Happiness Charge PreCure!

A poster featuring Cure Lovely, Princess, Honey, and Fortune along with Ribbon, Glasan, and Blue

### Premiered

TV Asahi

**Happiness Charge Pretty Cure!** is the eleventh anime series of the *Pretty Cure* franchise.

Directed by Nagamine Tatsuya and produced by Toei Animation, the series premiered on TV Asahi February 2nd, 2014, succeeding *Doki Doki! PreCure* in its time slot. The series' motifs are mirrors, fashion, dancing, and form-changing, and its themes are love and happiness.

The season celebrates the franchise's 10thanniversary.

## Synopsis

All around the world, Pretty Cures have been fighting against the invasion of the enemies known as Saiarks! Shirayuki Hime, the princess of the Blue Sky Kingdom, is, in fact, a Pretty Cure, but, unable to defeat the enemy alone, she has fallen behind the others and is in quite a terrible situation. Then, on her quest to find a partner, she meets Aino Megumi (Cure Lovely), and they form a team called Happiness Charge Pretty Cure. Later in the story, they are joined by Cure Honey (Omori Yuko) and Cure Fortune (Hikawa Iona), fight against the Phantom Empire, defeat the Saiarks, and collect all PreCards to fulfill their wish! With the dress-up theme beloved by girls, a completely different Pretty Cure story begins!

## Characters

### Pretty Cure

**Megumi Aino** / **Cure Lovely** - She is the protagonist whose redeeming features are her happy-go-lucky attitude and smile. When people who feel troubled or depressed and want to be left alone, she unintentionally meddles in their issues. Though she is awkward/tactless, and her attempts at helping others often fail, she thoroughly looks to the positive and is skilled at seeing the good in people. She has an interest in cute fashion, but her fashion sense is not exactly the best. Her standard signature color is pink, and she can change into two alternate forms: the red "Cherry Flamenco" and the yellow "Lollipop Hiphop". She is represented by hearts.

**Hime Shirayuki** / **Cure Princess** - She is the princess of the Blue Sky Kingdom and a rather selfish and spoiled fashionista. To save the Blue Sky Kingdom from being ruled by the Phantom Empire, she became a Pretty Cure, except she is easily scared and will immediately try to escape in the middle of fights. Because of her shyness, she never had friends until meeting Megumi. Her standard signature color is blue, and she can change into two alternate forms: the dark blue "Sherbet Ballet" and the green "Macadamia Hula Dance" She is represented by circles and feathers.

**Yuko Omori** / **Cure Honey** - She is Megumi’s friend and classmate. She has this snuggly and fluffy atmosphere about her, so she has a soothing personality that calms her surroundings. Her home is a lunch store, so she loves eating and making food. Her standard signature color is yellow, and she can change into two alternate forms: the blue and red "Popcorn Cheer" and the orange "Coconuts Samba". She is represented by clovers.

**Iona Hikawa** / **Cure Fortune** - She is a Pretty Cure who helps the weak and has a strong sense of justice and a gentleness when she consoles people. Her parents live in America. With her sense of duty as a Cure and her excellent fighting skills, she goes on her own to bring down the Saiarks one by one. In episode 19, Iona revealed to the Cures that she is Cure Fortune. Her standard signature color is purple, and she can change into two alternate forms: the turquoise and yellow "Pine Arabian" and the blue and pink "Anmitsu Komachi". She is represented by stars.

### Mascots

* **Ribbon** - She is Hime's mediator and Cure Lovely, Cure Princess, and—until the final episode—Cure Honey's fairy partner. Despite her cute appearance, she is silver-tongued and much gutsier than Hime.
* **Glasan** - She is Cure Fortune's fairy partner. She helps Cure Fortune during her battles.

