Smile PreCure!

A poster featuring Cure Happy, Sunny, Peace, March, and Beauty along with Candy

**Smile PreCure!** is the ninth anime series of the *Pretty Cure* franchise.

Directed by Otsuka Takashi and produced by Toei Animation, the series premiered on TV Asahi on February 5th, 2012, succeeding *Suite PreCure♪* in its timeslot. The signature motif is based on fairy tales.

This series has been dubbed into English by the company Saban as ***Glitter Force***. The first 20 episodes were available on Netflix on December 18th, 2015, in every region except Asia . The other 20 episodes were available on August 26th, 2016 .

## Synopsis

Far away in the universe exists a place called Märchenland, where characters from fairy tales live. Near the corner of Märchenland exists a world called Bad End Kingdom, where the antagonists of all fairy tales gathered. In order to show everyone the "Worst Ending", the people of Bad End Kingdom traveled to Earth to collect Bad Energy. If the villains succeed, all of the worlds in the universe will suffer from the "Worst Ending".

In order to prevent the "Worst Ending", the 5 Legendary Warriors - Pretty Cure - need to collect Cure Decor: the power of happiness of Märchenland's Queen. The Cure Decor, however, has been stolen and hidden away. Set to the task of finding Pretty Cure, Candy the fairy follows the 5 Beams of Light to Earth, where she meets a flustered Miyuki Hoshizora, a transfer student on her first day of school, and already running late...

## Characters

### Pretty Cure

* **Miyuki** **Hoshizora** (known as **Emily** in the English dub) A fourteen-year-old girl with an interest in picture books and fairy tales, who transferred to Nanairogaoka Middle School. Like many of the lead Cures before her, Miyuki is cheery and optimistic, but also something of a klutz. Her catchphrase is "Ultra Happy!" She transforms into **Cure Happy** (**Glitter Lucky** in the dub) and uses the power of light.

* **Akane Hino** (known as **Kelsey** in the English dub) A girl from Osaka whose parents run an okonomiyaki shop and is a member of the school's volleyball team. Akane may be a jokester, but when she has a goal set, she is very passionate about achieving it. She transforms into **Cure Sunny** (**Glitter Sunny** in the dub) and uses the power of fire.

* **Yayoi Kise** (known as **Lily** in the English dub) A girl who is in the Homemaking Club and aspires to be a mangaka. Though timid, shy about her work, and a crybaby, Yayoi is very loyal, diligent, and headstrong when pushed. She transforms into **Cure Peace** (**Glitter Peace** in the dub) and uses the power of lightning and thunder.

* **Nao** **Midorikawa** (known as **April** in the English dub) A tomboyish girl from a family with many younger siblings who is a member of the school's soccer team. Nao is straightforward and reliable with a strong sense of justice, though she does get frustrated when things do not go according to plan. She transforms into **Cure March** (**Glitter Spring**in the dub) who uses the power of wind.

* **Reika** **Aoki** (known as **Chloe** in the English dub) The student council vice president and a member of the Art Club, often writing poems and tanka. Reika is generally elegant and kind-hearted but has a frightening temper once her patience reaches her limit. Her father is a painter whilst her mother practices aikido and her elder brother practices judo. She transforms into **Cure Beauty** (**Glitter Breeze** in the dub) and uses the power of snow and ice.

### Mascots

* **Candy**
* Candy is the main mascot of the group. She was sent to Earth by the Royale Queen to find the Pretty Cure and to collect Cure Decor in order to save Märchenland.

* **Pop**
* Pop is a lion-like fairy and the second fairy mascot in Smile Pretty Cure! who first appeared in Episode 6. He is the big brother of Candy and came to earth to pass the Cures the Decor Décor to collect the Cure Decor pieces in.

### Bad End Kingdom

* **Pierrot** (known as **Emperor Nogo** in the English dub) is the sinful emperor of Bad End Kingdom, who invaded Märchenland to steal the Cure Decor and bring about the "Worst Ending".
* **Joker** (known as **Rascal** in the English dub) At Pierrot's service, he is the leader of the Bad End Generals.
* **Wolfrun** (known as **Ulric** in the dub) is a wolf-like monster whose mission is to chase Candy before she finds Pretty Cures. He is based on the Big Bad Wolf from *Little Red Riding Hood* and *The Three Little Pigs*.
* **Majorina** (known as **Brooha** in the dub) is one of Pierrot's subordinates. She is a little witch who resembles the Evil Queen from Snow White.
* **Akaoni** (known as **Brute** in the dub) At Pierrot's service, he is a red skinned demon who resembles an oni from Japanese fairytales such as "*Momotaro*".
* **Akanbe** (known as **Buffoons** in the dub) are monsters summoned by the villains of the series to battle the Pretty Cure. They are created by fusing an ordinary object with a Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, or Purple Nose containing Pierrot's power, turning the Cure Decor's energy to Bad Energy. Near the end of the series, the Bad End Generals are able to merge with the Akanbes and control them first-hand.

## Trivia

* *Smile Pretty Cure!*, *Yes! PreCure 5* and *HUGtto! PreCure* all share the same character designer. A book about Kawamura Toshie's design work at Toei Animation was brought out under the name *Kawamura Toshie Toei Animation PreCure Works*. The book features artwork from the three shows.
	+ In the magazine *Animage's* 7th issue of 2012, an interview with one of the producers revealed that all the Cures were initially designed to have long flowing hairstyles.
		- Quote: *"However, letting all the Cures have long hairstyles seemed to take away their personality differences, so we did quite a bit of thinking to rectify that. (...) Both final hairstyles and Cure theme colors were determined not by looking at each girl alone, but everyone as a group. We needed to see them together before we settled on their final design, in order to achieve a good total balance."*
	+ This is the first season to have varying eye catches every episode. In this case, it's a picture of a different Cure in every episode (or in some cases, an Akanbe).
	+ *Smile!* has an onomatopoeia in every member's introductory speech (Happy: "kirakira" - Sunny: "sansan" - Peace: "pikapika" - March: "rinrin" - Beauty: "shinshin")
* This is the first season to have the Cures turn into fairies, which took place in episode 24. *Futari wa PreCure*, however, did have a sequence where Nagisa transformed into a fairy in her mind.
* *Smile Pretty Cure!* is one of the few seasons to have received a novel adaptation. The novel was released on October 4, 2016, for 670 yen, and takes place 1 year after the last episode.
* *Smile!* is one of the few seasons to lack a sixth-ranger Pretty Cure.
* This series was made with a much more light-hearted tone than previous installments as a response to the magnitude 9.1 earthquake in Japan that had occurred the year prior.
* *Smile!* would be the final season to have Umezawa Atsutoshi as a producer before being replaced by Shibata Hiroaki as a producer starting with *Doki Doki! PreCure*.
* This is the season of the franchise with the most dubs, including *Glitter Force*. The dubs are overall 28. No other Pretty Cure season ever got that amount of dubs. It is followed by *Doki Doki! Pretty Cure* and *Futari wa Pretty Cure* with the numbers being 25 and 17 respectively.
	+ Aside from the English dub, there was an attempt to release the Manga translated into English that would have gone by the name of *Glitter Force.*
* In the "All Pretty Cure Big Poll", *Smile Pretty Cure!* is ranked 5th in "Favorite Series Productions".
* *Smile!* was originally planned to feature only one Pretty Cure.