Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

We'll defend at all hours...
 ...to ensure a peaceful era!

Before the character designs for Fresh Pretty Cure were released, an anonymous Image Board patron posted fake designs for two Cures, their civilian forms, and a single mascot. When the design sheet was proven to be a hoax, a few people began creating fanworks featuring the characters, knowing only their appearances and Cure names and inventing the rest. Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon by Jisu (username friendshipbeam, although it was skittlestemple when she began writing), one of the first of many LiveJournal OC fics in the Pretty Cure fandom, is the Anglosphere's answer to this phenomenon.

As night falls on the ambitiously-named town of Kazahana City, a number of objects land all across the town from the sky and a clock tower that isn't supposed to make sound at night rings twelve times. The next day, energetic misfit Kawada Asa and intimidating classmate Nakayama Yoko find items that resemble dated cell phones and meet a little fluffy orange thing called Starry. He comes from the Garden of Days, a world that's protected an item called the Moon Dial to keep time and space intact. The Moon Dial once belonged to the Etherium, a white void that would expand and absorb other worlds, until twenty-five years ago, when it was taken from them and given to the Garden of Days.

Now, the Etherium wants it back. In desperation, the Garden's leader broke the Dial, scattered the resulting Moon Pieces in Kazahana City to buy time and sent Starry to go find two people to become Pretty Cure. Asa and Yoko take up the challenge (although Asa would much rather be a Toku hero) and go to find the Moon Pieces, opposing the Etherium at every turn.

Available on the Precure fan community here and on ff.net here. The version on LJ has the Comment Corners.

A character sheet can be found here.

Tropes used in Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon include:

Ami: Even if I wanted to be a housewife, I'm not naturally attracted to anybody, so one of the main qualities doesn't quite work out.
Takashi: You're not--
Ami: No.
Takashi: You mean, nobody you know?
Ami: Nobody at all.
Takashi: Are you sure you just haven't found--

Ami: No.

