YMMV / Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure

• Adorkable: Asuka, despite being the mature Cool Big Sis to the rest of the team, loves playing cutesy games on her tablet which she admits to the others with a blush on her face and also reluctantly admits that she can't sleep unless she has a specific pillow with her on another occasion.
• Anti-Climax Boss: A lot of the battles near the end of the season are quickly settled to focus on something far more serious.
  • The blue whale Yaraneeda is built up as the strongest Yaraneeda in both Episode 42's title and Butler. The only reason why it was able to get away with taking so much motivation was because Butler damaged Laura's aqua pot. The actual battle itself is very brief and lasts less than an entire minute before the Marine Beat Dynamic finisher sequence. The Zenzen Yaraneeda beforehand lasts a few seconds longer on-screen (excluding Summer's transformation and the group finisher).
  • Chongire's Yaraneeda form was built up as an intimidating threat, but the onscreen appearance of the actual fight is very brief and focuses more on Butler and the Witch of Delays. The Yaraneeda knocks Manatsu out of her Cure form and the Cures retreat thanks to Elda, but when Chongire's Yaraneeda form returns, the Cures retreat outside of the mansion and they take care of it immediately with the Marine Beat Dynamic..
  • The following battle against the Witch of Delays is even a bit of an Anti-Climax Boss as well, although it makes sense, considering that the fight is an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight where the Cures constantly tell the Witch that she's not evil as she's built up to be - and her attacks aren't as strong as a typical Big Bad would be. Due to this, she's dealt with peacefully by Cure Oasis, but it's also strong hint that she's not the final opponent the Cures face - it's Butler.
• Anvilicious:
  • One of the main themes of the series is motivation, meaning that even in the first episode alone, there are numerous messages about motivation and the negativity of laziness that make it come across as even less subtle than LazyTown. In the first episode, even the villains were written with lazy personalities, with Chongire not really feeling motivated at all and the Witch of Procrastination just shrugging off the Pretty Cures and stating she'd "deal with it tomorrow".
  • While most Transformation Trinkets from other seasons are based on cosmetics, the Transformation Sequence here is a pure Makeover Montage, Sango's family runs a cosmetics shop which gets explored in detail and Manatsu states that "makeup builds your confidence, it's like magic" on multiple occasions.
• Ass Pull: How the Marine Ring suddenly appeared in Episode 37. In the previous episodes, Butler was able to snatch it from the Cures as it appeared right in front of them. When facing the Chou Zettai Yaraneeda, the Cures used their sincerity again and the Marine Ring suddenly appeared from the Witch's Lair to the battlefield with no explanation at all other than it being a Deus ex Machina by Cure Oasis.
• Awesome Music: The opening, "Viva! Spark! Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure" has been considered to be one of the better intros due to how energetic and wholesome it sounds. The fact it's sung by Machico (known for her two opening themes for KonoSuba alongside singing the first credits theme of Healin' Good) makes it even moreso.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • While originally beloved by the fanbase for her Lovable Alpha Bitch personality, Laura became more divisive after she was granted the role of the Sixth Ranger in the form of Cure La Mer. Some viewers feel that from that point on her and Manatsu form a Spotlight-Stealing Squad that overshadows the other Cures and rob them of any meaningful development outside of their obligatory focus episodes, while others feel that her role as the show's Deuteragonist doesn't take anything away from the rest of the cast before or after she became La Mer, pointing out that the other girls don't suffer from being Out of Focus while also saying that the aforementioned focus episodes are able to stand on their own as satisfying Character Development for them.
  • Sango, for her cute design (both her civilian and Cure form), having a cute design, and generally getting along with everyone. Fans of hers like her Character Development (specifically her assertiveness), role as a Barrier Warrior in combat, and kind personality, while several detractors consider her to be too much of an Audience Surrogate (as intended by the creators) to the point where she feels like a "cute-loving" background character despite being part of the main five. Both sides of the spectrum do feel like she lacked utility in combat^note Her main move was forming an X shield to block enemy attacks. In episodes that weren't about her, this usually got destroyed rather quickly and didn't really incorporate any real creative uses outside of 29 (where she had used it for some combo attacks with other Cures), 39 (where she managed to form a shield around her other teammates), and 45 (where she made 3 layers of her shield - although this quickly got destroyed by the Final Boss Butler)., especially compared to other Barrier Warrior Cures before and after her.
