Story: 8
Art/Animation: 7
Characters: 6
Sound: 6
Enjoyment: 7
Final Score: 6.8
DokiDoki! PreCure is the 10th installment in the long running Pretty Cure franchise by Toei Animation. Spanning 49 episodes and running from 2013-2014, DokiDoki has a bad rap of being the worst of the franchise. I watched some of DokiDoki when it first aired but haven’t finished it, until now. It is finally time to decide: is DokiDoki! PreCure the worst the franchise has to offer? Or is it actually a decent show with a few notable missteps?
Starting right off we’re going to tackle the story of DokiDoki, something many people despised. The plot revolves around weaponized human selfishness that was used to destroy the Trump Kingdom and later brought to the human world in order to gather enough energy to reawaken King Selfish. After having her home world completely devastated, Cure Sword has escaped to the human world and is now in a desperate search for her kingdom’s princess. Using the name Kenzaki Makoto, she becomes an idol as a way to find the princess via her other talent, singing.
During all of this a group of newly born fairies were sent to Earth from the Trump Kingdom in order to search for partners to aid in the restoration of their world. Cheryl, Raquel, and Lance are lucky and find suitable partners in the three childhood friends Aida Mana, Hishikawa Rikka, and Yotsuba Alice. The four girls come together to bring peace to their world and return the Trump Kingdom to its former glory. No matter what they face: be it King Selfish’s own daughter, a trial for a power up weapon, or finding the Princess, the girls are determined to succeed.
Out of all five of the PreCure in this season, our lead, Aida Mana, is by far my least favorite. Mana is generally perfect, can do no wrong, and overall gets most of the screen time. You may think I’m over-exaggerating, and I wish I were, but I’m serious. Mana is known in the PreCure fandom not only as a Mary Sure but she get a special variant, Mana Sue. Mana really is pretty much perfect and not in a good way. She’s pushy and obsessed with people and her only redeeming quality is her ability to help others. Perhaps my disdain for Mana is because of this fact, that she takes up time that could have been dedicated to more interesting characters such as Makoto.
Next up is Rikka, aka Cure Diamond. Rikka is Mana’s best friend and biggest supporter. Despite having her own dream of becoming a doctor, Rikka takes time out of her day to constantly offer Mana support since Mana is often more focused on helping others than taking care of herself. Truthfully Mana is lucky to have someone as great as Rikka around and she doesn’t always show the proper amount of appreciation. I know Mana is appreciative of Rikka but early in the series Rikka gets pushed to the side not only when Makoto joins but when Regina is brought in as well. I feel bad for Rikka because she’s such a great character. Generally level-headed, sympathetic but stern, and a good student it was interesting to watch Rikka grow her convictions and experience more than just studying.
Alice, or Cure Rosetta, is the third member of the team and the daughter of a very rich man. As such Alice is preparing to take over the Yotsuba family business and has varying interests from flowers to martial arts and has a tendency to get angry when her friends are threatened. Despite all of Alice’s potential she ends up being a rather boring character. She doesn’t talk much and the show rarely focuses on her which leads her to be drowned out by stronger characters. I will say I really enjoyed how Alice’s attacks were focused on protecting. This made the enemies believe she was weak when in reality she is quite strong.
As the Trump Kingdom’s last non-fairy survivor, Makoto, aka Cure Sword, aka Makopi (her Idol name), has a lot riding on her shoulders. Makoto’s top priority is to find the Princess before all hope is lost and in order to do this shee needs to prevent Earth from being swallowed by the selfish. Sadly not long after Makoto joins the team the show stops giving her development. We get to see Makoto confront the destroyed state of the Trump Kingdom and her own inability to protect her home and then the show just pushes her to the side to focus on Mana again.
This happens when Regina, the daughter of King Selfish, enters the show. Regina appears one day and decides that Mana is going to be her one true friend. Suddenly Regina is doing things for Mana’s sake such as attempting to destroy the school, get Mana to skip classes, and generally throwing a fit when things don’t go her way. Despite the other girls’ warnings, the fact that Regina is a part of the faction that literally destroyed Makoto’s entire world, Mana is determined to be friends with Regina.
And, for what it’s worth, it actually works. Regina slowly (and I mean painfully slowly) starts to understand what it’s like to do things for other people, not just herself, and gains an actual and true friend in Mana. However her time as the girls’ friend is up too soon after she discovers a pain in her chest (love) and is drowned in dark energy, put to sleep, and pretty much taken over by her father.
After Regina’s disappearance another strange event occurs, the appearance of a fifth PreCure, Cure Ace. Madoka Aguri lives with her grandmother, practices the tea ceremony, and is the youngest of the Cures this season (but not of the franchise). From the moment she joins the team she lectures them to help them grow stronger but despite her stern ways she has an incredible sweet tooth. The final reveal in the relationship between Aguri, Regina, and Ai-chan (a baby born from an egg that the girls’ take care of) is one of the better plot twists in a PreCure series.
