Animals and Sweets and Creativity…Oh, My! note
"Let's・La・Mix It All Up!"
— Kirakira☆Pretty Cure a la Mode
Kirakira☆Pretty Cure a la Mode is the fourteenth entry and twelfth separate continuity in the Pretty Cure franchise. It began airing on February 5, 2017, preceded by Maho Girls Pretty Cure! and followed by HuGtto! Pretty Cure.
Ichika Usami's mother Satomi is coming home from abroad. To celebrate, Ichika decides to make a shortcake to give to her mom. Several failed attempts later, and a plump fairy named Pekorin crashes into her kitchen. Although unsuccessful, the shortcakes made by Ichika are filled with her heart, and a strange energy called "kirakiraru" inside the sweets spills out, which Pekorin happily eats. Unfortunately, a bad fairy named Gummy appears not long after: He was attracted by the kirakiraru, just like Pekorin. Gummy steals all the kirakiraru from the cakes, making them all black. Through her desire to protect the sweets, Ichika gains the power to transform into a Legendary Patissier: Pretty Cure.
Soon after, Ichika makes some new friends who also have an interest in sweets, and together they make a full team of Cures:
- Cure Whip, Ichika herself, is the Pretty Cure of Cheerfulness and Smiles. Her imagination comes up with all sorts of animal-themed sweets to make.
- Cure Custard, Himari Arisugawa, is the Pretty Cure of Intelligence and Courage. She's shy, but knows enough about sweets to be considered the "Sweets Professor."
- Cure Gelato, Aoi Tategami, is the Pretty Cure of Freedom and Passion. An enthusiastic rock star and the singer of Wild Azure, a local band.
- Cure Macaron, Yukari Kotozume, is the Pretty Cure of Beauty and Excitement. An older girl who is perfect at nearly everything she does, and finds being a Cure makes her life more interesting.
- Cure Chocolat, Akira Kenjou, is the Pretty Cure of Strength and Love. She is another older girl (but often confused for a handsome boy), who is gentle and protective of those around her.
- Cure Parfait, Ciel Kirahoshi, is a genius patisserie who came from France, and is also a fairy named Kirarin who resided in Ichigo Mountain. She gets to live her dream and becomes the Pretty Cure of Dreams and Hope.
Together, the initially five run a sweets shop called the KIRAKIRA Patisserie, while protecting their sweets from other Kirakiraru Thieves like Gummy, as well as any other evil forces seeking the kirakiraru. Midway through the series, the Cures are joined by a shapeshifting fairy named Kirarin who becomes Cure Parfait.
On August 24th, 2020, Crunchyroll announced that they are streaming the entire series on their website with English subtitles, making this the third Pretty Cure season to do so.
Kirakira☆PreCure a la Mode contains examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Akira's voice actress, Nanako Mori, was an otokoyaku ("male role") actress in Takarazuka musicals from 2005 to 2008. Along with Akira/Cure Chocolat looking very boyish, the staircase Cure Chocolat stands on at the end of her Transformation Sequence is a reference to the ookaidan ("grand staircase") that has been a trademark of Takarazuka theatre since 1927.
- Adopt-a-Servant: Aoi's butler, Mizushima, was taken in by the Tategamis when he was little before becoming a servant upon growing up. In his debut in episode 14, he comes off less as a domineering butler and more as a Fantasy Forbidding Aloof Big Brother. Mr. Tategami even names him his heir at the end of the series.
- Ambiguously Gay: The relationship between Yukari and Akira is about as subtle as a brick to the face. Ichika, despite initially falling in love with Akira under the assumption she was a boy, is shown from time to time to still have a crush on her, even though it's always Played for Laughs. Himari is hinted in episode 29 to have a crush on Yukari, though this is never brought up again, but her relationship with Aoi, mainly explored in episode 35, is also hinted at being romantic, and she's also very thankful to Ichika, as shown in episode 46. And finally, there's Ciel and Bibury, who Ciel brought to the good side.
- And Knowing Is Half the Battle: The first six episodes end with a cooking segment where viewers are taught how to make the dessert shown in that day's episode. For example, here's the one for the strawberry shortcake from the first episode.
Accordingly, the recipes are published on the show's official website. - Animal-Themed Superbeing: Each of the Cures are based off of different animals. Rabbit for Cure Whip, Squirrel for Cure Custard, Lion for Cure Gelato, Cat for Cure Macaron, Dog for Cure Chocolat, and Pegasus for Cure Parfait. They even fight like the animals they are based on.
