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Futari wa Pretty Cure

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Futari wa Pretty Cure (Anime)
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Cure Black and Cure White: We are Pretty Cure!
Cure White/Honoka Yukishiro: Servants of the Dark Power…
Cure Black/Nagisa Misumi: Return to the darkness from which you came!

Futari wa Pretty Cure ("The Two of Us Are Pretty Cure"), shortened to just Pretty Cure and nicknamed PreCure, is an Anime First Magical Girl show done with a modern, self-aware approach to an old genre, as well as the first series in what would become the Pretty Cure franchise.

Nagisa Misumi and Honoka Yukishiro are two eighth-grade girls who normally would have never become anything more than passing acquaintances. Nagisa is an energetic jock and ace of the lacrosse team, loved by all the girls but secretly wishing for a male admirer straight from a romance novel. Honoka is the star pupil and class president, incredibly popular with all the guys but not too fussed about acting upon it.

That was until the day Nagisa made a wish on a shooting star and (violently) came into contact with Mepple, a fairy on the run from the sinister agents of the Dusk Zone. Fleeing from the Dusk Zone's monsters, Nagisa runs into Honoka, who happens to have Mepple's partner (and lover) Mipple. To defend themselves, Nagisa and Honoka use the fairies' power to transform together into Cure Black and Cure White: the Emissaries of Light, Pretty Cure.

After an initial awkward phase with involuntary catchphrases and their new Super-Strength, Nagisa and Honoka learn about the seven Prism Stones that protect the Garden of Light, Mepple and Mipple's homeworld. Dusk Zone has already captured five of the Prism Stones, and seek to consume both the Garden of Light and Earth once they have all seven. Mepple and Mipple have the remaining two, but need all seven to repair the damage done to the Garden of Light. Thus, the stage is set for the conflict between Pretty Cure and Dusk Zone.

Pretty Cure was aimed at both young girls and young male adults, and the amount of postmodern awareness of the Magical Girl genre and Parental Bonuses shows it. Nagisa in particular is flabbergasted by the silly clichés of the genre, reciting a prolonged post-transformation catchphrase and then blurting out, "Wait, what am I saying?!"

Pretty Cure bucks the formula in other ways. The girls are very physical when fighting: leaping, punching and kicking their foes and reserving magical attacks for the final blow. Both girls possess super-strength and agility, making them far more formidable in hand-to-hand combat than the usual magical girl. It's worth noting at this point that the director of Pretty Cure was Daisuke Nishio, whose resume also includes Dragon Ball Z.

All their magical abilities come from teamwork: they have no solo attacks that can finish off monsters, and thus rely on punching and kicking to subdue monsters, and cannot even transform into their Pretty Cure forms unless they do so in unison. The show focuses heavily on the developing friendship between Nagisa and Honoka, even throwing in some blatant yuri subtext for the older audience. From an animation standpoint, the show seemed to have an aversion to Stock Footage: if Nagisa and Honoka were in different clothes when they transformed, a new transformation sequence would be animated. All of this makes for one of the more unique Magical Girl shows to come along in a long time.

The show proved so popular that a direct sequel, Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart, followed immediately afterwards. Following the finale of Futari wa, the Queen of Light is forced to shatter her own essence and scatter the pieces to Earth. Nagisa and Honoka are recruited once more by the Garden of Light, given upgraded powers and tasked with finding the twelve "Heartiels" that make up the Queen's heart. Aiding them is a Mysterious Waif called Hikari who transforms into Third Ranger Shiny Luminous, and avoids the usual problem with new members by acting as more of a Support Party Member to Black and White. Opposing them are the remnants of the Dusk Zone, who are seeking a way to revive the Dark King. Max Heart also had two feature-length films accompanying it: Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart: The Movie and Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart: The Movie 2: Yukizora no Tomodachi.

In 2006, after the ending of Max Heart, the series received a new installment in the form of Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star, which starred expies of Nagisa and Honoka named Saki and Mai, who became Cures in their own right.

