Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star

Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash☆Star (ふたりはプリキュアSplash☆Star Futari wa Purikyua Splash☆Star?, Lit. "We are Pretty Cure Splash☆Star") is the first new iteration of Pretty Cure after the original Futari wa Pretty Cure and its sequel Max Heart. It was directed by Komura Toshiaki and premiered on TV Asahi February 5, 2006.
The story revolves around Hyuuga Saki and Mishou Mai, who were chosen by the spirits of the flowers and birds to become the legendary warriors, Pretty Cure, for the battle against evil organization Dark Fall.
The Cures' signature motif is the Japanese idiom "flower, bird, wind, moon" (花鳥風月 kachōfūgetsu?), and the beauty of nature is the main theme for the season.
== Story ==
The story begins five years prior to the start of the series. Young Hyuuga Saki and Mishou Mai meet each other under the Sky Tree at age nine after following two glowing lights flying towards the tree. Five years later, they meet at the same place again and become the Legendary Warriors Pretty Cure.
Saki is the star in the softball team, and Mai is an inspiring artist. When they meet each other by a coincidence before the Sky Tree, two lights fall down, revealing two small creatures named Flappy and Choppy. They explain to the girls about their duty as Pretty Cure, but on the same day, they get attacked by a strange humanoid creature with his fearsome monster. The girls transform into Cure Bloom and Cure Egret, defeated the monster and acquired something later revealed to be a Miracle Droplets. After some thought, the two girls decide to become friends and help Flappy and Choppy save their world named the Land of Fountains. Cure Bloom and Cure Egret can fight physically, set up energy shields and fly freely using spiritual powers, and they are protected by a passive force field. Spiritual powers take in the form of visible light, so the Cures are aura battlers. Their group attack is the Twin Stream Splash. Cure Bloom bears the Flower symbol from Flappy on the back of her gloves, and Cure Egret bears the Bird symbol from Choppy in the same matter. These symbols are always used for launching a group attack and retained when they attain their second form.
Over time, they have defeated Karehaan, Moerumba, and Dorodoron before confronting two of their best friends, Kiryuu Michiru, and Kiryuu Kaoru, the Dark Fall magical girl duo who go to the Land of Greenery in order to spy on Pretty Cure. The four eventually become good friends after spending some peaceful days together and a confrontation where the Cures have refused to fight back. Michiru and Kaoru sacrificed themselves to rescue Saki and Mai from their fearsome leader Akudaikaan and disappeared from the Land of Greenery until their revival by power from the Fairy Carafe.
After Pretty Cure has restored the Fountain of Sky, two mysterious spirits from this Fountain appear, named Moop and Foop, who can collect the power of the Moon and power of the Wind. A powerful and treacherous villain Ms. Shitataare appears to be too powerful to Cure Bloom and Cure Egret to handle without an upgrade. Moop and Foop supply their powers to the Splash Commune, which provides the Spiral Ring Set to the Cures, allowing them to use the more-powerful Spiral Heart Splash attack.
Later, Flappy and Choppy are captured and injured by Goyan, and subsequently healed by power from Moop and Foop, resulting in an upgrade in their item form from the Mix Commune to the Crystal Commune, and their ability to use the moon and wind powers collected by Moop and Foop, resulting in a new form for Pretty Cure, Cure Bright and Cure Windy. Cure Bright and Cure Windy can access all of Cure Bloom and Cure Egret's fighting capability plus the ability to use the power of the Light and power of the Wind. Their group attack is the Spiral Star Splash, which requires the use of the Spiral Ring Set, which is also supplied by the same pair of spirits as their Cure transformation. Flappy and Choppy still retain their ability to collect spiritual power from the Earth and the Sky after this upgrade, so the girls can freely choose and switch between the two forms. They are shown to use both forms in the second half of the show, and they have defeated Kintoleski using their second form.
After Pretty Cure has restored all six fountains in the Land of Fountains, Queen Fillia collects powers from the six fountains in the Fairy Carafe and intends to use them for the Fountain of Sun, but Goyan steals the Fairy Carafe and uses such powers to revive the five defeated Dark Fall minions. The remaining power is used to revive Michiru and Kaoru, who have betrayed the Dark Fall and sided Pretty Cure afterward. After defeating all five recycled minions, the four girls enter the Dark Fall to retrieve the stolen Fairy Carafe and subsequently fight Akudaikaan and Goyan. After Akudaikaan gets defeated by the four girls, Goyan kills him and reveals that he is the one who has created Akudaikaan and intends to destroy the universe and take all lives with it. Goyan reveals his original form and has a fiery battle against the girls, during which the Land of Greenery is turned into the ruined world and all four girls have run out of power and are near death. Saki and Mai are de-transformed, but they have eventually managed to summon remaining spirits from the Land of Greenery to finish the battle. With the Cures using Flappy and Choppy's Flower and Bird powers and Michiru and Kaoru carrying a portion of Moop and Foop's powers (the remaining portion is in the Cures' Spiral Rings), the four are able to use all four powers together and defeat Goyan with their ultimate attack, the Spiral Heart Splash Star.
