Cure seasons with bad plots, Max Heart and Smile say hello, but those are redeemed with amazing fights or funny episodes. Sadly we have none of that here. The fights for some reason banned melee attacks in spite of being what makes PreCure stand out among magical girl shows. That means now Cures fought via... shooting whipped cream or ice cream, for example. More on the whole dumb nonsense about sweets later. Needless to say that made battlers boring and repetitive which killed much of the appeal of the franchise. The show realizes it sucks though, since the final battle has the Cures cheat the system and give whipped cream kicks and ice cream punches for whatever reason. Says something the people in charge had to say next season brings backs the physical battles.

Anyway like said before the individual episodes aren't very good. Like the main plot things happen without any logic, and characters barely evolve. And speaking about the characters are terrible and overall among the worst Cure team ever. First as a whole half the team doesn't even care about sweets which are the main theme, again this comes later, which makes these three girls stand out the bad way. Also the team is really weak, like damn near every important fight has them get bailed out via random Deus Ex Machina from other characters. They even get saved by Cures from different seasons not once but twice. That's how bad this gets.

The characters as individuals aren't much better though. Aside from Himari and Ciel nobody grows one bit, and in fact every Aoi and Akira focus episode is the same as their other focus episodes for neither character has much going. Though that's better than Yukari's utterly random growth and character focus. Also boo her random haircut. Finally Ichika for a main heroine barely matters for anything and lacks presence, which kinda sucks. Pekorin and the Elder are horrible mascots and deserve zero words. For the villains Pikario and Bibly are great and more likable than half the main characters which just shows how terrible things get. The other villains are terrible, with the final boss being almost unarguably the worst from the franchise.

Finally the theme of the season is sweets and it's a really bad theme. They barely do anything special with this except shoehorning sweets everywhere and it looks really childish and random. The season overall feels really childish, like this is for little girls but before adults could enjoy the series too but for some reason now adults are excluded. That makes the series look even weaker.

Overall Kirakira is the worst PreCure season easily. Some episodes and characters are alright and little kids might enjoy this, but except for watching every season this isn't worth the time. Just wait until the incoming Hugtto starts since that one looks better. And if it isn't then look forward to one more scathing review.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 2, 2018

Natsuki-Chama

Not Recommended

Funny

~Let's La~ ANIME REVIEW~
Story: Honestly,they had a good thing going with the story. I had high hopes. Alas, I was disappointed. At first, I thought it was going to be a lighthearted, fun Precure season, but it soon became clear that it would become more depressing.

Character: It was soon revealed that all the Precure had mental illnesses. It was just depressing. They also made it so that I had no attatchment to the characters whatsoever. They didn't connect with me as much as the other Cures. I really hated Cure Parfait becuase of how they introduced her and how much stronger she was than ... the cures.

Overall: I am in love with the precure fanchaise, but this truly is disappointing.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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