It hands the lead role to a blue Cure and dares you to keep calling that a gimmick. Sora Harewataru shouts "it's hero time" like she means it, and the show backs her up with fight animation that treats a magical girl punch as actual impact, not sparkle filler. Then it stacks the roster nobody expected: Tsubasa flying in as a male Cure, Ageha showing up as a college-aged one, and baby Elle eventually growing into Cure Majesty. The Sora and Mashiro dynamic is the real engine, one girl who charges at danger and one who insists on the softer answer, and fifty episodes never let that get stale. Be honest about the back half, though: the post-midpoint Underg brass are dull, and a chunk of episodes coast. You stay anyway, because Sora reaching for someone falling is the most reliable image in the franchise right now.

The peaceful Sky Land is thrown into turmoil when the young Princess Eru is carried off by monsters from the Underg Empire. Sora, a brave girl, follows the princess through a mysterious hole and ends up in another world, Sorashido City. There she runs into televisions, cars and bicycles and wonders whether they are some kind of magic. None of it makes sense, but there is no time to be surprised: she must bring the princess back to the castle quickly. Her trips between two worlds mark the start of a Pretty Cure adventure, a magical girl fantasy with plenty of action.