Anime / Go! Princess Pretty Cure

Who says a Princess Phase has to end? ^note Clockwise from top right: Dyspear, Shut, Close, Stop and Freeze, Cure Scarlet/Towa Akagi, Miss Shamour, Kuroro, Yui Nanase, Aroma, Cure Flora/Haruka Haruno, Pafu, Cure Mermaid/Minami Kaido and Cure Twinkle/Kirara Amanogawa.

”To be strong, kind and beautiful!

This is the tale of four girls who aim to become true princesses.

Aim for your dreams!

Go! Princess Pretty Cure!”

— Opening Narration

Go! Princess Pretty Cure is the twelfth entry in the Pretty Cure franchise. It is the tenth separate continuity in the series, and began airing in February 2015. It is preceded by HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! and followed by Maho Girls Pretty Cure!.

Haruka Haruno is a girl who dreams of being a princess just like in the picture books she loves to read. As a child, this dream got her bullied by her classmates. One day, while running from her bullies, she encountered a strange boy named Kanata. He cheered Haruka up, and told her to hold onto her dream. Before disappearing he gives her a little trinket known as a Dress-Up Key. Years later, Haruka enters the prestigious Noble Academy, a boarding school for middle school students. While exploring the campus, she encounters a pair of fairy siblings: Pafu and Aroma. Claiming to be from the Hope Kingdom, they are on a quest to find the Princess Pretty Cure.

Unfortunately, the fairies themselves are found by a member of the Dysdark. These villains have the power to lock up people's dreams in order to create monsters known as Zetsuborgs. When her roommate is attacked, Haruka awakens the power of her Dress-Up Key and the Princess Perfume carried by the fairies. The items allow Haruka to become the legendary Princess, Cure Flora. She uses her newfound powers to defeat the Zetsuborg and rescue her friend.

Afterward, the fairies explain that they came from the Hope Kingdom when it was attacked by the Dysdark and its leader, the witch Dyspear. Haruka is surprised to find that the prince of the Hope Kingdom is none other than Kanata. Haruka decides to fight against the Dysdark and find the other Princess Pretty Cure...who just so happen to be at her school. The first is Noble Academy's Student Council President Minami Kaido. An elegant and popular girl who finds her Dress-Up Key on the beach, she becomes Cure Mermaid. The second is fashion icon Kirara Amanogawa, who finds both the Dress-Up Key and Perfume in her dressing room. Initially reluctant to be a magical girl, she eventually joins the others as Cure Twinkle. Once the team is finally brought together, Kanata contacts the Pretty Cure and asks them to find the nine remaining Dress Up Keys which can save the Hope Kingdom.

Midway through the series, the Cures are joined by Towa Akagi, a Hope Kingdom native who becomes Cure Scarlet.

Not to be confused with the Chinese drama Go Princess Go.

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Go! Princess Pretty Cure contains examples of:

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Significantly downplayed, but for the most part, Minami gets a lot of respect from the teachers when she butts into student troubles. Partly justified in how Noble Academy encourages students to be independent and be able to solve their own problems in a civilized manner.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Big Bad Dyspear is voiced by Yoshiko Sakakibara, who rather appropriately voiced Queen Nehelenia in the original Sailor Moon anime.
  • Miyuki Sawashiro also plays another princess named Twilight.
• Ambiguous Situation: How Haruka was able to enroll into Noble Academy in the first place. It is said that the school is a private one (and a pretty high-caliber one at that) so for Haruka to have entered, either she must have been an excellent student (which she isn't) or have paid a great amount of money. While a flashback does show Haruka heavily studying, it's not precisely confirmed if that's the reason she was accepted.
• Animation Bump: Although the series is already quite pretty and well-animated most of the time, the animation is of noticeably higher production during the hand-to-hand fight scenes, especially in the more important episodes such as the introduction arc (ep. 1-5), Episode 11, Episode 22, etc.
  • Episode 30 in particular has some of the best animation in franchise to date, better then even some of the movies.
  • Episode 39, particularly when Haruka has her She's Back moment manages to surpass Episode 30. That really speaks for itself.
  • Episode 50, particularly the final fight with Close looks better then any other scene in the whole show.
• Anime Hair: Flora's isn't too strange anime-wise, although a messy bun with waist-length hair is a bit of a strange combo. Mermaid's is long hair that bubbles out at least a foot from her head and during the transformation sequence, appears to start out as an afro. Also has 4 random stray locks coming out of her tiara. Twinkle gets a double set of pig-tails, one smaller than the other set.
• Arc Words: "Strong, kind, and beautiful" as a way of describing what qualities princesses should strive for. Comes up in the opening and ending and Aroma mentions this to Haruka.
  • Later on, Twilight gives these words an Evil Counterpart: "Sublime, noble, and beautiful".
• Art Evolution: The 2nd ending has a different look from the 1st, featuring better animated hair and much softer features on the 3d animated Precure.
• Artistic Age: Type 1. All of the students of Noble Academy could easily pass off as 16-18 year olds based off proportions, despite their actual ages ranging from 13-15. It's especially jarring in-universe as adults are always depicted as being shorter or only slightly taller than the young teenagers.
• Ballet: A compulsory class at Noble Academy, it so happens.
• Ballet Episode: Cure Mermaid's debut episode.
• Bittersweet Ending: The world and the Hope Kingdom are saved, but now the three original Cures can no longer return to the Hope Kingdom, nor will they ever be able to see Kanata, Towa, Pafu, Aroma, Kuroro, or Miss Shamour ever again. They spend their final day together and then move on with their lives. Towa seemingly takes her mother's place as the queen of Hope Kingdom, Yui publishes her first book, Kirara goes off to model with her mother in Paris, and Minami joins Asuka as a marine biologist. Haruka returns to the very same place where she met Kanata and they reunite one final time. Cue Haruka's tears after he leaves, but then decides to live up to her dreams of becoming a true princess. Years later, the last shot implies she finally meets Kanata again.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead:
  • A rare male example with DysDark's Three Musketeers. Close is the brunette, Shut is the blond, and Lock is the redhead.
  • Also true of the first three cures of this season- Flora's blonde, Mermaid's a blunette, and Twinkle's basically a redhead.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: DysDark appears to have targeted Yui one too many times over the course of the series, because each time she's able to put up gradually more resistance until the last time she breaks free from her cage and becomes the wrench in their plans.
• Boarding School: Noble Academy, in a departure from the standard Pretty Cure formula.
• Bond One-Liner: "Gokigenyou." [stares dramatically through the ensuing blossom/water/star storm]
• Book Ends: The series starts with Haruka as a child, meeting Kanata in a flowerfield. It ends with Haruka as a young adult, in that same flowerfield and implied to meet Kanata at the very end thanks to a new key being born from her heart.
  • Haruka's opponent as a rookie Pretty Cure in the first episode is Close. In the final episode, she faces him again as a Grand Princess.
• Breather Episode: After a relatively serious two-parter, episode 12 takes a turn for the Denser and Wackier. Almost everything that happens is silly.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: "Pretty Cure! Princess Engage!"
• Chekhov's Gag: Yui's Designated Victim status turns into this as her being a "veteran" victim means that in the finale she can break free of her cage and then make sure everyone else gets free too.
• Chekhov's Gun: Remember the golden key that was shown in the opening? It's featured in Episode 49 as part of the attack that purifies Dyspear.
• Christmas Carolers: The main cast forms their own music group called The Princess just to sing an original Christmas carol in front of their fellow students. The camera even occasionally switches to see the many wide smiles among the audience. Only one person isn't smiling (Ranko), and that's because she's in an awkward bit of Stunned Silence over how good The Princess' song truly is.
