Ranked #1627

Smile Precure!

Have you ever watched a show that is so clearly just trying to have as much fun as possible? That is for the most part so light and fluffy that it doesn’t have a care in the world? That’s the type of show Smile Precure is.

Miyuki Hoshizora and her friends Akane, Yayoi, Nao, and Reika have been enlisted as Pretty Cure to help Candy, the fairy from Marchenland, resurrect the Royal Queen who sacrificed herself to stop the evil Pierrot of the Bad End Kingdom from painting a bad end across the world. Pretty Cure must collect the various decor that hold the Queens power, while the other villains of the Bad End Kingdom seek to gather Bad Energy from people to revive Pierrot. Always spouting her catchphrase of "Ultra happy", Miyuki takes on the challenge with glee.

Smile is a simple show. It does away with a lot of the typical character drama present in other seasons and is much more comedy focused with lots of silly fun and wacky hijinks, a lot of your enjoyment of the show is going to depend on what you personally find funny and entertaining. The characters themselves are rather simple even for Pretty Cure and their relationships and bonds with each other, while they grow stronger, don't ever really change or develop. However this isn't really as bad as you might think. The characters are still plenty fun, cute, and likable. They all have their own brand of silliness that fits in perfectly in Smile. And although simple they aren't completely flat, their characters still get fleshed out and expanded upon over the course of the season and there is more to them than just what you see in their introductory episodes. The characters development just isn't that big of a priority in Smile.

However, despite the lower focus on the characters and their development Smile still has character arcs that cover the entire season and all build up to big individual culminations of the girls characters, and also about them finding out what is truly important to them. The arcs just aren’t as explored or visible as in other seasons and until the end of the show usually don't impact episodes outside of the arcs. There’s also a heavy theme of friendship in the series and each girl realizing what the others mean to them. As well as a theme of the girls protecting and reaching towards the future and saving it from the Bad End the villains want to bring about.

Surprisingly the character whose development is a big priority and focus in Smile is the fairy, Candy. Candy starts off as a pretty typical fairy for Pretty Cure, but somewhat more useless and cowardly. She even manages to be rather detrimental to the Cures on occasion and largely is a bother, and can frankly just be annoying. However, when Candy starts to change she never looks back. The story of Smile is just as much her journey as it is Pretty Cure's. She develops into a capable fairy who no longer cowers and instead of trying her best and making things worse, she tries her best and succeeds. She becomes a much more active helper to Pretty Cure and is more integral to the plot, while still getting real development, than most other fairies.

As for the main plot of Smile the show essentially treats it like a joke. The villains actions are so nonsensical and often so hilariously over the top and stupid that it often seems like Smile is a parody of the typical Pretty Cure plot. The show gets serious at important moments but most of the episodes are played for comedy and are often highly energetic and loads of fun. The problem is that Smile doesn't have much in the area of over-arching subplots. Individual episodes will tie into the main plot but will have nothing more going on in them other than whatever random thing is happening in the episode. Because of that Smile is even more episodic than the average season of Pretty Cure. These individual episodes could be good or great but getting long stretches of them all at once can make the show kind of drag.

Because so much of the show is unabashedly silly the more serious moments can occasionally clash with the otherwise light-hearted nature of the show. However, Smile is surprisingly good at pulling off these serious moments. When it wants to be sweet it can be sweet, when it wants to be sad it can be sad, when it wants to be awesome it can be awesome and it somehow manages to excel at these things despite first and foremost being a rather silly series. The show is able to draw up a surprising amount of emotion from the characters that allow these serious moments and episodes to always be done nicely.

And then we have the villains in the show. Wolfrun, Akaoni, and Majorina make up the Bad End trio, the flunkies of the Kingdom essentially. At first they start off as pretty dull but as they interact with Pretty Cure and each other more they become much more entertaining villains. They are often hilarious and have great chemistry with each other, some of the best episodes are ones that have all of them interacting with Pretty Cure and each other at once. Over the course of the series they also develop personal vendettas against Pretty Cure, some of the battles end up being much more personal and have great impact.

And then there’s Joker. Joker is Pierrot’s right hand man and the second in command of the Bad End Kingdom, and is a very entertaining and more interesting villain than the others in the show. Although he initially appears with a carefree attitude and generally acting like a weirdo he is in actuality a very sadistic and evil villain. Especially by Smiles standards. Just downright creepy at times and even cruel to his comrades, whenever Joker appears before the Cures it signals something much more serious and dangerous than normal is about to happen, and unlike the others he often partakes in psychological games with the Cures, attempting to break their will to fight and crush them mentally. By the end of Smile Joker had become one of the more disturbing villains in the franchise.

