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Pretty Cure
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Pretty Cure (Anime)
Beating evil into the ground with rainbows and kicks since 2004.
Base entry for the Pretty Cure franchise. Created by Izumi Todo (a pseudonym for the people at Toei Animation, who also created Ojamajo Doremi).

This is a Cash-Cow Franchise metaseries created Anime First by Toei Animation and spanning many an Alternate Continuity. The basic formula is as follows: first, a parallel world of fairies is attacked and conquered by an evil invading force. As a last resort, this world sends one or more fairy representatives to Present Day Earth, a place that holds a MacGuffin that the evil force needs next. There, the fairies bestow their magical power upon a number (it ranges from two to six) of ordinary school girls after The Powers That Be grant them a Transformation Trinket as a result of their strong feelings of determination, who must then Save Both Worlds when the evil force arrives.

The series distinguishes itself from other Magical Girl series in the high quantity of physical fighting and (sometimes) Postmodernism included, and in the earliest series, through the dynamic of having two central main characters who can only transform and use their most powerful abilities in tandem. The series focuses heavily on The Power of Friendship and Slice of Life moments that lead to Character Development between the lead characters, though it is not afraid to go into darker places at times.

The various series (and seasons) are:

    Spinoffs 

There is also a series of Pretty Cure All-Stars movies, teaming up characters from all series, as well as a short film and a video game that do the same. Once the sheer number of teams became too unweildy to do this, it shifted to usually having the three most recent teams meet up instead. Most series have at least one movie that is canonically ambiguous but can't be thrown out because of something really awesome happening in it. Then there's a non-canon manga for each series, going into depth in various aspects that either were ignored, like Saki's little sister's life, or are simply exclusive to the manga, like Rin's crush on Nuts.

The franchise has a strong relationship with tokusatsu: it's produced by Toei Animation, a subsidiary of Toei Company, which produces Super Sentai and Kamen Rider, and the three franchises are aired back to back, formerly in the Nichi Asa Kids Time block. The Pretty Cure and Super Sentai movies have been played as double bills, and crossovers are common as promotional material.

The franchise is also known as PreCure. While this is technically a more accurate transliteration of the title logo (which reads "purikyua") and appears in URLs and such, said logo (as well as much of the truly astonishing amount of merchandise) also explicitly spells out the title as "PRETTY CURE"… at least until HeartCatch Pretty Cure! and subsequent series, which say "PRECURE" instead. The pronunciations purikyua and puritii kyua are used interchangeably both in theme songs ("1, 2, 3, 4, Purikyua 5! Puritii, kyu, kyu, kyu, kyua…") and in-universe (including one odd instance of a character hearing the name for the first time as purikyua and immediately questioning "Puritiikyua?"). There are two ways to deal with this: one is to directly translate, taking "Precure" as a commonly used short form and "Pretty Cure" as their less-used full title, and the other, used by both fansubs and the first season's official subs, is to use "Pretty Cure" for both. TV Tropes does the latter for reasons completely unrelated to "Pretty Cure" making a good WikiWord.

There have been many attempts to bring the franchise outside of Japan and specifically into English-speaking territories. The first company to try this was 4Kids Entertainment, who eventually just gave up and didn't broadcast or even dub any episodes. Then came Canadian kids cable network YTV, who commissioned an English dub made by Ocean Production's subcontractor studio Blue Water. This dub is notable because it was, for a very long time, the only attempt to bring Pretty Cure to English-speaking territories under its own name.

Saban Brands attempted to do what they did for both Digimon and Power Rangers (Super Sentai) and licensed the franchise for the West in late 2015, first dubbing Smile and rebranding it as Glitter Force, with the show being released on Netflix as a "Netflix Original" (except in selected territories) in 2016. They would later dub DokiDoki! the next year and release it as Glitter Force Doki-Doki!. However, Saban Brands eventually sold their assets to Hasbro and shut down, with the franchise's international rights returning to Toei Animation, who has no interest in continuing the Glitter Force brand. Both seasons of Glitter Force would later be removed from Netflix entirely in late 2024, and has yet to find another home. Crunchyroll now hosts officially subbed versions of Futari wa, Max Heart, Splash Star, Go! Princess, Witchy (an alternate English title for Mahou Girls), Kira Kira, Healin' Good, Tropical-Rouge!, Delicious Party, Soaring Sky!, Wonderful, and You & Idol as part of their lineup, thus bringing the franchise Stateside proper, simulcasting the series starting with Healin' Good.

The Blue Water dub will see the biggest attempt at a dubbed relaunch with Toei Animation's Saturday Cartoon Splash, which will be released on Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand.

The IP's Pun-Based Title has no in-universe significance, but is simply very similar to the name for instant photo booths (purikura/print-clubs). This joke is only really referenced in the original season's opening credits, and one of the mascots therein being unable to pronounce the team name correctly.

