YMMV / Futari wa Pretty Cure

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • In the very first episode, Nagisa messes up her words and (at least in the subtitles) says, "I wish I could tabulate [Honoka]", before hurriedly correcting it to "emulate". The word is so random and out-of-place that one can't help but wonder, "is that what they're calling it now?"
  • Three characters with totally innocuous names in Japan have rather snicker-inducing Unfortunate Names to English viewers.
    • One of the mascots is the Princess of Hope, Mipple (ミップル Mippuru), whose name sounds like a certain part of the body.
    • The Starter Villain, Pisard (ピーサード Piisaado). Not an innuendo on its own (in fact, it sounds somewhat elegant) but some subtitles rather egregiously render it as Pissard. It doesn't help that Pisard is the one to introduce himself —「我が名はピーサード」(lit. "My name is Pisard", but "I am called Pissard" in subtitles). The voice actor's delivery puts extra emphasis on the "pi" (as in, "pee"), which makes it even funnier.
    • A new mascot character called Pollun (ポルン Porun) debuts roughly halfway through Futari wa. This one's unlucky even for Japanese audiences, since the Japanese loanword ポルノ poruno is only one letter off and means exactly what you think it means — viewers who already laughed at "Mipple" might start wondering if the Garden of Light names its fairies like this on purpose.
  • In episode 9, Mepple falls ill with a fever. The viewer is treated to several shots of him with a Luminescent Blush, panting, with his tongue lolling out; his face looks less "feverish" and more "ahegao".
• Base-Breaking Character: Nagisa gets hit with this, especially for those who came in during the HeartCatch Newbie Boom. Some fans find her pessimism, constant whining, incredulity, arguments with her fairy partner, and selfish streak so long that she overcomes through Character Development as a refreshing take of a Magical Girl lead, while others are put off with the very same reason and the seasons in which she stars. However, many fans do agree that she's a badass despite these traits. It also helps that Yoko Honna is involved with the Kamen Rider BLACK duology during her childhood years.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In episode 16, Nagisa and Honoka randomly play "Turkey in the Straw" with chalkboard erasers. It doesn't come up again, and it has absolutely no bearing on the plot.
• Broken Base: Also regarding Cure Black- do you like her first or second design better?
• Contested Sequel: How some feel about Max Heart. Although it has been Vindicated by History, the spotlight focuses heavily on Nagisa, and a lot of the plot is a Recycled Script. Much like with Polnareff taking the spotlight in Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders, how much one likes Nagisa seems to determine how much they like the season.
• Die for Our Ship: Poor Fujipi/Shougo. Despite being a very minor character and a generally Nice Guy, Nagisa's crush on him is enough to make him utterly despised by Nagisa/Honoka shippers, with many seeing him as bland and forgettable. Unsurprisingly, given how minor he is, many fans prefer to just ignore him altogether in Nagisa/Honoka fanworks. The only time fans tend to have him be shipped with Nagisa is if Honoka is being shipped with Kiriya.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Uraganos is this amongst the warriors of the Dusk Zone, due to having his own personality quirks. The butler Zakennas are also quite well liked for their bumbling-ness.
  • Out of the supporting cast, Shiho is generally well-liked especially with her Verbal Tic.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Despite Nagisa's canonical crush on Shougo, most fans prefer to ignore Shougo and pair her with Honoka instead, due to their Les Yay and Pseudo-Romantic Friendship. It helps that Nagisa and Honoka's friendship is front and center, while Fujipi/Shougo is a minor character.
• First Installment Wins: Though there are fans of later seasons of Pretty Cure (most notable so far being the fan-favorites HeartCatch Pretty Cure! and Go! Princess Pretty Cure), the Vocal Minority that screams "Ruined!" tend to give out this trope.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • The Canadian dub is pretty popular in the UK thanks to PopGirl's Daily Broadcasts, compared to the rate YTV back in Canada broadcasted the show.
  • Sort of zig-zagged in Spain. For a long time, the series was the hottest anime prospect in RTVE: it received an unusually expensive dub, was advertised ad nauseam, and its run was succesful enough to distribute Max Heart and the movies (and even talk about bringing Splash Star and Yes! 5). However, roughly two years since its emission, the channel decided to shoot the franchise dead and replace it with Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch. This caused that Pretty Cure as a franchise got forgotten not much after, though in turn it ensured Futari Wa remained as its most popular season in the memory of many Spaniards.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Cure Black's outfit was modified a bit to cover her midriff after complaints from Moral Guardians. It's pretty funny now since succeeding Cures like Cure Berry and Cure Melody wear midriff-revealing outfits with zero complaints.
  • Similarly, people thought that this show was the best one due to having the Good Old Fisticuffs toned down in later seasons, as the hand-to-hand combat have become just as violent as of Heartcatch. ^note In fact, the violent action scenes ironically returned as early as the latter half of Splash Star.
  • Cure Black's voice actress was a child actress before becoming a voice actress, appearing in series like Kamen Rider BLACK and Kamen Rider BLACK RX. This means Cure Black really is a Kamen Rider!
  • Two supporting characters in the series are named Akane and Nao. Eight years later, out comes Smile PreCure!, which featured two Cures named Akane (Sunny) and Nao (March)!
