Ten Years of 'Pretty Cure' Trivia Quiz

Answer: Natalie and Hannah

The 'Pretty Cure' series kicked off with the adventures of tomboyish lacrosse player Misumi Nagisa, aka Cure Black, and topstudent Yukishiro Honoka, aka Cure White. (The name 'Pretty Cure', incidentally, is a corruption of the Japanese word 'purikura', which means 'print club' and is a type of photobooth which prints out stickers with photos on them. It's got nothing to do with medicine.)

In the English dub, Nagisa and Honoka were known as Natalie Blackstone and Hannah Whitehouse respectively. Setting the tone for every subsequent 'Pretty Cure' series, Honoka and Nagisa were given their powers by a pair of fairies, Mipple and Mepple, in order to fight against an evil regime - in this case, the Dark Empire, and its minions, the Zakenna. They also had to find and collect several Prism Stones in order to get to the Garden of Light, the fairies' home, which had been attacked by the Dark Empire.

As for the other answers, Amy and Lita are the names of Mizuno 'Sailor Mercury' Ami and Kino 'Sailor Jupiter' Makoto in the DiC dub of 'Sailor Moon'. Tea and Mai are the names of Anzu and Kujaku Mai in the 4Kids English dub of 'Yu-Gi-Oh'. Zoey and Bridget are the names of Momomiya Ichigo and Midorikawa Retasu in 'Mew Mew Power', the 4Kids English dub version of 'Tokyo Mew Mew'.

Answer: Shiny Luminous

Kujou Hikari was a mysterious young girl with the ability to transform into Shiny Luminous. In 'Max Heart', the Queen of the Garden of Light split into three parts: her will became the Heartiels, twelve small fairies; her heart became the Queen Chairect, a small chair-like container in which the Heartiels lived; and her life became Kujou Hikari. In order to make the Queen whole again, Cure Black and Cure White were tasked with finding the Heartiels.

Hikari was a bit of a space cadet as a result of losing her memories of her life as the Queen, and was constantly trying to remember her past. The fairy Pollun, the Prince of the Garden of Light, gave her her powers. As Shiny Luminous, she acted as support to Cure Black and Cure White, and her speciality was creating barriers.

As for the other answers, Royale Candy is the human form of Candy, one of the fairies from 'Smile Precure!'. Ai-chan is a mysterious baby with magical powers from 'Dokidoki! Precure', and Milky Rose is the magical girl form of Milk, a fairy from 'Yes! Precure 5'. Like Shiny Luminous, she is not an official Cure, but more of an ally.

Answer: Cure Bright and Cure Windy

Softball player Hyuuga Saki and artistic genius Mishou Mai became Cure Bloom and Cure Egret in order to defeat Dark Fall, an evil organisation who were planning to capture the seven World Fountains. Cure Bloom had the power of flowers and was the stronger of the two, while Cure Egret had the power of birds and used aerial attacks. Halfway through the season, Cure Bloom became Cure Bright, with the power of the moon, and Cure Egret became Cure Windy, with the power of (you guessed it) the wind. They were able to fight in either form. At the end of the season, Michiru and Kaoru, the keepers of the Sky Fountain, became allies of the Cures, were given Cure Bright and Cure Windy's powers, and fought alongside them.

The four forms, according to Wikipedia, are an allusion to the Japanese saying 'flower, bird, wind, moon', a reference to the beauties of nature.

As for the other answers, they're all from 'Happiness Charge PreCure', with the exception of Cure Dark / Dark Pretty Cure, an evil Cure from 'HeartCatch PreCure'. Cure Sunset and Cure Wave are two Hawaiian Cures. Cure Honey and Cure Fortune are two of the main Cures (they're the yellow and purple Cures on the team respectively). Cure Mirage is the Pretty Cure form of the evil Queen Mirage, who used to be a Pretty Cure until she was rejected by the god Blue and became bitter and hateful towards him.

Answer: Cure Mint

Unlike Mew Mint, a rich and somewhat snobby ballerina with wind powers and a blue theme, Cure Mint - aka Akimoto Komachi - was the green Cure of the team, and her abilities revolved around creating barriers. She represented tranquillity, in keeping with her generally calm and placid nature (though she had a temper when aroused). Her parents owned a sweet shop and her dream was becoming a writer.

Cure Rouge (Natsuki Rin) was the sporty one of the team, wore red, and had fire powers (and was voiced by Takeuchi Junko, whose voice fans of 'Naruto' will recognise). Cure Lemonade (Kasugano Urara), the yellow Cure, was a young actress and singer with light-based powers, while the blue Cure Aqua (Minazuki Karen), the brains of the team, came from a rich family and manipulated water. Leader and archetypal pink Cure, Hoshizora Nozomi (aka Cure Dream) completed the team.