The Land of Greenery and the Land of Fountains are restored, the four girls live together in the Land of Greenery, and the four spirits return to the Land of Fountains. The story ends with the four girls heading forward to their future and Saki and Mai holding hands for one last time.
== Characters ==
=== Pretty Cure ===
* Hyuuga Saki (日向咲 Hyuuga Saki?): Saki is the athletic heroine of the series and is a member of the school's softball team. Much like Misumi Nagisa, she is a cheerful sporty girl who loves sweets and hates studying, but has a bright and easygoing personality. Her alter ego is Cure Bloom (キュアブルーム Kyua Burūmu?) and later Cure Bright (キュアブライト Kyua Buraito?), with powers representing the earth.
* Mishou Mai (美翔舞 Mishou Mai?): Mai is a transfer student in Saki's class. She is a quiet artist who loves drawing and has awareness of the surroundings. Her alter ego is Cure Egret (キュアイーグレット Kyua Īguretto?) and later Cure Windy (キュアウィンディ Kyua Windi?), with powers representing the sky.
=== Allies ===
* Flappy (フラッピ Furappi?): Flappy is the spirit of the Flower and Saki's mascot partner. He has a crush on Choppi and ends his sentences with "-lapi".
* Choppy (チョッピ Choppi?): Choppy is the spirit of the Bird and Mai's mascot partner. She is not aware of Flappy's crush on her. She ends her sentences with "-chopi".
* Moop (ムープ Mūpu?): Moop is the spirit of the moon from the Fountain of Sky. He ends his sentences with "-mupu".
* Foop (フープ Fūpu?): Foop is the spirit of the wind from the Fountain of Sky. She ends her sentences with "-pupu".
* Princess Filia (フィーリア王女 Fīria-oujo?): The ruler of the Land of Fountains, and Spirit of the World Tree. She appears every time Pretty Cure restores a ruined Fountain and provides a hint on future events.
* Kiryuu Kaoru (霧生薫 Kiryū Kaoru?): A denizen of Dark Fall. Together with her sister Michiru, they control the Fountain of Sky. She and Michiru come to Yuunagi Junior High as exchange students in an attempt to infiltrate Pretty Cure but eventually end up becoming friends with them instead.
* Kiryuu Michiru (霧生満 Kiryū Michiru?): A denizen of Dark Fall and is always together with her sister Kaoru. She and Kaoru come to Yuunagi Junior High as exchange students in an attempt to infiltrate Pretty Cure but eventually end up becoming friends with them instead.
=== Dark Fall ===
* Karehan (カレハーン Karehān?): The first denizen of the Dark Fall. It looks like he is made of plants, and creates wood-based Uzaina. He controls the Fountain of Trees.
* Moerumba (モエルンバ Moerunba?): The second denizen of the Dark Fall. Moerumba manipulates the fire element and can create fire-breathing Uzainas using heat-related objects. He controls the Fountain of Fire.
* Dorodoron (ドロドロン Dorodoron?): The third of the Dark Fall, he is an arachnoid creature that travels underground and uses earth-based objects as his Uzaina monsters. He controls the Fountain of Earth.
* Ms. Shitataare (ミズ・シタターレ Mizu Shitatāre?): The fourth of the Dark Fall is an ice woman and uses water in many forms for her Uzaina monsters. Her name is a pun on the Japanese word "misu" (水 misu?), which means "water". She controls the Fountain of Water.
* Kintoleski (キントレスキー Kintoresukī?): The last minion of the Dark Fall, and also the physically strongest. His skin is metallic gold. He controls the Fountain of Gold.
* Goyan (ゴーヤーン Gōyān?): Akudaikaan's aide, though Ms. Shitataare calls him "Go-chan" despite his superiority. He often comments on the minions' previous work whenever they come to report to Akudaikaan.
* Uzaina (ウザイナー Uzainā?): The physical form of the Dark Fall's power. Uzainaas are monsters created from a fusion of an object and a Miracle Droplet corrupted by the Dark Fall. Upon their defeat, elemental spirits are released to thank Pretty Cure.
* Akudaikan (アクダイカーン Akudaikān?): The evil ruler of Dark Fall who wants to take over the World Tree, he has managed to capture six of the seven fountains that nourish it. He has sent out minions to try to find the location of the last Fountain, the Fountain of the Sun.
