Clockwise, Starting from Bottom Center: Cure Grace, Cure Fontaine, Cure Earth and Cure Sparkle
"Our partners are animals!? Join forces with the Healing Animals in order to heal our precious Earth!"
Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure is the 17th installment of the Pretty Cure franchise and the 15th continuity. Premiering on February 2nd, 2020, it is preceded by Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure and followed by Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure.
The show focuses on the Healing Garden, a magical garden protected by Healing Animals, fairies based on various animals, as well as a dog-like fairy named Latte and her mother Teatinu. When a group called the Byo-gens attack the Garden in hopes of poisoning the entire planet, Latte, as well as three of the Healing Animals, Rabirin, Pegitan and Nyatoran, flee to Earth in hopes of finding human partners to become Pretty Cure.
On June 23, 2020, it was announced that Crunchyroll would air the series as part of their Summer 2020 anime lineup, making it the first Pretty Cure to be localized simultaneously and the fourth series to be brought stateside after Futari wa Pretty Cure and the Glitter Force dubs of Smile PreCure! and Doki Doki! PreCure.
Healin' Good Pretty Cure provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: This wouldn't be the first time that Aoi Yūki voices a young girl that has a weak bodily constitution. Or even a Magical Girl.
- Adoptive Name Change: When Pegitan is mistakenly taken by a young girl in episode 25, he gets renamed Josephine, which the girl continues to call him due to him not having the chance to tell her his actual name.
- And the Adventure Continues: While the series ends with King Byo-Gen and the rest of the villains purified and defeated, Nodoka and the others acknowledge that they'll have to continue their treatment of the Earth as long as it continues to be polluted by humanity, thus resulting in the creation of more Byo-Gens and necessitating the return of the Cures.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Batetemoda claims he will go through "fire, water, or even detergent" to serve Guaiwaru.
- Art Shift:
- The drama that Chiyu and Pegitan watch in episode 25 features a realistic art style accompanied by intense shading and shadows.
- Similarly, episode 35 has Asumi, Rabirin and Latte watching Burn, B-Volley!, a Hot-Blooded sports anime that features heavy manga-esque shading and character designs.
- As Long as There Is Evil: Even after King Byo-Gen is finally defeated once and for all, the Healing Animals still point out that it's possible for more Byo-gens to appear in the future, given their nature as diseases.
- Bag of Holding: The Healing Animals carry identical Healing Room Bags. Not only do they carry all manner of equipment, but inside them are Rabirin, Pegitan and Nyatoran's rooms.
- Bond One-Liner: "Take care, now!"JP Notable in that it's a common phrase used to wish someone good health.
- Breather Episode: Episode 26 is the only episode of Healin Good where none of the villains make an appearance at all, only having very minor cameos via flashbacks.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: "Start! Pretty Cure Operation! Cure Touch!" Notably, this is the first installment in a while to use "Pretty Cure" as part of the transformation phrase after Maho Girls Pretty Cure! dropped it.
- The Cameo:
- The Miracle Leap movie has cameos from Urara Kasugano and Maria Hōjō (the former before her appearance in Healin’ Good’s standalone movie).
- Prunce and AI from Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure make an appearance in episode 27 as hot air balloons.
- The Movie also features a depiction of the February 2020 Tokyo Girls Collection fashion event, featuring fashion model Nicole Fujita As Herself with accurate reproductions of her wardrobe and hairstyle from that.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In one episode, the girls eat color-coded buns at the festival and even blow color-coded balloons.
- Company Cross References: The show features two references to fellow Toei show Ojamajo Doremi:
- Batetemoda greets people by saying "Chiisu!", just like Hana-chan does in the Dokkan season.
- A poster for Majo Minarai wo Sagashite is shown when Hinata puts up flyers for the Eternal Tree festival.
- Crapsaccharine World: As usual in the Pretty Cure universe, but this one specifically has a nice and sweet town that constantly gets attacked by germ monsters (some which are later infected humans as opposed to elements), which most people even witness too. Additionally, some of these monsters might happen to hatch other evil generals by chance, with one of the victims being Nodoka herself.
- Crossover: The Movie will pair the Healin’ Good girls with the Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo! team!
- Distant Finale: Averted, as the last episode just focuses on the team finally visiting the Healing Garden and vowing to protect the world afterwards, unlike the past couple of seasons which have shown them all grown up
- Early-Bird Cameo: As per the new tradition, Nodoka and Latte make a guest appearance in the last episode of Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure. Likewise, Cure Summer from Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure makes a guest appearance at the last episode of this season.
- Elemental Powers: Elements are one of this series' main themes, with the collectible of this season, Element Bottles, allowing the cures to use the powers of various elements of nature.
