Anime / Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure

"Transform using make-up! Invincible motivation! Let's get tropical together!"

Clockwise, starting from top left: Cure Flamingo, Cure Papaya, Cure Coral, Cure Summer, Cure La Mer

Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure is the 18th installment of the Pretty Cure franchise and the 16th continuity. It is preceded by Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure and followed by Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure.

Manatsu Natsuumi is an impulsive first-year student who moves from Minamino Island to Aozora City. Things turn upside down when she meets Laura, a mermaid who is trying to protect the Grand Ocean (home of mermaids) from the menace of the Witch of Procrastination (who is planning to capture Laura). Manatsu becomes Cure Summer, and must now put an end to the nightmarish menace of the Witch, accompanied by Sango Suzumura as Cure Coral, Minori Ichinose as Cure Papaya and Asuka Takizawa as Cure Flamingo.

On February 28, 2021, it became the first Pretty Cure to be released in late winter.

Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure contains examples of:

• All Just a Dream:
  • The story when the Tropical Rouge cures watch a video showing the HeartCatch team's Transformation Sequence in episode 33 turns out to be All Just a Dream that Tsubomi had.
  • Speaking of episode 33, the story in which Kururun transforms into a Pretty Cure was just a dream it had.
• Animal Motif: Cure Papaya has a Monkey Motif and Cure Flamingo naturally has flamingos.
• Animation Bump:
  • Episode 29 gets a huge one with "camera angles", smooth action sequences and major model consistency, especially since this is an episode where the Cures get their new finisher.
  • Episode 45 similarly gets one for the Final Battle.
• Bait-and-Switch: In Episode 31, viewers are led to believe that Manatsu, Sango and Minori are following Asuka's train because they want to stay with her during her school trip. In reality, they just want to give her a pillow that was dropped from her bag and the only one who wanted to actually follow Asuka because of the trip was Laura. At the end of the episode, they leave Asuka and return home.
  • Also, earlier Asuka seems about to confront Numerii at a station, but instead of fighting, she hops on the train right before departing, leaving a dumbfounded Numerii behind.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Manatsu is this in spades. Both as a civilian and as a Cure.
• BFS: Not in any fights, but Asuka helps set one up as a prop for the Tropical Club Graduation Festival's play.
• Bond One-Liner: After utilizing her finisher, each Cure shouts "Victory!" before the Yarane-da explodes.
• Book Ends: The first and last episode (along with a flashback scene in Episode 37) all involve Laura and Manatsu meeting by a heart-shaped rock at Aozora City.
• Breaking Old Trends: Several.
  • First season to not have a pink Cure. While Summer does have some pink in her, it's not her color, instead being white and rainbow.
  • First season to not have a talking mascot. Arguably, Kururun's role is also very minor unlike that of previous mascots.
  • The finale breaks a couple of trends that previous seasons have been holding up. It still holds up as an "epilogue" episode after the conflict with the Final Boss.
    • This is the second season in a row that doesn't have a Distant Finale whatsoever, instead focusing on the present.
    • Surprisingly, Cure Precious/Yui Nagomi doesn't show up at all in the final episode, which has been a tradition since Mahou. She does appear in the post-credits in Japanese broadcast though.
    • Besides of Cure Precious not appearing, there is no Post-Final Boss at all (usually it's a remnant of a Monster of the Week). In fact, the Pretty Cure don't transform at all in the episode proper, only transforming in the cold open as beginning as a minor gag which is revealed to be All Just a Dream. The rest of the episode focuses on the Tropical Club graduation festival and Laura's departure.
  • First series without an All-Star movie since Yes! Pretty Cure 5.
    • Also the first series with only one movie since Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star (if we are to include the two seasons of Yes into a single series).
• By the Power of Grayskull!: For this series, it's "Pretty Cure! Tropical Change!"
• Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: This trope is used by Manatsu and her friends as an excuse to leave the classroom to stop a Yaraneda in episode 25.
• The Cameo:
  • In episode 33, one of the video thumbnails on ToRobu features Himari Arisugawa.
  • In the same episode, we get a voiced cameo of the Heartcatch Pretty Cure.