The monsters of the week in Smile are the Akanbe. Clown monsters, as is fitting of Pierrot himself being an evil monstrous clown. While their designs can be lacking and are often just blocky there are a fair amount of nonstandard Akanbe that have special forms or gimmicks that you wouldn't see among the monsters from other seasons. There are multiple different types of Akanbe depending on the color of their nose and they all have a different color scheme, clothing, and facial expression to further differentiate the types. The Akanbe are also made from the decor Pretty Cure needs, so they have to defeat them in order to revive the Queen.

When it comes to the fighting in Smile there's actually quite a lot to talk about. The quality of the action is all over the place and the style of fighting quite varied. There's not a lot of the typical straight forward action in Smile, especially earlier on, and while there is some very good fast-paced hard-hitting action it is few and far in between and usually saved for the more serious episodes. A lot of the action in Smile is focused on gimmicks. There are a lot of Akanbe made around a certain gimmick that will also occasionally tie into the episode in some way, whether it be a lesson or some sort of physical object that 's important to the episode. We have one Akanbe that quizzes the girls on school subjects and if they answer incorrectly they get trapped in a big red X. There are multiple fights like this throughout the season and even some episodes with no actual fighting to speak of and the girls will defeat the Akanbe through other means. The sheer variety of the fights is unlike any other season and keeps the battles from ever becoming stale but if you're looking for more of the straight forward action typical of other seasons you may be disappointed. It also takes Smile a little while to really get into its groove when it comes to the action so the fighting in the earlier episodes is pretty bland and more about being silly and comedic. The fights in Smile in general have a more comedic and silly tone to them, partially because the Akanbe are clowns after all, so aside from the more serious episodes don't expect much seriousness in the other fights. Pretty Cure also all have their own elemental powers that they become better at using over the course of the show, they start out unable to really use them aside from their finishing attack but soon can do such things as powering up their punches with fire and using ice to debilitate the enemy. They become more intelligent and crafty with their elemental powers in short time.

What's more to the fights is that decor are also occasionally used to help the girls out in them. Each decor has it's own ability, whether giving the girls wings for flight, or just giving Candy some food to chow down on. Later on the show actually manages to tie the use of decor in the fights into Candy's character development. She starts to actively participate in the fights by using the decor to help Pretty Cure whenever she can and the decor begin to get used in the fights much more frequently. It's all a part of Candy and Pretty Cure combining their powers, Candy isn't satisfied just powering up their attacks so she starts to help them out whenever possible.

In the beginning of the show the girls start off as horrible fighters. By far the most incompetent team of Pretty Cure ever assembled. Weak and unable to use their attack more than once without getting tired, and sometimes failing to even get the attack to work in the first place. But over the course of the first half of the show you see them improve tremendously, their teamwork gets better, they become stronger, they gain more stamina, and they learn how to fight for real and eventually become a real team that can truly stand up to their opponents.

The music is pretty good but not too spectacular for the franchise. The ending themes are very nice and have several different versions that focus on different characters.

There are also just a lot of nice little things about Smile. The different endings, the fact that you can play Rock, Paper, Scissors with Yayoi every time she transforms, just nice little things added into the show to make it a little more fun.

Smile has a fairytale theme to it but it doesn’t really give a whole lot of attention to it. There are lots of little references to various fairy tale's scattered throughout the show but the fairytale theme mostly just hangs in the background. There’s always some fairytale aspects present in the show, such as Wolfrun, Akaoni and Majorina all being fairytale characters/creatures as well as some other things but these are never really focused on or given any thought outside of “These are fairytale references.” Despite a lot of general references Smile rarely takes the opportunity to do anything special with the fairytale theme. And it’s a big disappointment for the show.

While Smile's plot is really simple and linear by the time the show is coming to a close there are a surprising amount of elements coming to a head all at once. There ends up being quite a few things to be resolved and taken care of. The build up to the finale is pretty good, there's a nice flow into the final arc and the episodes are used to foreshadow some important events later on as well as give the characters their resolution that helps them face the eventual hardships. The finale itself gets pretty crazy but their are some unfortunate hiccups in it and several sudden revelations and plot events that aren't given the necessary time to really be focused on well enough and have as much impact as they should. However the final showdown is very intense and awesome, you see how far the girls have come in their journey and the themes of the show are displayed excellently. Despite some problems Smile manages to have a very emotional and sometimes heart-wrenching finale.

