Smile Pretty Cure

The 9th entry in the Pretty Cure franchise, known as Glitter Force outside of Asia.

Once Upon a Time, there was a kingdom of fairy tales called Märchenland where all the good characters lived together in harmony. However, one day the kingdom was attacked by the evil characters of the Bad End Kingdom, led by the King of Evil "Pierrot". At the climax of the conflict, both the Queen of Märchenland and Pierrot were sealed away by each other, leaving the ending to the story unfinished.

Miyuki Hoshizora is a New Transfer Student who absolutely adores fairy tale books, and hopes that one day she too will live Happily Ever After. Her first day gets off to a wild start when she literally comes face-to-face with Candy, a fairy from Märchenland sent to recover the scattered Cure Décor that can revive the Queen.

Faced with the agents of the Bad End Kingdom, who seek to plunge humans into despair and collect the resulting "Bad Energy" to revive Pierrot, Miyuki's belief in standing strong against adversity despite her own fears grants her the power to transform into one of the legendary warriors, Pretty Cure. It's just a shame that no-one told Miyuki that part of being a "legendary warrior" is actually fighting.

The Pretty Cures this time are:

  • Miyuki Hoshizora, who transforms into Cure Happy.
  • Akane Hino, who transforms into Cure Sunny.
  • Yayoi Kise, who transforms into Cure Peace.
  • Nao Midorikawa, who transforms into Cure March.
  • Reika Aoki, who transforms into Cure Beauty.
Tropes used in Smile Pretty Cure include:
  • Absurdly Youthful Mother: Ikuyo Hoshizora and Chiharu Kise. Both also count as hot moms, at least according to the fanartists.
  • All Myths Are True: Or at least all fairy tales are in Märchenland.
  • Anime Hair: As seen on the page image. Cure March is the first Pretty Cure to wear her hair in a Tomboyish Ponytail and Girlish Pigtails simultaneously.
  • April Fool's Plot: Episode 9.
  • Badass Adorable: Cure Candy from Episode 8.
  • Bad Luck Charm: Miyuki draws a Terrible Luck fortune on the Kyoto trip, which says "Watch where you step, what you carry and what you eat". Hilarity Ensues. For once they do not go into the 'tying it to a tree to get rid of the luck' thing, as the bad luck ends when the fortune gets turned into the Monster Of The Week and beaten.
  • Beehive Hairdo: Cure Sunny's hairstyle is close enough.
  • Bookcase Passage: Interestingly, the bookcase itself becomes a warp portal with careful moving of the books.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Subtly done in the opening by one of Nao's little brothers, Yuuta, who grins upon noticing the camera behind him.
  • But Now I Must Go: Earlier than most Pretty Cure examples. Pop is basically just there to dump some info for the Cures. Then he flies into the sunset (in his book!), back to Märchenland. It's implied that the kingdom is facing a serious threat, requiring his presence; otherwise he would rather stay with Candy.
  • By the Power of Grayskull: "Pretty Cure Smile Charge!"
  • Cherry Blossoms: These are in the background when the girls discuss about various guys around school that Miyuki might like.
  • Clark Kenting: Averted for once.
  • Class Trip: To Kyoto in Episode 13, and later Osaka in Episode 14, with the villians coincidentally are going too.
  • Colorful Theme Naming: With the exception of Miyuki, all the Cures have last names related to their signature colors.
  • Couch Gag: It appears that every episode the Ending Theme will start with a different Cure (Happy in Episode 1, Sunny in Episode 2, and so on and so forth).
    • It seems to be rotating through five versions, one for each Cure.
      • It rotated through the five versions three times, then repeated Beauty for episode 16 instead of Happy.
  • Crash Into Hello: Miyuki is very Genre Savvy and excited to experience this trope. In the first scene of the first episode, she is Late for School and sees a corner; she thinks about this trope, goes full speed into the corner to encounter no one, laments about it for a second, then turns around for a Mentor Mascot in the face.
  • Crossover: Not a canon one, but the fanartists at Pixiv definitely had a field day with the fact that both Smile Pretty Cure and Kamen Rider Fourze had Field Trip episodes at Kyoto in the same week.
  • Curtains Match the Window: All five Cures sport this, moreso in Cure form than civillian.
  • Cutesy Name Town: Rainbow Hills [1]
  • Dancing Theme
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy: Episode 6, Majorina tried to prevent the girls from transforming. Then she attacked them while they were posing AFTER transforming.