More than one installment of this franchise provides examples of:

    open/close all folders 

    A-C 

    D-H 

    I-O 

    P-R 
  • Passing the Torch: Starting with HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!, it became a tradition to see the next season's lead cure in the final episode of the current one.
  • Pink Heroine: In fact, every team has at least one Cure in pink, and more often than not she's the leader, similar to Super Sentai with red. The only exceptions to the leader rule are: Futari wa, with Nagisa as a black Cure, Tropical Rouge with Manatsu as a rainbow Cure, and Soaring Sky with Sora as a blue Cure.
  • Plucky Girl: Pick a Cure; any of the many are this to some degree, while others like Erika Kurumi/Cure Marine and Megumi Aino/Cure Lovely are more explosively so.
  • Pocket Dimension: Delicious Party and You & Idol feature battlefields (Delicious Fields and Heart Garden) which teleport all of the combatants into a dimension with the intention of protecting civilians from monster attacks and casualties. Interestingly, while the Delicious Fields appeared since the first episode, the Heart Garden only appeared in Episode 31, during the final third of the season.
  • Pokémon Speak: The Monsters of the Week. Save for the Desertrians.
    • The Jikochuus don't do this that often.
    • The Nakewamekes also do not do this after earlier episodes, but are reduced into this when they appear in Pretty Cure All-Stars.
    • The Nakisakebes can't talk at all. They can only grunt.
    • There also the two Zakenna butlers from Futari wa Pretty Cure.
    • There are a Hoshina, a Negatone and an Akanbe who can talk. All of them have quizmaster/gamemaster powers.
  • Postmodernism: One of the most unusual aspects for a mainstream magical girl series that isn't a full deconstruction of the genre; instead it goes along with all the cliches you would usually see, but being self-aware about it. That being said, this aspect isn't entirely consistent, as some seasons tend be more self-aware than the others.
  • Power Dyes Your Hair: It's usually downplayed, with a Cure's hair changing shades instead of color. Played straight with Cure Passion (from dark purple to rose), Cure Melody (from ginger to pink), Cure Heart (from pink to blonde), Cure Ace (from brown to red), Mirage (from black to blonde), both Aloha Cures (from black to orange and teal respectively), Cure Flora (from auburn to blonde with pink streaks), Cure Twinkle (from brown to orange), Cure Whip (from orange to pink), Cure Parfait (from blonde to pink), Cure Fontaine (from charcoal to blue), Cure Sparkle (from brown to blonde), Cure Earth (from blonde to purple), Cure Summer (from auburn to blonde that fades to pink), Cure Papaya (from light brown to orange), Cure Precious (from light brown to pink), Cure Finale (from black to blonde) Cure Butterfly (from light brown to blonde with orange streaks), Cure Friendy (from light brown to blonde), Cure Nyammy (from light blonde to white) and Cure Lillian (from brown to sea green)
  • Power Gives You Wings: Most of the Movie Upgrades and most of them are later adapted to the respective series.
  • Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Downplayed in the first and second series, but began to be very blatant in the third; and the trend hasn't stopped since. The two most extreme examples are Cure Sunshine and Cure Muse who have very short hair in civilian form, but very long hair in their Cure forms. Many other examples are similar cases.
  • Power Makes Your Voice Deep: Honoka, Nozomi and Kotoha have high-pitched voices, but after their transformations, their voices become noticeably deeper. Justified with Aguri, who transforms into her Older Alter Ego, so her voice becomes naturally deeper.
  • The Power of Friendship:
    • Unlike most series in the genre, where it's second to The Power of Love, friendship is the most important thing in Pretty Cure. Every episode focuses on the relationships between the girls, and no romantic subplot is ever completely resolved, whether between the Cures themselves or with a third party; Nozomi/Coco is the one exception, and even they are allowed far fewer PDAs than other magical girl leads, only getting to kiss offscreen and in a movie. Most speeches are of the friendship variety, and the Cures' powers literally run on friendship — even the ones who can transform separately are stronger together, and, as seen in the case of Karen, powers can fail completely if they don't open up and act sincerely towards their True Companions.
    • It's proven that the Wonder Twin Powers don't work when the girls have a conflict.
    • If only one single Cure of the team is not available, the whole team cannot win against the Monster of the Week. If they gathered five members, they cannot win with four. If they gathered four members, they cannot win with three, etc. And you never win when you're alone unless you're Milky Rose or Cure Moonlight or Cure Ace or the lead Cure in episode 1. If you have a duel with a major villain, you'll still win with the Power of Friendship.
    • It is notable that, while HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! did have a strong emphasis on The Power of Love, The Power of Friendship was at least equally important.
    • It is so strong that one Cure (Amour) was able to become a Cure when, story-wise, she's not intended to become one. In Hugtto, there's only four PreHearts that were available initially, and 3 of them had been taken by the initial members. Naturally, this causes an issue when both Emiru and Ruru created their Mirai Crystals. Since there's only one of it left, Ruru is more than willing to let Emiru took the 4th PreHeart, but Emiru refuses to transform since she wants to see both of them fight together as Cures, something that Ruru admits want to do as well. Thanks to an appropriately-timed Deus ex Machina as a result of their extremely strong friendship bond and desire to fight together, said 4th PreHeart is split into two identical copies, allowing Ruru to claim her own PreHeart and become a Cure herself. This even allowed a breach of the "everyone must be there to win" rule and effectively broke the Hugtto team into two relatively independent teams: the first fight of Cures Macherie and Amour has Cures Ange and Etoile tied in other commitments and Cure Yell being sick, and the duo have their own finisher independent of Yell's.