• Bizarro Episode: Episode 33, "Viva! Tropica-Shine In 10 Stories!", is a very strange episode even by the season's standards. It's a compilation of ten (actually eleven) shorts that are all subject to random Art Shift while not having any overall bearing to the main plot. To put things in perspective, the first short is a samurai-parody where the Transformation Trinkets are the swords themselves.
• Broken Base: Similar to Smile Pretty Cure!, the show's focus on both Slice of Life and Denser and Wackier episodes instead of a Myth Arc (At least until the second half of the series when Cure Oasis is introduced) divides fans. On the one hand, some feel that the show drags its feet too much in terms of plot progression and suffers from Arc Fatigue because of the repititiveness, while others appreciate the show for taking its time and feel that the slower pace does a good job at getting the viewer invested in the cast.
• Complete Monster: Butler is the assistant to the Witch of Delays who strictly orders his subordinates to steal motivation from the surface world to fuel the Fool's Casket, a device capable of draining everyone's life on Earth, to give the Witch immortality. Butler falsely promises his subordinates immortality through this, and when Chongire finds out and protests, Butler turns him into a Yaraneeda against his will. Butler desperately doesn't want the Witch to remember her past with Aunete/Cure Oasis, only wanting her to end all life, either with the Fool's Casket or as the Witch of Destruction. When the Witch makes peace with Cure Oasis's spirit and vanishes, Butler turns himself into a Yaraneeda to inherit the Witch's abandoned wish to destroy the world, drains the motivation of his subordinates, and attempts to do the same with the Pretty Cure. After losing, Butler offers his motivation to finish filling the Fool's Casket, knowing billions would die.
• Contested Sequel: Similar to Smile Pretty Cure!, the show can be rather divisive when it comes to discussion online. Some fans generally liked the easygoing plot (it had a strong emphasis on Slice of Life), character designs (all five of the main Cures have been praised in some way or another), and humor. However, some felt the story was way too weak and predictable, and the screentime between the main characters was quite imbalanced, along with it being littered with too much Product Placement throughout^note which, if you are familiar, is usually common in most children’s anime. Other fans generally consider it to be an alright season, considering it's sandwiched between two seasons that suffered Troubled Production through different incidents which caused abrupt changes to their plots, especially on the following.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: Some fans online vastly prefer Manatsu and Asuka's earlier prototype design where they had darker skin associated with tropical environments, feeling it to be much more befitting compared to the blatantly white skin they have in the final show. This extends to the prototypes for Cure Summer and Flamingo, with Summer having a design that's noticeably more focused and less of a visual headache when put next to the design Toei would settle on.
• Fountain of Memes: Laura provides a lot of the funny moments in the show as well as many of the memes associated.
• Fridge Brilliance: In Episode 36, everything in Gran Ocean was an illusion made by the villains to trick the Pretty Cure into coming in and find the Marine Ring for them. How about the food that they ate? Chongire is a good cook, so it's more than possible that he cooked the food while the Cures weren't looking.
• Fridge Horror: Episode 36 reveals that Chou Zettai Yaraneeda orbs can be used on live creatures but is considered really dangerous to use. Every creature that it was used on was a non-sapient sea creature (such as an octopus, a prawn, and a sea cucumber) ... up until Episode 43, which Butler used an orb on Chongire himself. Previous series have shown that humans can easily become hosts for these monsters, and even though the humans generally just get their motivation sucked up by the Yaraneeda, what was stopping them from turning humans into Chou Zettai Yaraneeda themselves?
• Harsher in Hindsight: From the comedic Bizarro Episode that is episode 33, the exaggeration of the Witch of Procrastination's laziness for comedy becomes this come episode 44's reveal that the very reason she was procrastinating was to avoid having to fight Cure Oasis and the emotional turmoil that came with it.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The Witch of Delay's Establishing Character Moment line, "I'll get to it tomorrow" just seems like a funny line to indicate that our main villain is just a Lazy Bum. But it's actually her procrastinating both the battle with Cure Oasis and world destruction. She didn't want to fight her, so she delayed her plans of world destruction just so she wouldn't have to do it.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Cure Summer debuted in the same season as Super Sentai's Zenkaizer, another rainbow themed lead with a predominantly white outfit (and that's not including how similar Manatsu and Kaito are in terms of personality). In fact, the coincidence was so striking that many thought it was a planned theme for both characters. And to add onto that, Kamen Rider Saber's power-up form (Primitive Elemental Dragon) which debuted around the same time the two began to air, has a multicolored color scheme as well.