  • Nodoka, Chiyu and Hinata can be seen in the crowd at the end of The Movie.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The show's lighthearted tone about motivation being stolen and the girls saving the day becomes slightly more serious as stronger variants of Yaraneeda are introduced, but things take a far more serious turn during Episodes 29, 36, 42, and 43 when Butler decides to really show how serious things can get. Episode 29 introduces a more powerful Yaraneeda variant which attacks the entire city at once, Episode 36 introduces an even more powerful variant which uses live creatures as a host and is immune to everything thrown so far, Episode 42 involves Butler succeeding with draining an entire city of its motivation, and the following episode reveals he's been calling the shots and wants to destroy the world.
  • The movie itself is also one; It shows an entire kingdom being destroyed by a comet strike, and Sharon, the sole survivor of said strike, ends up essentially dying after her power fades, despite the Cures purifying her.
• Charm Point: The main characters each have a physical feature that acts as their charm point, which are emphasized when they transform into Cures:
  • Manatsu has her lips, as her most treasured item is her mother's lipstick; when she turns into Cure Summer, she gets bright pink lipstick.
  • Sango has her cheeks, as she works at her mother's makeup store; when she turns into Cure Coral, she gains heart-shaped Blush Stickers.
  • Minori has her eyes, which are normally framed by her glasses; when she turns into Cure Papaya, she gets large turquoise eyelashes.
  • Asuka has her hair, which is the longest and spikiest of the group; when she turns into Cure Flamingo, it becomes even longer and spikier.
  • Laura has her nails, which are emphasized when she turns from a mermaid into a human; when she turns into Cure La Mer, she gains nail polish (cyan on her fingers and pink on her toes).
• Cliffhanger: A rare example that happens after the final battle. Episode 45 ends with the Queen asking Laura whenever she wants to return to Grand Ocean and become queen herself or remain on the surface and stay with her friends, all the while Manatsu is watching.
• Clip Show: Episode 41 involves Minori trying to get ideas for a play she and the other Cures are putting on, so she asks them about how they met Manatsu and Laura which results in showing scenes from earlier episodes. Meanwhile, the villains are brainstorming ways to defeat the Cures which also involves showing more reused footage.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: During Episode 16, the ice cream that Manatsu, Sango, Minori, Asuka, and Laura are eating are colored based on their colors as Cures, with the same ice cream being made as a super-sized stack in the intro, with Manatsu's being a pink/blue/white mix and Laura's being a pink/blue mix. This also serves as Foreshadowing to Laura's transformation to Cure La Mer.
• Combat Stilettos: As per Precure Tradition. However, Minori averts this at first wearing proper shoes as Cure Papaya, then the whole team does in their Excellent Tropical Style where they are all barefoot.
• Crossover: The Movie will also feature the cast of HeartCatch Pretty Cure!.
• Dancing Theme: While the ending theme is this as per Pretty Cure tradition, the opening theme also shows the girls, their friends, and even the villains dancing at various points.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Instrumental versions of the show's opening and first ending theme are heard playing over the school's loudspeakers in episode 13.
• Different in Every Episode: After gathering the team together, each episode Manatsu has a different pre-battle phrase (usually related to the theme of the episode) before they announce their team name. However, "Another Lively Day" is generally used pretty often.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Episode 33's opening is sung by the voice cast of the Cures.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Cure Summer makes a cameo on the last episode of Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure.
• Exotic Eye Designs: The Cures in this series have heart-shaped highlights in their civilian form, which is further expressed in Cure form where the "heart" in their eyes takes on a different color from the rest of their pupil.
• Evolving Credits: From Episode 19 onward, backing vocals are added to the opening, with Laura in her Cure form showing up starting in episode 31.
• Fatal Flaw: All the Cures have one at one point in the anime, which they manage to overcome with time:
  • Manatsu is obsessively afraid of messing up.
  • Sango is afraid of speaking her own opinion.
  • Minori is terrified of her stories being judged negatively.
  • Asuka has trust issues and would rather stay alone.
  • Laura is too arrogant and prideful.
  • Aunete only sees the good in people.
