Anime / Pretty Cure

Beating evil into the ground with rainbows and kicks since 2004.

Base entry for the Pretty Cure franchise. Created by Izumi Todo (a pseudonym for the people at Toei Animation, who also created Ojamajo Doremi).

This is a Cash-Cow Franchise metaseries created Anime First by Toei Animation and spanning many an Alternate Continuity. The basic formula is as follows: first, a parallel world of fairies is attacked and conquered by an evil invading force. As a last resort, this world sends one or more fairy representatives to Present Day Earth, a place that holds a MacGuffin that the evil force needs next. There, the fairies bestow their magical power upon a number (it ranges from two to six) of ordinary school girls after The Powers That Be grant them a Transformation Trinket as a result of their strong feelings of determination, who must then Save Both Worlds when the evil force arrives.

The series distinguishes itself from other Magical Girl series in the high quantity of physical fighting and (particularly early on) Postmodernism included, and in the earliest series, through the dynamic of having two central main characters who can only transform and use their most powerful abilities in tandem. The series focuses heavily on The Power of Friendship and Slice of Life moments that lead to Character Development between the lead characters, though it is not afraid to go into darker places at times.

The various series (and seasons) are:

• Futari wa Pretty Cure (2004-2005)
• Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart (2005-2006)
• Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star (2006-2007)
• Yes! Pretty Cure 5 (2007-2008)
• Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo! (2008-2009)
• Fresh Pretty Cure! (2009-2010)
• HeartCatch Pretty Cure! (2010-2011)
• Suite Pretty Cure ♪ (2011-2012)
• Smile Pretty Cure! (2012-2013) ^note (dubbed in English as Glitter Force)
• DokiDoki! Pretty Cure (2013-2014) ^note (dubbed in English as Glitter Force Doki Doki)
• HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! (2014-2015)
• Go! Princess Pretty Cure (2015-2016)
• Maho Girls Pretty Cure! (2016-2017)
• KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode (2017-2018)
• HuGtto! Pretty Cure (2018-2019)
• Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure (2019-2020)
• Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure (2020-2021)
• Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure (2021-2022)
• Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure (2022-2023)
• Soaring Sky! PreCure (2023-2024)
• Wonderful Pretty Cure! (2024-2025)

Series Descriptions

• The first series was Futari wa Pretty Cure ("The Two of Us Are Pretty Cure"), a show where a Red Oni, Blue Oni duo of Japanese schoolgirls- Nagisa Misumi and Honoka Yukishiro- are forced to work together to fight the invading inhabitants of the Dotsuko Zone, retrieve all seven Prism Stones and free the Queen of Light. As Cure Black and Cure White respectively, they set the standard for many of the show's recurring tropes. The show is also notable for its Seinen elements, including an abundance of action-packed physical combat (directed by the guy who did Dragon Ball Z!) and blatant Homoerotic Subtext between Nagisa and Honoka. This season is the only one to be dubbed uncut yet still edited under the Pretty Cure name.
  • The show did so well that it got a direct sequel as Futari wa Pretty Cure MaX Heart. The Evil King of the Dotsuko Zone revives again and the Queen of Light is forced to split herself into pieces, one of which manifests as a young girl called Hikari. Cure Black and White are gave a power-up and sent out to retrieve all the pieces of the Queen with the help of Hikari, who can transform into Third Ranger and Support Party Member Shiny Luminous.

• Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star is the first to be set in an Alternate Continuity. At first, the show was an awkward Expy of the original series, with not-Nagisa Saki Hyuuga (Cure Bloom) and not-Honoka Mai Mishou (Cure Egret) fighting to free the seven World Fountains from the control of the evil Dark Fall. In addition, Moral Guardians had forced many of the Seinen elements unique to Pretty Cure to be downsized, resulting in battles that focused less on hard-hitting fisticuffs and more on non-contact magical attacks. However, once past that initial awkward phase the series grew into its own identity, adding two Dark Magical Girls as rivals and establishing Saki and Mai as their own characters.

• Yes! Pretty Cure 5 caused an uproar by diverging from the previous Pretty Cure formula in favour of a more standard Magical Girl show with a Sailor Moon-esque team of five equals. Idiot Hero Nozomi Yumehara (Cure Dream) and her four teammates have to catch fifty-five fairy critters with their extremely cool and affordable watches before the evil Nightmare Corporation does. Yes! started a lot of new trends for the franchise: it was the first to have a full color-coded team rather than just a duo, the first where the Cures get vibrant hair colors, and the first to include the phrase "Pretty Cure" in every attack name and transformation phrase.
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 Go!Go! (the 5 is still pronounced "faibu", slightly obscuring the Pun) which celebrates the franchise's 5th anniversary continues the story of Nozomi and her friends, only this time they are trying to save the four rulers of Magical Land from an evil museum called Eternal with the help of a flying mailman penguin named Syrup. They also pick up a mysterious Sixth Ranger called "Milky Rose", whose true identity is... shocking, really.

• The sixth series, Fresh Pretty Cure!, switches to the adventures of Love Momozono (Cure Peach) and her two friends (Cure Berry and Cure Pine) as they fight against the sinister agents of Labyrinth over a mysterious MacGuffin called Infinity. There's plenty of dancing, Mid Season Upgrades that arrive way too early and a pretty epic character arc that results in the birth of the fourth Pretty Cure, Cure Passion.

• HeartCatch Pretty Cure! focuses on flower-loving introvert Tsubomi Hanasaki and fashion-loving Genki Girl Erika Kurumi, who transform into Cure Blossom and Cure Marine (respectively) to fight the evil Desertrians and their quest to steal the "Heart Flowers" of innocent people and turn the world into a desert. Highlights include character designs by Ojamajo Doremi illustrator Yoshihiko Umakoshi, and a heart-wrenching series-long subplot about a fallen Pretty Cure called Cure Moonlight.

• Suite Pretty Cure ♪ brings the Wonder Twin Powers back again with Tomboy and Girly Girl Hibiki Houjou and Kanade Minamino as Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm (respectively). The two fight against the villains of Minor Land, who seek to sing the Melody of Sorrow and plunge the world into despair. Helping them out is Third Ranger Cure Beat, a mysterious masked Aloof Ally called Cure Muse, and a ridiculous Lensman Arms Race of not-so-Mid Season Upgrades.

• Smile PreCure! goes back to having a core team of five. The theme of the show is fairy tales, as the Smile team work with the storybook critters of Märchenland against the baddies of the Bad End Kingdom, who seek to awaken their lord Pierrot and bring the "Worst Ending" to the world. Smile is more episodic than previous seasons; the creators wanted to keep things simple and lighthearted in the wake of Japan's devastating 2011 tsunami. The series was licensed by Saban Brands and released on Netflix as Glitter Force.

• Doki Doki! PreCure inherits certain elements from Fresh, such as the number of Cures and the playing card motif. When the Jikochuu invade Earth, Student Council President Mana Aida becomes Cure Heart. She is later joined by her friends Rikka and Alice, as well as Aloof Ally Cure Sword from the fallen Trump Kingdom. Midway through the series, they're joined by the mysterious Cure Ace. In contrast to other seasons, DokiDoki! Pretty Cure has a Myth Arc that runs throughout the series. The series was licensed by Saban Brands and released on Netflix as Glitter Force DokiDoki!.

• HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! celebrates the franchise's tenth anniversary. Princess Hime Shirayuki of the Blue Sky Kingdom, also known as Cure Princess, flees her home when the Phantom Empire invades. By chance, she recruits Megumi Aino, who becomes Cure Lovely. They are eventually joined by Cure Honey and Cure Fortune. This season is notable for giving the Cures different forms they can change into, which has not been seen since Splash Star. invoked

• Go! Princess Pretty Cure is the first series to take place at a boarding school. Haruno Haruka, a girl who always dreamed of being a princess, becomes Cure Flora when she meets the fairies Puff and Aroma. Along with her allies Cure Mermaid and Cure Twinkle, she protects people's dreams from the evil witch Dyspear and her minions. Midseason, they are joined by a fourth cure, Cure Scarlet, in a Fresh-style arc.

• Maho Girls Pretty Cure! puts more emphasis on the "magic" in "Magical Girl", having a Cute Witch theme. Mirai Asahina, a girl who is easily excited by anything she finds interesting, meets a girl named Liko who is visiting the "No Magic World" to search for the Linkle Stone Emerald. When servants of the evil witch Dokurokushe attack with the intention of finding the Linkle Stone Emerald themselves, Mirai and Liko team up to become Cure Miracle and Cure Magical. They are later joined by Cure Felice.

• KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode marks the return of five initial Cures for the first time since Smile. Ichika Usami, a girl who often hops like a rabbit whenever excited, meets a fairy named Pekorin while trying to bake a cake. She then miraculously becomes the rabbit-eared Cure Whip while protecting that cake from a monster fairy named Gummy, who was trying to steal "kirakirau", magical energy that makes a pastry delicious, from the cake. Alongside four friends that have become her teammates, the legendary patisserie warriors Pretty Cure must defend the world and its sweets from the evil that looms within the universe — and at the same time, run their own café!

• HuGtto! Pretty Cure celebrates the franchise's fifteenth anniversary. It tells the story of a girl named Hana Nono, who aspires to be a mature, big-sister like figure. On her first day at a new school, she cuts her bangs the wrong way when she realizes she's going to be late, but the day is made better when she meets a mysterious baby named Hugtan, who helps her transform into the Pretty Cure of High Spirits, Cure Yell, to stop the Dark Tommorow Company and collect Tomorrow Power along with her friends Homare and Saaya, who become Cure Etoile and Cure Ange. Joining the trio later on are Ascended Fangirl Emiru Aisaki and an android formerly under the enemy, Ruru Amour, the two assisting the three Cures as Cure Macherie and Cure Amour, respectively.

• Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure is about outer space-obsessed Hikaru Hoshina who one day gets to meet a few actual aliens: Lala, Prunce, and Fuwa. The three of them are trying to find the 12 Princess Star Color Pens to save the universe from being consumed by darkness. With Fuwa's mysterious powers, Hikaru and Lala turn into Cure Star and Cure Milky respectively to fight against the Notraiders, who are seeking the pens for their own gain. The two Cures are soon joined by fellow Earthlings Elena and Madoka as Cure Soleil and Cure Selene, and later on by the mysterious Phantom Thief Blue Cat, who becomes Cure Cosmo.

• Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure focuses on Nodoka Hanadera, a girl who moves into Sukoyaka City with her parents after recovering from an illness. There, she encounters four Healing Animals, from another world, the Healing Garden, searching for humans who can help them fight back their enemy, the Byogens. When the Byogens initiate their attack on the city, Nodoka resolves to help them and becomes Cure Grace to save the world from the foe, who are intent on infecting the world. Nodoka is joined by two other girls, Chiyu, who transforms into Cure Fontaine, and Hinata, who becomes Cure Sparkle. Asumi Fuurin, who becomes Cure Earth, later joins the trio as they continue the battle against the Byogens.

• Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure centers on the energetic Manatsu Natsuumi, who moves from Minamino Island to live with her mother in Aozora City. There, she encounters Laura, a mermaid from the aquatic Grand Ocean Kingdom searching for the legendary warriors foretold in the kingdom's legends, the Pretty Cure, in order to fight back against their enemy, the Witch of Procrastination. With the power from one of Laura's assigned Tropical Pacts, Manatsu becomes Cure Summer to battle the Witch's forces. Joining her in that fight are Sango Suzumura, Minori Ichinose and Asuka Takizawa, the three transforming into Cure Coral, Cure Papaya and Cure Flamingo, respectively. Laura later joins the four as Cure La Mer, becoming a human in the process.

• Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure puts Yui Nagomi, a resident of Oishiina Town, in the spotlight. One day, some fairies and a prince from the CooKingdom cross paths with her to ask for her assistance to find the Recipe-bons and save them from the Bundle Land Bandits. As such, Yui becomes Cure Precious to combat the foe, later joined by Kokone Fuwa (Cure Spicy) and Ran Hanamichi (Cure Yumyum). Eventually they're joined by formerly brainwashed Bundle Land Bandit member Amane Kasai who becomes Cure Finale.

• Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure marks the franchise's twentieth anniversary. Aspiring hero Sora Harewataru travels to the capital of Sky Land to further pursue her ambition, but gets sidetracked when she witnesses the abduction of the infant Princess Elle by an agent of the Underg Empire. Without missing a beat, Sora springs into action and rescues the child. In the process, the two pass through a portal and quite literally drop into Sorashido City, Earth. Kabaton, the aforementioned agent of the Underg Empire, pursues them to take Elle back, but Sora refuses to back down, even in the face of being overpowered by Kabaton's Ranborg. That determination is what allows Elle to awaken the power of Precure within her, resulting in Sora transforming into Cure Sky. Sora and Elle find assistance and shelter with the help of the gentle Mashiro Nijigaoka, who soon thereafter awakens to the power of Cure Prism. Over the course of the series, they are joined by the ambitious and scholarly Tsubasa Yuunagi as Cure Wing, and the enthusiastic kintergarden teacher Ageha Hijiri as Cure Butterfly. The four of them protect both Princess Elle and Sorashido City from the Underg Empire with action on a level not seen since the days of Futari wa.

