It pains me to say this, but at the end of the day, Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart just isn't as good as most of the other seasons of Pretty Cure we've had officially released in English. (For the record, I'm not counting Glitter Force until we get them unadulterated.) That doesn't mean that it's bad, because it absolutely still has some wonderful moments, particularly towards the finale when Hikari and the boy begin to get answers. But it also gives the impression of not quite knowing what to do with its episode count, wandering around aimlessly at times, and that weighs it down as a whole.

When it's on, however, it's on, and we can see how it lays the groundwork for future, better seasons while also paying attention to the magical girl genre as a whole. Hikari (and later Hikaru) moving in with Akane and making her think they're cousins reads as perhaps a bit distasteful to us, but it also has plenty of precedent in the genre: Minky Momo brainwashed a childless couple into thinking she was their daughter back in the early 1980s, and in the late 1990s, Chibi-Usa and Chibi-Chibi did the same in various seasons of Sailor Moon. The Cures' lack of multiple attacks such as later generations of Cures have also is in line with the way earlier magical girl series functioned, and if anything, Cures Black and White stand out for the way that they get physical when fighting instead of using ranged magic attacks from the get-go. Max Heart is an interesting transition piece, and if it isn't always the best-told story, it's still a piece of the magical girl evolutionary puzzle as a whole.

It's also at its best when dealing with Hikari. Nagisa and Honoka are still the main characters (although it increasingly feels like Nagisa's the star and Honoka is there), and they do get some good character work; the use of lacrosse to show Nagisa's growth is particularly well done, especially when she retires as captain as she prepares to graduate from middle school. But Hikari and the little boy are the actual heart of the story. This in large part comes down to who they are according to the rest of the show's supernatural cast; Hikari is the Queen's Life and the little boy is the King's Life. Most of the nonhuman cast can only see them in these roles, but as this second half of the show goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that viewing them that way does them a disservice. We began to see that with Hikari earlier, and this set of episodes does the same for the boy. Increasingly, we see him standing at the window, staring outside while ignoring his zakenna caretakers and his toys. It's obvious that he feels trapped, and that what was once a fun playhouse has become a cage he wants to leave. When he and Hikari meet in episode thirty-five, both collapse as a miasma spreads, an interesting state of affairs, since the typical reaction of regular people when evil attacks is to pass out.

Eventually, they're able to interact normally, and this forms the backbone of the final three episodes. Neither of them wants to be what others (adults) want them to be: Hikari can't just be the Queen's Life and the boy has no interest in being the King's. She's not wholly good and he's not evil; they're just people trying to find their own way in the world. Episode forty-one implies that both the Queen and King need to exist for the Garden of Rainbows (Earth) to function, but that's a lot to put on a couple of kids. Hikari getting to manifest as Hikari, being able to live with Akane and go to school, gives her an edge over the boy. But in the end, what really matters is what they want. They can't be kept apart, and maybe that speaks to the way the world needs both light and dark, good and evil, Black and White, to function at all.

Whether intentional or not, the relationship between Hikari and the boy does explain why Nagisa and Honoka are Cure Black and Cure White in a nicely symbolic way. The two girls are also opposites in a lot of senses, but that's what makes them good friends and a strong team. Shiny Luminous is the light that illuminates them both, while the boy is the shadow the light casts. This may not be the most put-together season in terms of storytelling and cohesiveness, but it's hard to argue with its symbolism. Is it a bit on the nose? Yes, but we're talking about a season where the genders of the fairies are written on their foreheads (the symbol for “male” on Polun and Mepple and “female” on Lulun and Mipple), so subtlety isn't really a strength here. But given the intended audience for the franchise as a whole, it's fine, and it comes together in a final episode that's very satisfying.

Does this make up for the other weaknesses of the season? That's going to depend on your preferences. There are episode plotlines that see multiple usages (Nagisa's crush on Fuji-P, the threat of one of the girls having to move away), a sense of repetitiveness in the ways the villains interact with the Cures while largely ignoring the boy, the paucity of attacks available to the girls, and the enduring plot point of Hikari having to be told to transform nearly every battle can contribute to making this feel like a lesser season. Taken as a whole, it's truly not as good as most of the others available legally. But at the end of the day, it does pull itself together, and you really can't have what came later without Max Heart. That's enough, I think, to make it worth watching, even if you only pay full attention to certain episodes.