  • Product-Promotion Parade: Given how Merchandise-Driven the franchise is, this is common. Premiere episodes can usually be counted on to have a first transformation and fight scene that shows off the Transformation Trinket, the lead Cure and her abilities (including the traditional Finishing Move). The debut of an additional Cure or a Super Mode later on prompts a similar blitz of showing off merchandising. And that's not counting other powerups accumulated along the way, as well as various other pieces of merchandise from the toyline such as accessory makers, an electronic tablet-like toy and accessories for that year's fairy doll, which means that this trope can come into play almost every week.
  • Pummel Duel:
  • Punny Name: Most Cures will often have the Cure name and their given name mean the same or something similar. From the start there's Nagisa Misumi ("sumi" means "ink") as Cure Black and Honoka Yukishiro ("yuki shiro" can be read as "snow white") as Cure White, and it just continues from there.
  • Purple Is Powerful: Any purple Cure, any Cure who has either purple eyes or hair or a purple Transformation Trinket counts. So do the villains.
  • Putting the Band Together: Starting with Yes! Pretty Cure 5 the first few episodes of the series will sometimes dedicate themselves to introducing and uniting the main team of the season. To throw wrenches into being completely straightforward, some characters take an extra episode to commit to the idea.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Both the heroes and villains are always like this in every season/continuity.
  • Recruit Teenagers with Attitude: Pretty formulaic to the Pretty Cure. Fairy retreats from the attacked homeland pick up inexperienced teens to become Precure. HeartCatch Pretty Cure! does look like this at first, but later reveals it to be an aversion, with Heroic Lineage in play.
  • Recycled Premise: Being a Long Runner, some newer seasons borrow elements from previous seasons at times.
    • Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star is Futari wa Pretty Cure, but themed around nature and spirits. This is more blatant that most of the other seasons, to the point that it's sometimes mistaken for a direct sequel.
    • Smile Pretty Cure! is a Lighter and Softer version of Yes! Pretty Cure 5, as both have a Five-Man Band team with the same colors and a fairytale theme.
      • On the topic of Smile Pretty Cure, KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode is this to Smile, as both were made after something happened that caused the series to change tone to a lighter and softer one, note  involve the girls transforming with a compact mirror and charms, have the girls hanging out in a place related to the series' theme note , and have a mid-season power-up that involves a pegasus character. note 
    • HuGtto! Pretty Cure is similar to Doki Doki! Pretty Cure. Both series have a baby the characters have to take care of who came from the world that was in danger, use a smartphone-like item for the Transformation Trinket, have a white and pink wand-like item decorated with hearts used for the Cures' second attack, have an elementary school Cure on the team and use a smart tablet-esque device for the final attack used in the show.
    • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure is similar to Mahō Tsukai Pretty Cure!, as both series involve an imaginative pink lead obsessed with the season's theme who meets a person from a world dedicated to that topic and goes on trips there with her. Both series also has a unique concept with the Transformation Trinket note , use a smartphone item to take care of the mascot that looks like a book, and have a Sixth Ranger who comes from the alternate world they go to, with Mahoutsukai having Haa-chan become Cure Felice and Star Twinkle having Yuni, who used to be the Phantom Thief Blue Cat, become Cure Cosmo.
  • Recycled Soundtrack: A few of the seasons feature reused background music from one another, usually during the early episodes.
  • Red Herring: From Fresh until Doki Doki, there was usually at least one character initially hinted to be the Sixth Ranger, but turned out to be this trope. Due to what happened after Doki Doki used this, the practice was abandoned starting in Happiness Charge.
    • In Fresh Pretty Cure!, it was thought that the Cures' dancing mentor, Miyuki Chinnen, would become Cure Passion. It turned out to be Eas/Setsuna Higashi.
    • In HeartCatch Pretty Cure!... this trope is instead parodied. Chypre and Coffret went around asking Tsubomi's classmates if they could be the third Precure, even asking a boy, Kenji Ban, to be one (and he daydreamed himself becoming 'Cure Fire'). Turns out it's Itsuki Myoudouin.
    • In Suite Pretty Cure ♪, both Waon Nishijima and Seika Higashiyama, Hibiki and Kanade's friends in their respective specialties, were speculated to be the next Pretty Cures. The next Cures were actually Siren/Ellen Kurokawa (as Cure Beat) and Ako Shirabe (as Cure Muse).
    • In Doki Doki! PreCure, Dark Magical Girl Regina, Princess Marie-Ange and Ai-chan were speculated to be Cure Ace. In fact, Cure Ace was someone completely new... but it later turned out Ace and the aforementioned candidates were all parts of the same person. The negative reaction from fans and the downward spiral of ratings and merchandise sales as a result of this twist might have caused Toei to abandon this concept in later series.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: The various mascots. Most play a much bigger role in the series with Wonder Twin Powers (namely the first three, Heartcatch and Suite). Also in Doki Doki and Maho Girls, the mascots are the Transformation Trinkets.
  • Rose-Haired Sweetie: A popular choice for the protagonists: Nozomi/Cure Dream, Tsubomi/Cure Blossom, Cure Melody (Hibiki being a redhead), Miyuki/Cure Happy, Mana (but not Cure Heart, interestingly), and Megumi/Cure Lovely. Kotoha/Cure Felice is a non-protagonist example.
  • Running Gag:
    • The In a Single Bound gag on a new lead Cure's first transformation, and the Crash-Into Hello gag when first meeting the mascot.
    • An early running gag was that comic performers would find out the identity of the Pretty Cure of the series and promise to keep the secret. It hasn't happened much lately, though.

