Since I finally managed to finish pretty much all of Pretty Cure so far (exceptions: a few of the regular movies and Yes PreCure series), I figure I can give an overall generalized evaluation of what I thought of each season. It probably won't have spoilers since I'm just giving a generalized opinion, except maybe some of the precure warrior names (in particular, which is my favorite out of each series).
In general Pretty Cure has become a rather decent series in that it doesn't fall into the trend of being too predictable and boring with its episodes. This of course varies from series to series, but it was well worth watching from the beginning up until now to see how much change the precure series has gone through over the years.
Season 1: Pretty Cure + Season 2: Pretty Cure Max Heart
Favorite Character: Cure White (Shiny Luminous is kind of cute... though...)
Unsurprisingly these seasons (IMO) are the worst seasons out of the entire Pretty Cure series essentially because they fall for every trope and cliche in the book, whether it be fillers, obvious plot, etc. It is also the start of the trend of having flashy but useless objects being the source of all the magical girl powers, obviously giving toy makers the signal to profit off the series as much as possible. This is possibly the most prominent reoccuring theme in all the Pretty Cure series, as if they needed the profits from the toys in the show to continue generating PreCure series year after year (and maybe they do!). Honestly though I have no idea how the show got popular at this point because it was pretty bad overall and I'm sure there were other series in the same genre that were better.
Season 3: Pretty Cure Splash Star
Favorite Character: Cure Egret/Cure Windy
IE Pretty Cure 2.0. The theme is still the same in that there's only two main characters, but the art and designs have significantly improved, and the characters feel much better developed (including the enemies, who I found very amusing from time to time). The elemental theme might be considered cliche to some people but I thought it was a pretty nice touch. The whole "Splash Star" part is pretty unique as a superpower but I think this might have been a start towards Toei's trend of having a little more originality here in there with their Pretty Cure series. As it was one of the earlier series I watched, this series is one of my favorites (even if it doesn't compare that well to the others).
My only qualm with this series is that the transformed Pretty Cure warriors have some incredibly bad hairstyles. I have no idea what the Pretty Cure designers were thinking. :|
Season 4: Yes! Pretty Cure 5 + Season 5: Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo!
Favorite Character: Cure Lemonade (Although what kind of name is Lemonade...)
IE Sailor Moon imitators. I felt like the art designs for Yes Pretty Cure 5 went down from previous Splash Star (I don't know if there's a reason behind that) and generally my interest in this series was much less because of that. The enemies were also not as appealing as they were in Splash Star. I didn't finish either of the series, and I didn't really feel the need to so I basically watched up until all the important characters were introduced in GoGo! and then some, then moved on with other series. Cure Lemonade is pretty adorable though, especially in some of the movies...
Season 6: Fresh! Pretty Cure
Favorite Character: Cure Pine
Here I felt like they were trying something REALLY new and Pretty Cure had almost a much more mature feeling to it - the characters look like they were older as well. The theme of the enemy was also different and provided a different kind of apocalyptic view than seen in the previous seasons. I especially liked the interactions between the enemies in this series because they in a way reminded me of the interactions of a few friends I used to have. In that respect I enjoyed the enemies more than the main characters, almost.
Going along with the maturity theme I feel like the topics they talk about in this series is also occasionally more "adult" related than in previous series - For example, there are occasional romantic themes seen in this series in contrast to all other pretty cure series. If Pretty Cure seasons were actual people and we were comparing season is most mature, this season is it hands down.
Season 7: Heartcatch Pretty Cure
Favorite Character: Cure Marine
Ah yes the most popular and loved Pretty Cure series to date. I heard it was because they had some former Gundam director helping them out but certainly it deserves its fame which stands out to the rest of the series. I probably wouldn't say its my favorite series but I can rank it high up there, if only because of Cure Marine. It is perhaps the best series to introduce to a person curious about what Pretty Cure is, since its plotline feels fairly interesting, the art style is rather unique and the characters (both the protagonists and the enemies) are pretty well developed. It is also the first Pretty Cure season (and, to date, the only pretty cure season) that does NOT have an overly hyped up and caffeinated main protagonist heroine (which actually made for some interesting interactions in some of the All Star Movies).
Heartcatch Pretty Cure has undoubtedly the best transformation scenes out of all the Pretty Cure series.
Season 8: Suite Pretty Cure
Favorite Character: Cure Rhythm
This series has gotten mixed reviews, and in general most people don't seem to like it. Perhaps it was unfair since it came after Heartcatch, as it does have a few rather interesting aspects to it, but its poor reception might be due to them trying too hard in originality this time. The mascot character for this show I felt was really entertaining and cute; for me the mascot in Suite is the best out of all the pretty cure seasons. The theme of music was also interesting. I think the part where it was mostly overdone is probably in that this series has WAY TOO MANY SPECIAL ATTACKS, so much that the viewer probably forgot most of them by the end of the series and say "wait, did I see that attack before?" There may have been various plot and character issues with the series too (and Cure Melody is kind of ugly :| ) but at least for me I don't think its as bad as it could have been (ie seasons 1 and 2).
Also I liked Suite Pretty Cure's intro and overall music the best so far out of all the Pretty Cures. Kind of appropriate considering music is its theme.
Season 9: Smile Pretty Cure
Favorite Character: Between Cure Peace and Cure Beauty
IE Yes Pretty Cure 2.0. with improved graphics. My guess is that since Suite's originality didn't work out so well they went back to something that did work well (...I guess Yes Pretty Cure worked out well even though I didn't like it too much?) and revamped it to something new. The characters are themed almost exactly the same way down to their personalities except for one of the colors, so it was pretty ":V" all around. I felt like the overall plot for this show was subpar compared to what I've seen earlier, but there definitely some genuine episodes which blow all other Pretty Cure episodes (including ones from Smile as well) out of the water. If I were to rewatch the series or show it to someone else I'd just pick those episodes out and move on to the next series.
Season 10: DokiDoki Pretty Cure
Favorite Character: Cure Rosetta
IE Fresh Pretty 2.0 (or 0.5 because they're younger?) I say this because there is a very similar theme used in Fresh and it is much more elaborated in DokiDoki Pretty Cure. So far I think what Doki has going for it is its slightly (?) more unique plotline compared to the other series - its not completely predictable and following the same tropes as before (except the merchandise thing). Character-wise, they're not the most unique characters, although I think its hard to come up with very unique ones this late into the season. High(er) quality animation (relative to previous series) at this point seems like a given now, so there's no real comment about that.
Future of Pretty Cure: It's always interesting to see what they might be planning next, although lately its just rehashing previous seasons. One thing I thought was interesting is that they never used the theme of jewelry, which I thought would be a very hot theme for mahou shojo shows (Maybe because something like Jewelpets took it already?). Hence I wouldn't be surprised if in the future there will emerge characters like Cure Ruby and Cure Sapphire, but we never know. Here's to hoping that there are more interesting Cure warriors Toei can give us in the future.
By the way DX3 is the best All Stars movie thus far.
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