Five magical girls fight to save a kingdom of fairy tales from eternal despair.
In short: In the 2012 anime Smile PreCure!, five middle school classmates transform into legendary warriors to protect happiness. Tasked by a fairy named Candy, they must recover stolen artifacts to revive their queen, all while thwarting a sinister plot to plunge the world into a permanent, unhappy ending.
Produced by Toei Animation, Smile PreCure! follows the seventh generation of the long-running Pretty Cure franchise. The narrative centers on five students at Nanairogaoka Middle School: Miyuki Hoshizora, Akane Hino, Yayoi Kise, Nao Midorikawa, and Reika Aoki. Each girl represents a distinct color and elemental power, ranging from light and fire to lightning, wind, and ice. Together, they operate out of the Magical Library, a pocket dimension where stories are stored, to defend Earth against the Bad End Kingdom.
The antagonists, led by the malevolent Pierrot, seek to harvest Bad End Energy from humans to fuel his resurrection. By smearing black paint onto magic books, they create dark zones that amplify despair. The conflict is deeply rooted in fairy tale archetypes; the villains are often based on classic characters like the Big Bad Wolf or traditional oni, while the heroes must collect Cure Decors to restore the Royale Queen. The series balances these high-stakes battles with the personal lives of the protagonists, such as Akane’s work at her family’s restaurant or Yayoi’s artistic aspirations.
The series concluded its original Japanese broadcast in 2013, though its legacy continued through a 2016 epilogue novel and an English-language adaptation titled Glitter Force. While the show is fundamentally about the triumph of hope, it features complex character arcs, including the revelation that the primary antagonists were once fairies themselves, corrupted by their own feelings of alienation. Ultimately, the story culminates in the ascension of Candy, who transitions from a mascot to the new sovereign of Märchenland, marking a definitive end to the cycle of despair initiated by Pierrot.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Smile PreCure!
- Also: Wikidata — Smile Precure! the Movie: Big Mismatch in a Picture Book! · CC0
- Also: Wikidata — Smile PreCure! · CC0
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