Spinoffs

• Dancing☆Star Pretty Cure The Stage: a 2.5D stage show series centering around the first all-male team of Cures.
• Power of Hope ~PreCure Full Bloom~ a spinoff of Yes! Pretty Cure 5, Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo!, and Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star with both teams as adults.

There is also a series of Pretty Cure All Stars movies, teaming up characters from all series, as well as a short film and a video game that do the same. Once the sheer number of teams became too unweildy to do this, it shifted to usually having the three most recent teams meet up instead. Most series have at least one movie that makes no canonical sense (most of the time) but can't be thrown out because of something really awesome happening in it. Then there's a manga for each series, going into depth in various ignored aspects, like Rin's crush on Nuts and Saki's little sister's life.

The franchise has a strong relationship with tokusatsu: it's produced by Toei, which also produces Super Sentai and Kamen Rider, and the three franchises are aired back to back in the appropriately named Super Hero Time block. The Pretty Cure and Super Sentai movies have been played as double bills, and crossovers are common as promotional material. Nagisa and Honoka even teamed up with Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger characters in an audio drama, and later with Mahou Sentai Magiranger as well. Despite this, there's a somewhat ironic effect that actresses who play Cures later tend to play female villains or monsters of the week in toku series (usually in Super Sentai). Inversely, actors who voice heroic characters in Super Sentai tend to play villains in Pretty Cure; the same thing applies to Gundam, funnily enough.

The franchise is also known as PreCure. While this is technically a more accurate transliteration of the title logo (which reads "purikyua") and appears in URLs and such, said logo (as well as much of the truly astonishing amount of merchandise) also explicitly spells out the title as "PRETTY CURE"… at least until HeartCatch Pretty Cure! and subsequent series, which say "PRECURE" instead. The pronunciations purikyua and puritii kyua are used interchangeably both in theme songs ("1, 2, 3, 4, Purikyua 5! Puritii, kyu, kyu, kyu, kyua…") and in-universe (including one odd instance of a character hearing the name for the first time as purikyua and immediately questioning "Puritiikyua?"). There are two ways to deal with this: one is to directly translate, taking "Precure" as a commonly used short form and "Pretty Cure" as their less-used full title, and the other, used by both fansubs and the first season's official subs, is to use "Pretty Cure" for both. TV Tropes does the latter for reasons completely unrelated to "Pretty Cure" making a good WikiWord.

There have been many attempts to bring the franchise outside of Japan and specifically into English-speaking territories. The first company to try this was 4Kids Entertainment, who eventually just gave up and didn't broadcast or even dub any episodes. Then came Canadian kids cable network YTV, who commissioned an English dub made by Ocean Production's subcontractor studio Blue Water. This dub is notable because it is the only attempt to bring Pretty Cure to English-speaking territories under its own name.

Saban Brands attempted to do what they did for both Digimon and the Power Rangers (Super Sentai) and licensed the franchise for the West in late 2015, first dubbing Smile and rebranding it as Glitter Force, with the show being released on Netflix as a "Netflix Original" (except in selected territories) in 2016. They would later dub DokiDoki! the next year and release it as Glitter Force Doki-Doki!. However, Saban Brands eventually sold their assets to Hasbro and shut down, with the franchise's international rights returning to Toei Animation, who has no interest in continuing the Glitter Force brand. Crunchyroll now hosts officially subbed versions of Futari wa, Kira Kira, Healin' Good, Tropical-Rouge!, Delicious Party, and Hirogaru Sky! as part of their lineup, thus bringing the franchise Stateside proper, simulcasting the series starting with Healin' Good.

The IP's Pun-Based Title has no in-universe significance, but is simply very similar to the name for instant photo booths (purikura/print-clubs). This joke is only really referenced in the original season's opening credits, and one of the mascots therein being unable to pronounce the team name correctly.

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More than one installment of this franchise provides examples of:

