WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Healin' Good Pretty Cure and Kira Kira Pretty Cure Ala Mode, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Healin' Good Pretty Cure and Kira Kira Pretty Cure Ala Mode have more in common than just being part of the same magical girl franchise; both feature a latecomer Cure officially introduced in their season's Episode 19, who drastically changes the dynamic of the show. But of the two newcomers, Asumi and Ciel, it's clear that Asumi is a much better addition to the cast.
It's not that Ciel is a bad character, in fact, she's probably one of the more compelling Cures, with a well-fleshed out backstory. Unfortunately, the way that the writers decided to introduce her character into Kira Kira undermines it by neglecting the rest of the cast.
In Healin' Good, Asumi's introduction as Cure Earth gives her the focus for about two episodes before the show returns to the Cures as a unit and begins to flesh out Chiyu, Nodoka and Hinata's individual relationships with Asumi, letting her share the spotlight while still introducing her character. In contrast, Ciel's introduction takes six episodes, seven counting her cameo at the end of Episode 18. She doesn't even become Cure Parfait until Episode 23, and then the other main characters all take a backseat, with only the main character Ichika getting any real screen time.
Furthermore, when Ciel is introduced, the fact she's a fairy is almost immediately revealed to the audience. While this does create some dramatic tension, it takes away the reveal's surprise. A potential way to fix this would have been to introduce her as a background character earlier in the series, and then reveal her fairy nature and backstory with Julio, the first major antagonist of the show, and her brother, gradually. Given that she doesn't recognize Julio in his human form, so long as Julio doesn't see her, nothing would really change, but it would feel less like she got unexpectedly shoved into the story for the sake of plot development. While it's arguably a good thing that we get to spend a lot of time with her before she becomes a Cure, the unveiling ends up making all the episodes that come before appear as an origin story rather than "getting to know the character."
Another point against Ciel is that her character arc is completed in these six episodes, with Ciel's personality going from arrogant to immediately idolizing the other Cures and asking to become Ichika's disciple, when just a few days prior, she had refused to teach Ichika. As Healin' Good is still airing, there's no telling where Asumi's arc is going to go, but it looks to be a slower, more natural storyline.
Speaking of natural, while Healin' Good is currently still putting a lot of the spotlight on Asumi, it's much more measured. Due to Asumi's lack of... any kind of knowledge, it makes sense that the other characters would spend a lot of time with and around her, helping her get used to the world. Ciel on the other hand, not only becomes the de-facto deuteragonist, she even kicks Ichika out of the center in any five-person group transformations. Making matters worse, once the mini-arc where Ciel takes the spotlight is over, there's only one "normal" episode before the Crystal Animal creation arc begins, which starts off with another Ciel-centric episode. This means, that in eight consecutive episodes, seven of them are about Ciel, which is unfortunate for viewers who fell in love with other characters, like rocker Aoi or science genius Himari.
Sealing Asumi's case is each girls' respective cast size. Kira Kira already had five main Cures, with a surprisingly large reoccurring side cast, two mascots and a wide variety of enemies. On the other hand, Healin' Good has a significantly smaller cast that makes the new addition of Asumi easier to fit in. Even though going back to the classic Cure formula of transforming with a mascot does bump the initial cast size to six, none of the other characters feel like they needed to get pushed aside in order to give Asumi screen time.
Once Ciel's introduction is over, she begins to fit into the show as a cast member, something that suits her much better. She's even able to use her character growth to give and live some good advice -- like reminding others to communicate how much they love each other -- knowing bad things happen when you don't -- and taking steps to mend her relationship with her brother when his dark past causes him to fear turning evil again.
While we still have to wait and see where Asumi's arc is going to take her, she seems to be finding her place in the world with the help of her friends, and we're eager to see where she ends up.
