Angst? What Angst?: In the final episode, even thought Hummy was unable to wake up after her Heroic Sacrifice, Hibiki is the only Cure who didn't lose her spirits, unlike her fellow Cures.
Contested Sequel: This Pretty Cure series as a whole was probably one of the biggest ones when it first aired. HeartCatch! was an extremely Tough Act to Follow, praised heavily for handling mature themes for a kids show and its tight characterization of the core cast. There's a perception this show was criticized for being seen as a Lighter and Softer sequel to its predecessor, which was supposedly because of some last-minute rewrites to the show's script which was supposed to go even Darker and Edgier until the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake led to panicked rewrites to make the show less dark. How much of this is actually true or fandom lore is up for debate. But complaints at the time usually didn't remark on whether it was dark enough but that there were problems with the main duo being underdeveloped and sometimes downright unlikable (especially Kanade), the "music" theme often feeling very forced versus the previous two seasons themes of "flowers" and "community", uninteresting or confusing villains, a Sixth Ranger arc for Siren that feels like a watered-down version of Setsuna's arc just two seasons prior, the series not really committing to its idea of the two protagonists having a complicated and acrimonious friendship (the feud is resolved after the second episode, the reason for the feud is revealed to be very stupid, and Siren only kind of commits to any schemes that involve trying to exploit it), and a habit of piling on more and more characters and storylines as the series progresses while squeezing out the main pair. Complaints about Suite really only started to drop off as the show aged and some more controversial seasons with more glaring problems took its' place... one of which, Doki Doki! PreCure, was created by the same team and included some similar complaints but without the "society-shattering natural disaster" interrupting its production to justify its missteps.
Regardless of the audience's reception to the show overall, the animation quality was noticeably higher than previous seasons and even many later seasons, receiving high praise for looking like Toei had finally splashed some money onto this franchise. And whatever the feelings are about how the show integrated music into its storyline, the actual score ais considered to be one of the best in the entire franchise and still holds up today.
Draco in Leather Pants: Noise seems to be more prone to getting this than other Big Bads. Being voiced by Freeza and being one of the few Precure villains with reasonable motives surely helped him.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Waon barely has any screen time, but she has a number of fans, some of whom were very upset about her not being a Sixth Ranger.
Ditto with Seika. Some fans were delighted to see her donning a brand new Elegant Gothic Lolita dress in New Stage 2.
Ako. Very popular and placed 8th overall in the Pretty Cure General Election. It helps that she's the youngest Cure in history, being nine years old.
Ellen/Cure Beat has become this in recent years. In Japan she was the only one of the Suite team to rank in the top 25, in the NHK popularity poll, while in the Western fandom, she is often the most liked character in the show.
Though maybe not as popular, Trio the Minor still got quite a few fans for being entertaining yet genuinely threatening villains. Their plans working better than Siren's certainly helped.
Fan Nickname: Hibiki and Kanade were affectionately dubbed "Nagisa and Honoka 3.0" by the fanbase at first. Said fanbase later came up with "Hibicake and Kanabake" for the duo, "Mephistroll" for Mephisto, "Man Rin" for Hibiki's father Dan due to his hairstyle, and "Cure Samba" for Ellen's Brazillian carnival-inspired getup from episode 5.
Fashion-Victim Villain: Ellen's neon-colored getup in episode 5 (temporarily) made her one of these.
Hibiki and Kanade are both the current voice actresses for MaiShiranui and Chun Li. Their personalities are very similar, and Mai and Chun Li have interacted before, but that was before Koshimizu and Orikasa voiced them...
Some of the lyrics in Hibiki's Image Song seem much more like a premonition in 2023:
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Ako was originally a Bratty Half-Pint whose only main purpose was to point out the stupidity in the heroines. Come Episode 35, where she's revealed to be the masked Cure Muse, and opinions on her quickly changed. Now she's considered the most popular of the Suite Cures, as her rankings on Precure Popularity polls show.
Episode 21. Siren, under the control of the Noise of Evil, is set to sing the Melody of Sorrow and effect the whole town. Cures Melody & Rhythm are in no position to stop her, Mephisto is standing overhead waiting, and Hummy is held captive by a Bind attached to the top of the clock tower. Rather than beg or cry, Hummy simply smiles at Siren and talks about how she'll always be Siren's friend, following up by singing the song she and Siren sang together as children, making Siren remember all the good times they've had together. When she tries to then sing the Melody of Sorrow at Mephisto's order, she just can't do it; all she can do is break down sobbing.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Hibiki and Kanade's Vitriolic Best Buds relationship, which would put a hamper on their Precure prowess, but could open up a lot more possibilities (especially considering that Precure runs on The Power of Friendship). That gets taken care of in less than 10 episodes, and most of the time, they're not so vitriolic anymore.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Hibiki's father, Dan is this according to some fans, most notably in his debut episode (Episode 3). He's supposed to be seen as someone who is very passionate about music, but he tends to force his ideals onto everyone else. When Hibiki was forced to replace someone at a piano recital when she was eight years old at the time, he scolded her for not having fun during the performance, even though she didn't make any mistakes, while never telling her what she did wrong. The fact that he said this to his own child was bad enough, but even in the present, he continues to treat students like Masamune the same way, even yelling at a Negatone for not playing the kind of music he enjoys. And the narrative of the episode is trying to say that he's in the right here despite how his teaching methods border on abusive and strict. The fact that he isn't even affected by the Negatone's Melody of Sorrow because "his ears only listen to beautiful tones" also gives him a Holier Than Thou attitude regarding music.
Vindicated by History: Suite was one of the franchise's biggest punching bag back when it was airing in 2011. However, harsh opinions on this season have calmed down a bit, due to time and the more controversial opinions on someof thelater seasons.
While this is a highly divisive series, the majority of the fandom does generally agree that the visuals are awesome.
The group transformation sequences in particular are highly praised as it created all-new sequences to incorporate the new members. Compared to the other series' cut-and-paste sequences, this is definitely an improvement.
The Woobie: Ako/Cure Muse is somewhat of a mix between alltypesofwoobies. Initially the innocent princess of Major Land who has lived a peaceful and happy life with her family, her life practically fell apart when her father Mephisto fell victim to Noise's brainwashing and Came Back Wrong moments later to their castle. Ako, determined to bring her father back to his senses and keep her family and her homeland from falling apart, masqueraded as Cure Muse to gather the Notes in the human world, and keep in mind that this is a world she has little to no idea about. You might be a little hard-pressed when she acts rude to people older than her, but if you think about what she has to go through (and mind you, she is only about 9 to 10 years old), her cynical and grumpy behavior is pretty much understandable. Yet she was able to withstand it all while keeping a stoic front as Masked Cure Muse.
as making her look "almost like a cross between a ballerina and a princess". Three seasons later, we get a Pretty Cure who's both a ballerina and a princess.