• Action Girl: All of them, save for support fighter Hikari/Shiny Luminous and Ascended Fangirl Ayumi/Cure Echo. You wouldn't expect a magical girl franchise to be so full of movement and fighting.
• Aloof Ally: Milky Rose, Cure Muse, Cure Beat (for a few episodes), Cure Sword, Cure Ace, Cure Fortune and Cure Cosmo.
• Alternate Continuity: Generally speaking, each season is this to all other seasons, outside of the non-canon All Stars movies serving as a Bat Family Crossover. HuGtto! Pretty Cure and Power of Hope ~PreCure Full Bloom~ make it a little confusing. Hugtto has Cure Black and White be summoned from somewhere, later implied to partially be time travel, and both imply that the Cures live within a short drive from each other, with Power Of Hope implying that the effect of each antagonist is limited to wherever the Cures live. Given that both series also involve alternate timelines, however, anything goes. It's likely that the writers didn't think too hard about it.
• Animation Bump: Serves as this to most of Toei's other franchises in general.
• Anime Hair: In civilian form, seasons tend to vary in the hairstyles some of the girls have, ranging from fairly normal such as Nagisa's messy short hair to downright weird, such as Miyuki's magenta cone pigtails. The Cures, however, get more exaggerated hairstyles such as Cure March's pigtails and ponytail at the same time or Cure Lemonade's twin cone buns with strands of hair poking out.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Not in general and usually downplayed. Played straight with Ryouta Misumi. Souta Minamino is a milder example.
• Arch-Enemy: Many seasons feature villains who often confront certain heroines more often than anybody or one of them has a specific relationship with the other. Sometimes It's Personal, and some of the arch-enemies are in fact friends to the heroines, which makes the conflict even more personal.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure: Kiriya was this to Cure White, because of his confused feelings towards her. In the end, their friendship was so strong that he refused to fight her and accepted punishment from Jaaku King. He later saves her and Cure Black from the villains in the end.
    • Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart: Cure Black and Uraganos clash several times, mostly because he tends to ruin several important moments for her. A downplayed example would be Shiny Luminous and Viblis because of the deep hatred for the latter towards the former during the second half of the series but they otherwise don't clash with each other.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star: The Kiryuu twins, Michiru and Kaoru, was this to Cure Bloom and Cure Egret, for a similar reason like above.
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5: Gameo is one for Cure Dream because of their conflicting ideologies (the latter even states that she hates him). Bunbee instead can be seen as one for Cure Aqua.
    • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO!: Anacondy, who really hates Flora, is this to Milky Rose, who resembles Flora.
  • Fresh Pretty Cure!: Eas was this to Cure Peach, and she developed a growing grudge against her while forging a friendship with her at the same time. Their relationship was the basis for her Heel–Face Turn. Because of this, Westar is this to Cure Passion, due to his belief in her loyalty to Labyrinth. Soular is also this to Cure Berry, mostly in the latter part of the series.
  • HeartCatch Pretty Cure!: Dark Precure is this to Cure Moonlight, to her massive hatred towards Moonlight. And Played With in regards to the Desert Apostle Generals, where it is hard to recognize a relationship with them and the heroines. Cobraja fits this to Cure Sunshine, but Sasorina and Kumojacky often zigzag between two heroines, respectively.
  • Suite Pretty Cure ♪: Siren was this to Hummy. They were former friends, but Hummy became the singer of Major Land that year, which made her envious and easily brainwashed.
  • Smile Pretty Cure!: Due to being Foils, Wolfrun is this to Cure Happy and Cure Sunny, Akaoni to Cure Peace, Majorina to Cure March, and Joker to Cure Beauty.
  • Doki Doki! PreCure: Because of their friendship, Regina is this to Cure Heart and was destined to be this to Cure Ace. Ira is the arch-enemy to Cure Diamond because of their kind of romantic relationship. Marmo is also an arch-enemy to Cure Rosetta and she's usually the first villain to learn Rosetta's Took a Level in Badass moments.
  • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!: Phantom was initially this to Cure Fortune, from whom he took an important person. Afterward, his rivalry was transferred to Cure Honey. Cure Princess has an enemy in Namakelder, who likes to make fun of her because of her initial failures as a Pretty Cure. Also while Cure Princess is willing to work hard to reach her goals, Namakelder gave up on everything and rather stay passive. Queen Mirage instead can be one for Cure Lovely, in which where the former completely let herself be consumed by her bitterness over not being reciprocally loved by Blue, Cure Lovely decided to accept it and move on.
  • Go! Princess Pretty Cure has an odd variation: The villain Shut has a grudge against Cure Scarlet, but also acts rather Tsundere towards her. This is because he fell in love with Scarlet before her Heel–Face Turn. There is also a more convential example with Close and Cure Flora.
  • HuGtto! Pretty Cure: Bicine is this to Harry, due to his betrayal. He later becomes one to Homare, since they both harbor feelings towards Harry that they know he'll never return.
  • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure: Kappard is this to Cure Milky, Tenjo to Cure Soleil, Aiwarn to Cure Cosmo and Galogre is loosely this to Cure Selene due to them being similar to each other. As such, Cure Star is the only one without one.
  • Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure: The rivalry among Cures and villains is not very obvious, with the brawling being more towards the basic fist-to-cuffs and saving/infecting the world between most of the team and the Byogens. However, Cure Grace has an enemy in Daruizen, whether it be differing world views, saving the world, or opinions on helping others. The fact that Daruizen was born from Nodoka's illness when she got infected by a Megabyogen seed only fires up this rivalry.
  • Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure: Gentlu is one for Cure Yum-Yum, who used her alias to capture Recipepes and repeatedly spoil her meals because of it, before Yum-Yum finds out Gentlu was Brainwashed and Crazy.
  • Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure: Kabaton and Cure Sky certainly fall under this. Even their final battle is a one-on-one fight between the two.
• An Asskicking Christmas: The Christmas episode, more often than not, overlaps with the final battle.
• Barrier Warrior: Shiny Luminous, the Splash Star Cures, Cure Mint, Cure Sunshine, Cure Moonlight, Cure Beat, Cure Muse, Cure Rosetta, the HappinessCharge Cures, Cure Twinkle, Prince Kanata, the Maho Girl Cures in Topaz form, Cure Ange, Cure Star and Cure Milky, the first three Healin' Good Cures, Cure Coral, and Cure Spicy. Cure Butterfly, Cure Wonderful and Cure Friendy Also, Mugen Silhouette.
  • The mascots Potpourri, Pop, Royale Candy, Ai-chan, Melan, Ribbon, and Ha-chan. In the case of Pop, he doesn't create barriers, he transforms into a shield. In Ha-chan's case,she later becomes Cure Felice and can create a flower-shaped shield by inserting the linkle stone pink tourmaline into the flower echo wand.
• Beach Episode: Not for fanservice, owing to the target demographic. The girls rarely wear swimsuits or really swim at all.
  • There is a rare case where Karen wears a modest swimsuit at a swimming pool (still in the Beach Episode), but she doesn't swim either.
  • Go! Princess Pretty Cure actually does it twice; the first time, they're deep-sea diving in wetsuits, and the other time, they're actually in swimsuits prepared to swim. Towa is hydrophobic, though, so she keeps diverting their attention.
  • Maho Girls Pretty Cure! finally broke both traditions as all the main cast are not only are in their swimsuits, but actually jumped into the sea (except Riko). There's even a drama CD serving as a prequel where they went shopping for said swimsuits.
  • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure has this, but with a twist. The cast doesn't visit a beach, but an entire planet made out of water. So in order to properly navigate it, they transform into mermaids using magical pearls.
• Becoming the Mask:
  • If you masquerade as a student at the school your enemies go to like Kiriya or the Kiryuu twins did, or as a friend to someone who's supposed to be your enemy like Setsuna did, you've completed your first step toward a full-blown Heel–Face Turn.
  • Returned once more in HuGtto! Pretty Cure where Ruru infiltrates the Nono household to spy on the Cures, only to slowly being "befriended" by the Cures. Ironically hilarious as she is voiced by Yukari Tamura of Lyrical Nanoha fame.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Several villains have either died and/or suffered an embarrassing defeat because of this, and many of the franchise's awesome moments can attest to this as well.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Komachi Akimoto/Cure Mint, Karen Minazuki/Cure Aqua, Inori Yamabuki/Cure Pine, Tsubomi Hanasaki/Cure Blossom, Yuri Tsukikage/Cure Moonlight, Yayoi Kise/Cure Peace, Reika Aoki/Cure Beauty, and Alice Yotsuba/Cure Rosetta also overlap with the above.
• Big Bad: See here.
• Big Good: Almost every season has a character who supports the heroines and possesses great, mystical powers. They are usually, royals or are even divine and they tend to be in trouble, like being Sealed Good in a Can. Their presence is feared by the villains. If there is more than one, the one who is the queen or goddess(-like) is the more important one for the setting.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure and Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart: The Queen of the Garden of Light.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star: Princess Filia.
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO!: Flora. And the four rulers, King Donuts, Queen Bavarois, Princess Crepe and King Montblanc could qualify.
  • HeartCatch Pretty Cure!: Kaoruko Hanasaki alias the former Cure Flower, who is the only human example.
  • Suite Pretty Cure ♪: Aphrodite. Otokichi Shirabe as well. They are later joined by Mephisto.
  • Smile Pretty Cure!: Royale Queen.
  • Doki Doki! PreCure: Princess Marie-Ange.
  • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!: Blue, who is male and God.
  • Go! Princess Pretty Cure: Kanata, who is another male.
  • Maho Girls Pretty Cure!: The Headmaster, yet another male. Mother Rapapa qualifies as well.
  • KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode: Lumiere, who isn't a male. Elisio gets her, too.
  • HuGtto! Pretty Cure: Mother Heart.
  • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure: The 12 Star Princesses. They're actually a case of Sealed Good in a Can, and the season's premise is to find them all.
  • Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure: Queen Teatine.
  • Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure: The Mermaid Queen. Melusine Muses Mnemosyne and Aunete/Cure Oasis.
  • Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure: The CooKing and CooQueen of the CooKingdom. and Ginger.
  • Soaring Sky Pretty Cure: Princess Elleelain/Cure Noble.
• The Big Guy: Cure Mint, Cure Berry (who was The Lancer before Cure Passion joined), Cure Sunshine, Cure Beat (also The Smart Guy), Cure March, Cure Ace, Cure Fortune (also The Smart Guy), Cure Gelato, Cure Etoile (she is the Pretty Cure of Strength, after all), Cure Soleil and Cure Flamingo.
• Black-and-White Morality: The Cures are good and the villains are all aiming for some sort of apocalypse. But at times, at least one member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad will possess enough redeeming qualities that he or she gets a sympathetic sendoff or get redeemed.
• Bloodless Carnage: Despite the fierce battle scenes, blood rarely appears, with one of the few examples being in the 20th episode of HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, when Cobraja's face was cut by one of his reflected cards. At one point in the Doki Doki! PreCure movie, Matthew in dog form clamps down on Mana in Cure Heart form and gores her shoulder up. It's quite gruesome, even by most children's anime standards.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Happens very often.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure: The Dotzuko Zone like brainwashing people, including Pisard deciding to Yoshimi Takenouchi-sensei in Episode 3.
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5: The whole Palmier Kingdom was brainwashed and enslaved by Nightmare. Later, four of the five Cures and Milk were brainwashed by Kawarino for a short time.
  • Fresh Pretty Cure!: After Labyrinth had captured Infinity, Moebius brainwashed the people from other parallel worlds including Earth.
  • HeartCatch Pretty Cure!: Professor Sabaaku who has been revealed as Yuri's father was brainwashed by Dune, and the Desert Apostle Generals were actually Anthropomorphic Personification corrupted Heart Flowers of three humans.
  • Suite Pretty Cure ♪: Mephisto, the king of Major Land, was brainwashed by Noise. Then, Mephisto created Minor Land and brainwashed Siren and the members of Trio the Minor. Even after his Heel–Face Turn, the remaining villains were still brainwashed by Noise. Waon and Seika were both brainwashed by Noise, too.
  • Smile Pretty Cure!: The Bad End Generals were brainwashed by Joker.
  • Doki Doki! PreCure: Regina is brainwashed by her father King Jikochuu after she underwent her Heel–Face Turn. King Jikochuu himself was corrupted by Proto-Jikochuu.
  • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!: The entire Phantom Kingdom is brainwashed by Deep Mirror/Red.
  • Go! Princess Pretty Cure: Twilight and Lock are brainwashed by Dyspear in their final battles.
  • KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode: Elisio likes brainwashing people (especially Gelato). He goes so far as to brainwash the entire world after becoming Big Bad.
  • Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure: Gentlu was brainwashed by the Bundoru Gang.
• Character Catchphrase: Every lead Cure and sometimes even every Cure of a team has one or two catchphrases. Also, the villains usually say "I won't forget this!" when they lose.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Shiny Luminous, Cure Blossom, Cure Peace and Cure Princess.
• Color-Coded Characters: Each of the girls' Cure forms has a specific theme color that more often than not carries into their civilian identities. Colors in order of introduction:
  • Black: Cure Black^note Due to pink being her sub-theme color, she is often retroactively grouped with the pink cures as the pink cure is usually The Leader of their group.
  • White: Cure White^note Like Cure Black, her blue sub-theme color causes her to often be grouped with the blue cures, however there are other white cures that are later introduced., Cure Egret, Cure Rhythm, Cure Prism
  • Yellow: Shiny Luminous ^note She's classed as yellow even though her outfit is predominantly pink., Cure Lemonade, Cure Pine, Cure Sunshine, Cure Muse, Cure Peace, Cure Rosetta, Cure Honey, Cure Twinkle, Cure Custard, Cure Etoile, Cure Soleil, Cure Sparkle, Cure Papaya, Cure Yum-Yum
  • Pink: Cure Bloom, Cure Dream, Cure Peach, Cure Blossom, Cure Melody, Cure Happy, Cure Heart, Cure Lovely, Cure Flora, Cure Miracle, Cure Whip, Cure Yell, Cure Star, Cure Grace, Cure Precious, Cure Butterfly, Cure Wonderful
  • Red: Cure Rouge, Cure Passion, Cure Ace, Cure Scarlet, Cure Chocolat, Cure Ma'Cherie, Cure Flamingo