    S 

  • Save Both Worlds: Most plots involve saving the mascots' homeworld as well as Earth, although there are exceptions, like Heartcatch and Maho Girls.
  • Screaming Warrior: There isn't a single season in the franchise where the Cures aren't screaming or shouting at the top of their lungs during intense battles. This is especially true for Cure Happy, who starts her Happy Shower attack by yelling "KIAI DA! KIAI DA!" over and over again.
  • Second Year Protagonist: Except for Haruka/Cure Flora and Manatsu/Cure Summer, who are first-year students, all lead Cures are second-year students.
  • Secret Identity: It's interesting to note that while the Pretty Cure hides their dual lives from their non-Cure friends and family, the villains usually learn their real identities right away. Given that the one time the Cures blew their secret identities to their families (Fresh, if you're wondering) said families got so worried they almost locked the girls in their houses the day of the final battle, it's probably for the best. Sometimes other reasons are given, like how Maho Girls PreCure! has Liko not wanting to ruin the reputation of the legendary magicians by revealing one of them is the resident Inept Mage... and then HuGtto! Pretty Cure does away with pretenses and has Harry fully admit it's just because being mysterious makes you seem cooler. In Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure, Lala tries to keep her Pretty Cure identity a secret from her family on planet Saman, but when it's revealed, they have no issue and actually take it in stride.
  • "Sesame Street" Cred: A few celebrity voice artists have worked on this franchise:
  • Shape Dies, Shifter Survives:
  • Sixth Ranger:
  • Slapstick: Much of the franchise's comedy involves one cure being put through slapstick. Erika Kurumi, Kanade Minamino and Miyuki Hoshizora are the three most infamous examples, but Love Momozono and Nozomi Yumehara have their fair share of slapstick too.
  • Slice of Life: A good portion of each series is simply dedicated to the Cures' daily lives, with little interference from the villains outside of an obligatory fight scene in each episode.
  • The Smart Guy: Only those who don't have a double role. Mostly the blue Cures: Cure Aqua, Cure Moonlight, Cure Beauty, Cure Diamond. Cure Custard, a yellow Cure, is an exception.
  • Smurfette Principle: Despite being a Magical Girl franchise, there are not many female villains.
    • Futari wa Pretty Cure: Poisonny is the only female of the Dark Five. Later, Regine is the only female of the Seeds of Darkness.
    • Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart: Viblis of the Four Guardians.
    • Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star: Not counting the Kiryuu sisters, Miss Shitataare is the only female of Dark Fall.
    • Yes! Pretty Cure 5: Arachnea is Bunbee's only female employee. Later, Hadenya is the only female member of the 2nd division.
    • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 Go Go: Shibiretta is the only female employee of Eternal, besides the secretary Anacondy.
    • Fresh Pretty Cure!: Eas of the three Labyrinth agents. She is later replaced by Northa.
    • HeartCatch Pretty Cure!: Sasorina of the three Desert Apostle Generals. And then, there is Dark Precure.
    • Suite Pretty Cure ♪: Siren is the only female from Minor Land.
    • Smile Pretty Cure!: Majorina of the Bad End Generals. The Bad End Precures appear for just one battle and they can arguably count as real members.
    • Doki Doki! PreCure: Marmo of the Selfish Trio. Regina shows up later, but eventually two new male villains are introduced.
    • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!: Hoshiwa is the only female Phantom General.
    • Maho Girls PreCure!: Sparda is the only female out of Dokurokushe's minions. Benigyo is also the only one of Deusmast's kin that receives limelight.
    • KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode: Noir’s only female underling is Bibury.
    • Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure: Shidoine is the only female Byo-gen.
    • Soaring Sky! PreCure: Empress Undergu is the only female member of the Undergu Empire.
    • Special mention goes to Desparaia, the only female of nine Big Bads in ten seasons. However, HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! introduces a new female Big Bad, Queen Mirage, but it turns out there's a Man Behind the Man. Go! Princess Pretty Cure has yet another female Big Bad, Dyspear, and Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure has the Witch of Delays. Darknest also qualifies since she’s really a Star Princess.