The epilogue is very sweet and manages to give us one last moment of silliness that perfectly fits the show.

Smile Precure is aptly named. It's cheerful, bright, energetic, and the whole show feels like it's just trying to make you ultra happy, laugh, and put a big smile on your face.




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Smile Precure is the newest addition to the well-liked Precure animated series. After Suite Precure, who got mixed reactions from many people, it seems that we have a winning horse once again, just like with the successful Heartcatch Precure series.

Quick review: The formula? WIN! The story? GREAT! The art? EYECANDY! The sound? BETTER THAN EVER! The characters? WILL DEVELOP GREATLY! Enjoyment? EXTREMELY HIGH! and Overall this is a show to be remembered.

I look forward to the next year with you Precurebros and Precuregals, because Sundays will be filled with The Colorful; The Magical; And Big Happy Smiles from everyone!

Story: 10
The story this time starts with introducing one of the main characters Miyuki and Candy, the main 'Magical mascot pet' of the series. And guess who Candy is voiced by? by PIKACHU (!) GASH BELL (!!) and Tony Tony Chopper (!!!) The voice is simply one of the most adorable I have ever heard.

Some more main characters have been introduced in the class introduction of Miyuki. One of them is Yayoi who is voiced by.... DRUMS DRRRRRRRRR........ IKA MUSUME (!!!!!!!)

One of the villains is a Wolfy-guy, and he is so badass I fell from my chair when I first saw him.

The story shows great promise to be a colorful-magical-action series, much like Heartcatch Precure. And if you think that Madoka Magica is the best magical series ever created and the deconstruction of the magical girl genre, you'll be proven wrong. Madoka is just a watered-down Steins;Gate rip-off anyway, Smile Precure is a real magical girl series, down to its roots and core, stays true to the genre, and not as depressing like Madoka. Magical girl series should be happy and colorful, not to make some poor soul commit suicide because of clinical depression.

Art and Animation: 10
Beautiful, just beautiful. Character designs remind me of The World God Only Knows and Bakemonogatari. Everything is colorful and peachy eye candy that meets the standards on today's well animated series, with non-existent ' SHAFT QUALITY'. Everything is sharp and pure, fluid, just what I need from a Magical girl series.

Sound: 10
SMILE SMILE SMILE PRECURE!!!!!!! Ah, the opening song is once again a joyful J-pop song that meets the standards of every single Precure opening, and perhaps even better than ever. You'll be dancing from the happiness and joy, I guarantee it.

Some great talented voice actors such as Ootani Ikue, Fukuen Misato, Kanemoto Hisako and Inoue Marina have been summoned to take their part as roles as the main characters.

The soundtrack is also extremely jolly and cheerful.

Character: 10
Not much is still known on the characters, as they have been only quickly and briefly introduced. But I already feel I will get attached to every single one of them, main characters and villains alike.

Enjoyment: 10
Extremely high. I enjoy thrillers and magical girl series alike (but not a mix of them such as Madoka, it simply ain't my thing. Magical girls should be magical, and thrillers should be thrilling, end of story). This year is going to be awesome, and part of the reason is Smile Precure. AH! the enjoyment and excitement I'm going to get from the series. As you say in Japanese, 'DOKI DOKI', 'WAKU WAKU'!

Overall: 10
I recommend Smile Precure to every single magical girl enthusiast. Pick it up, you WILL be surprised, and only for the good things it has to offer. read more

Smile! Smile! Smile! Smile... Purikyua!

Smile precure... Is a cute Magical girl anime that will make you smile a lot,laugh and of course, will make you Happy!

Story:
The story is about a magical "creature" named candy, search a legendary warrior, called, Pretty cure. And then candy meets 5 girls that will save the world. this is a magical adventure, with a cute 5 girls that fighting monster, and spreading happiness in all episode's.

The story was very good, and is more nicer, and happier than other magical girl series in year year before, that have so many violance, fanservice, and darker plot.

Art:
Beautifull, nice ,cute, and funny. The art of the girls was nice, candy art was cute, and the evil character art was funny and nice also.

Sound:
the op and ed, was good, and you will like to hear it! and the BGM, was nice, and fit for the situation.
The character voice are really good, and kise yayoi was voiced by the cute ika musume. And candy voice was really kawaii like a stuffed animal :3

Character:
They are moe's! With round and sparkling eye! LOL.