The plot was similar to 'Cardcaptor Sakura', in which the Cures had to find 55 Pinkies, fairies similar to the Heartiels of 'Max Heart', and store them in the Dream Collet, a magical book which could make wishes come true. Coco and Nuts, the resident fairies, wanted to use it in order to restore their homeland, the Palmier Kingdom. The Cures also had to prevent the Dream Collet from getting into the hands of Nightmare, who were responsible for destroying the Palmier Kingdom. A sequel, 'Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo!' featured a sixth team member, Milky Rose, the human alter ego of the fairy Milk.

Answer: Cure Passion

The 'Fresh' team consisted of leader Cure Peach (Momozono Love) who represented love; Cure Berry (Aono Miki), who represented hope; Cure Pine (Yamabuki Inori), who represented faith; and Cure Passion (Higashi Setsuna, formerly known as Eas), who represented happiness. Their theme colours were pink, blue, yellow and red respectively. They were able to transform with the help of the Pickruns, tiny key-like creatures which fused with the Cures' transformation devices, and were named according to their partner Cure's colour. Cure Peach's Pirun created food, Cure Berry's Burun enabled the girls to change their outfits, Cure Pine's Kirun enabled them to understand animals, and Cure Passion's Akarun had teleportation powers (often abused by Miki and Love, to Setsuna's annoyance).

Eas was part of a team working for Labyrinth, a dystopian grey city which was trying to conquer parallel worlds, along with Westar and Soular (who later became allies of the Cures themselves). She disguised herself as a human girl called Setsuna and befriended Love in the hope of stealing her transformation device. However, after Love gave her a clover necklace as a gift of friendship, she began to have second thoughts and eventually became friends with Love, Miki and Inori for real. Moebius, the ruler of Labyrinth, killed her for her failures by stealing her life energy, but the Akarun brought her back to life, taking her as its master. After her resurrection, Setsuna could not return to Labyrinth, so Love's family took her in. Although Labyrinth tried to get her back by brainwashing her, she resisted their efforts and remained a Cure.

Answer: Cure Moonlight

The Cure team started out as a duo consisting of Cure Blossom (Hanasaki Tsubomi) and Cure Marine (Kurumi Erika), with powers based around flowers. Unlike previous pink and blue Cure candidates, the roles were reversed: Tsubomi was shy, quiet and academic, while Erika was loud, bossy and pretty gung-ho when it came to fighting as a Cure. They were later joined by Myodouin Itsuki, a martial arts expert who crossdressed as a boy and became the yellow Cure Sunshine, and Tsukikage Yuri, aka the silver Cure Moonlight, who - at 17 - was one of the older Cures in the franchise. Tsubomi's grandmother Kaoruko was also a (retired) Cure, Cure Flower, who temporarily regained her powers.

Yuri's father, a scientist, went missing while searching for the legendary Heart Tree. She met Cologne and got her Pretty Cure powers from him while searching for her father. Cologne died protecting Cure Moonlight from Dark Cure, and she lost her powers, with her Pretty Cure Seed breaking. Although Yuri was reluctant to fight alongside the other three at first, she asked the Heart Tree to give her her powers back after Dark Cure attacked them, and became Cure Moonlight once more. She later found out that her father had become the villain Professor Sabaku after being brainwashed by the minions of Dune, and created an artificial 'daughter', Dark Cure, as a replacement for Yuri. He died protecting the Cures from an attack by Dune.

'HeartCatch' was considerably different in style to the previous series, and was produced by the team behind 'Ojomajo Doremi'. It was also darker in tone, with Cure Moonlight's sad past, the deaths of her father and Dark Cure, and Dune's plans to turn the world into a desert.

Answer: Electric guitar

Siren used to be friends with Hummy - a white cat-like fairy - but fell out with her when Hummy was chosen to sing the Melody of Happiness over her. She became jealous and ran away to Minor Land, where she was brainwashed by the Noise of Evil and set out to steal the notes of the Legendary Score. She had the ability to disguise herself as a human girl called Kurokawa Ellen, but became stuck in her human form after becoming a Cure. Her transformation was triggered by seeing Hummy in danger, and the two became friends again.

The other three Cures were the pink Cure Melody (Hojo Hibiki), the white Cure Rhythm (Minamino Kanade) and the yellow Cure Muse. Unlike Cure candidates from previous series, Hibiki and Kanade did not get on at first - they used to be friends, but fell out over a misunderstanding, although they became close again (which helped their fighting abilities). Hibiki was the sporty daughter of a musician, while Kanade's family owned a cake shop. Cure Muse was a Tuxedo Mask-like figure who occasionally helped the Cures before joining the team, and was later revealed to be Shirabe Ako, the princess of Major Land. Her father Mephisto was also brainwashed by the Noise of Evil into working for Noise, an evil entity who wished to destroy music.

As for the other answers, the harp and flute are a reference to 'Fresh Pretty Cure!'; Cure Pine used a flute as a weapon, while Cure Passion has a harp (and in 'Suite', Cures Muse and Rhythm played an invisible one when introducing themselves). Cure Muse had a defensive move which used piano-shaped barriers.