### Phantom Empire

* **Queen Mirage** -The ruler of the Phantom Empire. She loves to see people fall into despair and sorrow, with her Saiarks creating fog and utter chaos.
* **Deep Mirror** / **Red** - Queen Mirage's adviser. Appearing as a mirror with an unknown figure inside, he shows things such as a map of the Phantom Empire's influences and any new Cures and often orders the generals under Mirage's command.
* **Namakelder** - The first general of the Phantom Empire. He has grasshopper antennae on his hat and wields a cane.
* **Hosshiwa** - The he second general of the Phantom Empire. She has Marie Antoinette-like locks, wears a pink lolita dress and a hat with a red apple symbol, and owns an umbrella that she can use as a weapon. She is a spoiled, wealthy lady who desires everything, especially her beloved sweets. She can disguise herself to fool the Cures and lead them into traps. Her rival is Cure Honey.
* **Oresky** - The third general of the Phantom Empire. He is a physically strong man who sports self-made medals on a military uniform with a Saiark symbol. He aims to be the best and strongest in any field and aggressively targets people who might threaten his position as number one.
* **Phantom** / **PhanPhan** (ファンファン?) is the fourth and elite general of the Phantom Empire. He is a man who wears a white coat and a gauntlet and wields a sword. He is courageous and unruffled and refers to himself as "The Pretty Cure Hunter." He is incredibly loyal to Queen Mirage, possibly even having feelings for her. He defeated many Pretty Cures worldwide, including Cure Tender, Cure Fortune's elder sister.
* **Saiarks** - The series' main monsters. They wear sunglasses and scarves, with the colors of the scarves depending on who summoned them. The Phantom Empire creates them by trapping victims within mirrors.
* **Choiarks** - The a group of numerous underlings who work for the Phantom Empire. They don't often speak conventional words but say "Choi." Their name comes from "choi aku," meaning "a little bad" or "kind of bad." They are much weaker than Saiarks and serve at a low rank in the empire. The Cures can use their Form Changes to purify them.

### Supporting Characters

* **Seiji** **Sagara** - He is a 14-year-old boy who lives next door to Megumi. He’s been friends with Megumi since childhood, so he understands her weak and good points. Seiji loves martial arts and diligently trains every day at the Hikawa Style Karate Dojo. Although he's popular with girls, he has no interest in a relationship and wants to focus on his training. Despite this, however, he harbors a secret crush on Megumi and shows jealousy towards Blue due to Megumi's developing feelings towards him. Because of his mother's work, he and his sister Mao usually have dinner with the Ainos'.
* **Maria Hikawa** / **Cure Tender** - She is Iona's older sister. As Glasan and Iona described, she is a powerful Pretty Cure with a strong heart. She was defeated by Phantom while protecting her sister from his attack. She traveled to the United States to spend time with her parents and help the other Cures out.
* **Other Cures:** Episode 8 revealed that there are other Pretty Cures battling Saiarks in different regions of the world, including Texas (Bomber Girls Pretty Cure!), India (Wonderful Net Pretty Cure!) and France (Cure Earl). There is one in Egypt named Cure Nile, but she had been defeated and sealed by Phantom. Episode 14 revealed additional Cures from Sydney, Moscow, Rome, and London. In episode 28, the main Cures visited Hawaii and met a new Pretty Cure team, the Alo~ha Pretty Cure, which consists of two Cures: Cure Wave and Cure Sunset.

## Trivia

* *Happiness Charge Pretty Cure!* is the first season of Pretty Cure to introduce other currently active Pretty Cure teams besides the main one, with the International Pretty Cures.
* *Happiness Charge Pretty Cure!* shares some motifs with previous seasons, such as the dancing motif with *Fresh PreCure!* and the fashion motif with *Heartcatch PreCure.*
* This is the first season to feature a "passing the torch" scene, with Cure Lovely passing it to Cure Flora, the lead Cure for *Go! Princess PreCure*. *Super Sentai's* Hand-Off tradition inspired it, and seasons following *Happiness Charge Pretty Cure!* would do this from here on out.
* *Happiness Charge Pretty Cure!* is the first season to have just one eyecatch.
* *Happiness Charge Pretty Cure!* has the largest number of Cures in a season (counting Cure Tender, Cure Mirage, and the international Cures).
* *Happiness Charge Pretty Cure!* is the first season to use CGI within the show, with it being used for the Cures' attacks in their Form Changes.