From left to right - First row: Cure Beauty/Glitter Breeze, Cure/Glitter Peace, Cure March/Glitter Spring | Second row: Cure/Glitter Sunny, Cure Happy/Glitter Lucky, Candy
Click here to see the Glitter Force Visual
The five lights that guide us to the future! Sparkle! Smile Pretty Cure! Click here to see the Glitter Force version
Smile Pretty Cure! is the 9th entry in the Pretty Cure franchise, which aired from February 2012 to January 2013. It is preceded by Suite Pretty Cure ♪ and followed by DokiDoki! Pretty Cure.
Once Upon a Time, there was a kingdom of fairy tales called Märchenland where all the good characters lived together in harmony. However, one day the kingdom was attacked by the evil characters of the Bad End Kingdom, led by the Evil King Pierrot. At the climax of the conflict, both the Queen of Märchenland and Pierrot were sealed away by each other, leaving the ending to the story unfinished.
Miyuki Hoshizora is a New Transfer Student who absolutely adores fairy tale books, and hopes that one day she too will live Happily Ever After. Her first day gets off to a wild start when she literally comes face-to-face with Candy, a fairy from Märchenland sent to recover the scattered Cure Décor that can revive the Queen.
Faced with the agents of the Bad End Kingdom, who seek to plunge humans into despair and collect the resulting "Bad Energy" to revive Pierrot, Miyuki's belief in standing strong against adversity despite her own fears grants her the power to transform into one of the legendary warriors, Pretty Cure. It's just a shame that no-one told Miyuki that part of being a "legendary warrior" is actually fighting.
Eventually, Miyuki assembles a complete team of Pretty Cure from her classmates:
- Cure Happy, Miyuki herself. Despite her clumsy and scatterbrained nature, she's always out to find and make happiness.
- Cure Sunny, Akane Hino. An outgoing and Hot-Blooded volleyball player that is both Plucky Comic Relief and Deadpan Snarker. Speaks with Kansai-ben.
- Cure Peace, Yayoi Kise. A timid and tearful girl who aspires to be a manga artist, which means that she thinks that becoming a superhero is both terrifying and really awesome.
- Cure March, Nao Midorikawa. The oldest child in a large family, she is held in high esteem by the student body for her soccer skills and natural leadership.
- Cure Beauty, Reika Aoki. A tranquil and intelligent girl, she is the representative of her class and the vice-president of the Student Council.
An English adaption from Saban Brands, under the new title of Glitter Force, was streamed worldwide (excluding Asia)
on Netflix. Saban's localization reduced the original forty-eight episodes to forty episodes split between two twenty-episode seasons. The first season premiered on December 18th, 2015, followed by a second season on August 26th, 2016. In 2018, Hasbro owned the rights to the program alongside other Saban Brands entertainment assets, such as Power Rangers, My Pet Monster, Luna Petunia and other entertainment brands.
There is a sequel novel for Smile Pretty Cure! set after a ten year Time Skip following the end of the show.
Smile Pretty Cure provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion:
- This isn't the first time that Kate Higgins voiced a blue magical girl of the same element family and the same brains of the team.
- At the end of the series, Candy becomes a white-clad 11th-Hour Ranger like how Hana grew herself up and became the Sixth Ranger of her series.
- Adaptational Location Change: The English dub changes the setting from Japan to the United States, in the fictional community of Rainbow Hills. The arc where the girls go on a field trip to Kyoto was changed to an Asian Pacific Expo.
- All Myths Are True: Or at least all fairy tales are in Märchenland.
- Episode 27 has Tengu and Kappas, though they stay out of sight and are only somewhat alluded to.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Deconstructed. Wolfrun, Akaoni, and Majorina reveal they only alligned themselves with the Bad End Kingdom because everyone in Marchenland didn't respect them because of their roles as fairy tale villains. Then Joker convinces them to get back on everyone as the Bad End Kingdom's generals. In their minds, if you're not invested in a world that despises your very existence, you should destroy it to end your pain.
- An Ice Person: Cure Beauty, complete with a sword made of ice and the power to make a blizzard. Bad End Beauty is this too, thanks to her being Cure Beauty's Evil Knockoff.
- Animation Bump: Any time Cure Beauty fights Joker, the animation goes up several notches in quality.
- Anime Accent Absence: Averted in episode 36; Tetsuya Kakihara plays Brian with a pretty strong accent.
- Anime Hair: As seen on the page image. Cure March is the first Pretty Cure to wear her hair in a Tomboyish Ponytail and Girlish Pigtails simultaneously.
- Excluding hair-color, Miyuki is currently the only Cure in the Precure franchise to have an implausible hairstyle in civilian form, sporting two cone-pigtails, each cone with three distinctly-sized sections, complemented by bows that sit on top of said cones.
- April Fools' Plot: Episode 9. Yayoi decides that telling Miyuki she is transferring would be an excellent April Fools joke. Miyuki bolts to tell everyone else before Yayoi can reveal the prank.
- Art Shift: The first half of episode 28 emphasizes shadows, darkened interiors, and character under lighting, all cliches of the ghost stories that were the topic of the episode.