4Kids Entertainment originally had the US license (in the same package deal rumored to also give them One Piece and Magical DoReMi), but they dropped the license before they did anything with it for unknown reasons (possibly due to the failures of DoReMi and Mew Mew Power). YTV then signed a deal with Toei to air the show in Canada in 2009 where the English dub (produced by Toei/YTV and Ocean Studios) debuted. Additionally, it has aired in this form in the UK on PopGirl, and in Albania on Bang Bang via SAP. And if you live in America, you can legally watch the subtitled version from Toei right here, right now. A premiere of the long lost YTV dub streamd June 28 on Toei Animation's Saturday-Morning Cartoon-themed YouTube marathon, alongside Ojamajo Doremi and Digimon Adventure.


Futari wa Pretty Cure provides examples of:

  • Action Girl: Cure Black and Cure White regularly kick monster butt on a weekly basis. Shiny Luminous is this as well but to a lesser extent.
  • Adaptation Deviation: The verbal tics said by the mascots at the end of their sentences ("mepo" for Mepple, "mipo" for Mipple, "popo" for Pollun) do not carry over into the English dub.
  • Adapted Out: The manga leaves out many parts of the anime, focusing only on the most important parts. For example, Gekidrago's arc is outright skipped, only stating that he was defeated.
  • All Your Colors Combined: A mixed example. The Marble Screw plays it straight as can be. But some of the later attacks (namely Rainbow Storm and Rainbow Healing) somehow make rainbows out of adding black and white.
  • Alternate Continuity: The Pretty Cure universe started with this series, but aside from the All Stars movies they take place in different continuities.
  • Alternate Reality Game: Garden of Dreams, which even spawned a comic (Somewhat Cure).
  • Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The English opening is different from the Japanese version, although the dub does use some of the original songs.
  • Androcles' Lion: In episode 6 of the first season, a bear cub rescued by Nagisa stands between the girls and its demon-possessed mother long enough for them to figure out a plan.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Kiriya to Honoka, after she gets angry at him for having rejected a girl. Honoka can only apologize after realizing he's right.
    Kiriya: Weren't you the one who said to think about other people's feelings!? So, do you understand my feelings?! What are my feelings!?
  • Balance Between Good and Evil: As always, this trope is used to, basically, ensure that no matter what the heroines do, the evil (namely, the Evil King) is guaranteed to return to wreak more havoc.
  • Bare-Handed Blade Block: Honoka at one point appears to do this to a Zakenna's gigantic sword... but there was also a tree holding it in place.
  • Because Destiny Says So: Honoka and Nagisa are fated to become Magical Girls, according to their mascots.
  • Big Bad: The Dark King is the ruler of the Dusk Zone, and all the villains do their evil deeds for him.
  • Big Eater: Nagisa can scarf down lots of food in little time, sometimes taking Honoka's when she doesn't want it.
  • Big Fancy House: Honoka's home is a traditional Japanese dwelling with a garden and walled yard, but is also located in the middle of a city; upon just seeing the gate Nagisa realizes that she's way out of her economic stratum.
  • Big Guy, Little Guy: The Butler Zakenna have this dynamic. The big one is an idiot who often makes more of a mess than what he cleans while the little one tries to keep him and Hikaru under control.
  • Bittersweet Ending: At the end of the first season, the Dark King is defeated, but Mepple, Mipple, and Pollun fall into an eternal sleep in order to stay with the girls, to their dismay. It gets reversed at the beginning of Max Heart. Kiriya gets his wish to change his destiny at the end of the first season and is reborn as a normal human boy with a family but he has no memory of the past and doesn’t recognize Honoka, leaving her heartbroken but glad he’s alive.
  • Bowdlerization: Nagisa receiving love letters exclusively from girls is changed to Natalie receiving "fan mail" in the dub to remove any hint of lesbianism (even though the point of the joke was that she wants love letters from guys and this detail got to stay untouched.)
  • Brand X: Honoka has applied "PRE-Q BAN" brand adhesive bandages to at least two different people's minor wounds.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Black and White always call out their special attacks in the Stock Footage before using them. Shiny Luminous follows in their footsteps with her attacks. From the fact it is shown by the Pretty Cure series that their In the Name of the Moon speeches are very clearly involuntary, it is implied that same applies to them calling out their special finisher moves.
  • Catchphrase: Nagisa is fond of shouting "I can't believe this!" (Arienai!) It's even in the theme song. You can even make a Drinking Game out of it too.