- Cure Whip, based on a rabbit, has good hearing and powerful back legs, which rabbits are known for.
- Cure Custard, based on a squirrel, can run extremely fast.
- Cure Gelato, based off a lion, has one very lethal sonic roar which can knock out enemies hard. (Not surprising, considering Aoi is a rock star and in Real Life a lion's roar is loud enough that it can be heard up to 5 miles away.)
- Cure Macaron, based off a cat, has cat-like nimbleness and fights in a manner akin to She-Fu. She can also shoot her nails as projectiles.
- Cure Chocolat, based off a dog, has a strong sense of smell.
- Cure Parfait, based off a pegasus, has the ability to fly.
- Art Shift: The Eye Catches are much more chibi than the show proper. There's also the "town map" segments used briefly in the opening and episode 14, which are even more chibi.
- Audience Shift: This particular installment of Pretty Cure is aimed at preschool and kindergarten-aged girls, and therefore lacks the usual hands-on combat of previous installments. This was due to complaints over children that age finding scenes in Go! Princess Pretty Cure too intense.
- Ballet Episode: The fourth episode centers on the Cures being invited to a ballet performance and trying to make some good delicacies for the leading lady in their gratitude.
- Bigger on the Inside: The KIRAKIRA Patisserie's main cafe area is a huge circular room with a tall ceiling that's easily over four stories tall. This is in contrast to the modest, mini dollhouse-like exterior that wouldn't even be able to contain the generously-sized kitchen that the Cures work in.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: "Cure a la Mode Decoration!"
- The Cameo: Just like the previous season, Hana Nono/Cure Yell and Hug-tan of HuGtto! Pretty Cure drop in in the last episode.
- Chef of Iron: This time, the Precures are legendary pâtissières as well as warriors.
- Continuity Nod: In Episode 2 around 10:00, when in a flashback child-Himari tries to tell other children about the science of making sweets, the children instead talk about "Ranko-chan" being cool in a TV show. Ranko is a character in Episode 12 of Go! Princess Pretty Cure who chases her dream of being an idol on TV.
- Crash-Into Hello: While trying to battle Gummy, Pekorin slams into Ichika's face while she's trying to bake a cake in the first episode.
- Crossover:
- Rather than in the usual Pretty Cure All Stars movie, these girls' movie debut is in Pretty Cure Dream Stars!, which crosses over with only the teams from the two immediate prior seasons.
- The Kira Kira team is featured in a collaboration with Crypton Future Media! This is because Yukari's voice actress is also the voice of Hatsune Miku.
- Outside of the regular annual crossover movie, the Maho Girls Pretty Cure! team also makes an appearance in this season's standalone movie.
- Debut Queue: The Cures are introduced one by one over the first six episodes, with episode 4 being the only exception.
- Different in Every Episode: The Eye Catch changes each episode, cycling through a few different ones.
- Distant Finale: The last episode's final segment flashes forward a few years, showing the heroines as adults. Ichika travels the world spreading happiness around with her sweets after Chourou (who recovered his body and is not bound to the Patisserie anymore) gives her the Kirakira Patisserie, Rio and Ciel share a bakery, Pekorin has her own Patisserie, Aoi becomes an accomplished musician, Himari is a food scientist, Akira goes into medical training, and Yukari does a little wandering of her own alone.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: A significant instance where every character sans Pekorin and Chourou gets hit with this as a result of Elysio using the power of Noir and Lumiere to rob the world of their emotions.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- Ichika appears in the final episode of Maho Girls Precure, both to feed the reunited Cures and to give them a hand with a Monster of the Week.
- Cure Yell has a similar cameo in the last episode of this season, where she helps the Cures and fairies fight Chourou's berserk body after initially visiting the Kirakira Patisserie in her civilian identity along with Hugtan.
- And although the first episode focuses only on Ichika, all of the other soon-to-be Cures, except for Ciel, appear too.
- Edible Theme Naming: In this series, the Cures are named after different kinds of sweets.
- Food Porn: Being a sweets-themed Pretty Cure series, extra care is taken to make the sweets look delicious.
- Foreshadowing: In Episode 7, there is the flashback with Pekorin and her other fairy friends. When they are talking about Gummy and the other fairy thieves, one of them mentions their worries for their friends studying abroad. Said friends are Kirarin and Pikario, who went overseas to France to study sweets-making.