  • Asleep in Class: Asa's bad habit.
  • An Axe to Grind: One of Tachimany's forms has them turn into lumberjacks. Guess what they use.
  • Anger Born of Worry: Hi, Yoko.
  • Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Most of the Etherium costumes are this, being palette swaps of things the agents used to wear before they joined. However, Tachimany's costumes are all over the place because, well, Split Personality, Devance's costume changed because he grew older and now identifies with the Land of Legends as his home, and Millusion wears the Clair Academy school uniform.
  • A World Half Full: One of the main concepts is that the world is full of people who don't understand each other, and sometimes you do need to get out of your situation, but somebody has to change it, and the world is still good and still deserves to exist.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: Sunday and Night against the copies in episode 13.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: Most Etherium uniforms.
  • Badass Teacher: Of all people, Ami. Oh, yeah. She's Cure Dusk.
  • Bad Powers, Bad People: Mind Control is bad. Kainatrol is worse.
  • Bad Samaritan: Tachimany tried to pull this on Yoko once.
  • Batman Gambit (Dawn/Kirei comes up with a big one to save Mia and buy the Cures time by playing to Kainatrol's revenge complex. She gives Kainatrol a fake Moon Piece, knowing full well that she could figure it out at any time but trusting that she won't take the time to. By letting Kainatrol use her mind control on her and direct her to attack the Cures, and arranging for Ami to be there, Kirei pings Kainatrol's sadism because she knows she'll be forced to fight Ami instead -- which gives Asa and Yoko more time.)
  • Battle-Interrupting Shout: Yukari and Hoshi aren't above this.
  • Be Yourself: This seems to be a recurring theme in the story. Asa is actually initially made fun of and shunned for being herself, while Yoko is both feared for hiding herself and fears being scorned like Asa is over her hobbies.
  • Because You Can Cope: Part of Kainatrol's backstory. She couldn't cope, and, after being talked out of turning her rage on herself, went on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Asa/Yoko, at times. Even in the beginning of the story, when the former is absolutely terrified of the latter, when she's more at ease, they usually start bickering about what being a hero actually means.
  • Berserk Button: Yoko does not like destruction of property. Later on, though, there are a few instances where she even ignores it because Asa's hurt and that's more important.
  • Beta Couple: Takashi and Seira play this role to an extent.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Kainatrol does love her mind control powers.
  • Bratty Half-Pint: Etherium member Binbeat.
  • Breakout Character: Victim of the Week Ogata Mia was brought back a few episodes after her first appearance and then became a major character.
  • Breather Episode: There have been a few. Episode 19 stands out the most, separating the Garden of Rings arc from the lead-up to the end.
  • Bromantic Foil: Haruka for Takashi.
  • By the Power of Greyskull: "Dual Infinite Phase!"
  • Cain and Abel: Thera and Kore.
    • Evil Twin: It's left up in the air at first, but Thera turns out to be the evil one.
  • Can You Hear Me Now?: The transformation phones don't work as real phones. Called out in the first episode, when Takashi wonders why Yoko has two—her Transformation Trinket and her real phone.
    • Used straight in episode 16, when Ami-sensei needs to get down the mountain because there's no cell reception and she can't just call home. She admits that there is better technology these days but that, as a teacher, she doesn't get paid enough to justify buying a better phone. Subverted later on when you realize that that was an excuse.
  • Catch Phrase: DaiFighter has one: "There's nothing you'll stop at unless I stop you myself!"
  • Cerebus Retcon: Binbeat complains a lot that Mireyes reminds him of his sister. Then you learned what happened to him and said sister, Andante, and that he left her behind and, Ambiguous Innocence or not, regrets it on some level...
  • Christmas Rushed: Episode 21 was on a Christmas Eve deadline because that was the fic's third-year anniversary. However, it's still the third-longest chapter, and it was accompanied by a few extras like the ff.net release.
  • Circus Brat: Deconstructed regarding Thera and Kore, who weren't raised in a lax environment or allowed to be themselves, but were boxed in by expectations as much as everybody else in this series.
  • Circus of Fear: Their base isn't a circus, but the Etherium agents are all given roles that would belong in an old-timey travelling show: a magician, an animal tamer, a fortune teller, an organ player, and an actor (yes, that's what Tachimany are supposed to be). Earlier members include a dancer, a potion seller, and a knife thrower, and late and temporary addition Millusion is a hypnotist. Some of them actually belonged to a circus in their original worlds, although it was a perfectly normal one.
  • Climbing Climax: Small example with a bell tower. (The series isn't quite over by then.)
  • Clock Tower: There's one in the middle of town. Asa and Yoko get their transformation phones and their first Moon Piece there, and it's often visited or seen afterward. There's also Clair Academy's bell tower.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Not entirely true of Asa, but her classmates think it of her. Ami-sensei seems this way too, despite her sensible moments here and there, but she can and will be serious even when she's going on about justice.
  • Combat Clairvoyance: Mireyes.
  • Combined Energy Attack: What the Elder and the mascots used in a last-ditch attempt to break and scatter the Moon Dial.
  • Combo-Platter Powers: Kainatrol has mind control as a primary power and shielding as a second; Binbeat has musical explosions [primary] and flying [secondary]; Mireyes has clairvoyance [primary] and some form of telekinetic blast [secondary]; and all the villains have Villain Teleportation.
  • Coming Out Story: After one too many close calls, Yoko wonders if she should tell Asa how she feels instead of just keeping her mouth shut. Seeking advice, she ends up coming out to Kirei in episode 23, nearly or actually freaking out the whole time and definitely not being "Ice Queen Nakayama". Kirei is fine with it and offers some advice, on top of promising to do what she can to help should Yoko's parents find out.
  • Comm Links: The Etherium has them; the commlinks are gold metal rings that they speak into and are only used when the communicating agents are out in the field.
  • Cool Car: DaiFighter's DaiVan.
  • Curious as a Monkey: Binbeat. He stole half the town's panties, ate an unattended science project, and constantly seems to get distracted on the job. Well, he is nine. Physically and mentally, anyway.
  • Cycle of Revenge: Mekuramast and Kainatrol, considering the Start of Darkness for both of them.
  • Dance Battler: Hitosalesque, officially, though she hasn't been shown fighting, being long dead and all.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Cure Night's speech references shadows.
    • It's easy to tell whether or not an Etherium minion defected to the Cures when you consider this trope. See Devance, Millusion from episode 16 on, Mekuramast from episode 18 on.
  • Dark Magical Girl: Millusion.
  • Dead Little Sister: Kore fulfills this role for Mekuramast/Kairos, though they didn't have a sibling relationship and her actual sister was the one who erased her in the first place.
  • Deadly Doctors: One of Tachimany's forms.
  • Death Glare: Yoko gives them a lot, especially in the first few chapters.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Yoko's classmates even call her "Ice Queen Nakayama".
  • Defying the Censors: Haruka and Seira suggest that the Rose Class do this in the bonus episode, when their comedy crossdressing Maid Cafe gets shut down because parents complained.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Chapter 16 opens with Mekuramast's, and chapter 17 opens with Kainatrol's.
  • Destination Defenestration: In chapter 5, Night kicks Mekuramast out the second-floor window of the Lily Class' room. He's fine.
  • Dimension Lord: Whoever is in charge of the Etherium is a warped version of this.
  • Disappeared Dad: Asa's father ran out on the family.
  • Disc One Final Boss: Eiender actually gets Kainatrol to erase him from existence because his philosophy of nihilism extended to himself. After this, she is the main threat.
  • Dismantled MacGuffin: The Moon Dial.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Thera/Kainatrol got pushed a little too far, and from her perspective, Kore going after their dream without her is certainly betrayal, but did the world really need to end for it?
  • Damsel in Distress: Mia, oh, Mia.
  • Ditzy Genius: Ami-sensei, who doles out cloud-headed speeches about justice and how her class will be the class that changes the world for the better, but has a house full of complicated mechanical devices she made herself. Even her ridiculous tirades occasionally have deep insight about friendship and trust—this is a Magical Girl series.
  • Divided We Fall: Thankfully, Hoshi eventually gets over this.
  • Dragon Ascendant: Kainatrol manipulates Tachimany into thinking they're this after Eiender is erased. She plans to bump them off once they serve their purpose.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: Kainatrol juggles this and The Starscream enough that you forget that her circus act was animal taming.
  • Driven to Villainy: Every member of the Etherium was driven to join because they felt that their world wasn't worth living in anymore. Emiru wasn't quite at the point of wanting the world gone, but she did want revenge, and Mekuramast was forced into it, but admits that, even if it had been possible for him to save the Garden of Rings at that point, he felt that being without Kore made it pointless.
  • Drunk on the Dark Side: Kainatrol when she's getting her way. She starts out quite composed up until the Evil Laugh kicks in.
  • Eccentric Mentor: Ami, Ami, Ami. Strangely enough, her weirdness put her below any suspicion of being Cure Dusk -- in-story, anyway -- until the reveal. Even Asa didn't see it, and she's usually far too genre-savvy to overlook these things, plus she has no room to talk about strangeness besides.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: The Etherium wants to cause this with every world in existence.
  • Enemy Civil War: Mekuramast seems to be more opposed to Kainatrol than he is to the Cures, and vice versa.
  • Enigmatic Minion: Mekuramast and Kainatrol, in different ways.
  • Environmental Symbolism: Scenes that emphasize the idea of "having no hope" tend to take place in the Etherium, and as the story goes on and the situation gets worse in there, for lack of anything else to erase, the detailed carvings and white walls fade away and the Etherium starts erasing itself. Sapphire Park, a poorly-maintained place that intimidates Yoko, symbolizes the difficulty of her and Asa's early relationship. The story also begins in fall and moves through into spring—the town's even called Kazahana City.
  • Everything's Better with Spinning: "Second Spin" fits this with the name, at least, although the actual execution doesn't involve much spinning.
  • Evil Duo: Mireyes wants Binbeat to behave so they can get the Moon Pieces and Binbeat just wants to blow stuff up and steal panties. Naturally, they tend to be sent on missions together.
  • Eviler Than Thou: Mekuramast and Kainatrol. At least, that's what he'd like her and the rest of the Etherium to think; he's actually trying to get the Moon Pieces for himself and go against them.
  • Evil Laugh: What would you call what Kainatrol did in the beginning of episode 17?
  • Evil Old Folks: Why, hello there, Mireyes. Strangely enough, she's the youngest of the Etherium members, besides Emiru, yet the only one to qualify.
  • Evil Twin: Lampshaded in episode 17, after the reveal that Kainatrol has a twin sister.