    • This also happens to the mascots from time to time. Milk is the only female of five mascots (Mailpo being counted), however, she is at least a main character. Chypre is the only female mascot who is introduced in Heartcatch, considering that Potpourri's gender is unknown. And Hummy, as well as the Crescendo Tone, are the only female mascots in Suite while Siren was never a good mascot. Mipple was also the only female for a long time before Lulun was introduced.
  • Special Edition Title: Starting with Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO!, whenever a movie is close to being premiered the title sequence of the currently airing season is replaced by scenes from the movie itself (while the standard opening theme plays). If the movie features a song, it'll usually play instead of the standard credits sequence. This continues for a few weeks after the movie premieres.
  • Spinoff Sendoff:
    • In a similar fashion to Super Sentai after Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, since HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!, it has become necessary for the past pink Cure to introduce the next leader at the end of the final episode of the finished season. With that, Cure Lovely got to introduce Cure Flora. 50 episodes later, Flora does the same with Cure Miracle.
    • The transition got even more interesting and more Toku-like with the transition from Maho Girls to the next season. During the final episode, an epilogue set a few years into the future, while following an odd lollipop villain that looked like Dokurokushe and was stealing sweets, Mirai, Lico and Haa-chan were transported to on front of the Kira Kira Patisserie. There, they met Ichika Usami, one of the bakers there, who served up some nice treats for the girls. Later, once they got up to that monster and were fighting, as the girls were about to lose him, they got help from a mysterious bunny-eared ally. Only until after the credits does Cure Miracle learn who this girl is: Cure Whip, the new lead Cure.
    • A year later, a certain Hana Nono and a baby she was caring for visited the Kira Kira Patisserie. Then while the Kira Kira girls were fighting the evil of Chouro-sama that split from himself proper, and it seemed that the dark side would win, Cure Yell comes in and kicks Evil!Chouro's umbrella, which trapped Pekorin and her fellow fairies, open. Disappearing after cheering on the Kira Cures, Cure Yell/Hana returns in a post-credits scene to accept a cake from Cure Whip, which she baked with the rest of the Kira Cures to mark their moving on.
    • Again, at the end of Hana’s series, one last Oshimada is created by complete accident, and one Hikaru Hoshina shows up to help take it out.
    • Then at the end of Hikaru's series, she meets Nodoka Hanadera in the middle of the forest and exchange greetings before shortly jumping into a Giant Nottorei attack. Cure Grace then steps in and attacks, giving the Star Twinkle Cures a chance to purify the big brute. This one is merely the dream of a now-adult Hikaru in the distant future.
    • To no one's surprise, Cure Summer appears during a fight in the Healin' Garden during that season.
    • Yui Nagomi meets the Tropical Rouge Cures when she mistook the riceball cardboard for real food. Surprisingly, it occurs during The Stinger instead of the episode proper.
    • In the same manner as the previous season, Sora Harewataru meets the Delicious Party team by lending her Mirage Pen to write a message to CooKingdom before their trip. Unlike previous cameos, Sora isn't shown transforming into Cure Sky at all.
    • After Soaring Sky drops this tradition, Wonderful brings it back with Mayu and Iroha watching the footage of Cure Idol's performance in Mayu's smartphone.
    • Cure Answer suddenly appears in the latter half of the final episode of You & Idol to help detective Hamori and Kyutarou and retrieving back the balloon to her predecessor team.
  • Spoiler Opening: Own page here.
  • Stock Sound Effects: The little pings and rings heard throughout the transformation sequences are repeated across all the Pretty Cure series, to the point that they're practically an entire series of Signature Sound Effects.
  • Strictly Formula: Not just individual episodes, but the series themselves. Some of the formulae below only apply to pre-Fresh seasons and some only to Fresh and after, since that season discarded a lot of franchise traditions in favour of new ones.
    • This became particularly jarring from 2009 to 2011, which always had four-girl teams and a "cheat code" item appear at a late point to give the girls a new attack or set of costumes.
    • While punches aren't a rarity in the franchise, most lead Cures use this as the part of their finishing move or sub-attack (Lovely, Star, Precious, Sky, Idol, and Answer).
    • In all series, seasons, holidays, and school events (culture festival, sports meet, etc.) roughly line up with the real world according to episode airdates. This requires a little chronological fudging, as Pretty Cure series run from February to January but reflect the April to March Japanese school year.
