On September 21, 2015, the seventh season of Winx Club premiered. Airing 11 years after the first season, this one is infamous for its childish dialogue, underwhelming plot, and borderline brainrot. Even fans of later seasons can agree that season 7 is where it goes downhill, for several reasons.
Following the hype of the 2011 Nickelodeon revival, season 7 brought several changes. Rumored to have a lower budget, an entire new voice cast was hired. The cast prior was most likely getting expensive, as it consisted of actors like Keke Palmer, Liz Gillies, and Ariana Grande. There is no single English dub that covers the entire series, so it’s nothing Winx fans aren’t used to.
The main issue was the change in the target audience. The previous demographic leaned towards older children, typically around ages 9 to 12. But this season changed to a younger audience, ranging from ages 4 to 8. This dramatically changed the series as a whole. Not to mention, the show had finished its main storyline in 2007 at the end of the first film. Needless to say, the plot was hanging on by a thread at this point.
This season’s main antagonist is a fairy animal hunter named Kalshara. She is looking for the Ultimate Power so that she can arise her own fairy animal army, and gain control of all fairy animals. The Winx are on the quest to find the Ultimate Power before she does, protecting all fairy animals along the way. Throughout their journey, the Winx bond with fairy animals of their own. They go back in time and travel across the mini-worlds in search of the fairy animal with the Ultimate Power.
The first transformation the Winx earn is Butterflix. This is a nature based fairy form that fairies can earn when they prove themselves the true defenders of fairy animals. The outfits are cute, they wear big poofy dresses with an iconic butterfly theme. Each dress is different, with unique patterns across the top mimicking the veins of real butterfly wings. They each wear identical shoes and bracelets. The wings are minimalistic but stylish, as they are one single shape but covered in glitter. Their hair is natural and loosely tied, with simple ribbons and butterfly clips.
For a nature-based fairy form, I think it works well. The only other nature form was Sophix, which was only a booster in season 4. That one was more jungle themed, but I like Butterflix’s aesthetic as well. I think the special effects were very clever too, having little butterflies emanate from each fairy’s spell.
The second transformation the Winx earn is Tynix. This is the power the fairies earn that allows them to enter the “mini-worlds”. These are microscopic dimensions they have to search in order to find the Ultimate Power. The name derives from the word “tiny”, hence the mini-worlds.
Tynix has a beautiful crystal theme. Inspired by ice skating outfits, the Winx wear bright dresses decorated with gem shards. I love the pastel hair with highlights, it’s something they’ve never done before. I also think it’s hard to go wrong with a crystal theme, but regardless they do it well.
Completely juxtaposed to the underwhelming plot and slow pacing, the animation in this season is beautiful. This is the most refined version of their HD art style, and it’s criminal is ended up in this season.
Overall, binging this season is a bit difficult compared to the others. Not only is each episode slow, but the overall plot is frustrating. The majority of the season relies on one riddle: “To find the Ultimate Power, you must first find the fairy animal with the first color of the universe”. This is stated by the “digmoles”, who were known to have something to do with the Ultimate Power. Once that riddle is actually solved, I was genuinely disappointed.
***SPOILERS***
It’s not until episode 22, where Bloom notices a crystal digmole statue in Headmistress Faragonda’s office. This statue appeared in episode 4 after the Winx return to the present from their first mission to the past. Because they changed the past, Headmistress Faragonda mentions that she has had it ever since she was a little girl. As the sun shines on it, Flora mentions that it reflects with all colors, just like light. Bloom then confirms THIS is the first color of the universe, and inside is a mini-world containing the Ultimate Power.
The riddle just simply did not make sense in my mind. This was not an animal, so why did were they sent on this useless quest? The fact that the digmoles were the answer was a little wild too. It just felt weird. I understand if they were trying to be clever, but it genuinely felt misleading.
I think the concept of the crystal statues could also have been explained more. Only on screen for a short moment in episode 3, the fairy animals’ hall had crystal statues all along the walls. After Kalshara absorbed all the wild magic, only the digmole statue was left. I wonder if the other statues had any unique powers of their own, but we may never know.
***END OF SPOILERS ***
All in all, this season was alright. The animation was beautiful and the transformations were iconic. If only the story were more solid, and the demographic was kept the same, this had so much more potential to be one of the best seasons the show had. As tough of a season as it was to watch, I still would recommend it.