Sunday: Twins? Magical duplicates I could buy, but twins? That's only in soap operas!

Night: Yes. Obviously, Takashi and I are living in a soap opera. The next thing you know, I'll be married to five different people because I think four of them are dead.

  • Evil Versus Oblivion: Mireyes (and Binbeat) versus Kainatrol (and Tachimany).
  • Excited Episode Title
  • Expy: Even though no character design has been released for Devance, someone suggested the author draw him to look like Clint Eastwood (specifically, from The Sixties) and imagines his English dubber, Steve Kramer, speaking in an Eastwood-esque voice as Devance.
  • Eye Tropes
  • Failure Knight: Mekuramast, who keeps fighting for the Etherium but undermines them, especially Kainatrol, to try and make up for his failure to save his world and Kainatrol's sister.
  • Fan Nickname
    • Yoko: Anti-Youko, due to cyanfox27's (and others') tendency to mistype her name.
  • Five-Man Band: In everyday life, but not as a super team.
  • Follow in My Footsteps: Thera's and Kore's father, the ringmaster, had this going on, making sure that his daughters continued to perform in the Chronos Show whether they wanted to or not. While, by the time we see them, Kore is worn down and resigned to her fate, Thera is quite bitter.
  • Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Emiru, but she ends up turning good. Averted with Yukari, though she only wears hers half the time. Interestingly, the author herself wears glasses.
  • Freak-Out: Emiru has one just before she becomes Millusion, because she doesn't know what to do now that her friends are leaving her.
  • Friendless Background: Yoko, Yukari aside.
  • Friendship Moment: Many, such as Yukari's confronting Hoshi in episode 15 and Mia's standing up for Yoko in episode 8.
  • Frills of Justice: All the Cures' outfits.
  • Frilly Upgrade: Dawn and Dusk get uniform upgrades when they get their powers back.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Ami-sensei.
  • Gang of Bullies: There was one at the dojo in Fubuki Town when Asa and Hoshi were children, and episode 18 opens with Binbeat [then Allegro] and his sister being picked on by another gang of bullies in the past.
  • Gayngst: ...poor Yoko.
  • Generation Xerox: Starry's mother and father were the mascot advisors to the previous Pretty Cure. Not the case for Muggle Born of Mages Mia, though.
  • Generic Doomsday Villain: Played with with the Boss/Lord Eiender. He gets less and less development or hints of personality as time goes on—you don't even hear his actual name until halfway through the story, and later he even stops using personal pronouns for himself except on rare occasions—and his presence began to fade out at the same rate. It was all part of his plan to diminish his presence slowly and then finally vanish from reality whatsoever; turns out he wants everything Ret-Gone, and that includes himself.
  • Genius Ditz: Yukari is a milder version—she's just a lot smarter than you'd expect her to be, all things considered.
  • Genre Savvy: Asa.
    • Wrong Genre Savvy: She immediately thinks she's in a Toku series, and is disappointed to learn the truth.
  • Girl Posse: Emiru has one, which takes up most of the Lily Class at the beginning of the story, but a few have defected since.
  • Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Asa does this to Mekuramast in episode 16. Night, in a fit of rage over the mess it's made, does it to a Monster of the Week in episode 4.
  • The Glasses Come Off: Emiru's glasses actually turn into Millusion's eye mask when she transforms.
  • Good Colours Evil Colours: Inverted with the white Etherium and black Reverse Form, plus the black that Cure Night wears. Most of the other colours are kept in their camps, though, particularly Kainatrol's blood red.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Emiru still acts like the Alpha Bitch and isn't above messing with a few people's heads or just-so-coincidentally getting her hands on their private information, even after she stops outright antagonizing the main characters.
  • Hair Tropes
    • Adaptation Dye Job: Not quite, but around episode ten, the author realized that too many of the normal characters had black or brown hair, and promptly went back to retcon Emiru's brown hair to green. Still didn't help matters, but at least there's Mia and the purple-haired background girl.
    • Evil Redhead: Kainatrol.
    • Expository Hairstyle Change: Yukari switching to a normal braid instead of one wrapped around her head.
    • Important Haircut: Thera might have been about to harm herself with the scissors on her vanity, but when she's interrupted by Tachimany, she begins to cut her hair like she had been planning to do it the whole time. Oh, and she cuts it to an angled, chin-length cut, making it clear that this twin is the one who would become Kainatrol.
    • Redheaded Hero: Dawn while not transformed.
    • Rose-Haired Girl: Cure Dawn.
    • Shiny Midnight Black: Ami-sensei.
    • Wild Hair: Hoshi, get a brush.
    • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Some of Tachimany's forms.
    • White-Haired Pretty Girl: Tachimany's five-person form, which they use extensively in episode nine. Actually, just about all their female forms.
    • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Asa's and Devance/Mr. Dawn's blue, Yoko's grey, Mia's and Dawn's red, Emiru's green, and most of the Etherium's colours. They also have a purple-haired minor classmate named Fujisawa Suzu.
  • He's Back: Both Mekuramast and Emiru after periods of no pagetime.
  • Healing Potion: Mekuramast leaves one for a battered Sunday and Night to drink in episode 21. Suiyacross used to make them.
  • Heel Face Turn: Throughout the first half of the story, characters aligned with Alpha Bitch Emiru begin to break away from their assigned roles and befriend Asa and Yoko. Ogata Mia, the first to do so, becomes part of the main friend group. Later, Emiru herself pulls a stronger one, being not only a social obstacle by that point but an Etherium member.
  • Her Codename Was Mary Sue

Asa: There is nothing wrong with writing yourself as a great hero as long as you don't post it anywhere for people to mock.

