Karen Minazuki

**Minazuki Karen** (水無月 かれん *Minazuki Karen*?) is a third-year student at L'École des Cinq Lumières Middle School, and the last Cure to join the group in *Yes! Pretty Cure 5*. Because of her parents' job, she has been raised by the mansion's butler. At school, she is the student council president, and is very popular by the juniors together with her fellow student council member, classmate and best friend, Akimoto Komachi, for her cool and inspiring demeanor. Her alter ego is the Cure of Intelligence, **Cure Aqua** (キュアアクア *Kyua Akua*?).

## Personality

Karen is admired by other students due to her calm and stoic nature. This, however, is her outer character--she is actually very lonely, especially when thinking about her parents, whom she secretly misses. In the beginning, she was full of enthusiasm as a class representative before she met Komachi. Because she has known Komachi for such a long time, Karen often feels responsible for being there for her; to an extent, she feels this way about everyone, believing it to be a natural responsibility of the president of the student council. Because of her position, Karen is able to memorize all the names and faces of all the Cinq Lumières students, and also easily takes responsibility when something happens to the school, as seen in the second episodewhere she wants Nozomi to explain what happened to the library the other day. Because of her loneliness when her parents are away and her responsibility of the school, it causes her to believe that she needs to do things by herself.

However, when Karen's angry about something or when she's arguing with someone, it sometimes gets to a point where she ends up saying hurtful or offensive things to other people, shown in episode 23, where she called Komachi naive and indecisive when she got angry.

It also appears that Karen is afraid of scary things, which shocked all of her friends.

In episode 5 and 6, Karen acted as though her time with the Pretty Cure had been a made up story. But with their company she had a lot of fun. When she meets Coco, she was quite stunned. When a Kowaina came and attacked, she was scared, but seeing her friends hurt, she wanted to help. When the blue butterfly disappeared, she was shocked and held lot of grief and depression. But encouraged by Nozomi and stunned by her hopes and friendship, she was happy and dealt with it the best she could. Finally, she became a Pretty Cure in the end of Episode 6 and the more she spends time with her teammates, the more she has fun with them. In episode 29, Jii-ya commented that she is making jokes that makes him happy, in words, she developed a tiny joking habit , but still responsible and serious.

## Appearance

Karen has long, straight dark blue hair with a long strand worn over her shoulders and her bangs brushed to the side. She has matching dark blue eyes.

In *Yes! 5*, her casual outfit consisted of a pale blue dress with light blue ruffled trim at the shoulders and a matching line on the hem of the skirt, along with five small straps at the chest. Worn with this are pale blue boots with light blue straps. In *GoGo!* she switches to a similar two-piece outfit with the ruffled trim now also included at her wrists and the hem of her skirt. On the back of her top is a matching bow. Her top is cut to reveal a darker blue section beneath it, matching her pumps.

In *Yes! Pretty Cure 5: Kagami no Kuni no Miracle Daibouken!*, Karen wore a Light purple jacket with a fluffy white trim and three yellow straps, over a dark teal skirt, along with pale blue and pale indigo boots with butterflies designed on them. Her dress she wears is dark blue and reminiscent of a puffy princess gown with white trim and blue bows. She wears a blue headband with a lilac bow on the side, dark indigo heels, and a white choker with a blue gem.

As Cure Aqua, her hair turns sapphire in color and grows very long, having to be pulled up into a thick, straightened ponytail held with a blue butterfly that has a red gem on it. Her bangs are also longer, with some of pulled pulled to the side of her head. She gains light blue butterfly earrings. In 5, she wore a pale yellow dress with blue trim to match the ribbon tied around her waist, and sleeves hanging off of her shoulders with a pale blue ruffled trim to match the petticoat. Sewn to her chest is butterfly to match her hair ornament. She gains pale yellow sleeves with blue trim and a light blue butterfly to match those of her earrings, along with her Pinky Catch on her left wrist. Her boots are blue with a small white butterfly, and she gains dark blue shorts.

In *GoGo!* her hair butterfly remains, but with a pink rose in the center. She wears a puffy pale blue dress with blue straps to match the trim of the sky-blue vest with a popped collar worn over it. Attached to her sleeves are pale yellow ruffles, and she keeps her butterfly with a CureMo string hanging beneath it, attached to her right hip. She keeps her shorts and boots, but they gain a stylized cuff. Her sleeves turn into gloves and gain a light blue streak down the middle.

## Cure Aqua

**"The blue spring of intelligence, Cure Aqua!"**

知性の青き泉、キュアアクア！

*Chisei no aoki izumi, Kyua Akua!***Cure Aqua** (キュアアクア *Kyua Akua*?) is the last to join the group, and her costume has a design resembling that of Cure Mint's, her counterpart. Cure Aqua's biggest difference from Karen is that she is more loyal to her team and has a much stronger and gentler personality, and her voice changes slightly as well to a more stronger one. She is usually the one to help the others. She, as Nozomi learns, is the most trustworthy Cure. In the beginning, Karen is reluctant to join Pretty Cure, but in the episode 6 , as the girls are being manhandled, Karen stands up to her friends, vowing to protect them regardless of transformation. The butterfly that eluded her previously reappears and successfully lands on her wrist, enabling her to transform to the Pretty Cure of Intelligence. Her powers relates to water and sea.

Alone, Cure Aqua can perform the attack Aqua Stream. When her powers get upgraded with the Aqua Ribbon, she uses Aqua Tornado. At the end of the first season, all the five girls can combine their powers and do the attack Five Explosion.