Regardless of this twist, there are things DokiDoki did badly. The show fails at showing the Cures fostering relationships with anyone other than Mana. Mana is the glue that holds this friend group together because DokiDoki refuses to give any unnecessary time to characters other than Mana. But with this unique group of characters who have wildly different backgrounds and personalities, imagine the great possibilities that we missed out on. Perhaps Rikka learning how to get over her jealousy and get along with Makoto, showing us how Rikka and Alice get along without Mana around, more individual bonding with Aguri, and more Alice period. I mention these things because I’m actually a huge fan of the cast, excluding Mana, and I wish the show had given them more time to shine.
Another thing I didn’t enjoy was Aguri’s introduction. Cure Ace shows up, leaves, and then they put off explaining her for at least four more episodes. I know it was to keep Ace/Aguri mysterious but I didn’t buy it. I also didn’t enjoy the whole princess-stuck-in-a-crystal thing. It felt kind of forced in there and didn’t go anywhere that was worth it. It wasn’t the worst part of the show but it also didn’t really add anything either. The worst part of the plot is obvious for me. But I’m not going to spoil that for you. If you’re interested you can click here and it’ll take you to a picture that sums it up.
That said, I do feel the need to defend DokiDoki regarding its plot. There are always plot holes in PreCure. You almost expect it coming from Toei. Knowing this, I went in with an open mind and found the inclusion of characters like Regina to be extremely fun and interesting. The eventual answer of where the Princess is and who the villain is adds a really nice layer of depth to the show that a lot of PreCure series don’t get. So I won’t hate on the plot of DokiDoki too much.
As for the other aspects of DokiDoki, such as sound and art, we get a mixed bag. The designs of DokiDoki are some of my favorite. The worst design goes to Heart/Mana. I don’t want it to feel like I’m picking on Mana but she honestly has the worst design of the season. Her hair makes no sense and looks awful and as much as I tried I just couldn’t get myself to like the top part of her outfit. Even though it’s in the same style as Sword and Diamond’s, Mana’s cross over design just felt clunky to me. Best design goes to Cure Ace. I may not have enjoyed the way they introduced Aguri but I found her character growing on me the more they focused on her. Ace’s design is absolutely fantastic. I love her hair and I’m a huge fan of the color scheme. The use of white, which is rarely used, paired perfectly with the shade of red they chose.
Cure Ace also has the best transformation, which happens to show off the best animation in the series. But the animation won’t always reach the fantastic levels it does with Ace’s transformation but luckily it only seems to falter when the girls aren’t transformed. They tried hard to keep up nice animation and Toei succeeded during the first half of the series. After the first half though DokiDoki has a hard time keeping faces normal and you’ll notice a lot of janky looking faces.
The sound department of DokiDoki is okay. The opening theme is more of a retro magical girl style song that I just don’t like. However the first ending theme, “Beyond the Sky”, is one of the best themes in the franchise. It’s j-pop song with fun lyrics that match the show perfectly. Sadly, this theme is followed by “Love Link” which is a considerably worse song. Slower in pace and matched with a pretty bad dance video, I wasn’t a fan. To be fair though on its own the song isn’t bad but as an ending for DokiDoki and paired with the ending video it was, I couldn’t stand it.
As for the OST itself, it was pretty average most of the time. The music matched the shows peppiness and style but wasn’t often memorable. The villains had good music. It set the stage for their bad deeds and actually stood out, something most of the music didn’t do. The only other songs that managed to stick out and be memorable are ones used in serious situations. The most memorable, and best song, from the series though is “For the Love,” which is an amazingly emotional song. Just hearing it makes me a little teary. When I hear songs like this I become amazed at just how much pure emotion can be put into a song and “For the Love” is definitely a song that does that and is the best that DokiDoki has.
Whew. That was a lot but we’re not quite done. Now that we’ve covered all the areas I like to focus on for reviews, I want to talk about my enjoyment and the way the PreCure community tends to treat DokiDoki. I watched part of DokiDoki while it was airing and I wasn’t too impressed. I enjoyed parts of it but wasn’t too attached to the show, which is why I didn’t finish it. Going back and finally finishing it was a fantastic decision. Personally DokiDoki has one of the better stories in a PreCure franchise. Not too simple, but not overly complicated. Yes they didn’t execute it perfectly but at least it made sense (looking at you Suite) and was compelling. I wanted to know what happened to the Trump Kingdom, why it fell, and where the Princess was, even as Mana continued to annoy me. The story and other characters allowed me to get over my annoyances with the show and keep going.
So no, I don’t think DokiDoki! PreCure is the worst series the franchise has to offer. What it lacks in character depth it easily makes up for by showing giving us characters who know what they want and an intriguing plot for them to work with. DokiDoki! PreCure is still miles above Suite PreCure, my least favorite season. And at the end of the day I think it’s DokiDoki is a part of the PreCure franchise worth watching, maybe not your first one, but definitely a good one.
Barely made it in time, which is pretty sad considering I finished DokiDoki on the 6th but hey at least I beat the release of Glitter Force. Hope you enjoy!
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