Sunday: On behalf of the light, I am Cure Sunday!
Night: In the name of the shadows, I am Cure Night!
Both: We are Pretty Cure!
Sunday: We'll defend at all hours...
Night: ...to ensure a peaceful era!

  • Also:

Dawn: Rising with the sun, I am Cure Dawn!
Dusk: Falling with the night, I am Cure Dusk!
Both: We are Pretty Cure!
Dawn: In the past and in the future...
Dusk: ...we guard eternity itself!

  • Instant Runes: Odd for a magical girl series, but there they are.
  • In the End You Are on Your Own: Tachimany have a hard time balancing this and You Are Not Alone due to their unique situation.
  • In Working Order: Asa has used one of Mekuramast's exploding cards on one occasion and successfully commanded a Hidoinaa on another without any proper training on how to use these things.
  • I Was Just Passing Through: Mekuramast has given the Cures clues to escape their tougher situations, always denying it afterwards, and all because he hates Kainatrol more.
  • I Wish It Was Real: Asa for her favourite series. She gets... something like what she wanted.
  • Japanese School Club: Most of the girls are in them.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: After previously having sent Asa into a Heroic BSOD, it's Mia who breaks her out of another one. She joins the group of friends soon after. Emiru herself gives her own advice to Hoshi, Yukari and Mia in episode 14.
  • Jerk Jock: Takashi, Yoko's brother.
  • Jumped At the Call: Asa... because she thought she was going to be a Tokusatsu hero. Upon realizing that she was a Magical Girl, she declared that she'd been cheated.
  • Kid Hero: Andante in the past of the Land of Tracks. She wasn't a Pretty Cure, but she still had powers, much like Luminous or Rose.
  • Kids Are Cruel: Asa and Binbeat both have this in their backstories.
  • Kirk Summation: Cures Sunday and Night use one to convince Emiru/Millusion to abandon the Etherium.
  • Knife-Throwing Act: Devance's powers are based upon this.
  • Knowledge Broker: The reason Emiru has so much power over her classmates. Even after they start to stand up to her, she's got dirt on just about every one of them.
  • Last-Name Basis: Hoshi calls everyone but Asa and Ami-sensei by their last names without suffixes.
  • Late Arrival Spoiler: Try going around the fanseries community—or even the main fandom community—without being spoiled for Emiru becoming Millusion in episode 12 or Dawn being one of the previous Cures as revealed in episode 15.
  • Laughably Evil: Most readers put Binbeat here.
  • Legacy Hero: Subverted; the previous Cures were not called Night and Sunday, and Dusk had no children, while Dawn's daughter is powerless.
  • Lethal Chef: Mia. She put natto in cake. She tried to make that same cake in a frying pan instead of a cake pan. She's failing Home Ec. Of course, this is only in a bonus episode.
  • Let There Be Snow: Twisted: the snow is caused by a Monster of the Week, and nobody much likes it except for Binbeat.
  • Light Is Not Good: The Etherium is symbolized by the colour white and blinding light. On the other hand, Asa's speech reflects light, and the Mysterious Watcher went by "Dawn". A distinction is made between cool white for the Etherium and warm white for the power of light [if you've ever been to the lightbulb section of a home improvement store, there is a difference].
  • Literal Split Personality: Though they act as a cohesive whole, Tachimany's power of multiple bodies actually came from their having a Split Personality in the past.
  • Little Stowaway: Binbeat ran away from home and stowed away on a circus train that was really a front for the Etherium. Yeah, they did things differently before Eiender had a change of heart and went from Dimension Lord to Shadow Dictator.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: Played with: Asa is a Lonely Poor Kid.
  • Love Redeems: Devance turned good because he was in love with Dawn.
  • Lower Deck Episode: The second bonus episode, which takes place around the beginning of episode 20 and shows what Takashi was doing the whole time.
  • Luke, You Are My Father: No. He's not.
  • Made of Iron: As is traditional for Pretty Cure. Yoko wonders whether that means they can't die or just that they're really hard to kill.
  • Magical Land: The Garden of Days.
  • Magicians Are Wizards: Mekuramast.
  • Magic Meteor: Starry comes down to the Land of Legends looking to all the world like a falling star. Blink and you'll miss it, but Yoko notices Sunbi and Moonla appearing the same way in episode 16.
  • Magic Music/Musical Assassin: The pipe organ Binbeat teleports around with him is actually an Improbable Weapon. This is first mentioned in episode three, but it's only in episode eleven that we actually get to see his music do any damage. It makes little explosions around the battlefield. There's also Andante's Song, which is implied [well, stated, but stated by Binbeat] to be supernatural on its own and not tied to any particular person's powers.
  • Mama Bear: Don't even think of hurting Ogata Mia when Kirei (or, for that matter, Tomokazu) is around to see it.
  • Man in White/Woman in White: Etherium uniforms, though all the members have their own secondary colours as part of their outfits, usually the same colour as their hair (though Tachimany's hair is white no matter what form they're in, Binbeat's is blond, and we can't really see Mireyes' hair).
  • Mask Power: Just about everyone in the Etherium wears an eye mask. Mireyes manages to skirt this rule by completely covering her eyes with a veil anyway.
  • Meaningful Name: Every Etherium member's name alludes to their abilities, "Asa" and "Yoko" refer to "morning" and "night", and Hidoinaa means "It's awful!". Omemi Emiru's name has the kanji for "eyes" and "beauty" in it, and, if you take it strictly by pronunciation, it also sounds like "omemie", meaning 'audience with a superior', 'debut' or 'trial service', and "miru", meaning 'to see'.
  • Meanwhile Scene/Meanwhile Back At The: Both are used all over the place.
  • Meganekko: Yukari when she isn't wearing her contacts; also, Emiru.
  • Melancholy Moon: The ending of episode 18; also shown in the second OP.
  • Mentor Mascot: Starry's mother, Moonla, and father, Sunbi.
  • Mind Control: Kainatrol's power.
  • Minor Insult Meltdown: In episode 15, Hoshi has finally had enough of keeping secrets and tolerating changes that she doesn't like, and screams at the other girls in the lunchroom before running off to hide in the sports equipment shed. The sad thing is that what she wanted all along was for Asa to act like a normal person, and in finally letting this out, she is making a scene in public and drawing attention to herself.
  • Mirror Match: Occurs in episode 13.
  • Monster of the Week: Hidoinaa, although they only appear in about half of the episodes.
  • More Than Mind Control: Millusion, to an extent. Apparently, unless the Etherium is hiring, regular old mind control appears to be good enough.
  • Muggle Born of Mages: Mia. Makes you wonder what would have happened if she'd known about it...
  • My Death Is Just the Beginning: The Boss says something like this. Too bad for him that Kainatrol is throwing out his plan and going with her own.
  • Mysterious Watcher: Dawn and a small network of her friends.
  • Name's the Same: Small fandom, smaller OC fic community, therefore... everyone mixes up Blue Moon's Nakayama Yoko with Shining's Akiyama Youko. To make things more confusing, Youko's more like Asa than anything.
  • Never Be a Hero: Defied. Once Hoshi gets over not wanting Asa to be Pretty Cure, she starts pulling herself into the action. When she's met with the very same objection she gave her superpowered friend (with more justification, since Hoshi doesn't have powers), she refuses to back down and actually becomes useful at times, both because she can fight and because Pretty Cure Unison Second is powered by friendship.

