Akira Kenjou

**Akira Kenjou** is one of the six main Cures in *KiraKira☆Pretty Cure A La Mode* who is a second year high school student. She is gentle and has a strong sense of justice like a "dog".

Akira's alter ego is **Cure Chocolat** (キュアショコラ *Kyua Shokora*), the Pretty Cure of strength and love, and she is based off chocolates and dogs.

Her catchphrases are **"Are you okay?"** (「大丈夫？」 *"Daijōbu?"*) and **"There there"** (「よしよし」 *"Yoshi yoshi"*?)

## Bio

### Appearance

Akira is a tall teen with sharp red eyes and short hair. She wears a brown top under a beige and red button-up, with blue jeans, brown belt, and tan boots. On her neck is a dog tag. For summer she switches to a white T-shirt with a red vest and red and white sneakers. For winter she wears a long-sleeved red collared shirt with a tan sweater and dark brown boots, sometimes adding a red pea-coat and gloves.

In the movie, she wears a bluish-grey sweater vest over a white long-sleeved shirt, dull brown pants, and brown boots. At the party, she wears a red sleeveless jumpsuit, white gloves, and red shoes.

As a child, she wore a long-sleeved, beige shirt beneath a red t-shirt with denim jeans and white-red sneakers.

After she becomes a student of a medical institute in the future, she now ties her grown hair into a ponytail.

As **Cure Chocolat**, her vibrant hair becomes spiked with a single brown lock and she gains red pointed dog ears and tail. She wears a chocolate top hat, silver earrings, and a dark brown choker with silver tag. Her outfit consists of a red and brown jacket with the upper-sleeve puffed and the cuff white, accenting the chest. On the chest is a yellow and brown piece of fabric hanging from a chocolate charm. Her furry cream collar matches that of her burgundy boots, which have a paw-like toe section, and pleat skirt. She also wears dark brown shorts, chocolate cape, and white gloves and stockings.

As **Super Cure Chocolat**, her outfit turns white and brown, the chest stripe and lower sleeves being red. The collar of her jacket is pointed to accent the dark brown and white peplum over her skirt. Her cape is now gold and brown, and her shorts crimson. Her boots are pale brown with an alternate cuff.

In her **A La Mode Style**, she gains a pale red fluffy hood and her hat has a large red feather. Her jacket loses the lower sleeve while the top turns pale red and fluffy. Her chest ornament is now a chocolate heart with pale cream fabric, and the base of her jacket is now crimson and yellow to match her thigh-length boots. She gains a fluffy pale red skirt with a pointed, dark brown layer over it, along with a long flowing pale red layer with crimson spheres around the bottom. She also gains crimson gloves.

### Personality

A gentle yet boyish second year high school student, Akira is fiercely loyal and will always be by your side, having a strong sense of justice like a dog. Knowing her way around places with a rational mind makes her a reliable person.

What's more, Akira is very caring towards her loved ones, particular her sick younger sister Miku whom she tends to give chocolate to as a way of cheering the latter up, even willingly attempted to sacrifice her own Kirakiraru in order to rescue Miku. She doesn't mind when people around her call her a boy, and can also be a show-off too.

### Etymology

**Kenjou** (剣城) *Ken* (剣) means 'sword'  while *Jou*(城) means 'castle'.  Ken is also a possible reading for Inu (犬), such as when referring to dog breeds.

**Akira** (あきら) is a name often used by men, and less frequently, also used by women. The name means 'bright', 'clear' or 'intelligent'.  It can be used as "never give up", which is just a pun to her name.

Together, it reads "intelligent dog" or "clear sword castle", depending on how you look at it

*Chocolat* is French for Chocolate.

## History

Akira debuted in Strawberry and Cherry Blossom's first ever Spa Day! when she and the her younger sister's friends came into the blossom twin's house. When she, along with her friends made her sister outfit that was inspired from her sister's favorite show, True and the Rainbow Kingdom, she loved it and thinks that they were cute. But when Cherry blushed, Miku asks her what wrong and Cherry said it was nothing. Moments later, Akira got Miku into her True and the Rainbow Kingdom dress, Miku said that she look good in it. And she and her friends watched "True and the Rainbow Kingdom." Then, a rainbow portal appears in her residence.

### Relationships

* **Miku Kenjou** - Akira is very close to her little sister whom she considers as her spiritual pillar, even bringing her chocolate whenever she visits her. In episode 15, it is shown that Miku loves Akira very much, and longs to see her smile with happiness instead of concern. When Miku's Kirakiraru were robbed Julio, she was infuriated with the harm Julio had done to her sister.

### Trivia

* Akira's birthday is in September 24th, making her Zodiac sign Libra.

* Many aspects about Kenjou Akira - including her design, her voice, her personality and her transformation sequence - reference the extravagant Broadway-style musicals performed by the Takarazuka Revue, in which women play all possible roles of the musical.
	+ Her masculine design and personality fit the *otokoyaku* (男役?) (literally "male role"), the male part played by actresses in Takarazuka productions. This is especially apparent with her Cure design, with its ornate uniform/suit-like style, the top hat and the princely puffed sleeves and cape.
	+ In her transformation sequence, she stands on an *ookaidan* (大階段?), the "grand staircase" being a trademark of the musicals since 1927 and usually rolled out in the finale for the actresses to dance on. Her hand motions in the sequence are also typical.
	+ Her voice actress, Mori Nanako, used to play the *otokoyaku* role under the stage name **Saeki Chihaya** in fifteen Takarazuka Revue musical productions from 2005 to 2009.
* Cure Chocolat is the first Cure to be based on *Takarazuka* musicals, and the first character in Pretty Cure overall to be based on them, even with the musicals being a common motif in *shojo* productions such as The Rose of Versailles, Princess Knight and Revolutionary Girl Utena.
	+ Incidentally, juxtaposed with Cure Chocolat, the feminine Kotozume Yukari seems to reference the *musumeyaku* (娘役?) (literally "daughter's role") - the actresses playing the women in the musicals.
* In *Animage's* monthly character poll for its 2017-06 issue, Akira placed 9th in "Best Character Overall".
* Early character exploration art by Ino Marie, the character designer, shows her to be scared of bugs and ghosts. This was eventually scrapped.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.wordsense.eu/%E5%89%A3/
2. ↑ https://www.evi.com/q/what\_does\_%22%E5%9F%8E%22\_mean\_in\_japanese
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira\_(given\_name)