Yes! Pretty Cure 5
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"The power of hope and the lights of the future!" |
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The fourth entry in the Pretty Cure franchise. The title comes from the fact that this time, there are five Cures instead of two.
Nozomi Yumehara is a energetic though dimwitted girl who is Desperately Looking for a Purpose In Life. She meets a hot guy in a chance encounter, follows him into the library, and before she knows it her belief in the importance of following your dreams has turned her into a Magical Girl with a sidekick who looks like a yellow plush tanuki. Within a few episodes, she's assembled a complete team:
- Cure Dream, Pretty Cure of Hope. Nozomi herself, who stays positive and cheerful, even though she's generally a screwup and well aware of it.
- Cure Rouge, Pretty Cure of Passion. Rin Natsuki, Nozomi's childhood friend, known for her athletic prowess and biting sarcasm. Easily frightened, but the idea of losing Nozomi is scarier than any monster.
- Cure Lemonade, Pretty Cure of Bursting or Bubbliness or Effervescence or something. Urara Kasugano, an up-and-coming child actress and Idol Singer. Has trouble making friends due to her busy schedule.
- Cure Mint, Pretty Cure of Tranquility. Komachi Akimoto, an aspiring writer who's getting discouraged by a lack of positive feedback. She's extremely nice and rarely gets angry, and believe us, that's very fortunate. Absolutely not Retasu Midorikawa.
- Cure Aqua, Pretty Cure of Intelligence. Karen Minazuki, ridiculously wealthy Student Council President. Responsible, kind-hearted, and independent... in all the wrong ways, as she quickly discovers.
With the help of extradimensional tanuki duo Coco and Nuts, their goal is to collect fifty-five creatures called Pinkies in order to complete the "Dream Collet", enabling it to grant a single wish and restore Coco and Nuts' destroyed homeworld. Though you would be forgiven for forgetting about this subplot, since Pinky-collecting is usually treated as an aside when nothing else is going on. The majority of screentime is given to the Pretty Cures' fight against the Nightmare Group, an evil corporation who wish to steal the Dream Collet for their Big Bad queen, the mask-wearing Despariah. Later, the Pretty Cure get another ally in the form of Milk, a rabbit-earred mascot creature who gives them their Mid-Season Upgrade.
Yes! produced more than a few waves in the Western fandom when it discarded nearly all of the synonymous Pretty Cure tropes, becoming a more derivative Magical Girl series than its predecessors. Despite this, the character development is good, the action is solid and it still retains some of the fistfighting combat and Post Modernism that makes Pretty Cure stand out in the Magical Girl genre. It also started the trend of having every transformation phrase and special attack include the phrase "Pretty Cure" (where previously it was confined to the Finishing Move).
Yes! proved popular enough to get a direct sequel called Yes! Precure 5 GO!GO!. After upgrading their powers, the Pretty Cure 5 team is recruited to protect the mysterious Cure Rose Garden from Eternal, an evil museum that steals and stockpiles priceless treasures from across the universe. To do this, the Pretty Cure have to track down the four missing rulers of the kingdoms that neighbour the Kingdom of Palmier, as they hold the four keys that unlock the path to the Cure Rose Garden.
Along with new mascot creature Syrup, an orange flying penguin mailman, the Pretty Cure get a Sixth Ranger:
- Milky Rose, Kurumi Mimino, an arrogant Ace and New Transfer Student. As Milky Rose, she is a powerful Aloof Ally who draws her strength from a separate Power Rose from the other Cures. Of course, her true identity is Milk, and her better-than-you act runs out pretty fast when she admits that she's been taking cues from watching that character type on magical girl shows.
Tropes used in Yes! Pretty Cure 5 include:
- Accidental Hero: Urara in The Movie: the only reason that the villain's plan failed is because Urara forgot to transfer the last MacGuffin to the Dream Collet.
- Accidental Marriage: Accidental Childhood Marriage Promise.
- Action Girl
- All Part of the Show: Episode 12.
- Almost Kiss
- Aloof Ally: Milky Rose.
- Alternate Continuity: To the other series.
- Anime First
- Annoying Younger Sibling
- The Archer: Karen with her attack "Pretty Cure Sapphire Arrow", not that the shippers being teased (See Ship Tease) think she's all that "straight". It's a sapphire arrow.
- Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: Nozomi: although it's never outright stated, she displays a lot of the symptoms of ADHD.
- In episode 11, Nozomi gets an 18 on a math test. She studies with Coco and company and manages to raise that up to a 35 by the end of the episode. In the same episode, Nozomi manages to finish reading a book for the first time in her life.
- Audible Gleam: This is Pretty Cure. You won't get five minutes into an episode without sparkles.