  • Death or Glory Attack: Using finishers will leave the Cures exhausted, justifying why they can only use it once per transformation.
  • Debut Queue: Seems to be going this route, but will follow the trope straighter than Yes! Pretty Cure 5, as there will be no additional drama concerning Cure Beauty's debut.
  • Downer Ending: This is the villains' goal, to give the world a "bad end".
  • Elemental Hair: Except for Cure Happy, who has pink hair, the others follow pretty standard colors and styles for their elements.
  • Elemental Powers
  • Expy: The five new Cures have a similar color scheme as the Cures of Yes! Pretty Cure 5. The similarities can be chalked up to having the same character designer (Toshie Kawamura) for both series.
    • Candy was often described as Potpourri with sheep ears, and Reika/Cure Beauty was constantly compared to Umi Ryuuzaki.
    • Joker is like a G-rated Twenty.
  • Exposed to the Elements: In Episode 6 Miyuki is accidentally sent to the South Pole in her civvies, and wasn't bothered by the cold... At first. After she went back to Japan, she started shivering.
  • Eyecatch: Normally shows one of the Cures for the beginning side commercial break and Candy afterwards, but occasionally the commercial end one will show Akanbe.
  • Fairy Tale Motifs: All over the place. This is more notable with the Quirky Miniboss Squad; each member is based off a fairy tale villain (Wolfrun, for instance, is based off The Big Bad Wolf).
  • Five-Man Band: For the first time since Yes! Pretty Cure 5.
  • Foreshadowing: From the clock that appears when the bad guys suck in Bad Energy, it looks like Pierrot will come out at Episode 22. This is further strengthened by the blue-nosed Akanbes, which aren't made from spheres with Cure Decors inside.
  • Freaky Friday Flip: Miyuki and Candy in Episode 8.
  • Frilly Upgrade: "Pretty Cure Rainbow Healing" -- the girls lose their Feather Motif and gain crowns and a few aditional frills during the move. The opening reveals that they will gain Princess Modes, with give them nightgown-like attachments to their costumes that will enable them to fly like Heartcatch Pretty Cure's capes.
  • Funny Background Event: Two during the ending. The first involves Peace falling on top of March, while the second has Sunny volleying a ball right onto Happy's face.
    • Peace's variation of the ending adds a third one to the mix. At the very beginning, she face plants while skipping away from the camera to join the other Cures, and the next time we see her there's a noticeable red spot on her face.
  • Gotta Catch Em All: The Cure Decor features as the collectible item this time around.
  • Gratuitous English: Besides the obvious, Episode 7 has a toy shop which has a sign that says "Stuffed Shop."[2].
  • Gretzky Has the Ball: The relay race in episode 18 has five runners, were normal relay races in the real world have four.
  • Hair Decorations: All five Cures sport angel wing hair decs and tiaras when transformed. Also, both Miyuki and Nao sport ribbons on their hair in civillian form, as does Candy. Yes, even the Mentor Mascot gets a turn in this carousel.
  • The High Queen/Big Good/King in the Mountain: The Royale Queene of Märchenland. She made a Heroic Sacrifice Taking You with Me after all her Cure Decors are stolen by Pierrot, and is now sleeping. But she might wake up again if the Pretty Cures collect all the Cure Decors.
  • Hime Cut: Reika/Cure Beauty again.
  • How Do I Shot Web?: Cure Happy has a hard time using her finisher, and they're still trying to figure out the strength boost they get from becoming Cures.
  • Hub Level: The Mysterious Library, where all Book Doors are connected to, and where the Cures decide to set up their Clubhouse.
  • Idiot Ball: Candy making a fool of Miyuki in Episode 8 could've been avoided if they'd claimed she was sick or used some similar excuse to get her out of class.
  • ISO Standard Urban Groceries: In Episode 4, Nao is carrying several grocery bags, with a leek protuding from one and a daikon radish from the other, when she encounters the panicking Miyuki on the street.
  • Kansai Regional Accent: Akane/Cure Sunny speaks like this.
  • Late for School: The stereotype is Played With with Miyuki, her introduction is this but lacking the bread aspect and the Crash Into Hello was not where she was expecting.
  • Laugh Themselves Sick: Akaoni actually pulls a ROFL (Rolling on the floor laughing) after finding out the Precure have bad luck.
  • Letting the Air Out of the Band: Several times, the background music slowly fizzles out, including when Happy's attacks fail or miss in the first and second episodes, and when Candy completely fails at explaining the premise of the series in Episode 6.