  • Green: Cure Mint, Cure March, Cure Felice, Cure Milky^note It's debatable whether she counts as a green cure; though there are several indicators that this is the case, her shade isn't quite as unambiguous as the other three green cures, but she officially is classified as a green cure., Cure Lillian
  • Blue: Cure Aqua, Cure Berry, Cure Marine, Cure Beat, Cure Beauty, Cure Diamond, Cure Princess, Cure Mermaid, Cure Gelato, Cure Ange, Cure Cosmo, Cure Fontaine, Cure La Mer, Cure Spicy, Cure Sky, Cure Nyammy
  • Purple: Milky Rose, Cure Moonlight, Cure Sword, Cure Fortune, Cure Magical, Cure Macaron, Cure Amour, Cure Selene, Cure Earth, Cure Coral, Cure Majesty, Cure Friendy
  • Orange: Cure Sunny, Cure Wing
  • Rainbow: Cure Parfait, Cure Summer
  • Gold: Cure Finale
• Color-Coded Secret Identity: The franchise takes this to ridiculous lengths since Yes! Pretty Cure 5 as they not only wear color-coded civilian clothes, most of them have color-coded hair. There are a few that defy this trope, mostly with mid-season cures:
  • Ako/Cure Muse of Suite Pretty Cure ♪ wears pink and purple despite wearing black at first then going gold, and having a purple Fairy Tone through and through.
  • Cure Heart is a very odd example. In her civilian form, she wears pink clothes and has pink hair, in keeping with her colour scheme as a cure. But, when she transforms, her hair turns blonde.
  • Cure Earth in Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure wears a green dress and has blonde hair in civilian form, but her theme color as a cure is purple.
  • Laura in Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure is equal parts blue and pink as a mermaid, but leans more definitely toward blue when becoming Cure La Mer.
  • Cure Finale in Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure has a purple outfit and purple hair as a civilian, but turns gold when transformed.
• Combat Stilettos: Since Fresh, each girl often gets a set of stilettos that they fight in. In the 8th Pretty Cure All Stars movie, the Maho Girls team weaponizes this to perform a Rider Kick-esque attack called the "Precure Drill Kick".
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: See here.
• Conveniently Seated:
  • Most of the lead characters sit in window seats. Though, only one of them sits in the traditional anime/manga infamous seat: the second seat from the back, next to the window side.
  • In Futari wa Pretty Cure and its sequel, Nagisa sits in the window seat of the third back row... the class seems to be bigger than other examples. The third main character Hikari sits in the infamous seat in her class.
  • In Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star, Saki sits in the infamous seat.
  • In Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and its sequel, Nozomi and Rin sit in the second front row, so the camera can catch them and their teacher Kokoda/Coco. Sometimes, they sit near to the window - they sit on benches. However, the windows are too high and nobody can look out of the windows.
  • In Fresh Pretty Cure! and HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, the respective lancers Setsuna and Erika sit in the last seat along the windows, while the heroines Love and Tsubomi sit next to their right side.
  • In Suite Pretty Cure ♪, Smile Pretty Cure!, and Doki Doki! PreCure, the respective heroines Hibiki, Miyuki, and Mana, sit in the last seat along the windows. Akane, Miyuki's lancer sits in the infamous seat.
  • In Maho Girls Pretty Cure!, initially it was Mirai seating in the last seat along with the window with her lancer, Liko, sitting in the infamous seat. Then at the halfway point, when Kotoha joins the class, she was placed right behind Mirai, making Mirai's seat the infamous seat.
  • In Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure, the main character Nodoka, sits in the last seat along with the window, with Hinata (Cure Sparkle) in the infamous seat. Conveniently, Chiyu (Cure Fountaine) sits on the right of Nodoka.
• Cool Big Sis:
  • Out of the main Cures, Nagisa and Hikari, Saki, Rin, Miki, Tsubomi and Yuri (her case is very odd), Kanade, Akane and Nao, Haruka, Akira, Hana, Elena and Sora all have younger siblings.
  • Cure Moonlight, Cure Ace, and Cure Macaron and Chocolat, Cure Flamingo and Cure Butterfly count for their teammates in spirit rather than actually being related.
  • Knight Templar Big Sister: Most of them count, but Nagisa is the most notable example, as she actually kills Gekidrago.
  • Cure Fortune's big sister is herself a Pretty Cure named Cure Tender.
• Cool Crown: Both the Smile and Princess Cures wear tiaras. Cure Gelato wears a hoop crown. Cure Princess wears a tiara in her Sherbet Ballet form. The Star Twinkle Cures wear one decorated by five stars of pink, green, orange, purple and blue of different orders (with their main colour at the center) when in their Super Mode for their combination attack Star Twinkle Imagination.
• Creator Cameo: Mayu Kudou, singer of several Pretty Cure themes from Yes! Pretty Cure 5 to Suite Pretty Cure ♪, has cameoed twice. Once in Yes! Pretty Cure 5 with the ending singer Kanako Miyamoto, and again in HeartCatch Pretty Cure! with the opening singer Aya Ikeda. Oddly enough, both animated versions of Mayu look completely different from each other (the different art styles not helping matters).
• Cute Bruiser: Most Cures are adorable teenage girls who rely on fisticuffs to fight villains.
• Dancing Theme: Every season has one Ending Theme with dancing; from 2009 onward, CGI dancing themes have become the norm. The CGI has gotten increasingly prettier, too, with some of the endings approaching movie quality.
• Darker and Edgier: Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star, Doki Doki! PreCure, and especially Heart Catch Pretty Cure and HuGtto! Pretty Cure the darkest series in the franchise, though all of them have their dark moments. None of the series lose their humorous aspects in spite of this, though.
• Dark Magical Girl:
  • Most of the continuities have at least one: Michiru and Kaoru, the Dark Precure 5, Eas aka Setsuna, Dark Precure, Mirage Precures, Siren aka Ellen, the Bad End Precures, Regina, Queen Mirage, who was once known as ''Cure'' Mirage, Twilight, and Ruru.
  • Non-villainous examples are Cure Moonlight, Cure Muse, Cure Sword, Cure Fortune, and Yuni.
• Depower: Occasionally happens to the Cures, either temporarily (such as the Transformation Trinket getting lost or broken) or permanently (typically only at the end of a series).
• Distinctive Appearances: Flip-flopped with Nonuniform Uniform between series. Go! Princess Pretty Cure started a general rule that the Cures, in civilian form, are identifiable by distinctive hairstyles and accessories rather than outfits.
• The Dragon: Every Big Bad has a Dragon, the most competent one of the underlings. Some Dragons are replaced by other Dragons, but these guys are the final Dragons who are the most loyal, often the evilest, most powerful, most dangerous, and most successful underlings.
  • Jaaku King has Baldez...more or less, since Baldez IS Jaaku King. Illkubo might also qualify.
  • Akudaikan has Gohyan. Actually, Gohyan has Akudaikan.
  • Desparaia has Kawarino who in turn has Bunbee.
  • The Director has Anacondy.
  • Moebius has Northa and Klein who fuse into one being.
  • Dune has Sabaaku who has Dark Precure as his own Dragon.
  • Noise has Falsetto.
  • Pierrot has Joker.
  • King Jikochuu has Regina. Both of them are given Heel Face Turns. Bel then tries to pull a Dragon Ascendant but is then taken over.
  • Queen Mirage has Phantom. Both are just pawns of Deep Mirror/Red.
  • Dyspear has Twilight, though later on it's switched to Lock, and then firmly held by Close.
  • Maho Girls Pretty Cure! has a variation. Dokurokshe's top servant Yamoh isn't The Dragon, he's just a Non-Action Guy Number Two. After Dokurokushe is destroyed, Yamoh pulls a Dragon Their Feet and goes after the Cures personally. Deusmast is a bit more simple- his is Labut.
  • Noir has Elisio, who decides to betray him and become the main villain near the end.
  • President George Kurai has Listol, his secretary. He ends up being the last obstacle the Cures face before George along with Bishin, a simple member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad who shares much in common with him.
  • Darknest has Galogre, who is trying his best to resurrect his master so they can recreate the universe In Their Own Image. Darknest does, however, give the Quirky Miniboss Squad a power-up from time to time. Eventually, Galorge succeeds in partially bringing Darknest back at the halfway point and joins the squad once Aiwarn goes missing. When Darknest reveals herself as the Ophiuchus Star Princess, who destroyed his planet and intends to do the same to the rest of the universe, he switches sides and aids the Cures in defeating her.
  • King Byo-gen doesn’t really get one until the final episodes, where Shindoine takes the role.
  • The Witch of Procrastination has her seahorse Butler, until she's peacefully defeated. Butler will then take on the role of main antagonist.
  • Godatz has Secretoru, but once he unlocks the Recipe Bon, he leaves her behind.
  • Empress Undergu has Skearhead... only to reveal that the latter is the Big Bad by using her for his own evil plans.
• Dramedy: The franchise fluctuates a lot between Lighter and Softer and Darker and Edgier, and this is a standard general tone among many of the sub-series as well. HeartCatch Pretty Cure! and Go! Princess Pretty Cure are especially notorious.
• Dub Name Change: Besides changing some of the characters’ names (with most of them get some syllables deleted, the Taiwanese Mandarin dub also changed "Cure [name]" into “[name] Angel” (For example, Cure Dream to Dream Angel) ^note  This doesn’t applied to the Fresh Pretty Cures, who uses “Fairy” instead
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • While the elements of the series have stayed consistent for quite a while since the first season (Power of Friendship being the main theme, as well as hard-hitting physical attacks, over-the-top action scenes, and well-done Slice of Life and character drama), the first few seasons (particularly the original, Max Heart, and Splash Star especially) got into quite a few dark and relatively down to earth themes compared to later seasons on a whole (with some exceptions such as Heartcatch). Fight scenes weren't quite as over the top and flashy compared to later seasons as well, preferring more straight forward grit and bone-crunching attacks, and the animation style and coloration feel a bit more gritty and realistic compared to the fanciful colors of later seasons. Hair and eye colors on a whole tended to be more realistic, even when a character transformed. The reasons for this is the result of Moral Guardians, who hounded the original series for its rather high level of violence for a show whose demographic was little girls, as well as Nagisa's midriff-baring outfit from the first season (this aspect has eased up a bit since Yes! Pretty Cure 5).
  • The All-Stars movies hit this as well, seeing as they're made around the time they're starting up the new series. Thus, some characters end up acting completely different from how they are in-series.
• Elemental Powers:
  • Blow You Away: Cure March, Cure Princess, Cure Ange, Cure Earth, Cure Flamingo
  • Green Thumb: Cure Mint, Cure Blossom, Cure Honey, Cure Flora, Cure Felice, Cure Yell, Cure Grace
  • An Ice Person: Cure Beauty, Cure Diamond, Cure Gelato, Cure Selene
  • Light 'em Up: Cure Lemonade, Cure Sunshine, Cure Sparkle
  • Making a Splash: Cure Aqua, Cure Marine, Cure Mermaid, Cure Fountaine, Cure La Mer
  • Playing with Fire: Cure Rouge, Cure Sunny, Cure Ace, Cure Scarlett, Cure Soleil
  • Shock and Awe: Cure Peace, Cure Milky
• 11th-Hour Ranger: Royale Candy. In Fresh Pretty Cure!, Westar and Souler also count, despite not being Cures...and male. In Doki Doki! PreCure, Regina eventually becomes one after a lot of trips through the Heel–Face Revolving Door. In Go! Princess Pretty Cure we have Shut and Lock with Kuroro. In KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode, we have Cure Pekorin. HuGtto! Pretty Cure takes this to an extreme by having the entire cast turn into Cures and participate in the final attack that takes George down.
• The End of the World as We Know It: What the Pretty Cures are up against every time.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Nagisa (later, Honoka, too), Karen, Itsuki, Nao, Mana and Makoto, Minami, Elena. Yukari and Akira takes it further, complete with their own respective fan clubs.
• Everybody Cries: Practically a tradition. You're pretty much guaranteed to see a scene like this at least once a season whether in the show itself or a Non-Serial Movie.
• Evolving Credits: Very common for the franchise as a whole. This happens whenever a Sixth Ranger appears in the show.
• Excited Title! Two-Part Episode Name!: Almost all of the episode titles are like this, and a good deal of them are Spoiler Titles.
• Expy: Most pink Cures are expies of Cure Black and most blue Cures are expies of Cure White. However, this trope is never played straight, since the expies usually have enough distinguishing factors to make them unique. (Cure Bloom and Cure Egret are borderline, though.)
• Festival Episode: Several seasons include matsuri-themed episodes, such as Smile and
• Fighting Series: You wouldn't expect a mahou shoujo series to be one of these, but the Pretty Cure series pulls it off with aplomb.
• Fleeting Demographic: Young girls, though fortunately they aren't the only demographic. It's not that fleeting though, since the ratings for the series have remained high throughout the franchise, and the writers loves their Continuity Nods. The series even released it's own merchandise store, selling items like make-up and stationery, to allow for the fact most of it's early fans are very much adults.
• Flight: One of the most common villain abilities. The Agents from Labyrinth, and Siren and Trio the Minor are exceptions.
  • Cure Bloom/Bright and Cure Egret/Windy are the only Cures with this ability, at least naturally. Several of the others can use this ability, but only if they have a certain upgrade or their fairy helps them.
  • The HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! have costumes that allow them to fly and they don't need any upgrades to do that.
  • The Maho Girls Pretty Cure! Sapphire Style allows them to fly naturally. Though they can do that outside that form with the help of a Flying Broomstick.
  • Cure Parfait, who is based on a Pegasus, can fly naturally too.
  • Tsubasa from Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure is a weird but justified case. He cannot fly in his bird form, as he comes from a tribe of flightless birds. But in his Cure Wing form, he can fly naturally.
  • Some mascots have this ability: On the one hand, Moop, Foop, Chiffon, Chypre, Coffret, Potpourri, Cologne, the Fairy Tones, Charle, Raquel, Lance, Dabyi, Ai-chan, Melan, Ribbon, Glasan, Miss Siamour and (inconsistently) Puff, Fuwa, Rabirin, Pegitan and Nyatoran. Syrup and Pop can fly when they transform into giant birds, while Candy can fly when she is in her human form. For justifiable examples, Aroma is actually a bird, Ha-chan is your stock fairy with wings, and Prunce has a miniature Flying Saucer.
• Friendly Tickle Torture:
  • In one of the earlier episodes of Fresh Pretty Cure!, the heroines get tickled by magical erasers thanks to a playful trick by Chiffon.
  • In episode 8 of Heart Catch Pretty Cure, the Fashion Club girls tickle Erika when she complains about her sister Momoka during a photoshoot. Later, in episode 14, Victim of the Week Nanami tickles Tsubomi to cheer her up for a misunderstanding.
  • In Episode 24 of Go! Princess Pretty Cure, Kirara inflicts this on Towa to make her smile. It works.
