Wonderful Precure was always going to be a tough act to follow. That's doubly true when you add Soaring Sky! Precure, the series that preceded it, into the mix – between those two and the previous year's Delicious Party Precure, we've had three very strong seasons in the long-running franchise in a row. None of this is leading up to me saying that You and Idol Precure♪ isn't good, though – it just feels like a much fluffier entry into the Precure world, more akin to Tropical-Rouge Precure than any of its three closest siblings. Again, not a bad thing, but something that takes a bit to get used to.

It's also Precure's first official idol-themed series. While characters like Urara in Yes! Precure 5 and its sequel have been idols or idol-adjacent before, this is the first time where “idols” are a major feature for the entire team. It makes sense that the franchise would want to try this out; after all, magical idol girls have been around for a long time, with older examples like Cyber Idol Mink from Saint Tail creator Megumi Tachikawa existing alongside the more current Pretty series. Magical idol girls are a great way to combine two longstanding genres, and generally speaking, the space this combination creates for fun costumes, songs, and dances is a sure-fire way to reach the intended audience.

That said, You and Idol Precure♪'s first cour has a little trouble getting itself off the ground. Mostly that comes down to the characters feeling a touch flatter than their older sisters, although I think this may be deliberate, a way of giving them space to grow. In the case of Uta in particular, part of her character is that she doesn't have a concrete dream for her future. While Kokoro and Nana don't necessarily have that either, they're less bothered by it and have short-term dreams that are keeping them going. Episode eleven's treatment of Uta trying to figure out what her dream for the future is does a great job of reminding us that Uta is only fourteen; she's got plenty of time to figure things out. It's also remarkable that Uta settles on “being Cure Idol” as her interim dream rather than declaring that she wants to be an idol as Uta Sakura. Many other idol-themed series would have taken that latter route, especially given Uta's love of singing and her budding friendship with Kaito, a popular male idol. Kaito is representative of the hard work idols put in, and when Uta meets him, he's taking a break. Although he doesn't elaborate on this, just knowing it gives Uta something to think about, and we can extrapolate that it's factoring into her thinking. She gives the impression of being shallow, which stymies these opening episodes, but I don't believe that she actually is.

That I got that impression may also be because both Nana (Cure Wink) and Kokoro (Cure Kyun-Kyun) have less secure family lives, which influence the way they interact with the world. Nana's parents are frequently busy, while Kokoro's mother is widowed, and both girls have had to grow up a bit more quickly. Nana is also anxious in a very relatable way; her inability to forget (or let go of) past embarrassments holds her back in real ways. Her transformation into Cure Wink is a way for her to find power in herself; to become a stronger version of Nana Aokaze, one who can find the confidence to do what she wants to. While this occasionally takes a bizarre turn, as in episode nine, her ability to wink at her fears and problems enables her to become the person she wants to be. Similarly, Kokoro, who initially sees herself as nothing more than a Cure Idol and Cure Wink superfan, finds in her Cure Kyun-Kyun persona the strength to acknowledge her dreams and to head towards them. She realizes that she doesn't have to remain on the sidelines if she doesn't want to, giving herself grace.

The show also does a good job of acknowledging the pervasiveness of social media and smartphones. Purirun, the fairy from KirakiLand whose job is to find the Cures, consistently records them without permission, uploading videos to social media without their express consent. The show does note that this is a bad thing, but I do wish it had gone farther; the only punishment Purirun receives is that the queen gives her bad hair for a bit. It's possible that later on, the work as actual idols that results from Purirun's actions will get in the way of being Cures, but I still wish the privacy issues had been handled with a bit more gravity. We see the positives – work as idols, finding Meroron in episode twelve by following posts about sightings – but the negatives are also important.

Art and animation are a little mixed in this cour, going from gorgeous to clunky from week to week. My only major complaints mostly stem from Cure Kyun-Kyun's legs, which look misshapen in most of the group poses. I also wish they'd given her leggings or tights with her Cure costume, or at least shorts – she's the dancer of the group, and that would have made more sense and could have been incorporated without changing her overall look. Still, the designs for the Cures are fun and extravagant without being too fussy, and I love the way Meroron looks – she's adorable.

You and Idol Precure♪ may not be covering the difficult topics that Wonderful Precure did or engaging with heroic themes like Soaring Sky! Precure. But it's still nice to have a lighter season after two that got fairly dark. If the characters occasionally feel like they've been hit with the stupid brick, that's what it's like being in middle school, and I appreciate that none of them are perfect. We're still in the early stages of this series, and it has plenty of room to grow.