Miyuki is really innocent and look always say cute thing in this series. she likes to say ultra happy and like's to day dreaming with fairy tale's.

Akane is look like a joke master, and like to give a joke in here, she's athletic and always act before think. and always cheerfull like Miyuki.

Yayoi is shy, cute, and crybaby girl, but talented at drawing manga.

Nao is serious, have a leadership and also athletic, and really care's her family.

Aoki is smart, talented, and look like a rich girl and care's to everything. She's always think before act and look like a big sister.

Candy is cute, Innocent and always scared with the evil character.

The evil character's are: A big bad wolf, A stupid looking red devil, and a scary grandma.

Enjoyment:
I enjoy the series, i laugh a lot. However, this is really make's everyone smiling.

Overall:
Everything was good and the plot was really full of happiness!




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Please bear with me as this is my first review for this site.

Smile Pretty Cure is among the best in the franchise alongside Heartcatch and the original Futari Wa Pretty Cure not because it tries to outshine them but rather it explores our imaginations and emotions like the way Disney would. Case in point, it asks its viewers (both children and young adults) "What is happiness? Where does it come from? Why are dreams and goals so important in the grand scheme of happiness? What do friends have to do with being happy?" These are very deep questions, even for young men to bear; but for a kids show, its a brilliant concept because its the kind of thing these developing minds need to ask themselves so they can find their answer and be ultra happy themselves. While the story is great, its major downfall was its downplayed fairy-tale/children's literature theme. It's there, but not prominent enough to be a true interaction to any kind of viewer like the way Suite's musical themes or Heartcatch's floral themes were. Story 8/10.

The art is absolutely beautifully drawn and animated. The show's vibrant and lighthearted atmosphere fits its fairy-tale theme very well. The comedy really drove the show's pace and carried our hearts into it. If you don't laugh at any time during the show, you will never find your true happiness. period. The visuals have effort simply bled into them, especially the finishing attacks and transformation sequences. Art 9/10.

The voice acting and sound effects felt very natural and worked seamlessly. The characters' personalities and emotions were excellently expressed and felt like they were true teenagers. As for the music, all I can say is this: Yasuharu Takanashi-san, you impressed me with Heartcatch's soundtrack. I was thrilled with Suite's soundtrack as well, and you've certainly met my expectations here with Smile. The music played here just outright shines for each moment that accompanies the track. Believe me, as a fan who thinks each song is its own story, that speaks volumes of the incredible power behind the music. If anybody doesn't know what I'm talking about, then going through the soundtrack should yield some favorites even to someone that never watched the show. Sound 9/10.

The characters are just great balls of fun and joy, even the villains. Every one of the main characters contributes to the show's comedy and they are such goofballs to the point where even Miss Serious Business, Reika, cannot even begin to ruin the humor but only add to it. The clear winning character is Yayoi Kise/Cure Peace. Why? I feel is because she represents that overly shy, yet cute, archetype in a very humanistic manner and then developing it into someone that isn't afraid of the world. She also displays very realistic reactions to being a superhero and having to fight villains who are willing to hurt and destroy on massive scales. Writing about it is one thing, but having to experience it first-hand was quite the "shock" to her (pun intended). Joker also made a GREAT villain. He is everything every previous Pretty Cure villain wasn't: competent, clever, disturbing, threatening, and nightmarish. He was ALWAYS taken seriously despite the fact that he looks like that "other" Joker and certainly did not disappoint. This was a much needed character for the villains' line up and a breath of fresh air when it came to having a truly evil villain for the franchise instead of the typical gag villain we've come to expect from the franchise in general. Characters 9/10.

Overall, I give Smile Pretty Cure a 9/10. This is one show you will see yourself watching in rapid succession like I did should you be into either the comedy, magical girl, and/or action genres. If you find yourself smiling and being ultra happy, then you should have absolutely no problem finishing this show.

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After that 2011 earthquake incident in Japan, the staff must replace Waon and Seika to Ellen and Ako for another 2 Cures in Suite Pretty Cure, and many rates it as poor series, but I disagree. Because there's even more horrible series that forgets and reuse any idea in the previous franchise, Smile Pretty Cure.