- End of an Era: The movie for this season is the last to use the Miracle Lights. After that, they were discontinued due to COVID guidelines until the All Stars F movie.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: The final episode ends with the initial trio giggling after declaring that their efforts to treat the Earth will continue for as long as they live.
- Evolving Credits: Subtly, but after Batetemoda's debut at the end of Episode 11, he's added with the rest of the villainous henchmen in the intro for Episode 12, and then removed after being Killed Off for Real.
- Fertile Feet: In the opening, the heroines walk across a barren landscape and greenery grows behind them.
- Feud Episode:
- Episode 2 involves Rabirin realizing that Nodoka's actually not very athletic and though she doesn't express herself properly at first, breaks up with Nodoka for her safety. They make up by the end of the episode.
- Episode 15 has Nodoka and Rabirin fight again because Nodoka though Rabirin wanted a plushie of a daruma mascot despite the other Healing Animals teasing her for liking something so ugly. The two of them don't want to talk to each other about it and cannot transform as a result. However, when Nodoka tells her she had a lot of fun trying to get the plushie and that it doesn't matter what other people will think about it, they are able to make up.
- Foreshadowing: The shine shaped like flowers with four petals in Cure Grace's hair is similar to Daruizen's earrings, an early hint to their connection.
- Freudian Trio: Levelheaded Chiyu is the Superego, excitable Hinata is the Id, and Nodoka is the Ego keeping her teammates in balance.
- Giant Medical Syringe: The Healing Good Arrow is a giant syringe that is used as a weapon.
- Green Aesop: One of the themes of this series is saving the environment, to follow the overall theme of health.
- Hypocritical Humor: After Nodoka meets the Healing Animals, they lecture her on the need to keep her status as a Pretty Cure and the Healing Animals themselves a secret. While doing so, a flashback from the first episode is shown from when they were trying to first search for their partners by loudly announcing it to any on-going passers-by.
- Kindly Vet: The Healing Animals, who are the partners of the Cures, are medical trainees.
- Labcoat of Science and Medicine: An integrated design element in the Cures' costumes.
- Land, Sea, Sky: The three Cures represent the elements plants need to thrive: Cure Grace is the Earth, Cure Fontaine is Water, and Cure Sparkle is Sunlight.
- Local Hangout: The "Cafe Wonderful Juice" juice bar, owned by Mei, Hinata's sister.
- Meaningful Name: Each of the Cure's last names has a kanji in it that relates to their primary element or Cure form. Nodoka's is 'flower', Chiyu's is 'fountain', and Hinata's is 'light'.
- Mentor Mascot: Each Cure gets her own mascot, much like in the original, Splash Star, Heartcatch, and DokiDoki.
- Metaphorgotten: While studying in episode 36, Hinata tries to make a mnemonic to help her remember the English word "Hundred". She first associates it with a hand, before associating that with a cold, with the associations then culminating in her talking about cleaning treatments as she completely forgets what she was even talking about to begin with.
- Mythology Gag: Has its' own page.
- Pictorial Letter Substitution: The logo replaces the two small lines in "グ" with leaves. This was altered to dotting the "i" in "Healin'" with a leaf in the English logo.
- Post-Victory Collapse: After purifying King Byo-gen a second time in episode 44, the girls all collapse to the ground exhausted from the final battle beforehand. Latte uses this chance to treat them after some encouragement from Teatine.
- Power Dyes Your Hair: When the girls transform into their Cure forms, their otherwise normal-colored hair is dyed into more vibrant colors. In particular, Asumi takes this further when transforming into Cure Earth. She has blonde hair in her human form that turns purple when becoming a Pretty Cure.
- Precious Puppy: The main mascot for this season, Latte, is an adorable puppy.
- Product-Promotion Parade:
- Episode 9 advertises many pieces of merchandise like the accessory maker toy and dresses for the Pretty Cure Style fashion doll line.
- In one scene in episode 18, the fairies use the accessory maker as Latte is being fed with the mealtime kit.
- Recap Episode: Episode 26 has Asumi going around asking the other Cures and their respective Healing Animals about how they each first met which results in lots of Stock Footage from episodes being shown. This is also the first episode in the show without a proper Monster of the Week.
- Revisiting the Roots:
- The previous seasons Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure, HuGtto! Pretty Cure, KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode, and Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure all took a break from the usual format of an alternate kingdom being attacked and sending fairies to Earth. Healin' Good Pretty Cure brings it back. In fact, before this series, the kingdom format was last used in Go! Princess Pretty Cure.