== Items ==
* Mix Communes - The transformation device for Bloom and Egret.
* Crystal Communes - The upgraded transformation device for Bloom, Egret, Bright, and Windy.
* Splash Commune - A laptop device used by both Pretty Cures.
* Spiral Rings - The weapon like devices to perform special attacks.
* Miracle Drops - The spirits that restore the fountains.
* Fairy Charafe - The object that restores the fountains.
== Locations ==
* Land of Greenery: This is a name referring to the human world, where Saki and Mai live. The Fountain of Sun and the World Tree resides in this world, and Pretty Cure needs to protect this fountain along with the World Tree.
* Land of Fountains (泉の郷 Izumi no Sato?): The Spirit World where Flappy and Choppy come from. It consists of seven holy fountains. Six fountains are destroyed and controlled by the Dark Fall, and it is Pretty Cure's job to restore those ruined fountains while protecting a seventh, the Fountain of the Sun.
* Land of Clocks: This world houses the Infinite Clock which controls time, and only appears in the movie.
* Yuunagi Middle School (夕凪中学校 Yūnagi Chūgakkō?): The middle school attended originally by Hyuuga Saki and ultimately all main characters of the season, including Mai and the Kiryu sisters.
* PANPAKA Pan Bakery (ベーカリーPANPAKAパン Bēkari PANPAKApan?): A bread shop within the town and home of the Hyuuga family.
* Sky Tree (大空の樹 Oozora no Ki?): A notable landmark within the town of Yuunagi, connected to the Land of Fountains.
* Dark Fall (ダークフォール Dāku Fōru?): The evil organization that is localized in a tower alone in the water. It has a path from the entrance into the cave at the main tower. The term "Dark Fall" also refers to the nine villains from the Dark Fall.
== International Dubs and Broadcasts ==
Futari Wa Pretty Cure Splash Star gained a succesion among TV stations but unlike its predecessors, many dubs of Futari Wa and Max Heart did not kept on to this and onward seasons. Only 7 dubs were released.
=== Albanian ===
Futari Wa Pretty Cure Splash Star, was dubbed into Albanian from the Italian dub and by the studio "Jess" Discographic for an Albanian broadcast on Bang Bang channel. The openings are left undubbed but subtitled instead. This is also an illegal dub like all of the Albanian ones.
=== Cantonese ===
TVB dubbed Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star on December 26, 2008 and March 5, 2009 with a dubbed opening for broadcast on the channel.
=== English ===
In association with TOEI Animation, Ocean Studios made an English trailer for this series to promote their series in North America and find dubbers an distributors who will eventually dub the 3rd season. However, up to date, no English dub exists. 
=== Italian ===
Am Italian translation dub aired on Rai Due and Rai 2 from June 9, 2008 to August 8, 2008. The dub was made by La BIBi and was generally fiathful to the original. However, Italian fans expected this series to be a 2nd sequel of Futari Wa Pretty Cure. This was likely believed by a mistake made by the dubbers, at the time the final episode of Max Heart was aired in Italy, it was announced in the preview that Honoka and Nagisa would continue their adventures but the dubbers hadn't received the scripts to the next series yet. The opening and endings are translated and localized.
=== Korean ===
Champ TV accompanied by SBS and Anione channels aired the Korean dub produced for the series. From 1st of October of 2008 to January, 2009 aired entirely.
=== Taiwanese Mandarin ===
YOYO TV was selected for airing the 3rd season of the franchise on April 26, 2008 to January 24, 2009. All openings and the first ending theme are dubbed in Taiwanese Mandarin as the series was faithful to the original Japanese version.
=== Thai ===
Thailand received a Thai dub on April 3, 2010 for airing on weekends mornings until September 18, 2010. Much like to any Thai dub released, opening and endings are in Japanese and eyecatches were present with commercials in-between.
== Trivia ==
* The fictional city of Yuunagi in the series is heavily based on the Kamakura/Enoshima area southwest of Tokyo.
* Many concepts, storylines, character designs, and overall plot seem to be based on the previous two seasons. Saki and Mai both look and act similar to Nagisa and Honoka, Minori is like Ryota, Kiryuu Karou and Kiryuu Michiru are heavily based on Nagisa and Honoka's appearances, more so than Saki and Mai, and their motives are based heavily on Kiriya's, Akudaikan is similar to the Evil King, Goyan is similar to Baldez, Flappy and Choppy are similar to Mepple and Mipple, Princess Filia is similar to the Queen of Light and etc.
* Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star is the last season to be aired in the SD format and 4:3 ratio.
* This is the only series where the transformation devices are changed mid-season along with the Cures' names.