• Classical Elements Ensemble: Once the four precure are reunited, they symbolize fire (Scarlet), earth(Flora), water (Mermaid), and air/light (Twinkle).
• Cool Crown: Being princess-themed, these Cures all wear one. Putting them on during the Transformation Sequence dyes and lengthens their hair.
• Couch Gag:
  • At the end of every episode, before the ED song starts, a brief closing screen showing the dress-up keys is displayed. The placement of the keys differs with each episode, loosely based off the events of the episode.
  • In the second half of the series, each Cure gets her own solo in the 2nd ED song.
• Cute Bruiser: One might expect the Princess Cures to mainly use flashy attacks. As it turns out, the Cures mainly fight the monsters in hand-to-hand combat, seeing as this is Pretty Cure after all.
• Cutesy Name Town: Yumegahama, the city that the girls travel to outside of Noble Academy. The name translates to "beach of dreams".
• Darker and Edgier: Done rather subtly. Not only does a villain die^note It doesn't stick early on for the first time in a while, this also looks to be the first season to have a female Big Bad who is evil with a capital E.
• Darkest Hour: Episode 38 ends with Dyspear having the Cures, the fairies, and Kanata exactly where she wants them thanks to Close's manipulations.
• A Day in the Limelight: There are several instances where an episode is solely dedicated to a supporting or minor character.
  • Episode 26 focuses on Pafu and Aroma as they take care of Towa when she catches a cold, to the point of trying to get rid of a cicada Zetsuborg on her behalf. They are rewarded by finally earning the titles of Royal Fairy Maid and Butler.
  • Episode 27 focuses on Yuuki after he puts aside his dream of playing tennis because of an injured elbow.
  • Episode 33 focuses on Miss Shamour as she looks after the fairy Kuroro. She also engages Shut in a duel and wins.
  • Episode 41 focuses on Yui as she decides to enter an art contest, but struggles to come up with an idea for a picture befitting of the contest's theme of smiles.
• Debut Queue: Like its previous season, it's averted with Cure Twinkle, who does not join in the third episode. In fact, she only officially joins in episode 5.
• Ditto Aliens: Averted for the first time in the franchise. Pafu and Aroma are the first fairies to look significantly different from each other, despite being brother and sister.
• Every Proper Lady Should Curtsy:
  • During the Transformation Sequence, the Pretty Cures curtsy after they're fully transformed and before they do their Transformation Name Announcement. Fitting, since these Cures have a princess theme.
  • The Cures would curtsy again after defeating their foe.
• Evolving Credits: The opening is constantly changing.
  • It features a scene of Haruka walking across Noble Academy. In Episode 1 she's only accompanied by Pafu and Aroma, but Yui, Minami, and Kirara all join her after their introductory episodes, as do other characters after they're either befriended or rescued by the Cures.
  • The image of Dyspear looming over Hope Kingdom is taken out of silhouette in Episode 9, following the reveal of her appearance.
  • A mysterious, masked girl is shown playing the violin. After Episode 13 her mask is removed, as it was revealed she's Dyspear's daughter, Princess Twilight.
  • There's a scene of the three Cures surrounded by Zetsuborgs, ready to fight. From Episode 13 onward they're holding the Crystal Princess Rods they gained and wearing their new Mode Elegant outfits. This is updated again in Episode 26, where they're now wearing their Miracle Mode dresses.
  • Part of the opening shows Kanata and Haruka's first meeting, before aging-up to their current appearance. After Episode 21, when Kanata goes missing after fighting Dyspear, the "current" version of him disappears from that scene.
  • In Episode 23 adds a slight change to the opening's narration. "The tale of the three who aim to become true princesses" becomes "the tale of four," reflecting Cure Scarlet joining the team.
  • The very first scene has two small changes in Episode 26: the lace doilies covering the screen at the beginning now have the symbols of the four Cures, and the circle of twelve lights representing the Dress-Up Keys is followed by a second circle of five lights, representing Cure Scarlet's keys and the Royal key.
  • Episode 26 has a new opening. The song switches to the second verse and chorus, and a lot of scenes are redrawn to reflect the developments in the series. Most notably the addition of Towa/Cure Scarlet. There's also a brand new walking scene with even more characters, two new silhouetted villains, and Close being switched out for Grownup!Lock.
  • Just one episode later it changes again, this time to reflect Pafu and Aroma's new ability to transform.
  • Episode 32 has some changes revolving around the villains. Close is back with a new look, Lock is gone, and the new villains Stop and Freeze are taken out of silhouette. Consequently, the shots of them battling the Cures are changed to match. The new Dysdark castle can also be seen in the background of Scarlet and Flora fighting some Zetsuborgs (though technically the faint outline of it had been there through Episodes 26-31).
  • The fairy Kuroro is added in Episode 34.
  • Prince Kanata is back in the opening sequence as of Episode 41.
  • In the final episode, the shot with Kanata and Haruka growing up is now Prince Kanata and Grand Princess Flora.