• Feud Episode:
  • Episode 2 involves Manatsu and Laura getting into an argument over the latter's mission to find other potential Cures clashing with Manatsu's school life. They make up by the end of the episode after Manatsu feels guilty about lashing out at Laura.
  • Episode 20 involves the Tropical Club's quarrelling for the first time and almost falling apart after a Premium Tropical Melon Bread that Manatsu wins goes missing and they all accuse each other of stealing it.
• Filler: Episode 33 is this. It has absolutely no relevance to the plot and it's just a nonsense episode. Although that may be becasue it's a Breather Episode, considering that all other episodes are all relevant to the protagonists' personal growth and the story in general.
• Final Boss: Butler serves as the final obstacle for the Cures to face after the Witch of Delays is peacefully dealt with by Cure Oasis
• Foreshadowing: In episode 36, it's rather suspicious that the Gran Ocean is suddenly in a full and recovered state, but there are a few signs that things aren't as what they seem.
  • Everyone's motivation seems to have gotten back with no explanation whatsoever. The last time Laura had spoken with the Queen, they were still slowly recovering.
  • When Manatsu acts informal around the Queen, the others call her out on being disrespectful. The Queen herself doesn't seem to mind at all, not even making a comment about it.
  • The Queen doesn't really act affectionate towards Kururun. Kururun tries to go towards the Queen's hand and notices that something is off. When they meet the real queen later, she immediately pets Kururun upon seeing them.
• Forgotten First Meeting:
  • Episode 37 reveals that Manatsu and Laura had actually met for the first time when they were children, although Laura kept her identity as a mermaid from Manatsu. After Laura's memories of these events were erased as per mermaid law, Manatsu, while initially saddened by Laura suddenly disappearing, eventually moved on with her life and forgot about their first meeting, part of her mantra coming from the need to get over that one incident.
  • Throughout the series, references are made to Aunete encountering the Witch of Delays, and a battle they had in the past of Aozora City. Episode 43 reveals that, when the Witch was the Witch of Destruction, she was injured badly by some cannons, and Aunete nursed her back to health, earning the latter the powers of Cure Oasis. When the Witch discovered her nemesis was also her first and only real friend, she surrendered peacefully, and conveniently forgot to do anything, so she'd not need to face Aunete in battle.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: Minori and Laura swap bodies in episode 15 after Minori gets sucked into the pot.
  • One Anthology story in Episode 33 take this to egregious levels where all five girls, Kururun, Chongire and the accompanying Chou Zettai Yaraneeda all swap bodies when the monster lands on top of all of them.
• Halloween Episode: Episode 35 shows the girls joining their school's Halloween festival. This specific episode deserves a special mention as it aired exactly on October 31, the day Halloween is traditionally celebrated.
• Hammerspace Hideaway: The Aqua Pot is a small tablet-like object that Laura and Kururun live in, and which Manatsu carries around. It isn't limited to just them either as they're also able to bring in other objects to store, but Episode 15 shows that it strictly can only allow Laura or Kururun inside.
• Heel–Face Turn: Chongiire, Numerii and Elda aren't very pleased by the fact that the Witch wants to destroy the world. When the Witch is finally resting and Butler takes up the objective of destroy the world, the three helps the Cures in the final battle. After the motivation is given back, the three leave apologizing to the Cures for all the trouble they've caused.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog:
  • In episode 25, Manatsu says she needs to use the toilet when a Yaraneda is attacking the school, and Sango and Laura agree. This was used as an excuse for the girls to go outside of the school to transform into Pretty Cure.
  • In episode 31, Asuka uses the excuse that she needs the toilet to deal with Laura, who snuck in her bag via the Mermaid Aqua Pot.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In episode 6, while the group is putting together a monthly schedule for club activities, Manatsu suggests dedicating Sunday mornings to Pretty Cure, referencing how the franchise has always aired new episodes on Sunday mornings.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Chongiire, Numerii and Elda are extremely lazy, but if chances are they actually have to fight, they are shown to be competent and strong fighters. This is even more obvious in the final battle, where they manage hold off decades of Kowasunda.
  • The Witch of Delays is even worse than the three above, but once she remembers that she's actually the Witch of Destruction, she proves to be worthy of her previous name.