  • Caught Up in a Robbery: On Honoka's birthday in episode 10, she and her family are at a jewelry store that gets attacked by robbers. Honoka foils the robbery by lecturing the robbers into repenting and they end up turning themselves in when the police arrive.
  • Chekhov's Gun: In episode 8, it is revealed that one of the things that Nagisa wrote in her Precure diary is about her smelly socks. This would become vital on episode 20 as when Nagisa was confronted with two Honoka's in the train, the real Honoka was able to state said fact, something that the other Honoka (Poisony is disguise) had no idea about it since the diary can only be read by Nagisa and/or Honoka.
  • Clark Kenting: Subverted for the most part. Nagisa and Honoka have minimal physical changes, and the bad guys regularly attack them in civilian form. They don't fight in the open either, so they don't have to worry about being seen by civilians. They are recognized immediately by the Vice Principal the one time he caught them, but other than that no one else has caught on.
  • Clean Dub Name: Among the many Dub Name Change instances in the Ocean dub are a handful that seem to have been done to remove potentially controversial content:
    • The Starter Villain, Pisard (ピーサード Piisaado) got his named changed in the Ocean dub to Pijard (with a soft "j"). The Japanese show does not seem aware of what this sounds like in English. Given that even fansubbers will spell his name as "Pissard" by mistake, it's probably the most easily justified name change in the dub.
    • Poisony became "Pandora" to remove the reference to poison in her name. A less dramatic example but pretty typical of 2008's era Broadcast Standards and Practices.
    • The finishing move, Pretty Cure Marble Screw, became Pretty Cure Marble Twister.
  • Converging-Stream Weapon: The "Pretty Cure Marble Screw" attack has Black's Black Thunder and White's White Thunder converging into a spiral-like stream mixing both as they rocket towards the target of the episode.
  • Cover Identity Anomaly: When disguising as Honoka in episode 20, Poisony mixes up Mepple and Mipple's name, something which tipped off Nagisa into believing that this Honoka isn't the real one.
  • Cross-Cast Role: Done In-Universe twice by Nagisa and once by Honoka, each for a school play.
  • Crossdresser: Nagisa dresses as a boy in at least two episodes.
  • Cross-Popping Veins: Nagisa sometimes gets these when she's angry, which isn't a rare occurrence.
  • Cue the Rain: In episode 21, the weather shifted from sunny weather to heavy rain when Kiriya revealed to Honoka that he's part of the Dusk Zone.
  • Cultural Translation: Notably with takoyaki becoming doughnuts...covered in "cheese" and herbs.
  • Dancing Theme: The ending theme.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Dark King loses three times to the girls.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: For some reason the Verone Choir Club chooses the ending song to sing in a choir competition in episode 45.
  • Down to the Last Play: Each season has about 3-4 Lacrosse matches, all of which are won by Nagisa at the last second. Except one match, which was won by Shiho at the last second.
  • Do Wrong, Right: Episode 11 has an instance where Nagisa's dad catches her using a grappling move on her brother. Instead of scolding her for tormenting her Annoying Younger Sibling, he corrects her technique and goes on his way.
  • The Dragon: Ilkbo is the Dark King's second-in-command in the first arc.
  • Dramatic High Perching: The villains tend to take a high perch when they make their entrance and summon a Zakenna.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The Italian dub of episode 28 of Max Heart causes a couple of these.
    • When Lulun appears, both Nagisa and Honoka are shown to know who she is despite the fact that she never appeared once before. In the original version, in fact, both girls have no idea who Lulun was.
    • Another comes from Honoka, who call Circulus by name despite the fact that no enemy introduced themselves to the Cures and the only one who they actually know the name of (with an actual explanation for it at that point) is Baldez. In the original, Honoka never calls Circulus by name.
  • Dub Pronunciation Change: The Italian dub has Nagisa's name pronounced as "Na-gee-sa" instead of "Nag-he-sa".
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Kenta Hoshino makes a brief cameo during one episode of Max Heart.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The earlier episodes have the two demonstrating abilities like producing a barrier and the Rainbow Therapy that they never use again in the later episodes.
    • The first season features some more adult humor than the rest of the franchise - the gag with Nagisa screwing a statue’s arm on wrong is definitely more mature for the rest of the franchise’s jokes.