- Ascended Extra: Chinami Nishimura, Reika/Cure Beauty's seiyuu, had a previous stint as Dark Dream. Now she's voicing a real Pretty Cure.
- Audience Shift: This installment was originally aimed at the younger spectrum of the demographic for most Pretty Cure series (preschool and kindergarten-aged girls), as it is Lighter and Softer than most series, is more episodic and has a heavy focus on Slice of Life stories. In comparison, the Glitter Force dub is aimed at the original elementary school demographic of Pretty Cure.
- Badass Adorable: Cure Candy from episode 8. She proves agile enough to dodge the Monster of the Week's attacks and eventually neutralize it.
- Candy herself as of episode 31.
- Bad Luck Charm: Miyuki draws a "terrible luck" fortune on the Kyoto trip, which says "Watch where you step, what you carry and what you eat". Hilarity Ensues. For once they do not go into the 'tying it to a tree to get rid of the luck' thing, as the bad luck ends when the fortune gets turned into the Monster Of The Week and beaten.
- Beehive Hairdo: Cure Sunny's hairstyle is close enough.
- Being Evil Sucks: The Big Bad Three were used to live as fairies in Märchenland. However, due to being fairy tale villains they were disowned, hunted and despised by other fairies. Joker used their negative emotions and brainwashed them.
- Bittersweet Ending: Episode 48, the finale, where the Cures finally defeat Pierrot... at the cost of having to give up Candy. Afterwards, Candy and Pop float up to their homeland as the girls try their best to hold in their misery. Once Candy finally disappears, the girls begin crying. However, Candy ends up reuniting with them in The Stinger.
- Blow You Away: Cure March. Her attacks have a wind theme to them and she gains the power to run very fast. Bad End March, being Cure March's Evil Knockoff, is this too.
- Bookcase Passage: By moving the books on any bookshelf in a very particular way, the bookcase itself becomes a Cool Gate where the destination is based on what or where the traveler is thinking about. This aspect is Played for Laughs in episode 6 where Miyuki has a Teleporter Accident just because she saw a penguin on a book's cover as she's walking through the door and lands in the South Pole! Don't worry about her too much because Exposed to the Elements was thankfully in play.
- Book Ends: More than appropriate for a season based off fairy tales. During The Stinger of the last episode, Miyuki and Candy reunite in the exact same spot where they first met.
- Borrowed Catch Phrase: Near the end of episode 5, Cures Sunny, Peace and March borrows Miyuki/Happy's "Ultra Happupu~" and said it in tandem.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Subtly done in the opening by one of Nao's little brothers, Yuuta, who grins upon noticing the camera behind him.
- In episode 28, there are three lines of dialogue worth noting: Majorina looking at the camera and saying “I’m not screaming in fear”, Majorina stating that she already summoned the Akanbe of the episode and Reika commenting on the Akanbe of the episode.
- Break Them by Talking: Joker attempts this on Reika during episode 43, using her conflict between quitting being a Cure and disappointing her friends by not studying abroad to drive her into a breakdown and cause her to lose her transformation. It takes the other Cures showing up and confessing that they really don't want her to leave to make her snap out of it.
- But Now I Must Go: Earlier than most Pretty Cure examples. Pop is basically just there to dump some info for the Cures. Then he flies into the sunset (in his book!), back to Märchenland. It's implied that the kingdom is facing a serious threat, requiring his presence; otherwise he would rather stay with Candy.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: "Pretty Cure Smile Charge!", said every time the girls transform. Became "Glitter Force Makeover!" in the English dub.
- Casting Gag: The film director Fukasawa from episode 33 is voiced by Wataru Takagi. The movie he directed has the edo era as its theme. The villains Uraganos and Bunbee appear at edo-themed movie sets (the former appears even in a edo-themed theatre play, later) and both of them are voiced by Wataru Takagi.
- Cerebus Rollercoaster: While this season is generally very light-hearted, comical and simple, the moment it gets serious, it can get dead serious and really dark.
- Character Catchphrase: Quite a bit, including things like Miyuki's "Ultra Happy!", "Happupu~", or Nao's "Straight-up bout!" or Reika declaring that "Path X' is a hard one". However, the Bad End Kingdom generals have a certain shared one in order to initiate Bad End space:"The worst possible ending in the world! Be covered in Bad End! Your white future shall be painted black!!" *Bad End space initiated, Heroic BSoD abound, person laughs* "The Bad Energy of *insert relevant infected creature here* will revive the Dark Emperor, Lord Pierrot!!"
- Cherry Blossoms: These are in the background when the girls discuss about various guys around school that Miyuki might like.
- Childish Pillow Fight: During the Kyoto trip, initially Reika resists joining in, till she takes one to the face then its Let's Get Dangerous! mode... the end result ends up spilling a pot of hot coffee on their teacher.
- Children Are Innocent: When Wolfrun, Akaoni, and the Cures are all turned into kids by accident, more time is spent with all 7 playing games than fighting each other. When Majorina shows up to end the fun, even Wolfrun and Akaoni join in on the game of tag the Cures start with her.