- French Jerk: Madame Solaine, Ciel's former manager from Paris, is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold example. She feels that Ciel's talents are being wasted in a small Japanese town, and constantly talks about how much better Paris is than Ichigozaka. She also looks down on the Kirakira Patisserie for being low-class. However, she changes her mind after Ciel's "hamster pumpkin pudding" impresses her to the point of giving her a childhood flashback.
- Gag Sub: One sub groupnote put out a gag sub track along with their normal subs. Some of the translations are Dub Name Changes and other localization liberties as if it was the script for a hypothetical English dub of the movie (e.g. using Glitter Force instead of Pretty Cure, renaming Ichika Usami to Anthea Bunny, and translating the "Whip, Step, Jump, & Shine!" line in the opening theme song as "Whip, skip, jump, shine, and we'll all be fine!"). Other liberties taken are definitely not stuff one would see in an actual adaptation, like changing the catchphrase of John-Bedros (Jean-Pierre) from "Trés bien! (×4)" to "To urinate! To defecate! To chlorinate! To suffocate!"note and making a "deez nuts" pun.
- Gilded Cage: Aoi's house life. She lives in a huge mansion and has numerous staff to cater to her whims, but it is made clear she isn't comfortable. She has to act in a style contrary to her Tomboy nature and has to dress like a princess more often than not. In fact, when the other Cures made it to her mansion and rang the doorbell, the first thing she did was scream, "HELP ME!" and open the gates.
- Gratuitous French: The "A la Mode" in the title and transformation phrase; it literally means "in fashion", but in other countries (particularly the US), it means "served with ice cream", which is fitting for a series focused on sweets. Three of the Cures' names (Macaron, Chocolat and Parfait) are also French words. And we're not gonna get into Ciel Kirahoshi: Not only does she hail from Paris and her name mean "sky" in French, but she constantly greets everyone in French. "Bonjour!"
- Hand Puppet: Akira and Yukari use Pekorin and Chourou puppets to tell the audience watching the movie how to use the Miracle Lights.
- "Harmful to Pets" Reminder: During the segment at the end of episode 6 where it shows how to make the dog-themed chocolate from the story, Akira reminds Ichika and the viewers to not actually give sweets to animals. Since that episode didn't involve actually giving any dogs chocolate (or giving sweets to pets in general), this presumably was to make sure the children in the audience didn't think that it was okay to give dogs chocolate just because Cure Chocolat is themed after both dogs and chocolate.
- Horse of a Different Color: The Crystal Animals can turn into large versions of themselves, which the Cures then ride to battle. Averted in the case of Cure Parfait's, as her Crystal Animal is a Pegasus.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: In Episode 22, the Precures (Ichika especially) and Kirarin do this to Julio, who is in fact Kirarin's brother, Pikario, who was brainwashed by Noir. Ichika does this by reminding Julio of his love for his sister and sweets when she senses his true feelings inside of him. She succeeds.
- Jokers Love Junk Food: zigzags this; the silly Cures, Ichika, Himari, Aoi, and Ciel, love sweets, but so do the more serious Yukari and Akira.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to the previous two Precures, this season starts more like this, forgoing the high-stakes Epic Fantasy feel and focusing more on Slice of Life with cooking desserts and fairy thieves who steal their kirakiraru for the first 11 episodes until the first real villain shows up in Episode 12. However, this doesn't stop the series from having darker elements and plotlines, especially once Ciel, Rio, and Noir get more involved in the plot.
- Little Bit Beastly: In Cure form, the girls get an additional pair of animal ears, grow tails and their shoes have animal feet features on the tip.
- Local Hangout: The KIRAKIRA Patisserie, a cafe where all of the Cures work.
- Meaningful Name: The Cures' first names relate to their theme color and their last names to their theme animal, with varying degrees of looseness.
- Ichika Usami: Ichika can be taken to mean "strawberry flower", and when written in Hirigana, Usami is a portmanteau of "Usagimimi" meaning rabbit's ears.
- Himari Arisugawa: Himari can be taken to mean "sunflower", Arisugawa contains "risu" which on its own, means squirrel.
- Aoi Tategami: Aoi means "blue", Tategami as a word on its own can be taken to mean (lion's) mane, though it uses different kanji.
- Yukari Kotozume: Yukari is an archaic form of "violet", the "zume" in Kotozume means nail or claw, referring to a cat's claw.