    • Earlier on in the first season, civilians could get involved with the evil plot of the week, Pissard in particular made a point of targeting civilians and Ryota got seriously hurt by Gekidrago. By the time Ilkubo's turn comes around, normal civilians just faint and by the first episode of Max Heart dissapear entirely in almost every single battle. Later series allowed the civilians to get involved again.
    • The first season would be the only series with transformations showing bare bodies, which is pretty normal for this genre but unheard of for this franchise. While’s the metallic skin and choice to still have parts like the skirts already formed is actually far more conservative than shows aimed at the same age group and even shows that came out in the same year, apparently this was controversial with parents and Max Heart had shorter transformations where the girls are already mostly clothed. Later iterations of the franchise often have at least a simple dress on the Cures while they transform or the outfits already partially formed, with the most “daring” ever being sparkling bodies that still show less detail than Sailor Moon ever did.
    • The magical girl forms themselves are pretty restrained and make only small changes to the girl’s appearances in season 1. Nagisa basically gets a slightly different hair style, Honoka gets longer and fuller hair but still the same color. This doesn’t change in Season 2 either and the costumes are very subtle. Shiny Luminous is a sign of where the franchise goes with more dramatic changes like the enormous hair, and each season the franchise would only get bigger and flashier.
    • While the franchise is known for big wild fights with elaborate choreography, this series the fights are often short and almost an after thought with Cure Black and Cure White throwing a few punches at best before dropping their ultimate. Some of the early episodes they barely engage the Zakenna before using a Marble Screw after thirty seconds of fighting.
    • Honoka being upset at the idea of killing Pisard actually gets addressed on camera, whereas in later series that killed off main villains, the main characters never even acknowledge it. Later season would do away with killing the villains off, preferring to redeem them instead.
    • Kiriya is much warmer and gentle than he would be later on when he first infiltrates the school, smiling and socializing a bit more than he would later. Later episodes emphasize his aloofness and general discomfort when interacting with normal people.
    • The main characters reluctance to be heroes and the slow burn of their friendship is a sharp contrast to later series where characters never refuse the call for more than an episode or so and are usually eager to help the strange magical creatures and bond ASAP with their new teammates.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Despite initially having no chance against Baldez and Hikari temporarily sacrificing her existence to use the Queen's full power, Max Heart ends with the world being restored to normal, Mepple and Mipple choosing to stay, and Hikari being resurrected, much to Nagisa and Honoka's happiness.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: The Dusk Zone plans to annihilate Earth, and the heroes frequently get a glimpse of the ruins of what their world would be like if the Dusk Zone won.
  • Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: The main duo, Nagisa and Honoka, fit the bill. Nagisa is an energetic jock, while Honoka is a more thoughtful and introspective scientist.
  • Every Car Is a Pinto: When she was pissed in episode 42, Cure Black's Battle Aura was the bolt in the differential necessary to destroy an entire subway car, making this one Every Subway Car Is A Pinto.
  • Evil Counterpart: In one episode, two of the heroines' classmates- who loved Pretty Cure so much that they were cosplaying as them and putting on amateur stage shows for little kids- were Brainwashed to become evil counterparts. However, far from being equals their Brainwashed state made them sluggish and gave them no other superpowers save for Super-Strength. The main obstacle came from Black and White trying not to accidentally cripple them.
  • Evolving Credits: The ending changes partway through to showcase the new Quirky Miniboss Squad and Pollun.
  • Evolving Music: The opening theme of MaX Heart is a remix of the original theme.
  • Expy: Their Alternate Continuity successors are expies of them, and they themselves are expies of the Dirty Pair.
  • Face Doodling: In episode 16, this is how Cure Black solves the problem of telling a brainwashed classmate apart from the Zakennas that have taken on said classmate's appearance.
  • Foil:
  • Frills of Justice:
    • Cure Black her short top caused quite a stir amoung Moral Guardians as a result it is covered up in Season 2. She is the only one in the entire 8 seasons to not get hair decs.
      • In the first movie her outfit gets a golden color, and her earrings and other small hearts on her clothes become diamonds.
