There are actually three different versions of the first Bat Family Crossover, all of which contradict one another and the series themselves. The short film, the movie and the DS game each have the teams meeting for the first time under different circumstances; only the movie and their sequels include Fresh and all the seasons after it; only the DS game takes place while the series are all running, while the others take place after they are over; and the short film just makes no sense whatsoever.
Apparently, as of late 2015, Pretty Cure tops a Famitsu poll about which anime franchise fans wanted to become a Musou-style game. If it happens, then it will become the first majorly female-dominated cast Musou game.
Ascended Meme: For years, fans have done pictures of the Cures as young adults, with the tag 'otona-', followed by the series name in shorthand. In 2023, Toei themselves released an actualOtona Pretty Cure spin-off series, the first installment being "Power Of Hope" featuring Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star and Yes! Pretty Cure 5, with the next, under the working title "Mahou Tsukai 2", featuring Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure.
Nana Mizuki, a well-known voice actress and singer, was a big fan of Pretty Cure. To say that she was happy when she won the role of Tsubomi Hanasaki in Heartcatch would be an understatement. She even expressed joy at voicing her once more when she was called back for a few brief lines in Pretty Cure All Stars New Stage.
Hitomi Nabatame, another popular voice actress, had been there during the auditioning of Futari wa Pretty Cure. Another fan of the series, she literally burst into tears when she got the role of Mana Aida in Doki Doki and even got congratulatory calls from Misato Fukuen (Miyuki Hoshizora of Smile) and Ami Koshimizu and Fumiko Orikasa (Hibiki Hojo and Kanade Minamino of Suite).
Channel Hop: In Italy, the series (original Japanese versions) went from Rai 2 to Netflix as the North American version, Glitter Force after skipping Suite.
Rakuten sometimes mistranslates all Pretty Cure series names on products as Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo! regardless of the series they are actually from.
Similarly, other Pretty Cure series often have computer-mistranslated names, with Go! Princess Pretty Cure becoming Go! Princess Pricy A and Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure as Healing Kids Pretty Cure.
The book Drawing Fantastic Female Fighters, which features character sheets and concept art from HeartCatch Pretty Cure! and Fresh Pretty Cure!, states that Heartcatch is the first season to feature returning characters from previous seasons. The problem? That never happens in the show itself, only in All-Stars DX 2, which isn't even the franchise's first crossover movie. It's likely that the writers confused HeartCatch for Hugtto!, which had recently concluded at the time the book was published and did feature cameos from previous seasons' characters.
This article claims that the baton pass videos are only uploaded online and are never screened on TV. They actually premiere after the final episode of a series has aired.
Colbert Bump: Controversial localization changes aside, the Glitter Force dubs of Smile and DokiDoki did succeed in ushering a new wave of international Pretty Cure fans, to the point where Toei allowed Crunchyroll to stream the series globally starting with Healin' Good, as well as host a special screening of All-Stars F in Italy.
Dueling Works: Being a Long Runner, there have been many rival shows that have affected Pretty Cure throughout its run:
In 2017, Takara Tomy created their own Magical Girl series, Girls x Heroine!, that aired on the same exact day as Pretty Cure at the exact same time the show would usually end.
Franchise Killer: The series has been reinvented no less than three times due to low points:
First, Splash Star proved that the "Dirty Pair clone" style was getting stale and set the stage for initial teams of more than two Cures. The only seasons since Splash Star to start off with a duo are Suite and Mahou Tsukai (HaCha doesn't count, since Megumi and Hime both became Cures separately from each other and can operate independently). It's also been suggested that this is why Splash Star is also the first season to not get a "second season" like its predecessor and immediate successor did.
GoGo! turned the "second season" into a foreign concept to the franchise, having worse ratings than its immediate predecessor despite the toys selling well.
HaCha led to a total revamp of the franchise with GoPri (including the demise of cookie-cutter outfits), suffering the same fate as DokiDoki—a second half slump and general fan opinion turning against it (DokiDoki for its Stranger Behind the Mask moment with Cure Ace, and HaCha for its Romantic Plot Tumor). To add insult to injury, that was the exact same fate HaCha was meant to avoid. It also caused a shakeup in the PC managerial department before GoPri made it to its own halfway point.