    • Notable is that around episodes 20-24 (usually 23) something plot-related always happens, usually the appearance of a Sixth Ranger or the Mid-Season Upgrade. Plot important episodes also happen mostly during the Episode 30 mark where they get another upgrade (usually a Team Attack including the Sixth Ranger), and the Episode 40 mark (sometimes another team member or an improvement of their team attack).
    • Certain plots also may happen once per season, such as two of the Cures having a disagreement and nearly triggering the team's break-up. This one in particular is known as the "Episode 8 Curse" and is most common in the pre-Fresh seasons. Seasons like Wonderful and Star Detective include this as two-parter episodes that concludes into them having their new attacks after reconciling.
    • An episode will feature one member of the team getting a real or imagined opportunity in acting/modeling/music/etc., with implications that they'll leave the area and cease all magical girl activities. Never actually happens.
      • There is a variation of this formula in Go! Princess Pretty Cure. Kirara did the normal variation where she screwed her overseas modeling chance to save a Victim of the Week, but is then offered a bigger one at cost of eventually leaving Japan to Paris. She accepts. But her departure only happens at the end of the series, so she can still fight for the remainder of the series.
    • Most of the villains in Fresh and after will make a Heel–Face Turn by the end of the show by either purification (Desert Apostles, Noise, Pierrot's Three Subordinates), turning traitor (Westar and Souler, Regina, Shut, Lock), or flat out becoming a Pretty Cure themselves during the turnpoint of the season (Setsuna, Ellen and Towa).
    • It also seems that, from Fresh onwards, the first villain in the group to appear is the one who does a Heel–Face Turn first. Ellen and Setsuna, while Sasorina gets purified first out of Heartcatch's villains. Smile is an exception, as all three members of the Quirky Miniboss Squad are purified at the same time.
    • Doki Doki inverts this with Regina, who is the last villain to make an appearance. Also Inverted in that Regina is immediately brainwashed back to the side of evil afterwards... before finally joining as an 11th-Hour Ranger. Happiness Charge is also an inversion, as Phantom is last general to be introduced, and the first to be purified. A similar inversion also happened in Go Princess, Twilight was the last sentient villain (Stop & Freeze were basically upgraded Zetsuborg with little sentience or personality) introduced and then quickly purified into Towa and became Cure Scarlet.
    • There will be an episode/arc where the series' Fairy / Non-Human Sidekick get kidnapped and the Pretty Cures have to rescue them.
    • There will also be an episode or arc where the newest or youngest fairy runs away; sometimes it's combined with the above.
    • The 41st episode is often focused on a yellow character: Urara (plus Komachi), Inori, Fary, Yayoi, and Alice.
    • Christmas or New Year's is usually used to kickstart the final arc of the series, so prepare for a Mood Whiplash from what seems to be An Ass-Kicking Christmas to quickly get world-endingly worse.
  • Student Council President: Considering the middle school setting of the Cures, some Cures are presidents themselves, such as Karen, Itsuki, Minami, and Madoka. Reika starts out as vice-president, and gets elected into the real deal late in the series. Mana is a main character and a Student Council President to boot.
  • Superhero Prevalence Stages:
    • Most seasons are the Early Stage: Each features a single team, with at most six members and no crossovers.
    • The first Pretty Cure All-Stars movie heralds the Middle Stage: a Bat Family Crossover featuring characters from the six seasons screening up to that point (a total of 14 heroines). A new movie is made every year, incorporating the team from that season (and Sixth Rangers from the previous season who had not been introduced when the last movie was released). By the time of the fifth movie (coinciding with the tenth season, Doki Doki! PreCure), there are 32 Cures, and at one point in Doki Doki Precure, one of the villains comments that at this rate it won't be long before there are a hundred. It is worth noting that these movies are not considered canon. This also applies to HuGtto! Pretty Cure, which establishes that all of the Cures (up to that point, around 60) are in danger thanks to the season's time-traveling villain.
    • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! has a Late Stage, with Pretty Cures operating worldwide. It only applies to that season, however, due to the general Alternate Continuity nature of the main series.
  • Supreme Chef: Honoka, Hikari, Saki, Rin, Kanade, Akane, Nao, Mana.