• Frilly Upgrade: Costume upgrades usually appear sometime after mid-season. Movies have their own special upgrades.
• Fusion Dance:
  • Some villains fuse with the Monsters of the Week to get stronger. There are even special items for this like the Dark Bracelets or special monster types like Hyper Akanbe and the Beast Mode.
  • Mugen Silhouette is the fusion of the four Pretty Cures and their three mascots.
  • Some of the villains fuse with each other. The Giant is the fusion of the Seeds of Darkness. Yadokhan and Isohgin have a fusion as their true form. Northa and Klein can fuse into a humanoid dragon. And Leva and Gula fuse into one being. In Maho Girls Pretty Cure!, Batty fuses with the wands of his defeated comrades to achieve the same result.. And in Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure, Aiwarn fuses with her two comrades into a Nottoreiga.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: All Pretty Cures who wear glasses in their civilian form (Tsubomi and Yuri, Ako, Saaya. Minori ) all lose them when in their cure forms. The only exception to this is the Indian Cures from HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! who wear glasses in their cure forms (and shown adjusting them during their attack).
• The Good Kingdom: The Garden of Light, the Land of Fountains, the Palmier Kingdom, the Sweets Kingdom, Major Land, Märchenland, the Trump Kingdom, the Blue Sky Kingdom, and the Hope Kingdom. Several more appear in the movies.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Most Pretty Cures fight against their enemies with powerful punches and kicking.
• Gratuitous English: 90% of the Cure names, every transformation phrase and most finishing moves. A couple also have Gratuitous French and Gratuitous Italian scattered around.
• Gratuitous Princess: Go Princess aside, princesses have made their mark on this show as Pretty Cures, including Ako Shirabe/Cure Muse, Hime Shirayuki/Cure Princess, and Towa Akagi/Cure Scarlet. The latter is quite interesting, considering she's the only person in the aformentioned Princess Pretty Cures to be an actual princess. Also...
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 added a Princess among an influx of royals. Yes, they were also mascot creatures.
  • In The Movie of Yes! Pretty Cure 5, the girls and the mascots visit "Princess Land", a theme park where the female patrons all get to wear ballgowns and pretend they're princesses. As you would expect, it seems to be a very popular place.
  • Smile Pretty Cure! gave the second power-up in the series the name "Princess Form".
  • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure has the twelve Star Princesses based on Western Zodiac, who are Sealed Good in a Can and the Big Good of the season. Furthermore, there's a thirteenth Star Princess based on the Ophiuchus sign, who ends up being the primary villain.
• Group Picture Ending: From Suite Precure onwards, the final episode of every season ends like this as a way to thank the viewers.
• Halloween Episode: Suite's Episode 37, Happiness Charge's Episode 37, Maho Girls's Episodes 38 & 39, Kira Kira a la Mode's Episode 37, HUGtto's Episode 38, Star Twinkle's Episode 37, Tropical-Rouge's Episode 35 & Delicious Party's Episode 33.
• The Heart: Mostly the yellow Cures: Shiny Luminous, Cure Lemonade, Cure Pine, Cure Muse, Cure Peace Cure Rosetta, Cure Honey, Cure Twinkle, and Cure Macaron.
• Heel–Face Turn: At least one per most continuities: Kiriya in Futari wa Pretty Cure, Michiru and Kaoru in Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star, Bunbee in Yes! Pretty Cure 5, Setsuna, Westar and Souler in Fresh Pretty Cure!, all of the Desert Apostles in HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, Ellen and Trio the Minor in Suite Pretty Cure ♪, Wolfrun, Akaoni, and Majorina in Smile Pretty Cure!, Regina in Doki Doki! PreCure and everyone, even the Big Bad, in HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!. Princess Twilight/Towa,Kuroro, Lock the one who possessed him and Shut in Go! Princess Pretty Cure. The Kirakira Thives, Julio, and Bibury in KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode. Ruru and then every single villain in HuGtto! Pretty Cure. The entire team of Notraiders besides Darknest in Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure. However, this is outright averted in Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure.
  • High-Heel–Face Turn: In general, since this is a magical girl series, female characters seem quicker to make the switch than male ones. Also, as seen in the Smurfette Principle below, Desparaia was the first Big Bad who is redeemed in the end.
• Henshin Hero: All heroines transform from normal civilian girls into frilly warriors of justice who use fisticuffs and rainbows to fight.
• Heroic Second Wind: Common, but most blatantly after Yes! Pretty Cure 5. From that point onwards, every single movie, with the lone exception of the seventh All Stars movie, has to include flashlight-esque items called the Miracle Lights, used by both the characters and the audience to bring the 11th-Hour Superpower.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • Nagisa and Honoka. Saki and Mai. Nozomi and Rin. Komachi and Karen. Love and Setsuna. Tsubomi and Erika. Hibiki and Kanade. Siren and Hummy. Nao and Reika. Mana and Rikka. Megumi and Hime, Mirai and Riko. Akira and Yukari may as well avert the "heterosexual" bit. Emiru and Ruru, Henri and Masato. Hikaru and Lala. Manatsu and Laura. Sora and Mashiro.
  • Another from Maho Girls Pretty Cure!, Kouchou and Kushe. Yes, you better believe it.
• In a Single Bound:
  • One too many Cures have this ability. In fact, there is one famous scene from the original Futari wa Pretty Cure opening (and copied a lot in the Pretty Cure All Stars movies) which involves Black leaping away from an explosion; Max Heart's opening featured a similar scene but with White added in.
  • There's also the tendency of this trope appearing when the main Cure is just figuring out how their new powers work. AKA the "Holy-Crap-I-Can-Jump-This-High" Maneuver.
  • Justified by Cure Whip, since she's a rabbit girl and all of the Cures in that season have animal characteristics.
• Interclass Friendship: Some Pretty Cure teams might include a member who comes from either a wealthy family or be part royalty and being friends with the other commoner Cures.
  • Suite Pretty Cure ♪: Downplayed with Hibiki Hojo and Kanade Minamino. Hibiki isn't wealthy but her house is fancy and her parents are famous musicians. Meanwhile, Kanade family owns a normal pastry shop. Play much straighter with Ako Shirabe who is the Princess of Major Land.
  • Smile Pretty Cure!: There's Reika Aoki who comes from a wealthy family. She was actually Childhood Friends with Nao Midorikawa who comes from a large working class family.
  • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!: There's Princess of the Blue Sky Kingdom Himelda Window. Her first friend in the group was Megumi Aino who is just a normal middle schooler.
  • Go! Princess Pretty Cure: The three main leads. 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.
  • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure: Madoka is the daughter of a government official and comes from a wealthy family, while the other two human leads are both from working class families.
• In the Name of the Moon: Each Cure has a catchphrase they shout after finishing their transformation, ending with them announcing their Cure name.
• Intra-Franchise Crossover: The franchise has Pretty Cure All Stars, a series of crossover movies that teams up all of the Pretty Cure teams. Each film features Cures from all continuities joining forces to combat a new powerful foe, with focus given to the teams from the currently-airing season and the recently-ended one.
• The Merch, since Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure, has included several items from the brand Pretty-Holic, which includes Pretty Cure branded make-up, candy and stationery, with stores appearing in every season with the Cures frequenting them.^note Hilariously, during Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure, they had to censor the labels on the sweets they were enjoying since they had the Cures themselves on the front of the box!
• Joker Immunity: Only seven Big Bads are technically this at the ending: Desparaiah, Noise^note reborn as a chick, Red, Dyspear^note nature makes her technically undestroyable, Noir^note confirmed by Animage March 2018 to be reborn as the boy seen in the finale, George Kurai, and Darknest (the thirteenth Star Princess, Ophiuchus).
• Kicked Upstairs: It's been said that one of the producers of the series, Hiroaki Shibata, has been let go from the animation department at Toei in favor of the toku department. No one is sure why, but his current track record with the franchise (both Doki Doki and Happiness Charge not only produced some of the lowest TV ratings to date, but the latter has the second worst merchandising numbers since Splash Star) might have something to do with it.
• Lady of War: Cure White, Cure Egret/Windy, Cure Aqua, Cure Passion, Cure Moonlight, Cure Rhythm, Cure Beat, Masked Cure Muse, Cure Beauty, Cure Sword, Cure Ace, Cure Fortune, Cure Mermaid, Cure Scarlet, Cure Macaron, and Cure Selene.
• The Lancer: Mostly the blue, white or red Cures: Cure White (also The Smart Guy), Cure Egret/Windy (also The Smart Guy), Cure Rouge, Cure Passion (took this role from Cure Berry, also The Smart Guy), Cure Marine, Cure Rhythm (who is also The Smart Guy), Cure Sunny, Cure Sword, Cure Princess, Cure Mermaid, Cure Magical,Cure Milky and Cure Finale (took this role from Cure Spicy)
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Every Sixth Ranger.
• The Leader: All the pink Cures with three exceptions: Cure Black (despite her name, she's retroactively considered pink as it's her sub-color), Cure Bloom/Bright, Cure Dream, Cure Peach, Cure Blossom (who is also The Heart), Cure Melody, Cure Happy, Cure Heart, Cure Lovely, Cure Flora, Cure Whip (who doubles as the de facto Manager of their patisserie), Cure Yell, Cure Star, Cure Grace, Cure Summer (rainbow is her main color while pink is her sub-color), Cure Precious, and Cure Sky (she's a blue cure while Cure Butterfly is the pink one of their group).
• Lensman Arms Race: You can expect the Cures to obtain a new power-up, additional Cure, and/or team attack whenever a new general shows up or a new stronger variation of the Monster of the Week is introduced.
• Made of Iron: Being a Cure means getting super strength and being able to fight off attacks that could seriously injure an ordinary citizen.
• Magical Girl Warrior: The franchise's genre is about a series of girls who transform using magic and use magic to fight evil.
• Magic Skirt: The earlier seasons employ this, but they eventually get to a point where the skirts have thick petticoats underneath, so nothing is shown regardless.
• Meaningful Name: Has its own page here.
• Megaton Punch: While not as prevalent as the diving kicks from Kamen Rider, Cures are somewhat associated with punches due to them being Cure Black's main way of fighting till a point All Stars has several Combination Attacks in which the Cures punch an enemy together with All Stars F having the final attack being a punch from all 88 mainline Cures up till that point.
• Merchandise-Driven: How much varies from season to season, but it's usually obvious that at least one magical trinket per season was designed to be a toy first and an implement of magical ass-kicking second. The Transformation Trinkets are a relatively common example, as are the "cheat code" items that became a tradition from Fresh onwards.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: The Cures get usually two or more upgrades per season. Some villains get upgrades, too.
• Modesty Shorts: When there isn't a Magic Skirt involved, Cures will gain bike shorts as part of their magical girl outfits. This is especially prominent in the series Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and Smile Pretty Cure.
• Monster of the Week: Often gigantic, so even when they're blatantly silly, there can be some sweet moves involved in taking them down.
  • Those monsters are Zakenna, Uzaina, Kowaina (Hoshina in the sequel), Nakewameke, Nakisakebe, Sorewatase, Hohoemina (though Hohoemina is harmless, as it's a purified, good version of Nakewameke), Desertrian, Negatone, Akanbe, Jikochuu, Saiark, Zetsuborg, Yokubāru and Donyokubāru, Oshimaida and Mou-Oshimaida, MegaByogen and GigaByogen, Yaraneda, Zenzen Yaraneda, Zettai Yaraneda and Cho Zettai Yaraneda, Ubauzo, Motto Ubauzo, Gossori Ubauzo, Lanborg and Kyoborg.
  • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure is a unique case. They do have a monster called Notrigger, but only Aiwarn can create them and it is fueled by a Dark Star Princess pen. Since there are only 12 around the entire universe, and the Cures keep collecting more of them, Notriggers do not appear every week. Later on, the Quirky Miniboss Squad receives an upgrade from Darknest that allows them to fight akin to summoning a monster. Kappard does this by sucking in twisted imaginations to morph his weapon. Tenjou has her Notraiders modify a victim of the week into a giant Notraider. Aiwarn modifies Blue Cat's space ship that she stole into a mecha. Galogre fights the Cures directly.
• Multiple Demographic Appeal: The franchise is aimed at girls 4-12 and men 16-35. Not just through cute girls, but also hot-blooded battles. Enough that Pretty Cure was the winner of a Famitsu poll asking which series would best suit a Dynasty Warriors crossover!
• Mythology Gag:
  • The lead character will, shortly after her first transformation, jump into the air and go much, much higher than she expected. This gag has been reused across different seasons and continuities for years. Another recurring gag is that the mascot will typically introduce itself to the lead character by crashing into her face.
  • Fresh Pretty Cure! was the first series to name the basic attacks "Double^note Triple, Quadruple Precure Kick/Punch". Later series call these less often, but these kicks/punches come back with varied or changed names.
  • There is no other team more physically capable than Cure Black and Cure White. Even though later seasons toned down the violence, whenever it comes to the original duo, they still keep their original level of physical power in later appearances.
• Near-Villain Victory: Every single series has the villains a stone away from victory towards the end (except perhaps Healing Good and Tropical Rouge).
• Newcomer Saves the Day: Pretty much every time a new Cure is introduced.
• New Transfer Student: Several Cures start out as this. In chronological order: Hikari, Michiru and Kaoru (even if they're not actually Cures), Urara and Kurumi, Setsuna, Tsubomi, Ellen, Miyuki, Makoto, Hime, Towa, Mirai (In Riko's world), Riko (In Mirai's world) and later Kotoha (In both worlds), Ciel, Hana, Ruru, Lala, and Nodoka, Laura, Sora, Mayu and Komugi.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Every Pretty Cure team has at least one fairy mascot tagging alongside them.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: As of 2008, the older Cures have been subjected to this. It's been years since Max Heart's end, but Nagisa, Honoka and Hikari don't look a day older than they were back then. Although it should be noted that this depends only on whether or not you count the All Stars movies as canon. The character designer of Fresh Pretty Cure! actually posted this art of the characters looking seven years older, and starting with Go! Princess Pretty Cure, seasons typically have a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue that involves a timeskip. HuGtto! Pretty Cure addresses this for its crossover event, where the side effects of the time travel apparently include de-aging.
• Obviously Evil: Played straight by every villain from this franchise. But subverted with the Desert Apostles and Minor Land.