- Clark Kenting: Averted for once. Everyone who's snapped out of the Bad End spell easily recognizes the Cures. It doesn't help that Miyuki can't keep her big mouth shut.
- Class Trip: To Kyoto in episode 13, and later Osaka in episode 14, where the villains coincidentally are going too.
- Color-Coded Characters: In addition to their color-coded Nonuniform Uniforms, the girls usually wear street clothes in their designated colors. At their secret base, they even drink out of color-coded mugs.
- Colourful Theme Naming: With the exception of Miyuki, all the Cures have last names related to their signature colors.
- Combat Pragmatist: Episode 6, Majorina tried to prevent the girls from transforming. Then she attacked them while they were posing AFTER transforming.
- Comically Missing the Point: In the "Shaggy Dog" Story episode Miyuki, Akane, Yayoi and Nao were looking at Reika during their remedial class, and Reika concluded that they must be thinking "Don't worry about us, you can go home!". When in truth, they actually meant, "Help us, Reika!!"
- Couch Gag: Every episode featuring the first Ending Theme will start with a different Cure (Happy in episode 1, Sunny in episode 2, and so on and so forth). The second Ending Theme similarly focuses on a different Cure in each episode, this time showing a short skit starring them.
- The show's Eye Catch shows a different character each episode. The first is usually one of the Cures, and the second is Candy in a different outfit (or sometimes, an Akanbe).
- Crash-Into Hello: Miyuki is very savvy and excited to experience this trope. In the first scene of the first episode, she is Late for School and sees a corner; she thinks about this trope, goes full speed into the corner to encounter no one, laments about it for a second, then turns around for a Mentor Mascot to the face.
- Cringe Comedy: Episode 8 has multiple examples of this thanks to Candy, who ends up switching bodies with Miyuki, which results in various embarrassing situations such as Candy drawing doodles on her tests and continuing to say "Kuru" whenever she speaks in front of Miyuki's teachers.
- Curtains Match the Window: All five Cures sport this, moreso in Cure form than civilian.
- Cutesy Name Town: Rainbow Hills note
- Cute Witch: Yayoi becomes this in the Cinderella episode as Miyuki/Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, of course it’s the Witch Classic variety.
- Majorina’s fairy form before she was brainwashed and after she reverted back to normal, and she resembles Pomona Sprout from Harry Potter.
- Dancing Theme: Both ending themes count, complete with CGI dancing of the Precures!
- Darkest Hour:
- Episode 22. Joker has appeared again, curbstomped the Precures, gained the last batch of Bad Energy from them, and runs off with the single remaining Cure Decor to revive Pierrot.
- Episode 47's ending even more so. Just when it seems the ultra forms of the cures seems to defeat Pierrot, he absorbs all the darkness monsters he unleashed into himself and becomes as big as BLACK HOLE!
- David Versus Goliath: Cure Peace VS Akaoni/Brute is enough to fit this bill.
- Death or Glory Attack: Using finishers will leave the Cures exhausted, justifying why they can only use it once per transformation. This lessens as the season goes on, though.
- Debut Queue: The same general deal as Yes! Pretty Cure 5, only played straighter as there's no additional drama concerning Cure Beauty's debut.
- Depending on the Writer: Miyuki's flashback on how she got her optimistic view are different between the TV series and the movie, though the premise is the same; a 'fairy' encouraged her to always smiling so she could have friends. In episode 44, the 'fairy' came from a mirror necklace given by her grandmother, while in the movie, the 'fairy' is actually the main character in a storybook Miyuki read. It can be chalked up that Miyuki is being a Unreliable Expositor, as by forgetting the exact circumstance of her meeting with the 'fairy', the storybook character, AKA Nico, becomes vengeful and it kicks start the movie's plot.
- Different in Every Episode: Peace's Jan-ken-pon/rock-paper-scissors she plays during the Transformation Sequence changes each episode. During the first few episodes, the other characters even comment on this.
- Downer Ending: This is the villains' goal, to give the world a "bad end".
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Averted starting with the second half of Glitter Force. Since the new Super Buffoons use multiple Glitter Charms, they simply have the first two also composed of ones from the episodes they skipped over.
- Dub Name Change:
- Smile Pretty Cure -> Glitter Force
- Marchenland -> Jubiland
- Candy ends up being an Aversion with her name, but she's classified as a "pixie", not a "fairy".
- Wolfrun -> Ulric
- Akaoni -> Brute
- Akanbe/Super Akanbe/Hyper Akanbe -> Buffoon/Super Buffoon/Twilight Buffoon
- Miyuki/Cure Happy -> Emily/Glitter Lucky
- Akane/Cure Sunny -> Kelsey/Glitter Sunny.