  • Nagisa's English name is Natalie. Years later, Saban Entertainment resused that name for Aguri when they released Glitter Force Doki Doki.
• Les Yay: Nagisa/Honoka is the Fan-Preferred Couple for this series. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.
• Memetic Mutation: See this page for examples; after all, this season had some and they were the first...
• Memetic Psychopath: Owing up to Early Instalment Weirdness, Cure Black and Cure White are sometimes seen as the most brutal of all the Cures that came after, doubly so when you take into consideration the fact that they do have a body count throughout both seasons. While future Cures have purifying attacks and special trinkets that lets them access all new abilities while being more considerate towards their Arch Enemies and their motivations, Cure Black and Cure White only has their fists, legs, and the Marble Screw... and they'll be damn sure to let any villain know just how deadly they are with them.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Pisard crosses it in episode 3 when he uses his Mind Control on Ms. Takenouchi to make her climb up to a steel beam on the ceiling, the implication being that he'd make her fall off the edge if the Cures didn't rescue her. If not then, he definitely crosses it in the next episode: there, he turns the Cures' entire class and several other art museum patrons to stone, then uses the bodies as a Human Shield. Pisard even taunts the Pretty Cures with the knowledge that they could break an innocent to pieces if they try to aim a special attack at him.
  • If Gekidrago didn't cross it by having a Zakenna possess an innocent mother bear, then he does when he attacks Cure Black's little brother, a ten-year-old boy. The latter is particularly notable: it results in Cure Black brutalizing Gekidrago out of pure rage, and she later outright kills him with a Marble Screw pushed past the limit by her anger. It also has both the Cures aghast at him and saying "This Is Unforgivable!".
  • Poisony crosses it when she uses a pair of the Cures' classmates as brainwashed pawns, then callously orders them to walk off the roof of a tall building — not to kill them, but to force Pretty Cure to that same edge, knowing they'll try to rescue them.
  • Illkubo hurtles far across it when he uses his Crystal Ball to drain the Power of Light from the entire city, rendering all of its citizens unconscious, merely as an offering to Jaaku King.
  • Jaaku King may have crossed it before the series began with his goal of swallowing the universe in darkness, but he goes much farther beyond that when it's revealed that the Power of Darkness he commands affects him too and is slowly and painfully eating away at his body, meaning he wants to subject all of existence to that same fate, is well aware of the effects it will have, and doesn't care.
• Narm:
  • Gekidrago's Verbal Tic, "uga uga", makes him sound like a goofy ogre yelling "ooga booga" at the Cures instead of a serious threat. It doesn't help that he is generally played less seriously than Pisard because he's the Dumb Muscle.
  • In the Latin-American Spanish dub, Kiriya's Madness Mantra and ensuing screams after the death of his sister Poisony sounded so fake that they ruined the scene for some.
• Nausea Fuel: Juna's muscle-bound body, first seen in episode 27, visibly pulses all over (complete with a quiet Heartbeat Soundtrack) before he attacks Pretty Cure. Even Nagisa and Honoka themselves seem grossed out by this.
• Nightmare Fuel: See the franchise-wide page.
• Once Original, Now Common: While it still gets acknowledgement of starting the franchise, due to the popularity of Heartcatch which have greatly improved artwork and animation along with over-the-top hand-to-hand combat that rivals that of this series, and the successor having been Vindicated by History, the idea of First Installment Wins has pretty much faded.
• Periphery Demographic: Adult males and Sailor Moon fans who didn't outgrow Magical Girl shows.
• Retroactive Recognition: When Rina Hidaka was a child, she starred in a commercial for the Futari Wa Pretty Cure edition of the children's coloring toy Rakugakincyo. This becomes Hilarious in Hindsight when she played Laura LaMer.
• The Scrappy:
  • Pollun and Lulun's whiny personalities did not endear them to the audience. Pollun became more tolerable in the sequel. Lulun, on the other hand...
  • Shiny Luminous is disliked among a group of fans for "not being a Cure" and/or having "a flat personality" and doesn't fight.
• Shipping: Nagisa and Honoka are the undeniable poster girls for friends shipped together by yuri fans. The Pseudo-Romantic Friendship cultural view may have something to do with this.
• Spoiled by the Format: Episodes 23 to 26 feature the Cures getting the last of the Prism Stones, defeating Illkubo, and visiting the Garden of Light, ending with a climactic battle against Jaaku King. It has all the trappings of a Grand Finale, complete with an insert song and an And the Adventure Continues ending... but if you're watching through the entire series, you'll quickly realize there are still 23 episodes left in the season! Turns out episode 26 was only the Series Fauxnale.
• Tear Jerker: The Kiriya arc in the first half. He initially starts attending their school to steal the prism stones, but ends up gradually developing a bond with Honoka (even at one point secretly going against his sister to save her and Nagisa). It's when Poisony, his older sister, is defeated that he accepts his fate and comes clean to Honoka about his origins. He challenges the precures to a fight, but quickly gives up when he realizes he can't bring himself to fulfill his duty. He ends up giving his prism stone to the girls and leaving with Illkubo to face his punishment, all while Honoka has to be held back from going after him.
• Woolseyism: The English dub uses MANY terms used by a notorious fansub group like Dark Zone, Dark King and so on. It also adds some of its own, most notably with the famous First-Name Basis scene in episode 8.

---