• Odd Couple: For two-person teams; when the teams widened and there was only one main character instead of two, just about every combination was an Odd Friendship.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted, since several seasons tend to repeat names from previous continuities. So far the repeated names are Nozomi (Max Heart and Yes!5), Kaoru (Splash Star, Fresh, and — if it counts — Kaoruko from Heartcatch), Rin (Yes! 5 and Happiness Charge), Hayato (Fresh and Heartcatch), Kurumi (Yes!5 [given name], Heartcatch [surname]), Miyuki (Fresh, Smile, and Tropical-Rouge), Akane (the original/Max Heart and Smile), Nao (Max Heart, Heartcatch and Smile), Reika (Fresh and Smile), Ayumi (Fresh, Heartcatch, All Stars New Stage and Doki Doki), Madoka (Yes!5 [given name], Doki Doki [surname], Star Twinkle [given name]), Megumi (Yes!5 and Happiness Charge), Seiji (Doki Doki and Happiness Charge), Kenta (Splash Star and Happiness Charge) Momoka (Heartcatch and Go! Princess), and Aoi (Kira Kira à la Mode and Tropical-Rouge).
• One-Winged Angel: Most of the villains transform into a different, much more imposing form when they directly fight the Cures.
• Orcus on His Throne:
  • Almost every Big Bad and Big Bad Wannabe except Gohyan, Noise, Pierrot and King Jikochuu.
  • Played straight with Akudaikahn, Desparaia, the Director, Sabaaku,Queen Mirage, Noir, and Darknest.
  • Justified with Jaaku King in the first season and Moebius. They have to rely on their minions. Similarly Dokurokushe clearly has difficulty fighting, despite his great personal power. King Byo-gen also suffers from this, but gets stronger in the final episodes and fights directly.
  • Subverted with Dune Mephisto, and President George Kurai. Dyspear sits on the throne for the first half of the series, attacks the Cures personally at the half-way point, and is then forced to rest in order to recover her power.
• Our Fairies Are Different: They usually look like cute little animals rather than your typical fairy; probably the closest one to a "traditional" fairy is Ha-chan from Maho Girls Pretty Cure!, followed by Ai, who resembles a human infant with wings. Most others are clearly meant to look like existing animals, but sometimes they don't.
• Overly Long Name: The strongest or other powerful Pretty Cure group attacks tend to be ridiculously long, especially with their "Precure/Pretty Cure" as the "pre-word". The longest examples for each series are:
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure: "Pretty Cure Rainbow Storm".
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart: "Pretty Cure Marble Screw Max Spark".
  • ''Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star': "Pretty Cure Spiral Heart Splash Star".
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5: "Pretty Cure Five Explosion".
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO!: "Pretty Cure Milky Rose Floral Explosion". (It has even two "pre-words".)
  • Fresh Pretty Cure!: "Pretty Cure Loving True Heart Fresh".
  • HeartCatch Pretty Cure!: "Pretty Cure Heartcatch Orchestra".
  • Suite Pretty Cure ♪: "Pretty Cure Suite Session Ensemble Crescendo Finale".
  • Smile Pretty Cure!: "Pretty Cure Miracle Rainbow Burst". (Before "Miracle", there were "Royal" and "Ultra".)
  • Doki Doki! PreCure: "Pretty Cure Royal Lovely Straight Flush".
  • Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure takes this up to eleven in episode 33, with the girls trying to come up with a cool new attack name, not being able to agree, and just ending up going with all of them at once, resulting in "Pretty Cure Jugemu Jugemu Gokou-no Surikiire Ultimate Marine Splash Megawave Dragon Tropical Mango Kiwi Limbo Dance Dondoko Dondoko Crash Niagara Shower Flying Phoenix Large Serving Supersize Hundredfold Spicy Free Extra Noodles Back Fat Extra Extra Beauty Legend Passing Shot Laura Apollodorus Hyginus La Mer #1 Cutest And Most Beautiful And Wonderful In Gran Ocean Queen of Queens Bubble Bomber Floral Pink & Purple Shadow Fall Cosmetics Product Line Ponpoko-Pii To The Ponpoko-Punch Kururun Kururun Kururun Ru~n! Shuuringan-no Guurindai Guurindai Land Beat Dynamic". The attack name is so long that the Monster of the Week manages to get away before they can execute the attack.
• Passing the Torch: Starting with Happiness Charge, it became a tradition to see the next season's lead cure in the final episode of the current one.
• Pink Heroine: In fact, every team has at least one Cure in pink, and more often than not she's the leader, similar to Super Sentai with red.
• Plucky Girl: Pick a Cure; any of the many are this to some degree, while others like Erika Kurumi/Cure Marine and Megumi Aino/Cure Lovely are more explosively so.
• Pokémon Speak: The Monsters of the Week. Save for the Desertrians.
  • The Jikochuus don't do this that often.
  • The Nakewamekes also do not do this after earlier episodes, but are reduced into this when they appear in Pretty Cure All Stars.
  • The Nakisakebes can't talk at all. They can only grunt.
  • There also the two Zakenna butlers from Futari wa Pretty Cure.
  • There are a Hoshina, a Negatone and an Akanbe who can talk. All of them have quizmaster/gamemaster powers.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: It's usually downplayed, with a Cure's hair changing shades instead of color. Played straight with Cure Passion (from dark purple to rose), Cure Melody (from ginger to pink), Cure Heart (from pink to blonde), Cure Ace (from brown to red), Mirage (from black to blonde), both Aloha Cures (from black to orange and teal respectively), Cure Flora (from auburn to blonde with pink streaks), Cure Twinkle (from brown to orange), Cure Whip (from orange to pink), Cure Parfait (from blonde to pink), Cure Fontaine (from charcoal to blue), Cure Sparkle (from brown to blonde), Cure Earth (from blonde to purple), Cure Summer (from auburn to blonde that fades to pink), and Cure Papaya (from light brown to orange).
• Power Gives You Wings: Most of the Movie Upgrades and most of them are later adapted to the respective series.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Downplayed in the first and second series, but began to be very blatant in the third; and the trend hasn't stopped since. The two most extreme examples are Cure Sunshine and Cure Muse who have very short hair in civilian form, but very long hair in their Cure forms. Many other examples are similar cases.
• Power Makes Your Voice Deep: Honoka, Nozomi and Kotoha have high-pitched voices, but after their transformations, their voices become noticeably deeper. Justified with Aguri, who transforms into her Older Alter Ego, so her voice becomes naturally deeper.
• The Power of Friendship:
  • Unlike most series in the genre, where it's second to The Power of Love, friendship is the most important thing in Pretty Cure. Every episode focuses on the relationships between the girls, and no romantic subplot is ever completely resolved, whether between the Cures themselves or with a third party; Nozomi/Coco is the one exception, and even they are allowed far fewer PDAs than other magical girl leads, only getting to kiss offscreen and in a movie. Most speeches are of the friendship variety, and the Cures' powers literally run on friendship — even the ones who can transform separately are stronger together, and, as seen in the case of Karen, powers can fail completely if they don't open up and act sincerely towards their True Companions.
  • It's proven that the Wonder Twin Powers don't work when the girls have a conflict.
  • If only one single Cure of the team is not available, the whole team cannot win against the Monster of the Week. If they gathered five members, they cannot win with four. If they gathered four members, they cannot win with three, etc. And you never win when you're alone unless you're Milky Rose or Cure Moonlight or Cure Ace or the lead Cure in episode 1. If you have a duel with a major villain, you'll still win with the Power of Friendship.
  • It is notable that, while HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! did have a strong emphasis on The Power of Love, The Power of Friendship was at least equally important.
  • It is so strong that one Cure (Amour) was able to become a Cure when, story-wise, she's not intended to become one. In Hugtto, there's only four PreHearts that were available initially, and 3 of them had been taken by the initial members. Naturally, this causes an issue when both Emiru and Ruru created their Mirai Crystals. Since there's only one of it left, Ruru is more than willing to let Emiru took the 4th PreHeart, but Emiru refuses to transform since she wants to see both of them fight together as Cures, something that Ruru admits want to do as well. Thanks to an appropriately-timed Deus ex Machina as a result of their extremely strong friendship bond and desire to fight together, said 4th PreHeart is split into two identical copies, allowing Ruru to claim her own PreHeart and become a Cure herself. This even allowed a breach of the "everyone must be there to win" rule and effectively broke the Hugtto team into two relatively independent teams: the first fight of Cures Macherie and Amour has Cures Ange and Etoile tied in other commitments and Cure Yell being sick, and the duo have their own finisher independent of Yell's.
• Product-Promotion Parade: Given how Merchandise-Driven the franchise is, this is common. Premiere episodes can usually be counted on to have a first transformation and fight scene that shows off the Transformation Trinket, the lead Cure and her abilities (including the traditional Finishing Move). The debut of an additional Cure or a Super Mode later on prompts a similar blitz of showing off merchandising. And that's not counting other powerups accumulated along the way, as well as various other pieces of merchandise from the toyline such as accessory makers, an electronic tablet-like toy and accessories for that year's fairy doll, which means that this trope can come into play almost every week.
• Pummel Duel:
  • in Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart, Baldez engages in one with Cure Black and White simultaneously.
  • In Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star, Gohyaan engages in 2 different ones, one against Cure Bloom/Bright and Cure Egret/Windy at once, and later does the same against Michiru and Kaoru
  • In Yes! Pretty Cure 5, Bloody and Cure Dream get into a brief one.
  • In Fresh Pretty Cure!, Cure Passion and Northa Klein have another brief one of these during their own fight.
  • In Heart Catch Pretty Cure, Cure Marine and Kumojacky get into one.
  • In Smile Pretty Cure!, Cure Sunny and Wolfrun get into one after the latter goes completely berserk.
• Punny Name: Most Cures will often have the Cure name and their given name mean the same or something similar. From the start there's Nagisa Misumi ("sumi" means "ink") as Cure Black and Honoka Yukishiro ("yuki shiro" can be read as "snow white") as Cure White, and it just continues from there.
• Purple Is Powerful: Any purple Cure, any Cure who has either purple eyes or hair or a purple Transformation Trinket counts. So do the villains.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Both the heroes and villains are always like this in every season/continuity.
• Recruit Teenagers with Attitude: Pretty formulaic to the Pretty Cure. Fairy retreats from the attacked homeland pick up inexperienced teens to become Precure. HeartCatch Pretty Cure! does look like this at first, but later reveals it to be an aversion, with Heroic Lineage in play.
  • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! twists the formula a little bit, as there is no fairy world. Instead, a Pretty Cure flees her homeland when the monsters attack. When she has trouble fighting back, the Big Good lets her pick a partner. (It's later explained that the Big Good actually spreads Transformation Trinkets throughout the world.)
  • Maho Girls Pretty Cure! averts this as there are (initially) no fairies and they became Cures after finding the Macguffin instead.
• Recycled Premise: Being a Long Runner, some newer seasons borrow elements from previous seasons at times.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star is Futari wa Pretty Cure, but themed around nature and spirits. This is more blatant that most of the other seasons, to the point that it's sometimes mistaken for a direct sequel.
  • Smile Pretty Cure! is a Lighter and Softer version of Yes! Pretty Cure 5, as both have a Five-Man Band team with the same colors and a fairytale theme.
    • On the topic of Smile Pretty Cure, KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode is this to Smile, as both were made after something happened that caused the series to change tone to a lighter and softer one, ^note  for Smile, it was the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that made the show lighthearted, while A La Mode's lighter tone was due to parents complaining about the Darker and Edgier tone of Go! Princess Pretty Cure. involve the girls transforming with a compact mirror and charms, have the girls hanging out in a place related to the series' theme ^note  the Mysterious Library for Smile and Kira Kira Patisserie for A La Mode, and have a mid-season power-up that involves a pegasus character. ^note  While Smile's pegasus power-up was for the whole team, the one for Kira Kira was just a Sixth Ranger who was a pegasus-themed cure.
  • HuGtto! Pretty Cure is similar to Doki Doki Pretty Cure. Both series have a baby the characters have to take care of who came from the world that was in danger, use a smartphone-like item for the Transformation Trinket, have a white and pink wand-like item decorated with hearts used for the Cures' second attack, have an elementary school Cure on the team and use a smart tablet-esque device for the final attack used in the show.
  • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure is similar to Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure, as both series involve an imaginative pink lead obsessed with the season's theme who meets a person from a world dedicated to that topic and goes on trips there with her. Both series also has a unique concept with the Transformation Trinket ^note  For Mahoutsukai, they used the actual mascot Mofurun as the item rather than having her become another object like in past Pretty Cure series, while in Star Twinkle, the girls sing a song that goes along with the transformation., use a smartphone item to take care of the mascot that looks like a book, and have a Sixth Ranger who comes from the alternate world they go to, with Mahoutsukai having Haa-chan become Cure Felice and Star Twinkle having Yuni, who used to be the Phantom Thief Blue Cat, become Cure Cosmo.
• Recycled Soundtrack: A few of the seasons feature reused background music from one another, usually during the early episodes.
• Red Herring: From Fresh until Doki Doki, there was usually at least one character initially hinted to be the Sixth Ranger, but turned out to be this trope. Due to what happened after Doki Doki used this, the practice was abandoned starting in Happiness Charge.
  • In Fresh Pretty Cure!, it was thought that the Cures' dancing mentor, Miyuki Chinnen, would become Cure Passion. It turned out to be Eas/Setsuna Higashi.
  • In HeartCatch Pretty Cure!... this trope is instead parodied. Chypre and Coffret went around asking Tsubomi's classmates if they could be the third Precure, even asking a boy, Kenji Ban, to be one (and he daydreamed himself becoming 'Cure Fire'). Turns out it's Itsuki Myoudouin.
  • In Suite Pretty Cure ♪, both Waon Nishijima and Seika Higashiyama, Hibiki and Kanade's friends in their respective specialties, were speculated to be the next Pretty Cures. The next Cures were actually Siren/Ellen Kurokawa (as Cure Beat) and Ako Shirabe (as Cure Muse).