      • In the second movie Her outfit takes on a Feather Motif. In Pretty Cure All Stars DX 2 her Cure Rainbow Black form resembles this but without the Feather Motif.
    • Cure White She only gets a minor Frilly Upgrade for season 2 same golden upgrade for movie 1 and movie 2 upgrade Cure Rainbow White in Pretty Cure All Stars DX 2 uses the same outfit but with Wings
    • Shiny Luminous[1] Her outfits follow the same upgrade line as Cure White.
  • Frilly Upgrade: Just look at their outfits in the first season, then their outfits at Max Heart.
  • Full-Contact Magic: Both the heroes and the villains attack with magical Hand Blasts, be it the Marble Screw or a powerful gust of wind.
  • Fun with Subtitles: In episode 21, Nagisa warns Mipple and Mepple for their carelessness with showing their real forms. Problem is, she's holding a bag of chips on her mouth, so Mipple can't understand her as her speech was too grumbled (Mepple was able to understand it just fine though). Arienai Fansub's release of the episode deliberately grumbled Nagisa's lines to mimic the effect of speaking while having something in your mouth.
  • Golden Super Mode: The Golden Power from the first movie comes with gold clothes and diamond jewelry.
  • Gotta Catch Them All: Used differently than in most series as Pretty Cure makes no real effort to collect the Heartiels near the end of the series it's revealed they never intended to revive The Queen and are in fact offended by the idea that they would be willing to sacrifice anyone.
  • Gratuitous English: The Cure's names, transformation phrases, and attacks are all in English.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Done twice, first by Kiriya and later, in part, by Jaaku King, whose life makes the turn and splits from him.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Nagisa and Honoka.
  • Human Shield: Pisard does this in episode 5 with the petrified museum goers. Forcing the Cures to hold back or risk causing Literally Shattered Lives.
  • Idiot Ball: After about the tenth time weird things start happening around them and they don't immediately transform, but instead decide to investigate in their normal unpowered state, you start to wonder what is wrong with them. You have superpowers, girls. If everyone around suddenly gets turned to stone, you should probably USE THEM! Even Mepple starts calling them out on it by midpoint. They don't listen.
  • Ignored Enemy: In episode 8. Nagisa and Honoka are bickering while casually dodging Gekidrago's attacks, and when he demands they stop ignoring him, they shout "Be quiet! We're having a very important conversation here!" and blast him into orbit.
  • Immediate Sequel: MaX Heart picks up where the original left off.
  • Intertwined Fingers: The girls hold hands like this whenever they transform, as well as while performing the Marble Screw.
  • In the Name of the Moon: Every time Nagisa and Honoka transform they say the same declarations automatically. The first time they do this, Nagisa responds by asking what the heck she is saying.
    Cure Black: Say what!?
  • Invisible to Normals: Subverted most of the time. Whenever Mipple, Mepple or Pollun decide to pop out because they want to have fun along with Nagisa and Honoka, the girls have to cover up and pretend that they made whatever noise the mascots made.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Nagisa is very prone to this already, but she drops the most dramatic one in the history of the entire franchise in Episode 25 when she asks the Queen why she gave such a big and important task as collecting all the Prism Stones to a couple of junior high girls. Nobody can give a satisfactory answer, even Mepple and Mipple are confused, and they just give up on getting one.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: Honoka is very wealthy, but also somewhat isolated from her peers due to not being very social, although she does have friends in the Science Club, particularly Yuriko. When she befriends Nagisa, she also gets absorbed into her circle of friends.
  • Love Letter: Nagisa has a lot of trouble with love letters, both giving and receiving. Right at the start of the series her locker is crammed full of them... but they're all love letters from girls, which bugs her to no end. Later she tries to give one to her crush, Fuji-P, but backs out of doing it.
  • Lovely Angels: Look at this picture, now look at this one. Note, jock and brain, note hair colors.
  • Magical Girl Warrior: This series in particular put more emphasis on the "Warrior" part because the franchise ended up distinguishing itself right here with the hardcore brawls the main characters get into before finally dropping their magical attack.
  • Magic Realism: Hints of it; for instance, the art gallery episode
  • Malaproper: Nagisa, especially in the next episode previews where Honoka has to constantly correct her.
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: The Pretty Cure Rainbow Bracelets.
