And they all come from one place.
Via Lactea—the kingdom beyond the stars—to be specific. The source of all light in the universe, the place that all hope is born from. Governed by King Altair and Queen Vega, life fostered peacefully under their rule—but after a time, they began to fear for the safety of their kingdom. If they were attacked, who would protect them? Keeping this in mind, the two created the Pretty Cure, selecting the 12 brightest stars to guard the star system. The 12 Pretty Cure settled on the place known as Earth, feeling it needed the most protection.
And for a time, all was well.
Except then it wasn't.
35 years ago, Ophiuchus attacked. Wiping out 11 of the Pretty Cure, only Cure Leo and Usami, one of the mascots, survived—and only because they were forced to flee. In the present day, Cure Leo—Hirui Hidama—has done her best to distance herself from the tragedy, having married and moved away. Having lost her ability to transform due to her guilt, Hirui lives a normal life.
But Ophiuchus is rising again. And what happens when it's Hirui's daughter who must rise up and become a Pretty Cure?
Starshine! Pretty ✰ Cure is a Pretty Cure fanseries created by kithecat, centering around the western zodiac, stars, and constellations. It can be read on Livejournal
, Dreamwidth, AO3 or Fanfiction.Net. As of 2018, the series is officially complete.
Pretty Cure:
- Mei Hidama (Cure Aries): The main character. The oldest of three siblings, Mei is kind-hearted and friendly—but can snap if pushed too far. As Cure Aries, Mei controls the power of fire.
- Ushio Hoshizora (Cure Pisces): Mei's best friend. Ushio wears her emotions on her sleeve and is extremely protective of those close to her. As Cure Pisces, she controls the power of water.
- Sumire Mabataki (Cure Virgo): A shy rich girl who becomes one of Mei and Ushio's friends. Becomes a Pretty Cure when their friendship restores her faith in the world. As Cure Virgo, she controls the power of earth.
- Ibuki Kousei (Cure Libra): A transfer student halfway through the series. Her One of the Boys nature directly contrasts her manner of dressing as prettily as she can. As Cure Libra, she controls the power of wind.
- Hirui Hidama (Cure Leo): The only Cure of the previous generation alive. The guilt of her teammates' demise haunts her. She regains the ability to transform in episode 17, though she's much weaker now. As Cure Leo, she also controls the power of fire.
- Naori Hoshino (Cure Ophiuchus): After having a Heel–Face Turn, Naori is adopted by the Tachibana family and spends several episodes unwilling to reveal her past to her new friends. After the events of episode 14, it's revealed her potential to become a Pretty Cure was what caused Omega to brainwash her. She finally awakens in episode 20.
Allies:
- Usami: The orphaned Mentor Mascot. A rather cute, cheerful blue teddy bear. He has mild light-based powers, focused on shielding.
The Serpens:
- Ophiuchus: The Big Bad, a Creepy Child with equally creepy eyes. Too wounded to leave The Void, the members of the Serpens do her dirty work - at least at first. But things take a turn for the unexpected when Ophiuchus has a Heel–Face Turn...
- Rasalhague: The Kirk of the trio and the Nice Guy. Considers Ophiuchus a little sister. Revealed to be a piece of Ophiuchus' own Inner Star and represents her superego.
- Cebalrai: The Spock of the trio and the seemingly Emotionless Girl. Serves Ophiuchus without question. Also revealed to be a piece of Ophiuchus herself. Revealed to be a piece of Ophiuchus's own Inner Star and represents her ego.
- Marfik: The McCoy of the trio and the Bratty Half-Pint. Will do whatever Ophiuchus asks, but seems to have feelings that run a little deeper. Revealed to be a piece of Ophiuchus's own Inner Star and represents her id.
- Omega: The REAL Big Bad, whoever Omega used to be, it's definitely not human anymore. After Ophiuchus escapes, Omega enslaves the rest of the Serpens but is bested in episode 20, forcing him to change tactics.
This fanseries contains examples of:
- Brought Down to Normal: Hirui, for a majority of the story. Though she regains her ability to transform in episode 17, years of disuse means she can only stay transformed for short periods of time, and Hirui even admits she won't be useful for anything more than training. In episode 24, she finally gives up the ghost, citing the current team is the future.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Arata towards Mei and vice versa. Ibuki towards Sumire and vice versa. On the non romantic side of things, Naori spends several episodes wrestling with telling everyone the truth about her.
- Childhood Friends: Mei and Arata, even though Arata wishes there was more to it.]] Mei finally admits in episode 15 she wishes it was more as well.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Arata finally confesses in episode 25, pointing it in this direction - but Omega attacks before the two can make it official.
- Color-Coded Elements: The 12 Cures are divided up into four elements, just like the actual zodiac signs. While each element has a set color (fire = red, water = blue, earth = gold, wind = purple), the individual Cure colors can differ while still staying in the same color type. Hence why Aries is red, but Leo is orange. Ophiuchus breaks this slightly - although she uses white like proper light types would, her accent color is green, because of her ties to the Serpens.