  • In Doki Doki! PreCure, Dark Magical Girl Regina, Princess Marie-Ange and Ai-chan were speculated to be Cure Ace. In fact, Cure Ace was someone completely new... but it later turned out Ace and the aforementioned candidates were all parts of the same person. The negative reaction from fans and the downward spiral of ratings and merchandise sales as a result of this twist might have caused Toei to abandon this concept in later series.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The various mascots. Most play a much bigger role in the series with Wonder Twin Powers (namely the first three, Heartcatch and Suite). Also in Doki Doki and Maho Girls, the mascots are the Transformation Trinkets.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: A popular choice for the protagonists: Nozomi/Cure Dream, Tsubomi/Cure Blossom, Cure Melody (Hibiki being a redhead), Miyuki/Cure Happy, Mana (but not Cure Heart, interestingly), and Megumi/Cure Lovely. Kotoha/Cure Felice is a non-protagonist example.
• Running Gag: The In a Single Bound gag on a new lead Cure's first transformation, and the Crash-Into Hello gag when first meeting the mascot.
  • An early running gag was that comic performers would find out the identity of the Pretty Cure of the series and promise to keep the secret. It hasn't happened much lately, though.
• Save Both Worlds: Most plots involve saving the mascots' homeworld as well as Earth, although there are exceptions, like Heartcatch and Maho Girls.
• Screaming Warrior: Sometimes the Cures get really loud during intense battles, most notably Cure Happy, who starts her Happy Shower attack by yelling "KIAI DA! KIAI DA!" over and over again.
• Secret Identity: It's interesting to note that while the Pretty Cure hides their dual lives from their non-Cure friends and family, the villains usually learn their real identities right away. Given that the one time the Cures blew their secret identities to their families (Fresh, if you're wondering) said families got so worried they almost locked the girls in their houses the day of the final battle, it's probably for the best. Sometimes other reasons are given, like how Maho Girls Pretty Cure! has Liko not wanting to ruin the reputation of the legendary magicians by revealing one of them is the resident Inept Mage... and then HuGtto! Pretty Cure does away with pretenses and has Harry fully admit it's just because being mysterious makes you seem cooler. In Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure, Lala tries to keep her Pretty Cure identity a secret from her family on planet Saman, but when it's revealed, they have no issue and actually take it in stride.
• "Sesame Street" Cred: A few celebrity voice artists have worked on this franchise:
  • Kanako Miyamoto and Mayu Kudou, who sing songs for the franchise, appear together in an episode of Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO!. Mayu also appeared with Aya Ikeda in the fashion show episode of Heart Catch Pretty Cure.
    • Interestingly, Kanako herself would voice a character who was an Idol Singer like she was in Doki Doki Pretty Cure, Makoto Kenzaki, also known as Cure Sword, and would later voice herself in KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode alongside Yuri Komagata, who sang that show's opening theme.
  • Fresh Pretty Cure! features a cameo from the manzai group Audrey. Smile Pretty Cure! would do the same thing with manzai act FUJIWARA.
    • Singer and veteran seiyuu Megumi Hayashibara played Nico in Smile Pretty Cure's Non-Serial Movie.
  • The late Karl Lagerfeld appeared on a fashion-show themed episode of Go! Princess Pretty Cure.
  • AKB48 member Mayu Wantanabe appears in the Halloween Episode of Maho Girls Pretty Cure!.
  • Idol Yui Ogura played Cure Etoile in HuGtto! Pretty Cure, while news anchor Mizuki Yamamoto played an animated version of herself in the 15th anniversary movie produced for that season, HuGtto! Pretty Cure Futari wa Pretty Cure: All Star Memories.
  • In Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure, Cure Star is played by Denpagumi Inc idol Eimi Naruse, while singer and voice actress Sumire Uesaka plays the Sixth Ranger Cure Cosmo. Both girls also sing like the people who voice them (while both sing to transform, Cure Cosmo also has a secret life as an idol named Mao).
    • Soma Saito as Lala's brother Lolo was officially promoted as this.
  • Aoi Yūki plays Cure Grace in Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure.
• Shape Dies, Shifter Survives: In HeartCatch Pretty Cure! and HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!, the Cures' Transformation Sequence begins with an intermediate form which has their civilian appearance, but unbound hair and a simple gown made out of light. If they take severe damage while transformed, they will revert to this state rather than completely detransforming.
• Sixth Ranger:
  • Every continuity except Smile! has at least one late arrival: Shiny Luminous, the Kiryuu sisters (though they’re not officially considered cures), Milky Rose, Cure Passion, Cures Sunshine and Moonlight, Cures Beat and Muse, Cure Ace, Cures Honey and Fortune, Cure Scarlet, Cure Felice, Cure Parfait, Cures Ma'Cherie and Amour, Cure Cosmo, Cure Earth, Cure La Mer, and Cure Finale. Jonathan Klondike can be considered a non-Cure male example, as can Prince Kanata and Black Pepper.
  • Every new Cure has either a different transformation (+ Trinket) or (semi-)completely different powers or both. Cure Passion, Cure Sunshine, Cure Beat, Cure Muse and Cure Honey have different powers than their teammates, Cure Moonlight has a shorter transformation (though it's still basically the same) because she has a different Transformation Trinket, and Shiny Luminous, Milky Rose, Cure Ace and Cure Scarlet fit both. Cure Fortune is interesting because she starts out as a Cure like the others, but gets her new Trinket when she actually joins the others.
  • Hugtto plays around with this trope: Ma'Cherie and Amour join mid-way (giving a total of five Cures), but only four Transformation Trinkets were available initially. They got the fifth one via an appropriately-timed Deus ex Machina thanks to Emiru and Ruru's extremely strong desire to fight together.
• Slapstick: Much of the franchise's comedy involves one cure being put through slapstick. Erika Kurumi, Kanade Minamino and Miyuki Hoshizora are the three most infamous examples, but Love Momozono and Nozomi Yumehara have their fair share of slapstick too.
• Slice of Life: A good portion of each series is simply dedicated to the Cures' daily lives, with little interference from the villains outside of an obligatory fight scene in each episode.
• The Smart Guy: Only those who doesn't have a double role. Mostly the blue Cures: Cure Aqua, Cure Moonlight, Cure Beauty, Cure Diamond. Cure Custard, a yellow Cure, is an exception.
• Smurfette Principle: Despite being a Magical Girl franchise, there are not many female villains.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure: Poisonny is the only female of the Dark Five. Later, Regine is the only female of the Seeds of Darkness.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart: Viblis of the Four Guardians.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star: Not counting the Kiryuu sisters, Miss Shitataare is the only female of Dark Fall.
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5: Arachnea is Bunbee's only female employee. Later, Hadenya is the only female member of the 2nd division.
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 Go Go: Shibiretta is the only female employee of Eternal, besides the secretary Anacondy.
  • Fresh Pretty Cure!: Eas of the three Labyrinth agents. She is later replaced by Northa.
  • HeartCatch Pretty Cure!: Sasorina of the three Desert Apostle Generals. And then, there is Dark Precure.
  • Suite Pretty Cure ♪: Siren is the only female from Minor Land.
  • Smile Pretty Cure!: Majorina of the Bad End Generals. The Bad End Precures appear for just one battle and they can arguably count as real members.
  • Doki Doki! PreCure: Marmo of the Selfish Trio. Regina shows up later, but eventually two new male villains are introduced.
  • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!: Hoshiwa is the only female Phantom General.
  • Maho Girls Pretty Cure!: Sparda is the only female out of Dokurokushe's minions. Benigyo is also the only one of Deusmast's kin that receives limelight.
  • KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode: Noir’s only female underling is Bibury.
  • Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure: Shidoine is the only female Byo-gen.
  • Special mention goes to Desparaia, the only female of nine Big Bads in ten seasons. However, HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! introduces a new female Big Bad, Queen Mirage, but it turns out there's a Man Behind the Man. Go! Princess Pretty Cure has yet another female Big Bad, Dyspear, and Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure has the Witch of Delays. Darknest also qualifies since she’s really a Star Princess.
  • This also happens to the mascots from time to time. Milk is the only female of five mascots (Mailpo being counted), however, she is at least a main character. Chypre is the only female mascot who is introduced in Heartcatch, considering that Potpourri's gender is unknown. And Hummy, as well as the Crescendo Tone, are the only female mascots in Suite while Siren was never a good mascot. Mipple was also the only female for a long time before Lulun was introduced.
• Special Edition Title: Starting with Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO!, whenever a movie is close to being premiered the title sequence of the currently airing season is replaced by scenes from the movie itself (while the standard opening theme plays). If the movie features a song, it'll usually play instead of the standard credits sequence. This continues for a few weeks after the movie premieres.
• Spell My Name With An S: Only three series are officially subtitled, so character names are subject to differing romanizations depending on how fans translate them, with merchandise only occasionally offering a proper English spelling.
  • When it comes to Cures, at least, the Gratuitous English, French, and Italian tends to mitigate this. The lone exception is HuGtto! Pretty Cure's キュアマシェリ, a Japanese translation of the French phrase "ma chérie". Since the phrase is technically two words but most other Cures have one word names, fans are inconsistent on how it should actually be romanized. "Cure Macherie" and "Cure Ma'cherie" are both common, while "Cure Ma Chérie" is used by a smaller subset.
  • Other examples from mascots: Natts/Nuts, Pafu/Puff, Rate/Latte.
• Spinoff Sendoff:
  • In a similar fashion to Super Sentai after Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, since HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!, it has become necessary for the past pink Cure to introduce the next leader at the end of the final episode of the finished season. With that, Cure Lovely got to introduce Cure Flora. 50 episodes later, Flora does the same with Cure Miracle.
  • The transition got even more interesting and more Toku-like with the transition from Maho Girls to the next season. During the final episode, an epilogue set a few years into the future, while following an odd lollipop villain that looked like Dokurokushe and was stealing sweets, Mirai, Lico and Haa-chan were transported to on front of the Kira Kira Patisserie. There, they met Ichika Usami, one of the bakers there, who served up some nice treats for the girls. Later, once they got up to that monster and were fighting, as the girls were about to lose him, they got help from a mysterious bunny-eared ally. Only until after the credits does Cure Miracle learn who this girl is: Cure Whip, the new lead Cure.
  • A year later, a certain Hana Nono and a baby she was caring for visited the Kira Kira Patisserie. Then while the Kira Kira girls were fighting the evil of Chouro-sama that split from himself proper, and it seemed that the dark side would win, Cure Yell comes in and kicks Evil!Chouro's umbrella, which trapped Pekorin and her fellow fairies, open. Disappearing after cheering on the Kira Cures, Cure Yell/Hana returns in a post-credits scene to accept a cake from Cure Whip, which she baked with the rest of the Kira Cures to mark their moving on.
  • Again, at the end of Hana’s series, one last Oshimada is created by complete accident, and one Hikaru Hoshina shows up to help take it out.
  • Then at the end of Hikaru's series, she meets Nodoka Hanadera in the middle of the forest and exchange greetings before shortly jumping into a Giant Nottorei attack. Cure Grace then steps in and attacks, giving the Star Twinkle Cures a chance to purify the big brute. This one is merely the dream of a now-adult Hikaru in the distant future.
  • To no one's surprise, Cure Summer appears during a fight in the Healin' Garden during that season.
  • Yui Nagomi meets the Tropical Rouge Cures when she mistook the riceball cardboard for the real food. Surprisingly, it occurs during The Stinger instead of the episode proper.
  • In the same manner as the previous season, Sora Harewataru meets the Delicious Party team by lending her Mirage Pen in order to write a message to CooKingdom before their trip. Unlike previous cameos, Sora isn't shown transforming into Cure Sky at all.
• Spoiler Opening: Own page here.
• Stock Sound Effects: The little pings and rings heard throughout the transformation sequences are repeated across all the Pretty Cure series, to the point that they're practically an entire series of Signature Sound Effects.
• Strictly Formula: Not just individual episodes, but the series themselves. Some of the formulae below only apply to pre-Fresh seasons and some only to Fresh and after, since that season discarded a lot of franchise traditions in favour of new ones.
  • This became particularly jarring from 2009 to 2011, which always had four-girl teams and a "cheat code" item appear at a late point to give the girls a new attack or set of costumes.
  • In all series, seasons, holidays, and school events (culture festival, sports meet, etc.) roughly line up with the real world according to episode airdates. This requires a little chronological fudging, as Pretty Cure series run from February to January but reflect the April to March Japanese school year.
  • Notable is that around episodes 20-24 (usually 23) something plot-related always happens, usually the appearance of a Sixth Ranger or the Mid-Season Upgrade. Plot important episodes also happen mostly during the Episode 30 mark where they get another upgrade (usually a Team Attack including the Sixth Ranger), and the Episode 40 mark (sometimes another team member or an improvement of their team attack).
  • Certain plots also may happen once per season, such as two of the Cures having a disagreement and nearly triggering the team's break-up. This one in particular is known as the "Episode 8 Curse" and is most common in the pre-Fresh seasons.
  • An episode will feature one member of the team getting a real or imagined opportunity in acting/modeling/music/etc., with implications that they'll leave the area and cease all magical girl activities. Never actually happens.
    There is a variation of this formula in Go! Princess Pretty Cure. Kirara did the normal variation where she screwed her overseas modeling chance to save a Victim of the Week, but is then offered a bigger one at cost of eventually leaving Japan to Paris. She accepts. But her departure only happens at the end of the series, so she can still fight for the remainder of the series.
  • Most of the villains in Fresh and after will make a Heel–Face Turn by the end of the show by either purification (Desert Apostles, Noise, Pierrot's Three Subordinates), turning traitor (Westar and Souler, Regina, Shut, Lock), or flat out becoming a Pretty Cure themselves during the turnpoint of the season (Setsuna, Ellen and Towa).
