YMMV / Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was Blue Cat an Anti-Hero or an Anti-Villain (in both cases in an Enemy Mine situation with the Cures) until she became a Cure? She is generally agreed to be an anti-hero, with episode 36 basically solidifying this, but it's kept ambiguous throughout the early episodes and was the source of much speculation early on.
• Angst? What Angst?: Despite the fact Tenjou and Kappard have used their weapons to target the Cure's families directly, at the end of the day, none of them really take it personally and just treat them as another Monster of the Week to defeat; the series shows that forgiveness is key to unlocking Twinkle Imagination. Slightly averted for Yuni, who has a personal grudge against Aiwarn because she destroyed her planet, although she resolved that grudge when she unlocked her Twinkle Imagination.
• Arc Fatigue: After receiving Lolo's distress call at the end of episode 25, it takes until episode 29 for the team to actually make it to Planet Saman, since the rocket breaks down and has to be repaired along the way. The episodes in between are at least plot-relevant, as episode 27 reveals what became of Aiwarn after her previous escape, and episode 28 gives character development to Elena and Madoka.
• Audience-Alienating Ending: Nowadays, the ending is pretty controversial, as Ophiuchus is let off with a slap on the wrist and Aiwarn is Easily Forgiven by the inhabitants of a planet where she nearly caused a genocidal event, notably in sharp contrast to prior similar male villains being treated as Beyond Redemption, as well as a particularly bad case of The Magic Goes Away since the Pretty Cure power is seemingly gone forever despite the threat of Ophiuchus still existing, which is even acknowledged In-Universe.
• Awesome Music: As usual for the series.
  • "Sparkle☆彡Star☆Twinkle Pretty Cure", "PaPePiPu☆Romantic", and "Oshiete...! Twinkle" all stand out among Pretty Cure opening and ending themes for their '80s-inspired synth sound.
  • Special mention is to be made of Yuni's two character themes; "Cosmic☆Mystery☆Girl" is an addictive, upbeat J-pop tune, while "Prism Rainbow Heart" is a very great Blondie pastiche that's bound to get you in the zone.
  • Just try not to sing along to the transformation song every episode. Impossible.
• Base-Breaking Character: Aiwarn is definitively one of the more divisive villains in the season. While some like her design and Mad Scientist personality, others will think she's too annoying to take seriously. This also extends to how she was Easily Forgiven by Yuni at the end, with some defending it as Aiwarn being just a kid compared to the rest of the Notraiders who simply doesn't know any better. Detractors will point out that causing a near-genocidal event, draining an entire planet of its resources, and constant sociopathy are not grounds for redemption. Third parties agree with Aiwarn's positives or negatives and felt Toei should've spent a more time expanding on her characteristics a bit more.
• Broken Base: Tying into Audience-Alienating Ending and Draco in Leather Pants, should Ophiuchus be redeemed at all? Those defending her say that she deserves a second chance to see the good side of mortals, and that she did have some genuinely good points compared to the more impulsive Star Princesses thus indirectly motivating them to do better for the universe's sake, while others will say that Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse and that she shouldn't be let off so easily, especially since a lot of her crimes and motivations are comparable to that of Zamasu, and thus should be decisively defeated in a major capacity rather than simply calling off the fight on a whim. To this day, fans seems rather split on this.
• Contested Sequel: Coming off the heels of HuGtto! Pretty Cure, a series generally considered a Tough Act to Follow for its high stakes and well-written drama, Star★Twinkle has a much lighter tone and more focus on character interaction than plot development (particularly the planets they visit). There are several fans who consider it a weaker season; commonly noted flaws include the second half feeling somewhat directionless after the Gotta Catch 'Em All plot is resolved in the first half, and the Easily Forgiven fates of the Notraiders and Darknest, after Hugtto! spent much time fleshing out its own villains. However, Star★Twinkle is praised by other fans who enjoy the series' well-executed themes of tolerance and diversity, the equal focus given to the entire cast, and its unique Space Opera plot among the Pretty Cure franchise.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Hikaru, being the spacey Genki Girl that she is, is fairly easy to read as being on the autism spectrum. She has difficulty reading social cues and keeping secrets, she is easily enveloped in the things that interest her (which is explicitly noted by her grandmother in episode 36), and she has difficulty paying attention to things that she isn't interested in (as seen in episode 3, where she becomes impatient while Lala tries to run data analysis). Her interest in space, in particular, can be seen as a type of hyperfixation. Additionally, a flashback shows that Hikaru was bullied as a child for her odd behavior, and Ryou-san tells her at one point "you've always thought that others are others, and you're you," indicating her disconnect from what others consider "normal".