    T-Y 
  • Tagalong Kid: Ako and Aguri. Both are in elementary schools. Subverted though, Ako became a Cure before Hibiki and Kanade, and Aguri is The Mentor.
  • Terrible Trio: Almost every Quirky Miniboss Squad has a main trio that is normally led by The Dragon, unless one of them is the dragon. The villainous trio is usually more active than the leader. Furthermore, there is a Smurfette Principle in every trio (except one).
    • Futari wa Pretty Cure has the Seeds of Darkness: Juna, Regine and Belzei Gertrude the leader.
    • Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart has the Four Guardians with Circulas, Uraganos and Viblis as the main trio who even die together. The leader Baldes rarely shows up.
    • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 has Bunbee's three subordinates Girinma, Gamao and Arachnea. Though, they never work as a trio. After they are killed, they are replaced by Bunbee himself, Hadenya and Bloody. Those three are "led" by Kawarino.
    • Fresh Pretty Cure! has the three Labyrinth agents Eas, Westar and Soular, but none of them is the leader. Later, Eas is replaced by Northa who takes the leadership.
    • HeartCatch Pretty Cure! has the Desert Apostle Generals Sasorina, Kumojacky and Cobraja, with Sabaku as their superior.
    • Suite Pretty Cure ♪ has Trio the Minor, led by Siren. She is temporarily replaced by Bassdrum for a few episodes before returning as leader. After Siren's Heel–Face Turn, Bassdrum takes the leadership most of the time, Baritone becomes the leader for two episodes before being replaced by Bassdrum again, and finally Falsetto takes the final leadership.
    • Smile Pretty Cure! has the Bad End Generals Wolfrun, Akaoni and Majorina. Their superior is Joker.
    • Doki Doki! PreCure has the Selfish Trio: Ira, Marmo and Bel. Their new leader Regina steals their spotlight. Later, Leva and Gula are introduced, but they don't work with the trio. At the end of the series, Bel tries to perform a Dragon Ascendant. Emphasis on tries.
    • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! has the Phantom Generals: Namakelda, Hoshiwa, and Oresky. In a bit of a twist, they don't have a leader; Phantom prefers to work alone, and Deep Mirror is an adviser to the Big Bad. It's also implied there are other Generals working around the world; one appears during the Hawaii episode.
    • Go! Princess Pretty Cure has the Three Musketeers: Close, Lock and Shut. Their leader, Twilight, only appears after Close dies. The role of leader passes to Shut after Twilight's Heel–Face Turn, and then passes to Close after he comes Back from the Dead. Close then creates Stop and Freeze, becoming the leader of his own trio.
    • Maho Girls PreCure! has the Dark Magicians Batty, Sparda and Gamettsu. Their superior is Yamoh. Deusmast has his own trio as well.
    • KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode averts this, only two of Noir’s minions work around the same time to fight the Cures- Julio and Bibury in the first half, and Glaive and Elisio in the second half.
    • HuGtto! Pretty Cure has the villains work in threes with Listol guiding them- Charalit, Ruru, and Papple in the first half, and Dr. Traum, Jelos, and Bishin in the second half. Daigan doesn’t qualify because he ends up becoming a Bait-and-Switch Boss.
    • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure has Kappard, Tenjo, and Aiwarn with Galogre commanding them. When Aiwarn is deported from the team, Galogre ends up taking the third spot.
    • Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure has the three Tera-Byogens, Dairuzen, Shidoine, and Guaiwaru. While other Byogens do appear, these three are focused upon for the most part.
    • Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure has Chongire, Numeri, and Elda with them taking commands from Butler.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
    • In almost every season, the Pretty Cures use their new group Finishing Move to purify the Monsters of the Week, despite those monsters not being any stronger than the previous ones. And the old Finishing Moves become So Last Season.
    • In Futari wa Pretty Cure, Rainbow Storm is used very often, though Marble Screw is sometimes used, too. In most cases, Marble Screw would be okay, but Rainbow Storm is just an overkill.
    • In Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart, Marble Screw Max Spark is unnecessary because the monsters are not that strong. We see Extreme Luminario sometimes, but Marble Screw Max is never seen again. And before Marble Screw Max Spark was introduced, Extreme Luminario was an overkill.
    • In Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star, we see either Spiral Heart Splash or Spiral Star Splash, but not Twin Stream Splash.
    • This is averted in Yes! Pretty Cure 5, Five Explosion is used only once against a Monster of the Week. The other times are against the Quirky Miniboss Squad members.
    • In Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO!, Rainbow Rose Explosion and Metal Blizzard are used a lot.
    • In Fresh Pretty Cure!, we see all of the individual finishing moves at the same time, and later Lucky Clover Grande Finale a lot. The latter is justified because the Sorewatase are much stronger than the Nakewameke.
    • In HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, Heartcatch Orchestra is a lot for the Desertrians, even for the empowered ones. This attack kills Desert Devils, though.
    • In Suite Pretty Cure ♪, there are Suite Session Ensemble and Suite Session Ensemble Crescendo against the black-boned Negatone. The other attacks would be enough, even if they are used together.
    • Justified in Smile Pretty Cure!, where the blue-nosed Akanbe, Super Akanbe, and Hyper Akanbe can only be killed by Rainbow Healing, Rainbow Burst, and Royal Rainbow Burst, respectively. These have relatively long sequences.