• Fairytale Wedding Dress: Cure Flora's and Cure Twinkle's Elegant Mode dresses. Cure Flora's fits this trope in a more traditional manner.
  • Dress Up Premium look like wedding dresses.
• Food as Bribe: Episode 12 shows that Kirara can be easily bribed into doing things if donuts are on the line.
• Foreshadowing: An easy one to miss, but in Episode 6 when Kanata is mentioning about the invasion of the Hope Kingdom, there is a flashback when Dyspear and her minions first break into the castle. The silhouettes of Dyspear, Close, and Shut are shown , but not Lock. This can easily be brushed off since Lock debuts in this episode 6. However, In Episode 40, it's revealed that Lock brainwashed a Hope Kingdom fairy named Kuroro during the invasion of Hope Kingdom which would explain why he wasn't shown when Dyspear first ransacked the place.
• The Four Gods: Near the end of the series, there is a set of Zetsuborgs that is mostly patterned off of them: the one resembling the tiger guards the Temple of Fire, the chinese dragon blocks the Star Palace, the turtle one blocks the ocean palace and the one guarding the Flower Palace is the odd one out, resembling a butterfly instead of a bird.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In episode 2, during the battle between Cure Mermaid and the Zetsuborg, if you pause at the right time you can see the exact moment the third perfume is lost.
• Frilly Upgrade: Several, depending on which dress-up keys the girls are using.
  • The mode "elegant" is obtained with their base key and grown their skirts into full ballgowns.
  • The keys of roses/lilies, ice/bubble, and moon/shooting stars adorn the elegant ballgowns with those elements.
  • The mode elegant with the keys of sakura, coral, galaxy and sun give them new, large and white ballgowns. The royal mode add giant bows on the back the dresses.
  • In their final grand princesses form, their ballgowns become golden and their hair touches the floor.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: Episode 6 reveals there are twelve Dress Up Keys in total, meaning the Cures have to find nine more.
  • By Episode 24, there ARE twelve keys in total, but the last three, belonging to Towa/Cure Scarlet were not part of the set. They were created by Dyspear, meaning that there are STILL three more keys that have to be found.
  • By Episode 30, all twelve keys have been found.
• Gratuitous English:
  • The transformation theme has lyrics that are entirely in English, with such lines as "Any girl can become a princess", "The doors of a dream will open now", and "You enter it as a shining star". Though the lyrics are a bit hard to make out due to the singers' accents, they are grammatically correct.
  • Miss Siamour peppers her speech with random English.
  • Like most sports related terms it's said in English: "One-set match! Haruno to serve!"
• Gratuitous French: Present during the first ending, just before the music style shifts.
• Halloween Episode: The Non-Serial Movie
• Honorary Princess:
  • Flora, Mermaid and Twinkle, who are the princesses of flowers, sea and stars when transformed. Twilight mocks them for that, calling them fake and self-proclaimed. Ironically, Twilight is the daughter of a self-proclaimed queen, Dyspear, who took over the Hope Kingdom.
  • Later subverted as Twilight is actually the brainwashed Towa, daughter of the legitimate sovereigns of Hope Kingdom. After coming back to her senses, she becomes the fourth Precure and the only born- princess of the team.
• Impractically Fancy Outfit: While Mermaid and Twinkle's outfits are pretty standard fare for the franchise, Flora's has a giant bow in the middle of her stomach that's connected to two ruffled cloths on either side of her hips, almost trailing down to her feet. Her boots also have giant flaps coming out from both sides. It's a wonder how she doesn't get caught in anything or trip over herself.
• Improbable Hairstyle: Par for the course with the Precure series, but Cure Mermaid's hair stands out. It's supposed to look like underwater hair, and is shaded in a way that makes it resemble a giant blob of water. It trails all the way down to her feet.