Hoshi: I know Asa and Nakayama have the power to take these things down and I don't, but if they need help, I'm not gonna just sit there! It's called being a friend!

  • Never Heard That One Before: No, the author had not heard of any other attempts by anyone else to adapt the fake design sheet to a story until after she started it. That goes double for Bouken! Precure Days.
  • Never Mess with Granny: Mireyes and the Elder both.
  • New Transfer Student: Asa and Yoko are still relatively new to the school, though both have started to put down roots and make themselves known by the time the story starts.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the past, Cure Dawn and Cure Dusk made Eiender realize that his vision of erasing everyone didn't include himself. They meant to convince him to value all life and stop the Etherium's mission. Thanks to Kainatrol's manipulations, he instead decided to let himself be erased when he felt that everything else would go after him. Congratulations, ladies: instead of a fading Shadow Dictator, now you have to deal with a Not So Harmless user of Hypnotic Eyes who doesn't just want everyone gone -- she wants everyone but herself gone, painfully.
  • No Accounting for Taste: Directly referenced by the title of episode 11, but considering that the episode has a few Pet the Dog moments for Takashi, this sentiment is taken from Yoko's mind and doesn't appear to be true for his relationship with Seira.
  • No Fourth Wall: The Comment Corner segments.
  • Non-Human Sidekick: Starry for Asa and Yoko, Sunbi for Dawn, and Moonla for Dusk.
  • Non-Indicative Name: Kazahana City is a town, "Pretty Cure Second Spin" involves no spinning.
  • Normally I Would Be Dead Now: The Cures are practically indestructible...
  • Not a Morning Person: It takes a while for Yoko to wake up.
  • Not Brainwashed: Emiru/Millusion, complete with Asa accusing Kainatrol of brainwashing her.
  • Not So Harmless: The author had reminded the readers both in and out of the story that Kainatrol was the weakest fighter in the Etherium, her talents best suited for other things. She always ran away from fights, and the one time that she actually took an attack from the Cures, her expression and speedy retreat said it all. Then she led a campaign to get three unclaimed Moon Pieces and three from the Cures in one go, succeeded, kidnapped and nearly erased the Cures (and we don't even know yet how they survived), killed the Boss after talking him into wanting to die, and has taken full control of the Moon Dial to power herself up. Geez, she was never a very nice person, but still.
  • Numerological Motif: Many of Tachimany's forms and abilities are taken from these.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Ami-sensei, to some extent; she really is that, uh... intensely emotional, but she only pretends to fall for flimsy excuses because she's secretly aware of the Cures' identities.
  • Oddly-Named Second Half: Episodes fourteen to twenty-four go by the name Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon -solar eclipse-.
  • Oh Crap: Yoko at the end of episode eleven, when her secret hobby is in danger... then again when her secret identity is in danger instead.
  • One True Sequence: Followed at first, but only because neither group has magical Moon Piece-detecting powers and, therefore, the Etherium starts going where they think the Cures will be and vice versa. Due to the cut number of episodes, later in the series, the Etherium starts getting some Moon Pieces without opposition to replace episodes where they fought the Cures for them.
  • Orwellian Retcon: The earlier chapters have been fixed up and changed a few things, among them Emiru's hair colour, the number of Moon Pieces and the name of Asa's apartment complex.
  • Palette Swap: The Etherium villains' uniforms are palette swaps of outfits they wore before they joined, at least in the cases of Mekuramast (as first seen in episode 13) and Millusion (as first seen in episode 12). The new outfits are white with accents and accessories in the character's signature tone—light blue for Mekuramast, dark red for Kainatrol, etc.
    • Paint It Black: Reverse Form plays with this; since the Etherium members wear white, it marks an evil character turning good instead of the other way around.
  • Panty Thief: The town is hit with a mass panty thieving in episode 3. The culprit? Binbeat, who did it just because he was bored.
  • Pastimes Prove Personality: Hoshi, the passionate martial artist; to a lesser extent, Yukari with her shopping. Yoko doesn't fit the stereotype of a mechanic, and keeps her hobby secret for this very reason.
  • Personality Powers: Everyone from the Etherium has an ability related to their inner self. For example, Mekuramast accuses Kainatrol—who doesn't deny it—of having manifested mind control powers because of her manipulative nature, and Millusion creates false worlds where she controls everything, in fitting with the way she operates in her daily life.
  • Perspective Flip: A brief one in episode 22. Mia gets the flashback this episode, and it retells the moment where she gave Asa a Heroic BSOD in episode 2, now that Mia is a lot more sympathetic.
  • Phenotype Stereotype: Played with. Seira is blonde, and everyone treats her like a foreigner, but she's actually Japanese and only spent a few years out of the country.
  • Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Dawn wears a lot of pink, and Cure Dawn had pink hair. Her husband has blue hair and tends to wear a lot of blue. Sunday and Night's uniforms make them a Pink Girl Blue Girl pairing, though Asa being the one with blue hair throws it off a bit.
  • Pink Means Feminine: While proto-Sunday was probably intended to be seen as "the pink Cure" with her outfit (Mahiru from Bouken certainly is), Asa is treated as the orange Cure as Sunday, and the pink girl is Mia, who isn't even a Cure. There is a pink Cure: Cure Dawn. Maybe pink is In the Blood...?
    • Blue Moon has no merchandise, though, and probably never will.
  • Playground Song: That's twice now that Asa has broken out into a rousing rendition of "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall". Also, much of the inspiration behind Binbeat's character.
  • Plot Parallel: Asa keeps trying to draw them between DaiFighter and her real life, but eventually, they actually do start to show themselves—particularly with Mekuramast, whom Asa starts to compare to GoldFighter.