- Yayoi/Cure Peace -> Lily/Glitter Peace
- Nao/Cure March -> April/Glitter Spring
- Reika/Cure Beauty -> Chloe/Glitter Breeze
- Joker -> Rascal
- Majorina -> Brooja
- Pierrot -> Nogo
- Bad End Pretty Cure -> Glitter Shadow Force
- Elemental Powers: Each of the Smile Precures have these, one for each Cure with Cure Happy technically getting two. Cure Happy gains The Power of Love and Light 'em Up powers, Cure Sunny gains Playing with Fire, Cure Peace gains Shock and Awe, Cure March gains Blow You Away, and Cure Beauty gains An Ice Person abilities.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Just when we think this season will have no Sixth Rangers, episode 47 has Candy becoming Royale Candy, a Barrier Maiden in the vein of Shiny Luminous.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: In episode 47, we see the Precure's Ultra Forms, which gives them enough of a power boost to defeat Pierrot in his first form.
- Enslaved Tongue: Majorina ruins the comedy contest by using special rings on the guest duo which make them unable to tell jokes or speak in the Kansai dialect, causing their routine to fall flat.
- Epileptic Flashing Lights: It's probably best not to see the team's Transformation Sequence and attack powers if you have epilepsy. Toned down in the US dub by having the scene darken slightly during those moments.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The names of most of Majorina's inventions pretty much describe exactly what it does.
- Exposed to the Elements: In episode 6 Miyuki is accidentally sent to the South Pole in her civvies, and wasn't bothered by the cold... Until she got back to Japan.
- Expy:
- The five Cures have a similar color scheme and even some similar character designs as the Cures of Yes! Pretty Cure 5. The similarities can be chalked up to having the same character designer (Toshie Kawamura) for both series.
- Candy was often described as Potpourri with sheep ears.
- Eye Catch: Normally shows one of the Cures for the beginning side commercial break and Candy afterwards, but in four episodes the commercial end one showed Akanbe.
- Fairy Tale Motifs: All over the place. This is more notable with the Quirky Miniboss Squad; each member is based off a fairy tale villain (Wolfrun, for instance, is based off The Big Bad Wolf).
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Played straight with Yayoi, but averted with Akane and Nao; both girls are Tomboys but they're still excellent cooks.
- Foil: The Bad End Generals to the Cures.
- Wolfrun against Miyuki and Akane. He's a Nietzsche Wannabe, while Miyuki is hopeful and Akane is passionate.
- Akaoni, The Brute, and Yayoi, the crybaby of the team.
- Majorina, who specializes in tricks, vs. Nao's adherence to a straight-up bout.
- And Joker, with his sadism to Miyuki's desire for happiness, and tendency to manipulate his teammates against Reika's role as The Smart Guy.
- Foreign Re-Score: As part of the localization efforts caused by Saban, Takanashi Yasuharu's score (along with all the Image Songs) was cut and replaced with a more generic western-pop soundtrack. This even applies to the CGI dances at the end of each episode, resulting in all of them getting re-animated (to mixed results).
- Fountain of Youth: In episode 38, a potion made by Majorina turns the 5 girls, Wolfrun and Akaoni into kindergartners and Candy into a baby. They turn back to normal 5 minutes before the episode ends.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Like with Yes! Pretty Cure 5 before, the Smile team also has this among 5 people; but it's done a little differently here: Miyuki is Sanguine, Akane and Nao are Choleric, Yayoi is Phlegmatic, and Reika is Melancholic.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: Cinderella gets... weird in episode 39.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Miyuki and Candy in episode 8 end up in each other's bodies and have to go about the day that way.
- Frills of Justice: All five Cures sport angel wing hair decs and tiaras when transformed. Also, both Miyuki and Nao sport ribbons on their hair in civilian form, as does Candy. Yes, even the Mentor Mascot gets a turn in this carousel.
- Frilly Upgrade:
- "Pretty Cure Rainbow Healing" — the girls lose their Feather Motif and gain crowns and a few additional frills during the move.
- Later, in episode 23, the girls get the Princess Forms and Princess Candles exclusively for their new attack, Pretty Cure Rainbow Burst.
- And then they got the Royal Clock, allowing them to use a power-up of the aforementioned attack, Royal Rainbow Burst.
- As if these weren't enough, The Movie has Cure Happy get a third upgrade, Ultra Cure Happy, which takes the "Frilly" part of "Frilly Upgrade" up a notch. The other Cures gain this for the final fight alongside Cure Happy against Pierrot in episode 47.
- Funny Background Event: Two during the ending. The first involves Peace falling on top of March, while the second has Sunny volleying a ball right onto Happy's face.
- Peace's variation of the ending adds a third one to the mix. At the very beginning, she face plants while skipping away from the camera to join the other Cures, and the next time we see her there's a noticeable red spot on her face.
- Gag Dub: The English dub somewhat counts as there are lampshade hangings, Talking Is a Free Action, and the over-the-top sweet speech of Cure Peace. Its reception is quite mixed.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: The Akanbe from episode 39 runs away instead of fighting Cure Happy because it's trying to stall her into missing the midnight deadline (it's a Cinderella reenactment, see), forcing Happy to chase it all over the castle.
- Genre Throwback: Saban’s Glitter Force dub is very much an (unintentional) homage to English dubs from the 90’s and 00’s. With heavy Americanization, rampant censorship and edits including even outright cutting episodes, Glitter Force harkens back to the “Dark Age of English Dubs” (ie pre-2010) without a doubt.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: In episode 38, the Cures are turned into young kids because of Majorina's newest invention; so are Wolfrun and Redoni by accident. So when the two groups meet as kids, they forget their enmity and start playing tag. Justified as being turned into kids gives them the urge to play instead of fight.
