This review does not contain any spoilers. Its safe to read before watching. It doesnt require any knowledge of the franchise. As I watched more and more Precure I started comparing the series to one another. I want to write down some notes on that. Its the third Precure series Ive finished. I want to see all of them and report my opinions. Each one I see will add to my experience so Ill try to compare them a bit too. A short explanation for those not accustomed with the series: Sunday morning kids show targeted for young girls the longest consecutively running mahou shoujo franchise ever over 20 years of non stop anime almost every series follows a similar pattern introducing a new group of magical warriors fairy mascots and a lot of magical gadgets. After seeing two newish Precure titles I decided to check out one of the oldest Yes Precure 5. Its the fourth series the third one if you omit one sequel season. So the third one introducing new setting a new story and new protagonists. Its also the first one to make them a bigger group there are five girls instead of two. The series starts with Yumehara Nozomi a 14 years old girl bookloving kind and clumsy. She randomly stumbles upon squirrellooking magical fairy beings from another world and decides to help them fight a mysterious dark group known as Nightmare. Shes soon joined by four more girls and together they become the largest yet Precure party. The series lacks a single major theme. The characters are representing various human emotions and visually theres heavy use of butterfly motifs. The fairies are from a fairytaleish magical land and the villains are a corporation. Its all a bit random but its sewn together pretty nicely. 400https://64.media.tumblr.com/6ccb8f092638f8aea3706d45e045c8a5/c822afa617298ea756/s540x810/f8e7992f6c7915c04fb9c0031ff4b93cd5da4c4e.gifv The dynamic between the magical girls is obviously much different from the previous series. The duo seem easy to manage compared to five of them. Everyone should be given some time to shine to explore their background and dreams all that. Of course the main protagonist gets the most time but the rest shouldnt be neglected. But I think they kinda were. At least some of them. While Cure Mint gets some additional screen time due to her relationship with a mascot Ill explain it in a bit the rest isnt that lucky. Out of the three left I feel like Lemonade got a pretty okay treatment too we get to see quite a bit of her passion but Aqua and Rouge were kinda just there. Not completely left out but not showcased enough. A shame really. I like their designs and overall personalities but the lack of focus made them into some of the most forgettable Cures Ive seen. Still the girls do work together nicely. The scenes of their daytoday life and their friendship are sweet. During action sequences theyre also a good match even though again some are a little underused. I guess its only natural that the first attempt at a bigger group is a little rough and wonky. The mascots are very prominent in this series not only as little fairies fluttering about they also have human forms and serve as love interest for two of the Cures. I dont mind this idea but damn I despise those two little things. I found them incredibly annoying and just couldnt stand them in either form. I admit they werent the worst love interests a magical girl could have but still they were unbearable. I swear their fairy form voices are one of the most annoying sounds in the world. The third mascot that joined them started out just as awful but at least grew on me with time. My favourite part was the antagonists. The evil corpo theme worked beautifully. All the low level employees played their roles nicely and the management was perfectly awful. The way they interacted all the mobbing and manipulation it was surprisingly dark but engaging too. Out of the antagonist group mentioned in the reviewed series this one is not only the most entertaining but also the most vile. Nightmare seems like one hellish workplace but watching its employees try to fight the magical girls and survive was really fun. Theres an additional little treat in the form of the Dark Cures a minor antagonist group being the evil versions of the Precure team. While its a shame there arent more of them they were still wonderful enemies with fantastic designs. 400https://64.media.tumblr.com/03233edfcca202ec1c634fde84fe323d/548834a9d496659e55/s640x960/5dea84baec6d19943e658ec45dfd5f19ac18bc11.gifv In this series Cures outfits arent unique they all wear basically the same uniform in different colours. Its not a bad thing in itself Sailor Moon does make it work after all but in Precures case its really underwhelming. Speaking from the perspective of someone whos seen a lot of their looks by now its just such a disappointment. And hell even judging only by Futari wa and Splash Star girls standards. Yes 5 protagonists still look pretty especially when theyre standing as a group showing off all the colours but it couldve been better. I was watching it after Go Princess and StarTwinkle which had incredibly unique diverse designs it made Yes 5s simple uniforms even paler in comparison. While I may complain about some things its hard to ignore the importance of the Yes Precure 5. Its the first Precure series being more Super Sentai similar to Sailor Moon in form. It took the Futari wa template and enhanced it. Its hard to imagine a Precure series with only two characters now and its partially thanks to Yes 5. Im glad they decided to make this change even though a handholding duo was sort of a staple of the first series. I wonder if there were fans angry about it opposing the idea of a bigger team. No matter Yes 5 is an important title. I had fun watching it even if it didnt work that well in most aspects. Its not a series I would recommend to people completely new to the genre or the Pretty Cure franchise. It may be better to start with something a little more polished. This one is kind of rough the Cure dont look their best and the focus is out of place. Still an important watch for all the series fans. 400https://64.media.tumblr.com/b97ad1e73843a57972575d44235cbb14/d9fc6c3caccbac3a8d/s540x810/b3259340a7dc8c3ccd97c2a45e159ad3118cd6aa.gifv Heres my personal Precure rating its a 5 scale comparing the series. Cures: designs: mascots: villains: story: theme and vibes: Thank you for reading