  • Power Glows
  • The Power of Trust
  • Promotion to Parent: After their mother disappeared and their father went looking for her, Allegro and Andante were left to fend for themselves. Andante, despite being the younger sibling, was the more responsible one and the only one who did the chores around the house. Given that Allegro is Binbeat, this isn't much of a surprise.
  • Psychologist Teacher: Ami-sensei gives Hoshi, Yukari, and Mia advice on how to understand their friends when they find out that Asa and Yoko are Pretty Cure.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot: Episodes 11 and 12 were posted on the actual full moons of a month with a blue moon.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: The Etherium suspends aging.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Asa's Red, Yoko's Blue. Hoshi and Yukari also fit, but at the same time subvert the reader's expectations: while Hoshi's athletic, brash and has Wild Hair, she's more of a Blue since she worries about people's reaction to the unconventional and non-traditional, whereas prim-looking Meganekko Yukari is actually an outgoing, willful Red.
  • The Red Planet: Ami-sensei builds a "communicator to Mars"... although it actually contacts the Garden of Days instead. This was intentional.
  • Ret-Gone: What happened to every world the Etherium got its hands on back when they had the Moon Dial. Or did it? It turns out that there's something left of them, even if that "something" is just impressions of old memories played over and over.
  • Retired Badass: Dawn and her group.
  • Roaring Rampage of Rescue: Nearly the entire good-aligned cast converges to save Mia, kidnapped by Kainatrol, in episode 21, despite it being an obvious trap. Kirei's Batman Gambit helped, of course.
  • Sad Girl in Snow: Asa gets a snowglobe with a sad girl inside for Yoko during their class trip. She doesn't get the chance to give it to her.
  • Save Both Worlds: Starts out as this, with "both" being the Cures' world and the Garden of Days. Quickly becomes "save every world the Etherium hasn't gotten to yet".
  • Say My Name: Yoko does this to Asa in episode 8, and the habit sticks for both of them from there. When Sunday and Night call each other Asa and Yoko, the conversation is likely to be more serious.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: Emiru's glasses; the Etherium's standard-issue eye masks.
  • Schizo-Tech: The story's set in the present day, but Ami-sensei carries around a portable cassette player. Then again, it is Ami-sensei. Except that Kirei has one too, and they're actually their transformation items.
  • School Festival: The series spends a lot of time working up to Clair Academy's annual cultural festival, which finally begins in episode 20. Having been instructed not to go for the cliche haunted houses and maid cafes, the Lily Class is putting on... a tribute display to Pretty Cure.
  • School Uniforms Are the New Black: Asa; justified since she's poor and it's more economical not to change out of her uniform and dirty more clothes after getting out of class. Other characters often wonder why she only wears casual clothes on Sunday.
  • Screening the Call: Hoshi would have done this to Asa had she had any idea what was going on at the time. When she does find out, she worries that she should have done something to stop her, and it isn't long before she snaps at Asa for becoming a Cure.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Millusion after the Cures give her a Kirk Summation. Devance also betrayed the Etherium in the past.
  • Seasonal Baggage: The story begins in fall and is, as of this writing, in spring. A lot of mention is made to falling leaves, spring winds, or nobody out walking because it's the middle of winter. Subverted in the case of snow; it's too warm for snow in Kazahana City, and the one time it appears is caused by a Hidoinaa.
  • Seasonal Motif: Kazahana City and the surrounding area—especially with the names of the three founding families from Gessou Village. There's also the fact that the series starts in fall and moves towards spring.
  • Secret Keeper: About halfway through the series, Hoshi, Yukari and Mia discover the girls' secret. The reformed(?) Emiru now also counts. Oh, and now Asa's mom, Chikane.
  • Self-Duplication: Etherium denizen Tachimany. They can't be killed unless you kill all their bodies at once.
  • Sensei-chan: Ami-sensei shows traits of this; she's stuck in a rut with her job, she's very energetic, and the main characters like her. She's not everyone's best friend, though, and most of the class thinks she's crazy, but that's par for the course in Blue Moon.
  • Shadow Dictator: Eiender. He doesn't even use his own name—for a long time, he's just called "the Boss". In the past, he was more of a straightforward Evil Overlord.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: Mekuramast. The adult version of Devance, too (the younger version was a nineteenth-century Emo Kid).
  • Ship Tease: Yoko snapping Asa out of her Heroic BSOD in episode two, the two of them falling in a tangle on the ground in episode eleven, half their character development in general.
  • Shopping Montage: Brings Asa and Yoko closer together, as they realize that they both dislike being dragged along on one of Yukari's shopping trips. Poor girl.
  • Shout-Out: Not as prevalent as other fanseries we could mention, but a lot of the character names are shoutouts, and there are some in the text, too.
    • In the first few drafts, "Am I the token girl?" is "translated" to "Am I the Pink Ranger or something?"
    • Super Ultra Special Team, one of Asa's favourite shows, gets its name from one of Kazuki's ridiculous rejected weapon names in Busou Renkin.
    • Mr. Nakayama's car is a red Vita.
    • At one point, the Lily Class sings "Legend of Mermaid". It's more of a Pretty Cure Perfume Preppy reference than anything, since that series was full of voice actor jokes for Chloe about Lucia.
    • Yoko only ever cooks in Home Ec, except for when she's baking Asa's birthday cake, and (as seen in episode two) her lunch boxes are made up of nothing but egg omelette. SHUFFLE!!, anyone?
    • "What do you think I'm going to do, eat you?" No, Emiru, but another Dark Magical Girl might.
  • Show Within a Show: Asa's favorite programs, DaiFighter and Super Ultra Special Team)
