Forum - View topicREVIEW: Star Detective Precure! Episodes 1-12 Anime Review
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BalmungHHQ
Posts: 709 |
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When I heard Akane Yano, one of my favorite artists in the industry, was working on Precure this year, and that the theme would be detectives, a subject I always have fun with, I knew I had to check this out.
And I'm glad I did, because it's been an absolute delight. 
I did try You & Idol last year, since I'm a fan of its director, but it left me a bit unsatisfied, and with the feeling that modern Precure may not really appeal to me. So I'm really glad Star Detective is such a strong entry that's kind of proving otherwise to me. |
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wolf10
 Posts: 989 |
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Translator's note: "Makoto" means "Truth."
Also, the new duo are really truly named Akechi and Kobayashi? Is there a Hashiba waiting in the wings to be a mid-season recruit, perhaps? Also, "hanninda?" Really? It sounds Toei's year-round corny joke factory has assembled some real groaners this season. And I see Nao Toyama in the cast list. Okay, fine, Toei. I'll watch the new Precure!
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Juno016
 Posts: 2580 |
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Speak for yourself! It calls back to the 90s anime and shoujo manga era of design that I love and incorporate into my own work today! I haven't seen the new series yet (I catch a whole PreCure season here or there), but I had nearly caved to watch this one for the designs alone. They're super cute! |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2808 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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I love everything else about the designs! The concave eyes have always sort of creeped me out, but I am willing to own that as a Me Problem. 
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Yune Amagiri
 Posts: 1321 Location: France |
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Plot-wise so far it's certainly nor among my favorite nor among my worst Precure but it literally took 1 second for Luluka to become my favorite char in the whole franchise (and that's coming from someone who've seen all entries, sorry for Mana/Cure Heart who reigned in my heart since Dokidoki airing) they really nailed both her chara design.
I'm just hoping they won't waste this golden opportunity to end this season with Anna's mother saying "I was Mikuru by the way" Last edited by Yune Amagiri on Tue May 05, 2026 2:10 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Juno016
Posts: 2580 |
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Ahahaha~ Well, you convinced me to watch the series with your review, so I'm going to start today while I work on some art. <3 |
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BalmungHHQ
Posts: 709 |
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It's a signature trait of Yano's designs in many anime she works on. It's especially cute here in Precure so I'm glad to see more people appreciating the quirks of her art. 
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EmeraldSaucer
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A bunch of important characters follow the trend. Moria Luluka is Moriarty, Ieiri Shiruku is Sherlock, and as noted in the review you have the generals who take their names from famous thieves But Star Detective has been enjoyable so far. Murayama is still up to his old tricks of villains vagueposting their way through a show, but at least we have a deadline of July for something to actually happen on that front, and so far this trends more towards Star Twinkle than Maho Girls in terms of our cures actually having some character to help drive the show beyond that. And just having the mystery of who Eclair is (even if people have sort of already found out) constantly sprinkled throughout does a lot for viewer engagement with very little. Episode 5 would be my highlight of the season so far, I really look forward to what else we see from Gaku Yano in the future because the way he portrayed Anna's anxieties and disconnect from this world she's found herself stuck in was wonderful. But I don't think the show has really had a major let-down so far (the closest probably being the Aoyama episode, but that at least graced us with Mikuru's terrible drawing skills) Both transformations have been great so far, which is pretty rare for Precure nowadays. Itaoka as expected did amazingly on Answer and Mystique, love the tempo combined with the musical cues and love that its runtime allows for more time to breathe for each motion, playing to Itaoka's strengths as an animator. But Arcana Shadow's transformation was right up there for me, a pleasant surprise given that I've mainly thought Tooru Takano's prior banks were just alright. Love how grounded in place it is, does an effective job of portraying both a majesty to Arcana Shadow but also a solidity that Mikuru and Anna currently lack as novices Hard to say if this will end up a favorite; always think back to Happiness Charge, where the first third or so was really great, then Iona joined the team and things started to peter out, and then Red appeared and the show just fell off a cliff. But at least for now everything is working as intended. And if nothing else the insane popularity of Arcana Shadow has caused more people to get into Precure more broadly, so that's nice |
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Yuvelir
 Posts: 1698 |
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While I think Hirogaru Sky is the better show, I will say Meitantei felt way more welcome.
Tropical Rouge had its issues but at least it was good at the silly fun they was its forte. However Wonderful and Idol were two immensely frustrating seasons back to back, so the uptick to what Meitantei is doing just feels awesome. And well that's for the contrast. Meitantei so far is incredible on its own and while it could always fall off a cliff (or a waterfall) later on, I'm optimistic as it has exceeded my expectations repeatedly, specially with their handling of Cure Arcana Shadow. If it doesn't drop the ball and keep this level of thoughtful writing, well planned animation and gleeful fun, it will land in my top 5 seasons. P.S.: no chance in hell Mikuru isn't Anna's mother, and rather that the confirmation I'm looking up to why she hasn't noticed/mentioned it before. |
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wolf10
Posts: 989 |
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TandooriJones
 Posts: 53 |
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Mikuru being Anna's mom I think at this point is self explanatory (as for why she hasn't noticed, google image search "Celebrity as a child" and see if you would recognize any of them, there are other factors but this show is for toddlers), so that was a little odd seeing that being questioned along with the yuri baiting mentioned in the review for a mother and daughter (in fact when episode one aired I compared it to how close Mirai and Riko get in Maho to kissing in the transformation and it is significantly farther away). Mikuru and Anna at this point, unless for some out of left field reason she ends up not being her mother, is another thing that hits harder for the Japanese audience. Particularly the "Japanese mother who is now in their late 20s who grew up with Precure, now watching it with their child" is something exclusive to over there unless someone got their baby on fansubs early. It must be very surreal, it might even feel like your child meeting your past self when you go out playing pretend Precure after the show is over. I also think the mysteries are more than suitable for the target audience of three year olds.