Why I rate this series as horrible? Well, here's the reasons:

- Story: The staff forgets the questions they appeal in the previous episode. This was more broader because Royale Queen didn't know what's her relationship with Joker, and in Episode 48 Candy forgets that she is the new Royale Queen in epilogue (if that's so, then Miyuki will meet Pop alone instead of meeting Candy together with the other 4 in my opinion). And the story focus more on character development than fairy tales, very terrible.

- Copy: More severing, remember that the staff decides to reuse ideas? Really, most copy episode are very blunt and horrible, which is another worst point in the series. Like in Episode 34, where they reuse the idea from Heartcatch Episode 36. And they forced to do that for promoting 'Warau Waraeba Waraou' and really didn't match the vocal (really!). The other severing points will be explained in the next section, and moving aside is the positive points. Episode 29 is the best summer episodes despite of reusing Yes! 5 GoGo! Episode 36 and 37 because it has a story 'playing around in summer holiday until they forget the homework', which I agree.

- Reuse: Smile Pretty Cure has borrowed some motif from Gokaiger and some to Kyoryuger (Pop and KyoryuCyan), and so far Smile has reuse the most from Gokaiger. You'll remember the most are from Episode 31 in both series and Episode 22 in Smile (for Episode 31 - return to previous form, and Smile Episode 22 and Gokaiger Episode 31 - Gai Ikari and Pop falls down first following the others and must suffer the unconscious and despair respectively). Moreover, the character profile reuse to another I can feel the most so far are Joe Gibken and Reika Aoki. If you watch both series at the same time and in whole, you'll know the similiarities of the both series.

- Character: As usual, the main characters are 5 similiar to Yes! Pretty Cure 5, which are: Miyuki Hoshizora / Cure Happy, Akane Hino / Cure Sunny, Yayoi Kise / Cure Peace, Nao Midorikawa / Cure March, and Reika Aoki / Cure Beauty. The most developed one is Yayoi, followed by Reika and Akane, Miyuki and Nao is bad. Came to the villain, the trio weren't bad, but Joker and Pierrot is the worst due having no background. That's what I shorten the review about character.

However, most fans refers this series as excellent, causing this series to have two sides: praising the character development or scolding most of copy episodes and the story makes no sense.

Overall, I recommend watching this for the starters to find the pro in the series, but for you who hates any suffer of fear by the important episode, and hates a disappointing series due for being too many copy episodes, please refrain from watching this one. read more

Okay, this is my first review, so, i'm sorry if there's wrong english in here.

Story:8
Smile precure is the new precure series after Suite precure. Smile precure have a good story. However, I think the story are look like an average Magical girl, like an talking animal, founded by a girl (mostly, junior high school girl). And the girl will be a magical girl, her friend also be a magical girl. But, something that make this special is, the atmosphere is cute,funny, colorfull and ULTRA HAPPY. It's different than mahou shoujo series that make a hit in 2011, that have a darker plot, with gory death and despair.
Whenever the story is more colorfull, it's have a good action and funny hensin. And still stay in kids magical girl genre, funny and eyecatching.

Art:9
Colorfull,Nice and Kawaii. Beautyfull art's make's this anime have a good score in art.
The artwork in this anime are more childish,good looking and Beautyfull.

Sound:7
The OP is nice to hear, The ending too, the character voice is nice too, nice sountrack, nice voice for the monster (?), and the evil pne's have a good voice too. The character voice is cute and cheerfull.

Character:7
Okay, Why i give this a low score? The answer is, it's look like an average mahou shoujo character. The first main character, Miyuki, is a cheerfull, happy and innocent girl. It's a bit same like other magical girl series, many mahou shoujo anime have a pink haired and cheerfull main character. Other, like Aoki, Is a big sister tipe that smart and talented. There's so many mahou shoujo anime that have a big sister type in the group.
But, it's still have an unique character inside, so it's still an unique character inside.

Enjoyment:6
Funny,have a friendship thingy, and fighting scene, it's still a good mahou shoujo anime. Whenever, sometime's they have a bit average scene, it's still fun to watch.

Overall:7
Good, and nice mahou shoujo with less dark and despair theme, and fun to watch. read more

this is only a review of episode one as that's all that's out when I'm writing this. So far this puts out some good concepts but toei may be running out of steam. Miyuki is kinda a clutz and can't control her powers right when she gets them. Candy and Miyuki do make a comedy team for this episode but I'm not sure how this is not the best first episode in the pretty cure series. I may update this review later but if I were you I'd wait to see if this one how this one runs before judging the whole series. read more