  • Minidress of Power: Cure White wears a short dress and is capable of bashing Zakenna or Dark Zone generals.
  • Modesty Shorts: Nagisa wears them both in her lacrosse uniform and as Cure Black.
  • Monster of the Aesop: Several of the Zakennas tie into a lesson learned in the episode itself.
  • Monster of the Week: The Zakennas serve as the first of many monsters summoned by the Dark Zone's generals.
  • Motor Mouth: Shiho, who punctuates her verbal barrages with a stutter-like triple repeat of the occasional word.
  • Never Say "Die": "Returning to the darkness"; Mipple and Mepple assure Honoka that they haven't really killed their enemies, but later on, the villains treat it as punishment and Kiriya once mentions it in a context that sounds like committing honourable suicide. This becomes a plot point later on when Kiriya manages to communicate with the girls through a rift in the darkness.
    • Despite the dub being aimed at kids and airing on kids channels, it never shied away from the words death, die and kill. What did get changed is a line where Poisony (Pandora in the dub) telling Pretty Cure the mirrors she was using would be their grave.
  • Non-Human Sidekick: Mipple and Mepple are the two cute critters from the Garden of Light who accompany Nagisa and Honoka in stopping the Dusk Zone.
  • Odd Couple: Honoka is a tidy, feminine intellectual from a rich family; Nagisa is a rough-and-tumble middle-class tomboy who isn't good at school.
  • Ojou: Honoka is a lady whose wealth allows her to live in basically a small Japanese mansion and she's also treated like a princess as one who is very knowledgable.
  • Pillar of Light: Their Magical Girl transformation happens inside a rainbow one; as shown in the first episode, it prevents their enemies from interrupting them.
  • Plot Tailored to the Party: Whenever Nagisa and Honoka goes on a trip, they are conveniently together by coincidence and/or by intention.
  • Post-Episode Trailer: The first time in the franchise where the next episode will be teased.
  • The Power of Friendship: Very important in the series, as the Cures' attacks are powered by their friendship.Even when they're arguing/yelling at each other, they can still manage to dodge all the enemy's attacks — in perfect sync — and pull together long enough to defeat it.
  • Production Foreshadowing: In episode 34 of Max Heart, the ninth-graders go on a field trip. There, Nagisa and friends talk about a Jidaigeki period drama they've been watching, and Rina does a silly voice as she mentions an evil magistrate (odaikan-sama). The Big Bad in the very next season is Akudaikhan-sama, a villain based on the "evil magistrate" Stock Character.
  • Professional Butt-Kisser: The vice-principal, whose Establishing Character Moment is to change opinions immediately based on what the principal says. Even the principal calls him out on saying whatever he thinks the principal wants to hear.
  • Pummel Duel: Baldez vs. Cure Black and Cure White throw rapid punches at each other at the same time at their last fight.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: There is one in the first half of Pretty Cure, but in the second half they are replaced by a Terrible Trio.
  • Rainbow Manipulation: In the second half of the series, Cure Black and Cure White gain an all-new technique called the Rainbow Storm in order to fight the Seeds of Darkness. This attack takes the form of a rainbow-colored Wave-Motion Gun. In the sequel season, the Marble Screw Max Spark also includes a rainbow-colored beam.
  • Recycled Soundtrack: The opening theme is kinda recycled from Hatena no Boomerang, the opening to the anime version of Osamu Tezuka's The Three-Eyed One, both songs were composed by Yasuo Kosugi
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Nagisa (who is very open with how she feels) and Honoka (who is most of the time calm yet happy) respectively.
  • Reset Button: Not explicit, but there are a few cases, when all damage from immensely destructive battles disappears, and normals don't remember anything afterwards.
  • Self-Defenestration: In episode 27, an office worker named Kakuzawa goes berserk and throws himself out the window upon hearing about a typhoon on the news. He fully awakens to the dark power inside him while hurtling through the air and transforms into Juna, one of the three Seeds of Darkness.
  • Shades of Suffocation: In episode 21, Nagisa does a Spit Take and briefly chokes on the chips she was eating. Her whole face turns red, and there is a blue blush around her nasal bridge.
  • Ship Tease: Possibly with the aforementioned School Play episode. There also is some between Nagisa and her crush Fujipi.
  • Shorttank: Nagisa wears a black tank-top sometimes and often has on a pair of minishorts.
  • Shout-Out: Sailor Moon and other Magical Girl references, both straight and satirical.
  • Significant Double Casting: Kenichi Ono plays Jaaku King and Baldez. The Grand Finale reveals that Baldez is the heir of Jaaku King's power. Baldez is Jaaku King.