- Good Wings, Evil Wings: The Smile Precures have little white angel wings adorning their hair while the Bad End Precures have black bat wings.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: The Cure Decor features as the collectible item this time around.
- Gratuitous English:
- Besides the obvious, episode 7 has a toy shop which has a sign that says "Stuffed Shop."note .
- Despite the good English in episode 36, a letter later comes that is strangely written in a low level for a native speaker. Could be justified that it was written simply so the recipient could have an easier time understanding it.
- Gretzky Has the Ball: The relay race in episode 18 has five runners, while normal relay races in the real world have four.
- Heart Beat-Down: Cure Happy, though not as obvious as some examples. Her attacks have a clear heart-shape to them and she is all for genuine happiness. Bad End Happy's own attacks are heart-shaped too, though she only cares for her own happiness.
- The High Queen/Big Good/King in the Mountain: The Royale Queene of Märchenland. She made a Heroic Sacrifice Taking You with Me after all her Cure Decors are stolen by Pierrot, and is now sleeping. She was expected to wake up when the Cures collected all the Cure Décors, but because Pierrot was revived earlier, instead she grants them the Princess Modes.
- Hime Cut: Reika/Cure Beauty again.
- Hope Spot: At the end of episode 21, it seems like the Cures have accomplished their goal of completing the Décor Décolle and reviving the Royale Queene... When suddenly Joker comes along and steals, not just the last Cure Décor, but also the entire Décor Décolle and Candy.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Cure Happy has a hard time using her finisher, and they're still trying to figure out the strength boost they get from becoming Cures.— "KIAI DA! KIAI DA! KIAI DA! KIAI DAAAAAA!!"
- Hub Level: The Mysterious Library, where all Book Doors are connected to, and where the Cures decide to set up their Clubhouse.
- Humongous Mecha: Happy Robot with Buttlerfly Wings and Rocket Punch, and the Hyper Akanbes of Wolfrun and Akaoni in episode 35. The Hyper Akanbes of Wolfrun and Akaoni double as Combining Mecha.
- Idiot Ball:
- Candy making a fool of Miyuki in episode 8 could've been avoided if they'd claimed she was sick or used some similar excuse to get her out of class.
- Nearly every episode due to an unfortunate oversight in the format of the show, in which the villains always achieve their goal before summoning any Akanbe and the only thing summoning said Akanbe does is allow the Precure to collect a Decor. If they never summoned anything but the blue noses, which don't drop Decors, they would have won by episode 23.
- Inelegant Blubbering: All 5 Precures and especially Candy in the last episode, when they discover they'll have to say goodbye to Candy since the exhausted Miracle Jewel won't allow travel between the worlds. It's pretty effective as a sad scene despite it.
- Interclass Friendship: There's Nao Midorikawa who comes from a big, working class family and Reika Aoki who is part of a wealthy, traditionalist family. The two were Childhood Friends before they became Pretty Cures.
- Invisibility: Episode 20 had Miyuki and Akane turn invisible due to Candy finding a camera that turns things invisible which was created by Majorina.
- ISO-Standard Urban Groceries: In episode 4, Nao is carrying several grocery bags, with a leek protuding from one and a daikon radish from the other, when she encounters the panicking Miyuki on the street.
- Late for School: The stereotype is Played With with Miyuki, her introduction is this but lacking the bread aspect and the Crash-Into Hello was not where she was expecting.
- Laughing Mad: Joker during his Villainous Breakdown.
- Laugh Themselves Sick: Akaoni actually pulls a ROFL (Rolling on the floor laughing) after finding out the Precure have bad luck.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: Several times, the background music slowly fizzles out, including when Happy's attacks fail or miss in the first and second episodes, and when Candy completely fails at explaining the premise of the series in episode 6.
- Light 'em Up: Cure Happy and Royale Candy. Both of them have sparkles in their attacks and a steady glow; pink for Cure Happy and white for Royale Candy. Bad End Happy has these powers too as Cure Happy's Evil Knockoff.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to HeartCatch Pretty Cure! and Suite Pretty Cure ♪, this show is more comedy driven.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Joker's Ball of Neglect that appears in episode 31 and 32. Inside is a Crapsaccharine World where you're drowned in endless pleasure, while you're subtly encouraged to care about nothing but your own indulgences. Joker states quite clearly this is the Bad End waiting for the whole world.
- Luminescent Blush: Constantly. It's somewhat justified in Cure form as they tap themselves with the Smile Pacts' powder puffs while transforming.
- The Magic Goes Away: In the final episode, the Smile Pacts were turned to stone by Pierrot and the Miracle Jewel had the sacrificed just to give a chance of averting the Bad End; the latter forces Candy and Pop to return to Marchenland with the magic of Pretty Cure. Though it presumably comes back in The Stinger.
- Mascot's Name Goes Unchanged: Most characters get Dub Name Changes to go with the Thinly-Veiled Dub Country Change, but the two Fairy Companions keep their names.