  • In the final battle, Butler apparently defeats the Cures and sends them into a pit. They are then seen lying on the ground calmly chatting to each other. Then they shrug off the damage they're inflicted, get up and declaring that they will never give up. Right after that, they completely defeat Butler.
• Lighter and Softer: The show is initially a lot more lighthearted, especially compared to its predecessor. Most of the series involves the girls and their Tropical Club, plus the villains (besides Butler) have a lot more redeeming traits and just treat their assaults as if they need to get their work done. However, the show does take a more serious turn as more stronger variants of Yaraneeda are introduced, and the stakes are at its highest when it reveals that Butler plans on destroying the world with the stolen motivation and the Fool's Casket.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • When the Tropical Club gets their Aqua Pot confiscated by the Disciplinary Committee who deem it a banned item, Minori points out a school rule that states that items approved by a club advisor (in this case, Manatsu and Sango's homeroom teacher) can be brought to school, allowing them to reclaim it.
  • The Witch of Delays' major delay. Due to her close friendship with Aunete, she was constantly for decades claiming she'd get up and do something tomorrow, knowing full well that tomorrow never can truly arrive.
  • Laura uses long skirts and Tailfin Walking to be able to interact with people, both avoiding revealing herself to be a mermaid, but also joining in club activities. After Episode 18, It becomes a moot point, since she can switch between her legs and tail at will, becoming both a full time student of the school and member of the Tropical Club.
  • The epilogue implies that despite the law about erasing any memories of humans and mermaids interacting, there might not be much they can do if the machine that erases them ends up overloading and causes the memories to be restored as a result.
• Magical Barefooter: The Cures are all barefoot when they change to their Excellent Tropical Style.
• Meaningful Name: See this page's dedicated section for examples.
• Missing Child: In episode 45, Manatsu's parents have no idea where their daughter or Laura are in the middle of a particularly deadly storm brought about by the Big Bad's plans.
• Motif: The series has a tropical theme, including coral, papaya, and flamingo. It also has a makeup theme.
• Mouth Taped Shut: In Episode 16, Laura gets kidnapped by the villains, and to prevent her from being so noisy, Butler tapes her mouth shut.
• Muggles Do It Better: In the Witch of Delays' backstory back when she was known as the "Witch of Destruction", her first attempt at destroying the worlds was stopped by humanity without any help from a Cure. The 18th/19th century weaponry (cannons) managed to wound her with the girl that would become Cure Oasis nursing her to full health. Because of this, the Witch created the Kowasundas to destroy their armies and weapons first before going on the offensive herself with the mermaids giving Aunete the power to transform into Cure Oasis to stop her.
• Mythology Gag: Has its own page.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The preview for Episode 7 is initially presented as the Cures gaining their Group Finisher, something that's a general tradition around the Episode 10-11 mark as a response to the villains starting to play tougher. This came out as a surprise due to the fact this was Elda's first episode to attack. However, the actual scene was an Imagine Spot by Laura assuming Kururun brought a "power-up item" and the actual item ended up being sweets from the Grand Ocean Palace.
• New Transfer Student:
  • Manatsu starts the series moving to Aozora City.
  • Laura joins the school in episode 18.
• Not Me This Time: In episode 12, after learning that the school's Disciplinary Committee has been singling out the Tropical Club alone in their suspicions about the mermaid rumors, Asuka goes to confront Yuriko about this, only for her to reveal that she has nothing to do with the committee's investigation.
• Not Too Dead to Save the Day: Cure Oasis advises the Queen of the Mermaid Kingdom and provides assistance to Manatsu and Laura, seeming to see a similarity in their relationship, to their relationship and that of her with the Witch Of Delays, even personally ending the life of the Witch herself.
• Once an Episode: Manatsu gives a slightly different In the Name of the Moon speech every episode. Including, of all things, a Shout-Out to Himitsu Sentai Gorenger.
• One-Gender Race: In the first three episodes we're shown the Mermaid Kingdom, and the mermaids are all female.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The only time the Cures aren't smiling at the end of their transformation sequence is right before the final battle against Butler. Notably, the Tropical-Rouge is the only group where the Cures change their expressions in one of their transformation sequence.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: The costumes of the Cures have elements from mermaids and sailors. Lampshaded by Cure La Mer, who is a mermaid princess.