• Interclass Friendship: The three Pretty Cures. Haruka comes from a working class family, Minami's family are rich, and Kirara's father is a famous movie star and her mother is a famous model. Later on they add Towa who is the princess of Hope Kingdom into the group.
• I Should Write a Book About This: While Yui's dream to write fairy tales for children is no secret from the start of the show, she eventually realizes that's what she really wants to do. And sure enough, in the Distant Finale, The Princess and the Key of Dreams is shown to be as popular as Haruka's old favorite book.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: The Cures' outfits are more opulent-looking this time around, and they don't kick any less ass in them.
• Land, Sea, Sky: The heroines' motifs, specifically flowers for Haruka/Cure Flora, the seas for Minami/Cure Mermaid, and stars for Kirara/Cure Twinkle.
• Legacy Character: Episode 6 reveals there was another group of Princess Precure in the past.
• Loving a Shadow: In episode 32, a longtime acquaintance of Minami named Kimimaro shows up at Noble Academy to profess his love for her. However, a stern talking-to from Minami (and getting his dream stolen) makes Kimimaro realize that what he was really in love with was his idealization of Minami as a flawless, elegant lady. Unusual for this trope, however, he pledges to learn to love the real Minami.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The Cures' full names relate to their element in some manner. Haruka's name can mean "spring flower" while her last name translates to "Spring field". Minami's name means "beautiful wave" and her last name means "Ocean Wisteria". Kirara's name contains "kira", the onomatopoeia for sparkling/twinkling, and her last name means "Milky Way".
  • The three musketeers' names, Close, Shut, and Lock, all follow the theme of locking something away. They also appear to have additional meanings.
    • Close transforms into a giant crow. Close's name in Japanese is spelled as Kuroozu (クローズ), while the Japanese spelling for crow is Kuroo (クロウ).
    • Lock transforms into a frog-dragon type creature. Lock's name in Japanese is spelled as Rokku (ロック), while the Japanese spelling for frog is Furoggu (フロッグ).
    • Shut transforms into a giant cat. Shut's name in Japanese is spelled as Shatto (シャット), while the Japanese spelling for cat is Kyatto (キャット).
• Memory-Restoring Melody: In Episode 21, Prince Kanata plays an old violin song from his childhood to Twilight, which is the final nail in purifying her and turning her back into Princess Towa.
• Mermaid Arc Emergence: In the transformation sequence of Cure Mermaid, she bends backward and pulls her now longer hair out of a blob of water, splashing it away. It's also worth noting that this Power Makes Your Hair Grow moment (which the series usually shows from the front, the back, or all-around) is shown from the side.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Comes in full force in the second quarter of the series, leaving little breathing room between episodes where new attacks are introduced.
  • Episode 11, the Cures get a group finisher, Precure Trinity Lumiere.
  • Episode 12, the Cures get upgraded versions of their finishers as new regular attacks; Flora gets Rose Tourbillion, Mermaid gets Frozen Ripple, Twinkle gets Full Moon Humming.
  • Episodes 16, 17, and 18, the Bubble, Shooting Star, and Lily keys respectively make their appearances, upgrading their regular attacks again to Bubble Ripple, Meteor Humming, and Lily Tourbillion. Episode 18 finishes off with another group finisher, Precure Trinity Explosion.
  • Episode 29, the Sakura, Sango, Ginga, and Sun Keys make their appearances. Episode 30 finishes off with the first group finisher that includes Cure Scarlet, Precure Eclat Espoir.
• Muggle Best Friend: Haruka's roommate, Yui, officially becomes one in episode 10, when the Precure have no choice but to reveal their identities in front of her.
• Mythology Gag: Has its' own page.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Episode 5 features an eccentric modeling judge that seems to be based off fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.
• Nonuniform Uniform:
  • Kirara's school uniform gets special mention; her skirt is slightly shorter than Haruka's and has black frills. She also outfitted it with a different type of ribbon with a star clip on it. Minami's has a slightly longer skirt.
  • The Cures also wear color-coded ballet tunics for dance class in lieu of the lavender tunics worn by the other girls. Kirara takes it one step further by wearing a gold sash around her own tunic.
• Odd Name Out: Scarlet: The Premium Dress-up keys' names are in Japanese (Sakura, Sango, Ginga), but Scarlet's Sun Key is English. Additionally, Scarlet's Miracle Hanabi Key (meaning fireworks), has a Japanese name, where all other Miracle keys have their names in English. Justified as Cure Scarlet is a brand new Cure, with the Keys to match.
• Older Than They Look: Ranko Ichijou from episode 12 is noticeably shorter than the other girls and acts more childish, but is actually a third year student at Noble Academy. Being the student council president, Minami knew, but Kirara and Haruka were caught by surprise.
• Opening Ballet: An oddity in that here, it kicks off the obligatory closing credits dance number. Specifically, both the dance and the accompanying music start in a classical style before transitioning to the more standard J-pop style.
• Opening Narration: "Strong, kind, beautiful! This is the story of three^note Changed to "four" after Scarlet is introduced girls who want to become true princesses! Head for your dreams! Go! Princess Precure!"
• Passing the Torch: The final episode has Cure Flora introducing viewers to her Maho Girls Pretty Cure! counterpart, Cure Miracle. Looks like the Super Sentai influence is spreading even further.
• Pimped-Out Dress: The Cures' Mode Elegant form certainly looks the part.
• Plot Coupon: The 12 Dress-Up Keys. Which quickly becomes 16, with a hinted 17th golden eye hinted at appearing in the opening mid-way through the series.
  • Free-Sample Plot Coupon: The Cures had already gathered three Keys before Kanata gave them the task of finding them all.
• Post-Climax Confrontation: The Cure's final battle with Close doesn't happen until the final episode. But it ends with Haruka convincing Close to leave.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Each time a major character was introduced, this trope happened.
• Royal School: The aptly named Noble Academy fits much of the requirements. It's described as a ladies and gentlemen's school, the students greet each others in a polite way, there is a ballroom and dance lessons for the Dances and Balls that take place here...It's downplayed however as the only students who get "princess lessons" (like learning to serve tea, apply make-up or make a ball gown) are the three ( later four) protagonists, thanks to Miss Siamour, and in private classes.
• School Play: In the episode 37, Haruka's class stage Romeo and Juliet, and Haruka is cast as Juliet. A nerdy boy named Hirano is set to play Romeo. Just before entering on stage, he wounds his ankle, and the only other person who knows Romeo's lines is Haruka's love interest Kanata because he helped her with rehearsal. The usual twist end up subverted anyway, as Haruka acknowledge the efforts of Hirano, who dream of being an actor. Finally he plays Romeo despite his injury. And Kanata and Haruka reenact the balcony scene in the end anyway.
• Scream Discretion Shot: A non-painful, Played for Laughs example in episode 1, when Haruka meets Pafu for the first time. When Pafu thanks Haruka for helping her up, Haruka believes that the creature she helped is a talking raccoon-dog at first, and she is so horrified that she screams loud enough to shake the whole forest. All we see is the glorious view over the forest, and you can see the birds flying in shock from the screaming.
• Share Phrase: "Gokigenyou" ("Good day"). In the first episode alone, counting the opening and ending sequences and the next episode preview, is said 21 times.
• Shout-Out:
  • The show's aesthetic and premise reminded many of Revolutionary Girl Utena, and the presence of a ballgown form, Mode Elegant, alongside the standard battle form could bring Wedding Peach to mind.
    • The Wedding Peach connections get stronger when you consider that both series have a Fourth Ranger named Scarlet.