The season has been a big improvement over Idol, which had evil things like the male love interest being written as gay as a CLAMP character and then immediately having several episodes after this acting like Uta had a single chance. Something the target audience wouldn't pick up on at all but felt overly mean watching as an adult. There were other things too but I did see the movie when I was in Japan and had a great time so whatever. Meanwhile Detective has had several episodes written by my fav Precure writer Narita Yoshimi (who if you've noticed so far, doesn't seem to like the shows overall gimmick in her episodes as much as the main writer, or Shadows ice cream gimmick) and they've all been great, and I've liked the other episodes as well. I appreciate this review, and agree with what you say in it besides what I addressed at the top. |
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encrypted12345
Posts: 759 |
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Star Detective is a lot of fun episode by episode and on the speculation front. I do find it amusing that the show is yuribaiting 2 people who may (or may not) be mother and child, especially since the writer has had experience in a different season with writing non-yuribaity mother and daughter relationships where the people involved seem the same age (Maho). But maybe that's just me misinterpreting things. My biggest qualm is that occasionally, the episodic mysteries are unengaging, but it helps that not quite every episode is all that dedicated to the so-called mystery of the week, or whatever the mystery of the week is happens to be is more abstract than "Who stole this precious item?".
I do sincerely feel like there's a decent chance that the writers are playing with audience expectations on that front, if mostly because there are 4 obvious candidates for the midseason Cure that is shamelessly shown off in advertising, and there's a plausible chance that none of them will end up the actual midseason. One funny thing about the mystery of Anna's mom is that Anna's mom wears purple whereas Mikuru wears pink, so it would be the first time in the franchise the adult version of a Cure changed her "color" after becoming an adult, so to speak. I don't take that as serious evidence of anything, but I find it amusing to think about. |
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Yuvelir
Posts: 1698 |
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The thing with this case is that we _have_ seen her mother and the resemblance is very direct. On top of that is that even moms have names, and Anna is a smart cookie unlike other protagonist. She has had the time and intuition to realize that Mikuru not only looks like her mother and has the same name as her mother, she's also the same age that her mother should have been around in 1999. It would be very disappointing if it turns out that she never entertained the possibility. Something more to note on the meta sense, for many children at this age their mom is their favourite person, so imagining your mom being your best friend and going on adventures with her just feel elating to them. As for Kaito, it outright feels like there were 5 writers and each one wanted to pull him in a completely different direction. And also for how much they talk about idols and what fans do, he's very much the only other idol that gets as much as a mention... but if we mentioned everything that Idol handled poorly we'd be here all day. |
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TandooriJones
Posts: 53 |
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That's all irrelevant really. The target demo is three year olds and you're looking at it through an adult lens. "The 14 year old has to think like a 14 year old would act" is wrong, four years olds arent gonna realize 1999 would make her mom the same age as her when her mom was last seen 11 weeks ago and even I dont remember if her age was said on screen. "The 14 year old has to act in ways a 3 year old would understand" is always how you should view these characters. For instance the three year olds in the audience are young enough still that at this point they could still be thinking their mom’s name is “mom” unironically. I dont really care about any exception to this you can think of, we've had over 20 years of the show working on this logic. Still, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, and assume the reveal about Mikuru is only going to be one of two things. Anna's going to either have known from their first second of meeting and just never mentioned it for some reason, or its going to be "she didn't know because this is a show for toddlers and her not knowing makes the toddlers who didn't know not feel bad/makes the toddlers that did know feel smart". Smoothbrains I know for a fact will say Anna is dumb if this happens because they lack empathy, and think all shows are made for them in particular. Not that I'm implying this about you or anything, but it would be hardly disappointing. It's actually expected. The spoilers for episode 17 are already out and spoiler[apparently they're about Anna missing her mom so we'll find out sooner rather than later though, assuming the spoilers are accurate anyway.]
Yeah I agree, that's another side of the coin. |
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Cryssoberyl
 Posts: 271 |
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This is definitely shaping up to be one of the best seasons in a long time, maybe the best since the absolute GOAT, Star Twinkle. Although for yuri reasons I definitely do NOT want Mikuru to be Anna's mother; I'm hoping there will be some twist there. To me it seems like she would be too old 25 years later, but I also agree that the show is not going to sweat the details, it's a kid's show and will make that work for its audience if it wants to. I just hope that's not it.
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