- Bait and Switch Credits: While they're mostly accurate, the first opening briefly features Karen showcasing her musical talent the violin. In the series proper, the only instrument she's known to play is piano.
- Bare Your Midriff: Nozomi in Yes!
- Barrier Warrior: Komachi/Mint.
- Batman in My Basement: Briefly.
- Battle in the Rain: Episode 10 of Go Go. And the girls actually do slip on the wet ground a few times.
- Because Destiny Says So
- Beta Couple: Nuts/Komachi, with Coco/Nozomi as the Alpha. In addition, either Syrup/Urara or Karen/Kurumi could count as the Gamma Couple.
- Beware the Nice Ones: And Komachi is really nice, so...
- Big Eater: If you're not Komachi, raise your hand.
- Big Fancy House: Holy crap, Karen!
- Bishonen: Coco/Kouji, Nuts/Natsu and Syrup/Shirou, to hilarious extents on Nuts' part. Mukadia, disguised as Momoi Kyousuke, also counts.
- Bittersweet Ending: The first series.
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Nozomi and Rin respectively, with Nozomi being a chirpy, optimistic idiot and realist Rin providing a more normal point of view.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Coco in the Go Go movie.
- But Not Too Foreign: Urara, half-Japanese and half-French.
- By the Power of Greyskull: "Pretty Cure, Metamorphose!"
- Calling Your Attacks
- Cassandra Truth: "No, no! This is no wristwatch!"
- Catch Phrase: Nozomi's "it's decided!"; to a lesser extent, she also has "look at that, look at that, look at that!".
- Chair Reveal
- Cherry Blossoms: Used to add more of a dramatic, mysterious feeling to Syrup's first scene in GoGo. And to make him look more of a Bishonen.
- Chest Insignia: stylized butterflies.
- Childhood Marriage Promise: Crepe is convinced that Coco made one of these to her. Although it turns out that it was a cross-cultural misunderstanding, she won't take no for an answer.
- The Chosen One: Er, sort of.
- Clark Kenting
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Milk towards Coco, which explains most of her animosity toward Nozomi; once Crepe appears, the three of them succumb to a jealous war over the poor guy. Syrup, on the other hand, is fought over by Nozomi, Kurumi and Urara.
- Club President: Mika is the Club President for the school newspaper, and only member by default, since her obsessive personality drove everyone else out.
- Combined Energy Attack: in the form of a magic kamikaze mecha-butterfly in the first season, and the form of a giant man-eating rose in the second season.
- Comes Great Responsibility: Nozomi's initial proposed uses for the Dream Collet.
- Comic Book Time
- Conspicuous CG: Transformation Sequences.
- Cool Mask: Pretty much the whole point of the Nightmare Group.
- Dancing Theme: Both versions of Ganbalance de Dance.
- Dark Magical Girl: In The Movie.
- Deadpan Snarker: Rin, Nuts.
- Debut Queue: Introduction of the Cures.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Despariah, Dark Dream. Seems to be an exclusive power of Nozomi's: the other Cures just kill their enemies.
- Demonic Invaders
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose In Life
- Diet Episode: In one episode, Coco goes on a diet because he got fat (although you never really see the difference in his human form) from eating too many cream puffs.
- The Dragon: Kawarino, who has his own Dragon in Bunbee.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Dark Dream.
- Elemental Hair: It's pretty easy to figure out which character has which elemental power just from looking at them.
- Elemental Powers: In order: Heart, Fire, Light, Earth, Water, and Air.
- Yes, Milky Rose is Air. In her Aloof Ally phase, she had a tendency to appear in high places and vanish in a gust of wind. Consider also "Skyrose Translate!" The attack name "Milky Rose Blizzard" often leads people to associate her with ice, but a blizzard involves wind, too, and there's nothing ice-like involved in the attack, although the rose petals do quite resemble an ice sculpture at the end.
- The End of the World as We Know It
- Everything's Better with Princesses: Crepe is their only real princess, but they do nod to the phenomenon in the first movie with the Princess Land theme park.
- Evil Costume Switch: Coco after he has undergone the Brainwashed and Crazy trope.
- Evil Minions
- Evil Twin: In The Movie.
- Evolving Credits: Most notably, the addition of Milk and Pretty Cure Five Explode.
- Expressive Hair: Nozomi.
- Expy: To varying extents.
- Extraordinarily Empowered Girl
- Festival Episode
- First Kiss: Nozomi won't shut up about how she envisions hers... which is exactly how it happens. Assuming, of course, that Nozomi and Coco didn't abruptly back away from each other the instant the camera faded out.
- First-Name Basis: Rin and Karen.
