Winter 2022 First Impressions – Delicious Party Pretty Cure

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA (but these series generally run for a full year or so)

Source: Sequel of long-running franchise

Episode Summary: Yui Nagomi is an active girl who’d be right at home on the soccer team, but the reason she participates at all is for the delicious rice balls to be had afterward. As a resident of Oishiina Town she has her pick of delicious foods from around the world, and Yui wouldn’t have it any other way; as the daughter of a restaurant owner and someone who appreciates a scrumptious meal, she’s definitely in the right place.

When Mari, a citizen of the Cookingdom, arrives in Oishiina Town in search of some missing recipeppi fairies, they soon encounter Yui who revives them with some food. But not far behind are members of the gang who’ve been trapping the recipeppis and using them for their own dastardly ends. Yui gets wrapped up in the battle, and there she transforms into Cure Precious, a hero powered by the energy of delicious food!

Impressions: It’s difficult to talk about the magical girl anime genre without mentioning PreCure, the now long-running annual franchise that provides its heroes with clever and cute themed titles and powers. While I’ve never really watched any of the prior seasons through (though I did get about a third of the way through Heartcatch Pretty Cure back in the bad old days before streaming), I do appreciate their popularity and respect the animation and design craft that goes into creating them. Delicious Party is probably the incarnation that I’m now finding myself most interested in, though, because it strikes right at the heart of one of the things I truly love in life – food and eating.

In fact, this aspect of the series is especially intriguing to me, because it seems to go against many of the storytelling “bad habits” I’ve seen portrayed in fiction, and especially in anime. I’ve lost count of how often girl characters have complained about gaining a little weight (or their friends have teased them about it); as with many things, anime doesn’t always talk about bodies or their sizes in ways that reflect real-life diversity or the positivity we ought to be instilling in people. So it’s perhaps a tiny bit revolutionary that Yui’s unfettered love of rice balls (among other yummy meals) is treated as something cute rather than the pathway toward ruin. It even helps power the special finishing move she creates for herself as Cure Precious – a “500 kilocalorie punch.”

Aside from this positive spin on a subject that can be a touchy one for many, this episode really does what it needs to do to carry on the tradition of such a well-loved franchise. It’s colorful and bubbly, with cute characters and creatures. The fighting has a very physical aspect to it that I’ve always liked. The heroine is clever and kind. It’s very much the sort of anime comfort food that seems especially appropriate for a season that hinges many of its elements on such a concept. It’s not complicated, but it’s fun and seems to have a lot of heart. It might even be tasty enough to come back for a second helping.

Pros: For a series so closely revolving around food, it would be a shame if the food itself didn’t look tasty. Luckily that’s not the case here. While I would have liked to have seen the fillings in the rice balls Yui was inhaling in the early moments of the episode, I can forgive the omission. The omurice that made its appearance in the second half of the episode definitely looked scrumptious, and I can only imagine that with any kind of world cuisine at her disposal we’ll be treated to all manner of lovely dishes.

Cons: The only real issue I have with this and other series, is that there are always moments where it’s very obvious that there will be toy tie-ins, and that tends to take me out of the action. Yui’s transformation sequence is awesome and fun, but it’s definitely a given that the little Kome creature is also something likely to be exploited endlessly for real-world financial gain. Alas! It just comes with the territory, I suppose.

Content Warnings: Yui’s childhood friend jokingly calls her a glutton at one point. Mild cartoon peril and violence.

Would I Watch More? – With a lot on my plate (ha!) already, I’m not sure if I’ll actually have the time to watch an entire year-long magical girl series, however cute and fun it may be. But I do definitely recommend it for those who enjoy the genre (or really like food!).