  • Sixth Ranger: Hikari's a Third Ranger.
  • Slice of Life: When they're not fighting villains, this is basically what most of the episodes consist of.
  • Slow-Motion Pass-By: Nagisa and Honoka in the intro.
  • Snot Bubble: Mepple does this, sometimes with added drool.
  • So Last Season: Zig-zagged. Once the Seeds of Evil show up, Pretty Cure seem to be helpless against them without the Pretty Cure Rainbow Bracelets. However, the regular old Marble Screw still works just fine against Zakenna, and eventually they can win against the Seeds without the bracelets as well.
    • For that matter, the Marble Screw was already pretty much useless against Ilkubo several episodes before the Bracelets were introduced, forcing Pretty Cure to rely on luck and tactics to survive against him.
    • Then when MaX Heart comes along, they use an upgraded version of Marble Screw, but that too is eventually outclassed by Extreme Luminario . . . and then Marble Screw is upgraded again.
  • Stock Footage: There's the usual stock footage (transformation, attacks), and some surprise ones, like Nagisa's lacrosse goal. Another way the show uses the trope is with each of Nagisa's narrations of the previous episode from Episode 2 onwards.
  • Super Cell Reception: Played with. The protective forms that Mipple and Mepple have to take on during their stay on earth resemble girly cellphones, resulting in everyone assuming that Nagisa and Honoka already had cells and didn't need new ones. However, Mipple and Mepple only look like cellphones, and can't be used to communicate.
  • Team Spirit: Many of the episodes put Nagisa and Honoka's teamwork to the test as Pretty Cures.
  • Teen Genius: Honoka, a second-year (later third) is regarded as the "Queen of Knowledge" in school.
  • Thinly-Veiled Dub Country Change: The Ocean dub changed Akane’s takoyaki stand to a “donut hole” stand in spite of the fact the sign still says, in English, that it’s a takoyaki stand and it’s named “Tako Cafe.” The “donuts” are also covered in toppings that would extremely unappetizing for a pastry.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: Honoka says something to that effect every single week. If Nagisa is driven to say this, however, whoever drove her to say it is going to pay dearly.
  • Title Drop: Borderline example, and the dub every instance of Pretty Cure being uttered counts since the title is shortened to simply "Pretty Cure". The girls' In the Name of the Moon speech finishes with the exclamation of "Together We are Pretty Cure!", making this a Once an Episode occurrence.
  • Together We Are X:"Futari" means "We", so "Futari wa Pretty Cure" can roughly mean "Together we are Pretty Cure", which was even a lyric of the English opening. This also extends to the follow-up, Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star.
  • Tomboyish Name: "Nagisa" is a girl's name but our hot-blooded Nagisa (aka Cure Black) is tomboyish.
  • Transformation Sequence: Nagisa and Honoka's transformation (the first in the franchise) takes about a minute to complete.
  • Verbal Tic: Employed by the mascots in the original version. Removed entirely in the English dub.
    • Mepple constantly says "~mepo" at the end of his sentences.
    • Mipple uses "~mipo".
    • Pollun's tic is "~popo".
    • Lullun ends her lines with "~lulu".
  • Villains Out Shopping: In one episode, Nagisa and Honoka, while discussing the high likelihood of running into villains on a coincidental group family vacation, inexplicably find Poisony having a nap in a wardrobe. She manages to evade them before they can confirm that she was there for real.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: Their signature attack, "Pretty Cure Marble Screw" (or "Pretty Cure Marble Twister"), greatly resembles one.
  • Weasel Mascot: Mepple.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The Zakenna butlers live through both seasons and are never shown being killed, yet their fate at the end of Max Heart is left unaddressed. They are last seen at the mansion.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: See Never Say "Die", above.
  • Wrestler in All of Us: Mostly, used by Nagisa to punish her Annoying Younger Sibling.
  • Writers Cannot Do Math: Subverted. The infamous "You should be able to solve this" screencap (the equation resolves to 0=26) is taken from seconds before Honoka points out that the equation can't be solved—it's the in-universe math teacher who made a mistake, not the writers.
  • Year Inside, Hour Outside: Though they left a day apart in their world, over a century passed between Mipple's arrival on Earth and Mepple's.

Alternative Title(s): Futari Wa Pretty Cure Max Heart

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Creepy Anatomy

Natalie and Hannah encounter a living anatomy model.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (1 votes)

Example of:

Main / EerieAnatomyModel

Media sources:

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