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"Heartcatch Precure" didn't quite live up to my expectations as the highest-rated and critically praised entry in the franchise, but this title isn't exactly unmerited either.

The things it does well, it does really damn well. Heartcatch certainly doesn't pull its emotional punches, even more so than other Precure series. Most episodes focus on deeply personal problems and emotions that most of us will have to confront at some point and are able to empathize with. Even background, victim-of-the-week characters were given lots of emotional depth. Themes of death, family loss, and depression were handled very gracefully and to an extent no other Precure season did ... even 14 years later.

Unfortunately, as all fans of the series know, Precure fillers are generally hit-or-miss, and this season is no exception. Many episodes were a drag to get through. Fluid animation style doesn't translate into fights - aside from the final Moonlight vs. Dark Precure/Sabark fight there were no memorable fights in the season. Aside from having one of the most competent villains in the franchise - Dark Precure - the villains don't really feel threatening at all and we don't get to gain any understanding of their motivaton. The final episode and fight vs. Dune felt rushed, the timeskip felt out of place (unlike in other Precure series).

Overall, a solid 7.5.

As an autistic girl, Umika's social struggles and pervasive sense of alienation are EXTREMELY relatable. It's really common for autistic people to feel like we're aliens waiting to be taken back home or eternal observers, who never really are a part of any social group. Like our words and feelings can't reach other people, because we tend to communicate differently. Still, we do our best to never lose hope that someday. somewhere we'll find our tribe.

I know she's just supposed to have a stutter, but I do get strong autistic vibes from Umika. Her being relatively immature for a high schooler and having a special ... interest in space (similiar to mine!) only add into it.

Another character that could fit the description is Raimon, who literally stopped coming to school after she gave up on socializing to focus on her special interest of building robots. This whole "I don't do things I'm not interested in" thing deeply resonates with me. She became avoidant after she got shunned for her unusual interests and what other people perceived as rude remarks - pretty usual autistic experience. Also, feeling like we are more logical than other people is a pretty common coping mechanism among autistics. I went through a similar phase myself, where I was sure "normal" people's perceptions of the world were way more surface level than mine, which is a toxic mindset that's fairly easy to fall into.

My first encounter with this manga was when my class and I went to a book fair, and I promised myself I'll bring a yuri manga home (this was around the time my yuri craze started to kick in and I started to understand my own sexuality better). I wanted to get Citrus, but since they didn't have the first couple of volumes, I went with Girl Friends. At the time ,I found it pretty underwhelming and boring, never even finishing the one volume I bought.

At the moment of writing this review, I have only finished two yuri manga, and they both struggle immensely with ... pacing and feeling both rushed and dragged out at the same time. Girl Friends actually handles this better, having less filler and actually giving us a couple of chapters exploring the girls' relationship after they get together, whereas in Bloom Into You we only really get a sex scene and an immediate timeskip. Hoping yuri manga ending shortly after the main couple gets together is not a trend. It actually makes me wonder if the mangakas deliberately choose to end their manga this early, or are they forced to by their publishers? (In Milk Morinaga's case, I think it's actually the former, since most of her works are either one shots or short series)

This manga actually did made me feel bad about wasting my youth for a while, since I'm 17 and never been out drinking or did anything with anyone, even tho I know this is actually a good thing :D

The characters are all multidimensional and likable, even background characters are well fleshed out - definitely the strongest point of the manga. Being adopted by an extrovert is almost every introverted person's dream, so living a fantasy here :)

As an autistic girl, this manga is surprisingly relatable! Wearing different masks in front of different people to the point of losing your sense of self, feeling like you have to be really good at everything (especially academics) to make up for your disabilities because otherwise you have no value as a human being, struggling with personal space and boundaries, trouble with identifying and expressing your own feelings...

I wish the manga had been slightly longer and had explored Yuu and Touko's relationship more - they only get together 5 chapters before the ending, with the final chapter being a time skip. It feels like Miyako ... and Riko's relationship has been given more screentime and characterization than the main ship of the series.

The pacing is...okay, but it probably would have been much better if some of the chapters wasted on boring slice of life had been utilized to flesh out the main relationship instead.