Answer: Precure Happy Shower

The colour scheme for the 'Smile' team was exactly the same as that of 'Yes! PreCure 5', and the girls had 'colourful' names to boot, although in this case it was their real names and not their cure names. Cure Happy (Hoshizora Miyuki) was the pink Cure and the leader, Cure Sunny (Hino Akane) the red one, Cure Peace (Kise Yayoi) the yellow one, Cure March (Midorikawa Nao) the green one, and Cure Beauty (Aoki Reika) the blue one. Like the original quintet and the Pinkies, the Cure team were tasked with collecting the various Cure Decor in order to revive the Queen of Marchenland, the land of fairy tales. As befitting a series with a theme of fairy tales, the villainous trio consisted of a witch, a Japanese demon, and the Big Bad Wolf (although, as it turned out, they weren't evil so much as misunderstood).

Cure Happy's finisher was Precure Happy Shower. She later gained an upgraded version of the attack called Precure Happy Shower Shining, which she used when fighting an evil version of herself called Dark Happy. Like Cure Dream, she lived up to her name and was cheerful, clumsy and very determined.

As for the other answers, they're all named after other 'Smile' Cures' finishers. Cure March, a footballer, had March Shoot, where she kicked a ball of wind at the enemy (similar to Naruto's Rasengan). Cure Peace, the baby of the team and an aspiring mangaka, had Peace Thunder, a lightning-based attack. Cure Beauty, who had ice powers, used Beauty Blizzard and was the academic one of the team. Cure Sunny, as her name suggests, had fire powers, similar to Cure Rouge, and was also a sporty type.

Answer: Playing cards

The Cure in question was Cure Sword, the protector of Princess Marie-Ange, princess of the Trump Kingdom. 'Dokidoki!' began with the destruction of the Trump Kingdom, when King Selfish and his minions invaded and used the selfish feelings in people's hearts to turn them into monsters called Jikochuus. In order to prevent the Selfish Trio from corrupting her soul, or Psyche, and turning her into a Jikochuu, Princess Marie-Ange split her Psyche in two. The 'selfish' half that cared for her father became Regina, who acted as an antagonist to the Cures for much of the series, while the half that cared for her kingdom became a little girl called Madoka Aguri. Her physical body became Ai-chan, a baby with the ability to grant power-ups. After becoming separated from the princess, Cure Sword disguised herself as an idol named Kenzaki Makoto in order to find her. (If you've seen 'Sailor Moon Stars', you might be getting a bit of deja vu.)

The other three Cures were three long-time friends: class president Aida Mana (Cure Heart), Hishikawa Rikka (Cure Diamond), and wealthy heiress Yotsuba Alice (Cure Rosetta). Respectively, their theme colours were pink, blue and yellow, and they represented the suits of hearts, diamonds and clubs (also known as roses). Cure Sword was the purple Cure of the team and represented the suit of spades. Mana, Rikka and Alice got their powers with the help of Jonathan, a knight of the Trump Kingdom who disguised himself as a shopkeeper called Joe.

Cure Sword was reluctant to help at first, preferring to fight alone out of pride, but became more friendly with the team after transferring to Mana's school. A fifth member, Cure Ace - a red Cure, and the older alter ego of Aguri - later joined the team. Mana's insistence on befriending Regina caused some friction with Cure Sword, who was angry with her for the destruction of her home. However, Regina became an ally of the Cures at the end of the series.

Answer: Sherbet Ballet and Macadamia Hula

Cure Princess was the blue Cure of the team, the princess of the Blue Sky Kingdom, and responsible for accidentally unleashing the evil Phantom Empire into the world after opening the Axia Box. She gave Aino Megumi the power to transform into the pink Cure Lovely by randomly dropping a magical crystal on her, after being asked to find a girl to be her partner. The two were later joined by the yellow Cure Honey (Omori Yuko), a food-loving girl whose family owned a restaurant, and the purple Cure Fortune (Hikawa Iona), an aloof girl with a rather large grudge against Cure Princess, due to her parents and sister being captured and trapped in mirrors by the Phantom Empire. As Sherbet Ballet, Cure Princess had ice powers, while Macadamia Hula gave her the power to force enemies to dance.

As for the others, Lollipop Hip-Hop and Cherry Flamenco belonged to Cure Lovely, while Pine Arabian and Anmitsu Kodachi (based on traditional Japanese dance) were Cure Fortune's alternative forms, and Cure Honey transformed into Popcorn Cheer and Coconut Samba. The girls also gained an upgrade, Innocent Form, which gave them lighter hair and white dresses and rainbow wings, and enabled them to perform a special finishing move. They used this form to save Cure Fortune's sister, Maria (aka Cure Tender), who had been brainwashed into fighting the Cures.

Each episode featured a cameo from a different Cure, plus honorary Cures Shiny Luminous and Milky Rose, in which they thanked the viewer for watching and sometimes threw in the odd finishing move.