- Meaningful Name: For the first time in a Pretty Cure series, the meanings behind the Cures' names are explained and discussed.
- Modesty Shorts: The triumphant return of the more noticeable bike shorts under the Cures' dresses; HeartCatch Pretty Cure! had these but upskirt shots were needed to notice them.
- Monster Mash: The Three Commanders of the Bad End Kingdom are as follows; Wolfrun (a Wolf Man), Akaoni (an Oni), Majorina (a Wicked Witch).
- Monster of the Week: AKANBE/Buffoon! Whose faces have a Monster Clown vibe to them. They even come in multiple flavours:
- Red-nosed Akanbe are the standard for the first half of the series, created from the stolen Cure Decor.
- Blue-nosed Akanbe are weaker than red-nosed Akanbe, but as they are not created from Cure Decor, they are immune to the standard Finishing Moves of the Pretty Cure.
- Yellow-nosed Akanbe seem to share the same traits and strength as red-nosed Akanbe, but like blue-nosed Akanbe are not created from Cure Decor.
- Super Akanbe, made from two Cure Decors, have dark red noses.
- Black-nosed Hyper Akanbe, introduced in episode 31, are made from just one Decor again and can fuse with the Bad End Kingdom generals to give them direct control and boost the Akanbe's power.
- Morphic Resonance: When Miyuki and Candy have a "Freaky Friday" Flip, not only do their voices flip along with them, so do their hairstyles, and Candy's Blush Sticker is given to Miyuki.
- The Moving Experience: Yayoi decides to play an April Fool's joke by saying that she was moving away. However, the person she told it to, Miyuki, believed it wholesale and went to tell everyone. Yayoi's unable to reveal the truth until Akaoni does it for her and the team is quite upset at this... until they realize that they only believed it because Miyuki believed it.
- Mum Looks Like a Sister: Ikuyo Hoshizora and Chiharu Kise. Both look incredibly young to the point where you would be forgiven for thinking they're older siblings and not parents.
- Mythology Gag: Has its' own page.
- Non-Uniform Uniform: Apparently, Rainbow Hills Middle School is quite lax about uniform rules, as a good portion of the students has a different way to wear the uniform. The Cures are no exception, but take it a step further by having ties of their respective colors.
- No Ontological Inertia: Weaponized by Majorina in Episode 35. Earlier in the episode, Majorina's "turn-into-a-robot" gun was accidentally fired on Cure Happy, turning her into Happy Robo - and of course, it can only be used once. When the Precure (sans Cure Happy) manage to work out how to pilot the new Happy Robo and are about to use Happy Robo's finisher on the combined Hyper Akanbe, Happy suddenly reverts to normal, sending the group groundwards. Cut to Majorina, who states that since the gun was one-use only, all she had to do was destroy it to reverse the effects, thus keeping the Akanbe from getting its butt kicked (At least, until Princess Form comes into play).
- Ominous Obsidian Ooze: Dark Paint is said to be the essence of Emperor Pierrot. The Quirky Miniboss Squad break open tubes of it and swipe it across blank books in order to "paint your bright future(s) black", driving the Victim of the Week into near-hopeless despair.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Pierrot, whose idea of a Bad End at the very least' involves ripping out a chunk of the planet''. That's not even getting into his plans for the rest of the universe either. Bad End Sunny too, since she wants to become the sun that burns everything up.
- One-Steve Limit: Aversions:
- It's not like there weren't any Miyukis or Akanes in Pretty Cure before...
- Reika and her grandfather's VAs share the same surname Nishimura.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Candy emerges from a pink book; her brother Pop comes out of a blue book.
- Playing with Fire: Cure Sunny. Her transformation involves fire literally over her body and her hair changes in a fiery fashion. Bad End Sunny, being Cure Sunny's Evil Knockoff, has this too.
- Pocket Dimension: Joker's preferred method of dealing with the Precures following their stopping Pierrot from coming back is to isolate one or more of them in one and deal with them on his own terms. It gives him quite a few options, though none of them ultimately succeed.
- Psychosomatic Superpower Outage: In episode 43, Reika lost her powers as Cure Beauty during a fight with Joker because the latter used the former's conflict between quitting being a Cure and disappointing her friends by not studying abroad to drive her into a breakdown.
- Psycho Rangers: The Bad End Precure created by Joker at the end of episode 45. All five of them physically resemble their respective counterparts and share their Elemental Powers, albeit in a darker form. There are slight differences in hairstyle and major differences in attire, however.
- Pummel Duel: Cure Sunny and Wolfrun get into one after the latter goes completely berserk at the thought of losing to the former.
- Quivering Lip:
- Yayoi's lip briefly wobbles as her eyes well up with Tears of Joy after Miyuki and Akane say she's cool.
- In the series finale, after Candy is sent back to Märchenland, Miyuki's lip quivers and then she breaks down in Inelegant Blubbering, as do all the other girls.
- Race for Your Love: Akane does this in Episode 36.