  • Luminescent Blush: Constantly. It's somewhat justified in Cure form as they tap themselves with the Smile Pacts' powder puffs while transforming.
  • Meaningful Name: Nao's last name has the word for "green" in it, Reika's has the word for "blue" in it, and Yayoi's has the word for "yellow" in it. Guess what their respective hair colors are.
    • Also, Akane's last name has the word for "sun" in it, and Akane's given name itself is for the color of madder red. "Miyuki" means "happiness" among other things.
  • Monster of the Week: AKANBE!
  • Mythology Gag: Many, as of the first episode:
  • Nonuniform Uniform: Apparently, Rainbow Hills Middle School is quite lax about uniform rules, as a good portion of the students has a different way to wear the uniform. The Cures are no exception, but take it a step further by having ties of their respective colors.
  • Panty Shot: There is one in Episode 4, but you probably don't want to watch it. It's Akaoni doing his laundry, which includes a gratuitous shot of his underwear.
  • Pillow Fight: During the Kyoto trip, initially Reika resists joining in, till she takes one to the face then its Let's Get Dangerous mode... the end result ends up spilling a pot of hot coffee on their teacher.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Candy and Pop. Interestingly, Pop does not like to be described as such early in Episode 6.
  • Rose-Haired Girl: In grand Precure tradition, Miyuki/Cure Happy is this.
  • Running Gag: It seems like this universe likes throwing things at Miyuki's face.
  • Say It with Hearts: Akane and Nao have these when asking Miyuki who she likes and when giving examples of different guys at school and Miyuki gets them when she finely reveals who she likes.
  • Seiza Squirm: Miyuki briefly goes through this in Episode 5.
  • Shout-Out: The way Miyuki pouts everytime she says "Happuppu~" might remind you of another pink-clad Toei main character.
  • Sixth Ranger: There's a good chance there will be two more Cures, one purple and one amber/gold - given that it's the red gem on the Smile Pact that glows when Akane becomes Cure Sunny.
  • Skirt Over Slacks: The triumphant return of the more noticeable bike shorts under the Cures' dresses; Heartcatch Pretty Cure had these but upskirt shots were needed to notice them.
    • Then again, Toshie Kawamura, who was the character designer for Yes! 5 and GOGO, is in charge for this season's designs too, so it's probably some kind of Author Appeal.
  • Spoiler Opening
  • Story Arc: The School Trip Arc from Episode 12 to 14 (see Class Trip above)
  • Super Sentai Stance: The girls pulls this of in Episode 6... and gets hit with a soda missile in return.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: The girls have a long conversation towards the end of Episode 9, while Akaoni and the Akanbe of the Week just sit around waiting for them to finish before continuing the fight.
  • Teleporter Accident: When your means of instantaneous travel involves imagining the place you want to go to, you probably should not be thinking about penguins.
    • Happened when the girls were trying to find a secret place to talk about Pretty Cure in Episode 7. Some of the places were a stuffed animal store, a zoo, and a TV studio.
  • Thirteen Is Unlucky: Episode 13, where Miyuki has an incredible streak of bad luck during their Class Trip to Kyoto.
  • Toilet Humour: Rare for a Precure series, but after drawing a Terrible Luck Fortune a bird flies by and poops on Miyuki's head.
  • Transformation Is a Free Action: Reinforced in Episode 4 -- Akaoni waited until Peace's Transformation Name Announcement to try to beat her at Rock-Paper-Scissors (Jan-Ken-Pon). Peace threw "paper" instead of the expected "scissors"/VSign, much to Akaoni's disappointment.
  • Troperiffic: The previous installments had flowers and music, now it's Fairy Tales, so this is probably inevitable. The characters show various degrees of Genre Savvyness. The main character, being an absolute fairy tale Otaku, lampshades and sometimes invokes tropes.
  • Verbal Tic: Candy ends her sentences with "-kuru" (possibly a pun on "Decor"). On the other hand, her brother Pop uses "gozaru".
  • Wingding Eyes: Miyuki and Candy get these all the time. During the Kyoto trip Miyuki pretty much goes though the list with Spirals, Xs, Dull Eyes of Unhappiness and even random scribbles for eyes.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair
  • Youkai: Akaoni is, naturally, based of an Oni.
  1. ↑ Nanairogaoka
  2. ↑ Yes, the period is included
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