• Draco in Leather Pants: Ophiuchus can get this treatment every now and then, especially once her backstory was revealed, despite the fact that she wants to basically enact the Final Solution on the whole galaxy and start over under her definitive rule. Not helping is how easy it is to interpret the rest of the Star Princesses (or even the main heroes for that matter) of being morally gray at best, meaning there are people that will argue that Ophiuchus did nothing wrong.
• Franchise Original Sin: Pretty Cure's insistence to Save the Villain has always been around since the earlier seasons (especially when the Sixth Ranger gets involved), but there, it was handled with more tact as each season made it clear who is worth saving and who's not (such as the Bad End Generals being redeemed as they're as much of a victim of Joker's manipulation as the heroes are, while Joker and Pierrot are unapologetically killed for the sake of saving the world). However, while the issue behind this started popping up with KiraKira and last year's Hugtto!, it only got worse here as the villains (specifically Ophiuchus and Aiwran) perform heinous acts up to including genocide, yet still get nothing more than a slap of the wrist (with Aiwarn Going Native on Planet Rainbow, the planet she caused a near-genocidal event on and kickstarted Yuni's Roaring Rampage of Revenge) because of their Freudian Excuses, which made many fans cry foul given how they constantly show apathetic behaviors throughout the season, making the Easily Forgiven status much harder to swallow. It's telling that later seasons remedy this by having Affably Evil Anti Villains with much more believable redemptions, irredeemable monsters who deserve their Ironic Hell, and villains that, while forgiven, still get some form of punishment for their crimes.
• Genius Bonus:
  • When the Notraiders first show up on Earth, Hikaru refers to them as Adamski UFOs.
  • In episode 10, Prunce mentions that the Moon's gravity is only a sixth of Earth's. He later brings up the durability of tardigrades, a.k.a. water bears.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Before this series came along, many Pretty Cure fan fics had space and star motifs, with one of the most well known being Starshine! Pretty ✰ Cure.
  • There was also Olympus Pretty Cure, which had a similar zodiac motif.
  • Technically this season is Toei's second anime about a team of magical girls themed around celestial bodies.
  • The Big Bad is a God formerly associated with a group who believes in guidance through inaction, and rebelled against them when they did nothing regarding the mortals' growing chaotic nature, thus sought after a forbidden power in order to enact the Final Solution so they could reboot the universe in their own "perfect" image. The only thing Ophiuchus was missing from Zamasu's Zero Mortals Plan are a multi-timeline gambit and a Grand Theft Me plot. The fact that The Future Trunks Saga released a year or two prior to Star☆Twinkle does not do it any favors.
    • Doubly hilarious (or Harsher in Hindsight) is that despite having the same villains, both still ended in a way that made it come across as Esoteric Happy Endings, with both Big Bads suffering opposite fates in both. While Zamasu got wiped from all existence, Ophiuchus was let off with a slap on the wrist, but both protagonists got hit with their own blend of a "Shaggy Dog" Story made worse with Fridge Horror, as Future Trunks and Mai lost their original home and had to move to a Close-Enough Timeline with potential duplicates of themselves running around, and the Star Twinkle group gave up their powers to revive Fuwa, resulting in a Breaking the Fellowship situation where the universe is put at a massive disadvantage should Ophiuchus decide to restart her Zero Mortals Plan down the line. Both times did Toei tried to pass these events off as the best possible outcome for those stories.
• Ho Yay: See this page for examples.
• I Knew It!:
  • Even before Yuni was revealed proper in the series, her appearance in the intro already caused fans to guess that she would be the Sixth Ranger.
  • Fans also correctly guessed that Darknest was actually a 13th Star Princess the moment (s)he was given a physical form.