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Secretly insecure mechanic Yoko and confident athlete Takashi; sensible and mystical Andante and rowdy and clueless Allegro; Stepford Smiler assistant magician Kore and outwardly bitter animal tamer Thera.
  • Single-Minded Twins: Not Yoko and Takashi, that's for sure, and certainly not Thera and Kore. Misaki Izumi and Izumi Misaki are Single-Minded Childhood Friends.
  • Sobriquet (Each person in the Etherium has a title along with their name. From what we see of two inductions, you get the title when you get the powers and the name. Each title refers to the characters' power and/or their role in the Circus of Fear team theme.
    • The Master Magician, Mekuramast
    • The Feared Tamer, Kainatrol
    • The Youthful Musician, Binbeat
    • The Mystical Seer, Mireyes
    • The Shifting Multitudes, Tachimany
    • The Vicious Whisper, Millusion
    • The Ruler of Time, Eiender
    • The Flawless Marksman, Devance
    • The Curing Poison, Suiyacross
    • The Lost Dancer, Hitosalesque
    • Never mind the Etherium, "Dawn" is a sobriquet too. Nobody's said her real name, and her enemies all recognize her as soon as she appears and refer to her as Dawn.
      • Then again, that's because she's Cure Dawn.
  • Socially Awkward Hero: Asa.
  • Spoiler Opening (The written-up second OP shows the Melancholy Moon scene at the end of episode 18, as well as the "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight between Dawn and Devance when they were younger. It also shows Mekuramast's continued attachment to Kore, therefore hinting that she's not Kainatrol.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: The children of the Feuding Families in the story about Gessou Village's past may have been this, but as Asa points out, maybe they survived; their fate has been lost to history.
  • Start of Darkness: Kainatrol's is the subject of a story arc.
  • Stern Teacher: The girls' history teacher is like this. Ami-sensei can be hard on her students, but more out of general weirdness, and she goes easy on them just as often.
  • Steven Ulysses Perhero: Asa = morning, Yoko = night child. Both Asa and Kirei have legally changed their names, and their previous last names fit their themes: Kinou = today, Akatoki = dawn.
  • Stillborn Serial: Actually subverted! The story stood dead with one chapter for four months, but the author picked it back up again after scheduling constraints and lack of interest compelled her to drop her other Pretty Cure fandom project, the Weekly Dub Reports.
  • Still Got It: Dawn, Dusk, and Devance snap right back to fighting after 25 years. Dusk is especially very much a retired magical girl.
  • Story-Breaker Team-Up: This is one of the more lighthearted fanseries—well, closest to the canon's level of "lightheartedness", anyway, so while there are still creepy and dark elements, nobody's eating people or shooting them in the head or sending off Cluster F Bombs. This causes some oddness in crossover fics with the other fanseries. Another example of this is that, since other fanseries only give spotlight to characters with powers, crossover fics remove Hoshi, Yukari, and Mia and shoehorn in Millusion in their place.
  • Strange Girl: Asa.
  • Talking the Monster to Death: Dawn is the master of this before she gets her powers back, and Yukari eventually takes up her mantle.
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Yoko.
  • The Team Normal: Hoshi, Yukari, and Mia.
  • Technology Marches On: The story lampshades the case of this in the original Futari wa Pretty Cure, mentioning that the transformation phones look very outdated, as if they were from 2004.
  • The Can Kicked Him: As a child, Asa was afraid of Hanako-san the washroom ghost.
  • Theme Naming: The Etherium agents' names are English-Japanese portmanteaus referring to what they do. Also...
    • Floral Theme Naming: The girls' class in Asa and Yoko's grade is called the Lily Class and the boys' is the Rose Class.
    • Mineral Theme Naming: The bad guys from DaiFighter.
    • Musical Theme Naming: Everyone from the Land of Tracks: Allegro, Andante, and Coda are named, and even Binbeat fits the theme.
    • Named After Somebody Famous: Many classmates' names come from influential characters, writers, artists or actors in the magical girl genre.
    • Stellar Name: Starry, of course; the other mascots are also named after categories of celestial objects.
    • Temporal Theme Naming: Many locations in the town have names relating to time: Seiki Shopping District, Morning Garden Apartments, etc.
  • The Show Must Go On: In episode 19, all the fighting takes place offstage so that Asa and Yoko can't see and the group can go on with their performance. Yukari suspects Tachimany of having nobler reasons than just wanting to get Dawn, Dusk and Devance alone... and hey, they are actors.
  • Third Line, Some Waiting: After the Garden of Rings arc, Emiru and Mekuramast are neglected for two episodes, despite at least one of them having no reason not to be around and doing things. Mekuramast shows up again at the very end of episode 20, though.
  • Those Two Girls: Subverted. Hoshi and Yukari look like they're going to be this, but they never get phased out of the story; instead, they become main characters, despite lacking powers.
  • To Be Continued: Happens on occasion.
  • Transformation Sequence: Vaguely described and outright stated to be only a state of mind; that is, the process really happens in less than a second.
  • Transformation Trinket: The transformation phones, which, unlike canon phone-like devices, aren't the transformed bodies of the mascots; instead, they're separate objects like the later series' Transformation Trinkets.
  • Transparent Closet: Takashi has been reasonably aware of Yoko's sexual orientation since they were seven.
  • Two-Teacher School: We've only seen Ami-sensei and an unnamed history teacher.
  • Unfazed Everyman: Hi, Yukari.
  • Verbal Tic: Starry's "susu", Sunbi's "sasa" and Moonla's "muu", like most Precure mascots.
  • Villain Override: Kainatrol pulls this on Tachimany when they start to see through her plan.
  • Violently Protective Girlfriend: Even if they're just being Ship Teased right now, Asa and Yoko trade off being this for each other late in the series, Asa with her hero complex and Yoko with her sense of responsibility for the less grounded-in-reality.