    • In Doki Doki! PreCure, we have Lovely Force Arrow against Regina's Jikochuu and Leva and Gula's combined Jikochuus because they have No-Sell to the individual attacks, except with Ace Shot. Then we have Lovely Straight Flush against the Blood Ring Jikochuus, despite Ace Shot (and apparently Lovely Force Arrow) being enough. And finally, Royal Lovely Straight Flush is used to purify Regina's Jikouchuu who are even weaker than the previous Jikochuu types.
  • Title Drop:
    • The Pretty Cures always announce the title of the series after a group transformation (though prior to Yes! Pretty Cure 5 it was just "Futari wa Pretty Cure").
    • Splash Star worked the subtitle into an attack name: Spiral Heart Splash Star.
  • Token Non-Human: Every now and then, one of the Cures won't be human.
  • Toy Disguise: The best way the fairies prevent humans from figuring out their true nature is them pretending to be stuffed toys.
  • Trailers Always Spoil:
  • Transformation Exhilaration: The majority of the transformations are greeted with glee if not determination, with many including height, age, and hair color changes. KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode in particular includes animal traits in the transformation.
  • Transformation Is a Free Action: Justified in-universe, where the transformation takes place inside a barrier or appears as a bright flash of light to observers. Yanagita Rikao, a Japanese university professor, even provided a scientific explanation as to why Cure Black and Cure White could never be attacked while transforming. Later seasons such as Kira Kira show that, to a bystander, Cure transformation is instantaneous and appears as a flash of light.
  • Transformation Trinket: Every single season has one. While some resemble cosmetics like perfume bottles or makeup kits, other resemble toys like cell phones or wands.
  • True Companions:
  • Uniqueness Decay: The idea of boy Precures. HUGtto! Pretty Cure made big news by introducing the first boy Cure (Cure Infini). 5 years later, it is proceeded by Soaring Sky PreCure! introducing Cure Wing as part of the main cast, then by Dancing Star featuring an all-male team, and then by You & Idol Pretty Cure with Cure Connect near the series' climax, making boy Cures become more of a common occurrence.
  • Verbal Tic: Has its own page here.
  • Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Some villains lack the power to teleport. Instead, they hide themselves and slip away unnoticed after their Monster of the Week is defeated.
  • Villain Teleportation: Most teleport away from the Cures whenever they lose.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Some mascots can transform into humans:
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: Most seasons will typically throw something around the 10th or so episode that introduces something that ends up being a lot tougher than what the Cures have currently faced - whether if it's a stronger variant of the Monster of the Week, all of the villains so far teaming up against the Cures, or another villain added to the fray. This generally concludes with a group finisher with the current Pretty Cure formation.
  • Water Is Womanly: Cure Aqua, Cure Diamond, Cure Mermaid, Cure Fontaine, and Cure LaMer have their main color as a shade of blue and water powers, along with being the more mature and feminine members of their teams.
  • Wham Line: See examples here.
  • "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: From Go! Princess to Star Twinkle, the last or next-to-last episode of each season features a timeskip with older versions of the Pretty Cure team. Starting with Healin' Good, the most recent seasons have averted this ending until You & Idol brought it back.
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Practically all seasons of Pretty Cure have no real way to figure out where they are on a distinct map. Standout examples of real places, however, include Futari wa Pretty Cure, which is explicitly set in Koizumi Gakuen, which is based on Ooizumi Gakuen, Nerima.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: While several cures have had  their biggest fears revealed, the most common fear that Pretty Cures seen to have is ghosts. These Cures being. Rin, Ellen, Nao, Minami, Manatsu, Amane and Uta.
  • Wonder Twin Powers: The first three seasons and Suite. Heartcatch also has this to a lesser extent. Mahou Tsukai brings this concept back, while Hugtto and You & Idol use an interesting take on this by using this on their Sixth Ranger instead.
  • Word Salad Title: While the "Pretty" part of the "Pretty Cure" is more understandable since many Transformation Trinkets are based on cosmetics, the protagonists haven't really been "curing" anyone outside of undoing The Corruption until Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure, which is specifically doctor-themed. According to the producer Takashi Washio, they've pretty much picked two "girly" words that would be easy to trademark and sticked with it.
  • World of Technicolor Hair: While in Futari Wa the hair colors were pretty normal and only supernatural characters had inhuman colors, starting with Splash Star and officialized with Yes! 5, natural hair colors that aren't genetically possible in real life, including pink, blue, green, purple, and so on, became the norm rather than the exception, and nobody treats this as unusual.
  • Yellow Is Cheerful: If the yellow Cure of a group isn't a regal, refined lady, she'll usually be a bubbly, goofy girl.
  • Yellow/Purple Contrast: Cure Twinkle and Cure Soleil follow this colour scheme, in both cases to follow a Cosmic Motif.
Statler: So, how come I've never heard of this Pretty Cure thing?
Waldorf: I tell ya, at our age, I'm pretty cure you wouldn't hear one of their little sparkly beam-thingies go off if you were right behind 'em when it happened!
Both: Do-ho-ho-ho-hoh!

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