  • It also seems that, from Fresh onwards, the first villain in the group to appear is the one who does a Heel–Face Turn first. Ellen and Setsuna, while Sasorina gets purified first out of Heartcatch's villains. Smile is an exception, as all three members of the Quirky Miniboss Squad are purified at the same time.
  • Doki Doki inverts this with Regina, who is the last villain to make an appearance. Also Inverted in that Regina is immediately brainwashed back to the side of evil afterwards... before finally joining as an 11th-Hour Ranger. Happiness Charge is also an inversion, as Phantom is last general to be introduced, and the first to be purified. A similar inversion also happened in Go Princess, Twilight was the last sentient villain (Stop & Freeze were basically upgraded Zetsuborg with little sentience or personality) introduced and then quickly purified into Towa and became Cure Scarlet.
  • There will be an episode/arc where the series' Fairy / Non-Human Sidekick get kidnapped and the Pretty Cures have to rescue them.
  • There will also be an episode or arc where the newest or youngest fairy runs away; sometimes it's combined with the above.
  • The 41st episode is often focused on a yellow character: Urara (plus Komachi), Inori, Fary, Yayoi, and Alice.
  • Christmas or New Year's is usually used to kickstart the final arc of the series, so prepare for a Mood Whiplash from what seems to be An Asskicking Christmas to quickly get world-endingly worse.
• Student Council President: Considering the middle school setting of the Cures, some Cures are presidents themselves, such as Karen, Itsuki, Minami, and Madoka. Reika starts out as vice-president, and gets elected into the real deal late in the series. Mana is a main character and a Student Council President to boot.
• Superhero Prevalence Stages:
  • Most seasons are the Early Stage: Each features a single team, with at most six members and no crossovers.
  • The first Pretty Cure All Stars movie heralds the Middle Stage: a Bat Family Crossover featuring characters from the six seasons screening up to that point (a total of 14 heroines). A new movie is made every year, incorporating the team from that season (and Sixth Rangers from the previous season who had not been introduced when the last movie was released). By the time of the fifth movie (coinciding with the tenth season, Doki Doki! PreCure), there are 32 Cures, and at one point in Doki Doki Precure, one of the villains comments that at this rate it won't be long before there are a hundred. It is worth noting that these movies are not considered canon. This also applies to HuGtto! Pretty Cure, which establishes that all of the Cures (up to that point, around 60) are in danger thanks to the season's time-traveling villain.
  • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! has a Late Stage, with Pretty Cures operating worldwide. It only applies to that season, however, due to the general Alternate Continuity nature of the main series.
• Supreme Chef: Honoka, Hikari, Saki, Rin, Kanade, Akane, Nao, Mana.
• Tagalong Kid: Ako and Aguri. Both are in elementary schools. Subverted though, Ako became a Cure before Hibiki and Kanade, and Aguri is The Mentor.
• Terrible Trio: Almost every Quirky Miniboss Squad has a main trio that is normally led by The Dragon, unless one of them is the dragon. The villainous trio is usually more active than the leader. Furthermore, there is a Smurfette Principle in every trio (except one).
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure has the Seeds of Darkness: Juna, Regine and Belzei Gertrude the leader.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart has the Four Guardians with Circulas, Uraganos and Viblis as the main trio who even die together. The leader Baldez rarely shows up.
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 has Bunbee's three subordinates Girinma, Gamao and Arachnea. Though, they never work as a trio. After they are killed, they are replaced by Bunbee himself, Hadenya and Bloody. Those three are "led" by Kawarino.
  • Fresh Pretty Cure! has the three Labyrinth agents Eas, Westar and Soular, but none of them is the leader. Later, Eas is replaced by Northa who takes the leadership.
  • HeartCatch Pretty Cure! has the Desert Apostle Generals Sasorina, Kumojacky and Cobraja, with Sabaku as their superior.
  • Suite Pretty Cure ♪ has Trio the Minor, led by Siren. She is temporarily replaced by Bassdrum for a few episodes before returning as leader. After Siren's Heel–Face Turn, Bassdrum takes the leadership most of the time, Baritone becomes the leader for two episodes before being replaced by Bassdrum again, and finally Falsetto takes the final leadership.
  • Smile Pretty Cure! has the Bad End Generals Wolfrun, Akaoni and Majorina. Their superior is Joker.
  • Doki Doki! PreCure has the Selfish Trio: Ira, Marmo and Bel. Their new leader Regina steals their spotlight. Later, Leva and Gula are introduced, but they don't work with the trio. At the end of the series, Bel tries to perform a Dragon Ascendant. Emphasis on tries.
  • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! has the Phantom Generals: Namakelda, Hoshiwa, and Oresky. In a bit of a twist, they don't have a leader; Phantom prefers to work alone, and Deep Mirror is an adviser to the Big Bad. It's also implied there are other Generals working around the world; one appears during the Hawaii episode.
  • Go! Princess Pretty Cure has the Three Musketeers: Close, Lock and Shut. Their leader, Twilight, only appears after Close dies. The role of leader passes to Shut after Twilight's Heel–Face Turn, and then passes to Close after he comes Back from the Dead. Close then creates Stop and Freeze, becoming the leader of his own trio.
  • Maho Girls Pretty Cure! has the Dark Magicians Batty, Sparda and Gamettsu. Their superior is Yamoh. Deusmast has his own trio as well.
  • KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode averts this, only two of Noir’s minions work around the same time to fight the Cures- Julio and Bibury in the first half, and Glaive and Elisio in the second half.
  • HuGtto! Pretty Cure has the villains work in threes with Listol guiding them- Charalit, Ruru, and Papple in the first half, and Dr. Traum, Jelos, and Bishin in the second half. Daigan doesn’t qualify because he ends up becoming a Bait-and-Switch Boss.
  • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure has Kappard, Tenjo, and Aiwarn with Galogre commanding them. When Aiwarn is deported from the team, Galogre ends up taking the third spot.
  • Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure has the three Tera-Byogens, Dairuzen, Shidoine, and Guaiwaru. While other Byogens do appear, these three are focused upon for the most part.
  • Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure has Chongire, Numeri, and Elda with them taking commands from Butler.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • In almost every season, the Pretty Cures use their new group Finishing Move to purify the Monsters of the Week, despite those monsters not being any stronger than the previous ones. And the old Finishing Moves become So Last Season.
  • In Futari wa Pretty Cure, Rainbow Storm is used very often, though Marble Screw is sometimes used, too. In most cases, Marble Screw would be okay, but Rainbow Storm is just an overkill.
  • In Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart, Marble Screw Max Spark is unnecessary because the monsters are not that strong. We see Extreme Luminario sometimes, but Marble Screw Max is never seen again. And before Marble Screw Max Spark was introduced, Extreme Luminario was an overkill.
  • In Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star, we see either Spiral Heart Splash or Spiral Star Splash, but not Twin Stream Splash.
  • This is averted in Yes! Pretty Cure 5, Five Explosion is used only once against a Monster of the Week. The other times are against the Quirky Miniboss Squad members.
  • In Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO!, Rainbow Rose Explosion and Metal Blizzard are used a lot.
  • In Fresh Pretty Cure!, we see all of the individual finishing moves at the same time, and later Lucky Clover Grande Finale a lot. The latter is justified because the Sorewatase are much stronger than the Nakewameke.
  • In HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, Heartcatch Orchestra is a lot for the Desertrians, even for the empowered ones. This attack kills Desert Devils, though.
  • In Suite Pretty Cure ♪, there are Suite Session Ensemble and Suite Session Ensemble Crescendo against the black-boned Negatone. The other attacks would be enough, even if they are used together.
  • Justified in Smile Pretty Cure!, where the blue nosed Akanbe, Super Akanbe and Hyper Akanbe can only be killed by Rainbow Healing, Rainbow Burst and Royal Rainbow Burst, respectively. These have relatively long sequences.
  • In Doki Doki! PreCure, we have Lovely Force Arrow against Regina's Jikochuu and Leva and Gula's combined Jikochuus because they have No-Sell to the individual attacks, except with Ace Shot. Then we have Lovely Straight Flush against the Blood Ring Jikochuus, despite Ace Shot (and apparently Lovely Force Arrow) being enough. And finally, Royal Lovely Straight Flush is used to purify Regina's Jikouchuu who are even weaker than the previous Jikochuu types.
• Title Drop:
  • The Pretty Cures always announce the title of the series after a group transformation (though prior to Yes! Pretty Cure 5 it was just "Futari wa Pretty Cure").
  • Splash Star worked the subtitle into an attack name: Spiral Heart Splash Star.
• Token Non-Human: Every now and then, one of the Cures won't be human.
  • Shiny Luminous is actually the "life" of the Queen of Light, although she becomes a real girl at the end of Max Heart.
  • Milky Rose and Cure Parfait are fairies capable of assuming human form. Cure Beat used to be the same, although she becomes afflicted with Shapeshifter Mode Lock upon becoming a Cure.
  • Cure Amour is revealed to be a Robot Girl.
  • Both Cure Milky and Cure Cosmo are aliens - Cure Milky of the Human Alien variety while Cure Cosmo is an anthropomorphic cat who uses her shapeshifting powers to pose as a Catgirl.
  • Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure has Cure Earth, a spirit.
  • Laura of Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure is a mermaid. When she transforms into Cure La Mer, she also becomes human.
• Trailers Always Spoil:
  • New Cure? New power? If it's not in the title, it's in the next episode preview.
  • Fresh Pretty Cure!, Suite Pretty Cure ♪, and Doki Doki! PreCure went one step farther and showed that a new Cure would be arriving in earlier episode previews. HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! didn't even bother trying to hide its Sixth Rangers, who appeared in the Title Sequence. Of course it helps that said cure was the second Cure to make an appearance.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: Justified in-universe, where the transformation takes place inside a barrier or appears as a bright flash of light to observers. Yanagita Rikao, a Japanese university professor, even provided a scientific explanation as to why Cure Black and Cure White could never be attacked while transforming. Later seasons such as Kira Kira show that, to a bystander, Cure transformation is instantaneous and appears as a flash of light.
• Transformation Exhilaration: The majority of the transformations are greeted with glee if not determination, with many including height, age, and hair color changes. KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode in particular includes animal traits in the transformation.
• Transformation Trinket: Every single season has one. While some resemble cosmetics like perfume bottles or makeup kits, other resemble toys like cell phones or wands.
• True Companions:
  • All teams wind up as a group of inseparable friends who would do anything for each other.
  • Rare villainous examples are the Seeds of Darkness, Bunbee, Westar and the Desert Apostle Generals.
• Verbal Tic: Has its own page here.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Some villains lack the power to teleport. Instead, they hide themselves and slip away unnoticed after their Monster of the Week is defeated.
• Villain Teleportation: Most teleport away from the Cures whenever they lose.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Some mascots can transform into humans:
  • Coco, Natts, Milk, Syrup, Coupe, Siren, Pop, Candy, Dabyi Charle, Raquel, Lance, Miss Siamour, the Elder and Pekorin, Harry all have this ability naturally. Most of them have another identity as humans: Coco/Koji Kokoda, Natts/Natsu, Milk/Kurumi Mimino, Syrup/Shiro Amai, Coupe/"Sora Hanasaki", Siren/Ellen Kurokawa, Candy/Royale Candy, Dabyi/DB, Kirarin/Ciel Kirahoshi, Pikario/Rio Kuroki.
  • Pop can also transform into anything, but with Morphic Resonance.
  • Mepple, Mipple, Pollun, Flappy, Choppy, Charle, Raquel, Lance and Dabyi can transform into Transformation Communes. Lullun can transform into the Miracle Commune, Milk could transform into a device, too (for the attack Five Explosion). Syrup can transform into a giant flying penguin. Chypre, Coffret and Potpourri can transform into flight capes. Melan can transform into a dragon.
  • In Go! Princess Pretty Cure, Puff and Aroma get this power at the end of the series.
  • Many villains have this ability, most notably the Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and Yes Pretty Cure 5 GoGo! villains.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Most seasons will typically throw something around the 10th or so episode that introduces something that ends up being a lot tougher than what the Cures have currently faced - whether if it's a stronger variant of the Monster of the Week, all of the villains so far teaming up against the Cures, or another villain added to the fray. This generally concludes with a group finisher with the current Pretty Cure formation.
• Water Is Womanly: Cure Aqua, Cure Diamond, Cure Mermaid, Cure Fontaine, and Cure LaMer have their main color as a shade of blue and water powers, along with being the more mature and feminine members of their teams.
• Wham Line: See examples here.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Starting with Go! Princess, the last or next-to-last episode of each season features a timeskip with older versions of the Pretty Cure team. The only series that make an exception to this formula (for now) are Healin' Good, Tropical-Rouge and Delicious Party.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Practically all seasons of Pretty Cure have no real way to figure out where they are on a distinct map. Standout examples of real places, however, include Futari wa Pretty Cure, which is explicitly set in Koizumi Gakuen, which is based on Ooizumi Gakuen, Nerima.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Several Pretty Cures are all terrorfied of ghosts. These Cures being. Rin, Ellen, Nao, Minami, Manatsu and Amane.
• Wonder Twin Powers: The first three seasons and Suite. Heartcatch also has this to a lesser extent. Mahou Tsukai brings this concept back, while Hugtto uses an interesting take of this by using this on their Sixth Ranger instead.
• World of Technicolor Hair: While in Futari Wa the hair colors were pretty normal and only supernatural characters had inhuman colors, starting with Splash Star and officalized with Yes! 5, natural hair colors that aren't genetically possible in real life, including pink, blue, green, purple, and so on, became the norm rather than the exception, and nobody treats this as unusual.
• Yellow/Purple Contrast: Cure Twinkle and Cure Soleil follow this colour scheme, in both cases to follow a Cosmic Motif.

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Statler: So, how come I've never heard of this Pretty Cure thing?
Waldorf: Don't worry, I'm pretty cure nobody else has heard of it, either!
Both: Do-ho-ho-ho-hoh!

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