  • The Princess Perfumes also work in a way reminiscent of the Genesis Driver, beside have other series that use a key as transformation device.
  • One of Cure Twinkle's attacks in Episode 8 resembles a Spinning Bird Kick.
  • Haruka's Floral Tourbillon somewhat resembles Vegeta's Final Flash
  • Episode 12, Ranko Ichijou passing out◊ during her race with Kirara and turning into a white version of Osamu Dezaki's trademark postcard memories is a reference◊ to the ending of Tomorrow's Joe in which Joe dies. Said ending has been spoofed in so many series that it's a very common parody in Japan at this point.
  • Towa's Phoenix Blaze is basically Phoenix Ikki's Hōyoku Tensho.
  • One of Scarlet's standard attacks involve her performing a diving kick lit on fire. Basically, a Falcon Kick.
  • In Episode 4, Kirara gives a Haruka the nickname HaruHaru, which is the same nickname Haruna had. The two even share the same voice actress.
  • This is also not the first series where a Haruka is paired with a brilliant and graceful magical girl with blue hair, artistic talent, and water-themed powers, though in this case they're not lesbians (not that the fandom hasn't noticed intimate moments between them, of course).
• Sore Loser: Close is all over this as hell itself.
• Spinoff Sendoff: At the end of episode 50, Cure Flora has the honor of introducing new leader Cure Miracle.
  • Flora herself made her TV debut in a segment after the final episode of HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!, introduced by fellow friend Cure Lovely.
• Spoiler Opening: The opening shows Twilight, Dyspear's daughter, who doesn't appear until episode 13.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: The dorm mother, Ms. Shirogane, pulls this off regularly, to the point where the students think she's a ninja.
• Story Arc:
  • The first six episodes serve as an introductory arc for the series.
  • Episode 8 has Haruka preparing for a dinner party in episode 9. Episode 9 also introduces a You Have Failed Me subplot for Close, which continues into episodes 10 and 11.
  • Episodes 16-18 focus on the Cures getting their third respective Dress-Up Keys.
  • Episode 19 has Twilight finding a Princess Perfume, which transitions into Episode 20, where the Cures are called to the Hope Kingdom in hopes of retrieving it. Kanata also reveals about his past and his little sister Towa, who disappeared long ago. At the end of the episode, Twilight is revealed to be Towa.
  • The Cures engage Twilight in Episode 21 and succeed in turning her back into Towa. However, Dyspear continues attacking and in the following episode, she nearly succeeds in defeating the Cures, being thwarted only through Towa becoming Cure Scarlet.
  • Episodes 23-25 center around Towa getting accustomed to her new life and interacting with each of the Cures.
  • Episodes 28-30 involve the three main Cures losing their first to third Dress-Up Keys to Lock, obtaining their fourth and final Dress-Up Keys, revealing Lock's own agenda separate from Dyspear, getting back the lost keys, and defeating Lock with the new Princess Palace. The arc ends with all twelve of the keys found.
  • In Episode 31, Close and Dyspear return from their time on a bus and we are introduced to two new villains. Furthermore, Dysdark initiates a new plan by planting despair seeds throughout the Cures' world without them knowing. Some episodes later, it's revealed Kanata survived his Heroic Sacrifice but is suffering amnesia. All of this reaches a climax in Episode 39, where Dysdark's plan comes into fruition, the Cures foil said plan, and Kanata regains his memories.
  • Episodes 40-45 are the last set of character-centered episode before the final battle.
    • Episode 40 centers around Towa and ends with her reviving the Palace of Fire in the Hope Kingdom.
    • Episodes 42 and 43 center around Kirara as she struggles with choosing between achieving her dream and being a Pretty Cure. It ends with her accepting a job offer to model in Paris and reviving the Palace of Stars in the Hope Kingdom.