Night shut her eyes and lowered her head. "Asa..."
"Let her go."
Some of the Tachimany-bodies turned around; all of them at least widened their eyes and stood up. Cure Sunday pulled herself to her feet, knees bent and trying to stay up, holding one arm, and glaring at the sword-wielding soldiers.
Night opened her eyes. "Asa?"
"I said..." She clenched one fist and charged at the group with a punch. "Do it now!"
The hit connected. One Tachimany went flying into two of the others.

  • Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: The girls' social lives are just as important to the plot as saving the world, and at times, they get intertwined—sometimes more deeply than just picking up victims of the week from their class.
  • Was Actually Friendly: Yoko herself—she just needed to get out more and be more honest with herself before she could show it.
  • Weather Control Machine: One of the class science projects is a weather replication machine that makes it snow inside a glass tank. When Binbeat gets a hold of it and turns it into a Hidoinaa, it acts as a Weather Control Machine and covers the town in snow.
  • Weekend Inventor: Ami's house is filled with all kinds of strange contraptions.
  • Wham! Episode: Episode 12, if the comments are any indication. Dawn having a Moon Piece and Seira standing up to Emiru were small surprises. Emiru becoming Millusion, not so much.
  • Wham! Line: Episode 20 has two in short succession: the reveal that Ami is Cure Dusk and the return of Mekuramast.
  • What Could Have Been: The series was originally slated to be split into two twenty-six episode installments entitled Blue Moon and Pink Sun. Instead, the former became the series title, the second half was called Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon -solar eclipse-, and the story is slated to encompass about twenty-four episodes instead, having experienced a reduction in Filler. Also, Mia was supposed to be a Victim of the Week, not a major character.
  • When You Coming Home, Dad?: Asa's mom works multiple jobs and is too busy to come see her daughter do anything important or even spend much time with her.
  • Whip It Good: Kainatrol carries a riding crop, and Mekuramast has used his string of scarves as a whip.
  • White Void Room: The Etherium. The core room at least starts out as a solid white room with ornately carved walls and only a blank void outside of it, but as the story goes on, walls start to fade in and out of existence, solid pieces of the room fade away enough for people to walk through, and the place gets closer and closer to a state of nothingness. There's a reason for this.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Mia is traumatized by Kainatrol in episode 2; in episodes 7 and 20, guess who shows up again and terrifies her out of her mind.
  • Witch with a Capital B: Kainatrol calls Mireyes a witch. It's symbolic!
  • Wonder Twin Powers: Asa and Yoko.
  • Word of God: Some plot hints have been leaked in discussion, along with the Boss' name (Eiender, if you're wondering), some notes about Kazahana City, all the things that Could Have Been...
    • Word of Gay: At first, though it becomes quite clear in-story later.
  • Word Salad Title: The only mention of a blue moon so far has been in the author's notes when she timed the release of two chapters to the actual phenomenon of two full moons in a month. At least the moon is connected with time, and there's a lot of time symbolism in the story. One might wonder if the name is actually a Lucky Charms reference, what with the franchise's existing hearts, stars and clovers in their titles.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Kainatrol threatens Binbeat repeatedly just for getting on her nerces.
  • Wrench Wench: Yoko, secretly.
  • The Wrong Right Thing: In episode 11, Takashi decides to protect Yoko's secret, this being her hobby of working on cars. The thing is, this leads directly to exposing her even more secret nature as a Cure, which in turn leads to some other things...
  • You Are Not Alone: The characters gain friends and allies throughout the story, and even when they feel like they're still alone in the end, someone will always come and remind them that they're not.
  • You Remind Me of X: Other characters telling Binbeat what to do tend to remind him of his sister, Andante.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Though the concept sheet shows Asa and Yoko with knee-high socks, and other characters are either described or shown in art posts with grade C as well, thigh-highs appear to be an accepted uniform alternative—Mia wears them with her uniform in one art post, sporting a grade A Zettai Ryouiki.
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