- Combined Energy Attack: Starshine Miracle Wish. Also all the Cures channeling their power into Ophiuchus's finisher in episode 20.
- Coming-Out Story: Averted! Sumire reveals she likes girls during episode 7 and is met with nothing but support. Ibuki is good naturedly teased about her crush on Sumire by her brothers, but is definitely supported by her family on the matter.
- Curtains Match the Window: When transformed, all the Pretty Cure's hair colors match their eye colors.
- Custom Uniform: Each Cure outfit is subconsciously created by the girls, transforming them into something they'd WANT to wear.
- Elemental Powers: Playing with Fire for Aries and Leo, Making a Splash for Pisces, Green Thumb for Virgo, Blow You Away for Libra and Light 'em Up for Ophiuchus.
- Elsewhere Fic: Starshine and PCBE share the same universe, but their locations are different.
- Hime Cut: Chie.
- Heel–Face Turn: Naori. Having regained her memories and expelled the dark energy keeping her captive, she declares she wants to start over and atone. It doesn't help that she was essentially Forced into Evil. She's hoping for the same with the rest of the Serpens. It finally succeeds in episode 20.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The previous Pretty Cure sacrificed their lives to enable Naori's freedom sometime in the future. The episode list has shown for a long time someone's doing this in episode 27 too.
- Improbable Age: Naori falls under this - logically, she should be the same age as Hirui, but hasn't grown a day past 10. This is because of being turned into a puppet by Omega, it caused her to stop aging. Usami falls under this as well, but considering how long he's been around, it's likely he just ages really slowly.
- In the Name of the Moon: Naturally, each Cure has her introduction.
- Meaningful Name: One of the author's favorite things.
- Mystical White Hair: Rasalhague has white hair and after being healed, Cebalrai and Marfik become white haired as well. With Rasalhague being closest to Naori and being the middle ground of the trio, he had the most goodness of the three.
- Myth Arc: Every episode moves the plot forward bit by bit. Even the breather episodes.
- No Fourth Wall: The next episode previews. Mei even wails in the first episode that this isn't how Precure works and when new members join the team, the characters often gush about it in the previews. If a preview turns out to be false, the characters comment on it as well. Lampshaded in the episode 21 preview, when Ushio comments that it's taken too long to get to the point they are in the story.
- Original Character
- Personality Powers: Yes and no. Sumire is a rather kind and gentle person, befitting of her nature based powers, and Ibuki flits from thing to thing to resemble her air powers—but Mei is far too even-tempered to "fit" the fire-type personality and the same can be said for Ushio, who is far too Hot-Blooded to fit the water-personality. Hirui plays the fire-type personality more straight, and Naori fits her light-type personality fairly well once she starts opening up more.
- Posthumous Character: Proxima, the holder of the Ophiuchus star before Naori got a hold of it. Deneb also might count.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Thriceover, in fact, and they're tied together. Omega's destruction of the Centauri Kingdom led to Proxima being snubbed and Proxima's death is what forces the Ophiuchus star to earth - and opening death sequence to Starshine is the result of that.
- Psychic Link: The Serpens trio are capable of this because they are all born from the same Inner Star.
- On The Next Episode Of Catchphrase: "Don't forget to make a wish next time too!" This is replaced by "I don't think wishes will help..." for more serious episodes.
- Orcus on His Throne: Justified. 35 years later and Ophiuchus still hasn't recovered from the zodiac Cures' last gambit. Then again, it was less inability to recover as much as it was being forced into staying dormant. She gets better.
- Recurring Location: Tachibana Teahouse.
- Secret-Keeper: Kaiyou, Ushio's sister, is the first, though later Arata, Chie, and the Marine Life club join in on that.
- Shout-Out
- Mei references Spellbound! Magical Princess Lil'Pri and The Wizard of Oz in episode 1.
- Mei lists off a cellphone, a handheld computer and a pendant as other henshin items in episode 3.
- Episode 4 references Futari wa Pretty Cure with the "emissaries of light" line.
- Episode 9 has Ibuki mentioning Brightown and the fact she was initially trying to get into Atama Academy. Also, the person Ibuki is texting is Fumie.
- Episode 10 includes a nod to Sparkle Precure, with Naori, Miyo and Kouta all watching "Sparkling Cutie Pre", complete with a reference to a "Princess" Emerald and a "Princess" Obsidian.
- Episode 12 has a flashback with Ibuki and Fumie as kids.
- Shrinking Violet: Sumire, fittingly enough.
- Transformation Trinket: The Star Capsule, an enlarged glass bead bottle with glowing lights inside.
- Villain Teleportation
- "What Do They Fear?" Episode: Episode 6, though it focuses more on Ushio's fears after the Cure Leo reveal.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Episodes 4, 14 and 24 respectively.
- You Have Failed Me: Averted! Ophiuchus doesn't really seem to mind that the trio fails her, she's only happy that they tried. At least until she actually realizes what they're doing. Omega plays this a little more straight.