- All the above series except for Go! Princess also did not have "Pretty Cure" as part of the transformation phrase like this series and their predecessors did.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: After the final battle against King Byo-gen where the Cures inadvertently revealed their identities, the townspeople collectively decide to keep it a secret from them to keep them from worrying. Despite this, they still decide to not-so-subtly reward them for everything they've done in their fight against the Byo-gens up to that point.
- Shout-Out:
- In episode 4, Nyatoran asking Hinata to become Cure Sparkle is a deliberate one to Fate/stay night's famous "Are you my Master?" scene.
- In Episode 16, a poster of Ojamajo Doremi appears at one point.
- In episode 18, Nyatoran, after learning that the woman he had a crush on has a fiance, ends up slumping over with a very similar pose and lighting to the final page of Tomorrow's Joe where Joe dies. Thankfully in Nyatoran's case he was just saddened.
- Strong as They Need to Be:
- To make up for the fact Cure Earth is actually a formidable member (who was able to easily weaken a Megabjögen that was giving Grace, Fontaine, and Sparkle trouble), all of the Byogens (starting with Batetemoda) happen to discover Mega Parts (which are actually very easy to get, they just chop up parts from existing Megabjögens before they happen to fall), which severely amplify them to be on par with the flower one in the eleventh episode.
- When Gigabyo-gens debuted in Episode 31, they were seen as a force to be reckoned with, with all of them getting defeated several times. However, once the Precure fight them again in the following episodes, they seem to be on relatively even ground with them, with even some individually taking them on as well with no issues whatsoever.
- Taking the Bullet: A non-lethal version of this is how the first Gigabyogen is created; Shindoine attempts to infect Maruyama’s son with a Nanobyogen, only for his father to save him, getting infected in his place.
- Title Drop:
- After each transformation, the Precures proclaim themselves as "Healin' Good".
- Once per Episode until Episode 39, the Megabjögens always scream Healin' Goodbye as they are defeated by the Finishing Moves of the Precures. All of the lower Tera-Byogens say this as well. Besides a comeback in Episode 41 with the Mega Byo-gens and Giga Byo-gen sent by King Guaiwaru, the only of the main generals to yell it out is Shindoine. King Byo-gen's initial form doesn't yell this out. Guiwaru is absorbed by King Byo-gen, Daruizen doesn't say the line and the "target" attacked by the finisher attack in Episode 40 is a silent rock. Funny enough, King Byo-gen himself says it when he's Killed Off for Real in Episode 44.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: In episode 10, Nodoka/Cure Grace's blind determination to protect the infected sculptures and unwillingness to listen to Rabirin's advice to work with Cures Fontaine and Sparkle as a team during the Bjögen attack, leads to the attack worsening and Latte getting ever sicker.
- Transformation Trinket: In a first for the franchise, this season's wand also serves as the transformation device, with the Healing Animals turning into the Healing Stick to let the Cures transform.
- Two Guys and a Girl:
- The initial trio of generals is set up like this. Daruizen and Guaiwaru serve as the guys, while Shindoine is the sole girl.
- Not counting Latte, the trio of Healing Animals also fits with Rabirin being the sole girl amongst them (Pegitan and Nyatoran).
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In the first episode, when the Healing Animals make their first attempt to find partners, the people passing by them seem relatively calm about the fact that a bunch of talking baby animals are trying to get their attention, believing they may either be stuffed animals or escaped animals from a zoo.
- Victim of the Week: Episode 32 onwards brings this back with the introduction of Gigabyogen that are made by infecting people.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Episode 10 serves as a rather serious example on how dangerous the Megabjögens are. The villains decide to spawn more than one simultaneously, requiring the girls to actually strategize on which ones to take out first - as all of them are too weak to do so separately, and the longer each Megabjögen stands, the more powerful it'll get.
- Wham Episode: Episode 28 reveals that Daruizen was the sickness inside of Nodoka's body.
- Wham Line: See examples here.
- Wham Shot:
- Episode 11 ends with a purple seed/spider-like creature infecting a nutria, which previews for the following episode shows leads to the birth of a new general.
- The end of Episode 27 features Daruizen stabbing Cure Grace with a mega part.
- The end of Episode 30 has Green-Eyed Monster Shindoine powering herself up with a Mega Part (which at this point, we didn't know what would happen), which enhances her powers. She then proceeds to use it on a human, which is also the first time in the series a Mega Byo-gen has infected one
- The end of Episode 39 had the Cures seemingly kill King Byo-gen, letting Guaiwaru take over and become King Guaiwaru. Two episodes later, King Byo-gen was Not Quite Dead, expected Guaiwaru to become the King, and absorbed him entirely to regain his true form.
- The Worf Effect: Kedary, the second Byogen general from Nodoka's body is the first foe in the series to give Cure Earth a hard time.