• Pictorial Letter Substitution: The logo replaces the two small lines in "ジ" with water droplets.
• Potty Emergency: The Witch of Delays has one in one of the segments in episode 33, but decides to put it off until tomorrow.
• Recycled Animation: Generally a norm for the Pretty Cure series overall, but during the Marine Beat Dynamic (which is led by La Mer instead of Summer), every other frame that doesn't introduce anything new reuses the Land Beat Dynamic animation (including the "Victory!" Bond One-Liner) has Summer front and center instead of La Mer.
• Recycled Soundtrack: There are instances where the show reuses BGM from Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Chongire, Numeri, and Elda are unaffected by the memory sucking machine due to it only working on humans and Gran Ocean Fairies, which none of them are. Laura makes use of this to regain her memories of her friends by giving them instructions on where she can reunite with them.
• School Club Front: The main group sets up the Tropical Club at their school, which Manatsu describes as a club that does what's important right now. It's nearly rejected by the student council president for having a vague goal. Apart from being a front to allow them to discuss their activities as Pretty Cures, the members bounce around between different activities and also use their club room as a place to hang out.
• Scooby Stack: The Cures do one near the end of episode 14.
• Screaming Warrior: During the battle between Cure Oasis and the Witch of Destruction in episode 44, both keep screaming over and over again with each attack.
• Shout-Out:
  • Asuka's introduction scene is nearly identical to Makoto Kino's.
  • The game that Asuka plays in Episode 6 is a reference to Animal Crossing.
  • An Imagine Spot in Episode 7 has the girls imagine a power up item in the form of a large cannon, a lot like the older Team Bazookas from Super Sentai.
  • The Zenzen Yaraneeda's attack on Cure Papaya and Cure Flamingo in Episode 11 is a possible reference to Wipeout (2008)
  • A WonderSwan can be seen among the items confiscated by the Disciplinary Committee in episode 12.
  • Both the book and Disney movie of The Little Mermaid are referenced as a buildup to Laura becoming human.
  • Episode 18's Zenzen Yaraneeda is a serpent that can coil itself up in a very similar manner to the kaiju Nurse from Ultraseven.
  • Episode 29 shows Manatsu breaking free from a monster...while doing a pose reminiscent of the moment when an Ultraman enlarges.
  • Episode 34's Chou Zettai Yaraneeda is a direct reference to the titular mecha of Mazinger Z, using its various attacks such as Breast Fire, Photon Beam, Rocket Punch, along with utilizing the antagonist's usual chariot to substitute for its Jet Pilder.
• Strong as They Need to Be: The Pretty Cures and Yaraneedas are generally as strong as they need to be for plot convenience. The first episodes that the stronger Yaraneeda variants are introduced, they are shown singlehandedly annihilating the Cures until they come up with their respective finisher. However, if the episode happens to focus on a particular Cure, expect that Cure to quickly turn things around against ANY variant of a Yaraneeda and set Laura up for the Aqua Pot (if stolen motivation is involved) and then for the respective finisher, even if they were to have gotten destroyed in another episode that isn't about them.
• Student Council President: Yuriko Shiratori, who first appears in Episode 5.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Laura's first day at a human school doesn't go well for her. She might have extensive knowledge on anything related to the ocean (which photosynthesis is applied to), but she has no idea on surface elements such as mountain ranges or human culture. Additionally, since she's not used to her legs, she easily suffers the Seiza Squirm compared to everyone else. This also bites her when she tries to swim as a human, as her skills at swimming as a mermaid doesn't translate too well to human limb movements, and she flunks her Swim Club test flailing in the water.
  • In Episode 25, after Elda fails to gather motivation, Numeri tells her that she'll give a good word for her. The following episode, Butler doesn't buy any of that and tells her to make up for her slack.
  • Episode 30 has Laura running for student council president. However, a Yaraneeda attack inconveniently happens when Laura is telling her speech and it's Laura's turn to be the one to save the day, so Manatsu and the others decide to fight off the Yaraneeda. As Laura is concerned about her friends, she decides to help them, but does so without clarifying about the election rules. Generally running away from a speech like that means conceding, but Laura wasn't too aware of that.