In the next season, Cure Aqua is able to use the attack Sapphire Arrow. With the other five girls and their Cure Fleurets, she can perform Rainbow Rose Explosion and, with Milky Rose at the end of the season, Floral Explosion.

### Super Cure Aqua

**Super Cure Aqua** (スーパーキュアアクア *Sūpā Kyua Akua*?) is the the upgrade Cure Aqua receives in *Yes! Pretty Cure 5: Kagami no Kuni no Miracle Daibouken!* Thanks to the Miracle Lights. Her powers are greatly increased. She can now fly because of her butterfly wings. Her dress has a extra row of frills on her sleeves and dress. Her arm warmers are now longer and her boots are more wild.

### Cure Rainbow Aqua

**Cure Rainbow Aqua** (キュアレインボーアクア *Kyua Reinbō Akua*?) is an upgrade Cure Aqua gains in *Pretty Cure All Stars DX 2: Kibou no Hikari - Rainbow Jewel o Mamore!*. Together with the others' upgrades, the group of seventeen girls form the group Cure Rainbow. This upgraded outfit vaguely resembles that of Shining Dream from *Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo!: Okashi no Kuni no Happy Birthday!, except with the color blue instead of pink and a pair of small golden wing*s instead of grand white ones.

## Transformations

**Pretty Cure Metamorphose** - "Pretty Cure metamorphose!" is the official transformation phrase Karen uses to transform into Cure Aqua in *Yes! Pretty Cure 5* and *Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo!*

In *Yes! Pretty Cure 5*, Karen's Pinky Catch opens and she shouts, "Pretty Cure..." She makes a circular motion with her arm and shouts, "...metamorphose!" Her body then gets covered in a blue glow. Her top and brooch appear first, followed by her arm warmers, skirt and shoes. Her hair gets styled, her Pinky Catch closes and Cure Aqua recits her introductory speech.

In *Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo!*, Karen's CureMo opens and she presses the buttons while saying, "Pretty Cure metamorphose!" The CureMo's screen glows and her body gets surrounded in blue light. A blue tunnel then appears with light showing at the end. Karen appears with her body glowing blue and surrounded by streams of water. She becomes encased in a globe of water and when it bursts, Karen is fully clothed. Cure Aqua then flies down, opens her eyes and recites her introductory speech.

## Attacks

**Aqua Stream** - Cure Aqua spins around herself once while chanting, and reaches her right hand upward, and the hand begins to glow blue. A stream of water then begins to spiral around the screen before Cure Aqua thrusts her palm towards the enemy, making all the water flow to the Kowaina to purify it.

**Aqua Tornado** - Cure Aqua's butterfly bow begins to glow, in which the light reaches out toward her left hand. The Aqua Ribbon is then shown, in which she takes it over to her right hand. She then spins around herself once while chanting, and the Aqua Ribbon begins to emit a stream of water that spirals around the screen before Aqua thrusts the Aqua Ribbon at the enemy, making all the water flow at the Kowaina to purify it.

**Sapphire Arrow** - Cure Aqua makes fists with both hands and crosses them in front of her chest, causing the butterfly emblem to glow in her signature color. Tiny droplets of water then begin to swirl around her. She reaches forward and her hand becomes surrounded in a tiny mist. The water gathers into an almost solid form which Aqua grabs a hold of and bends back into the shape of an archery bow. A large, drill-like torrent then rips from the bow. When the arrow hits, a blue butterfly appears, purifying the Hoshina.

## Songs

Karen's voice actor **Maeda Ai**, has participated in several image songs for the character she voices. Many of them include duets with **Sanpei Yuko**, who voices Yumehara Nozomi, **Takeuchi Junko**, who voices Natsuki Rin, **Ise Mariya**, who voices Kasugano Urara, **Nagano Ai**, who voices Akimoto Komachi, and later, **Sendai Eri**, who voices Milk/Mimino Kurumi.

* **Heavenly Blue**
* **Surely It'll Be Alright**

### Duets

* **Metamorphose ~Young Girls LOVE&DREAM~** (*Along with Sanpei Yuko, Takeuchi Junko, Ise Mariya, and Nagano Ai*)
* **1.2. Shoot! ~Five Explosion~** (*Along with Sanpei Yuko, Takeuchi Junko, Ise Mariya, and Nagano Ai*)
* **A Child's Time** (*Along with Nagano Ai*)
* **And Then, The World Keeps Expanding** (*Along with Nagano Ai*)
* **Tomorrow, A Flower Blooms. Smiles, Bloom.** (*Along with Sanpei Yuko, Takeuchi Junko, Ise Mariya, Nagano Ai, and also Sendai Eri*)
* **Shine 5 Hearts** (*Along with Sanpei Yuko, Takeuchi Junko, Ise Mariya, and Nagano Ai*)
* **Pretty Cure 5, Full Throttle Go Go!** (*Along with Sanpei Yuko, Ise Mariya, Takeuchi Junko, Nagano Ai, and also Mayu Kudo*)

## TMNT X Pokemon

Karen is often worried about her friend's safety. Especially April since she is being targeted by the Krang and the Foot. So she volunteer to protect her from them.

## Trivia

* In the Pretty Cure All Stars Suite Flower Card Collection, Karen is represented by the iris, which symbolizes love and sympathy in the Language of Flowers.
* Karen has a fear of ghosts and monsters.
* Karen appeared as Cure Aqua to give the 10th Anniversary Congratulatory Message at the beginning of episode 7 in *Happiness Charge Pretty Cure!*