Futari wa Precure
English Title: Pretty CureMangaka: TOUDOU Izumi and KAMIKITA Futago*
Pub. Date: 2004 or 2005
# of Vols.: ?
TV Series: 2004 (49 Episodes)
2005 (? Eps.)
2 Movies in 2005
Beginning its run in 2004 and continuing in 2005 with the second season, Max Heart, and movie of the same name, Pretty Cure manages to continue the fighting girl subgenre of mahou shoujo while adding its own style to the mix.
Misumi Nagisa and Yukishiro Honoka are our heroines, the former a tomboyish lacrosse player and the latter a studious lady. Not a pair who'd normally be seen teamed up for anything. Their lives are interupted one afternoon by a shower of shooting stars. stars that fate would have land at their feet, bearing cute-puffy fairies from the Garden of Light. They explain that the Garden of Light was attacked by the Dark King of the Dusk Zone and they need the descendants of the Garden of Light to help them gather the stolen Prism Stones (stones of life and creation), otherwise not just their world but the human world (the Garden of Rainbows) will be destroyed as well. To do this the girls combine power with their respective fairy friend and transform into Pretty Cure. Unlike most magical girls who rely on their powers in battles, both Cure Black (Nagisa) and Cure White (Honoka) rely more on their physical strength. Boxing, punches, kicks, flips...this is their main mode of combat, with their magical maneuver left for last.
Max Heart continues the story from season 1 and brings in Shiny Luminous, the young queen of the Garden of Light. With her the team must face a new set of enemies to protect their future.
Just a couple fun notes for this series. It plays a lot with dual images, for instance masculine/feminine or opposite personalities (Mepple and Mipple have the male/female symbols on their foreheads respectively-also in the tradition of similar companion pairs seen in Sailor Moon, Creamy Mami, Fancy Lala, etc.; Nagisa and Honoka complement each other personality wise). The pairing of black and white (Cure Black and Cure White) follows this trend, but also nicely fits in with the spectrum running symbolism. Black is the absence of color and white the presence of all colors, they're the two opposites of the spectrum. Their combined powers and in their transformation result in a rainbow of light. The extended symbol to the show's theme is that all colors make up life, light, and their powers reflect the preservation of creation and goodness. Garden of Light, Garden of Rainbows, Prism Stones, etc. all play into this.
Magical Companion
Mepple, Mipple, and Porun-three fairy creatures from the Garden of Light, they are the companions to Nagisa, Honoka, and Hikari (the queen) respectively
Magical Phrase
Dual Aurora Wave!-Nagisa and Honoka say to transform
Lumina! Shining Stream!-Hikari says this to transform
Pretty Cure Marvelous Screw-to combine their black and white thunder to send at the enemy
Pretty Cure Marvelous Screw Max-powered up version, seen in season 2
Pretty Cure Rainbow Therapy-combines black pulsar and white pulsar and creates a rainbow of light surrounding someone who's possessed by darkness and releases them
Lumina Heart Action-Shiny Luminous' attack with the baton
Extreme Luminario-Combined attack performed by all three girls (Thank you to Matt for sending in the exact name of this attack)
Magical Items
Cell phones-both Mepple and Mipple take the form of the phones in the human world, they can revert to their normal selves but only for a short period of time
Pretty Cure Card-probably influenced by the many functional Sakura Cards in CCS, in the first season a card is swiped through a slot in the phone to transform (using the queen card) or t take care of Mepple and Mipple (food, health, etc.-sort of like the once popular digital friend toys); later the cards take a heart shape and are inserted into the phones which too are upgraded, the cover instead sliding across the phone to activate the power in the card
Prism Stones-stones of life, at the series start Mepple and Mipple each carry one in their tale and the girls have to fight the enemy to retrieve the remaining five
Prism Hoppish-given to them by queen to keep the Prism Stones in when gathered, it is protected by the Stone Keeper (a nifty little guy not much bigger than the Hoppish wearing a star robe and surrounded by colored lights)
Pretty Cure Notebook-given to the girls by the Stone Keeper when they return the first Prism Stone, only someone from the Garden of Light can read what is written in them
Prism Love Checker-checks the love between two individuals
Compact-Porun changes into a compact for Hikari to use to transform
Heart-Shaped Wand-Shiny Luminous uses this in her attack, combined with the powers of Cure White and Cure Black; the wand also turns into a baton for her own attack
*Thank you to Taisa for the manga information.