- Recycled Plot: Some elemnts from the final episode might sound awfully familiar to particularly devoted fans. Because they are taken from the third All Stars DX movie. Pierrot turns into a giant black hole (like the antagonist of the movie) and the Pretty Cure lose the ability to transform, but through the powers of the Miracle Jewel, they can transform one last time. However that would mean that the girls and the fairies won't be able to meet each other again. Cue a tear-breaking scene where they all cry and then they accept this condition. And like in the movie, it doesn't stick. It might be a dedication to the movie more than a recycled plot but it is what it is.
- Redemption Demotion: In the beginning, the fairytale villains start out as badass dark sorcerers with awesome evil magic. Then, after some "We Care About You" nonsense, they're puny little pixies with no powers. What's so great about redemption, anyway?
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Candy and Pop, though Pop doesn't like being described as such.
- The Runaway: In episode 42, two of Nao's siblings leave the house while Nao is in charge (as her parents are at the hospital), without telling her. And then while they're in town, all alone, Majorina finds them and imprisons them inside an apple-shaped Akombe.
- Running Gag:
- It seems like this universe likes throwing things at Miyuki's face.
- Many episodes' plots are kicked off by one of Majorina's newest inventions going missing because of Wolfrun and/or Akaoni, said inventions usually ending up wherever the Pretty Cure are. And she usually runs to the same police station to ask for directions before finding the invention on the Pretty Cure's hands.
- Screaming Warrior: The Cures can sometimes get rather loud when in battle, especially Miyuki.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Episode 29. On the last day of summer vacation, the Cures resolve to stop playing around and finish their summer homework. Instead, they're dragged into a theme park world they're forced to play through all day to escape, and by then it's already too late. Despite the Aesop, they still have to take remedial classes after school for something not their fault.
- Shock and Awe: Cure Peace; her main attack is "Pretty Cure Peace Thunder!" and involves lightning. Bad End Peace is this too, being Cure Peace's Evil Knockoff.
- Shout-Out:
- The way Miyuki pouts every time she says "Happuppu~" might remind you of another unlucky pink-clad Toei main character.
- #5: Cure Peace at one point says "We're just passing-through superheroes..."
- #6: "Gonin sorotte! Go-Pretty Cure!"
- #8: The shots in which Majorina proudly announces the (lazily thought of) names for her body-switch rings and their antidote are a reference to this commercial.
- Also in that same episode, there was a possible shout out to Garfield and Friends. In one "Screaming With Binky" short that played before "Attack of the Mutant Guppies" about a diamond cutter, seconds after Binky disrupts a diamond cutter, he sneezes, blowing away the diamond dust. In the Pretty Cure episode, Akaoni blows away the rings with a sneeze. This might have been a shout out to Akaoni's voice actor doing Binky's voice on the Japanese dub of Garfield and Friends.
- Episode 25 contains another shout-out to Garfield and Friends. Akaoni is the main villain. This is yet again another "Screaming With Binky" shout-out, as in one episode of that quickie, he went to the beach, screamed and disrupted a man building a sandcastle.
- Candy is very similar to another Toei character: Culumon (Calumon) from Digimon Tamers. Not only do they have the same Verbal Tic, but Candy has some special power the bad guys want, just like Culumon did.
- #23: The way Cure Happy uses Happy Shower to avoid falling into lava lake is reminiscent of how Son Goten avoids ring-out during the World Tournament in Buu saga.
- #35 The face of Happy Robot is more like Rosie. Not to mention the episode basically consisted of seeing how many Super Robot cliches and shout outs could fit into one episode. The show even gets Masami Obari in as a guest animator! Additionally, Robotter from that episode's Show Within a Show is basically a slightly re-designed Compatible Kaiser.
- To the Sailor Moon series, there are the Precure's Princesses Form, the Princess Candle looking just like Sailor Moon's Kaleidomoon Scope, and gaining power from the Pegasus but is really a Winged Unicorn.
- #41 When Cure Peace obtains her Ultra Decor and powers up, her stance and energy field almost mimics the Super Saiyan mode from Dragon Ball Z.
- In some episodes of the Glitter Force dub,in Miyuki (Emily) says "It's Glitter Time!" before transforming. Sounds familiar?
- Show Within a Show: Iron Warrior Robotter, an anime of the Super Robot Genre that Yayoi enjoys, and which is the background for the theme of episode 35 (affectionately lampooning those sorts of shows).
- Special Guest: Japanese comedy duo FUJIWARA appear as themselves in Episode 17.
- Spoiler Opening: Aside from the Princess Modes being spoiled in the opening theme, we also see battle footage straight from the opening being reused in Episode 23. And Pierrot's giant hand being reused and mirrored in the final episode.
- Episode 1 of the English adaptation, Glitter Force, begins with Emily having a dream about joining the Glitter Force, which spoils some parts of the first half of the series, including the Princess Forms!
