Misumi Nagisa

Nagisa Misumi (Natalie Blackstone in the English dub) is one of the main characters in the series Futari wa Pretty Cure. Because of her role as the narrator and her attention from the series, she is considered the main heroine. Her Pretty Cure ego is Cure Black (キュアブラック). Although she almost did not know she existed, Nagisa eventually became best friends with Yukishiro Honoka, admiring her for her intelligence, kindness and understanding. In the Japanese show, she has a habit to say "arienai" when she is upset, which can be roughly translated as "unbelievable" or "I don't believe this".

Futari wa Pretty Cure
Nagisa starts her adventure when she finishes a training session for lacrosse. While she is getting her shoes after school, she and her friends talk about the up-coming shooting stars, and that is when Honoka comes and explain that shooting stars are not dangerous. This is when Nagisa gets to know a little more about her, and gets a little jealous at her, since Honoka is more popular with the boys and is quite smart.

When she comes home, she sees the shooting stars, and hurries to make several wishes. Just then, one of the stars are shooting toward her, and she panics. Eventually, the shooting star is revealed to be Mepple, a strange creature from the Garden of Light. Although Nagisa finds him scary, she is dragged over to the playing ground, where she meets Honoka and Mipple. There, they get attacked from a creature of the Dusk Zone and suddenly transform into the legendary warriors, Pretty Cure. They manage to defeat the creature, but Nagisa is against the whole thing about Pretty Cure.

As the story progresses, though, Nagisa comes to accept her role as Cure Black, and becomes friends with Honoka. Throughout the season, they defeat enemy after enemy, and Nagisa also begins to realize what is important to her, and her view of life and justice. It is thanks to this that she manages, together with Honoka, to defeat Pisard and Gekidrago. The advantrue becomes worse when the vampire-like creature Poisony appears, as she easily manages to manipulate and trick the girls. However, in the end, they finally manage to defeat her as well. Though, they never dreamed that they had killed the older sister of Kiriya, who has been their friend up until now to spy on them. When Kiriya has told this to Honoka, Nagisa is informed the day afterward, and they are soon forced to fight their former friend. This does not stop Black from trying to bring reason into Kiriya, and stop him from hurting Honoka's feelings in the fight. In the end, Kiriya finally understands and gives White his Prism Stone and is taken away by Ilkubo. Black has to hold tight on White, who tries to follow in order to stop him, and does all in her might to help her. The days afterward, Nagisa worries over her friend, who is crying for herself every night until there are no tears left without any comfort from her.

After finally defeating the last servant from the Dusk Zone, Nagisa and Honoka are overpowered by the Dark King. However, their courage and hope makes them want to fight, and in the end the Queen comes to the rescue, helping them defeat the Dark King. This is not over, though, as they get visit from Pollun, the Prince of Light, who is going to stay with Nagisa in order to help them fighting against the Seed of Darkness, which are creatures that the Dark King managed to make right before he got destroyed. These knights will eventually awaken and work together in order to revive the Dark King. Right before Wisdom is being kidnapped, he gives the powers to Pollun, which, in turn uses them to power up Black and White with the Rainbow Bracelets.

After fighting with the Seeds of Darkness for a long time, the latter eventually realize that Pretty Cure cannot fight at their strongest without each other, and thus manage to kidnap Cure White and put her in a pit made of darkness. While looking after Cure White, Cure Black realizes that, although she always seems to be the strongest and best, she cannot do anything without Cure White's support and presence. She then calls out Honoka's name, and is met by Juna. The latter tells her that her partner soon will disappear in the darkness, which makes Cure Black's power go out of control. When she finds the direction toward the core of darkness that surrounds White, she is met by numerous Zakenna. However, her will to rescue Honoka drives her to defeat them all alone, and she eventually manages to save Cure White. Calling Honoka's name, and not Cure White's, she runs over to her and cries, telling her how worried she was.

At the end of the series, when Mepple and Mipple say goodbye to them, Nagisa has become so good friend with them that she cries when they go into their eternal sleep. Although they no longer are Pretty Cure, she and Honoka continue being best friends, and still keeps the cell phone the small creatures used to live in.

Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart
At the beginning of their new year, Nagisa and Honoka start up a little awkward. They try to find something to do, but are unable to do so, and they avoid talking about having been Pretty Cure and their now sleeping mascots. However, a new Zakenna suddenly comes forth, and they have to run for it. While they seem like being trapped, however, light suddenly sprout from their cellphones, and Mepple and Mipple are shown. They transform into the Card Communes again, though they look different; they are now Heartful Communes, and the cards have become diamond-related, instead. Upon transforming, they notice that they look different from the last time, but have to fight before figuring it out properly. During the fight, they realize that they have gotten an amazing power-up in strength, and when they try to do their attack Marble Screw, they add in a "Max" so it becomes even more powerful.

Some time later, they meet a mysterious first-grader named Kujo Hikari, who tells about the place Nagisa has drawn in a paper for the class. Eventually, it is revealed that she can transform into Shiny Luminous and have her own amazing powers. The Elder and Wisdom later comes to Nagisa in order to explain these events to the girls, and also tell them the sad news: the Queen has disappeared and is now separated in three representatives for her will, heart and life. They soon figure out that Hikari is the representative of the Queen's life, and that is why she seems to be so confused in the Garden of Rainbows.

Throughout the season, the duo go through hard times against the new evils, who are guarding the representative of the Dark King's life, who looks and acts like a little boy. Eventually, however, the Dark King is resurrected, despite Hikari's efforts to not sacrifice the little innocent boy. Pretty Cure try to depend the earth while Hikari goes into another dimension in order to try become the Queen again to help the girls. During the fight, however, Valdes actually sucks the Dark King into himself, and is this becoming the new Dark King. Pretty Cure are utterly defeated, but then Cure Black remembers how Nagisa once hurt herself pretty badly in a race when she was young, and how her parents told her not to lose courage just because something went wrong. Together with White remembering Honoka's grandmother' words about hope, they stand up and continue fighting. Using Marble Screw Max Sparkle, they think they have won, but it is in vain when Valdes tells them that he is impossible to destroy, and destroy the whole city. In depression, Pretty Cure stand beside the tree Honoka's grandmother loves, and begins remembering things they have forgotten to do that day; Nagisa has yet to finish her homework, and has not done all the preparations for the graduation yet. In the end, when Cure Black tells Mepple that they must be allowed to talk about it even in a situation like this, Cure White realizes that every heart has the right to live, and live it like they want. With new power, Pretty Cure try to fight against Valdes once again. Just as they are about to be crushed by the now giant Valdes, the Queen is regenerated and saves them. An illusion of Shiny Luminous tells them that this is their final moment, and they use all of their powers to use the ultimate attack: Extreme Luminario Max.

After Valdes is being defeated, Pretty Cure realize that they will never see those from the Garden of Light again, and that they will never become Pretty Cure again, either. They are then deformed back to Honoka and Nagisa, and sent to the graduation sermon. Although wondering how they got there, they remember their little mascots, and become depressed. They still have their faces down at Akane's shop, where they suddenly meet Hikari again, telling them how incredible the graduation was. Mepple and Mipple also show up, and Hikari has also with her the representative of the Dark King's life, now named Hikaru. It is revealed that Hikari and the Queen managed to separate, and that Mepple and Mipple are now able to fully life in the Garden of Rainbows. Happy that she and Mepple always will be together, Nagisa cries in joy, though ends the whole series by saying "I can't believe this!" when Mepple mentions that he is still hungry.

Personality
Nagisa is quite girly, image conscious, and has a large collection of stuffed animals. She is weak in academics, but makes up for it with pure spirit and energy. She also has a large appetite and loves to eat chocolate and, according to Honoka, foods with the word "yaki" in the name. She likes shopping but tends to squander her money and ends up having none when she needs it most. She also loves playing on the grass and sunny days, and she hates fighting with her friends. Nagisa has a crush on Honoka's childhood friend, Fujimura Shougo, gets flustered whenever he is around. To her dismay, Nagisa is more popular with the girls than the boys, and is sometimes shown with jealousy toward Honoka, who gets confessions and love letters from boys more than twice the month.

Nagisa has a great sense of justice, but it is hidden inside of her, and only comes out when someone is set in danger. She hates that innocent people get hurt for something they have nothing to do with.