    • Episodes 44 and 45 center around Minami as she struggles to choose between her old dream of entering her family's business and her newfound dream of becoming a marine biologist. It ends with her choosing the latter of the two and reviving the Sea Palace in the Hope Kingdom.
  • Episode 47 has Haruka revive the Palace of Flowers, thus restoring the Hope Kingdom to its original state. At the same time, Dyspear takes the opportunity to begin her final assault, this time on the Cures' world. This transitions into Episodes 48-50, which is the "final battle" arc.
• Theme Song Power Up: In the final stretches of Episode 49, the opening theme triumphantly resounds as the Cures receive help from the strength of their friends' dreams and become Grand Princesses.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: It's implied that the Cures transform instantaneously, with the Transformation Sequences being eye-candy for the viewers, as shown in a few instances throughout the series. They don't even need to shout out "Precure! Princess Engage", and only need to insert their keys into their perfumes. Further shown in episode 39, where Haruka almost instantly transforms into Cure Flora while using very little Stock Footage.
• Transformation Sequence: It is a Precure series after all. Unlike past series, where the transformation occurs in a space that's dyed in a Cure's theme color and symbols, the transformations in this series occur within some sort of ballroom.
• Transformation Trinket: The Princess Perfumes and Dress-Up Keys.
• Tutu Fancy: As mentioned under Impractically Fancy Outfit, Cure Flora wears a large ribbon reaching almost to her feet with her Cure costume, and also boots with giant flaps coming from both sides, making said costume a real tripping hazard.
• Victim of the Week: The Zetsuborgs are born from a person after their dream is locked away.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Miss Shamour is able to go from her standard cat-like appearance to human form.
• Wham Episode: For longtime viewers of the series, Close's death in Episode 11 came as something as a surprise. Pretty Cure villains haven't died this early since Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO!!
  • Episode 28: Lock steals all the Dress Up Keys except for Towa's, and Towa gets the Sun Key.
  • Likewise, Episode 31 also counts as one, due to Close returning. Furthermore, Dyspear is back to full strength after being Put on a Bus in Episode 23, two new villains are introduced, and it is all but implied that Dysdark is secretly infiltrating the Cures' world without them knowing.
  • The final scene of Episode 31 is definite one, showing a silhouette of a man resembling Kanata.
  • Episode 33. What started out as a seemingly filler episode ends with the possibility that Kanata is still alive.
  • Episode 35: Kanata is found in Nikishido's workshop. But to the girls and mascots horror, he doesn't even recognize them.
  • Episode 38: Because of Kanata saying a few words too much, Haruka goes into a massive BSOD and can't transform anymore. What's worse, her sorrow gives the despair vines enough fuel to cover the entire city of Yumegahama and lock every single citizen in a despair cage.
  • Episode 39: Haruka gets herself together after remembering how many people supported her dream and almost singlehandly defeats Close and his army of Zetsuborgs. Soon after, Kanata recovers from his amnesia.
• Wham Line: See examples here.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: After the final episode's credits, we get one last look of the former cures a few years into the future. Haruka continues to live on as her own princess, Minami is now a marine biologist, Kirara is in Paris for her modeling career, and Towa is now queen of the Hope Kingdom.
• Years Too Early: One of the bullies at the start of episode 1 invokes this to a young Haruka.
  Bully: You couldn't be a princess in a million years!
  • Said bully (Aihara) returns in Episode 7 and at the end of the episode... he lessens the time gap to 500 years.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: In episode 24, Aroma celebrates the finding of all 12 Dress-Up keys, but Towa says that her keys were created by Dyspear, so they don't count.

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