Well, we actually made it. I've finished all 19 currently completed Precure series. I'll still be watching and reviewing Hirogaru Sky and whatever Precure show comes out afterwards, but as far as the marathon goes, this is it. Did Delicious Party end things on a high note?
Nope, not in the slightest. As a matter of fact, this was the only season that I just couldn't bring myself to finish.
Delicious Party is the second food theme season of Precure, following Kira Kira, a high bar to top considering it's one of my all-time favorite seasons. Sadly, it doesn't live up to that season in the slightest. The main plot is that the evil Phantom Thieves have stolen the CooKingdom's (yes, that's really what it's called) recipe book, and now the Cures have to get it back. On a base level, this is fine. Kira Kira had thieves as villains, but going even farther by having the villains be campy phantom thieves is a great call. In a vacuum, DeliParty's plot is fine, but the pacing is agonizing at points even when being binged. It takes seven episodes for the Cure team to form (fine for a team of five or six, but way too long for a team of three), the villains rotate at an incredibly slow rate, and one very obvious reveal doesn't actually come out until Episode 40. DeliParty suffers from the same issue as something like Max Heart where its main plot feels like it can only support half the season's length, but instead of stuffing itself with fun and inventive standalones, it just drags out the plot. In addition, I don't quite think it handles its theme of food better than Kira Kira. That season's focus on desserts worked because the cast ran a patisserie. There was a justifiable reason for them to care so much about desserts, and it played into the plot of the show and each individual episode. DeliParty, on the other hand, just kinda takes place in some town where everyone just happens to really like food. And it doesn't go all the way like Suite did with its music-adorned town, it's just that everyone is really obsessed with food and that's it. It's so surface level.
As usual, it's all down to the characters to carry this show, and sadly, Delicious Party comes up severely lacking. I'm not gonna sugercoat it, the Cures are boring this time. Yui is one of the most boring pink Cures out there. Like she's pleasant enough to watch, perfectly harmless, but she has no character. She's strictly passive, down for anything but rarely making any decisions on her own. Kokone is easily the best Cure this season due to her struggles with social interaction, but even that has been done better elsewhere. Ran is my least favorite. She feels like a clone of Kirara and Hinata, the spunky energetic yellow Cure, but without any of their charm. It's neat that she's the first Chinese Cure, but man do they lay it on thick, she's a walking talking stereotype. And finally, Amane is the usual redemption Cure who lacks any of that juicy angst or post-redemption awkwardness that make characters like Setsuna, Ellen, Towa, and Ruru so enduring. Unusually enough for the series, the best characters in DeliParty are actually the male characters this time. Rosemary is a genuinely fun mentor, Takumi is the best love interest since Seiji, and Narcistoru is a hammy jerk in all the best way. Speaking of which, as I said, I also like the villains due to their Phantom Thief concept. I wouldn't call any of them my absolute favorites, but they're overall pretty fun.
It's hard to describe why Delicious Party didn't really work for me much but I think it's just a lot of small things adding up. The food theming being poorly utilized, the pacing being too slow, and the Cure team being dull doesn't help, but there's so much more. There's the unnecessary narration that doesn't add anything, there's the repetitive Delicious Fields that all the fights take place in making them feel samey, there's the return of time travel (oh god) that just comes out of nowhere one episode, the list goes on. Nothing in DeliParty actively makes me angry but so much of it is just dull and boring, it's such a sluggish lifeless show. Even the presentation feels less lively. The animation is still technically good, but it's so much less energetic than the best recent Precure seasons' animation like Kira Kira, Hugtto, and especially Tropical Rouge. Even the comedy lands less frequently, and even the soundtrack is far weaker than in the last two seasons. Everything just feels so tired, to the point where I was actively falling asleep while watching it. And I've pushed through bad seasons before, but Delicious Party is 45 episodes. I just don't have the tolerance to slog through all of that.
The worst thing a piece of media can be is boring. I can at least have fun taking the piss out of Star Twinkle's flaws, but Delicious Party is just soul-suckingly dull. The story is sluggishly paced, the characters are dull, the fight scenes are samey, there's just nothing keeping me engaged. The only things I really liked were Rosemary and the villains, but they can't carry a show, especially not a Precure show. But don't let this end my Precure marathon on a bad note, because it's technically not over. It'll take me a while to finish my Hirogaru Sky review for obvious reasons, but I saw the first few episodes, and it's definitely a lot more exciting, bold, and fun. Delicious Party wasn't at all some bad omen for the future of the series, just a misstep, and it hasn't made me regret watching through Precure in the slightest. However, this is still a DeliParty review, and for this season, I have no choice but to give it a...
1/5 Stars
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