Cure Black
"Emissary of light, Cure Black!" 光の使者、キュアブラック！ "Hikari no shisha, Kyua Burakku!" Cure Black (キュアブラック) is Nagisa's alter ego, and addresses herself as the emissary of light, like Cure White. Being the strongest in the duo, she is usually the one laying the most attacks, though she is not as fast and agile as Cure White. As a Cure, she becomes much more serious, and reveals more of her views on justice. Together with Cure White, she can perform the Marble Screw and Rainbow Therapy attacks. Later, when the duo is powered up by the Rainbow Bracelets from Pollun, they can do a new attack called Rainbow Storm.

It is also revealed that even though Cure White is not around, Cure Black can use incredible powers by herself, but this depends largely on her emotions and will. The only time this is actually shown is when the Seeds of Darkness has kidnapped White and told Black that she (Cure White) soon will die.

In Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart, Cure Black's outfit, along with Cure White's, is slightly upgraded. Her midriff gets covered in black cloth, and where it used to be black above is now red. Her leggings have also changed, now looking slightly similar to Cure White's. It is also now a tiny pink hear in the center of the bow. Pretty Cure's attack is powered-up to Marble Screw Max, and later to Marble Screw Max Sparkle with the Sparkle Bracelets. Together with Shiny Luminous, they can also do the Extreme Luminario attack, which in the final episode is upgraded to Extreme Luminario Max.

Power of the Phoenix
In Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart the Movie 2: Friends of the Snow-Laden Sky, when Cure Black and Cure White give all of their might to protect Hinata from Frozen and Freezen, they do not have enough energy to fight, and in their last try to keep them away from their friends, they freeze the girls. Hinata, touched that it is possible to care so much for a friend, awakens from her icicle and shoots her warmth at Pretty Cure, melting the ice and giving them a new power.

Cure Black's hair gets longer and slightly wilder, and feathers are hanging after her skirt and shoulders. Her bow has also changed to a golden color. She gets also boosted in powers, as she easily manages to fight Frozen with closed eyes without getting hit once. It also seems like their mind is much calmer in this form, as neither of the girls do anything rash or fast; they just dodge and wait for the final strike.

In this form, they use an even stronger version of Marble Screw Max Sparkle, demonstrating their great friendship against Frozen and Freezen's. After defeating the ice duo, this upgraded version of Black and White disappears, and has never been seen again. This may be because it was summoned by Hinata, who now is in the Garden of Clouds as a fully realized phoenix.

Relationships
Nagisa is the most popular girl in the class, so she has a lot of friends in both her class and in the lacrosse team. Although they did not know each other, Honoka soon became a good friend of Nagisa, even though Nagisa did not recognize her as her friend for a long while. At the end of the series, they became best friends, and Nagisa cannot forgive anyone who hurts her; this is mirrored in their Cure forms, as Cure Black gains enormous powers whenever she sees or gets a hint that Cure White is hurt.

She also has a long-time crush on Fujimura Shougo, who coincidentally also is Honoka's childhood friend. Through Honoka, Nagisa is able to come closer to Shougo, and easily blushes whenever he is around.

Her relationship with her family is good. Both of her parents care and worry for both her and her brother Ryouta. Nagisa herself always gets irritated at Ryouta, and often uses her Cobra Twist to get him to shut up. Despite this, she loves him and will do anything to protect him from danger.

Etymology
Nagisa (なぎさ) is roughly translated as "beauty ink beach".

Her name was changed to Natalie Blackstone, also called Nat by her friends, for the English dub.

Natalie means "Christmas Day" from the Latin natale domini. It may also come from the French given name, which is derived from the Latin "Dies Natalis," meaning "Natal Day" or "birthday" in reference to the birth of Christ, and was traditionally given to girls born around Christmas. Nat is the nickname her friends use, and upon getting real friends with Hannah Whitehouse, she lets her call her that instead of her full name. This nickname was in order to properly edit off the fact that in the original, they began calling each other with their first names, which is a special honor in Japanese culture.

Blackstone may be a pun toward her alter ego as Cure Black.

Cure Black may be from the symbol Yin&amp;Yang, in which the other part is white, just like Black's partner, Cure White.

Trivia

 * Although small parts of her clothes are pink, Cure Black is the only main Cure that does not have pink as the main color.