- Five-Man Band: Two different ones consisting of the same characters!
- Fleeting Demographic: Young girls.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Among five people.
- Frilly Upgrade: Wings Of Justice; later, Jackets, and later, Even Bigger Wings of Justice.
- Genki Girl: Nozomi.
- Genre Savvy: Kurumi has studied in depth what it means to be a secret heroine.
- Girlish Pigtails: Played straight by Urara in both forms, and Nozomi in civillian form. Cure Dream's hair seems more like a bizarre take on Odango, with rings replacing the usual buns.
- Good Bad Translation: Karen's attack catchphrase can be translated as, "The rock-crushing power of a young girl's heavy flow." For obvious reasons the fansubbers went with something different, but the literal version survived long enough to undergo Memetic Mutation.
- Good Hair, Evil Hair: Nozomi has Innocent/Ignorant Pigtails.
- Gratuitous English: right there in the title. Also notice that the team says "Yes!" rather than "Hai!" when they are about to do something flashy.
- Hair of Gold: Urara, though she's not really that innocent.
- Heavy Sleeper: Nozomi.
- Her Codename Was Mary Sue: Komachi's romance novel.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Junko Takeuchi as Rin, Ai Maeda as Karen, Romi Paku as Syrup.
- Hope Spot: subverted.
- Hot for Student: Coco's human guise, Kouji, is a teacher... why this relationship doesn't really Squick anyone is a mystery for the ages.
- Idiot Hero: Nozomi.
- Idol Singer: Urara.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Completely ineffective.
- Image Song: lots; Urara sings hers in-universe.
- Improbable Weapon User: Lemonade's castanets.
- In a Single Bound
- Innocent Cohabitation: Coco lived in Nozomi's bedroom at first. He decided to leave after Nozomi's mother walked in and caught him- in Bishonen form- on hands and knees, hunched over her daughter's sleeping body. Only to wake her up, I assure you.
- Interspecies Romance: Coco and Nozomi, Komachi and Nuts, possibly Karen and Milk, and Urara and Syrup.
- In the Name of the Moon: Individually and together.
- Invisible to Normals: Subverted early on, later used straight.
- Jumped At the Call: Nozomi, before she even knew there was a Call to Adventure to jump at.
- Kamehame Hadoken: The offensive version of Mint Shield.
- Kiai: In the Italian dub, Cure Dream's attacks fall under this. She growls, which makes sense considering the Super Sentai series the first season was paired with.
- Lady of War: Karen.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Syrup.
- Laser Blade: Played straight by Cure Aqua's sword in the movie, even leading to some fantastic Blade Locks with Dark Aqua's very own Laser Blade. Subverted as the Cure Fleurets are never used for direct combat.
- Late for School
- Lethal Chef: Though they got better during episode 21 of GoGo.
- Lighter and Softer: This is supposed to be where the franchise takes a lighter-hearted turn as opposed to the dark themes of the previous seasons, especially Splash Star
- Limited Social Circle
- Lonely Rich Kid: Karen.
- Lucky Charms Title: The song lyrics.
- Magical Girl
- Make Me Wanna Shout: Dark Lemonade.
- Meaningful Name
- Meganekko: Mika.
- Merchandise-Driven
- Metamorphosis: But it has nothing to do with "Metamorphose!"
- Mid-Season Upgrade: Pretty Cure Symphony Set, Cure Fleurets and Milky Mirror.
- Minion Shipping: Bunbee sure seems more concerned about Arachnea than the rest of the Quirky Miniboss Squad...
- He also sheds tears when his Eternal superior Scorp (a guy) is killed.
- Mirror Match: In The Movie.
- Missing Mom: Urara.
- Modesty Shorts: All five of them!
- Monster of the Week: Kowainaa and later on, Hoshinaa.
- Monstrosity Equals Weakness
- Morph Weapon: Aqua Ribbon.
- The Movie
- Multiple Demographic Appeal
- Mundane Utility: Early on, Nozomi wanted to use the Dream Collet to... get her homework done.
- Mythology Gag: "Nagisa is in high school now."
- Never Found the Body: Bunbee.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Aqua's sword.
- New Transfer Student: Urara, Kurumi.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: The first movie the girls have to try it in their Pimped-Out Dress at Princess Land.
- Non-Human Sidekick: Coco, Nuts and Syrup.
- No Ontological Inertia: Significant to the early plot!
- Oba-san: Karen's not really this, but it is the source of her Fan Nickname.
- Odd Couple: Both Nozomi/Rin and Karen/Komachi.
- Odd Friendship: ...you know what? Everyone.
- Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo
- Official Couple: Coco and Nozomi.
- Ojou: Karen and Komachi.