- Akira Kenjou: Akira means "daybreak" and "bright", "Ken" is an alternative reading of the Kanji for dog (but instead uses the kanji for sword).
- Mid-Season Upgrade: Episode 11 introduces the Candy Rod which the Cures can perform a group finisher, "Three 2 Wonderful a la Mode".
- Episodes 12-16, each of the Cures also gains an individual special move.
- Episode 32 introduces Kirakiraru Creamers for all six Cures who can perform another group finisher, “Precure Animal Go Round” which requires the Crystal Animals.
- Episode 40, the new Animal Sweet, Sweets Castle is introduced which gives the Cures A la Mode Styles. It also gives an upgraded version of Finishing Move, Precure Fantastic Animale.
- Mythology Gag: Has its own page.
- Previously on…: This series was the first entry in the franchise to use Once an Episode recaps of the previous episode narrated by Ichika, a tradition which would be used for all further series except for Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The fairies as usual, and also the Crystal Animals.
- Ship Tease: Between Akira and Yukari. A metric ton of it too. For starters, an old lady mistook Akira for Yukari's boyfriend as early as Episode 10 and Yukari just agreed with the lady while smiling. Then the two of them have a duet called Macaronage of Love and Excitement where Akira admits that she loves Yukari and for that reason is willing to accept everything that Yukari is, flaws and all. And then there's Episode 25 where Akira admits outright to Yukari that she loves her.
- Shout-Out: The entire series seems to pay homage to Tokyo Mew Mew.note However, based on an early look at weaponry, the series also looks like a tribute to Ojamajo Doremi. The sweet shop idea might also be inspired by Doremi's third season, Motto.
- Akira and Yukari are clearly based on one of the most famous lesbian pairings in anime, Sailor Moon's Haruka and Michiru, also known as Sailor Neptune and Uranus.
- Sick Episode: Episode 36, where Akira catches a cold at the same time as the town's sports festival.
- Stealth Pun:
- The first ending says "Three-Two-One" as Cure Chocolat is shown on screen. The "Three-Two" part is actually pronounced "Suii-tsuu" (aka, Sweets) and "Wan" (One) is the sound a dog makes. Cure Chocolat's based on a dog...
- Another in episode 8. It's shown that the collected kirakiraru can be remade into dreams, which makes them sweet dreams.
- A third one happens in the ending theme for the All Stars Memories movie, where Cure Chocolat is standing right next to Cure Etoile because Cure Chocolat's theme song is actually called Chocolat Etoile.
- Story Arc:
- The first 11 episodes have the Cures meeting up and opening the KIRAKIRA Patisserie while fighting off the Kirakiraru Thieves. This comes to a head at episode 11 with all the thieves attacking the Sweets Festival.
- Episode 12 formally introduces Julio, and he fights the Cures with his experiments on kirakiraru. Each of the Cures also gains a special move, and Julio is defeated in episode 17.
- Episode 18 introduces Bibury, another new villain, and she gives the first mentions of Noir, the real Big Bad, leading to Ciel's introduction and subsequent transformation in episode 23.
- From episode 24 onward, the Cures receive crystal orbs that transform one by one into little crystal animals. This leads into Episode 32, where they travel to the past and gain a new power up.
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: The KiraPati can shrink down to the size of a handbag for easy transportation. It isn't questioned too much In-Universe, even when they end up in the middle of a highway.
- Transformation Trinket: The Sweets Pact, which will only work if Animal Sweets are inserted, is what allows the girls to transform into Pretty Cure.
- Unwitting Pawn: The Kirakiraru Thieves were all victims to Julio's manipulations. Julio himself was manipulated by Noir, along with Bibury.
- Victim of the Week: For episodes 12 through 17, Julio uses his staff to drain the kirakiraru from someone's heart, leaving that person unconscious (or in the final case, emotionless).
- Wham Episode: Episode 12. After the Kirakiraru Thieves are purified, Julio disguises himself as a transfer student and outs himself as the current Big Bad to the Precure.
- Wham Line: See examples here.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Ichika in Episode 2 assumes that, as the legendary patisserie Pretty Cure, she can make sweets appear out of thin air before Pekorin explains that she still has to make the sweets herself. Creating things with magic was the theme of the previous season.
- You Are Too Late: In Episode 17, Yukari tries to tell the others who Rio really is, but by the time they get to Ichika's house, she's already lost her kirakiraru to Rio/Julio.
