It's an inevitability of children's media that deals with animals that, sooner or later, the topic of death comes up. Most animals people love as pets don't live as long as humans, and the loss of a pet is often one of the first encounters with death a child has. I was four when my cat Oliver passed, and the conversation my parents had with me about it still lives in my heart; it's the reason why children's literature like Wilson Rawls' Where the Red Fern Grows and Judith Viorst's picture book The Tenth Good Thing About Barney exist. While I don't enjoy reading sad animal books anymore now than I did when I was little, I have to applaud Wonderful Precure! for the decision to cover these topics and to make extinction a central theme of the final quarter of the series. They're handled with a much kinder, lighter touch than many of the classic books on the subject, making them a particularly good example of the genre.

That's a long way to say that these final episodes made me cry multiple times, more than any other Precure series. But that's in many ways a compliment because Wonderful Precure! arguably takes a lot of what Healin' Good Precure was attempting to do (and may have done, had the pandemic not interrupted it) and does it better. Partly because the story acknowledges that, as much as they may want to, the Cures can't save everyone, at least not in the sense of righting past wrongs. Gaou's entire motive in attacking Animal Town is based on his anger at what happened to the wolves over one hundred years ago, and no amount of hugs and love can undo their extinction. We see this foreshadowed in episodes forty-four and forty-five when Fuku, an elderly, beloved dog, dies and villain Torame is redeemed. Fuku is Iroha's first encounter with the death of a pet, and the story her person, Otsuru, tells the Cures about how she adopted Fuku despite having resolved never to have a dog again after losing her childhood pet, is a beautiful illustration of what an animal can bring us. Otsuru knows that she'll outlive Fuku, but she accepts that, as most of us do because loving Fuku and being loved by Fuku is enough to mitigate the pain. Still, Iroha couldn't cope with that in episode forty-four, and the following episode has her still attempting to work through the experience.

That's where Torame comes in. One of Gaou's minions, Torame has consistently been portrayed as puppyish, framing his fights with the Cures as games. When they realize that he really does think he's playing with them, the Cures spend episode forty-five actively engaging with Torame in a series of games, which culminate in Torame's spirit being released to go on to the afterlife. Torame, it turns out, is one of the wolves hunted to extinction in what later became Animal Town, and that means that he and Zakuro have been dead for a long, long time. By treating him like the wolf cub that he is, the Cures can resolve his lingering pain and free him from his regret. Like Fuku, Torame just wanted to be happy, and helping him to move on to the afterlife allows Iroha to recognize that while death is always sad, it's okay to be and to use the good memories to help you move forward. Torame, as we see in the final episode, isn't gone forever: his spirit lives on with the other wolves in the forest around Animal Town, but even more importantly, he still exists in their memories and hearts.

It's a lot for a children's show, but that's the enduring power of Pretty Cure's best seasons, and indeed, all good children's media. The stories and characters can engage readers of all ages, allowing everyone to take something from them that is appropriate for where they are in life. Wonderful Precure!'s discussion of death and extinction, as well as the importance of considering how humans interact with animals, is accessible for the intended audience as well as adult viewers, serving as both a lesson and a reminder – a lesson to the younger ones and a reminder for the older to treat the world kindly. The character of Subaru, a teenager who witnessed the eradication of the wolves during his lifetime, helps to drive this home. Subaru felt powerless and angry, which led to him making vengeance-based decisions that hurt more people, especially Zakuro.

While it may seem simplistic that Cure Wonderful solves the problem with a group hug, we have to look beyond the surface of the gesture. This season's Cures have consistently eschewed violence for play and affection, something which hasn't worked for all viewers. But the finale drives home the point of why this choice was made. Violence, in the form of killing the wolves, began the problem. Subaru's anger both tied him to his place of death and begat more violence as he sought to mete out what was dealt to him. In other words, violence only birthed more violence. The way to counter that is with nonviolence and love, and so that's what the Cures used. Subaru and the wolves needed to experience the acceptance they didn't get for the cycle to be broken. That's also possibly behind the decision to make Komugi a papillon, a toy spaniel breed. Sure, they're cute, but spaniels are also retrievers, dogs tasked with bringing things back. That's what Cure Wonderful does: she brings animals' and people's true selves back from the edge, retrieving them from despair and taking them into the light.

As with other Precure series, like Go! Princess Precure, there is a bittersweetness to this ending. Although Yuki, Komugi, and (at long last) Daifuku are given the ability to talk once more despite losing their transformation compacts, they're no longer able to become human. (I still think Satoru and Daifuku got a raw deal, only getting to transform at the very end and not even getting Cure names.) When we pair that with episodes forty-four and forty-five, that also may indicate that they still have animal lifespans. Still, this comes alongside rumors that someone lost in the woods was saved by a wolf, so we know that spirits live on, giving this a bit more hope. At the end of the day, this series is all about hope. When you lose it, like Subaru, despair sets in. But Komugi will always be there to hug you, to help you pick yourself back up and start moving forward again. It's a message embodied by the best magical girl stories, and although this series had its issues, it ultimately conveys that.