- Ominous Opera Cape
- The One Guy: Well, three total.
- One-Winged Angel: When a member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad assumes one of these forms, then their Final Death is not far away.
- Parental Abandonment: If you're not Nozomi, raise your hand.
- Personality Powers: Quite explicitly so; for example, Rin (fire) and Karen (water) get an episode devoted to how they do not get along.
- Pimped-Out Dress: The girls get one for their trip to Princess Land in the first movie.
- Polly Wants a Microphone: Syrup in mascot and transportation form.
- Post Episode Trailer: That always spoils.
- Power Gives You Wings: Butterfly wings, and in the case of Shining Dream, fluffy white angel wings.
- The Power of Friendship: Used straight and subverted.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: Milk; Bunbee and Mika in GoGo!
- Prophetic Names
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: Hope Dream-hara... er, Nozomi.
- Punny Name: "But from now on, call me... Masukomi-ka!"
- Quirky Miniboss Squad
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Coco when he has been Brainwashed and Crazy.
- Red Pill, Blue Pill: And Rin went for the blue.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Played straight with Cure Rouge and Cure Aqua, but inverted with Nuts (wears red more, is quieter) and Coco (wears blue more, is outgoing).
- Redemption Equals Death: Dark Dream.
- Refusal of the Call: Rin; Karen after initially failing to transform.
- Repeat Cut: Just... watch this.
- Runaway Bride: Komachi wants to become one someday... seriously.
- Schoolgirl Lesbians: If the yuri fanboys have anything to say about Karen; after the Karen/Komachi ship was sunk by canon, Toei Ship Teased them with Karen/Kurumi.
- School Newspaper Newshound: Mika.
- Sentai
- Sealed Good in a Can: Nuts.
- Media Franchise
- Shaggy Dog Story: the entire Dream Collet plotline
- Ship Tease: Lots, mostly involving Karen or Nozomi.
- Shojo
- Shout-Out: The pirate ship monster appears to have a tricorner hat and rope "dreadlocks".
- Might've just been the fansub This Troper watched, but Masuko kept referring to the Cinq Lumiere news as "fair and balanced".
- Show Within a Show: Urara appeared on several, one of them being, apparently, Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star.
- Shy Finger-Twiddling: Nozomi breaks into this in episode one after getting yelled at by Rin for not staying in one school club and for her Dojikko ways.
- Sixth Ranger: Kurumi/Milky Rose.
- So Last Season
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Ruining many a cliffhanger.
- Spell My Name with an "S": Who knows what a bavarois is? Certainly not anyone who calls her Babaroa.
- Spikes of Villainy: The Dark Cures.
- Spoiler Opening: Mild, but manages to ruin a cliffhanger.
- Stock Footage
- Student Council President: Karen.
- Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Karen and, to a lesser extent, Komachi.
- Team Shot
- Team Spirit: The whole point of the series.
- Theme Music Power-Up
- Theme Naming: All the mascots are named after food; all the Cures besides Dream are named after words for their respective colour that also happen to be things - Rouge, Lemonade, Mint, Aqua.
- Theme Tune Cameo: Nozomi tries to sing a snippet of the OP in episode 33 before Rin cuts her off.
- There Is Only One Bed: To a ridiculous extreme.
- Title Drop: In a piece of stock footage, but treated very dramatically the first time.
- Title Theme Tune
- Trailers Always Spoil: Sometimes in odd ways.
- Transformation Sequence
- Transformation Trinket
- Trap Door: The Nightmare Group's preferred method for punishing the failures of the Quirky Miniboss Squad.
- True Companions
- True Love's Kiss: In the Go Go movie, from Nozomi to Coco.
- Two-Teacher School
- Verbal Tic: The mascots, as in every Pretty Cure series, use some variation on their names; also, Rin ends some of her sentences with "nano" and Nozomi with "mon".
- Voluntary Shapeshifting
- Weasel Mascot: Milk.
- We Can Rule Together
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: They're supposed to be in the Minato ward of Tokyo, but you couldn't tell by looking -- they instead seem to be in some twisted Euro-Japan that highly confused viewers as to where they actually were.
- Word Salad Title: Was somebody questioning whether they were Pretty Cure 5?
- Worst News Judgment Ever: I'm looking at you, Mika, and your obsession with Nuts.
- Yeah! Shot: Might be better called a Yes! Shot.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: All five of 'em plus Kurumi, Flora and some bad guys.
- You Have Failed Me...: Subverted.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In the first movie, when Dark Dream makes a Heroic Sacrifice, Shadow says that she had outlived her usefulness and he was probably going to kill her anyway. Later, Mukadia suffered this at the very end of 5GoGo!.