- Spooky Painting: In episode 28, the main cast goes inside the art room to look at the students' drawings pinned to the wall. They all look relatively normal except for one which eventually catches their eye. This picture has a green hooded figure with its back turned and oddly saying "Chew properly". After a few seconds of the girls' staring at it, said figure (Majorina) turns around inside the picture and asks the girls if they'd like a poisoned apple. Unusually for the trope, this is Played for Laughs because 2 of the girls aren't afraid at all: Yayoi (who gets starry-eyed) and Reika (who is simply intrigued). In fact, Miyuki and Akane had to push them out the room so that Nao could slam the door shut behind them.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Invoked by Pop in Episode 33. The girls play in an edo movie with kunoichi Nao as the main character. However, after she's defeated by Jorogumo (Akane) and tries to kidnap Princess Reika, vagabond Pop appears, defeats the villain and goes away, like a lonely samurai hero. Then he tries it to do again, when the girls are trapped by Akaoni's Hyper Akanbe, but he fails, so Candy saves them. And finally, he cuts the movie by himself and removes the recorded Precure scenes, and the movie is only about vagabond Pop and the girls are entirely removed, the latter was to preserve the girls secret identity, though.
- Status Quo Is God: Episode 23 was practically a Season Finale: all of the Cure Decor are recovered, and all of the major villains (including the Big Bad) are fought and defeated thanks to a new Super Mode. Episode 24 reveals that the Big Bad was not destroyed, all of the villains are resurrected, and the show returns to the exact same plot as before: the villains try to collect Bad Energy to revive their Sealed Evil in a Can, while the heroes collect the Cure Decor to revive their Sealed Good in a Can. The director stated in an interview that this was done because he wanted Smile to be "simple".
- Story Arc: The School Trip Arc from Episode 12 to 14 (see Class Trip above)
- Student Council President: Reika is the vice president until episode 37, where she is elected president. Wolfrun, Akaoni, and Majorina got the idea to run after seeing the trope played straight on TV, and turned themselves human to do just that.
- Super Mode: The Princess Forms, which lets them use their most powerful group finishers and, later on, Ultra Forms, which gives them enough strength to beat a Pierrot the size of Black Hole.
- Take a Third Option: Episode 29, during the game level 5. Wolfrun vs Cure Beauty in a swimming contest. There's an Akanbe-Shark on Beauty's line, her options are either stare the Akanbe while stuck in place, or jump and swim with the Akanbe hunting her underwater. Solution: Precure Beauty Blizzard the WHOLE POOL (with Wolfrun), then get to the goal by ice-skating.
- Talking Is a Free Action: The girls have a long conversation towards the end of Episode 9, while Akaoni and the Akanbe of the Week just sit around waiting for them to finish before continuing the fight.
- Teleporter Accident: When your means of instantaneous travel involves imagining the place you want to go to, you probably should not be thinking about penguins.
- Theme Naming: Every Cure name is a word which you make a smile when saying. This also applies to the dub.
- 13 Is Unlucky: Episode 13, where Miyuki has an incredible streak of bad luck during their Class Trip to Kyoto.
- Throw It In!: In-Universe in Episode 33. The Director allows the main cast to go so far Off the Rails that it must be seen to be believed.
- Toilet Humour:
- Rare for a Precure series (unless you count the Heart Seeds and the episode of Fresh where Chiffon is constipated), but after drawing a Terrible Luck Fortune a bird flies by and poops on Miyuki's head.
- In episode 10, Majorina says she made a potion from frog farts.
- In episode 38, poop flies out of Baby Candy's diaper when Kindergartner Yayoi trips on a rock.
- Transformation Is a Free Action: Reinforced in Episode 4 — Akaoni waited until Peace's Transformation Name Announcement to try to beat her at Rock–Paper–Scissors (Jan-Ken-Pon). Peace threw "paper" instead of the expected "scissors"/V-Sign, much to Akaoni's disappointment.
- Troperiffic: The previous installments had flowers and music, now it's Fairy Tales, so this is probably inevitable. The main character, being an absolute fairy tale otaku, lampshades and sometimes invokes tropes.
- Verbal Tic:
- Candy ends her sentences with "-kuru" (possibly a pun on "Decor"). On the other hand, her brother Pop uses "-de gozaru".
- Invoked by Miyuki when Pop turns the girls into fairies. All the girls but Akane embrace the idea, with some of them continuing briefly after turning back into humans.
- Visible Invisibility: Partial Transparency and Complete Invisibility are demonstrated when Miyuki and Akane run afoul of Majorina's "Become Invisible", as seen here, here, and here. It's even possible to see both methods used simultaneously in some parts of the episode.
- Walk on Water: The Ending Theme has the Cures dance on water.
- Wingding Eyes:
- Miyuki and Candy get these all the time. During the Kyoto trip Miyuki pretty much goes though the list with Spirals, Xs, Dull Eyes of Unhappiness and even random scribbles for eyes.
- And in Episode 33, Yayoi gets hearts for eyes◊ after seeing Pop in human form for the first time.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The three Bad End generals, who are actually fairies from Märchenland. Because they were based on villains of fairy tales, they were hated and treated badly for no reason other than the fact, even if they weren't even doing anything at the time. This gave Joker the perfect chance to change them.
- Youkai:
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Joker in Episode 31 simply opts to hang back after the Monster of the Week is defeated and the Mid-Season Upgrade revealed, and simply ambushes and takes out four of the five Precure with little fuss while they're busy celebrating.