Follow the Leader: Bandai has often made certain elements in each year's Pretty Cure series similar to other franchises that are popular amongst girls at the time of their broadcast in Japan:
To attract fans of Bandai's own Aikatsu! franchise, HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! not only used cards that contained clothing inside as the collectible item, but included two songs the Cures sing to purify their enemies.note "Shiawase Gohan Ai No Uta" and "Innocent Purification"
When Bandai found out that Frozen (2013) and Sofia the First were selling more merchandise than Pretty Cure was in 2014, they made a princess-themed Pretty Cure series, Go! Princess Pretty Cure, to try to win back fans.note Ironically, Bandai did release merchandise of both Frozen and Sofia the First in Japan.
KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode had elements of the show that were similar to ones found in PriPara, the biggest property in Japan amongst girls in 2016. There are insert songs sung by the characters Once per Episode, segments at the end combining live action and animation note PriPara's ending themes, except "Mune Kyun Love Song", "Rainbow Melody" and "Growin' Jewel", have live action clips in them, while Pretty Cure uses live action cooking segments that the characters commentate on., main characters with similar hairstyles note with Cure Whip having similar hair to Laala, Cure Macaron having similar hair to Sophy and Aroma and Cure Chocolat having similar hair to Hibiki and a mascot who is an adult.
Kids' Meal Toy: The franchise has had multiple Happy Meal toys in Japan.
4Kids reportedly had a similar problem with Futari wa Pretty Cure to ADV Films' attempt at releasing Mermaid Melody. Considering this company and their dub jobs with Tokyo Mew Mew and Ojamajo Doremi, the fandom was thankful. This seemed to be the last that we would hear of an English-licensed Precure, until Toei did release the first season in North America via direct download. After a little while, Funimation and later Crunchyroll picked up season 1 (though it was in horrible video quality for years, using grainy hardsubs from a TV run in Hawaii; this only changed in 2021). Canada's YTV also aired a localized dub in the late 2000s, which never got another release aside from being briefly available in the UK on cable satellite channel Pop Girl.
Actually the show was aired on Pop Girl continuously for 2 years to good ratings, making the lack of a dubbed sequel more strange.
In full effect with the sequel, Futari Wa Pretty Cure Max Heart, which has not been dubbed at all. Effectively making the English dub of the show end in a Downer Ending.
Saban received the license for the series and localized Smile Pretty Cure! under the name Glitter Force, and dubbed forty episodes, in a similar situation to the first season of Sailor Moon's original dub. The show can be seen on Netflix. Same for Doki Doki Pretty Cure as Glitter Force Doki Doki, also on Netflix (but not before Saban returned the rights back to Toei Animation).
Beginning with HuGtto! Pretty Cure, Toei periodically posted select episodes of the current season to their YouTube channel that were generally available worldwide. However, when they posted all the movies up until Pretty Cure Super Stars!, everything after Pretty Cure All-Stars DX was made available only in Japan.
Trolling Creator: Toei pulled one over the Pretty Cure fans concerning the identity of Cure Ace. Many fans were led to believe, when the existence of of the fifth Cure had been revealed, that it would be one of two options: it would either be the missing Marie-Ange, continuing the tradition of older people (Yuri) or royalty (Hikari and Ako) being Cures or it would be Regina, continuing the tradition of Heel–Face Turn Cures (Setsuna and Ellen). Turns out, it's neither of them - it's an entirely brand new girl taking up the role. Near the end of the series, it turns out that, well... it was all three: Regina and the brand new girl, Aguri Madoka, were the same person with Regina being an Enemy Without and the fairy Ai was Marie-Ange "reborn". Thus, the mysterious Cure Ace was an older person, royalty, a High-Heel–Face Turn AND a new girl!
After the success of the first season and Max Heart in Spain, it was planned to turn the franchise into a commercial juggernaut like Digimon or Pokémon, importing all the seasons (except Splash Star) onwards. Then something happened and the plan broke up just before buying Yes! 5.
Footage also exists on YouTube of pitches for Splash Star and Yes! 5 being dubbed.
claims that the baton pass videos are only uploaded online and are never screened on TV. They actually premiere after the final episode of a series has aired.