The third series in the Pretty Cure franchise.Mai Mishou, a calm, sweet-hearted artist, is returning to her hometown after several years away. She goes to the large tree she used to visit as a child and runs into Saki Hyuuga, an outgoing softball player. Just as they both remember that they once met each other as children in this precise spot, two fairies called Flappy and Choppy come out of nowhere and attach themselves to the girls.The fairies are fleeing from the forces of Dark Fall, an otherworldly group seeking to capture the seven World Fountains that feed the World Tree. The last World Fountain is located somewhere on Earth, and Dark Fall will stop at nothing to find it. To defend themselves from the monsters of Dark Fall, Saki and Mai agree to use the fairies' power and transform into Cure Bloom and Cure Egret: the Legendary Warriors, Pretty Cure.Splash☆Star starts as a near-Expy of the original series, as Toei clearly wanted to continue the Pretty Cure franchise but were concerned about how fans would receive a series that did not include Nagisa and Honoka. Complaints from Moral Guardians had also caused many of the Seinen elements synonymous with Pretty Cure to be toned down: instead of the hard-hitting fisticuffs of Black and White, Bloom and Egret primarily used non-contact magical attacks, flinging bolts of energy around and flying all over the place.However, after time the show finds its feet and develops its own identity. Mai and Saki grow to distinguish their personalities from their predecessors and lookalikes. Bloom and Egret develop unique fighting styles, with Bloom focusing on ground attacks and brute strength, while Egret specialises in agile aerial attacks. The show later adds two Dark Magical Girls as Foils, and a Mid-Season Upgrade that gives a Super Mode to Bloom and Egret, upgrading them to Cure Bright and Cure Windy respectively.This program provides examples of:
Battle Aura: Noticeable in the flashes of light, absent in earlier seasons, that appear whenever the Cures land from high heights or are thrown against solid objects. Could possibly be a Don't Try This at Home measure.
Clark Kenting: Inverted in that some of the villains adopt various disguises and aren't recognized until they reveal themselves. Meanwhile, the villains discover the Cures' true identities without much effort at all.
Complexity Addiction: Gohyaan could have won instantly by just blowing the worlds up in random order, instead of bothering with creating Akudaikahn, creating the Dark Fall, and sending minions.
Conflict Ball: A minor example in the Non-Serial Movie, where Saki and Mai have a series of arguments that strain their friendship - something that doesn't occur in the series itself.
Continuity Nod: Many. The show is actually very good at referencing past events and episodes.
Demoted to Extra (Michiru and Kaoru. Despite being the first Dark Magical Girl duo in the Pretty Cure franchise and fighting alongside Bloom and Egret in their own Pretty Cure forms in the final battle, they are Brought Down to Normal in the Pretty Cure All Stars movies and regulated to waving Miracle Lights with the rest of the background characters.
Elemental Powers: The five minions, aside from Michiru and Kaoru, have powers based on the five elements of Eastern tradition. The Uzainaa that they summon are also based on these elements. This provides foreshadowing, seeing as that Kaoru is wind and Michiru is the moon, neither fitting in with the theme.
Evolving Credits: The opening changes to include Cure Bright and Cure Windy, as well as Moop and Fuup.
Expy: To the point where the Italian dub of the show marketed it as a sequel to Futari wa Pretty Cure, starring the "older" forms of Nagisa and Honoka!
Final Boss Preview: The confrontation with Akudaikaan in episode 23. Akudaikaan No Sells the Cures' attacks, claims that he's not even showing half his power and beats the Cures while never getting up from his throne. While the Cures did fight him again, it turns out Akudaikaan wasn't the final villain...
I Have the High Ground: Ms. Shitataare and Kintolesky do this before several battles. Michiru and Kaoru enjoy sitting on a rock that extends out of the ocean.
Jossed: The popular fan theory that Michiru and Kaoru "inherit" the forms of Cure Bright and Cure Windy beyond the series finale is nixed by the second All-Stars DX movie, where Saki and Mai get a combination of both their Egret/Windy and Bloom/Bright forms, respectively. On the other hand, the Crossover Compilation has outright defied TV canon on a number of major points, and Toei doesn't care about the twins, so of course they wouldn't let them fight — meaning that, in a purely-TV-canon world, they could still keep their powers.
Kamehame Hadoken: Michiru and Kaoru fight with concentrated balls of the power of destruction pulled from their own bodies. Once they charge them up enough, the result is one of these.
Kick the Dog: Pretty much every villain in this show, with the only exception of Kintolesky, does that at least once.
Meaningful Name: Pretty Cure and the Kiryuu sisters all have names relating to their Cure personas. All these relations are expressed in sequence near the end of episode 48.
Theme Naming: "Flower, bird, wind, moon" is a Japanese idiom that refers to experiencing the beauties of nature and using it to learn about one's self.
Mega Neko: Korone, Saki's lazy and overlarge cat who actually has an important role later on.
He's not bigger than normal cats by any orders of magnitude, though.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Poor Princess Filia. The first time she uses the Fairy Carafe Gooyan steals it while it still has the power of the Fountains, and the second time she uses it Gooyan knocks it into the water...which reveals that the ocean of Earth are the Fountain of the Sun.
Non-Serial Movie: Subtitled Tick-Tock Crisis Hanging by a Thin Thread! While the events of the movie are never referenced in the show itself, nothing in it really contradicts canon.
Omnicidal Maniac: Lord Akudaikahn. Also, Gohyaan wants to destroy the universe... because lifeforms are too noisy and irritate him.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Dorodoron, of all people, is on the brink of victory over Pretty Cure... until Michiru and Kaoru invoke this trope and intervene. Or at least, that's the excuse they give themselves.
The Other Darrin: Kaoru's voice actor is replaced halfway through the show.
Pummel Duel: Gohyaan] gets into two of them, once during his fight with Cure Bloom/Bright and Cure Bright/Windy, and another when fighting [[spoiler: Michiru and Kaoru.
Theme Tune Cameo: In the Non-Serial Movie, the song that plays for Saki and Mai in the karaoke contest is the show's second credits theme - which is later played in full for the movie's credits.
Unlucky Childhood Friend: Kenta's feelings for Saki are implied to go beyond friendship at a few points, but she only has eyes for Mai's brother, Tatsuya. In the end of the series, she still hasn't noticed Kenta, and he seems to turn his affection to one of her teammates on the softball team (who was quite clearly crushing on him throughout the series).
Verbal Tic: As usual for Pretty Cure series, the mascot characters add some variant of their names. One of Saki and Mai's friends, Hitomi, injects "maji" (really/seriously) into most of her sentences, although the subs don't necessarily represent this. (Sorry.)
Villains Out Shopping: All of the minions engage in some form of this. However, Kintolesky takes it Up to Eleven by repeatedly buying bread at Saki's family's store, giving Saki drawing advice, giving Tatsuya Mishou kicking lessons, and stopping by the School Festival.
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