  • Laura suffering from the Seiza Squirm in episode 18 just like Erika did a decade prior becomes hilarious with the announcement that Tropical-Rouge's Non-Serial Movie will also feature Heartcatch's cast, with the trailer indicating that Laura and Erika will have some kind of rivalry with each other.
• Ho Yay: Get tropical with these close moments!
• I Knew It!:
  • For most people, it came to no surprise that Laura herself would be the fifth Pretty Cure. She had longed to interact with the humans, which becomes more obvious from Episode 11 onward.
  • As the series progressed, some people speculated that the Knight of Cerebus Butler himself would be the Final Boss due to the Witch of Delays being rather lazy and sluggish and showing little to no combat abilities. Episode 43 revealed he's been calling the shots and Episode 44 revealed that he became the Final Boss after the Witch of Delays was dealt with.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • A number of fans admit they're less than interested in the actual team and story, but watch simply for the entertainment provided by Laura better known as Cure La Mer.
  • Meanwhile, others watch it for Kururun's cute moments.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Asuka is shipped with plenty of characters, including Laura, Minori, Yuriko, and Sango.
• Memetic Mutation: Hoo, boy. Where do we begin?
• Moral Event Horizon: Butler crosses it when he turns Chongire into a Yaraneeda against his will. If he didn’t cross it then, he crosses it when he decides to finish trying to open the Fool's Casket himself after the Witch is dealt with peacefully.
• Moe: What makes Kururun so popular despite their lack of plot importance is their sheer adorableness and cheerfulness.
• Narm:
  • The name of the Big Bad is the threateningly named “Witch of Procrastination”. The Crunchyroll subtitles call her the “Witch of Delays” instead, however. Episode 42 reveals however her name is the far more threatening sounding Witch of Destruction. She only became the Witch of Procrastination/Delays because she constantly delayed a battle with Cure Oasis due to not wanting to fight her.
  • Episode 22 has the Cures worried about La Mer potentially drowning in the cave's collapse, with all of them just happening to forget that she can breathe underwater just like the rest of them.
• Narm Charm: The above Narm example could also be seen as this considering how Anvilicious the rest of the show's motivation Aesop is represented.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Cure Summer's hair color did get a couple of gripes, considering how different it looks compared to other main protagonist Cures, who were either pink-haired or blonde.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: It has its own page here.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Unlike previous villains in the past seasons, the servants themselves (besides Butler) were never really fought, generally leaving it to their Yaraneedas to do the work. Numeri (she sends a weakened Zenzen Yaraneeda with her stethoscope against the Cures) and Elda (who is a child anyway, but gets outsmarted and tied by Laura in Episode 17) don't fight at all. Chongire briefly fought Cure Summer and won in Episode 17, but otherwise, when he attempts to fight the Pretty Cure in Episode 43, he's easily slapped around. Even when Butler turns him into a Yaraneeda, Chongire's initial battle is brief and when he shows up again, the Cures quickly finish him off, shifting the episode to focus on the Witch herself. This is jarring considering the opening segment featuring them has them fighting the Cures, which would've been a good plot point. They end up fighting the Kowasundas Butler summons during the finale with those exact attacks though.
• Unexpected Character: In the same vein of The Movie for Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure also featuring the cast of Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo!, Tropical-Rouge's movie also has characters from HeartCatch Pretty Cure! in a supporting role, much to the shock of the fanbase. They’re also showing up in the main series, if only for a cameo!
  • Even more unexpected, in a single scene in the finale, among the students are the three main Cures from Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure in a non-speaking cameo.
• Viewer Species Confusion: More than one viewer mistook Numeri to be a sea slug rather than a sea cucumber, including her voice actor.
• The Woobie: Laura no doubt fits this trope as she's tired of feeling left out due to being a mermaid and additionally when back in her body, she misses having legs like she did when in Minori's body.