  • In episode 31, during the flashback, Asuka spots competitors from a rival school preparing to sabotage her partner Yuriko's tennis racket. She immediately confronts them and pins both to the lockers in order to stop them. No one else witnessed the attempted tampering, but plenty of people saw Asuka using violence to stop them. Even though she is telling the truth, Asuka lacks proof of the attempted sabotage, and a violent response remains a very negative image. The rival school threatened to go public with it unless Asuka and Yuriko withdraws from the competition, which leaves them in between a rock and a hard place.
• Theme Naming: Several of the names in this season include something related to water or the ocean, fitting with the season's tropical/ocean motif. See this page's dedicated section for examples.
• Toilet Humor: During the post-credits scene at the end of episode 46, Manatsu steps in dog poop.
• Town Girls: Asuka is the butch, Laura and Sango are the femme and Manatsu and Minori are the neither.
• Underwater City: Grand Ocean is a vast city made of coral and stone. It is populated with anthropomorphic sea life and mermaids and thus can only exist under the sea.
• Unscaled Merfolk: The Witch of Procrastination's minions are all different non-fish sea creatures (seahorse, hermit crab, sea slug, shrimp) with humanoid forms, with the Witch herself looking like an eel with a build like Ursula from Disney's The Little Mermaid.
• Voices Are Mental: The "Freaky Friday" Flip between Laura and Minori in episode 15 switches their voices.
• Voices Are Not Mental: In contrast to episode 15, episode 33’s "Freaky Friday" Flip fiasco has everyone using the voices of the bodies they inhabit, leading to Sango and Chongire talking like each other, the Yaraneda speaking with Laura’s voice, etc.
• Wham Episode: Even though the season is relatively lighthearted and less serious than the preceding one, there are still a couple of episodes that really take a dramatic turn and raise the stakes hard.
  • Episode 10 follows a common tradition in Precure series in where the villains start stepping it up and introduces the Zenzen Yaraneeda which can tank the normal finishing attacks. Additionally it shows that not even the heroes are safe from getting their motivation sapped, which Manatsu learned the hard way.
  • Episode 29 raises those stakes again by introducing a more powerful Yaraneeda variant and Butler finally getting his fins dirty and personally leading an assault. It also introduces the Legendary Pretty Cure and the Land Beat Dynamic finisher.
  • Episode 36 is definitely a huge step up compared to the rest of the series. First of all, the villains manage to introduce an even more powerful Yaraneeda variant and almost obliterate the Pretty Cure. Secondly, Butler manages to steal the Marine Ring right in front of them as their sincerity revealed its location. Thirdly, a memory sucking machine is shown to be in the palace, with the villains admitting that it was there before they raided it.
  • The following episode is also a huge one in terms of the memory sucking machine in the previous episode. It's revealed that by law of the Gran Ocean, all mermaids who see or interact with humans are forced to get their memories sucked by said machine and have their memories stored in a shell. Additionally, Laura herself was subject to this when she was younger, revealing that she herself met Manatsu long ago (although Manatsu was unaware she was a mermaid) and that Laura and the Queen herself would be forced to the same memory wipe once the whole conflict is over.
  • Episode 43 is a major one for the relationship between Butler and the Witch. It turns out that Butler has been keeping the Witch completely unaware of her past, and that the Fool's Casket will cause all the life force on the planet to be transferred to whoever opens it. Also, it's strongly implied the Witch wasn't the one who tried to open it in the past, when the Queen reveals she failed to become a Cure trying to stop them...
• Wham Line: See examples here.
• Wham Shot: After the Sixth Ranger debuts in episode 17, the girls de-transform and realize Laura doesn't have a mermaid tail anymore, but human legs.
  • In Episode 43, the original owner of Laura's Cure Pact is revealed to be The Queen herself.
  • In the final episode, a picture of the Tropical Club is shown twice, first during the cold opening, and a second time after the memory machine's activation. In the second instance, there is a clear gap where Laura had once stood, revealing the extent to which someone's presence is removed by the machine.

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