• Like You Would Really Do It:
  • Episode 3’s title claimed the Cures would disband. No one fell for this considering that it was the third episode of the series. Although Hikaru and Lala have a pretty big argument, their first battle with Tenjo and rescue of the Taurus Princess quickly dissolve their dispute.
  • Episode 12 tried to pull this off again, as it was called "Farewell Lala!? The Film Director is an Alien☆". Lala doesn't go away in the end, especially since the very next episode has her start attending Hikaru's school.
  • The number of people who honestly thought Toei would allow the show's mascot to get Killed Off for Real can probably be counted on one hand.
• Memetic Mutation: See this page for examples.
• Moral Event Horizon: See this page for examples.
• Narm:
  • Aiwarn's childish Large Ham voice can make her a bit difficult to take seriously, especially with her "-ttsuno" Verbal Tic getting in the way. The same can occasionally apply to Lala's "-lun" tic, but not to the same extent.
  • The Notrigger in episode 11 made out of the three commanders looks too much like a Monster Clown to be believably scary.
  • Episode 24 has a scene where Yuni sings a song to Madoka to cheer her up after a failed performance. All fine and dandy... until you notice that Yuni's mouth is moving in an almost rotoscoped fashion, causing it to have a much smoother framerate compared to the rest of the snappy (and some times, limited) animation. As a result, it just looks wrong, and makes it harder to take the scene seriously.
• Older Than They Think: This is not the first time something in outer space was a relevant plot point in a Pretty Cure season.
• The Scrappy: The Star Princesses fell into this hard by the final few episodes, especially when it was revealed they fully intended Fuwa to be used as a sacrificial vessel to be used in order to save the universe from total darkness... never mind the fact that they also made Fuwa fully cognitive and entrusted them to the Pretty Cures themselves (who of course are going to form a bond with them) and expected them to go along with this plan despite being Locked Out of the Loop. This also extends to how the Princesses let Ophiuchus off the hook despite betraying them and almost bringing total destruction to the universe, with no contingency or observational plan in case she tries to do something again. This caused many in the fandom to see them less as flawed, but well meaning guardians and more short-sighted idiots who have no idea how to properly run a universe.
• Shipping: Easily because of their Les Yay moments, Hikaru/Lala and Elena/Madoka are rather popular ships when it comes to this series. Another following that was created after the end of the anime likes to pair Hikaru and Madoka though.
• Spiritual Successor: To both Dragon Ball GT Black Star Dragon Ball Saga due to a Race Against the Clock Gotta Catch Them All plot where the main heroes travel through space in order to find godly MacGuffins to save the world from total destruction (complete with an AI companion that starts stoic but soon has an Odd Friendship with the group), and to Dragon Ball Super Future Trunks Saga since Ophiuchus shares the same backstory and motivations as Zamasu to the point where they could be interchangeable.
• Stock Footage Failure:
  • The "Pisces Star Punch" scene in ep 31 has Hikaru use the Taurus Pen.
  • In episode 36's transformation scene, Cure Cosmo's glasses are missing, unlike in the previous scene.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • The dogs in Episode 8. While the pink and green ones can be discerned by gender characteristics (the pink one's bowtie and the green one's male voice), the yellow one is very difficult to distinguish.
  • Because Saboro doesn't talk, their gender is difficult to discern, and the subs go with neutral pronouns because of this.
• Vindicated by History: When the season came out, some fans considered it inferior and too light-hearted to the prior season HuGtto! Pretty Cure, as shown in Contested Sequel. However, some fans of the franchise considered the following couple of seasons to have noticeable flaws (although all do have their fans) along with a significant drop in merchandise sales, which lead to fans viewing this season in a far more positive light.
• Woolseyism:
  • While one sub translates "kirayaba" as "twincool", another takes it up to eleven with giving each episode a unique "kirayaba" translation. See the recap page for them. This also left episode 35 with two titles.
  • In episode 33, Madoka sees Fuwa disguised as a human and accidentally calls her name. She has to cover it up by saying "Fuwayama-san" instead. Since one sub translated Fuwa's name as "Puff", this is worked into Madoka calling her "Mrs. Puffington".
  • Because "Bakenyan" is "Hakkenyan" with one sound changed, the sub came up with a catchy localized equivalent: Meowster and Meowseer.

---